Monday, January 31, 2005

oh I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener / that's what I'd like to be

For those who maintain that the Stanford mascot (a tree) is silly, I give you this picture, taken by Chris. After that, there can be no doubt that yes, the tree is incredibly silly.

Anyway. I had another nice weekend, dampened only by the gray skies and the threat of soggy weather. I saw Million Dollar Baby on Friday night with Melanie, Nick, Curt and Sara. Becca, Jen, Gavin, Cari and Lisa joined us for dinner afterwards. It's hard to describe the movie without giving away what happens, and to know the entire plot in advance would definitely take away some of the film's impact. I'll just say that it is well-written, well-acted, and powerful. It is realistic to the point of making the viewer uncomfortable, and while that sounds like a negative, in this case it works. When I went to bed on Friday night, I was still thinking about it. So, it was excellent, and I now understand why it's been nominated for so many awards. I haven't seen all the nomined flicks, but Hilary Swank is definitely deserving of her Best Actress nomination, and maybe a win.

Rich and I ran the Mardi Gras Beach Run 5K on Saturday morning in Galveston, but it turned out to more more like 4.5K. It was the first time I'd run since the marathon, and Rich is slowly getting back into it (the 4.5 miles he ran with me at the marathon is the farthest he's gone in a while), so we were taking it pretty slow. We passed mile 1 in a little over 11:00, and then passed mile 2 under 19:00. Wha...?!? Yeah, we'd sped up, but we did not reel off a sub-8:00 mile. We finished in 29:34 for my second fastest "5K" ever. 29:34 would be an average of 9:32/mile, and we were definitely not running that fast. So, mile 1 was correct in relation to the start line, and mile 2 was correct in relation to the finish line. But the turnaround point, located between miles 1 and 2, was obviously miscalculated, or mismarked.

While leaving the race, I happened to look down a side street and to my surprise, saw the Wienermobile!!! "Ohmygod, STOP THE CAR!" I shouted at Rich. Once he recovered from the shock, he circled the block so that I could get my picture taken with the Wienermobile. Sadly, the drivers were nowhere to be seen, so I couldn't ask to see inside or anything. But it was awesome. No one else seems to be nearly as excited about my seeing the Wienermobile except for my mom, who, when I called home and described it as "seeing a flash of orange and yellow, guess what it was" immediately answered "the Wienermobile!", and my sister, who also shares my amusement and remembers fondly the time we were at my grandmother's and laughed so hard we almost suffocated after seeing a Wienermobile commercial on TV.

My family rocks.

Saturday afternoon, Rich, Nacho, Katie, Fred, Becca and I headed to the Grand Chapiteau in the parking lot at Reliant Stadium to see Cirque du Soleil. Their Varekai show is in town, and it was amazing, as usual. The was the show that had its development chronicled in a Bravo series that I watched a few years ago, so it was neat to see the acts that I remember seeing on TV. Cirque du Soleil continuously amazes me with the incredible physical things people can do. The performers make things that I know must be horribly difficult look so easy, and so smooth and fluid. After the show, we had a great dinner at Star Pizza. Mmm.

Yesterday I had to spend a couple hours in the afternoon working on my paper, because the extended abstract is due today. The paper is for the AIAA Guidance, Navigation and Controls conference to be held in August in San Francisco, so I really hope that 1) the paper gets accepted and 2) I can get the travel money to go and present it.

Last night my women's team played our final soccer game of the season (the next season starts in March, so we don't have too long of a break). We lost the game, and I didn't have a great night, but oh well. Afterwards, we all went out and had Mexican food to celebrate the season. I had a great time. When my old women's team dissolved, I was afraid that I wouldn't find another team, or one that I could contribute as much to, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise. I love my new team. Sure, we still lose a lot, but we win every once in a while, and they are so much more fun to play with.

Sunday, January 30, 2005

I turned down a trip

I turned down a trip to the Sketchers outlet with Melanie because I'm working on a paper. I feel like I'm back in college.

It could be worse, though. I could be stuck inside by an ice storm, left with nothing to do but watch the entire first season of One Tree Hill and accidentally paint my butt by sitting on a paint can lid. If that sounds like your thing, you'll have to go elsewhere.

Friday, January 28, 2005

TiVo is awesome. I love

TiVo is awesome. I love it. I paused the TV last night just because I could. Ha HA!

I'm running a 5K tomorrow morning with Rich. It's good that he convinced me to sign up for it (yes, he convinced me, I can't remember the last time someone asked me to do a run, instead of me bugging them), because I need the motivation to get back out there. I haven't been a couch potato since the marathon, but I also haven't been running. Not even once. And this is bad, bad bad bad, because one of my goals for this year is to not lose all my running endurance over the summer like I did last year. See, I didn't want to run in the oppressive heat, which sounded like a good idea at the time but turned out to be a decision that I greatly regretted when I was first starting marathon training.

Anyway. I need to keep running at least a couple times a week. Though I do need to up my bike riding in preparation for the MS150 in April.

Carter and I were talking last night about publishing blogs. He wants his blog in book form, and I think it might be neat to have a copy of mine as well, but...come on, it's a blog, no one else would want a copy. Who wants to read a book of what I did every day, except me? I think there are probably plenty of places out there in internet-land that would allow me to publish my blog, but the cost is probably prohibitive unless you want to mass-produce the thing. Anyway. Interesting to think about.

