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Sunday, May 30, 2004

I love urban apartment buildings,

I love urban apartment buildings, with their weird corners and squeaky hardwood floors and musty-smelling stairways. I love effective public transportation, and the wooden and steel platforms, and the rumble of the El going past every few minutes. I love the narrow streets, and the haphazard parking, and the little shops, and the variety of people you pass while walking down the street. I love that you can get anywhere in the city without having to get into a car.

Chicago is different than I expected, but I love it anyway. I need to live somewhere like this for a while. Here, or New York, or Boston... There's something about the big, old, crowded city feel that just makes me feel at ease, makes me worry less and relax more. I want to just stay here, and escape the stresses and disappointments of Houston and my job. The old cities just make me happy.

Today the weather forecast is calling for heavy thunderstorms, so our chances of seeing a full, uninterrupted White Sox game are slim. Better a rainout today though than tomorrow, when we're going to see the Astros play the Cubbies. Friday night we drove to Milwaukee to see the Brewers lose to the Padres; the highlights of that game were the stadium roof, which opens like a fan, and the sausage races, which amuse me greatly. I had planned on buying only one souvenir (a pin) from Milwaukee, but left with three. The sausage socks and "Go Sausage Go!" t-shirt were too funny to pass up.

Yesterday, on our only day without a baseball game, we ended up taking a tour of Wrigley Field. Something baseball every day. We got to go on the field, and into the locker rooms, and press box. From there we headed to the Hancock building to see the city from above. I am completely enamored by the lake. It is so big, and so blue, and so pretty. It is what I feel like Clear Lake should be.

We had dinner with some of Christina's friends last night, and that was fun. She has nice friends, a group I feel like would mesh well with the old Georgia Tech group, if we had to.

I'm so happy to be on vacation. I didn't realize how much I needed to get away from work.

Thursday, May 27, 2004

we were meant to live for so much more / have we lost ourselves?

FYI, here's the lineup for future 60 Seconds posts: Becca, Andrew, Irwin, Jen M, Jo, Gavin. I think.

I think I have poison ivy on my face. A byproduct of tromping around in the woods with Debbie on Sunday, I'm sure. Ugh.

Yesterday was the worst day I have ever had at work. The bottom line on my computer problems is that the hard drive got corrupted, and though I now have a new computer, at the moment I've lost about 8 GB of data, including much of what I had been working on for the past 3 months. They are still trying to recover the rest of my data, but I don't have a lot of hope.

It totally sucks. Computers are evil and they hate me. And I hate them.

At least I'm getting outta dodge for the weekend, and heading to Chicago. Our flight leaves in three and a half hours...

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

60 Seconds with Chris Lamoreaux...

Go here to read the background on this little post.

Welcome Sarah's Blog fans! This is 60 Seconds with Chris Lamoreaux! Chris, are you ready? Let's begin!

Gov. Ventura or Gov. Schwarzenegger? Jesse!
Tennis: singles or doubles? Doubles.
Astros or Red Sox? Ohhhhhhhh....Red Sox.
Civilization or Axis & Allies? Axis & Allies.
RX-8 or classic Mustang?I don't know...RX-8.
Jumbos or Cardinal/the Tree? Jumbos!!
Beer or liquor? Beer, I guess, at the moment.
Space shuttle or space station? ARED! Ok, shuttle.
Blondes or brunettes? Both.
Big screen hi-def TV or trip to Tahiti? I have both! But, Tahiti.
John Mayer or Dave Matthews? Dave.
PC or Mac? PC.
Fellowship of the Ring or Two Towers or Return of the King? TT.
Timberwolves or Vikings? T-wolves.
Suicide squeeze or home run? Squeeze.
Mely's margaritas or Phil's Russo Blanco? Hmm, Mely's margaritas.
Hondo or Juando? Juando!
Space Cowpeople or George Jetsons? Jetsons, 'cause the Jetsons don't suck.
BMW or Mercedes? Beamer.
Coke or Pepsi? Neither.

Chris, your 60 seconds are up!

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

ODIN guy tried to fix

ODIN guy tried to fix my computer with his magic CD and it still doesn't work. Now he says my hard drive is going bad and they'll just do a box swap, but it won't be until tomorrow morning. For those keeping score at home, that's 8 hours of your tax money that I just wasted because it took all day for ODIN to confirm that yes, my computer is indeed broken, just like I told them at 8:45 this morning.

Almost exactly a year ago, I had a hard drive on my old work computer go bad. Last August, I got a new computer at work, but now, less than nine months later, it's broken.

I don't know why, but computers hate me.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

So an ODIN guy finally

So an ODIN guy finally came by 45 minutes ago to fix my computer. He took out the hard drive and set it up as a slave on Becca's computer, but her computer was too old and slow to make it work. So he disappeared to go get some CD that he can boot from. And he's still not back. Maybe he got lost...on his way to the building next door. Gaaaah.

Oh wait, he just came back.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Yeah. My computer still is

Yeah. My computer still is not fixed. According to the ODIN guy on the phone, "well, unfortunately we're very busy today fixing people's passwords, and we have until COB tomorrow to get to you..." AGH. Ok, some people's passwords don't work (since they changed some protocol over the weekend), but my computer won't even boot meaning that even though I can sit here at Becca's computer, I can't get to any of my files.

They should have a time charge code for "I can't work because ODIN is incompetant."

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

where am I going? / I don't quite know / down to the stream where the king-cups grow

Well, I fixed Becca's mouse and scooted my own chair over to her desk. Hooray. Now that her computer isn't nearly as maddening to work with, and seeing as how the ODIN guy has yet to appear to fix my computer, I have nothing better to do than go ahead and update.

Playing hooky from work yesterday (along with the majority of the rest of my division) was awesome. We teed off at 8:00 and played golf for the next six hours. Yes, six hours. It was slow-going, as having so many foursomes in the tournament and having two teams start on each hole held things up at times, but it was fun. Our all-women team shot a 91 gross (tied for last place, yeah!), but thanks to a very poor performance on a hole that turned out to be one of the blind handicap holes, we finished in 4th place for low net score with a 67. We won $16, almost enough to buy the far-overpriced picture of our team (labeled "Pretty Girls") from the sports photographer guy. We each chipped in another dollar and bought the picture:

I don't quite know why the dude decided to put "Pretty Girls" on it. I think it must have been from my comment to him that we may suck at golf, but at least we were the prettiest team.

In any case, it was a fun morning. Here is the full gallery of pictures I took. They actually ended up being mostly of other teams, but oh well.

After golf, we all grabbed a late lunch and then a few of us went sailing on John's boat. John is a coworker who has lived on his 32-foot sailboat for the past year. It was such a cool boat, and it was so nice to go sailing. The weather was beautiful, the wind was strong, and we just had a great time spending a couple hours out on Galveston Bay. Pictures from that outing are here.

(I am such an obsessive picture-taker. Digital cameras changed everything for me and I love it.)

It was so cool to be out sailing on John's house. His life seems so ideal in some way...I mean, the thought of moving onto a boat and having to get rid or store the vast majority of all the stuff I own is sort of appealing, especially since I've been in minimizing mode lately. I just feel like I have too much stuff, and it becomes overwhelming to walk into my apartment and see all the crap I have lying around. It's like the walls are closing in. This mood always makes me remember Supafly, and how I ended up with his gold velvet couch because he needed to, as he said, "simplify." I feel the need to simplify, but I don't think I have the heart for it. Wanting to have less stuff still can't overcome all my pack-rat tendancies.

And my computer still isn't fixed.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

and they say computers make life better...

So I came to work this morning, started up my computer, and it crashed on some DOS screen saying a system file is missing or corrupt. Nevermind that it worked just fine on Friday. It won't boot today. So as I wait for the ODIN guy to come fix it (maddening that I don't have the OS disk so that I could just fix it myself), I'm borrowing Becca's computer.

And, Becca, I have to wonder, how the hell do you use this computer?? The monitor is 8 inches too low, your chair is tilted backwards at a strange angle, and the mouse is so jumpy that it takes me 5 seconds to get it to land on the little "window close" button at the top right corner of all the windows.

I just want my stupid computer fixed. Last week, it was the code that was driving me crazy. Now the computer has decided to join in on the act.

I'll post more later once I'm back on my own computer.

And FYI, Cari, we don't get paid to play in the golf tournament. Sad.

Sunday, May 23, 2004

I won't be making your

I won't be making your regularly scheduled update on Monday because I'll be out playing my second 18 holes of golf ever in the annual LSO Golf Tournament. (Yes, last year's were my first 18 holes.) Golf is an evil, evil sport, but that doesn't stop some of us from trying. Jen, Becca, Buzz and I will be trying our hardest to make the women's tee work to our advantage, but if it doesn't, well, here's to another last place finish!

Fore!

Saturday, May 22, 2004

put me in coach / I'm ready to play

Today I played in a softball tournament with guys from work. We had games at 10:30 and 11:30, and if we won both of those, another at 1:00, and if we won that, another at 2:00 for the tourney championship. I arrived not really knowing whether we'd play well or not...

...but we won! We won the whole tournament! Four straight games, four straight wins. It was awesome. I got to play first base, which I love playing. I hit .500 over the course of all the games, including going 3-for-4 in the championship game with 3 solid line drives, thank you very much. And we won. Woohoo!

Friday, May 21, 2004

I hate code. Hate it

I hate code.

Hate it hate it hate it.

It's not a fun problem-solving task. I don't find it rewarding. I don't find it challenging in a positive way.

Working with code does nothing but put me in a crappy mood.

It's another freaking busy weekend full of freaking busy activities to leave me freaking tired again on Monday morning.

"Smile, Sarah."

Thursday, May 20, 2004

I see red, red, red / don't you hear what I said?

Remember all those games you used to play as a kid? Capture the Flag, Ghosts in the Graveyard, Heads Down Seven Up, Sardines, Tunnel Tag... Somehow we got on that topic at lunch today, and after reliving some of the best moments and coolest injuries of our childhoods we decided that we should have an Adult Field Day. Just like Field Day in elementary school, except with more pushing and shoving. And beer instead of Kool-Aid.

Though I'd rather have Kool-Aid.

Yesterday afternoon I left work in a foul mood because I thought I'd discovered yet another stupid mistake on my part that would mean running all my ET sims again. This morning I looked at the new results (they ran overnight), and they look the same as the old results. So maybe I wasn't wrong. Or maybe I was, and the way I fixed it was wrong. It's still TBD. I think the more I look at code, the worse my coding skills become. My eyes just start to glaze over.

Fortunately, I pulled myself out of my bad mood with a trip to the park. It was a bit warm, but it was nice to get outside.

Last night I had my third "something happened to my brand new car" dream. This time, I came out of a club (yeah, 'cause you know, I go to clubs so often!?) and there had been a riot or something outside, and my Xterra was turned completely upside down and was sitting on its roof (which somehow was managing to fully support the weight of the rest of the car). And the side was all scratched up, and I stood there going "oh no, my new car!"

My dreams totally suck. No excitement at all. This may sound a bit crazy, but lately I have come to the conclusion that my permanent tired-ness is due not to doing too much, but to a lack of regular exercise. My workout schedule has been all crazy ever since the Austin half marathon back in February. I just haven't been doing any sort of regular exercise since then. Sure, there have been races and the MS150 and that triathlon and stuff in there, but I haven't been doing anything on a 3-5 days per week basis. I think if I got back on a regular schedule, I might have more energy. Worth a try anyway.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

there is no shortage of things to amuse me today

(Click for the bigger, clearer version if you can't read this one.)

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Swapping SUVs for smaller cars,

Swapping SUVs for smaller cars, regular fuel: "Jaime Rodriguez is borrowing his brother's Nissan Xterra for his sales runs because his own Chevy Tahoe costs too much to drive."

That is funny.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

if you don't know honey / why'd you just say so

I am so sore. I guess this is what I get for playing soccer twice in three days after not playing in two months. Going for a run doesn't make me sore, but the sprinting of soccer definitely does. Last night was the first Tuesday in a while that we didn't have baseball tickets, so I went to soccer practice. We did a couple drills and then scrimmaged, six girls on three guys. The guys won 6-2 or something. The three guys were all really good. Well, actually, two of the guys were really good. I could keep up with the third guy, who was also good. But not as good.

Enough uses of the word "good."

I ended up playing forward for half the scrimmage, which made things interesting. I am not used to playing forward at all, and shooting the ball is just not in my inventory of soccer instincts. I always, always look for the pass. So I didn't score, even though I probably should have a couple times. I noticed a couple things I need to work on though, compared to the guys. I can play good defense and keep up with most people, but when I'm on offense myself, my footwork is very sloppy. I'd like to make it better.

Yesterday was a crazy day in baseball. My poor Braves! They struck out 18 times against Ben Sheets on Sunday, and then got perfect-gamed by Randy Johnson last night. Two games in a row, two awesome pitching performances...but for the wrong team! Mike Hampton pitched a fantastic game, 9 innings and only 2 runs, but still got the loss. And poor Jason Schmidt threw a 1-hitter last night against the Cubs, which would have been the top story in baseball any other night except last night. Poor Schmidt got the shaft.

Funny link of the day: The Oracle of Starbucks. My favorite part is the coffee cup with the evil face drawn on it. That's totally something I would do.

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

on this perfect day / when nothing can go wrong

So I get home from soccer practice just now, and as I walk in the door, I think "maybe I'll leave the TV off tonight....ohhhhh, I can't, I have to watch some baseball." So, smelling to high heaven, I decide to flip on the TV for a second before I jump in the shower to see how the Astros and Braves are doing.

Flip to Channel 2. Astros won, game's already over. Flip to Channel 31. The picture flickers into view and the Diamondbacks catcher is running towards Randy Johnson. Seconds later, he's mobbed by the rest of the team.

What the...??? Did he just throw a no-hitter or something? For God's sake, announcers, say something! Or at least show the scoreboard! Anything!

I finally had to run to the computer to check ESPN. It turns out that I flipped channels at exactly the moment that Randy Johnson got the final out in a perfect game. A perfect game!! Holy crap. My poor Braves. But a perfect game! So cool!

My phone rang moments later. When I saw that it was Jen, I knew why she was calling. Those Mariners fans still follow the Big Unit. :)

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

when I think of heaven / I think of you / do you think of me too?

Yesterday I revisited three possible (and similar) solutions to the "I want to be creative, but I still like technical things" dilemma that has been simmering in the back of my head for at least four years now.

Things are in the air at work. Things are happening, but it remains to be seen whether they'll be good for me or not. Bini is coming back on Monday for her second grad co-op tour, and she's going to be taking over a lot of the debris footprint work, under my guidance. She will be partly my co-op, I guess, which feels a little strange to say. The co-ops in our group always go to Gavin and Rich, never to any of the rest of us. It will be interesting. I don't know if I will be a very good half-mentor. I have trouble communicating technical things; even when I understand them in my head, I am not good at explaining them.

As she gets into that, I will be concentrating more on Mars work. It will be a nice change of pace, however, it will still be coding. I guess this is a test of whether it's all the coding that bugs me, or whether I'm just tired of footprints.

I decided last night that this summer I'm going to take an art or photography class. UHCL or one of the community colleges around here is bound to have something I would enjoy. Dad is always telling me to take a math class, and I'm sure that would be useful and all, but I probably wouldn't enjoy it as much.

Tonight I somehow double-booked myself for softball and soccer. And I am still sore from Sunday. Such is my crazy life. I suppose I could have bigger problems, eh? :)

Monday, May 17, 2004

left my soul there / down by the sea / lost control here / livin' free

It isn't a good soccer game if you don't leave with some bruises.

I think I've said that before, but it still applies. Last night I finally made it back to the soccer field after a two month absense due to the ending of the winter season, a couple Sunday conflicts, and lots of weekend rain. It was fun, primarily because we -- gasp! -- won by a score of 2-0. We actually shut a team out! Of course, they are the newest team in the league and thus the least experienced, but still. We won. Woohoo!

