March 2005 Archives

Melanie has written a funny post entitled "Things about living in Texas that no longer seem weird to me." It's good. And true.

So they didn't wax the office floor last night (see previous Swiffer-related post) despite the fact that I saw them in the building as I left; instead, they are going to wax tonight. Great. Now my floor has a whole day to re-gather all the nastiness that abounds in this area. Dust, dirt, hair, unidentifiable gunk. Maybe it's good that we're not spending much money on cleaning services, maybe it means that we're spending more money on, you know, flying into space. But I still wish I had a clear floor.

I had a bit of a hectic evening last night, throwing together a quick suitcase, setting up my photoblog to go on autopilot for a few days, digging a few things out of storage deep in my closet, running a last minute errand, and trying to get through my typical and expected but somehow unavoidable pre-travel freakout. I did manage to keep one eye on the TV while the US-Guatemala World Cup qualifier was on. The US won fairly easily by a score a 2-0 and is in 2nd place in CONCACAF, a point behind Mexico. No more qualifying matches 'till June...

I am headed to Seattle from tonight until Sunday evening. I find it funny that after almost 27 years without ever having visited the Pacific Northwest, I will be in that at least three times this year: our recent Vancouver trip, this weekend, and our late summer camping trip to Rainier and Olympic National Parks.

It's just a little thing, seen only by those who care about the local running scene, but I doubt I'll get tired of seeing it: for the time being, the On The Run Racing Team webpage has a photo that I shot on the top of their announcements page.

I think I'm gonna like this race photography thing.

I just spent 10 minutes pre-cleaning my office floor. Yes, pre-cleaning. They are scheduled to wax the floors tonight after everyone is gone. One would expect this to mean that they will clean the floors and then wax, but based on the countless years of nastiness currently sealed into the floor, I have my doubts.

So I just Swiffer wet-mopped my office. After two and a half pads, I ran out of cleaning fluid.

Sigh.

Life goes on, ho hum, ho hum.

I go through distinct cycles at work where I am either extremely frustrated or feeling really positive about my projects. Yesterday spiralled down into frustration at the end of the day. One of my projects involves working with data and code that we at JSC do not control, and therefore it's difficult for me to get anything done in 1) a timely manner and 2) to a point where I actually have a solid understanding of what I'm doing. I just feel like I'm groping in the dark hoping that the numbers I churn out look ok in the end.

Last night after leaving work frustrated, I ran a few errands and parked my butt on the couch for three hours of TV. American Idol was less than stellar last night, and Paula Abdul must have been smoking something to think that Scott was singing in tune. He wasn't. He was the worst last night. Constantine was actually decent for once.

Amazing Race was entertaining, with the team I liked least -- Ray and Deana -- getting the boot for coming in last (despite finishing first the previous leg). Ray was really annoying with all his "I can't stand being last" and "the old people are dead weight, they need to go" comments. The old couple is actually pretty impressive in the way they keep sneaking through. Anyway, at this point I think I'm rooting for either the brothers or Uchenna and Joyce, the couple from Houston. The whole concept of the show is just intriguing to me, and it's interesting to watch how the different teams react to different things. Teams get so disappointed when they have to wait for opening hours, plane flights, etc that allows other teams to catch up to them, and yet by this point, you'd think they'd realize that the race is designed such that no team can ever truly pull away. It's designed to keep them close, so that you can never relax, and constantly have to be racing. Or, alternatively, you can choose to stress a little less knowing that you will likely make up some time somewhere. Lots of strategy involved.

This kind of thing always worries me a bit -- a biker killed when hit by a car as she was stopped along the side of the road. While it really adds emphasis to the notion that bikers should pull well off the road when stopped, the scary part to me is that the driver (who is suspected to have been drunk) swerved toward her.

I take the proper safety precautions when I go biking. I always wear a helmet, I ride with traffic, I signal turns and slowing, and I pick less-traveled roads with wide shoulders and slower traffic when possible. And yet there's nothing I can do to control crazy drivers.

When I went riding two days ago I was cruising solo down Port Road, a fairly empty road deep in Seabrook, or maybe Shoreacres. Not much around but refinies and chemical plants, and not much traffic on a weekend. I looked up ahead and saw a white pickup truck pulling a trailer coming towards me in the other lane. Oncoming traffic -- no big deal, right? So imagine my surprise and moment of outright fear when, with about 600-700 feet to go between us, he moved from his lane into my lane. On this long empty road with no other traffic in sight and no apparent reason for doing so, he moved from his lane into my lane.

I was already preparing to jump off my bike at 20+ mph and dive into the grass on the side of the road, figuring that although I'd probably end up with a broken bone or sprained joint, it was better than the alternative, when he moved back into his lane as quickly as he'd left it. He was probably in my lane for no more than 2 seconds, but that was enough time for me to panic. He zoomed past me, with my already tired legs shaking that much more.

I just wonder why? WHY?? Why would you intentionally do that? Is it fun? Do you get some sort of thrill out of it, knowing that you're in some sort of position of power? Why would you intentionally move into the other lane, knowing full well that the biker heading towards you will experience a moment of terror with the realization that they have absolutely no chance of avoiding serious injury or worse if hit by a car going 50 mph??

It'd been a long time since I was as livid as I was for the five minutes after I thought I was about to end up in the hospital.

Not everyone will understand why I find this so awesome, but those who will just need to hear CRAZY NASA ANIMALS!!

Sometimes I think I'm down on NASA, and then I get a random email that doesn't even really relate to what I'm working on, and yet it totally makes my morning.

Discovery rolled out of the OPF at 1:30 a.m. today. For the first time in more than two years, a shuttle is on its way to the VAB...and the launch pad beyond.

Like the random sign on Egret Bay Blvd says: "FLY NASA FLY!"

My second 2005 fantasy baseball team (NL only):

Offense
C - Mike Lieberthal
1B - Jim Thome
2B - Chris Burke
3B - Scott Rolen
SS - Kaz Matsui
MI - Placido Polanco
CI - Sean Burroughs
OF - Carlos Lee
OF - Raul Mondesi
OF - Jason Lane
OF - Juan Encarnacion
Util - Jeff Conine

Pitching
SP - Carlos Zambrano
SP - Jake Peavy
SP - Andy Pettitte
SP - Brad Penny
SP - Luke Hudson
SP - Cory Lidle
RP - Eric Gagne
RP - LaTroy Hawkins
RP - Juan Valverde
RP - Antonio Alfonseca

Reserves
C - Damien Miller
2B - Desi Relaford
SS - Cristian Guzman
OF - Barry Bonds (drafted in the 13th round; hope he heals quickly)
OF - Marlon Byrd
OF - Jason Michaels
SP - Edwin Jackson
RP - Julian Tavarez
RP - Matt Herges
RP - Chris Reitsma

Somehow I'm still winning my March Madness pool, by 30 points. But I only have 120 possible points left, while others close behind me have 400 possible. To win, I need Illinois to lose (and not make the final). I think I'd also need Carolina to make the final game, but lose. I don't really want them to lose though. It's funny to see that if I'd just picked Carolina to win it all instead of Georgia Tech (which I knew wouldn't happen), I might win the pool. I don't think I've ever been anywhere close to winning an NCAA pool.

