January 2010 Archives

While I was at my parents' house in Charlotte for Christmas, I pulled about 10 boxes of old slides down from the dusty shelves of one of the bedroom closets. After taking them all out of the carousels and packing them up snugly in a box, I sent them off to ScanCafe, a company that will scan old photos and slides for you.

Me circa 1979

I was slightly nervous about this, and my parents even more so -- the thought of sending all these slides, some of them as much as 30 years old, into the void was intimidating. But they'd been sitting in boxes, untouched for years. And MAN, I really wanted those photos. And digitizing is even better, since we can all have our own copy.

At my grandparents' (mom's side) mobile home in Myrtle Beach, circa 1979

So off the box went in early January to California, where the company processed the order and sent the slides on to India. INDIA!! Our cherished memories were going halfway around the world, and what if they disappeared??

Mom circa 1979 (cool jacket, Mom!)

But realistically, none of us were ever going to take the time to scan them. And even if I did, the task would probably never be completed. At least not in THIS decade. So they would have likely remained in their boxes up on the top shelf of the closet for another 30 years.

Grandmother (dad's mom) near the barn in Pennsylvania

Yesterday, almost a month after the slides were put into the hands of UPS and ScanCafe, I got an email telling me the scans are online!

Pumpkin Carving with Dad, circa 1979

I get to flip through them all, and mark the ones that I don't want to keep, but who am I kidding, I'm keeping them ALL. Then after finalizing the order, they ship the originals back with the scans on DVD.

The twins, looking surprised

Unfortunately for Katie and Brian, the slides are mostly of me, then David and me. My dad appears to have given up the slide hobby shortly after the twins were born.

David, Brian, Katie, and Me circa 1983

But man, the results are SO AWESOME. I almost broke into tears when I started looking through them -- all these awesome photos, all these memories of my childhood. I'm so, so happy we decided to ship them off for scanning, and I'm so, so happy that we're all going to have these photos to keep. I'll hold final judgment until we have the DVDs in hand, but at the moment this is looking like the best $277 I've ever spent.

I am not a huge fan of pastries. Donuts? Cinnamon buns? Most baklava? Powered sugar-covered anything? Yech. I can't really take it. It's not the dough; it's the sugar. Too much concentrated sugar, too much glaze, too much sweet sticky syrupy stuff.

But here in Texas, we have MEXICAN bakeries. Who sell MEXICAN pastries. And they are oh-so-delicious. No glaze, no syrup, no overwhelming sweetness. Just yumminess. Every time we visit Corpus (or they come here), Jose's mom gets us a big box of stuff from La Michoacana, which is down the road from her house. You can eat most of the items for either breakfast OR dessert.

So when we went to Mi Tierra for lunch last Saturday in San Antonio, I thought that their panaderia (bakery) was pretty much the most awesome thing that I'd seen all week.

The smile on my face is because I'm thinking about all the pastries I'm going to get after I finish my tacos. (Hmm. Perhaps I should have skipped the tacos to have more room for sweet breads. Oh well, too late. The tacos were yummy too.)

And here's the other thing. Mexican pastries are super cheap! When I lived in my old apartment, there was a Mexican bakery down the street and when my mom visited, she'd stop there each morning when she got back from walk. You can get a whole bag of sweet bread and assorted goodies for something like $2.

YUM.

After a day of shopping and eating in San Antonio, we decided we should take in some Texas history before we headed back home. I'm about to admit my ignorance, but oh well: until this weekend, I thought the Alamo was the ONLY mission in the area.

(Picture me ducking as the native Texans throw things at their computers.)

Anyway, it turns out that the Alamo is only one of FIVE missions strung along the San Antonio river, each a couple miles from the next, and together they make up the San Antonio Missions National Historical Park. The Alamo is certainly the most famous of these, but of course its fame comes not from its days as an active mission, but rather from about 50 years after the Spanish and Franciscans had "secularized" it, when a small group of Texans took a stand against General Santa Anna. However, the other four missions are arguably much prettier than the Alamo, and they are all home to active Catholic parishes that hold regular services in their churches.

Mission Concepcion

Our first stop was Mission Concepcion, which is only a couple miles south of the Alamo. (The Alamo, if you've never been, is smack dab in the middle of downtown San Antonio, so it's kinda hard to miss!) Mission Concepcion was advertised as the most well-preserved of the missions, having avoided much of the wear-and-tear -- and use as a bullseye for target practice by various armies -- that affected the other missions after they were secularized in the late 1700s and given back to the Indians.

Corridor at Mission Concepcion

Sadly, the church is closed for renovation through March, so we didn't get to view the interior, where there are still remnants of the original frescos. We did enjoy wandering around the grounds though, and the weather was beautiful, but with the church closed, we quickly headed another couple miles down the road to Mission San Jose.

Church at Mission San Jose

Mission San Jose is called the "Queen of the Missions" since it's the largest in the area, and it underwent significant restoration in the 1930s. The park's main visitor center was located just outside the gate, and the entire mission compound including outer walls, gates, church, and granary was there to give a really good idea of what things looked like in the 1700s.