I have a lovely bruised and swollen knuckle on my right hand though. At one point I took a shot to the chest from about eight feet away. I must've had time to make some sort of attempt to shield myself, because when the ball hit, it hit the back of my hand, which was in front of my chest. Last night when I got in the shower, my chest was all red, and that's when I noticed the lovely purple color of my finger. Ah yes. Bruises.

It was a good weekend, though, as always, too short. Saw Troy on Friday night, went geocaching, had dinner at Mely's, and over to Paul's for the casino party on Saturday. Went to the driving range, geocaching, and soccer yesterday before ending the weekend with an e-conversation that made me think of a few things I hadn't thought of before. I know I have options in what I do with my life, but the thought of following up on any of the ones that don't involve the space program is scary.

Saturday, May 15, 2004

because everybody's after love

Because we didn't go to Corpus Christi, fearing torrential rains, it has of course been lovely today. A bit sticky, but at least there's a breeze. My body hasn't adjusted to the coming increase in temperature yet. It still complains when I make it hike around in the woods looking for geocaches with Debbie and Jason.

My "relaxing" weekend has been busy. I suppose that is par for the course. But this morning, I didn't set an alarm, and I don't plan to set one for tomorrow morning either. Waking up when my body says it's time to wake up is a nice thing.

At the moment, my grandmother is feeling a bit better, and my sister is waking up in Brussels. It's too bad full time jobs don't come with the "summer abroad" option. I could use it.

Friday, May 14, 2004

60 Seconds with Jason Helms

At Astros games this year, sometime around the 4th or 5th inning, they show a little clip called "60 Seconds" where one player asks another player a bunch of questions. It amuses me, so last night I decided to try it for myself. If anyone else would like to be on the hot seat for 60 Seconds on Sarah's Blog, you may apply here.

Welcome Sarah's Blog fans! This is 60 Seconds with Jason Helms! Jason, are you ready? Let's begin!

Ford or Chevy? Dodge!
Tennessee or Texas? Texas.
Boxers or briefs? Briefs.
Cantelope or watermelon? Watermelon.
GPO or Pointing? FDO.
Cowboy boots or combat boots? Ooh, tough one. Combat boots.
Concussion or hernia? Hee hee...Concussion!
Austin Powers or So I Married An Axe Murderer? SIMAAM.
Cake or death? Uh...cake please.
Space shuttle or space station? Shuttle.
Blonde or brunette? All of 'em!
Armageddon or Deep Impact? Deep Impact
Rifle or pistol? Rifle.
Red Sox or White Sox? Red.
N Sync or Backstreet Boys? Rolling Stones.
Olympic medal or Nobel Prize? Nobel Prize.
Mountains or ocean? Mountains!
Lottery lump sum or yearly payments? Yearly payments.
Eyes or butt? Eyes...butt...both...legs....aaaaah!
Beer or liquor? BEER.

Jason, your 60 seconds are up!

In other news, quickly: no trip to Corpus Christi (yay), possible trip to see Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom looking hot--I mean, Troy--tonight (yay), and not much else on the schedule for the weekend. More R&R (as the rain continues) for Sarah.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

blogger, blogger, make me a blog

So I went through a bit of effort to change my Blogger user name, only to discover that I could have done it easily in my profile with the new tools Blogger added with the redesign. But now I can't, since I've already created the new user name I wanted. A bit confusing, and really no big deal...except that I lost some pride points. Since I created a new account and switched my blogs over, my profile says I've only been a Blogger member since May 2004, and have written no words and made no posts! How sad. So, for the record, before I totally lay my old account to rest, here are the stats:

On Blogger Since: August 2001
Recent Posts: 52
Avg Posts Per Week: 4
Posts Written: 641
Words Written: 137,567
Outbound Links: 207

137,567 words! Wow! And now I have to start counting from zero again. :(

Thursday, May 13, 2004

so she said what's the problem baby /
what's the problem / I don't know /
well maybe I'm in love (love!)

So I bought gas yesterday and was appalled at how much I had to pay, and how much the Xterra's gas tank can swallow. I've never been one to really notice gas prices before, except when I first got to California and it was more than $2 a gallon...but the Xterra is making me notice. I hope I get over it soon, otherwise I'm never going to want to drive anywhere.

My mom called last night to let me know that my grandmother had a fall. She was making her bed and tripped over the bedpost or something and now has "compressed vertebrae." It's one of the many ways you can break your back, and the only solution is to just wait for it to heal. (Apparently my dad also had this happen once, although his was a result of being young and stupid and jumping out a window.) She fell on Tuesday, but being the self-sufficient type, she just tried to take care of herself on her own all that day and didn't ask for help until yesterday morning when she got up and could hardly move. My poor grandmother! She is ok, just in a lot of pain. She lives in a retirement community, so they have moved her to a new room temporarily so that the nurses can help her get around. They also gave her a walker.

My grandmother is pretty cool. She moved to the retirement community four or five years ago I guess, and while it's been good for her because there are people around and activities to do, she often talks/lightly complains about how there are so many "old people" that live there. "Old people." It's funny to hear her say that, as she herself will be 90 this year. 90! I haven't met many 90-year-olds, but I imagine my grandmother is one of the most active and sane 90-year-olds around. Sure, she moves slower than she used to, and her hearing is getting pretty bad, but she's always been very healthy. I hope she is back on her feet soon, as it's probably driving her crazy to have to sit around, use a walker, and have nurses take care of her. Mom said she sounded like she was in better spirits last night than she had been earlier in the day, so that is good.

Good, good.

