WOW!!!

Its finally over. I just finished my second and final test(Advanced Thermo), it was a doozy (sp?). 2 hours, 3 problems #1 - 50%, #2 - 30%, #3 - 20%. I would guess that my score on it without a curve will be ~70%. I did all of one - only to find out after class that I worked way to much on it because I did one of the pieces wrong (I spent about 75% of the time on this problem). #2 - a. easy, b. easy, c. what?-skipped it (20% of the time). #3. Stuff that was not on the homework, we covered it near the end. The question was just obscurely stated enough that I didn't get any further than copying a few things out of the notes before the remaining 5% of the time was up.

But, it is over and I did good enough I am sure I should get a B in the class. Now I get to look forward to training people the rest of the week.

A+ and an A-...works for me.

One down, one to go...

Well, Math (Methods of Analysis in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering) is done with. I wasn't able to complete one of the problems on the final, but I only need a 50% on it so I should be good.

Thermo is another story, the test is Wednesday, I need a 90% on it for an A and a 70% for a B in the class. I am sure I will get the B at least, and depending how the rest of the class does I might get an A. Then I will be doing two days of training others to run the machine that I work with (since I am the only one trained on it), then graduation Saturday, and off to my interview in Cali on Sunday.

Then its back to ABQ on the 19th, drive to Silver the 20th, back to ABQ - and up to the cabin - at noon on the 25th, and who knows after that.

Almost there...

I got a letter in the mail the other day saying that my Thesis was accepted, I know there were still a lot of grammatical errors, but I think they let the sciences get away with that more :).

I still have work to do for both my classes. I am finishing up the last HW (hard homework!!!) late in Math because I was sick Tuesday, and I am going to get the take-home exam tomorrow and it will be due in a week (7th Dec). I am hoping to keep it from interfering with my studying for my Thermo exam on the 12th. The Thermo exam worries me because it is 45% of my grade - I hate when they leave it all up to the last test (especially since I am bad at tests).

Graduation Ceremony Saturday Dec. 15th, 10:00 am in Popejoy Hall. I am not sending out any invitations, please come if you would like to.

Where am I???

I am at the ME building working on the nanoindenter at 10:40 pm, this is the reason I haven't been keeping the blog up at all. Thesis should be to my committee this weekend, wish me luck, I have about 15 pages :( It is fully due to UNM on Nov 15th, and I also have a half semester homework due on the 14th - fun!!!

Angela and I are going to CA right after school is out. We are going because I have an interview with NavAir in China Lake. At this point I am just hoping I have graduated by then.

Angela's car is making some great popping noises from the passenger outer CV joint, we are hoping to have time to get it fixed before it goes completely - hopefully it will go another 1.5 months. On the upside, she now has 2 working front power windows and a new sun visor, thank you Pick &Pull.

I am also doing a take home test that is due tomorrow (Advanced Engineering Mathematics), I have to redo a problem that I found out was wrong when I used Maple to check it - luckily it is one of the easiest on the test - just lots of places for sign errors. --- So it ended up being that C0+4C2=0 does not mean C2=C0, which was what I put for some reason.

Final time to leave ME building: 1:20 am, Oct 31 - Happy Halloween.

Balloon Fiesta

Angela and I missed the first weekend of Balloon Fiesta activities for various reasons, but were able to make it out on Tuesday morning before things got started at the university. The weather was a bit warmer than last year but still great for the balloons. We went for the usual breakfast burrito and have yet to find a good one at the fiesta. There were quite a few balloons taking off, even for a week day.


For more pictures go to Balloon Fiesta

For the love of Star Wars

For those that are big fans of Star Wars there was something great at the Balloon Fiesta This year. It was the new Darth Vader balloon. The balloon came from Belgium I believe, and the group that brought it was greeted at the airport by the local fan club dressed as a variety of Star Wars characters. A few were also at the fiesta when we went on Tuesday morning.

Home

For those of you who haven't seen it this is where I live. The weird transition is because I used two pictures. The Escort is one of my roomate's car, the Trans Am lives in the garage with my other roommate's 06 GT.

New Shoes

I finally took the truck and got some new tires put on it. When I got the truck it had 245/75-16, we replaced the rears a while back with some new ones from BigO that were the same size, but looked a lot skinnier. I had been wanting a full matching set and the fronts were nearly bald, not to mention airing the drivers side up every three days was getting old. So I went to Discount Tire and got these. They are Pathfinder SUV tires and were the cheapest thing I could find in the size that I wanted. They are 265/75-16 which is the correct size for a Z-71 and match the size of my spare. I've had them about 2 weeks now and i really like them so far.
Now I just need to wash the truck.