Carter used My Publisher to make a great photo album for his parents. He had major problems actually getting the book to him, but I don't think it was My Publisher's fault; more of a problem in that Carter's mail delivery is weird, and he is cursed when dealing with the USPS. I've been thinking I should put together a "best of" book of Peru photos. Sit it on my coffee table and daydream about the Andes.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

I was just watching I

I was just watching I Love The 90's Part Deux: 1999 and they were talking about Lance Armstrong's first Tour de France victory, and joking about how the French must feel, having an American win.

VH1 commentator: "They're France. What are they gonna do? There's not much they can do at this point, other than hurl baguettes at him."

That mental image totally cracked me up.

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Jo asked me for help

Jo asked me for help with a cover letter. The first sentence she gave me was this one:

• Diagnosed culture and developed an action plan for change by initiating a NASA-specific program to asses culture.

"Jo?" I said. "You do realize that your first sentence says asses, right?"

Thursday, January 27, 2005

Apollo 1 ~ January

Apollo 1 ~ January 27, 1968
Challenger ~ January 28, 1986
Columbia ~ February 1, 2003

"This Thursday, NASA observes a Day of Remembrance honoring those members of the NASA Family who lost their lives while furthering the cause of exploration and discovery. In their memory, NASA flags at Headquarters and every Center fly at half-staff...

At NASA, we recognize the risks inherent in what we do on a day-to-day basis. It is our highest priority to ensure the safety of all of our employees, and when tragedy occurs, every one of us feels it deeply. Since the earliest days of the Agency, none of our greatest triumphs have been achieved without great struggle and sacrifice. But it is our responsibility to ensure that those sacrifices were not made in vain.

Not a single day goes by in which we do not think of our valiant colleagues lost in this great quest that we pursue. I remain extremely proud of the NASA Family's efforts to honor their colleagues' remarkable legacy through an unwavering commitment to enhance mission safety and to keep pioneering the space frontier.

Thus it is that today we mark this solemn occasion with great hope for the future. A living memorial to our colleagues' legacy will be our continued focus on the Vision for Space Exploration, which will take human explorers back to the Moon and then on to other worlds beyond our own.

In 2004, President Bush observed, "Exploration is not an option we choose. It is a desire written in the human heart. We are that part of creation which seeks to understand all creation. We find the best among us, send them forth into unmapped darkness and pray they will return. They go in peace for all mankind, and all mankind is in their debt."

We know that we can never repay the debt we owe all of our fallen colleagues, but with those hopeful words in our heart, we can honor their legacy each and every day."

We just went outside to watch the brief memorial, which ended with T-38s flying the missing man formation. The plane that pulled up quickly disappeared into the cloudy, rainy sky.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

Those who know me should

Those who know me should realize by now that I love technology. Though I always try to fight it when it first arrives, I end up embracing it. A timeline:

November 1999: I write an editorial about the evils of ICQ. I write this article...while I use the damn chat program on an hourly basis.

December 2000: After declaring loudly and on multiple occasions that I would never get a cell phone and don't understand how they're all that useful...I buy a cell phone. And it basically hasn't left my side since. And I'm not even a phone person.

October 2001: I convince myself that because of my small dorm room and small desk, I must have a flat panel monitor. (Though to be fair, the monitor I had previously was from 1996 and about 14 inches.) Somebody told me that flat panel monitors only last a couple years, but mine is still going strong.

May 2002: I buy a digital camera. I don't know why I was so behind the curve on this one, really. The digital camera is perhaps my favorite technological device developed, well, in my lifetime thus far.

September 2002: I sell my digital camera to buy a better digital camera.

January 2003: I get rid of my cell phone to get a better cell phone. One with a camera. Everything is better with a camera.

January 2004: I sell my DVD player to buy a Playstation 2, which works as a DVD player and lets me play Dance Dance Revolution. Bonus.

February 2004: I sell my old cell phone to get a better cell phone. One with a better camera.

March 2004: I buy a GPS handheld receiver. So I can go on high-tech treasure hunts and get stung by bees. I have a great sense of direction, but hey, you can never be too sure.

April 2004: I buy a new desktop, just so it can run my software faster.

October 2004: I buy a far better digital camera, but this time I don't even bother to get rid of the old one. Two cameras are better than one, right?

March 2004: Becca and Nick's liberal use of their TiVo to (gasp!) pause live television during the Academy Awards results in me yelling a lot, and generally not being able to handle live TV being paused. The horror.

December 2004: I buy my dad image-stabilized binoculars for Christmas. I now want image-stabilized binoculars, because come on, have you seen how cool they are?

January 2005: I buy a TiVo. Later that day, I surf eBay for a new cell phone with an even better camera.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

I'm tired. Seriously tired. And

I'm tired. Seriously tired. And it's all because I'm stupid.

See, I started this photoblog. Then I started surfing photoblogs.org, and now have a favorites folder of at least 40 sites that I like to look at each night. Then I got an email from a local photo guy inviting me to join his Texas Photo Forum. And now I'm thinking of starting a site similar to these two. All that, and I'm not even that great a photographer. Funny.

Anyway, what it all means is that I'm finding myself on the computer at home surfing the web and doing website tweaks for multiple hours each night. And my sleep suffers. (Saying that is going to drive my dad crazy.) Something's gotta give.