So we were supposed to go to Corpus Christi tomorrow to run a relay race on Saturday. Six people running ~4.4 miles each to total a marathon. Except one team member has dropped out, and Corpus is farther away than I thought it was, and I'm tired (so what's new), and so this race has become a hassle. We're short a person and can't find anyone else to fill the spot, and if we have one person run two legs, it's breaking the rules. I'm unenthused about driving four and a half hours to run in a race that we won't even be counted in. We'll see what happens.

Pet peeve of the day: Dodgers closer Eric Gagne's streak of 73 consecutive saves is always in the news these days. It's very impressive, and I don't want to take away from his dominance, but every time I hear the Sportscenter guys gushing about the streak, I want to scream: "He blew last year's All-Star game! Hello! He blew it! Blown save! Yes! BLOWN. SAVE." I know the All-Star game didn't count (despite its motto), but play devil's advocate with me, people. He did blow a save last year.

And that's all she wrote.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

how much longer will it take to cure this / just to cure it cause I can't ignore it

I'm still in the Excel class, and the instructor is still teaching us about different numerical integration methods, instead of about how VBA works with Excel to do cool things, like make-your-own functions, GUIs, forms, etc. This is maddening. I thought about not coming back this morning, but I'd feel bad to totally ditch the class...and I have this fear that as soon as I leave, he'll start teaching the stuff I want to learn! Sigh. I guess I should look for a VBA class, but I was under the impression that that's what this class was supposed to be.

Anyway.

Last night was another Astros game; we had tickets to five games during this two-week stretch, which is the most dense stretch of games we have the whole season. (The season ticket mini-package isn't perfect, as they make up for us having 6 games in May by giving us only 2 games in September.) The roof was closed for the first time last night as a result of the sky dumping huge quantities of water on us all yesterday afternoon. And it was also the first game I've seen Roger Clemens pitch this year, and though I still harbor some resentment because he once wore a Yankee uniform, it was pretty damn cool to see him pitching for the Astros. For a while, Brad Penny was actually outdueling him ('Stros were down 1-0), but Clemens just kept plugging away until finally the Astros bats started working and we scored some runs. Rocket had 11 strikeouts in 7 innings and only gave up 3 hits.

Going to Astros games has been really exciting this year. There is a buzz to the crowd this year, one that was especially evident last night with 37,000 people showing up on a random Tuesday just to see Clemens pitch. Houston baseball fans are excited! This could finally be the Astros' year to win a post-season series, and maybe even make it to the World Series! They are tied for a franchise record for best start ever (21-11), and are just playing great. The crowd has been into every game, and practically every pitch! I don't want to diss on Atlanta fans, because they get dissed on enough....but I've never been to a Braves game (with the possible exception of the two '99 World Series games I went to) where the crowd was buzzing like the Houston crowd is this year.

I keep on forgetting that I need to buy my plane ticket to Chicago! We're going in two weeks, so I need to buy ASAP. Continental is offering $224.50... As a side note, Delta is offering $208 to Seattle for this weekend. I've always wanted to go to Seattle...wonder if the Mariners are in town...

Oh. They're not. Too bad. You know, it's sort of sad that I never go anywhere without checking the local baseball team's schedule. I've already berated Matt and Stephanie for scheduling their wedding in Kansas City on a weekend in September when the Royals aren't in town.

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

come on, come on / turn a little faster / come on, come on / the world will follow after

I remembered last night just as I was falling asleep that I'm in a training class today and tomorrow--Intermediate Spreadsheet Aided Engineering. This type of class is always sort of cool because it's a change of pace, and because I usually learn at least a few little cool tricks.

This morning has been frustrating though. First of all, the woman sitting next to me is bizarre. She almost dropped out of the class because she didn't want to fill out the registration form. Seriously! She had some issue with having to fill out a form and disappeared for half an hour to "call someone" after the woman told her she had to fill out the form or not take the class (NASA actually pays San Jacinto college for the classes, so we have to register with San Jac). She reappeared, so I guess they worked it out, but it was bizarre.

The other big frustration is that the way JSC coordinates their training classes is very inefficient, meaning that 6 out of the 10 people in the intermediate class have never taken the beginning class. It's not really their fault; it's the JSC training organization that can't get it right. But it's a problem for everyone, and it means that now the instructor is basically re-teaching the beginning class instead of the intermediate class.

Now, you would be tempted to think "oh, I'm sure they can catch up." But no. I swear it's like these people have never seen Excel before, and when you throw in Visual Basic, you can practically see the steam coming from their ears. At the moment, the instructor is teaching us about the Euler method. AGH! Dude, I learned the Euler method in college. We're all engineers here. I don't want to re-learn the Euler method, I want to learn how to program my spreadsheet to do it for me. Actually, I want to learn how to program a lot more than that, but I'd settle for just programming anything at this point. I don't need to be taught how you can reorder the worksheets in a spreadsheet.

I know I'm complaining a lot, but come on. This is a total waste of my time, and by extension, NASA's money! (Both the money they paid to let me take this class and the money they're paying me while I sit here!)

Monday, May 10, 2004

choices, choices

While my sims were running (and, for the record, crashing), I was trying to find a good Stanford window sticker online. This led to a site with "auto accessories," which quickly led to trailer hitch covers. There is a whole world of trailer hitch covers out there! Who knew?! ;)

So. I figure I have a hitch now, I need a cool cover. I considered Georgia Tech, Stanford, the Braves, the Astros, a Texas flag, a plain one that I could put a NASA sticker on, and one of those spinny propellers. But then I saw this. Come on now, how can I pass that up?!?

...

(Ok with seriousness. I think I'm getting a propeller. I've always thought those were funny.)

Monday, May 10, 2004

and remembers being small / playing under the table and dreaming

Two things first: If anyone out there really likes giant shrimp, Long John Silver's is giving 'em away for free today in honor of the Mars rovers finding evidence of water. And Blogger changed their interface; at first glance, I don't like it as much and want the old interface back.

So I had a nice weekend doing nothing. "Nothing" of course meaning that I did a brick (bike immediately followed by run) workout with Buzz, Laurie, Pooja and Josh, then had lunch with Nick and Becca, then got permanent license plates for my car, then got my bike tuned up, then had dinner and 99-cent margaritas with Rich, Jen, Matt, Stephanie, and Becca, then watched a movie and played with Matt and Steph's new kitten. Oh yeah, and last night watch the Survivor finale with Debbie and Jason.

Yeah. Like I said. Doing nothing.

Ok, so I didn't do exactly nothing, but I did get to sleep in on both Saturday and Sunday. I can't even remember the last weekend where I was able to sleep in both days. Usually I'm up to do some crazy race, so it was very nice to just lay in bed. Yesterday I slept till almost 10, and was left with that groggy over-slept feeling all day, but I didn't mind at all.

Though I find it sad that sleeping until almost 10 is "late" now. 10:00 used to be early.

And another long week lies ahead...

Sunday, May 09, 2004

baby you can drive my car (part 2)

Becca got a new car today! It's contagious!

And for good measure...here's both of us with our new cars. :)

Friday, May 07, 2004

when I'm feeling down and blue / and troubled by some foolish game

Yesterday NASA announced their newest class of astronauts. Eight men, two women. Three of them are educator-astronauts, meaning they are teachers, not test pilots or professional scientists or engineers. One of the non-educators lives in my apartment complex with his wife, who I met years ago when she flew on the Vomit Comet with me and later joined the co-op program. I've been reading their biographies, and thinking about what they might be in for.

When I first went to college, I had my plan all laid out. I majored in aerospace engineering, got a co-op job at NASA, and did all the right things. The funny thing is that now that I've graduated, done a graduate degree, had lots of aerospace experience and started working here full-time, my desire to become an astronaut has disappeared.

I think the flying in space would be cool, but I guess I've become jaded. The space program is in trouble, after losing another shuttle. We constantly have to deal with endless complaints that 1) we're not doing enough, 2) we're not doing it carefully and/or safely enough, and 3) we're not doing it cheaply enough. Congress wants a new vision, but they don't want to fund it. The public wants pretty Hubble pictures, but they don't want to accept the risks of going up there to service the thing (though they don't realize it...but if we lost another shuttle while servicing Hubble, it would be the end of NASA entirely). The President wants to go to the Moon, but he won't be in office long enough to make sure it happens, or to take the "blame" for it if it doesn't.

I love the space program, and these days it's hard for even someone like me to keep a positive outlook on the future of exploration. What does that say about any desire I might have once had to become an astronaut? Even if I did apply, I'd be medically disqualified because of my weight and eyesight. (Though I've lost weight, I'm still not astronaut-skinny, and they haven't lowered the eyesight standard enough yet for my vision to be acceptable.)

But it would be a cool job. You get to train to fly. You have at least a chance of actually flying. You get to help make important decisions, and be involved in every aspect of the vehicle, because you are the one who will actually have to fly it. And in the meantime, you get to wear the blue suit, travel the country, and talk to kids about space, and get the next generation excited enough to ensure that even if NASA dies, the public's general fascination with spaceflight won't.

...

Anyway. These thoughts are sort of jumbled, as I am not in a very good mood today. But I do congratulate the newest astronaut class, and wish them the best of luck. They are better people than I.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

these lines of lighting mean we're never alone / never alone / no no

So Counting Crows have a new song out. I heard it on the radio a week ago, having no clue what it was, but recognizing Adam Duritz. It's hard not to recognize him. Anyway, I was browsing iTunes a couple days ago and they were offering a free download of the song. Ah, I love iTunes. So cool. The song's called "Accidentally in Love" and it's rather bubbly. The beginning makes me think of the "That Thing You Do" song. But it's good.

Anyway. Mentioned that mainly for Carter and Leila and Kent, the biggest Counting Crows fans I know.

Last night Jo and I got pedicures at a place I'd never been to before down in League City. We're trying all the nail places in the area (and there are a ton of them). My toes finally look pretty again, hooray.

I am feeling very restless at work. There are all sorts of gossip and rumors and secrets flying around, and though I do love some gossip, it also leaves me feeling a little blah. And of course there is the perennial feeling of being underappreciated. As an analyst, I find that I'm not satisfied with just doing the work; I want to be involved in interpreting and presenting it as well, and I don't feel like I've gotten to that point yet. But this is an old and tired complaint, and the good news is that for the summer at least, I have plenty of projects to work on. So I am trying very hard to concentrate on the good.

And this afternoon I'm taking off with Jason and Chris for a businessman's special. Astros vs. Pirates at 1:05. Baseball makes everything better.

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

and there are many paths to tread /
through shadow / to the edge of night /
until the stars are all alight

This new car thing is making me a little crazy. Last night I dreamed that it got stolen! Eek. In any case, I love my Xterra. Last night Nick dropped me off at the dealership after work and there it was, new tow hitch and everything. They put the tongue part of the hitch in the back...when I picked it up to inspect it, I realized how heavy it is! That is one solid piece of tube steel. 5,000 pounds of towing capacity, here I come! (Overkill, yes, but just think of the possibilities!) Anyway. My car now has the ability to tow not only my one sailboat, but about three and a half of them put together! This weekend I will probably go out and get one of those sturdy bike racks that goes into the hitch as well.

Oh, and I forgot to mention the coolest thing I have done in my car so far. On Sunday when Dad and I went to the Astros game, we parked in a grass lot right next to the curb. After the game, instead of having to back out carefully like I would have had to do in my Sentra, we just bump-bumped down off the curb. Yeah! SUVs are fun.

I'm feeling a bit better today. I got to the ballpark early last night after getting my car, about an hour before gametime. The Pirates were still taking batting practice and the crowd hadn't started to fill in yet. The announcer hadn't started his booming annoucing yet, and the roof was open. The weather was cool, the sun was warm, the breeze was blowing, and I felt good. I bought a program and read about Andy Pettitte. It may sound a bit strange, but it was really peaceful there, sitting in the upper deck mostly alone. Reading, watching the crowd down below, hearing the crack of the bat as the Pirates hit home runs in warmup. I was almost disappointed when the announcer came on to start the pre-game stuff ("Welcome Astros fans!...").

But it was a good game. Andy Pettitte only pitched 5 innings in his second start since coming off the DL, but only gave up one run, and had eight strikeouts. The bullpen was a little shaky, but the offense provided enough to win the game 4-3. There were three home runs in the game, two in the first inning alone, and all in the 400-foot range. Long ones that went to or over the train tracks. Cool.

This morning I made the coolest Matlab movie ever! It shows a footprint progressing along a groundtrack, shown in red when it's bad (i.e. over land) and yellow when it's good (i.e. not over land). Ok, so it's not the coolest ever, but I was pretty proud of myself.

And my new mp3 player (a cheap one bought from Amazon with the assistance of two bday gift certificates, thanks to you know who you are) came in the mail yesterday. I can run with music again! Yippy.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

I was about to literally

I was about to literally fall asleep at my desk, but Becca wanted an early Coke break, so we all took a walk around the pond. I am feeling a bit more awake after the walk, and I bought a real Coke today instead of diet. Mmmmm, sugar.

My computer is chugging away with 30 more longitude of ascending node cases to run...so probably another two hours. While it chugs, I can do little else. Even the internet browser crashes occasionally.

And thus ends this exciting update.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

don't you know that I'd go crazy / but you're on your own tonight

The best I've felt since I got back from the MS150 was this past Saturday, when I woke up after nine and a half hours of sleep feeling rested and refreshed. Dad was here, I had a new car in the garage, and I just felt good. If I'd slept any longer, I think I would have been groggy all day. I woke up at the perfect time, went to bed at a decent hour that night, so I felt more normal for the triathlon on Sunday morning.

But then Sunday night I was tired from getting up early, and all day yesterday I felt sleepy, and last night I stayed out too late rock climbing. I shouldn't have gone, but I thought Kelly would be there, and wanted her to have someone else there since she's new in town and all. She was, so it's nice that I went, and I climbed decently, but I was up until 11:30, and had to get up early this morning to sit in traffic for an hour on my way to the Nissan dealership. I am without my Xterra for the day as it gets a tow hitch installed. I got gas this morning for the first time; the first verdict is 255 miles on 15.7 gallons, which is 16.2 miles per gallon, which is not as good as the advertised 17-21. Hmph.

I am truly a tree-killer now. Alas, alack.

The dealership was showing "The Two Towers" in the service waiting room, and I watched the first ten minutes as I waited for Becca to come by to pick me up on her way from Rice back to work. I wanted to just stay there in the comfy chair and watch the rest of the movie, but of course I am here at work.

I am tired. I feel crappy. This morning when I woke up I had to clear my ears, which is never a good sign. And, despite eating breakfast this morning, my stomach has been rumbling since 9:30, so add hungry to the list. I won't get enough sleep tonight either, because we have baseball tickets. I love baseball and yet I almost want to stay home, just because I know I'm going to be yawning by the 5th inning.

I'm doing too much. I had been thinking that I would take this weekend off, but of course there are so many things popping up. Becca wants to go car-shopping...Gavin wants to put my new tow hitch to use and go sailing... I feel like all I do these days is complain about how I am either tired or hungry.

I like all my activities, but I don't like feeling frazzled and cranky all the time. It's reminding me of how I felt inside for much of my final semester at Georgia Tech, and that scares me a little. Something's gotta give.

Monday, May 03, 2004

my friend Jes makes me laugh

She emails: "We got a truck, too--did I forget to tell everyone? I totalled the Ranger a while back during an ice storm, so we got a Dodge Ram. It's humongous, and it's also raised a bit. I can't do the drive-thru ATMs because I can't reach the buttons. I like to drive and laugh maniacally, "I CAN CRUSH YOU, LITTLE COROLLA, HAHAHAHA!"

Monday, May 03, 2004

baby you can drive my car / yes I'm gonna be a star

What a weekend. As you can see from the pictures below, I bought a car on Friday. We'd found the red one I wanted (minus a cool auto-dimming rear view mirror with compass and temperature sensor) at the dealership up the road, and went back there first to take another look and see about adding the mirror. Turns out that they had sold the very car I was looking at on Thursday night! I mean, what are the odds of that?!