Its time for "Guess that Car"

Today we have a nice slightly used SUV seen on the back of a semi driving through Rio Rancho. I blanked out the wheel cap to make it a little harder to guess.

Also seen this day were a Nissan Frontier that had rear ended some harder vehicle, and a Grand Am that looked like it went sideways into a sidewalk - the front wheel was tilted at about a 45 degree angle from vertical.

Labor Day Weekend

Yeah, I know I was a little slow in posting. The weekend was good, Kelly and I went home on Friday and stayed until Tuesday. On Saturday we took an ATV ride to the lower box (Gila River). We started in the Burros (near the homestead) and rode ~70 mile round trip. The ride out was dusty and fairly uneventful besides the running over of a dead pack rat that was in the road. We arrived at the river and ate lunch and rested. It was really hot out. The girls played in the river, but got out as the lightning got closer. The ride back was a little cooler...we got caught in a downpour and actually had to stop riding for a little bit. At least it wasn't dusty :) Another exciting part of the ride back was getting to see this guy:He was in the process of crossing the road when we saw him. He coiled after we followed him for a bit trying to get a picture. He had more red than the picture shows. Only one of the ATVs ran out of gas before we got back (but we were prepared), and there was a nice hot meal waiting for us when we got back. Other weekend activities were dinner (and a cookout) with friends and family and going to the Gem and Mineral show.

The daily traffic stopper

It would seem that todays traffic slow down was caused by the white camper-shelled Ford loosing his trailer on southbound I-25. It appeared that the trailer had subsequently rolled over several times -notice the wheels are in different directions - amazingly without spilling its load.

On another note I finally got a "new" spoiler for the T/A, but I have no clue when I will get it mounted on the car.

Drive it like you stole it!!!

So there was another race again last weekend. New place, the Downs in Santa Fe. The course was (at the beginning of the day) very dirty with grass growing up through it. As the races went on we broke it in...or just plane broke it I guess. They had to alter the course twice-once in the middle of the morning session and once in the middle of the afternoon session due to the asphalt lifting.

I think both the photos give a good idea of the surface-it was old and falling apart, but still a blast to race on.Numbers for the day:

Drivers:59  Runs:353  Average Lap: 50.558  Cones:93  DNFs:10
FTD: SS 37 Rick Hinckley 04 Corvette Z06, Black 42.725 Run 4

My times:

STU-N  16   
1991 Pontiac Trans  Best : 50.375
1. 54.681     2. 52.137     3. 50.375   
4. 51.806     5. 51.703     6. 53.236(1)  

I really don't think I hit a cone on that last run. I was never very close to any, and Angela was watching and never saw any. I did see a worker picking one up from the previous car while I was running so maybe I got that one counted against me...oh well.

The above car goes a little like this:
MECHANICAL:
5.4L supercharged, intercooled DOHC V8 engine
500 hp @ 6000 rpm and 480 lb.-ft. of torque @ 4500 rpm
9.0 psi boost
Forged-steel crankshaft
Forged-steel I-Beam connecting rods
6-speed manual transmission
Dual 60-mm electronic throttle body
4-channel ABS brakes with traction control system
Modified 8.8" live axle with 3.31:1 gear ratio
Brembo® 14" vented front rotors and 4-piston calipers
11.8" vented rear rotors with 2-piston calipers
SVT-tuned suspension with unique shocks and springs
Tuned stainless steel X-pipe exhaust
P255/45ZR18 front F1 Supercar tires (I bet the tires were different)
P285/40ZR18 rear F1 Supercar tires
18" x 9.5" bright machined-aluminum wheels with SVT center caps
MSRP $41,930

And

ESP-ST 32,07 Ford Shelby GT5 Best : 47.073
1. 47.846     2. 47.073     3. 48.984(1) 
4. 48.260     5. 48.206     6. 49.211(1)

Ahhh...Morning Traffic

I think this says it all. (For you who might not know, "this" is clickable)

And it starts...

Well its back to school time again. I have 2 classes as well as writing my thesis this semester. The classes are:
1. Advanced Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatistics,
2. Methods of Analysis in Chemical and Nuclear Engineering
Both are MWF classes, but with 2 having no class Fridays, which is nice...really nice.

