August 2005 Archives

Off to Seattle, Rainier, and Olympic! Updates when I return, or I may send photos to Flickr (see at left).

Yet another cool Google hack: My Google Guestmap. Go ahead and stick your pin in and let me know where you're visiting from!

Hurricane Katrina has, for the first time, truly opened my eyes to how powerful a hurricane can be.

I know that may sound uninformed or naive, but somehow in my head, "hurricane" has always equalled the Hugo that came through Charlotte in 1989 after slamming ashore in Charleston. By the time it reached us in Charlotte, it was barely a hurricane anymore, maybe 60-80 mph winds as my Dad told me this morning. It did a lot of damage, but nothing completely catastrophic. My 5th grade brain stored away the images of downed trees and dark houses and the bees that went crazy and stung us in their confusion. That has been my mental image of a hurricane. Scary, but not completely life-altering.

Now come the photos and news from New Orleans, Gulfport, and other communities hit hard by Katrina, and I'm floored by the devastation this hurricane has caused. Obviously a Category 5 storm is much more severe than the remnants of Hugo that I remember from 1989, but I wasn't able to really conceptualize that until this week.

Last night I went to Walmart to pick up a few photos, as well as some moleskin for our upcoming Pacific Northwest adventure. I noticed a Louisiana license plate in the parking lot and didn't think much of it. Then I saw another one. And another one. And another. There were half a dozen Louisiana plates in my row alone, a few of them with frames from dealerships in New Orleans. People who fled Louisiana to find a safer place to wait while the storm passed. I wonder if they have homes to return to.

It could happen here, in Houston. We're not entirely below sea level, but other than that, the idea is completely conceivable. I live in the second floor, by my building is no more than 15-20 feet above sea level, and the storm surge from Katrina was something like 25 feet. I wonder what I would do if we got a direct hit from a Category 5 storm. Would I have a job left? Would I move somewhere else?

Who knows. I just hope Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama are able to get cleaned up and back to at least some sense of normalcy as soon as possible. It will be a while.

In the calm of Houston, life goes on. Chris has finally returned from his year at Stanford and called last night while I was Walmart-ing to order me to Mely's to have dinner with him and Nacho. I didn't really have the time (I hadn't really started packing yet) but I went anyway. It seems like he just left, but it's still nice to have him back!

This afternoon we're off to Seattle for six days and I probably/definitely will not be updating. Tomorrow we'll hit REI, go to the Mariners-Yankees game, and have dinner with some of Jen's UW friends. Friday we'll head to Mt. Rainier and camp there Friday night. After that, the plan becomes completely nebulous. We have no campsites reserved for Saturday, Sunday, or Monday nights so we'll try for the first-come first-served campsites, or we may just pack it in somewhere. The five of us are all prepared to backpack if necessary/desired, so I expect we'll be doing some of that to get off the beaten path a bit. I expect the parks to be fairly crowded for the holiday weekend, but hopefully we can get away from most of the people.

Should be fun!!

I made it to work today at 8:30, which is the earliest I've been in since coming back from San Francisco. This is good -- I need to get back in the habit of coming in at a decent hour so that I don't have to work till 6:00 every day!

Last night I had my second graphic design class. We talked about typography and I learned neat facts such as why letters are referred to as "uppercase" and "lowercase," why old newspapers had columns that were a certain width, and why the space between lines is called "leading." (The answers are, in order, because the printing press letters were stored with capital letters in the upper drawers and little letters in the lower drawers of a case of letters, because the linotype machine output lines of type in specific widths, and because space between lines was set with strips of lead.) My professor said that the information in last night's lecture bored most people, and that if it excited us we'd make good typographers. Well, I guess I could be a typographer because I found it all extremely interesting. He mentioned that Houston actually has a Museum of Printing History, so I will have to check that out.

We got our second assignment, which is to create a typographic picture or design. I have a lot of ideas and I'm not sure which I'm going to go with. Because we don't have class next Monday (Labor Day), I have two weeks to play around.

Two classes down, and I know it's only two classes, but they have both been cool so far. We meet for three hours (7:00-10:00), and I haven't gotten bored at all yet. It makes me wonder: "hmm, did I ever enjoy an aerospace class? Could I have even survived a three hour aerospace class??" I know I did enjoy some of them, and I know I went to three hour lab classes, but it's hard to remember now.

I'd been on the UHCL campus a few times before, and it always seemed very emtpy and rather desolate. As a result, I didn't have a very high opinion of UHCL -- it was just that college nearby. But now that I'm there for a class, and I guess at a more normal class time, I've noticed that the small campus is packed. The enormous parking lot is actually full. There are people walking around everywhere, with backpacks and iPods and hurried looks on their faces. It's so bizarre -- it really does feel like a college. It really does feel like I'm a student again. I sort of like the feeling.

Tomorrow evening I'm leaving for six days in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Mt. Rainier, Olympic peninsula). I just got back from San Francisco and Yosemite and now I'm headed away again. This trip really snuck up on me -- we'd been talking about it forever and I was in charge of planning, but due to work circumstances, we didn't actually have a final count of who, and how many, of us were going until about two weeks ago. Final verdict: Jen M, Gavin, myself, Ian (friend from co-op days who works at JPL now) and Jen O. We're also seeing a baseball game on Thursday afternoon and Irwin's going to come along for that. We still don't have a true plan, and don't even have campsites reserved or chosen for Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights, but I've been assured that all will go well. The two Jens are familiar enough with the area so once we get out there I will probably leave destination suggestions to their capable hands.

AWESOME. I want to be there. And I want that camera lens.

Also, it's raining outside. Know how I can tell? Because I have a window now! Yippee!

Becca put up photos from the Ballunar Fest. (Mine are coming soon.)

Here's me putting weight on the balloon just before takeoff. Riding in the back of the truck is also very fun (and a good way to keep relatively cool, thanks to the breeze.) The morning after my first flight, there were lots of balloons, and then I was ceremonized in the driveway next to the yard where the balloon landed. When Becca lifted off, she got a blurry shot of us on the ground getting ready to begin the chase.

The weekend alternated between busy and lazy moments. On Friday night I got to ride in the hot air balloon I was crewing for, if only for a short moment. We took off from a field at JSC and landed about three minutes later -- in the same field, farther out. But it was still extremely cool. We landed a little roughly, and I ended up being "bottom man" as Cindy called it, i.e. I was the one that got smushed by the others on top of me when the basket tipped over before righting itself. My knee slammed into the basket as I fell, and I didn't notice until last night that it is a lovely shade of black and blue. Proof that ballooning isn't all pretty and softly floating by!

On Saturday morning the balloon took its longest flight, launching from UHCL and landing all the way down in League City -- in the middle of the street in a subdivision. Many of the neighbors came out to see the show; the lady whose front yard we used to pack up the balloon said she'd been looking out the window thinking "hmm, they sure are low" before realizing they were landing and running through the house going "wake up! wake up!" to get her kids up to go see the balloon that landed in their front yard.

Saturday night we took off from JSC just behind the security building and they landed in the same field as the night before -- another short flight. Yesterday morning, sadly, the festival was cancelled after a storm blew through on Saturday night scattering tents and chairs everywhere at the festival site. There wasn't enough time to clean everything up before the crowd would have arrived, so Sunday's events were cancelled and we didn't fly. We said goodbye to Dan and Sue as they headed home to Mississippi -- only 120 miles north of New Orleans, so they were basically driving into the hurricane. Hope they made it home!

The entire experience of crewing at the Ballunar Festival was just so much fun. The people I met were so nice and friendly, and being on chase crew was exhilirating. It was fun to be a part of the Happy Teeth team and to see all the spectators having fun -- I mean, who doesn't like hot air balloons? Everyone likes them! I can't wait to do it again next year.

Melanie is town briefly to pick up all her stuff before heading up to Boston to start grad school, so we all had dinner last night with her. It was nice to see her, and it weirdly felt like she'd never left. The summer went by pretty quickly, I guess.

