Should it bother me that it is 1am and I am A) still awake and 2) still unsure if I really want to drive to Rochester tomorrow for this weekends party?  I think so.

Obviously I want to see everyone at the party party, but I just got back from LA, which I went to after just getting back from NJ for xmas, and the prospect of putting another 800 miles on Hawkeye flying solo doesn’t sound terribly appealing..  Then again, I haven’t seen many of the Rochester peeps in quite awhile, so it’d be nice to see them again.  I think this decision would be made much easier if I had someone to be a co-pilot.  doesn’t feel up to the trip, which is another reason not to go (as I haven’t spent much time with her of late due to my travel).

The power of Nick’s is compelling, but it is difficult to override the power of the girlfriend.  :)

Saturday, and I dicked around in Palmdale, killing time (and screwing up rental cars) on Saturday, playing Burnout 3, until it was time to go meet up with in Manhattan Beach… We jumped in the (new) rental and drove down just past LA to Manhattan Beach. We had to park ridiculously far from AJs place, but we eventually got to his apartment. We immediately turned around and went to his favorite local bar for some imbibing. We set up shop by one of the pool tables, and started playing 8-ball… At some point, AJ called one of the girls in the place a “typical west-coast girl” (something he apparently has a penchant for doing). Anyway, this girl turned around after awhile and threw a few of her male friends (only one of which was at all intimidating) at AJ… It took awhile for all involved to defuse that situation, especially since we were all completely shitfaced, but no blows were thrown… I might have been shoved at some point, though, because I had a strange pain on my ribcage the next day.. Anyway, the drinking resumed until the bar closed and we returned to AJs (I passed out quickly)..

Matt and I were on wingman detail for AJ, which hopefully worked out well for him… His apartment is simply amazing… No two ways about it, there is something to be said about waking up on Sunday after a night of heavy drinking, without a hangover, and walking out on to the balcony and gazing at the beach and the Pacific… I don’t think I could live without a winter, but if I ever could afford two places….

Here are some pictures I took in Palmdale… I meant to bring my real camera, but forgot it, so these were taken with my hiptop 2…

The A-12 was a proof-of-concept of the SR-71.

The SR-71 is simply gigantic… I always expected it to be big, but it is really, really big.

Matt and I in front of the U-2, which is much, much, smaller than I expected.. I think my dad summed it up best when he called it a glider with a jet engine. If you had the chance to see it take off, you’d agree.

Our flight test scheduled for this week was cancelled, so we ended up returning today instead of Friday.  I didn’t mention this to , so she was rather surprised a few minutes ago… :)  It has been a long day…  I thought I had posted a bunch of pics from my phone but I guess they didn’t make it to LJ, so I will give that another try.  I came back to my Limited Edition “Twisp & Catsby” Print from Penny Arcade…  I guess I should have actually READ the description of what I bought, because it is MUCH bigger than I expected… :)  Not that this is a bad thing, it was a nice surprise… :)

I will be back with some more update posts, including a recap of our weekend misadventures with .

Going to be in California (or, as the new governor says, Kulheefourneyah) for 11 days…  My flight is at 8:30a tomorrow, which means I have to get up at like 6 to leave myself enough time to get to the airport and get to the gate.  and I are making the trip out to Palmdale for some business, but hopefully it will be a fun trip as well.  I think I am going to stick to Phonepost (voice posts) to this journal while I am traveling…

Hey, guys, Sorry about omitting the Civil Rights Movement. My bad.