Bookstore Books new for class ~$270
Bookstore Books used for class ~$200 (also not available)
Online books new for class ~$120
Online books used for class ~$50
But I borrowed both of mine so they were free :)

Umm...I think thats all I have on this subject.

Drive to work

Hehe...my blog is getting kind of boring. So here are a few pics from my drive here this morning. And then I added a few more on the end that are kind of old.

1. Darth's Yukon:


2. A very cool looking old military truck. I have no clue as to what it was, but it is right hand drive:

I also saw a semi that was flipped over on the ramp from SB I-25 to EB I-40, its happened so much that they have put up semi-tipping signs - sorry no pictures.

Old Picture: ouch Saturn!


The rental car to have -Hertz Shelby Mustang- as seen during the trip to Denver:
Sorry for the quality of all those - Camera Phone

Waiting for something to blog about...

Well, not much has gone on since I was in Greece. I went home for a weekend, during which the TA decided it would be fun to die 5 times on the way there and once on the way back, but I think I know what is wrong.

While I was at home I got to visit with the family and go on a ride with Schuyler (Suzuki RM-Z 250). It was pretty sweet since we are fairly close in riding speed. I am a little faster on the tight roads and trails and he is a little faster in the open washes and through the rocky canyons. We saw a few rattle snakes while we were out there, unfortunately I didn't see the first one soon enough and ran him over (right after Schuyler did), but I looked back and he seemed to be upset but moving fine. He was right over the top of a rise, so he probably had very little weight, if any, put on him (I think I was airborne when I went over him). Schuyler saw two more near the end of the ride, but they either got off the trail, or I just didn't see them. I am glad that my boots are mostly plastic and thick leather. We didn't have any crashes, thank goodness, but Schuyler did have a close encounter with a tree were it tried to joust him in the foot-he was ok.

I hate to blog without pictures, so here are some horses, aren't they cute?

Sunday

Here is a picture showing a layout of the hotels that I went to. Mine was the one in the middle.

Early morning today, I was told that I needed to be at the airport 2 hours before my flight by a guy at one of the dinners. So I figured that I would leave between 4 and 4:30 to get to the airport. I woke up at 3:30, got ready and packed a last few things and headed out about 4:30. The guy at the front desk thought I was crazy to be up so early, but got me checked out and ordered me a taxi anyway. Different driver, but another fast one, I think we were at the airport by 4:45-and it was closed. I told him it was ok I would wait for it to open. It opened up at 5:15, but nothing was operational until about 6:20. The airport is small (2 gates) so there were no problems really and I got thought it all ok.

I got to Athens on time, its only about an hour flight, and didn’t do much in the airport there except recheck my luggage and grab a bite to eat. Right now I am on the plane from Athens to Atlanta, the flight time is just over 11 hours and there are about 5.5 hours of it left. I think I have to do a bunch of stuff in Atlanta with customs, but I guess I will find out later.

Here is an overall picture of the downtown area. It would be placed to the right of the first picture and slightly overlapping. If you look at the left side of this picture closely, you can tell where the Egnatia Grand Hotel is. On my monitor it is about 2" from the left edge of the picture when you blow it up to full size (by clicking the picture).

That was the end for my Greece trip blog, I hope that you all enjoyed it. I will make one small post once I finally get more of the pictures uploaded to my photobucket account.

Saturday

Today was the day of walking. I got up at around 5:45 and took off to go see what the beach was like in the morning. I had thought about swimming, but it was a little cold, so I just walked along the beach and took pictures. I got to see some crabs and sea anemones in the rocks. My plan was to go to a museum that was on the map that they gave us for the conference. So I caught a cab at about 9, thinking that the museum would be open. This was the first time on the trip that the language was a problem. The cab driver knew no English at all and had to go into the hotel to get the receptionist to translate where I wanted to go. The only words he ever really said were “No problem.” He was also the fastest taxi I had been in, this guy flew, and his cab was a brand new Mercedes.

He got me downtown to where the museum was supposed to be, but it was not open until 10 and it turned out to be the wrong museum. So I walked around the streets of downtown for a while. There were a lot of jewelry and shoe stores, it was the most shoe stores I have ever seen so close together. I also walked down to the dock area and saw the lighthouse that was on a bunch of the post cards I had seen.