I spent all yesterday afternoon sitting on my couch with my laptop (yay laptop!) doing homework. Yes, homework. My first assignment for the graphic design class I'm taking involved learning the basics of Adobe Illustrator, creating a bunch of objects, and working through the examples in my textbook. It felt very strange to be doing homework again, but fortunately for me, the homework was fun. I probably could have knocked it out in about 2 hours, but instead I spent something like 6 hours just messing around with Illustrator. :) No matter what Jen and Becca say though, a laptop's touch pad is not as good as an actual mouse, and much harder to use when trying to do precision work, so I plugged in my wireless mouse and used that. Much easier, though the wireless "base" is big and bulky and annoying, so this afternoon I'm going to stop by Office Depot and get one made for laptops so that the base is just a little USB key. Should work well.

Oh, and as an afterthough, Gavin sent me this lovely article about a "news item" in Charlotte.

The Houston Running Bloggers, or Houston Blogging Runners, met up yesterday morning at Run the Woodlands for the bi-weekly 5K. It was masterminded by Jon Walk, who really brought us all together in the first place. I wasn't able to be there because I was crewing for the Ballunar Festival, but I hope to make the next one!

As for running, well, it's about time I got back to being active. I'm disgusted that I've gained 10 pounds in the past year, much of those put on post-marathon and at least 3 of them added in the past month as my level of exercise activity has dropped to basically zero. NOT GOOD.

I want to run the Houston Half Marathon in January and at this point will be starting basically from scratch again as far as my distance running abilities go. I would like to do the 10-Miler in October again but am not sure if 6 weeks is enough time to get ready for it. Same with the 20K also in October. We will see.

What I do know is that this week I've got to start getting back on the horse. It won't be easy -- and Wednesday night I'm leaving for a trip to Seattle for the Labor Day weekend -- but since that trip involves a lot of hiking, it'll be ok. But I've got to start running again.

The Ballunar Festival is here this weekend, and this year I finally had the weekend free to volunteer to crew for one of the balloons! (The past two years this weekend has been spent moving and going to Peru, respectively.)

Becca, Cari and I are all crewing for the same balloon, owned by a husband and wife, Dan and Sue, from Mississippi. (There are two other guys crewing as well.) Dan is a dentist, and so their balloon has two cartoon teeth on it and is called "Happy Teeth." This cracks me up.

Of course I took my camera, so here are a few shots from this morning. We launched from the Kroger parking lot, hoping to get close enough to the target at JSC. I helped get the balloon unfolded and inflated. Dan asked for the lightest of the three of us, so Cari got to hop in the basket along with Terry (who was getting a ride because he works for a festival sponsor) as Dan piloted the balloon.

Cari looking excited:

Up, up, and away:

The rest of us followed in the chase vehicle as they floated slowly through Clear Lake. They came down in a field near Mamacita's to swap Cari for Ken (another crew member), and then they continued to float along as we followed and all tried our best to guess which direction they were headed and hoped they didn't come down in the tank farm behind the barbed wire! At this point, I realized there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen, so I decided to just keep my mouth shut and enjoy the ride.

Happy Teeth in flight:

Terry and Cari partaking in the ceremony that marks a balloonist's first flight (with champagne!):

The best part was when Cari and I got to grab the crown line after the balloon had landed, and puuuuuulllll the top of the balloon down. Air is heavier than you'd think!! Then, as they squeezed the air out from the other end, we got blasts of hot air in the face. Apparently hot air balloons really do use hot air.

We do it again tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow night, and Sunday morning. Balloons are fun!

Happy Birthday Kent!

I really don't have much to say lately. I've had a pretty busy week since getting back from the California work/vacation trip.

This morning I mailed out the first 8 photos I've ever sold (3 orders for 3, 3, and 2 photos), from the Galveston Island State Park 5K that I shot the Saturday morning before I left for San Fran. When I started planning the Yuri's Night race two years ago, I went to Jay, one of the owners of On The Run, my local running store, for planning advice; as a result, I've gotten to know a fair number of people in the local running scene. Jay asked if I wanted to come shoot the Galveston race, originally so that they could gather photos for someone who helped plan the race until he became ill and couldn't be there. But I shot enough and had enough inquiries from runners that I decided to put them up on my website, and I've actually sold some! It's pretty exciting -- people I don't know bought my photos! I don't have any illusions of ever being able to make more than $50 here and there off it, but it sure is a fun way to earn a little extra cash.

Anyway, for lack of other things to write, here's a meme I picked up from another blog.

1. When you look at yourself in the mirror, what's the first thing you look at? My hair, hoping it's not too scraggly.

2. How much cash do you have on you right now? About $30, I think.

3. What's a word that rhymes with "TEST"? Best.

4. Favorite plant? Um. Um. I don't think I have one.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone? Kara. We were driving on the highway to pick her up at the airport and I didn't hear the phone until the last minute.

6. What is your main ring tone on your phone? Linus and Lucy, better known as the Charlie Brown theme song.

7. What shirt are you wearing? A light blue tank top and a blue striped button-down shirt.

8. Do you "label" yourself? I don't think so.

9. Name brand of your shoes currently wearing? Naturalizer. Oh, that is so old lady. They're so comfy though.

10. Do you prefer a bright or dark room? Bright, lit by natural light, not fluorescents. I just moved desks at work and I have a window now. It is fabulous.

11. What did you have for breakfast? A bowl of slightly stale Honey Nut Cheerios at home and coffee at work.

12. Since question 12 is weirdly missing, make something up.
Um...at my old desk I had these space magnets that I used to write a long grammar-challenged story about going to Nepture and meeting a space alien with a laser gun and we tried to take off but there was no 3-2-1 blastoff. The story ended with "Spacecraft control is very buggy."

13. What were you doing at midnight last night? Installing the Adobe Illustrator tryout on my desktop and trying to figure out why the installation hangs on my laptop. (Any ideas? Worked perfectly on my desktop. My laptop, not so much. Hangs up while installing help files.) I ordered the educational version since I need it for my graphic design class, but they have to verify my student status and I won't get the software until next week, after my first two assignments are due.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell phone say? "Cool! Where?" from Chris. I don't remember what he was asking about.

15. Do you ever click on "Pop Ups" or Banners? Ick, no.

16. What's an expression that you say a lot? Dude.

17. Who told you they loved you last? My dad.

18. Last furry thing you touched? This funny stuffed doll I have in my apartment.

19. How many hours a week do you work? 40. Never less, rarely more (though the few weeks before the conference and with the shuttle landing were crazy busy).

20. How many rolls of film do you need to get developed? None. I love digital!!

21. Favorite age you have been so far? Hmm. 21 was a really fun year, that's when I flew on the Vomit Comet and lived in Harris.

22. Your worst enemy? Gavin. He's my arch-nemesis. ;)

23. What is your current desktop picture? An aerial view of Mt. McKinley. It changes every half hour.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone? I actually don't know. I think Gavin asked me earlier how I was doing today and I said "good."

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to go back in time and fix all your mistakes which would you choose? That is a really tough one. Probably the money though. I can't think of any mistakes that are truly major for which I haven't been able to apologize, atone, or otherwise move past, and going back to "fix" things seems like it could just open a bigger can of worms.

Somehow I missed this song earlier, but I'm glad I discovered it now. It cracks me up. NASA made it into a rock/pop song -- we must be cool!

Bowling for Soup -
Ohio (Come Back To Texas)

She said she needed a break
a little time to think
but then she went to Cleveland
with some guy named Leeland
that she met at the bank

There's nothing wrong with Ohio
except the snow and the rain
I really like Drew Carey
and I'd love to see the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame

So when you're done doing whatever
and when you're through doing whoever
you know Denton County will be right here waiting for you....

Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
and forget all about the Lone Star state
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

I think I made a mistake
It's not that easy to take
She went to make a deposit
then she cleaned out her closet
Guess I'll sit here and wait

For her to come back home (I'd wish you'd come back home)
It shouldn't take very long (so long so long)
I bet she misses the sunrise
and misses the fruit flies but I could be wrong

So when you're done doing whatever
and when you're through doing whoever
you know Denton County will be right here waiting for you....

Come back to Texas
It's just not the same since you went away
I bet you missed your exit
and drove right on through the Lone Star state
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway

Troy Aikman wants you back
Willie Nelson wants you back
NASA wants you back
and the Bush twins want you back
Pantera wants you back
and Blue Bell wants you back
I got a premonition
I'm taking a petition
and the whole state's gonna sign

Come back to Texas
Its just not the same since you went away
Before you lose your accent
and forget all about the Lone Star State
There's a seat for you at the rodeo
and I've got every slow dance saved
Besides the Mexican food sucks north of here anyway...

Pet Peeve of the Week:

People who spell the word "loose" when they really mean "lose." My professor in the graphic design class did this on Monday night, on a slide that spoke about the importance of paying attention to the details, no less.

Every time I read about how someone always "looses" their keys or "looses" their train of thought, I picture keys flying free, and a train running rampant down the tracks. Although loosing and losing, say, a tiger might have the same effect, they don't mean the same thing!

A Story, by Kent:

So I was changing the water jug on top of the water cooler on Monday afternoon. Well as I was putting the new jug on, I put it on top of the base however it didn’t settle into place. It was supporting its weight on the valve that prevents water from spilling out when you turn the bottle upside-down to mount it on the base. Anyway, so I shimmied the bottle around a bit and BAM! It slid into place, however sadly on my ring finger on my left hand. OW! So I bruised the area under my fingernail pretty good, and the lower 1/3 or so of the fingernail bed was dark purple immediately after the mashing. Several hours later it was still throbbing since the blood under the nail had no where to go, and the increasing pressure in my finger kept me awake a good portion of the night. So the next morning I went into our medical facility at work and they fixed me up, however they had to burn a hole through my fingernail with a cauterizing tool!!! It was pretty cool and it looks really gross right now. I would say the hole is about a millimeter or a little over in diameter which is pretty big for a hole in your fingernail. Anyway after the nurse burned a hole into my finger the blood under the nail could come rushing out, and I’ve been keeping a band-aid on it because it’s still bleeding : ) She said the nail might fall off, but she wasn’t sure since the entire nail bed hadn’t been damaged, just most of the bottom part. If it doesn’t fall off then a new nail will just grow over it, and it’ll look bad for a while. I laughed at her when she said that apologetically. As if I care what my fingernails look like. It was very exciting minus the loss in sleep. The nurses were very amused that I injured myself with a water jug considering that I work in a manufacturing plant where people actually work in areas where injury is more plausible. They told me I should tell people that I injured myself rescuing someone or saving a kitten from a tree. However I find great amusement in my wound from the break room.

He has taken to sending me funny emails. Here's one from last week:

I wonder if my apt complex would mind if I converted the pool into The Amazing Kent's Ocean Life Extravaganza! I could have sea lions and an orca! Ooo but they don't mix too well, however I'm sure I can train them to be the best of friends. Perhaps they will even play patty-cake together. Tickets will be expensive, and the revenue could pay for my rent plus all the training whistles I could ever want. Now I know what you're thinking, "gee Kent, I don't think anyone could ever have too many whistles," but there is such a thing as too many. If you have too many whistles, eventually the sea lions and orca will get hold of them and start training people. We can't have that happen. I know, I know...you're thinking "Gee Kent, on a government salary how could I ever afford a ticket to TAKOLE [pronounced "Tak-OLE!"] (The Amazing Kent's Ocean Life Extravaganza)?", but don't you worry...your ticket will always be complimentary.

Photos from last week have arrived. See them in the gallery.

Last night I became a college student once more. A few months ago I applied to the University of Houston Clear Lake to start working (in a very part-time fashion) towards a Master of Arts in Humanities degree with a concentration in Applied Graphic Design. I was accepted (UHCL is not Harvard, after all) and started my first class, Graphic Design, last night. I’m a grad student again, just like that.

The class was ok. Standard introductory stuff. In learning the principles of graphic design we will also be learning a lot about Adobe Illustrator, so the class last night was just familiarization with that, and info about the syllabus and book and coursework. It looks like a promising course. It meets once a week on Monday evenings, so that’s what I’ll be doing on Mondays from now through December. I’ll have homework and projects outside of class, so the most pressing struggle at the moment is going to be figuring out a good block of time to set aside each week to work on my assignments.

Graphic design at UHCL isn’t going to get me on the fast track to anything, but after hemming and hawing and thinking that it’s something I’m interested in for more than four years now, I figured it couldn’t hurt to start taking a few classes. UHCL is close, and I get resident tuition (a must since I am financing it myself).

I’m cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

11:44 p.m. last night:

I’ve lived in my apartment complex for three years now. Thirty-six months. For almost 35 of those months, I lived without experiencing any power outages, in fact, nary even a flicker. Suddenly, in the past four or six weeks, it seems that power flickers and outages are becoming a weekly occurrence. At the beginning of August, as I already wrote here, it went out in the middle of the night, taking my alarm clock with it and resulting in my oversleeping a race I’d volunteered to help with. Either right before or right after that, it was out for a half hour or so in the middle of the afternoon, but that was during a thunderstorm so I wrote it off.

I’m moving back to San Francisco.

The end of the story is that I went to bed at midnight and half an hour later everything came back on and scared the crap out of me, jolting me awake.

Houston is just as I left it: hot and sticky.

My calf muscles are so incredibly stiff and tight and it's a bit painful to walk. I'm doing the old lady shuffle in style.

Yosemite is one of my favorite places on Earth.

So much to say, but I will start with the plane flight back last night. I was disappointed to be on the right side of the plane, where I was able to overlook Oakland as we took off but not San Francisco. This fact, however, was more than made up for when I was able to see not only Yosemite and Half Dome from my side of the plane, but Longs Peak silhouetted against the setting sun and storm clouds in the distance as we landed in Denver.

So, what have I done since I last updated...

Thursday night we stayed with Gavin's step-grandmother, Sigvor, in Berkeley. First of all, she's Norwegian, so she speaks with a very cool accent of a foreigner completely fluent in English but retaining the lilt of their native language. She has lived in the US since the 50s, I believe, but is obviously still very attached to Norway.

Rich probably worded it best when he said: "You know how sometimes you meet people, for just a moment, and even though you will probably never see them again, you'll never forget them?" Sigvor is one of those people. She was always smiling, very quick with a joke. She spoke about everything from what it was like living under German occupation in World War II to the time she met Robin Williams and didn't like him very much; it was impossible to stop listening to her talk, even if I had wanted to.

For years, she has been opening her home to visiting Norwegian (and a few other foreign nationalities) students as a sort of short-term "hotel" where they can spend a few nights until they find permanent housing for the year. As a result, there are always students coming and going, with backpacks and sleeping bags covering the basement. She often makes dinner for the group ("I think my dining room table is in photos in half the living rooms in Norway!", she said), though the night we were there was reserved for "family night" and consisted of Sigvor, Gavin, Gavin's parents, Tolief (this year's preferred student to whom Sigvor has rented a room), Rich, and me.

As if it weren't clear after all that, I'll just say that staying with Gavin's grandmother was a real treat. Oh -- and even if she weren't such a cool person, her house is absolutely incredible with a view that covers Berkeley, the Bay Bridge, San Francisco, Alcatraz, the Marin headlands, and far in the distance, the Golden Gate. Awesome house belonging to an awesome person.

So. Friday morning we got up and lazed about Sigvor's house before hitting the road around lunchtime headed for Yosemite. Traffic was heavy through the hills beyond Oakland and into the first part of the central valley of California, but things smoothed out past Modesto and after a late lunch at In 'N Out, we arrived at the Yosemite Bug Hostel around 5:00. After checking in quickly, we headed 25 miles up the road to Yosemite.