Gate to Mission San Jose

You can see in this photo from the gate that there was a lot of empty space in the middle of the compound. This is where the missionaries and natives would hold classes (both to learn religion and to learn new skills), store their crops, slaughter animals for food, and just hang out. The purpose of the missions wasn't just to convert the natives to Christianity. Instead the Spanish and Franciscans had a clear plan -- convert the natives, yes, but also develop their skills and turn them into productive, tax-paying Spanish citizens.

The natives lived in rooms all along the outer wall of the compound. One of the more interesting things I learned was that most of the natives came to the mission willingly. Many of them were from the Coahuilteco tribe, and were attracted to the mission because it offered a steady supply of food as well as protection from enemy tribes. The Lipan Apache, and later the Comanche, often pushed south from the Great Plains to attack groups in the San Antonio area. The protection offered by the Spanish to weaker tribes if they came into the mission must have been pretty tempting.

Fresco remnants

It must have been a pretty awesome sight to come upon one of the missions in their heyday. We're so used to seeing plain stone churches today that I forgot that the churches were much more colorful when they were built. Frescos covered the entire facade of the church when it was built.

Granary at Mission San Jose

Immediately outside the walls of the mission were the fields where they'd grow all of the crops. When they were harvested, they were brought to this building, the granary, which was located in one corner very close to the church.

Extending from the back of the church was a great series of arches. Originally this was the convento, or "priest's residence", so there were many rooms on two floors.

There was also a courtyard located right off the back of the church and beside the convento where the mission residents could gather before and after church each day.

We had a really nice time wandering around Mission San Jose and I learned a lot. It inspired me to learn more about Texas history; after all, I've lived in Texas for almost 8 years (and that doesn't even count my co-op years) so it's probably time I took some pride in that, right? Right??

Flags outside the Institute of Texan Cultures

There are two other missions farther down the river but we ran out of time on this trip, so we'll save them for next time. Our final stop before hitting the road back to Houston was the Institute of Texan Cultures. When he was a kid, Jose's class took a field trip to San Antonio and they visited this museum. Somehow it really stuck in his mind, because he has mentioned it every time San Antonio comes up in conversation, so of course we had to go.

The museum is divided into sections according to the culture -- and I'm not just talking about the natives, the Spanish, and the French. They also had extensive sections covering pretty much any group of immigrants that ever ended up in Texas, including everyone from Germans (who famously settled in and around Fredericksburg in the hill country) to Swedes to Lebanese. There were so many cultures and so many stories to take in that it was actually overwhelming. We stayed there for about an hour and a half, but it would take days to actually read all of the information.

Here's the entire set of photos from our weekend in San Antonio, for your enjoyment:

Many of you have already heard of The Pioneer Woman, a woman who gave up city life and moved to a ranch in Oklahoma after falling in love with a cowboy. She has a completely fabulous website full of great photography, yummy recipes, funny stories of life on the ranch, and other awesomeness. I came across her blog last summer and have been reading ever since (along with thousands of others, I might add).

I put her recently released cookbook on my Christmas list, and my sister was excellent enough to get it for me. I finally cracked it open last night and started with her infamous linguine with clam sauce. (If you want to know why it's infamous, you can read her story.)

First I read through the whole recipe, which in itself is impressive since I have a rather bad habit of NOT reading the entire recipe before beginning to cook something. (That gets awkward when I realize I'm all out of some key ingredient.) That's how I knew to save the clam juice! And yes, I used canned clams. I used canned and dried ingredients mostly, which is probably not ideal, but hey -- next time I'll go for the fresh stuff.

I thought I could both cook the pasta and make the sauce at the same time, because cooking pasta is just not that hard. But it turns out I'm not so good with the multi-tasking and timing of multiple items in the kitchen quite yet. Fortunately Jose had just gotten home from class, so I gave him the pasta monitoring duties.

Shortly thereafter, it was done! And it was delicious! And look at me, I even got all inspired to take some photos, although mine certainly don't compare to the ones in the book.

I'll definitely make this recipe again, because as yummy as it was, I think it can be even better. First of all: more clams! I didn't specify what size cans I needed when Jose went grocery shopping, so I only had about 2/3 the amount of clams that the recipe called for. Also, as I already mentioned: fresher stuff! I used garlic from a spice jar instead of actually mincing up a fresh clove and I used dried basil because we didn't have the parsley the recipe called for. I don't think this really hurt anything, but it wouldn't hurt to use the fresh stuff -- especially the parsley.

Overall verdict: YUM.

I've got a blog entry brewing in my head about the rest of our San Antonio weekend, and pictures to share. I've also got a blog entry to write about the incredible hotel I stayed in last week in California, as I mentioned earlier. But I have no time to write them. It's only Tuesday, but over the past 48 hours I have been utterly SWAMPED with work and personal obligations. On top of that, my brain seems to have deserted me -- I forgot both my clinic appointment yesterday, which I need to renew my flight physical for the Vomit Comet, and an appointment I had yesterday evening with my freelance client. The clinic incident was rather absurd, given that I had already been to the clinic first thing in the morning to have my blood drawn. How hard is it to remember to go back 4 hours later?! Fortunately they were ok with me arriving 25 minutes late. However, realizing at 7:30 that I had forgotten about my 7:00 appointment left me in a profusely apologetic panic, made worse by the fact that I am already behind on the work I am doing for their website. On top of that, there are at least 5 different items at work that have converged on the next couple weeks, as such projects are wont to do.

