Cycling & Getting My Butt Kicked!

It's been a little while since I rode ~40 miles.  Most of my latest riding adventures added up to just shy of 15 miles around the local neighborhood with an effort level of 7.  Reason being is that I've been trying to concentrate on my cadence more so than my mile time, but I thought I would kick it up a notch the past Friday, July 10th.  My overall route covered the 56 Freeway Cycling Path up the coast and back. Pretty basic ride but it definitely has some long climbs throughout the the mix.  By the time I was heading back home on the 56 climb, I was beat...I mean BEAT!  My uncle beat me to the top by about 15 minutes and I was going nowhere averaging about a 6.5 mph climb.  My Gatorade was exhausted, the FRS that I bought at B&L Solana Beach had already run through my body's veins and the water that was remaining in my bottles were warming up to the noon time heat.

I definitely need to pick it up a bit, but with my irregular dieting, irregular flight / workout schedule, it's hard to get that basic rhythm down.  Here are pictures from the ride.

Past Weekend's Haps

The Chargers couldn’t lose because they had a bye week, JR and Veronica had their wedding shower, Adelle convinced me to head out to Disneyland before our pass privileges were set to expire, I got a chance to hang out with Dr. Nourani in Downtown San Diego, and I did a little work in finishing up my migration to my new MacBook Pro.

Disneyland was definitely a great highlight as the lines were short allowing us to ride what we wanted (California Adventures’ Soaring is still the best), the apple pie caramel apple was a delight and the biggest plus was seeing one of my college roommates as a Jedi Knight Instructing young Padawans on stage at a Disneyland show!  Mr. Stephan Oyoung, without a doubt has the best job.  Working 4 days a week teaching kids how to rid the world of the dark side with light saber techniques, what more could you ask in a post graduate occupation?!  Two thumbs up and kudos to you Jedi Oyoung.

On the day of voting, I got to witness a new dawn in Downtown with yet another college buddy, Dr. Nourani and was readily entertained with his residency stories.  I mention a new dawn only because it was about the time when Barack was making his acceptance speech and McCain ending his bid. Bobby's stories make me wonder where I would have been at if I did do a post-bac program in lieu of flight school.   We ate at Marsala (an Indian restaurant of course) which was tremendous but a bit overpriced then made our way to Altitude Sky Bar where we got to see the Madonna Concert without the Madonna.  Good times all around, but once again I find myself commuting back to work.  It’s been a while since I’ve been at the crashpad.  I can’t wait to get the band back together.  

St. Patti's Day 10K!!!

Well, I'm sitting here sore as heck still, barely able to walk after once again forgoing any form of training prior to running this past weekend's 10K around Fiesta Island in San Diego.  It was even better this time around as I got to run it with my girlfriend and of course, she did a better job in preparing and it paid off...she beat me by 1.5 minutes and also beat my previous 10K first try by 8 seconds!!!

Here is a picture of Adelle and I before the race at 7:00AM just hanging out with our times.  I really suck but of course I just really haven't felt like running more than I need to especially after I touchdown in some random city and am forced to run on a treadmill.

Mexico...(part 2)

I woke up early around 6:00AM Saturday Morning still in a daze from moving / driving the entire night before from Daytona to Atlanta.  I pushed the snooze button just once because I knew that I had to get going in order to get ready for a day's excursion to Cuernavaca.  Little did I know what I was about to go through.

Some people that I met in the terminal were quite nice and some advised me to drive, some to not drive and some just thought of how cool it was to be traveling the way I was doing it.  My day's itinerary went like this: Fly to Mexico City (9:45 Eastern - 12:45PM Local --> 4 hour flight), land and find the rental car place which I booked through Expedia, drive from the City to Cuernavaca without a map, somehow find my girlfriend, hang out till 3:00 in the morning, drive back to the City, catch a flight to Orlando and ten connect to Atlanta, take the shuttle back to my car, change into my uniform, head back to the terminal and operate my ship to that night's overnight. 

I got first class which was great but instead of sleeping, I messed around on my computer and read a book.  I should have slept especially with a long road ahead of me. 

Everything went as planned, but there were bumps in the road which included driving 24 kilometers in about 1.5 hours just to get out of the City, driving 1 hour to Cuernavaca, getting lost for about 30 minutes in the city of Cuernavaca and asking a police officer to draw me a map which he did so willingly.  I arrived around  hang out with Adelle and her friends, have dinner, go out Salsa dancing till 1:00AM and then get about 1.5 hours of sleep!  It was all worth it in the end!!!  Adelle's friend were so inviting and awesome to hang out with.  Driving around Mexico in and of itself was an adventure.  I did think though that I had it in me as long as I could be aggressive enough.  I drive a little 5 speed Chevy something that isn't offered in the US because i don't think that it'll pass crash tests it's so small. 

