Woke up a lil' after 10:00 A.M.

And I'm not goin' to lie...the day after passing a check-ride (especially the Instrument!) feels just as good.  It's nice to wake up and not have that approaching test/study/check-ride feeling!  Enjoy it while it lasts, I guess!  I've still got plenty of more tests and rides to take!

I used today to take care of some stuff that I've been puttin' off for some time...responded to a lot of e-mails, made some necessary phone calls, and ran some errands.  I spent over an hour runnin' around pricin' brakes for my car.  Turns out I need some brakes...bad!  A couple of days ago my rear right pad completely disappeared (or so it sounds!).  It's a horrendous grinding sound when I brake now...most likely right on the rotor.  Not good.  I try to coast to a stop to prevent more damage to the rotor!

The expense?  Anywhere from $250.00 (personal guy's shop) to $311.00 (the shop I went to before) to $500.00 (car dealership).  No joke.  All for the same service.  Just doesn't make sense...

Well, I came back to the airport and asked one of the guys in the shop...and he said he would be more than happy to do it.  Would probably cost me about $40.00, though.  ha.  Um, yeah, about that.  I had my pads ordered from Napa already...

All in all, just a relaxing but necessary day of tyin' up loose ends.  Venkat and Van flew most of the day...over 7 hours!!!  At one point, they landed for a lil' break, and about three minutes later, it started hailing.  True story.  Nothin' big...smaller than peas, but it's hail, and you don't want that!  The storm lasted all of about 15 minutes, then it was gone...but the trends were pretty sweet.  Winds out of the north/north-east, -15 degrees Celsius at 12,000 feet...all that good stuff.  Makes for some fun storms!

Went out with Jarryd this evening to watch the NCAA Championship game...headed out to a pool hall.  And there's some great news there!  I received a phone call from him in the middle of the afternoon tellin' me that he is now a Multi-Engine Commercial Pilot!  Nice!  His check-ride was this afternoon.  How exciting is that?!  (insert the word "very" here).

At the pool hall, I learned how to play the longest pool game ever invented...Snooker.  More or less, you find the largest pool table ever made, throw about 20 balls on it, hit some balls in, pull those balls back out, hit some more in, pull 'em out, then hit some more in, then keep 'em in.  Yup, that about covers it.  I think our game lasted 70 minutes.  yikes!  Pretty fun game, though.  The tables can turn quickly...it's a point-based game.  Watched the crazy basketball game...and if I was in Illinois, it would've been fun to watch.  But Kansas made it all the better.  Fans watchin' their team slip away...then make ridiculous shots with time quickly runnin' out.  Then dominating in over-time.  It was pretty fun to watch the fans, for sure.  People are crazy.

Came back to the airport and headed for bed at 11:30 P.M.  I was pretty tired.