The drive to Yosemite is a little misleading -- the scenery, while impressive, gives no hint of what is to come. You drive along mountain roads through the valley formed by the Merced River, taking in hills and pine trees and some outcroppings of granite here and there. You see the sign for "Yosemite National Park" and even get as far as the ranger station still thinking, hmm, this doesn't look all that great so far, just normal run-of-the-mill mountains.

But suddenly, looming in the distance directly ahead of you through the pine trees is an enormous slab of granite. By enormous, I mean more then 3,000 feet tall. El Capitan is an incredibly imposing site, and just as I did when I first saw it three years ago, I couldn't help but say "WOW." As you continue to drive along the valley, El Capitan falls behind you and jagged Sentinel Rock and Glacier Point rise on the right. Finally, you come around a bend and are met with the piece de resistance -- Half Dome. It's amazing at any time of day, but when viewed in the late afternoon as it was when we drove into the park on Friday at about 6:30, the setting sun makes the sheer granite face shine. It is an awesome sight.

We headed back to the hostel after dinner at a pizza place right outside the park entrance (where they forgot about our pizza, so it took much longer than planned). After that it was lights out.

We got up at 6:00 Saturday morning and headed into the park. I'll have many, many photos in the next day or two but for now you'll have to imagine the view as I show you the route we followed! We began at the trailhead to Four Mile Trail that leads to Glacier Point. This trail was first created in 1872 and really was 4 miles long. Today it is 4.5 miles after being lengthened by the National Parks Service to improve some of the steepest sections. Be assured, it is still pretty dang steep in places -- it covers 3,200 vertical feet in only 4.5 miles. Here is the trail, highlighted in blue:

It took us about 3.5 hours to make it to Glacier Point, as we stopped and took many photos of the spectacular view looking west down the valley towards El Capitan, as well as across the valley to Yosemite Falls, which were pretty bare (not much water). We definitely picked the right time of day to do this part of our hike -- this was 85% of the uphill work for the entire day, and it was entirely in the shade, since the sun was shining on the opposite side of the valley.

We reached Glacier Point just before 11:00 and were met with many other tourists, since there is actually a road that goes up there. (This begs the question of why we decided to hike. We hiked because it is fun.) Gavin and I had ice cream at the cafe, and we all took in the marvelous view of Half Dome, Nevada Falls and Vernal Falls (we were finally in a position to be able to look east along the valley). After lingering at Glacier Point for almost an hour, we began the second part of our day, following the 8.5-mile Panorama Trail that passes Illilouette Falls, Nevada Falls, and Vernal Falls on its way back to the valley floor. These 8.5 miles were almost all downhill except for a short section where we had to climb maybe 500 vertical feet back up in order to follow the lip of a canyon.

Zoomed in:

Zoomed out:

The first part of the descent, 2 miles to Illilouette Falls, was very exposed, and I got a bit of sun despite use of sunscreen. In addition, we seemed to be walking through an area that had suffered a fire five or ten years ago. There was a lot of growth on the ground, but most of the trees were dead trunks.

I hadn't inspected the map closely and didn't realize that Illilouette Falls even existed, so they were a pleasant surprise and were really beautiful. Just past the top was where we had to begin the second (thankfully much shorter) ascent of the day. We soon reached the top of the ridge and started our descent to Nevada Falls. As we reached the trail juncture 0.2 miles from Nevada Falls, I suggested we walk over to see the top before retracing the 0.2 miles and heading down to the valley floor. We didn't quite make it to the top though, because we were stopped a few hundred feet from the top just before a rescue helicoptor landed on the rock next to the falls. The hiker who stopped us said someone had died, however, we aren't sure whether he was actually telling the truth or just telling a sick joke. The fact remains that the helicoptor did land. However, we'd seen the helicoptor fly to the top of the falls two previous times that day, and it seems unlikely that three people would need medical help in one day, so I hope it was doing something else.

We headed slowly down the trail towards Vernal Falls below, stopping to take many photos of Nevada Falls as they came crashing over the rock. Vernal Falls is not quite as tall, but still very impressive. We took the mist trail that runs right next to the cascading water, and though there was not as much mist as there was three years ago when Becca and I took that trail, it was still fun.

We finally reached the Merced River and the end of Yosemite Valley at 5:30. Gavin had actually run ahead in the last half mile and had already gotten on the shuttle bus to go back and get the car, so Rich and I cooled our heels on some rocks while we waited for a bit until Gavin returned. We hadn't been too crunched for time, but it was certainly nice and did save us a half hour or so in the end.

After stopping at the store for some dinner, we took the almost hour-long drive back up to the top of Glacier Point, where we had just been 7 hours earlier -- on foot. (Sad, eh? Heh heh.) It was dark when we got there, so we found a good spot, sat down and waited. A spot on the horizon grew lighter and lighter and the clouds began to glow and suddenly the moon slowly climbed above the mountains. It was only one day past full, and the light was dazzling -- no flashlight needed. The light shining off of the granite wall-filled valley was beautiful, and I got some great night photos from the top of Glacier Point, and also from the valley floor after we drove back down. We finally arrived back at the hostel past midnight, exhausted.

Yesterday was simply a day of travel as we drove back to San Francisco (the return trip, minus traffic jams and plus Gavin's lead foot, took a mere 3 hours). We had some time to kill so we drove through the Presidio and Golden Gate Park before heading to the airport for our 4:45 flight. A quick jaunt to Denver and another flight to Houston and we were home just after midnight last night. Of course with the drive from IAH, I didn't get home until after 1 a.m.

And it is hot. And sticky.

From Overheard in New York (and seen on Cassie's blog):

Chick: Hey, did the space shuttle land yet?
Man: No, it's still circling in space endlessly.
Chick: Really, so are they stuck up there?
Man: I'm kidding. It landed last week.
Chick: So did it land in California or at JFK?
Man: JFK? What the hell are you talking about? You mean the Kennedy Space Center, not JFK! I can't believe you're going to be a doctor.

--Overheard at the George Washington Bridge Bus Station

Quick update:

Gavin's public risk sessions yesterday went very well. We met interesting people from ACTA and Aerospace Corp and the FAA and had lots of good discussion.

My presentation this morning went well. I was nervous and I think it showed a little, but overall I got the information across and was able to answer all the questions asked. I got several compliments from attendees, and the room was surprisingly full -- about 40 people, some of whom obviously came just for my topic.

San Francisco still rocks. This afternoon we're renting bikes and riding to the Golden Gate Bridge (along the water where it's not too hilly).

The conference is now officially over and we're off to Berkeley and then Yosemite. I may not (probably won't) get another chance to update until I'm back in Houston on Monday, so adieu!

After the sessions ended for today, Gavin and I ran 3.6 miles (according to the Google Maps Pedometer) along the Embarcadero here in San Francisco and it was one of the loveliest runs of my life. I wasn't wearing a watch or timing myself, but I think we ran for about 40 minutes. I was slightly surprised to see 3.6 miles, but I guess that's possible. My legs and ankles were very stiff at first, and it was a struggle. But the last couple miles felt good; my breathing calmed and my legs stopped aching and while I could have used some bodyglide, life was good.

I have lost a lot of fitness (as well as gained about 5 pounds) in the past month and a half, which makes me sad. I've got to get back on track and get active again!

It was my first run in...I don't even know how long. It felt pretty good! Granted, a lot of that happy feeling is due to being able to run in gorgeous sunny, breezy, cool weather along the San Francisco Bay, watching sea gulls and sailboats and tourists and streetcars.

Life is good.

NASA has a bad habit of making space appear boring.

The luncheon speaker today was from NASA Headquarters, and he spoke for about twenty minutes on the Vision for Space Exploration. He spoke from a canned set of Powerpoint slides, and the tone of his voice exuded detatchment. He seemed more excited when he joked about missing his dessert (which wasn't that good anyway) than he did when he spoke about exploration of the moon and Mars.