Wednesday, January 26, 2005

You Are a Peacemaker

You Are a Peacemaker Soul

You strive to please others and compromise anyway you can. War or conflict bothers you, and you would do anything to keep the peace. You are a good mediator and a true negotiator. Sometimes you do too much, trying so hard to make people happy. While you keep the peace, you tend to be secretly judgmental. You lose respect for people who don't like to both give and take. On the flip side, you've got a graet sense of humor and wit. You're always dimplomatic and able to give good advice. Souls you are most compatible with: Warrior Soul, Hunter Soul and Visionary Soul

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

I wasn't going to do

I wasn't going to do this, but I've seen too many other people actually getting free iPods. I'm willing to try it. To get a free 40GB iPod Photo, I need 10 people to follow this link:

http://www.freephotoiPods.com/?r=14429074

and sign up for one of the offers. Yes, the point is to get you to sign up for stuff you don't want, but if you're smart you can avoid it. I suggest signing up for the Complete Home trial (it will cost you $1, then you stay a member for at least 7 days, cancel within 30 days with no penalty, and get a $20 Lowe's gift card) or Netmarket (similar deal, $1 to start, stay for at least 7 days, then cancel within 30 and you won't get charged any more).

If you're concerned about potential spam from whatever email address you give them, let me know and I can set you up an email address on my server and I'll deal with the spam for you! What a deal, eh?

So. We'll see if this works or not. And if I manage to get a free iPod Photo, I'll let you play with it. ;)

Tuesday, January 25, 2005

All three forms I needed

All three forms I needed to do my taxes came in the mail yesterday, so I did my return last night. I was hoping for a bit of a refund, but it wasn't meant to be. I owe $96. Yuck.

The other day I got an email from Friendster saying I had a new person requesting to be my friend. Turns out it was Laura, a friend from high school that I haven't spoken to in years. Through her profile, I also found another high school friend who is apparently a jazz flutist in southern California now. This was most interesting to me because "back in the day" we were always battling it out for the higher chair in band. Our band was fortunate enough to have some pretty good flutists; Becky and I were usually fighting to settle 3rd and 4th chair because 1st and 2nd were taken by Nancy and Laura. By senior year though, if I remember correctly, Becky (or I guess she goes by Rebecca now) was getting more serious and took over 2nd chair while I stuck with 3rd and Laura went to 4th. Becky went on to Illinois to study music, while I headed to Tech and gave up any hope of ever having a music career. There was a time I thought about being a music major, but I don't think it would have been the right thing for me.

Anyway. Maybe this Friendster thing is useful after all...

Thinking of old high school friends sent me to Google, where I searched for a few people I remember and would be interested in hearing from. It's was a mostly fruitless process, which made me realize how large the gap still is between those who are "online" and those who aren't except for occasional email. Search for my name and you'll get 366 results. Nine of the ten on the first page are me. 8/10 on the second page. 9/10 on the third page. 7/10 on the fourth page. Et cetera.

It's true that I 1) have a fairly unique name and 2) have not changed my name (i.e. gotten married), which makes it a lot easier than it is to find someone like, say, my friends Andrew Holmes (common name) or Cayce Denton (has her husband's name now) on the web. (I still keep in touch with them though, so it's ok.) But the point is that I am an extremely easy person to find, should any of my old high school friends think of me. They, on the other hand, are much harder to track down. I'm tempted to attribute this difference to the fact that I became an engineer and therefore use computers on a daily basis, while none of my other high school friends followed a career path quite as technical.

Then of course there are the people who find me, like Elizabeth, or Eli, who was a friend in middle school that I lost track of when we went to separate high schools. Eli, if you're reading this, know that I've been meaning to email you for more than a year, seriously, but I am just that lazy!!

Anyway. Just thinking.

Monday, January 24, 2005

My entire weekend was a

My entire weekend was a refreshing reminder that there are parts of Houston that I really enjoy. Living down in the suburbs, I forget that the older parts of the city are much more unique, and have personality. Clear Lake is so...cookie cutter, and somehow washed out; the summer sun and hot weather combined with the strip malls and asphalt and scrubby trees make the entire place feel tired and burnt. But the older areas of town that I drove through on Saturday and Sunday, the areas around Rice and Memorial Park and Tanglewood, are so quaint and quiet and tree-lined and pretty. I felt like I left the Houston I've become used to and found the Houston that made people come here in the first place. It was nice.

Monday, January 24, 2005

Slightly weird: last Monday while

Slightly weird: last Monday while playing Trivial Pursuit 90s Edition, we had a debate over whether Johnny Carson was alive or not. None of use could remember for certain, but we finally decided that he was. And now he's not. Call it a Trivial Pursuit premonition. Spooky.

I had a very, very busy weekend and am paying for it today with sleepy eyes and a sore throat. But it was great. Let's begin...

I stayed home on Friday night as has become a habit lately. I don't mind going out, but I also like to relax and unwind from the week. I worked on some web stuff (redesign of this page that will hopefully happen within the next couple weeks) and watched some TV. Alas, I did not do any cleaning and my apartment is suffering for it.

Saturday I woke up early for swimming with Buzz. She had already done 5 laps by the time I got there and ended up doing 20 total, so I squeezed in 21 while she did her final 15. A year ago, I could've done at least 30 laps in the time it took her to do those 15. She has really improved -- it's awesome.

After satisfying a Chik-Fil-A craving for lunch, and feeling aimless and not sure what to do with the rest of my day, I headed out with the intent of going to RunSport to pick up my mug from the marathon warm-up series. It seemed silly to drive all the way up into town just to get a mug and come back home, so I decided to just see where the day would take me. I didn't have any plans for that night, but was thinking of crashing Jo's hula performance after all. (She takes lessons at a dance studio in town, and the studio was doing an informal show that night. I hadn't RSVPed because I'm an ambivalent RSVPer.) After picking up my mug I decided to see what REI had on sale. Got a couple shirts and a couple pairs of socks, as well as some little climbing people magnets that I put on my bookshelf at work. This is what happens when I go to stores without a specific shopping list -- I end up buying random stuff. Just wait till you see what happened next.

From REI, since I was already way over on that side of town, I decided to hit my version of heaven on Earth: IKEA. I hadn't been since they opened a new, larger store and of course I wasn't disappointed. I went for a shelf and I left with:

• A small rug.
• Two magazine filing racks.
• Two blue paper storage boxes.
• Two pieces of bamboo.
• Two "knick-knack" shelves.
• Two paper lanterns.
• Two light fixtures to go with the lanterns.
• Oh yeah -- the large shelf that was the idea behind the trip in the first place.

I do love that place. Because I am weird and the idea seemed like fun and I "take a lot of pictures" according to Becca, I documented my trip to heaven with my camera phone, which is available for your viewing pleasure HERE.

Before hitting IKEA, however, I had decided that I wanted to go to Jo's hula performance that night after all. I called Nick to find out the plan, and Ansley was sick and not using her ticket, so I could have it for cheaper than buying one at the door. Perfect, except they weren't meeting for dinner until 6:00, and it was only 5:00. No time to go back to Clear Lake, so I drove downtown to Tranquility Park and took some photos of the park and the neat statue outside the Hobby Center while the sun went down. I met the hula-going gang for dinner at a great restaurant right on Main Street next to the light rail line.

From dinner we headed to Jo's performance. We had to sit through a lot of belly dancing (which I enjoyed, though many others didn't) but got to see Jo perform three different hulas. She was great! I should get her to teach me some. There was also a tap dancer there who was very good; he teaches a hip hop class on Saturdays as well, so I'll have to go with Jo sometime. Pictures from the performance are HERE. If you, like Becca, feel like I took too many, then 1) get over it and 2) use the slideshow feature, as it allows for quicker viewing. A quick trip to Amy's Ice Cream after the show capped off a great Saturday.

Yesterday was again busy -- I spent the afternoon interviewing high school seniors for the President's Scholarship at Georgia Tech. This was the second year I've been able to help out, and it was a lot of fun. I saw six students in all, and a couple of them were just thoroughly impressive. I'm lucky I got the scholarship when I did; I get the feeling it's a lot more competitive this days, and I have serious doubts I could snag one if I had to apply today. Seriously impressive teenagers.

I ended the weekend with a soccer game last night, which we WON. Yeah! We won!

Sunday, January 23, 2005

My dad eats some of

My dad eats some of the weirdest concoctions ever seen, usually involving multiple canned vegetables. I make fun of him for it constantly.

I came home tonight from soccer and didn't want to cook. It was late, and I have no food. (Being averse to going to the grocery store, as I am, has the side effect of me never really having any food. I must fix this. All the eating out I've done lately is making me gain weight. Boooooo.)

Anyway -- I get home, no food, hmm, what to eat? I look in the pantry, look around on the counter, and finally end up with a can of black beans, a can of sweet peas, and a couple tortillas. Black beans and peas get mixed together and nuked, and eaten in a tortilla. As I finished my "dinner" I suddenly thought about Dad.

From him I inherited thick hair, my oddly curved ring toes (or whatever you call the toe next to your pinky toe), a goofy sense of humor and, apparently, the ability to make an entire meal from a can and a tortilla.

Thanks Dad.

Friday, January 21, 2005

APOD's photo for today is,

APOD's photo for today is, again, amazing. The Opportunity rover, which is still going strong on the surface of Mars despite the fact that its designed lifespan ended months ago, has doubled back and to find its own heat shield.

And on Titan, out there orbiting Saturn, scientists have determined from Huygens probe data that the surface is covered with ice ridges and seas of liquid natural gas. The entire moon is flammable! However, "There's no source of oxygen available, which is a good thing or Titan would have exploded a long time ago," said Toby Owen in a CNN article.

The space program is freaking amazing.

I got a few of the "official" race photos from the marathon and posted them in the race gallery. I don't know why I continue to post unflattering pictures of me running, but ah well.

This week has flown past. I've been a bit more inspired about my work lately, which has resulted in me putting in a few extra hours here and there. I feel like I'm getting closer and closer to determining whether this neural net abort determination stuff has any chance of being included on a mission.

I'm looking forward to a quiet Friday night and an early bedtime in an attempt to shake the touch of a cold I currently have. I really want to see The Aviator, but don't want to go out tonight. I'll probably rent something instead.

Roger Clemens is set to sign a new one-year contract with the Astros, for a record sum of >$17.5 million. It will be nice to have him back for another season, but in the meantime, Jason and I have decided not to renew our season tickets...at least for this year. With Chris out in California for the year, we'd have to move seats (to worse seats) and would obviously only be buying two seats, which is not as desirable as three for multiple reasons. There's also the fact that Jason stands to be unavailable for at least a copule weeks during the summer if the shuttle launches as scheduled, because he'll be working the flights.

So we decided to forego season tickets this year and take our chances. The major disadvantage of not getting season tickets is that come postseason, if the 'Stros are in, we won't be guaranteed tickets and will have to fend for ourselves. I anticipate getting season tickets again when Chris is back in 2006.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Cool -- someone created a

Cool -- someone created a Houston Running Blog. It would inspire me to go out for a jog tonight...if I didn't feel all stuffy and stiff. I'm fighting off the beginnings of the post-marathon cold that I hoped wouldn't come. After getting so sick after the Austin Half last year, I was very careful to get good rest on Monday and Tuesday. But for the past two days I've had that achy feeling. Here's hoping it doesn't become a full-blown cold.

Matt send out a good article yesterday on the new federal Dietary Guidelines:

"Americans need is to be told outright: Stop drinking so much Coke. People don't think in terms of ingredients. Most consumers don't even buy ingredients anymore because they don't cook. We think in terms of packaged-food brand names and fast-food menu items. Imagine dietary guidelines that said: Stop eating Big Macs, Doritos and Oreos. Those are recommendations most Americans could understand, but not ones we are likely to hear. Until people are told the entire truth, instead of meaningless messages such as "eat less," the nation's health will continue to suffer."

...but I like Coke...

Anyway. I don't have a whole lot to say at the moment, so I'll cut it short.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Oh my. JibJab, the makers

Oh my. JibJab, the makers of the hilarious "This Land is Your Land" Bush/Kerry video, are back with "Second Term." Not as good as This Land, but still funny.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

I love stats, so I

I love stats, so I investigated some more from my marathon.

The webpage has updated their times a bit and my chip time now reads 4:58:48 (as opposed to the 4:58:14 it said earlier). My watch read 4:58:49 and I'd just assumed that the chip would be more accurate and that I'd started my watch a bit early and stopped it a bit late. Turns out my watch is right, which I'm happy about. It would suck if my watch lost 30 seconds per 5 hours.

Anyway. My overall pace was 11:23 per mile but I went back and looked at my split times, curious to see how consistently I ran. I found a few interesting things. While I thought my most difficult miles were ~21-24, my times show that I was moving slowest from ~19-23. My fastest portion wasn't the beginning, but instead was second "quarter" of the race, from the 10k to half marathon marks.

0-5k       | 0-3.1 mi       | 34:51   | 11:14/mile
5-10k      | 3.1 - 6.2 mi   | 34:53   | 11:15/mile
10k-HALF   | 6.2 - 13.1 mi  | 1:16:13 | 11:03/mile
HALF-30k   | 13.1 - 18.6 mi | 1:02:57 | 11:27/mile
30-37k     | 18.6 - 23 mi   | 52:44   | 12:09/mile
37k-FINISH | 23 - 26.2 mi   | 37:10   | 11:25/mile
TOTAL      | 26.2 mi        | 4:58:48 | 11:23/mile

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Often, the blogs posted under

Often, the blogs posted under the "noteworthy" heading on the Blogger main page are crappy, in my opinion. But Ward-O-Matic caught my eye today, especially this entry about character animation in The Polar Express. Interesting to see what a big difference tiny changes can make when making an animated movie.

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

I signed up yesterday to

I signed up yesterday to ride the MS150 from Houston to Austin again. I need to raise at least $400 to participate, and have added a link to the right side of this page that you can visit if you'd like to donate. The majority of the money goes to the National MS Society, so it's a good cause.

Marathon recovery continues for me here in H-town. My legs were feeling almost normal again last night, with little of the soreness remaining even when going down stairs. But this morning I woke up feeling very stiff. Not sore, just stiff. I need a massage.

Cari took a video of me running past them and Rich joining me just before mile 22. You can watch it here. (It's about 10MB, so keep that in mind if you decide to watch.)

Here are a few more pictures (all of them I've collected so far can be seen in the gallery).

Hamming it up (with Apache watching attentively) at mile 11:

Leaving Becca, Cari, and mile 11 behind as I jog past Rice:

Passing Edgar and Betsy at mile 20:

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of

Today's APOD (Astronomy Picture of the Day) is awesome. Eight kilometers above Titan. Wow.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

A couple pictures from Sunday

A couple pictures from Sunday at ~21.5 miles, courtesy of Becca...

Buzz:

Ron (having a bad day):

Me! (feeling tired):

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Your Dominant Intelligence is

Your Dominant Intelligence is Spatial Intelligence

You've got a good sense of space and how the world around you looks. You can close your eyes and "see" images. You have innate artistic talent. An eye for color and shapes, you're also a natural designer. Since you think in pictures, visual aids and demonstartions help you learn best. You would make a good navigator, sculptor, visual artist, inventor, architect, interior designer, or engineer.

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

The Chronicle posted an interesting

The Chronicle posted an interesting article today about possible legal and ethical issues surrounding Scott Boras's negotiating tactics:

"There are now at least two reported incidents of Boras' allegedly deceiving the baseball teams with whom he has negotiated. Boras apparently told the Texas Rangers in 2000 that he had obtained an offer for star shortstop Alex Rodriguez for at least $200 million, but according to Atlanta Braves General Manager John Schuerholz, the highest offer at the time was the Braves' $150 million...

In the last few weeks, Boras repeatedly told media outlets, and apparently the Astros, that he had five Beltran offers for at least $100 million. In fact, the Chronicle, ESPN and others have confirmed that only the Astros and Mets ever bid as much, and the Mets at the point of Boras' first utterance of this claim had apparently not even made their initial offer...

If these reports are accurate, Boras arguably acted unethically in both instances. An attorney, Boras is subject to the ethical rules governing lawyers, even though his work involves negotiating deals, not appearing in court. The Texas Rules of Disciplinary Conduct, Rule 4.01 titled 'Truthfulness to Others' states, in part, 'In the course of representing a client, a lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact to a third person.'"