I had a nice weekend that was both busy and relaxing, an odd combination lately in my life. I had a lovely 27th birthday filled with a 5K, soccer practice, watching basketball, and eating at the Cheesecake Factory. Yesterday I celebrated Easter by sleeping in for the first time in what feels like years, went on a good bike ride, watched the US-Mexico soccer game, watched Carolina advance to the Final Four, and then went downtown to see The King and I.

Tonight I'm drafting my fantasy baseball team for my work league. We have been arguing for weeks over the configuration. Previously, we have drafted 40 players, and played 25. Also keep in mind that there are 9 teams, drafting these 40 players each, and drafting from only the National League. I personally think this is INSANE. It's not challenging; it's masochistic. I'm all for reducing the league to make it similar to my other league: 18 active players, roster of 24. But there are some who are adamant about having to draft a bunch of crappy catchers and utility infielders. UGH.

In any case, I think a compromise has been reached: 22 active players, roster of 32. (This reduces the draft by 8 previously-excruciating rounds.) We can get 13 free agents (formerly 10) over the course of the season, for a total roster limit of 45 (formerly 50). I don't really care about the specifics, oddly. I just wanted to do anything that would shorten the draft. I like baseball and all, but a 5+ hour draft drives me batty.

I've been running, biking, playing soccer, climbing, and engaging in all sorts of athletic pursuits on a regular basis for about three years now, and I'd never really experienced the "jelly legs" phenomenon. Until yesterday.

I had planned to do a 40-mile bike ride as part of my last-ditch efforts to get at least somewhat ready for the MS150, but I woke up to overcast skies, chilly weather, and tons of wind. I put off riding until about 4:00, at which point I realized that it wasn't going to warm up, the wind wasn't going to die down, and that if I didn't go for at least some sort of ride, then I would be totally shooting myself in the foot.

So out I went. Part of my hesitation in the morning was that I don't have long sleeve bike jerseys or long bike pants, and riding in mid-50s weather would be pretty chilly! I solved that problem by wearing a long sleeve shirt underneath a short sleeve top, and running tights underneath my bike shorts.

The wind was something I couldn't solve. It was so windy. It was so windy that there were a couple times I thought I might get blown off the road. So windy that the trees were swaying heavily. So windy that when I went over the Kemah Bridge twice, I coasted down one side at almost 40 mph feathering my brakes to keep from going any faster, and then coasted down on the return trip at 15 mph. On any normal, calm day it would be impossible to coast down that bridge at less than 30 mph, and yesterday the wind slowed me down to 15.

That is windy.

I ended up riding 25 miles, and it was a struggle. There were a couple times when, with the wind at my back, I cruised along at 25 mph on flat ground; that's pretty fast for me. But then coming home along NASA Road 1, it was all I could do to maintain 12 mph.

When I got home, I walked up the stairs to my apartment so that I could hit the garage opener and put my bike away. Walking up the stairs was fine, but when I started to go back down, strange things happened. I took one step. Hmm, that felt weird. I took another step. Whoa, what's wrong with my legs? I took a third step. Help!! I had to clutch the railing as my leg threatened to just crumple underneath me. They felt all rubbery, and sort of numb, and I went down the rest of the stairs very, very carefully.

I thought I'd had tired legs before, but it turns out that I'd never truly experienced jelly legs until yesterday.

Happy Birthday to me!

It only seemed fitting to go out and run a local 5K to celebrate turning 27, so I did the Resurrection Run over in Nassau Bay this morning. It went so-so. I finished in 33:24 (10:46 miles) which isn't bad, but isn't great. My knee hurt from the beginning, though the ache lessened as the race went on. I think it may be time to go see a doctor about it. I think I've mentioned this before... It doesn't affect me greatly, but it's had a fairly constant ache since sometime last fall in the middle of marathon training.

Afterwards, I met Gavin at Challenger Park to give our Yuri's Night 5K course a once-over. Looks good at the moment, a couple wet but avoidable spots. Here's hoping for a dry couple weeks! The race is April 9.

Now I'm off to soccer practice, followed by a birthday bath with the stuff I bought from that Lush store in Whistler. Then a lazy afternoon capped with a trip to the Cheesecake Factory tonight! Mmm.

Buzz and Ron have been throwing in some speedwork on Thursday, so I decided to join them yesterday for the first time, along with Gavin and Jeremy. The trail out at the Gilruth Center here at work is marked every quarter-mile and has one particularly straight section between the 1 and 1 1/4 markers that's good for speedwork. We ran out to the 1 1/2 mark and then back to 1 for a two mile warmup at ~11:00 pace, then everyone split off to do 400 repeats. I ran from the 1 to 1 1/4 markers, then walked back. Everyone else was jogging the recovery stretch, but I decided I'd rather work up to that point.

I can run at pretty decent speed over short stretches, but I'm not actually very good at judging my pace. I did ok yesterday, doing 4x400 repeats in 2:08, 2:00, 1:56, and 2:05. After each, I walked back the 400 meters at a brisk pace such that each set of speed/recovery lasted 6 minutes -- ~2 minutes running, ~4 minutes walking recovery. For the last repeat I ran from 1 to 3/4 markers and then slowly jogged the 3/4 mile back to the parking lot.

All in all, the workout felt pretty good. Total distance covered including warmup, speed/recovery bits, and cooldown jog was 4.5 miles in just under an hour. Next week I'd like to up the count to 5 repeats. As long as I walk the recovery portion, I feel like I could do a lot more repeats; walking for 400 meters is plenty of time for my heart rate to drop by ~40 bpm and get back to a normal breathing/talking pattern. So in two weeks I'll start jogging recovery instead of walking.

The thought also occurred to me that 400 meter repeats, because they're not done at a full sprint but rather at just below that, are probably great soccer training as well. I find that my performance during a soccer game is directly to related to how "in soccer shape" I am, which is basically how quickly I can recover after having almost sprinted down the field or been juking back and forth defending someone. The quicker I can recover, the quicker I can be ready to get back into position and defend again.

I haven't really done any research on what type of speed workout is best for what I want to accomplish, so I should do that. I think my next goal is to run a sub-hour 10K. I've only done a sub-30:00 5K a couple times, and so the sub-hour 10K will be a significant challenge. I don't know how possible it is without some serious training time, so it may be a goal that I have to put off until next fall/winter, but we'll see.

