We got done moving me up to LA. All my stuff that isn’t going to China is in storage and everything else is here in Santa Monica. My parents were a great help and made the day a pain instead of utter hell. I woke up at 530am, showered, drove to the airport, got weather, preflighted, pulled the plane out, and took off at 7am with Kevin Lovell for Santa Monica (KSMO). The weather was IFR so we punched through a small cloud layer to sunny skies on top. At Santa Monica, there was another low cloud layer and we shot the full VOR-A approach landing just before 8am. Kevin got his first real taste of IFR flying and loved it. We pulled up to the typhoon restaurant and picked up my dad (who was waiting) without ever stopping the engine. As Kevin taxied back to the runway, I got an IFR clearance home and we took right off. We landed back in San Diego (KMYF) just after 9am, put the plane away, and took off around 930am.

It was then back to the apartment. While we were flying, my mom picked up a U-Haul that was waiting for us when we got back. We loaded everything into the truck, loaded my car, and finished cleaning the apartment. My dad took off in the u-haul for LA, my mom dropped me off at the airport and I flew the Mooney up to LA while she drove my car.

In Santa Monica, we unloaded my car at dad’s house and got everything out of the truck that wasn’t going to storage. We then headed over to the storage unit (which just happened to be the perfect size) and loaded it up, and finally returned to my dad’s house around 8pm for pizza and much needed sleep.

The next day, we returned the U-Haul around 8am, then the limo came to the house at 9am to pick dad, my step mom Krista, my 3 month old brother Michael, and the nanny Ginger up for Vegas. Here is a picture of my dad loading their HEAP of luggage into their limo:

They of course were running late and didn’t depart until I did at around 11am. I headed down to Supermarine, preflighted the plane, and took off from Santa Monica for North Las Vegas (VGT). There was a slight marine layer so I picked up an IFR clearance and punched through the clouds to sunny skies on top and started my climb to 11,500 feet. During climb, my first failure of the day occurred. My iPod died and despite my best efforts, failed to restart. DOH!

The flight was great….beautiful clear skies, no turbulence, and almost no traffic the entire away. I landed in Las Vegas and the Rio had a limo waiting for me on the tarmac to take me to the hotel. This was really good because my cell phone had died–failure number 2 of the day. I quickly put the plane to bed and hopped in the limo as it was 100000 degrees on the ramp. When I got to the palazzo, Paul and Lee were already there, with about 14 tons of booze for the draft. For those of you that don’t know, this was the weekend of my dad’s fantasy football draft–aka 12 out of shape brokers drinking, smoking cigars, and picking some of the most finely tuned athletes for their fantasy teams. The three of us had lunch, and played some black jack while we waited for my dad to show up. Their limo finally arrived 3 hours later (god I love being able to fly my own plane ):

They unloaded their stuff into their room and the baby/nanny room and we hit the craps tables after a few pictures in our palazzo:

We had a good little session and everyone was up when we came back to the room for the order selection. All the brokers took turns picking from 12 cards labeled 1 through 12 to determine the draft order. We had s0me drinks and antipasti in the room and then a group of us headed down to Antonio’s–an Italian restaurant at the Rio. There were about 10 of us so we got our own room. I ordered the wine for the table (like usual)–a nice pinot noir followed by one of my favorite Brunello di Montalcinos. For dinner, I had an insalata caprese (mozzarella, tomato, and basil salad) followed by a vitello pizzaiollo (breaded veal over angel hear under melted mozzarella and tomato sauce). The dinner went well, but the craps session afterwards was HORRIFIC. We lost a ton before we went back to the room to meet my sister Rachel and her boyfriend Scott who got in late from Chicago (around 1130pm). Due to the big loss, we decided to call it an early night.

The next day was rather sedate. We had a family breakfast down at the cafe. Then I had a 90 minute massage followed by a steam / jacuzzi in the spa. I returned to the suite to find the guys into the draft big time. Pizza / drinks at the draft for a few hours. Then a short quick losing craps session followed by dinner at Antonio’s (again) with the family, my dad’s new partner Ron, and his wife. I had the same Brunello, another caprese, and a plate of hot antipasti. Afterwards, we got killed again at craps, dad and Krista went home, and Rachel, Scott, and I went across the street to play some low-limit black jack since Rachel really didn’t know how to play. We got cleaned out at black jack and went to bed.