The topic was questionable in the first place (speaking about the "nation's interest" and how we are a "world power" and as such must be involved) in a room where a sizable percentage of the audience is not American), but even if I ignored that aspect, I couldn't shake the sinking feeling of listening to someone talk about something that should be exciting! challenging! new! different! and make it sound old. boring. ho-hum. uninspired.

Lately I have seen more and more evidence that NASA needs a spokesperson. NASA needs a PR department. We need to stop using managers to sell our work to the public, and stop using engineers to run our press conferences. Instead, we need a group that can effectively take our message to the media and to the public. Let's stop deluding ourselves into thinking that we can simply give technical presentations and bureaucratic stump speeches and the public will fall across our feet professing that what we are doing is cool and worthwhile.

NASA needs to sell itself! If the military can use recruitment ads, why can't NASA? If the Department of Homeland Security can run TV commercials, why can't NASA? If the Postal Service can sponsor an athletic team, why can't NASA?

Our message is not getting out there via luncheon keynote speeches in dim rooms showing the same set of slides that every manager must get upon arrival and speaking with a twinge of boredom creeping through.

To convince the public, you have to convince yourself. And then sell it.

I'm checking email while watching HBO. A movie was starting, and I had no idea what it was, and then...holy crap! It's So I Married An Axe Murderer. Which we love to quote. Which takes place in San Francisco. Which Rich said he would endlessly quote if we go to Alcatraz. The giant cappuchino cup is currently travelling through the screen, soon to be delivered to Mike Myers. "Excuse me miss? I believe I ordered the large cappuchino? HELLO!"

Life is full of strange coincidences.

The first day of the conference went well. I saw eight presentations, some more interesting than others, but unfortunately the two I wanted to see most were both no-shows. (One was a neural network ballistic propagator that Kara referenced in her thesis and used in doing the background of our paper; the other was a guy from Boeing in Colorado doing debris footprints.) Ron spoke this morning about lunar and martian powered descent. There were also morning and afternoon sessions about a lot of the Return-to-Flight GNC work, including the Rbar maneuver or, as the media referred to it, the shuttle's "back flip" that allowed some of the spectacular photos taken during STS-114. Most of the other presentations I saw dealt with Mars entry and descent, but there was also one very cool one about Venus aerocapture.

Tonight: A's game.

Did I mention how much I adore San Francisco? No?

I love this city.

Five stories below my window, the cable car bell dings and I hear the cables grind as the car moves slowly up California Avenue. We are staying at the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency at the Embarcadero Center, and of course it is lovely. From the window of my room I can't see too much -- buildings, including the Transamerica pyramid. But the other side of the hotel leads to the waterfront, with a great view of the Bay Bridge. The rooms are insanely expensive but we're on the conference group rate. Better yet, AIAA has sprung for free wireless access for all conference attendees, so I can avoid paying $10/day for Internet.

I am amusedly appalled by the assumption that if you can afford to stay in this hotel, you can afford to spend even more money on all the little extras. We have a mini-bar in the room. If you want it cleaned out so that you can simply use it as a fridge, you have to pay $10. We had the car valet-parked, which was a jaw-dropping $41 per day. (The other option, we were told, was $30 per day down the block, with limited access to the car. Tomorrow we must remember to call Roz to see if parking is covered in our travel, otherwise, we'll be looking for cheaper accomodations for the rented Chevy Malibu.)

This morning we had breakfast at the Peninsula Grill in Palo Alto, a place I remember well for their amazing milkshakes. No one had one for breakfast, but the omelette was yummy as well. From there we drove to the Stanford campus where Gavin and Rich indulged my hour-long trip down memory lane. Last night I drove us through campus but the darkness prevented any great views unless you knew what was there and could picture it in your mind; I smiled as we passed my old apartment and I saw the sidewalks and paths where I first started running. This morning we walked through the quad, past the bookstore and student union, around the aero/astro building, and back to the quad. I took many photos, and simply revelled in the cool breeze, warm sun, and the beauty of the sandstone and red-tile rooftops.

I lived there for such a short time that often I feel as if my three quarters at Stanford are just a dream. The streets seemed both familiar and foreign today. Being there as a student three years ago certainly had its bad moments, when I was angry or stressed or sad or scared. But it also lent itself to some of my happier days. I don't remember as many specifics as I thought I might, but I can't shake the ghost of the good times. Nor do I want to.

More than anything else, I simply remember my time at Stanford and in this beautiful area as a time of contentment despite all the other issues I had. I remember many days spent riding home from class, staring up at the brilliantly blue sky, wind in my hair, smile on my face, thinking:

This is it. This moment. This is perfection.

And so it was nice to relive those days today, if only for one hour.

We picked Kara up at the airport just before noon and checked into the hotel. We walked about 2 miles along the Embarcadero, from the hotel to Fisherman's Wharf, where we had lunch (clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl) before heading to Ghirardelli Square for ice cream. I had the most amazing chocolate raspberry sundae -- MMM. We rode the tightly packed cable car from there back to the middle of downtown, and then walked down one of the famously steep hills and through the skyscrapers until we arrived back at our hotel.

We are all a little jet-lagged and about to head towards bed. After all, the conference awaits us bright and early in the morning, and there are a lot of interesting topics on the agenda. Ron's paper is up in one of tomorrow morning's sessions, so I am looking forward to that. Tomorrow night we hope to make it to the A's-Orioles game in Oakland.

I love this city. I love this area. It's good to be back.

8/13/05, 5:58 p.m. PDT
Ah, the beauty of owning a laptop. I sit on a 747 winging my way from Houston to San Francisco (via Denver; we are currently on the second leg). I’ve never been an a 747 before and am amazed/appalled at the size of this thing! If I poke my head out into the aisle and look forward, I can see where the fuselage of the airplane begins to curve towards the nose. With the flight deck up in the 747’s infamous hump, I guess the seats on my level just….end…at the nose of the place. They should really put a window there!

I have only flown United once or twice before, and I had forgotten that they have a channel of the audio system devoted to the Air Traffic Control comm. It’s pretty interesting to listen in, though I’m sure Becca, as a pilot, would understand much more of it than I do. Our call sign for this leg is “United 595 Heavy” and we’ve been doing pretty much the norm. I did hear our pilot request a change in altitude during a prolonged period of “light chop,” and we recently had traffic go past a mile to our left (and at a different altitude), so that was neat. Now that we’re getting pretty close to San Francisco, the comm has really picked up. They’re talking to all sorts of planes, telling departing flights to transfer to LA Center, Oakland Center, etc. Come to think of it, Karen would probably get a big kick out of this as well.

This morning I shot a race down at Galveston Island State Park. I shot it solo, instead of my usual freelancing, so that was exciting. Jay, one of the most active guys in the local running community, asked me to shoot it so that they can put together a photo album for the man who came up with the idea for the race but has recently had health problems and it in the hospital. I was shooting for that purpose, but had quite a few people ask me if the photos would be available online, so I’m going to make it happen. I’m currently about 75% of the way through renumbering all my photos to reflect the bib number of the person pictured – a tedious and manual process that I can think of no way to effectively automate. Anyway, I’ll throw all the photos up on my site and see if I sell any prints!

My ears just popped and the captain said we’d be on the ground in 20 minutes, so I guess that means we’re descending! San Francisco, I’m back!

I just made a reservation for Rich, Gavin, and me to spend tomorrow night at a hotel in Palo Alto.

I can't help but smile when I think about it. Tomorrow night I'll be back in California, back in the shadow of Stanford, back in that beautiful beautiful place. I am so excited that the fact that I will technically be working Monday through Thursday at the AIAA conference doesn't phase me. I'm pumped, I'm gleeful, I'm just plain giddy at the thought of being back in the Bay Area for a week.

We'll stay in Palo Alto tomorrow night, and have dinner at one of the great restaurants. On Sunday morning, I can go for a run up Page Mill Road, and around campus. I'm about to jump for joy at the mere thought of it.