Here's a picture of Adelle and I about 1 hour later in front of a library of sorts in the Zocalo of Cuernavaca. 

He's is one of the few signs along the road of welcoming me back into the city after a 1 hour mountainous drive from Cuernavaca at 4:00 in the morning.  It was nice not having to deal with traffic but filling up the rental car was a hassle let alone trying to find the place that I had to drop it off of.    

I got onto the flight without any problems, first class, ended up in Orlando and saw that an AirTran flight was leaving almost immediately, so I was able to catch a ride on them also in 1st class but the savings in time was spent on the taxiway due to delays for weather.  I still arrived at the time previously planned for, shuttled, changed and headed right back out.  I also got to catch the last 5 minutes of the Chargers game in the rampers' lounge and what an ending!!!  GO CHARGERS!!!  Final Score:

Do you guys like these long blog entries or would you prefer shorter ones?

Here are some pictures of Adelle making it to the top of the mountain / pyramid.  Yeah for buddy!!!  Oh yeah, for those who don't know, Adelle is on volunteer mission where she helps out in an orphanage and also gets to tour around Mexico at the same time.  She's been there for two weeks now so communication has been sparse.  Can't wait till you get back babe!

Chargers of Old

I can finally be at peace with my team and smile tonight.  Although I wasn't able to watch the game live, the highlights and reading all about it were enough to give me some good thoughts of the Chargers.  I was constantly asking for updates from the pilots while sitting in the jumpseat on the way home tonight and they gladly obliged.  We weren't really playing like last year's team, but at least Rivers was able to utilize his throwing abilities and prove once again that he's the QB of our future.  Gates had a big game and that alone is a good sign.  I really hope that LT gets more rushing TDs and more chances for bigger runs.  With Nick Hardwick back, it shouldn't be that hard to get more space down the center!  Merriman had his sack today and it just seemed like things got back together.  Thanks for winning guys.  I really think that the underlying conspiracy is to hide our awesomeness from the New England Patriots.  San Diego has a plan and the next few teams won't know what hit them!  I'm just really excited for the next game now.  Let's go CHARGERS!!!

Colts at Chargers

Final Score: I can't take it anymore. The Chargers have just been causing me so much stress lately. From getting their asses wiped by some Vikings, to an offense that can't move the ball. At least our special teams is doing really well and with Antonio Cromartie intercepting Payton manning 3 times tonight and making some awesome plays last week, it looks as if our secondary is actually a force to be reckoned with. I just wish that we had the team from last year which includes the entire coaching staff. And we just won...by luck I tell ya. Payton being intercepted 6 times and Addai going for less than 3 yards per carry. We barely got away with this one and the rest of our schedule doesn't look that easy. Let's just hope that we get a lot better offensively. It's like all the big names from last year are gone. Where's LT, Merriman and Gates? Please guys...lets just play some good football.

Now I just need Matt Hassleback to do bad or at least not score more than 14.00 points in fantasy terms. I'm beating one of the top guys right now and tomorrow will determine who wins. I need to be third going into the playoffs in order to avoid playing one of the guys with Tom Brady.

BOSTON!!!

Boston, MA [13 October 2007 after landing...]
I took a cab from Boston Logan to the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston where my friend, Joe - the dentist met me. We then went to his apartment to drop off my belongings and headed straight to a bar where I drank a good amount of Kettle One and Tonic with Joe an some of his friends from school. I ended up meeting Devin, Deon, Yuen, Lynn and Tiger. We had shots and then headed out at closing to get some drunk Chinese food in China Town at Peach Farm. That was awesome dinner. I haven't had that much fun in a while. What a way to start out a spontaneous trip to Boston! I was loving every minute of it.

Boston, MA [14 October 2007 walking...]
We woke up early the next morning, went to Starbucks, then walked all over the city starting out first with Newbury, then to Parish Cafe where I ate an awesome sandwich but the name of it escapes me right now, walked around more, went to Quincy Market by way of the Financial District, straight to the Wharf, past some really nice houses to Little Italy where we stopped my Mike's Pastry (www.mikespastry.com) where I had a Florentine Ricotta Cannoli and a cappuccino, and took the train back to the apartment where we streamed the Raiders at the Chargers' game which we blasted!!! We hung out there for quite a bit until it was time for dinner where we went to a Japanese Hot Pot Restaurant (one of Joe's favorite called Shabu Zen) Walking home, we passed by JP Licks, tried some Pad Thai Ice Cream was a definitely the weirdest, I never wanted to vomit it out so bad ice cream, but I swallowed it with a bitter smile. I went for the Coffee Oreo with Cookie Dough topping instead and that was great. We called it a night.