Sunday morning we ordered a great breakfast into the room with the family, Ron, and his wife. We then took some photos in the suite of my 3 month old brother Mikey and us:
Michael, Rachel, and Me:

Michael smiling:

We then went for a quick swim in our private pool and had room service bring us lunch poolside:

Then it was off to a concert. Our neighbor across the street, Gordon Devol, is a singer. Music runs in the family and his sister, Luana DeVol, is a world famous opera singer. Every year, their family has a concert where everyone eats, drinks, and performs for fun. We were lucky enough to be invited. The singing was amazing and the atmosphere was unmatched. Even dad, Krista, and Rachel all took turns playing the piano. Here is a cute picture of Mikey and Krista in the elevator on the way to the limo:

After dinner, we went to Caesar’s Palace where there are more craps tables so that we could all play together undisturbed. We had a terrible session and were almost bust until Rachel took hold of the dice and threw them for about 30 minutes and brought us WAY up. The cool thing was that she was throwing a TON of doubles and all our hardway bets were paying off . Typical virgin-shooter luck I guess

When we got back from Caesars, the adults went to bed and we headed up to the 51st floor of the Rio to see the strip from the voodoo lounge. The view was awesome, but we didn’t stay long and went back to the room to watch DVDs.

Monday morning, we did breakfast in the room again before Rachel and Scott had to leave. Afterwards, Dad, Krista, and I decided to take Mikey in the pool for a quick swim:

Afterwards, they wanted to leave before 11am, but didn’t get on the road until 2pm. I had a nice long shower, lunch in the room, and then left at 215pm. The flight home was great. When I got to Santa Monica, supermarine was PACKED! There were more jets there than I have ever seen….guess the holiday weekend really jams it up. I finally parked the plane and got my car and was home around 5pm. The limo hit traffic BIG TIME and didn’t get back till nearly 10pm! (once again….I LOVE FLYING MY OWN PLANE!!!!!!)

Tuesday, I woke up VERY sick. I guess 4 days in smokey Las Vegas, drinking tons and not sleeping will do it. The crappy thing is that I NEED to study for the LSAT. I have been sick for the last few days and keep hoping that I will wake up better and can get back to studying

Until then,
I’ll be in bed

It is nice seeing my mom again. I see her only a few times a year now that she has moved to Boulder, Colorado. It is funny to see how much I am similar to her and how different I can be. We definitely do not see eye to eye on many things……while on others our we are exactly the same

Anyway….looking back I found some cool photos that should make you laugh. The first few are from when I was 18 and first moved to San Diego (My first time living away from home). I decided I wanted to do it all on my own and came down to UCSD not knowing anyone and without my parents. It was very strange the first few days and I was really worried that I had made the wrong decision…..but in no time I made some amazing friends and eventually had one of the best years of my life (if not the best).

Me on my first day moving into my dorm room at UCSD (September 2000):

Me and my buddies freshman year raising hell like usual. It is scary how different almost everyone in this picture is now (Me, Meg, Tyler, Drew, Krista, big Mike, and Justin) (Still late 2000):

Some of the crew from E House – John Muir College, UCSD, 200(Tyler, Pauline, Me, Po-Kang, Gitish, and Krista’s hand):

Me and my dad (who has changed a TON) at a laker game in 2002 (When they were still good):

Anyway…..hope I amused you all….back to getting settled here in LA….I leave for Vegas early domani mattina

I did a practice LSAT this morning and have been packing up my apartment all afternoon. My Mom gets here tomorrow and then I head up to LA Thursday, Vegas Friday

Just after lift-off:

Me geeking the camera on take-off:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Going around:

Coming in for a fly-by:

Up close and personal:

Going around:

On every trip around the pattern, Kevin would let me know how much time he needed to change lenses, change filters, reposition, etc. and I would adjust my pattern to give him sufficient time. Then on the 4th trip around the pattern, I don’t hear his usual radio call, just “Andy, I have to go.” I think to myself “Huh!?!?!” We flew in together….and you have the whole afternoon off….what do you mean “I have to go?”