Becca wrote a great little paragraph yesterday summarizing the answers to questions she's received about the BP plant explosion in Texas City, about 10 miles southeast of us. "No, we didn't hear or feel the explosion. Yes, it's tragic. Yes, chemical plants explode/catch fire/spill things on a fairly regular basis. No, they normally don't kill people." That kind of thing.

Should I be worried that no one in my family called to ask me about it? I'm thinking probably not, but it amused me. Becca's family is amusing. :)

Jo and I just saved a turtle! We think. We found a very tiny (make a circle with your thumb and index finger -- that tiny) turtle over by the parking lot, so we took him the 300 feet back to the pond. There are a zillion turtles in the pond, as well as ducks and ducklings and some ginormous (gigantic + enormous) fish. We put him in the water and watched him swim around a bit and then hide in some leaves. He came up for air again, and was approached by one of the ginormous fish. Jo and I both went "eek!" and stepped back in fear. Fortunately, Tiny swam away and the fish didn't eat him. Here's hoping he survives to be a big turtle.

I've also been toying with the idea of getting a dog lately. Specifically, a chihuahua. I went through a cat phase a while back but decided against it because 1) people are allergic and 2) cats are sort of boring. Lately I have been in love with the idea of a chihuahua after playing a few times with the one a girl on my soccer team has, and seeing lots of cute chihuahua pictures. I think I could have a lot of fun with a chihuahua. I do tend to be drawn to funny looking (in a cute way) animals...

Comments welcome. :)

I dragged myself off the couch last night to go swimming with Buzz and Jen. The heater in my apartment complex's lap pool has been broken for more than a month now, and despite all the recent sunny weather, the water was chilly. Jen and I got in slowly, and with the water at my waist I finally took the final plunge.

For some reason, swimming was tough last night. In my first few laps, I found myself gasping for air. I think it was because I was swimming feverishly in an attempt to warm up in the cold water, but it was different nonetheless. My breathing calmed down after a while, but overall my time in the pool was much harder than normal. I'm going to chalk it up to just being tired.

I was only going to do 20 laps but Buzz and Jen were still swimming when I finished my 20, so I just kept going until they were done. I ended up doing 27 laps (32 laps is ~1 mile). Not too bad.

(For reference, I count one lap as down and back, a complete "circuit" of the pool. Just going to the other end is a length.)

I have two different "patterns" I use while swimming. The first is to swim in sets of 6 laps/12 lengths: 5 lengths of freestyle, 1 length of breaststroke, 4 lengths of freestyle, 2 lengths of breaststroke. I rest for a minute or two at the end of each set, then do another. The second pattern is sets of 10 laps/20 lengths: 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 length of freestyle, each followed by 1 length of breaststroke.

I did the second pattern last night (I just stopped the third set early); I tend to follow the second pattern on nights when I'm tired, since it offers more breaststroking lengths and breaststroke is something I could do for hours. To make up for the ease factor of additional breaststroke lengths, I try to swim progressively faster as the number of freestyle lengths decreases.

Oh -- the other thing to mention is that the lap pool is so far over-chemicalled (is that a word?) that it's not even funny. After getting out of the pool, my lips and tongue burned, and I can still smell chlorine a bit in my hair today after three shampoos.

I mentioned that on Sunday we went to the local community theater to see Jason, Paul, Curt and Michelle act in a Woody Allen script called "Don't Drink the Water." What I didn't mention is the horrible moment that occurred afterwards.

Imagine this: in one of the final scenes in the play, your friend Jason has to run around stage in his boxer shorts (with little hearts on them) and a straitjacket. When the play ends, he's taken off the straitjacket but is still in his boxers. Then he walks out into the lobby to greet the audience, still dressed like that.

You would want to get a photo, right?

I pulled my camera out of my purse, slid back the lens cover, and fired, but...nothing. Nothing? I glanced at the screen and was horrified to find out that I'd left all my flash cards, which I'd taken out as backup for my race photography that morning, in my big camera bag! Drat! So I went for my camera phone, but...I'd accidentally left my camera at home!!

For the first time in months, I found myself without any cameras on me. For someone who usually has two, if not three, with her at any given time, it was quite a shock. I felt naked.

Fortunately, Karen saved the day:

(That's Paul and Curt on top, Jason and Michelle on the couch.)

Here's a more complete article about shuttle public risk from Florida Today. I'm repeatedly impressed with Florida Today and their ability to cover the entire story accurately, instead of the bit of sensationalism that other publications seem to do.

Now that Karen is on her way back to Atlanta, maybe I'll get back to having some quiet evenings sitting comfortably on my couch. Monday we went to the Galleria. Last night we went to Mi Luna for sangria and tapas. Perhaps tonight I'll get home before 9:30 or 10:00! (Yes, getting home past that is late for me for a weeknight. I am getting so old.) The quiet evenings won't start this week though. I've got a bike safety class and swimming tonight, and softball tomorrow night. Nothing Friday though. Hooray for Friday.

Side note: do you know how hard I have to concentrate each time I go to link to Karen's blog? Throughtheconstructionzone.com. I always spell it wrong at least once.

After dinner last night we went next door to browse at Urban Outfitters, where I found an $8 action figure of...Jesus. There were so many possibilities there that I just couldn't resist. I mean, come on, he has posable arms and "gliding action!" So this morning I stuck him on Jo's desk with a note saying "Get back to work! Slackers are sinners!" and then she and I later moved him to Nick's office where he declared "Watch your back."

We really do complete actual work here. Really.

No, really.

It's absolutely gorgeous outside today, and has been for the past few. Houston in March is what I think of when I suffer through July and August. March is by far the nicest month in this city.

I just found out that my AIAA paper has officially been accepted for the GNC conference in August in San Francisco! Yippee!

For those curious about work stuff, I've been working with this project:

"This is a risk trade," O'Connor said. "You'd have to be sure that all other things being equal, that you have good weather there, that there's not some other matter like, for example, crew safety or you're about to run out of consumables because you've already been on orbit for a couple of days, waiting to come down. All those things will be factored in, but for the first time now, public safety will be one of those factors."

Yesterday turned busy -- training in the morning, followed by a meeting, followed by a couple hours to finish a few things. Becca, Jen and I all left work at 3:00 to join Karen for a girls trip to the Galleria. We shopped and had Cheesecake Factory and all was right with the world. Karen even managed the unthinkable and found me nice size 11 shoes; unfortunately for her, I have decided to return them. When I put them on this morning to wear them to work and walked down the stairs, my heel kept sliding out of them. That, combined with the fact that they were a bit tight in width to begin with, has made me decide that they aren't worth $70. Sorry Karen, but the search continues...