Boston, MA [15 October 2007 BU and the Triforce of Evil!]
Sitting in the cafeteria of Joe's School typing away and reading, I came up this part of the book I'm currently reading and wanted to write it here.

Excerpt from "The Holographic Universe" Sometimes the relationship between the image and the illness is so striking it is difficult to understand why it is not apparent to the individual involved, as in the case of a psychotherapist who had emergency surgery to remove several feet of dead intestine and then told Siegel, "I'm glad you're my surgeon. I've been undergoing teaching analysis. I couldn't handle all the shit that was coming up, or digest the crap in my life." --> ...nearly all diseases originate at least to some degree in the mind...

In case you don't know why I wanted to put that text there, its in response to the fact that our minds can do anything and manipulate the way that we feel. There is a lot in the book that helps you understand a bigger picture of life and how you can control the way that you feel. It's good stuff. I've definitely come a long way, and this book just helps me out a little bit more! Pick it up! Also pick up "I Am America and So Can You!" by Stephen Colbert. It's just funny and entertaining.

After a quick session on dental x-rays, we sat down at a breakfast place known for its Turkey Hash and eggs named Charlies. It won a multitude of awards and I definitely enjoyed the food. I haven't eaten so many varieties of food in such a short length of time for a while. We went home, changed a bit and then headed back out. I got to see Fenway Park, walked around some more, this is where I took a picture with the famous Citgo Triforce of Evil, (I mean, being that it's a monument of sorts for an original American company, it is no longer tied in with supporting democracy but rather the likes of Hugo Chavez...) crossed over the Charles River into MIT and then to Harvard Yard and through the campus where there was this statue and some about gaining 10 IQ points by touching john Harvard's Shoe.... :-) All this was fun...it was a lot of walking for sure. I enjoyed a Malted Shake at some place (the name escapes me at the moment) but it also won awards. I don't think that Joe and I ever went to a place that didn't have their window plastered with awards and plaques. I guess that's what you get in the food capital of the US. We also had some Mexican food which was good. Took the shuttle home and relaxed...no more walking! =)

Boston, MA [16 October 2007 35 mins...]
I was able to get up early tidy things up a bit in the apartment that Joe and Ha so willing let me stay at, gathered my things and began my journey through the Boston Subway System. It was too easy to find my way around. I timed the whole things from 5:50AM, I arrived on the other side of security awaiting my aircraft at 6:32AM. That included the train ride from Hynes Convention Center to a switch to Government Center, then to the airport shuttle stop where I hopped on a bus for Terminal A, up the stairs, through security and then followed by a long walk to the gate. It was good stuff! Got back to ATL, ate, move my belongings into the Loft from the Master Bedroom (now I'm solo but with only 2 walls...anyone know where to get one of those Chinese privacy screens?) and then got ready to do a four day trip which has been shortened to only 2 days. McAllen, Texas isn't that bad of an overnight. Long flight, but worth it!

a renewal...

I flew into Ontario, CA last night and it was a great ride riding shot again. Got to meet the Delta pilot who rode my jump seat a couple of months ago and now I finished riding his. Coincidence really. Adelle and I then ventured off to Sizzler where I got my fix on. I think that I'm set for another 10 years now. I can't believe how familiar the taste was. It's identical, but I guess that's a good thing from time to time to try something you once had a lot of.

Anyways, after talking to one of my friends tonight of a little bit, he got me thinking about my real estate licence and I noticed that mine just expired. I have of course 2 years to get it back up to date but I think that I'm just going to get it over with right now and do what I have to do. It's a simple 15 hour course really and should be fun. I get to learn something else besides flying.

I have my first LOFT coming up on the 27th of this month and I'm actually a little scared of it. I still haven't had my line check yet and I'm still anticipating someone riding along with me soon. My landings have gotten better but its not the butter glide I want. I was landing flat for a while and that's not fun.

I had a chance to catch up on Entourage and it was damn funny! You have to keep up. Chargers apparently were rather sloppy but I guess that's how the looked in the pre-season last year. I'm sure that it'll wake them up a bit...hopefully!

security nightmare w/ awesome dinner!

