The Best Birthday Present, Ever.

I got the best birthday present ever a week or so ago, the fact that my birthday is in April not withstanding. It's a Flytech Dragonfly my brother sent me.

It's a radio controlled ornithopter, which means that it flies by flapping its wings in response to me pressing buttons on the controller. And man is it fun to make it fly! I've heard that R/C helicopters are pretty hard to control, but this guy flies pretty smoothly.

Here you can see me flying this baby around the courtyard of our apartment complex. It flies pretty well as long as the wind isn't too fast. The instructions say you shouldn't fly it in winds over 4mph, and they're right. It's optimal when the air is dead. The controls get pretty wild when the wind picks up, so for best performance fly it near sunrise or sunset when the wind is the calmest. You'll be glad you did. My first flight was in the middle of the day with a pretty gusty breeze. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed at first. But when the wind finally died down it was a totally different experience.

Oh yeah, keep it away from roofs, trees, water hazards, and cars—parked or otherwise. Yes I ran it into this truck. Fortunately car and dragonfly were both unharmed. It has survived them all (except the water hazards) and lived to fly again. So it's pretty robust. Any damage is easily repaired by a little tape.

After visiting RoboCommunity, I made a small modification to my dragonfly. I found it a little difficult to control, so I added a bigger tail stabilizer. Specifically, I took a regular 3x5 index card and cut it into shape. All of the scrap went into the head as a counter balance. I find that now it flies very well, if a bit slower, even in light wind. It's really cool to watch it hover when flying into a light breeze now. If you're a DIY type person, you can find lots of other hacks and mods for the dragonfly. Seems as if people get pretty crazy about this stuff.

One of the disappointing parts of the dragonfly is its short battery life. It only takes about 20 minutes to charge it up, but then it'll only last for about seven minutes of flight. On the dragonfly forums they say the green dragonfly lasts longer than the blue. And one guy discovered a longer lasting battery for the dragonfly by looking up the manufacturer's code on the original battery—after taking the whole thing apart. This is not a mode for the amateur, squarely ruling me out. Oh well, good things come in short packages.

Thanks Josh.

This weekend's accomplishments

Wow, I didn't really believe people when they said it was a lot of work to organize a wedding, but... well... it's a lot of work!

Kathy came to visit for 4 days this past week, I took Friday off, and we hauled ass around the East Side getting some wedding ducks in a row. Most importantly, we picked out my wedding dress (I don't know how I would have done it on my own, it's definitely helpful to have someone there with you, if only to strap you into the darn things! I don't think I tried on a single dress that I could have gotten into by myself). For the record, I highly recommend Knar's Bridal and Amanda's Bridal Boutique to anyone in the area looking for a reasonably-priced dress.

We also settled on wedding colors, ordered the flowers, contracted the DJ and the photographer (who sounds really cool, by the way; she's going to come out to photograph my roller derby squad sometime soon!), and planned out most of the ceremony and the music. Now Nick and I just have to decide on the cake (mmmmm, cake...) and write some vows, and we'll be done with the big stuff, I think. Oh yeah, and set up a registry. And get him a tux. Then we can get on to the little stuff. :-) Organizing this hullabaloo is like being an admin all over again! But I think it's going to be an awesome party... (I know I'm looking forward to it!)

Other action-packed weekend events included yoga class on Friday, a Rat City roller derby bout on Saturday (Best in the West, baby!), derby practice on Sunday evening, and me driving to and from the airport (~30 miles) 6 times (yuck).

...And a Happy New Year

When Nick first came out to intern in WA two years ago, he learned that he had a great-aunt and -uncle in the area whom he'd never met before. Since we moved out here, we've been fortunate to have been accepted into their family, and just spent a lovely evening yesterday celebrating Christmas with Marion, Lavone, and their children and grandchildren.

It's really nice to be able to have a family experience even when you thought you'd left your family far behind. I know it's not Thanksgiving right now, but I'm thankful that everyone's been so welcoming to us! And also thankful for those famous homemade rolls. :)