Anyway, on to the recap of my busy busy B-U-S-Y weekend. From the time I left work on Friday to the time I came to work yesterday morning, I think I was home for a total of about 25 hours, and that includes three nights of sleep. I felt like I was back in college; I wasn't doing homework or stressing about classes, but the level of activity and lack of sleep was at the same impossibly high pitch. I was so glad to come to work yesterday just to recover from the constant go-go-go of the weekend. How did I ever survive my last semester of undergrad??

Friday night began with a trip to Mely's where I had dinner with Becca, Karen and Jo while everyone else sat at a larger table. Karen was apalled at some of our topics of conversation, but when she asked "do you always talk about stuff like this, at typical Becca/Sarah volume, at restaurants" we could only reply that yes, we do. After dinner I went over to Edgar and Betsy's for the St. Patrick's Day party they were throwing. I'd only planned to stay for an hour or so (because I had to get up at 7 the next morning), but instead was there for three. The Georgia Tech game on TV and the Dance Dance Revolution activity was too much fun to cut short. They always kick my butt at MarioCart, but it has now been proven that I'm the group champion at DDR!

I got up early Saturday morning to join Karen Thibodeaux at the Tsunami Relief 5K at UHCL. It was my first-ever attempt at shooting running race photos, and it went really well! I learned a lot and was quickly thrust into having to take a lot of photos, and quick. My arm was actually sore the next day from holding up my camera vertically (i.e. weird arm position) for so long; I'll have to look into getting the battery grip, which lets you shoot portrait while holding the camera normally. I used my 75-300 lens and started out shooting in the basic sports mode, which was ok but not ideal. After talking to Karen I switched to shutter-speed priority and proceeded to shoot about 25 pictures in RAW format, finally realizing my mistake when my camera basically revolted for about 3 minutes in its mad efforts to write the huge files to the flash card. I then switched to JPG, AI servo mode and shot the rest of the race without a problem. I did turn off the image-stabilization feature of my lens, because I felt like it was really slowing it down and at shutter speeds no slower than ~1/1000, I certainly didn't need it!

From the post-race party, I went straight to my Saturday morning soccer game. We played well and that only made the 5-4 loss more disappointing. It was hot outside! Spring has definitely arrived and my body is not prepared for the heat that my brain knows is coming. Ugh. After soccer I had a lovely Meditteraneo's lunch with Becca and Karen before coming home and showering and then pretty much immediately heading up to the rodeo, where it turned out that four very intelligent women had a very massive brain fart.

I guess Karen's exempt because she doesn't live here, but neither Becca, Cari or I had realized that in addition to starting early on Sundays, the rodeo also started early (4:00 instead of 7:00) on Saturdays. We got there around 5:00, wandered around the livestock show, ate corn on the cob, rode the ferris wheel, and then, at 7:00, headed into the stadium where we found Clint Black already on stage for the post-rodeo concert. What?!?

We all looked at the tickets more closely; sure enough, they said 4:00. How dumb are we?? Anyway, the nice thing was that the concert had literally just begun, according to a souvenir stand guy, so at least we didn't miss that. And the bright side was that after the concert and dinner at Pei Wei, I was still home by 10:30 to fall into bed before my 6 a.m. wake-up time on Sunday morning.

Up bright and early, I headed over to Seabrook for the Lucky Trails Marathon, Half Marathon, and Marathon Relay. Buzz did the half, and Ron, Gavin, Jess and I did the relay. I took a few photos before my run, did my 6.55 miles in a slow but not too too bad ~1:12, and then took a lot more photos. I stayed until noon and got a bit of sunburn, before I had to leave in order to shower and get ready for the rest of my day. Oh, Buzz and I are shown prominently on Karen's main page for the Seabrook race on Sunday. :)

At 2:30 I went to the local theater to see Jason, Curt, Paul and Michelle in their final performance of "Don't Drink the Water," a Woody Allen play. They were all excellent. Michelle was hilarious as a tempermental cook, Paul's shining moment involved babbling about Orville and Wilbur Wright after getting conked on the head, Curt covered himself in fear with couch cushions as Jason the Communist policeman waved a gun around and later appeared in a straightjacket and boxer shorts.

From the play it was home long enough to eat, then to my regular Sunday night soccer game. We lost 4-0, but it really should have been more like 1-0. Oh well. We played well, the score just doesn't reflect that. From soccer I raced home to get there by 9:15 for my fantasy baseball draft. After that, I collapsed into bed.

The best news of all, however, is that Karen Thibodeaux really like my race photos and wants me to shoot for her whenever I can! I'm so excited! I feel a lot like I did when I started working for the Technique at Georgia Tech, and realized I was going to get paid for something I would do anyway because I enjoyed it. It's happening again -- I'm going to get paid for doing something I enjoy! Taking pictures! The next race I'll be doing is the Run for the Rose on April 10.

Becca linked to the NameVoyager which tracks baby names and how often they're used.

I never realized Sarah is such a popular name -- it was ranked #5 in the 1980s, #4 in the 1990s. #18 in the 1970s which is where I fall. Jennifer was #1 in the 70s, so that explains why I know so many of them! Betty, my mom, was popular in the 1940s. Crispin, my dad, isn't even on the list. David, Brian, and Katie (Katherine), my siblings, are all pretty high as expected.

My favorite thing about the site, though, is the interface. It's fun to type in different names just to see the graph bars slide up and down.

Somehow I am currently at the top of my NCAA pool. I am surprised, and don't really expect to stay there (Katie and Brian and Andrew, among others, all have many more points available than me), but at least I got 10 of the Sweet 16 and still have the chance to get 3 of my Final Four. Alas, I picked Georgia Tech to win it all out of love for my alma mater, and of course they got slaughtered by Louisville yesterday. Didn't really expect them to win, but was hoping...

I picked UNC to meet them in the final though, and I think UNC has a great chance of getting there and winning the whole thing this year.

My 2005 fantasy baseball team, immediately after the draft:

Starters
C - Jason Varitek
1B - Todd Helton
2B - Mark Loretta
3B - Mike Lowell
SS - Derek Jeter
OF - Gary Sheffield
OF - Moises Alou
OF - Steve Finley
Util - Jeff Bagwell

SP - Curt Schilling
SP - Carl Pavano
SP - Chris Carpenter
SP - Andy Pettitte
SP - Rodrigo Lopez
RP - Francisco Rodriguez
RP - Braden Looper
RP - Jeremy Affeldt

Reserves
C - Johnny Estrada
2B/3B/OF - Ryan Freel
OF - Reggie Sanders
OF - Alex Sanchez
SP - Kevin Millwood
SP - Woody Williams
SP - Jake Westbrook

It's the first day of spring, and it's official -- I have my first sunburn of the year.

Despite not having run in two weeks (though to my credit, I've been playing soccer and skiing) I did my part of the Seabrook Marathon Relay today. I covered the ~6.5 mile out-and-back in ~1:12, for ~11:00 miles. I'm not totally sure on the time though because I forgot to start my watch until somewhere in the first mile and official results aren't up yet. 1:12 is a far cry from my great 10K of a month ago, but ah well. The point is to get out there and run.

My right knee is still bothering me a bit. Not enough to keep me from running; it's more of a pressure thing, as in, it only really hurts when I put pressure on it, like kneeling on the floor or something. Regardless, it's been nagging me since sometime in the middle of my marathon training. That was four months ago. It's probably time to go see a doctor about it. Boo.

Ron did the first leg for us in right about an hour, followed by me, Jess in ~1:03, and Gavin in slightly under an hour, I think. I didn't even see what our official time was, but it was in the 4:10 range. Heh -- I ran a 4:10 marathon! ;)

I was definitely the tortoise of our team, but c'est la vie. After my leg, I hung around until noon taking photos for Karen Thibodeaux. I went to both the Tsunami 5K and this race today helping her with photos as sort of a "tryout" for the future. I've never shot anything like a race before, and my skills are certainly on the level of an amateur, but I like races and I like photography -- what better way to combine two interests? Hopefully I got some good shots and can do it again. If nothing else, it's a great learning experience. I met another photographer today and learned a lot just chatting with him between race finishers.

Nancy got this nice picture of Cari, me, and Jen in Whistler last weekend. (Good wine, by the way.)

Jen mentioned on our way to lunch that she needs something like in Harry Potter, that you can touch to your head and all your conflicted, confused, muddled thoughts can just be put away for a little while.

I need one too.

I feel like I'm being squeezed between, pardon the cliche, a rock and a hard place. On one hand is what I want if it were as simple as just knowing what I want. On the other hand is what I want, but churned around with issues of who I have to compete with, what that means for those above me, and what that means for my work now and any potential work in the future.

The only thing I know how to do is just nervously, uncomfortably press on with what I want. Leave the politics up to the powers that be. And see what happens.

On top of that, I'm stressing about work, about possible work, and about my weekend. My schedule is too hectic: bike clinic, dinner, and St. Patty's party tonight; race photography, soccer game, and rodeo tomorrow; marathon relay, race photography, seeing the play that my friends are in, soccer game, and fantasy baseball draft on Sunday. And Becca loaned me a book that is engrossing enough to keep me up too late at night reading.

If something were to give, it'd be skipping the party tonight and not playing fantasy baseball this season.

I don't have a free weekend until late April and it makes me feel like I'm back in college.

I just got a text message and, after reading it, went to delete it and a few other old messages. That's when I was rediscovered this beauty, received last Friday from Becca as Rich and I were telling her we'd arrived at Whistler and were waiting for the group outside the condo:

Becca
03/11/05
03:46PM
In to the room is NANCY we still skiing
***End***

If anyone can translate that from Becca-speak into normal wordage, I congratulate you. We found each other in the long run, after an actual phone call.

Those of you dying to play Marvin the Martian now have some help: How to Destroy the Earth.

As a preview, here is the list of things that will not destroy the Earth:

• Gamma Ray Burst.
• Armageddon, as described in the Bible.
• Paradoxes as described in Back To The Future Part II.
• Ceasing all thought (if the Earth is not observed, then how can it exist?).
• Detonating all the nuclear weapons ever created simultaneously, either all at one location or strategically placed around the globe.
• Proving that 1=0.
• Runaway fission at the Earth's core, as proposed by Tom Chalko.
• Gay marriage.

(Thanks to Irwin for the link.)

The woman who made my coffee this morning in the Starbucks downstairs in the cafeteria is the same woman who sold me Girl Scout cookies outside the grocery store last night. I only notice because during each two-minute dialogue, she called me "sweetie" at least 6 times.

"Hi, sweetie?"
"How are you, sweetie?"
"What would you like, sweetie?"
"Here you go, sweetie."
"Enjoy that, sweetie."
"Thank you, sweetie."

Once, and I wouldn't think anything of it. But six times??

I'm having career change jitters. Major jitters. Now that I've decided to apply to ISU, I think I'll be disappointed if I don't get to go. And the chances aren't great.

Karen is coming to visit tomorrow for a weekend of Houston fun, including attendance at the preeminent March event in this city: the rodeo. We'll be there on Saturday night for the rodeo finals and Clint Black.

Jo, Melanie and I were supposed to go for Maroon 5 last night but we were all either really tired or sick so we ended up skipping it and staying home. I can never decide if doing that kind of thing make me old (for bailing on a social engagement) or just comfortable with doing what I feel like doing (in this case, sleeping).

Yesterday we were talking about Karen's visit and Jen M remarked on how it's nice that after reading everyone's blogs, she's finally meeting all of Becca's and my GT friends. Irwin visits regularly, Carter came with us to Longs Peak, Karen to Peru, and Jen O to Whistler. She knows them via the internet and now in person, and is looking forward to seeing Karen as much as Becca and I are.

I just think I'm lucky to have groups of friends that get along so well when mixed. Makes me happy.

Oh, I forgot to mention that to my shock and surprise, one of my photos was selected as a Photo Friday noteworthy image last week, for the "Obsession" challenge. How cool is that?

My Vancouver/Whistler photos are up.

Two cautions: there are 400+ images, and they are not all in the correct order due to having been taken on two different cameras. If you wait until tomorrow, there will be fewer photos (and you can see just the 100-200 "highlights") and they will all be in chronological order. But if you just can't wait, they're there now. :)

Three links:

This new twist on the Numa Numa Dance just proves my theory that everything is better with Legos.

Wil Wheaton makes the Times. If you haven't checked out his blog before, it's a pretty fun read.

Should running an ultramarathon be my next goal? (Answer: HELL NO.)

Wow, everybody else is ahead of me in posting Whistler pictures. Jen M put together a gallery last night that is very cool. Of course, the time it took her to put that together is probably the same as the time it took me to just download all of my photos. Yeah, I take an obsessive amount of photos. Hmm.

Anyway, I have mine almost ready to go, I'm just trying to weed them out to form a "highlights" album of 100 or so, in order to avoid complaints about having to slideshow through more than 600 shots.

Oh, and Jen got this great shot of me upside down, arms flying, on the last Ziptrek line...

And here is Rich's perspective of my acrobatics...

And here's one of my yet-to-be-posted shots, the required "AE Mafia" photo of me, Jen and Becca. (Or, as Irwin called it "Return of the Air Babes.) Our fourth member was absent, but three outta four ain't bad.

Very, very cool: the Gigapxl Project. The level of details in the photos is incredible.

Georgia Tech made it to the finals of the ACC tournament while I was out of town, beating Carolina (take that, Brian!) before falling to Duke in the final.