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Try this fun state placement

Try this fun state placement quiz. It's trickier than you'd think, because you don't get any of the other state outlines to work from, and you get penalized if you don't get the state exactly (within about 10 miles) on the correct spot. Of course the coastal and border states are easiest and the "stuff in the middle" is more challenging. I got 40 of 50 (80%) exactly right, with an average error of 20 miles for the other 10 states. That's the best score I've seen so far, so I challenge you to beat it. The only state I just completely missed was Nebraska; I tried to put it on Kansas. Sorry, Kansas.

Monday, January 17, 2005

My post-race personal summary made

My post-race personal summary made the Chronicle online as well.

Sunday, January 16, 2005

I DID IT!!! I ran

I DID IT!!! I ran a marathon!! And finished in 4:58:48 just under my goal time of five hours!!

My legs, feet and knees are killing me right now, but I am SO PUMPED that I ran a marathon! Huge thanks to Becca, Cari, Nick, Phil, Jon, Edgar and Betsy for coming out to cheer for me at various points along the route. Even bigger thanks to Rich for getting me through miles 22-26 fast enough to squeak in with a sub-5:00 time.

Some stats (since I love stats) that you can also look at yourself by going here and putting in my name or bib number (#2415): I was 5.5 minutes behind the "official" gun time, meaning it took me 5.5 minutes to get to the starting line. I was 4295th overall, 1299th among females, and 220th in my 25-29 age group. I averaged 11:23 per mile, though I know I was averaging more like 11:15 through at least the halfway mark, so I definitely slowed down at the end.

The weather was just about perfect -- low 40s at the start and probably 60 by the end. It was clear and sunny, and I actually got a bit of sunburn, but if it'd been overcast I probably would have been cold.

I had planned to tag along with the 5:00 pace group, but that plan fell by the wayside as soon as the race began. I started out faster than 5:00 pace (11:27 miles), and figured that they'd catch me along the way and I'd join up with them then. I felt great for the first 12 miles as we ran through a couple old neighborhoods and into the Rice Village/Museum District area. I was wearing a sign on my chest that said "GO SARAH" and as a result, I had tons of people cheering me on. It was great. I couldn't help but smile every time I heard a stranger call out my name.

I saw Phil and Jon around 9.5 miles and Phil amused both me and the runners around me with his antics. Becca and Cari were waiting with the dogs just before the 11-mile marker and I thought Apache was about to jump out of her skin trying to follow me. I walked for just a minute or so to talk to them, then started up again. My legs started to get a little sore right around the half-marathon mark, where I saw Edgar and Betsy. I didn't even know they were coming, so that was an awesome surprise!

As I crossed the timing mat at 13.1 and checked my watch to see about 2:25, I wondered who had won the race. Turns out it was David Cheruiyot from Kenya in 2:14:52. He was done before I was even halfway! WOW.

Miles 13-19 got tougher, but I was still feeling ok and walking only through the water stations that were spaced about every 1.5 miles. This part of the race went past the Galleria and down a lovely tree-lined street with big fancy houses to look at. Around mile 15, I started counting down to mile 22, when I knew Rich would be jumping in to run with me.

Somewhere between mile 19 and 20 was the coolest part of the race -- President Bush (the first one) was standing along the side of the road shaking hands! As I approached, some guy said "hey, President Bush is up there" and I thought "yeah right." But suddenly I saw police car lights and looked up, and it really was Bush Sr! (I think he lives in that area of town, or maybe has an office there.) I darted over to the side of the road, shook his hand, thanked him for being there, and he read my sign and said "Go Sarah!" President Bush cheered for me at the marathon! How cool is that!

That gave me a burst of energy that lasted until I got into Memorial Park. Just past mile 20 I saw Edgar and Betsy again, but I was really starting to tire at that point. Miles 21-24 were probably the worst of the race for me. I took a couple quick walking stints through the park and around 21.5 miles I finally reached Rich. Becca, Cari and Nick were also there (Apache again dragged Becca down the road trying to follow me) cheering and gave me a much-needed boost. Rich hopped in and started jogging with me. He was really excited and kept saying how cool it was that all the people were calling my name, and how awesome it was that I was running a marathon. I'm really glad he was there to run with me.

We got through miles 22-25 mostly running, with maybe 4 or 5 brief walk breaks. (I saw Phil and Jon again around mile 23, with Phil screaming "you're a champion, a champion!!") These miles went down Allen Parkway which goes up and down through a few underpasses, and the uphills, though slight, were where I had to walk. At this point, I was fairly certain that I could finish under under 5:00, but only if I kept running as much as possible. My last walk break was at mile 25 with about 14 minutes left to go to the 5-hour mark. I told Rich not to let me walk anymore unless I said it was absolutely necessary, and in my head I repeated over and over "don't walk, don't walk, don't walk, don't walk..."

I was right on the edge of my body involuntarily stopping and forcing me to walk. Fortunately, around 25.5 we turned the final corner and I could see the finish line up in the distance. There was just no way I was going to let myself walk when I could see the end. Rich peeled off just after the 26-mile marker and I put my head down and just drove to the finish. I could hear people calling my name and cheering for me, but I couldn't do anything but stare at the big "FINISH" sign. As I crossed it, I had a huge smile on my face. One of the volunteers saw me, smiled herself, and said "congratulations!" All I could say was "I DID IT!!!"

I did it. :)

Oh, and I sent my reason for running to the Houston Chronicle and they posted it online.

Saturday, January 15, 2005

It's here. The big day.

It's here. The big day. The day I've been training for for four months.

I'm about to head over to Ron and Buzz's for dinner. From there, we'll head downtown to our hotel room. Tomorrow morning, very early, we'll get up and head to the start line. At 7:00 a.m., I'll start running my first marathon. I should cross the finish line just before 12:00.

Wish me luck!

Friday, January 14, 2005

This is an exciting day

This is an exciting day in space. NASA and ESA cooperated to land the Huygens probe on Titan this morning after decades of work and seven years of gliding through space as part of the Cassini mission. Where's Titan, you ask? Oh, just one of the moons of Saturn. A million miles away. And people just landed a probe there, one that parachuted down through the atmosphere, landed on something solid, and continued to transmit from the surface of Titan. Pretty damn cool.

And in other interesting space news, Jen's employer, Blue Origin, has finally gone public with their plans "to build a suborbital space facility on a sprawling ranch under the wide open skies of West Texas." Exciting.

Last night I went to my former division chief's retirement party. The room was absolutely packed with probably 300, if not 400, people there to thank Ron for his 37 years of service to NASA. As I looked around the room, I was amazed by the magnitude of the people there; many of the people in the older crowd there were the pioneers of mission operations, especially flight dynamics and trajectory design, as they're done today. Those of you who don't follow the space program wouldn't recognize the names or understand exactly what I'm trying to say... But seeing some of the people there, and knowing what they've done (because I've read about them in books -- they're important enough to have been discussed at length in books!) was truly humbling.

I can't help but wonder if my generation will be viewed that way when we start to retire sometime around 2040. Will we have accomplished the magnitude of things that the Apollo generation has? Will anyone be able to say about us the things we say about them? We all have so many different dreams and ambitions, and frustrations with the current state of things, that it's hard to imagine that most of us will even still be here in 2040. And yet after watching all the presentations at the retirement party last night, I feel a bit inspired. Maybe we do need to stay at NASA. Maybe we need to become the new generation of "steely eyed missile men" and make sure that NASA goes somewhere and does something great. I don't know if NASA can ever recapture the Apollo era, and doubt that it would be the right thing even if it could. But maybe we could create our own version, with something new.

I don't know. I'm just rambling, really. I guess I just want to point out that while I may complain a lot about my job, there is a reason why I haven't left yet:

I still think space is damn cool. And I still have hope.

Thursday, January 13, 2005

The Houston Chronicle's "Advice for

The Houston Chronicle's "Advice for Marathon Spectators":

Unless you happen to be standing next to the 26-mile marker, try not to yell "You're almost there!" Runners ? regardless of pace ? know exactly where they are. And, unless they're passing the 26-mile marker, they're acutely aware that they are, in fact, not almost there.

Don't ask, "How do you feel?" because this forces your runner to answer, and the chances are good he feels like he's been trampled by a herd of buffalo and doesn't particularly want to talk about it. Better is, "You're looking great!" (Lie if necessary.)

Thursday, January 13, 2005

T minus three days --

T minus three days -- the marathon is this Sunday. I'm starting to get just a tad nervous. I am very confident that I will finish the race because I've done all the necessary preparation, but I still have a few butterflies.

Those interested in tracking my progress can sign up at the Houston Marathon site; updates will be sent to your email account or cell phone every time I cross a split point. I'm not sure exactly where splits will be taken, but if it's like last year they'll probably be something like 5K (3.1 miles), 10K (6.2), half marathon (13.1), 30K (18.6), 40K (24.8) and finish line (26.2).

There are 4:45 (10:52/mile) and 5:00 (11:27/mile) pace teams that I plan to keep an eye on during the race. I'm going to sign up with the 5:00 team at the expo on Saturday and start the race with them. I'll run with them for as long as I feel like, maybe just the first 10-15K, maybe the whole race. Rich is running the 5K and is then going to meet me somewhere around mile 23-24 to run (shuffle?) the last bit (except crossing the finish line) with me. Those tracking me at home can expect me to pass the halfway point around 9:30 central time and reach the finish right around 12:00 central.

I wanted to do a final training run today, just a brief three miles. The retirement party for my division chief is tonight though, so I got up early this morning and ran before work. Despite all my running, I've never actually done that before except for my first fall here in 2002 when I took the fitness class. It was nice to start the day with a good run, and nice to be out while it was cool (though because of a front that blew through and woke me up at 1 a.m. last night, it will probably be cool all day). I watched people leaving their apartments to go to work, and watched the kids climb onto the school bus. It was a nice change of scenery.

As long as I've gotten a decent night's sleep, I run better in the mornings anyway. While I often feel like I'm more alert in the evenings, I think I actually have more energy, at least the physical energy needed to get my legs moving, in the mornings. Maybe I'll try to run in the mornings more often. There's also the benefit of getting my daily exercise done and out of the way, leaving my nights blissfully free. I can work all day and make evening plans without the need to do a run hanging over my head.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

Oh -- at Carter's request,

Oh -- at Carter's request, I posted some photos from Christmas, the Tire Bowl, and New Years in the Photo Gallery.

Wednesday, January 12, 2005

"New dietary guidelines coming out

"New dietary guidelines coming out Wednesday are expected to place more emphasis on counting calories and exercising daily, along with swapping whole grains for refined ones and eating a lot more vegetables and fruits."

Um, no offense to anyone at the Department of Health, but DUH.

My mom lost thirty pounds a few years ago by taking an hour-long walk every day and cutting back on dessert. Someone she worked with asked her how she lost all the weight, adding, "and don't tell me it was diet and exercise!" But it was. People are funny.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

I haven't written anything about

I haven't written anything about Carlos Beltran since he allowed his deadline for signing with the Astros to pass at 11:00 on Saturday night, but since he's now been officially introduced as the newest member of the New York Mets (gag, hack, cough) I suppose I can comment.