I went back to the museum that I was dropped off at and talked to the lady there who suggested a lot of site seeing that I just didn’t have time to do, but she did send me to another really nice museum. It was the Ethnological Museum of Thrace. It was in really neat looking building that was constructed in 1899. I had a lot about the history of the area and a lot of artifacts. Its website is www.emthrace.org.

After this I walked back through downtown to the dock area again and headed toward my hotel. I was getting hungry, but I didn’t want to eat at a place along the shore there because the seaweed was really smelly. So I ended up eating at a place just before my hotel. Again no one here really spoke English, but there was enough communication to order a salad and “meat” (I wasn’t sure what to expect). The salad was the tomato, cucumber, onion, and lots of cheese salad as usual. The “meat” was a large plate with a thick (1/4”) slice of bacon, a sausage, a slice of lamb, some really good chicken, a patty of some sort that was also pretty good, and fries. All in al it was a pretty good meal. I walked back to the hotel and took a small nap and then was off to the Thraki Palace to go swim and use their internet J. When the cab came to pick me up it was my non English friend again, but luckily they all understand the hotel names.

When I got that I headed for the beach, luckily it was not near as smelly of the seaweed, so I went in. It was a little cold so I didn’t swim around for too long. After swimming I changed into dry clothes and headed inside to use the internet. Well the internet refused to connect so I went to the desk and asked them; 10 euro for 24 hours of internet, ok so I took it. I went back into the business center and tried to connect “error.” Back to the desk, they tried about 5 different cards before they decided it must just be down. Well great, there went my free internet to talk to everyone for the last time before I left.

I thought about it for a bit and decided to head to the hotel that the BBQ was at, as I still had some time left on the card that I got there the first night. I decided to walk because I thought I might be able to get a connection somewhere along the way. I never was able to get one along the way so I walked the 4.6 km down the Grand Egnatia. Theirs worked perfect and the lady at the desk even gave me another free access card. Sweet!! I got online and chatted for a little bit, but it was late and I had to be up early so took off about 10:30. I ordered a taxi to take me back to my hotel (I figure I walked about 15 km today). Guess who my driver was? “No problem.” So hotel name, “No problem,” and we headed that way. I thought this guy drove fast during the day, we were doing 110 in a 50 kph area. One of the traffic lights stopped us when were flying back on the highway part of the road, I am pretty sure I heard a slew of about 15 Greek cuss words in a row as he straightened out the religious stickers that he had stuck to the roof. He dropped me off and I went to my room and packed and went to bed.

Here is some info to go with the pictures

^^^^In case you were unsure what this is, its one of the marble quarries. ^^^^

Friday’s excursion was to the island of Thassos. I think that it was the best part of the trip. We had a bus ride over to Keramoti, where we missed the ferry boat that we were supposed to take by mere seconds. It was ok though because one comes every 30 minutes. It is about a 30 minute trip over to Thassos, which is 6 miles away from the mainland. We got off the ferry in Limenas, which is also the capital of the island. While on the island we drove over to the Golden Sand Beach that I talked about. We got to go swimming there and ate at a restaurant that was there on the beach. We had the usual salad with bread, and then fish. There may have been a dessert, but I was to excited about the swimming to stick around and eat more. We were also able to catch some quick glances of the marble quarries that Thassos is famous for. I guess that the island is one of the largest producers of marble and is where snow white marble comes from, they also produce a grey colored marble. When we got back to Limenas we were able to walk around the town for a while before the busses left. There was a small amount of ruins in the area, and a lot of shops selling all kinds of things. After this we boarded the ferry back to Keramoti. That was pretty much the end of the day for me, I got back to the hotel and went to bed because I wanted to go around town Saturday.

Picture post

This was from the Friday excursion - Chrissi Ammos (Golden Sand) Beach. It is by far the nicest beach I have ever been too, although I haven't bee to many. It is on Thassos Island, and is much nicer than any of the beaches on the mainland that I have been to. As you can see I had been swimming by this point so my hair was all over the place. The second picture is Anton, he is on my "commitee on studies" for my thesis work and also played a large role in the conference.


Yeah, it was really nice on the island.

