Well, I finally took the GRE this morning.  After a couple months of off and on studying of testing, I decided to buckle down and just take the test.  Well, I didn’t decide that so much as the deadline for application forced my hand.  Anyway I spent the last two weeks with my nose in the books cramming for the test.  Practice test after practice test.  My brain started to mush by the end.

Anyway, I did awesome on the test, definitely better than I “needed” to do, although I really wouldn’t be happy with anything less than a perfect score!

As a reward, I finally went flying again this afternoon.  I went up with Lisa’s instructor (well, I guess my instructor now) to start to get aquatinted with a retractable gear 182.  The FAA requires specific training to fly a plane with landing gear (among other things) and the flight club requires 10 hours of training in a specific type.   It was great to get up in the air.

So a huge weight off my shoulders from the test, and a good day flying means I am in a much needed state of relaxation tonight!

I got some free tickets to the Chargers – Niners game this past Thursday (along with Rob and Theo from work).  We hopped on the trolley after work and cruised over to Qualcomm just in time for the anthem.  Turns out “Foreigner” was playing a concert before the show and actually sang the anthem…A Cappella.  Not to shabby actually.

We had a pretty good time, the San Diego almost shut out San Francisco, allowing only one score after they had pulled their starters out in favor of the second string defense.  The final was a 34-7 route.  Other interesting highlights included a huge brawl between some Charger fans and Raider fans.  Leave it to Raiders fans to start a fight at a game their team isn’t playing in.

On a side note, it was a bit interesting cheering for the Chargers for a couple reasons.  First, the rivalry between the Broncos and Chargers for the last few years, means I have typically been cheering against them.  Secondly, it was interesting cheering against Alex Smith, who was the QB at Utah for two of the seasons Lisa and I were in Salt Lake City.  So I was in the habit of cheering for him.

Anyway, all of that aside, that was my first regular season NFL game.  Lisa bought me tickets to a Broncos v. Bills pre-season game several years back (which was sweet), but this was the first game I saw that “counted”.  All and all it was  good time.  Here are some pics:

Lisa and I had a great thanksgiving in Houston.  We flew down to spend the holiday with my family.  For those who don’t know my parents, sister, brother-in-law and niece, “recently” moved to Texas from upstate NY (where I grew up).  The flight down was pretty painless as was the drive from the airport.

Lisa and I ventured over to my sister’s house the next day to scope it out and to visit with them and of course to see the munchkin.  Thanksgiving dinner was awesome along with all the desserts and other goodies.  For dinner I got a change to see my cousin Mike, who brought a long several of his fellow pilots.  To that end, I think the pilots outnumbered the non-pilots at the table.

We took a trip up to San Antonio to check out the Alamo, which was pretty cool.  On the way we stopped at LuLu’s Bakery and Cafe to have breakfast and to order one of their famous 3lb cinnamon buns.  We managed to put a hurt’n on it.

Anyway, the trip as a whole was short but very sweet.  It had in fact been a while since I got to spend a holiday with my family, so that was nice.  Thanks to everyone!

Well Lisa and I moved out of our condo and in to our new house this weekend.  Super thanks to all our friends who helped us move.  It was pouring most of the day, so it really helped to get it done a little bit quicker.  The house is livable, but a big mess still.  We managed to get the bedroom and kitchen mostly set up.

We didn’t get that much done, because after we got our stuff moved over we spent the rest of Saturday and a good part of Sunday cleaning the condo.  That is done, and we are officially out of there.  The house is set up enough to live for a few days.

And that’s all we have because we head to Houston for Thanks Giving on Wednesday.

Well I am now back from San Francisco.  I was up for a business trip to Google.  I have been working with them on the Google Wave project and am now helping migrate the technology to the Open Source community.

While I was up there I met up with Dave, who was a buddy of mine from Salt Lake City.  He moved to the Bay Area a few years ago, since this was my first real time up there we hooked up for dinner.  We had a few drinks at The Irish Bank.  Dave played soccer with the bar tender so we got the hook up.  We then headed over to Cafe Claude for a late dinner.  The dinner was amazing!

Google was pretty cool, here is a view from the cafeteria.  Not to shabby.  Speaking of the cafeteria, I had my first posative shushi experience while I was there!

Anyway, I met a lot of really smart people, had a great time and am now totally hooked up with wave development.  Good trip.

I am currently in San Francisco at the Google Wave Summit.  We are doing some work on Google wave for the Navy.  This is one thing I really like about my job; I get to work with some really cool organizations.  How cool is it to be sitting in Google!  Here is my name tag:

With everything going on lately I fell way behind on my postings here.  I think I am pretty much caught up.  This coming week I’ll be traveling to San Francisco for the Google Wave Summit.  It should be a good time.  I get back and start packing since we close on the house the following Monday.  I’ll try to keep everyone up to date on the goings on.

For those who don’t know.  Lisa and I have purchased a home in San Diego.  We will be residing at 10085 Canright Way.  We officially close on November 15th and move in that week.  Here are a few pics of the new house:

So the family came to SoCal to visit us and to make the trek up to Disney for my niece’s 4th birthday.  While they were here, they went to the San Diego Zoo, The Midway Museum, LaJolla Shores, and the Hotel Del.  We had a little birthday party for the princess and then they were off to Disney.

Lisa, John, Sandy, Emily, Thomas and I went down to the Reserve Golf Course to play the back 9.  It’s a very difficult but beautiful course.  None of us really played all that well, but we had a great time and really enjoyed the scenery.  As always, we captured a few good pics on the way: