Wednesday, September 19, 2007

I have forgotten how to study.

I have a test tonight in my digital media class, and I wasn't too worried until last night. That's when I took out my notes and realized that yes, I've forgotten how to study.

Studying for engineering classes, something I did with regularity from 1996 until 2002, was a totally different concept. First, you are usually allowed to bring in a single sheet of paper that you can fill to your heart's content with equations and mental notes. Second, engineering exams are not about facts. Memorizing facts and dates does not work. Heck, there aren't even really any facts and dates to remember. Engineering exams are all about the process, so you study the process. You study the basics, and the problem solving process. You need to know your general equations and concepts, and know how to apply those to a variety of problems. It's all about the big picture.

My digital media class, on the other hand, is something I've not experienced since high school. I have to know dates, I have to know facts, I have to know acronyms. In short, the process of studying for this test is simply rote memorization. And apparently I don't remember how to remember.

It is a weird feeling.

Monday, September 10, 2007

This morning marked the fourth day in a row that my alarm has gone off no later than 6:00 a.m. I usually try to maintain one of the two weekend mornings for sleeping in, since it seems that lately I am getting up earlier on Saturday and Sunday than I do during the week. It is crazy. It is exhausting. Sim, run, bike, load checkout. Tomorrow I have no early mornings committments. Hurrah.

It was quite a weekend. I ran the Bay Area Fit 5-Miler on Saturday morning, a private race with bibs and timing and everything. I guess the point is to give those who are new to running a taste of the race experience. I had a good run -- so good that I came home and slept for another two hours! (Glorious, but not enough to make up for the total weekend sleep deficit.) I'm tired of running with 100+ people yet running alone, so when Cathy from the tri group ran up beside me after the first half mile, I decided to join her. She's in one of the half marathon groups and was doing a 5/1 run/walk, which sounded perfectly good to me. We pushed pretty hard on the running portions, and finished with an overall average of exactly 11:00 per mile. That's fast for me at this point, with all the humidity, so I was happy. I had to walk around for quite a while before I felt like I could stand still without getting dizzy. I felt a little sick all morning until I finally got some significant food in my stomach at lunchtime.

The 600 sq mi opening on Saturday night was a lot of fun. Jose and I arrived around 7:25 and found the gallery so packed that it was nearly impossible to even move! There were appetizers (I did not partake) and a free bar (I did partake; the sangria was yummy). The photos all looked awesome. I hadn't seen my photos since dropping them off to be framed, and suddenly they were there. On a gallery wall. As part of a real show. It was very cool.

After making our way slowly down the wall, it had gotten so warm and crowded that Jose and I considered taking off. But Becca and Nick were both on their way, so we stuck around until they each finally arrived so that I could show off my work. I know there were a lot of the other photographers there, but it was so crowded and loud that it seemed pointless to try to introduce myself and have any meaningful conversation. I will have to go to one of the Flickr meetups soon to meet in a quieter setting.

Yesterday I was up before the crack of dawn again to meet Buzz, Darrin and Amy for a bike ride. The planned 45 miles did not happen for reasons far too complicated to explain, but I did get in 34 miles at an average of 14.9 mph. Yes, I said 14.9 mph. Normally, this number would leave me feeling frustrated at how slow I am. And yet yesterday's bike ride was absolutely fabulous. We rode at a comfortable pace. We took two short breaks. The weather was sunny and humid, but little wind. It was just the bike ride I needed to remind me that I don't always hate biking.

Jose and I saw 3:10 to Yuma yesterday afternoon. It started a little slowly, but picked up speed quickly and the end was fantastic. Highly recommended.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Today I had an ascent sim. It was a good sim, but exhausting because we did so many runs. Then I had delicious sushi for lunch. Then I came back to work and realized that due to an oversight on my part (and thus my fault), I still had a couple things to do before our load checkout on Monday morning. Things that, to be fully complete, require the help of other people. So I had to ask for help at 3:30 on a Friday afternoon, which made some people not happy with me. But it got done, and thus I was productive.

Does that mean I had a good day, since I got stuff done? Or a bad day, because I annoyed people in the process?

I'm not sure.

Whew. What a week. I do love four-day weeks, but this one seemed particularly busy. I have a lot to look forward to this weekend, including a 5-mile run tomorrow with Bay Area Fit, a long bike ride with Buzz on Sunday, and the 600 sq mi show opening tomorrow night!

Friday, August 31, 2007

Yesterday was a bad day. We had a rendezvous qual, and we didn't pass one of the runs. It was a mess. We were each doing the opposite of the task we were good at.

Today was better. I had a rendezvous sim, and I think I did ok. Things are looking up.

Time for little vacation in the great state of Ohio...

Thursday, August 30, 2007

Last night was the second week of class at UHCL. As I mentioned last week, this semester I'm taking a lecture class -- the first class I've taken there that doesn't involve design projects and lots of computer work. Instead, the homework is almost entirely reading and then reporting on the reading.

It is an odd class. The first hour is a "viewing" of something related to communication technology, and the rest of the class is lecture time. Last night's viewing was a PBS special called Transistorized that covered the invention of the transistor and how it changed the world. It was very interesting. The lecture discussed digital and cable television, since those are the chapters we will be reading for next week. It was also very interesting.

However, the class is nearly ruined by incessant quizzes and busywork that make me feel as if the professor thinks I'm about five years old. We have not one, but two quizzes per class. We have one quiz when we walk in the door, which covers the reading we were assigned the previous week. Ok, fine. He quizzes us to make sure we did the reading. But then halfway through class we have another quiz, this time covering whatever viewing we just had. So last night we had a quiz about the PBS special -- which we had just watched. The professor was there and saw us all sitting there watching the special. Is a quiz really necessary? All it does is prove how well you can take notes -- or how good your short term memory is.

Our weekly assignment (in addition to reading) isn't much better. We have to find an article about that week's topic. Once we find a few, we have to email the professor with the headlines so that he can pick which single article we should continue working with. (That's the part that bugs me the most -- that we have to get approval from him on our article.) It has to be an 800+ word article, which we then have to summarize in 400-500 words. That sounds to me like I will be basically rewording the article with a lot of edits. Then we have to report on it in class. Sigh.

Maybe I was especially annoyed because I wasn't feeling very well last night. But it is so frustrating to me that a class with good content is being strangled by pointless (and endless) quizzes and 5th grade book reports. I know I'm going to sound like an educational snob again here, but I feel like I'm above all that. I have been to college. I have done the whole pop quiz thing. I have done the whole book report thing. I don't want to do busywork anymore, I want to be treated like an adult. This is a graduate level class. Is it too much to ask that he treat us like graduate students? That he trust us to read the material, and grade us on a couple tests and overall class participation?

Anyway. The good content means that I will suck it up and put up with the pointless busywork for the semester, but it doesn't mean I won't be frustrated every week. Rant over.

I am feeling a bit under the weather. Sore throat, slight congestion, general achiness. It is another of my typical "functionally sick" periods, it seems. I rarely get so sick that I can't continue with life -- working, going to class, etc. It just means that I spend a few days doing all my normal things but feeling really icky. It's no fun. And it popped up fast. I did speedwork on Tuesday night and felt fine. Later that night at the Astros game, my throat started hurting. And now here I am.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

I realized last week that for the first time ever, I am poised to finish the year without using all of my vacation time. This is utterly appalling to me, and I am even more upset about it than I am when people tell me that oh, it's ok that they'll miss seeing the baseball game because they'll just Tivo it (which is to say, quite upset). Obviously this excess of leave means I have not taken enough vacations this year.

Sadly, I don't think this is a problem I'll be able to fix. While I have two (possibly three) more long weekends planned for 2007, there is no big trip this year. No Greece, no Machu Picchu, no Patagonia. To make up for this, I can look forward to not one but two very large trips next year.

Last week, one of Jose's best friends from college was in town to visit her fiance, who is a Ph.D. student in geology and was interning for Chevron over the summer. We had sushi up in town and Jose and Meryl got caught up on the three years of events since they'd last seen each other. She and James, her fiance, are both very nice and they're getting married next July in her home state. Did I mention that her home state is Alaska?

So next summer I will finally get to go to Denali. We're already planning to take a solid week off work and go to the wedding in Anchorage, spend some time in Denali, and take in whatever else there is to see. I can't wait!

The other big trip is a long jaunt to Japan sometime in the spring. We weanted to go this fall, but we just couldn't squeeze it in among holidays, already-planned activities, and the various shuttle missions and their possible slippage. Japan!

2008 is gonna be awesome.

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Congratulations Christina and Ben! Aiden was born on Sunday.

Funny story. She emailed me on Saturday asking to see photos of my t-shirt quilt, because she'd decided to make one while she waited for the baby. I emailed her back with all sorts of info, and at the end I said "I will laugh if you go into labor immediately after beginning the quilt."

Then I read her blog which said something about signs. I immediately emailed again: "Ok, so I just read your blog and now I wonder if you're having the baby, like, RIGHT NOW."

Her response was "maybe I AM."

So it appears that Christina was checking her email while in labor, which pretty much makes her my new hero.

Monday, August 27, 2007

I'm staying at work late to observe a sim, so I took the morning off. It wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.

First, I went for my scheduled 40-minute run as planned, but it was hot and I was seriously lacking energy, and I struggled to maintain a 12:00 pace. I know I will be faster when the weather cools off, but it is pretty disheartening right now to feel so slow. Halfway through my run, I also got a little scared by a passerby. I was running on the road outside my apartment complex, moving from the sketchy apartment complex next door back towards my own complex. This random guy on a bike rode up behind me on the other side of the road, and slowed down to match my pace. I glanced at him and he was looking at me. I kept running, and he kept biking, and he still kept looking at me. By that time I was back at the entrance to my own complex, and as he turned his bike to cross the road -- smiling weirdly and acting like he was going to talk to me -- I ran straight into my complex. He didn't follow me inside, but the whole thing freaked me out a bit. The dude just gave me bad vibes.

After cooling off and showering, I headed over to Clear Lake Shores to take care of the speeding ticket I got a couple weeks ago. Their municipal court building is in a wooden shack, sharing space with a dentist's office or something. It made me angry all over again. Stupid square mile of a town.

From there I drove all the way across Clear Lake to get a second estimate on the cost of repairs to my poor dented bumper, only to find that the estimator was out to lunch with his father and he'd be back "sometime after 1:00." Sigh. I've only managed to get one estimate so far despite many calls and driving around, and it was for $500. About half of that was parts, and the other half was labor. After hearing this story when I got to work, my officemates told me that bumpers are one of the easiest car parts to replace, and that I should just do it myself. An online search told me that I can get the parts I need (a new bumper and bumper pad) for about $220. That doesn't save me much over the body shop, so what I'd really be saving is paying them for labor. And while I'm intrigued by the idea of doing some car repair on my own, I'm not sure that I wouldn't just rather pay the full $500 and have someone else do the dirty work. We'll see.

Friday, August 24, 2007

My fortune cookie today said: "Action with a brain. Today you should proceed with caution."

Action with a brain. I have no idea what that means.

On Tuesday, I left work a little early to squeeze in some speedwork before leaving for the baseball game. I was supposed to do 12x60-60, which is 24 total minutes. Well, despite knowing that I needed 12x60-60, I kept mentally calculating only 12 total minutes. That meant I'd have a solid 10 minutes for warmup and another 10 minutes for cooldown before having to head home to shower and meet Jen to drive to the ballpark.

It wasn't until I started my warmup that I finally realized my mental math mistake. I had to skimp on my warmup and cooldown to fit the workout in, but it was so hot outside already that I decided it would be ok. I did 5 minutes warmup and 5 minutes cooldown, and I didn't stop sweating for the rest of the night. It was one tough workout, but I made it. Later, I looked at the schedule again and it turns out I was actually only scheduled for 8x60-60.

Oh well.

I didn't run on Wednesday night since it was the first evening of fall classes at UHCL. I am taking a class called Technical Foundations of Digital Media. It is one of the core classes for the school's new graduate program in Digital Media Studies. When my classes counted toward a potential humanities degree, I wasn't as interested in going all the way to earning a degree. I just wasn't interested in taking the three generic English classes required for a M.A. in Humanities. With the new Digital Media Studies program, however, I am much more interested in going through with everything I need to earn another Masters degree. This class will be my fifth at UHCL, leaving me with 15 hours at the end of this semester. That's almost halfway to a degree already.

Anyway. When the professor walked in on Wednesday and began going over the syllabus, I was immediately worried. There are tons of pop quizzes, and he asked everyone for their level of expertise, and spent a long time carefully explaining how the class was to be run. His manner conveyed that the class would be far too simplistic to me. The textbook (which I'd picked up before class) also looked very simple. I was worrying and getting carried away with myself when the professor finally finished the syllabus and started class. And class was actually good! It was interesting, and not too simple, and he had good lecturing style. He's obviously a stickler for grading and attendance and structure, but I think the class will be interesting. It is the first class I've taken at UHCL that's a lecture class (and not in the computer lab).

Hooray for Friday.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Last night Jen and I dutifully headed downtown to the Astros game like good fans. I hadn't been to a game in a month, and haven't even been paying much attention to the team lately. Let's just say that their performance this season doesn't inspire a great deal of rapid game-watching on my part. Take today's news: Jason Jennings is having season-ending elbow surgery. We traded Willy Taveras and Jason Hirsh for him. Worst trade in Astros history.

I had fun at the game, but only because Jen and I got to chat and gossip the whole time without fearing that Jason's ears would fall out of his head from hearing too much girl talk. (He couldn't make the game.) The Astros were getting killed, and the game just wasn't very interesting. In the 7th inning, they announced the crowd as some like 34,000. I estimate that by that point there were about 5,000 people in the stadium. And that might be generous. I have never seen the stadium so empty.

Because the Nationals scored a lot, the game was excruciatingly slow. Both Jen and I had to be at work at 8:00 this morning, and we continually moaned about it. Finally, when Jen looked at the clock and commented that "geez, this game is going to go till 11:00," we both realized we'd had enough.

"I wouldn't argue if you wanted to leave now," I said. "Really? Because neither would I," Jen said.

So we left. At the end of the 8th inning, we left. I felt bad about it. But only a little.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

One of the guys in my division had a cruise scheduled for this week. Its destination? Cancun. I'm not sure if he'll still be going, given that Hurricane Dean is currently slamming the Yucatan peninsula. We obviously escaped even minor impact here in Houston, which is good for us...but don't hurricanes just plain suck? If they don't hit us, they still hit somebody else.

On Saturday night, Jose convinced me to go to the grocery store to buy some water and canned food. I wanted to make fun of him, but then realized that it's pretty dumb to make fun of someone who just wants to be prepared. The local media was hyping the storm so much that it made me want to run in the opposite direction: do absolutely nothing in the way of preparation. But I guess that's my problem with the media in the first place. I don't mind them talking about the storm, and telling the public to be prepared. It's the "Hurricane Dean, a possible Category 5 killer, is very likely headed our way" talk that bugs me. Preparation is a good thing; panic is not.

Jose had a good point when he said that now if one does come our way, we won't have to join the mad rush to the store. But now I have a few gallons of water and a few days worth of canned food sitting in my apartment. I put it in the back of my closet, where it will sit for the rest of hurricane season. At the end of the season, I'll have to throw a "we didn't have a hurricane" party. The menu will be water and spaghettios. You know you want to come.

My friend Leila has started biking with the goal of doing the Livestrong Challenge in October. Check out her blog if you're interested!

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Do you ever have those days or weeks where time seems to slow down? Sometimes this is a good thing, but sometimes it's incredibly annoying. Because when time slows down, you get tired. You feel generally blah. You get bored. And though you know that things are bound to pick up again at some point, it feels like that point is very, very far off.

Work has been mind-numbingly slow over the past week. It's no one's fault; it's just a factor of circumstances. Half of my office is working the mission, meaning half of my office isn't here. The mission also means that there are no sims, so I'm not getting to practice any real-time ops. I had my one pilot pool lesson for the week this morning, and only a few lessons remain. I will miss those classes, since they have been a lot of fun. I am assigned to many upcoming missions, but none of them has any outstanding work at this moment, at least not where I am concerned. Boil all this down and I am left with reading. Studying. Thinking. Reading some more.

Even the evenings have been slow. The HARRA website is finally at a reasonable level of self-sufficiency. My graphic design class for fall doesn't start until next week, and for the first time it will be a non-hands-on class from what I can tell; it looks like it will be more reading and discussion oriented. I am running, but obviously I don't run all night. I am tired of TV, as there is rarely anything good on. I have no websites to work on, and no little design projects to tweak. I find myself feeling bored. This is a very unusual feeling, since I am usually very good at entertaining myself.

So, I am open to suggestions as to how I should spend my free time over the next few weeks until things speed up again. All suggestions will be considered unless they involve training for an Ironman, spending an obscene amount of money, spending extensive time in the crappy construction-slowed traffic, or evacuating in advance of a hurricane. I may not have control over that last one, but I can hope.

Monday, August 13, 2007

As weekends go, this one was not the best.

On Friday night, Jose finally got a chance to do the long night cross country flight that he's been trying to schedule for weeks. It kept getting rescheduled due to weather, the plane being down for repair, and his instructor having to cancel. But on Friday night, the weather was finally perfect, the plane was back in working order, and his instructor was ready to go. Off they went, with Jose having told me to expect him back around 10:00.

At 9:15, he sent me a text message from Brenham, so I knew that he wouldn't be back when he had predicted. Nevertheless, I inexplicably started to worry as the clock passed 10 and kept ticking. Worrying is absurd, because I don't really think that anything is going to happen. Jose is a good, if beginning, pilot and he's very careful with his flying -- not to mention that Jeff, his instructor, has thousands of hours in the air and is arguably the best instructor in the area (from what I've heard). But I still worried, even though I knew they were ok. Jose finally called at 11:30 to say that he was on his way home.

The inane worrying kept me up later than planned, and the thought of getting up at 5:30 to meet BAF for running made me tired, so I slept in on the condition that I would get my run done before noon on the treadmill. I kept my promise to myself with a trip to Gilruth where I did 7 slow dreadmill miles while watching the little league world series followed by some HGTV. I found it absurd that on Saturday morning, the Gilruth keeps two of the seven TVs tuned to CBS and NBC -- both of whom are showing kids cartoons. Sorry, but I didn't really feel like watching Trollz, or whatever that show was. I think it was a cartoon based on those little plastic dolls with all the hair. Weird.

As I was leaving the Gilruth, I backed up too far and bumped my car into a concrete pole. GREAT. It was about 3 feet tall -- or, just short enough that I couldn't see it out the back window of my Xterra. Yes, I looked. No, I did not back up without looking. I just couldn't see the stupid pole. Despite my slow speed, it made quite a bang. I didn't want to look at it right away, so I drove home hoping that it was the bike rack that hit, and not my bumper.

No such luck. It was my bumper. It was all bumper, so the good news is that it will hopefully be easy to bang out since it didn't touch the body of the car itself. The bad news is that it needs to be fixed soon, because while the damage isn't that bad, it crinkled the bumper upward by about an inch -- which is just enough to block my trunk hatch from opening. So I can't get into the back of my car. Suck. I felt like a complete idiot.

All the body shops I called closed at 2, so I decided to just forget about it for the rest of the weekend, and I headed out to pick up my packet for the Eastside Sprint Triathlon. I love triathlons, but I have one major beef: they very rarely offer race-day packet pickup. This means that I have to drive 1.5 hours round trip the day before the event to pick up my packet, and then do the same drive the next day for the race itself. I decided to take Beltway 8 on Saturday, only to discover that part of the beltway was entirely closed with all traffic being routed onto the feeder. UGH. In addition to that, something was burning on the other side of the highway which caused all sorts of rubbernecking.

I've come to the conclusion that you cannot drive anywhere in this stupid city without getting stuck in construction-caused traffic. Which is lots of fun when it's 100 degrees outside.

The rest of Saturday was a lot better, and I got to bed at a decent hour to rest up for yesterday's Eastside Tri. I'll post a better race report later today or tomorrow, but my time for the 500 meter swim, 16 mile bike, and 2.5 mile run (the course had to be shortened because rain put the original course underwater) was 1:38:39. That was good enough for 1st place Athena (out of 3 in the category) despite the fact that my bike was only so-so and my run was my worst tri run of the season.

Sunday was looking up. I had a yummy lunch at Panera, and Jose and I spent the afternoon running errands at Best Buy and Fry's. I got a new external hard drive -- which means I can now get rid of my desktop entirely! It still works fine, so I'm not sure what to do with it. Maybe see if I can get a couple hundred bucks on the swap shop... Jose finally got a printer, a refurbished Epson for half price. It does borderless prints! And they look great. I may abandon my printer (which I've had since college, though it does print good photos) in favor of using his.

I had a soccer game in the evening, which was hot and frustrating. I'm tired of losing all the team. My team is just not that good. We are a very defensive team; we lose all our games by scores of 0-3, 0-1, 0-2, etc. Our problem isn't that the other teams score. Our problem is that we never score. We end up playing defense for 90% of the game. And when you end up playing that much defense, the other team will score. It's not a matter of if, but when. When the game ended I was frustrated, sweaty, and absolutely exhausted.

I drove back to Clear Lake, ready to have a relaxing dinner with Jose. I was a mile from his apartment and talking to my mom on the phone for the first time in weeks when I noticed flashing lights a good distance behind me in my rear view mirror. I kept driving for a bit, not realizing that the flashing lights were apparently for me. I hung up with mom after telling her that "I think I'm getting pulled over." I still had no idea why. I looked at my speedometer and saw 50 miles per hour. The speed limit is 45. Was I really getting pulled over for going 5 mph over the limit?

The cop parked behind me and left her extremely bright lights shining into my mirror, forcing me to slouch down in the seat to avoid being blinded. She walked up to my window and shined her flashlight directly into my eyes, forcing me to turn my head away. At this point I'm wondering if someone in a red Xterra has kidnapped a child or something!

Nope. Apparently the police department of Clear Lake Shores -- a "city" that is about one square mile in area -- had nothing better to do last night. It turns out that for the 0.25-mile stretch of road through their pinhead of a "city," the speed limit drops to 40. I never knew that. In five years, I never knew that. So she wrote me a ticket for going 50 in a 40. Clear Lake Shores! A "city" that is so freaking tiny that I didn't even know they had a police department! When I told my coworker this morning (a League City volunteer fire captain) about it, he laughed and said "which one pulled you over -- the chick or the old guy?" The "city" has exactly two police officers. "Yeah, and pulling people over is their sole source of income," he said. In five years, I've never seen anyone pulled over on that stretch of road, so who knows -- maybe I've just been lucky. Now I'm just glad that I managed to fix my broken tail light last week. I'm sure she would've loved to give me a ticket for that too.

I was so mad. In the 3+ years I've been driving my Xterra, I have not been in a single accident or gotten pulled over. And in one weekend, I got both.

For once, I was glad to see Monday arrive.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Speak of the 200-mile running relay you plan on doing next March, and the New York Times publishes an article the next day about such events. That's me. Tipping off the New York Times. Oh yeah.

STS-118 had a beautiful launch yesterday and will be spending the next two weeks circling the earth. I'm not working this mission so I simply watched the launch from the conference room down the hall with a few coworkers. However, this is the last mission in a long while that will have no Sarah involvement. I'll be working the launch of STS-120 in October, and working the launch of STS-122 in December. I'll be helping my trainee work her first launch for STS-123 in February. Things will get extremely busy in April, when I work the launch of STS-124 and then work the rendezvous two days later. Later in 2008, I'll be working one of the "off" shifts for both STS-125 (the Hubble flight) and STS-126; by "off" shift, I mean the non-rendezvous shift. That means my work will be minimal, but hey, I'll still be supporting.

That means I won't have a mission off until STS-127. Then, if all goes well with my training and with the flight schedule, I look to be in line to be assigned as the lead Rendezvous GPO for STS-128 sometime in 2009. That's when you will finally get to see me on TV. It will be my one shining moment before the shuttle program goes away. 2009 seems far away, but I suppose it will get here eventually.

Until then, I have a lot more reading to do.

I saved this until last so I can sneak it in: I officially upgraded from the half to the full marathon today. I signed up for the Half a couple months ago before I'd thought about joining BAF. Now, it seems hypocritical to say I'm training for a marathon when I'm only signed up for the half. I hesitated for a bit, because after my first marathon in 2005, I told myself that my next one would be somewhere else. Not Houston. But I guess I was wrong. I am officially signed up for Houston. It will be my second marathon.

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Very strange: my iPhone battery went from 70% to 0% while sitting on my desk while I was at lunch. I am not sure what happened.

Last week, the powers that be decided to do every repaving project on the list -- all at once. The main road into work is half closed, but that's not the big problem. No, the big problem is that both of the parking lots I usually park in are under construction, cutting off at least 150 parking spaces until they are done. This means I have to park even farther away than normal. And it's the hottest week of the year. I broke a sweat walking the half mile from my car to my building. Seriously, can't they just put Houston under a bubble for half the year? It worked in the Simpsons movie...

Jose and I spent another weekend in Corpus Christi to belatedly celebrate his mom's birthday. She wanted to spend the day on the Texas Treasure, a casino cruise that leaves from Port Aransas. I had never gambled before in my life (at least not with realy money) so it was an interesting experience. The boat was certainly not what I imagine Vegas to be. It was a little dark, a little smoke-stained. There were slot machines galore, but only one fairly small area for table games. A buffet lunch was included in the ticket, but the food was mediocre -- like you would find in a cafeteria.

Despite that, it was fun. The ship cruises 10 miles offshore and then stops dead in the water while all the casino games open for business. Jose's mom and aunts headed straight for the nickel slots, which were by far the most popular machine in the house. Jose and I blew $5 each on the quarter slots before heading upstairs to the table games. We played roulette for an hour or so, and I did enjoy that. I know that the house always wins, but I decided that I could get pretty good chances on the roulette table by following a specific strategy. The minimum bet was $5 on the table, but you could split it up into $1 bits. I would throw five $1 bids out on the table, each bid covering 4 numbers. That way, I covered 20 of the 38 numbers -- more than half -- on the wheel. If it hit one of the 18 number I didn't have, I lost $5. But if it hit one of the 20 numbers that I did have, I got $9 -- a net of $4.

This seemed to be about as even as I could hope for, and it did work out well. Overall, I ended up about $5 ahead for the day playing roulette. In all, I ended up down about $20, $15 of which went to never-never-land within minutes on the slot machines. I have since decided that slot machines will inherently take your money, not to mention that I don't trust them because I don't know what the odds are. The remaining $10 ($5 plus the extra $5 I had from roulette) went to playing bingo and buying food.

All in all, it was a fun day, even if I concluded that yes, I still think gambling is dumb. I don't mind losing $20 because hey, I was entertained for six hours. But I don't understand the people who leave having lost hundreds.

Tuesday, July 31, 2007

A freaking ENORMOUS roach just crawled across the floor of my office. From leg to tip of antenna, it was almost 3 inches long. I almost yelped out loud when I saw it out of the corner of my eye, crawling away from my desk, which means that most likely it just came from under my desk. Ew ew ew ew EWWWWW.

Killing bugs is not something I enjoy doing. Fixing things, however, is something that I do enjoy, and nothing makes me feel more handy than fixing something automobile-related. As I sat in the sim yesterday morning with one more ascent run to go, I got a call from Jose. His car wouldn't start. Dead battery.

After the sim I drove over to give him a jump start. He had no jumper cables, but I do. (My Dad got them for me in 1997 when he bought me the Sentra. I needed the car because I'd gotten my coop job and would be spending semesters in Houston.)

We hooked up the jumper cables and let things run. For a long time. Nothing. Jose's car clicked, but would not start. The engine didn't even make any "I'm trying to turn over but I can't" sounds. Just clicks. The battery was dead dead dead.

"Let's take it out of the car and I'll go buy a new one," Jose said. "Ok," I said, "we need a screwdriver to take off this random plastic covering that's all over your engine, and then we need a wrench to get those bolts off." But alas, Jose had no tools.

We went to work for a while, and then attacked the battery problem again. We went to my apartment, where we picked up my toolbox. (My Dad bought me the toolbox when I moved to Houston full-time because, as he said, everyone needs a toolbox.) We also picked up the Husky 60-piece socket set that I won at a Braves game in 1997 when the Home Depot ad in my program was signed by Bobby Cox. (Some guy offered my $20 for it as I lugged it home from the stadium on MARTA. I declined.) Until yesterday, I had only ever used it for bolting the bike rack on my car.

Back to Jose's place, where my socket set made battery removal a breeze. Oooh, we are so handy. From there we drove to NTB, where the girl who tested the battery gave a laugh as she announced that her super duper battery checking voltmeter thingy was measuring 46 cranking amps...out of 600.

One new battery later, we were reinstalling the battery and voila! The car started with a roar. Successful battery replacement, and we high-fived in celebration of our handiness. Neither of us had ever changed a car battery, but it wasn't hard at all...if you have the right tools.

My dad will be so proud.

Monday, July 30, 2007

I was elected to lead, not to read...

The full moon was still high and bright in the dark sky this morning as I drove to work at 5:45 a.m. Seriously. It was just absurd how early I was up. I'm assigned to work the launch of STS-120 in October, and we had our first flight-specific ascent sim scheduled for this morning at 7:30. Then on Friday they moved it up to 7:00. Which meant that, since I have to arrive an hour before sim start, I had to be here at 6:00. The fact that I was tired did not exactly go along with the fact that I'm rusty on my ascent skills (it's amazing how quickly you forget things when you're not simming every week), and I had a mediocre sim. Fortunately, this is why we have four leading up to each flight, and not just one.

The weekend was good. Saturday seemed to last forever; apparently getting up at 5:00 makes the day last longer. I ran, came home, showered, went to Borders, went to Katie's baby shower, went to the mall, helped Jose pick out "front room" clothes for work now that he'll be simming under the eye of the flight director, ate dinner, agonized about whether an iPhone was too much of a splurge, finally bought said iPhone, went home, and spent the rest of the night playing with my new toy. Whew! It makes me tired all over again just thinking about it.

Yesterday was much calmer. I slept in, and then organized a group outing to see the Simpsons movie. It was funny in exactly the ways I expected. The first half hour or so was hilarious, and then things slowed down a lot in the middle while they just concentrated on forwarding the plot. Things picked up and were funnier again at the end. Going in, I figured they'd be able to maintain the humor at least as long as a normal TV show, but wondered what would happen after that. It was about what I expected. Overall, it was a funny movie and worth the money. Despite seeing it in the previews, Spider Pig still cracked me up, especially when the credits rolled.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

My officemate is funny. He built a very high-tech cradle for his new phone/PDA and it was so popular that he is now selling it on ebay. Don't wait, bid now!

The coke machine downstairs is broken, but in a good way. If you buy one drink, sometimes a second one falls out too. You have to wait a few seconds to see if you get lucky, and it seems to only happen with the Diet Dr. Pepper, but no complaints here. I got another free one today!

I stayed up until 2 a.m. to finish Harry Potter. I didn't intend on doing so, but once the finale had started to build it was too hard to stop, and that happened when there were still 150 pages to go. So I kept reading and finished. It was good. It ended just about like I expected it to. I was satisfied.

I am TIRED today, because I then had to get up early for a training session. We are currently working on starting the manual phase of rendezvous, which was fun. On Monday we finally stepped up from rendezvous with small satellites to rendezvous with the space station. We flew approaches all the way in to docking, and I realized that the space station is big. Very big. And even at 0.1 feet per second, it looks like it's coming at you fast. Very fast. I can only imagine what it would feel like if I were an astronaut doing it for real.

Despite my fatigue, have promised myself that I will run after work because I skipped yesterday. It's gonna be a rough one, I can tell already. I'm gulping water trying to get rid of a slight headache. I originally planned to do some speedwork, but I may take it easy instead.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

At the end of May, Jose and I bought 2 tickets to this Saturday's Red Sox game. This, of course, necessitated actually going to Boston, so voila! We bought plane tickets a few weeks ago and here we are! Just a random, awesome vacation in Boston. Jose went to college here and this is the first time he's been back since graduation. He wants to move back here. The bad thing is that I want to move here too.

Yesterday we left Houston at the ungodly time of 6:45 a.m. which meant getting up at 4:00. Despite getting about 4 hours of sleep, we made the most of our afternoon here. We checked into the Hotel @ MIT, which is just a fabulously nerdy as it sounds. There are equations on the blanket on the bed, old photos of MIT on the wall, the lights look like circuit boards, and there's a atom on the carpet in the elevator. There are robots in the lobby, and giant prints of MIT patent applications on the wall behind the check-in desk.

We walked around the MIT campus yesterday as Jose talked and talked about his memories of college. "I must be boring you," he said. But he wasn't. I liked hearing all his college stories. I know I'll talk his ear off with the same thing whenever we visit Atlanta together.

We stopped at the MIT bookstore so he could finally embrace his alma mater with a sticker for his car and a few other things. They had ads up all over the place for the Harry Potter release tomorrow, so I went ahead and reserved a copy of the book at the MIT bookstore. I can start reading it on the plane home on Sunday.

Last night we met up with his friend Seth and Seth's friend Sarah and had sushi and then went to hear a musician described by Seth as an "extreme cellist." Sounds a little sketchy, right? But the guy, Erik Friedlander, was actually amazing. He sometimes played the cello normally, and sometimes played it rather like a guitar. It was pretty amazing that he was making all those sounds and all that cool music with a single instrument. Definitely worthwhile. Even crazier was that the concert was just being held in some little gallery in Cambridge. One room, a bunch of folding chairs, on some random street. This is the kind of stuff that just doesn't happen in Houston.

We crashed by 11:00, exhausted from the lack of sleep the night before. This morning we went on a run-slash-walk from the hotel, across the Charles River, along the Boston side, back across the Longfellow Bridge, and back to the hotel. It was almost 4 miles, and Jose has not run in quite a while, so after a few miles of run-walking, we pretty much walked the entire last bit. It took us over an hour, so I hesitate to count it as a run, but it was still good exercise. I hope to get in a solid 4-5 mile run on Saturday. This city is a great city for running.

Friday, July 13, 2007

There are just too many events for a girl like me to keep up. I'm excited to be doing the Houston Urban Adventure Race with Debbie tomorrow morning, but I'm bummed to be missing the Lunar Rendezvous Run and all the bloggers that will be there. They're even giving out a cool red tech tee! Color me jealous. Ah well.

I wanted to run last night and planned to hit the Gilruth trail at 7:45 for 3 miles before our 9:00 softball game. Unfortunately, at 7:45 there was thunder and lightning galore so I kept my butt inside. The storm passed by 8:30 and we did play softball, but at that point there was no time for running. At least softball was good. We won 16-3 and I went 2-for-3! The rain cooled the temperature, but it was so humid that simply running from home plate to first base had me dripping with sweat. After the game, Jose asked if I had taken a shower, and he wasn't kidding. I was that wet. After the game I also helped Debbie put the chain back on her bike, so we are set for tomorrow morning!

It's going to be a busy weekend. I've got two races plus a soccer game. Jose's got a major cross-country training flight planned with his instructor. Somewhere in there, I'll hopefully get a nap...or two.

In other news, I got a raise! Raises in my job are based pretty much entirely on time served, not on performance, so it doesn't really say anything about me other than: I've been working here for 5 years. I transitioned from coop to full-time on July 22, 2002. It amounts to ~$50 more per paycheck after taxes. It also means that I have officially topped out. Here at JSC, your salary rises like crazy for 5 years and then suddenly you plateau. I won't get another raise (except for the standard yearly government increase for inflation) from now until I become management. Which isn't likely to happen anytime soon.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

This New York Times article about air quality and exercise is interesting. I didn't have allergies 10 years ago, but now I am usually a bit sniffly, and my eyes itch regularly. I have often wondered if the air quality in Houston (which is bad, and living fairly close to acres of chemical plants doesn't help) is impacting my health. I'm not going to stop running and biking and going outside because exercise will always be better than no exercise, but it does make me concerned.

I rode 23.5 miles on my bike last night in just under 1:30. I averaged right around 16 mph. The first 15 miles went considerably better than the last 8. During the latter portion, I was feeling pretty pooped. While I don't notice the heat as much on a bike as I do while running, mainly because riding a bike provides you with a man-made breeze, I know it still affects me. And mentally, I was done. I have not been riding consistently enough to make the bike comfortable, and once my neck and back start aching, I check out. Nonetheless, I was glad to get in a ride. I double-booked myself this weekend with the Houston Urban Adventure Race on Saturday and Jeff & Brede's Intergalactic Triathlon on Sunday, so I'll get in two more bouts of biking before the week is through.

I know all my blog entries have been about running and biking this week, but there's not much else going on. I'm planning to see the new Harry Potter movie tomorrow night so that will be fun, even though it's been a while since I read the book. I forget books pretty quickly, so I'll probably be all confused about what's going on. Oh well. Harry Potter = good, Voldemort = bad. That's probably enough.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Some people don't know when to quit. Yesterday I sat stewing as someone went on for 20 solid minutes about how awful running is. His wife is training for her first half marathon and apparently I, well-known as a runner and triathlete, was the person he decided to come talk to. I sincerely hope that he is being more supportive of his wife in her goals. He wouldn't stop ridiculing running. Why would anyone want to run? You don't really need $100 shoes to run. You get Runner's World magazine -- see, that's absurd! Why does running need its own magazine? Ha ha, why would anyone run? Ho ho, oooh, I can't run in a cotton t-shirt. A GPS watch, are you mentally ill? Hey, yeah, it's great to have a goal and all, that's nice, oh but why running? It's so dumb.

On and on and on.

At first it was funny -- I'm used to the "you're crazy" comments, because they're usually followed with "but that's cool that you do that." But the longer it went on, the more I began to doubt that he was really kidding, and then it was really annoying. Dude, I get it. You don't like running. You think it's a stupid sport. Just say that and move on. I don't stand around ranting about how stupid your hobbies are. A little respect, please.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

I sat down in the locker room at Gilruth last night and started pulling my running clothes out of my bag.

Running skirt? Check.
Tech tee? Check.
Hat? Check.
Sports bra? Check.
IPod Shuffle? Check.
Garmin? Check.
Shoes? Check.
Socks?
...
Socks??
...
I forgot to pack socks!

Dilemma. I have never run without socks. What to do? Finally I decided to go for it and see if I could run comfortably without socks. After all, most top triathletes do it, and if I discover that I can go sockless, it'll save me another few seconds in transition. (Not that a few seconds makes a difference when you're slow like me, but hey.) I was planning to do 3 miles, so I thought I'd just go as far as I could. If I felt hot spots on my sockless feet, I'd stop and walk back.

Amazingly, going sockless wasn't a big deal! It felt a little weird, and I don't plan to do it often, but I could certainly do a sprint triathlon without bothering with socks. I got one hot spot on my right index toe, but it was the same blister that formed on Saturday when I was wearing socks.

I ran my 3 miles outside, starting at about 6:00. I am still stubbornly trying to fight the heat, but thankfully I survived. There was a bit of a breeze that made things bearable, and I'm happy to report that I kept a relaxed pace and didn't take any walk breaks! (Walk breaks have become pretty standard for me in the heat.) I finished in 34:00 for an average of about 11:20 per mile.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Apparently I'm going to run another marathon. It must be true, since I joined Bay Area Fit's orange group on Saturday.

I really wanted to join the yellow group, because the coaches are also the triathlon group coaches, and because I have three friends in that group. But their pace is under 10:30 per mile, and I'm just not there right now, not for long runs anyway. So I joined orange, where I should fit in very comfortably on the faster end. Come fall and cooler weather, I hope to make the switch from orange to yellow. We shall see.

Summer heat and humidity has led to some nasty runs of late. I read a lot of blogs detailing bad runs, easily in the top ten worst runs ever, and I had a similar experience on Saturday morning. I met a guy from the tri group at 6:30 for a planned 6-miler at 11:00 pace before the BAF kickoff. While we covered the distance, an 11:00 pace eluded me. Steve was kind enough to slow down for me, even at the end when the walk breaks were plentiful.

The first 3 miles were at about 11:30 pace. The last 3 miles were at 12:00+ pace. UGH. I blame it mostly on dehydration, which I expected since I basically purposefully dehydrated myself on Friday. Rendezvous sims last 8 hours, and there's really no optimal time to take a break. I drank nothing from the time I got up Friday morning until about 4:00 that afternoon. (I haven't figured out a solution to this problem yet.) In retrospect, maybe I shouldn't be surprised that I had a really horrible run.

I have mixed feelings about doing another marathon. I am ready to do another one, but I am not sure I want to do Houston again. I always told myself that the next one I did would be somewhere else. Somewhere like New York, Chicago, Washington, or Hawaii. But I guess I can do Houston again. At the least, I know that training will be much more pleasant with a group; I trained basically alone when I did my only marathon thus far in 2005, and I suffered a good six months of burnout afterwards. I was so tired of running alone.

The final reason I decided to train was just in case I decide to do an Ironman. There, I said it. I know, I'm crazy. I haven't decided anything yet, but a bunch of people from the tri group are doing IM Arizona and I'd be lying if I said they didn't put a seed of a thought into my head.

The one thing I do know is that I train better and more consistently when I am being held accountable to someone or something else. A coach, a group, an event. So here we go...

Thursday, July 05, 2007

T-16 hours until my first sim. Whee! There are a billion evaluations tomorrow to make things go wrong. Whee! But Jose passed his cert sim today. I'm officially the RPS trainee. Whee!

I have been messing around on Flickr lately. Up to this point I've basically used it as a way to get cell phone photos to my blog. But in the past few days, I've been surfing and oh boy, am I discovering (as so many others already have) that it is addictive. There are always new photos to see.

On Tuesday night I went to the Astros game with a 4-week-old. Carina never got too fussy, perhaps because she is used to the sounds of the stadium from all the games she attended in the womb. The game was a doozy. The Astros managed to tie it in the bottom of the 9th when Carlos Lee of all people beat out a throw to first. Or, rather, the umpire called him safe. I highly doubt he was actually safe, considering the fact that he runs about as fast as a bulldozer. The game continued for another 4 innings, with Hunter Pence hitting a walk-off homer in the 13th. That made the post-game pre-4th fireworks a happy event, though Carina and family had already left.

My holiday was extremely relaxed. I slept until noon, and woke up to more gray skies and drizzling rain. We went to the movies and saw Transformers at 2:20. The theater was absolutely a madhouse, due to the combination of bad weather + everyone being off work. Transformers was funny and entertaining. Paired with Die Hard 4, which I saw over the weekend, they are the perfect summer movies. Big, loud, shiny, and entertaining without making you think too hard. Over the top.

Jose and I followed the movie with sushi. Japanese food in honor of Independence Day. It was good, and the xin xin roll was awesome. We watched another movie at home. Donnie Darko. It was...interesting. The jury's still out deciding my opinion on that one. We paused halfway through to watch fireworks from a distance from my balcony. We saw at least 5 or 6 different shows, and heard at least 2 more, enough that I couldn't even figure out where they were all coming from. Pasadena, La Porte, Baytown, Seabrook, Kemah...?

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

I often worry that I am a "grass is greener" person.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, because sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side -- so maybe it's more accurate to say that I often worry that I always think things would be better elsewhere.

I have been in a work slump since the launch. Working the launch was so exciting, and what I had to come back to post-mission is extremely unexciting. I am reading. Reading, reading, reading. Reading about rendezvous, reading about systems, reading about flight rules. Training to be a flight controller may sound glamorous (and don't get me wrong -- sims and the pilot training I'm currently doing are lots of fun), but there is a dull and boring side to it as well. I'm only halfway through all the material I need to read, and I feel like I can't read another sentence without going crazy.

Yesterday was particularly bad, and I left work thinking that maybe I should just quit, take classes full time to finish my graphic design M.S. from UHCL, and find a new job as a designer/web person extraordinaire.

But if I did that full time, would I enjoy it as much?

Not to mention that despite my pipe dreams, I'm not sure I'm truly qualified to work in that field.

Things are getting better though. Finally -- finally! -- I am getting into the meat of training. I have my first rendezvous sim on Friday, and I made the mistake of looking at the list of evaluations that are also happening that day. It will be my first sim, but it will also be a FDO final, a TRAJ midpoint, and a GNC midpoint. Main point being: those people will have problems to work, and their problems will almost certainly affect me. Little old me. Little old greenhorn me.

Fortunately my mentor will be there to help me, so I'm actually not too worried. If I mess up too badly, I can just blame him. ;)

Friday, June 29, 2007

Jose left for Corpus Christi after work yesterday. I had to eat dinner alone, and watch the Astros game alone, and when I messed around on the computer aimlessly for more than an hour, there was no one to make fun of me. I'm so used to having him around that not having him there made me sad and lonely, so I guess it's official. I'm attached. It only took a year and a half. But then, you probably all knew that months ago.

Last night I joined the BAFT crew for an open water swim right here in Clear Lake. Well, not actually in Clear Lake, but in this area. Turns out there is a landowner off highway 96 in Kemah who has a sizable pond on his property and he has started to open it to swimmers in a similar way to how Twin Lakes operates. We had to sign a waiver and pay $5, but then we were free to hit the water.

One lap around the pond was ~600-650 yards as near as I can tell, and the water was much cleaner and clearer than most of the lakes I've swum in. No nasty algae or plant life, and visibility was at least a few feet. I did get nipped by the fish at first, which I did not like at all (due to my previously mentioned aversion to fish), but they stopped as soon as I started moving. I did two laps, without timing myself. The water was comfortable, if a little warm on top because of the sun. Perhaps I'll see if I can organize another outing for any bloggers who want to try open water swimming. Anybody interested?

I still can't believe I missed that baseball game.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

To buy or not to buy a house. It's a good question, and I've been thinking about it for at least a year. Last fall, I said I'd probably buy a house this summer. But summer is here and I am not house-hunting.

There are many reasons to buy a house. I want more space. I want my space. I want to actually have enough room to invite people over for dinner and movie-watching, I want to live in a nice comfy neighborhood. I want to be able to run from my house without worrying about getting hit by traffic on the major road next door. I won't say that I want to be better off financially, because the houses don't here just don't appreciate fast enough to say that buying a house is definitely a better investment.

But there are many reasons to stay in an apartment (or at least to remain a renter). My lease is up in August, which means I'll have to renew for 6 months, which means the soonest I'd move into a house (without suffering penalties) is February. And a big factor is that I don't know what I'll be doing past 2010. When the shuttle program ends, I don't know if I'll stay with NASA. There's a chance -- I don't know how big of a chance, but it's not extremely far-fetched -- that I will be preparing to leave Houston within the next three years. Right now my rent is fairly reasonable, my apartment complex is nice, and I can afford to sock away a pretty good chunk into savings each month.

So one day I decide that I'm going to start looking. And the next day I decide to stay put. And that's pretty much what I've been doing for a few months.

For the first time, I am having to consider the space shuttle launch schedule while trying to plan a vacation. This is no fun. See, we want to go to Japan. But STS-120 is scheduled for launch on October 20 and STS-122 is scheduled for December 6. I am working both launches, and Jose is working the entire October mission. Our proposed trip dates are in mid-November. Right now, 120 would land sometime around the first of November. But the more it slips, the more it pushes toward our first choice of vacation dates. Of course, it hasn't slipped, and hopefully won't slip. But it could.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

A few months ago, I told Mom that when she came to visit, we could go look at houses. Then I got scared and have yet to actually make a move towards buying a house other than wistfully thinking about what I would do with all the extra space.

Last night as we were waiting for Jose to get out of class so we could go to dinner, Mom suggested that we drive around to a couple of the neighborhoods that I like, just so she could see what I'm interested in getting whenever I do finally decide to buy. Depending on how you look at it, this was either a very good or very bad idea, as it made me start thinking more seriously about a house again. Since the neighborhood I visit most often is South Shore -- only 10-15 years old and thus still rather plain-looking -- I had forgotten that there are some really nice, comfortable, homey neighborhoods in Clear Lake. Neighborhoods with trees and shade and all sorts of unique houses that remind me of the neighborhood I grew up in.

Maybe I do want a house... Jason just bought a house, I can do it too...

Over the weekend, the coordinator of the scholarship that I had while at Georgia Tech created a Google group for those of us that were freshman in 1996, 1997, and 1998. Yesterday he sent out an email asking what everyone is up to, and a dozen people have already responded. I would be annoyed by all the emails, if it wasn't so interesting to hear what everyone is doing now! I haven't seen most of these people since graduation. Now they are all over the country doing all sorts of cool things and popping out all sorts of kids.

We really are adults now. Wow.

Monday, June 25, 2007

Mom decided that we needed to do a least one educational/historical activity while she was in town, so yesterday we headed over to see Battleship Texas. It's docked (probably feet deep in silt by this point) right off the Houston Ship Channel and next to the San Jacinto Monument. While I'm sure this area of town was much different years ago when the Battle of San Jacinto took place, it's now devoted solely to making funny-smelling and probably toxic materials. Nothing like going to see a historic landmark nestled amidst chemical plants galore. Anyway.

As we learned, the Battleship Texas became the first memorial battleship museum in the country in 1948. It was commissioned in 1914 was, at that time, the most powerful weapon in the world. It saw action in both world wars, even though it was a pretty old ship by 1945, and was part of D-Day, as well as the battles at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Only one person was ever killed in battle onboard, and the ship was surprisingly unscathed in both wars. It was decommissioned right after WWII and had been scheduled for use as target practice, but the people of Texas managed to buy the ship and bring it here in 1948.

It was a cool ship, and fun to visit. The big disappointment was that the engine room was closed -- the engines are National Engineering Historic Landmarks and we wanted to see them. But the rest of the ship was cool enough. A couple of the anti-aircraft guns on the deck still move, so Jose and I had a lot of fun aiming the gun and shouting things like "fire in the hole." Enjoy the photos...

I'm not sure that I can take much more of the Astros. Last night's game, though they managed to eke out a win, was the perfect example of the exercise in futility that their season has become. After losing the first two games of the series, they were up 7-3 in the 8th inning. But Rick White and Dan Wheeler each gave up 2 runs, and the game was tied. In the top of the 9th, the Astros somehow managed to score another 2 runs to make it 9-7 -- which Dan Wheeler promptly ruined again as he was inexplicably left in the game and gave up 2 solo home runs. The Astros somehow managed to score another 3 runs in the 10th to make it 12-9, and finally the bullpen was able to hold onto a lead to win the game. The worst part? Dan Wheeler got the win. The win! He got a blown save, and a win. What a chump.

After Biggio gets hit # 3000, I'm not sure how much more there will be to see this season.

Friday, June 22, 2007

Despite my lingering tendancy to be directionally challenged, what I've decided to call "Space Shuttle Pilot School" is going well. On Wednesday I had my first session in the dome. The dome consists of the shuttle's aft cockpit, with aft and overhead windows, and all the switches and controls just like the real shuttle. Surrounding the cockpit is a dome-shaped screen. There are projectors that show computerized views of whatever you'd expect to see out the window for the particular situation you're simulating -- a satellite, the earth, the space station, etc.

Let me just say that it is way cool to get to fly the fancy simulator. I almost feel like an astronaut! In our first session we practiced approaching a satellite on the Vbar (i.e. approaching from the front), stationkeeping on the Rbar (i.e. sitting stationary above it), and maneuvering to get the satellite in the end effector of the robot arm (i.e. seeing the satellite with the camera in the end of the arm and lining up to grab it).

Very fun. Those are the days when I love my job.

No running, biking, or swimming last night, but I did play softball. After going basically hitless for what seemed like weeks, I can now cautiously say that I may have turned a corner. Last week I went 3-for-4 and last night I went 2-for-3. After getting some advice from Matt, I have stepped a bit farther back in the batter's box and have stopped choking up on the bat. Seems to be working so far, and I find softball much more enjoyable when I'm not an automatic out.

Mom's flight arrived early, though the website hadn't indicated that and therefore I was 20 minutes late picking her up. We didn't get home until 11:30, so it was 12:45 before I got to bed. I'm sleepy!

Thursday, June 21, 2007

STS-117 is hopefully coming home today after a wild 'n crazy mission. The weather is cloudy with scattered storms in Florida though, so they may not make it in. I worked the launch, but I'm only a spectator for the landing. But speaking of the mission, here I am in the backroom watching the undocking on Tuesday. Those are the undocking procedures in my lap. We weren't even looking at the displays because at that point we were watching the pretty pictures on TV. ;)

Can you believe they didn't take any photos of the backroom during launch? Dang! My first mission, and I don't even have a record of me working it.

My mom arrives tonight for a 5 day visit, so I spent some time last night cleaning. Now my mom has known me for, oh, more than 29 years, so she knows that my apartment is always in a state of clutter. I organize by the "pile method." I have a lot of stuff, and I keep most of it neatly stacked in various piles around the room. She knows this, so I don't feel an overwhelming need to hide my piles.

I do, however, feel the need to clean things that have the potential to make her question how successful she was in raising me. (For the record, she was very successful.) This means wiping down the countertop in the bathroom, vacuuming the floor, putting fresh sheets on the bed, taking out the trash, and cleaning out the refrigerator.

I threw away everything in the fridge that was old or expired. I was left with what's in the photo. While it's not quite approaching bachelor level, it's certainly proof that I eat out far too much. I'd be hard-pressed to make a full meal out of anything in there. (Go to the Flickr page to see notes on what's in there.)

I skipped BAFT's bike-run workout last night in favor of a solid hour on the bike, since I hadn't ridden in three weeks. I left my apartment at 6:00 and did two laps around JSC plus a bit at the end to end up with 15.5 miles in about 57 minutes. I felt good on the first loop. I felt horrible on the second loop -- tired and slightly nauseous. The slightly nauseous feeling has been common lately. My best guess is that I'm just not totally adjusted to the hot weather yet. I've always had a tendency to overheat quickly, and as a kid I often got heat rash. My guess is that the stomach discomfort is just a touch of heat exhaustion. Whatever it is, I hope it's just a passing thing.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

So as you may have figured out by looking at my Flickr stream, I am on a vegetable-growing kick right now. It started with some basil seeds from Lowe's and ended up with two more trips to get already-sprouted tomato plants and more. I always thought that growing things was too hard, or that I just didn't have the talent. After all, I killed not one but two cactus plants in college.

Against all odds, my vegetables are growing like crazy! I have two tomato plants and a bell pepper plant. The cherry tomatoes and bell pepper are at Jose's apartment, where the balcony gets full sun for at least half of the day. I picked my first three tomatoes this week and they were TASTY. They were the early bloomers. The rest are still green. But I counted last night and I have 31 cherry tomatoes on the plant right now. 31! The bell peppers are growing as well, and I've got two big ones to show off.

I have a grape tomato plant at my own apartment, where it only gets about 2-3 hours of morning sun each day and is subjected to more wind. It's not doing nearly as well, but there are 3 tomatoes growing and I staked it the other day to hopefully keep it more protected from the wind. We'll see how it does. At some point I may take it to Jose's.

In other news, I ran 3.1 miles last night. It was supposed to be a tempo run, but only about 7 minutes were actually run at tempo pace because it was so damn hot. The entire run took 35:40, with a couple pauses to swig water. At the end, I felt like either throwing up or dying.

Also, it turns out that I pretty much suck so far at learning to fly the space shuttle.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Splish Splash

After watching the space shuttle perform a successful undocking, flyaround, and separation, and enjoying some really spectacular video of the whole thing, I had lunch with a bunch of people, including Jen and Carina! It was the first time I got to see Carina since the hospital. She looks a little bigger, but that might just be me. She slept the whole time, but opened her eyes a couple times to yawn or let out a cry. I tried to take a photo, but both camera batteries I had were dead. I know -- impossible but true.

Photo or no photo, Carina is super cute.

Last night I did indeed go swimming. I'd planned to go all out and do 2000 yards, but I was running late and didn't make it into the water until 6:32. That left 28 minutes for me to do as much as possible before the old ladies took over the pool for their water aerobics class! At a moderate pace, I managed to get in 1500 yards, the last 300 coming while one man was jumping the gun and pulling up the lane ropes all around me. I had my defense ready -- a short and sweet "lap swim goes until 7:00, therefore I'll get out of the pool at 7:00" -- but I didn't have to use it. I can always tell when I haven't been swimming enough, because my arms get tired more quickly. I reached around to scratch my shoulder blade today and could feel soreness in my shoulders.

Tonight I'm running with the Bay Area Fit Tri folks at 6:00 p.m. The heat index is currently 101, which scares me. It's gonna be a rough run.

In other news, I'm still dealing with a lot of emails with questions about the new HARRA website, and my patience is starting to evaporate at a rapid rate. Yesterday I got an email from a man in Jackson, Mississippi. He got a confirmation email from the new site for someone with the same first initial and last name. The person obviously put in the incorrect email address when they signed up. Who doesn't know their own email address??

After this experience, I will always think twice before firing off an irate email to someone I don't know. For all I know, the person I'm emailing in frustration to tell them that the new way is too complicated and that I preferred the old way might be volunteering her time to try to make things better down the road.

At least I've gotten two or three positive emails. My favorite was from the guy who said he loved the new look of the website, but could I please adjust the "current Houston weather" box on the main page to read 10-15 degrees cooler with a lot less humidity?

If only, man. If only...

Monday, June 18, 2007

Blah. Sigh. Ugh. Funk.

I'm in a funk.

Without whining too much, I will say that I am tired of:

• being tired
  
• eating like crap
  
• being 15 pounds heavier than I'd like because of the above
  
• ditching workouts because it's hot
  
• ditching workouts because "I don't feel like it"
  
• ditching workouts because I don't think I have enough time
  
• constantly getting into work later than 9 a.m.
  
• having to stay at work late because I got in so late
  
• being "just a trainee" in a group of otherwise experienced people
  

I need to make some changes, but I'm fairly deep in the funk and don't know where to start. But I'll try to jumpstart things will a swim tonight. No ifs, ands, buts. I'm swimming. If you don't read about swimming tomorrow...I don't know. Go throw me in a pool or something.

I did have a very nice weekend in Corpus Christi with Jose and his family. On Saturday we visited the USS Lexington and had a lot of fun despite the heat. (Imagine the sun radiating off the deck of an aircraft carrier. H.O.T.) We also saw Ocean's 13, which was far more enjoyable than the second movie. Yesterday we'd planned to leave at 1:00 but didn't get out of town until almost 4:00. To make things more enjoyable, we decided to take the scenic route back to Houston and drove along the coast and through all sorts of picturesque Texas towns. If it hadn't already been getting late, I would've had Jose make plenty of stops along the way for photo-taking. Small towns are neat, and Texas can actually be pretty.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Ok, what gives? Why have plane ticket prices suddenly gone through the roof? Is it the higher gas cost? What? My mom is coming to visit next week and the cheapest reasonable ticket I could find was $350. Now I'm trying to find a ticket to Boston in mid-July and I could get it for $260...if I left Sunday morning at 5:35 a.m.! Any reasonable times are $350 or more. Suck.

The first lesson in "how to fly the space shuttle" was on the DST. I don't actually know what DST stands for. (Dynamic Systems Trainer? That's an educated guess.) Anyway, the DST is a computer that's hooked up to the translational and rotational hand controllers (i.e. the sticks) so that you can practice flying the shuttle. It's like a shuttle on a desk top.

First of all, I probably should not have attempted to do anything that required serious thought yesterday, as I am still recovering from my cold-that-strangly-had-no-associated-congestion-just-the-achiness-and-general-malaise and as such, my head has been very fuzzy. Trying to fly the space shuttle with a very fuzzy head is hard. I found it very difficult to concentrate.

Secondly, I am going to have to get a little space shuttle model and label it with the +X, +Y, and +Z axes and sleep with the darn thing under my pillow in hopes of learning through osmosis what the body coordinate system is, because I can't for the life of me remember it. For the record, +X is out the nose, +Y is out the right wing, and +Z is through the belly.

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

So the iPhone comes out on June 29. This is all well and good, and I'll be curious to see who will be the first person I know to get one. (Potentially me, due to my love of all things tech, but thus far I have remained immune to the iPhone's charms.) But here's my stupid question -- what cell phone service does it work with? I've done a cursory look through the webpage and I can't find the answer to that simple question. What service is going to offer the iPhone? I remember hearing rumors that it was Cingular (which I guess is now AT&T). But I can't find any confirmation. It seems like that's a key detail that is missing...

Today I get to start in the "How To Fly The Space Shuttle" training flow. It's the training flow that all pilot astronauts take, and as a future Rendezvous GPO, I get to take it as well so that I understand both how the vehicle flies and what the astronauts are doing when they're flying it. When I'm done with the training, I'll be certified to fly the space shuttle, just like any other pilot astronaut. So if, you know, they ever need me...I'll be ready!

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

1) I'm home sick today with a cold. I felt crappy while running Sunday but better the rest of the day. Felt sort of sick-ish yesterday. Feel a little more sick-ish today. I always feel slightly guilty when I take a sick day. I think the feeling dates back to elementary school and always trying for perfect attendance. I guess I should just be glad this didn't hit me last week. If it had, I'd have infected the entire ascent team because there was no way I would've missed that launch.

2) There's a new little site called This Day in Type where you design the date in your choice of font and style. I thought it was a neat idea, so I submitted an entry for June 8, launch day. Mine got selected over three other entries! I was just too busy to mention it until now.

3) I finally have revived my photoblog, but it's in a new location. Enjoy salcantay.net!

Monday, June 11, 2007

Yesterday I ran the BARC Prediction Run. I predicted that I'd cover the 5K distance in 32:00. I know I ran 29:45 a week ago, but I didn't want to go all out because it was hot, and I wasn't feeling that great. I figured I'd feel better once I started running. WRONG. I got through the first mile ok, and I'd guess at about 9:30 pace. But then I fell apart. My head hurt. My legs hurt. Every time I started running, I felt nauseous. When I walked, it went away. So I spent the next two miles running and walking and running and walking some more. I finally crossed the finish line barely jogging, and told Joe (who was timing) that I didn't even want to know. I predicted 35 or 36 minutes. I felt horrible.

Turns out I ran 34:15. I ran 4.5 minutes slower than a mere week earlier, which sucks, but 34:15 is actually faster than I thought I'd run, so there was a silver lining. And everybody got to take home something. I ended up with a pink BARC long sleeve tech tee. Not bad!

I feel even worse today though. Not sure what's going on. My throat feels weird, and my head is all stuffy. But I'm not congested. And yet I'm tired -- despite having slept from 10:00 last night to 8:00 this morning. I had a long week and came in yesterday to watch the shuttle/station rendezvous -- which was so nominal that it would've been boring if it hadn't been real -- so maybe I've just picked up a bug.

Jose and I are heading to Corpus this weekend. It'll be nice to get out of town.

Friday, June 08, 2007

It's launch day!

A year and a half ago, I began training to work space shuttle launches. Six months ago I certified. And today, I'll work my first mission.

I'm so excited!

Thursday, June 07, 2007

It has been a week of many activities. Preparing for a space shuttle launch during the day. Getting the new HARRA website up and running at night. I'm even done with my new photoblog, which I'll post a link to very soon. And I'm only one chapter away from finishing the book that I've been slowly working on for months.

We should launch every week. Apparently it makes me super productive!

Friday, June 01, 2007

Miracle of miracles: the Astros won. They won big. Every single starter except the pitcher had at least one hit. The leadoff and second hitters went 7-for-10. Lance Berkman hit a home run. El Caballo did his thing. Hunter Pence tried to stretch a double into a triple because he's just so dang excited to be in the bigs. All in all it was a great game, and hopefully the start of a 10-game winning streak.

Last night I submitted my entry for Houstonist's 600 sq mi photo exhibition. I haven't been very active in my photo-taking lately, but the contest didn't require that photos be recent. I had six that I really liked, but the limit was three, so I had to choose. Here were the original six. I don't want to be second-guessed on which three I submitted so I'm not going to say, but feel free to say which 3 are your favorites, because I'm honestly curious.

Art League of Houston, Inversion House, 2005

Ballunar Festival, 2006

In Minds, Hobby Center, 2005

Johnson Space Center, 2005

Season Finale, Minute Maid Park, 2006

Ballunar Festival, 2006

Which three are your favorites?

Thursday, May 31, 2007

It's not the heat that really gets to you. It's the humidity. It's the fact that the sweat that's dripping down your nose and your forehead and even your shins won't evaporate. And what good is sweating when it won't evaporate?

Last night wasn't that bad when I put it in perspective, and think about how bad it will be in August. But it was the warmest, most humid weather that I've attempted to run in this year, and it was 5:30 p.m. no less.

I've been a big slacker since the Half Ironman. Oh, I've run plenty of races and done a couple triathlons and even had a couple of my best bike outings ever and gotten close to a 30:00 5K again. But during the week I've been a big slacker. I can feel the fitness slowing slipping away. I'm going to try to hang with June at the 5K this weekend, but I'm not sure I can, especially if it's humid. Time to pick up the pieces if possible.

I did 3 miles last night and pushed pretty hard. I finished, gasping, in 32:20. It was nasty humid. My body hasn't adjusted to that yet.

Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Rendezvous According to Sarah

I totally rocked my rendezvous qual this morning. I walked in and drew the rendezvous profile on a sheet of paper and the rocked the simulator with my powers of memory recall. I am awesome.

The Astros are not awesome. For a moment, I thought they might win it on a Carlos Lee hit. I could mentally picture the ball flying between two infielders for a 2-RBI game winning base hit. But I could also mentally picture him hitting into a game-ending double play. Which is what he did. And thus the Astros lost their 9th straight game. It is hard to watch.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

We have tickets to the Astros game tonight, and I'm scared. They've been playing so abysmally lately that I haven't even been able to watch on TV. Halfway through the game, I find myself needing to change the channel. Eight games. They've now lost eight games straight. The only glimmer of hope is that they're playing the Reds tonight, and they are usually pretty good against the Reds.

It was a good weekend, highlighted by baby Carina of course. Friday seems like a million years ago. I took Jose out to dinner that night to celebrate his success at his Cert Qual sim that day. Saturday morning was the triathlon, Saturday afternoon was a trip to see Pirates of the Caribbean (the verdict: eh, not that great), Saturday night was fish night topped with Jen's water breaking and them heading to the hospital. Sunday was errands day and waiting impatiently to find out if Jen had had the baby yet! Monday was a rainy, rainy, rainy Memorial Day BBQ at Debbie's. Whew. What a weekend.

I have two things on my agenda today: writing up an evaluation for my trainee from her sim last week, and studying for my rendezvous qual class tomorrow. I have to perform the rendezvous in the shuttle simulator -- without the help of the flight data file that has all the procedures in it! I have to know all the procedures from memory. It's a lot to remember.

I signed up for the Heights 5K this Saturday. I'm planning to hang with June for as long as I can as she goes for sub-30:00. I'm hoping she can drag me with her to a sub-30:00 but realistically I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet. A lot will depend on how hot it is. We'll see.

Saturday, May 26, 2007

When Jen and Gavin's kid is older, I can't wait to tell them that their mom's water broke while she was watching me play Guitar Hero.

Jen's having the baby!

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Today was the first of two days of evaluation sims. These sims are always uber-stressful because people are watching you and taking notes on your every move. Fortunately for me, neither day involves an evaluation of me. Ha!

This morning was Bini's midpoint. Bini works in my old group and is my first official trainee, since she is training to be an ARD Support, the position that I certified for six months ago. The midpoint is an "easier" evaluation in the sense that you can't fail. It's not designed to be the final test of whether you can function as a console operator even when the world is coming apart around you. Instead, it's simply a hard sim designed to challenge you beyond what you've seen thus far in your training, expose your weaknesses, and give your trainer a good idea of how you're progressing.

I found out that it's much more fun to be the evaluator than the evaluatee (yes, I know, that's probably not a word). I also found out that I shouldn't make fun of Marc, the guy who trained me, for the novel-length "narrative summary" he'd hand me a few days after each of my evaluations. It turns out that it takes a lot of writing to cover everything thoroughly, and being thorough is very helpful to your trainee. I filled the front and back of a sheet of paper with my handwriting scribbles -- for each individual run. Four runs is four sheets of paper. When I organize all my thoughts and type it out, it will also be novel-length.

After the sim, I told Bini that even though I'd said it wasn't a pass/fail evaluation, she passed. And she did. She did great. She has exactly the strengths and weaknesses that I would expect for someone who is halfway through their training. In fact, I think she may have done better than I expected. Excellent.

Tomorrow is Jose's Rendezvous Support cert qual. It's the "pre-final" before your final certification sim. It's usually the hardest sim that you see in all of your training, even harder than the final, since it's really designed to make sure that you're ready for a final. Tomorrow there are five evaluations on the schedule in so many disciplines that it will be amazing if the fake shuttle manages to dock in one piece. Evaluations mean one thing: trouble. Tomorrow there will be lots of trouble. It's a Data Processing Systems final front room cert, so there will be major problems with the computers. There are backroom evaluations for guidance, communications, and propulsion, so there will be problems with all of those systems. And the piece de resistance -- all of those systems affect rendezvous. So all of those systems affect Jose.