SIGH.

Anyway, to tide you over for today, here are 3 random photos taken with my iPhone.

That flag was in the corner of the waiting room at the JSC clinic. I downloaded a new iPhone app, Hipstamatic, after seeing a couple photos using it on Laurie's photostream. It's neat. The iPhone photos are low-res enough that I find that some sort of post-processing often makes them more appealing to me.

Last night's sunset was pretty. I managed to take a few seconds to enjoy it before I went back to my state of frazzled-ness.

Finally, here's a picture of an egret sitting on top of somebody's car in the parking lot across from building 4. Oh, you crazy NASA wildlife...

I've now spent 4 of the past 7 nights in 3 different hotels in 3 different cities. MAN, that sounds so cosmopolitan of me! There was last Saturday night, spent in downtown Houston at the Four Seasons before the half marathon. Then there were Monday and Tuesday nights, spent at the Mission Inn in Riverside while I was visiting my Vomit Comet teams (and there is a whole blog entry to come about that place). And now last night and tonight are being spent at La Mansion del Rio on the Riverwalk in San Antonio!

(And after this, we'll be staying home for a while because hotels don't grow on trees, you know.)

The "weekend getaway" idea was hatched a couple months ago when we noticed that the Rockets would be traveling down I-10 to play the Spurs last night. "Hmm, that sounds like a great excuse for a mini-vacation in San Antonio," we thought. And so it was. We left yesterday afternoon, checked into the hotel, and headed straight to the basketball game. The AT&T Center was a really nice arena with both more variety and better prices than the Toyota Center. There was a huge bar area where you could 1) purchase a beer for less than $7, which is amazing at a sports arena these days and 2) take your pick of a least 15 different beers, including the non-Budweiser variety! (I had a St. Arnold's Amber. At a sporting event. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure you can't find St. Arnold's at Houston sporting venues despite the brewery being IN HOUSTON.)

I've got to give the Spurs fans credit as well -- they were great fans. On their feet during the intros, cheering wildly only 2 minutes into the game, and so on. Too bad for them that the ROCKETS WON. Oh yeah. It was a great game, a nailbiter at the end, and a great win for the Rockets. They really needed a boost after some of their recent performances. There were lots of Rockets fans that had the same idea as us, and we saw lots of red shirts both at the game and on the Riverwalk afterwards.

El Mercado

This morning we relaxed in our hotel room for a while before heading out for a full day of shopping. I'm amazed to report that we actually didn't buy much -- just a ceramic spoon rest (I know, random) and some awesome pastries from the Mexican bakery in Mi Tierra. The weather could not possibly be any nicer, and it's been awesome walking around in the bright sun and perfect temperatures, especially after all the cold weather of a couple weeks ago. The coolest part of the afternoon was when we stopped in a small museum, on the spur of the moment, after seeing a banner advertising an exhibit by an artist that Jose recognized: Jesse Trevino. As we paid our admission fee, the woman at the desk told us that Trevino, who grew up in San Antonio, was actually in the museum already leading a group on a tour of his art!! We were able to join in and listen to him talk about his paintings, which was totally cool and unexpected.

Tomorrow we plan to get cultured -- after all, San Antonio really seems to be the cultural center of Texas (in my opinion) -- before heading back to Houston!

There are so many things that I want to share from my 36 hours in southern California that I barely know where to begin! It was really a fantastic trip. Each of the previous times I have mentored Vomit Comet teams, there hasn't been enough money available for us to travel to visit our schools, so I didn't quite know what to expect from this trip. I was a little nervous about "clicking" with the teachers and the students, and covering the questions about their experiment that we needed to discuss. But of course I shouldn't have worried at all. Every teacher I have ever met who has a relationship with NASA...well, they've all just been exceptional and inspiring people.

My day started at my hotel, which you will hear MUCH more about tomorrow. I got in late on Monday night after my flights were delayed due to bad weather out west and I had to get up super early to get to the first of the two schools that make up my team. The two schools are about 60 miles apart, one in Huntington Beach and one in Moreno Valley. I stayed in Riverside, which was much closer to Moreno Valley, so I had to make the drive down to Huntington Beach and still get to the school by about 8:30 am! Fortunately I managed to time everything wonderfully, and traffic cooperated, and I arrived right on time. The drive was actually kind of pretty, despite the weather -- it's just sooooo darn nice to see some hills!

I arrived at the school and immediately saw this sign next to the front door! That was so cool; I loved it! It immediately put me at ease, and I was no longer worried about whether the trip would be productive. It's always nice to feel welcome. I spoke with the principal for a few minutes (she will be traveling to Houston along with the two teachers) and then went down the hall to meet the kids and see their experiment! There are about 20 5th graders participating from this school, and they are investigating buoyancy and static electricity while learning about the periodic table and concepts like atomic mass.

I spent about 20 minutes just answering their questions about NASA and space, and then they showed me their experiment. It involves four balloons each filled with one gas: carbon dioxide, nitrogen, argon, and helium. Helium is the only one that floats in normal gravity, while the others sink to the ground because their atomic mass is heavier. The kids are predicting how things might change in zero gravity, and whether the balloons will float or sink, and whether they'll do so faster or slower. It's a simple experiment (one for which I'm sure you can all guess the outcome), but it's perfect for elementary school kids. After they headed off to recess, I was able to talk to the teachers to take care of all the technical details and paperwork-type stuff that NASA needs.

After an hour and a half at the school, it was time to drive back towards Moreno Valley to visit the second school. I stopped for lunch at a VERY crowded Panera, mainly because I wanted their free wi-fi. It started to rain while I was there, but I didn't think much of it. I left with 25 minutes to spare, knowing that the GPS had told me I needed 15 minutes to get to the school. I hopped in the car and got on the highway and immediately hit a snag. Traffic was just crawling -- and it wasn't even raining that hard! I was mentally making fun of the LA drivers who can't handle the rain when all of a sudden, it started POURING. As in: torrents of water gushing out of the sky, covering the roads, and making it next to impossible to see anything.

Here's that part where I must pause to mention my rental car. I had a reservation for a compact car, but when I arrived, the agent asked me if I wanted to upgrade to a full-size car for only $1 more. "That's ok," I replied, "a Yaris or Aveo is fine, it's just me." She typed for a minute or so. "Are you suuuure?" she asked again. It was late. I was tired. And I just wanted to get to my hotel and get some sleep. "Ok, fine, I'll take a full-size car," I said.

And here's the part where she said "oh, I tell you what I'll do -- I'll give you a new 2010 Mustang! It'll be great."

And that is how I ended up in a convertible that 1) I couldn't use because it rained both days I was there, 2) was so low to the ground that I could barely see anything when the rain came pouring down and 3) had a canvas roof that sounded like it would be ripped apart when the hail began.

Hail? Oh yes. While I was driving 20 mph down the highway because I couldn't see 10 feet in front of me through the rain, it started HAILING.

At that point, I stopped making fun of California drivers.

I finally got to the school only a few minutes late, except my arrival coincided with school letting out for the day, which coincided with a hundred parents wading through the rivers of water flowing down from the foothills to pick up their kids. I sat outside the school in traffic for a full half hour before I made it into the parking lot. WHEW.

Finally, I made it out of the car and into the library where the 4th and 5th grade science club was anxiously awaiting me. After another Q&A session, they showed me their experiment, which involves taking some toys into microgravity and predicting how they will behave. One of their toys is a balloon rocket car, which they were testing on a wooden track. Another simple experiment that's well suited for elementary kids.

I ended the day by going out to dinner with four teachers from the second school. They have flown a couple experiments in years past and have a solid group of teachers that have developed a great relationship with NASA and with their school district. They actually have a WAITING LIST of kids who want to be in the science club but can't because there's no room -- how awesome is that, that the demand for science is so great?! One of the teachers even talked about how she had come up with a new project for the wait-listed kids to work on.

It was so cool to see teachers who are so excited about getting their kids hooked on science and math. I can't wait till they get to Houston to fly their experiments!

I'm in the Los Angeles area for two nights and one day to visit with a team of elementary school teachers that I'm mentoring for their upcoming flight on the Vomit Comet this spring. I flew out last night and landed in Ontario, California, a city I had never heard of until I discovered that it was much closer to Moreno Valley, and thus would save me the 90-mile drive from LAX! I am actually working with two schools, one in Moreno Valley and one in Huntington Beach, so I still have some LA driving ahead of me today.

I flew Southwest, an airline that I seldom even consider for personal travel since 1) they don't fly to one of my common destinations (Charlotte) and 2) I greatly dislike their "cattle call" boarding policies. If you don't check in 24 hours before your flight, you risk getting in boarding group B or worse, which pretty much means you'll be stuck in the middle. And people in general are just unreliable and annoying when faced with having to make a quick choice of seat after actually getting on the plane. In any case, I prefer being able to actually select my seat online well before the flight.

But on the flip side, if you do manage to check in early, there are advantages. I only made it into group B for the first flight from Houston to Las Vegas, but made it high into Group A for my connecting flight from Las Vegas to Ontario. The result? I snagged what is the best seat on the plane, in my humble opinion: window seat, exit row, with no seat in the row in front of me! Hellooooo, leg room. That was nice to have, since my legs are still recovering from the half marathon and were starting to bark at me after the cramped quarters of the first flight.

(Observation: people travel to Las Vegas in packs, and are quite chatty. Everyone on the plane seemed to know at least 3 other people, and the volume of conversation was higher than any other flight I can remember being on. It wasn't annoying, but I did find it interesting.)

I should also give Southwest credit for one of the most comfortable airport terminals I've seen in quite a while -- their terminal at Hobby. All flights into and out of Las Vegas were delayed due to bad weather, so I spent almost 2 extra hours sitting in the terminal. I found myself a nice spot in a plush armchair next to a stand full of power outlets, got 2 hours of free wifi, and went to work. It was the most comfortable flight delay I've ever experienced.

As for the weather, I fully recognize the irony of coming to southern California for 36 hours, only to find that it is expected to be rainy with a temperature in the 50s the whole time.

I ran my 6th Houston Half Marathon this morning in 2:24:32. Not too shabby, and I'm really happy with my result! I've been trying to remember how many half marathons I've now run, and I've lost track! Off the top of my head, I named at least 6 more: Austin, Surfside, the fall Houston Half, and Seabrook at least 3 times. Oh -- Charlotte! That makes at least 13. And of course there was a half marathon at the end of my half ironman, so that's 14, in a way.

Point being: the half is where it's AT! I love the half. It's long enough that I really feel like I accomplished something, but short enough that I don't end up wishing I were dead. ;)

Jose and I stayed downtown at the Four Seasons last night, just because it's fun to have an "in town" vacation and spend the night in a hotel. We drove down yesterday afternoon, checked in, and walked over to the convention center to pick up my packet. I resisted buying the shirt pictured above, mainly because it didn't look like it would fit me, but I just could not resist buying a green tech tee that says "I'm only doing this so I can post a picture on Facebook." We spent the rest of the night relaxing in the hotel room, splurging on room service for dinner and a way overpriced pay-per-view showing of Julie and Julia. (It was good, but made me want to eat!)

View from our hotel room today

We were up at 5 a.m. this morning and out the door at 5:45. I had my now-standard race day breakfast of instant oatmeal, made with a pitcher of hot water that they brought me for free since our room didn't have a coffee maker. (Side note: the Four Seasons was nice and all, but the room wasn't anything above rooms I've stayed in before. The service, however, was exceptional.) Jose walked over to the convention center with me, where we met John, Melissa, Matt, and Melissa's dad. Melissa and Matt were running the half, while John and Mr. P were running the full. We hung out for a bit then headed to the start line.

I wasn't really paying attention to how far back we were, and it turns out we were towards the back of the black wave. The result was that we had a LOT of weaving to do -- it was more crowded than I remember it being before, and it took a lot longer for the crowd to thin out. It didn't help that people were walking in the middle of the road. I don't have a problem with walking whatsoever; after all, I do some walking myself. But if you're going to walk, you should 1) move to the edge of the road and 2) DON'T walk 6 people abreast in the middle of the road, thus clogging up the entire road behind you!!

Anyway, so it was crowded. I ran with Melissa and Matt for the first 5 miles, at which point Matt slowed his pace a bit. We only covered the first two miles at 12:00 pace due to the crowds, but were able to speed up after that. I stayed with Melissa for another mile, long enough to pass Kelly and Mrs. P cheering for us just before the 6 mile mark. I made it through 6 miles without walking at all, but I started my run/walk regimen at that point and continued for the rest of the race while Melissa went on ahead. Interestingly, the run/walk didn't slow me down -- in fact, I sped up for the next few miles! I crossed the 10K mark in 1:09 (11:07 pace), but by mile 9 I had lowered my average pace to 10:55! I did slow over the last couple miles (still run/walking) but still finished with an average pace of 11:02.

After the race, I found Melissa and then met Jose in the reunion area. We couldn't find Matt, and eventually had to abandon him for the time being to walk back over to Rusk about a quarter-mile from the finish. We saw both Mr. P and John run past on their way to excellent finishes and finally met up with everyone one more time at the convention center. From there, Jose and I headed back to the hotel where I took an awesome shower, and then it was back to League City!

Overall it was another fun year at the Houston Marathon and Half Marathon, and I hope to be out there again next year!

I know where I'll be one night in March: in line at the movie theater to see Hubble 3D! (I've embedded the preview here, but it looks ten times better if you click the link above and view the trailer in HD.)

I spent some time catching up on my RSS feeds last night and was interested and mystified to read this post on the Wired Science blog: the San Francisco Pier 39 sea lions have disappeared! They were a big tourist attraction at the already touristy pier. Whenever anyone came to visit during the year I was at Stanford, we inevitably went to check out the sea lions and laugh as they lazily lounged on the pier, occasionally sounding an "arf arf arf" to their sea lion buddies. The last time I saw them was in 2005 when I was in San Francisco for a work-related conference. The piers weren't teeming with sea lions at that particular time, as you can see, but there was still a crowd.

They first arrived in 1990 and have been a constant presence, in growing numbers, for 20 years. Last year, they set a new record for the number of sea lions there -- and now, just as abruptly, they left! This fascinates me. Did they just get tired of the area? Did the number of fish go down? Did they decide they were tired of fog?? So strange!

The Pier 39 website is optimistic, saying they expect the sea lions to return later this year, but the quotes in the Wired article indicate that marine scientists really don't know much about them, and can't promise anything. Maybe they'll return; maybe they won't.

And a couple days ago, USA Today reported that the sea lions have been found -- 500 miles north in a cove full of anchovies! Of course they don't know for sure if the sea lions that suddenly showed up in Oregon in December are the same animals that suddenly left San Francisco in November, but it seems highly likely.

So I may have mentioned this once or twice (or thirty times) before, but Jose's family is quite large. This in itself is not necessarily remarkable, until you consider the fact that they all -- and I mean ALL -- live in Corpus Christi. And they love -- and I mean LOVE -- to get together for each and every holiday. And quite a few non-holidays. And just whenever they feel like it, really.

New Years is one such occasion.

When they get together, they all bring their cameras, which inevitably leads to group photos taken in as many different configurations as possible. Case in point? We begin with Jose and his brother, Alex:

Next we need a photo of Jose's immediate family, of course, so we add Grandpa, Rosie, Alex's girlfriend Krystle, and me:

No family gathering is complete without a photo of the aunts (Jose's grandpa had six girls, no boys):

Since the boys are vastly in the minority, let's get a photo of the male cousins with Grandpa (the random guy on the TV notwithstanding):

Hmm, that picture is too empty, let's add in the boy cousins related by marriage:

Better, but still too empty. Let's go back and add in all the aunts' husbands:

Now that's more like it! Ok, time for the girls...

Except we didn't do a girls photo. We would've have all fit into the living room anyway!

It's amazing how warm 40 degrees feels after a few days in the 20s. My hands still get cold in the office, but at least my toes are toasty and our heater at home has regained the ability to warm the living room.

Although it is practically mid-January, I realized on Sunday -- as Jose and I were taking down our Christmas lights, shoving the tree on top of the car to take for recycling, and boxing up the other decorations -- that I never posted any photos of what our house looked like all decked out for its first holiday season! I didn't take many good ones, but I did at least capture the high points:

We started decorating in early December and I already wrote about putting up the outdoor lights (which went up in two sessions because we didn't buy enough the first time) and buying the tree. I also got four electric candles and put one in each of our front windows on a timer. I loved how our house looked at night. So pretty!

I also bought a few oversized ball ornaments and hung them from the two trees in our front yard. (You can see them in the house photo if you look.) I loved how bright and festive they looked in the sunshine.

We had a pretty Christmas wreath on our front door, of course. That's one thing I actually did even when I lived in apartments, so I wasn't about to stop now that I have a house!

It took us a few days, but we finally got all the lights and ornaments on the Christmas tree. We decided that right between the fireplace and the entry hall was the best place for it, even if it meant we couldn't use the fireplace last month. (Christmas tree? Fire hazard? Whatever you say!) We don't have a ton of ornaments, but it still looked pretty good I think!

(Side note: we really need to find an OUT OF THE WAY place to store the Guitar Hero guitars, don't we?)

I did a couple crafty things this year too. I wanted some kind of "our first Christmas" ornament, so I made one from a picture frame ornament I found at Target.

I also spent a month making this Christmas cross stitch to hang on our wall. It's a little old-fashioned, but it reminds me of my mom and grandmother, who both have a number of cross stitch items decorating their walls, and I love it. It came out really well, though it took me longer than I expected, and I finished it right before we left for North Carolina.

I even framed it, so it can hang on the small wall between the dining room and kitchen every year! (I bought a "home sweet home" cross stitch that I've just started to take the place of it for the other 11 months.)

We had a couple other decorations on the tables in our dining room and breakfast room that I didn't get photos of, as well as some cool wall stickers in the entryway. Overall, I loved having our house looking so festive for our first holiday as a married couple and in our new home!

This is what I did on Friday when I got home from work: left my hat on and jumped in the Snuggie that Alex gave me for Christmas. Laugh if you will, but that thing is warm! In fact, it was about the only warm thing I experienced on Friday. Outside? Below freezing with a windchill that dropped into the single digits at least a couple times. In my office? Cold enough that I had to pause in my work every few minutes to sit on my hands and warm them up. (Unfortunately that trick doesn't work for toes.)

Even our house is on the chilly side. We simply can't get it above 68-70 degrees in the living/dining/kitchen great room, which is a fine temperature when we're cooking or moving around, but kinda chilly when we're relaxing on the couch watching TV. Either one of our heaters is not operating very efficiently, or it's just too big of a space to successfully heat when it's this cold outside. I'm hoping it's the former, since neither of our heaters has never actually been checked out. When we closed on the house in July, the inspector wasn't able to test the two heating units since the outside temperature was too high. (In a funny twist, one of my coworkers is buying a house and his inspector wasn't able to test the air conditioning this week because the outside temperature was too LOW.)

Add that to the list of things I need to call our home warranty about, along with the mystery of our constantly tripping circuit breakers.

On the plus side, our second heater unit seems to be working well -- the bedrooms and the bonus room are quite toasty!

It is cold. Very cold. Even the sky looked cold this morning when I left the house. It was 27 degrees outside, with a windchill of 9 degrees. NINE. Wussy south Texas or not, 9 degrees is COLD, y'all. I know it is even colder in the rest of the country, but that doesn't make 9 degrees feel any warmer.

Jose and I debated whether we needed to take any action to protect our pipes or plants, but in the end, the only thing we did was bring our potted plants inside. If the stuff in the flower bed dies, I won't be upset because we are planning to replace most of those plants in the spring anyway.

We thought harder about the pipes, since it drops below freezing so rarely here that freezing pipes is something I'd never even considered. We walked around the house to inspect the portions that protruded from the house -- three spigots plus the main water line to the house. All were insulted with foam wrap during construction, and looked like they wouldn't really benefit from any additional insulation on our part, so we left them alone. We also thought about cracking the entrance to the attic to let some heat up there, but again, we decided that while the attic would get really cold, it was unlikely to drop below freezing for any extended period of time and we'd rather not have our heater running all night trying to heat the uninsulated attic space.

When Jose was a kid growing up in Corpus Christi, freezing temperatures were exciting to them. He and his brother thought it was amazing that the dog's water dish would have ICE in it the next morning, and sometimes they even left bowls of water outside overnight on purpose, just to see the resulting block of ice. So last night we did one other fun thing before heading to bed -- I put a plastic bowl out on the patio with about a cup of water inside.

Sure enough, this morning it was frozen solid. And even thought I'm 31 years old, I still found that kinda cool. :)

Back in November, I submitted an entry to a contest open to all NASA employees to design a patch commemorating the space shuttle program, which will be ending later this year. 85 entries were received. That's my entry at the top, and while it certainly wasn't the best, I felt it was strong and would make the top 15 (from which the winner will be selected).

Alas, it did not -- just another reminder of the extremely subjective nature of graphic design. However, I enjoyed looking over all the designs that were submitted and decided to put together a summary of my thoughts, as someone who both entered the contest and has training in graphic design. I know one of the finalists, but the others are all anonymous, so none of my comments -- good or bad -- are meant personally.

When I heard about the contest, I immediately started thinking about what a patch to commemorate the entire 30-year shuttle program should look like, and those broad ideas definitely continue to play a role in my feelings about the 15 contest finalists:

• The patch should be simple. There are simply too many different things the shuttle program has done to try to cover them all. Simplicity is elegant.
• The patch should be unique. In other words, I don't want it to echo any specific mission patch too closely.
• The patch should signify ALL the people who played a part in the program. Not just the astronauts, or just one phase of flight, or just one NASA center, or just one payload/mission goal.
• The patch should NOT feature the ISS or Hubble. These were included on many of the 85 entries, but I'm opposed to their inclusion for two reasons: first, because the patch is supposed to commemorate the shuttle program (not other programs) and second, because the shuttle did WAY more than just fly to the ISS and repair the Hubble. It flew for almost 10 years before it launched Hubble, and almost 20 years before ISS even existed.
• Other ideas:
• Could feature the names of the orbiters. I prefer just the 5 flown in space, so I wouldn't include Enterprise. But that's personal preference.
• Could feature the years of flight (1981-2010).
• Could memorialize the 14 astronauts who died on Challenger and Columbia, though it shouldn't be the main focus.
• Could make subtle reference to the future, i.e. Orion vehicle, moon, and perhaps Mars.

Here are the 15 finalists, along with my comments. (Click the image to see bigger versions in the collectSPACE gallery and read the artist descriptions of each finalist.)

My top three:

	My favorite, which is funny because at first glance I didn't like it. Too different! But after a second glance, I realized that different is good. It's simple, elegant, well-executed, and doesn't try to represent too much. What it does do, it does in an beautifully understated way -- note the faint flag, the ascent smoke plume, 5 big stars for the 5 orbiters, and 14 stars for the fallen astronauts.
	Very close second. Again, it's simple but sophisticated. I really like the shuttle "flying formation."
	Another good one. I'd remove the ISS, Hubble, and EVA man and spread the stars and planets out across the background. But even with them, it manages to look fairly clean.

The other 12 finalists, in no particular order:

	Like the triangle shape, but the red/white/blue swatchs are a bit too plain for me, and the cluster of stars, though it represents fallen astronauts, appears random.
	Like the view of the orbiter and the interesting shape. Don't like the ISS and HST. Reminds me of a patch I've seen, though I can't think which mission.
	Really nicely done, and the astronaut symbol is so subtle that it doesn't bother me. But I don't like the view of the orbiter (I'd rather see the front/cockpit) or the "mission complete" wording.
	Almost in my top 3, because I love its simplicity...but the first time I saw it I immediately thought of the STS-8 patch. Still, if this one wins, I won't be disappointed.
	Too busy for my tastes. I like the idea of representing ascent, orbit, and entry phases but not the execution.
	Interesting, yet something bugs me. Maybe the shuttle is too small?? And take away the ISS. On the other hand, having the constellation Orion in the background is a very nice and clever touch.
	Though not a personal favorite, this also has high potential. It reflects the original shuttle program emblem very nicely. Lose the ISS, move the other elements up to take its place.
	Pretty good. The orbiter names look a little thrown on as an afterthought; they could be better incorporated into the patch. I find the American flag too "in your face," but that's just me.
	Unique shape, incorporates one piece of the NASA meatball -- both nice touches. I'd take off the "STS," but this is probably a top contender as well.
	Nicely done and well-thought-out, but it just looks too much like a mission patch somehow.
	Nice, but get rid of ISS and HST (I know, I'm a broken record). I think the white/orange external tank is neat, but it seems like a random and out-there detail to include.
	Just too many things going on here for me. It's well-drawn, but too complicated.

The day after Christmas, my family traveled up to Chapel Hill and Durham for the day to have a nice lunch with my aunt, cousin, and grandmother. Grandmother is 95 years old and though she's lived in a retirement for several years now, she still complains about "all these old people" that can't carry on a good conversation at dinner. (That always makes me laugh. Age is just a number, right?)

Anyway, the past year has been a little rough for Grandmother and she has more trouble getting around than she used to. She's had to start using a walker since her knee has become susceptible to giving out at any moment, and early in 2009 she had to move from an independent living facility into assisted living. This past fall, she got a power chair.

So of course Jose and I had to test it out. You know, for safety.

Turns out those things are pretty zippy when you crank the power all the way up. :)

So, 2010 is here. 2010! I vividly remember standing on a hill overlooking Los Angeles on December 31, 1999 and thinking how crazy it was that the year 2000 had arrived. I remember, less vividly, but still there, sitting in the den with my family on December 31, 1989 and thinking about the 90s. (And if you're wondering, no, I don't remember December 31, 1979 at all, but hey, I was there.)

Jose and I were talking about New Year's resolutions as we drove back from Corpus Christi last Saturday, and I realized that I have quite a few. This year I've decided to stay away from generic resolutions like "lose weight" and "eat healthy" -- because let's face it, I always need to lose weight and eat healthy, not just in 2010 -- and list specific, measurable things that I would like to accomplish. And here they are:

1. Finish my M.A. in Digital Media Studies. As I mentioned yesterday, the coursework is complete! All that stands between me and the degree is a final project. I even have an idea, thanks to Karen, that should work quiet well. I'd planned to start last summer and finish last month, then start in the fall and finish in May. Neither of those happened thanks to the busyness of last year, but if I don't have my degree by the time 2010 is through, well that's just pathetic. (Not to mention that I worry that not having the degree is slowing progress towards my life and career goals down the line.) So I'm starting. This week.
2. Tackle this blog. I have been blogging since the late 90s, and always about my life. In the past year, the number of entries has decreased, probably because my life has been running pretty dang smoothly. So, in 2010 I'd like to redesign this blog (a plan which has been in the back of my head for quite some time) but also shift the kind of content I publish. There will still be entries about my life, my running (which there will hopefully be more of in 2010), and the fun parts of my job. But there may also be entries about interesting things I find online, design projects I work on, craft projects I undertake, and more.
3. Make a budget. This task was next to impossible in 2009 thanks to throwing a wedding, then combining our finances, then buying a house -- all things that I don't plan to do on a yearly basis, to say the least! This year -- and hopefully this month -- I want to put together a budget for our household. I'm not actually that interested in restricting our spending, but I do want a better handle on where that spending is going.

4. Do the Lonestar Half Ironman. The race is scheduled for the last weekend of April, and I'm registered. It's time to buckle down and do some serious training again. After completing only a single sprint triathlon in 2009, this goal carries a secondary goal -- I hope that Lonestar will be a springboard into a successful summer triathlon season for me.
5. Get the house in order. This is really a catch-all that contains three specific "sub-resolutions" that I want to get done sooner rather than later:
   
   
   
   • Paint the kitchen.
   • Clean out the garage.
   • Decorate and organize the study.
   
   
6. Make our wedding album. It's been more than 6 months. We have beautiful photos thanks to Christine and Elaine. And I'm almost done with a degree in digital media. Um, why don't I have a kick-butt album yet? Because I haven't made one!

7. Learn to sew. I've used a sewing machine before, so I know what I'm doing on a very, very basic level. But I'd like to be competent enough to make curtains, purses/bags, and perhaps a quilt or two. Of course this will require a sewing machine. Anybody know of a good one for beginners, or can recommend a source for used machines?
8. Read 18 books this year. I like reading, yet I spend surprisingly little time actually doing it. Last year I read 10 books, and that number was boosted by the 4 books I read in the last two months. Since I'm now in a book club, I should be able to read at least 12 books this year without a problem. I threw in another 6 to up the ante. So: 18 books. This shouldn't be difficult if I can overcome the evil TV.

That's it for now. I had a couple more small goals that I can't remember at the moment, but will add them when I do.

New Year's Eve in Corpus Christi

So 2009. It was fast. I mean, I think I say something to that effect every new year, but come on. 2009? IT. WAS. FAST. I'm still not entirely convinced that the year is over, but the calendar doesn't lie.

First of all:

• I GOT MARRIED!

Everything else kind of pales in comparison to that life-altering (in a good way) event, but here's the rest of the list:

• Jose and I almost moved to Washington DC...but at the last minute, we didn't.
• Jose and I went to Belize, where we scuba dived and relaxed on the beach.
• We BOUGHT A HOUSE and watched it go from vacant lot in March to finished home in July. And I love it. Love love love LOVE.
• We housed 17 people for a night in August when Jose's family came to visit.
• We spent 5 gorgeous days in Seattle and went to Jen's wedding.
• I was the rendezvous team lead for STS-129 in November, my first lead mission. The crew even thanked me from space, which was pretty dang cool. I also supported four other shuttle missions this year either on the rendezvous team, ascent team, or both.
• I took 2 classes, completing the coursework requirements for my M.S. in Digital Media Studies.
• I ran a couple races, including my 5th Houston Half Marathon, despite having little-to-no time to actually train.

Last year I only made 2 resolutions. One was to have a most awesome wedding day. I'm pretty sure I accomplished that and then some. My other resolution was to clean up the study in our apartment. I never did that, probably because only two short months after I set that resolution, we plunked down the deposit to start building our house.

This year I have quite a few more goals than I did last year. And you'll be hearing about them soon.