Thursday

I had to walk around the end of that point>>>>

Today is a somewhat free day for me; I went to a few of the morning talks because I felt bed that that was all of them I was going to while here. Unfortunately all the talks relating to my area were on Tuesday so I missed them. I took the bus to the Thraki in the morning and walked back, looking for a bank along the way. The walk is ~2 km, turns out the ATM is less than a block from my hotel. I got back and asked about troubleshooting the internet in my room. They had given me a CAT 5 cable before to try. Well a technician came by, he told me that the only internet at the hotel is dial-up (then why did they give me the CAT 5, and why is there a port for it?). Next he checked my room's phone, it turns out my it is not even capable of the dial up service, which is a pay for addition which I wouldn’t get anyway since I have been using the high speed here at the other hotels for free. Basically I would not recommend the hotel I am staying at. So I have walked back down the beach (a somewhat rock hopping adventure) to the Thraki to bum their internet service some more.

Banquet

Wednesday night was the banquet, I assumed a buffet like the night before, I was wrong. It was a more formal setting (and I was in my t-shirt and jeans) out on the deck of the Thraki Palace. This hotel has a lot of stuff outside, there is the pool and a smaller kids pool, of course it has a small pathway down to the beach, it has a lot of grassy area around it that includes a playground, giant chess board, archery targets?, and some game that looks like it is played with a ball (not sure I have not seen anyone play). There are also two kayak type boats that I guess you can take out on the sea, and a row of bicycles that I am guessing guests of the hotel can check out (I wish mine had that). I hear that the rooms here are very much like the ones at my hotel, but you’re not in them much so its ok. Anyway the banquet meal was long (9-12pm), it started with seafood pasta that had shrimp and clam? in it, next was a bit of sorbet (literally like 2-3 tablespoons), that was followed by a salad that had something in it that was way to strong for my tastes (it didn’t matter really I was getting full by now anyway), next was the main course it was lamb (very good), and dessert was a delicious chocolate thing; it had a semi hard shell, a soft almost fudge interior and a cake bottom, I think it may have been some sort of truffle.

Just so you understand...

Just so you can see what makes it kinda difficult to blog in Greece. I also had a similar problem when trying to do a blog in Paris.

Wednesday-Trip to Evros Delta

Morning at my hotel - the area that can be seen in the background is where my room is.

Today was the excursion to the Evros Delta, it is the delta of the river that runs between Greece and Turkey and makes up that boarder between the two countries. It is a partially protected wetland and from what they said a very popular bird watching area in the springtime. To get there we took a bus ride (a very long bus ride) down a little dirt road with the tour guide sounding mostly like a broken record, “to right, grey heron and spoon bills”, “to left a colony of black heron.” Then every once and a while she would add something else in that was a little more interesting. Once at the end of the bus ride we took a boat tour in some small boats (groups of 6) around the delta, all the little channels were kind of neat. Back on the long dirt road to Feres for lunch. Again really no clue what I was eating; salad (tomatoes, cucumber, and onion in oils), some king of meat ball thing that was wrapped in a leaf of lettuce, and some thing that was like pot roast on rice (it was really good). After eating we visited “the Church of Panagia the Cosmosotira (World Savior), which was built in 1152 by I. Comninos and is a miniature replica of the famous church of Agia Sophia in Constantinople” – it was a neat little church and is in the process of restoration. Apparently it was stripped of its artwork and such when the Turks were in possession of that area (a little bitterness with the Turks sensed). Then we headed back to Alexandroupolis. Now I am here at the Thraki Palace typing my blog. I think dinner starts at 9 and ends at midnight tonight.

I found this sign at the place where we had our boat rides around the delta, I'm not sure why it was there.

This was the boat that our group road in, it was by far the most

homemade boat in the tour.


Since I typed this I went out to the beach and fell asleep for about an hour, I am trying to upload some picture to my photobucket, but it doesn't seem to be working. They may have to wait until I get home.

Tuesday Night

Above is the Hotel Egnatia for the BBQ - Lots of meat and some other things, I have no idea what I ate.

Apparently this place is very alive during the night. It sounds like there may be a big party going on just down the beach. And I took a walk a little ways from the other hotel that the BBQ was at and there was a lot going on down the street that runs along the beach (it is closed to cars during the late night). Also, dinner is really late here, it seems that it is generally between about 8:30 and 10:30.

The rest of Tuesday

From the deck looking in.

I did go back to the hotel and shower, and then caught the bus that I didn't know was coming (I need to find out more about the busses)over to the BBQ at the Egnatia Grand. The food was really good. Right now I am bumming off their internet because my hotel doesn't seem to have any (I think just the one in my room is bad). Since it is my only contact with my world. I think the hotel that I am in is really old, it was rated as a 4 star--I think it is more like 2-3 star. It looks like they are still renovating (I read somewhere that they were working on it 2 years ago). From the outside the place looks like a dump, but then the lobby and dining area is beautiful. The rooms are so-so, they are pretty small, but who is going to stay in them anyway. I will take a picture sometime later of the room. I am having a hard time doing my blogs also because all the stuff on the page is in Greek.