They had another red one, but it had the $800 premium stereo in it. Despite the saleswoman's exclamations of "oh, we can work something out," Dad and I decided to go elsewhere. It wasn't the price of the stereo, and it wasn't just that I didn't care whether or not I had the premium system...I mean, even if they'd been able to completely knock the price off (which they can't), I truly didn't want it. It was some fancy stereo with an in-dash 6-disc changer, blah blah blah, and I thought it was uglier than the factory stereo! And I'm not picky about audio, so the factory stereo is totally fine with me.

So, with the help of the Internet, we headed to another Nissan dealership across the highway from the Astrodome that we knew had the car I wanted (minus the cool mirror). As a side note, I have to say that being able to search dealer inventory online is a huge help in the car-buying process! We would have done so much more driving around town if we hadn't been able to look up in advance who had what vehicle. Awesome.

In the end, I decided not to worry about the mirror (or, I basically decided that I wanted red without the mirror more than I wanted silver with the mirror), and we negotiated on the red one I ended up buying. I was so incredibly nervous and anxious about the whole process! I hadn't expected that at all, so I was really glad Dad was there to help me. We stood our ground well, and the salesman eventually came down to our offer, which was something I was comfortable with paying, and something that must have been acceptable to the dealership, and bam--I have a new car! Hooray! I have to take it back this week so they can install the tow hitch, and then I'll have to go pick up my new license plates when they come in, but other than that, everything is great! I've already put almost 300 miles on it with all the driving I did this weekend. I'll need gas soon, so I guess that's when I'll find out just how painful it will be at the pump. :)

I was very nervous driving it on Friday, but got more comfortable very quickly, and already it feels like my car. The Strong Bad sticker on the window helps. :) I keep parking it where I can see it from the window of Wendy's or Starbuck's or wherever, and looking out going "oh look at that nice shiny Xterra...I wonder who that belongs to...oh, me! Hahaha." Though I need a new Georgia Tech sticker...the next time any of you are within shouting distance of the Tech bookstore, buy me a new car sticker and mail it to me. I'll pay you back!

I think Dad hadn't expected that we'd buy so quickly, but we entertained ourselves well for the rest of the weekend. Saturday morning it rained, and poured, and poured some more. My bayou was filling up and I thought we might get washed away, but finally it stopped around lunchtime. Dad and I ran some errands and I finally got a new bathing suit to replace the too-big, stretched out one I've been wearing for like five years now. Then I left Dad to his own devices for a few hours while Jason, Paul, Chris and I took Debbie on a geocaching scavenger hunt for her birthday. Despite the rain (which had thankfully decreased to a drizzle, though the high water in Kemah still showed evidence of the morning's downpour), Debbie had a good time, and after four stops on the hunt, we ended up at Texas Roadhouse for dinner, where Becca, Nick and Jo were already waiting. Our new friend Kelly also joined us.

After dinner I went home, where Dad and I watched baseball and sportscenter for a while and then went to bed at a reasonable hour, because I was getting up to do the Speedo Women's Triathlon yesterday morning. Dad decided not to come, so I headed over by myself (in my new car! heeheehee!) and met Buzz there. My back bike tire was flat on Saturday night when I put my bike in the car so I pumped it up...and it was flat again Sunday morning. I'd sort of suspected the tube was bad, so I'd brought an extra, and had to change the tube in the parking lot. Glad I took that roadside maintenance class at Bike Barn!

The triathlon was a lot of fun, despite the chilly weather that was the result of the front that came through with all the rain on Saturday. It was about the perfect distance--300m swim, 10-mile bike, 3-mile run. My times were pretty decent:

300-meter swim - 6:32
Transition 1 - 3:01
10-mile bike - 35:28
Transition 2 - 1:40
3-mile run - 30:29
TOTAL - 1:17:10

I'm ecstatic that I ran at a 10:10/mile pace despite having just gotten off a bike; that was far better than I expected my run time to be. My bike time is a little disappointing; I think I could have gone faster, but (in what is unfortunately becoming a theme) I was having bike issues. The gears kept slipping, which didn't make the bike unrideable, but did make it more difficult. Also, I think my rear brake was rubbing a bit, which is my own fault for not aligning the wheel properly when I put it back on after changing the tube. Anyway. The swim was fine; I'd told them a time of 6:40 to use in seeding me, and I was only 8 seconds faster. Other people were not so accurate though; no one swam past me, but I passed 5 or 6 other people.

I was 151st overall, out of 297 entered. So right about average! Yay me. The winner was a 24-year-old who did it in 49:57, just 44 seconds off the course record. Buzz also did great in her first triathlon, finishing in 1:25:48. The difference in our times is basically the difference in our swim times. She's a faster runner, I'm a faster biker, so those two pretty much even out.

I got home from the triathlon just as Dad was getting out of the shower, so after I showered, we grabbed some lunch and went to the Astros game. We had great seats that were about 5 feet off the foul line in left field (bit of a splurge), but they were in the sun so we moved back about 10 rows and sat in the shade. Later on, we moved back down to our original seats and were in the sun for just long enough for both of us to have pink faces this morning. The Astros won 6-5, coming back with 3 runs in the bottom of the 8th to win.

Dad left this morning when I left for work, and is probably to Louisiana by now. He might stop for the night somewhere, but said he'll see how he feels. My crazy dad. :) It was really nice having him visit.

p.s. I added five pictures from the Bayou Bash relay last weekend to the races album in my gallery.