As a result of that good showing, we're the #5 seed in the Albuquerque regional and will have to beat George Washington and probably (note I say probably) Louisville to advance to the Sweet 16. Then probably Washington for the Elite Eight, setting up a potential ACC Wake Forest-GT rematch for a spot in the Final Four. We'll see. Yes, we shall see.

I am back from Vancouver and Whistler/Blackcomb in one piece with no broken bones. Hurrah!

We arrived in Vancouver late Wednesday night, and Becca, Jen M and Becca's aunt Diane immediately headed up to Whistler while the rest of us spent the night at Cari's ISU friend Ruey's house. Ruey was really cool, fixed us a huge breakfast the next day, and showed us all around the city. Vancouver is a really lovely city; I could totally live there. We went to a city overlook (pretty), the Capilano suspension bridge (touristy but fun), and finally ended up in Stanley Park where we rented bike and rode along the 5-mile seawall around the park and under Lions Gate Bridge. We couldn't have asked for better weather -- sunny skies and cool temperatures. That night Becca's aunt Nancy arrived from Portland and took Gavin and Cari with her on up to Whistler while Rich and I stayed in a hotel. The next morning we walked all over downtown to Gastown, where we saw the steam clock, then to Chinatown, and then back past the many high-priced shops of Robson Street.

That afternoon we made the beautiful two-hour drive up to Whistler, and finally everyone was in one place: six of us from Houston, one from Portland, one from DC (Diane), and two from Seattle (Jen O and Irwin). Cari's other ISU friends Beth and Tyler came over from Victoria on Saturday as well. It was great to see/meet all the non-Houston people, especially Jen (who I hadn't seen since Daniel's wedding more than a year ago) and Nancy (who I hadn't seen since Peru).

Saturday arrived and it was finally time to try skiing. Whistler has had a very bad winter, apparently; there was no snow in the village, and not much on the bottom half of the mountain. As luck would have it, there were no half-day lessons offered in the morning and the bunny slopes were all on the bottom (i.e. snowless) half. Cari was kind enough to take me up to the top where she taught me to snowplow and stop (sort of) on two very small, very short inclines around the lifts and the mountain host headquarters. Skiing was, in chronological order:

• scary, as I realized how high the gondola was taking me,
• fun, as I learned to snowplow on a miniscule hardly sloped molehill,
• boring, as I grew tired of the molehill,
• terrifying, as I looked down the beginning of a green run that was decidedly steeper than my friendly molehill,
• extremely frustrating, as I cried my way down the beginning of a green run that had some borderline blue parts, fell repeatedly and couldn't get back up without starting to move again, and couldn't turn, and everyone was standing down at the sign waiting for me and watching me fall the entire way down,
• slightly less frustrating, as everyone except Cari and Becca thankfully left and stopped watching me look like an idiot,
• nonexistant, as I went down a steep icy hill on my butt with no skis, which to that point was the most fun part of the run, Cari carrying my skis,
• fun again, as I reached a happy medium on a long, nicely sloped second half of the green run and finally learned to turn and somewhat control myself.

So I learned how to ski, sort of. And how to turn, sort of. And not die. Hooray! It was a frustrating experience, both from the difficultly of doing it and from the feeling that it should be easier. Everyone else skis without any problems, and I know it's because they've all been doing it for years, but it was disheartening to be the only one who couldn't even stay upright. But I'd go again. And hopefully get better. And the views from the mountain were spectacular.

Sunday morning we went to Ziptrek and got to fly down four ziplines as long as 1,100 feet back and forth across the creek that runs between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains. It was so much fun. The last line was a "freestyle" line so I got to tip over and go down the line upside down, feet wrapped around the rope and hands dangling free to the creek below. SO MUCH FUN. I took a video as I went down the longest zipline that you can watch to get an idea of the experience. FUN.

Sunday afternoon we drove to the next town north of Whistler to hike a little more than a mile to a waterfall. While there, we decided to go a little off the "official" trail and climb to the top of the rock next to the point where the water went over the falls. Our little, slightly not allowed sidetrek was definitely worth it for the view.

We got back late last night and I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, but Becca has:

• Here's me starting to finally feel slightly comfortable with skiing after crying (in frustration) my way down the huge hill on the first half of the green run. Notice my uneasy smile, very snow-plowed feet and death grip on the ski poles.
• Here I am getting ready to Ziptrek, launching, and here's me and Jen. Ziptrek was SO FUN. Stay tuned for a shot of me ziptrekking upside down. :)
• Pretty mountains. Pretty, pretty mountains everywhere.
• Jen breakin' the law, but all for a good reason. Scooting around the fence and up the rocks gave us a great view of the top of a waterfall!
• Gavin relaxing in a tree at Shannon Falls on the way back to Vancouver.
• Cari is gross. She seems to think that because she once kissed a slug on a dare, it's ok to do it again.
• Here I am maneuvering to a good photo spot and trying not to drop my camera in a creek. The mission was successful.

FYI to any regular readers of this blog: I'll be wandering Vancouver and skiing at Whistler/Blackcomb for the next five days. Trip report when I return next Tuesday! :)

Every time I post about my latest thoughts on the future of my career, Carter calls to ask me for more information. He did again last night, after yesterday's cryptic post about the multiple options I'm considering. The weird part was that I had a really hard time elaborating. I haven't felt so tongue-tied in a long time.

I know that I have done a lot of things, visited a lot of places, and met a lot of people in my life thus far. Despite my experiences, change terrifies me. Nothing is anywhere near certain, all I'm doing is pondering a few things, and already the mere idea of major career change is freaking me out. There is a part of me dying to talk to everyone about my ideas, and hear what they think, and discuss my options. But there's also a part that doesn't want to tell anyone or discuss anything, for fear of making up my mind based on someone else's opinion. I want to make sure that when I do make a change, it's one that I know I decided on.

I know I complain about my job, but I should make it clear that I do realize that I am in a very good situation here in Houston. My job is extremely stable, I earn enough money to do basically whatever I want, the benefits are almost unbeatable. And I do like my job. I have many of the same frustrations of any job, but I get to do very cool stuff. I realize this. I completely understand this.

Also in that vein is the fact that though there are things about Houston that I would change (weather, flatness, proximity to outdoor adventure), I really, really like the life I have created for myself here. The soccer games, the races, the wide circle of friends, the Astros. I've built a very comfortable situation for myself in Houston, and the longer I'm here the harder I think it would be to leave...

I have decided to definitely apply for the JSC Fellowship. This is both exciting and nerve-wracking, the latter because it means I have to sit down and have some talks with my management. I like my management, and have no problem cracking jokes with them or talking to them about baseball, the weather, my projects, etc. But I get so nervous and anxious when it comes to talking about my job and my future here. I think it's partly because I'm always anticipating the "where do you want to be in five years" question, and I really don't have a great answer. I'm not sure where I want to be in five years.