Sleeping in

View off my rooms deck.

I arrived at the hotel at about 7:45 am and checked in. I went to my room and put my stuff down then spent about 15 minutes figuring out the lighting system, you have to put you key card in a slot at the door to turn anything on in the room. I then decided to take a little nap before I get prepared for my presentation (since I hadn't really slept much for the last 30 or so hours). Well, I woke up at 4:00 pm (so much for alarms) and my presentation is at 5:40 pm. Rush to get dressed and go, I got to the Thraki Palace at about 4:45 pm and registered for the conference. I then made my way to the room I was presenting at. Anton (from Sandia) was very happy to see me and said that he was worried that I might not make it there. Anyway I had about 20 minutes to look over my presentation, then Anton gave his and I gave mine followed by one more lady from Purdue. We had about 15-20 in the audience, and I was asked about 3-4 questions on my presentation (Anton helped answer a few as he knew some of the details of the chip that testing was done on). That was it for the evening session of the conference. Now I am sitting in the Egnatia Grand waiting for a BBQ in 2 hours – I am considering going back over to my hotel to shower since I didn’t get time before the conference (so since Sunday morning) and I feel dirty.

So Far I am in Paris

Well here I sit in Paris, apparently a 50 minute layover is not enough to make a connection here. I got to the counter in time to see them closing the door to the plane out the window. There are 2 reasons I missed my flight. 1. We left Atlanta a little over an hour after we were supposed to and 2. The Paris airport is a. Huge, b. confusing, c. Lacks any real information desks, d. There are 3 parts--View the image below:
At the bottom is the overall map of the airport. I believe we landed in area 3, we unloaded out of the plane and onto the runway-thats right, not even into the building-then we crowded into buses which carried us over to 2. At this point you still have no real clue as to where your next flight leaves from, but its in 2 somewhere. The signs pointing everywhere don't really explain much, I literally ran to get to my gate, just to see my plane leave.

So now I go talk to the Air France people to see when I can get going again. At first she says she can't get me in until Tuesday night (my talk is on Tuesday at 5), but then she "forced" me onto a flight Monday evening. I should be in Athens by about 10 or 11 tonight. Then I have a 5:30 flight out to Alexanderopolis. By the way I also had to pay 20 Euros to get this internet to buy the 112 Euro plane ticket to get on path again. I hope I can get reimbursed for all this.

Thats all for now.

Auto-X II

Last weekend was the second auto-x for the T/A. Unfortunately none of the professional pics are online yet, but these are mine. The weather was very hot, but the turnout was still a little over 60 cars. That gave us enough time to get in 6 runs per car. I was again in the afternoon group (which I prefer anyway, cooler work time and the track gets cleaned in the morning). This auto-x marks the first time ever I have had an instructor ride with me (this is my 3rd auto-x as a novice). I had the instructor on the first run, which made me more nervous than usual. There was a gate at the end of the course that I missed on that run ( I think a pointer cone there would have been nice, these people here are fans of the pointer cones for some reason), so I ended up with a
1. DNF (62.394) I was taking it a little slow and let off when I didn't know where to go. Her (the instructors) advice to me was "hit the cones," referring to the gate (made up of 3 cones on that side). I see her point in that if there was an error I would have gotten a rerun, but oh well.

2. 60.322 After this run I decided to go get some gas, the car was cutting out a bit after the longer turns and the gauge had dropped 1/4 tank over the first 2 runs. I think I put in 7 gallons, bringing it around the 3/4 mark and allowing it to run good the rest of the day.

3. 59.172 This turned out to be my fastest of the day and I can't explain why I couldn't get close to it again. I added 45 lbs of fuel and Angela also rode with me, I will give her the credit for the fast run.

4. 60.023 Added a second??? I did have one rough turn during the run, but I didn't think it would be that bad. On the other had I got a standing ovation from all the other people there for my stop at the end of the run. This track had a stop box (new thing for me) and I went into it hard with all the tires locked, a few people whoo-hooood, I figured it was because I didn't take out the entire box like the RX-7 in the morning that went through it sideways. I thought for sure I took out at least 4 cone by the time I came to a stop, as they had disappeared under the nose of the car. I put it in reverse and backed up and everyone started cheering more?? Well apparently I had pushed several cones to nearly 90 degrees and then when I backed off, they all stood back up - no penalty...sweet!! Angela rode with me this time also.