Today started out a little hectic trying to get on my flight back to ATL today with the fact that the line for security in Terminal 2 was being held up for 1.5 hours due to a security breach. This in turn caused the captain to time out and us to end up flying to Salt Lake for a new crew then on to ATL. Oh joy… now instead of getting into town around 5:00 PM local, I’ll be there around 11:00 PM. Should make out to be a quick nap at Loxford Lounge then onto my awesome four day trip. I spend the last three days just hanging out in San Diego and got to see the Padres vs. the Mets. Adelle and I took the trolley to downtown which was really easy and cheap and we ate some garlic fries and hot dogs. This is the definitely of a good night at the ballpark.

My line in August that I was awarded consists of 350 hours away from base so that should provide for another $500 of per diem. Now as long as I don’t’ spend it on food while away, I’ll be good. I also might be able to pick up some open time in August for some time and a half to help out with things. The biggest deal will be swapping out my car in Atlanta for the one in Wildomar. I’ll be driving the 1985 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbo Diesel and it doesn’t have any air conditioning. That’s going to be fun in Atlanta. If anyone has any ways to create a new cooling system in a car, please tell me. It might be a little rough, but we’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

I had dinner with an old friend tonight and it was fun just hanging out. I'm glad that she's doing well and I do hope that we get to talk a little more often. We ate at a place called Joe's right near the airport and I have to say that they made me a really awesome hamburger. Now I'm fat again.

Still haven't found my headset (QC2s) or my video iPod. I'm very disappointed with Delta Lost and Found! =(

hanging out in San Diego

Loving the clear skies down here. The weather is perfect but I forgot to bring my swim trunks for some beach action today. I might do it tomorrow but we'll see. I bought tickets to the Padres vs Mets game here at Petco Park and I'm going to try the Trolley from Fashion Valley. Should be different and this time I don't have to worry about any traffix driving down to the stadium or parking for that matter. The round trip is only $4.50!

Anyways, I'm going to try to get rid of my old car back here in San Diego so that I don't feel the burden anymore of having to have my mom take care of it. It definitely was a cool idea, but there's no need for anything like that anymore especially once I got over (temporarily due to cash flow restraints) the nice car gig. My car back in Atlanta has definitely humbled me more on the idea of, "a car's a car just to get your around," kind of deal. I'm going to try to bring over the old 1985 300D Turbo Diesel Mercedes to Atlanta and use that as my airport car. We'll see how long that lasts, but I have faith in it! Wish me luck guys!

Flying has been fun and still yet, I'm blessed with the company of good captains and a great flight attendant. I got my new tentative schedule for August and I'll post that once I find out that its set in stone. I got the first line that I bid for, but of course, it was just some random one that I really didn't look at. I do have a Flint, MI overnight and I hope that my friend is in town. That would be fun. Either than that, I don't think that I have anything else going for me in August. We've been offered 1.5 pay for any open time that we pick up which is cool, but ASA likes to block us so high that we can't pick anything up! It's ridiculous! Oh well, I'm just trying to get the hours anyways.

Yeah for San Diego!

waiting and waiting...

I decided that I should finally get my 10K mile service this morning right after the Valdosta Nap that I had. I'm not that tired just yet but I guess that I should be especially after having only 2.5 hours of sleep. I've been slacking when it comes to the daily things such as bills, car washes, you know...the basic stuff. I've been spending a lot of time just traveling and relaxing a little bit. Today marks the last day of my relax schedule as you can see if you click on my July Schedule, I'll be flying around 96 hours and some change. It's going to be a doozy and I guess if you were to take in the time that I am "On Duty," I'll be working more than 40 hours a week when you compare it to the normal worker bee. Make sure that you look at the calendar and see if you are going to be at the cities that I will be having a layover at and if you are, leave a comment...Let's have dinner.

I was driving yesterday to work while the thunderstorms were surrounding Atlanta and of course, we were delayed by a few hours. What do you expect you know? But one the way to the parking lot, I had my windows down and the driver next to me in a Honda Accord coupe looked at me, and rubbed in fingers together in a way while saying, "You making the ends eh?" I was just laughing a little bit, but I have to admit that I'm a little irritated that people or the general public still think that pilots make a lot. It provides for the perception that since we make so much that 1) We don't care about the passengers 2) We are too good to be them 3) We don't deserve the raises that we are fighting for. It makes us look spoiled and in fact, I have to think twice if I can buy a stupid value meal at McDonald's for breakfast which in fact I just did and it was good. We couldn't even get breakfast at the hotel this morning because they don't start the service until 0700! We left at 0545 of course to go get ready. The fact is is that ALPA needs to begin informing the public a little bit better at the airports or something. I mean, it'll definitely be a while if not it'll take me my entire life to achieve the American Dream if I just sit back and hang out at the airports.

