I’ve been waiting for the fuel components for awhile and I finally got the last piece a couple of days ago. Turns out it can’t connect/couple with the other component I need it to connect to! (From the same company no less!). So it looks like I’ll need to upgrade my fuel selector to the newest version so I can use the extender I need to use.

Here’s a quick picture of my engine, as it looks crated in. This is a 2007/2008 Eggenfellner E6 6-cylinder Subaru engine (normally aspirated).

And here are a couple of pictures of my panel, as delivered by Aerotronics. Very nice wiring in the back, I hope I don’t have to break any of those bundles!

We headed to Alcatraz the morning after I arrived. It was pretty interesting and we got some good photos of the island. Inside is pretty much what you would expect (not really that exciting), but the history of the place is an interesting study.

After that we kinda just wandered around the city, mostly on foot. I think we walked around probably 3-4 hours a day on Friday and Saturday - we were both tired and sore by the time we got back to our rooms.

Cheryl had wanted to participate in that timed honored scam where someone sells you an oyster for $15 to see if you get a pearl in it - so we picked up one of those and got a nice blue pearl out of it. Of course, you can’t just have a loose pearl lying around, so for a measly additional $120 we had it placed on a pendant so Cheryl can wear it on a necklace.

We did see Hellboy 2 while we were there, and that was pretty fun. Good movie, though the theater next to the Mascone Center is kinda sucky - wouldn’t have been so bad if their sound didn’t keep going up and down in volumn (from loud to really loud to really really loud and back down again). I’d recommend the movie, but not the theater.

Some more pictures can be seen here, but my camera was having problems focusing in the haze so I only picked out a couple of good ones.

After many delays (got sick, bad weather, bad weather+bad plane) and mucho $$$ I finally got to take my instrument check ride. I am now a fully qualified instrument rated pilot. Whoo.

This damn well better make my insurance rates go down!

After some digging, I flashed my phone with the L26 Diamond ROM with WinMo6.1 and a few other goodies added. And, in the process, I lost all of my Outlook contacts - of course. (Stupid WinMo - why do you have to try to sync contacts with Outlook and then delete them if they aren’t in the local copy of Outlook!?). I may switch to Android (if I can get it working) just so I don’t lose my contacts randomly throughout the year. Until then, I’ll use NS Contacts Backup to backup everything.

My constant speed prop and avionics panel should also be shipping this week, so I’ll have quite a Christmas in July if everything gets out on time.

I don’t really care for Picasa, but I haven’t found a better photo manager.

Figured it’s about time to give everyone (all 2 of you) an update on what’s been going on around these parts. First:

1) Cheryl and I are now certified open water scuba divers. The class and then warm-water certification dive in Utah was a lot of fun, I recommend it - though it is kinda expensive if you do it all at once. A1 Scuba does a good job.

2) Because of the above, we are headed to Roatan in April to get our scuba on.

3) We got a new dog, her name is Kara. She’s very needy.

4) I got my loan to finish up the airplane parts - so I have a panel being built, seats/interior being created, a prop being carved, and other misc parts and pieces on the way.

5) The 66 Comet is doing good, it’s actually really easy to start even when it’s cold out. Now I just need to either sell it or find someone who can fix the few rust spots on it - and maybe get the windows to roll up nice an easy.

6) I’ve read a ton of books so I’m just going to highlight the ones I liked: A Canticle for Leibowitz (post Armageddon sci-fi), Fate is the Hunter (semi-autobiographical early airline pilot days), World War Z (zombies!), Deadhouse Gates (part 2, fantasy)

7) I’m also finishing up my Instrument Rating to add to my Private Pilot’s license - hopefully I’ll be all done by the end of March.

8) Speaking of all done, my reserve enlistment with the Colorado Air National Guard was up in December, so now I’m just an IRR (inactive ready reserve) member. Haven’t had to do anything with that so far, but I’m wondering if they expect us to report in every once in awhile?

9) Some cool stuff going on at work, like: developer.mapquest.com

And I think that’s it! See, easy.