Just before lunchtime, we pick up Kara at the airport and then check into the awesome conference hotel in San Francisco, on the Embarcadero next to the water. We'll spend the afternoon playing tourist, and I can visit the bridge! Monday through Thursday will be spent at the conference (our day-long entry risk session is Wednesday, my presentation on the Mars neural net is Thursday morning), with nights free to go to an A's game, and wander the city.

Thursday night we're staying in Berkeley at Gavin's grandmother's house, which overlooks the bay and the city and beyond. Then we'll spend two nights in Yosemite and be stunned by the beauty. Since I've done Half Dome and it's a more intense hike than we want to do this time, I'm hoping to hike to Glacier Point or Yosemite Falls. Gavin and Rich shouldn't be too hard to convince.

We'll be back late late late on the 21st (or, more accurately, early early early on the 22nd). Extensive photos to follow then, if not before. With my new laptop and the rumored wireless internet available at the hotel, I may be able to update on the go! :)

I'm so excited I can barely stand it!!!

Nick is on his way to Uganda for two weeks. The boy has never even been camping, but he's going to Uganda. We really should have pooled our money to send someone else with him just to document the trip. I doubt that imagination can even do it justice.

This morning I had email from Nick from the airplane. While extremely cool, it does raise questions about his ability to function without technology.

Nick: Phone, e-mail, video game system and 100 movies at each seat. This 'roughing it' thing is easy ;-) I've watched like 3 movies, had 2 meals and slept for hours, and we've still got 2 hours to go. Turkey is pretty.

Me: Perhaps you should cut the cord now. There will be no air email in Uganda.

Nick: WHAT! Will there be a Starbucks? :-)

Me: Oh, well, yeah. They're everywhere. Squat toilets, but no worries, you can still enjoy your white chocolate mocha.

Sheesh. I really hope he doesn't die, or otherwise cause an international incident. I can't wait to hear about it when he gets back.

Last night Sean's wife brought their 4-week-old to the softball game. Everyone is freaking having babies. Tracy is about to burst (she's due within a month). Hilary is pregnant now too. Jen and Gavin make no secret of wanting babies as soon as possible now that STS-121 is finally on the horizon. I don't feel strongly either way about having kids, but I do feel like I missed out on some sort of memo. "Get married, buy a house, start having babies." That one didn't get delivered to me.

In a few years, it'll just be me, Becca and Cari (and maybe Jason) sitting around being bitter about being single. Sigh.

The Astros won last night and everybody else chasing them (the Marlins, Phillies, and Nationals, at the moment) lost, so they've got a 2.5 game lead in the Wild Card race this morning. Crossing my fingers they can hold on to it for another month and a half!

Ok. I am obviously too stupid for networking.

I've got things halfway set up. My desktop and laptop can both connect to the internet, and my laptop can access my desktop. Not through the "standard" method of using the network places panel or anything, but manually: if I click Run -> \\xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (the x's being the IP address of my desktop on the local network), I can get to the desktop.

So. If I have to get it working in only one direction, laptop to desktop is preferred, so at least I'm on the right track. But I'd really like to get it working in the opposite direction as well.

Anybody out there have ideas as to what setting I might have wrong?

Almost a month ago, I ordered a camera lens from Dell. They sell third-party merchandise sometimes, and had a pretty good deal going on this particular lens that saved me $100 over what I'd have to spend elsewhere, so I took advantage and ordered. Well, I guess Dell is not always so good with third party stuff, and about a week after I ordered it, I got an email saying it was backordered.

I figured I'd just wait. There was no rush, I didn't need the lens immediately, so I figured I'd just be patient. It was originally supposed to ship at the end of July, but had been pushed back to August 22.

In the meantime, I read on the photo forum I frequently visit about a guy who took advantage of the same offer, was backordered, then shipped the wrong lens, then told that since the one he wanted was out of stock they couldn't guarantee it, and so he had to send back the wrong lens and couldn't get the new one and wound up extremely unsatisfied with a $50 Dell credit to show for the ordeal.

After that, I reconsidered, and today on a whim I checked the order status of my lens, thinking that I might just cancel the order entirely.

Lo and behold, the order shipped yesterday, and had already been delivered today! Wow! So I expected to find the lens waiting for me when I got home tonight.

Just now, a guy walked into my office with my lens! It got delivered to me at work. The address on the package says:

[Address of my Apartment Complex]
NASA Johnson Space Center
Houston, TX 77058

My home and work zip codes are the same. Still, I find it bizarre that the package made its way to my office instead of my apartment!

Now, best I can figure is that when I ordered a desktop computer more than a year ago, I ordered through the government employee purchase program that Dell has, because at the time it must have been cheaper though that than simply through Dell Home. So they have associated my Dell account with JSC. Thus the package, despite listing the street address of my apartment, came to what was listed underneath it: Johnson Space Center.

Bizarre.

Don't worry Dr. G, I didn't forget.

Happy Birthday Carter!

Last night I headed up to the Juice Box (I can't say that without laughing -- what a dumb nickname for a ballpark) with Jason and Jen to watch the Astros take on the Nationals. It turned into more of a nail-biter than I had hoped, with Brad Lidge giving up two runs in the 9th to make it 7-6 before he finally closed it out for the win. We had a good time, despite the fact that I was feeling quite jet-lagged, without the jet, from all the odd work hours earlier in the week.

The best part of the game was in the 6th inning, when the Nationals inexplicably gave Lance Berkman an intentional walk just to get to clean-up hitter Morgan Ensberg. Yes, Morgan Ensberg, who is in the middle of a monster year, the best of his career. I guess you have to defer to past performance, and Berkman is a more imposing batter over the past few years than Ensberg... but Ensberg is so hot right now. Anyway, the Astros were up 5-4, bases loaded, and Ensberg hit what I first thought was a homer! It didn't quite make it far enough, but it did bounce off the ground and into the restaurant in center field for a ground rule double. It's actually too bad it bounced off the field, as the Astros would have easily cleared the bases and gone up 8-5. As it was, Berkman had to stop at 3rd.

The other interesting note was that Livan Hernandez hit a single, double, and home run for the Nats. And he's a pitcher.

After the game, I tried in vain to set up my home network, wanting to make my laptop see my desktop and vice versa. I failed miserably. Networking makes no sense. I managed to get to the point where my desktop can see my laptop, but not actually connect to it. My laptop, on the other hand, doesn't see anything. I'll try again tonight.

I am surfing the web from the comfort of my couch, shamelessly using somebody else's wireless connection because my own isn't working. Guess I'll have to figure that out...

On Sunday I picked up a wireless router and managed to get it set up through my desktop, you know, in preparation for my new laptop, dum dum dummmmm. :) I'm almost amazed I managed to get it set up at all after the experience I had in the store.

For the first time I can remember, I felt completely baffled by technology. I stood in the aisle staring at row after row of wireless routers, without any true idea of what I needed. "Wireless!" "Wireless with SpeedBooster!" "Wireless with SRX!" Linksys. Netgear. A bunch of other brands.

So: what to get? I'm a fairly computer saavy person, I should know this, right?

I looked around for a 13-year-old. Someone who would understand all the wireless mumbo-jumbo. Instead, all I found the sales guy, who tried to sell me the most expensive router of the section I was perusing. Sigh.

I settled on the middle ground and left feeling like technology has truly started to pass me by. But...but...but...I was the girl who Leila accosted freshman year because I was the first one on the hall that had her email set up!

Wireless. I'm on the internet and there are no wires. Crazy.

Welcome home Discovery. Good to have you back.

Monte Carlo sims finish really fast when you can run them on 44 processors...

As I walked in from the dark parking lot just now, I realized who would make the ideal night shift flight controller -- zombies! They never get tired.

Anyway.