I was on top of the iPhone news debut yesterday and am still frantically thinking about getting one. I can't believe it because I can't afford it, but damn...all the videos look sick! I guess I'll do better as long as I don't go to the store and look at one. I heard that once you touch it, you can't let it go. Damn this tech addiction!

Anyways, like I might have mentioned a few days ago, I'm going to try and be better in updating this blog. Please leave you comments and stuff and it'll motivate me even more.

updating + time

I've been just really up to no good lately. I've gotten lazy and after I get to the hotel at the various places that I go, I'm just tired. I'll try to better again in July and keep it more up to-date. I'm not sure if you have been following along but I'm activated the "twitter" feature and usually you can find the latest short ramblings to the right of the main title of the blog. It's meant to be short and sometimes I'm just that lazy to type anything out so I just use my phone. It's actually really nice.

I've also update my pilotcrossings profile with my full July schedule. (it's easy to look at my schedule as long as you sign up for it. It's free for everyone and its actually really cool. I'm blocked to fly approximately 96.06 hours!!! It's going to be a crazy month but I guess that I should get with the program and accumulate more hours rather than sitting on my ass. I get to fly to Freeport, Bahamas next month but its not an overnight. It should prove though to be a lot of fun. I can't wait. I'm doing the same trip for 3 weeks in July and I'm also planning to go to Anchorage to visit one of my buddies from CAPT. Should be fun and I hope that the loads work out!

My friend Bobby is finishing up his Doctor of Osteopathy degree and studying for his boards on July 22nd. I was able to catch up with him and he even showed me a thing or two. It's awesome how I'm at the age where my friends are now professionals. I still have a way to go till I get upgraded, but maybe once I'm there, I'll feel like I'm somewhat on par.

I haven't gone shopping in a while but there were some awesome sales at Ruehl, Abercrombie and Hollister so I had to buy a few shirts. I've been watching movies like crazy lately with Adelle. We were able to catch up with some of the latest and greatest such as Spiderman 3 on IMAX, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Carribean part 3, Oceans 13 (wow that's a lot of sequels eh?), and Knocked Up. The most fun was probably the last one but they were all somewhat entertaining. The most disappointing of the batch was probably Shrek the Third. They should stop probably with this one.

The iPhone is coming out and I'm not as excited for it as much as I am for the new Sprint Mogul phone. It can do just about everything but just has a smaller screen and runs Windows Mobile 6. There are a lot of limitation with the iPhone but I'm sure that when Apple can release different models on other carriers, I'll start to garner a little more interest on it. I'm probably going to call Sprint though and see what kind of deal I can get by staying with them. If not, then hey, I'll go grab the iPhone!

Padres are doing alright and we were first for a while, but once again, the hard division that we are in is just getting the best of us. I hope that it ends well though which I'm sure it will!

I'm checking out the Otterbox right now and am tempted to grab it for my iPod video. I'm into swimming more so right now as it is less intense than running on my joints. I just feel like doing it with some tunes in my ear. We'll see how the headphone set works with it too! I'll do a review or something of the set once I get them. Alright, that's enough right now. I'll post more later. CYA!

I was home this past weekday to celebrate my mom and girlfriend's birthday. I didn't get to do anything with my mom, but Adelle and I went to Sea World and just hung out. It was good times!

waiting...

So, I still can't seem to get the twitter flash widget to appear on my blog homepage on Firefox or Internet Explorer, but it seems to work on Safari. It's a little annoying really and I'm just thinking about simplifying the entire page because of this. So, I'm just waiting to get a couple hours of "time off" before I start on this journey. It's going to be a little difficult really being that its all setup and stuff. I'm just on happy with it.

Did you see that dunk last night by Mr. Davis?! Man, he just slammed that one in. It was like I was watching a replay from NBA Jam or something. Amazing. Also in sports news, 10Ks by Padres pitcher Jake Peavy!!! Tremendous job in setting the record for 4 games in a row with double digit strikeouts.

I'm waiting for a package that should come in today from a friend and we'll see what it contains when I get it. It'll be hopefully awesome.

I'm also waiting to see if I get a line next month. I'm not necessarily going to be expecting it, but we'll see what I get. I noticed that I moved down 3 spots on the CRJ FO list for ATL from #361 to 364 out of 435. My chances of getting a line are a little slim, but who knows.

The Office was definitely awesome but that's all I have to say. I'll end it with a quote: "may God guide you in your quest."

breakfast: spinach, albacore tuna, two slices of bread.