Well….I look down and there is a police truck with the lights flashing and Kevin is being dragged away in the back. I start to get very worried and try to decide what to do. I don’t want to get in trouble by landing and possible having them take down my tail number or start hassling me about how I was flying. But there is now way I can leave Kevin there alone….so I land and try to figure out what is going on. I see the truck pull up to a bungalow up on the top of the hill on the east side of the runway. The guy gets out of the truck and starts talking to Kevin outside. Luckily it was just some rent-a-cop security guard and he let Kevin go after a stern talking to.

Needless to say, we left immediately and decided to head home. We hadn’t satisfied our photo craving yet though, so we were scheming on where we could take some more photos. Usually, an airplane would be a great photo platform as you get great views of the ground below. My Mooney, however, isn’t the best for taking pictures. The problem is that you really need an open window to take the pictures out of so that you don’t get reflections off the glass and the camera doesn’t have focusing problems. In the Mooney, there is only a tiny pilot’s side window. When we saw some hot air balloons, however, we decided to try and shoot of the little thing:

It worked decently and before we knew it, we were photographing everything. Here is Del Mar race track:

Geisel Library and UCSD:

Muir college / my dorm from first year / my apartment from second year:

Marigold area / my hanger at KMYF:

We finally landed at KMYF and stopped at the gas pump to fill up. The sun was just setting and it seemed like another great opportunity to take some artsy photos of my plane and some photos of me in front of it

Setting sun and the Mooney:

The Mooney on a golden ramp:

Me and my baby:

I love my baby….we get along soooo well:

Mooney and me:

You can see all the photos we took in the gallery below. I have high resolution versions of all the pictures so just email me if you want one.
Low-res gallery

After we got done putting the plane away, cleaning it, downloading the pictures, burning them to CD, and closing up the hanger, I got a quick bite to eat at CPK. My buddy Marco from Potenza, Italy called me and invited me to go bar hopping in the gaslamp (downtown San Diego) as it was his girlfriend’s last night here in the states before returning to Italy. We spent a while drinking, socializing, and dancing…….I spoke almost exclusively in Italian and convinced two Sicilian girls that I was an Italian, and then came home wayyyyyy too late. Good times

August 30th – My mom comes to San Diego
September 1st – Move from San Diego to Los Angeles
September 2nd – Vegas with my Dad, step mom, and Sister (Flying in my Mooney from Santa Monica to North Las Vegas)
September 5th – Fly back to Santa Monica in the Mooney (possibly fly back on the 4th)
***Every hour until the 1st – Studying for the LSAT
October 1st – LSAT (law school entrance exam)
***Every hour until the 17th – Studying for the GMAT
October 17th – GMAT (business school entrance exam)
October 18th – Crazy packing / tying up loose ends
October 19th – Leave for China

Lots to do ….little time ….China soon

While studying at UCSD, I decided to study abroad. In June 2004, I moved to Siena, Italy for 6 months to learn Italian. I became fluent in Italian and had the time of my life. I had never thought that I would be able to learn another language, but I did and was blown away by it. Being able to listen to Italian music, watch Italian movies, order off menus in Italian, and understand perfectly when other Italians speak is AMAZING.

In June 2005, I graduated from UCSD (Summa cum laude, phi beta kappa, tau beta pi, gold key… ). I decided to go to graduate school and get a JD/MBA (business and law degrees), but due to the great experience I had in Italy, I wanted to take a year off and learn another language first. I decided on Chinese (Mandarin) because:

1. It is the most spoken language in the world
2. China is becoming (if it isn’t already) the most powerful economic force in the world
3. It is the farthest language from English and now would be the best time to try and learn it since I don’t have a job or a family and can just move to China
4. I find the culture to be interesting and exciting
5. I really like Chinese food

Thus I will be leaving for China October 19th, 2005 and staying until graduate school starts in late 2006. I will be studying mandarin in a city called Shijiazhuang (I don’t even know how to correctly pronounce that name) that is about 200 miles south of Beijing. The program I will be in is the Konall school. My only goal is to get decent at Chinese by the time I return to the US. Until then…..

Chinese Chinese Chinese!!!!!