Unlike Sunday night, I had no trouble falling asleep last night, at 8:30 no less. My alarm was set for 3, but Becca called at 1:30 to say that they were about to wave off the landing. I stumbled out to the couch and dozed there watching NASA TV until they did indeed wave off just after 2 a.m. Probably best, as I realized only after Becca expressed some concern over me not being there for the planned deorbit burn just after 3 that in yesterday's haze Rich and I had planned to meet too late.

Back into bed I tumbled until my alarm woke me at 3:50. Called Rich, and we hadn't waved off yet, so I started to get ready. Ten minutes later, we waved off the second KSC opportunity. Sigh. Becca called to let me know, but seeing as how I was already up and dressed, here I am.

We will be landing at Edwards this morning, with its always clear desert weather. Deorbit burn in about an hour and a half and landing at 7:12 CDT. After that, I'm gonna see who I can round up for a trip to IHOP. :)

Just came across a couple fantastic images from the gap filler repair...

Another wave-off. Just got home, and it's off to bed I go until lunchtime...

Well, they just waived off the first landing attempt. Broken clouds at 1,000 feet in Florida. Second opportunity will have us landing at 5:22 a.m. This could be a long night after all...

The clock strikes midnight and all is well. Discovery is closing its payload bay doors. The weather in Florida is good. STS-114 and its crew will soon be on their way home.

I'm at work hoping to finish up my conference paper. Rich is coming in at 2 a.m. and we'll head over to the control center. We're here on standby and if all goes well, we will do absolutely nothing.

I tried to take a nap, and climbing into bed just a bit before 10:00. At 10:30, I was still wide awake and had a repetitive song that would not leave my head, so I decided to head on in. I sit here in the quiet office, drinking my coffee, and listening to the flight loops. There was a note on my desk: "Gavin wuz here, 7 Aug 2005 - 11 pm." I must have missed him by minutes, in fact, I think I saw his car leaving as I was driving in. I wonder if he finished his (our) paper?

I stopped at the grocery store to pick up some coffee creamer and was appalled at how many young children were in the grocery store at 11:00 on a Sunday night. Though, it just now occurs to me that it is summer, so I guess they don't have school tomorrow.

When all is said and done, I will have worked about 16 hours this weekend. I don't mind it so much when I know it is necessary, and feel that I am being productive. This weekend I have felt very productive.

UPS now says my laptop (currently in Mesquite, which is outside of Dallas) is back at a Tuesday delivery, instead of Monday. I suppose I can't complain too much since that's still a week ahead of schedule...

I went to Best Buy this evening to get a wireless router. As I left, I saw a guy in a red polo shirt walking in. The shirt had a Fry's logo stitched onto the chest, and the guy looked like he'd just gotten off work. At Fry's. Walking into Best Buy.

I had to laugh.

My laptop comes on Tuesday! I'm so excited, not to mention impressed with Dell. They totally have the system down -- tell the customer that they'll have to wait 2 weeks before it even ships, but then get it to them early. Give 'em low expectations, then beat them! That always looks better than having to delay. :)

Anyway, I ordered last Tuesday, and it shipped Friday. You can track your order through their website, and I'd been watching all week as it went through pre-production, kitting, building, and then remained stuck in testing for a day. George has been tracking with me (since he was the one who finally prodded me to click the "buy" button), and when he left work on Friday the website still said it was in testing. But Friday night -- shipping prep! And yesterday morning -- shipped, complete with tracking number! It left Nashville, TN on Friday evening...

What did we do before the Internet? Seriously. What did we do before we could track our orders and our packages? I guess we just waited patiently. Patience is so 1980s.

Update: Oooh! Now the UPS page says delivery is scheduled for Monday, not Tuesday! I ordered a laptop and it will have been built, tested, shipped, and in my hands within a week. Capitalism rocks.

Nick's mom is really funny.

I woke up this morning at 8:15 after 10 lovely hours of sleep. (I went to bed at 10:00 last night, tired after a long week and three days spent fighting a cold.)

The problem? I was supposed to wake up at 6:15.

Mysterious forces are conspiring such that I may never actually meet Jon face-to-face. The Maribelle's 5K was this morning and as far as I know, he was planning to run it. I was also going to get a chance to talk to Lance, a local race photographer and editor of a local running publication, about taking photos for him.

I was planning to run as well, but yesterday decided not to because I'm still rather congested and lethargic from this cold. So I emailed Jay, who was organizing the race, and asked if he needed any volunteers. I didn't want to run, but still wanted to meet Jon and Lance. So I told Jay I'd be there at 6:45.

I overslept. Just like for the Lunar Rendezvous Run a month ago. But GET THIS: I overslept because my alarm didn't go off because my power went out at 4 a.m.!!

See what I mean about the mysterious forces conspiring against me?? I went to bed at 10-freaking-oclock. That's a full eight hours of sleep. I'd be hard-pressed to sleep through an alarm after a full eight hours.

Making matters even more bizarre and frustrating is that I actually heard my power go out at 4 a.m. but didn't register what it was. Because of this cold, and having to breathe through my mouth, my mouth has been annoyingly dry all week. Last night I drank tons of water, and woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As I climbed back into bed, I glanced at the clock: it glowed solid and read 3:55. I laid down, and as I was falling back asleep I heard my computer beep as if it had just turned on, and heard the air conditioning skip a beat.

I heard it but didn't think about it until I woke up with the sun streaming in (always a bad sign if you were supposed to be up before the sun). My clock was happily flashing "4:13" and the microwave just said "0." My battery-powered clock, however, said 8:15.

In the three years I've lived here, I can count the number of times the power has blipped out on one hand. Until last night, it had always been during a thunderstorm. It's truly bizarre, I can't get over it.

Next weekend I'm taking photos at a race in Galvestion.

I'm setting every freaking alarm I have.

Jen wrote a post last night/this morning after a coworker said some fairly insensitive comments about women, or "mommies," doing "hard" jobs like flying the space shuttle. While I don't tend to get as worked up about issues like this as Jen or Becca or Jen O, it still amazes me that intelligent people can have such unintelligent opinions.

Yesterday I responded to a swap shop ad looking for "volunteers to assist with trail maintenance and learn about free hiking opportunities on the Lone Star Hiking Trail in Sam Houston National Forest. No experience necessary." The Lone Star Hiking Trail is about an hour and a half north of here, and I've thought about heading up there to hike for a day or two multiple times. It seems like it's the closest thing to a true hiking experience here in Houston. I just haven't made it up there yet, but helping with trail maintenance sounded like something that could be both fun and for the greater good of outdoorsy people everyone.

I emailed the guy who placed the ad, and he called me to let me know more information. He first asked me if I had any experience hiking. "Of course," I responded. "I've hiked in Texas, Colorado, California, Canada, Peru..." He sounded encouraged by this, so I was excited to see what he said next.

Well, he spent the next 10 minutes explaining that I was welcome to come help if I want to but that 1) most of the people are older than me and 2) most of the people are male.

I didn't see how either of those things would bother me.

But he continued: I could come help if I want, but usually women aren't interested in doing the labor in the woods. He goes in with a chainsaw and another guy goes in with a little 4-wheeler to clear trash, etc, and most women don't want to do that. And oh, that there are actually two clubs, and he belongs to this one, but I might want to look into the other one because if I was really interested, oh, the other one tends to attract more women. And that they don't do as much trail maintenance because the women aren't interested in that.

His attitude totally killed my interest at the time, so I just said I'd get back to him and hung up.

What makes a person take that attitude with someone they've never met, and someone whose interest in hiking and trail maintenance they know nothing about? I've never done any work like that before, but it doesn't mean I'm not interested or willing. Why would I have contacted him, when ad clearly said "trail maintenance and hiking," if I wasn't interested in trail maintenance and hiking??

Cassie tagged me with this little running quiz, so here we go:

Q: What are you training for now?
Nothing in particular, in fact, I am horribly bad at running consistently during the summer. Lately I have been so busy that I'm always tired, and the past couple days I've actually been sick with a cold. Boo. However, I am planning to run the 8K held along with the Marine Corps Marathon at the end of October (my friend Buzz is running the marathon, I'm going along for the fun). I also plan to run the Houston Half Marathon in January, and I'll probably start training "seriously" for that in late September. I say "seriously" in quotes because I don't really train for a certain time. I just train to cover the distance without hurting myself!