I'm watching so that when my turn comes, I can tell myself that "it can't possibly be as bad as his cert qual!"

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Jose and I went to Babin's in Kemah last night to celebrate his birthday. When you walk into the restaurant, you are greeted in the entryway by the sight of a big refrigerated case that usually has a couple whole fish resting on a bed of ice. I suppose it's a way of showing that the fish they serve really is freshly caught, as directly above the case is a chalkboard that lists what fish are available on that particular day.

I have a fear of fish. They taste good, yes. But they pretty much gross me out while in their natural, slimy, scaly, stinky, all-around-fishy form. There were two rather large fish in the case last night. They had gray skin with a bit of a gold sheen, and big dead creepy eyes. They looked like they were frowning. Ew, ew, ew. We quickly walked past them and into the restaurant.

Dinner was great. We sat outside and even though it was windy, it was still a nice evening. We both ordered golden tile, a fish that we'd never had because it's not always available. The waiter said it was good, and it was.

It wasn't until we were leaving that we realized that the creepy big dead fish in the ice case were golden tilefish. Ew, ew, ew. I just ate that fish. I don't want to know what it looks like!

Last night I dreamed about fish. I was in Jose's apartment and there was a small fish that was bouncing around the room, half-swimming in air. I was extremely disturbed by this, and Jose was nowhere to be found. I was on my own to deal with the bouncing, air-swimming fish. Then it bounced towards me and I couldn't get out of the way and it bit me! It bit my wrist, and it had real teeth, not fish teeth! It didn't go limp or start flapping, it just latched onto my wrist and stayed there, rigid. It was extremely freaked out and ran around the room until I was finally able to peel this fish off my wrist.

GROSS.

Finally I woke up and escaped the bouncing, air-swimming, biting fish.

I hate fish.

-----

On a totally different note, here's a good article about my new favorite group of Astros fans, Los Caballitos or "Little Horses" (in honor of Carlos Lee, El Caballo). I've seen them at every game and I am particularly fond of their stick horses. The O's Bros are old news.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Happy Birthday Jose!

I could say some schmoopy things to go along with that, but I won't. It's my boy's birthday and I am doing my best to make it a good one. He already got his present -- an Astros jersey that I gave him on Saturday so he could wear it to the game that night. He says having a jersey makes him want to go to even more games. Exactly. All part of my evil plan...

It's been a weird day. I had a training class that was scheduled from 11-1, which of course is the worst possible time block for a training class. The only person willing to wait until 1:00 to eat lunch in honor of Jose's birthday was Nick (and Heather, who met us there), which turned out to be just fine. Because we ate lunch so late, we didn't get back until almost 3:00. The day's almost over and it feels like I just got here.

My training class was fun, but my brain was just not firing on all cylinders today. Take, for example, my stunning display of coordinate system logic as I tried to figure out which way to push the stick to do a +Z burn. (That's firing the jets on top of the orbiter that fire up, thus pushing you in the +Z direction, which is in the direction the belly of the vehicle is facing.)

In trying to figure out which way to push the stick, I decided that since I knew that +X was pushing in (forward) and +Y was pushing right, I'd use the right hand rule to figure out where +Z was.

I did it once and the answer was to pull the stick out. Hmm. That's not right. In is +X, so out must be -X, not +Z. Oh, I realized, I'd inadvertently pointed +X in the up direction instead of into the console.

I did it again and the answer was to push the stick up. "Think again," my instructor told me. But I used the right hand rule, I thought, it has to be up.

Then I remembered why the right hand rule is so aptly named. It's because it only works when you use your RIGHT HAND.

I'd been sitting there doing the right hand rule with my left hand.

Some days I think I'd be better off at home. My brain obviously never got to work today.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Yesterday I wrote about how I've been such a flake this week, and then I did it one more time. Just as Jen, Jason and I got onto the highway yesterday on our way to the baseball game, I realized that I'd left my ticket at home.

Flake!

I bought the cheapest ticket they had ($7) and sat in my seat anyway. And then spent about $952 on a chicken tender basket that made my stomach hurt.

On the plus side, the Astros won. It's nice to see the sunny side of .500 again.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

My group meets every Monday to discuss current issues, upcoming missions, sims, and whatnot. Two days ago, the conversation went like this:

Sean: "There's another testing sim -- an undock -- coming up on Friday. We need someone to work RPS."

Steve: "Well, Jose is our default RPS at the moment."

Sean: "It'll be just like a normal sim, but since it's a test, it can't count for certs or anything like that."

Steve thinks for a moment and turns to me.

Steve: "Are you ready to work sims?"

Sarah: nods vigorously

Steve: "Ok, why don't you work the undock on Friday."

Sarah: "Really? Awesome!"

So suddenly, I have my first rendezvous sim. It's an undock and fly-around, which is easier than a rendezvous and dock. And because it's a test, there shouldn't be too many crazy problems. Perfect for my first sim. Now I am very nervous, because as much as I have been wanting to sim, I didn't think it would happen anytime soon. And realistically, I won't get a second sim until after STS-117. But still -- very exciting!

-----

Last night I was supposed to run with BAFT, but I got all the way out to my car only to find that I'd forgotten my gym bag at home. I ran at home instead, the boring old "around the apartment complex" route. The schedule called for 10 30x30s with a one mile warmup and cooldown. It was freaking hot outside, and while my warmup went well, by the 7th 30x30 I was feeling nauseous and had to take an extended rest before finishing the set. The mile cooldown was crappy and I walked at least a quarter mile of it.

I think I'm running my 30x30s too fast. Garmin told me my pace during the 30-second speed bits was 7:00-8:00 pace. I probably should do more like 8:00-9:00 to avoid the nausea I felt last night.

After forgetting my bag last night, I made sure that I was ultra-prepared for tonight's brick workout, and even brought my bike to work so I can go straight there.

Then I remembered I'm going to the Astros game.

I've been a flake this week.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

The shuttle is rolling out to the launch pad today after three months of repairs to the external tank. You might think that I knew this ahead of time, since I work at JSC and am assigned to this launch. But no, I found out via a cnn.com article. Figures.

Last night I hit the pool for 1500 yards. After 1100, I decided to throw in a 300 yard time trial so I can update my predicted time for the upcoming Combat Tri. I have no idea what I wrote down when I registered, but probably around 6:00, which is too slow. Last night I did the swim in 5:20, so that's what I'm hoping to update to. Combat is a pool swim, which you might think is nice because the water's clean and clear -- but I prefer open water for triathlons. In a pool swim, everyone has to predict their finish time and you are lined up accordingly. Very few people ever predict their time exactly right, and since you start in 10-second intervals, you always find yourself either needing to pass someone, or with someone trying to pass you. And passing in a pool is not easy

My workout went well, but I was pretty frustrated with some of the other swimmers. I know everyone has equal right to use the pool but when it's crowded, I suggest the following rules, based on my observation that there are far more casual swimmers than there are in-training swimmers like me:

1) If you are going to do very slow laps of elementary backstroke, share a lane.
2) If you are going to talk to your friend in the next lane every time you finish a lap, share a lane.
3) If you are going to do the old lady kickboard thing, share a lane.
4) If you are going to do butterfly, just don't, unless you really know how.

The pool only has 6 lanes. One of those lanes is half-blocked at one end by the stairs to get out of the pool. And that's the lane I ended up sharing with another girl as the rest of the pool dwellers elementary backstroked, talked, and kickboarded their way -- slowly -- down the pool and back. Thankfully the girl I was sharing with swam at pretty much the same pace as me, and it wasn't a problem. Halfway through my workout, one of the kickboarders finally left and I got a lane to myself.

As I cooled down, I decided to retrieve the pair of goggles that I'd seen sitting at the bottom of the deep end each time I swam down the pool. I took a deep breath, swam down 12 feet, got the goggles, and DANG IT I forgot how much your ears hurt if you haven't been down to the bottom of the deep end in a while. My ears hurt for 10 minutes! Ow.

Friday, May 11, 2007

When I was a kid, my siblings and I used to play a game called "Thunder People" during the big thunderstorms. I don't know who came up with it, but the sole point was to run around the house carrying a blanket, and when you saw lightning you had to dive on the floor and crouch under the blanket before the thunder came. If you didn't make it, you were "dead." I know, not much of a game, but we certainly had fun playing it. Our house is laid out such that you can run in one full circle and never turn around -- from the kitchen, down the hall, around the corner into the living room, into the den, and back to the kitchen. I remember running circles and circles and collapsing, giggling, onto the floor to flee the thunder and stay alive.

I remember Thunder People every time there's a big storm like there was last night. I was supposed to play softball at 9:00, but by 8:30 there was a fantastic lightning show going on outside that only got better and better. For more than an hour, the lightning never hit the ground -- it just streaked from cloud to cloud. Sometimes it looked like a spider web. Sometimes the bolt wasn't visible, and it looked like a ball of light was moving above the clouds, illuminating them in circles from behind. Sometimes the lightning would burst overhead like a firework, tendrils of light zigzagging out in all directions.

Jose and I sat on my balcony for an hour, watching the light show. "Whoooooa," we'd say as the lightning bolts cascaded from west to north across the sky. "Did you see that one?" we'd ask as the clouds flickered and glowed from within. Eventually the lightning started heading for the ground, the wind picked up, and the rain finally came. It came down heavily, and Jose and I ran around like kids, peeking out into the parking lot to see the rain swirling around.

It was the coolest storm that I can remember.

Afterwards, in no way related to lightning but still very good, we made strawberry shortcakes. I added blueberries to mine. They were yummy. Life is good.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

The Department of Homeland Security is causing all sorts of headaches at work lately. New requirements, etc. 'Nuff said.

Last night I met the BAFT group over at Clear Lake High for my first speedwork session of the year, and let me just say that it kicked. my. butt. After a 1-mile warmup, we did 10x30-30. That's 30 seconds fast, 30 seconds recovery, ten times in a row. I lost count, but I think they worked in an 11th repeat, whether intentionally or not. By the end, I was so whipped that I could barely continue to the 1-mile cooldown! The sweat was pouring off my face. But I made it. In total I did 3.15 miles (which means 1.15 miles of 30-30s) in under 34 minutes. Good workout. We followed the run with stretching and core work, at which point I realized that my core sucks. I couldn't do the whole workout. Baby steps...I'll have to build up to it.

When I got home from running, I decided that having lasagna for dinner sounded good, so I turned on the oven. I had a bunch of stuff sitting on top of the burners, and I started moving that stuff to get it away from the heating oven. One of these items was a ziploc bag full of dried milk (for use in breadmaking). As I picked up the bag, dried milk started falling everywhere! The bag had a hole in it. A melted hole. I don't know if it happened in the minute of pre-heating last night or not, but there was a melted hole. The kitchen started to fill with the smell of burning dried milk.

I turned off the oven and cleaned up the stuff that had spilled all over the counter. And only then did I open the oven and realize that the milk had spilled onto the burner that just happens to have the oven exhaust hole in the middle of it. And that my oven was filled with dried milk.

And that it had started to burn, hence the smell.

So I got out my vacuum cleaner and started to vacuum up all the dried milk.

And then my vacuum cleaner broke.

GRR.

CNN has an article today asking: where have all the TV viewers gone? Ratings are down, and for the moment they're chalking it up to the changing ways that people are watching TV. Tivos and such. But I can't help but think that a lot of people are just doing other things, or watching other shows on cable. Network TV is total crap these days. The only network TV that I watch -- and I don't mean regularly, I mean just every once in a while -- is Scrubs, Letterman, and Conan.

Last night I had the TV on for at least 4 hours. (Not watching it the whole time, as I tend to have it on in the background while I'm doing other things, but it was still on.) What was it turned to? The Astros game, followed by Daily Show and Colbert Report, followed by Letterman. On the weekends when I do have time to chill out and relax, you'll mainly find me watching Discovery Channel or something else on cable.

Monday, May 07, 2007

So the scheduling conflict disappeared and I no longer have to do the work for my old group. Since I'd told them I wouldn't have time to do anything until tomorrow anyway due to committments for my current job, I never even got started. I'm glad that the people who took over the project from me can now learn the process themselves.

So Clemens went back to the Yankees. I can't say I'm surprised. Or even upset. Actually, I feel pretty indifferent. Clemens wouldn't have fixed the Astros problems; he just would have been a distraction. And the will-he-won't-he saga is getting old. So have fun in New York, Roger. I hope you miss the postseason. Because I always hope the Yankees miss the postseason.

The rest of my weekend after Saturday's run-bike extravaganza was blissful. No committments. Whatever I wanted. Jose and I watched the Astros game, saw the underwhelming Spiderman 3, watched the Rockets game, and met Jen, Gavin, and Becca later that night for ice cream. Sunday was all about sleeping in for the first time in too long. Yesterday afternoon we hit Lowe's and bought a bunch of plants to start our experiment in patio gardening (I'm taking bets on how long it will be until I've killed my tomatoes). Last night I played a very frustrating soccer game, but at least it was good exercise.

Amazingly little on tap for this week. It's a nice change.

Friday, May 04, 2007

I left my old group at work 6 months ago. In the year or so before leaving, I did a lot of things and none of them very well -- except one. There was one project that was mine, I was involved, I felt like it was important, I knew it was important. I developed procedures, helped plan and execute sims, educated a lot of people on something that previously no one had known we needed to be concerned about, and generated a lot of actual flight-specific data that was used during the landings of STS-114, STS-121, and STS-115. Two months after I left the group, I did it again for STS-116 because of scheduling conflicts among the people that had taken over for me. This wasn't a huge deal at the time, because though I left the group, I'm still in the same division and I was still in a transitional phase.

Almost five months after that, however, I find myself doing it again for another sim, again because of scheduling conflicts on the part of the person now supporting the task. I know that I could've said "no, I can't." It would've meant that someone would've had to come in over the weekend, or someone else would have had to start from ground zero and figure everything out. Still, I could've said no. But I didn't.

It's frustrating.

On one hand, it is not my job anymore and I shouldn't have to keep supporting it. It's not fair to me because I have other things to do now. It's not fair to the customer because they need to know that they can't keep relying on me. It's not fair to the person who has theoretically taken over from me because that person needs to learn how to do things for themself without falling back on me, knowing that even though I'm not in the group anymore, I'm just down the hall.

But on the other hand... The work associated with this project was one of of the few things in my old group that I really liked doing, so it's hard to say no. The project was my baby -- one of the few really helpful, important, and positive things I did in my old group -- and so I'm also sensitive to how I see it being treated now that I'm gone. My perception is that it's getting brushed under the rug, that the person who took over doesn't want to do it and doesn't care about it and is looking for ways to pass it off, and that the agency we're cooperating with is getting poorer treatment. I worked hard to help build those relationships and get everyone to the point they are today, working together and communicating well and getting the data they need to take the actions necessary. I don't want to see all that get flushed down the toilet.

So I'm creating another data package and supporting another sim, six months after I left my old group. And I don't know how I feel about that.

What would you do?

Thursday, May 03, 2007

On The Run hooked me up with some new Brooks Adrenalines on Tuesday (the fartlek was their first run) and I had to laugh when Vera pulled them out of the box to double check that they were the correct size. It's my third pair in 12 months and they're already on their third color scheme. The next time I buy shoes, I'll get my 6th stamp on my shoe card, which means my 7th pair of shoes is free! That is quite a deal when you remember that each pair costs $85. Yet another reason I love On The Run.

Jen, Jose and I went to the Astros game last night. Jose must be good luck, as they've won both times he's seen them -- and those two games also happen to be their two wins of late. It wasn't very crowded, despite the fact that Oswalt was starting and pitched fabulously as always. Fickle fans, or just a weeknight?

I'm observing an undock sim that goes until 10:00 tonight, and I was in at 10:30 this morning for a training session. Almost 12 hour day for me...

Thursday, April 26, 2007

I just spilled my coffee all over my keyboard and desk. The scent of Almond Joy Decaf is overwhelming. I spent 4.5 years down the hall without ever spilling anything on my desk. Now I've spilled coke and coffee on my new desk within a month of each other. Hmm.

The New York Times had an article today about the dwindling numbers of private pilots, especially young pilots. (There's always been a lack of women pilots.) I've been surrounded by pilot talk lately, with both Jose and Jen taking lessons, and many people have asked when I'm going to start. The honest answer is that I don't know. Maybe some day. Maybe never. I have passing interest in learning to fly, but at this point I'm not interested enough to invest the time and money. Maybe the article is right, maybe general aviation hasn't been "exciting" or "new" enough for me. But I like flying, and I love that Jose is flying because it makes him so, so happy. I would never think of being a wife or girlfriend like those mentioned in the article -- someone who would tell him not to fly because it's too expensive, or because I need him at home. Why would I tell him to stop doing something that he loves?

Sadly, though, I think that's why a lot of people do stop flying. In my division alone here at work, there are at least 12-15 people with pilot licenses. That in itself isn't a surprise, since we're all aviation and space buffs on some level. But of all those people (all men, except for Becca and Jen), there are only 3 or 4 who actively fly today. Most of them used to fly, but stopped when they got married, or had kids, citing the risk.

It's weird. I know flying is a risk, and that one day Jose might go flying and something might happen. But what in life isn't a little risky? He probably has a better chance of dying in his car than he does in that plane.

Anyway.

Despite the weather clearing up beautifully, I still rode on the bike trainer yesterday. It was just one of those days. I got home, and didn't want to leave. So I compromised. It has been too long since I rode my bike, as I found out by the discomfort I felt in certain areas. Anyway, I rode for an hour and watched two episodes of Scrubs while doing it.

As I rode, cramped into the only available space in my living room, I looked around my apartment and thought about how nice it could be to live in my own house. I'm just so indecisive. I want a house. But I'm scared, and somehow the timing never seems right.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Bits and pieces for today...

I ordered two small posters of my photo alphabet from zazzle.com. We'll see how they look. I ordered some note cards from them as Christmas presents and they turned out very well, so hopefully the posters will turn out similarly.

It's one of those gray days that makes you want to do nothing but curl up in bed with a book and maybe a cup of something hot. Seriously. It's just drab outside. Hasn't even rained that hard. Just dull, flat gray.

Had dinner at La Madeleine last night. Man, I do love their tomato basil soup. I slurp it up happily and just don't think about how many calories are in it. It's so good. Along with that, I had their spinach salad which is also very good. We went late, and they must have been trying to finish off their supply for the day, because I got a huge mound of spinach. Seriously, I think I got at least a bag's worth. Lots and lots o' spinach.

Anybody know how to replicate this vintage photo effect in Photoshop? I love it.

I haven't run since the Charlotte Half Marathon. I haven't been on the bike or in the pool since the Half Ironman. It's official: I've fallen off the wagon. This is a familiar place to be, as it's happened after every big event. Fortunately I have people waiting to pick me up. I just have to make myself available. Yuri's Night is over. Class is over for the semester and won't pick up again until August. I have no more excuses.

The Combat Triathlon is coming up on May 26. I may also do Silverlake on May 20. Time to get ready for these shorter races, and quit languishing in the aftermath of the Half Ironman.

The week's plan:
Tonight - trainer ride (since it's raining)
Tomorrow - pool
Friday - off
Saturday - bike/run brick with Buzz and company
Sunday - "long" run of 5-6 miles

In the coming weeks I will likely make appearances at two local 5Ks -- the Village Fair 5K on May 5 and the Summer Kickoff 5K on May 12, both down here in League City. Hope to see you there!

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Becca brought me lunch from Tokyo Bowl, since I was stuck in the never-ending and very boring sim. (And I was so excited to have a sim too. Pity.) Tokyo Bowl is by far the best sushi place in Clear Lake. By far. I'm fairly indifferent to sushi, but I like Tokyo Bowl. Every time we go to a different sushi place, I'm disappointed. I think I'll stop going anywhere but there.

Just in case you cared.

Two of my officemates are gone this week on "the trail," a huge golf trip they take each year. From what I can tell, the year is divided into three parts:

- six months prior to The Trail, which are spent talking about the upcoming trip
- one week, which is spent actually on The Trail
- six months after The Trail, which are spent reliving the trip

I'll just enjoy this week in the office without golf talk. It's actually sort of quiet, since we don't Dave and Ted around to tease.

I finished up my grad project for typography class. It was actually a fun assignment -- found typography. "Carry a camera with you throughout the semester. Look for the shapes of letters in the world. Notice how a chair may look like an H, a cloud may look like a T, or the dial of a radio may look like an O. Throughout the semester, take one unique and innovative photograph for each letter of the alphabet. As the idea is to look for shapes in unusual places, your found letter shapes may not be made out of text. For instance, the Q from a Quick Trip sign will not count. All images must be found and may not be staged."

Here's my poster (click for a PDF):

Friday, April 20, 2007

The HARRA email list manager retired from the position a month ago, so I set the club up with an option via our web hosting. Every 10 days or so, I send out an email update. This process has worked well for the past 4 emails. Last night I sent out the April 20 email and this morning I awoke to find that it came through the system as a long string of Chinese characters. Unreadable. So now I'm dealing with the web host trying to get them to figure out the problem while also resetting my email count, because I'm only allowed to send so many emails per month. And last night I sent an email that got turned into gibberish to 1,500 people. 1,500 emails of junk. UGH.

An assortment of responses:
"Sorry, my Chinese is not up to snuff."
"Your announcement is not coming through on my computer, just a lot of jubberish stuff."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Yikes! It looks like someone has hijacked the HARRA list!"
"No message. Everything garbled."

And my favorite:
"Is this some kind of joke?"

Yes, yes it is, because I enjoy sending junk to 1,500 people and answering the ensuing dozens of confused inquiries.

I'm so glad we're going to a new website and membership system soon.

In the meantime, the email has been posted on the HARRA website.

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When I was at Stanford, I took a really cool hands-on controls class where we built a control system from scratch. Resistors, capacitors, the whole shebang. It was so much fun putting components together and soldering stuff that during one trip to Fry's, I bought a couple of their little electronics kits -- a counter that you could just build on a breadboard, and a small kit to make an aircraft band radio receiver so that I could listen to airplane radio communication. I had grand plans to put them together in my free time as a fun little project. (Yes, I'm a dork.)

Free time? What free time? I moved to Houston and the electronics kits stayed in a plastic grocery bag. That was 5 years ago.

Last weekend while I was out of town, Jose got antsy and decided to pick up his electronics hobby again. A year ago he had been building some stuff for fun, but it had been sitting dormant for a while. He went to Fry's and lo-and-behold, left with a kit for an aircraft band radio receiver. He finished it after about 6 hours of soldering and showed it to me on Monday when I got back. That's when the bell in my head finally started ringing. "This looks so familiar," I said.

Last night I went to the closet and pulled out the exact same kit. It was still in the plastic grocery bag I put it in 5 years ago. (Say what you will about my messiness, but dang it if I can't find exactly what I'm looking for in the mess in 3 minutes or less!) Yes, I bought the exact same kit 5 years ago. We bought the same thing independently. If that's not a sign, I don't know what is. Random.

We're such dorks.

Jose is going to Corpus this weekend without me, because I have to be here for the 5K tomorrow. Maybe I'll get antsy and build my radio while he's gone.

Thursday, April 19, 2007

I've been thinking about the Virginia Tech shootings, but haven't been able to figure out what to say. It's horrible. Almost unbelievable. And the media treatment is even worse, turning a tragic event into a circus and a chorus of trying to blame someone, anyone. It's absurd to suggest that VT should have shut down the campus (equivalent in size to a small town) after the first shooting, when reasonable belief pointed to a domestic dispute. And is it really necessary to publish the shooter's hyper-violent writings and broadcast his "manifesto" to the world? And why must the news keep harping on the fact that this was a new school shooting "record" -- are they trying to encourage someone else to go out and shoot even more? It makes me so angry.

But mostly it just makes me ache. Carter put into words what I've been thinking pretty well. I went to a tech school. Most of my friends went to a tech school. Georgia Tech, MIT, and plenty of other schools with large engineering departments... We're geeks, we're nerds, and yes, we're weird -- even the English majors, like this guy. The number of students at Georgia Tech that could have been described as "strange" or "a loner" or "sullen" or even "emotionally unstable" was not small. There were plenty of strange kids. People who never left their dorm rooms. People who always seemed angry. Could they have been pushed over the edge? I don't know.

It seems easy to look back now and see the warning signs. But there's still a huge difference between writing angry, violent literature and deciding to kill 32 people. There's still a huge difference even between needing psychiatric care and being so messed up that you think going on a shooting rampage is a solution to your problems. I don't know how anyone is supposed to be able to predict something like this. And if you can't predict it, how can you prevent it?

I just don't know.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Rain last night and sun today. It's funny how the world keeps turning and things keep happening no matter what the weather. There's a lot going on, but not much that's blogable.

The Yuri's Night race is this weekend. We've had a run on registration this week and I think we're going to top 100 participants, which would beat last year. If we keep growing, we may beat the year before that. Race registrations are such a strange thing; it's hard to predict how many people you're going to get. I had to order the t-shirts last week when there were only 40 registrants. I ordered 115 shirts, enough to cover almost three times that many people. And yet here I sit with the very real possibility that we might run out of shirts, and that we certainly won't have enough for the volunteers on Saturday. That is upsetting, but what can I do? I'm doing what I can: I'll be placing a second t-shirt order on Monday to cover anyone who doesn't get a shirt on Saturday. Better late than never.

It's been a weird week ever since I got off the plane on Monday morning. And it's only Wednesday.

Monday, April 16, 2007

And just like that, I'm back in Houston. I drove through the rain on Friday, then flew ahead of it. I saw the rain again in Charlotte, then flew behind it. Takeoff this morning was among the bumpiest ever -- up, down, side to side. Here in Houston the temperature is lovely but the sky is a little overcast. Up in Boston where some people I know were running some dinky little marathon, conditions were ten times awful. You just can't escape the weather no matter what you do.

I had a lovely time in Charlotte as expected. It is always nice to go home. My parents mentioned a conversation that they had with my dad's family last week, a "what if they moved to the farm" question. "The farm" is the dairy farm in Pennsylvania that my dad grew up on and that his two brothers, my uncles, own and manage now.

I stared at them. Moving to the farm is probably the one and only place they could move that wouldn't spark a riot from us kids. See, my parents have lived in Charlotte for more than 30 years, and in the same house for almost as long. Despite the monster mansions popping up all over the neighborhood (which has become popular and expensive; people buy the old houses for $300-$500K just to tear them down and build something entirely new and monsterous and completely too big for the lot), we love that house. I know my parents could sell it for 10 times what they paid for it, but still...

I don't think they were serious though. At least not in the next few years. There probably aren't many people that spend their entire childhood in the same house anymore. But I did.

I don't get to see Jose until late tonight because he has a sim. Boo.

Friday, April 13, 2007

Races are funny things. This is the fourth year that I've directed the Yuri's Night race. Each year with about two weeks until the race -- right around the time that I have to order t-shirts and spend the biggest chunk of change associated with the race -- I freak out because we never have more than a handful people registered. But in the last four days we've almost doubled our registrations and I'm not stressing out as much anymore.

I don't know if people just register late, or if I somehow get people to register as a result of my freakout. Either way, I guess it works.

In my mind I'm gone to Carolina...

I'm running a half marathon in Charlotte tomorrow morning with Katie, Joel, David, and Jennifer. Carter heard I was going to be in Charlotte and decided he wanted to come up for the weekend as well, though he's not running. It should be a lot of fun, even though they everyone will probably outrun me easily. (Katie said she was aiming for 2:15. Well, 2:15 is my PR!) I run the most, and I'm still the slowest. Somehow that doesn't seem fair.

I played softball last night and went 0-for-3 with a walk. I really suck at softball, enough that I'm not really enjoying it very much anymore. I thought about not playing this season, but I like the team, and if I didn't play softball I'd never see Edgar or Sean or Amy or Lenny or Katie or those guys. I suppose the solution is to get better. Go to the batting cages regularly. Or something.

It's a dreary day and I'm having mixed feelings about everything. I'm looking forward to being in Charlotte in the spring, though it looks like the weather may be crappy. But it's harder to go out of town than it used to be. I don't like it when J can't come with me.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

I am feeling better today about the Yuri's Night run. We got some more sign-ups overnight (including some from friends -- thanks guys) and though our numbers are still low, I think we'll get enough to break even and maybe even make a few hundred bucks for our charities. I'm less stressed in the morning light.

There's a part of me that wants this fun run to become a big event that draws hundreds of people. Some part of me feels like I'm failing if I can't make the numbers grow every year. But then I realize that it's not necessary for us to draw a huge crowd. Heck, I'm not sure that the park could even support more than a few hundred. I'd like to see closer to 200 participants, instead of the 100 we usually get, but it's probably unrealistic of me to think that we can get that many when I'm doing the bulk of the work myself (partly my own fault) and when we're competing with an already very busy race season in Houston.

So the race will be small, but it will happen. In the next few days, t-shirts will be ordered and age group awards will be figured out (suggestions?).

Life continues to be far too busy. I need to weed some things out, and cut back, but I remain unable to figure out how to actually do that. Class tonight, with a run afterwards, hopefully with the BAFT folks if we get out of class early (as we usually do). I don't remember if I wrote about this already, but class has been particularly frustrating lately. This is the first time the prof has taught typography, and I don't think he was prepared for a full semester. The first half of class went well, with plenty of interesting and useful material to fill up the time, but the last few weeks have really suffered. He seems to have run out of lectures, and instead of cancelling class, he just rambles for an hour or two. The students seem to have noticed, because attendance has taken a nose dive. Oh well -- I'll have some words for the course critique at the end of the semester.

I'm planning to do the LP Run tomorrow night. Can you believe it'll be my first HARRA spring series appearance of this year? I know, it's downright embarassing. Hoping I can do somewhere around 10:00 pace, but that'll depend on how humid it is. We'll see.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Easter was fun, despite having to drive through the gloom to spend less than 24 hours at the lake house. I spent another holiday with Jose and his extended family and it was lots of fun. And they remembered me. Score!

One of Jose's aunts has a small house at Lake Corpus Christi, so that was the scene for the celebration. Because it's about an hour from Corpus itself, we just drove straight to the lake on Saturday night to save the extra driving time. If Thursday and Friday's weather had held, it would have been really beautiful up there. As it was, we just made do with the clouds, drizzle, and 40 degree temperatures.

We ate yummy food, we played basketball, we checked out a grass strip near the house (maybe Jose can fly there once he gets his license), we went out on the lake in a little boat to see if we could catch some catfish (nope), and we scared the geese and the geese scared us. Those were some seriously aggressive geese.

More importantly, we had two rounds of cascarones and I smashed many eggs on many heads. Jose's mom made me my own box of them so I had a secret stash. The funniest person was Jose's little 4-year-old cousin Megan, who would point at the ground and say "your shoes are untied" to get you to bend down to where she could reach your head. As luck would have it, my shoes came "untied" at least a half dozen times. Go figure.

The only downer was that I seem to be allergic to something -- the house, the great outdoors, who knows -- and spent most of yesterday sniffling and sneezing. It seems to have mostly cleared up today, with some lingering eye itchiness.

Now it's back to work, which is always a struggle after such a hectic weekend. I'm heading to Charlotte this weekend though, so that's something to look forward to.

Friday, April 06, 2007

So I should mention that Jose has started a blog. He doesn't plan to blog about his personal life, but does plan to write some music reviews and maybe a bit about his flying lessons. He said it was ok for me to post about it, so there you go.

Busy weekend on tap. It's supposed to give us a last gasp of winter with rain and highs in the 50s, but life goes on. There's a baby shower for Jen tomorrow, and then another 24-hour trip to Corpus for Easter. I'm looking forward to smashing an egg on Jose's head. Fun times.

Thursday, April 05, 2007

It's been busy since I finished my race report, so that's why you got to look at it for an extra special long time. That, and the fact that I'm still revelling in actually finishing the race.

I've done exactly one workout since the race, a "hill" run with BAFT on Tuesday afternoon. I say "hills" because it was along the Middlebrook greenbelt (Joe, I think I saw your wife out running but I wasn't sure) and there are some "hills" back there. Apparently our hill workouts will soon be moving to the Kemah Bridge, at which point I'll no longer need to use quote marks. Anyway, we ran for 40 minutes, during which I covered 3.5 miles. Not too shabby for a mere 48 hours post-Half Ironman! And it was freaking HUMID. I am not ready for summer.

But the weather today, after yesterday's rain, is absolutely beautiful. Looks like it will stay that way through the weekend as well, meaning great temps for the Resurrection Run on Saturday! My plan to go for a 5K may be put on hold though. Jose expressed interest in running it, and if he does, I'll run with him.

-----

My training at work is picking up, and it makes me excited. I feel like I'm really learning new and exciting stuff. Take yesterday -- I learned about the IMUs. The IMUs have to be aligned fairly often because they drift. They drift because they are 1970s technology (so when I say I'm learning new and exciting things...well they're new to me, at least). So I learned about them, and about star trackers, which are basically fancy cameras that track stars and tell you where you are in space. But it was cool.

After that, I got to tag along to a load checkout in the fixed base simulator. It's a detailed mockup for the shuttle flight deck, with TV screens behind the windows so you can look outside and see computer-generated images of the Earth passing underneath you, and the stars, and the space station looming overhead as you approach to dock with it. And you can flip switches and hit buttons like some glorified video game! Someone brought a few people by on a tour at one point while we were sitting waiting for the simulator to be re-started, and one lady climbed up the ladder to look around. We answered a couple of her questions and then she asked if we'd been in space. I was very tempted to reply that why yes, I am an astronaut...

Today I took a class about Universal Pointing. In a nutshell, that's how to point the shuttle at what you want, and have it track what you want. It was the most fun class yet, mainly because I got to play with a little shuttle model and turn it every which way to track an imaginary Earth and Sun and satellite.

-----

More than a year ago, my division had photos of everyone taken in various settings -- in the office, in the control center, posed group photos outside by the pond -- to replace the very old and very outdated photos currently gracing our hallway walls. (Seriously, half the people in the old photos didn't work here anymore, and the other half that do still work here are now 20+ years older. While it was rather comical to see the hair styles they sported in the 1980s, the photos were badly in need of updating.)

Yesterday, the photos suddenly appeared on the walls after a year of languishing in someone's office.

Now, when the official photographer came to do the photos, Jose, Becca, Jen, Gavin, Matt and I were all skiing in Tahoe. We didn't want to miss our chance of being put up on the walls for the next 20 years, so we took some photos on our own and then, unbeknownst to me, Becca sent our division secretary a few photos of us on the Vomit Comet. From when we flew as undergrads. In 1999. When neither of us worked in this division. Heck, Becca didn't even work at JSC yet, and I was a coop in a different area.

So now there is a huge (2x3 foot) photo of Becca and me on the Vomit Comet on the wall outside the door to my office. My 20-year-old self is immortalized on the walls of my building for what I can only guess will be at least another 20 years.

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I had a massage yesterday afternoon, my treat to myself for doing the race. It was awesome. It's only the second massage I've ever had, and it made me wonder why I don't get them more often. (It's because they're too expensive to do on more than a once-every-few-months basis.) I almost fell asleep right there on the table.

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My brother-in-law, Joel, found a new job in Auburn, a city that is apparently located about halfway between Seattle and Tacoma. This is great news, since he and Katie were planning on moving out there anyway. Katie's job search continues as she finishes school, but I know she'll find something great as well so it's official -- they are moving. I'm thinking of planning a Seattle trip sometime this fall...

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Jose and I watched Babel last night. I was unimpressed, and unsure how it managed to get a Best Picture nomination other than the fact that it was suitably "arty" in its style and general feel. On many occasions and with many scenes, it just felt like the movie was trying too hard. Some characters made decisions that I just didn't buy. An interesting point brought up by Jose is that the white and Japanese characters turned out ok in the end, while the Mexican and Arab characters ended up with crap. Interesting.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

I wish that today was still my birthday, because it would put me in a better mood.

Actually, I'm not in a bad mood. I'm just feeling lazy.

I went to the rendezvous sim today to observe, which was fun...but everything went smoothly with only minor issues, so the day sort of dragged along. If nothing goes wrong, spaceflight is really pretty boring -- at least for the flight controllers on the ground. I could have asked a lot more questions, but I was observing someone who is still new enough that he had to concentrate on making sure he doesn't miss anything himself. That doesn't leave him a lot of time to help me out. Next time I'll take another GPO along with me to answer questions. That worked well last time.

I'm alternating between being stressing and just not caring about the Yuri's Night 5K, which is coming up on April 21. I tried to bow out gracefully this year and give the reins to someone (anyone) else, but that didn't work. Now I'm facing a crazy April schedule that includes the race coming up, a grand total of 8 registrants thus far, and no help. I like the running community and for three years I liked planning this race. But with each year, I've had less and less support. I can't do it on my own, and I don't really want to. I haven't figured out how to handle this yet.

On the good side of all things running-related, Erin returned from the RRCA convention in Chicago with some awesome ideas on how to solve a lot of both our membership and website problems with one solution. I am super pumped about the possibilities -- it would make her life as membership chair and my life as webmaster easier all around, while also making our website far more useful and effective.

Now I'm dreading having to go to class in an hour, because last week's class was utterly useless. The professor showed up 15 minutes late, just like he always -- and I mean always -- does. Why do I even bother getting there by 4:00 when he never walks in until at least 4:10? Then he told us that he didn't really have a formal lecture prepared, but that he would talk off-the-cuff about a typographic artist. The artwork he showed was actually pretty cool, but he rambled on forever. Then he had nothing else to say, so class was over at 5:20. I felt like it was a waste of my time, and that I could learn more by doing some extra reading on my own.

So now I feel that way about going to class tonight. I'd rather just go home and read one of the typography books I bought for myself, outside of class requirements. Hmm.

-----

I did have a lovely end to my birthday. Jose bought me some beautiful flowers, and we went out to dinner before coming back to watch the new Planet Earth series on the Discovery channel (tivoed from Sunday night) and eat our leftover cheesecake. The documentary is really very cool, and the photography is awesome. It makes me want to run out and buy an HDTV immediately, just for the quality of the picture.

I ran after work yesterday as well, and was very much looking forward to a celebratory run. Unfortunately, it was a pretty crappy run. I'd planned to do 4-5 miles, but starting feeling slightly nauseous around 1.25 miles. It never really went away, so I cut the run to 3 miles and called it a day. I think I'm going to blame the humidity -- it was nasty damp outside, and that's the first time in months that I've been so drenched in sweat. I still managed to average something like 10:35, even feeling crappy, so it could've been worse.

T minus 5 days till the Half Ironman...

Monday, March 26, 2007

Ah, software. Software sucks. I started my day with a meeting about a piece of software that we use on console. A piece of software that makes our life easier and more efficient. A piece of software that has been acting up lately. Freezing, crashing, misplaced negative signs, and dividing by zero. The solution seems simple. There is a problem? Ok, so fix it. Ah, but that is not how our software process works.

On to happier subjects. Such as: today is my birthday! Happy Birthday to me!

I've got only one more year to be a twenty-something, so I better make it good. I decided that one day is really just not enough to celebrate properly, so I did my best to stretch it out over the whole weekend. ;) Jose and I went to Cirque du Soleil on Saturday night, and that was great. Last night we had a group head up to the Cheesecake Factory, and that was great too. And today I get to be happy all day! Even the software meeting didn't dampen my mood because hey, it's my birthday. And birthdays are good days.

Friday, March 23, 2007

In an effort to squeeze much-needed sims into an already-full schedule, the powers that be have decided to start scheduling Friday night sims again. Because ascent and entry sims are only 4 hours long, they tend to get the short stick. This is all a way of saying that I have to be at work until 9:00 tonight. On a Friday. Woe is me.

Actually it's not so bad. This is the last sim where I'll be backseating Bini for a while -- next week she starts simming solo, without her mentor (that would be me) to fall back on. And, since there was no need to get to work before 1:00 today, I stayed home this morning and slept in. It's always a bit of a strange feeling to be home in the middle of a workday. It's been more than a decade since I graduated from high school, and yet it still feels like I'm sneaking out... I guess old habits die hard. It probably won't surprise you to hear that I never once skipped school; in fact, I never once even considered it.

One more weekend before the half ironman, and I plan to spend it well. Tomorrow morning I'm heading to Galveston for a practice swim session on the half ironman course. Bonus points all the way around for me -- an open water swim, a chance to use my wetsuit again, and a chance to swim the actual course.

Tomorrow night I'm going to Cirque du Soleil! Jose got tickets for my birthday, which is Monday. I only had to drop a dozen hints before he finally heard me. ;) He is the best.

On Sunday morning Jose will hopefully do his first solo flight, after being thwarted by winds all week. On Sunday afternoon I've got a long bike ride on the schedule, though I haven't figured out a route yet. And Sunday night is my annual birthday outing to the Cheesecake Factory.

Life is good...

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Sigh. Sleepy. I'm so tired today and don't really know why. It didn't help that I had a training session this morning. They are interesting, and yet sometimes yawn-inducing. It's just the way it goes. Today's class was the first of a series of three about the DPS, which includes the GPCs, IDPs, MDMs, MMUs, and LRUs. I learned how to do an IPL, restrings, OPS transitions, freeze-dry a GPC, engage the BFS and all sorts of stuff.

See? I told you NASA-speak wasn't all acronyms...

Or maybe it is.

All signs are pointing to NET May 11 for the STS-117 launch. That's "No Earlier Than," which sucks. At this point, I think they should just switch the external tanks. Get one that's not pockmarked by hail. I know it sets back the launch schedule but we're getting close to that anyway.

My mission is cursed. :(

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Busy day so far. I had a database checkout this morning (always fun...or not) and then had to watch a software application run. Yes, just watch it run, to make sure it was automatically doing the calculations we need. So busy day, but fairly boring stuff. That's the way it goes sometimes.

I'm sleepy already and now have more sleep-inducing reading to do, so I don't have much else to say. At least you don't have to read about my running...

Friday, March 16, 2007

So, the space station is big. Really big. I realized this today as I stood in a mockup of the aft shuttle cockpit and watched the computer-generated image of the station get bigger and bigger in the dome. Pretty cool.

I filled out a March Madness bracket but I've already forgotten who I put down to win it all. I know that I did pick Duke to at least make it out of the first round. Oh well. We saw them lose while enjoying lots of crab legs and beverages at Boondoggle's last night. I'm with JD -- perhaps we could arrange for the Seabrook Half Marathon course to go past Boondoggle's this weekend? One can hope.

Yes, I'm running a marathon this weekend -- spread out over 2 days. Half on Saturday, half on Sunday. They tell me I get a third awesome medal at the end, which is really all the incentive I needed. Or I'm just crazy. I'm already tired from the week, so getting up early on both weekend days sounds pretty crappy at this point. Will definitely have to schedule naptime. I'll also be spending some time at the little airport, since Jose may solo this weekend! He's been taking flying lessons for some time now, and is ready to solo. Crossing my fingers for him...

I need to start planning my next vacation. Destination is still unknown, which is unheard of for me. Looking farther ahead, though, Jen and I have decided that the Annapurna circuit is calling...

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Four things:

1) Rascal Flatts was cancelled at the rodeo last night. When I first heard the news, I assumed it was because of the weather (heavy heavy rain laced with hail), and thought that was pretty silly. Turns out he had bronchitis. Random. After another round of hail, we decided to cut our losses, get our money refunded, and just go to dinner at BJ's instead.

2) After a pint at BJ's, I needed to use the restroom. As I walked across the restaurant, I passed some random guy and didn't give him any thought until I heard him say "are you Sarah?" I turned around and looked at him and said "yes...and you're JD! Whoa!" Yes, I had never met him in person and we ran into each other at BJ's and recognized each other from our blogs. Everyone at the table laughed at me when I came back from the bathroom and told them I'd just met one of my "internet friends." Oh well. I didn't meet his lovely wife Jaclyn (she was there, but after the brief interchange with JD, it was necessary for me to continue straight to the restroom)...but I will meet her this weekend at Seabrook.

3) I went to the rendezvous sim today, and one of my coworkers came along to sit with me and talk through everything that was happening. It felt very good to be watching a sim. Sims really feel like training, and make me feel like I'm making progress. All the reading I have to do, while necessary, just feels like school. I get easily disheartened. Sims make it better. Not to mention that the coworker who was sitting with me is one that I think is a really good flight controller. I don't have much hard evidence to go on, but the way he works gives me a good feeling.

4) Said coworker did depress me, however, when he pointed out that had the freak hailstorm in Florida not happened, STS-117 would have launched this morning. I would've launched a space shuttle today, and tomorrow he'd be coming in to prepare it for rendeavous. Sigh. Maybe we should have seen it coming when we planned the launch for the Ides of March...

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

This morning I had a dentist appointment scheduled for 7:30 a.m. As you all know, I'm not really a 7:30 a.m. kind of person, and I took the appointment only because I had to reschedule from last week and this was what they had available. So I showed up this morning, about 5 minutes late. And sat. And sat. This was a bit peculiar, since I had the first appointment of the morning. At 7:50, as I was just starting to read about how Britney Spears shaving her head is a cry for help (it was an old issue of People, what are you gonna do), the receptionist finally told me that my hygenist was running late. It was somehow related to the huge rainstorm we had last night...I dunno. Anyway, she asked me if I wanted to reschedule but I said I'd keep waiting. After all, I was already up. At 8:05, the hygenist still hadn't arrived and the receptionist told me that I'd have to reschedule.

So I got up early for nothing.

Grr!

I'm sure I would have been more annoyed if I hadn't worn myself out running last night. I only did 3 miles, but I just wasn't feeling it. My legs were stiff, and my right shin was hurting a bit. I ran my standard 3-mile Gilruth route (a 1.5-mile out and back), but the Garmin has measured it at 3.02-3.05 lately. Not a big difference, but it does affect my splits a bit. Last night Garmin said I ran 3.05 miles in 10:27, 10:29, 9:57, and 0:33. But it was really probably more like 3 miles in 10:27, 10:35, and 10:24. Or something. Point is: I ran.

Last night was impromptu fish night at Becca's, where I schooled everyone in Guitar Hero (and I was out of practice!) and gave more serious consideration to house-buying. Tonight I'm headed back to the rodeo tonight for Rascal Flatts and another fried Oreo. Ok, maybe I'll skip the Oreo for the sake of my arteries. But it was really good.

-----

Here's a fun game to let you know just how well you can locate the 65 colleges represented in the NCAA tournament this year. I got 52 of 65, and no, it's not good enough to just point to the correct state -- you have to get at least reasonably close to the town or city. (Thanks Brian for the link.)

I missed Creighton, Marquette, Belmont, Oral Roberts, Villanova (it's in PA?), Nevada (it's a big state), Old Dominion, Wright State, Holy Cross, Weber State, Xavier, Florida A&M (obviously just putting the dot on the state is not close enough), and North Texas (come on, there's a lot of area in north Texas).

Monday, March 12, 2007

If you're looking for my recap of the practice 1/4 Ironman I did yesterday, read the entry below. It was the focus of my weekend. That said, I did a ton of other stuff this weekend as well and ended up spending $500. Sigh. It's a good thing that I'm unmarried and make too much money.

Man, what a crazy thunderstorm we had this morning down here in Clear Lake. One boom of thunder was so loud that it woke me up (and let me tell you, after yesterday's workouts I was one tired puppy). I laid in bed for another 20 minutes before falling back asleep, watching the lightning flash like some crazy disco strobe light. I closed my eyes, but the flashing was just as bright. Crazy thunderstorm. I'm glad it held off until today -- the weekend was absolutely gorgeous. This is the best time of year to live in Houston, that's for sure.

On Friday night after being lazy for a couple hours after work, Jose and I decided to keep things low key with dinner at Jason's Deli. As we walked up to the door, Jose noticed that he had a missed phone call. It was Melissa, who'd called an hour earlier to say that they were all going to BJ's for dinner. (BJ's, for those of you who don't live in Clear Lake, is right next door to Jason's Deli.) They were still there, and though they were finishing up, they were also still waiting for a couple other people. That's how we ended up having dinner with Melissa, Kelly, Nick, Heather, Laurie and Wendy. Because I'm sure JD is curious, I will say that I had the hefeweizen and it was good. It's my favorite of their beers.

Saturday was spent running errands all afternoon, starting with the first $240 that I spent on a new stereo for my Xterra. This was a planned purchase; the rest were not. I got the stereo at Best Buy, but they had a long wait for installation and didn't have the wire harness or dash kit that I needed. I took advantage of the long wait to go across the highway to Tweeter, where I bought the wire harness and dash kit for a total of $35 (about $15 less than it would've been at Best Buy). Went to the mall for a while, where Jose and I each got new watches (his was a planned purchase, mine was not), then back to Best Buy to give them the parts. Then off to dinner and killing some time at Borders (where I bought "Riding Rockets" in paperback; last night I read 9 chapters straight, it's that entertaining). Finally back to Best Buy again where my car was finished. I now have in-dash XM radio (they even wired the antenna around the windshield and onto the roof) and an audio-in jack for my iPod. It's very cool.

Yesterday after doing my 1/4 Ironman and sunburning the crap out of myself (side note: does anyone have a recommendation for a good waterproof and sweatproof sunscreen, SPF 30+, that won't make me sweat even more and make my eyes sting if I use it on my face?), I headed up to Tri On The Run to check out wetsuits. I exchanged emails back in January with one of the managers about renting one for the race, but apparently I wasn't clear enough about the "add me to the rental list" part. I wasn't on the list. And the list was already full, with another half dozen on the waiting list.

Sigh.

I knew that I might have to buy a wetsuit, so in the end I was less concerned with the money (after all, I can resell it for a good portion of the price if I don't think I'll ever use it again) and more concerned with simply finding one that fit me. In all the sizing charts I had looked at online, the largest women's size claimed to cover up to a weight of 170-175 pounds. Well, I'm 185 pounds. I didn't know if they'd fit; I thought I might have to buy a men's suit.

(Note the incredibly sexy sunburn.)

Thankfully, the guys at Tri On The Run were able to help. Johnny the store manager (who I met for the first time) was able to find a sleeveless Wetzoot suit, women's XL, that fit me fine despite the tag claiming it was good for 155-170 pounds. It fits fine -- tight enough that it made me start sweating immediately, but not uncomfortably tight -- except the neck is a bit snug. I think the neck will loosen up in the water. I'm going to try it out at the pool tonight, looking like a wacko (who wears a wetsuit in a pool?). Jen's coming too, so hopefully she can help me get the suit on properly! When I put it on yesterday, the woman at the store helped me get the last bit on by holding the shoulders and pulling up while I squatted down. Those things are hard to get on dry.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

This week can't end soon enough. Not because it's been particularly difficult, but because it's been early. I don't know if I've ever been an early riser, but I do know that I haven't been an early riser in the past 2-3 years, at least. I'm sure all this will change at some point in the rather far future when I finally have kids or a pet, but in the here and now, this week is wearing me out!

Take yesterday: In at 8:00 for a comp run in which we were unable to reproduce the software error we had during a sim, despite using the tape of the sim run, so it was more or less useless. Home at 5:30, which allowed just enough time for dinner before heading downtown to the Red Hot Chili Peppers concert at the Toyota Center (the tickets were Jose's Valentine's Day gift from me). Because I bought the tickets rather late, we ended up in the upper deck directly to the side of the stage. It was a different perspective, that's for sure. I had a surprisingly good time (despite being only a casual fan) except for all my yawning. ;)

And take today: In at 7:45 for another comp run to do our database checks for tomorrow's ILC (which means I'll be in at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow). This afternoon I'm backseating Bini in a sim that doesn't end until 8:00. That leaves me one hour for my run, and then I play softball at 9:00. Then I get home and crash.

And tomorrow: In at 6:30 for the load checkout, which will hopefully be less frustrating than the last time we did one where the simulator was 13,000 pounds off. The bright side is that by lunchtime tomorrow I'll have enough hours for the week and can take the afternoon off!

Anyway, enough work talk. Too much work talk.

But there's not much else to talk about. I know that my blog entries have been pretty boring lately; heck, they've been boring me. I'm in the last gasp before the Half Ironman and it's reminiscent of the last month before my marathon two years ago -- nothing but eat, sleep, work, run/swim/bike.

Maybe I'll be more interesting when April rolls around...

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

I was so tired when I left work yesterday. So tired. Thinking about the rest of this week just made my shoulders slump even more, and yet I was scheduled to run. Only 3 miles, but still. Sigh. When I leave work feeling wiped out, the only thing I ever really want to do is go straight home and flop onto the couch.

BUT...I didn't. Hooray for little victories. I dragged myself to Gilruth and did my scheduled 3 miles. I wore my watch, but didn't look at it until the end -- I just needed a run to just run and not worry about the other stuff. By the end of the three miles, I was feeling much happier and more energetic. After I finished, I glanced at the watch to see 32:25. Not bad at all for an easy run.

I have been staring longingly at blog entries that mention this weekend's Bayou City Classic, but I am resisting. Sunday is my practice Quarter Ironman, and while I could run a 10K on Saturday, I'll probably be better off doing a long swim. Hopefully in open water. And hopefully in a wetsuit.

Class tonight, and I've completed a complete set of capital letters and punctuation for my font. I decided to go with the not-at-all-useful mosaic theme, a la Noah's Bagels. I'll post it later. The caps were fairly easy; I think lowercase will be more of a challenge. Today we'll start working on turning our handwriting into a font, which I'm actually looking forward to because I like my handwriting. It's pretty and legible. That's one of the benefits of having a kindergarden teacher for a mother -- neat handwriting.

I have a bunch of design ideas for websites. Just don't have the time to work on them. They'll be added to the list of things I'll have time to work on once I don't have to train 6 days a week... ;)

Friday, March 02, 2007

Yesterday I had Part 2 of my yearly physical, the part where you sit down with the real doctor and they go over the results from all the tests you took in Part 1 and then try to scare you into being healthier. Their scare tactics totally worked this year.

I've gained 12 pounds since last year, and am currently at my heaviest since before I started running (five years ago). I knew that I had gained weight, so this wasn't a surprise, and it's something I've already been trying to work on because at this point last year I looked better, ran better, felt better, my clothes fit better -- on and on. So losing weight was already a goal.

The shocker was that my total cholesterol has gone up 37 points. 37!! It's still just under 200 total, so I'm still in the normal range, but whoa -- 37 points! The really bad thing is that my bad cholesterol jumped up by 51 points. 51!! That was enough to push it into the range that might be ok if I didn't have a family history of heart disease; however, both my grandfathers died from heart attacks.

Those jumps are so large that I don't really even know what to make of them. I've been exercising regularly over the past year, so the increase has to be due to a change in diet. I'll just say it now: it's diet. When you've gained 12 pounds in a year -- and your boyfriend has gained 15 -- it's not hard to figure out. Ah, Jose and me, we're just sitting around getting fat together.

So this calls for less eating out, more packing lunches, and continuing to exercise. My biggest problem is lack of willpower. And my love of french fries and Starbucks.

To get a better idea of the trends, I had them print out my bloodwork for every year they had on file -- 2002, and 2004-2007. Interestingly, though 2007 has by far the worst cholesterol, 2006 had by far the best numbers. That made the increase look even worse. So whatever I did from March 2005 - March 2006 was really, really good because it lowered my numbers so much from previous years. And whatever I did from March 2006 - now was really, really bad.

To celebrate the start of a new leaf in eating habits, I went to the rodeo and ate a deep-fried Oreo.

Thursday, March 01, 2007

I really should have done some kind of workout last night. I needed it and I never got it.

I've been very lucky to never have any major problems in my life. The side effect of that is that I get easily overwhelmed when too many small things start stacking up. Last night I felt like the whole world was spinning frantically around me and I couldn't catch up. In no particular order:

1) I have a couple design projects that need to be done -- Yuri's Night mainly, as well as typography class assignments.

2) Some jerk emailed me anonymously about the parts of the HARRA website that are out of date (subject line: "get with it"). I think it's the same address that I previously thought was just spam. Why do people complain anonymously? Last time I checked, I was the only one that volunteered for the job, and last time I checked I'm not getting paid for it, so excuse me if it's not always my top priority. I'm well aware that parts are out of date, but I'm doing what I can.

3) My apartment is a wreck. Last night in my fit of freaking-out-ness, I decided that the best thing to do was clean the stovetop. The stovetop! While doing it, Jose was trying to explain Lambert targeting. ARGH, I am so crazy. My apartment is suddenly feeling so cramped. So should I buy a house this summer? Do I really want a house?

4) I have Half Ironman training, with only four weeks to go before the big day and many miles still to swim, bike, and run. Last night's missed workout felt like a huge weight on my shoulders, even though I know that a single workout is not going to make or break me, and that I've been training very well for the past couple months.

5) The delay in the shuttle launch means that I have time to really start training for my new position, but there's so much to do that I suffer my standard problem of anxiety over where to start.

6) The past few days have brought a lot of talk about weddings and babies, which sends me into insecure girl mode about my own life and where it's going, despite the fact that I am in a really good place with a really good person who deals extremely well with my freak-out moments and actually helps get me past it much more quickly that I ever would on my own.

See? Small stuff. Details.

Jose and I have been making our way through the first few seasons of Scrubs on DVD, and I can't help but notice how Eliot is always trying to "hide the crazy" from various people. Sometimes I feel that way too.

I guess everyone has their crazy moments.

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Hail. HAIL. A freak thunderstorm carrying golf ball sized pieces of ice. That's why I won't be helping launch the space shuttle on March 15. That's why I'll probably have to wait until at least the end of April before I get to work my first mission.

Yes, a thunderstorm in Florida yesterday dumped a bunch of hail right on top of the space shuttle stack that was sitting on the launch pad getting ready to go. There are now more than 7000 divots in the external tank, and 20+ on the orbiter's wing. It will have to be rolled back to the VAB. If they can fix it quick, we might be able to launch by my birthday in late March. If not -- late April at the earliest.

Stupid, stupid hail.

My knee is feeling fine again today after yesterday's post-biking pain. Whew. After the Sunday biking low point, I did a good long swim last night to remind myself that this Half Ironman is doable. I did 2250 yards straight, no breaks, in 45 minutes.

-----

Seven years ago, Cayce became the first of my good friends to get married. Since then, there has been a steady stream of weddings, at least 1-2 per year, and this trend shows no sign of slowing down. However, there's a new wrinkle now.

Last summer, Cayce became the first of my good friends to become a mom when Henry was born. And BAM -- all of a sudden, pregnancy is spreading! In November, Jen announced that she was pregnant, due in June. Then a few weeks ago Jen told us that her sister is also pregnant for the second time. Last week on the night before we left for Colorado, Katie called to say that she's expecting in September (to be clear, this is my friend Katie, not my sister Katie, although at this point I wouldn't be that surprised to get an "I'm pregnant" call from my sister!).

Yesterday, Christina passed the 12-week mark and announced that she and Ben are expecting, also in September! Exciting news all around, and geez there are going to be a lot of babies to buy NASA socks for.

Must be something in the water...

Monday, February 26, 2007

I came back from vacation and what did I get as a "welcome back to work" gift? A really hard ascent sim. Ah well. I'm not complaining, because it means I'm one sim closer to the real launch! Only 17 days away...

The rest of the skiing trip was nice. The whole group went to Breckenridge on Thursday, and then Jose and I went to Breckenridge again, alone, on Friday while the others went back to Vail. We did some really nice greens and a couple easy blues and ended the trip on a more positive note, but I have to admit that I think Vail really took something out of us. Things weren't as enjoyable after that. It just felt like work.

On Friday, for our last night in Colorado, Jose and Cari and I stayed in, got Thai takeout from across the street, and watched The Departed. (Just in time for the Academy Awards, eh?) Jose had already seen it and said it was one of the best movies ever. I don't know about best ever, but it was very good.

Anyway, the best part of trip was the snowmobiling. The worst part was United Airlines. Both of our flights, to Denver and from Denver, were overbooked. As previously mentioned, Jose almost didn't make it onto the flight out. And then on the way back, both he and I were given "confirmation" cards instead of boarding passes and told to go to the gate, where the lady told us the flight was overbooked and that she'd try to get us on. Bah. THEN we got back to Houston to find that our bags hadn't made it onto our plane, so we ended up waiting for two hours for the next flight from Denver to arrive with our bags. (To be fair, we cut it extremely close with our airport arrival time -- another story entirely -- but I've cut flights just as close before and never had my bag not show up.) They gave us $100 vouchers for waiting for the bags (instead of having them delivered), which is nice, but considering the fact that I don't feel like flying United again anytime soon, it will probably go unused. United sucks.

Because we only had the condo from Saturday through Saturday, I found myself with an extra day at the end of vacation to adjust to being back home before having to come to work this morning. It was a very strange feeling, since it's basically never happened before; our travel plans usually have us returning to town mere hours before having to be back at the office.

I celebrated by sleeping until 11:00, and then I "celebrated" by taking a 43.5 mile bike ride, and then I celebrated by watching the Oscars at Becca's and drinking daquiris in honor of the 3rd anniversary of her 25th birthday (that would be her 28th). You'll notice that only one of those activities necessitated the use of sarcastic quotes with the word celebration.

I did my longest bike ride so far yesterday, 43.5 miles in just under 3 hours for an average of something like 15.8 mph. The first half of the bike ride averaged more like 16.5 mph. The last half of the bike ride averaged more like annoyance, fatigue, pain, and general suckage. Though I'm feeling a bit more positive today, last night I was having serious doubts about my decision to do this Half Ironman.

Of the three triathlon sports, biking is probably my least favorite. And yet it occupies the most time and distance!

I think I've nailed a big part of my problem yesterday though -- in the 24 hours preceeding my ride, I had only eaten about 400 calories. Hopefully that explains the absolutely dead feeling in my legs as I struggled past mile 30 and on to the end. When I finally got back home, I could barely walk up the stairs to my apartment.

This morning, I woke up to a fair amount of soreness on the outside of my right knee. This worries me, because I felt some twinges there towards the end of my ride yesterday. It may be worth taking my bike to the store to have them double-check the fitting. I've never had this problem before, but maybe something has changed...

Saturday, February 17, 2007

Hello from Avon, Colorado! It is cold. COLD. Cold. In my life I have had very limited experience dealing with temperatures below freezing, and it shows. I am cold.

It was not a good day for travel. Jose's name is on the watch list, so he can never print out his boarding pass ahead of time. Jen and Gavin and I all had boarding passes, but Jose was given some kind of standby ticket and told he'd have to get his seat assignment at the gate. Well, as it turned out, United oversold our flight to Denver by an absurd amount -- something like 40 seats. With Gavin and Jen already on the plane, and after much hassle, Jose got a seat and finally we flew away.

The weather was gorgeously sunny today (though, as previously mentioned, cold) and the drive was beautiful. We had more than enough time to enjoy the mountain views because traffic on I-70 from Denver all the way to Vail moved at an average of about 35 mph. Things picked up after the Eisenhower tunnel, but the expected two-hour drive turned into almost four.

Finally we arrived at the lodge, but the front desk could only find the reservation for one of our two condos, not both. More stressing, but thankfully it was resolved quickly -- somehow they found Gavin's name and we made it in.

Jose and I picked up our skis, we hit the grocery store (only to discover later that our condo has no stove or burner), and had dinner in Vail Village. Tomorrow we'll be hitting the slopes of Beaver Creek, which should be fun because they have lots of green runs. I hope the feeling of being on skis comes back to me quickly and I don't have to spend all day on the bunny hill!

Friday, February 16, 2007

Happy Birthday Cari!

Last night was happy hour at BJ's in honor of me finally certifying as ARD Support, paperwork and everything -- despite the fact that my cert sim was almost three months ago. It was a lot of fun and we had a good diverse crowd. Marc (my mentor) and I headed over there at 4:30 and everyone trickled in...a couple "bosses," a few of my fellow backroom flight controllers, and other coworkers. One even used it as an excuse to bring all three of his absolutely adorable children so that he didn't have to cook dinner himself. A good time was had by all. Appropriately, yesterday was also the day that Atlantis rolled out to the launchpad. March 15 is the big day -- first launch of 2007, and my first mission as a flight controller. Very exciting.

Because of that, I didn't run but never fear -- yesterday was my day off so today I will be running.

It's been a long week of getting up too early, and I'm glad the Friday is finally here. Of course, I have to get up early again tomorrow, but that's more acceptable because we'll be heading to the airport for a week in Colorado! Snow! Skiing! Cold. But Colorado! My current plan (always subject to change) is to ski 2 days at Breckenridge and 2 days at Vail/Beaver Creek. Throw in some snowshoeing with pregnant non-skiing Jen, and possibly some snowmobiling, and definitely some hot tubbing, and hey, even some treadmill running and stationary biking (gotta train somehow), and I'm pumped for VACATION! I'll post photos to Flickr, and I'll be blogging as well -- I have to take my computer to do my weekly typography assignment. Also because I am insanely attached to my computer. ;)

In other news, I may have done something stupid this morning, inspired by June -- I signed up for the New York Marathon on November 4. Well, to be exact, I signed up for the lottery for the NYM. But if my name gets picked, it's non-refundable and non-transferrable, so if that happens I'll be running!

Thursday, February 15, 2007

The funny thing about flight control is that even once you're certified, you still find yourself learning things in practically every sim. Take this morning, for instance -- I learned that if the correct mass calibration numbers aren't loaded into the shuttle simulator every single time, we see a huge trend in our monitoring software because the shuttle is about 13,000 pounds lighter than it should be, and is therefore accelerating even more like a bat out of hell than it usually does. Interesting.

Valentine's Day was nice. I went home with exactly enough time to do my bike and run workout, but discovered a flat rear tire. It's been a while since I changed one, and it took me way too long (like 20 minutes). After that, and setting up the trainer, I'd run out of time to do both bike and run, so I just biked -- 55 minutes on the trainer while watching Tivoed stuff.

Jose came over early (early!) and so he had to sit around while I showered. We exchanged V-Day cards (I made his; it was cheesy but hey, homemade) and went to dinner at La Madeleine. Hey -- it's a French restaurant, that's romantic, right? Never mind that you order by going through a line... :)

Not sure if I'll get my run in tonight because we're having a happy hour...which is in celebration of me being officially certified. It'd be bad form to skip my own happy hour! If I don't run tonight, I'll run tomorrow instead.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Another sim, another early morning. There are three morning sims this week -- yesterday, today, and Thursday -- which means three mornings of getting here at 7 a.m. On the plus side, Bini was sitting hot seat today and will do it again on Thursday, so I got to sleep in by an extra half hour. So really, one day at 7 a.m. and two at 7:30. Still, that's early for me. It's gonna be a rough, sleepy week.

Things will be looking up on Saturday though, as I head to Colorado for the annual ski trip! I got my "lift tickets" in the mail yesterday. They're not tickets, but really just a credit card style thing with your info loaded onto it; I immediately stuck it in my wallet for fear of forgetting to pack it and leaving it Houston.

I've got class again tonight, and we'll be working on the beginning of our big, semester-long assignment: designing a typeface (font). My biggest problem so far is actually deciding what kind of font I want to make!

Should I do something fairly traditional, like the first photo? Or, after seeing a picture of a bagel shop, I thought of making a mosiac-style type like the second photo. Or, I could always just make my own handwriting (print, at least) into a typeface...

Or, I could do something else entirely. When we were first given this assignment, I worried that I'd never be able to come up with anything to do. Now, I'm worried that there are just so many possibilities that it's too overwhelming. If anyone has any cool ideas, by all means let me know.

Monday, February 12, 2007

Happy Birthday Dad!

Monday, February 12, 2007

On Saturday, Jose and I were wandering around Borders, something that has become a normal weekend event for us. At one point, I looked up from the magazine I was perusing and realized that we'd been in the store for almost an hour, so I got up to go find Jose and see what he had found.

I walked on tip-toes so I could scan the aisles in the middle, where the shelves are short enough that heads pop over the top, but I saw no sign of Jose's head. I then walked down the side of the store to check each of the alcoves lined with tall shelves. In the middle of each alcove are benches and chairs, and I walked past them all, every single one was occupied.

I finally found Jose in the very last alcove. He was sitting alone on the end of the bench, reading the book about the Buddha that he'd picked up for the day. He was the only one in the whole row; the rest of the bench was wide and empty, very much in contrast to all the other rows I'd passed.

I didn't think anything of it at first, and sat down next to him. I continued to page through my magazine, and didn't really look up until a few minutes later. "SEX" read the spine of the books on the shelf in front of me. I looked at the adjacent shelves. The other books were calling out with all sorts of taglines -- have better sex, improve your life, win friends and influence people.

I laughed. "You sat next to all the sex books, Jose; you're in the self-help section. How did you ever end up over here?"

He responded without even looking up: "Yeah, I always sit here. It's the only section that no one else will sit in."

That made me laugh.

I am really sore today from the bike riding and bike crashing. Really sore.

Friday, February 09, 2007

I am NO-GO for the Surfside Half Marathon.

I spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about what other people will think of the decisions that I make, and I finally decided that was stupid. I'm feeling better, but not fantastic. The race involves a drive, and cold weather, and wind.

Running would be one of my sillier decisions, and it won't be worth running 13.1 tomorrow if it knocks me out for another week. Running tomorrow isn't worth the risk of jeopardizing another week of training. And missing one half marathon isn't going to ruin my Half Ironman training. Pony posted something recently along the lines of "don't run today, so that you can run tomorrow," and I finally realized that applies to me, tomorrow.

I kept thinking I had obligations to run, obligations to people that knew I was signed up, obligations despite the fact that no one could have predicted I'd get sick this week.

But I don't have to answer to anyone. In the end, I only have to answer to myself.

Good luck to those of you who are healthy and running!

Friday, February 09, 2007

Happy Birthday Mom! :)

I'm supposed to run the Surfside Half Marathon tomorrow. After being sick for most of the week, I think it's going to have to be a race-day morning decision. The funny part is that I'm actually less worried about running the miles and more worried about lack of sleep. I know I can just take things easy and do run/walk intervals and relax, but the problem is that the race is in Surfside, which means getting up quite early to drive down there. Race starts at 7:00, which means I need to get there by 6:30, which means leaving Clear Lake by 5:15.

Today has been up and down (and up and down). I woke up feeling, well, ok. So I came to work, where I had a 2-hour meeting. By the end, I was feeling not-so-ok. Then Jen gave me some Tylenol and we had lunch and I am feeling ok again. I don't have a lot of energy. So: race-morning decision. A part of me is saying I should stay here, sleep in, and do a very easy 6-7 miler tomorrow afternoon. The other part is saying I should at least try getting to Surfside.

I am always indecisive about stuff like this. Stay? Go? I don't know.

I came into work last night for the late ascent sim. It was Bini's first in the "hot seat" so, as her mentor, I was backseating her. She did an outstanding job for it being her first sim; way better than my first sim. Very cool.

Thursday, February 08, 2007

I'm still sick, but feeling a bit better than yesterday. I'm hoping to make it to tonight's sim, where I'm supposed to backseat Bini as she does her first sim. I was worried that I wouldn't sleep well last night, since I had no Nyquil to knock me out, but I guess I was tired enough; I only woke up twice. Jose is taking good care of me, and went to the grocery store last night to get me some milk and assorted snacks. I don't feel much like eating, but my stomach growls anyway -- I'm hungry but have no appetite. Weird. At least my nose has stopped running -- yesterday I was giving new meaning to the term "like a faucet."

With a couple unexpected days at home, I quickly came up with a list of things that I could get done with my "free time." Unfortunately, I don't feel like doing any of it. Yesterday I laid on the couch all day and watched TV. There is nothing good on TV during the day.

There is an alligator out on the side of the bayou, the first time I've seen one since October. Weird thing is, this one isn't the alligator that I've seen before. This one is about half the size of my alligator. So there's proof -- I have multiple alligator neighbors. Great.

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

I'm sick. Yesterday, sore throat, this morning, full-on cold with sore throat, runny nose, etc. Apparently Jen got sick yesterday, and Gavin quickly followed, and since I watched the Superbowl at their house on Sunday night I'm totally blaming them.

Actually, I've heard a lot of people complaining about colds lately. So maybe I was due. I haven't been sick, well, since I started dating Jose -- a fact he noted last night when I commented that I thought I might be getting a cold.

I really started feeling bad during class last night. It was heightened by the fact that the assignment we had due -- the one I stayed up until 12:30 the night before working on -- got shifted to next week. We didn't even present them, because half of the class hadn't done the assignment yet. See, the professor cancelled class last week because he was sick, and usually at the end of each class, he gives us an overview of the next assignment and shows us some past examples. We didn't get that because we didn't have class. This apparently confounded some people to the point where they couldn't even do the assignment at all (despite the fact that it's all written down on the class website).

I was pretty frustrated. Even if you gloss over the fact that they found it acceptable to not even attempt to do the assignment on time, there's this: most of these people want to work as designers. They're not grad students like me, and they're taking the classes as their main degree, so they don't have another full-time job like me. As a working designer, you can expect to be constantly faced with challenges where your client only tells you bits and pieces of what they want -- if you can't deal with it in school, how will you deal with it in the real world?

Anyway. After class I had zero desire to run because I was tired and frustrated and my throat hurt, but I didn't want to skip a workout so I decided to switch Tuesday and Thursday. I rode 45 minutes on my trainer instead, equivalent to a 10-12 mile ride. I'm supposed to ride 15 today, and I must say that it's absolutely beautiful outside, but I don't want to push things too much, especially since I do still plan to run the Surfside Half Marathon on Saturday. I'll see how I feel this afternoon.

Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs was on the Daily Show last night. He cracks me up, and has an amazing ability to remember the details of all the crazy jobs that he's done. Dirty Jobs might just be my favorite show on TV right now; if you haven't watched it, you really should give it a try.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Every couple years, someone in Clear Lake goes crazy. This time, it happened to be an astronaut. It's a weird world, and I'll leave it at that.

I'm really tired today. I was exhausted all yesterday, despite having gotten 9+ hours of sleep on Sunday night. Add that with getting to bed late last night and having to get up early this morning for a sim, and I can't stop yawning. I have class this afternoon, followed by a run (at some nice slow pace), and then with any luck I'll be in bed. I got a reprieve on tomorrow's 117 activity -- they don't need the ARD Support after all -- which is great because it means I don't have to get up at 5 am. Sigh of relief.

I did nothing last night except swim and do homework. At the pool, I did 1250 yards in just under half an hour -- 300 warmup, 16x50 with 10 seconds rest, and 150 cooldown. For the last 150, I practiced breathing on both sides. It's something I've got to get better at. As for the homework, I spent 4+ hours straight making a type identification poster. I'll post it (and my other assignments so far this semester) some other time.

I found out today that my friend Chris was at the Super Bowl. As in, had tickets. At face value. Back of the first level, Colts endzone. He's such a bum. ;)

Friday, February 02, 2007

Argh! I can't get officially officially certified yet because there's another big piece of paperwork (involving security stuff) that still has to get done. One question involved listing all foreign travel, ever. My list looked pretty cool once I put it together:

05-06/2001 - London, England, UK; Stratford-upon-Avon, England, UK; Paris, France; Munich, Germany; Fussen, Germany; Montreaux, Switzerland; Venice, Italy; Rome, Italy; Florence, Italy; Nice, France; Barcelona, Spain; Amsterdam, Netherlands.
07/2002 - Reynosa, Mexico.
09/2002 - Cranfield, England, UK; Edinburgh, Scotland, UK; Inverness, Scotland, UK; Stromness, Orkney Islands, Scotland, UK; Stirling, Scotland, UK.
01/2003 - Avignon, France.
10/2003 - Athens, Greece; Santorini, Greece; Kalambaka, Greece.
09/2004 - Lima, Peru; Cusco, Peru; Machu Picchu, Peru.
02/2006 - Buenos Aires, Argentina; El Calafate, Argentina; El Chalten, Argentina; Punta Arenas, Chile; Santiago, Chile.

I have been lucky enough to take some really cool trips, that's for sure.

I ran last night in the cool weather -- about 50 degrees. I didn't really feel much like running, but once I got out there I felt better. I did 5.15 miles in 53:36 with splits of 10:47, 10:22, 10:26, 10:23, 10:08, and 1:30. A few minutes into the run, my Shuffle cued up The Crystal Method's 45-minute long song that I bought off iTunes to check out the Nike Plus stuff. I wasn't sure that it would be good running music, at least for me, since I usually like singing that I can bop along to, and this was 45 minutes of mostly electronic, techno-ish music. But it surprised me -- I let the whole song play, and just zoned out, and next thing I knew I was done. I'm going to run again tonight since I won't be running the 6K tomorrow.

Thursday, February 01, 2007

Jose finally found out what time his friend is getting married in Corpus on Saturday, and it's 2:00. So I won't be able to make the Buffalo Wallow 6K. Sad. I'm not bothered about losing my money (after all, it was only $10), but I'm bummed not to be able to run one of the very few off-road races in Houston and to see all my running buds for the first time since the marathon. C'est la vie, there will be other races, and the wedding will be fun. I like going to weddings.

As I drove to work this morning, I thought "man, January has been so freaking rainy, what a crappy month." Then I realized it's February. Weather's still crappy (enough with the rain already), and it's been exactly 4 years since the Columbia accident. My paperwork is being shuffled and organized and signed as I type, making me a certified space shuttle flight controller on a day that reminds me that people's lives depend on me doing my job and doing it right. It is a sobering thought to realize that I have such responsibility. All I can do is work my hardest to be prepared for any situation. And I plan to do just that.

I did my first ride on my new bike trainer last night! You can check out my Flickr stream to see a cameraphone picture of how cramped my living room is with the bike positioned just so in front of the TV. I didn't take the time to rewire the speed sensor yet, so I just rode for 50 minutes, then headed to the workout room at my apartment complex to run because it was c-c-cold outside. Both treadmills were taken, so I did a 28-minute program on the EFX machine. I don't think that was quite as good as running, since the EFX motion is still a little like cycling, but oh well.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Bini is the new ARD Support trainee, and I'm her primary mentor. She took her first run ever at the end of the sim last night, and I got really nervous -- as if it was my first run all over again. I realized that training her is going to be fun.

I got home at 10 (these late night sims seem to be showing up more and more on the schedule as the training division tries to accomodate missions plus a zillion training objectives) and my new bike trainer was sitting outside my door. Woohoo! I opened it up and took everything out of the box, and immediately got frustrated. Why is it that the more expensive the item is, the fewer clear instructions it comes with?? There were only a handful of separate pieces, but it took me more than half an hour to get everything together correctly.

I must admit here that bikes intimidate me, for reasons I can't quite explain. I have a perception that they're really complicated, and really easy to screw up. I don't think it's true, but I can't quite get over it. I was terrified that I'd set the trainer up wrong, strip one of the screws, or put my bike on incorrectly. To work with the trainer, the rear wheel skewer on my bike had to be replaced with the one that came with the trainer, and I had a mental image of all the gears just falling apart in my hands at the moment I took the old skewer out.

Of course that didn't happen, and Jose gave me weird looks the whole time. In his attempts to help, I felt like he was rushing me, and I was unreasonably worried that he'd mess something up. Finally he sat back and smiled and said: "So you do slow down when you care about something. Just like I wanted to go slow when I first set up my iPod. You want to check everything twice before you set up your trainer." He looked rather satisfied. I guess he's right.

The trainer is pretty cool, though I only rode it for a couple minutes last night (mainly because I needed to put air in my tires; the slightly deflated tires made the wheel slip occasionally on the roller). One problem I immediately realized is that my speed sensor is on the front wheel, which isn't moving, and therefore I have no feedback on my speed and distance. I'll have to switch the sensor; I hope the wire is long enough. The trainer does cause a fairly low-level hum and vibration, so it'll be interesting to see if I get any complaints from the downstairs neighbors.

If I can't get the sensor moved tonight, I'm going to do my workout anyway. I'm planning on 10 miles, which, assuming 15 mph (which is on the slow side) whould take me 40 minutes. So I'll just put the bike in a medium gear and go for time.

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Ah, there's nothing like unsolicited advice. You ask for opinions and advice about bikes; you get opinions and advice about finances. Thanks to those who commented, but I'm very well aware that money doesn't grow on trees and that I can't buy a house with a bike.

Even if I don't buy a new bike, there are a number of maintenance items that need to be done to my current bike, including buying aerobars and new tires -- aerobars for the triathlon, and tires because my current tires are four years old and worn out and bordering on unsafe. That's the minimum necessary. I've also been thinking about upgrading the components since the bike was 6 months old, because I've currently got the lowest level components and have had a lot of problems with them staying true and aligned. In one triathlon, I couldn't get into my lowest gears because the chain would fall off if I went there because the gearing had gotten so far out-of-alignment; it was in Austin, so yes, I needed the low gears.

So, considering that there is already money to be spent, and that I was already planning to spend at least that base amount, and considering that Bike Barn has a trade-in program, it may very well be possible to get a brand new bike for only a couple hundred dollars more than I'd spend on upgrades. A couple hundred dollars is only a portion of my tax refund, which still leaves plenty for savings. To me, that's getting close to a no-brainer if I can find the bike I want at the right price.

I know that people think I spend money with abandon, but believe it or not, I do actually live within my means.

Speaking of bikes, my trainer arrives today! Thank goodness -- I can't take much more of the stationary bike in the gym. I had to ride a couple miles on the recumbant version last night until I could snag one of the four upright bikes to finish my workout. I did 21 miles total in about 1:10. The stationary bike obviously requires a different level of effort than a real bike; if I did 21 miles in 1:10 on a real road, it wouldn't be unreasonable, but it'd be on the fast side for me.

No workout today. It'll be the first day I've missed, but there wasn't much of a way around it short of getting up at 6 a.m...and yeah, not so much. I know a lot of people are morning runners, etc, but not me. I was here by 9, will leave at 3:30 to go to class, and then as soon as I get out of class I'm coming back to work to watch the ascent sim from another position's backroom. Tomorrow all my boxes will be checked and I will be a certified flight controller! Finally.

Friday, January 26, 2007

I am mere days away from getting all of my paperwork signed and officially becoming a certified ARD Support Officer. I just have to watch one more sim from the Booster backroom (a different position, but their problems become our problems so they are important to us).

This morning was my coworker's Ascent FDO Cert Sim. This was a big deal, I mean BIG DEAL, with capital letters. Ascent FDO cert sims happen, at best, once every couple years. This particular coworker is a great guy and a great flight controller, and we all knew he would do well. But earlier this week we all had fun teasing him, because he's a bit high-strung. By Tuesday, we were talking about scraping him off the ceiling, and yesterday I thought his head might explode. ;)

He passed with flying colors, of course, and the flight directors sang his praises and he'll be working his first launch this summer. Becoming an Ascent FDO is a 10-year process, so it's the culmination of many, many years of work and training. Pretty cool to think about.

Because it was his cert sim, and he is the front room controller that I answer to, it meant that I saw a bunch of difficult cases as well. I left feeling almost as if I'd just had my own cert sim all over again. I actually did well and was pretty happy with my performance; it was personal confirmation that I'm ready to do this job for STS-117. But what happened next made me feel even better.

First, the newly-minted Ascent FDO thanked me for doing such a great job today and helping make things easier for him. It's always good to hear praise from your team lead, and know that he's happy with your performance.

But then something happened that has never happened before. I sit in the back room (right now anyway), a place that doesn't usually catch the attention of higher-ups like the flight director. This afternoon I'd just gotten back from lunch when one of my managers walked in. He'd been watching the sim this morning as an evaluator, along with an already-certified FDO and an Ascent Flight Director (in addition to the one flight director who was working the sim and the two other flight directors who were training via watching).

"The flight directors were very impressed with you this morning," he said. "And they scolded me for letting you become a GPO instead of a FDO. Just thought you'd like to know."

So yeah, that pretty much TOTALLY made my week.

I ran 4 miles last night -- outside! Hooray for no treadmill! After all the rain, the stars looked particularly bright, shiny, and beautiful. I don't remember the time, but it was just under an 11:00/mile pace, so something like 43:xx. Today I am doing nothing! Rest day! Woohoo!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

This morning I woke up and there was a strange yellow ball in the sky. I'm told that it's called "the sun." Oh sun, I missed you.

On the Chronicle's site this morning, a particular headline caught my eye: "At 161 pounds, Tyra Banks says 'fat' pictures are hurtful." It seems that Tyra Banks, yes that Tyra Banks, the absolutely gorgeous model, has gained some weight since her modeling days. She now weighs 161 pounds, and has fluctuated between 148 and 162 since retiring from her modeling career. I find this notable for two reasons.

1) Tyra Banks is beautiful.
2) Tyra Banks, former model, weighs 161 pounds.

I've long said that all men -- and even a lot of women -- have no idea what normal weight for a woman is. People think women are supposed to weigh something like 120 pounds regardless of body shape, body type, height, or lifestyle. Which is funny because I'm 5'8" and weigh 185. I could stand to lose 15-20 pounds because my body fat percentage is higher than it should be; at my lowest point in the past decade I was 169, and I felt very good there. Anyway, suffice it to say that I haven't weighed 120 pounds since I was about 10 years old. To weigh what "normal" is, I'd have to lose a full third of my weight.

A third! People, that is just crazy. I wonder what it will take for people to start getting a realistic idea of weight.

I've been pondering this issue even more lately as I do some research on wetsuits for the Half Ironman. Sizing for wetsuits is determined via two things: height and weight. I've looked at many different brands -- Orca, Blue Seventy, Zoot, Xterra, etc -- and while my height is always in one of the ranges specified, my weight never is. For every single one of them, their specifications list the largest size as covering something like "145-163" or "155-170" or "160+" or something else that, while called "extra large" or even "extra large/Athena," is not really extra large.

Now, I'm chubby but not fat. And triathletes as a whole are a pretty skinny bunch of people. But I do know people who do races like this who are larger than me. What the heck do they wear??

Anyway. I suppose that's enough ranting about the absurd weight standards for women and the ineffectiveness of sizing things based on height/weight. Last night I rode 15 miles on the stationary bike. This is the first time I've ever ridden the bikes at Gilruth and I found one major problem -- they are too close to the front wall, thus too close to the TVs. So you end up having to look up at an odd angle, which leaves your eyes feeling really strange after a while. Hmm. They also have a half-and-half bike selection -- 4 recumbant bikes and 4 upright bikes. The four "good ones" (i.e. not recumbant) were taken when I arrived, so I rode 5 miles on the recumbant bike. After that, one of the upright bike freed up so I quickly switched machines for the remaining 10 miles. It took me about 54 minutes, which seems pretty well calibrated to what I would do on the road (where I average somewhere between 15 and 18 mph depending on weather and wind conditions).

Jose left this morning to spend the weekend at home, so I'm all alone. While it will be nice to get some me-time to clean up my apartment and get some little projects done, it always feels weird when he goes away. I mean, who will I eat dinner with? Who will laugh at me when I imitate the crazy dance that Stephen Colbert did on last night's Conan rerun? Who will play the bass line on Guitar Hero II while I play lead? (By the way, that game is awesome.)

Oh well, he will be back on Sunday, and my brother will be here in the meantime. Last night I was worrying about what I would do to keep Brian entertained for the weekend (a habit that is totally blamed on my mom), especially when I need to do my long run and long bike. Then I remembered that this is the same Brian that played Burnout (a race car game) for like 10 hours straight while we were home for Christmas. Something tells me he'll entertain himself.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

My brother is coming to visit this weekend. He called yesterday and said "What are you doing this weekend? I have to be in Nebraska later this week, and next week. Instead of flying back to DC for the weekend, I thought I'd come to Houston." I was a little confused, since he has to fly either way, but maybe he just wants to go somewhere different. In any case -- my brother is coming to visit this weekend! That will be fun. He's only been here once, when I was still a co-op in...2000? I think. I have no idea what we'll do, since I didn't have any plans, but I hope Brian doesn't mind if I abandon him for my long run and bike. Maybe he'll be interested in going to the zoo on Saturday with the photobloggers. We'll see.

I just hope he's not coming full of hopes of meeting Jose, since Jose will be in Corpus. :(

I had class last night. We had to show-and-tell a piece of typography that taught us something about the subject. I took one of my Harry Potter books, to prove the point that fonts are a large part of identity, so we should choose them wisely such that they enhance the feel and message and tone. Can you imagine Harry Potter typed in plain old Times New Roman or Helvetica? Or even something like Comic Sans? I think not! I could type anything in the "Harry Potter font" and though you might not recognize it from the books and movies, you'd probably react with a "...something about that looks familiar..." Why? Because it's become part of Harry Potter's identity. It was well-designed. I'm not saying that the books became popular because of the font (though wouldn't that be funny!), but I am saying that the font enhances the book. For less-well-known books, font (and overall cover design) is even more important. Just because we're told not to judge a book by its cover doesn't mean that we follow that advice.

I ran last night after class; the cold rain again forced me inside onto the treadmill. Whennnnnn is it going to stop raining? If I wanted more than a week straight of rain, I would've moved to Seattle. Anyway -- I did 4 miles on the treadmill in 45:48. That's a mile at 5 mph, followed by a mile at 5.5 mph, and repeat. I run slower on the treadmill, and I am finally just deciding to accept that. I don't know why (temperature? boredom? just less comfortable?), but I am always slower. And seem to fatigue faster. Who knows. On the biking front, my new bike trainer is in transit, but UPS says the scheduled delivery is next Tuesday. Argh! I really thought it would be here by the weekend. Bummer.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

I just got an email at the HARRA webmaster address that says (typos included):

"This is bad if your websitehas not been updated. My god get with it or let some one else do the job, No excuse"

It was in the junk folder, but so was a legitimate email. So I can't tell if it's spam, or if someone is actually upset. I must admit that I'm not quite sure what they're getting at here, since the website has been updated far more frequently in the past 6 months than it had been before. I suppose if they have a legitimate complaint, or care to point out what they're looking at that needs to be updated, then they'll email back a more complete comment.

Oh well, people are weird.

Work is going horribly slowly this week. I'm down to mere hours of ARD tasks still to do, which means that hopefully I'll be officially certified by the end of the week. The downside to finishing, however, is that it means that I begin a month-long period of reading, reading, and more reading. I won't start sims until March at the very earliest. Sigh. Why does there always have to be a downside to starting a new job? Why can't I just jump in?

Becca and Jen joined me for swimming last night. I did 1250 yards in about 25 minutes. I need to go buy a cheapo watch that I can use

Next time, I'm going to try to remember to take a thermometer to measure the temperature of the pool water. It's on the chilly side -- cold when I first jump in, then perfect as I swim my laps (I don't get hot), but then it gets cold again as soon as I stop. I need a calibration point to get an idea of what "average water temperature is 68-70 degrees, wetsuits are highly recommended" really means. Becca and Jen both independently guessed about 75 degrees, which isn't much warmer than the Half Ironman predicted temperatures. In that case, I should be fine with a sleeveless wetsuit.

I also looked up exactly where the swim course is. The name of the body of water is Offatts Bayou, but as you can tell from the map, it's less of a bayou and more of an inlet! Seems to me that the temperature should be pretty similar to the temperature of the Gulf, or maybe a few degrees warmer. Fortunately Gulf temperatures are readily available and list the average March and April temperatures as 61 and 71 degrees, respectively. So 68-70 seems like a good prediction.

Tuesdays are looking to be fairly hectic this spring. I have class from 4-7, which means coming in to work early and going to the gym late. I'm already looking forward to the weekend to get some headway on my long to-do list of stuff outside of work. Jose won't be around this weekend, which is sad, and yet means that I might actually clean my apartment... I'm going to stop this train of thought before I get too overwhelmed by all that I need to do.

Friday, January 19, 2007

I'm going to need a wetsuit for the Half Ironman. They say the water will be 68-70 degrees and wetsuits are highly encouraged (and if they're allowed, I should wear one -- they make you faster). The problem is that I have no idea what to get! And triathlon wetsuits ain't cheap!

I'm not sure how much I'm willing to spend, and I'm not sure what size I am. But my biggest question is: sleeves or no sleeves? I read somewhere that sleeves are really for water below 60 degrees. But if I'm buying a wetsuit, a part of me says that I might as well get one with sleeves in case I decide to do any other cold water triathlons someday...

If any of you out there have an opinion, let me know!

Thursday, January 18, 2007

I have a fairly lengthy post churning around my head about the Half Ironman, my hopes and worries, and why I want to do it in the first place. But I don't feel like writing it all right now.

I am ready for all the Resolution Runners -- the people that decided to start running as a New Year's resolution thing -- to just give up already and stop taking up all the machines at the gym. Ha! I know, I know, I should support them, but let's be honest -- there's a reason the gym is most crowded in January, and there's a reason that it drops off quickly after that first month.

Anyway, once again I didn't have my cold weather clothes with me last night, mainly because running in very cold temperatures seems to do a number on my lungs and leaves me coughing all night. I planned to run inside on the treadmill, and I had to wait 10 minutes for a free machine! The gym has about a dozen of them (I'm guessing at the number, but it's close) and they were all full. All the ellipticals were full too. I was annoyed.

I did end up getting on eventually. Last night was fish night and the debut of Gavin and Jen's new HDTV, and I'd already told them I'd be a little late, but with the waiting for the treadmill, I knew it might make me even later. "Oh well, I'll just cut this run short," said my head. Honestly, with all the people in the gym, I figured I'd be limited by the 30-minute time limit during peak hours! But as a half hour came and went, the gym thinned out enough that there were always at least one or two treadmills available, and I decided that I could take the fastest shower ever and thus get to fish night only a half hour late. So, I never got off the treadmill easly, and I didn't get to wuss out of the workout after all.

I did my 5 miles, the first mile at 5 mph (12:00 pace) and the next 4 at 5.5 mph (10:54 pace) for a total of 55:36.

Now, I've always considered myself to be pretty decent at math, but I can't figure this one out: if 5 mph is 12:00/mile and 6 mph is 10:00/mile, why isn't 5.5 mph equal to 11:00/mile?? Now, I can do the math one way and say, well, 11 minutes per mile. 60 minutes divided by 11:00/mile is 5.4545 miles... which, of course, is not 5.5. And 60 minutes divided by 5.5 miles is 10.9090.../mile which, of course, is not 11 minutes.

But 5 mph is 10, and 6 is 12! Halfway between each is 5.5 and 11! I must admit that this has puzzled me for quite some time. Don't tell my bosses.

In my first week after the half marathon, I've already run 8 miles and will run 4 more tonight. For me, this is unheard of. I usually take the whole week off, but not this year. I am going to be a Half Ironman.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Houstonians are crazy. I don't claim to be a cold weather expert -- after all, the farthest north I've lived is Charlotte, and while the temperatures reached freezing fairly regularly, snow was more of a rarity. But come ON. Houston has gone weather crazy this week, and it's a little absurd.

Don't get me wrong -- it's damn cold outside, unusually cold for this area. Temperature hovering right above freezing, and a wind chill of around 20. But after watching the news at various points throughout the weekend and yesterday, you'd think the apocalypse was upon us. They were probably disappointed to wake up this morning and see that we didn't have ice on the roads.

That said, it'd a bit annoying that my employer can't bring my office (or the cafeteria, for that matter) to a comfortable temperature. At the moment I'm thinking about putting on gloves, and my toes are chilly. I wore a sweater and that was a good idea. I had to leave my coat on during lunch.

This morning I also wore a hat and scarf. I figure if not today, then when? My aunt made me a scarf for Christmas. Not Christmas 2006 -- Christmas 2005. Today I finally wore it for the first time. That made me laugh.

Friday, January 12, 2007

I bailed on my final 4-miler last night. I felt pretty guilty about it, but I had yet another rough afternoon at work and just wanted to go home. As a trade-off, I thought about doing a very easy 3 miles tonight, but I'm not going to have time before heading to the HRB pasta get-together.

The source of my non-running thoughts was the load checkout we did for STS-117 yesterday; I'll spare you the details but the main point is to check out the very very very large database of numbers and parameters as well as calibrate the simulator. The database check went swimmingly. But the calibration... Why does the simulator have to be calibrated? I don't know. Probably because it's old and crappy.

Anyway, nominally we need 3 runs to get the calibration correct. One to see how much it's off, one to correct it by adding "weight" to the simulator, and one to evaluate the underspeed and use that to divide the weight into dry weight, liquid oxygen weight, and liquid hydrogen weight. It becomes a big headache, however, to try to do such a calibration when something changes between run 2 and run 3. Something that no one can explain. And when you find an error in one of your tools. A tool that's supposed to be certified.

ARGH.

And yet, I love this job. I left work frustrated enough to skip running, and yet somehow satisfied. Can't really explain that.

I did a last-minute online search for a hotel room downtown for tomorrow night to make half marathon morning much easier. It's always nice to get an extra half hour of sleep, and nice to be able to go back and shower before climbing in the car to drive back to Clear Lake. I haven't done it for my 2 Houston Halfs, but I did it before the full. I didn't expect to find anything available, but I did! At the Marriott Courtyard. It's not quite as low as the marathon rate, but it's reasonable enough. Woo! Hopefully they will be ok with a late checkout, and I can stick around to cheer for all my marathon-finishing friends. :)

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

I built up a lot of stress built up between 12:00 and 5:00 yesterday. It started with our first flight-specific STS-117 ascent sim, which had a couple rough spots for me. Then I realized that the 117 TCDT (a joint activity with KSC) is scheduled for the Friday that I'm currently supposed to be in Colorado skiing, so I may have to change my plane ticket to come back early. Then I found out that one of my managers was mad that we didn't change a procedure and set up an activity in advance of the 117 ILC (database check and simulator calibration) that we're doing on Thursday.

All the little things were bothering me, but they suddenly seemed minor when my coworker dropped the shocking and horrible news that she has cancer. Hodgkin's lymphoma. This is the girl who's sat beside me in sims for more than a year, the girl that's supposed to be sitting beside me in March when we launch STS-117. She starts chemo on Friday and next week if she can make it to our 2nd flight-specific ascent, she may not have any hair. She's still hoping to work the flight in March, and I hope hope hope that she can. Her chances are very good -- the doctors have said 80-90% survival -- and the cancer has not made it into her bone marrow yet.

They discovered it during a routine physical at the end of November; she had no symptoms other than a very high white blood cell count. If that's not incentive to get yearly physicals -- even if you feel fine -- then I don't know what is.

You should get a physical. Yes, you.

So, when I went running yesterday, I felt like I was possessed. I was running to blow off so much steam.

The schedule said 2x400 @ 2:08, 3x800 @ 4:20, and another 2x400 @ 2:08. I did an abbreviated warmup (half a mile) and skipped the cooldown entirely due to, ahem, issues relating to the two facts that I have fat thighs and I forgot my bodyglide. The problems started around the end of my 1st 800.

Overall - 4.75 miles (Garmin said 4.6?), 52:17
800 warmup - 5:40
400 run / 400 recovery - 2:08 / 3:11
400 / 400 - 2:06 / 3:13
800 / 400 - 4:13 / 4:23
800 / 400 - 4:03 / 4:14
800 / 400 - 4:04 / 4:26
400 / 400 - 1:56 / 3:25
400 / 400 - 2:04 / 3:05

I couldn't slow down. I tried, and couldn't. Oh well.

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Coming back from vacation usually means coming back to a messy apartment, because I never really have time to clean up before I go. I can usually put up with a low-to-medium level of mess for quite a long time (the exception being dishes; I can't stand to leave dishes lying anywhere but the sink). But at some point, the mess goes from low-to-medium to I-can't-take-it and I get very antsy and I can't pay attention to anything else except trying to straighten up. Last night after watching another episode of Band of Brothers, Jose looked at me and said "one more?" I said "ok, but you must give me an hour to do some cleaning or my head is going to explode."

So he did. And I did. In that hour, I updated my budget (which, I must admit, is less of a budget and more of a money tracker, but at least it keeps me from going completely broke) to account for all my Christmas spending, took a load of laundry out of the dryer, put a new load in the washer, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded it again, filed some papers, threw a bunch of stuff away, and straightened up the coffee table. And after that, I felt SO much better.

I only saw about 10 minutes of the BCS game, but my dad called me at halftime to ask if I was watching the marching bands. "The halftime show is marching bands? Really? It's not some pop star?" That was pretty cool.

I tried out Motion Based last night, a website that takes the data from my Garmin Forerunner and plots it, maps it, etc. It listed my 8.3 mile run as 8.48 miles. Huh?? The FAQs say that the site doesn't take the Garmin distance; it takes the tracks and calculates mileage itself. But 8.3 is right, and it's self-calculated 8.48 is wrong! Then I tried SportTracks after remembering that Vic mentioned it. SportTracks also downloads the track as far as I can tell (because it gives you the ability to change it and/or correct it), and it calculated 8.3 miles. So what's the deal with MotionBased? Anyone else notice this problem?

My next thought, of course, was that the Garmin might provide too much data, if that's possible. It's addicting. I could look at the maps and graphs all day long...

Thursday, January 04, 2007

"Ask about your neighbors, then buy the house." (Jewish proverb)

I can't believe it -- when I was listing all my resolutions yesterday, I forgot to mention the "big one" that I've been pondering for a while now but haven't made public:

This year, I hope to buy a house. !!!

The thought of buying a house is scary, but with the changes in my life that happened in 2006 -- notably the new job -- the thought of buying a house is starting to sound a lot more appealing. This summer will mark 5 years of full-time employment in Houston for me. That's 5 years of full-time residency. (I always feel the need to distinguish between the time I was co-oping and the point at which I moved here "for real.")

When I moved to Houston "for real" in July 2002, I didn't know how long I would be here. I had illusions of going back to grad school to get a Ph.D., but I realized quickly that more education in engineering is not what I want. After a couple years, I began to realize that my current job wasn't quite what I wanted long-term, and I started looking around and even did one job interview, and thought I might leave Houston again. For four years, I never seriously considered buying a house because, in the back of my mind, I thought living in Houston might be temporary.

But now I have a new job, one that I am excited about, and one that I plan on sticking with at least until the space shuttle stops flying in order to accomplish the goals of training for and working flights at my new positions. That shouldn't be any earlier than 2010. And so I am finally faced with the reality of staying in Houston for at least four more years.

I say "faced with the reality" as if it is a bad thing, but it's not. I have grown to like Houston in my own weird way. I still think it's a rather ugly city, and of course the climate could be better, and it could be closer to mountains and hiking....and on and on. But I've lived here long enough now that it feels like home, and it feels like my city. I'm finally comfortable with the idea of owning property and making my presence here more permanent.

So: this year I hope to buy a house. My lease is up at the end of August, so I plan to start looking late in the spring.

At this rate, 2007 might be even bigger than 2006.

-----

It's funny how quickly I can fall off the running wagon. I haven't run since my 14-miler last Saturday and am feeling pretty guilty about it. The first two days, I didn't run because I was busy enjoying Jose's time in Charlotte and told myself I'd catch up. The last two days, I didn't run because I let life get in the way. I'm disappointed in myself to have slacked off so close to the big day -- Half Marathon on January 14.

Tonight I am taking photos at the 2 Interliga soccer games at Roberston Stadium, but I am leaving work early to make sure I get 4 miles in. Thanks to Steeeve for helping me re-grip.

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

I walked through my front door last night sad that vacation was over but happy to be back in the pink apartment next to my little bayou. It was chilly inside, but I expected that because I turned off the heat when I left. What I didn't expect was to find the door to my balcony about 3 inches ajar. My heart immediately started pounding, and Jose checked every closet while I took a cursory glance around and checked that everything was indeed still in its proper place. All major electronics accounted for, jewelry (though I had my most expensive items with me) as expected in the box, nothing obviously amiss.

Did the apartment people come in while I was gone? They mentioned something about an annual inspection, but I was pretty sure that was in early December and I was also pretty sure I'd gotten a letter saying they were going to do it on a certain day when I was definitely still in town. Suddenly Jose remembered that the last thing we did before he took me to the airport on December 22 was watch the space shuttle fly over. I was very excited about that, and do remember opening the door to the balcony before we changed our minds and went downstairs and farther outside. As soon as we saw the shuttle fly over, we had to run back inside and grab my stuff to immediately head to the airport.

So yes, the logical explanation is that I opened the door, never fully closed it, didn't realize it was still open because it was only cracked by a few inches, and left town. So yes, my apartment was open and accessible to anyone who figured out how to get on the balcony for a WEEK AND A HALF.

I'm an idiot. I'm also very very VERY relieved that my idiocy either went unnoticed or un-taken-advantage-of.

So, I think I owe my future self (the only one who might ever go back and re-read this entry) and current readers a 2006 recap. It was a very good year for me, perhaps the best ever. I was successful with about half of my 2006 resolutions, including continuing classes towards a graphic design degree at UHCL, shooting a professional sporting event (Major League Soccer), doing a triathlon (did 3 of them), publishing my STS-107 footprint paper (did that at the AIAA conference in August), and certifying as an ARD flight controller!

The two biggest things of the year, however, were unexpected. I guess that's how life is; you don't often predict the things that will cause the biggest changes...

In August, I got a new job! I was content in my old job, but not happy. I knew that although I got to work on some cool and worthwhile projects, doing analysis all the time would not make me happy in the long run. Doing ARD part-time confirmed what I always suspected was true: I want a job that is more interactive, that is more real-time, that is more tangible. I want to work with people, and talk to people. Being a full-time flight controller will suit me better, and I am very excited to get started in Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures. The training will take a while, and I have a lot of reading to do, but this is where I want to be right now, and this is the path that I want to follow in the future.

In January, I started dating Jose. He joined a group of friends to cheer for me at the half marathon last year, and our first official date was the following weekend. It's been almost one year, which is pretty cool. I'm lucky to have found him, and I am very happy. 'Nuff said.

My 2006 recap of running and more looks something like this:

+ 412 miles run (perhaps my most-ever in a year, I'm not sure)
+ 374 miles biked (definitely my most-ever in a year)
+ 9.5 miles swum
+ 23 events done (including 3 triathlons, 1 duathlon, and 1 adventure race)

And finally, my resolutions for 2007:

+ Lose 10 pounds. Again.*
+ Train for and complete the Lone Star Half Ironman on April 1.
+ Play my flute, for the first time since leaving Stanford.
+ Work a launch as ARD Support Officer. (I'm scheduled for 3, so this shouldn't be a problem!)
+ Certify as RPS (Rendezvous Procedures Specialist).
+ Visit a new continent. (Asia, Africa, Australia, or Antarctica?)

* I hate this resolution. However, I am 20 pounds heavier than I was in September 2004 when we came back from Peru and that is NOT. COOL.

Happy New Year, three days late! :)

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Hello 2007. Sorry I've been a blog slacker for your first 36 hours.

I've got a post coming about year-end wrap-up and 2007 goals (I don't like to call them resolutions). I'm really just posting at the moment to say that:

+ I've been a bad runner and haven't run since the 14-miler on Saturday and won't run today. But I will run tomorrow, I promise.

+ Jose and I have been having a lovely time in Charlotte. We went down to the park last night to find the Andromeda galaxy with Dad and his image stabilized binoculars. Dad and Jose get along great, as I knew they would.

+ We head back to Houston this evening, and tomorrow I'll be back at work. Ah, I hate the end of vacation.

Hope everyone had a Happy New Year!

Thursday, December 28, 2006

I did a 5.15-mile run

I did a 5.15-mile run this evening as the sun was setting. Total time was 55:55, or just under 11:00/mile. Here in Charlotte with the hills, I consider that a tempo run!

Despite the pace, I still felt pretty sluggish and generally tired. Not sure what's going on, but I think I've been dehydrated and that could be causing part of it. With a 14-miler (my longest long run) coming up on Saturday, I plan to spend tomorrow chugging water! But my reward for the 14-miler is going to be pretty great: Jose is coming to Charlotte on Saturday night, and sticking around until we both head back to Houston on the 2nd.

Question of the day: should I use my Christmas money to buy a Garmin Forerunner 305, or should I be a good girl and save it? If you know me at all, you can probably already predict what the outcome of this is going to be...

Tonight I set up the new computer my dad bought a few weeks ago and got it up and running; he waited specifically until I was home so I could do it all for him. I insisted that he could do it himself (and he could) -- I don't want my parents thinking they can't handle computers -- and he knows that he could do it. He said I could just do it a lot faster because I know my way around better. That's probably true. My dad is very meticulous when it comes to setting up things, especially computers. ;)

My mom and I did a little more shopping today, and got exceptional service from Circuit City (for a car stereo installation in my sister's car) and from Eddie Bauer (which gave me store credit for a jacket I bought two months ago that the zipper fell off of last week, thus allowing me to order a new one). I don't know why I mention it, except that customer service is on the decline in so many places that it really stands out when a particular store or salesman is helpful.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

A few years ago when

A few years ago when my aunt moved into a new house, we started going up to Chapel Hill on the day after Christmas to have a big family lunch/dinner. Today was no exception, although the cast was a little different -- Katie is out in Seattle with Joel and his family, and Brian had to fly to New Orleans this morning for work. Work! He is coming back tomorrow night; apparently they have a report due just after New Year's. Without the twins, there were only seven of us. Nevertheless, we had a great meal thanks to Aunt Nancy's heroic efforts in the kitchen, and then exchanged gifts. I got two definite keepers -- photos coasters from Casey (I've made them for other people but never for myself!) and a blanket from Aunt Nancy that she knitted herself. Very cool.

Yesterday was pretty quiet after the morning's present-opening. For the first time ever, I had the fewest presents among my siblings. I must've misbehaved this year. ;) I got many of the things I asked for and many things that I didn't but are just as cool. An REI gift card from Brian, a video game and CD from David, a book and calendar from Katie and Joel, money from Grandmother, and assorted clothes and books from Mom and Dad. Mom says part of the reason I got less is that she still "owes" me some presents -- shoes and a purse. So we get to go shopping tomorrow -- woohoo!

I think all my presents went over well too. A book and an REI gift card for Brian (yes, we each gave the other an REI gift card), Battlestar Galactica Season 1 for David, a camping lantern for Joel, a book and camera bag for Katie, an amaryllis for Grandmother, a UNC fleece jacket for Mom, and the Cosmos DVDs for Dad.

Mom and I went to the movies last night and saw "The Holiday." It was a good chick flick and we enjoyed it, though Mom cried through the whole thing. ;) When we got home the rain had finally stopped, and I knew I'd feel guilty if I didn't squeeze in a run, since I missed today due to our daytrip to Chapel Hill. I headed out at 10:00 for three laps around the block; one lap, conveniently, is right at a mile. Taking a cue from Steve B, I didn't wear my watch! It felt weird. Never fear runners: I will be doing my speed workout tomorrow since I missed it today!

Monday, December 25, 2006

It's chilly and rainy here,

It's chilly and rainy here, but that hasn't stopped the fun. MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Sunday, December 24, 2006

My high school friends and

My high school friends and I had our annual get-together this morning for brunch (which also served as lunch) at Amanda's. It was my first chance to meet Cayce & Dave's new baby, Henry! He turned 6 months old on Friday, though he's a little, ahem, large for a 6 month old. ;) Yep, he's a big boy. Dave the dad's efforts to get us to talk about something other than Henry and life with a baby were futile. Turns out it was pretty entertaining just watching Henry drool all over himself. Babies are funny.

I'm including this photo as proof for Gavin and Jen that I'm not totally freaked out by babies, and therefore can be trusted to take care of theirs when he/she comes along in 6 months or so:

He's cute, isn't he?

Saturday, December 23, 2006

The tallest building in downtown

The tallest building in downtown Charlotte is the Bank of America headquarters, something like 60+ stories. When it was built years ago, we called it the ice cream sundae building, because the top is lit up with bright white lights except for the blinking red dot on top. (It's in this photo on the right; it looks shorter simply because it's farther away.)

As my plane descended last night, I could see that the clouds were very low; you couldn't see the ground, but you could see the clouds lit up by the city underneath. "Wouldn't it be cool," I thought, "if I could see just the tops of downtown above the clouds. Like maybe just the top of the ice cream sundae building."

Then the airplane banked, and like magic, that's exactly what I saw. The top of the ice cream sundae building poking up above the cloud tops, like a beacon drawing me in. I couldn't help but smile and think "ah, Charlotte." I do love coming home to Charlotte.

I went running today, completing my scheduled long run with two 5.1-mile loops. I did my 11/1 run/walk routine just like last week, and my sister ran with me for the whole first loop. It was her longest run in a while, but we took it nice and easy -- we talked the whole way and the 5.1 miles took us 1:02 and change, so that should tell you something about our pace! She has just started running regularly again with the goal of doing a half marathon here in Charlotte in April. I'm hoping to join her.

Anyway, I set out for the second loop alone and without anyone to talk to, I ran it in just under an hour. My total for the 10.2 miles was 2:01 and change, or just under 12:00 pace. I wasn't surprised to end up with a slower average than my long run a week ago, especially because of the hills here. But I didn't expect to be quite a sore! I feel much more stiff than I did after last week's 10-miler. Must be the hills.

Finally -- yesterday just before leaving for the airport, Jose and I stood outside my apartment scanning the sky and straining our ears. We saw the space shuttle -- a bright white speck screaming across the sky at breakneck speed -- and then heard the sonic boom. Turns out we didn't really need to strain our ears; it was loud enough that it scared the birds from their perch on the power lines.

The space program is the coolest.

Friday, December 22, 2006

It's the last day in

It's the last day in the office before Christmas, and as such, there's not really much going on. Oh! Except that shuttle mission thing. Yeah, that. It's landing today...somewhere...anywhere. All three landing sites in the U.S. have been called up: Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Edwards Air Force Base in California, and the White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The first chance to land at KSC has already been called off due to rain showers and generally unstable weather, and Florida's just not looking good in general. Too bad, since KSC is by far the preferred landing site since all they have to do there is tow the orbiter back to the processing facility. At Edwards or White Sands, of course they have to load it on the NASA 747 and fly it back to Florida.

The only problem is that the weather isn't looking too great at Edwards either. We may actually be headed towards a landing at White Sands -- something that has only happened once in the shuttle program, way back on STS-3 in 1982. That particular landing got a horrible reputation because the orbiter ended up full of sand and grit that took a bunch of extra time to clean up. Plus, White Sands doesn't have the facilities that Edwards and KSC do. But we could land there, which might actually be cool since it's something different! But the extra processing time would surely postpone the next mission scheduled to use Discovery. Pros and cons, pros and cons.

Here's hoping for a speedy and safe landing!

Johnny Tri tagged me with the Blog Book tag game, so here you go:

1. Find the nearest book.
2. Name the book & the author.
3. Turn to page 123.
4. Go to the fifth sentence on the page. Copy out the next three sentences and post to your blog.
5. Tag three more folks.

I'm at work, so my nearest book is not that exciting -- it's my ARD Support Console Handbook. There isn't one author, however, I'm currently the handbook manager (in charge of maintaining and updating it) so I guess you could say that I am the author!

Page 123...let's see, this page is about the background of the ARD mass track, which is a complicated counter that keeps track of how much propellant is left in the shuttle as it ascends from the ground to space.

The sentences requested are: "Prior to lift-off, the ARD is configured with specific mass properties and engine characteristics. This defines a mass and mass flowrate profile that, in turn, defines an acceleration profile. If the real vehicle mass or flowrate differs from what is planned (and loaded into the ARD), the vehicle acceleration profile will differ from the ARD."

So there's your lesson in the Abort Region Determinator for today. :)

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Melanie linked to a NY

Melanie linked to a NY Times article called Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying. They're all reasonable questions, and I wouldn't even have mentioned the article if I hadn't taken a look at the reader comments. There were a number of comments suggesting that couples ask questions like "do you really like my parents," "what's your relationship like with your mother/father (if you are a man/woman)," and finally stuff like "how can we make sure we don't end up like our parents?"

It made me think about how many people out there have strained relationships with their parents, and how many people just flat out don't like their mothers and fathers. I'm going home for a week and a half for Christmas, and in casual conversations with some coworkers, I hear them say things like "oh, I could never stand to be at home with my parents for that long, I'd get so bored, and we'd get on each other's nerves." I look forward to going home because I know I'm going to get to go shopping with my mom, hear funny stories from my dad, and just be with them. And suddenly I realize how extraordinarily lucky I am to have two parents that I love, admire, and enjoy spending time with. I'm very excited about going to Charlotte on Friday night.

Last night was another speed workout; this time, it was one I knew I could do: 6x400 in 2:08 with 400 recovery. I did a little speedwork on my own last year in preparation for the 2006 half marathon, and I always did 400s in just over 2:00. So here's how it went:

1 mile warmup - 11:58
400/400 intervals -
2:13, 4:10 (400 walking)
2:03, 3:33 (200w, 200 jogging)
2:06, 3:22 (100w, 300j)
2:05, 3:26 (100w, 300j)
2:04, 3:26 (100w, 300j)
2:05, 3:44 (100w, 300j)
1/2 mile cooldown with Jose - 6:47

My legs were very tight and sore, specifically the back of my legs below the calf muscle but just above the Achilles. They were even sore at the end, which is mainly why I cut my cooldown short -- I was tired of my legs hurting. This has been a fairly consistent problem over the past few years, and I've been unable to find a solution other than just waiting for the pain to subside, or at least dull. I can't figure out how to really stretch that particular part of my leg, and I don't know if that would help in the first place. Suggestions welcome.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006

It's rare that I find

It's rare that I find out about new music from David Letterman, but last night I did. He had a guitar duo from Mexico City as his musical guest -- Rodrigo y Gabriela. They were amazing. I immediately found their CD online and bought it, and am listening to it this morning. I have never heard anyone play the guitar quite like this. They are unbelievable. Highly recommended.

While I'm on the topic, if you're looking for new music, I also recommend The Decemberists' newest album, "The Crane Wife," and Muse's "Black Holes and Revelations," which is good for running.

Not much else to say. I tried to do some more Christmas shopping last night, looking for a particular present that I couldn't get on Amazon because it said it'd take 5-7 days to be in stock. I hit two local stores that should have had it, but they were both sold out. Who knew this gift was so popular? Anyway, I found it on Barnesandnoble.com, which I then discovered is awesome. They have a <24 hour turnaround to get products out the door, free 2-3 business day shipping, and a cheaper price to boot. Hooray.

I had the most awful dream last night. I was in a coma for a month, in the hospital, with my right leg seriously broken. I think I ended up there because I got hit by a car while I was running. I woke up and felt extremely relieved to realize I was safe in my bed. I had been sleeping awkwardly on my leg, so perhaps that's part of where it came from. When I got to work and told Jose about my dream, he said "you're going to run on the trail tonight, right??" Yes. Yes I am. No turning my dream into a premonition.

Monday, December 18, 2006

It's definitely Monday. The mist

It's definitely Monday. The mist has returned, it's all damp outside, I'm tired after yesterday's run (despite a full 8 hours of sleep), and I had some work-related frustration this morning. It basically boils down to a project and relationship that I created and cultivated. This project was my baby. It's one of the two truly important things that I feel like I accomplished during my four years in my old group.

But of course since I have finally moved to my new job, this project doesn't fall under my job description anymore. It has passed on to others who don't have the soft spot for it that I do. I find myself wanting to tell them "no, you're not doing it right, you have to do it this way!" Of course it's not my project anymore, and I suppose they can run it in whatever manner they see fit. But the guys we worked with, and the guys that get the information, still need it and want it. And I don't want them to be disappointed.

It's an odd position to find myself in. This is probably how Gavin felt every time I procrastinated on the Mars work. Which was often.

It was a pretty quiet weekend, except for my long run and a few errands. I got a haircut on Saturday, breaking my rule of not driving anywhere near the highway anytime in December. Oh well. My hair looked quite pretty for the rest of Saturday, but sadly by Sunday it was back to its normal poof and frizz. I finally did all my Christmas shopping as well -- thank goodness for the internet. I don't know why people even bother going to malls anymore.

By the way, my mom says that if she's to blame for my spelling and grammar nit-pickiness (as explained a couple posts ago), then it's a title she's proud to wear. As I knew she would.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

The fog this morning is

The fog this morning is thick. As I drove in, visibility was about 50 feet. And, as if you needed more proof that Houston drivers suck, I shall relate the story of how I almost got in a wreck.

I was turning left out of my apartment complex. I stop. I'm going to turn left, so I look right, then left, then right again. I don't see anything (within the 50 feet in either direction that I can see, anyway), so I slowly start to pull out.

As I'm pulling out, I look right again, and out of the fog comes a car going about 40 miles an hour on a small, residential, 25 mph speed limit street. He honks, and I slam on my brakes.

My fault thus far, I admit. Despite looking multiple times, I just didn't see him.

However, it certainly doesn't help that he is driving a silver car, in the thickest fog in months, with no headlights. He doesn't have his headlights on.

At this point, I'm kicking myself for not seeing him, and relieved that we were both able to stop (wasn't hard for me, since I was going about 5 mph). But what the guy does next is the kind of thing that really distinguishes some Houston drivers as complete idiots.

He stops his car in the middle of the road, rolls down his window, looks back at me (since he's past me at this point), and throws his hands out the window at me. He may have shouted something; I'm not sure.

I also had my window rolled down (so I could see through the fog better before I turned, since the windows were all dewey), so in an unusual move for me, I actually shouted back at him. "Turn your headlights on in the fog!" Amazingly, I didn't curse at him.

He sped off before I could see if he actually turned his headlights on.

Jerk.

It's a good thing I have been listening to Christmas music in the car lately. It makes me happy, which keeps me from getting too stressed by that bad driver, or by the horrible, horrible Clear Lake traffic that made me late to last night's Christmas Lights Run (thankfully the group lingered long enough that I made it), or the horrible, horrible Clear Lake traffic that made it a half hour drive from League City to La Madeleine last weekend.

I swear, Clear Lake traffic has gotten significantly worse in the past five years. I just don't remember it being this bad during my co-op years. Of course, it doesn't help that basically every major road down here is somehow under construction right now -- 518, NASA Parkway, and the northbound I-45 feeder. That last one is under construction because they are inexplicably building a bypass, but not a useful bypass. Instead of taking people all the way through the area, it appears that when completed, it will dump traffic out right at the El Camino / NASA Parkway intersection -- already one of the worst intersections in the area.

Sigh.

The Christmas Lights run was lots of fun. We did ~4.25 miles through the Tanglewood area, saw lots of houses that I will never be able to afford, saw lots of lights, and enjoyed the company of some bloggers and Striders. Jose came along and ran the whole way -- the farthest he has run in years. We stuck with the "extremely casual" group and did ~13:00 miles. J has now declared this to be his happy pace, the pace at which he felt he could run forever and still be conversational. Hooray.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

After my run last night,

After my run last night, I just sat around resting on my laurels. JP and I had dinner at Thai Cottage. I really like their food, but I am not crazy about other aspects of the restaurant.

First, we usually end up eating late, and arriving around 8:30. They close at 9:30, and their kitchen closes at 9:15, and they hardly ever have any soft spring rolls when we order them. As far as we can tell, whether they have them or not is directly related to the time we arrive. Before 8, yes. After 8:30, no. Can they not make more?

Second, I know their kitchen closes at 9:15 and I know they close at 9:30, but couldn't they wait until 9:30 to start putting chairs up on the tables and cleaning the seating area? By the time we left last night at 9:30, chairs were up on every table except the 3 that still had people eating at them. This happens all the time, and always makes me feel like I'm being rushed out the door.

Oh well.

Here's a photo of me and coworkers in the back room during Monday's rendezvous with the International Space Station. I wasn't working it -- just learning -- but one day I'll be in the hot seat. That's my new job: Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

We've got a squawk box

We've got a squawk box in our office, a little speaker box that plays a couple of the Mission Control voice loops including the flight director's loop and air-to-ground. This morning at 9:50 a.m., Abba's "Waterloo" came blaring over air-to-ground. I was extremely confused, until I realized that it was the crew wake-up. (It's a tradition to play some music every day to wake them up, even though they're already awake.) Immediately, I knew that it must be for Christer Fuglesang, who is one of the two guys doing the spacewalk today, and who is also the first Swede in space.

Yeah. The poor guy sounded a bit resigned to his fate when he answered the wake up call. I'm sure he's never gotten that before. Because all Swedes love Abba, right? Right?

It is an absolutely beautiful day today, which I've celebrated by holing up in a windowless conference room and then in a windowless cockpit mockup. I did get to enjoy lunch outside, and I ran into the coke break crowd on the way back to my building. I'm looking forward to running in the nice weather, although I am not particularly looking forward to my run. Steeeve calls for speedwork, 2x1600 at 8:50 and 8:40. Now, I don't believe I've ever run a sub-9:00 mile in 5 years of running. He knows this, since I told him. I think I might die if I ran 2 miles in 17:30. Seriously. But I'll give it my best shot.

Last night I made Jose watch "A Charlie Brown Christmas." Can you believe he hadn't seen it?? I know. Seriously. Thank goodness the situation has now been remedied.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Rainy mornings annoy me. It

Rainy mornings annoy me.

It annoys me that everything is so flat, and there are puddles everywhere, and it's basically impossible to avoid getting my feet soaked while walking in.

It annoys me that I have to walk so far from the parking lot, since everyone and their brother is parking in my lot this week because the mission is up.

It annoys me that Starbucks can't buy a canopy that sticks out far enough to cover my car window, thus allowing me to get my coffee without getting the entire left side of my body all wet. Their current canopy comes out about a foot and a half -- which is where the curb falls. Thus not only do you get rained on, but you get all the water running off the wussy canopy and directly into your car.

It annoys me that Starbucks can't give me a lid that doesn't splash coffee everywhere if I don't carry the cup precisely steady.

ANNOYED.

Friday, December 01, 2006

I made my yummy sweet

I made my yummy sweet potatoes for the Christmas luncheon we had at work today. There's not a speck left, so I'll take that as a sign that people liked them. We had the lunch early this year because everyone will be busy for the next few weeks with...a space shuttle mission! We're scheduled to launch on Thursday night.

No running for me tonight, since I'm doing the Reindeer Run tomorrow morning. This is one of my favorite races of the year -- great course (pretty Nassau Bay neighborhood), great organization (On The Run), and usually great weather (tomorrow looks to be clear and cold). If you're not doing anything in the morning and want to do a 5K, think about heading down to Clear Lake and joining me, Jose (who I'll be pacing), Debbie, Gavin, Gavin's dad, and Joe! Race starts at Christus St. John's in Nassau Bay at 8 a.m. Dress warmly!

I totally didn't have enough clothes to run outside last night in the 26 degree wind chill, so I headed indoors. All the treadmills were full when I walked in and I wasn't feeling that motivated to run anyway, so I did 30 minutes on the elliptical machine instead while watching HGTV. Yes, HGTV. I don't know why they keep HGTV on in the gym (and refuse to change the channel, as Becca so often points out), but last night it was actually entertaining. They were showing $400,000 homes in various cities. Like: in Manhattan, $400,000 buys you a 450 square foot condo on the 23rd floor with a nice view of the Chrysler building. In Kansas City, it buys you a 1800 square foot condo in the trendy Plaza district. In Denver, it buys you a duplex in the Platt Park neighborhood. In Seattle, it buys a tiny Capitol Hill townhouse. They also showed what kind of amenities and upgrades inside the house you get for that money. So now I know what I can get for $400,000.....I just have to find that much money! ;)

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Run run run. I've run

Run run run. I've run three days in a row now. Perhaps a Keith-like streak is in order? Highly doubtful, but hey, three days in a row is a lot for me. Since I ran pretty fast (for me) on Tuesday, I took it easier last night. I'm still having some problems with a reoccurance of the shin splints, thought last night it was only my left leg. Odd. I did 3 miles in 33:40 -- something like 11:25, 11:35, and 10:40. I didn't mean to speed up in the last mile but I did. I almost always do, unconsciously.

I added a few more pieces to the puzzle last night. Now that the border is done, filling in the middle is going to be much more difficult. I decided to start with the light pieces and made about 15 connections in an hour. For fun, I started a Flickr set where I'll post "puzzle status updates" as they happen. You can then either make fun of me for how slow I'm going, or congratulate me for being such a puzzle whiz!

In other news, it's going to get cold here tonight. For some reason, this is all anyone has been able to talk about for the past 24 hours. There's a front coming! It's 70 now but it's going to be 33 tonight! Wind, rain, cold, the END OF THE WORLD! The local news was on in the background while I was puzzle-working last night, and they kept on returning to the impending DOOM weather. From what I can tell, it's not like we're going to have hail and fire and brimstone. It's just going to rain, and get really cold. Coldest of the year, sure, but just cold. Houstonians are weird about weather.

I was busy all day yesterday and have a full schedule tomorrow, but today I have nothing. I'm in the office all day. That means reading, reading, reading. On Tuesday I finished the intro section on ground-targeted rendezvous burns. Today I start on the on-board targeted burns. Read read read. Learn learn learn.

I found out yesterday that I probably won't be able to start sims for my new position until May. I was a bit disappointed to hear that, even though I wasn't totally surprised since there is one person ahead of me in the training flow who just started in September, and he will be taking most/all of the sims. Rationally, I know that I have plenty of stuff to keep my busy until then -- finishing my off-console tasks for ARD Support, preparing for and working STS-117, mentoring the next ARD Support trainee, taking care of much or all of my rendezvous reading, and maybe even training for a rendezvous or proximity operations analyst position. And I can also go watch sims to prepare myself for working them. So yes, I have plenty to do. But...

But May just seems like a long time from now. I finally moved to my new office, my job is finally gathering steam in a direction that I'm excited to go, but I have to wait. Which is unfortunate, because I'm impatient. Things are looking up, and I want everything now! :)

Update: Apparently the cold front has already come through. When I walked in 1.5 hours ago, I was wearing short sleeves and was perfectly comfortable. Now, the weather station on top of my building says it's 48 degrees. I didn't bring running clothes for 48. Guess I'll be on the treadmill tonight.

Enjoy this cool Flickr set that I came across, where famous landmarks are replaced by souvenirs. Sounds weird, but is really neat.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

My running has been pretty

My running has been pretty inconsistent this fall. I know I'll be ready to cover the half marathon distance in January, but I'm not so sure I'll be ready to run it in any sort of decent time. My longest run to-date is the 11-miler I did (rather stupidly) with June and Erica. On my own, my longest run is a 10K. I need to up the quality long runs, and soon. I ran last night for the first time since the 25K relay. With my cert sim and going out of town, I didn't fit in any runs. I was surprised to find that I actually felt pretty good last night during my 3.5 easy miles on the treadmill. I plan to run again tonight, but unfortunately it will be on the treadmill again since I won't be leaving work until at least 5:30. Stupid early darkness.

Last night Jose and I watched last Thursday's Tivoed episode of Survivor. I've watched the show on and off over the years, but I've really gotten into this season for some reason. There's one guy, Ozzy, that I totally have a crush on. He's the only one of all of them that I believe actually could survive on his own in the wilderness, you know, without a TV crew and stuff. For that, I think he totally deserves to win. He's like a monkey and a fish in one. He climbs trees! He spearfishes! He can hold his breath, like, forever! He's by far the coolest castaway.

Afterwards, we got into a debate. Normally I don't like debating/arguing, but I'll make an exception for Jose because, well, yeah. The fundamental question was whether everyone's brain is created equal -- do all brains have the same capability or potential for intelligence? My supposition is that all brains have equal capability to be intelligent, but that different brains are predisposed to different types of intelligence. Some brains are good at math, some brains are good at art, etc. Jose's stance is that all brains are equal, and all brains are capable of understanding everything. It's a similar idea but not quite the same; he argued that brains that are good at math are only "better" at it than others because they'd had more math classes, or because they were just interested in math. But I maintain that for reasons unknown, some brains are just interested in different things and thus better at different things. Just like some people are faster, or some people are stronger, or some people are skinnier. Those are physiological differences that are understood, but I say that just because the brain isn't totally understood doesn't mean it can't work in similar ways. I think that some people are probably born with a predisposition to be better at repairing cars while other people are prepared to be better at writing novels.

Of course, it's not like I've done any serious study on the brain, so it's all just my ideas without much factual basis. So. Anyway.

From that, we eventually ended up talking about personality, socioeconomic concerns, and what's the definition of "smart" anyway? Can you really say that I'm smarter than an auto mechanic just because I have two college degrees and what's considered a white collar job while he graduated from high school and went straight to his blue collar profession? He can't do aerospace engineering, but on the flip side, I can't fix my own car! We're both tech-saavy, and I'm sure I could learn how to fix my car. But I bet he could also learn aerospace engineering if given the chance. At this point, I'd argue that everything comes down to socioeconomic status and what kind of situation you happened to be born into. Brains might be capable of anything, but it's still next-to-impossible to significantly alter your socioeconomic standing in today's society. Hmm...

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

I passed! I passed, I

I passed!

I passed, I passed, I passed. La la la la la.

I am a certified ARD Support Officer! (Well, I will be once I finish the rest of my pesky off-console, i.e. non-sim, tasks.)

No one should ever be required to certify during a FDO/Booster sim. For non-NASA folks, these sims are different from normal ascents because we generally stop each run right after the engines cut off, instead of continuing with some of the early orbit procedures. It means we end up doing 6 or 7 ascents in four hours, instead of our usual average of 4.

I felt brain-dead after 4 runs, and I still had 3 to go! It was perhaps the most intense 4 hours of my entire life. But it's done, and I passed, and I even got a "you guys kicked butt" comment from the guy who's been an ascent flight controller since, like, the dawn of time. That felt good. Really good.

I worked my first sim on December 20, 2005 and I passed my Cert on November 22, 2006. When I started this whole thing my goal was to finish in less than a year, and I did. I'm happy. I'm relieved. I'm ready for a BIG OL' NAP. :)

I probably won't be online again until Sunday night. Here's wishing everyone out in blogger-land a very happy and safe Thanksgiving holiday!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Last night was the coldest

Last night was the coldest thus far this season. The thermometer read 43 when I left the apartment at 6:45 this morning, so I'm betting it was under 40 at some point. There was white stuff -- frost! -- on the ground. Craziness. The extremes in weather are amazing; I think I was complaining about heat just a few weeks ago.

The change in weather is always both nice and unwelcome. My body doesn't react as well as it used to when the temperatures shift over a short period of time. I woke up Sunday with a slight sore throat. It was followed yesterday by general aches, and those have only intensified today. I slept horribly last night, tossing and turning and having dreams that I was late to this morning's sim. And late to tomorrow morning's sim. Taking Advil every 5-6 hours seems to be working, but I certainly hope I kick this thing fast. Just my luck to get sick in time for my big sim tomorrow morning and going to Corpus for Thanksgiving.

Tomorrow morning's sim is my Final Cert. You might wonder why I haven't mentioned it much, and certainly not nearly as obsessively as I talked about my Cert Qual a few weeks ago. To be honest, I don't know why I haven't talked about it as much. I was so nervous leading up to my Cert Qual, but I'm not feeling as much pressure this time. I'm not sure if that's because I think I can handle it or because I think there's no chance of me handling it (I'm going to see 6-7 runs, which is 2-3 more than normal, and they're going to be crazy because of the type of sim it is). I hope it's the former. It's very important; it's my Final. If I pass, I will be a certified ARD Support Officer and will be clear to work the launch of STS-117 next spring.

Wish me luck!

Friday, November 17, 2006

On Wednesday, the first live

On Wednesday, the first live high definition broadcast from space was featured on Discovery HD. Michael Lopez-Alegria gave a 20-minute tour of the space station for Space Station Live. I don't get that channel, so I couldn't Tivo it (oh Tivo, can't you go beyond the limits of my cable package?), but JSC kindly replayed it today in the auditorium for anyone interested.

The HD video is stunning, as was to be expected. But to me the more surprising thing was the audio. In addition to the HD video signal, they were broadcasting very high quality audio as well. It was unlike anything I've ever heard from space. I'm used to hearing the astronauts come through with static, gaps, and some garbles, not to mention the ever-present beeping of the UHF comm system: *beep* "Roger that." *beep*

This audio was completely clear. Soooo clear. Almost too clear -- you could hear every bump and click. It was like Lopez-Alegria was standing right in the room with you.

Very cool.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

I'm feeling better about what

I'm feeling better about what I have on my plate. See, I kept telling myself that not only did I need to read 300+ hours of material, but I needed to retain all of it. Yes, I know it sounds silly to say that I don't actually need to remember what I read, but what I mean is that I don't need to remember every nitty gritty little detail. That's why it's written down. That's why we have manuals and checklists and procedures and handbooks. I just need to start getting the basic concepts, and the rest will follow.

JD, I did exactly as you suggested and went for a run last night. Unfortunately it wasn't a great run, but a run is a run and I'm counting it. I wasn't prepared for the wind (gusts up to 60 mph!) or the chill, so I ran inside on the treadmill. That's probably the cause of the blah-ness. Treadmill runs are no fun. I ran 3.5 miles at a very leisurely pace, finishing in about 40:00. Today I'm better prepared for the weather and the wind has calmed down, so hopefully I'll hit the Gilruth trail after work.

Something's broken with the HARRA website's Google Maps hack. Google upgraded something, and I have to figure out how to make it work again. This is easier said than done, considering I have no real web coding expertise. Hmph. Hopefully people will be patient with me, but I feel a lot of pressure to get it back up and running.