Growing up, I always had a plan, even if it was very generalized. As a teenager the plan was to graduate high school and go to college. At Georgia Tech, the plan was to go to graduate school and get a Ph.D. and become a professor. It was at Stanford that the plans slowly began to dissolve. I decided to leave with just my Master's degree and the plan morphed into moving to Houston and working at JSC.

Now I find myself having been here almost three years, and not knowing what the next step in the plan is. I don't know what I want to do. I don't know where I want to go.

Last night I finally put up one version of an "About Me" page. Click the link at top left if you're interested. The link's not dead anymore. :)

Yes, it's another quiz. I just can't help myself.

You Are Ariel!

Headstrong and fiesty. You have a mind of your own that's full of romantic dreams about the world around you. Exploring exotic places is your ultimate dream, and although you can be a little naive you'll realize that there is something to be gained from your family's wisdom.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

Becca wrote an entry about our Sex-and-the-City-ish Saturday night and I thought I'd share my two cents. We all went out to surprise Fred for his 30th birthday in a group of probably 25 people that included two pregnant women and exactly four people who aren't married: Becca, Debbie, Cari and me.

I find myself in a lot more situations these days where I am one of the few, if not the only single person person in attendance. I recently realized that over time my friends have become divided into two groups -- the ones who are married, and the ones who are single. I don't have many friends that are in dating relationships, even. It's married or single.

Having so many friends who are married couples doesn't make me want to rush out and get married. It doesn't make me pine away for some guy to make moony eyes at. I definitely want to get married, but I'm ok with it just happening when it happens. I just haven't met, or haven't realized that I've met, the right guy yet.

But having so many married friends does occasionally leave me feeling...not excluded, but maybe...left out? Like I'm missing out on something cool because I don't happen to have a ring on my finger. Like I'm the third wheel. That type of thing.

I wasn't sitting at the larger table that the other three were, or I might have more to say about the conversation that apparently went on about the joys of marriage. I was thankfully sitting with Edgar and Betsy, Ron and Buzz, Nick and Stephanie, Gavin and Jen, and Sean (whose pregnant wife didn't come, she would've made three) -- a table full of couples who are refreshingly fun and independent (not to imply that no one at the other table was as well).

Anyway, at Becca's table, one women made a comment about how nice it is that everyone was in happy, stable marriages, and how proud she was that they were all still married. Becca has a great point about the fact that it might not be the smartest idea to pat yourself on the back for a room of couples where the longest marriage running so far is less than five years, and most are less than three.

But my issue isn't so much about what she was saying as about the fact that it's a bit insensitive to start a long conversation about marriage and how great it is and how nice it is to have a man and how awful it was to live alone...in front of three single people! I find myself wishing that Becca hadn't held her tongue for once. ;)

Being a single woman is not a death sentence!

I just wrote this entry and then lost it. Should I take that as a sign? An anti-change sign? Uh oh. Anyway, on to the retyped, rehashed entry:

I've been listening to Jack Johnson's new album pretty much non-stop since it came out last week. I love how mellow his songs are; they just make me feel calm. And calmness is what I need these days.

I feel like I'm on the verge of something new, that the time is right for me to make a move. A career move. That doesn't necessarily mean leaving the aerospace industry, but it does mean making a change. There are four options available to me at the moment, not including the default option of simply staying in my current job. Each, of course, has its own set of positives and negatives. Three would involve aerospace; one wouldn't. Two would involve engineering; two wouldn't. One means staying in Houston, but moving to a different job; one is going to the International Space University and spending a year in France before returning to Houston and my current job for three years; the other two mean moving elsewhere.

Of course none of these options are a given. There are applications to fill out and people to talk to and recommendations to get and interviews to do, and that process will almost certainly whittle down the list.

But the time seems right for a change. And if I'm going to make one, I want to make the right choice.

The problem is that I am scared of big changes.

Yesterday I took my recyclables to the closest city facility, which happens to be at Ellington Field. It was gray, overcast, and drizzling. The cloud ceiling was probably around 200 feet. As I started throwing the cans into the dumpster, I heard the typical airplane roar behind me as something took off from Ellington. It was loud enough that I figured it had to be one of the jets. I turned and looked up just in time to see an F-16 roar off the runway and quickly disappear into the clouds, shock diamonds visible in the exhaust of the afterburner. It was so cool that I actually exclaimed out loud in the drizzle in the empty recycling parking lot.

I ran to the car for my camera, because the F-16s (belonging to the Air National Guard) often take off in groups of four. But alas, not yesterday. There was only the one.

Slightly amusing, and slightly just...weird. Office Space, performed by Superheroes

More about that video of the guy dancing to Dragostea Din Tei, or Numa Numa Dance.

I talked myself into a 5K run last night after work, and it turned out great. I'd taken my running clothes to work and planned to leave at 4:30 for at least one lap of the Gilruth trail, but ended up at work until 6:00 and don't like the run on the trail in twilight/darkness if I can avoid it. It's very poorly lit, i.e. not really any lights at all except for the headlights of cars going down Space Center Blvd.

I went home, and was feeling lousy, but thought about my plans for the weekend and realized that if I didn't go last night I might not run until at least next Tuesday. (Why? Because I usually don't run on Fridays as a rule, and tomorrow and Sunday I have a soccer games, as well as needing to fit in a good bike ride for MS150 prep, and Mondays I go climbing.) So I did my standard in-front-of-the-apartment-complex 5k, which is extremely boring but convenient. My complex, unfortunately, is right off a busy, heavily traveled road that has no sidewalks. I don't want to risk running that road at night, so I basically run one lap around my apartment complex combined with 2.5 repeats of the half mile crescent-shaped road out front. My complex is in the middle of the crescent, so I end up running to one end (where it meets the busy road) three times and the other end (where it also meets the busy road) twice. Like I said, it's extremely boring, but it works in a pinch and I'd still rather do it than run on a treadmill.

I did my 5k in 31:40, so I was very happy with the pace. I think I was able to keep it strong last night because I had so much to think about. Tiggs wrote about her thoughts while running, and I think I'll do the same.

I thought a lot about the possibility of becoming a race photographer, after exchanging a few emails yesterday with a local race photographer. She's always looking for photographers to help out, and I have the right equipment, and think I could be pretty decent at it. And earn a little extra money as well... I thought about my job, and my to-do list, and my frustrations over my own procrastination; it's like a deep hole that I just keep digging myself into, and I want to change that. I did math in my head (which, for the record, is one of the best ways I've found to distract myself if I need to do so while running). "I've done this many miles in this much time, that's a pace of this many minutes per mile or this many miles per hour..." That type of mental math. I often try to calculate my pace to the correct second, or my speed to the correct decimal place. It's more for the distraction than as an actual gauge of how my run is going.