Q: If you are raising money for a cause, what is it and why is that cause important to you?
I have not done anything like Team in Training, though I considered joining when I was training for the marathon last year. I ended up training on my own. I have, however, ridden in the MS150 for two years in a row and plan to do so again in 2006. I don't know anyone with MS, but it feels good to raise money for a good cause.

Q: What is the farthest distance you’ve run in your training and what is the farthest distance you will run before your event?
My farthest training run ever was the 22-miler I did three weeks before I ran the 2005 Houston Marathon (my one and only marathon so far). A lot of training plans top out at 18 or 20, but I'm very glad I chose to go a bit farther. The 22-miler was far more hellish than the marathon itself. When I start training for the half this fall, my longest training run will probably be a 12 or 13-miler. I'd like to improve on my time from the 2004 Houston and Austin Half Marathons (2:15 and 2:16), but that'll take some work.

Q: What is your favorite flavor of gu? (or other sports gel)
I haven't experimented with them much, but I did use them on my long training runs and during the marathon. I didn't try different kinds, I just went with the first brand I tried since I liked it well enough -- CarbBoom in apple cinammon or vanilla orange (the latter has caffeine).

Q: How many days a week do you run?
During the summer (i.e. now), one day per week if I'm lucky and the weather cooperates. I overheat very easily, so I spend a lot of time in the summer inside on the elliptical machine or riding my bike (at least there's a breeze on a bike). During the winter, I try to run 3-4 days per week, and on the other days I usually have something scheduled like a softball game, soccer game, or rock climbing. While training for the marathon, I ran 4 days per week.

Q: Are you injured in any way right now? If so,what are you doing about it?
Yes, mildly, and it's one of the reasons I've been even lazier than usual. I have an overuse injury in my right knee that has been nagging me for months. In April I finally went to the orthopedic doctor who gave me a brace to wear each time I was active for 8 weeks. I went back in June and my knee hadn't gotten any better, but hadn't gotten any worse either. I had an MRI and it's basically just inflammation and tendonitis causing a lovely bump on top of my kneecap. No scoping necessary, just time. He offered a cortisone shot, but I declined for the time being. It hasn't really gotten any better though despite me not doing much (it bothered me last Saturday at the Urban Adventure Race) so I may go back in another month or two and see if a cortisone shot helps.

Q: what is one item of running clothing/gear (shoes don’t count) you can’t run without?
A t-shirt. Sounds silly to say, but it's true -- you will never see me running in just a sports bra, or even in a sleeveless shirt or tank top. I like having sleeves, and I sweat enough that I like to be able to wipe my face on my sleeves.

Q: Do you have a talisman you are planning on taking to your event? If so, tell us!
Nope. But I do keep reminders of each race. I made a quilt out of the t-shirts from the first 30 races I ran, and have the bib numbers from every race hanging in my bathroom (odd place for them, but it's motivating).

Q: Share one thing about yourself we don’t know.
I have a secret desire to kill Gavin. Ok, fine, I just said that because he's standing here laughing at my sad Monte Carlos. Anyway, I was 7th chair flute in All-State Band my senior year of high school. It was very important to me at the time, but now doesn't seem like that big a deal.

I've been reading the blog of a former coworker now spending time in Paris, and he had a great bit today:

"I discovered a new church, a gothic cathedral practically hidden by the surrounding apartment buildings, next to the gym. It is named "Saint Merri" for a famous French abbot. The church was built in 1550 and has stained glass and oil paintings from the 13th century. It is a completely forgotten church - there isn't even a parish there anymore, just a weekly gathering of Catholic "modernists" who gather to support Human Rights. In any other city this cathedral, complete with flying butresses and classic gothic architecture, would be a jewel. In Paris it is a forgotton unused storage space with some renegade liberals running an outreach program."

Ah. I need to get out of the country. I went abroad for the first time in 2001. This year will be the first year since that I haven't left the U.S. at least once. It's a bit sad. Perhaps I'll find a cheap cruise to Mexico or something this fall.

Oh, and my laptop is already kitted, built, and in testing phase. Next comes boxing, and shipping. Whee!

I was just offered a fantasy baseball trade of (from his team) Carlos Guillen, Odalis Perez, Doug Davis, and Greg Aquino for (from my team) Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Chris Carpenter, and Francisco Rodriguez.

I think he's just checking to see if I'm alive. I haven't exactly been active in the fantasy baseball world this season since both my teams SUCK.

Rejected.

On a related topic, check out the dumbest rules in sports.

Who's watching NASA? These guys. It's neat to see which news agencies are paying attention, and how closely they're watching.

I think I would be a great space reporter.

I'm sick. Boo. I had a sore throat all day yesterday and went to bed early last night, but still woke up with a sore throat. A stuffy head and general achiness have now joined the list of symptoms as well.

Sadly, and sadly fortunate, is that I'm not so sick that I needed to stay home from work. I have so, so much to do this week. It's already Wednesday. Yikes.

Matt and Gavin are getting new computers at work today. I'm jealous. I have another year to wait before I'm scheduled for "refresh." We get new computers every three years...

Speaking of computers: I bought a laptop yesterday. From Dell. Using a coupon that gave me $750 off a system that was $1899 or more. So I designed a laptop that cost exactly $1900 and bought it for $1150. Yay! It's a far nicer laptop than I'd originally planned on getting, and I spent about $300 more than I'd planned to. But I couldn't resist the deal. For $300 more, I got a laptop worth $1000 more. I know that's exactly how Dell wants you to think about it, because I spent more and thus they made more. And obviously if they can sell a $1900 laptop for $1150, it wasn't really worth $1900 in the first place.

But hey, I get what I want and Dell gets what they want. I'm a sucker for a deal. Dell should love me. So it's in production. The estimated ship date is 8/16, but based on George's experience when he ordered his laptop a while ago, I'm hoping on the off-chance that it arrives before I go to San Francisco. I doubt it will, but maybe.

I think I have a serious addiction to electronics and technology.

Fun with Google Maps:

Here is the route we ran for the first two checkpoints of the adventure race on Saturday.

And here is the route we biked for the middle 3 checkpoints.

And here is an approximation of the route we ran for the last 4 checkpoints.

Here is the location of the Houston Art Society's Inversion House that I finally checked out last night. It is very strange and very cool.

The article about the Keyhole Route up Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park appeared in the Denver Post today. I'm quoted in the couple paragraphs at the end! :)

Perilous Ascent by Steve Lipsher

The reporter quoted me literally word-for-word. I could've been more eloquent, but ah well. Cool!

The best reaction came from Rich, who also went on the trip (which was exactly one year ago):

"That is SOOOOO cool! But if I would have seen the pictures in this story beforehand, and read about how many people have died, I probably wouldn't have gone..."

Juty duty was excruciatingly boring. I sat on the floor for 3 hours, because most of the seats except in the middle of the rows were taken. The jury assembly room is this huge auditorium-like space. There had to have been 700-800 people there (no exaggeration). After an hour of checking in and milling around, they called 6 groups of 65 but didn't get to my number. The 500 of us left in the room continued to sit. At 11:00 an officer came in and told us that we were all dismissed. Yeah!!

So I had to get up an hour earlier than usual, fight rush hour traffic, pay $8 to park and sit for 3 hours. In return, I will receive $6 for my service. Sigh. The only cool part was discovering that lo and behold, there actually is life downtown. The streets were bustling at 8:00 when I arrived and at 11:00 when I left. I'd never been downtown in the middle of the workday before. It felt very big-city-ish (yes, I know Houston is a big city, but you know what I mean) and was sort of fun.

So jury duty was, in summary, sitting on the floor for three hours, editing my AIAA abstract (which will be fleshed out into my paper) and watching horrid Fox News.