This afternoon I'm giving a presentation to a group of work people about the collaboration we've done and now do with the FAA during shuttle entries. That's one task I'll miss now that I've moved down the hall. The FAA guys were fun and funny, and the work was cool.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

When faced with a big

When faced with a big change, most people take a day or so to adjust and get on with things. If it's even bigger, they might take a few days, or even a week. Whatever that normal time is, multiply it by at least a week. Then you'll have the time it takes for a crazy person like me to adjust to changes.

I'm in a new office. It feels weird. There are people behind me, which I'm not crazy about because it's weird to think someone might be looking at the back of my head. There are people in front of me, which is also weird because they're always in my line of sight. I have to turn to the right instead of the left when I come out of the elevator. I use a different bathroom. It all just feels weird.

Those are the little things. Those are the things I'll get used to in a few days.

But then there's the new work, and the reading, oh WOW, the reading. I talked to my mentor yesterday, to ask him what I need to do to get started in my training as a Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer. Now, I knew that the early stages of this job would involve a lot of reading, and yet...

He pulls out the training guide, and starts to go through the lessons that are required over the course of the training flow. This lesson takes 40 hours to complete. That one takes 20. This one over here takes 2, but there are 20 other lessons just like it. The total number of reading hours starts to climb. 100 hours...200 hours...300 hours...

Visions of being stuck at my desk behind a mound of paper for the next three months start to fill my head. Anxiety builds. It's like being back in school! I start to freak out a little.

I think about the best place to start. I procrastinate by taking care of something else on my to-do list. I think some more about where I should start. I go get a coke. I talk to someone else about how I just don't know where to start! I don't know if my child-of-the-80s short attention span can concentrate for 300+ hours of reading. I get more and more stressed out.

I'll be certifying for my first flight control position next week (with any luck). When I started training a year ago, I stressed and worried and procrastinated enough about the background reading that I got to the point where I started working sims without having read much at all. But with sims, I could figure things out as I went along; I'm much better when I've experienced something than when I've just read about it. If I saw a case in a sim that stumped me; I talked it out with my mentor and then read the training manual to get the final nitty gritty information.

That approach, for better or for worse, has worked very well for me. But it's not going to work this time. There's too much that I need to know in advance, and too much I need to understand before I can get thrown into a rendezvous sim and actually do anything.

When faced with a seemingly endless stream of things to do, I figure that the best thing to do is to jump in and just get started somewhere, anywhere. But for a planner like me, it's easier said than done.

Paralysis by analysis.

I've just got to jump in.

Thursday, November 09, 2006

I have tomorrow off work

I have tomorrow off work in honor of Veteran's Day, so today is like Friday and I'm enjoying it. Today is also that day that I'm finally moving down the hall to my new office, new group, and new job. This move is proceeding just like every other move in my life: I procrastinated until the very last minute and then found myself frantically throwing things into boxes in random order.

Yesterday evening while I was at a sim (which, on another note, was the perfect sim; it was tough, I saw cases I hadn't seen before, I didn't mess up too badly, and the small mistakes taught me a lot of really good lessons; it was everything a sim should be), a tech came into my office and unplugged my computer. Now it sits on my desk, unplugged, but not moved. My boxes have not been moved either. My phone, however, has been moved, so my calls go down the hall while I remain sitting here.

The guy who came yesterday had the job of unplugging my computer. Someone else has the job of physically moving it down the hall. A third person has the job of plugging it back in. At no point am I allowed to think about touching it and/or moving it myself.

Yep, I love my government job.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Whew. My rep in the

Whew. My rep in the U.S. House is no longer Tom Delay, and is no longer nobody. I now have a Democratic rep: Nick Lampson. He was my rep when I first moved down here, and now he is my rep again. Yay. Thanks to Delay's totally sketchy efforts to redistrict Texas, Lampson lost his seat two years ago, likely would have lost again had Delay run, and now will probably keep the seat for the minimum of two years before losing in 2008 to the Republican who lost yesterday only because she wasn't actually on the ballot; she was a write-in candidate because Delay resigned too late. Even as a write-in, she got 62,000 votes (Lampson got 77,000). I expect her to win handily in 2008. Unfortunately.

Such is life for a Democrat in Texas.

Jose and I ran last night, 3 miles in 34:11. It's faster than he's run since the spring. I think it was because he was worried that we were out on the trail in the rapidly deepening dark. We headed out at about 5:15, so by the time we were coming through the home stretch it was pretty hard to see. He says my night vision must be better; that may be true, and I spotted runners ahead of us more quickly than he did, but I think I'm just used to it. I've run in the dark on the trail before, and I know that trail like the back of my hand. I know where all the quarter-mile markers are, and where each turn is. I'm not too worried about my safety, because the trail is well-paved. I suppose I could get attacked by a deer, but I figure they have better night vision than me and can get out of my way. :)

Jose and I worry about totally different things. He worries about running in the dark, or driving in a big thunderstorm, or making sure I lock the door when I'm home alone. I worry about the intangibles. Bottom line: I worry about ifs and maybes and things I can't control, and he worries about things he can.

His way is probably better.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Sometimes you have good days,

Sometimes you have good days, and some days you have crappy days. Sometimes they sneak up on you and are bad for no apparent reason. Yesterday was one of those. I was grumpy, I was tired, it was mostly gray outside, and I was sore as alllllll get out thanks to Sunday's 11-mile run followed 8 hours later by a very physical soccer game. Somehow I managed to come away with a contusion on my left leg, just to the right of my shin. I'm not quite sure how this happened, considering that part of my leg is covered pretty well by a shinguard.

I was ready to leave work by about 1:00, but managed to make it through the rest of the day. On my way to class, I got rained on. "Perfect," I thought, and sighed.

Class was fun, though, and got me out of my funk. We met in a different building and room, where the professor has set up a basic photography studio complete with two softboxes, three strobes, and assorted accessories. It's missing a couple ingredients that would make it a really quality studio, like a couple hot lamps and some reflectors, but I'm very excited to have access to anything, period. (Hmm. I could just donate some cheap reflectors. All you really need in a pinch is a reflective car sun shade from Walmart.) I don't have an immediate need for studio space, but I'm planning to go over and just play around to get some more experience working with studio lights.

Tonight is the first weeknight in a while where nothing is planned. I am looking forward to going for a run, going out to dinner with my boy, and having a relaxing evening.

On another note, last night I started looking at wetsuits, since they are highly recommended for the Half Ironman in April. Wetsuits are expensive!! I had no idea. Wonder if I can get a deal somewhere...

Friday, November 03, 2006

Last night was the coldest

Last night was the coldest night this fall (it got down to ~45 degrees), and of course we had to play a softball double-header. After 4+ years here, I'm afraid that I've lost any small amount of cold-resistance that I ever had. It was 55 degrees and windy vduring softball, and I was cold! We had a good night though, winning one game and losing one. Any night we come away with a win is a good night.

This week has worn me out. I have little motivation to do anything this afternoon.

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Life has been interesting lately.

Life has been interesting lately. And busy. Too busy. It's only Thursday, but it has been a very rough week.

First there was the fact that I didn't go out of town as planned last weekend. I was stressed out and had too much studying to do, so I didn't go. But then, of course, not going stressed me out, and made me sad.

Then there was my cert qual, which thankfully went well. Still -- a major source of stress.

Then there's the steady stream of evening activities that have left me with just about zero personal time this week. I get antsy and anxious when I have no personal time, and as much as I enjoy hanging out with friends and watching classic Japanese movies (like last night), it doesn't count as personal time.

Then's there just life in general. I have always been a bit of a worrier, especially when it comes to major life changes. I like plans, and I like to know what's coming. Major life changes scare me. Major life changes freak me out. I even get freaked out over other people's major life changes.

Next week I finally move to my new job, the one I got back in August. I got the job almost three months ago, and yet until next week, nothing has changed. I haven't started training for Rendezvous GPO. In fact, I know basically nothing about rendezvous; I will be starting from zero. I'm a little scared, and a lot intimidated.

I'm stressed. I need a vacation. I really want to go see Jen out in west Texas next weekend, but I'd need to be there by early Friday morning and I have to be at work till 9 on Thursday night. That pretty much rules out any reasonable means of getting to El Paso (i.e. commercial flight or driving). Anybody got a rocket I can borrow?

Today's weather would be great for a run, but I've got two hours of softball tonight instead. I haven't really been in the mood for softball this season; not sure why. Maybe I'll take next season off and just sub. Multiple people have pointed out to me that softball is an athletic activity and that I'll run some during the game; however, I should point out that I'm really not a very good hitter, and therefore never have to run any farther than first base. :)

June and Vic, I think I'm going to join you on Sunday morning.

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

I PASSED! I passed, with

I PASSED!

I passed, with only a few mistakes. (For reference, to have zero mistakes is practically unheard of.) Afterwards, I was declared ready for my certification sim! My final cert is scheduled for November 22. There's no question that it will be another tough sim, just as difficult as last night's, but in my mind, last night was the real test. If I hadn't done well last night, my final cert wouldn't be on the schedule, and without my final cert done by December, I wouldn't get to work STS-117 in March! Which would be sad. So hooray for none of that happening.

Now I just have to come up with some kind of Thanksgiving cookie to bribe my evaluators with at my final...

This morning, as part of the push to get me certified, I went over and had a class in one of the SSTs -- a big mockup of all the switches and displays in the shuttle cockpit. We talked about crew procedures and I got to do them myself and I must say: there is something very satisfying about actually flicking switches and hearing them click.

And.... I signed up for the Lonestar Half Ironman on April 1. I paid the money, so I have to do it now, right?? :)

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Happy Halloween! The owl cookies

Happy Halloween!

The owl cookies made it to work successfully today. I sent out an email to a ton of people inviting them to come have one, and also informing them that the cookies will be traveling to the control center at 2:30 as part of my totally-not-subtle attempt to bribe my evaluators during my Cert Qual this afternoon.

Yes, today is the day. My big evaluation (I'm thinking of it as Part 1 of a two-part final, and if I don't do well on Part 1, then Part 2 gets indefinitely delayed) is this afternoon. Wish me luck!

Registration opens tomorrow for the Lone Star Half Ironman. I'm probably going to register.

Friday, October 27, 2006

First: work. I have been

First: work. I have been studying like mad. Harder than I've studiend in four years. Harder than I've studied since grad school. I hope this all pays off. Cert qual on Halloween, final cert on the day before Thanksgiving. As I've been jokingly saying to others, these evaluations have the potential to make or break two holidays. No pressure though. Heh.

The Halloween store was absolutely insane last night. People everywhere. Junk all over the place. And a freaky guy roaming the makeup section with funky contacts and fangs. We're not sure if he actually worked there or was just really enthusiastic about Halloween makeup; it was hard to tell.

Anyway, the trip to the Halloween store necessitated a trip to Walmart, where we could create our own costumes for a fraction of the price thanks to the fabric section. Jose's going to be a mummy. All the girl costumes were stupid (i.e. I don't want to be a Sexy Nurse or a Sexy Maid or a Sexy Devil or a Sexy Vampire or a Sexy Anything), so I'm gonna be a ninja! Yeah ninjas.

Cardinals won last night and seem to have a grip on the Series. I don't want them to win. But since it seems that they probably will, I am resigning myself to being happy that the NL might come out on top after two years of getting swept.

Last night as we watched TV, a huge thunderstorm swept through that was more entertaining than what was on the tube. We watched from Jose's balcony door as the rain came down in sheets, so hard that it actually beat itself into a mist that swirled in all directions. It was like a mini hurricane! At one point a huge bolt of lightning came down straight ahead, and lingered for a whole second. It was followed by a white glow on the horizon that was distinctly not lightning. The lights of the apartment complex and marina across the way flickered out, then back on. Suddenly, an eerie turquoise glow lit up the horizon and flashed for a moment. The lights of the apartment complex and marina went out and stayed out. I don't know what it was (a transformer, probably) but it was creepy and cool.

Random link: There is a very cool set of High Dynamic Range (HDR) photos that I came across on Flickr. I've been meaning to try this technique. The biggest problem is that it just takes planning, since you need multiple images at different exposures to make it work.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

I ran last night! Score.

I ran last night! Score. It was fairly cool, but humid and sticky. I did three miles on the Gilruth trail here at work with splits of 11:10, 10:50, and 10:25. Felt pretty good, except I made poor choices in clothing. On top, I was wearing my Half Marathon tech tee from last January. It's a bit big and a bit heavy. On bottom, I was wearing a new pair of mesh shorts that I bought with hopes of them working as well as my beloved (and getting very, very ratty) red Stanford shorts. These new shorts have an extra layer of material underneath the mesh (I guess to prevent see-through or something) which, as it turns out, rides up like you wouldn't believe. The shorts are also a little too big and baggy, and don't stay in one place.

So it was a 3-mile run that included a lot of tugging and rearranging my clothes. Needless to say, I won't be repeating that outfit. I desperately need to find some running shorts that work for me, and I never have any luck. Requirements: 3-4 inch inseam (not super short), not too baggy, slick material so they don't stick, and they don't ride up!

Last night I watched a movie called "The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." It was directed by Tommy Lee Jones (who also stars) and while it was an ok movie, I'm not quite sure what the point was. Tommy Lee Jones is a rancher who wants to fulfill a promise to his illegal immigrant friend, who is accidentally killed by a border patrolman. He kidnaps the border patrolman and forces him to come along as he takes his friend's corpse to Mexico. I was both sympathetic to his character, because he's just trying to do right for his friend, but also disturbed, because he's also a little bit, um, CRAZY. It's slow-moving at times, with a lot of seemingly empty shots. But as Jose put it, "he's really trying to convey the feeling of Texas border towns." And that was true.

Tonight Jose and I are going to the Halloween store to find costumes. I really, really want a set of adult skeleton pajamas. If anyone knows where I can find an adult-sized set, let me know.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I had enough punches on

I had enough punches on my card to get a free coffee from the cafeteria "Starbucks" today. I say "Starbucks" and not just Starbucks because it's not really a Starbucks. They just have one of the "we proudly brew" signs up.

Anyway, I got a pumpkin nut spice latte. (Notice how they add an extra word in there so it's not exactly like the real thing.) I didn't expect it to taste like a real pumpkin spice latte. But I also didn't expect it to taste totally gross. I threw half of it away.

Last night's sim was pretty crazy. I'm very glad that I stayed to watch, because I saw cases that I've never had to work before, and got my brain situated to handle that type of thing. It's funny -- some of the hardest cases only appear on evaluations. You never get to practice them, and then BAM -- you have to deal with it during your big test. I'm not convinced that this is the most effective training method, but it's how they do it, intentionally or not.

The particular case last night was an engine out behind a data path in the throttle bucket. It is my most-feared case because 1) the procedure to deal with it is complicated and 2) I have never seen it in a sim. No one handled it correctly last night, but at least now I've seen it.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

I'm bummed out today. I

I'm bummed out today. I hate that everything seems to pile up at once, and I hate that I can't always keep committments. I hate that I can't do everything. I hate that I haven't run since my great 5K last Thursday because I keep talking myself out of it. I want to make everyone happy, but I want to make me happy too.

There's a sim tonight, my last chance to get some experience before my cert qual next week. I'm not actually working tonight, since it is someone else's final certification. He should see a lot of good cases, a lot of cases similar to what I will see next week. I'm going to watch like a hawk.

Since I'll be here late, I slept in. I've never done that before; usually when I have sims that go until 9:00 or 10:00 at night, I go in at my normal time and just build up extra hours. Today I needed the sleep. It was worth it.

As a side note, if you're interested, there's a short article about me in the November issue of My School Rocks! Magazine, a publication that goes out to all K-5 students in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) school system, which is where I did elementary, middle, and high school. It also goes out to teachers, administrators, and other Charlotte-area people. My mom still teaches there and sent in my name for their "Where are they now?" series. It's a cute article, and hey, you can see what I looked like in 3rd grade.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Woohoo! It cooled off outside!

Woohoo! It cooled off outside! No more mugginess!

Today is Safety and Total Health Day at work, so I started celebrating by sleeping late. (After all, I did work a ton of hours yesterday.) I came in at 9:15, and there were still breakfast leftovers -- score. Instead of work, we get to spend most of the day wandering around the various booths around the ponds, watching safety videos, and looking up stuff on the internet like this solid rocket fuel factory explosion from 1988:

Lesson: don't store oxidizer in bins that, if ignited by, say, a welding spark, turn into the perfect fuel+oxidizer situation. Translation: BIG EXPLOSION. In the video, you can actually see the shock wave from each explosion move across the desert.

The final Safety Day activity is a 5K out at Gilruth this afternoon. I, of course, am running it and will look forward to my free koozie!

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Summer is having its last

Summer is having its last gasp, and it is muggy like you would not believe outside. I can hardly stand it; I swear it feels worse than parts of August. Condensation is running down the windows.

I went running last night...outside. Yes, outside. It was so muggy that I was very tempted to run on the treadmill, but I reminded myself that some heat-running is good for me. Plus, I just really didn't want to run on the dreadmill.

Boy, was running a struggle! My legs felt dead (maybe due to the 5 miles on Sunday??) and the mugginess was oppressive. I decided to just take it easy, and ran 3 miles in a plodding 34:50. My fastest mile was the last one at 11:05; I'm obviously one of those runners who needs a mile or two to sufficiently warm up. Good news is that I mentally chided myself such that I only took one 1-minute walking break, after one mile. It seems silly that I keep taking the walking breaks during short runs when I know that I don't physically need them. My half marathon plan is to do what has worked three times before and only walk through water stations. I can't run and drink at the same time anyway.

There's not much to say about yesterday since I did nothing but work and run. After developing a headache around 9:00, I crashed at 10:30, which was just as well because I had to get up before 6 today. I'm in the middle of my 13.5 hour day and doing ok so far. I was in at 6:30 for a sim load checkout for the upcoming mission, which lasted until 12:30 and got us "reprimanded" by the training guys for taking too long. Nevermind the fact that sometimes things just take that long, and this is our one chance to check out most of our data, but that's a story for another day. Break for lunch, checking email, and preparing for the afternoon. At 3:00 I'm back in the control center for an ascent sim, my last sim before my cert qual on Halloween. (A cert qual is like a pre-final.)

The control center is windowless and dim; time gets all screwed up and seems to either slow or stop. Either way, time becomes a bit meaningless. I came to work in the dark and I will leave in the dark.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

I've become one of those

I've become one of those people who's always late.

To be honest, I must admit that I have always been one of those people who's 3-5 minutes late. I have some mental block against showing up too early. But now, oh, now it's gotten worse. Jose, you see, is also a chronically late person. If I'm 3-5 minutes behind, he's 15-20. Together, our powers combine to make us late all the time. I've got to put a stop to this.

In other news, we all know that models are heavily made up and Photoshopped before they appear in a magazine or ad, but this movie really hammers that point home.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Write it down and remember

Write it down and remember -- October 13, 2006 was first day it was cool enough to wear a jacket! Oh yeah. Last night's very cool thunderstorm brought the lovely weather with it (though the gray sky could give way to sun without a complaint from me). It's completely unfair that I live in Houston, considering that I love winter clothes.

I've been watching Survivor lately; I haven't watched many of the latest seasons. The division-by-race thing was overrated, I think, and to me the more interesting observation is that this time around, the cast is overwhelmingly young. Of the original 20, there were only 3 or 4 that were over 35.

Ok, so a while ago after Christina posted about it on her blog, I bought Pete and J's CD. But I never listened to it. I just forgot about it. But then they played a little bit at the reception, and I liked them, and then Liz was all like "they're really good!" So I dug out the CD. They are really good.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

For weeks, I've had allergy

For weeks, I've had allergy symptoms that I've been trying to ignore because I have never had allergies in my entire life. Apparently, after 4+ years of living in Houston and 8+ years of spending at least part of my year here, I have now become allergic to the place. I woke up this morning and could no longer deny it, as my nose was dripping incessantly and I couldn't stray from the kleenex box. I finally took a Benedryl Allergy, which seems to actually be working.

Stupid Houston.

I had dinner last night at Mediterraneo's, and somehow I always end up with so much food there. Last night I had baba ganoush (or however you spell it), lentil soup, greek salad, and a kofta kabab. It was all so yummy, and it was the perfect night to sit outside. They have strings of lights up around their patio that are red, white, and green; the color combination made me feel like it was December, not October.

I saw an ad once -- I can't remember what it was for -- with a headline that went something like "Bad Laundry Weeks are Good Running Weeks." It is so true. I'm always doing laundry.

Confession time: I haven't run farther than a 5K since late August. Sure, there was the day I did both Race for the Cure and the XC Relay (5.1 miles total), but there were 8 hours between the two. But on Sunday I'm running 5 miles in one pop as Debbie and I join forces for the 2x5-mile relay at the USA 10-Miler. (Team name: Crackle, Snap, but Please No Pop! in honor of our knees.)

So last night I decided to tackle 4 miles out at Gilruth. Jose ran with me for the first mile and then I set out on my own. For the first two miles, I just was not feeling it. Mile 1 with J passed in 12:15; we took a walk break of just over a minute then I headed off again. I hit mile 2 with the exact same split -- 12:15. I was discouraged, and took another minute-long walk break, but was determined to just get the distance covered.

Around mile 2.25, I spotted a woman up ahead of me turn around and head back to Gilruth. (My 4-mile route is an out-and-back, so I'd turned around.) I see her out there a lot; she's one of the 5-6 "regulars" on the trail. She was turning around just beyond the 1.5-mile marker, and I had started to feel a bit better so I decided that I'd try to catch her. I didn't think I'd have much of a chance, since she was probably 0.15-0.2 miles ahead of me and running at approximately my pace.

Mile 3 passed in 11:11 (which cheered me up). I had gained a bit on the woman, but stopped for my standard 1-minute walk break. As I started up again, I decided that she was still within reach, and I was determined to catch her in the last mile. And...I did it! I passed her with about a tenth of a mile left to go. My time for the last mile, including walking the first minute? 10:18! Wow!

My overall time for the 4-miler was 45:59, which is sort of crappy, but I was pumped about the last mile. The 10:18 felt hard, but not all-out. It made me start wondering what my time trial mile would be if I made it out to one of the SMART workouts. With help, I think I could be very close to 9:00, maybe even under. I'm sure Steeeve can leave a comment telling me when the next one is...

The other thing I decided is that I think I've developed a mental block. My brain keeps telling me I need a walk break every mile. I didn't in the past. I probably don't now. And yet, if I can do 10:18 miles even with walking breaks, I don't mind them too much...

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

A bunch of photos from

A bunch of photos from my weekend are up in the gallery.

First are photos from the only place we went in Chicago (we only had a few hours) -- Millenium Park. This basically consisted of three things -- seeing the Gehry-designed bandshell, spending at least an hour making faces into and taking photos of the giant mirrored bean sculpture, and then doing handstands in the grass.

Second are photos from the pre-wedding softball game. Er, mushball game.

Third are photos from the corn maze we went to, almost got lost in, and almost missed the wedding.

Fourth are photos from the wedding itself, which, sadly, I didn't get many of since it was getting dark and I didn't have a good flash. Still, we had primo seats for the cake-cutting!

Friday, October 06, 2006

In Chicago -- off to

In Chicago -- off to have fun!

Thursday, October 05, 2006

A quick note for my

A quick note for my runner friends: the HARRA website is experiencing the proverbial "technical difficulties" and is not currently available at harra.org. Instead, try here until I can get it restored. I made my first attempt at getting it sorted out last night without much luck. Why don't tech support guys at least give you a chance to convince them that you know what you're talking about before getting condescending and talking over you?? Anyway, Jerry Smith should be sending out an email about it to the entire HARRA membership today...

Of course, the website madness (which is happening because the site is now with a new host, the old host is gone, but the domain transfer hasn't gone through yet) happens just as I am leaving town for the weekend. It just adds to the s-t-r-e-s-s-s-s-s-s that I always feel when I get ready to leave town.

I'm headed to Chicago and Wisconsin this weekend. Chicago tonight and tomorrow to hang around town with Carter and Kent and whoever else we come across. Then we'll head up to somewhere in Wisconsin tomorrow night for Christina's wedding on Saturday! The place we're staying, and where the wedding is, looks lovely. They even say they have a walking trail, so I'm definitely planning to squeeze in a run in the cooler, non-Houston weather. I don't expect to get much of a chance to see Christina, which is sad, but she'll be doing the whole getting-married thing and past experience says that the bride is usually pretty busy! But the whole college crowd should be there, and that will be fun. It's like an unofficial 5-year reunion.

Last night was fish night at Becca's, where at least two people complained that all my entries are about running. "No they're not," I said, "in fact, the last week focused almost entirely on the Astros!" Seemed like a reasonable argument to me. "No," they said, "you still manage to squeeze in something about running at the end." To which I finally responded the only way I could: "It's MY blog!" Ha ha. I win.

Truth is, I just haven't had much else to write about lately that didn't sound boring. My evenings are pretty scheduled, especially now that the Astros are done. Leave work, go work out, eat dinner, and then either 1) work on the HARRA website, 2) work on advertising design class work, 3) do something with the boy. Jose has started to realize that me with laptop = in my own world while me without laptop = can actually have a two-sided conversation. As such, he gets very excited when I come over to watch a movie or something and don't have the laptop bag in tow. I guess I'm pretty predictable. And practically surgically attached to my computer.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

There are days when I

There are days when I get too far inside my own head and my thoughts run away and I end up stressed out and worried about things I can't control. Yesterday was one of those days.

See, I feel like I'm stuck in limbo. I was selected for my new job more than two months ago, and the initial excitement is starting to wear off primarily because I haven't actually started my new job yet. I'm scheduled to move on October 17, but that date hasn't been confirmed yet. Meanwhile, my old job is winding down. I have only one project left to complete and one training flow to finish.

(Side note: I am tentatively scheduled for my cert qual and my final cert, and they are both before Thanksgiving. That seems REALLY SOON. In fact, I think it may be too soon. But if I don't certify by the end of the year, I don't get to work STS-117, and certifying by the end of the year really means certifying by the time STS-116 launches which is currently set for December 7. All of a sudden, my heart is pounding. Whew.)

Anyway. New job hasn't started, old job is pretty much finished. I'm in limbo. I don't like it. Being stuck in limbo makes me start thinking thoughts like: "what if I get to my new job and I don't like it? What if I leave this so-so job for another one that isn't any better? What if what if WHAT IF?"

Thankfully, last night I had a 3-mile run and an awesome running partner to stop the head-spinning and calm me down. We did my standard 3 miles on the Gilruth trail in a very easy 37:11. My legs hurt again, which for the first time made me wonder -- is it the Gilruth trail that's giving me problems? Is it not exactly flat? Maybe it's sloped? I know my shin split/leg problems have occurred in other places, but lately, they've hurt only on that trail. On Saturday, I had no problems at either Race for the Cure or the cross country relay.

Hmmm....

Monday, October 02, 2006

Soccer last night was rough.

Soccer last night was rough. I got hit in the face (at least I had the instincts to turn my head such that it hit the side of my face instead of straight on) hard enough that a couple parts of my head are tender to the touch today. On top of that, I also did something to my knee. I don't remember anything in particular, but after the game I noticed it was hurting. It continues to hurt today. Right knee. Pain on the upper outside. No apparent bruising. I have class tonight so I wasn't planning to run anyway. Hopefully it will feel better tomorrow.

And my knees had been doing so well. Sigh.

Other than soccer, I did pretty much nothing yesterday. Slept late. Watched the Astros season end. Worked on homework. A typical Sunday.

Friday, September 29, 2006

You're just going to have

You're just going to have to deal with the omnipresence of Magic Glow Skull on my blog this week. The Astros are just going too crazy.

Astros Update, sponsored by Magic Glow Skull: Cardinals lost! Cardinals lost big time! Their lead is down to a half game. Magic Glow Skull is ready to go again tonight. FYI, Magic Glow Skull was helping us win our softball game, until we suddenly had a horrible inning. Turns out our horrible inning coincided with the Brewers going to town on the Cards. Magic Glow Skull knew where his attentions were needed!

I made the mistake of leaving my glove on the ground during one half inning last night, and a fire ant crawled inside. It bit me on the knuckle of my pinky finger, and today my entire finger is swollen! I can't believe a tiny ant has such power.

Tonight I am finally selling our boat, the one Becca and I bought with such good intentions and then never really ended up using. She listed it online and immediately got about 15 responses, then promptly flew to New York leaving me to deal with it! Oh well. I quickly found a buyer and he's coming down to pick it up tonight. Woohoo!

Thursday, September 28, 2006

There's a good New York

There's a good New York Times article online today about co-op housing at colleges and universities. The article focuses mainly on the University of Texas, but it was interesting to me because Stanford also had a pretty active co-op housing community. I didn't live in one, but I did eat in one. I belonged to what my friend Alex nicknamed my "communist kitchen," where we committed to either cooking or cleaning one day a week and in return, got hot meals six night a week and a key to the building for all other meal times. It was one of the very best things about my time at Stanford. I ate much healthier than I would have on my own, always had company at mealtimes, and met so many interesting people from around the world. It was cool.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

I love browsing shopping blogs

I love browsing shopping blogs like Mighty Goods and Pet The Pretty Things. Despite hating the mall, but I do love shopping. I feel the need to post a couple random products I've been enjoying lately:

Socks. I was at DSW a few weeks ago and on a whim, I picked up a couple pairs of Adidas running socks. They looked nice and thin and after running in them for the past two days, I have to say, wow! These microfiber socks are ultra comfy! Enough that I felt the need to mention them on my blog! That's good people, because normally I would at least attempt to avoid talking about socks.

Gym bag. I had been looking for a good gym bag for a long time, and a couple months ago I finally found a great one. They call it the Last, Best Duffle because it's "the last duffle we'll own." I tend to agree. It's got a separate pocket for shoes, a water bottle carrier, two big outside pockets, and tons of room inside.

Laptop bag. I've been looking for a good laptop bag almost as long as I've been looking for a good gym bag! What I didn't want: a backpack (I've already got a way to travel with the laptop that works well), or even a typical messenger bag (boring). What I found at Target: a red leather over-the-shoulder bag that simply looks like an oversized purse. I can't find it online, or I'd show you a photo. Very stylish though.

Ice cream. Bluebell's Chocolate-Covered Cherry in particular. It is seriously yummy.

Glow skull. See previous entry. ;)

Monday, September 25, 2006

Jose and I went to

Jose and I went to Target on Saturday. One of us bought a wedding present for a friend, some new towels, a shirt, and a laptop bag. One of us bought a green plastic glowing skull. I'll let you guess who bought what.

On the other hand, the glow skull has turned out to be a magic glow skull. It helped the Astros win both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday, after the Cardinals had tied the game 4-4 in the top of the 9th, we turned on the glow skull and BAM -- Luke Scott hit a game-winning three-run homer. Last night we were at the game and the skull was alone in my apartment. I didn't turn it on myself, but I can only imagine that it must have turned itself on, because right when the Cardinals had tied the game 3-3, the Astros managed to grab one back and then BAM -- Aubrey Huff hit a three-run homer that made the lead a comfortable 7-3, which ended up being the final score.

Despite sweeping the four game set with the Cardinals, the Astros are still 3.5 games back in the NL Central with only a week to play. They have a very long shot of winning the division, so I can't give up hope quite yet. Realistically, they won't make it. But at least they kept the final home weekend interesting. The atmosphere at the park yesterday was like a playoff game! People on their feet, waving their towels, and yelling like there was no tomorrow (which, as I said, there probably isn't this year). Clemens pitched only 5 innings, gave up only one run, and we wanted more. But he left, and we stood and cheered, and he tipped his cap, and then came out again. I don't think it's much of a stretch to say that he has single-handedly put the Astros back on the map over the past three years.

Friday, September 22, 2006

My fish died! The very

My fish died! The very fish that I took a photo of yesterday and sent to my Flickr stream. The very fish that had been swimming in green water for more than a month. I cleaned his water yesterday afternoon and he looked so happy. This morning, however, he was dead dead dead.

Oh well. This is why I get fish as pets. I'm more annoyed that the fish died after I spent 10 minutes cleaning his tank than I am about the dying part itself.

Despite my early morning yesterday, I didn't sleep until midnight. We had tickets to the Astros game, so off we went. I don't have much faith that they're going to make it to the postseason (though mathematically it's still possible), but at least they're still trying. Last night they came from behind to beat the Cardinals 6-5. Lance Berkman basically put the entire team on his shoulders and said "I got this one, guys" as he had 2 homers, 4 RBIs, and a particularly nice defensive stop in the top of the 9th.

Turns out I'm also going to see Clemens one more time. Wednesday was his first last home game, but apparently he's going to pitch a second last home game on Sunday on three days rest. Unlike the past two years, the Astros finish the season on the road this year. Sunday will be my last game of the year. Sad.

Thursday, September 21, 2006

Thoughts I had as I

Thoughts I had as I was driving to work at 4:20 a.m. after watching TV to see that the shuttle did indeed do its deorbit burn and was thus on its way home thus requiring me to be here to support the entry on the off chance that something goes awry (translation, I sit in my office at 5 a.m. watching the entry but not doing anything because everything is good):

+ YAWN. It is early. I'm sleepy.

+ It sort of blows my mind that as I was getting dressed, the space shuttle was burning its engines somewhere to slow itself but juuuuuust enough, from 17,500 mph to 17,300 or so, to fall out of the sky.

+ If they did the deorbit burn over somewhere dark, and you were on the ground looking up at just the right spot, could you see it?

+ Why are night landings always in the wee hours of the morning? It certainly feels like they always are. Can't the shuttle land at 10 p.m.? I'd be awake then.

+ It is a very clear morning. The stars are brilliant. If I didn't know better, I'd think Sirius was a planet. It's so bright.

+ I wonder if Barbara is awake? She always runs so early, and posts to her blog at like 6 a.m. Oooh, I'm going to post earlier than her today! She'd be happy to know that there is something exciting going on at 5 a.m. for once.

+ YAWN. It is early. I'm sleepy.

+ Why is the CNN Gulf Coast truck stopped at the security gate? Seems like they would have figured out all their security issues by now, seeing as how the mission's been going on for more than a week.

+ Things always seem a little different to me when a mission is up. Last night as I walked past the pictures of the crew at Gilruth, I was like "I'm about to go running, ho hum, while there are people in space. That is so cool."

+ If I got pulled over by a cop this early in the morning, do you think he'd let me go once I explained that I was on my way to help the space shuttle land?

+ I wonder if Katie had a better day yesterday? She wrote a frustrated, but very funny, blog entry on Tuesday.

+ The space station crew can see the plasma trail. That is so cool. Best seat in the house is from orbit! I mean, WOW, that would be cool to see.

+ I wish I was on the Yucatan this morning. They're gonna see a plasma trail go straight overhead.

+ Only 2 more hours until the Starbucks kiosk in the cafeteria opens. I think I can make it.

+ YAWN. It is early. I'm sleepy.

Monday, September 18, 2006

I like music. Almost any

I like music. Almost any kind of music, really. But I've never really been all that into live music. I feel silly trying to rock out in front of a bunch of strangers, and the crowds usually turn me off. But Jose loves live music and it's about time he dragged me to something he wanted to do, instead of the other way around! Still, it was with a bit of trepidation that I began what will, for now, be known as The Weekend of Music.

We started things off last Thursday night with something tame enough: the symphony. They were kicking off their 2006-2007 season in style with a performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony -- complete with chorus. It was incredible. The story goes that when the symphony first premiered, Beethoven was given five standing ovations at a time when even royalty got only three. It would be pretty cool to have been in the audience when it was played for the first time.

Friday we headed to hill country for Austin City Limits, a huge three-day festival with at least a hundred bands. Despite having some serious misgivings while standing in line for the shuttle on Friday afternoon and feeling like I was going to pass out from the heat, I had a really good time. For three days we did nothing but go to the concert, eat breakfast for dinner at Denny's, shower, sleep, wake up, eat lunch at Katz's Deli, and go back to the concert. We even had a routine at the concert -- see bands, see more bands, and around 5:00, get shaved ice. Ohhhhhhh, the shaved ice tasted so good in the heat. (Side note: three days in the sun, no sunburn. Victory for me!)

Friday was the hottest day; Saturday was a bit cooler (thanks to a few clouds) and Sunday was even better (more clouds). We got pretty nasty during the day, but the evenings, when the sun went down and the breeze picked up and people were rocking on stage, made it all worthwhile.

Let's see, on Friday we saw:

Stars (last half)
Gnarls Barkley (first half)
Okkervil River
Gomez (while waiting in line for shaved ice!)
Thievery Corporation (best of the day)
John Mayer (makes funny faces when he sings)

On Saturday:

Nada Surf (yeah, they played Popular)
TV on the Radio
The Shins
Charlie Sexton (while waiting for shaved ice!)
Aimee Mann
The Raconteurs
Iron & Wine (best of the day)
Explosions in the Sky (ended their set early, the bums)
Willie Nelson (while waiting for the shuttle)

And on Sunday:

Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley (played a bunch of his dad's stuff)
KT Tunstall (in the distance)
Jose Gonzalez
Buckwheat Zydeco
Matisyahu (the second half)
Son Volt (while camping in our spot for...)
The Flaming Lips (complete with human hamster ball)
G. Love & Special Sauce
Bo Deans
Muse (great way to rock the end of the festival)

We skipped Tom Petty last night in favor of heading back to Houston, since I had to be at work early this morning and neither of us really cared about Tom Petty. In fact, my one "complaint" is that the headliners really played to an older crowd. Of the five headliners -- Van Morrison, John Mayer, Willie Nelson, Massive Attack, and Tom Petty -- only one (Mayer) really interested me.

For those keeping score at home, my favorite day was Friday (the evening, with Thievery Corp and John Mayer, was awesome), and my favorite single set was Iron & Wine on Saturday.

Three days of music for <$150 a ticket? I think we'll be heading back next year. :)

Thursday, September 14, 2006

I ran last night, inside

I ran last night, inside on the treadmill again, nice and easy. I have really been enjoying my nice easy runs these past couple weeks. I did buy a new heart rate monitor finally, a Polar RS200d. This one comes with the footpod, which is something I haven't used before. (I thought about going with a Garmin but couldn't justify the expense.) I'm curious to try it out, even though I've promised myself to pay less attention to my times and speeds for the time being. It'll be fun.

Last night I cooked dinner for Jose. Not a big deal, except for the fact that I've yet to cook anything for him, so it was a first. He's cooked for me a few times, but I haven't returned the favor.

Now first, some background. I am not a cook. It's not that I'm particularly horrible at it, but I'm also not particularly good. I also just don't really like cooking. Baking I can do, but cooking? Not so much. Ask Becca for one funny story about me, and she's likely to start telling about the time she taught me how to make mashed potatoes in college.

So I suggested stir fry -- chicken, rice, and vegetables. Easy! I thought I had all the necessary ingredients, but when I got home, I didn't have any chicken that wasn't expired. (See, I buy things, but then don't cook.) Off to Kroger I went for a quick trip, and I returned ready to cook. Everything went great until the very end, when I realized that I hadn't bought any soy sauce. I had two half-full bottles in the fridge, but they were old (I will conveniently neglect to say how old). I tasted them, and suffice it to say that apparently even soy sauce goes bad after a while.

So. I had managed to cook, but had no sauce for anything. We could have eaten it as it was, but Jose decided to try -- no making fun -- barbeque sauce. After all, it was just chicken, veggies, and rice. And thus a new dish was created: Texas Stir Fry.

Sigh. I am officially the most useless girlfriend ever.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

I was feeling all sorts

I was feeling all sorts of motivated about my planned run last night, only to find when I walked out the door that it had started to rain. After briefly contemplating the idea of just running in the rain (which I think can be fun), I had to nix that after seeing a flash of lightning. To the treadmill it was. Sigh. I did 4 miles while watching a rather strange combination of ESPN, the news, and HGTV. I've got about 6 weeks to build my mileage to be prepared for the 10-Miler on October 15. I don't plan to race it; I plan to just run it. But I still have to be ready for that kind of distance.

On Saturday, Jose and I were at Best Buy and I came thiiiiis close to buying an iPod Shuffle for use while working out. It'd be nice to be able to put my songs directly onto my music player, instead of burning them to CD and re-ripping them to get into mp3 format, which is what my current workout player needs. But I managed to hold off, telling myself that I really didn't need a new workout player when my current one works just fine.

Then yesterday Apple introduced an entirely new iPod Shuffle. It is so tiny and cute and comes with a built-in clip! And now I'm glad I didn't buy one last Saturday because, well, I simply must have the new one.

Apple's new releases also included a new version of iTunes, which I downloaded so that I could test out their new movie download feature. I bought Pirates of the Caribbean for $9.99. I haven't tried it on my iPod yet, but even when sized up to fit my laptop screen, it didn't look too bad. Technology is crazy, man.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

How to get satellite radio

How to get satellite radio without paying a cent: borrow the radio from a friend who isn't using it and get your boyfriend to add you to his family plan. Voila. It's pretty cool, except I'm having trouble figuring out exactly how to situate the receiver in my car. It's a little unweildy to just stick on the console somewhere. Turns out that if I bought a new one, they're not that expensive, and they're smaller (this receiver was actually bought a year and a half ago). But that wouldn't be free!

I also just want to mention that last Saturday I finally had the opportunity to hop the curb and drive over the median between the feeder and the interstate. I felt very Texan. It was awesome and totally made my day. Sometimes it's the little things...

All my running buddies signed up for the Houston Marathon yesterday. I signed up for the Half Marathon last week. I think I can switch later if I choose to. We'll see. Jon wants me to run again so he can hear everyone cheering ;) but I'm not sure if I can keep his projected pace. If I run it again, I'll likely have the same goal as two years ago: 5 hours.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

Some days, it seems like

Some days, it seems like we're never going to launch.

Sigh.

First of all, BIG CONGRATULATIONS to my friend Christina, who passed her Ph.D. defense yesterday and is now Dr. Christina.

I did another 3 miles outside last night, and Jose came along again. Poor boy hadn't run since the end of May and now I've dragged him through 6 miles in two days. He said he was sore. I felt a little guilty. But for the second day in a row, I love love LOVED the easy pace. This is what I need. A bit of fun. I'm still going to build my mileage -- gotta be prepared for the 10-miler -- but I'm not going to worry about how fast I may or may not be going.

While out on the trail, I spotted nine huge (I mean, huge, like 4 inches across) spiders within 30 feet, chillin' out in their webs that crossed the path above my head. It was scary and yet intriguing. Where did they all come from? Why did they all choose to build their webs in that spot? Most importantly -- what's to prevent them from dropping on my head as I run underneath???

I found out that I was mentioned in the newspaper article about the Summertime Blues Tri, since I won the Athena category. Cool! I think I left too early to be quoted though. Oh well.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

when darkness turns to light / it ends tonight
just a little insight will make this right

Some days, it feels like we're never going to launch.

Sigh.

I firmly believe that there is exactly one positive to living somewhere as hot and humid as Houston in the summer: the fact that when it does cool off, even a little, it feels like Christmas and every other holiday all rolled up into one big ball of goodness. Yesterday was one such day. Sure, it was overcast, and sure, it was gray, and sure, it even drizzled a bit. But it was fabulous!

I ran. I ran outside. It felt so good. I only went 3 miles, and it was cool enough that I talked Jose into running with me. He hasn't really run since the Astros Race for the Pennant at the end of May, so we took things very slow and covered the 3 miles in 37:20. That pace felt fantastic, and I chatted Jose's ear off the whole time. (What's that they say about exercising hard enough that it's difficult to talk?) Hopefully he found it entertaining, not annoying.

As for my next goal, I've decided to try something a little different. I'm going to focus on the short term, which means that, for now, my goal is the USA 10-Miler on October 15 and nothing beyond. After the 10-miler, I'll decide whether to try for the 25K, etc. I did sign up for the Houston Half yesterday, so that's on the calendar at the moment. Maybe I'll upgrade to the full, maybe not. For now: 10-miler in a month and a half.

I've also decided to lower my expectations for a while. For the past 1-2 years, my running has become more and more focused on performance and speed. I'm not really getting much faster though, which just leaves me feeling frustrated and burnt out. Last night's easy run was so much fun that I started thinking that perhaps I've been putting too much pressure on myself. This is probably going to sound weird to most of the runners I know, who are constantly striving to get better and faster, but I've decided to lay off on myself for a while. I'm not going to pay much attention to speed. I'm going to run for time or distance, but not both. I need to get back to the reason I started running five years ago -- for fitness, because it makes me feel good, and because it can be fun. No more self-induced pressure to be "fast." I want to go to races to have fun, be social, and see my friends, not to always be trying to beat my previous time. I want to stop beating myself up for not being able to meet a certain time goal.

I want to just run. And have fun.

And I wouldn't be surprised if that in itself ends up with me becoming a better, happier runner.

I watched Jaws last night. No, I'd never seen it, though I'd seen enough clips here and there to know how it ended. There was one part that made me actually yelp out loud, flinch, and shield my eyes. I don't like scary movies.

I've got a short temper today. Off to make it through the afternoon.

Friday, September 01, 2006

Everyone at work is required

Everyone at work is required to pick up a new badge under some new government rules, so I finally went to get mine yesterday. My picture is absolutely horrible. I smiled, they said "this is a non-smiling picture," so I tried to smile without smiling. I look retarded. To top things off, they then cropped the photo so closely that my chin is almost cut off and it looks like I have hardly any hair. I showed it to Matt and Gavin, who both just started laughing (which was not, as it turned out, the response I was going for). I'm so annoyed that this is the photo I'm stuck with for the next umpteen years of my career. I know it's just an ID badge, but when you have to wear it visibly around your neck every single day, there are a lot of people that end up seeing it.

Update: I forgot to add that according to my badge, my hair is now red. The girl behind the counter was going through the questions when she said "hair color...red?" I paused. "Seriously?" I said, "red? I've heard brown or blonde, but not red." She looked at me. "No, my brother has red hair, your hair is definitely red." I was puzzled. Not really wanting to get in an argument about my hair color, I said "ok, well, you put down whatever color you think is best." So now according to NASA, I have red hair.

Annoyed.

It's been a long week, though I'm not sure why, and I've grown progressively grumpier as the week has worn on, as my coworkers can probably attest. Today I'm feeling better though, because it's Friday! And it's a three-day weekend! And I have plans for Saturday and Sunday, but not much for Monday, when I plan to SIT. ON. MY. BUTT. It will also be nice to finally have downtime for the first time in a couple weeks.

I'm doing the Summertime Blues Triathlon on Sunday morning, which made me realize that my heart rate monitor is still not fixed (because this will be the third tri this summer that I'll have done without a watch). I didn't mail it in for battery replacement because I thought it would take too long; instead I've been sitting on it. That makes sense, eh? Heh. I'm contemplating buying a Garmin though. Thoughts on that are welcome.

I didn't go to the Astros game last night, but they won anyway! This year's wild card race is crazy. The Astros are only 2.5 games out of the lead, yet there are 4 teams ahead of them, and 3 more within 3 games behind them. I can't remember ever seeing the wild card race this tightly clumped. It doesn't bode well -- whoever wins it will be the team that can string together the best streak, which is not-entirely-unrelated to whoever has the easiest schedule. I don't know who that is, but with a series against the Mets, two more sets with the Cardinals, and lots of sets with the other wild card contenders (Phillies, Reds, Braves), it's probably not the Astros.

I also read this morning that Brandon Backe is having Tommy John surgery. That's never good.

Thursday, August 31, 2006

Our seats for the Astros

Our seats for the Astros game last night were in Section 256. For those not familiar with Minute Maid Park, section 256 is about as far as you can possibly get from home plate. Thus when the 0-0 pitcher's duel ended with the Astros scoring in the bottom of the 9th on a rather confusing play, it shouldn't be surprising to hear that those of us in section 256 didn't have the slightest idea of what had just happened. We saw the home plate umpire signal safe, but even that took a moment.

As it turns out, even the players weren't sure what had happened. "I hit the ball, saw Cirillo grab it and step on first. Then, I was confused," said Aubrey Huff. "I don't care, we got the win, and that's what matters."

We stood in the stands to watch the game highlights, and after seeing the replay, we still weren't sure what happened. We debated it the whole way to the car. This morning, I'm finally getting myself cleared up on the play.

From Astros.com:

"The question Astros players wanted answered: How was Huff's game-winner scored?

"Is it a fielder's choice?" Huff asked.

"It's a fielder's ... something," Lamb replied.

Actually, Huff was credited with a walk-off RBI groundout. No joke. He came to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the ninth against reliever Jose Capellan and scorched a hard grounder down the first-base line.

Brewers first baseman Jeff Cirillo made the stab, dove toward the bag for the forceout and fired a throw to the plate. Fortunately for the Astros, the out at first eliminated the force at home, where Lamb beat catcher Damian Miller's tag."

Sounds simple enough now. But it sure was confusing last night! The bases were loaded, with Berkman on first. All Cirillo really needed to do was tag first base and then tag Berkman, who was also confused and didn't run anywhere -- he just stood on first, apparently thinking it might have been a line drive. But Cirillo's snag carried him a bit into foul territory, and he tagged the base, and then somehow Berkman got back on first base safely, which was open again after Cirillo tagged it. So he threw home, where Miller didn't realize that he no longer had a force out. Lamb slid past him. Safe, score, Astros win!

It must be added that Willy Taveras played some outstanding center field last night, and the Astros would not have been in a position to win 1-0 if Willy hadn't 1) gunned down Jeff Cirillo trying to stretch a double into a triple in the 4th, 2) made a catch almost at the wall in the 6th, and 3) made a spectacular diving catch with the bases loaded in the 7th for the 3rd out.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

I walked outside this morning

I walked outside this morning to get in the car and head to work and it was gasp sort of cool. Cool front? Really? My first thought: "Wish I had time for a run." Heh.

We went to the Astros game last night and saw a great win, which was nice. The Astros went up 3-0, but the Brewers tied it with three runs off Oswalt in the 7th. I was dreading what might happen next, but suddenly the Astros caught on fire and scored seven runs in the 8th, capped off by Jason Lane's grand slam. It was all very exciting.

The only real disappointment was that Willy Taveras didn't get a hit, so his streak was stopped at 30 games. Of course, he might have gotten a hit if he hadn't lost not one, but two at-bats to getting hit by pitches. Both from Tomo Ohka. Both on the first pitch of the at-bat, and, the first time, on the first pitch of the entire game. I don't buy that they were both accidental. Ohka is a bum.

We're also going to the game tonight, where we will hopefully see another win.

Friday, August 25, 2006

I'm back from Colorado and

I'm back from Colorado and it SUCKS.

Ok, actually, it's not so bad, except that it's hot here. And humid. And flat. On the upside, I can go up a flight of stairs without getting winded.

My schedule immediately got busy again now that I've returned from vacation. (Yes, even though the conference was technically work, it felt like vacation.) Tonight Jose and I are going to the Ballunar Festival to watch the hot air balloons. I've never actually watched them officially -- just seen them from my apartment, or been crewing for one of them. I'm hoping to get some neat shots of the balloon glow.

Tomorrow morning I'll be stopping by HARRA's Party in the Park for a bit, then over to Katy to get my packet for Sunday's Cinco Ranch Triathlon. After that, my apartment needs major cleaning.

Sunday morning, of course, is the triathlon (and I'll be doing another one next Sunday). Sunday afternoon is the STS-115 launch! It seems amazing that one is launching so quickly after STS-121 in July. I think that's a sign that it's been far too long since shuttles were launching regularly.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Today Rich, Lyndon and I

Today Rich, Lyndon and I went mountain biking. Not Houston mountain biking. Colorado mountain biking. As in, we rode the ski lift up 2,300 feet with our bikes and then rode all the way back down to the village. It took about an hour and a half.

Here I am faking a crash. We thought it would be funny.

Here I am face down after a real crash. Rich was taking a photo before he even thought to ask about my well-being! I'm ok, but my knees each have a lump and I suspect they'll be sporting some lovely bruises tomorrow.

I gave my presentation this morning and it went very well. Of the six papers in my session, mine drew the biggest audience which was a nice little ego boost. ;) I got some good questions that I was able to answer, so all in all, things went very well.

Tomorrow it's back to Houston. It feels like I've been gone for a very long time.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Another day, another dollar. If

Another day, another dollar. If only I could earn my salary like this every week -- in a gorgeous location, and listening to interesting presentations. Of course, conferences would get really boring if they were all I ever did, but once a year, they're a nice change of pace.

I just practiced my presentation here in the condo. It took 22 minutes (perfect) but I felt very out-of-breath trying to speak authoritatively and constantly for 22 minutes. Hope it's better tomorrow.

In the "it's a small world" department, while stopping in the hall to get a coke between sessions, I met a girl who lived in my apartment complex this summer while grad co-oping at JSC. She recognized me and asked. Random.

Rich and I had both lunch and dinner with the FAA guys. They are really funny; I'll miss working with them when I move to my new job in a month or so. Dan offered me one of his free drink coupons as a way of thanking me for putting up with all their 20-minute telecon roll calls. It's funny to realize that in the end, everyone puts up with the same frustrations no matter where they work. It also turns out that Dan helped program the ARD. (That will make more sense if you're a coworker, but ARD Support is the flight control position I'm currently training for.) I asked him why it's so crappy; he just laughed. RANDOM.

Now that I know I'm heading for flight control and leaving the analysis stuff that's been my job for the past four years behind, I'm feeling some nostalgia for it. It's been fun to be part of the very small group of people concerned with predicting where space junk will go and therefore protecting the public from it. Being here makes me feel like I'm an expert on my one little piece of the puzzle, and that's a pretty cool feeling.

Monday, August 21, 2006

Three things I've learned today:

Three things I've learned today:

+ Ski towns in summer resemble ghost towns -- empty and slighty creepy.

This morning when I left the condo, I didn't see a soul until I got to Starbucks. (Thank goodness for Starbucks!) There are very few people around. I mean, there are at least a few hundred people here for the conference, but they're spread out in lodging across the resort, which is 6 or so miles from end to end.

While running, I ended up at the bottom of a couple of the ski lifts that I swear were swinging and creaking in the breeze like the saloon doors in some old black-and-white 1930s western. I expected to see a tumbleweed blow by at any minute! There were lift ticket windows, stores, and restaurants -- and every single place was shuttered up tight.

+ You don't truly realize how much time you've been spending with someone until you are suddenly deprived of their company.

I spent all afternoon alone in the condo. There weren't any great talks at the conference, and I needed to spend a solid few hours putting together my presentation for Wednesday morning. It was really, really quiet. I had to keep the TV or iPod on to make things seem more normal.

+ At 9,500 feet above sea level, you can be gasping for air even if you're running really, really slowly.

I went running tonight for the first time at serious altitude. Though I've hiked at 9,000 feet and above many times, I've never attempted to run. It's tough. Of course it's tough. I knew it'd be tough, and it was.

Keystone has a nice long bike trail that runs the length of the resort (about 6 miles in total from what I can tell). I ran from my condo to one end and back then down to Rich's condo and back for what, as far as I can tell, was about 3.5 miles, give or take a bit. It took me a huffing, puffing, heaving, and gasping 44 minutes to do the run in a 6/1 running/walking pattern.

Even the downhill portions were hard, and in addition to the massive amounts of air I was trying to gulp down as quickly as possible, my legs were completely and utterly dead. No spring, no zip, no energy. I wonder if that has something to do with the altitude as well? In any case, I'll try again tomorrow and if nothing else, a week at altitude is bound to do me some good in the Cinco Ranch Tri on Sunday. Hooray for legal blood doping! ;)

Thursday, August 17, 2006

This morning I managed to

This morning I managed to spill my entire cup of coffee in the parking lot on my way in. I salvaged exactly one sip. I was so mad.

I think this means it's time for vacation.

Tonight Jose and I will be staying with Chris in Denver, tomorrow night we'll be in Rocky Mountain National Park on our own, and Saturday night we'll be in Indian Peaks Wilderness with Gavin and Jen. Friday afternoon and Saturday morning we'll be doing a couple small, easy hikes in RMNP. Sunday morning we'll be heading for the top of 13,223-foot Mt. Audubon. I am looking forward to hiking, and mountains, and trees, and lakes.

Last night was my final brick workout before Cinco Ranch, since I won't be able to do a brick next week in Colorado. I did 20 miles on the bike in 1:10:36, which is an average of 17.5 mph. I was surprised to see that average, since I didn't push very hard. I think the wind was nonexistant last night, so I was able to cruise at my normal speed instead of getting slowed by the wind. From there I took ~2:00 to transition and headed out for 3 miles of running, which was downright miserable. The heat index was at about 100 degrees, and it zapped just about every ounce of energy I had. I did the first two miles in something like 23:00 with a minute of walking each half mile, then faded even more in the last mile to finish the run in a pathetic 36-37 minutes. I am a little discouraged that after my sub-20:00 2-mile run in the first stage of the Duathlon a month ago, I haven't been able to get back there, even in the 5Ks I've done.

I'll be back online Monday.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

June, I just saw your

June, I just saw your comment on the previous entry and WOW -- I definitely could not have made it through 18 innings last night. Too bad the Astros still lost. What's up with Lidge? That's been the question all season. Five blown saves, but it feels like 50.

I spent last night relaxing and destressing. Like I said, I have a tendency to get overwhelmed at times, but I always feel better if I just take a step back and look at the big picture. So I did.

I went swimming after work in the overchlorinated pool (two showers later, I still smell like chlorine) and did 1500 yards in 37:45. 800 yards of that was warmup and cooldown, so less than half of the yardage was the actual workout. Following this training program has gotten me more using to warming up and cooling down before going hard -- something that I have always been bad at. I tend to just get out and go! Good news is, I think I've gotten a little faster in the water. I can consistently do 50s in just under 1 minute now, even at the end of the workout when I'm tired.

After that, I had dinner with Jose and we headed to Academy to get him ready for camping this weekend. He needed a sleeping bag and a raincoat or poncho, and we found both at Academy. He got a 25-degree mummy bag that's got all the same features as mine for $36! I'm pretty sure I paid more than that for the one I got online a few years ago. Mine might be a little lighter, but if so, it's only be a few ounces. I was impressed.

At dinner I rattled nervously about hiking, to the point where Jose finally said "you know, you're making me think I won't like it." It was only then that I really realized how nervous I've been about the prospect of going hiking and camping with him. When hiking, I am a very destination-oriented person, and am always looking for something to summit. I like to get to the highest thing around and see what I can see. I think, I know, that he will prefer a slower pace. I know our styles will be different, but why does that bother me? I have plenty of friends that I hike with who prefer different paces and destinations, and that doesn't bug me. For some reason, I kept thinking this would be a problem with me and Jose, but of course it won't. As he said last night, "I don't like baseball, but I go with you to games because you like it." Good point. If he doesn't like my rather intense style of hiking, it doesn't mean he doesn't like me.

Anyway, I got over it, and I am mega-excited to be going to the mountains with my boy. Tonight after my brick workout (the last before the tri, since I won't have a bike in Colorado!), I'm going to pack. Packing is yet another thing that stresses me out, but not if I have a list, so this afternoon I will make one. I'm going to have to take the big suitcase since I need 1) hiking clothes for this weekend, 2) work clothes for the conference next week, and 3) running clothes since running will have to substitute for all my biking workouts for the next week. Well, maybe. Rich will also be at the conference, which is at Keystone Resort. There's no snow, of course, so no skiing, but he mentioned going mountain biking. That would be really fun.

Today I'm listening to my new favorite album: Under the Iron Sea, by Keane. All the songs are poppy. They make me happy.

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

I've been feeling a bit

I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed lately. It's no one thing in particular; rather, it's a lot of small things that are making me feel panicky when stacked atop each other. That said, you don't really have to read the rest of this entry unless you want to see how neurotic I can be...

I'm moving to a new group at work within the next month. What if they don't like me? What if I don't work hard enough for them? What if that really quiet guy thinks I'm annoying? What if moving into the same office as someone who means a lot to me is too much for us?

Because I'm leaving my current group, I suddenly find myself with a lot of wrap-up tasks on my plate. Unfortunately, we always procrastinate when it comes to knowledge capture, and I find myself with a long list of things I know and processes I've developed that I want to document so that the next person won't have so many struggles. How am I going to get all that done? Because on top of that, I want to spend some serious time studying for my back room flight control position since I discovered that I have so many areas for improvement after last week's midpoint. How am I going to fit all this in?

This morning I missed the presentation of Matt's big award, the one he got for working his butt off over the past year, which bummed me out. I missed it because it was early and I wasn't at work, and I forgot because I didn't have it on my calendar, and I didn't have it on my calendar because my palm pilot had a dead battery. Because of the lack of calendar, I also missed a telecon that, by a lucky twist of fate, didn't happen anyway due to technical difficulties. When did my life become so scheduled that I can't live without my palm pilot?

I'm leaving town on Thursday night for three days of vacation in the mountains followed by four days of a work-related conference. My paper is done, but when am I going to put together the presentation? How am I going to get my triathlon training done when I won't have my bike? I'm excited to be going on vacation, but what if the weather is bad? What if Jose doesn't like my style of camping and hiking? What if he doesn't want to climb to the top of that 13,000 foot mountain, but I do? What if I can't build a fire? Sadly, despite my camping experience, I must admit to never having built a fire on my own! What if we can't find Gavin and Jen on Saturday when we're supposed to meet up with them?

The HARRA website still needs some major work. People keep asking me about feature on the route creater that I don't know how to answer because I don't understand the Google hack that the previous webmaster set up. Why did I think that my web skills are up-to-date? How am I going to easily manage this web database so that I don't have to manually type in all the changes?

I'm skipping the Astros game tonight because I went last night, and I just don't have time or energy for two nights in a row. Why did I get season tickets this year if I knew I was going to be so busy? I've used maybe 3/4 of our ~20 games so far, but probably more like half. Wasted money. Why do I always waste money?

The Cinco Ranch Tri is on August 27, and the Summertime Blues Tri is September 3. I'm doing both of them, and I've been training consistently for more than two months for them (which is saying a lot for me). But I haven't really gotten much faster, and I haven't lost any weight. What's the point in doing all this exercise if I'm not improving something?

Monday, August 14, 2006

I had grand plans to

I had grand plans to get up early yesterday and get my 30-mile bike ride in while it was still cool. I was up at 7:00 and ready to walk out the door a few minutes later, but I couldn't find my garage door opener. With a sinking feeling, I realized that after having taken the opener I usually keep inside the apartment with me the night before, both of my garage door openers were now inside my car. Which was inside the garage.

Sigh.

After a halfhearted effort to lift the door myself (which was made difficult by the fact that I couldn't get my fingers underneath it), I gave up. My only real option was to wait until the apartment complex office opened at noon, so I grumbled a bit and went back to bed.

By noon, of course, it was downright steamy outside. I might have gone riding then anyway, but I had a soccer game last night and riding in the noon heat would've killed me for the rest of the day. On top of that, Gilruth is closed on Sundays and my apartment gym doesn't have a bike! Gah! In the end, Jose swooped to the rescue with a guest pass to 24 Hour Fitness, where I rode the stationary bike for an hour while watching, alternately, both the Astros game and the muscleheads working out.

Other than that my weekend pretty much went as planned! Fish Night at Becca's on Friday, Houston Running Bloggers at Run The Woodlands on Saturday morning, and tickets to the Dynamo game on Saturday night! It was only my 3rd game of the year and it was nice to get back out there and see some quality soccer. The Dynamo beat cross-state rival FC Dallas as well, so that was awesome. Also cool was running in Erin, who hadn't been able to make that morning's race.

Friday, August 11, 2006

Happy Birthday Carter! Edit: And

Happy Birthday Carter!

Edit: And Holden! :)

I guess there's nothing like getting thrown back into the fire to make you get over your bad day. I had another sim this morning, a FDO/Booster, which means that all sorts of craziness happens. Though it wasn't nearly as tough as Tuesday night, it was still challenging, and I did pretty well.

One of the most interesting aspects of working in the control center has nothing to do with flight control though -- it's the interesting and/or famous people that pass through. This morning I looked up on the TV that shows the front room (which is about 20 feet from where I sit) to see Buzz Aldrin wandering around with a couple camera guys. He was in the room for about 20 minutes and basically debriefed our last run for the cameras; I think it was for NASA TV or something. As I walked past the door on my way to the coffee, I glanced in the doorway and yep. Buzz Aldrin.

Random.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Everything that happened between my

Everything that happened between my midpoint and last night is sort of blurry. I was so upset about the way things went that I walked around in a daze for basically the next 24 hours. I got hugs and reassurances, I ate, I slept, I spent yesterday in a training class on "Communication Skills for the Technical Professional" that had some good tips, but was mostly boring.

A day later, I found myself in a much better place: on the field taking photos at the Houston Dynamo vs LA Galaxy / FC Barcelona vs Club America soccer double header last night. I haven't had time to go through my photos yet, but I think I got some good ones. And even some good ones of mega-star Ronaldinho. It was very strange seeing him in person after watching him on TV during the World Cup. He looks the same. As if he wouldn't.

The Dynamo game was ok (though they lost to Landon Donovan and the Galaxy), but the Barcelona/Club America matchup was incredible! The stadium was completely full -- 70,000+ people -- and Club America stunned everyone by racing to a 4-1 lead by halftime. Ronaldinho, who had been on the bench thus far, came in at the start of the 2nd half and the crowd went crazy. He immediately started pulling his fancy footwork, though for a while it had no effect. In the last five minutes of the game, though, Barcelona scored 3 goals, including a penalty kick from Ronaldinho, to finish the game in a 4-4 tie! The crowd went crazy all over again.

I'm dreading the post-midpoint discussion on how I did and what I need to work on, but I am determined to redeem myself. I have another sim tomorrow.

Friday, July 28, 2006

I was going to write

I was going to write about how last night we sat behind the most obnoxious baseball fan ever. I would go into all the gory details, but Jen has already done so brilliantly.

So instead, I will write about how I got the job I interviewed for last week! Yay! After four years as a Descent Analyst and six months of training to do operations part-time, I will be moving down the hall to work full-time as a space shuttle flight controller and become an RGPO. That's Rendezvous Guidance and Procedures Officer. It's a front-room Mission Control position and, in a nutshell, once certified I will work with the crew to make sure they know how to fly the shuttle to the space station (which involves a lot of complicated orbital mechanics that I now must learn), watch them from the control center during rendezvous to make sure they're doing everything right, and if they do something wrong, tell them how to fix it. And maybe you'll see me on TV. ;)

I'm very, very excited.

Thursday, July 27, 2006

I had a stressful day

I had a stressful day yesterday, so when Jose asked "hey, do you want to go get margaritas with Nick and Heather and Melissa tonight?" my answer went something like "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS." That led to fajitas, two deceptively strong margaritas, and Sarah falling asleep at 9:30 last night. I woke up again at 1:45 a.m. with contacts still in my eyes and earrings stabbing my head. Took them out and went back to sleep until almost 7:30. That's ten hours of sleep! And it was still tough to get out of bed today!

In other news, I'm saddened to see that Floyd Landis failed a drug test administered after his awesome victory in Stage 17 of the Tour de France. I really, really want to believe that the cyclists I follow are clean, but it's becoming so much harder to believe that anyone is really clean these days. Even though Lance Armstrong has never failed a drug test, I have a harder and harder time believing that he was truly clean for seven years when so many other top cyclists are falling by the wayside, done in by a positive drug test. Tyler Hamilton. Ivan Basso. Jan Ullrich. Now Floyd Landis. These are the best cyclists in the world -- and I'm supposed to still believe that Lance didn't succumb to the same pressure that the others apparently did?

Astros game tonight. I hate to admit it, but I have not followed baseball as closely this season as in years past. I don't know what's to blame. I've been busy. I've been tired. I've just had other commitments. And the Astros haven't exactly inspired me to be excited this year. Tuesday night I bailed on going to the game because I didn't want to deal with the rain. Gave a new twist to the term "fair weather fan," as Gavin pointed out.

Tuesday, July 25, 2006

Not much to say today.

Not much to say today. I'm tired because I slept horribly last night. Couldn't get comfortable. Woke up what felt like a hundred times. My neck aches, which is weird because I didn't bike yesterday -- I ran 4 miles on the treadmill, and that part of the day went well.

It's raining. It's gray. Though it is fun to watch the Space Center Houston tourists run screaming from the tram to the door, getting soaked along the way, the weather makes me want to curl up on the couch and stay there for hours.

Monday, July 24, 2006

I had a lovely weekend,

I had a lovely weekend, with the high point being the duathlon. Just thinking about it made me happy all day yesterday. I am so proud of myself for sticking with this training program so far. I know, I know, maybe I'm going overboard with the patting myself on the back, but in the past I have not been great (to say the least) with scheduled training programs. Especially in summer!

Other than that, I had a lot of fun hanging out with some different faces -- Melissa and Matt, Melissa's sister and her boyfriend, Nick and Heather, and Laurie. Friday night was happy hour in Kemah followed by dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Saturday night we ended up in Galveston where we played putt-putt amidst obstacles like a big ostrich, a giant conch shell, and an outhouse. I ended up in second place with a 51. Laurie's golf skills apparently extend to goony golf as well, since she won. Melissa tied for second with me. Basically, the girls kicked they boys' butts. Poor Jose brought up the rear with something like 73. ;)

Yesterday was the day that went on forever. Not in a bad way, just that I seemed to fit so much into one small day! Race in the morning. Saw Superman Returns with Jose, Becca, Gavin, and Jen. Then fixed my brake light. Then watched Tivo'ed Tour de France. Then soccer, played on a field that was really more of a swamp. Then pizza for dinner. Then finishing Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Then, finally, sleep.

Yes, in the middle of that paragraph I mentioned that I fixed my car's burnt-out brake light. I know, this does not sound very tough. But I was so excited. In fact, now that I think about it, I might have been more proud of that than of the duathlon! For some reason I get very excited when I, with my own two hands, fix something. I'm an engineer, yes, but any smarts I have are most definitely book smarts. I can't fix things. I don't know how things work. I never took clocks apart as a kid (though I did have a fascination with Legos). But I fixed my car! Hurrah! How many aerospace engineers does it take to change a light bulb? Just me! Yay! I was so excited that I almost called my dad to share. He would've appreciated it.

In answer to Vic's question on the previous entry about rest days, I must answer that I did take rest days -- three of them, to be exact -- before the duathlon yesterday. I hadn't meant to, but I think it very well may have helped me feel good during the race yesterday.

On Thursday I was scheduled to run 5 miles; I had a plan to squeeze it in between work and our 6:00 softball game. But at 4:30, I just felt totally worn out. I decided to take Thursday off and run on Friday. (Friday was supposed to be the off day.)

On Friday, I left work at 4:00 and went to Gilruth for a 5-mile treadmill run, only to find once I got in the locker room and pulled out my stuff that while I had packed shorts and a shirt, I had no socks and no sports bra. Hmph. Some friends/coworkers were going to afore-mentioned happy hour in Kemah at 5:30 and I'd told Jose that I'd have to be late because of my run. After the lack of suitable workout clothes, annoyed with myself and still tired, I said "screw it" and we went to the bar on time. I figured another day off would do me good.

On Saturday, my schedule called for an 8-mile run, but I didn't want to do a long run the day before the duathlon. Jana, the women in charge of our tri training program, suggested doing an easy 15-mile bike ride instead, and I had every intention of doing just that -- until time got away from me. I'd planned to head out in the late afternoon, but next thing I knew I was headed to Galveston with a large group for some quality putt-putt and pizza. Workout plans down the drain, and I chalked it off to one more day of rest.

So yes, Vic, I took three days off. Rather unintentionally, actually, but in retrospect I think it was a good move. It's back to my regularly scheduled training this week, however, beginning with a 4-mile run tonight.

Friday, July 21, 2006

It's Friday, and yet I'm

It's Friday, and yet I'm wearing a skirt and pantyhose. Pantyhose! They make the backs of my knees sweat when I walk outside, in case you were interested.

I just finished an interview for a new position within my current division. Overall, I think it went pretty well. I should find out next week if I get the job. I don't want to say much more about it now, because I might not get it. And if I don't, it won't be the end of the world. But I do really want it, so send good thoughts my way.

Last night was softball (two hits and one great catch for Sarah, although we lost the game) followed by "fish night" at Becca's. What started because Gavin wanted to raise his good cholesterol is certainly growing quickly -- last night we pushed Becca's kitchen table to the limit, squeezing eight people around it. I'm all about free dinner. ;) I had planned to basically eat and run, wanting to get home early enough to ponder what topics and experiences I definitely wanted to work into my interview this morning, but I stayed more than three hours. We were just having too much fun, which is probably due to (as Jen said) the sangria that Katie and Fred brought.

Weekend's here at last. Hurrah.

Thursday, July 20, 2006

When I went to see

When I went to see my sister Katie last Saturday night, she was staying at the Doubletree Hotel near the airport. (A few people expressed incredulity when they found out that I drove almost an hour each way just to see Katie for dinner. Either I really like my sister, or I've just gotten really used to how long it takes to get anywhere in Houston.)

I walked up to the front desk and explained my situation. "Hi, my sister is staying here with a large church group. Can I find out what room she's in?" I was slightly worried that they wouldn't tell me, citing security concerns or something, but the lady behind the desk was very helpful. "Oh yes, that group just checked in. What's her last name?"

I told her, and she scanned her list. Not finding anything, she asked me again. I told her, and even spelled it out: "G-r-a-y-b-e-a-l." Nothing. "The only G name I have is Goodson. I'll put you on the phone to the trip leader's room."

I was puzzled, but quickly decided that the room must be under someone else's name, whoever Katie was sharing it with. No one answered the phone in the trip leader's room, and I stood there in the lobby for a moment, pondering my next move. Fortunately, I was saved when Katie appeared in the lobby, having assumed that I'd be getting there soon anyway. I told her I'd been wondering how I'd find her, since the room must be under a different name.

"No, it's under my name," she said. I told her that the woman couldn't find her on the list. "Well, what name did you tell them?"

I rolled my eyes, still not comprehending. I told her our last name. Duh.

She started laughing. "Sarah, I got married, like, a year ago. White dress...big church, remember? My name is Chalmers now."

Oh. Right. I knew that.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

I didn't realize the mere

I didn't realize the mere mention of my 80s movie knowledge, or lack thereof, would get more comments than anything ever has, except the topic of Jose himself. And nope, sorry, he's not open for commenting again.

Question of the day: Does high school clique-like behavior end when you leave high school? Or is it just something that always happens, whether at school or in community activities or at work? I'd like to think that being in the "inner circle" doesn't matter once we grow up and become adults. But maybe not. I don't know.

In the latest instances, one at work and one in a community activity, I've decided to just let it go. Taking it personally makes me stressed. Worrying about it makes me tired.

Lately I've been in a very "me" mood. (I suppose you could call it selfish, but I don't think it's always selfish to put your own needs and wants at the top of the list.) I've been thinking a lot about what makes me happy, and what I'm not satisfied with. The good news is that for the most part, I am exceedingly happy with my life at the moment. This was especially apparent on Saturday night, when I went to see Katie.

Because she was traveling with a group from my family's church in Charlotte, I knew quite a few of the other people in the group. After greeting them, they inevitably asked me something like: "So, do you still like living in Houston?" My answer is always a little different than what they expect.

No, I don't like living in Houston. I don't like the weather. I don't like how flat it is. I don't like that there are no tall trees, and I don't like that things tend to be a brownish-yellow color instead of a nice, rich green. I don't like that the air always smells slightly like chemicals. I don't like that the highways are littered with run-down strip malls and dingy strip clubs.

So why don't I move?

Because while I don't like the city, I do like -- really, really like -- the life that I have in Houston. The life that I have partly built, and partly stumbled into. I like my friends. I like my job, most of the time. (Come on, nobody likes their job all the time.) I like my soccer team, and my softball team, and the running community that I have gotten to know. I like the little bit of photography that I do. I like having season tickets to the Astros.

Sure, I could do most, if not all, of those things in another city. But I haven't. I do them here. And I like them here. I don't really like Houston, but I like my life here.

For the first time, I'm starting to think of Houston as a long-term location for me. For the first time, I don't see myself leaving anytime soon.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Technically, I'm a child of

Technically, I'm a child of the 80s. That decade spanned ages 2-12, which, you've got to admit, were pretty formative years. And yet I think I must have missed out on a lot.

I know all the cheesy adult contemporary songs from the 80s because my mom listened to it on the radio, but my knowledge of what most people would consider "80s music" has been gained in later years. I have only vague memories of watching all the 80s cartoons -- Transformers, Smurfs, Fraggle Rock, Voltron, etc -- because we were only allowed one half hour of TV per day, with a special exception made for Saturday mornings. I never saw any of the "classic" 80s movies that dorky kids like me saw -- Short Circuit, Flight of the Navigator, Goonies, etc. And when Jose mentioned a Monchichi last night, I knew what it was only from having seen it on "I Love the 80s" once.

Jose, on the other hand, is a legitimate child of the 80s. Apparently, all he ever did was watch TV and movies, and as a result, he frequently finds himself in a state that goes something like: "What?? Are you serious? You've never seen <insert 80s movie here>???"

This list has grown to include such illustrious titles as Total Recall, Robocop, Alien, The Abyss, Beetlejuice, Terminator, Real Genuis, and Peewee's Big Adventure. (The last one came up because Paul Reubens has been making the talk show circuit promoting some new Peewee thing. And I know, a couple of those are actually 1979 and 1990, but close enough.)

Apparently, having seen The Hunt for Red October at least 10 times each summer -- thanks to it being the only modern movie at my grandmother's house -- doesn't make up for not having seen anything else. And while friends like Kent used to just laugh and ask "are you Amish?" every time he found I hadn't seen such-and-such, Jose has decided that my 80s credentials are seriously lacking and that I need to watch some of these movies.

Last night after dinner and my 1200 yard swim workout, we started with Total Recall. I thought I might feel different this morning, you know, like a more complete person, like I was filling in gaps in my childhood. But alas, I still haven't seen it all.

I fell asleep with a half hour left. ;)

Friday, July 14, 2006

Friday, Friday, Friday! It's Friday!

Friday, Friday, Friday! It's Friday! Woooooooo!

I know it, and my legs know it. They feel tired just sitting here after last night's 4-miler. I hit the trail at Gilruth later than usual, around 8:00, after taking Chris to the airport. It was hot, but I wanted to get outside and away from the treadmill, so I told myself that I'd walk for one minute every half mile. I am a little worried that I'm becoming too dependent on the run/walk thing; however, it is a big mental boost to know that I have a breather coming up. Even with one minute walking each half mile (that would be two minutes of walking in each mile), I finished the run in 43:26 with splits of 10:38, 10:54, 10:54, and 10:59. Four sub-11:00 miles in July heat and humidity! Hurrah.

The downside, of course, of running outside are the bugs. And man oh man are there bugs. First up was the enormous spider sitting in a web that crossed just above the trail. Tall people better watch out or they'll have a palm-sized spider on their head. Then the mosquitos. God, the mosquitos!

It began when I stopped for my first walk break and felt a stinging sensation on my arm. Mosquito! I quickly slapped it. One down, a million to go. I should have realized that this was a sign of things to come -- if walking is not enough movement to prevent the skeeters from attacking.

After the run, I quickly put on a clean shirt and headed to the softball fields for our late game. Bite, bite, bite went the mosquitos. I doused myself in Deep Woods Off (i.e. stuff that smells bad but has lots of DEET, which apparently keeps the biting beasties away), which helped for oh, about 15 minutes.

I played catcher, since Jen is busy working the mission. Home plate was a swirl of buzzing, biting insects of doom that made it necessary to actually concentrate on keeping the glove out and ready to catch the pitch, instead of using it as a makeshift fly-swatter. Er, skeeter-swatter.

Halfway through the game, a mosquito landed on my finger and started biting; it was the one place I hadn't doused in bug spray. (By the way, if you put bug spray on your hands and then rub it on your face, it sort of burns. This should probably worry me. But it was more pleasant than mosquito bites.)

WHY DO PEOPLE LIVE IN HOUSTON???

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I spot a black eraser

I spot a black eraser on top of a low bookshelf, and pick it up to further inspect the packaging. It's used for erasing charcoal, and I suddenly realize that I haven't seen him drawing in a long time. I comment on it.

"You haven't done any drawing lately."

It's more of a statement than a question.

"No," he says. "This is going to sound lame, but by the time we've finished working out, cleaning up, and going out for some dinner, it's already 9:00. Or later! The night is almost over and I just want to wind down and watch TV."

It's funny but true. I'm slightly worried about finding time this fall for my class (Advertising Design) when UHCL starts up again. One idea: get to work earlier, so I can leave work earlier, so the evenings are longer! Incredible.

Friday, July 07, 2006

Happy sigh. Yesterday I had

Happy sigh. Yesterday I had the best evening. Happy sigh.

Before the great part, though, I had the ok part -- three miles on the treadmill. I covered the distance in ~33:30, with progressively speedy miles of 11:45, 11:10, and 10:55. Or something like that, I don't really remember the exact splits, just that the last one was slightly sub-11:00. I had some aches that I haven't had lately. Nothing truly painful, but some tightness in my lower leg muscles and an ache in my heels. Probably a good thing that today's my day off!

OH -- this is for Becca, who has humorously been completely unable to forego using the internet while on vacation -- I actually witnessed one of the staff dudes at the Gilruth change the TV channel after a request from another exerciser. ESPN on Dish network was blacked out because they were showing the Astros, so the dude behind the desk changed the channel to Fox Sports Net, where the Astros game was not blacked out. Small victories, baby, small victories.

And after running, as previously mentioned, I had the best evening. Happy sigh.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

So obviously I was in

So obviously I was in Atlanta for a few days. The trip was lazy and fun. Saw the boys, Karen, James and Chrissy, the Greens, and met Ben. I ran twice, biked (inside) once. Sat in the hot tub. Rode the golf cart that was all decked out for the 4th with flags and bows. Saw "The Devil Wears Prada" in the theater and "Les Choristes" on TV. Played a new game -- Puerto Rico -- and an old game -- Settlers of Catan. Ate well, had a lot of ice cream, met Karen's dinner group of female grad students, and got a link that will tell me where I can go pick blueberries in the Houston area, though sadly it seems that the nearest farms are either closed or all picked out. Watched the shuttle launch. Watched the World Cup (poor Germany). Did not watch fireworks since nature was providing them in the form of lightning.

The rain stopped yesterday enough to get in our normal brick workout. 15 miles on the bike, 2 miles on the run. Did the biking in 52:10 or so (averaging 17 mph) with 3 x 1.5-mile pickups in the middle. Took two minutes to gulp some water and change shoes, then headed out for the run. Did that in 22:34 with two scarily even 11:17 miles. Interesting note -- I've done a brick workout three weeks in a row now, and have completed the 2-mile run slightly faster each time. I've also averaged a slightly faster speed on the bike. I don't expect that trend to continue indefinitely, but it's nice to see.

Friday, June 30, 2006

Sleepy today. It's my day

Sleepy today.

It's my day off from training. At last. Six days a week for 10 weeks, and I have just finished week 2. This schedule may kill me, but so far I have done every scheduled workout, and not just the beginner program but the intermediate program! I am rather proud of myself. Not to mention, the boy says that in honor my day off, he's going to pamper me, which means a movie and yummy food. Woohoo! Last night I ran 4 easy miles on the treadmill before our softball game, varying the speed between 5 and 5.7 mph at my whim and covering the distance in ~45:00 in the end.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

There is something seriously freaky

There is something seriously freaky going on with my eyes today. (What is it with people and their eye problems? Jen, Melanie, now me?) I was mega-tired this morning -- last night's 18-mile bike plus 2-mile run left me completely wiped. My eyes looked tired as well, and when I put in my contacts, they stung a bit and felt a little dry. Still, everything was ok until I started driving to work in the bright summer sunshine. Suddenly, tears were streaming down my cheeks and I could barely keep my eyes open through the stinging. I wasn't sure if I could even drive the rest of the way to work, so I stopped at Starbucks thinking the shade of the drive-thru might help. It did, so I decided to go the rest of the way to the office, but the sun made me start tearing up again.

I did make it in to work, but my eyes are still feeling all sorts of wacked out, and I have no glasses. If they don't get better, I'm going to make someone drive me home at lunch so I can retrieve my glasses.

Craziness.

Anyway, last night I did the 18 miles in 1:03:45, took 2 minutes to get my shoes on and drink some water, and did the 2 mile run in 22:48 with only two short walk breaks. My legs felt like dead weight for most of the first mile. Overall, not too shabby.

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

The atmosphere at this morning's

The atmosphere at this morning's sim was like the day before Christmas break. "See you in a few weeks! See you at the next generic sim! Good luck on Saturday!" we all chorused as we packed up our handbooks and sim sheets and left the control center. We even had to use the "2 loops" today for all of our communcation, since the "1 loops" are getting configured for the mission and the countdown, which starts this afternoon. We launch Saturday, assuming the weather in Florida is good!

I ran outside, taking advantage of the slightly cooler day. I did three miles in 32:53, with the most notable item being that I ran the whole way. No walk breaks! Which sounds pretty forgettable, except that lately I've been on a walk break kick. It was nice to prove to myself that I can still just run. Er, jog. Whatever.

After I posted my training schedule for the week, I realized it's going to have to be tweaked a bit since I'm going out of town from Saturday night until Wednesday morning and won't have a bike. SO, I plan to shift my 25 miles of biking from Sunday to Saturday, shift my 6 miles of running from Saturday to July 4th (when I'll be running the Peachtree with 54,999 other people), and shift my off day from the 4th to Sunday. Whew! Now I just need access to Carter's pool to swim some laps on Monday and I'll still complete all my scheduled workouts!

Today I came across the website of a guy who's travelled the world and done a silly dance in each place -- Where The Hell Is Matt?. (Thanks, Nick for the link.) You have to watch the video on the main page. I thought it was silly at first, but by the end, I was smiling and laughing. It made me happy.

Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Another day, another dollar. After

Another day, another dollar. After arguing with Word all yesterday afternoon, I finally got our console handbook properly formatted with all the new additions and updates included. Off it goes for signatures and other fun paperwork so that we can use it on Saturday for the launch. Yes, launch. We are launching on Saturday! Yay!

Last night I headed home a little early to get in my swim (800 yards in 20:30) before Mom and I headed to Space Center Houston in search of gifts for all the babies. SCH had a disappointing lack of stuff for infants or toddlers; the smallest t-shirts were for 3-4 year olds. I ended up with a onesie for Cayce and Dave's son Henry, and socks for both Henry and Catherine and Christopher's twin girls. The socks are really cute, and hopefully the babies will all be big enough for them by winter.

From there, Mom and I got pedicures and then met everybody for "family dinner" at Mely's. I ate soooo much. Mmm. We haven't been going to Mely's as much lately because everyone's been so busy (not to mention that Jo and Nick were always the biggest Mely's requesters), and as a result, I think I eat even more chips and green sauce than I used to. Mexican restaurants and their chips are a big weakness.

Mom leaves today and then I guess it's back to normal. No one to do my laundry. No one to clean my bathroom. (Yes, my mom has done both, despite my insistence that she didn't have to because it made me feel guilty!) No one to take me out to dinner (well, except Jose). It's probably best that she go home so my dad doesn't have to be lonely and pathetic any longer. ;) But ah, Mom, you can visit anytime!

Monday, June 26, 2006

I went to bed last

I went to bed last night with the Astros playing in the 12th inning. I didn't even stay up to watch the end of the game. I was too disgusted with the team after the bullpen (Springer and Lidge) gave up a seven run lead in two innings. When Roy Oswalt left after 7, the score was 9-2. 9-2! Come on, what team doesn't win that!? But then Russ Springer gave up a three-run homer to Tadahito Iguchi in the 8th. And then "closer" Brad Lidge gave up a grand slam to Iguchi (yes, same guy) in the 9th. Come on. Fire the entire bullpen and start over or something.

I had a nice weekend with Mom in town, and of course we managed to stay busy despite not really having any plans set in advance! Saturday afternoon we joined Jose, Gavin, Jen, Becca and Carolyn for a matinee of Cars, which was really funny and better than I expected. I just don't understand how Pixar consistently manages to come up with creative, clever, and entertaining movies! They are awesome.

Yesterday I got up and did my scheduled bike ride. It was sooo hot, even at 10 a.m., but I got the miles in -- 20.1 miles in 1:15:21 or an average of 16 mph.

I got home just in time to see the replay of David Beckham's crazy free kick goal that took England to a 1-0 win. It was one of the many sporting events Mom and I watched when we weren't out and about. We watched a lot of baseball (both the Astros and the College World Series), and a lot of soccer. Mom remarked last night to Jose about how much sports we've watched, and Jose just said "That's what Sarahs do to you." I had to laugh.

P.S. Vic, Gavin, and anyone with a Yahoo email address, you'll be happy to know that comments should work for you again. Turns out I'd mistakenly blocked the entire Yahoo domain from being able to comment. Oops. ;)

P.P.S. Tri training schedule for the week is: Monday - 800m swimming, Tuesday - 3 miles running, Wednesday - 18 miles biking + 2 miles running, Thursday - 4 miles running, Friday - OFF, Saturday - 6 miles running, 20 minutes swimming, Sunday - 25 miles biking.

Friday, June 23, 2006

Just like last year, Roger

Just like last year, Roger Clemens was on the mound. And just like last year, the Astros gave him no run support.

Now, I'd be remiss to imply that the Astros simply sucked last night, when really they were being strung up on a fantastic performance by Twins pitcher Francisco Liriano -- who is 22 years old, ironically enough, which keeps the night's string of 22s alive. Jen, Jason and I were all tired and as the Astros continued to put up absolutely ZERO offense, we started to feel like the game would never end. Jason Lane's 2-run homer in the 8th woke us up a bit, but it was too little, too late.

It was also apparently the largest crowd in Minute Maid Park history at 43,769. I find that a little hard to believe -- there weren't more people there during last year's post-season? -- but that's what they said.

My workout yesterday didn't quite go as planned, because all of the treadmills were in use at 5:00 when I got to Gilruth. I was scheduled to run 2-3 miles, but I sure wasn't going outside in the heat, so I ended up doing 25:00 on the elliptical. It says I went 3 miles in those 25:00, which I have a hard time believing since I can't run 3 miles in 25:00. Who knows.

Today's my day off, however, which I am very much looking forward to. No running, swimming, or biking. Just working and then hanging out with my mom, who arrived last night for a few days. Hooray for Mom!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Tonight, tonight won't be just

Tonight, tonight
won't be just any night...
Today, the minutes seem like hours,
the hours go so slowly,
and still the sky is light ...

Minute Maid Park is going to be crazy tonight, and I can hardly wait. Someone must have planned this, as it's too much to believe it was a coincidence. Roger Clemens is coming back, wearing #22, making $22 million, and making his first start on June 22. Clemens! Clemens! Yaaaaaay Clemens!

I took the morning off to sleep in a bit and watch the US-Ghana World Cup match. If you care about soccer, you'll already know that we lost, 2-1, and were eliminated from the Cup. The Czech Republic also lost to Italy, leaving Italy and Ghana as the survivors who will move on from our "Group of Death." With Italy winning, all we needed was a win over Ghana and we'd be moving on instead of them. Alas, we didn't get it.

I do plan to continue watching the World Cup. From here on out, I think I'm going to cheer for Mexico. They're the sole first-round surviver from CONCACAF (the North American division; Costa Rica, Trinidad and Tobago, and the U.S. have all now been eliminated), so to me they're the equivalent of our "home" team now.

Last night our first brick workout came and went, and it went pretty well. I was sore afterwards, and getting out of bed was rough this morning, but the workout itself felt good.

15 miles biking, 52:52 - 16.4 mph
Easy transition - 2:55
2 miles running, 23:15 = 11:37/mile

I need to get some tri shorts soon, though. Last night I ran in my bike shorts, and it's not the most comfortable thing ever. Not bad, but not ideal.

Tonight, 2-3 miles of running before the ballgame. My mom gets in tonight after the game, and tomorrow's my first training day off! Woo!

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

The Astros game last night

The Astros game last night was a tease. They were playing well, up 4-1, and even when the Twins came back and took the lead, the 'stros managed to stretch it to extra innings with Preston Wilson's 2 outs, 2 strikes homer in the bottom of the 9th. But then they lost it on a Twins homer on the very first pitch of the top of the 10th. And the Astros struck out one-two-three in the bottom. Sigh. In allowing the Twins to crawl to .500, the Astros are in danger of dipping back below that mark themselves.

I left work early (at least early for me lately) at 4:30 to get in my run. Today I'm feeling a little under the weather -- achey, mainly. I'm not sure if I'm coming down with something or if I'm just tired. With the game last night, I went to bed late, and got up early. Five hours of sleep doesn't really cut it for me.

Schedule: Run, 2-3 miles easy
Actual: 3 miles moderate, 32:22 - 10:46/mile, 185 avg HR

At the HARRA banquet last Saturday night, Jeff Galloway mentioned one of his trainees who ran a 4:00 marathon by running/walking in a 1/1 pattern for 20 miles before running the last 10K, and it had me wondering what sort of pace I would average if I ran a minute, walked a minute. It also had me wondering whether I would feel less spent at the end of a run. Feeling tired and not all that excited about running last night, I decided to give it a try.

I ran a minute, walked a minute, until I'd completed three miles. My splits were 10:33, 11:03, and 10:46 -- almost certainly a bit faster than what I'd have been able to pull off if I'd run straight through.

It's almost as if I did a 16 x ~250 speed workout. My running intervals were, of course, faster than I could have managed without the walking breaks. I made sure that my walking was brisk, but enough to recover. About halfway through, with 8-9 running intervals under my belt, I started to get more tired and the running became tougher. My pace may have slowed slightly. And at the end of the three miles, I felt about the same as I think I would've after a steady run. One big downside of the method, in my opinion, was the stress of the constant watch-watching.

So I don't really have any conclusions about whether I like the 1/1 method any better. I don't plan to start doing it regularly. But it's a nice psychological boost to know that I can maintain a nice average pace while walking half of the distance, and I'll probably end up doing the 1/1 thing again the next time I don't feel like running but need to get a workout in.

Friday, June 16, 2006

I am such a streaky

I am such a streaky softball player. Some nights I play well. Some nights I suck. Some nights I can hit but not catch. Last night was one of those -- I got on base twice, but played crappy left center field. No matter though, we managed to win the game 11-9.

This has been a crazy busy week and I'm glad it's over. I had a sim this morning, which makes Friday fly by even faster. The first two runs were crazy and good; the last three runs were boring. Yep, I've been training for long enough now that I can honestly say that some runs are boring!

On tap for this weekend: some exercise (swimming and biking), some soccer (World Cup and my women's team), some lounging around, and some cleaning in preparation for Mom's arrival next week!

Friday, June 09, 2006

One of the secretaries here

One of the secretaries here at work is a very nice older woman who cannot ever get my name right. I have talked to her many times: she has helped set up my travel on many occasions, helped me reserve conference rooms, given me escort-required badges for visitors, and more. I have corrected her on multiple occasions, reminding her that I am Sarah. Yet she continues to call me Rebecca.

I don't know if she calls Becca by my name or not, but it's gone past the point of being annoying and just become amusing. This morning I walked past her in the hall.

"Hi Rebecca!" she said cheerfully.

"Hello!" I said with a smile.

It's just not worth it.

The Astros are showing signs of life again, beating the Braves 7-4 last night. Berkman hit a solo homer in the 4th, and then for good measure, hit a three-run shot in the 6th. Then there was the outstanding 6th inning, when the Braves had the bases loaded with no outs. Things looked grim, but then Pettitte struck one out, and then induced a fly ball to right field, where Berkman caught it and fired an amazing throw to home plate where Ausmus tagged the runner out and the Astros escaped a bases loaded, no outs situation in amazing fashion. We were back in our season seats last night, with no weird ticket scanner issues or being too far away from the action.

In other news, the World Cup starts today! WOOOOOO! I'm so excited. The US boys play their first game on Monday at 11 a.m. Houston time -- Matt and I already have plans to take a long lunch and go watch the game at my apartment!

And for Jo, enjoy this soccer rap with Nacogdoches boy Clint Dempsey.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Last night I was too

Last night I was too tired to even think about working out. Bad, I know, but still true. Instead, I decided to school Jose some more at his race car crash-em-up game. Sadly, I may have overspoken a couple days ago, because I failed miserably in my second attempt at kicking his butt. Ah well. Video games are not my strong suit.

We've also been making our way through his Arrested Development, Season 1 DVDs. I'd never watched the show before, but now I understand why so many people were irate that it was cancelled -- it's hilarious!

The Braves are in town tonight, but I'm hoping the Astros can get another win.

Wednesday, June 07, 2006

Last night's Astros game was

Last night's Astros game was one of the more interesting experiences I've had at Minute Maid Park. We got to the stadium with about 15 minutes left to game time and headed to the ticket window with two coupons good for four free tickets (courtesy the Race for the Pennant) plus our three season seats in hand. We only needed four tickets, so we planned to use the coupons and give the season seats away. Well, our first misstep was picking a bad ticket agent. He was new, and he didn't even know where the handicapped seats were located in the stadium, much less how to pull up enough seats so that Jen, Jose and I could all sit with Chris.

Our coupons were good for View Deck or Mezzanine seats; the handicapped rows, while located on the Terrace Deck, are counted as View Deck. Mr. New Ticket Person didn't know this. Mr. Assisting The New Ticket Person apparently also didn't know this. So we ended up with tickets way the heck out in the Mezzanine -- right center field and quite far away from the plate. While the view actually isn't that bad from out there, you can't see the wall (and therefore can't see any catches made on the warning track) and the infield is so far away that I felt very detatched from the game. I was only half paying attention the entire night.

We also missed the entire first inning -- the top because of the new ticket man and the 20 minutes it took him to get us tickets, and the bottom for an even more annoying reason! We walked in the door only to be told that no one could enter the stadium at the moment because the ticket scanners were down. No ticket scanners meant that they couldn't scan the barcode on the ticket, which apparently meant that you couldn't enter the stadium.

"Um....can't you just tear the ticket in half?" we asked, only to be shot down quite rudely by the security personn. A minute or two passed. "Seriously, you can't tear the tickets?" I continued, "Because we're missing the game!" You could hear the crowd cheering as the Astros were batting in the bottom of the 1st. "We can't make that decision, ma'am," was the response. A minute or two more passed. Finally, another offical-looking man with a walkie-talkie ran past, looking rather frantic, and told them to start tearing the dang tickets and letting people into the stadium. And thus a couple thousand growing-more-annoyed-by-the-minute fans were finally allowed to watch the game they paid to see.

Sigh. Thankfully, the night was salvaged when the Astros actually managed to win a game. Wandy Rodriguez pitched seven innings of shutout baseball, and Houston won 4-1.

As for the latest update from Brian the European traveler, well, I think my brother is trying to give Cari a run for her money. By my count, he left the US on May 15 plus or minus a couple days, which means he's been in Europe for almost four weeks. His latest email, covering a 10-14 day period I think, reads like a laundry list of cities: Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Lucern, Interlaken, Zurich, Budapest, and Vienna.

An excerpt: "Then I went to Lucern and Interlaken in Switzerland. They were both very pretty with mountains and lakes and all. Interlaken is an extreme sports mecca of Europe, and we went 'Canyon Jumping' and 'Paragliding.' The canyon jump is a 90 meter high jump (about the length of a football field) with 50 meters free fall and then you swing an 75mph through a canyon. It was pretty scary, but a lot of fun. Paragliding was a little less scary but very cool, and we could see a lot of stuff from up in the air, its similar to hanggliding. I also rented a scooter one day and rode up into the mountains to see waterfalls. It was fun until I accidentally knocked the bike over and broke the side mirror..."

Heh.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

Two sims, two early mornings

Two sims, two early mornings -- today I was on console at 7 am; tomorrow is even worse, at 6:30! With tonight's Astros game and tomorrow's early wake up, I will be one tired, tired girl by nightfall.

Last night Jose got me to play his Xbox race car game. I pretty much sucked at the racing part, but then we played head-to-head where the goal is to crash 10 other cars as quickly as possible. Whoever gets to 10 first (or whoever survives the other cars trying to crash you as well) wins. I totally kicked his butt. And I totally needed to announce that publicly.

Monday, June 05, 2006

I mentally checked out of

I mentally checked out of Los Angeles sometime on Friday night. It's one of the few times I've ever been truly ready to go home before it was actually time to go.

My flight home was uneventful and I walked out of the airport (and into the nasty humidity) right on time. My ride, of course, was late, so I sat on the pylon for a while, sweating and contemplating the meteorlogical differences between Houston and LA while playing sudoku on my cell phone. And so it goes.

I didn't want to come to work today. I didn't want to get out of bed. Ever.

P.S. My dad called me to see if I was ok. This is not a sad blog entry! It was supposed to be contemplative. Contemplative! :)

Friday, June 02, 2006

"We want Gagne!" It was

"We want Gagne!"

It was the top of the 9th, and the Dodgers had been up 7-0. But reliever Tim Hamulack had just given up two runs.

"We want Gagne!"

The fans wanted to see their hero, Mr. Game Over, who was available for the first time this year after coming off the DL yesterday.

"We want Gagne!"

A figure appeared in the bullpen, standing up, walking to the mound, preparing to warm up. The crowd cheered.

"We want Gagne!"

Alas, it was not to be. Hamulack managed to close out the game and Eric Gagne never took the ball. Too bad; it would have been nice to see him pitch and to see what kind of intro he gets.

I went to Dodger Stadium last night to see the Dodgers-Phillies game after getting a tip from one of the JPLers that tonight's game is sold out (bobble head night). Gavin decided he'd rather go to the EDL team happy hour, but I'm feeling anti-social this week, and didn't want to miss my 16th stadium. Off I went, alone.

Dodger Stadium is fairly old, but beautifully located on top of a hill just north of downtown. From one side of the stadium there is a lovely view of LA's few skyscrapers, and the smog last night actually wasn't too bad. For dinner I had to have a Dodger dog, to which I added garlic fries. I don't know what I was thinking; my stomach hurt for the rest of the game. I haven't paid much attention to the Dodgers this year and didn't realize that they actually have a pretty good team put together. Nomar Garciaparra (who apparently moved to 1st base), Raphael Furcal (shortstop, so he's the reason Nomar moved), JD Drew, and Jeff Kent, who unfortunately just went on the DL as Gagne came off it.

My only real disappointment was that I wasn't allowed to go down to the lower level of the stadium. My ticket was for the upper deck along the first base side, and ushers stopped me both of the times I tried to sneak down the stairs in an effort to make my ballpark tour complete. Sigh. Oh well.

This morning Gavin and I went to the last bit of the first Mars Science Laboratory landing site workshop, the gathering of scientists taking the first steps towards choosing a landing site for MSL. They ended up ranking about 40 sites in a surprisingly democratic voting process, each of which will now be imaged by Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter after it reaches its mapping orbit in November.

After that, we went to a talk given by a high-up in the Mars program office about the difficulty of landing humans on Mars. It's funny -- until today I don't think even I realized how tough it's going to be to get humans down to the surface. There's so little atmosphere, and humans are so fragile. Oh, humans and their inability to withstand more than a few g's of deceleration!

I don't really know what's on tap for the weekend. At the moment, I am completely meeting'ed out but still have 2 hours to go before I'm done for the day. There's yet another happy hour tonight but I'm feeling 1) anti-social, 2) headachey, and 3) just plain tired. Gavin's been talking about hiking tomorrow, but I'm being completely apathetic. I don't feel all that great, but maybe I'll feel more chipper tomorrow.

Everyone here at JPL has a laptop, and carries it around under their arm like college students in the '50s carried textbooks. They take them to meetings, where there is always wireless internet. I would argue that being able to take their computer with them makes them more productive. I would also argue that it means no one is ever truly paying attention. Interesting.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Happy Birthday Katie and Brian!

Happy Birthday Katie and Brian! I can't believe you guys are 23. Geez.

I'm sitting in a conference room at JPL listening to the Design Review topic of the hour -- the TDS. What, you may ask, is the TDS? Well, I think it's something like Terminal Descent Sensor. But really, it's just radar. I don't know why we don't call things what they are. It's radar. Engineers are funny.

Gavin is presenting in another hour or so, talking about entry guidance. I'm starting to understand why he wanted to come do a tour at JPL. He already loved the project, but being here only heightens that feeling. I mean, I don't even really want to be a true engineer anymore, and yet out here I still feel inspired. A feeling of "I could do this, I could help with this." At JSC, I loathe the project and how dumb it makes me feel; at JPL, I wish I somehow had access to the sims so that I could start running stuff now, and coming up with results. These people are incredibly smart, and incredibly motivated. There is no work/life balance -- their work is their life.

I couldn't do it. I couldn't live like they do. I would burn out quickly, and probably badly. But it is sort of amazing and inspiring to see how these people work. I used to wonder how it was possible that we could send a spacecraft all the way to Mars, or Jupiter, or Saturn. They're so far away! It sometimes seems impossible. But then I get here and listen to these guys, and think "oh, that's how you do it." You get these crazy smart guys together in one place, set them talking, and they make it happen.

Crazy.

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Clemens is back with the

Clemens is back with the Astros! Woo!

I ran after work yesterday, despite the oppressive humidity. After my frustrating afternoon, I needed to burn off some energy. I told myself that I'd just do a nice easy run in the heat, but of course once I got out there, all keyed up after my crappy day, I took off faster. I did something a little different and hit the splits at the half mile markers instead. I ran the first 1.5 miles without stopping, then took a short walk break. I took two more short breaks at 2 and 2.5 miles, but ran faster because of it. In a way, it was almost a pseudo-speed session.

Mile 1 - 11:10 (5:40, 5:30)
Mile 2 - 10:56 (5:20, 5:36 w/walk)
Mile 3 - 10:32 (5:18 w/walk, 5:14 w/walk)

Including the walk breaks, I did 3 miles in 32:40. Because of my walk/run pattern in the last half mile that had me running sub-10:00 pace for the portions I ran, I finished gasping for air, but feeling much happier about work and life in general. Geez, running is such good therapy.

This morning I had to drive to work in a deluge. I think the rain started around 4 am, but it was still falling hard when I left at 6:45 for my sim. I had a crapload of stuff with me -- purse, backpack, and suitcase -- since I am leaving straight for the airport in a couple hours, and my umbrella was, of course, in the car. I held my suitcase over my head and ran for the car, and managed to avoid getting the upper half of my body too wet. The suitcase, on the other hand, had to be opened just so that water didn't leak through the top onto all my clothes!

Umbrella now in hand, I made it from the parking lot to the control center without difficulty, unless you count the fact that I was running late and therefore did not have time to stop for Starbucks. The control center, of course, was freezing, which felt great, especially on my wet legs. Sigh.

I'm off to Los Angeles this afternoon for two days of meetings at JPL about Mars stuff, followed by a Saturday hanging out with Gavin. I plan to catch a Dodgers game and push my list of stadiums over the halfway mark! Dodger Stadium will be #16. If only my flight got in a little earlier tonight -- I could've gone to an Angels game as well!

Friday, May 26, 2006

Softball last night. We won

Softball last night. We won in extra innings, which was an unexpected surprise since we are quite adept at making it to extra innings only to lose by a landslide. I was too tired to add swimming to the mix, so my workout plans are already shot for the second of two weeks. I really must buckle down and get back on track. My jeans were tight this morning and that just depressed me. I'm heavier at the moment than I've been in more than a year. BOOO. I blame the fact that we (referring to both my friends and my boy) go out to dinner a lot. I have about zero willpower when it comes to not gorging on yummy fattening restaurant food.

I am very much looking forward to the weekend. We have Monday off, of course, for Memorial Day, and I have gloriously little else planned after the Astros 5K tomorrow morning. Time to finally catch up on my reading, clean up my apartment, and maybe do some quality sitting by the pool. Ah, weekend, how I love thee.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Things don't slow down when

Things don't slow down when you go on vacation. If anything, they speed up.

The "chicks" survived another LSO Golf Tournament on Monday. Becca, Jen, Buzz and I together, using the best ball method, shot a 94. That was 14 strokes worse than anyone else and won us $2 each and the title of Worst Gross Score. We wear it proudly. Through a series of bizarre and just plain absurd twists, we actually birdied two of the handicap holes and parred one or two more of them, so our net score only dropped to 88. We won Worst Net Score as well, though we didn't get any money for it -- they said we could only win worst score once! :)

Monday was also J's birthday. I took him out to dinner, and he liked all of his presents, which made me very happy because buying good presents is important to me. I'm a weirdo that way. He is two years younger than me, which had me alternating between trying to harass him about getting older while following it up with "oh, I remember being 26...good times..."

Actually I don't remember anything specific about 26. Let's see, it would have been March 2004-March 2005. I went to Peru when I was 26. (I always think of travel first!) I bought my SLR and started doing more photography when I was 26. I bought my first car, the first that I paid for myself, when I was 26.

Yesterday it was back to work, but I spent the majority of the day in the control center which means it was a very fun day. Last night's sim was slow, but two of the cases were really interesting. We had one prop case, and prop cases are notoriously difficult, especially since we're now working new procedures. When it popped up last night, I thought I did a really good job of handling it as quickly as possible (which, unfortunately, is still not as quick as we'd really like, but such is life).

Afterwards, though, it turned out that we had had some communication issues about dump duration versus dump cutoff time, and I felt like TRAJ, Targeting and I were getting minor slaps-on-the-wrist for not modelling the problem quicker. For the first time in my training so far, I found myself getting a little defensive. For once, I had worked the procedures correctly. TRAJ doubted me at one point, but then realized I was right. I even heard a "oh wait, she's right" comment over the loop. So during debrief I jumped in and made the case that Targeting and I had worked the procedures correctly and efficiently based on the information we had been given from the FCR; it took us a long time to get modelled because the information we'd received was not correct! The front room misinterpreted the data, and I argued that the problem in that run was not with the procedures, but with our communication, and that Targeting and I could only model what we had been told.

This is going to sound strange, but the whole run made me feel really good about my training. It felt good to have the confidence that I was right, and had worked the procedures correctly. It felt good to be able to add my input and opinion, even though it differed from the FCR. In the end, I think they heard what I was saying and agreed with me. That was awesome.

Friday, May 19, 2006

Jen and I swam last

Jen and I swam last night in the pool at my apartment complex. The pool is heated, and perhaps they just haven't turned off the heat yet, because it was like bathwater. It was not too pleasant. But we did hang on for 30 minutes, during which I swam 25 laps, or about 3/4 of a mile.

Not much to say besides that! I'm off to Georgia for what should be a nice, relaxing girls weekend.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Not much to say today.

Not much to say today. Life goes on, and it is good.

Jose and I ran last night. We did three miles in 36:16. He hadn't run in two weeks, and it was hotter than we thought despite the lack of humidity, so we took a couple walking breaks. Still, he is optimistic about the Astros Run for the Pennant, though I think he was worried he might come in last. I told him that would not happen -- because I'm going to run with him, and because there will be at least a couple hundred people that are slower than him! I'm excited. I'm glad he runs with me sometimes. I don't know how much he likes it, but I'll take what I can get.

I'm going on a last-minute trip to Georgia this weekend. This is the first time I have ever used frequent flier miles, and I must say I'm happy with how well they worked out. Buying a ticket on Tuesday would have cost $600 normally, but I was able to get one for $80 + 35,000 miles. And it could have been only 20,000 miles if I'd decided to come back at midnight on Sunday instead of earlier in the evening. Better yet: I could use 35,000 miles and I still have the 105,000 necessary for an eventual business class ticket to Australia.

It's a girls weekend with Karen and Becca, so sorry boys, but I don't think I'll have time to stop by the condo or apartment. We're heading up to the mountains for two days and only one night, as Becca and I have to be back for work on Monday. After calling a dozen different places and getting told they were either full or required a two-night stay in the summer (it's summer? it's not even Memorial Day!), we finally got a room at a bed and breakfast in Sautee. Randomly, I have been to Sautee before, because Rachel used to live there. I think she lives in Helen now, but I'm not sure. Regardless, we will be in her neighborhood.

Plans are loose, but will include hiking in one of the state parks at some point. Those of you familiar with the Georgia mountains and the Helen area are welcome to leave suggestions of neat things to do, or good hikes in Unicoi or Amicalola.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

It took a month and

It took a month and a half before Jen, Jason and I were all able to attend an Astros game together, using our season tickets, without someone being out of town or otherwise engaged -- but last night was finally the night! We headed downtown with hopes of seeing the Astros perform better than they had on Monday night (when they lost 10-1) and with hopes of seeing Barry Bonds hit home run #714 to tie Babe Ruth for second place all-time.

We saw neither. In fact, I don't remember ever seeing a less enjoyable baseball game than the Astros 14-3 loss to the Giants last night. And though it certainly made things less enjoyable, it wasn't the ugly loss that made the game so uncomfortable.

The fans were bad. The entire ballpark was filled with what I can only describe as negative energy. Barry Bonds was booed, loudly and repeatedly. A large group of fans in front of us held up signs with an asterisk and the outline of a syringe. The Giants fan behind us complained loudly about the booing. The fans in front of us told him to take a hike.

In the 6th inning, Bonds was brushed back from the plate by a poorly aimed pitch from Russ Springer. Both benches were warned. Springer then came inside on Bonds a second time. The crowd cheered as Barry hopped back. The next pitch hit Bonds on the shoulder. Springer was tossed, and the crowd cheered. They cheered loudly. The fans were cheering because our pitcher had just been tossed from the game, because he had hit Barry Bonds.

It made me physically uncomfortable, to hear the fans behaving so badly. To me, it was just wrong. I don't care what you think about Barry Bonds, or the home run record, or steroids -- cheering because your team plunked a hitter is low. And lame.

The epilogue? When Bonds was taken out of the game in the 7th inning, 75% of the fans left the ballpark. Those of us that stayed were able to watch the final innings in peace.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Ever have a series of

Ever have a series of days when you just feel fuzzy-headed?

I've worked two sims in the last week, and while I performed decently enough that nothing got screwed up, I've just felt off. Slow. Mushy-brained. Fuzzy-headed.

Sigh.

In an attempt to get back on some sort of schedule, I thought I'd try posting my workout plans for the week with the hopes that if I post them, I'll follow through.

Monday - nothing (late sim)
Tuesday - nothing (Astros game)
Wednesday - 3 mile run
Thursday - 3 mile run OR 1/2 hour swim
Friday - nothing (Astros game)
Saturday - 15 mile bike ride
Sunday - 3 mile run

I discovered the other day that I have already signed up for the Tejas Triathlon in Sugarland on June 11, so I'll be out there doing it -- trained or not! Gulp. It's a 1/2-mile swim, 13-mile bike, and 3-mile run. With good training, I feel like I could do that in ~1:45. My goal for June 11 will be ~2:00.

Monday, May 08, 2006

My Vomit Comet team's experiment

My Vomit Comet team's experiment passed the Test Readiness Review this morning and we're set to fly! I've been really impressed with my team's resilience: They arrived on Thursday and were told that they needed to come up with a different way to arrange their experiment since their rack could not be certified (because of the wood), and after only a few hours at Home Depot and in the hangar this morning, they had a new arrangement that passed inspection with flying colors.

Wade and I fly on Thursday; Rob and John follow on Friday. I can't wait!

Thursday, May 04, 2006

My Vomit Comet team is

My Vomit Comet team is here from the great state of Wisconsin. Did I mention I'm mentoring a Vomit Comet team? And that I get to fly with them next Thursday? WOO!

They arrived last night but I met them this morning for the first time out at Ellington, where they got their boring (but necessary) safety briefing and then unpacked their experiment. It's a behemoth of a thing -- a spiderweb of two-by-fours and wires and screws and nails. It will not pass inspection in its current form, since wood isn't homogenous and therefore it's next to impossible to say that it will successfully carry 9 times the force of gravity in the event of a crash. So we're going modular -- taking it apart so the individual pieces can be stowed in crates for takeoff and landing.

Wade, John and Rob are all physics teachers, and their flight is part of the World Year of Physics (which was 2005, but their flights have been delayed by a whole year now). A guy named Vinaya from Physics Central will be blogging about them. Wade and John can't be any older than I am, and I'm guessing Rob is still in his 30s. They're a young team, which makes it even more fun for me. Here is a team photo that Vinaya took this morning and has already uploaded. Technology rules.

They'll be keeping me busy for a good portion of the next week, including our all-day physiological training session tomorrow -- classroom in the morning followed by an altitude chamber flight in the afternoon. (Who needs alcohol when you can just simulate breathing the air at 25,000 feet? It's just like being drunk!)

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

Last night I freaked out

Last night I freaked out a little bit. I can honestly say that hadn't happened in quite a while, and I hope it doesn't happen again anytime soon.

Work ended on a rough and frustrating note and I got a little overwhelmed by all that I have to do in the next week. There's a zillion things for work -- I have footprints, trade studies, procedure comparisons, and a Vomit Comet team about to arrive in town that I anticipate will need quite a bit of help before being cleared to fly -- and no one seems satisfied with my progress on anything. There's a final project for my web design class -- see, tonight is the last day of class but I don't have my project finished. I've turned in one project late already, and am about to turn in one more late. On top of that, I feel like I've done a half-assed job on them.

I felt stressed. I must have looked stressed too. "This isn't your style," he said. "You don't turn things in late. You don't do assignments halfway. It's against your religion, even if you don't care about the class."

My shoulders sagged and I let out a breath I didn't know I'd been holding. He nailed it.

This isn't me. It's a class I should have dropped in January, knowing how busy my spring would be. But I didn't. And even if I don't care, it's not like me to turn in assignments late. Or do them crappily. Or not finish them at all. Even if it is "just" UHCL. Even if it's just a class I'm taking for "fun."

It's just not like me.

I'm glad the semester is over.

(Project 4 - Portfolio. Required a Flash intro.
Grad Project - JC Booth Chorus page. So not finished yet.)

Friday, April 28, 2006

This new flexible work schedule

This new flexible work schedule ain't half bad! I worked 42 hours last week, 33 hours so far this week, and so all I had to do this morning was come in this morning to work the 5-hour FDO/Booster sim and voila -- my week was over at noon! I had lunch with the boy, went for an afternoon run all alone on the trails, and now I'm home watching TV and working on websites. I could get used to this.

This morning's sim was fun and funny. The next shuttle mission has two initialization loads -- high dynamic pressure and low dynamic pressure. This creates enough confusion as it is, but just imagine you are sitting on console for the first run of the morning expecting to see the engines throttle down to 67% (low dynamic pressure value) to match what you have pre-configured in the ARD, but the shuttle simulator only throttle downs to 72% (high dynamic pressure value). And then throttles back up nine seconds too early.

If you're me, at that point you start furiously trying to calculate the change in weight to take out of the ARD (because the ARD thinks you are way heavier than you actually are, to the tune of what you eventually calculate to be ~13,000 pounds) and just as you're beginning to worry, the flight director calls the run off while you're still in first stage and says "let's get the shuttle simulator properly configured, people." And in the back room, where ARD, Targeting, and Abort Support are all girls today, you'd just hear us giggling.

It was one of those mornings.

Last night I stepped on the scale for the first time in a week and let's just say I was not happy with what I saw. Too much eating out and not enough working out! But I'm feeling good about my running this week, and optimistic about getting back on track. I've run three days already and will run again tomorrow.

Today's run:
Mile 1 - 11:21
Mile 2 - 11:32 (w/ 1:00 walking break)
Mile 3 - 10:33
Total - 33:26

It was warmer than I thought out there. And I've been having my standard it's-been-a-while-since-I-ran-and-my-shin-splints-are-back pains. But it will be ok.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

It cooled off today, despite

It cooled off today, despite the fact that I'm not sure it ever actually rained last night. There was thunder and lightning, but this morning my car wasn't wet. A pity -- I'd been looking forward to a good storm.

I have a ton of homework to do in the next week in order to finish two websites by next Tuesday. The first is a portfolio site, and I've made some good progress on. The second is a site for Mrs. G's choir program, so Mrs. G, look for an email from me today! :) I have really given this web design class the short end of the deal, and pretty much ignored it. I hope I don't get a B. That just seems absurd, to get anything less than an A in a class that 1) is easy and 2) is at UHCL.

(Yes. I'm an academic snob. Sad but true.)

Last night after work and class, I headed to BW3s to celebrate George passing his cert sim with the group. The restaurant is located in the same strip mall as Ben & Jerry's, which turned out to be very convenient for taking advantage of free cone day! Mmm. Mint chocolate chunk. I know, it's not the most original flavor, but I just love it.

I was able to go to dinner because my class got out early again. That was nice and all, but I wish I'd known in advance because then I could have gone to the Astros game instead of letting my season ticket go unused! (I also missed last Tuesday because of class, which also ended up letting out early.) Fortunately next week is the last day of the semester, so I won't miss any more baseball games because of class.

Monday, April 24, 2006

Tomorrow morning is George's cert

Tomorrow morning is George's cert sim; he'll be trying to certify as an ARD, the same flight control position that I am training for. Once he's certified, I'll be next in line with a self-set goal of certifying by August/September. Anyway, back to George: He's nervous enough already, but on top of it being his ARD final eval, the sim is also scheduled as a Prop final eval and a Booster midpoint eval. Oh man, there are gonna be failures all over the place. I am so excited about watching it. This is going to be the best sim EVER.

I had a great weekend that passed -- WHOOSH -- in a flash. On Friday night, after going through the entire list of movies playing at the Cinemark and feeling pretty apathetic about all of them, Jose and I ended up renting Fever Pitch. Heh. I got him to rent a chick flick, but only because it takes place in Boston and is about the Sox and he could therefore reminisce about living there. It was a cute enough movie, at least until the end when I was disgusted by the memory of Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore on the field at the actual World Series filming a movie. That's just wrong.

I played soccer on Saturday morning for the first time in a month, and my poor legs and knees paid the price. They hurt for the rest of the weekend. :( And my team lost, as usual... I spent the afternoon at the mall with the boy, getting new glasses (that look sort of weird in that photo), exploring the art store, and eating Cinnabon, before meeting up with Matt and Stephanie for a star party at the Haak Vineyard.

The star party was really fun! It was hosted by the vineyard and the JSC Astronomical Society, and Stephanie found out about it during a random check of the vineyard's website to see what events were coming up. It was the perfect opportunity for Jose to get out his telescope as well, and the four of us had a great time. (We all made the amusing observation that Jose was the youngest person with a telescope by far.) They were selling wine, of course, which we enjoyed while looking at Saturn, the Orion Nebula, Betelguese, Sirius, Mars, the Sombrero Galaxy, the Whirlpool Galaxy, and (when it finally rose) Jupiter. One guy had a really fancy telescope where all he had to do was type in the object, and it whirred and spun until it pointed right at it -- very cool. By contrast, with Jose's telescope, we had to hunt and peck. I did have one shining moment, though, when Matt and Jose couldn't find Mars and I was able to say "duh, it's right there" and point the telescope right to it.

At the beginning of the evening, there were a few hundred people there. By the end of the night, Matt, Stephanie, Jose and I had become the hard-core astronomy buffs -- we were there even longer than some of the astronomy club people.

I must mention that Becca was supposed to come along, but backed out because she is lame. I also couldn't help but think about how much my dad would have loved the star party! Most of my knowledge of the constellations comes from him in the first place.

Yesterday was no less busy, with a trip to play Laser Tag and eat Coldstone ice cream in celebration of Gavin's 30th birthday. I totally suck at Laser Tag, but it was fun to trash talk the little kids, especially the devil child in the second game that kept following me around. She hit me 11 times, but I got her 18 times! Ahahaha. Take that, devil child!

Friday, April 21, 2006

Yesterday I worked 12 hours.

Yesterday I worked 12 hours. I was scheduled for the 6:00-10:00 ascent sim, and it was all part of my brilliant plan to come in at 9:30 and work all day, 12 hours, which after today would put me at 44 hours for the week. Perfect for the 9/80 schedule.

Last night as I was driving home, thinking about how long a day it had been but consoling myself with the thought that I would be taking next Friday off, I realized that wait -- I'm scheduled to work the sim next Friday! So at the least, I have to be here for 5 hours! On my Friday off! Suck!

Since there was no longer any real reason for me to work a full 8 hours today, I slept in, dozing through a nice morning thunderstorm, and didn't get to work until after 10:00. It was lovely.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

In high school, I drove

In high school, I drove a beat-up 1986 Pontiac Parisienne station wagon with a rear-facing third seat, fake wood grain on the sides, and the foamy ceiling fabric that fell in. It got 10 miles to the gallon, and the gas gauge didn't work, so the only way I could tell that it was time to fill up was by using the trip odometer. When that odometer hit 200 miles, it was time to refuel. One night my dad was driving and it hit 200; I told him to immediately pull over and get gas. "Oh, we'll make it home," he said. I didn't believe him. At 205 miles, the car began to sputter, and we coasted into a nearby gas station with me singing "I told you so" the whole way.

My next car was a 1997 Nissan Sentra that I drove for seven years. It was my college car, and took me from Charlotte to Atlanta to Houston to California, and everywhere in between. That car saw the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Gulf, and many of the states in between. It got 25-30 miles to the gallon and I could go at least 40 miles even after the gas light came on. I completely freaked my mom out once when we were driving from Houston to Charlotte; the gas light came on, we drove a little farther, and when I got off to get gas, the station was miles away. We never found it, and had to get back on the highway to go one more exit. My mom was so worried that we'd run out of gas that she still tells the story today.

(You know where this is going, right?)

My third car, bought two years ago next Sunday, is a Nissan Xterra. It gets crappy mileage, 15-16 miles to the gallon in town. The gas light comes on later than it did in my Sentra, and means I've got 20-30 miles to go before the situation becomes dire. I went to class last night and meant to stop on the way home, but I didn't because I thought there might be cheaper gas in League City and I was headed that way. Then I forgot to check. Then I didn't get gas this morning. And I went out to run errands at lunch. And as I drove back on-site, my car sputtered. Just for a moment, and I thought I had imagined it. I drove another half mile. I pulled into the parking lot sputtering and as I pulled into the spot, I ran out of gas. I freaking RAN OUT OF GAS.

I am an idiot.

Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Last night's game was proof

Last night's game was proof that you have to play all 27 outs before you can be sure of the outcome of a baseball game. Despite a solid outing from Taylor Buchholz in his first major league start, the Astros went down 6-3 after Qualls came in and walked a guy, hit a guy, and gave up a three-run homer. Preston Wilson struck out five -- count 'em, FIVE -- times. I figured they were done for the night. Done, that is, until the 5-run bottom of the 7th capped by Jason Lane's 3-run homer!

It is probably a bad sign that my first thought upon seeing his ball land in the Crawford Boxes was not "hooray, Astros are ahead" but rather "crap, I didn't put him in my fantasy lineup tonight." But ah, when I got home, I discovered that I had put him in my lineup. 1 HR, 3 RBI, woot.

The win puts the Astros at 9-4 on the season so far, quite a change from last year when at this point they were sub-.500 and about to go into a tailspin. (Then again, considering the trip to the World Series, there is absolutely nothing I would change about last year except to maybe win a WS game.)

I saw Edwin and his two adorable girls briefly. He needed to borrow a camera battery to take pictures of his cuties. They sound like quite a handful though, and Edwin looked a little frazzled as they left after the top of the 7th inning. ;) Yep, they left right before the Astros came back! Aw.

The only downside is that an 8-7 win means 15 runs scored, which means getting home late, which means going to bed even later, which means sleepy Sarah.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Happy Belated Easter to one

Happy Belated Easter to one and all. I spent a lovely holiday with James, Jayleen, Becca, Cari, Debbie, Jason, and Karina. I didn't realize it until yesterday, but James is quite the cook. We needed at least 20 people to even have a hope of eating everything that he made!! It was all so delicious though; I left his apartment after 6 straight hours of eating, or so it felt like. I was stuffed. In addition to the normal fare of veggies and avocado ranch dip, cheese and crackers, and deviled eggs there was foccacia bread, at least 20 homemade baguettes (yes, 20, I'm not kidding), make-your-own-pizza with homemade dough, burritos, margaritas, and two different kinds of chocolate truffle souffle -- with vanilla ice cream on the side -- for dessert. Oh, I'm getting hungry again just thinking about all the awesome food James made.

One of my favorite stories about Easter this year, though, is the new tradition I learned about, and let me just say: I can't believe I've spent 28 years without finding out about or taking part in this because it sounds awesome. For Mexican families in Texas, Easter involves draining eggs of their filling, refilling them with confetti, wrapping them in tissue paper, and then smashing them on people's heads. Seriously. How have I never gotten to do this?? Easter gives you free reign to smash eggs on people's heads! What could be more fun? A Google search turns up a lot of hits for these things, called cascarones, and there are some people that make really cool cascarones that look like sharks and whales and frog princes. They take some time to make, so apparently people start stockpiling them in January! This is by far the coolest holiday tradition I have ever heard of, and I am rather disappointed that Jose forgot to bring me back a cascaron from Corpus. The bum.

I looked for the alligator yesterday morning, under the premise that since the first time I saw him was on Thanksgiving, maybe he's a fan of spending the holidays near my apartment. Alas, if he was around, he was laying low.

I did a reasonably good job of accomplishing everything on my list this weekend. The only thing I didn't make any headway on was taking a bunch of clothes I don't wear to Goodwill. But I took my car in for its 15,000 mile service (oil filter, air filter, rotate the tires, state inspection) and got it washed so it shines, I cleaned off a good portion of my Tivo by finally watching the shows, I washed clothes, I vaccuumed...I even got a pedicure! In short, I was Suzy Homemaker for the weekend and am now feeling much better about the state of my apartment. I know you were all worried about it.

Friday, April 14, 2006

cause the sun is shining / and this road is winding /
through the prettiest country from georgia to tennessee

Last night I took Jose running. Keith, he has no 10K time at the moment because I don't think he's ever run a 10K, but give me time. ;) We did 2 miles with a few walking breaks, all while keeping our eyes peeled for the alligator that was spotted on the jogging trail here at work. What is up with the animals?? When I drove away from Gilruth, I saw the grounds guys crowded around what appeared to be another snake located not on but near the softball fields.

Anyway, as we ran I told Jose that I'd written about him on my blog. "What did you say?" he asked, so I told him. (He reads this only occasionally, I think. For the record, I didn't and wouldn't ever write anything here that I hadn't already told him. So yes, he knows I'm a cynic/skeptic/pessimist/fatalist.) He was either pleased or worried, I'm not sure which, to find out that he generated more comments than any blog entry I've ever written before. Seventeen! (EDIT: Twenty!) People: whoa. Settle.

I haven't been in my apartment (except to sleep) for more than about an hour since I got back from Charlotte and it is an absolute wreck. However, my distraction is going home for Easter so I have arranged weekend dates with the other men in my life: Mr. Tivo, who is holding a couple weeks worth of shows; Mr. Vacuum, who needs to clean my floor; Mr. Goodwill, who needs to take a lot of my old clothes away; and Mr. Washer and Mr. Dryer, who need to clean the clothes I still wear.

Basically, I've decided that between running the Resurrection Run tomorrow morning (if you're running it too, leave a comment and let me know so I can look for you!) and going over to James's for Easter dinner on Sunday, the weekend will be spent spring cleaning. And the fun has already begun! Last night I had a spare hour to spend with Mr. Grocery Store, a handsome devil that I had been avoiding since -- I kid you not -- mid-February. Guess how much I spent. No, really, guess.

...

...

...

$190. I spent freaking $190 at the grocery store. This should convey exactly how empty my cupboards were. Two months without going to the grocery store will do that. And suddenly, I realize where these extra 3-4 pounds have come from. I've been eating out basically every day for two months.

I am absurd.

There is no one at work today. It's the second Friday of the first pay period where we could work 9/80s. I took Monday off, so I am here. It is quiet, and empty.

Thursday, April 13, 2006

tell me am I right to think / that there could be nothing better

I have been blogging, in one form or another and with varying success, since 1998. (One day I will get all my archives in one place. For now, this only goes back to August 2003. I know, I suck.) When I began, no one read it and I wrote whatever I wanted. In the early years, when I realized that my friends had begun to read things, I occasionally wrote pointed remarks if I was angry or upset, knowing full well that the person they were meant for would read it -- talk about being passive-agressive! This is something I do not recommend.

Despite all my mistakes, I have kept blogging because I enjoy it. I'm even in a running club for bloggers, which seems crazy to me and yet I love it. (Though my blog has never really been about running. It's about my life, and running is just a part of that.) Two of the Houston Running Bloggers have hung up their keyboards in the past couple days; they are tired of sharing, and maybe just tired of blogging. I read the words of others who say they feel pressure to blog, and can understand why people quit. I've never felt that way. I like blogging because it's fun, because it's a way to let those who live far away keep up with what I'm doing, because it's a way to record my thoughts, and because I can type way faster than I can write in a diary by hand!

If people read it, that's fine. If they don't, that's fine too.

There are rules, of course, to blogging. In my mind, there are three biggies:

+ Don't write anything that you wouldn't want anyone to read. As a sub-rule, don't write anything that you wouldn't want even one specific person to read, because it's guaranteed that the one person you don't want to read it will find it.

+ Don't write about work. I am fully aware that I break this one more often than I should.

+ Don't write about your love life. For a while, this one was really not a problem since my love life was pretty boring. Lately though, it's undergone a definite improvement. (And right now, what you're reading, is the only time that I even remotely intend to give this topic any discussion for at least the near future.)

I met a guy, his name is Jose, we've been dating for a few months. I'm a cynic/skeptic/pessimist/fatalist -- choose your adjective -- about these things, and for a while it took every bone in my body and every bit of willpower I could muster to resist the instinct to run. Who knows where it's going or what the future holds, but right now I like him and things are good. Really good.

I decided to officially mention him here for two reasons. First of all, it is starting to feel strange to not mention him. But really, I just wanted to share the following two lovely photos that Becca took with my camera up at the Flying Saucer last night at Yuri's Night. I am going to show this whenever someone asks me what Jose looks like:

And he can show this one:

Aren't we both just so attractive?

P.S. I reserve the right to delete any comments I don't like.
P.P.S. I also reserve the right to delete this entry entirely.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

April 12 is a big

April 12 is a big day in the space world. It's Yuri's Night, of course, so Happy 45th Anniversary of Yuri Gagarin becoming the First Man in Space! But it's also a big day for NASA, so Happy 25th Anniversary of the First Space Shuttle Launch! I'll be celebrating everything downtown tonight at the Flying Saucer, where the official Houston Yuri's Night party is happening this year.

Every time I get frustrated with my job, I am annoyingly reminded that I can't help myself -- I find spaceflight incredibly cool. This morning I watched a slideshow that someone put together in honor of the shuttle anniversary, and the beautiful images combined with the music gave me goosebumps. Freaking cool spaceflight. Sigh.

I'm feeling good today after two nights of very sound sleep since returning from Charlotte. Last night I crashed at 11:00. 11:00! It was awesome. I actually feel awake today, which is pretty amazing. I should do this more often.

I really don't have much to say today. I've got a laundry list of errands and small tasks that is lying forgotten in my apartment that I plan to catch up on this weekend, but for the rest of this week, I plan to r-e-l-a-x.

Random link of the day: the San Francisco Chronicle is doing a series of articles in advance of the 100th anniversary of the Great Earthquake (April 18, 1906). I have a slight fascination with quakes, and this one in particular, so I'm enjoying the articles and photos.

Monday, April 10, 2006

Recipe for the Perfect Saturday:

Recipe for the Perfect Saturday:

Running a 10K on a lovely green Charlotte course, stopping by the local running store to pick up a new tech tee, shopping with Mom, driving up to Burlington with Mom and David to have Mongolian BBQ with Katie, Joel, and his parents, followed by a round of a fun new game.

Recipe for the Perfect Sunday:

Sleeping till after 11:00, then going to Andrew and Sari's wedding and seeing all your old high school friends -- Cayce and Dave, Jes (sans Don, sadly), Amanda, and Ginger and catching up on life and love.

(Ginger, me, Jes, Sari, Andrew, very pregnant Cayce, and Amanda)

Recipe for the Perfect Monday:

Waking up in Charlotte with your family before flying back to Houston, getting picked up at the airport and taken to lunch by a cute boy, then meeting a girlfriend to enjoy a businessman's special at Minute Maid Park under gorgeous blue skies, and seeing the Astros win 5-4 on a sac fly in the bottom of the 12th inning.

Friday, April 07, 2006

plastic stars in our private galaxy / synthpop stars come and play a show for me

It's the time of year where the weather in Houston is extremely weird. While outside, it seems pleasant enough, but when in my apartment, it's always borderline on whether to open the windows or turn on the A/C. Earlier this week it was A/C time, but last night I thought I might be ok with out. I fell asleep around midnight and tossed and turned until 4 a.m. I couldn't figure out why I was sleeping so badly until I realized that it was hot. On came the A/C, and I got at least a couple hours of decent sleep after that. But as a result of my crappy night, I am feeling crappy today.

We had a softball doubleheader last night with games at 6 and 7. Around the 4th inning of the first game as I was walking out to take my position in left center field, I did a double take and then started hopping around startled because I had just come about two feet from stepping right onto a SNAKE. What is up with me and the crazy animals lately?? First the alligator that lives behind my apartment, and now a big ol' snake in left center field!

Anyway, Sean wondered why I was jumping around and freaking out in left center, so he came over to see the snake, and then the other outfielders came over, and then the infielders, and then the other team, and the umpire, until everyone was looking at the snake. We had a 10-minute snake timeout while we attempted to move the snake along, which only served to piss off Mr. Snake, who then coiled back and started snapping his head menacingly. Finally one of the landscaping guys came over with a hoe and shovel and we helped Mr. Snake off the softball field.

For the rest of the game, after every pitch, I turned around to make sure he wasn't sneaking up on me.

Matt and I did some investigating this morning, and we believe that it was probably a Texas Brown Snake, as it matches that photo most closely. It actually looked a lot like a rattlesnake, but without a rattle. The only discrepancy is that the Brown Snake description says adults only get to about 13 inches long, and the snake last night was more like two feet. "Texas Brown Snakes are completely harmless if encountered, but will readily feign aggressiveness to defend themselves. This usually involves coiling up, raising the head, striking out repeatedly at anything that gets too close and vibrating the tail."

I'm excited to go home to Charlotte for the weekend! (But whatever will J, the figment of my imagination, do without me? Ahahaha.) The main event, of course, is Andrew and Sari's wedding on Sunday, but I'm also looking forward to running a 10K tomorrow morning, getting a haircut, seeing Mom and Dad and Brian and hopefully David, and going up to the hip, happenin' town of Burlington to see Katie and Joel and their apartment.

Update: Upon further discussion and inspection, I have changed my mind and think the snake must have been a Rat Snake.

Thursday, April 06, 2006

Excitement abounds in my life.

Excitement abounds in my life. I say that extremely sarcastically, because the top two items on my thought list this morning are:

+ This 9/80 schedule is going to kill me. I have been at work at 8:00 the past three days, and I'm exhausted because of it. Oddly, the morning seems a lot longer when I have to wait at least three hours for lunch, instead of two. ;)

+ I've spent a solid hour now burning data to DVDs in order to clear enough space on my hard drive to defrag it. Yes, apparently you need 15% of the drive space free to defrag. Which brings up the whole other complaint that our computers are crappy. We get new computers every three years, which would be ok if we got top-of-the-line machines when we're refreshed, but we don't. I get refreshed in August, which means I'm using a computer I got in 2003. It has 256 MB of RAM. 256! And only a 40GB hard drive. When some of my sims can generate 3-4GB of data all on their own, a 40GB hard drive causes a constant headache.

Can you feel the excitement?

Jen, Gavin and I went to the Astros game last night and thus saw the second squeaker of the week as they escaped the Marlins 6-5. They scored all 6 runs in the first two innings and then did nothing the rest of the game except hang on by their teeth. Over the three-game series, the Marlins outscored the 'Stros 16-9, yet we left with a 2-1 record. Hey, I'll take it. The stadium was surprising empty -- only 26,000 or so. I saw Jessica again, which marks the second time in four days that I've randomly run into her at a Houston sporting event! First soccer, now baseball. We must be stalking each other. :)

I'm embarassed by Becca and Barbara's comments yesterday that I should let them know what music I'm listening to, especially because Gavin and Jen did not appear to be fans in the car last night. So instead, I'll point you to an internet radio station that Matt told me about last week: Radio Paradise. It's free, and pretty good more of the time.

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I thought I was just the guy for you and that we'd never end
I thought we were supposed to be like glue
I thought you were my boyfriend / I thought you were my boyfriend

I've always been one of those people who wanted to know about all the cool independent music before it became popular, but never put in the effort to find it. Turns out that someone I know is quite the little indie music snob. Now I get to listen to cool new music that I've never heard before (and would never otherwise find) and I don't even have to try! Perfect.

It's been a crazy busy week since returning from Tahoe (so what's new), and crazy busy means that I'm in a constant state of being a little bit anxious, a little bit stressed, and a little bit reflective about the current state of my life.

"Courage is saying, 'Maybe what I'm doing isn't working; maybe I should try something else.'" -- Anna Lappe

I'm busy. Too busy. I have things scheduled almost every night. This has been going on for months. Now, add to that the fact that over the past couple months, any free time I've had has been monopolized by, well, something else. (Not that I'm complaining about that part AT ALL, mind you.)

The biggest thing to think about, as usual, is work. I made the big decision not to apply for the fellowship this year -- August would not be a good time to leave, career-wise. I will be certifying this fall (hopefully), and there are some other possibilities that may or may not open up. I am happy enough with the job to forego the possibility of leaving on the fellowship, and yet this week I'm dissatisfied. George is about to certify, so I'm not getting scheduled for any sims. This leaves me frustrated and impatient, and annoyed that I am having to fill all of my time running sims. (Gavin loves running sims. How is it that he loves running sims?)

Also on my mind is my web design class. I'm treating it like a red-headed stepchild and really not putting in the effort it deserves. I've realized that perhaps I did a bit too much of the "resting on my laurels" thing at the beginning of the class, telling myself that I know how to use Dreamweaver, and I know how to design websites. Last night was presentation day for our third project. My own project was 1) unfinished and 2) boring. The design and layout was unoriginal, boxy, and flat. There were a couple really spectacular looking designs, and it made me realize that while I've done a decent job over the years of designing functional websites, I may not be doing a great job of designing visually appealing sites. And if the graphic design class last fall did anything, it has made me notice design a lot more. If I was a bit obsessive before, well, it's even worse now. I need to really challenge myself to get out of my comfort zone for the fourth and final project -- a personal portfolio.

Tonight is Astros game number 2 of 27. I love season tickets.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Opening Day was everything it

Opening Day was everything it should be. Roy Oswalt pitched 8 innings and threw ~90 pitches -- brilliant. The Astros won 1-0 -- brilliant. Lidge closed it out -- brilliant. And once or twice, with the fans waving the 2005 NLCS Champions towels they gave away and yelling loudly, it actually felt like a postseason game instead of Opening Day. If you can't have a moment of the postseason in the first game back after going to the World Series, it just ain't baseball! Brilliant.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

The Yuri's Night race is

The Yuri's Night race is coming together at the last minute, as usual. Next year I hope to pass off organizing duties to someone else and take a year off. We shall see, though. Once it comes around, I'll probably want to do it again, forgetting how it stresses me out and how I procrastinate.

Last night I had to throw together a t-shirt design:

If you don't like it, please don't tell me, because I can't change it now! And no suggestive comments about its shape, immature people. It's a rocket. That's how they're shaped!

Last night Jen and I went to see Beauty and the Beast. It ended up being just the two of us after everyone else bailed, but we had a good time. I know I've seen the show before, but I can't remember where. Atlanta, maybe? Wherever it was, I saw the traveling cast, and I have to say that it was better than the TUTS version we saw last night. Oh, last night's was ok, just a little unpolished in spots. And the stage was covered with glow-in-the-dark tape. Guess they couldn't memorize their marks very well.

Tonight we leave for Tahoe!

I can't believe I'm going on vacation again already. (Sarah shakes head sheepishly.) It turns out that I have no idea how to pack for a skiing vacation, in which I will apparently be skiing, and skiing for multiple days, and needing clothes to handle all the skiing. Did I mention we're skiing? I don't know how to ski. Maybe this afternoon I'll just re-pack, and put in nothing but lounging-around-drinking-hot-chocolate-by-the-fire clothes. That could be a nice way to spend my "skiing" vacation.

After reading yesterday about my plan to start getting to work earlier, my dad called me this morning at 8:10 to test me -- to see if I was at work. I was pulling into the parking lot when the phone rang. Boo yeah! I win this round, Daddy-o.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Rumor has it that we

Rumor has it that we will be moving to a new work schedule at the beginning of April, one that is far more flexible than our current "core hours" model that requires us to be at work between 9:00 and 3:00 five days a week (and work the rest of your 8 hours per day sometime between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m.). If we're not here during core hours, we're supposed to take annual leave.

Under the new system, I'll only be required to work 8 days per pay period (instead of 10) as long as I get my 80 hours in. That means that I could work 10 hour days and take every Friday off if I wanted, or work 10 hours days for eight days and take a four-day weekend. It also means -- and this is what I plan to do most pay periods -- that I can work 9 hours Monday through Thursday, and get every other Friday off. 9-80s. Then Kent won't be able to email me on Thursdays and gloat about how it's almost the weekend for him and him alone.

Anyway, that long-winded explanation of the upcoming change in time schedule is my way of saying that I've realized I'm going to need to start coming in to work before 9:00. Because I don't want to be sitting here until 6:30 every day to get my 9 hours in. I need to get back to the point where I'm in at 8, and so today I started shifting my schedule. I got in at 8:20! Go me.

The next two weeks promise to be busy, busy, busy. It seems like I just got back from vacation (ok, so I did just get back), but tomorrow night I am heading to Tahoe with a whole gaggle of people (Becca, Cari, Jose, Gavin, Jen, Matt, Stephanie and others) for five days of skiing and other assorted snowy activities. We'll be back next Wednesday evening. Then, April 1 is the third annual Yuri's Night race (sign up!). April 2 is the first game of the Houston Dynamo, the new major league soccer team, so obviously I'm going to that. And then, drumroll please... April 3 is Astros Opening Day! Wooooooo!

Then on April 7 I get to go home to beautiful, lovely Charlotte for the weekend to see Andrew finally marry Sari. It's only been, like, 9 years in coming.

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I am laughing so very

I am laughing so very hard: "Glory Days Long Past for Stanford Tree."

It's been a busy day of watching a sim and flying the shuttle. Which I crashed the first time and had to take a second run to redeem myself. Seems that I am not so good at straightening out off the HAC to line up with the runway. You know, minor details. Ah well. That's why I'm not an astronaut. ;)

I started packing for Tahoe last night. This is noteworthy because I Suck with a capital S at packing in advance. We're leaving Thursday, and I started packing on Monday. Wow.

This is a boring blog entry.

Monday, March 20, 2006

Last weekend (the 11th) I

Last weekend (the 11th) I shot some photos at the RRCA National Convention Awards Banquet. They came out ok -- not fantastic, but well enough that I'm not totally embarassed. As I was going around taking photos of people at the different tables, one guy decided to take a photo of me. I was very amused, and even more so this morning when I found out that he emailed it to me! Runners are funny, awesome people. :)

In other big running news, I ran yesterday! Yes, me, Sarah -- I ran. After I halfheartedly tried and failed to put together a relay team for yesterday's Seabrook Marathon, Buzz talked me into running the second lap with her. (She was doing the full as a training run. She's training for a 50K.) It was the first time I'd run since before Patagonia, and the only reason I agreed to go with her was that I needed something to get me going again. I used to run with Buzz fairly regularly, but she has gotten much, much faster than me since she's basically constantly in training for some long-distance event. I slowed her down quite a bit on her second lap, but she said she didn't mind, so...

I must admit that I didn't run the entire lap. There's one short out-and-back section on the way back to the start/finish line, and I let Buzz do that herself while I took an extended walking break. But all in all, I did about 6 miles with her in 1:12. Slow, sure, but at least I did it. And in less-than-ideal weather; it wasn't too hot, but it was humid enough to leave me looking like I'd jumped in a pool!

It was nice to be out there with runners again. I saw Steve, Holden, and my coworker Darrin doing the full, Michelle doing the half, and Keith doing a leg of the relay. I missed David and Jacklyn (didn't realize they were there). :( I left pretty quickly after finishing my lap with Buzz due to a combination of being a bit overheated and the fact that I didn't end up doing photos after all, so I'm sorry that I didn't get to talk to any of the HRBers more extensively than my "Go Steve," "Go Holden," and "Go Keith" calls as I passed each of them.

I'm a bit sore today. But a good sore. I gotta start running again.

Other than running, it was a pretty tame weekend. Soccer on Saturday, where we lost miserably, mainly because our regular goalie wasn't there and none of the rest of us can play keeper worth a darn. Yesterday afternoon I made it to the last day of the rodeo with Jose, Jen, Becca, and Cari. Jose and Jen and I went early enough to ride the carnival rides -- one that left us hanging upside down with a mean head rush, then bumper cars, then the dungeon drop, then something that spun and pinned you to the wall and made me want to puke, and finally the ferris wheel. Fun, fun.

And later this week we all go to Tahoe!

Friday, March 17, 2006

Last night we won our

Last night we won our first softball game of the season. I went 3-for-4 with 2(?) RBIs, which I would totally be gloating about if it weren't for the fact that Jen with 4-for-4 with 5 RBIs. All gloating rights therefore fall to her this week.

I got to work a FDO-Booster sim this morning, which is a little different from the sims I normally work. Same phase of flight, obviously, since my job only exists during ascent, but this morning's sim focused on main engine problems and each run stopped shortly after powered flight. This means we got to do seven runs instead of the normal four. Everything went pretty well until the final run, when I had my finest ARD moment to date...

Something major went wrong at liftoff and none of the engine commands made it onboard. Therefore the engines didn't throttle. Therefore the crew had to do it manually. I have never, ever seen anything like this case before, so when TRAJ called me with:

"ARD, TRAJ, what do you want me to do?"

I got to respond with:

"I don't knooooooowwwwww!!"

In a slightly panic-striken way. Good times.

I am so happy it's Friday. This has seemed like the longest week EVER. And now of course it will be a short weekend since I have over-scheduled myself already, at least for Sunday when I am supposed to run a lap of the marathon with Buzz, then jump in to take photos, then go to the rodeo. Whew.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Fondue is good. Really good.

Fondue is good. Really good. Even if it takes almost four hours to eat dinner, it's worth it.

We had an unintentional girls night at The Melting Pot yesterday in very belated honor of Cari and Becca's birthdays, both of which actually occurred in February. But, better late than never, so Becca, Cari, Jen, Sara and I headed downtown sans boys (because none of them wanted to come) for what became a very fun night -- even if it being a girls night meant that the conversation turned interesting and involved a few choice phrases being embarassingly broadcast at Becca-decibel-level to anyone within earshot. Heh. Anyway, we had two different kinds of cheese fondue, then three meats in two broths, and then both a milk and dark chocolate dessert fondue. MMM. It was delicious.

=======
Links for today:

There's a nice article in USA Today about the Astros and the process of building a major league roster.

The BBC has a good article about Europe's next Mars mission, scheduled for 2011. They're trying to figure out if they can feasibly turn their "carrier" spacecraft into a true orbiter with data relay capability, so that they don't have to rely on NASA's MRO (which, in 2011, will already be doing data relay for MSL).

Turn your photos into polaroids! (Beware -- it crops everything to a square. But still cool. How do websites like this work?)

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

I got taken down memory

I got taken down memory lane in a couple random ways last night...

Nacho is running away to Mexico for a week and a half that includes his birthday, and then I'm running away to Tahoe for a week that includes my birthday, so we decided to celebrate in advance with a birthday dinner in Kemah last night. We went to Landry's and had lots of food, capped off with key lime pie, which was very yummy.

The waitress totally thought we were on a date, which was very funny and reminded me of the hilarious conversation Nick and I had back at Stanford when we went to a dance together and tried to explain to the very cute but very foreign Tibor (a Slovakian guy) that Nick was my date yet it was not a date nor were we dating. Ah, good times. I want to go back to Stanford and make it somehow last longer than nine months. There were some bad times there, to be sure, but there were some really good ones too.

I came home to a message on my phone from Jelly Santelli, who was sitting in Florida at the Disney baseball complex (or whatever it's called) watching the Braves play the Astros in spring training. He saw someone wearing a "Mrs. Javy" shirt (despite the fact that he doesn't play for the Braves anymore) and called to say it made him think of the "Javy is a Jottie" sign that Katie and I made along with our cousins way back when (1994?). I hadn't thought about that in a long time. We drove up to Philadelphia from the farm to see the Braves play the Phillies, and we took signs with us. Javy is a Jottie. Hahahaha.

Anyway. This concludes today's blog entry that was full of reminiscing and inside jokes that you'd only get if I've told you the story. Well, or if you were there.

Hahaha.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

I hate the dentist. I

I hate the dentist. I can't feel my mouth or lips. I just ate a Frosty and kept on accidentally smearing it all over my lips. I just wanted it in my stupid mouth! Sigh. At least I was able to amuse the lunch crowd with my awkward speech and chewing. :D

Monday, March 13, 2006

Google has a great header

Google has a great header today, that links to the even cooler Google Mars! Make sure to check all the different stuff they have there, including elevation, visible, and IR maps along with pinpoints for mountains, canyons, and even the spots where we've put landers and rovers.

VERY COOL, Google.

I had a very relaxing weekend, well, at least what passes for relaxing in Sarah-land these days. After getting back from JPL around 9:00 Friday night and going to bed before 11:00 (ah, sleep, glorious sleep), I only had three things on the agenda: taking pictures at Saturday morning's Bayou City Classic 10K, taking pictures at Saturday night's RRCA Awards Banquet, and playing soccer last night. (The referee never showed up, so we only scrimmaged. Disappointing.) The race was the most fun of the three, since I saw a bunch of my fellow Houston Running Bloggers for the first time since before Patagonia (I'm sure I'll forget someone, but I caught Sam, Lisa, Steve B, Steve S, Cassie, Holden, Dalton, and Jen through the camera lens, and then saw others including Erica, Jessica, Joe, and Edwin afterwards). And speaking of running, this week I plan to get back on track with a few runs myself.

With my three committments out of the way, I spent the rest of the weekend being extremely lazy. Which was very, very nice, even if it wasn't very productive. Still not done, and thus on the list for yet another weekend: taxes, vaccuuming, servicing the Xterra.

Thursday, March 09, 2006

An 8:20 dentist appointment sounded

An 8:20 dentist appointment sounded like a really good idea when I scheduled it. I'd be up at a good hour, get the dentist out of the way for another six months, and even get to work by 9:30 or so. It sounded like a good idea...until I actually had to get up, and ended up in a dentist's chair at the afore-mentioned 8:20 a.m., which is earlier than I've been at work in a loooong time. Well, except on sim days, anyway. I warned the dental hygenist that I might fall asleep. She just laughed.

So he wants to fill three small cavities. Three. "Oh, they're small," he says. "We can go ahead and do that, and the benefit is that the teeth will be numb so I can put some desensitizer on them." (My teeth have become sensitive in the last few years. They think it might be because I clench them when I am stressed. This is plausible; I notice myself doing it sometimes.) Anyway, I wanted to stop and just say HELLO DENTIST DUDE. I brush and floss every freaking day, and this is what I get? Three cavities? What a bunch of crap!

So now I get to go back to the dentist next week. Twice in one week! What did I do to deserve that kind of torture?

Oh, and why is it that the dentist can always find time to fit you in sometime the next week -- or even the next day -- or even today (they asked if I could stay right then) -- but I have to wait a month to get an appointment with other doctors?

Grr. Stupid dentist.

On a happier note, I totally rocked the new procedures in the sim last night. George had the case in the morning sim, when I was just observing. He did it right, but then second-guessed himself. They're new procedures, and I would've done the exact same thing. But we worked it out in the morning sim, so when I had basically the same case in the evening sim, I knew exactly what to do. And at the end of the night, the FDO gave me props for it. Said it was about the smoothest he'd ever seen a new procedure go. YAY ME!

Friday, February 17, 2006

One day till Patagonia... We

One day till Patagonia...

We leave tonight. Whoa. I can't believe this trip is finally here!

The Plan
Feb 18 - Buenos Aires!
Feb 19 - fly to El Calafate, bus to El Chalten
Feb 20 - Fitz Roy dayhike!
Feb 21 - back to El Calafate, horse riding
Feb 22 - Perito Moreno glacier!
Feb 23 - bus across border to Torres del Paine national park
Feb 24 - Las Torres dayhike!
Feb 25 - Glacier Gray dayhike!
Feb 26 - bus to Punta Arenas with a stop to see penguins!
Feb 27 - fly to Santiago
Feb 28 - Santiago!
Mar 1 - home :(

I spent last night not doing my web design project. I'm going to have to ask my professor for a couple extra days. It's due on the 28th, but I should be able to turn it in on the 1st when I get back, or on the 2nd.

Instead of doing my project, I spent the evening alternately talking on the phone to all the people who apparently wanted to talk to me before I left for the end of the world -- oh woe is me for being so cool and popular ;) -- and trying not to freak out. I would put something in my backpack, and then go sit on the couch and think. Put another item in the backpack, then sit back and think. Watch some Olympics. Sit. Check email. Put another item in the backpack.

In the end, I'm packed. My pack is not overflowing, but it is definitely full, enough that I plan to repack this afternoon. I'd like to have a little extra space for potential souvenirs, after all. I'm leaving work around coke break to have a couple hours to chill before the trip begins. I figure I can easily take out a pair of pants, a shirt, and maybe my travel pillow. That would free up a lot of space, especially the pillow. And I can always sleep on a sweatshirt.

I've also got to put together an address list for postcards. If you want a postcard and don't think I have your address, better get it to me today! No guarantees, but I'll do my best. Worst case, you'll probably get something from Santiago.

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Sometimes, despite a long list

Sometimes, despite a long list of errands to run and things to pack, a girl's just gotta work off some excess energy and stress. I met Jason, Debbie, Curt and Sara out at the new Gilruth for a workout. They finished all the renovations over the holidays and I hadn't been out there yet. Despite my wish to be able to say something sarcastic about the "employee activities" people, I have to admit that they did a really nice job. The workout room is huge now, with tons of weight machines, and tons of ellipticals and treadmills. They have a bunch of flat screen TVs (though just ask Becca how easy -- or NOT easy -- it is to get them to change the channel) and you can plug your headphones into a receiver on each machine to listen while you run or elliptical or bike or whatever.

In short, it's a real gym now. We've caught up to the modern era.

I did half an hour on the elliptical machine while watching the end of the Tech-UNC basketball game. I must have been bad luck -- when I arrived, Tech was ahead by a few points, but UNC ended up winning by 7. Of course, in reading the game summary this morning I found out that Tech was up by 20 at one point. And they still lost. Geez. Katie and Joel were also there, and maybe the did not cheer loudly enough! I also did some of the weight machines, but without any real method behind it. I'd like to start doing some strength training to help with my running, but I am both intimidated and bored by weight machines.

I spent the rest of the evening either running last-minute errands or packing. I am about 2/3 packed, and feeling ok about things at the moment. I think my new half-camera, half-other daypack is going to work out about as well as expected -- my only complaint thus far (not having actually worn the backpack on an extended dayhike yet) is that I think the water bottle pockets on the sides are a little too small for a typical Nalgene bottle. However, my worries about needing a pack cover disappeared when I realized it has a built-in pack cover that stores in the bottom! Cool. Anyway, I made my decision -- I'm taking it instead of my old non-camera daypack. If it doesn't work well, I'll sell it when I get back.

I have just a few more things to get tonight. Moleskin for potential (and probable) blisters. A new pair of sunglasses. Some Clif bars. Yup, I'm about ready to go. Hopefully I will finish packing quickly tonight so that I have time to do my web design project! Ugh for homework that has to be done two weeks early, but hooray for vacation.

I am listening to my "calm music" today to keep me from freaking out too much. Counting Crows (the blue VH1 album), Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Mozart.

Photos of Patagonia keep popping up in the rotation on my desktop, leading me to believe that my computer somehow knows I'm going on vacation. I just minimized my windows to open up Matlab, and BAM -- there's a sunset photo of Fitz Roy. I'm going to be there looking at it for real on, like, Monday. Whoa.

Two days till Patagonia...

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

I have two more nights

I have two more nights in town and a list of things to do as long as my arm. I have been all sorts of distracted lately with everything going on, and haven't even started to pack yet. Well, ok, so I've pulled out my backpack and a couple key items, but haven't started to put everything together. I was planning to take Friday afternoon off to gather my nerves and get a quick breather before the trip, but I think yesterday I stumbled into a Friday afternoon tele-meeting. Hmm. I also have to somehow finish my web design project in the next two nights. Sigh.

I have not been a very good running blogger lately. Perhas that has something to do with the fact that I have not been a good runner lately. I'd been thinking about doing the Seabrook half marathon on March 19, but I realized last night that it's not gonna happen. I could finish the distance, but not well. I haven't done a real long run since the Houston Half, and have been slacking off in a major way. Leaving the country for two weeks won't help either; granted, I won't exactly be sitting on my butt in Patagonia, but I also won't be running. So, Seabrook marathon relay it is. I'll have to find a team. Shouldn't be a problem.

Three days till Patagonia...

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Well, I had planned to

Well, I had planned to watch this morning's sim. I forgot about it until I woke up at 7:30, at which point I quickly dressed and got to work just a couple minutes at 8:00. Perfect, because even if they start to run at 8:00, liftoff isn't until 8:09! But when I walked in, everyone looked very bored. Turns out the very complicated cockpit simulator that the crew sits in was really giving people fits this morning. We waited and waited while they fixed it, then finally started around 9:20. Everything was going fine until about 4:00 into the sim, when the simulator crashed. And they came on and said "um, let's just try to get it fixed for tomorrow" and the flight director said "ok, I'd like to stop wasting the team's time anyway" and we all said "well that was a worthwhile sim." And laughed. Sean asked me if I learned a lot today by watching. I said sure, I learned that the SMS is just as dumb as the ARD!

I'm in a time crunch to get my homework done before I miss two weeks of class. I have one more textbook chapter to do, and a whole project to do. The project is to design a: "Family Album. Create a site showcasing your family and friends. Be as creative and stylistic as you wish to create a look and feel appropriate to your inner personlity. Create a minimum of 10 pages. Include a main splash page, and a unique system of links. Use a minimum of 10 different images. All images used should link to higher quality full-size image pages. Include enough professional elements to give this site an air of authority. Be sure to use enough of the advanced features during class to be challenging. Use at least one instance of advanced rollover. Consider using background images, table layouts, slices, and image maps. Have fun, be creative, and take pride in your final creation."

Sigh. It is hard to be both creative and constrained by all those requirements. I actually have no idea what I'm going to do, or I would've started it over the weekend. I'm hoping he shows us some examples in class. Anybody got any "creative" ideas?

My paper-airplane-a-day calendar has pink hearts all over it for today and says "Be Mine." Except when you actually fold the airplane, the "Be Mine" disappears into the folds. That seems dumb. Perhaps you are supposed to fly it at someone, and then if they get curious and open it up they'll see the secret "Be Mine" message.

Four days till Patagonia...

Monday, February 13, 2006

I'm still shaky from my

I'm still shaky from my sim this morning. It was the hardest I've done yet. It's a good thing they don't have me hooked up to one of those stress-measuring things, because my heart rate was through the roof. I can hear the FDO now: "Break break, stop the sim, ARD is having a heart attack!"

Things I did not do this weekend:

+ my taxes
+ clean my apartment
+ take my car for it's 15,000 mile service
+ go running
+ play soccer since the other team forfeited
+ get my car washed
+ any of my homework that I have to get done before leaving Friday

Things I did do:

+ not sleep enough on Friday and have to get up at 6 a.m. Saturday
+ sleep too much on Saturday and get up late on Sunday
+ eat out a lot
+ watch round-the-clock Olympics

So you could say it was an unproductive weekend. Or you could say it was glorious. I'll just say it was gloriously unproductive.

Five days to Patagonia...

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Happy Birthday Mom! :) Yesterday

Happy Birthday Mom! :)

Yesterday I had grand plans to leave work at 4:45 and go running on the Gilruth trail for the first time this year. At 4:30, I was starting to mentally shut down. By 4:40 I was starting to shut down my computer and gather my things. That's when Gavin walked in and said "hey Sarah, do you have a minute to talk with Rich and me about the neural net?" Sure, of course I do.

Next thing I know, it's 6:00 and getting dark, and I still had to go to Wolf Camera, and I didn't even get home until 7:30 and I was tired. But that antsy, anxious feeling remained, and I decided that the only way to get rid of it was to go for a run, even if the time and darkness now meant running laps around my little street.

So: 3.25 miles, 34:02, 10:28/mile, average heart rate 185. I didn't push myself too hard, but hard enough to settle myself down for the night. Which, I then was up too late yet again for the umpteenth time because I have overcommitted myself.

I am tired.

The Winter Olympics start tomorrow. I didn't even realize!

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

It's official. I am a

It's official. I am a freak, and freak out about stupid things. I'm not saying this with any real expectation of changing; after all, I've had almost 28 years to pick up these mental blocks. I'm just stating it for future record, so that no one can accuse of me of not at least realizing one of my faults, even if I seem helpless to change it.

I watched the sim this morning. Marc was working it. He got easier cases than I did on Monday night; of course, it probably just seemed that way because I wasn't actually in the hot seat. If I'd been working, I doubt I would've come up with the answers as quickly. Something about nerves. Every time I go to a sim, as the clock counts down to launch on the first run, my heart starts pounding and my hands go all clammy. We might as well be launching for real instead of just in the computer!

Ah, but that is exactly the point.

I am already ready for the weekend. It has been a weird week. I can't shake an anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach, and it is so annoying.

Nick posted archives of his old Page du Jour entries that he did while he lived in France, and I just had fun reliving the week that I was there and made him translate large blocks of text into French when he was really tired already. :) My week started on January 18, 2003.

Monday, February 06, 2006

On our way home from

On our way home from the 6K on Saturday, I remarked to Gavin that my arms were sore and I couldn't figure out why. I hadn't lifted anything heavy, done any pushups, and we haven't been to the rock gym in months (and won't ever anymore now that it moved way out to Katy -- sadness). Yet my arms, and specifically my biceps, hurt.

Finally on Saturday afternoon I figured it out. The playground. From lunch on Friday, when we took our Quizno's to the park. And we went to the playground. And tried the monkey bars, and had to pull ourselves up a tunnel with our arms because we were too big to crawl up it normally.

My arms were sore because we went to the playground. I laughed pretty hard when I figured it out.

On Saturday I finally checked out the much-hyped Basquiat exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts. There are billboards for it all over town, and my graphic design / web design professor had emailed us twice to encourage us to go see his work. I guess I don't have much of an appreciation for modern art, because I left still not understanding what makes Basquiat's scribblings worthy of a huge museum exhibit. Is it because he died young? (Drug overdose at age 27.) Is it because he happened to know the right people? (In his case, Andy Warhol.) They're interesting, sure, but so are a lot of people's scribblings. This painting of a trumpet player was my favorite; most of the others I was pretty indifferent to.

There were a lot of random drawings that reminded me of 10th grade, when I covered my textbooks with brown papers and used to doodle on them during class. At the end of the year I had a book cover with every spare inch filled with doodles and random thoughts. That's what Basquiat's drawings reminded me of.

Anyway. I obviously am art-ignorant. I generally find modern art annoying and think that the artists must take themselves way too seriously to produce some of their random stuff. There was one piece that consisted of red, white, and blue lollipops piled in a corner. Lollipops thrown in a corner? That's art? Oh, it was interactive as well -- you were invited to take a lollipop. Judging from the number of lollipops remaining, most people declined the offer.

The museum had a disappointingly small exhibit of photographs (ok, I give you, it's a fine art museum not a photography museum). It did have some cool paintings and sculpture as well.

I think my interest in art could be described as: I like realistic things. Paintings generally impress me most when they look like photographs. Now that's not always the case, but more often than not. Sculpture is cool. I like etchings and pencil drawings for the most part as well. Photographs are awesome.

Then again, I'm an engineer, not an artist. It's probably not meant for me. ;)

Friday, February 03, 2006

We had the most awesome

We had the most awesome lunch break today -- a stop at Quizno's, followed by lunch at the park, following by the playground. We swung on the swings, slid down the slide, and generally acted like kids. The guys threw the football, and I made a new friend in the 3-year-old who was also at the playground wanting to swing. It was lovely and perfect and it's sad that I'm now back at my desk.

I made cookies last night. They were slice-n-bake, left over from when Carter was here a couple months ago and randomly bought slice-n-bake at the store. But we never baked them, and they were coming up on their "use or freeze by" date. So I made them. And I still don't understand why people use pre-packaged cookie dough. I mean, I get the fact that it's easier and less messy and takes less time. But homemade cookies taste so much better! If you're going to make cookies, you might as well go all out.

I have a relatively low-key weekend planned after a very hectic January. Today is Mike's 23rd birthday (he's our co-op) so we're going out for dinner. People are going to a movie afterward but I'll probably head home because I'm not interested in seeing Underworld 2, and I'm going to get up early tomorrow to run the Buffalo Wallow 6K. On Sunday I plan to do a whole lot of nothing, at least until 5:00 when I either have a soccer game or will be going to Rich's Super Bowl party.

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Last night I realized that

Last night I realized that I needed to do my homework assignment that is due this afternoon. The problem is that the textbook I ordered two weeks ago still hasn't arrived. I ordered it through Amazon, but it's actually coming from one of their partners, and the delivery estimate is anywhere between January 25 and February 8! Ugh.

With a homework assignment to be done, I decided that the only solution would be to go to the UHCL bookstore, pay the higher price there, and just return the Amazon-ordered one whenever it came (since you can't return books to the UHCL bookstore after the first week of class). That plan sort of sucked since it ruined my chance of saving any money, but it had to be done. So off I went to the UHCL bookstore, where...the book is backordered!

Well this presented a larger problem. Off to Barnes and Noble I went where, sigh, they didn't have any copies. They had copies of the books in the series for Dreamweaver, Flash, and Fireworks individually, but not the one for all three. And of course that's the one I need.

After that I needed to go to Best Buy to get a new case for my iPod. As a side note, I must say that I am convinced now that iPods are simply a means of selling all the freaking accessories that go along with them. My old iTrip FM transmitter? Yeah, doesn't work with the new iPod. And the new "standard" transmitter? Yeah, doesn't let you both transmit and charge the battery at the same time. So I had to buy one off eBay for $50. It's a good thing I managed to get $60 off the iPod by giving them my old one and being a student. And yet despite all this hassle, I never even considered getting an mp3 player other than an iPod. Apple is evil.

Best Buy, of course, is near the new Borders that I hadn't yet been in. I was already 0-for-2 in searching for my textbook, but gave it a shot. Of course Borders didn't have it either. 0-for-3, strike out, time to go home and send an email to my professor telling him I won't have the homework in on time because I can't freaking get a textbook.

Monday, January 30, 2006

Things I've learned in the

Things I've learned in the past three days:

+ I don't have the attention span for poker, especially when chips are free.

+ Black iPods still come with white headphones.

+ I get a little OCD when handling shiny things that show fingerprints. Eek. No fingerprints!

+ I always say I don't like sushi, but I actually do, at least the "normal" stuff.

+ It is impossible to go to REI and leave with one thing. You will always find something else you must have.

+ At least one of the 17-year-olds applying for the President's Scholarship is 10 times as impressive as I can ever hope to be.

+ For reasons unknown, JSC IT really does not like the idea of buying external hard drives for my group.

+ In April we should be able to start working 9-80s, or even 4-10s. YAY!!!

+ Branding and logos are in your subconscious.

+ There is such a thing as a southern hemisphere compass. But only because it is pre-calibrated to account for the difference between true north and magnetic north, which is pretty large down south.

The weekend was crazy busy. I need to stop overcommitting myself. I feel like I'm back in college when I had trouble saying "no."

Monday, January 23, 2006

Miscellanea: Edwin's friend got some

Miscellanea:

Edwin's friend got some photos of the gorgeous sunrise on Marathon/Half Marathon day. It's exactly how I remember it. Brilliantly orange and purple and the best possible way to start a long run.

This morning I returned an unexpected message that I had on my answering machine last night, and wound up with a freelance photography assignment for an out-of-state newspaper. A fairly large one at that. It was all so random. But it's a great opportunity. It's two assignments, actually. I am totally freaking out about it. What if I suck?

I haven't gone running since the half marathon. Last week was crazy busy, and the weekend was crazier busier. My legs are getting that antsy, wound up feeling. I've got to run soon. I have a late sim tonight, so the chances aren't good for today. :(

Yesterday I went to a travel photography seminar put on by National Geographic. It was pretty cool; I picked up a lot of tips and got to look at awesome travel photography all day. Not a bad day. Now I have to decide exactly what equipment I do and don't feel like schlepping around Patagonia next month. :)

I am sleepy.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

I had a sim yesterday

I had a sim yesterday morning. Having sims is still a new enough occurrance that I feel like I should announce each one... Anyway, it was pretty uneventful. In fact, very uneventful, as sims go. We only did three runs instead of the usual four, and nothing truly major went wrong. Therefore I did pretty well, and Marc started joking about me working them alone soon. At least I hope he was joking. I am pretty attached to having him or George there at the moment; always nice to have a safety net.

No more sims for me for at least two weeks though. There are three to watch, but none for me to work. Boo.

Class last night was, well, disappointing. I keep forgetting that overall, this program I'm in is for applied graphic design, and thus they teach a lot more about how to do things than why. I'd like to learn more theory, and spend less time on the technical details; last night the professor spent an hour going over how to resize an image at the correct resolution for the web. Seriously.

Sigh.

As for running, I'm thinking of signing up for Power in Motion this spring. Ten weeks, starting in March. That'd keep me motivated through May or June, right? ;) My goal would be dropping my 5K time under 30:00...

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Three day weekends are never

Three day weekends are never long enough.

Saturday was low-key, just me hanging around staying off my feet and drinking lots of water in preparation for the Half. Sunday was full of running, cheering for running, taking pictures of running, and recovering from running. I'm basically not sore at all today, so I'd say I'm recouperating well! I may even go for a run tonight, after class. Yesterday was another low-key day since, as previously mentioned, I didn't even get up until almost noon. Ahhh.

Yep, classes at UHCL start today, and this semester I'll be in web design (Dreamweaver, mainly) from 4-7 on Tuesdays. After feeling a bit bummed about taking a class in something I already know a decent amount about, I've perked up after realizing over the weekend (while messing around with Chris's page) that there are still quite a few things about Dreamweaver of which I don't take advantage. So I'm hopeful.

Yesterday I finally saw a winter movie not called Narnia -- Munich. I mentioned this to Carter yesterday and he immediately responded with "oh, it's good. But it gave me nightmares. It's like Saving Private Ryan, but on the streets of Europe." Hmm. I didn't quite know what to think about that, but away I went to the movies.

Munich is one intense movie. It is good. I'd almost say very good. Gut-wrenching in parts. It is well written, and well filmed, and well acted. Despite it's 2 hours and 40 minute run time (which I did not know about in advance), I never got bored with the story. It was more graphic than I expected, but then, I suppose the subject matter is not exactly cotton candy fluff. The meat of the movie focused more on how Eric Bana's character and group of assassins went about accomplishing their grim task, but as they proceeded to kill off more and more of the terrorists on their list, the focus began to shift toward how the characters felt about what they were doing. And that's what was more interesting to me -- to see how each reacted in a different way. I also found it interesting that Spielberg chose to end the movie with a shot of the New York skyline, with World Trade Center prominently featured. (After all, the movie takes place in the early 70s.)

Anyway, it's good. I recommend it. Just be prepared.

It's a neat week for NASA. Stardust landed successfully over the weekend, and I'm currently waiting to (hopefully) see the Pluto mission launch (if the winds die down). We're sending a spacecraft to Pluto. I mean, Pluto! Seriously! How cool.

Saturday, January 14, 2006

It was a gorgeous day

It was a gorgeous day outside. Sunny, cool, with a Carolina blue sky. I spent it...doing nothing. Yep, nothing.

First of all, I slept until 11:00. This doesn't bode well for getting to bed early tonight in preparation for the race tomorrow, but I decided it was much more important to get the good night's sleep two nights before.

Did a couple errands, spent a little time on my underused balcony, watched a little TV. Had more pasta at Carrabbas.

We had an awesome Houston Running Bloggers pasta party last night at the Spaghetti Warehouse -- thanks to Joe for putting it together. As I sat at the table enjoying my chicken parmesan and the company of all the other running bloggers, I couldn't help but wish that I'd met all these crazy people a year ago. Then they could have helped me through the marathon! Heh. After four years of running more or less solo, it's nice to have a gained a running family this year.

Holden and Edwin have both posted some photos on their blogs. I took a few (not many, actually) and will try to post 'em tomorrow or Monday; I'm feeling lazy at the moment.

Wish me luck tomorrow morning!

Friday, January 13, 2006

It's been a busy week

It's been a busy week and I'm glad to see it end. Not that I don't have a busy weekend planned as well...but at least the weekend has some large blocks of free time, as well as, you know, a whole extra day! A part of me always thinks it's silly that we get MLK day off work when we just came back from the holidays two weeks ago. But hey, vacation days are vacation days, and they're always nice.

Tonight I'm heading downtown to pick up my half marathon packet at the convention center and then eat pasta at the Spaghetti Warehouse with my fellow Houston Running Bloggers. (We have a cool photo of us on our front page now. Woot.) Running the Half, and cheering for the marathoners once I'm done running myself, will take up most of my day on Sunday. Oh, I did my last pre-half run last night, an easy 3 miles at 11:20 pace. It felt great. It felt leisurely. I am so happy that 11:20 feels leisurely again. I really am not sure what I expect to run on Sunday, but I know I will be very happy with anything under 11:00/mile, or ~2:24:00. I feel confident that I can do that.

We had the first official Yuri's Night 2006 meeting last night, which has spurred me to get some of the initial race planning underway. We have a date -- April 1. It's a little earlier than I'd like, but the following weekend I'll be out of town for Andrew's wedding, and the weekend after that is Easter. So April Fool's Day it is. Seriously. I'll be sending checks to USATF today for event sanctioning, and yesterday I got online registration up and running. I now need to call the parks office and communicate well enough that we avoid the issues we had last year (they apparently didn't know our event was happening even though I'd called them, booked the pavilion, etc).

I've got a list of websites to work on this weekend as well. First on the list is a very simple page for Chris's new side business; I'll post a link when it's done. Second is a little more work on the RRCA convention page. I've been harboring thoughts of a redesign for a month (the current page is functional and nice enough, but not entirely like how I'd originally planned for it to be) but haven't had time. I don't know if I'll get it done this weekend, but there are some tweaks it needs either way. Third is Carter, who wants a redesign. And last at the moment is my photoblog, which needs/wants a redesign.

My exciting life, eh?

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

There was some crazy guy

There was some crazy guy on the radio this morning talking about diets. Saying carbs are bad, the best food is steak, and you can lose weight with just 15 minutes of exercise twice per week. Said that if you went running for an hour a day for 40 days straight, you would lose no body fat because you're not burning fat, you're burning calories. Said we're all going to become diabetic because we eat too much sugar. The worst part? He kept repeating that this was all "based in science" and that he "is from MIT" and he "has read the 1200-page Physiological textbook" or whatever. He was throwing out all these bits of supposed credibility.

Sigh. I hate always hearing about these fad diets. There's one big way to lose weight: take in fewer calories, and burn more calories, than you are now. Or: EAT LESS, EXERCISE MORE. Seems pretty simple, even though I have issues with it myself. It's hard to eat less and exercise more. Food is good, and exercise can be unpleasant. But hey, that's what works. People pay attention to the fad diets because they're looking for an easy way out, but there isn't an easy solution.

At least the DJs interspersed his comments with a clip of a cuckoo clock chiming. That was funny.

I'm wearing my pearls today, the ones Brian gave me for Christmas. They came from China. I dunno if they're real or not, so I'm going to say that they are. I'm also going to call them my Communist Pearls. I'm wearing my Commie Pearls.

Oh, and my iPod? Still possessed. Sigh. Looks like I'll be making a trip to the Galleria this weekend for a new one.

Monday, January 09, 2006

If you want to track

If you want to track me during the Half Marathon on Sunday, you can register for updates (via email or text message) here.

I had an unusually rough soccer game last night. We won, against a team that we had never beaten, because they were short 3 people. Even short, they are still really good and it took all of our efforts to stop them. It didn't help that the ref was calling a rather one-sided game. He even sent a fan to the parking lot -- the father of one of the high school girls on my team -- because apparently the dad was harassing him. I got knocked down twice, like me-upended-and-lying-in-the-dirt knocked down, and he never called a foul. Falling down isn't unusual for soccer, of course, but it's extremely unusual for me. I'm bigger than most of the girls out there, and have momentum on my side!!

But we won. And we'd never beaten them before. And they are really good. So even if we had 11 and they had 8...I'll take it!

Thursday, January 05, 2006

There are a lot of

There are a lot of happy Longhorns around the office today. I didn't watch the Rose Bowl last night, which is a bit disappointing since it seems to have actually lived up to all the hype. Instead, I was shooting the two Interliga soccer games at Reliant Stadium. I enjoy soccer and these guys were good, so it was a lot of fun. I looked through a few of my photos last night and will finish going through them tonight.

I'm feeling so-so about the ones I did look at. The good -- my timing was good, and I caught a lot of good moments. The bad -- my equipment wasn't quite good enough to really let me be effective, and I was pretty handicapped by both the reach of my lens and the f/4 hit that I took to get to 280mm with my 1.4x extender. Hopefully I got a couple decent shots though, and will get the chance to do it again.

I worked my first real real sim this morning, a full 4-hour sim with four ascent runs (as opposed to my first real sim, which I did before Christmas, which was only one ascent). George had told me yesterday that he'd be there at 7:00 to help me, but he didn't show, and didn't show. By 7:30, since I was in no way prepared work the sim entirely on my own with no one prodding me and pointing me in the right direction, I began to panic. Finally he came in at 7:40; he'd overslept. Whew!!

Other than that, the sim went ok. The second run was a doozy where we found ourselves in a case for which we apparently have no procedures. Fun.

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

So I don't have much

So I don't have much of a recap from my three days in Atlanta since I felt pretty crappy for two of them. But the short version is: After getting off the plane from Charlotte, I was immediately whisked down to Peachtree City to have pizza with the Greens. Alas, no golf cart rides this time. The next day we went ice skating and no one fell down, I got to see Kent's apartment (I like it lots), and we watched a bunch of TV (3 episodes of Firefly). I rang in the New Year with Carter, Kent, James, Chrissy, Daniel, and Virginia. It was excellent to see Daniel and VA for the first time in a long time -- they are always happy and fun to have around. I woke up sick on New Years Day and we took it easy by watching more movies (Serenity and Fantastic 4), and also went over to Chris's for dinner. Chris has done an amazing job renovating his house; I am extremely impressed. On Monday we checked out Atlantic Station, which I hadn't seen before. It's a definite improvement over what was there before, though I'd like it more if there were more interesting shops. Then, of course, I ended the weekend with my long wait at the airport.

Yesterday afternoon after I started to feel a bit better I headed to Barnes and Noble to spend a gift card and ended up spending twice what the gift card was worth! I guess that's what the stores are counting. But I'm pleased with my purchases -- the complete set of Narnia books, "A Crack in the Edge of the World" about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, another Patagonia book, and a neat bargain coffee table book I came across full of poems and artwork related to flight.

I think my iPod is finally truly in its death throes. I tried to turn it on while on the plane on Monday and nada. I've tried to reset it and nada. I can't get any of the buttons to work, and the scroll wheel is working only sporadically. I wasn't quite ready to drop $300 on a new iPod, so I was hoping to get it to limp along for another few months. I did get money for Christmas though and am selling a camera lens though, so maybe it's time.

Tonight I will not be watching the Rose Bowl. Instead, I will be at Reliant Stadium shooting the two Interliga (Mexican club soccer) games being played here. I applied for press credentials and got them! Should be fun, although I will be up late. Hopefully I won't relapse into being sick again.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

I haven't run in 5

I haven't run in 5 days. The half marathon is a week and a half away.

I took a sick day and slept until noon. When I awoke, I still felt pretty crappy, but I couldn't sleep any longer. Once I got up and showered, I felt a little better. I'm pretty congested though, so I didn't try a run.

Since I did my long run before I got sick, I'm not too worried about my ability to do the race. It'd be nicer if I'd been able to run the past few days, but I won't lose too much fitness. So at this point, my highest priority is to get completely rid of this cold before race day. I don't want any lingering congestion or sniffles on the 15th.

When all was said and done, my plane left Atlanta at 10:50 p.m. Eastern time last night, four and a half hours later than scheduled. We got into Houston at 11:40 p.m. Central time, four hours later than scheduled. At least we made up a half hour in the air, eh? To really put a cap on the evening, we came into E terminal, where the bathroom was filthy and four of the eight stalls were unusable. I then had to walk the entire length of the terminal, across a couple skyways, and then take the train over to C terminal where I finally recovered my suitcases.

Seriously, Continental Airlines. It was midnight, and we were four hours late, and we were a tired and cranky bunch of passengers. You're telling me there wasn't an empty C terminal gate for us to pull into?

I owe Jen big time. She still came to pick me up, even though we didn't get back to Clear Lake until almost 1 a.m. Mad props to Jen.

Despite the airport delays and the annoying head cold, it's nice to be back in my little apartment. Home again, home again, jiggity jog.

Sunday, December 25, 2005

Merry Christmas! All was well

Merry Christmas!

All was well in Sarah-land for the holiday. Dad made it home late and David overslept, so the breakfast crowd was a little smaller than usual: Mom, Brian, Grandmother, Tomas, and me. Tomas is Brian's friend who didn't have enough vacation to go home for the holiday (he's from Panama), so he spent it with us. We even got him a couple presents.

David and Dad were both here by 10:30 and the present-opening began. I wonder if our family does it calmer than most -- we take turns rather than opening everything all at once. We go around the room in a circle each opening one present and repeating until everyone is done with all of theirs. Katie always wins the present battle; she's always the last one with any left. With her spending the holiday in Seattle with Joel's family, I was able to sneak in and take the "most presents" title, beating Brian by one. David, as the one with the least presents, won the title of "most expensive present" with a very nice pair of Bose headphones. :)

All of my gifts were well-received. I gave Katie a homemade calendar, and the boys and I got together to give her an mp3 player. Joel got a backpacking stove from me (which he might trade for a larger, sturdier version). Mom got exercise pants and a homemade calendar as well. Dad got a book ("The Tipping Point") and a Starbucks gift card. Grandmother got an amaryllis and chocolates, two of her standard gifts. (As she says, "I already have everything!") Brian got an REI gift card, headphones, and a book ("Let My People Go Surfing"). David got an iTunes gift card and the Firefly DVDs.

This is the best -- I bought David the Firefly DVDs not knowing if he'd even seen the show, but thinking that he would like it. On Thursday night while Katie and Joel were opening presents, David turns to me and says "hey, have you heard of that show Firefly?" Laughing inside, I say "yes." He says he liked the movie, and had been watching the TV episodes on Sci-Fi channel, and that he'd seen the DVD set at Best Buy that day and almost bought it. I make every attempt to be totally stealth and offhandedly say "oh, well you can get it after Christmas or borrow mine." Last night he again mentioned it, and pondered using Amazon gift cards to buy it. Mom and I very stealthily nudge him away from the purchase. "But it's not like anyone knows I want it," he says.

Luckily he didn't buy it last night, and we all had a good laugh when he opened the DVDs today. I love it when I am so dead on with someone's gift. :)

As for me, what did I get? Plenty! A backpacking stove, a couple shirts, an ornament. A zip-it purse -- it's a purse made entirely out of a zipper -- it is incredibly funny and cool -- who comes up with this stuff?? A bunch of books (including a cool one on digital sports photography), a Barnes & Noble card to buy more books, a Starbucks card, two DVDs ("Batman Begins" and the "Apollo 13" 10th anniversity edition), and some money from Grandmother (1.4x extender here I come). Brian won bonus points this year with his gifts to me -- a black pearl necklace from China and a calendar that he put together online full of photos from his trip there in October. He even took the time to put captions on each one! It might be my favorite present of all this year, partly because it was so unexpected and yet so cool.

We had a lazy afternoon enjoying our presents, and Mom and I went to see Chronicles of Narnia tonight at the theater. I'd already seen it, but knew Mom would love it so I was more than happy to go see it again. I still need to see King Kong.

I didn't go running today, and won't tomorrow (we'll be busy all day with the big family lunch with Aunt Nancy in Chapel Hill). But Tuesday is the day for 12 miles...

Thursday, December 22, 2005

Home again, home again, jiggity

Home again, home again, jiggity jog. Charlotte is cold! The pilot came on the speaker last night as the plane descended (half an hour late) to say that the temperature was 26 degrees. I live in Texas now, people. I can't handle it. It is sad and pathetic because I used to like the cold. Now I only like it if I'm running. Brr.

My grandmother just headed to bed and stopped to ask if I was updating my blog. She seemed surprised when I said "yes." Funny.

Not much to say, actually, other than I'm home for the holidays and home is nice. Mom and Katie and I went to the mother/daughter lunch with the Mickles, Easts, and Diehls today so that was fun. Mom and I went to Huntersville to pick up Grandmother, Katie and I went for a run, Joel got here after working his final day before vacation, and we spent the evening eating pizza, playing spoons and Scattergories, and laughing. My family is awesome.

Tuesday, December 20, 2005

There are two weeks left

There are two weeks left in 2005 and soon it will be official -- this will be the first year since college that I haven't left the country at least once. (Going to Vancouver and Whistler back in March doesn't really count. Canada's just not far enough away.) I had managed to overlook this fact in an attempt to suppress any restlessness, until Josh walked into my office 10 minutes ago to ask me a few questions about Peru. He's thinking of doing the Inca Trail this fall. He was mainly interested in whether he should spend a half day or 2.5 days in Lima, so I chatted about our activities during the day we spent in the Peruvian capital.

Lima wasn't even that nice; on my list of coolest cities visited it ranks pretty low. But as Josh left my office I found myself staring off into space for a moment, deep in memories of our Peru trip. I can't believe we didn't leave the country this year. It's good that I have Patagonia to look forward to in two short months -- otherwise I might go crazy and die of wanderlust.

~-~

Last year I signed up for this little Secret Santa thing where you are randomly assigned someone and buy them something off their Amazon wishlist. I bought someone a present, but never got one in return. Oh well, Christmas is about giving, right? This year I signed up again and last week ordered something for a random girl in Atlanta. I'd sort of forgotten about the "receiving" part until I got a package from Amazon yesterday. "Hmm," I thought, "I thought I made sure that all the gifts I ordered for the family were shipped to Charlotte." But then I opened it and realized it was a present for me! Thank you, random person in Chicago who sent me a Secret Santa gift!

~-~

Yesterday Jen, Jason and I bought season tickets for the Astros. Woohoo, I am once again a season ticket holder! Hope this season goes at least somewhat like last year's. Though I could do without the 15-30 mid-May record. And the World Series sweep.

Monday, December 19, 2005

One final note on my

One final note on my run yesterday in Seabrook -- I saw a ton of other runners. I saw some of them repeatedly. Since it's only a 6-mile out-and-back I can only imagine that many of them were out doing the same thing as me -- training for the Half or Marathon. It was nice to think that we were all in it together!

Today Jen posted one of my favorite shots even taken of me on her photoblog today. I'm sitting on a large rock on the edge of Chasm Lake in Rocky Mountain National Park and looking up at the face of Longs Peak. I love shots of me camping. Somehow they seem more gritty and real.

That sounds weird -- "favorite shots of me." I know a lot of people don't like to have their photo taken, but I don't mind very much. In fact, I sort of like it, if I think it's going to be a good shot. I'm not sure if that makes me vain or not; it's just a personality trait, or something. Anyway. That shot is one of my favorites ever taken of me.

I downloaded the soundtrack for "The Chronicles of Narnia" and have been listening to it all weekend. I have many varied tastes in music, but I always have a soft spot for good, inspiring instrumental pieces. If I had to guess, I'd say it's a result of my many years of band.

Instrumental music can get me going in a way that other music can't. I put a couple movie soundtrack songs (from my two most recent movie soundtrack purchases, "Narnia" and "Serenity") on my mp3 player as I headed out for my long run yesterday. By the time I hit 10 miles I was ready to stop, but suddenly the battle song from "Narnia" came up. Perhaps I should put more good instrumental stuff on my running playlist, because it really got me going! I probably ran the last half mile faster than anything else, though I was slowed slightly by my need to wave my arms as if I were conducting the really good parts...

I suppose I'll know that I've found the guy for me when I can conduct in the air without feeling embarassed. Because that's what I do when I'm alone and a song comes on and I want to emphasize all the good notes. You've heard of air-guitar; well, I air-conduct. I spent too much time following a drum major to not find myself wanting to direct the orchestra in my mp3 player.

I'm sure I was quite a sight -- running down the last bit of the trail towards the pool sweaty, breathless, and waving my arms like a lunatic.

Friday, December 16, 2005

The San Jose Earthquakes are

The San Jose Earthquakes are officially moving to Houston! I'm excited about having major league soccer in town. I wonder how much season tickets will cost? They should be playing their first season at the University of Houston stadium, so it's actually closer than the Astros.

Too bad Landon Donovan isn't still with them. We could've actually made good on our offer to give him a tour of NASA when his team moved to Houston...

Yesterday I worked 11.5 hours, thanks to the sim I backseated last night. It was my last as backseat. From here on out I sit hot seat, starting next Tuesday. Of course, next Tuesday's sim is a little different and will be one run, which will be uphill, since it's a post-insertion sim. (To do post-insertion, you have to insert, which means no abort, so why do you really need the ARD in the first place, eh?) My first "real" sim is the Thursday after New Years.

Great. I will go home for two weeks, forget everything I've learned, and then have to sit console for the first "real" time. Great.

Anyway, I got home tired and then vented with Becca for an hour or so. That's always fun. (Seriously, it is.)

And finally, a new JibJab cartoon celebrates 2005...

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

After mentioning how much cash

After mentioning how much cash I had to drop yesterday for a plane ticket, I might as well mention what the plan is. There is always a plan. Dum dum dummmmmmm. To help everyone out, I have created this handy dandy illustrated guide to the upcoming trip.

At the moment, "we" are Becca, Jen, Gavin, Karen, me, and possibly Emily. And maybe possibly slight chance of Jose, if he's not broke. Anyway.

On February 17 after work we will catch a plane from Houston to Buenos Aires. Argentina! Yeah! After a day in the city, we will catch another plane from Buenos Aires to El Calafate, still in Argentina, but waaaaaay down at the bottom of the world:

See? Very exciting. It's practically Antartica, only better, with mountains and funny animals!

From February 19 until February 27 we will be in Patagonia, a place that has been calling to me for a while now. We will visit El Parque Nacional Los Glaciares and see...los glaciares!

Then we will cross the border into Chile and go to the single place that has been calling to me the most, Torres Del Paine. I mean, just look:

See? SO AWESOME.

We will also see these:

On February 27 I will probably cry as I have to get on a plane in Punta Arenas to fly up to Santiago, Chile. We will spend that day in Santiago before boarding a plane that night to come back to Houston via Atlanta.

I am muy excited. Don't you want to come along?

Thursday, December 08, 2005

JSC decorates for Christmas --

JSC decorates for Christmas -- lights and banners and such. They also put four of those wooden, light-up deer out at the main guard shack, the kind that move their heads and stuff. Today as we came back from lunch, two of them were lying on their sides. "Robot deer down! I repeat: robot deer down!" George called gleefully.

See? That is a lunch conversation.

I'm currently trying to figure out if I have enough hours for the week to leave at 4. That would give me just enough time to go running for half an hour, shower, find a white elephant gift, and make it to the branch Christmas party at 6:30. The other issue? Whether to run outside or on the treadmill. It is COLD here today -- and I really do mean cold, not Houston cold. It's 38 degrees outside at 3:30, and the wind chill is 26! (I love having a weather station on top of my building.)

Treadmill it will be. I didn't bring warm enough clothes for 26!

And finally, a couple thoughts on baseball:

+ The Astros have parted ways with Roger Clemens, at least until May 1. They didn't offer him salary arbitration. He can retire, or he can sign with anybody else. It's sad and unfortunate after the past two awesome seasons, but it was necessary. The Astros were paralyzed by Carlos Beltran last year, and can't afford to let the same thing happen with Clemens. If Rocket can't commit, the Astros need to start looking to spend that $20 million now, while there are good free agents still available.

+ The Braves signed Edgar Renteria to replace Rafael Furcal. I'm impressed!

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

One of the best things

One of the best things in the entire world is not sleeping. Rather, it's that moment in the morning after you've woken up when you hit the snooze button, roll over, snuggle the covers up around your head, and sink back into the bed. That is one of the best things in the entire world.

Of course, it's something I've been experiencing a little bit too often lately. After working 9.5 hours yesterday thanks to my morning sim, I stumbled in today just after 9:00. Without coffee, since I'm trying very hard to limit my Starbucks intake. And that's when I remembered that I'm out of coffee filters for the machine here in the office. Sigh.

The good news is that I may be closing in on resolving my neural net's issues -- the sim versus the real world. Or actually, the sim of the sim versus the sim of the real world. Too many sims.

I was just reading a bit on a graphic design blog and came across one of my biggest pet peeves: people who write "loose" when they mean "lose." They are two entirely different words. And it's a design blog! You're in a career that's all about appearances! Learn to spell, or at least use spell-checker!

This concludes my rambling.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Yesterday I learned a new

Yesterday I learned a new word from, of all things, a fortune cookie. "You are a filial, kind and trustworthy." A filial? What the heck is that?

Main Entry: filial
Function: adjective
1. Of, relating to, or befitting a son or daughter: filial respect.
2. Having or assuming the relationship of child or offspring to parent.
3. Genetics. Of or relating to a generation or the sequence of generations following the parental generation.

Ok, I still don't get it. The word is an adjective. It's like saying "you are a happy" or "you are a purple."

Anyway. Last night's graphic design class was mostly work time, so I took my laptop with me and worked on my technical illustration. I decided to do a T-38 (the astronaut training jet) after starting and then abandoning illustrations of both my camera and the Wienermobile. The camera was boring, and the Wienermobile wasn't quite detailed enough to be a good subject. So last Friday I took a couple photos of the T-38s they have on display outside Space Center Houston and have been working on that ever since.

I've got almost all of the pieces of the drawing in place except the cockpit. Once I've finished all the pieces, I'll have to work on the shading. The shading is the hard part for me, so I've been putting it off. But of course the shading is what really makes an Illustrator drawing look real.

Cari copied the Firefly TV soundtrack for me and I've been listening to it for the past day. It's pretty good, with my major complaint being that all the pieces are too short. That's the downside of a TV soundtrack, I suppose -- everything is in short bits to match the quick scene changes, and I just find myself wanting each of the pieces to last at least a couple minutes longer. Cari's CD had 8 extra tracks that didn't come with the version I downloaded, including the great snippet full of violins and oboes in the background of "Out of Gas" when Mal is walking through the ship alone, closing all the doors. It puts a lump in my throat. Stupid TV show. Stupid, awesome TV show.

I just noticed that Dooce changed her header for the holiday season. Extra special bonus points with me if you can tell me what "cuddly as a cactus, charming as an eel" refers to. (Yes, I know what it's from. Do you?)

And Rachel just created one of the best descriptions of me that I've ever read: a "rocket scientist friend who has alligators as next door neighbors!" That alligator was cool/freaky. I keep on sneaking glances out my window expecting to see him again.

And finally, to cap off this meandering entry, Sean started a blog!

Monday, November 28, 2005

I saw Rent last week

I saw Rent last week on opening night with Becca and Jen. I just couldn't wait to see how they'd adapted it to film, and I was reasonably satisfied. Thoughts:

+ The opening scared me. "Rent" is such a chaotic song, and even leaving out some of the bit parts (such as Joanne's bit on the phone) didn't calm it down much. The filmed version was still chaotic, and made me worried that the entire movie was going to move too fast. I did like the end of it though, with the flaming posters and screenplays littering the air like some crazy ticker tape parade. Visually pleasing.

+ Fortunately things settled down after the "Rent" number. I didn't immediately like the altered timeline, but after some thought, I've decided that it made a little more sense when the events are spread out over a few days instead of everything through the Life Cafe taking place on Christmas Eve (like in the stage version).

+ Hearing the transitions (such as the answering machine messages) spoken instead of sung was both good (i.e more sensical) and disconcerting. It was hard to hear the words spoken without hearing the tune inside my head. Actually, it was hard to watch the whole movie without bursting into song myself.

+ Which brings me to a side note. I sing along with music all the time. In the car, at home, wherever. Now I admit that the majority of my singing is done when I'm alone, because while I can carry a tune, I'm not exactly Pavarotti. But point is -- I sing all the time. I've recently come to the realization that not everyone does this. Why? Well, I do a lot of people-watching when I'm stuck in traffic, and if other people sang in their cars half as much as I do, I would see a lot of mouths moving. But I never see that. Perhaps I'm strange. I love to sing along.

+ Back to Rent though. "La Vie Boheme" was awesome on film. It's one of my favorite scenes on stage as well (with all the action and coordinated dancing) and I'm glad it retained all the silliness and energy in the film. And randomly, I noticed during this song that Mark is really skinny.

+ The reprise of "I'll Cover You" is always moving, but WOW. The film version gave me goose bumps. The finale also gave me goosebumps. So there were some things that did work better on film.

+ "What You Own" is arguably my favorite song from the musical, and I wasn't totally satisfied with its treatment. I guess what I like about the song, and the staging on Broadway, is how Mark and Roger play off each other. Separating them until the end of the song weakened that, although for the first time I realized that they were probably always supposed to be in different places during this song.

+ They abbreviated "Goodbye Love," and I really missed the part where Mark and Roger argue with each other. "But who Mark are you?? Mark has got his work, they say Mark lives for his work, and Mark's in love with his work, Mark hides in his work!"

+ I was pleasantly surprised at Rosario Dawson's singing ability, and Tracie Thoms (the only other cast member that didn't originate her role) was great. The synching of the soundtrack and acting could have been better though, for all characters. Clearly the actors recorded their parts in a studio and not while they were actually acting the parts, and I'm ok with that, but there were places where the lip synching was a bit too obvious. Overall, the sound was much more polished and smooth than the stage soundtrack. I haven't decided which I prefer, though I did buy the movie soundtrack to give it a chance.

+ Overall I liked it. I want to see it again to see how it stands up to a second viewing. I have a feeling that I might like it better the second time now that I know what to expect.

Friday, November 25, 2005

The day after Thanksgiving dawned

The day after Thanksgiving dawned gray and cold. Actually make that gray and warm. And humid. And by dawn, I mean 10:30 a.m. when I finally got out of bed.

I went in to work for half an hour to check my sims and pick up my console handbook so that I could fulfill the other 3.5 hours I put down on my timecard by reading at home, instead of in the extremely empty office. Reading is boring. But, it must be done.

I did brave some of the holiday shopping traffic to get a few errands done. After lunch with Becca I headed to Office Depot for some oh-so-exciting mailing supplies, then couldn't resist a trip to browse the aisles at DSW. I am always disappointed by DSW and their incredible lack of size 11 shoes. They must have 500 pairs of shoes, and I'm lucky if I find one pair that both fits and isn't hideous. Today I got lucky and found a new pair of sneakers. Why couldn't I have feet that are one tiny size smaller? Size 10s are everywhere, but size 11... sigh.

After my afternoon of reading I headed back out again to hit the post office before it closed and then head to Walmart to pick up some photos. Walmart wasn't nearly as crazy as I'd expected, thankfully.

I hate that it gets dark so early. It's not even 6:00 but it feels so much later. I'm looking forward to two more relaxing days before the holiday season really hits.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

As my graphic design class

As my graphic design class comes to a close (our final project is a technical illustration; I'm trying to decide whether I want to draw my camera -- boring and unoriginal -- or something else; suggestions?) I'm trying to decide what class to take next semester. My options are two undergraduate classes, Photography I and Drawing for Non-Art Majors, and one graduate class, Web Design.

I'm allowed to take two undergraduate classes, so I'm leaning towards one of those. The web design class, though tempting, is basically a Dreamweaver class in the same way that my graphic design class has really been more of an Adobe Illustrator class. While I've enjoyed my graphic design class immensely and will certainly use all the Illustrator skills I've picked up, I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't cover more, well, graphic design. Nothing has been theoretical; everything has been applied. Then again, the name of the program is Applied Graphic Design so I suppose I should have expected as much.

Anyway, my point is that while I didn't know Illustrator before, I do know Dreamweaver fairly well. It's all self-taught, and there are certainly capabilities in the software that I'm unfamiliar with or don't even know about. But...I hesitate to take a class where at least the first half will cover things I already know. It'd be with the same professor, and he offered to make it into more of an independent study such that I do some work above and beyond what the rest of the class covers to challenge me. But I'm unsure.

So that leaves the other two. Drawing for Non-Art Majors and Photography. Either one would be good for me, I think. I haven't had a drawing class in years but taking one would certainly help with any graphic design stuff I do. And as much photography as I've been doing lately, I've never officially taken a class and I'm sure there would be things to learn.

Decisions, decisions.

In other news, I have stayed up far too late the past couple nights and I am tired. Hooray for it being a short week.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

Last night I went to

Last night I went to Walmart to pick up some photos only to find that the photo center had already closed for the night and all the photos were locked up. Boo. I consoled myself by picking up a $12 sewing machine and new socks. This is why Walmart is so successful, people. Where else can you get photos, socks, and a sewing machine?