5. 59.681 Yay, back in the 59s, but I was hoping for 58 something with this run with no passenger. Ah well.

6. 59.907 This was the last run, Angela rode with me again, it was a pretty good run I felt despite the time.

Well I still have yet to take out any cone with the car, I guess I am not pushing it hard enough. My time was good enough to beat 2 novice Miatas, and an 03 Mustang GT. If I had ran STU, I would have lost to the other two in the class (a 04 WRX STI and an 04 Evo).

Race stats:
Drivers:63 Runs:377 Average Lap: 57.755 Cones:118 DNFs:19
FTD: EM 53 David Seybold 06 Lotus StalkerV6, Black 49.658 Run 5

On the cars that were interesting or out of place note. There was a guy running a Crown Victoria with a best time of 59.838 which I thought was pretty good considering my times. There was a guy from a dealership that brought out a Solstice GXP, the lady he was with said that he was used ti driving front drive cars...and it showed with his last 2 runs having more than a 4 second variance, but it was a nice car. I think that is all for now...hopefully I will get some pictures up.

Denver Trip

Last weekend was a trip to Denver with Angela to go see one of her long time friends get married. We left early (~7:30) on Friday and arrived at our hotel at around 2:30 with only a stop for Dairy Queen along the way. We rested for a bit before heading out to a concert.

The concert was Blake Shelton at the Grizzly Rose. We were told to get there early because it would be a full house. Here is the schedule they had:
6:00 Doors open
8:00 Opening band
10:00 Blake Shelton

Well we arrived at about 5:20 with a few cars in the lot and a few people in line at the door. We sat in the car far a bit and walked to the door at around 5:45. Blake Shelton was there in the parking lot playing catch football with his setup crew and band. at 6 we went in and sat and ordered some food-which by the way I believe was directed toward the people that are to drunk to taste their food. They had music playing loudly and by 7 or 7:30 there were a bunch of line dancers out on the floor.

At 8 the opening band came out I think they were local, he sang most of the popular songs, although there were a few he should not have. At about 8:30 he started asking if everyone was ready for Blake between each song-this really started to piss me off after about the third or fourth time. His music resulted in a lot more line dancers, one of which was a goth girl. WTF??

So, finally at 10:00 Blake comes on. Mind you, we could have walked in at this point and been better of then we were, because now we were half deaf and tired. The crowd got larger-more line dancing-more other dancing-more women screaming at the front of the stage...Lets turn the sound up some more... We enjoyed the music and danced some (not line) and saw a women throw up on the edge of the dance floor. When we left ~11:30 both of us had ringing in our ears and were dead tired. -->hotel-->bed. I don't think we will be doing that again.

Saturday we got up-continental breakfast (quite a good one too)-took off to go visit Angela's Aunt and Uncle and cousins. We were there through lunch talking about all the goings on (she hadn't seen them in ~10 years). After that was a quick stop at the mall and then a rush to get ready for the wedding and get there on time-which we did.

It was at the Phipp's Mansion-very nice- that is owned by the University of Denver (?). It was a beautiful wedding.

The next morning we decided to leave early to go to Colorado Springs to do some sight seeing. We ended up going to the Miramont Castle. It was pretty cool, built in the late 1800's by a French Priest. The lady at the reception desk was all about the ghosts in the castle, apparently they appear in photos all the time as orbs (read: like lens flare (sp?)). I did have an orb in 2 photos, but not enough to make me believe anything (see to the left, center of picture).

After we were done at the castle it was food time. We went to a place called Old Chicago, it was a recommendation of one of the other wedding guests. We had some pepperoni rolls and split a calzone (it came as 2 smaller ones, but still plenty for each of us) and finished off with a giant cookie ala mode. It was a great meal, and the price was good too. We then headed home, and got back to Abq about 8:30 and returned our rental car and that was it.

By the way, Rental Car: 2007 Hyundai Elantra-Full power, Sunroof, CD, XM(no subscription of course), MP3 player and I-Pod port, Auto (will they ever rent a stick car here?), the best part was the trip average 38 mpg-given the car was no powerhouse, it had a low good starting first gear with a big jump to second that killed any acceleration you were doing. Anyway that was the trip, and the longest blog so far I think...there are still some pictures to come.