Anyway. It was a good run. Afterwards, I didn't feel as guilty about watching TiVoed stuff and surfing the web for the rest of the night.

Both Nancy and Brian pointed me in the direction of archive.org to see if any of my early webpages are recoverable. So I went there, and put in the URL of my Georgia Tech webpage, hit the "take me back" button and...blocked. By the JSC firewall. Something about proxy avoidance. So I'll have to try it at home tonight.

It will be really cool if I can find my earliest Tech webpage. Finding my very first webpage, however, may be a problem because I'm not sure I can remember the URL.

Update: Holy crap! In trying to remember the very old URL of my first webpage in 1995/1996, I googled the two terms I remembered. Lo and behold, I found the link. The last version of the page, from 1996 right after I started at Georgia Tech, is still there. (Though the redirect to the Georgia Tech servers now fails, since I haven't been a student there in almost 4 years.)

AND I managed to guess the name of my very, very first webpage, a summary of my IB extended essay that I made when I used the essay as my senior exit essay for high school: The Race to the Moon. At the bottom is says: "This page was created by me, a senior IB student at Myers Park High School. Last updated on May 15, 1996."

The internet is amazing!!

In 1995, Yahoo was started and I created my first webpage. Sadly, I think that first site of mine, as well as about 3 years of subsequent revisions, have been lost to the Internet ghosts. (Though, mental note, must see if I can find any trace of it anywhere, perhaps on a floppy? Eee gads, a floppy?!?) I currently have most of each version of my webpage since late 1998, and slowly, sloooooowly, I plan to document them here. Screenshots at least. There are a lot of sites out there saying that blogs didn't begin until 1999 or so, and that when they did start, it was with a dozen or so now-famous internet celebrities. But I'd like to think I was one of the unnoticed early bloggers. I started in late 1998, though at that time I wasn't posting as often or as much as I do now... One day, I will upload my archives. One day...

Anyway, what made me think about all that? Well, I can't believe it's been 10 years! Check out:

Yahoo! Netrospective: 10 Years, 100 Moments of the Web

I agree with Irwin, West Wing was good last night. I like it when they throw in a light-hearted episode to break up the constant high-tension politics. A "skirmish" on the Canadian border, sneaky Democratic representatives, and a competitive President all made for a funny hour.

One of my current training tasks is really frustrating me today. I'm supposed to take a plot file produced by another group, convert it to a different type of plot file, and plot the data. Sounds easy, right? Well first of all, it doesn't convert correctly. Everything comes out zeros. Then, when I use another (correctly converted, but not by me) version of the file to plot data, the data I need isn't there. I need DELAZ, all I have is regular azimuth (which is different). I need to look at the Nz command for the Mach 14-16 region, but the data doesn't start until M<14. I tried to complete two test objectives, had absolutely no luck, and finally emailed the guy who's training me with questions and said I was giving up for the day!! Grr. Stupid computer.

I can't believe Janay is still alive on American Idol. She was really bad on Tuesday. I never watch the results show since it conflicts with West Wing, and I forgot to check the webpage until this afternoon. My favorites are still there. My favorites are all boys.

This one is for Jo.

	Cheer Bear You're the Care Bear cheerleader! Your spunky personality and optimisim lifts everyone's spirit. Though you want everyone to be happy, you stand your ground on issues you feel strongly about and this can bring disunity among your friends. Despite this, you are a true believer in working together.
Take the Which Care Bear Are You? Quiz!

I totally just cracked up at the last sentence in this excerpt from "Eruptus Interruptus" by Mark Sundeen, Outside, February 2005 (emphasis mine):

"We are transfixed--and who can blame us? An erupting volcano is a magnet, pulling us closer, never mind the danger. And science can't explain what makes us want to watch. We love St. Helens because she is ours. We're united in that way: America always roots for the home team, even if it might explode and cover us in magma."

Whenever I picture events from the 19th and early 20th centuries, I always see in black and white. In my mind, it's as if color didn't magically appear until the 1930s or 1940s. I attribute the discontinuity to the fact that any old photos or movies you see are inevitably in black and white and shades of gray. When that's all I've seen from that time period, it's hard to picture things in color.

I came across this site today, displaying a collection of color photographs from World War I. At first I was skeptical, thinking that the photos may have simply be colorized. But after a little research, I think they may be genuine. Color photography first became practical in 1907 when the Lumiere brothers invented the Autochrome process. Considering that the process was invented by a Frenchman and the WWI photos appear to be taken in the trenches in France, I'm going to accept them as genuine, or at the very least, representative.

The Lumiere brothers also invented the Cinematograph, the first film camera that both recorded and allowed moving pictures to be shown on a screen to an audience. Pretty cool guys, eh?

As has been our on-and-off Tuesday routine for more than a year now, I went running last night with Buzz. Gavin has been joining us lately as he tries to get back in shape. He's a natural runner, though, and now that he finally bought running shoes (which -- duh -- fixed the leg problems he was having running in cross-trainers), I think he will soon decide that I am far too slow for him.

We ran two big laps and one little lap, totalling probably 6.6-6.7 miles in all, in just over 1:16. It was a bit depressing to go so slowly after my great 10K on Saturday. I'd never experienced post-race sluggishness until last night! My legs were so incredibly heavy, and stayed that way for the first 5 miles. I didn't feel like I was running; it felt like I was merely slapping my feet against the ground in an effort to keep from stopping completely. Only at the very end of our run did they start to loosen up, and I felt better then.

A quick summary of last night's American Idol: I still think most of the girls are boring and out of tune. The guys are far better.

We had a Yuri's Night meeting last night. I am woefully behind on organizational stuff for the 5K, and I really need to catch up this week. However, at the least, I finally got registration open, so if you are in the Houston area and are interested in running a 5K on April 9, sign up!

Becca posted a picture of the Twister madness of Saturday night, so if you've ever wanted to see a picture of me with my butt up in the air, your wish has been granted.

Yeah.

I skipped rock climbing last night because 1) I was at work until 6 and 2) my refrigerator was extremely empty. That second fact necessitated a trip to the grocery store, which is one of my least favorite chores. I always, always procrastinate about going to Kroger. This means that when I finally do go, I end up with a full cart of $150 worth of stuff. I blame the method on growing up with my Mom, who had four kids, which meant she had to go to the grocery store and filll the cart to the breaking point every week. I only have to go every 2-3 weeks at my rate. It's really not the best way to go about things, but hey.

I watched American Idol and was not as impressed with the boys this week. I'm still sticking with my favorite two, Mario and Nikko, because they were still decent last night. But on the whole there was definitely a drop-off from week 1, in my opinion, despite the accolades from the judges. We'll see how the girls do tonight. Hopefully they'll improve, because last week I thought they all sucked...