I used my $12 sewing machine to make a bag for my headset. (Backstory -- flight controllers communicate with each other via headsets, little things that sit over your ear. When you get one, it comes with the headset and earpiece in a cheap little nylon bag. When I got mine, the bag was already falling apart, with half of the drawstring "tube" having come unstitched, and I didn't expect it to last very long.) It is very cool, even if the construction is rather shoddy due to, oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that I used a sewing machine that cost $12. The fabric is blue with shiny silver stars. It's from a piece of fabric I've had hanging around since I don't know when. I finally found a use for it.

I also went to the grocery store for the first time in a while, so I have food again just in time for Carter's visit. I'm glad he decided to come if for no other reason than it motivated me to finally clean up my apartment and restock the refrigerator. What are friends for? Heh.

I have a comfortably full weekend planned while he's in town. Tomorrow we are sleeping in. Well, I am sleeping in, and I don't really care what Carter thinks because I am a sleepy girl after this crazy week! Tomorrow afternoon we're going flying with Becca and I'm hoping to get some good aerial photos of Texas countryside. And not die. (Sorry, just had to say that to tease Becca.)

Sunday I'm running the 8.4K (one lap of the bigger event, which is the 25K). I have been horrible about running this week -- surprise, surprise -- but I am committed to the 8.4K. I also laid out a schedule the other day to get me through the nine weeks between now and the half marathon. It's go-time. If I want to run the half marathon on January 15, I have to start getting serious about training now. Houston Running Bloggers, I want you to start gently prodding me! I've put my proposed schedule online; it's basically a 9-week training program taken from Runner's World.

I know for a fact that the program will have to be fluid, with some runs happening on Wednesday instead of Thursday and that type of thing. But hopefully I can stick reasonably close to the schedule and distance and get it done. I don't have any illusions of finishing the half as well as I did two years ago (2:15) since I haven't been as committed to it. But I do plan to finish under 2:30.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Last night in softball I

Last night in softball I totally made a Lance Berkman-esque play. Or Albert Pujols-esque. Or Paul Konerko-esque. Oh, just pick your favorite first baseman.

Anyway, I totally scooped up the ball on the bounce as it was on its way back up and make the third out and saved a couple runs. I was so excited I couldn't even pretend to be nonchalant. I cheered for myself. Yay me.

In the bottom half of the inning we didn't score and therefore lost the game by 2 runs, but hey -- I made a good play. It made up for my crappy hitting. Afterwards I went to the batting cages with Jason and Debbie, where I hit ever so much better, as usual. Sigh.

I was at work until 7:30, just before the softball game, since I got in so late after waiting for the DSL man. There was something very peaceful about the office for the last couple hours, after everyone else had gone home and as the sky faded to black outside my window. It was quiet, and I just sat contentedly listening to my music. I often feel very unproductive in the mornings, but on the few occasions where I stay late, I always get a lot done. It's not that I'm not a morning person. I think it's just that my "peak productivity" time of day is late afternoon and early evening. Unfortunately for my work, I'm usually headed home by then!

I'll be running the Through the Brooks 10K tomorrow morning down here in Clear Lake. Anyone else out there planning to do it? If not, you at least have to run on Sunday -- it's World Run Day!

Thursday, November 03, 2005

I went for another run

I went for another run last night. Same as Tuesday -- same route, same time, same pace, same pain. Grr. I made a conscious effort to start off at a slower pace (which means that I finished at a faster pace) to see if that helped "ease" my legs into it. They still hurt a lot, but may have hurt less than the night before. I'm not sure. It may have just felt that was because I wasn't in quite as foul a mood as I had been on Tuesday. Either way, I was forced to walk only twice instead of five times. So that's good. 3 miles, 35:03, average heart rate of 173.

La la la. My DSL connection is out -- first time I've had a problem with it in 3.5 years -- and so I'm at home waiting for the DSL fairy to come fix it. Anytime between 8 and noon. I hate waiting for service people. They better come today.

I could only get one weak and intermittant non-secured wireless signal in my living room, so last night I pulled the ultimate act of laziness -- I lugged the laptop into my bedroom, propped myself up against a pillow and turned it on to see if the unsecured signal would be any stronger in there. It is. I sat in bed and checked my email. And now I sit on the bed looking out the window at the sunshine and checking email again. This is nice. Someday maybe I can work from home.

We saw Cari's friend Will on Friday night for dinner in Washington. He works from home. I was jealous.

I didn't realize how much I relied on my internet connection until it went out. Feels like I'm missing an arm, or a leg, or something else vital. I'm sure I lived a perfectly fine life before internet, right? I just don't understand why it went out. They said there are problems on my line, but I haven't added anything new or changed anything. Perhaps there are little bugs that ate through my internet. Stupid bugs.

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Tracy was back at work

Tracy was back at work yesterday after being gone for two months of maternity leave. I found out today, as she talked about how expensive it is to get nice photos of her new daughter, that her husband Arthur reads my blog. I've never met Arthur, but according to Tracy he is blog-addicted.

Hi Arthur!

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Last night I added a

Last night I added a few albums to my photo gallery, including snapshots from the second of my two trips to JPL and from this past weekend's trip to Washington DC. Be warned -- neither gallery is all that interesting. But the photos are there. Oh, and the DC photos consist of exactly two things: the Air and Space Museum and the Mall. If you don't like airplanes and spacecraft, you won't like my pictures!

I doubt there was much trick-or-treating going on in Houston last night. As I left work around 5:30 it started to pour down rain, in wind-blown sheets, and there was lightning everywhere. This continued at least through 7:00, when I went to class. By the time I got out at 9:00 it had stopped, so hopefully some kiddies got to go out later.

Our next assignment for class is to come up with a story for a children's book (any age group) and illustrate a page from it. Not a cover or title page, but one of the inner pages. I have a few ideas swirling around my head including re-illustrating a page of a story I wrote when I was in 3rd grade about a goose that couldn't fly (Mom is mailing me the book I wrote and illustrated then), writing a new story about Bernard the Bat who lives in Carlsbad Caverns and illustrating the bats flying out of the cave, and writing an educational story about the next Mars rover and illustrating it comic book-style.

After last night's storm it is beautiful outside today. Wish I were outside instead of in here...

Friday, October 28, 2005

I'm off to DC for

I'm off to DC for a quick weekend with Becca and Buzz (Jenny). Buzz is running the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday and Becca and I are doing the 8K, then going to cheer for marathoners. We're staying with Becca's aunt, and definitely going to see the new wing of the Air and Space Museum.

They left last night, as I was originally supposed to do. I changed my plane ticket to today, expecting to have been at Game 5 of the World Series last night. C'est la vie. It was good to have last night here anyway to recover from the previous two late, late nights.

If I don't update this weekend, I'll be back on Monday just in time for Halloween!

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

lights will guide you home / and ignite your bones

Last night I walked outside at 6:50 to get in my car and go to my 7:00 class. UHCL is only 5 minutes away, and my professor is always 10 minutes late, so I had plenty of time. Plenty of time, that is, until my garage door opener wouldn't work!!

This has to rank up there with "the dog ate my homework" as one of the more far-fetched excuses for being late to class, but it was actually true. The damn garage door opener would not open my garage door and I had no way of getting to my car! I have two openers, but the other one is in my car...in the garage. What to do, what to do...

I first called the apartment complex. The office was closed, but they have an after-hours emergency service that answers. I explained the problem and the man told me he'd page maintenance. We hung up. I decided to call Becca, who was still at work but was nice enough to come get me. While she was on her way, my neighbor came out to walk her dogs and I had the thought (don't know why I didn't have it earlier) to borrow the battery from her door opener. Well, it still didn't work. Not a dead battery problem, but the opener itself.

After she memorized the bit flips for her door, we changed the switches in her opener to match mine and voila! The door opened! Hooray, my car was freed! By this time it was 7:05 and on my way out I stopped to talk to Becca, who had reached the gate to my complex. Sorry for making you drive over Becca, but thanks! Then the apartment complex people called back and said maintenance could come but that it'd cost $45 or something. What a load of crap.

Off I sped to class, arriving around 7:20 and walking into the middle of the first critique. Our latest assignment was to make a set of bottle labels, and last night was the night to present them and hear comments and suggestions. I did a wine bottle, which was very unoriginal but I had a good reason for it: I know basically nothing about wine, and so when I buy it, I tend to buy bottles with pretty labels. For this project I went to Kroger and found a bottle of wine (a 2001 Shiraz from southeastern Australia) with a completely hideous label, and redesigned it. The name of the wine is Didgeridoo, so I had a lot of fun. Here's my label (the circle goes on top of the cork):

And here are a couple photos of it on the bottle (taken with my new Razr phone, woo!):

The coolest part was the end of class when our professor gave everyone a purple post-it and a yellow post-it and we got to "vote" on which bottles we liked best, purple for most professional and yellow for overall favorite. It was a way of giving semi-anonymous pats on the back. I got 10 stickies total -- six purple stickies for most professional-looking and four stickies for overall favorite. Since there are only 18 people in class, that's 36 post-its to be divided among 18 bottles -- and I got 10 of them! That's almost a third! (And no, I didn't vote for myself.)

I was pretty happy about that. There were some other very creative designs, more creative than mine in terms of content. I find that I tend towards creating things that look more polished and professional and less fun and fanciful. I think that's why I got more purple stickies than yellow. Either way, I left class feeling really good. It's always nice to know that what you create is appreciated by others.

I came home from class and baked 5 dozen owl cookies, much to the delight and satisfaction of all my coworkers at today's LSO hot dog day. (The LSO's make hot dogs. We all eat them for lunch. That's really about all there is to it.)

In 3.5 hours I report for duty as a photo runner at the WORLD SERIES! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Friday, October 21, 2005

Yesterday was my lucky day.

Yesterday was my lucky day. No, seriously, it was.

Two weeks ago I spotted the following announcement on the Texas Photo Forum, an online forum that I used to surf religiously and that I now only occasionally surf because, well, frankly, it keeps growing and I can't keep up anymore! (Oh, the pains of being old.) ANYWAY, here is the announcement I saw:

MLB Photos is looking for runners to work the 2005 World Series in the following cities: New York, Boston, Chicago, Anaheim, Atlanta, San Diego, Houston and St. Louis. You must be at least 18 years old and be able to work EVERY home game in your city. Runners will be responsible for taking CF cards, batteries, etc. to the various photo positions. Payment will be $75.00 per game. If you are interested in being a candidate, email your name, address, social security number, phone number and email address to [name], Photo Editor of MLB Photos at: [name]@mlb.com. Please, do not call. We will get back to you.

Of course I immediately sent in my name and information and a generic "I'd really love this opportunity" note. What an amazing experience that would be! It's not the most glamorous job -- running CF cards back and forth? whee. -- but the opportunity is priceless. To be at the games, behind the scenes, seeing how sports photography works on a professional, big game level.

For two weeks I heard nothing, then, on Tuesday afternoon I got an email from the Photo Editor asking me for a headshot to use on credentials if I was selected to work as a runner. Whoa! I still had a chance! I quickly took a crappy headshot and emailed it in with another "I'd really love this opportunity to learn more about professional sports photography" bit that sounded cheesy but was also totally sincere. A lot of other people from the photo forum got the same email, so we all crossed our fingers. Yesterday before I got home, I checked a thread on the forum where everyone was saying "I didn't get selected...neither did I...neither did I...oh well..." I drove home thinking, well, at least I'll be going to Game 4 with Chris (who has my undying love for offering the ticket).

I got home and checked my email. I had one from the MLB Photo Editor. I blinked.

You have been selected to work as a Photo Runner at the 2005 World Series games in Houston. Please confirm your availability. The Runner's meeting where you will pick up your credentials will be held on [date] at [time] at Minute Maid Park.

NO WAY! I got selected! I will be working as a photo runner at Games 3, 4, and 5 (if necessary) of the World Series! I'll have credentials! I'll be running around to the camera pits and under the stadium! I'll get to meet and talk to professional baseball photographers and MLB photo editors!

This is so cool. This is so cool. As an aspiring (very aspiring, but also very amateur) sports photographer myself, I cannot believe my luck! Being a baseball photographer is one of my dream jobs, and now I'll get to meet some of the people that have my dream job! This is so cool.

The funniest part is that half of the people I've told have reacted differently than I expected. Instead of "that's so cool," they say "but Sarah, you won't be able to watch all of the games." I don't understand this reaction. Yes, I am a huge baseball fan, and yes, I am a huge Astros fan, and yes, I would love to see the games. But I would never in a million years give up the chance to work, even if it's grunt work like this, for professional baseball photographers. If I don't get to see any of the games, so be it. I'll still be in the stadium, and hearing it. And if I do get to catch glimpses of the games, it might be from field level.

I am so pumped.

And yesterday was my lucky day for more than that. Yes, if that's not enough, there is this: I got a phone call from Katie (otherwise known as the coolest sister in the world, you only wish your sister was as cool as mine) who told me that she'd gotten an email from the Astros saying she'd been picked in a 2nd chance drawing for World Series tickets. So this morning at 10:00 with Jason watching anxiously and providing his credit card number, we used Katie's luck and email address to buy four standing-room-only tickets, two for Game 4 and two for Game 5 (we're betting on neither team sweeping). Barring an unlikely reversal in my status as photo runner, I have turned over those tickets to Jason and Jen, who also now think Katie is the coolest person on the planet.

This is a great day.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005

You know, I have given

You know, I have given poor Becca an enormous amount of crap in our years of living together (at Tech), traveling together, and sharing an office ('till she dumped me this spring for the glamorous life of a flight controller). But I must also give her credit for introducing me to the tiny slice of heaven that is...a pedicure.

Last night in my completely bummed out state, I decided to skip the running and do something nice for me. So I battled the vicious suburban traffic and went to our "favorite" nail place. There was no one else there when I walked in and I thought maybe it was too late, but nope! I'd swear the woman could tell that I was in a crappy mood because she took an extra long time (compared to the usual at that place) to let me soak my feet and then spent an extra long time rubbing lotion on my feet and legs. It was glorious. I felt so much better afterwards, not to mention that I now have pretty pink toenails.

On my way home I drove back into a couple neighborhoods near the nail place. I knew there were roads that led back there, but had never gone into the area. My first thought was: WOW there are some nice houses back there (a lot of the land is on the water). My second though was: this is my new favorite neighborhood in Clear Lake. I don't really know why, other than the fact that it seemed quiet and secluded despite being just off a very busy road. That feeling was probably enhanced by the knowledge that I've driven that very busy road many times and never known all those houses were there.

I've had the thought of buying a house or townhouse lately, mainly because I'm starting to get itchy in my apartment (I think). I like changes of scenery, and changes in living space. It seems dumb to leave my current apartment for just another apartment and so I've been thinking of buying, but I don't really have the money, not to mention I could never afford my "ideal" house anyway. There were some really great townhouses back there though. Great enough that I can't resist going to look up the prices. I'm sure they're far more than I could ever afford.

I'm feeling good about the Astros again. Yesterday was the day to wallow; today is the day to get PUMPED for them to win tonight. As Edgar said on Monday as we left the ballpark in various states of dejection, "Roy's gonna be nails." And he is. I know he is.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Our boss here in Descent-land

Our boss here in Descent-land left six weeks ago to move to the ascent world (i.e. one door down the hall). We've been rotating the job of "Acting Group Lead" ever since, and my stint started yesterday. While it is cool to be able to interview potential new hires and help determine the direction of our group in the future, I have sat through at least 7 hours of meetings in the past 2 days and spent 20 minutes putting together slides at 1:00 a.m. when I was already in a state of emotional distress caused by a guy whose name starts with POO. So in summary: this whole Group Lead thing is really crazy and rather stressful, even if it is fun to keep telling George that he's fired.

I am feeling incredibly depressed today. Evidence:

First, the game yesterday. Obviously. I know it is "just a game," but really, it's not.

Second, I got yanked around this afternoon by our travel system when someone in upper management accidentally signed my supposed-to-have-been-cancelled travel orders to go to Nice, France next week for a conference. I can't go because they don't have the money, but for a half hour I thought they'd had a change of heart. Turns out someone just wasn't paying attention. SUCK.

Third, I am exhausted. I should really run tonight, but I am exhausted. I may just go to bed early.

Fourth, I can't stop sneezing. I have been sniffly and sore-throated on and off since last week. It has been a bad week for my health, with the only exception being the 10K on Sunday. I had all these weird bites and itchiness. Then sniffles. Sore throat. Horrible eating habits for three days when all I basically had was ballpark food. Sneezing. And now just a general feeling of fuzziness and exhaustion.

Fifth, this group lead thing. I really do enjoy it, but I was not expecting it to be so hectic. Actually, I wouldn't even mind that if I weren't so tired. So I guess the group lead thing is not really a reason I'm depressed. Just why I'm stressed.

Sixth, I don't know. I'm sure it's just a combo of the first four. I've just had a mega downer of a day today. Hopefully tomorrow will be better!

Saturday, October 15, 2005

This morning I was in

This morning I was in Los Angeles but that feels like a long time ago! We got up at 4:00 am in order to get to LAX in plenty of time for our 6:55 flight back to Houston. We got home just after noon, and after dropping George off and running past my apartment to drop off my suitcase, Jason and I headed to the ballpark for Game 3 of the NLCS -- Roger Clemens vs. Matt Morris.

It was sort of a pitchers' duel. The Astros went up 2-0, then the Cardinals tied it, then the Astros went up 4-2. Lidge gave up a run in the 9th but held on for the save as the Astros won 4-3 to go up 2-1 in the series. I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about our chances. Brandon Backe is starting tomorrow and I'm hoping he's a little more "on" than he was last Sunday in the 18-inning game.

My bug bites (I have decided they must be bug bites since they've lingered so long) are finally starting to fade, much to my satisfaction. I'm tired of looking like I have the plague.

On tap for tomorrow: running the 20K relay with Cassie and Game 4!

Friday, October 14, 2005

Ok. The mysterious insect bites

Ok. The mysterious insect bites have turned into nasty red welts, and have multiplied. They itch like crazy, and only got worse this morning. During the morning break in our brainstorming sessions, I went to the JPL clinic and had the experience of trying to explain who I was, why I was there, and why I really needed some Benedryl. The very nice nurse gave me an Allegra, and then some Benedryl for tonight. It seems to be helping a bit.

They are ugly, red welts. I have 50+ of them. Mostly on my arms, but also on my stomach, legs, ankle, and on the bottom of my right foot. I was extremely tempted to take a picture of my arms tonight and post it here. These are not mosquito bites. I will refrain for your sake, but I want to know what the HELL kind of bug it was that ate me alive, and where.

Ok, that's enough about how I look like I have the pox.

The first full day of our brainstorming session went well today. We had a lot of good conversation about EDL (Entry, Descent and Landing), but the bad part is that we didn't get much of substance down on paper, or, rather, on Powerpoint slides. Tomorrow morning we'll have to work on that, as our end goal is to have a presentation on where our strengths and weaknesses are, and how we think JSC and JPL can best collaborate for future lunar and Mars missions.

After lunch, we got a brief tour of some of the robotic facilities here at JPL including three different sandboxes with lots of cool rover robots. I think building robots would be a very fun job. Perhaps I should look into it. Except I know absolutely nothing about robots. I just think they're cool and rovers are cute. :)

Perhaps I have hives. I don't think I've ever had hives. What causes them? Ok, I know I said no more about my pox, but it is driving me crazy with all the itching, people! I can't trace anything that I've eaten or used in the last week that was out of the ordinary except the weirdly shredded fajita meat at the baseball game. My first thought was that a spider got caught under my bedsheet. At this point, I'm thinking it would have had to be a whole family of spiders.

Gaaaaaah. The itching. My God, the itching.

The Astros won tonight! YEAH! And Chris Burke, you just keep doin' what you're doin', man.

Thursday, October 13, 2005

I'm in Pasadena again for

I'm in Pasadena again for a JPL-JSC "meet 'n greet" workshop. Meet 'n greet is my term; theirs is much more official-sounding. ;)

Our travel got straightened out this morning -- at least I think it did, though the real test will come when we try to get reimbursed -- and George, Gavin and I got on the 11:55 flight instead of 9:10, so we were only a couple hours late. We arrived just in time for me to give a very-much-winging-it 20-minute presentation on our current EDL projects. (That's Entry, Descent and Landing.)

It's much, much smoggier now than it was here last week. But the temperatures are still lovely. Tonight we met up with Andy and Ian, a couple old JSC co-op friends that are now at JPL, for dinner at a Tibet-Nepal restaurant. I had lamb in Himalayan spices. It was extremely yummy.

Sometime within the past couple days my arms (and assorted other spots on my body) were assaulted by an unknown something. Maybe a spider?? I have no idea. All I know is that my arms (and assorted other spots on my body) are absolutely covered in red swollen bites that are starting to itch more and more. Perhaps a spider was trapped under my sheet last night?? They itch. I look like I have the plague. Sucks.

My brother Brian flew off to Beijing today. Beijing! It's his first time out of the country, so I guess he figured it needed to be somewhere, you know, on the opposite side of the world. Crazy. I'd love to go to China. He's going with a group from his graduate accounting program, and I'm sure he's going to have a great time. I requested a postcard, and something cool for Christmas.

Thursday, October 06, 2005

Gotta go to bed. A

Gotta go to bed. A few thoughts...

California is great. It's hot, but not Houston hot. Pleasantly hot. With a breeze -- Santa Ana winds. I am dying to go running, but the opportunity has not presented itself. Today was full. Hopefully tomorrow I'll find a spare hour while the sun's still out.

Day 1 of the concept review was long, but interesting. I'm no longer worrying about having nothing to contribute, because I'm learning a lot. And -- and this sounds like a minor detail but really isn't -- I'm finally putting faces with names, and faces with the voices I've been hearing for more than a year on telecons.

JPL is awesome. It feels utterly and completely like a college campus, nestled in the hills. There are flat panel TVs showing Saturn, and Mars, and the Sun. The cafeteria is awesome, but it takes a long time to get your food. Pasadena is lovely. I could live here. I could totally live here. Except it did take me 15 minutes to find a freaking coke machine. Turns out it's in the basement.

The MSL team is a fun bunch. They are all older than me, and most have worked on other missions. They have a lot of great stories about backward star tracker doors, and mission controllers walking into the control room in bunny suits. No, not bunny suits like the Intel clean suits. Bunny suits, like the Easter bunny, with floppy ears.

We took a "break" this afternoon to go see a high bay covered in red dirt with a fully functioning MER rover, where they test-drive it, and bring in random kinds of clay to devise methods for getting the rovers un-stuck all the way out there on Mars. Very cool.

Finally met the infamous Dr. Braun, who's been an AE professor at Tech for two years now. Too bad he wasn't there when I was, he seems cool. Tech sounds like they are making a lot of changes for the better. A recent SSDL graduate who just started working out here told me that the undergraduate program at Tech seems hard, from what he saw while doing his M.S. He couldn't believe we didn't have a space option for senior design a mere four years ago. It's true, I told him. He was incredulous.

Had dinner tonight at Buca di Beppo. Me, another girl, and 20 men. That is a lot of men. Where are the women engineers? At least the men had lots of good stories. I got to share some good stories too.

Yesterday I told Gavin that I have limited interest in working on robotic missions, that if I work for the space program, human spaceflight is where I want to be, impacting people, working for people, with people. Today I'm reconsidering. JPL is cool. JPL people are cool. Mars is cool.

It was a good day.

Wednesday, October 05, 2005

california here we come / right back where we started from

I'm in California! Yes! Pasadena, to be specific. The weather is lovely and the streets are cute and quaint. It reminds me a lot of Palo Alto, except Pasadena is bigger. I can see the mountains out my window. Ahhhhh.

But on to bigger problems -- somehow the charger for my laptop did not make it into my bag. I wrapped it up last night, and it's probably sitting happily on my coffee table right now. GRR. Gavin's work laptop, also a Dell, doesn't have the same connector. When we went out for dinner, I even found an Office Max and I spent freaking $70 on an adaptor with 6 different plugs -- none of which fit my laptop. So now I'm $70 down and have 2 hours left of the battery life with which to do as much as I can of what I'd planned to do over the next few days when I'm not at the design review (namely: homework, my footprint paper for the Nice conference, and a bit more work on the RRCA convention website).

GRR.

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

I spent yesterday morning backseating

I spent yesterday morning backseating my first sim as an ARD! That's short for ARD Support Officer, yes, a shortened version that still contains an acronym. This is NASA, after all, king of acronyms. ARD stands for Abort Region Determinator. It's a tool used to model when the space shuttle passes into regions for the different ascent abort options. The job of the ARD Support Office is to make sure the model is always as accurate as possible. Honestly, it's a job that we wouldn't need if the ARD were just programmed better, but it was done in the early days of the shuttle and would cost a ton to update today. I don't really care either way; I'm just excited to finally be in the training flow for a flight control position!

I'm leaving this afternoon for a couple days at JPL to sit in on the MSL design concept review and hopefully both learn a lot and meet a lot of the people I've heard about and worked with. Gavin's going as well; he's actually the important once, since he's done the majority of the work and is presenting something both days. I'm cautiously optimistic about the trip. My biggest problem is myself -- I have to admit that I've been very cynical and pessimistic about Mars stuff lately, which isn't really good. Sigh. Why is it that I can recognize when I'm being dumb, and yet find it next to impossible to do anything about it?

I had class again last night, after an unexpected free week thanks to the hurricane madness. (I've decided that the whole Rita thing will always be referred to as the "madness" or the "chaos" from now on.) We presented our personal logos, the idea being to create something beautiful and elegant, simple yet complex...blah blah blah insert fluffy artsy words here. Anyway, here's what I came up with. I did it in something like 10 minutes, and then spent hours trying to figure out some way to make it more complicated or more involved before deciding that I liked it the way it already was. Plus, this way, it's simple enough that it reproduces well in all sizes, and could be printed in any color. Versatility, people! Like the Nike logo.

Elsewhere, I'm a camera ho and loving it.

And, the funniest line of the day from a Richard Justice article in the paper:

Me: "Would you agree the tombstone sports section turned this season around?"
Brad Ausmus: "It may have been a motivation for some players. It has been brought up quite a bit."
Me: "What about you?"
Ausmus: "I didn't really care."
Me: "I have a Hall of Fame vote. Want to rethink that answer?"
Ausmus: "What are you going to do? Keep me out of the Hall of Fame? I think I've done a good job of that all by myself."

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

I went to Kroger last

I went to Kroger last night to pick up a few things. I actually had forgotten all about the hurricane until I walked in. The TP aisle was almost entirely bare. The canned goods aisle looked as if a tornado (or, you know, a hurricane) had gone through -- a few random cans scattered around, but that was it. They were entirely out of Diet Coke and all the Minute Maid drinks that I buy, yet (as Laurie also observed) there were plenty of Pepsi products. Score one for Pepsi being quicker to restock, or, score one for Coke being tastier. Who knows.

The Phillies lost last night, benefitting both the Braves, who clinched the NL East for the 14th year in a row, and the Astros, who scratched out a bit more breathing room with a much-needed win over the Cardinals. They now lead the Wild Card race by 2.5 games with 5 games left to play -- one against the Cards, then 4 at home against the Cubs. Magic number is 3.

"Apparently not content at trying to blast Texas off the map with hurricane-force winds and submerge its coasts beneath stormy seas, Mother Nature now seems bent on baking the state." It's supposed to be 15-20 degrees cooler by Friday. THANK GOD.

Ever since I got back from our little vacation in Conroe, I have been itchy. Antsy. Restless. It's almost a nervous feeling. Like I'm about to burst out of my skin. Normally when I feel this way, I know why. This time I don't. It's unsettling.

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

take my love / take my land / take me where I cannot stand

It's amazing how infatuated we have become with a silly TV show, and in only 5 days. I came home from our post-evacuation celebration dinner at Mely's and watched two Firefly episodes that I just watched three days ago. (The first go-round, we saw them all out of order. Now I'm watching them in the intended order. It does make more sense that way.) I guess this is the part where I admit that I'm hooked on the series. When Gavin and Jason first told me about it I had serious doubts. But they were right...this time, anyway.

And the theme song won't get out of my head.

Today I'm back at work after our unexpected 3.5 days of vacation. We're allowed to chalk up half of Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and yesterday to "excused leave" since the center was officially closed. The evacuation did have the negative effect of cancelling my trip to JPL though. I was supposed to leave last night and be there through Thursday, but the trip was cancelled (or at least postponed) on Sunday night after the number of people pulling out for evacuation and return-related reasons reached critical mass. I'm a bit disappointed, because some of the tours we were going to do sounded really cool, and I was looking forward to seeing if anything of substance would come out of our meeting.

The consolation prize is that I'm still scheduled to go to JPL next week for the Mars review. At least I still get to make it out there sometime, although next week there won't be any baseball games to see and stadiums to visit. Sad.

I have a lot of homework to do this week for my class, so I'll be busy with that. I plan to run tonight, but it is amazingly hot outside -- 95 degrees with a heat index of 104 is a bit extreme for late September, even in Houston. I'll do the treadmill or elliptical instead. I gathered up my courage and stepped on the scale this morning for the first time in a week and was pleasantly surprised to find out that I miraculously did not gain any weight from eating all Meg's good food over the weekend.

And life goes on...

Saturday, September 24, 2005

be it ever so humble / there's no place like home

And that's where I am, back in Clear Lake. Woo!

Tang is meowing at my feet, and I have to take him back to Gavin and Jen's in a bit. Our four-car caravan headed south in exactly the same way we headed north -- minus 5 hours. That's right, the drive home took us the standard hour and a half, plus a few minutes to deal with the car carrier and Gavin and Jen's car that broke halfway down the highway and threatened to act as a wing and take their car airborne! ;)

My apartment is, well, completely fine. I have power, in fact, I never even lost it, as evidenced by the alarm clock that's still showing the correct time and the answering machine that still answers with my voice. The answering machine is how I knew my power was on in the first place.

My apartment complex doesn't even look any worse for the wear. A few branches, some leaves, but it's looked worse after a big thunderstorm. According to the government, we weren't supposed to come back until Tuesday. I didn't hear that until after we were on the road. According to the TV news this morning, people in our area were allowed to come back. So, some conflicting messages. I'm glad I returned. And now I have plenty of time to re-order and clean my apartment since we're off work Monday as well. I am, however, supposed to fly to JPL on Monday evening; no word on whether the trip's still on, but at the moment I'm assuming it is.

We really dodged a bullet with this storm. The local news is starting to broadcast images from Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Lake Charles and the damage and flooding there is much, much worse. I'm thankful Hurricane Rita swerved to the east at the last minute, sparing Houston, but it's hard to feel too happy about it when you know people a hundred miles up the coast are suffering.

Our evacuation turned out to be a fun time, and I can't thank Gavin's parents enough for taking us (people and pets) in for three days. Of course my parents would do the same, but we will need to do something very, very nice for Mike and Meg as thanks. What should have been three very tense days was really more like a vacation.

Anyway. I am home, and it's nice.

Friday, September 23, 2005

the thunder rolls / and the lightning strikes

So. Update from Conroe. Life goes on and there's no hurricane yet! I'm stuffed with food thanks to Gavin's mom, and now I'm sitting here stealing wireless from a neighbor and watching the Astros. The only thing that would make life better is if the Astros were winning -- it's already 2-0 Cubs in the bottom of the 1st. Oh, and I suppose life would also be better if, you know, there wasn't a hurricane headed our way.

Speaking of Rita, things are looking better. By better, I mean that it's headed east of us so hopefully the storm surge down in Clear Lake will be low. We are certainly still in for some wind and rain. Probably won't get much sleep tonight.

In the meantime, I'm gonna watch baseball (now 3-0, boo) and work on web stuff!

Thursday, September 22, 2005

I can see for miles and miles

The drive from League City to Conroe usually takes about an hour and a half. Our four-car caravan left Gavin and Jen's house at 2:15 yesterday afternoon. We arrived at Gavin's parents' house at 8:40 last night.

This hurricane evacuation thing sucks. ;)

Traffic was unbelievably bad as we took Beltway 8 around the east side of town and then Highway 59 north to FM 1314 and then to Conroe. As bad as it was, it sounds like I-45 was even worse so I'm glad we didn't try that route.

In retrospect, it didn't feel like we spent 6.5 hours in the car. Something about knowing that everyone was in the same boat, so to speak. It was hard to get annoyed with traffic when you know everyone's just trying to do the same thing, and get to the same places. Sort of a "we're all in it together" feeling.

The "good" news is that while Rita has now become the 3rd strongest hurricane on record, the forecasted track has continued to move northeast. Landfall is currently predicted to be slightly east of Galveston, which is better for us than slightly west. Of course, it could change. And with traffic the way it is, and the storm as strong as it is, I'm glad we chose to leave yesterday. Best case, we did all this for nothing. I can live with that!!

Gavin's parents are taking great care of us. In that sense, hurricane evacuation will be the best thing that happened to me all month! ;) We're eating great, we've got enough ice cream to last a week, and hey -- internet! We are only in Conroe, though. If Rita comes ashore anywhere around Galveston, we will get a lot of wind and rain up here, and probably lose power as well. No threat of storm surge, though, and that's why we came here.

We've tossed around the idea of moving farther north, as even Montgomery County (where we are) is under voluntary evacuation, but I really think we'll be good enough here -- and with the way traffic is, it's probably better to stay put. Everyone is completely freaking out in these post-Katrina days, so the area is more of a madhouse than it would be if Katrina hadn't happened.

JSC's webpage won't even load, so I'm assuming that means that the servers were shut down and work is officially closed. Good to know.

My apartment when I left looked as if I'd just moved in. All my stuff is in the bathroom (the only room with no windows), and the only things left in the bedroom and living room are furniture. Best case, the hurricane doesn't do any damage and I have a really good excuse to clean my apartment!!

I realized as I packed up yesterday morning that though I am a pack rat, and though I have a ton of stuff, most of it actually is replaceable. That was comforting. The irreplacable things -- old photo albums, my t-shirt quilt, computer harddrives with all my stuff on them -- are with me here.

So, we're all just chillin' in Conroe for the moment. The house occupants include:

• 7 people (Mike, Meg, Gavin, Jen, Cari, Becca and me)
• 4 dogs (Roxy, Zoya, Apache and Bennet)
• 2 cats (Shmall along with Tang, who belongs to Kennda who is in Spain)
• 1 bird (Ollie, belongs to Nick who is in Lebanon)
• 1 fish (my betta, Voldemort)

It felt sort of dumb to bring the fish along, but I didn't want him to starve.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well, Webster (my suburb) is

Well, Webster (my suburb) is supposed to issue mandatory evacuation orders at 6:00 tonight. So, I'll be gone by then.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well, it's semi-official -- my

Well, it's semi-official -- my area of town, Webster, has been placed under a voluntary evacuation order, with mandatory evacuation to follow at 6:00 a.m. tomorrow. I'm about ready to go. A few more things to put in my car...photo albums, my computer, a sleeping bag.

I really really that we're getting spun up for what will turn out to be a bit of wind and rain. It's not looking like it so far though.

Wednesday, September 21, 2005

Well crap. It's now a

Well crap. It's now a Category 4, with a chance of becoming a Cat 5. It's still supposedly headed a bit far enough south that it's not the absolute worst-case scenario. I'm still getting the heck outta dodge though.

And to make things worse, the temperature today will be almost a record high. 97 degrees.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

In other news, Hurricane Rita

In other news, Hurricane Rita is still making us nervous here in Clear Lake. The track has moved slightly southward (which is good) but we're still on the bad side. If it doesn't move drastically today (and it probably won't), tonight I get to do the fun task of making an easily-picked-up-and-taken-with-me hurricane box filled with fun things like insurance paperwork and important documents! Whee!

Go away Rita.

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

I realized last night, in

I realized last night, in the middle of my third class as a UHCL graduate student, that I am an educational snob.

I don't like this.

I keep on walking into UHCL marvelling at all the students. I wonder, do they actually all take classes here? Why? It's just UHCL, a community college. Somewhere in my brain, I think I held off on taking classes at UHCL for a long time because some part of me considered it an inferior school.

My professor talks a lot about competing for jobs in the industry, and about how UHCL does it differently than UH downtown, and in my brain his comments are interpreted as trying to defend UHCL's puny program, when in actuality I'm sure he's just trying to point out the differences. The program's "puny-ness" is entirely in my head, of course.

Last night I suddenly became aware of all those thoughts and realized what it meant. I am an educational snob. I've always said that the school doesn't matter; it's what you learn and how you apply it. Apparently I have not been doing as I say. So, in addition to doing all my graphic design homework this fall, I am also going to work on going to campus without my nose figuratively stuck up in the air.

Class went well. I shouldn't have been worried about how good or bad my text-based picture was (to see it, go back a few entries). Mine was one of the best 3 or 4 in the class of 20, and I got some nice compliments and helpful critiques on it. A lot of people had really great ideas but were stymied by their lack of knowledge on the ins and outs of Illustrator. They had a great idea in their head, but lacked the technical knowledge of the software to turn it into reality. In that sense, I realized that I'm very lucky to have one of those brains that picks up and processes new software tools fairly quickly. I'd never used Illustrator before a month ago, but it's intuitive enough to me that I was able to do what I wanted.

Friday, September 09, 2005

Well, my sucky day turned

Well, my sucky day turned around in some pleasant and unexpected ways. Crossing my fingers that the changes stick.

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Ever get back from a

Ever get back from a great vacation where you were completely out of touch with television, internet, and most radio stations and when you reconnect, it seems like the whole world is falling apart? Me too.

New Orleans is a wasteland. The Gulf Coast is ripped to shreds. The Chief Justice died. A freak accident in Europe broke the cable on a gondola killing some of the passengers. A race car rammed into one of its pit crew. Gas prices climb and climb.

My air conditioning is on the fritz. As far as I can tell, it only cuts on once the apartment has surpassed about 87 degrees. Thankfully the humidity subsided sometime between when I left for the Pacific Northwest and when I returned, so with the windows open and my ceiling fans on, it's actually not bad. I'm just glad it didn't break in July!

The A/C issue follows a repeatedly broken garbage disposal (that they finally replaced instead of just fixing) and a repeatedly leaky roof (that they also appear to have finally fixed as evidenced by the bits of ceiling insulation I found all over my floor when I got back from vacation). Things break in threes, I guess.

I've got a long list of things to take care of in the next week or so. The triathlon in Lafayette, Louisiana that I was supposed to shoot this weekend with Karen was cancelled in the aftermath of the hurricane, so I have my weekend back. I'll be spending it doing homework, since I obviously didn't get any of it done while I was out of town. (Laptops are not good items to carry into the backcountry, go figure, heh.) I've got photos to print and mail, homework to do, and the RRCA Houston 2006 website templates to finish so that Jon and I can start adding content. I've got to start running regularly again so that I can do the 20K relay with Cassie.

Work is also busy. I'm trying to finalize a point design with Gavin, but can't log into the Langley servers this morning because they are moving, and someone ignored the "DO NOT TOUCH, DO NOT MOVE" sign on the machine that has all the password files, so the servers aren't recognizing my login. I am also starting my training for a flight control position, which is rather exciting! I have work on the Mars neural network to finish up as well.

AND, most exciting of all, I found out when I came back to work yesterday that I will be travelling to JPL in a week and a half for a meeting of young employees -- a meet-'n-greet, sharing information, making connections, discussing how to work together in the future type trip. There is a fairly large contingent going from JSC, including George and either Rich or Gavin, and Ron, and a bunch of others I don't know. I am very excited. I've never been out there because it's always Gavin that gets to go to JPL for the Mars meetings. Finally I get to go! (Even if it's for a different purpose.) I actually think I will have more to contribute to this meeting than I would to a technical meeting anyway.

This slightly makes up for the fact that I don't get to go to the IAASS conference in Nice at the end of October, despite the fact that I am writing a paper for it.

Wednesday, August 31, 2005

Hurricane Katrina has, for the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Should be fun!!

Tuesday, August 30, 2005

I'm writing you to catch you up on places I've been

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, August 29, 2005

The weekend alternated between busy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, August 26, 2005

baby's black balloon makes her fly / almost fell into that hole in your life

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

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

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

Cari looking excited:

Up, up, and away:

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

Happy Teeth in flight:

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

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

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

Thursday, August 25, 2005

Happy Birthday Kent! I really

Happy Birthday Kent!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Last night I became a

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

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

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

I’m cautiously optimistic about the whole thing.

Friday, August 12, 2005

Nick is on his way

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Last night I headed up

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

I'm sick. Boo. I had

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, August 01, 2005

Juty duty was excruciatingly boring.

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

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

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

Friday, July 29, 2005

Kent is here, finally, after

Kent is here, finally, after an evening of cancelled and delayed plane flights. He was on the 9:02 flight all along, but had hoped to standby on the earlier 7:00 flight. The 7:00 flight was cancelled, so he came on his original 9:02 flight...which turned out to be more like a 10:55 flight. He finally got to my apartment around 12:30 Houston time, at which point we both said "yay!" and then went to bed. Exciting, right? Today he's coming out to lunch with us and then he's going to go downtown to see the Lord of the Rings exhibit at the Museum of Natural Science.

We had our last (I think) softball game of the season last night, at the lovely hour of 6:00. It was SO hot. And SO nasty humid. Gross. But we won, and I went 2-for-2 with a walk. Hurrah.

So one set of my data finished running last night, the other had an error and stopped. Boooooo.

Blog comment spammers suck. I am getting really tired of cleaning up 80+ comment spams some mornings. Thankfully, I use a Movable Type plugin that can either block or moderate the crap comments, but lately the spammers have been bombarding me such that MT can only moderate the comments. Thus they still show up in my database, even if they don't show up on the site, and I still have to go in and get rid of 'em. Stupid spammers.

Friday, July 22, 2005

Tonight I'm going to a

Tonight I'm going to a drum corps show with Jen, who was a drum corps member herself back in the day. I haven't been to one in ten years (10? whoa!), since the time that I was deeply entrenched in the...drumroll....Myers Park High School Marching Mustang Band!!! And the crowd goes wild...

I fully admit that I was a band geek. Many of my best memories from high school are directly related to either marching band or the people in it, and so I will be going to this show tonight fully prepared to resurrect a bunch of those memories. Among the most vivid is standing next to the field at the end of the show while the Cavalier trumpet line stood in a semicircle and blasted us with sound. I'm sure Jen will be paying close attention to the drumlines, but I was always partial to the trumpets and mellophones.

In other news, I finished Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince last night. Though I was prepared for what happened, I was also somehow surprised. I have a few theories though, read on if you've already finished the book.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Question of the day: How

Question of the day: How do they make wrinkle-free cotton? What do they do to make it wrinkle-free? I'm wearing a new Eddie Bauer wrinkle-free dress shirt and when I pulled it out of the dryer, after having sat in the dryer all night and only been fluffed for a few minutes this morning -- no wrinkles!

One of the mysteries of life. Really.

The conclusion of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince continues to elude me. I'd planned to finish last night, but didn't actually start reading until 11:00 after talking on the phone, catching up on the Tour de France, getting Carter's gallery set up, and trying to code something for my website in Javascript that would probably be a lot easier if I actually knew Javascript.

At 11:00 I finally sat down to read, and by 12:30 I was on page five hundred something with just a little more than 100 pages to go. My eyes were drooping, and I knew another 100 pages would take me another 2 hours, so I had to stop right after Gryffindor won the Quidditch cup (which they always win, right?, so saying that's not going to give anything away to those who haven't read it yet). Hopefully I'll finish tonight.

The shuttle launch has been officially rescheduled. We'll try again next Tuesday at 9:39 CDT.

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

Happy We-Landed-On-The-Moon Day! (Make sure

Happy We-Landed-On-The-Moon Day! (Make sure you zoom all the way in for the full effect.)

I read an article yesterday about concerns that Google may be too-knowledgeable. Between Google, Blogger, Gmail, and all the cool new stuff they are developing, they are in a position to know a lot of information about the people who use their services. I guess it's a valid concern, but on the other hand, they keep churning out such damn cool stuff that I don't really care if they know about me.

Of course that's probably how 1984 starts, right? ;) (No, I've never actually read the book.)

Last night we went to Mely's for the last time with Jo. The last time before the next last time anyway. See, this is already the second "last" dinner Jo has ever had at Mely's, and I'm sure there will be more. She's off to Minneapolis today to begin training to be a flight attendant. Good luck Jo!

Work continues to be ok one hour, and sucky the next. I'm just trying not to crack up entirely. I skipped the C++ class yesterday afternoon to take care of a bunch of stuff at the office (including restarting my sims, which went down when they had to reboot the system, just my luck) but am back in the class this morning about to go through chapter 7 of the book.

I have about 250 pages to go in Harry Potter. I better not plan to do anything tonight; I think I'm at the point where if I continue to read there's no hope of me putting it down before the end.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

I tried to post this

I tried to post this morning but my database was down. However, my rock awesome hosting company had it running again in no time.

Not too much to report this morning. I am still in the C++ class, which went well enough yesterday until I figured out that what the workbook is teaching us is not C++ exactly, but the Microsoft-ized version of C++, since we are using Visual C++ to code and compile. UGH. I don't want to learn the Microsoft-ized version, I want to learn the basic syntax. I want to learn cin and cout instead of Console::ReadLine and Console::Write. So I stole a programming book off Matt's bookshelf yesterday afternoon, and am now working from that and an online tutorial.

Gavin helped me figure out a plan of attack for all the stuff I have to get through in order to get my paper written, so I'm feeling a bit better about that. In college, I swear I worked better when I was under pressure. These days, I seem to have lost that talent. All it takes is one little setback and I flip out, convinced that I am never going to get everything done.

The woman sitting in front of me in class threw a mini-tantrum earlier this morning because the instructor wasn't teaching her exactly what she wanted to know. She asked a question, he answered, but it wasn't the answer she wanted and her frustration was evident in the tone of her voice. "I want to know the syntax," she said. "I want to know why this doesn't work. Should this come before or after?"

As she expressed her frustration, I suddenly realized that I have probably sounded just like that lately. I have noticed a distinct lack of patience on my part with the programming and sim-related difficulties we've been having at work lately. I know I've been whiny and probably unpleasant to work with. I am just so tired of setbacks, and so frustrated with not being able to turn on the light bulb and suddenly just get it.

I am just so ready to have something that WORKS, after months of delays.

I'm almost halfway through Harry Potter. I had to put it down last night at about 12:30 knowing that if I kept reading, the story would continue to snowball and pick up steam, and then I'd be up till 5 a.m. trying to finish.

Tonight, perhaps.

Monday, July 18, 2005

I'm in a C++ class

I'm in a C++ class all week. I have high hopes for it, since it's something that would be quite useful for me to know since all of our Mars code is being transitioned from Fortran. However, I often have high hopes for JSC computer classes that don't pan out; they cover material that is too basic, or move too slowly. Since I basically know zero C++ though, a basic slow class may be ok this time. We shall see.

My weekend was full of nothing. Seriously, nothing. On Saturday after missing the 5K because I overslept (GRR!), I don't think I left the apartment all day. I watched the Tour de France -- multiple times -- and finished reading Lance Armstrong's War (primarly about the buildup and riding of the 2004 Tour) so that I could start Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I'm only about 7 chapters into it, so Becca and Cari, no spoilers!

Yesterday I spent forever on the phone. Ok, not forever, but something like 3 hours, which is a lot for me, and made my ear hurt. Almost two of those hours were with Carter, helping him make a few changes to his blog, get the archives working again, and get a gallery set up (though he has not managed to put any photos in it yet). I love pointing out that he is a certified, degree-holding Computer Scientist who can't make his blog do what he wants...except for the fact that I think he probably could if he wanted to do it himself, and the other fact that he understands way more about the back end of web stuff than I do.

While not on the phone, I watched a bunch more Tour de France -- multiple times again -- and finally got around to rebuilding the photo collage that I had in my old apartment that I had never replicated in my current digs. Yesterday I finally did, spurred on by the need to organize and clean that I've felt since learning that Kent is coming to visit in two weeks. It looks awesome. I have an array of photos from all my cool trips, and a panorama of Machu Picchu in the middle. Woo!

Friday, July 15, 2005

This very cool photo got

This very cool photo got forwarded to me this morning:

Launch is currently no earlier than Saturday. Or Monday. Or Sunday. I don't really know, as I've heard all three from different sources including a GNC, a FDO, and the news. Sadly it doesn't really affect me because I have nothing to do with the launch, and indeed, nothing to do with the mission. I'm glad that that will soon change when I begin training for a flight control position!

Softball was cancelled last night after we finally got some heavy rain. It must have rained a fair amount overnight as well, because I remember waking up a couple times and hearing it. We certainly need the rain, cool things off and make the grass green again. I have no big plans for the weekend. I've already mentioned that I'm running the Lunar Rendezvous Run tomorrow, but other than that...nothing. I can't shake the nagging feeling that I was supposed to have plans, though, so if I'm supposed to do something with you, you better remind me.

I have been getting hit hard by the blog comment spammers lately. I could call them some really nasty names, and talk about how I just had to spend 5 minutes deleting their "online casino!" spams from my database. But instead, I will talk about how lovely the Movable Type Blacklist plugin is, because it flagged the suspicious comments and thus made them all much easier for me to delete.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Dooce has a great entry

Dooce has a great entry today about Peruvian boyfriends and guinea pigs. It was funny. Happy sigh. I want to go back to Peru. I'm already looking forward to our Patagonia trip (Patagonia is the at the very bottom of the Andes, in Chile and Argentina), even though we've had to delay it from this October to January/February instead.

Last night Gavin kept me company as I took photos at one of the weekly Wednesday night sailboat races on Clear Lake. Becca mentioned that many of the skippers were wondering what happened to the lady that used to take photos, so she told me I should head out there and maybe make a few bucks. It was fun, the weather was nice, the wind was blowing briskly, and the boats were pretty. We'll see what happens with the photos. First I need to get them organized and posted, then I need to get them linked to from the Clear Lake Racing page. Then we'll see if anyone actually wants to buy any prints or not.

I think there is something wrong with my fish. He has stopped eating his food, and just hangs out at the top of the water all the time. I know he's just a fish, but still. I want him to get better and be all active and swimmy again! :) I need help from Emily. She knows a lot of random things about fish...

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

The All-Star game last night

The All-Star game last night was completely...underwhelming. I couldn't even really keep myself in front of the TV for much of the game. I did watch when Smoltz, Oswalt, Clemens and Lidge pitched, and watched one of Ensberg's at-bats, and saw Andruw's homer. But the NL got whipped. And the rest of the game was rather...boring. Could it be that I prefer to watch games that mean something, and where the players aren't being swapped around every inning? I suppose so. I don't say that sarcastically at all -- the All-Star game is cool enough. It's just more fun to watch actual games.

So. Not much to say today. Oh yeah, except one tiny little thing that will hopefully launch at 2:51 CDT this afternoon:

Mom has her shuttle flag flying outside our house, I know. GO DISCOVERY!

Monday, July 11, 2005

I was supposed to report

I was supposed to report for jury duty to the Harris County Courthouse at 8:00 this morning.

At 8:37, I woke up and realized that my bed was not, in fact, anywhere near the Harris County Courthouse. I also realized I felt like I'd been run over by a truck.

Oops.

I had to reschedule jury duty again (I'd originally been scheduled for the week I was home for the wedding), and then had to tell someone that I wouldn't be at work today not because I am an upstanding citizen doing my civic duty, but because I am an idiot who planned far too busy a weekend.

For future reference, I do not recommend leaving Houston at 1:30 a.m., arriving in Dallas at 5:30 a.m., sleeping for one hour, shooting a triathlon in unrelenting heat and sun, leaving Dallas at 11:30 a.m., arriving home at 4:00 p.m., downloading and uploading all your photos, playing a soccer game at 7:00 p.m., getting home at 9:30 p.m., showering, and then inexplicably convincing yourself that you will still be able to get up at 6:30 a.m. to make it to jury duty. This morning I woke up with the worst hangover of my life, and alcohol wasn't even involved.

Friday, July 08, 2005

Today is Jo's last day

Today is Jo's last day here at JSC. It's pretty sad to see her go, even though we are all very happy that she's found a new job that she should enjoy much more. She's off to the wild blue yonder, becoming a flight attendant for Northwest. Maybe I'll see her on a flight someday...

I have a very odd schedule planned for the weekend. Nothing tonight or tomorrow morning, but then tomorrow night is Pooja's bridal shower (being held at a bath store, sounds unique and fun). Then, the weirdness: around midnight tomorrow night, another photographer named Chris is picking me up and we are driving to Dallas, arriving probably around 4 a.m. We'll catch a couple hours of sleep somewhere, and then shoot the Dallas Disco Triathlon with Karen T. Then we'll drive back to Houston, alternating driving in order to stay awake.

Sure, the arrangement's not ideal, but it works out well. I'd been planning to just drive up tomorrow afternoon, but I'd have had to skip Pooja's shower. So when Chris asked if I'd be interested in leaving late (he's doing a wedding tomorrow night), I said sure.

And before you ask -- yes, Chris is cute, but no, that is not a possibility because he is married. So don't wink at me when you hear I'm riding to Dallas and back with a photography-loving guy.

I suppose I'll spend the rest of Sunday recovering from the crazy overnight drive/photography schedule.

Thursday, July 07, 2005

After three years as a

After three years as a civil servant, I have lost all patience for the bureaucratic crap we have to wade through on a daily basis. Last month we were struggling to get permission for travel funds (i.e. plane tickets and hotel rooms) for next month's conference. We emerged from that battle a little bruised but still intact. Today we begin the fight to get permission for conference registration. Apparently the justification "I AM PRESENTING A TECHNICAL PAPER" or "I AM LEADING A TECHNICAL SESSION" is not good enough.

I am seriously thinking of joining Jo as a flight attendant. Well, not seriously thinking of that, but seriously thinking of alternate careers.

Friday, July 01, 2005

So we have the go-ahead

So we have the go-ahead for launching the shuttle on July 13! Very exciting to think that we will soon be flying again, and that I will soon be training to help fly. Hooray.

The biggest news among our little work group is that Jo is leaving; she got a job as a flight attendant for Northwest. Yay Jo! We ironically noted that in 2+ years of working for the manned space program, she never got to see anything fly.

Jen posted a hilarious photo of Segway tourists on her photoblog today. In addition to making me laugh, it also made me ache a bit. I can't believe it's been three years since leaving Stanford and I haven't gone back yet. The August AIAA conference in San Francisco cannot get here fast enough.

I can't believe Cari let two Scotsmen (with kilts and bagpipes!) run off with her car for a "jaunt" around Texas. She is so incredibly trusting. And that's why we love her.

Jen and Gavin return from their anniversary trip to Hawaii on Monday. I can't wait to see all their photos! They sent me a picture phone message showing lava a few days ago, but for some reason I can't get it to send to Flickr. :(

Softball last night was great -- we beat maybe the best team in our small league! They seemed to be having a bit of an off night (their shortstop especially), but we were having an on night. Everyone was hitting well and playing good defense. I went 1-for-3 with a run scored (and would've been 2-for-3 if the pitcher hadn't managed to snag a speedy line drive). I also made an out in left centerfield, and did a good job of quickly getting the balls that rolled to me on the ground.

If you are interested in photoblogging and live in or around Houston, check out the new Houston Photobloggers site, a joint effort between myself, Laurie, and Aninda. It's very cool, and we can't wait to see it grow over the next months and years.

One of my coworkers is retiring today after 38 years of working at JSC. He is very quiet, and I often wonder what he thinks of those of us in the group who are young and loud. He doesn't say much on his own, but if you start asking questions, he can talk for days. His brain is like an incredible fountain of knowledge about astronomy and space, and he's worked on so many different interesting projects over the years that he seems to know at least something about everything. He is probably the smartest person I know. We're going to miss him.

He told me where to look for the space station flying over last night. It's currently in continuous sunlight, which happens once a season or so. It came over right at 9:00, when I was in the outfield at the top of the first inning of softball. Between pitches, I watched it pass. I pointed it out to my fellow outfielders: "There's the space station!" "Really?" asked Darby, not believing me at first. "Yep," I said. He works here every day, but he was still impressed.

I think it's hard to realize how incredible it is that we can fly in space until you actually see something tangible, like the space station as a pinpoint gliding past in the night sky.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

There is still talk of

There is still talk of bring a Major League Soccer team to Houston in the near future. They'd play in the Astrodome, or in a smaller stadium that would be renovated. I think it'd be great for the city to have a soccer team. I'd certainly check out a few games each season.

Yesterday Craig Biggio broke the dubious record of being hit by pitches more than any other player. That website has a great disclaimer: Moral disclaimer: The author of this blog does not support or endorse intentionally throwing at Craig Biggio.

I went into the office at my apartment complex this morning to figure out what their latest deals are on leases, since mine is up at the end of August. The woman commented on how I'd been there for a while, which of course made me start thinking. The three-year anniversary of my moving permanently to Houston (and into my current apartment complex) is coming up in a few weeks. I've been in the same job and the same living situation the entire time. It's not as long as I was in college, but it's the longest period of time that I have been in one place in almost 10 years -- since I was in high school.

When I was in middle school and high school, every six months or so I'd get the itch to rearrange all the furniture in my bedroom, just to give myself something new to look at. I like change, but it also scares me; thus I seem to like change best when it is completely under my control.

I've had passing thoughts of moving, but it is such a hassle that it doesn't seem worth it to pack up my stuff and schlep it around just for the sake of new scenery. I've thought of moving to another apartment complex that is better-located for running and biking. I've thought of trying to find a room for rent in a house. I've even thought of buying something, though I have no down payment and am still very hesitant to buy something.

I'd shift the furniture in my apartment, but there's nowhere for it to go!

So I guess I'll renew my lease. They have no deals, except for $200 off the first month if I sign a 12-month lease. That's fairly useless, so I'm thinking of signing up for only another 6 months. I just don't know where I'd go after that.

In lieu of a better "signing deal," they offered to shampoo my carpets if I want. That would definitely be nice. Clean carpets would be a bit of a change...

Monday, June 27, 2005

home again, home again, jiggity jog

Travelling feels like some sort of time warp. I am back in my apartment and at my desk and a part of my brain feels like my wonderful week at home never happened. This is why I take pictures -- to remember. ;)

I had a fantastic vacation. The wedding was just beautiful. The reception was the most fun reception I've ever been to, because I knew everyone there! I saw old neighbors, family friends, and many relatives. The reception could have been 10 times longer and I still would have been having a wonderful time. My family is the most awesome family in the world.

I am working on my photos, and should have most of them processed tonight. (It was dim enough in the church and reception that many of my photos need levels adjusted and noise removal since I shot at ISO 1600 quite a bit!) In the meantime, Brian posted a few photos on his moblog from the wedding. I like this one where you can see them coming down the stairs at the reception and this one where you can see me on the left as I was probably making eye contact with Katie before she threw the bouquet right at me. Yes, I caught the bouquet, which is even funnier when you hear that apparently the bouquet toss was momentarily delayed as they tried to find me. Awwww. (I was wandering around probably trying to get some water. Every time I tried to walk from one room to the drink room, it took at least 10 minutes because I couldn't help talking to everyone on the way.)

Jen also posted some photos including one of Joel dancing with the wrong sister and one of the 207 roommates.

It's nice to be back in my apartment, but it was nicer to be in Charlotte last week.

OH. Last night I had what could potentially be one of the more embarassing moments of my life. I say "potentially" because I don't know for sure how long I was walking around with a HUGE RIP IN THE BUTT OF MY JEANS. I wore the jeans all day yesterday. I get off the plane in Houston, go into the bathroom, and while pulling my pants back up I notice that the fabric, which was pretty thin, has literally pulled away from the seam and just ripped into a gap about 4 inches long and an inch wide. Thank goodness I had a sweater in my bag to tie around my waist. The whole thing is bizarre and cartoonish. The jeans aren't tight, so I guess they ripped when I bent over or sat down or something. It's not a rip so much as it's just like the fabric was worn out and just came apart -- it's not a hole, just like the weave of the jeans broke down. I would like to think that Carter or Kent or someone in my family would have mentioned it to me if they had noticed that I had, you know, a HUGE RIP IN THE BUTT OF MY JEANS, so I am hoping that they ripped on the airplane and that the only time I walked around flashing anyone was from the plane to the bathroom in Houston.

Geez.

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Whew. This vacation is passing

Whew. This vacation is passing far too quickly for my tastes!

The days have been filled with working out, running countless errands with Mom (which isn't as dull as it sounds; we have a lot of fun), doing last-minute wedding preparation, and social events. Leave it to my generally non-social, improper, ill-mannered family to have a pre-wedding week filled with dinners, garden parties, and luncheons! :)

Joel's mother, best man Chris, and Chris's fiance arrived on Monday and came over to the house for dinner. We had these pork kebabs that Mom was making for the first time and they were really yummy. The rest of Joel's family (father, and brothers Carl and Neal) arrived in town yesterday and we all had dinner out at the Yoder's house on Lake Wylie. The Yoders were kind enough to volunteer their lakehouse as a hotel for Joel's family while they're here. The adults chatted while the "kids" played a lot of Battle Tetris and ... some game that's name escapes me at the moment. Sort of like Taboo and hot potato combined.

At the moment we're about to head over to the Easts for a garden dinner party thrown by Mrs. East, the mother of Caroline, one of Katie's bridesmaids. I've heard that her garden is something to behold, so I'm expecting great things.

Monday, June 20, 2005

I never feel as interested

I never feel as interested in updating my blog when I'm home. Something about being on vacation, I guess. Whenever I'm here, it seems like I've put my life on pause and as such, can just flow through the days.

Let's see. First of all, the weather is lovely here. I've been told that it cooled down from the heat of last week, but all I know is that here it is nice, and when I left Houston, Houston was not nice. So I am enjoying the weather.

My flight home on Saturday was uneventful, and I arrived home in time to meet Katie and two of her friends for a "bachelorette" dinner before they went out for the night. Yesterday morning we all went to church, then spent a lazy afternoon running errands and taking batting practice. Brian played in his first work softball game last night and wanted some practice. Our first trip down the park ended after about 5 minutes when the lightning and thunder scared us back to the safety of the house. Katie and Joel and I headed out to the Sports Authority where they bought gloves to replace theirs that have mysteriously disappeared, and I bought a bat (I'd been meaning to for a while anyway). By the time we got home, the storm had passed so we headed back down to the park. We all took turns hitting and catching, some of us (Joel, Katie and Brian) with more success than others (me). Joel is the best athlete of the group, and hit 11 balls over the fence. Eleven!

Today I picked up my bridesmaids dress, altered and ready to go. I'm not totally happy with it because one of the straps is still a bit loose. The lady looked at it and said if she took it up any more, it wouldn't be even with the other strap. She was right, so I didn't have her do anything else, but it's still annoying. Whenever I see people having to pull up their dress straps, I always think that they should have just gotten something that fit right! Now I'm going to be that person. Maybe one of my shoulders is just not level or something. Who knows.

Katie and I went for a run this afternoon at 2:30. It was hot, but not too bad. I can't imagine going for a run at 2:30 in Houston without ending up in the hospital with heatstroke. After running I mowed the backyard. It was strange; I must be one of the only people in the world who has only mowed the lawn a dozen times or so in my life, if that. My mom loves doing that particular chore, and so I'd never really done it. The backyard is tough to mow! It's two levels with a hill in the middle and full of all sorts of weird corners and turns.

Ah, off to relax some more.

Friday, June 17, 2005

This afternoon I had signed

This afternoon I had signed up to volunteer at a robot competition out at the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a.k.a. big freaking astronaut swimming pool). Becca and I showed up at 1:00 only to find that there were actually more volunteers than needed, and we were just standing around making sure people were wearing safety goggles and had closed-toed shoes. I know this is a necessary function, but do you need 8 people to do it? No. We asked if there was anything else to help with, and they didn't have anything. So, feeling only slightly guilty, I asked if it would be ok for me to go back to my office. They said sure, so here I am, about to finish up a brief analysis and watching the phone hope hope hoping that my potential angel from Langley will call me and tell me that my Monte Carlo sim is set up and ready to go. Hope hope hoping.

This has been a crazy busy week. It never fails that just as I am about to leave on vacation, I find a pile of work that needs to be done before I leave. However, I won't complain too much because it feels good to be busy for the first time in a while. Really good. And I am in a much better mood than this time last week when I was still arguing with the Stardust simulation.

Yesterday afternoon I gave a presentation to all of my management as well as a fair number of my peers about the Mars work that I am currently doing. It was part of a new thing my division and our contractor counterparts are starting, an "educational engineering exchange" where people present different things that they're working on just so everyone can get a better idea of what's going on across our large organization. It's a cool idea, even though after yesterday I think there are a few kinks to work out. I volunteered to present because 1) I thought it was going to be at the end of July and thus would be good practice for the conference I hope to go to in August and 2) because I figured "why not just be a guinea pig?"

It went pretty well, and I enjoyed the ego trip I got by realizing that as much as I might complain about my job, I am actually working on way cooler stuff than others. At least in my opinion. ;) The project I presented, in one sentence, is: using neural networks to determine whether a Mars precision lander is on a trajectory that will crash or not, and if it is going to crash, call an abort such that the lander can be saved by sacrificing landing target accuracy. It is a really interesting project even though I have been lazy thus far about taking it to the next level.

The pitch went fairly well. I haven't given it enough yet to really have the routine down, and since neural networks aren't the easiest concept to pick up in the span of 3 minutes, I'm not sure how well I really got the message across. I felt rather tongue-tied. But most people said it went fine, and last night as Jen, Becca, Cari and I ate at Mely's, a man I didn't recognize actually came up to our table and said "I really enjoyed your presentation this afternoon." So that was random and surprising and nice.

For volunteering to present at the first of these meetings, my branch chief decided to give me a K-88 award (i.e. I get to use his reserved parking spot, K-88, for a week; minor thing, but nice all the same).

Last night I had softball and the game was totally bizarre. It was the weirdest game I personally have ever had. First of all, I was alternating between catcher and first base and I had the hardest time, you know, catching the ball. I missed so many balls I should have caught. Second, I walked three times. I never walk because I'm really bad at judging the ball so I usually just swing away. But I walked three times. On my third time up, Russ (the ump) even gave me an extra pitch in an attempt to let me hit a ball, but the pitch was wide. For some reason, the girl just couldn't pitch a strike to me, so I went 0-for-0 with a run scored. Bizarre stat line.

Finally, after my second walk, I got caught in a run-down between second and third. Nick (not Saadah) had hit the ball and it went to the center fielder, so I stopped at second thinking he would throw to second. He threw home instead, but I stayed at second because I didn't have time to make it to third. THEN I turned around to see Nick basically on top of me. He just hadn't seen me at second base, and had kept running. So he ran back towards first, and I thought they tagged him out, so I started walking toward the dugout (would've been the third out), but then I guess they hadn't tagged him out, so I started running to get to third, but the ball got there first. It was a very bizarre play, aided by the fact that Jason, third base coach extraordinaire, just sorta stood there dumbfounded. ;)

Tonight I stupidly said I'd play soccer as a sub for my coed team, so not only do I have to go out instead of packing to go home tomorrow, but I also have to play soccer in the FRIKKIN HOT weather. It is really disgusting humid and hot outside. The heat index at 2:00 was 104. And it's only June.

My potential angel from Langley had not called me back yet. :(

Thursday, June 16, 2005

Last night I had four

Last night I had four rather attractice future Air Force officers riding to the movies crammed in the back of my car. Woohoo!

They are here for a four-week internship and have no cars. The Air Force is putting them up in the Hilton, provides them with a shuttle to work, and even packs them boxed lunches! Wow. Talk about being taken care of. Anyway, they wanted to go see Batman Begins, and Gavin, Becca and I wanted to go see Batman Begins, and so we all did.

I think I may have already mentioned this, but last week I heard the DJs on the radio talking about this new Batman movie. They'd seen an advance screening and were raving about it, saying it was as good as the original. I didn't really believe them, but I had hope. Turns out they were right! Batman Begins won't win any Oscars, but it is really good and very entertaining. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Christian Bale. He's hot.
2. There are glaciers and mountains at the beginning.
3. I was able to watch Katie Holmes without remembering how grossed out I am by the Tom Cruise thing.
4. Gary Oldman is a good guy!
5. As much as I adored the old Alfred (and I did adore him, don't know why they changed actors), I must say that Michael Caine makes an outstanding Alfred as well.
6. That awesome main samurai from Last Samurai is in it.
7. Christian Bale is hot.
8. Morgan Freeman is awesome, even in a relatively small supporting role.
9. You get to see Batman getting all his cool gadgets and building the Batcave.
10. Did I mention that Christian Bale is hot?

Seriously, it's a good flick.

We went to the Star Cinema Grill for the second time, and tried the dinner food. I had a pizza, and Becca and I split a bottle of wine. Lovely. I think we may be going to this theater more and more often. The tickets are actually 50 cents cheaper than the Cinemark, you don't have to order food if you don't want to (so that makes the price the same as regular movies), if you do order food then it's reasonably priced, and -- best of all -- there are no pre-teens running around, giggling, and wearing far-too-skimpy outfits. Yes, it's official, I am old.

Tuesday, June 14, 2005

It is steamy outside. Hot.

It is steamy outside. Hot. Sticky. I can't stand it. You can't do anything in this kind of weather except sit around in the shade and cool of an air-conditioned building. Breathing the air is hard, because you're slightly afraid you might drown. I have no problem with Houston: the city. It's Houston: the climate that needs to change.

Work continues to be, well, work. Often I feel like I am talking to a brick wall. I talk, but no one listens to my concerns. Every day I think about doing other things. I've lost patience, I've lost motivation, and I don't really know what to do about it. On Sunday, one of the models at the photo class I took commented on how cool it must be to work at NASA. I just smiled and said "yeah."

Today I get to take two papers (well, one paper and one abstract) through the export control process. Both should have gone through months ago, so I expect to get yelled out and I am not looking forward to it at all.

HOWEVER. On Saturday I get to go home and spend a glorious week away from Houston and away from work and having lots of fun with my sister's wedding! Hurrah. I have a lot to do between now and then including: finding/ordering silver sandals, making sure I have enough cute dressy outfits for all the wedding lunches and dinners, cleaning my apartment, preparing photos for the Katie/Joel reception poster thing, and attempting to camoflage my unsightly farmer's tan lines before getting in the bridesmaid dress.

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

First of all, congrats to

First of all, congrats to my internet running friend Cassie, who ran her first marathon in San Diego on Sunday. Hooray! Though with her IT band problems, she may be joining me in the MRI room. :(

I went climbing last night for the first time in a while, and after two hours my knee was throbbing a bit and painful to the touch. Here's an experiment you can do at home to understand exactly what is hurting: Stand up. Lift your left leg off the ground. Now squat as low as you can on your right leg (starting to look very Karate Kid-ish), and then push yourself back up to a standing position using just your right leg. It's that type of motion -- using my leg to push myself up, a perfect example of which is going up stairs -- that hurts my knee. Well, that motion and the impact of running.

I guess I should have the MRI and see what needs to be done, eh? I just don't want to have surgery. Surgery = bad. I mean, I can still walk! And run! And play soccer and bike and rock climb! How can my knee be damaged badly enough that I might need surgery? I've very much enjoyed my 27 years with no cutting into any joints or organs, thank you very much.

Sigh. Well. Hopefully I won't need it.

Climbing was fun though. I haven't been regularly enough for long enough now that I have basically reverted to where I was a year and a half ago. In other words, I have no skills. I have no muscle endurance. I have no strength. So I gotta build all that up again.

Friday, June 03, 2005

Softball got cancelled last night.

Softball got cancelled last night. Softball tends to get cancelled a lot, since apparently we can't play if the fields have had even a DROP of water on them within three days before the game. It's a bit annoying.

So Cari is buying my 10D. I am always hesitant to sell things to friends; is that weird? And my hesitancy goes up with the cost of the item. I guess my worry is just that if all of a sudden the item were to break, I'd feel bad about it. But I don't anticipate that happening, and it's way easier to sell to Cari than to do the eBay thing. :)

I have a few things on tap for the weekend...let's see...there is a party after work today to celebrate the recent management shuffle (my branch chief moved up to deputy division chief, another branch chief moved over to my branch), so that should be entertaining. Though at the last party, the old division chief (now retired) did a keg stand, and I think the chances of that happening again are slim to none. After the party, if it winds down at a reasonable hour, I am thinking of heading over to Kemah. They are having fireworks at 9:30 every Friday this month, and I'd like to try to get some photos.

Tomorrow morning Debbie and I are running the Summer Kickoff 5K in League City. I've thought about running this race every year, because it's one of the few that are held less than 10 miles from my apartment (thus meaning I don't have to drive half an hour to get there!), but for various reasons I've never done it before. Should be fun, even though I'm not expecting much in the way of a fast time!

Tomorrow night is a bday party, and then I don't have anything scheduled for Sunday...at least I don't think so.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Happy Birthday Katie and Brian!

Happy Birthday Katie and Brian! My "little" brother and sister are 22 years old today.

We went out to Mely's last night for Melanie's going-away dinner. She quit her job in the Ascent Group (counterpart to the Descent Group I work in) a couple weeks ago after almost a year of being very unsatisfied, and is leaving Houston entirely. Today she's driving to El Paso, then on to San Diego, then up the west coast until she gets to Seattle, where she is interning with Jen's company for the summer before going back to grad school at MIT this fall. It will be a little sad not having her around, living in my apartment building and keeping me company in my office while grunting at the FADS terminal.

Today I woke up to a rare morning thunderstorm. I opened the blinds, pulled back the curtains, and just laid in back watching the rain and lightning and listening to the thunder for a while. Despite all the flashes and noise, to me there's something very calming about a thunderstorm. It put me in a good mood...

...until I drove to work and had to wait in a line of cars halfway down Saturn to get in the front gate because the security guards had one lane open earlier, and traffic was still suffering from the residual backup. I know that they do it so, you know, we don't have any security guards getting struck by lightning and all. But I can usually get from my garage to my desk in 10-12 minutes. Today it took half an hour. That sort of dampened my good mood.

So I am starting to get significant comment spam..."significant" meaning that I've had to delete probably 15-20 spam comments from this site and my photoblog within the past 24 hours. Time to figure out the MT-Blacklist plugin, I guess.

Everyone is getting their own domain names! Most recent are Christina and Chris. I love it. These days, with registration and hosting available so cheaply, there's really no reason not to have your own little corner of the web.

I went running last night, as you can see from the previous post. It was hot.

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

Overslept this morning. Woke up

Overslept this morning. Woke up drenched in sweat. Can't shake this damn cough. My head is stuffy. My eyes are burning. I'm obviously not over whatever I had last week. So just now got to work, sat down, checked my email and it turns out that I have a new "task" to do. One that has been passed down the chain and finally fallen to me because it's just paperwork, putting in a software request. And no one else "has time" to do it, which is really just code for "we don't want to handle the CR."

Grr.

I had a whole other entry to write, but I don't really feel like writing it now. Maybe later today.

Thursday, May 19, 2005

Whatever bug I have is

Whatever bug I have is making life interesting. After spending Tuesday afternoon and evening with the classic signs of food poisoning, I thought I was improving. I came in to work yesterday and after fading around 1:00, a frappuchino knock-off from the cafeteria revived me. Last night I felt good enough to go to Mely's, though I only ate 3/8 of a spinach quesadilla because I still wasn't hungry. Came home, went to bed, and woke up at 7:00 this morning feeling achy and feverish again! Took some Advil and went back to bed, and at 9:00 was feeling fine. And now I'm at work again.

I probably should have just stayed home yesterday, and maybe even today, but our co-op is giving his exit pitch today and then we're going out for his exit lunch, so I didn't want to miss it. I'm his mentor, after all. I can't imagine I'll be much in the mood for steak today, but I'll find something bland to eat.

Tomorrow is the annual LSO golf tournament. I figured I'd be well enough to play, but now I'm not sure. We'll see, I guess.

Friday, May 13, 2005

I got my dog yesterday

I got my dog yesterday and I can't remember being this anxious in a long time. I slept horribly last night. This whole thing is so new to me, and while I will enjoy it down the road, I am a bundle of nerves right now. I am SUCH a committment-phobe; I don't think I really realized it until now.

I can't imagine what it must be like having children. Geez.

He hasn't gone in the apartment yet, but I am still unsure whether he's housebroken or not, so when he's not confined I have to watch him like a hawk. I look forward to a month from now when I know his habits, he knows mine, and I can trust that he won't pee all over my apartment.

I'm going with the "working name" of Leo for now. The background is that we all thought it would be funny to give a small dog a big name, like Kaiser or Emperor or Napoleon. So I took Napoleon and came up with Leo. I'm not sure if he is a Leo or not, but unless he screams something else soon, that's what it'll be.

Here he is when I picked him up from the Humane Society:

And here he is at home later:

Thursday, May 12, 2005

I am getting a dog.

I am getting a dog.

So. Yeah. I am getting a dog.

I wanted to see how that sounds. It's a little scary. I have never had a dog, and I am not so good at making long-term committments. I am anxious that I won't be able to train him, or that I won't like him, but I always worry obsessively before making big decisions. Hell, I worry enough before going on a week-long trip (when we were about to leave for Greece, or Peru, for instance) that I contemplate not even going. I am a worryer. It comes naturally. My dad and grandmother (oddly enough, the grandmother that is not my dad's mom) are both worryers.

But I should be picking him up this afternoon. He's a ~2 year old rat/fox terrier mix from the Houston Humane Society. My major worry is marking, which he did when we visited him on Tuesday. But he got fixed yesterday which should cut down on it, and I will work on training him. Cari told me to think about what I want a year down the line, since any dog that I get will have adjustment issues, and what I realized is that what I want a month or a year from now is pretty simple -- a funny, energetic dog that will be happy to see me, that I can play with, that won't pee or chew on my stuff, and that I can take on walks. And I think this one fits the bill.

Wednesday, May 11, 2005

Yesterday Gavin, Cari and I

Yesterday Gavin, Cari and I went to the Humane Society to look at dogs. I'm still interested in getting one, despite getting a less-than-thrilled reaction from my parents over the weekend. ("Are you sure you want a dog? You're never home. What will you do with it when you travel?") Anyway. I think it's just because my parents have never had a dog, at least not as adults. Of course that means I've never had one either. Which is the source of all the indecision.

Anyway, there were three dogs I looked at at the Humane Society. The first was a small brown female chihuahua that was totally a lap dog. You couldn't even squat without her trying to climb onto your legs. It was cute at first, but then I realized that if I don't have a curious dog, I won't like it as much. Then we played with another male rat/fox terrier (like the one at the Houston Pound), about two years old. For the first 10-15 minutes he wanted nothing to do with us, preferring instead to sniff everything in sight. Finally he started to realize that there were people there and that we wanted to play with him, and he rolled over to have his belly rubbed and played with the squeaky ball. He was cute and energetic, and not yappy as opposed to the one at the Pound.

So I went inside to put in an application for him, and that's when I spotted a little black female chihuahua mix that was the embodiment of what I would have described if you'd asked me a month ago what kind of dog I wanted. She was sooo adorable. She was still being treated for mange and she is scared of people, but the volunteers have been working with her to get her more socialized. She'd be challenging to have at first, being so skittish. She already had one application in or I would have snapped her up immediately. So instead I ended up with one application on the terrier and another second application on the little black chihuahua. Which only adds to my indecisiveness, because while I liked the terrier, I wonder if I should wait until I find another little black chihuahua! :)

Anyway. This afternoon we'll hit the Pasadena Pound and see what they have.

Friday, May 06, 2005

I am in Atlanta. Of

I am in Atlanta. Of course with a computer and internet right here in Katie's room, I could not resist using it. Also, we're just sort of hanging out at the moment waiting for Mom, Dad, David and Brian to come to campus so we can go have dinner at Katie's friend's house.

It is a bit weird being back on campus. I haven't actually walked around in a while, and I definitely feel...removed. Campus is different now, the students are younger, as is to be expected. There are so many new buildings that weren't here four years ago. And walking around, I have so many memories of things that happened, conversations I had here and there. At the same time, I realize how some of the things that seemed so important and so crucial to me while I was on campus really weren't that big a deal. Four years later, I wonder why I got so worked up about the small stuff. Why did I spend hours and days agonizing about things that faded away once I left? Who knows.

If only I'd known then what I know now. What's that saying about hindsight? ;)

My flight this morning was uneventful, and when I got to the rental car place I discovered that my "compact car" turned out to be a brand new Mustang! I am so pimp. Heh.

I met Katie, Kent, and Karen on campus (that is a lot of K names) and we drove up to Joel's apartment then we all went to lunch at Mama Fu's. Mmm. From there, Katie and Joel went to pack, Karen went back to the lab (ah, the life of a grad student), and Kent and I ran around town. We had ice cream at Jake's, wandered through the Tech bookstore, and then walked across campus so I could take pictures.

Wednesday, May 04, 2005

I took Becca, Jen and

I took Becca, Jen and Gavin with me up to the Houston pound today to look at dogs. There was a particular one I'd been looking at online that finally showed up as adoptable -- but she was already spoken for by this evening. However, in looking at all the dogs waiting to be (potentially) claimed by owners, we came across this guy, who just came into the pound today. The photo isn't the best, and no, he's not a chihuahua, no, he's not a puppy, and no, he's not a she. But he's adorable, and very friendly. He kept sticking his paws through the cage, trying to get to us, and we couldn't pet him because he'd just come into the shelter and hadn't been checked. Sadness. He was a bit yappy, especially when we went out of his sight. The yappiness concerns me.

But I put him on hold, and if no one claims him over the weekend, I can go back up to the shelter next week and take him out of the cage and play around with him. He was very friendly and looked well cared for, and I have a hard time believing that there isn't someone out there missing him. But we shall see.

Here's a photo I took:

Monday, May 02, 2005

sick day

All the activity caught up with me, but hopefully only in a minor way. After a great weekend in/around Pedernales Falls State Park (photos and story to come), I woke up this morning with burning eyes, aching muscles, and a splitting headache. I went back to bed and didn't get up until almost noon. I feel much better now.

Friday, April 29, 2005

Last night I came home

Last night I came home from softball, messed around on the computer for a while, and finally sat down with some dinner to watch The O.C., which I had TiVoed. Imagine my shock and awe when, at the beginning of the recording, a little "FOX SPECIAL NEWS REPORT" popped up. President Bush apparently decided to hold his first prime time news conference in over a year right when I wanted to watch The O.C. I fast forwarded, hoping that it would be a quickie, but no, it lasted the whole freaking hour. And of course since the news conference wouldn't have affected all time zones, I can't find out whether they are going to replay it or not.

GAAAH. Stupid president. He should really try harder to work around my primetime soap opera TV schedule. Really.

We had a decent softball game last night even though we ended up losing. I went 2-for-3 though with an RBI and a run scored, so that was nice. Lately my luck has changed. I haven't been hitting any better, still dinking dribblers in the infield, but they have started going to the right places where I can make it to first before the throw.

Clemens and Maddux are facing off tonight at Minute Maid, but alas, I already have tickets to go see Stomp at the Grand Opera House down in Galveston. Two 300-game winners. Wow. Is it me, or have there already been a ton of marquis pitching matchups this year? Pedro vs. Smoltz twice already, Clemens vs. Hudson, Oswalt vs. Sheets, Clemens vs. Maddux... if only the Astros were playing above .500, everything would be lovely.

Thursday, April 28, 2005

I've been a Matchbox Twenty

I've been a Matchbox Twenty fan for a while, especially since the free CD they sent "me" when I was Entertainment Editor back at the Technique. So I bought Rob Thomas's debut solo album last week after hearing the first single on the radio an insane number of times. But then, fortunately for me, I have never been one of those people who tires of songs if they are overplayed. On the contrary, I can often listen to the same song three or four times in a row if I'm enjoying it. And then three times again the next day.

But I digress.

Anyway, it's a great album. If you like that type of music, I highly recommend it. It also got me thinking about other albums I've bought (yay iTunes) and enjoyed lately. Not just songs, but entire albums. So here are some music recommendations, in no particular order, if you like standard (yet varied!) mainstream stuff like me. ;)

• Rob Thomas, Something to Be - Same type of music he did with Matchbox Twenty. My current favorite song on the album is "Problem Girl."
  
• Green Day, American Idiot - This album totally rocks. You should really buy it. Favorite song off it for now is probably "Wake Me Up When September Ends."
  
• Bonnie McKee, Trouble - I think she's only like 16 or something. But she can sing, and has an interesting variety of songs on one small album. I like the first two songs best, I think. "Trouble" and "When It All Comes Down."
  
• Marc Broussard, Carencro - Bought this one back in the fall sometime. The first song on the album is this great rock/blues combo that I imagine I'd hear somewhere deep in New Orleans. The rest of the album is a bit more standard, but I still love it. Favorite song is probably "Hope For Me Yet."
  
• Matt Nathanson, Beneath These Fireworks - Also bought this one a while ago, last summer maybe? Good stuff.
  
• Dirty Vegas, One - Bought this one after I heard "Walk Into The Sun" on one of the cheesy TV dramas I watch. The O.C. maybe? Anyway, I ended up liking the whole album.
  
• Jack Johnson, In Between Dreams - I first heard about Jack Johnson when I was out at Stanford four years ago, which makes sense because he's very California/surfer/good vibes/laid back. Good songs for mellow, rainy days.
  
• Ryan Cabrera, Take It All Away - I know some people won't like it, and maybe he's a bit too "boy pop star" but oh well. He can at least carry a tune, which is more than I can say for his girlfriend.
  

I had dinner at Mely's with Becca and Cari last night. It's hard to believe that I hadn't been to Mely's in at least a month. WOW. That's saying something, since it tends to be our default restaurant of choice, and even more so for those that live in League City. My enchiladas al cardon were good and the margarita was strong, as always. Afterwards I went to Target for socks, superglue, and Swiffer cleaning stuff. A very random combination, which is why Target is so great. And the greater thing is that I actually left Target having bought only two additional items. Marvel at my willpower, people...

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Last night Becca and I

Last night Becca and I had a royal bitch-fest via IM while I drank Smirnoff and ate dinner after finally going to the grocery store. (I had not been on a "full" grocery run since, I kid you not, February 28. I looked it up.) Anyway, it was great. We both got out all our GRRRs. Of course griping doesn't get me what I want, but it made me feel better for the time being.

I have lost all ability to cope with teenage drama. I had enough of it in college. I can't deal with it anymore.

I flipped on the TV last night just in time to see the Astros lose. They are now 8-11. I flipped the TV right back off. The pitchers are throwing great, and the hitters are giving them no support. Boo.

I can't believe it's almost May. I figure life has to slow down at some point. I have been out of town all but one weekend since my birthday, and will be gone the next three weekends as well. This weekend I am heading to some ranch near Pedernales Falls with Debbie, Jason, Paul and Sonia. It's just a quick trip, up Saturday and back Sunday, but should be fun. The weekend after that is Katie's graduation; the weekend after that is Brian's graduation. Then three weekends here, a trip to Austin for the Danskin triathlon and two weekends home for Katie's wedding.

So much traveling, so little time.

Friday, April 15, 2005

I posted five new photo

I posted five new photo galleries last night for your viewing pleasure.

• Seattle
• Astros Opening Day
• Softball last week
• Yuri's Night Educational Stuff at HMNS
• Yuri's Night Celebration at the Outpost

Softball last night was pretty good. We won for the first time in a while, I went 1-for-2 with a walk and a run scored, and I only fell down once.

Fell down. I had to play second base for an inning and as I was going to catch the ball, slipped on the base. My knee is all scraped up, and I am retarded.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

I went to the final

I went to the final pre-MS150 team meeting yesterday evening and got all the little details I hadn't heard yet. Our team -- Team Mission Control -- has its own luggage truck, which is going to be nice. No walking all the way across the LaGrange fairgrounds and schlepping my stuff back to the Team MCC tent. Yay! But it does change my "schedule" a bit, because luggage drop-off is tomorrow evening between 4:30 and 6:30, which means I have to pack tonight. No biggie. It's only one night on the road and so I really don't need much in the way of luggage except my sleeping bag and air mattress and a comfy change of clothes.

I picked up my Team MCC jersey on Tuesday evening, and it's really cool! It's a tad smaller than I'd prefer, but tight is good for biking, right? And the design is awesome. The front and back have two different images of an astronaut biking on Mars. The team logo says "On Earth and someday on Mars."

If you would still like to sponsor me on the ride, please do it today!

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Poyehali!

Yuri's Night has come and gone, and the 44th anniversary of manned space exploration is behind us. 44 years. Do most people realize that the time between the first man in space and the first man on the moon was barely more than eight years? Eight years, two months, and eight days. April 12, 1961 and July 20, 1969. Twelve years until the shuttle launched. And we're still flying the shuttle. Our pace has slowed down; we need to kick it into gear again. If we were given an unconditional green light, I wonder what we could accomplish in eight years, two months, and eight days.

The party last night at the Outpost was great. We had some people that probably didn't pay, but all in all we had a good crowd, the bands were great, and the weather was amazing. If this weather came around more than 5 days a year, perhaps we wouldn't all hate Houston.

I do hope we can find someone willing to take over the organizational lead for Yuri's Night next year. I think each of us is a bit burnt out on the whole thing. I enjoy handling the race, but am not that interested in the other stuff; I just need a break. I was telling a couple people that it's sort of funny how each of us has "our" Yuri's Night event. If we had to pick one of the three, I would choose the race, Jen would probably choose the educational stuff, and Becca would choose the party. And yet planning it every single year gets a bit stressful. We're going on three years now. It'd be nice to have some new help next year.

I'm tired. I have to make a very strong effort to get a good amount of sleep tonight and tomorrow night, because somehow I have to ride my bike to Austin this weekend.

Friday, April 08, 2005

every word is just nonsense / but I understand it all

A few months ago, the door and card reader that gives access to the other side of the building was replaced. Now I need only wave my badge in front of a sensor and the door automagically opens. Here's the thing though -- going in, the door unlocks and you don't need to turn the handle. In fact, the handle doesn't turn at all, you just grab and pull. Going out, on the other hand, requires you to turn the handle, turn, and push.

You wouldn't think this would be too complicated for a rocket scientist like me, right? Wrong! Every freaking time I go back and forth to the other side of the building, I turn when I don't need to, or pull when I should push, or don't turn when I do need to. And every time I just look totally retarded.

On to other subjects.

I am in major stress/near panic mode for the Yuri's Night 5K that will happen tomorrow morning whether I'm prepared or not. I keep going over and over everything in my mind, making sure I haven't forgotten anything vital. This afternoon Becca and I are splitting shifts at the running store so that people can pick up their packets early, and then tonight Jason and I are going food shopping. At 6:30 tomorrow morning I'll be knocking on the gates of Challenger Park ready to get in and get set up for the 8:00 race start time. Then, as quickly as people gathered, the race will be over for another year. Whew.

My drive over to Alvin last night to pick up race t-shirts went better -- quicker -- than I expected and I made it back to Clear Lake for softball in plenty of time. I listened to the Counting Crows unplugged album the whole way to Alvin and back; for unexplained reasons, when I am majorly stressed out I find that that album, or a James Taylor album, helps me relax. Who knows why. We played a great game, and great defense, until the bottom of the final inning, when we bobbled a few plays and ended up losing by a run. Ah well. Later, at 9:00, Nick, Cari, Jason and Gavin all came over and helped me stuff race packets, so big thanks to them.

Those who know me are aware that I am not a particularly religious person, and definitely not Catholic. But the pope's death saddened me and I have been reading a lot about funeral plans and how the church elects a new pope. Here's a small thing -- I have often wondered why Catholics (and most religious figures in general) wear such elaborate garb. I guess it dates back hundreds and/or thousands of years, but sometimes it seems a little dated to me. But today, looking through photos from the pope's funeral, I was struck by what I'll call the "visual spectacle" of the cardinals all dressed in brilliant red and white, and bishops (I think?) dressed in a more muted red/pink. Surrounding them were all the foreign dignitaries in black. It was such a nice image.

The other interesting thing about the funeral to me is how many of the world's power players came together in one place. I don't know for sure, but it's got to be one of the largest gatherings of world leaders in recent memory. I think that's amazing. In a good way.

Wednesday, April 06, 2005

take me out to the ballgame / take me out with the crowd

So I should say that Google Maps is, like, the coolest thing ever. I thought it was neat when Gavin first showed it to me, and they have now incorporated satellite photos which is awesome. I can zoom all the way in on my apartment complex! If I was in the pool, you could probably see my little shadow!

Dad left a message on my phone last night (obviously he didn't realize that he shouldn't try to call me while I am at Opening Day) and as a result, I should clarify that when I said yesterday that I got into ISU, that does not mean that I got the JSC Fellowship. It just means I got admitted to the degree program. Like getting into college. Which was not really a surprise, because I'm a space professional, and that's who ISU targets.

Opening Day was great fun, except for a fairly dismal performance from the Astros. Craig Biggio was stellar in his return to second base, and accounted for all three RBIs, but some of his teammates weren't quite so great. Morgan Ensberg at third was especially shaky, and Roy Oswalt has certainly pitched better games. In the end, the 'Stros lost 7-3 but on the bright side, baseball is back! It was great to return to the ballpark.

In other assorted news, Carter is in Buenos Aires for a week and I'm jealous. The Yuri's Night 5K is on Saturday and I still have a ton to do. I'm doing a piece for the second issue of Photoblogs Magazine that has to be done by Friday. I have Kara's paper that somehow needs to get through Export Control in 48 hours. We have softball tomorrow night, and I haven't done any sort of exercise in 10 days. Whew.

Tuesday, April 05, 2005

it's not confidential / I've got potential

I knew as soon as I woke up this morning that, despite being pretty tired, this was going to be a great day because OPENING DAY IS FINALLY HERE! The Astros play the Cardinals at Minute Maid tonight and I am SO there. Ding dong, winter is over, and baseball is finally back. Hooray for Opening Day!

That alone would be enough to make this a great day. But then I got to work and lucked into an extra seat on an hour-long SMS (Shuttle Motion Simulator) run. We did one ascent, where the entire cockpit rotates 90 degrees such that we were lying on our backs in the seats and then the whole thing shakes to simulate the vibration from the solid rocket boosters. We also did three entries from 50,000 feet. I got to fly one of them, and landed pretty smoothly and successfully and almost on the runway centerline. I did blow the left tire, which apparently is not that uncommon and has actually happened in real life before. The guy who was with us said that I pitched up just a hair too much at the end and ended up floating a bit, then coming down with a slightly harder sink rate than I should. The tire didn't pop until later though.

Fun fun fun.

Oh I just looked over the sheet they printed out for me and under the Contact Fault Display box it says "WING TIP GROUND CONTACT" and "BODY FLAP SCRAPE". Um, oops. Of course it also says "MAX XWIND LIMITS EXCEED" and that's not my fault.

Then I got back to my desk just now to an email saying I've been accepted to the MSM program at ISU. This was not really a surprise, but still nice to hear.

Thursday, March 31, 2005

oh things are gonna happen naturally /
and taking your advice I'm looking on the bright side /
and balancing the whole thing

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, March 30, 2005

was it you who spoke the words /
that things will happen but not to me

Life goes on, ho hum, ho hum.

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

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

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

Monday, March 28, 2005

Somehow I'm still winning my

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Don't make me come down there. -God

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

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

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

We really do complete actual work here. Really.

No, really.

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

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

Thursday, March 03, 2005

stupid flying brick, grumble grumble

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

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

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

Tuesday, March 01, 2005

right hand blue

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

Yeah.

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

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

Thursday, February 24, 2005

of tech support and its infinite wisdom...

Becca's moving down the hall seemed rather uneventful for me. Even though she seemed sad about it, I didn't really care, I mean, she's just going down the hall. She's still practically within shouting distance (because I can shout pretty loud). But yesterday when all her stuff was actually gone, and her desk was just sitting there empty, it was weird.

It's amazing what lack of an internet connection will motivate one to do quickly. I came in this morning to find that the tech support people, geniuses that they are, managed to turn off my ethernet port instead of Becca's. One desk is obviously empty, one desk is obviously occupied, and they turn off the port for the occupied desk. Sigh.

So my computer is now moved to Becca's old desk / my new desk. The rest will follow when I feel like it. For now, I have two desks. :)

Tuesday, February 22, 2005

"in an effort to avoid overexposure, we're only going to be on three nights this week..."

This may be too much information, but I have this weird rash on the front of my neck. It's incredibly itchy, and is a bit red and blotchy. Putting lotion on my neck helps. I think I'm having an allergic reaction to something, but I can't figure out what. It began on Saturday, when I went running in a new t-shirt that I hadn't washed yet, so perhaps there was something skin-irritating on the shirt?? Even so, I'd think the reaction would have subsided by now. It's very strange. If anyone has any idea what it might be, let me know.

Ok, weird health issue discussion over.

Except I've just developed a random headache, since lunch.

Ok, now weird health discussion really over.

Having yesterday off work inevitably left me feeling like it was a Sunday, and as such, I almost forgot to hit the climbing gym last night. I went because Buzz encouraged me to come, and reminded me when I randomly ran into her yesterday at Jiffy Lube, but she has gotten too good for me and I can't really climb with her. It's disappointing in one sense not to be able to keep up with her anymore, but on the other hand, she has a tendency to push me just a bit harder than I want to be pushed, and I end up frustrated. ;)

Jeff was there though, so I had someone to belay me and we ended up climbing together for an hour. I don't know him very well (he's a former co-op who started full-time just a couple weeks ago, so he was the co-op generation after me), but I think we're pretty good climbing partners because we're both at about the same skill level. He's just a bit taller and has more upper body strength, simply by virtue of being male, so he can climb more difficult routes than I can. But not enough harder to make us mismatched.

I came home from the gym and watched the 12 guys perform on the first night of American Idol. I was pretty impressed, actually -- all twelve of them could carry a tune, and a few were really good. The first and last guys, Nikko and Mario, were my favorites of the night. I guess I'll tune in tonight to see how the girls do. Don't know about tomorrow night for the "elimination" show. Three nights per week of American Idol? That is a lot. Thank God for TiVo and the ability to fast-forward through the parts I don't want to see.

This afternoon the rodeo trail ride is coming through JSC. It passes through every year (apparently they spend the night at Gilruth) but I've never gone to see it. I figured today is as good a day as any, so I'm going to head outside in an hour or so to watch the people on horses ride past.

Monday, February 21, 2005

Thank you Mr. Washington and Mr. Lincoln

Carter just called to tell me not to waste my President's Day sleeping, but I had the last laugh -- I was up at 9:30 and had already been on a 16-mile bike ride and showered by the time he called. Woohoo. Nacho and I rode around the lake today, including up and over the Kemah Bridge. That monster is a tough climb. Well, and, the only climb in this area...

It's been a lovely three-day weekend. I've managed to exercise each day with a 3-mile run on Saturday, a 4-mile run yesterday, and this morning's bike ride. This bodes well for me getting back into some sort of routine. The runs were both tough, but I'm glad I did them. A month ago I ran a marathon, and yesterday four miles seemed like a long way. I have to admit that it's a bit discouraging to see how quickly we lose our fitness if we don't keep it up. But I'm determined not to let the marathon training benefits disappear entirely.

Saturday night I had fondue at Becca's house with her, Nick, Cari, Melanie, and Carlos. MMMMM, it was so good. I love fondue, but rarely have it. We did cheese first, took a break, and then did chocolate. It was delicious.

Yesterday I worked on Becca's webpage and caught up on my TiVo recordings. Chris was in town for the full-timer beach party (which I declined to attend). He'd been down in Surfside partying on Friday and Saturday nights but was back in Clear Lake last night, so I joined him for a group dinner at Lupe's. Ian was also in town from LA for the party, so he was at dinner as well. It's always nice to see old friends. Ian, of course, lives permanently out in California and so I'm lucky if I see him more than once a year. Chris is out at Stanford for the year and it's weird not having him around, so it was good that he came back as well. Now I've got to figure out a time to go visit him...and make my heart ache for California again...

Now it's off to Mediterranean Chef for lunch! Mmm.

Monday, February 14, 2005

I fall asleep with my friends around me / only place I know I feel safe / I'm gonna call this home

Props to Becca and Irwin for this site -- Anti-Valentine's day. They have a hilarious selection of e-cards to send. My favorites:

I left my heart in San Francisco. Otherwise, I would have like totally given it to you, I swear.

You'll do.

Single is good.

My Precioussssssss.

I love you blah blah blah hearts & flowers yadda yadda yadda cupid etc.

Nick gave me the COOLEST VALENTINE'S PRESENT EVER. It's a Lego man picture holder. I mean -- two of my favorite things in the entire world -- Legos and photos. And the picture holder is actually great because it doesn't have teeth, and thus won't mess up whatever I stick in it. The only way it could be better is if it somehow came from IKEA... But apparently there is a Lego store in Chicago (where he was for the weekend), which may actually be better than IKEA but I can't say that until I've been there. So I must visit.

Has anyone else been reading about the massive art project in Central Park called The Gates? It consists of 7,500 saffron-colored gates used to hang fabric swaths of the same color, strewn throughout Central Park. It went up in a matter of days, will be there for only two weeks, and will then be taken down as quickly as it went up. The entire thing is quite intriguing to me, especially as I've read more about the artists, Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and some of their other work (wrapping both Pont Neuf and the Reichstag in cloth, for instance). It makes me want to hop a cheap flight to New York this weekend and see it for myself.

Fortunately for those of us in other areas of the country, photobloggers are out in full force to document the event.

Thursday, February 10, 2005

don't it feel like sunshine after all / the world we love forever gone...

It's been a stressful couple days. I find myself asking people what day it is. Thursday? Already? Well, that's good only because it means tomorrow is Friday. I'm stressed out, man.

A swim last night with Buzz, Becca and Jen helped though, and a run tonight should as well. Two laps plus 800 meters, which totals 6.3 miles. I know, a little weird, but two laps is just shy of a nice, round six miles. So last week we added a bit extra, and will again tonight.

Better head out -- time to get to the Gilruth and get changed.

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

night and day / you are the one

Yesterday somehow became busy, despite the fact that I really didn't get anything done. Including posting.

Jen and I went downtown last night to see Anything Goes at the Hobby Center. The tickets were originally for last Sunday night, but the horror of the mere thought of missing the Super Bowl had us exchanging the tickets for a different day. Theater Under the Stars is nice that way. Easy exchange, and the show was great. Not much of a plot to speak of, but funny bits and great songs, including a couple that I knew well but had never known they were from Anything Goes -- I Get a Kick Out of You, Night and Day, even Friendship. I'm not sure how I even recognized that last song; maybe Mom used to sing it?

On our way home, it was foggier outside than I can ever remember seeing before in Houston. When we got off the highway, you couldn't even see the mall. You couldn't see the street signs. It was so confusing and eerie that Jen even took the wrong turn on an exit she's used a zillion times before. And the 100-foot tall light poles with their rings of lights looked like alien spaceships landing all around us. It was spooky and cool.

I have a half-formed mental blog entry about my career aspirations, or lack thereof. I guess I'll post it when it's fully formed.

Thursday, February 03, 2005

chim chim cher-ee / a sweep is as lucky as lucky can be

I'm about to sign up for the MS150, and I can't design which team to join. One option is to rejoin the team I rode with last year. They took great care of me, and I'm certain they will again. The other option is to join the "Mission Control" team and get a jersey that has an astronaut riding a bike on Mars. How cool is that? But I don't know what sort of amenities they offer. Though I'm sure it'll be fine...

I gave about 15 minutes of a presentation today, one that I just found out about yesterday. It was a subject I've presented a thousand times before (at least it seems like a thousand times), but I had forgotten some of the main points to make. As a result, my part was a little awkward. Ah well. It still went ok.

The floor in our office is so absolutely disgusting. They mop and wax the hallways, but not the individual offices. As a result, the offices are filthy. I can't go an entire day without ending up with tan dust/dirt all over my pant legs. Seriously, I look like Pig Pen or something. I honestly think it's probably a health hazard of some sort; there is just so much dust. And it never gets swept, or mopped.

So I finally got a Swiffer wet mop, and figured I'd clean my office floor myself. I think all the wet mop does is push the dirt around. I don't think it actually gets any of it off the floor. There's just too much.

Thursday, September 18, 2003

woke up today to everything grey

man. i am in quite a mood this morning.

first of all, my fantasy baseball team's entire pitching staff is imploding as we speak. i've lost 4 points in a week as my era and whip both try to shoot through the roof on the heels of bad performances by even the guys who are supposed to be reliable. loaiza, williams, ortiz. ugh. i shouldn't be so bothered, because i'm still in second place and there's no possible way i'll finish any lower than that...and there really wasn't any chance i'd be able to take over first place either. but it's still annoying at me.

second, maybe i just shouldn't read the group blog before i update in the mornings, because if there happens to be a political discussion going on, i always end up wanting to vomit. yes. ok, not literally, but that phrasing seems to accurately convey the incredulity some of our discussions cause me to suffer.

yesterday felt like a friday, mainly because we went out to lunch for matt's birthday, and as such, it felt weird to have to come to work today. my sleeping issues in my new apartment continue. it took me forever to fall asleep last night. sigh sigh sigh.

debbie and chris and i checked out one of the potential courses for the yuri's night 5k last night. it starts and ends at the little park in nassau bay, which is a nice location. the only worry would be parking, but since we're only aiming for 100-150 runners, it might not be a problem. we shall see. there are two more fairly similar courses to check out down there as well, but i think the general conclusion is that any course in nassau bay would be nice. there are enough roads to allow a loop course (as opposed to a boring out-and-back), and it's a nice, quiet, scenic neighborhood.

Wednesday, September 17, 2003

can't you smell that smell?

despite the fact that i had practically no food in the place, i came home yesterday to a very strange food smell in my apartment. at least, i'm pretty sure it was a food smell. it was vaguely familiar, but i couldn't place it. i have no idea where it came from, and can only assume it was somehow brought in by the maintainence guy who came to fix my dishwasher, which still worked but had started making a horrible screeching sound. while there, he also put up the light fixture on the ceiling fan in the bedroom. this is infinitely frustrating, as i tried to do it myself and am apparently too dumb to figure it out. i even unscrewed the cap last night to look at how he had connected the wires, and he did it the same way i tried! but it worked for him, and not for me.

i don't know, it's a mystery.

we had volleyball last night, which i mention only because i told jason i would write about how becca hit a ball right into his face. so here it is: becca hit a ball right into jason's face. he was fine. we all laughed. i suck at volleyball. our team sucks at volleyball. i don't really like volleyball. there is a time for trying, and yet there is also a time for ceasing to beat your head against the wall trying to get better at something you don't even really like that much. i don't think i will play next season.

and i finally went to the grocery store. thus, i finally have food. this is a good thing.

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

yes i'm grounded / got my wings clipped

i have been tossing and turning a lot in my sleep lately. at least i must be, because i wake up in the morning with my tank top all twisted around my body. for unknown reasons, i have not been sleeping as soundly since i moved to the new apartment. i think it may be due to the bed and window placement. my bed is right next to the window, which in turn is directly on the outside of the building; in my old apartment, the bed was on the opposite side of the room from the window, and the window faced the balcony, which was darker than if it just faced directly outside. i think my bedroom is too light at night. perhaps i should just go buy a curtain, as the blinds really don't make it dark enough.

this also leads to interesting dreams, and mornings where i wake up to memories that seem really long ago and far away. i was reliving a january saturday night in san francisco, and though i remember so many of the little details, it sort of feels like i wasn't actually there.

and my groin is feeling much better today, thanks.

on to more exciting things. last night i held the first organizational and brainstorming meeting for the 5k run/walk i am planning. the date is april 10, 2004, but that's all i know for certain. last night we narrowed the field down to 3 potential courses, all across the road in nassau bay, and some of us are going to bike them later this week. but i am most excited about the support it looks like i am going to get from my friends! ron and buzz volunteered to do registration and results, debbie and jason volunteered for the post-race party and kid's race, gavin took course setup and management, edgar's going to help with the finances, betsy's going to help with logistics, jen's going to recruit volunteers... everything is going swimmingly; at the moment, i am organized, we have 6+ months to plan, and i have incredible and awesome friends. this thing is really going to happen!

this morning on the radio the djs were discussing where to draw the line on whether a coach (of a 7-8 year old kid's soccer team) is simply teaching discipline or being unnecessarily harsh. the discussion made me want to go out and sign up to coach a kid's soccer team. not that i will, but wouldn't it be fun? ;)

anyway, i've got to go finish putting together a couple slides i have to present this afternoon. we're having a peer review.

i wish i had more exciting things to say!

Friday, September 12, 2003

can't lift a finger

i walked into rich and george's office this morning and announced that "my finger is fatter!" and to think, instead of sympathy, they laughed. the nerve! ;)

seriously though, my finger is fatter. i think it is sprained. it exhibits all the symptoms of a sprained finger--tenderness, swelling, uncomfortable to bend. and yet i have no idea how to treat a sprained finger. do i splint it? that would make it hard to type. do i tape it? maybe, but i don't know how. i feel like if i just wait, it will get better. but then again, it's been like two weeks...

ok. an internet search says i should tape it to another finger. i don't know how i'm supposed to type with two fingers taped together. i guess i'll experiment this weekend.

plans for the weekend include a movie tonight, the toyota center open house followed by a baseball game tomorrow, and nothing on sunday. it's been raining for two days now, but hopefully it will clear up for the weekend. with any luck, we can repeat last weekend's gorgeousness. and avoid hurricane isabel's wrath next week.

so i've got a new task at work that should be a fun change from footprints. i'll still be doing footprints, of course, but yesterday i was asked if i was interested in joining the mars science laboratory (msl, a rover planned for launch in 2009) team. so i get to do mars stuff; that should be cool. i get the next month and a half or so to learn and train and get up to speed, and then i will start supporting the entry guidance team.

i'm tired.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

never forget, never give up...

"september 11, 2002

"on the first anniversary of the world trade center attacks, i'm heading farther north and farther away from the 'real world' of terrorist attacks and ensuing memorial services. odd. a year ago i was sent home from work early and spent the rest of the day glued to the television, staying up late into the night wondering and worrying. and today, a year later, i sit on a ferry taking me to the orkney islands above mainland britain, a place not as frequented by tourists as london, or edinburge. it's odd, the things i find myself doing when i pause to think about it. i'm really quite lucky to be able to travel like i do, to be able to spoil myself from time to time.

"i just watched the sunrise over the north sea. it was beautiful."

last year i happened to skip the country for the first anniversary of 9/11/01. i have to say, it was nice. i was glad to be away from the "hoopla" of memorial services and news reports. i know that sounds insensitive, but it was so much nicer to be rocking gently on a boat, on my way to a fairly remote location. karen, becca and i were 3 of no more than 20 passengers on board. it was nice to stand on the deck in the dawn, watch the sun rise, listen to the water crash against the bow, and reflect on the year anniversary. it was calming, and quieting, and ultimately meant more to me than being here in the u.s. could have.

this morning the snooze alarm woke me up at 7:43 or so (central time), just before the moment of silence corresponding to the first plane hitting the towers. the radio djs went silent and again, it was nice to be alone, in the dawn and the quiet, lying in bed with the sun sneaking its way through slits in the blinds.

and yet today, it is hard for me to declare 9/11 to be the most impactful world event in my life. eight months ago, it was. then we lost columbia. i can detatch myself from 9/11, turn it into this nebulous, abstract thing that was really bad, and yet didn't directly affect my life. i can't do that with columbia. again, that sounds insensitive. i don't mean to be; i am simply trying to explain.

two years, two tragedies. the mind boggles, and so we cope as best as we can.

and we keep on keeping on. last night buzz and i hit the rock gym for ladies night. that's four times in two weeks for me, and my body is starting to complain. i have two lovely purple bruises, one on each knee. i think my middle finger on my right hand is slightly sprained (it's been bothering me for a couple weeks now). my ankle still occasionally complains, and the rope burn becca gave me almost three weeks ago is still healing. hmm. my dad will read all this and probably worry that i'm pushing myself too hard. i don't know.

poor karen. instead of making life easier, it sounds like her thesis supervisor keeps throwing up road blocks. he can't read karen's thesis because he has master's students to take care of? excuse me sir, isn't karen one of your master's students?! he's already abandoned her to move to another school, and now he's ignoring her. wacko. karen, i suggest the following mantra: "in a month, i will be on a beach in greece...in a month, i will be on a beach in greece...in a month, i will be on a beach in greece..." :)

i am currently listening to john mayer's new cd. so far so good.

Wednesday, September 10, 2003

"it's a sign!"
"but you don't believe in signs..."

it's weird. i never get very excited about big trips until i'm in the airport, or on the plane. this one is no different. yesterday becca and i were talking about buying plane tickets to greece (karen will meet us in athens), and debating how much the price could rise or fall within the next few days. the lufthansa website was having technical difficulties. i was wavering. becca was annoyed with me, i think.

i left work, and as i got into the elevator, i noticed a discarded fortune cookie fortune on the floor. as the elevator lowered me to the first floor, i read the fortune: "an exciting vacation awaits you."

no lie. seriously people. if that's not a sign, i don't know what is.

becca called 10 minutes later telling me lufthansa was on the other line prepared to sell us the tickets for the cheapest price we've seen in months. so i told her to buy one for me. we are going to greece. and though i'm still not hugely excited, i know i will be once we hit the airport.

hurrah!

my leadership class is annoying me. i don't like people who won't let go of the nitty-gritty in favor of the bigger picture, especially when all we're talking about is a very general negotiation exercise. the motivation behind brazil's congress is not my concern. i just want to get to the point of the exercise. stupid people.

Friday, September 05, 2003

beat up and broken down

over the summer, i forget, and when fall rolls around, i remember again. houston weather can be pleasant. take this morning, for example. it's in the mid-70s, and i think the humidity might actually be less than 95%. it was downright lovely outside. of course it's only early september, and the heat will return, but it's a nice preview of what late fall is like.

my arms hurt even more today than they did yesterday, though the pain has moved from my forearms into my upper arms and shoulders. i guess it really is true that your muscles aren't most sore until at least 24 hours after doing whatever you did to make them sore. i got progressively more sore as the day went on yesterday, and this morning it took five minutes to drag myself out of bed. ow. perhaps i climbed a little too much on wednesday.

also, the climbing combined with the enchanted rock hiking of the weekend have angered my ankle. it's trying to swell again. stupid ankle.

last night was one of those nights where i just didn't feel like doing anything. i ran a few errands, and then went home and laid on the couch in front of the tv for two solid hours. i didn't even turn on any lights, which is probably bad for my eyes, but oh well. i finally dragged myself up to fix dinner and finish putting away all my clothes that have been lying in a pile on the floor for the two weeks since i moved. mom's assessment of a few years ago is still correct, it seems; i have way too many t-shirts. i don't know how i can possibly wear so many t-shirts. as such, even though it pains me somewhat to do away with t-shirts from college activities such as team buzz, women's leadership conference, engineer's bookstore buying binges and my numerous co-op tours, i put together quite a large bag of stuff to take to goodwill. this still leaves quite a large pile of t-shirts, since i run so many races, but i can't bear to throw the race shirts away just yet. i'm trying to come up with something good to do with them. there is always the t-shirt quilt option, but it seems that 1) eventually i'd end up with a lot of quilts and 2) it costs money to have one made, and i don't know if i could sew it myself. anyway. i'd welcome suggestions on what to do with my oodles of t-shirts. :)

i'm hungry. my stomach is growling already. grr grr.

Wednesday, September 03, 2003

yeah, i think tomorrow is a hiking day...

dear god. i am like the master of never-ending sims. we're talking two weeks now.

last night i took debbie to pick up her car, and then we went for a bike ride. she originally borrowed one of the mountain bikes that our apartment complex keeps locked up out front, but the stupid thing was practically unrideable. you could turn the gear shifter, and yet the gears didn't shift. and the right brake was so poorly adjusted that you couldn't even pull the handle far enough to actually engage the brake. i'm disappointed that the office doesn't do a better job of maintaining the bikes, but oh well. fortunately, i have my old hybrid, so debbie took that one, i hopped on my fancy bike, and off we went.

we rode up to hercules, over to saturn, all the way down saturn to nasa 1, then over into nassau bay. when we reached the lake, we noticed these weird pump-like things pumping copious amounts of water out of the lake and spraying it in two giant liquid fans onto the pavement. they were draining the lake, and yet creating a minor flood in the rest of the park. very bizarre. from nassau bay, we rode to a really cool little playground where we played on the monkey bars and ran through the obstacle course, then past debbie's old person doctor, down nasa 1 and back up el camino and home. the verdict: debbie's knee can handle riding a bike! hurrah!

i watched tv and lounged around for the rest of the night, occasionally taking 5 or 10 minutes to unpack something else or put away clothes. i'm still not completely settled into my new place, but it's always a gradual process for me. anyway, after "the o.c." on fox (which i am strangely liking), i was flipping channels and at some point ended up on mtv, which was showing a show called "newlyweds" about jessica simpson and her husband. in this episode, they decided to go camping.

yes, you can already picture it, can't you? pop princess, her hubby, hubby's brother, and hubby's brother's wife pack up the expensive sport utility vehicle and head to yosemite national park. watching the two men try to set up the tent, which they have obviously never done before (evidenced by having to read the instructions) was hilarious. they work, while the girls just sit around and look bored.

later, the boys go searching for firewood. nevermind that this is a national park, and though i'm not 100% sure, i'm guessing that gathering firewood is prohibited. anyway, cut to a shot of the boys using some sort of rope to throw up over a branch of a nearby tree and try to pull the branch off the tree!! whoa whoa whoa. 1) illegal. 2) live wood does not equal successful fire.

anyway. somehow they did manage to start a fire, with other wood they gathered. they cook food and drink miller lite. jessica simpson is not convinced that there are actually bears in yosemite, and thinks hubby might be merely trying to scare her. thus she "accidentally" leaves her louis vitton purse (containing all her toiletries) in the tent the first night. hubby gets angry, tells her not to mess with the bears.

next day, they decide it's not a hiking day, and go driving through the gorgeousness that is yosemite. sheesh.

next day, they decide to hike. cut to scene of hubby's brother's wife inspecting a brochure describing all the hikes in yosemite. the following is a direct quote, and i can only assume she's referring to half dome: "a 17-mile hike? why would anyone do that?? i mean, why would you really want to do a hike that takes 10-12 hours?" this was followed by much laughter on my part. anyway, they hike to the top of some waterfall (yosemite falls maybe, it was hard to tell), at which point they proceed to refill their water bottles with river water, oblivious to the fact that it probably needs to be purified first.

they hike back down, retire for the night, and the next day all jessica simpson does is complain about how sore she is and read more danielle steel. at the end of the trip, they pile back into the SUV, declaring that "well, it would have been better if we hadn't had to put all our stuff in the stupid bear locker every night."

oh my. i needed a good laugh.

Friday, August 29, 2003

enchanting weekend plans

softball last night did not go well. despite our team playing perfectly fine defense, we found ourselves unable to get more than a smattering of hits, and against a team where everyone could find the holes. i swear, i've never played a team in coed rec softball that could hit as well as this one; they need to move over to coed competitive! then we wouldn't have to play them. ;)

my apartment still looks like a disaster area, even though it's slowly improving. i could have everything organized and put away if i had one full day, but alas, it's not meant to be. this evening after work, becca, jen and i are heading to enchanted rock (west of austin) for a labor day weekend camping trip. gavin will join us tomorrow, and we'll all come back on monday. it should be fun, though hopefully not too hot. the weather is calling for a chance of thunderstorms, which could cool things off more, however...note to self: make sure i have the rain cover for my tent!

enchanted rock is basically a big granite rock in the ground, like a smaller version of stone mountain in georgia. i always wanted to go (it seemed like there was a trip there every co-op tour) but i've never managed to make it over there until now. tomorrow we'll climb to the top and explore the cave and maybe watch some people rock climb on the back side, as well as hike the trails in the park. then sunday we'll either do more in enchanted rock, or drive to one of the nearby state parks for swimming or more hiking. i'll probably head back to houston monday morning so that i can do some labor day climbing at the rock gym and then to the cookout with the gang that evening.

enh. one day i'll finish unpacking. minor detail.

Thursday, August 28, 2003

just 5 more minutes

i've been having one of those weeks where it's impossible for me to get to work before 8:30 (or, yesterday and today, 8:45) no matter what my intentions. i have just been a big ol snooze-button-hitting sleepyhead. but it's ok, since i was here last night until 7:00. i get in these moods where i start on something and get on a roll, and don't want to quit until i reach a good stopping point. that happened last night.

last night i attempted to sift through more of my crap in an attempt to make my apartment more comfy and less cluttered. i'm having some success; i just need more time. i also tried to install my ceiling fan light for the second time, and was unsuccessful again. i am feeling totally incompetant that i can't install a ceiling fan light, especially since i took it down in the old apartment and saw how it was connected!! there must be something i'm missing, but i can't figure out what. there are two wires coming from the fan labeled "for light." one is blue and one is white. there are two wires on the light fixture. one is black and one is white. i connected white to white and blue to black, and i get nothing. i wonder if maybe it's not possible to hook up a light twice?? but that makes no sense. i can't figure it out.

my ankle is finally starting to look a bit more normal. it's still swollen, but i can tell it's going down. this is good, since i plan on hiking up to the top of enchanted rock this weekend. gavin, jen, becca and i are going camping there.

i just realized that it's been almost an entire year since becca, karen and i were cavorting around on the great scotland road trip. that was fun. but with that anniversary coming up, and the recent conversation about wish list destinations, i am feeling the need to leave the country again. it's a good thing that the trip to greece is only a month and a half away!

i have nothing interesting to say today. i have been sitting here for an hour trying to come up with an entertaining story, but nada. sorry.

Wednesday, August 27, 2003

so long, farewell, 803

so becca tells me this morning that ikea is adding 300,000 square feet to their houston store. ah. i am in heaven. i love ikea. in stockholm, there is an ikea store that is 600,000 square feet. yet another reason to go to sweden. :)

well, mars has made its closest approach and is now receding from the earth again, but if you haven't done it yet, you should go outside tonight and find it. mars is so obviously something closer than a star; it's brilliantly orange these days. i can't help but stare at it every evening and wish i had brought the telescope from home. my grandmother gave my family a telescope years ago, and for a while it sat in my parents' room with a blanket over it. i used to take it out in the backyard occasionally to look at the moon, and i vaguely remember dad setting it up to look at jupiter once. but now it's in the box in the attic, i think. maybe i'll snag it when i'm home for christmas.

it always makes me feel good to see stories about things like this in the news. combined with the release of the columbia accident report, space is all over the place, and though much of the coverage of nasa is bad, a part of me still thinks that any coverage is better than none. but the mars stuff makes me happy. astronomy so often gets completely ignored by the media; it's nice to see them making the public away that there are other worlds than these.

i skipped out on volleyball last night citing a swollen ankle. it's still swollen today, and i'm starting to worry, as i've never had anything stay swollen for this long. but george the amateur doctor tells me it's ok, and to just keep icing it. it was hurting more last night after i finished moving all my stuff from the old apartment (no comments from the peanut gallery on the irony of skipping volleyball, and yet still moving stuff up and down stairs), but this morning it seems to be a little less swollen. i am starting to be able to see my ankle bone again.

as of 8:00 last night, i am completely moved out of my old apartment. i took the last couple loads over to the new place, then went back to vacuum the floor and wipe down the counters. i pulled all the nails out of the wall, took down the hooks i'd put up, and took down the ceiling fan lights i'd bought.

i took one last look around, and said "goodbye 803. i hope someone else enjoys you as much as i did." then i walked downstairs and locked the door.

my new apartment is nice. extremely cluttered at the moment, as i haven't finished unpacking, but nice. i'm impatiently waiting for the dsl to come on (which apparently can take up to 10 days from the time they turn the phone line on, which i don't really understand but it seems like they should be able to do it faster). and i can't figure out how to reconnect my ceiling fan lights, despite having observed how they were connected in the old place. sigh.

time to ice my ankle.

Monday, August 25, 2003

525,600 minutes

yesterday as i was carrying two big 14-gallon tupperware bins full of kitchen stuff down the stairs, i thought i'd reached the bottom. unfortunately, i was wrong; there was one more step. i missed it, and as a result, wrenched my ankle something wicked. it was a truly becca-inspired moment (which i say only because i know it will make her go "hey!" in mock anger). anyway.

becca actually happened to be helping me move at the time, and peered through the cutout in the wall of my old apartment to inquire about my well-being, as i sat in a heap on the floor clutching my ankle. i replied that it wasn't broken or anything ("oh good, you're not going into shock," she said, before disappearing back into the rest of the apartment), and then i got up and hobbled over to the new apartment. i moved a few more loads of stuff before realizing that my ankle did actually hurt, at which point i sat down and iced it.

i guess i didn't ice it long enough, as later last night it swelled a bit, and is still swollen today. in fact, it has a nice throbbing/slightly numb feeling today. i think maybe i slightly sprained it. this does not bode well for rock climbing tonight. stupid ankle.

other than that, however, i'm almost done moving. i put off moving the hanging clothes from my closet last night after hurting the stupid ankle, so i have to either do that tonight, or recruit someone else to do it for me. then i have to move my computer. then pull the nails out of the wall, take down the curtain rods, take out the hooks in the bathroom, and rescue the ceiling fan light fixtures that i bought. maybe an hour of work, total. then everything will be out of the old place.

i am liking my new apartment ok. saturday night when everyone came over to watch "so i married an axe murderer" and the help me move, rich and stephanie both walked in and said something along the lines of "wow, this apartment is awesome!" ugh. that is not what a girl wants to hear when she is moving out of that apartment and into a smaller one. i was sad on saturday night. but yesterday went well, and as i start to get things settled and organized in the new place, i am finding that there are some things i like better. i miss the space of my old place, and the big window. but the power lines are farther away from the new place, and the balcony is slightly bigger, and more open, and thus more comfortable. i like the little study area i have set up in what is otherwise the dining room. and the kitchen in my new place is much more efficiently laid out, and i have actually have more cabinet space than i used to.

i didn't officially work out this weekend, as in i didn't run, or swim, or bike, or go to the exercise room. but with all the moving, and stair climbing, and lifting boxes, i think i managed. my arms and legs are a little sore today.

it was really hot this weekend.

lately i have realized a few nice things about having been in one place for more than a year now. it's very calming to me to think that i have seen all the seasons change (insert sarcastic comment about how houston only has two seasons--hot and hotter). but seriously. it is nice to think that i moved here in the middle of the summer, watched the weather cool and the days darken as fall deepened into winter. i was sad at the lack of sunshine through december and january, and enjoyed watching the days get longer as spring approached. the weather got warmer, but may and june were pleasant, and even july wasn't that bad. i didn't find it uncomfortably hot until this month, and now, with september around the corner, i can look forward to cooling, and evenings on the balcony. fall is my favorite season, and it's approaching again.

i dunno. that's not a very good explanation, but last night as i was lying in bed, i decided that being in one place for more than a year wasn't that bad after all.

Saturday, August 23, 2003

on the move

i'm typing these words while lying on my stomach, legs stretched out behind me, on the floor of my study. or what used to be my study. in any case, i'm sure this position is completely ergonomically incorrect.

i guess i'm living in my new apartment now. i still have the keys to this one, and there are still things here--i have yet to move all the clothes from my closet, or move all the dishes from my kitchen--but there isn't an ounce of furniture in here anymore. within the span of an hour or so, it all got moved over to the new place, with much help from matt, stephanie, rich, gavin, jen, becca, and betsy. the boys did a lot of the heavy lifting, including the couch (which went out a lot easier than it came in, it seemed) and the dresser and the bed. tonight, i moved all the bathroom stuff and shower curtain over, so i won't even be using the bathroom here anymore.

i don't actually have to be completely out of this apartment until next sunday. but i'm leaving town on friday, and didn't want to move during the week. tomorrow i hope to move everything else over to the new place. it's mostly clothes and dishes left, so it shouldn't take too long, and becca even said she'd come back over to help. payback for doing her floor last weekend. :)

i am sort of sad to be moving. my new apartment is fine, and a part of me is excited about the change. but another part is sad. and disappointed. the new place is smaller. two of my bookshelves had to go in a closet because there isn't enough space. they'll be just as useful in the closet, but still... my living room is more cramped now, with not nearly as much floor space, and no perfect place for the papasan. there's no way to arrange the living room so that the tv faces the kitchen either, so no more watching baseball across the bar while i leisurely make my dinner.

but it will be ok. it will take some getting used to, but it will be ok.

Friday, August 22, 2003

come josephine in my flying machine going up she goes, up she goes /
balance yourself like a bird on a beam in the air she goes, there she goes...

In my typical groggy morning haze, as I laid in bed hitting the snooze button, I thought to myself "Hmm. Wait a sec. There was some reason I wanted to actually get up at 7:00 today. What was it? Hmm. Gosh, what was it? Geez. Oh, I can't remember, I'll just hit the snooze again."

And that is why I didn't remember (until I walked outside) that this is my favorite day of the entire year to drive to work. Why? Because it's the Friday before the last full weekend in August, which means it's the beginning of the Ballunar Festival! It doesn't officially begin until tonight, but this morning is what you could call the "warm up flight," when all the hot air balloons take off for an early morning jaunt around Clear Lake. Thus, despite forgetting to get up early enough to watch them filling and launching, I still walked out of my apartment to the sight of dozens of brightly colored hot air balloons gliding overhead in perfect quiet, save for the occasional burst from the burner.

They looked so beautiful in the morning sky as they floated over towards Friendswood. I pulled over on the side of the road just before I got to work to take some pictures, and waved at the pilots gliding overhead. Some were higher than others, in fact, one balloon accidentally came down in the middle of the road(!) before its momentum carried it off the pavement and into the field beside the middle school.

Becca is volunteering on a chase crew for one of the balloons; I will be so incredibly jealous if she gets to go for a ride. I've always wanted to ride in a hot air balloon. But alas, I'm moving this weekend and couldn't commit to a chase crew. Hopefully I'll be able to do it next year.

I remember this morning last year. Carter was visiting and was asleep on my couch, and Nick picked me up for work, because he hadn't left for France yet. We drove down the road in his convertible with the top down, and me snapping pictures as fast as I could. I couldn't help myself and called my apartment to wake up Carter, and tell him to look out the window. I don't know if he looked. I don't think he was nearly as excited as I was, not to mention he was half asleep. But that was fun. When I get excited, I have a hard time keeping it in.

Ah, my favorite day. Coming to work beneath a sky filled with balloons just makes me happy. This is going to be a great day. :)

(In fact, I won't even get too upset over last night's game, except to say: Damn the Braves bullpen. Damn them.)

Thursday, August 21, 2003

sleepiness

The Cubs won the game last night, much to Rich's satisfaction. Ah well. It was still an enjoyable outing at the ballpark, and fortunately, the Braves weren't on TV last night so I couldn't stay up late watching that game. Damn the Giants and their walk-off home runs.

I slept...well, not badly, but weirdly last night. I remember waking up in the middle of the night sweating, despite the fact that I turn my A/C down to about 76 degrees at night. In my grogginess, I got up, walked into the living room, pulled my Georgia Tech blanket out from the end table, and laid down on the couch. This all seemed perfectly normal to my sleep-fogged brain. Next thing I know, it's 4:30 in the morning, and I'm still awkwardly positioned on the couch. So I get up and go back to my bedroom and sleep till my alarm goes off.

I guess in retrospect, it's not that weird, but it feels really weird. I've never done anything like that before.

I need to work out. I haven't been running in a week, and haven't done anything remotely active since climbing on Monday. Despite the fact that I'm not getting enough sleep this week due to all the evening plans, I think a lack of exercising is the more prominent cause of my grogginess. Well, at the least, moving this weekend will provide a lot of activity. I only have two more nights in my current apartment before all the furniture goes over to the new place. It'll be a few more days after that until I'm completely moved out of the old and into the new, but I figure when the furniture gets moved, I go with it. This move is weird. I haven't really spent much time thinking about it, which is a lot different from previous moves. Then again, this time I'm only moving 100 feet. Nothing will change except the layout of my apartment.

Friday, August 15, 2003

of switched fish and broken water heaters

(The server that is currently hosting the wedding pictures that I linked to yesterday is down. I don't know why, but I'll try to remember to mention when it comes back up.)

So there's the western power grid, the eastern power grid, and the Texas power grid. Texas has its own grid! Ah, I love Texas. No blackouts for us; we can secede without fear of power loss at any ol' time. Go Texas.

Yesterday was very strange. It began with an early morning thunderstorm that woke me up, and when I fell back asleep I dreamed that I was climbing Mt. Everest (which my brain morphed into a tower a la the Tower of Isengard on the Lord of the Rings movie poster, except made of ice and snow). So here I was on a completely vertical Mt. Everest, wearing my crampons and clutching my ice ax. With me on the climb were Harry Potter, Ron, Hermione, and...Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Very random.

(Oh! completely unrelated side note: in Austin on Wednesday, as we were finishing our lunch at Kerbey Lane, a girl walked by wearing a Trogdor the Burninator t-shirt. It was awesome. Anyway, back to yesterday's craziness.)

So after I finished climbing Mt. Everest with Ahhhnold and woke up, I came to work, only to realize I'd forgotten my dentist appointment, yadda yadda. Went to the dentist, came back, and hurrah, the computer man was here to take away my old crappy computer and give me a lovely new black Dell, with speakers. I've been waiting for my computer refresh for months now; little did I know it would be such an ordeal.

I had 6.5 gigabytes of data on my old hard drive that needed to be transferred to my new drive, but instead of being able to simply connect the two drives and transfer things efficiently, my old computer had to transfer everything to a small portable drive. This took five hours. At 5:30, the thing finally finished, and the tech guy and I finally went home.

Ugh. At least I have a new computer.

In the meantime, however, while my computer was being otherwise occupied transferring the entire contents of the hard drive, I got a call from my apartment complex saying my hot water heater had busted, I would have no hot water until tomorrow, and that Javier the maintainence man had discovered the problem after seeing water leak out of my garage, where the water heater is located.

There were multiple problems with this assessment. One, my water heater is not in my garage; it's in my apartment in the utility closet next to the kitchen. I knew this, and feared that I would come home to soaked carpet. Two... ok, well maybe there was only one problem with the assessment, but it was a major one.

Anyway. I came home. Inspected the garage. No sign of water having soaked the cardboard boxes in the back of my garage. Went into my apartment. No sign of water anywhere, not the kitchen or the carpet. Try the hot water. The faucet sputters and does nothing, so indeed, I have no hot water. Hmm. Go downstairs to the empty apartment below me, which has been left open for me to shower. Aha! The carpet was wet next to that utility closet, which is directly under mine. Aha! The garage to that apartment is open.

Deduction: my water heater broke, leaking water into the apartment below mine, and leaking out of a pipe that resulted in water coming out of the garage next to mine.

Anyway. I showered at debbie's, which was fine because I needed to go pick up Viggo the fish anyway. I walk in, look at Viggo, and notice that he has turned blue in the week since I've seen him. Blue? I ask Debbie what happened to Viggo, and she smiles beguilingly and says "Oh, he's blue! He missed you so much that he turned blue!" But where's the real Viggo, I wonder? Suddenly, a horrible thought occurs to me.

"Did he die?!?" I ask. Debbie looks at me. "Oh no, he died!!!" I cry. "The post-traumatic stress from me accidently dumping him down the drain has killed him!"

Debbie couldn't keep it up any longer. She revealed Viggo, happily swimming in a new tank in her bedroom. The blue fish is named Vtot (pronounced vee-tote), and since Debbie didn't know what she was going to do with him, I have adopted him and can now put their tanks next to each other and watch them attempt to fight. Viggo the red and Vtot the blue. Or if you prefer, one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish.

(As a finale to this rambling and late-in-the-day entry, I guess I have to explain the blue fish's name. Viggo (the red), which I pronounce vee-go, sounds to Debbie like Vgo, which is an orbital mechanics term for the velocity to go in an engine burn. To keep with the theme, she named the blue fish Vtot, which is the term for total velocity change. I am surrounded by dorks.)

Wednesday, August 06, 2003

it's alright, it's alright / we are landing this ship soon / it's alright, it's alright / no more trips around the moon

It was brought to my attention yesterday, albeit unintentionally, that this is the first time I've been in the same place for a year since I was in high school. I am also told that this is normal. Doesn't help me from feeling restless though. Maybe moving to a different apartment will cure that, or at least help.

Even before yesterday, I have been missing California something fierce. A friend from Stanford sent around the link to a 20-minute "highlight video" he made. It showed so many of the crazy things that went on during the 9 months I was there, and made me picture college as a magical place where classes are a minor thing stuck in between surfing, biking, parties, headstands in the study lounge and men in catwoman costumes.

Ah.

I can't think of much to say today. Hmm. Let's see.

Yesterday afternoon I made a really cool map showing footprints along an entry trajectory all the way from EI to KSC. It was pretty cool looking, and as always, I am a big fan of cool looking maps and graphs.

The dress I bought on Saturday is a size smaller than anything I've bought since I was like 14 years old. Obviously Talbots sizes their dresses bigger than any other store, but it still made me feel good.

My arms still ache from climbing on Monday, but today it is a good ache, a friendly ache, a "grr, I'm gonna be rock solid someday" ache. Unfortunately, I'll still be out of town next Monday, but I'm already looking forward to the Monday after that, and more climbing.

I'll also miss softball this week. Sad. I need to recover from last time's dismal hitting performance.

I need to get outta dodge.