As the days and weeks since October slipped by with no news about Beltran, I grew more and more certain that he wasn't coming back. As I checked the news continually on Saturday night, each hour that passed without news of a signing made me sadder. So when I finally saw that the deadline had indeed passed without an agreement, I wasn't surprised. I'm disappointed that he won't be coming back to Houston. I'm disappointed that he couldn't see how much this city wanted him to stay, how much the team wanted him to stay. The Astros offered him a larger contract than they have ever offered any player in their 32-year history. The Astros basically put the offseason on hold until Saturday, waiting to see what Beltran would do, waiting to see where he would go, waiting while $@#!ing Scott Boras playing the same game he plays every offseason with every high-dollar free agent. Yet agents act on behalf of the player, and I can't even blame Boras, as much as I'd like to.

I could blame the Astros, and say that they didn't try hard enough to bring him back, to convince him that Houston was where he wanted to be. But I don't think it was their fault. Tim Purpua, the Astros GM, said they ran out of time. Drayton McLane, the owner, said it was a lack of face time that doomed negotiations. But you know what? If Carlos Beltran wanted to return to the Astros, he would have. He didn't leave for lack of money, for lack of fan support, for lack of an organization that desperately wanted him in the center of their outfield and the heart of their batting order.

If he had really wanted to be here, he would be here.

The more I think about negotiations proceeded (or at least how they appeared to proceed according to the news reports), the more I think that Carlos never wanted to come back to Houston. He said he did. He said he liked the city, and the people, and the team. But I think it was all talk. I don't think he ever had any intention of coming back here.

And that makes me sad too.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Last year when Carter and

Last year when Carter and I visited Christina in Chicago and went to all those baseball games, we spent a bit of time before the Cubs game wandering around outside Wrigley Field. Yes, I am an Astros fan and a Braves fan, and not a Cubs fan, but I have a lot of respect for the Cubs and their fans and their stadium. Because of that, I wanted to buy a Cubs t-shirt. But not just any t-shirt. No, I was very specific in what I wanted.

We went from t-shirt stand to store and back to t-shirt stand, all up and down the streets around the stadium. I wanted a navy blue shirt with a logo in the middle. A small logo, not one that would overwhelm the shirt. And it couldn't be just any logo -- it had to be the old-school round one, the Cubs "C" with the cubby bear on it. Yes, with the bear. This one, not this one.

We looked at every t-shirt stand we passed as we circled the stadium, and ducked into every shop, and didn't find what I wanted. Carter started to get a bit annoyed, I think. "How do you know what you want if you've never seen it? How do you know it even exists?" he asked. But I knew that if I looked long enough, I would find it. And of course I did. (If I hadn't, why would I be telling this story?) It was probably the 20th t-shirt stand we'd walked past, but I found the t-shirt I'd been wanting the whole time. I plunked down my $20 and that was that.

Eight months later, I'm having the same experience with, of all things, furniture. Furniture! Geez.

I'm in need of shelving or some sort of medium-sized drawer/filing unit. I've been needing something for a while now. If it's a shelf or multiple shelves, it needs to go on the wall without being obtrusive; if it's a drawer/filing unit, it needs to sit on top of my desk without being too big or ugly. Additionally, it should either match my current Ikea medium brown desk or be different enough to be quaint, eccentric, and charming. I have a mental picture of what I want, but don't know where to go to find it. I've checked Ikea's website, but I think they have a lot more available at the store so I'll have to try there. I may also check Office Depot. I don't want to spend a lot of money because a) something expensive probably wouldn't match the cheap (but effective!) Ikea laminate "wood" that I currently have and b) I don't want to spend a lot of money.

Any suggestions?

Monday, January 10, 2005

Growing up, I was one

Growing up, I was one of those people that never cursed. My high school friends used to tease me for my darns, shoots, and dang its, and for having such a clean mouth. Sometime between high school and leaving college, I acquired a slightly fouler mouth. Now, I definitely do not have one of those mouths where every other word is a four-letter one, but I let a swear word slip in on a fairly regular basis. (Especially when driving -- have you seen the insane drivers in this city?) Still, I maintain some sense of decency, and I watch what I say when I'm in the company of friends' parents, children, bosses, elders, etc. Keep that in mind as I present the following story...

Yesterday I went bike riding with Nacho. It was my first ride with the new clipless pedals and shoes that I got for Christmas. Now, they are called "clipless" pedals, but you actually do clip into them. There is a piece of plastic on the ball of the shoe that fits into the pedal, and you unclip your shoe by twisting your heel outward. I practiced a bit on Saturday just to get the hang of clipping in and clipping out, and thought I had it down. But about 20 miles into our 30 mile ride -- after successfully clipping in and out multiple times, I might add -- I slowed too much before trying to get my foot out. The motion of unclipping my foot combined with my slow speed threw me off balance, and I fell over to the left side with my right foot still in the pedal, right in the middle of the turn lane. Fortunately, there wasn't a car around, but I felt pretty dumb.

We continued down the road until Nacho turned into Bay Area Park. There was an ice cream truck, so he decided that we should get some ice cream. As I slowed down, I was thinking "get foot out, get foot out, don't fall again." Somehow the first fall didn't successfully ingrain the message in my head, and as I teetered toward the ice cream truck, I felt myself starting to fall over again, to the right this time. (Now my scratched pedals match at least.) As I was falling, I thought "oh no, I'm going to do it again, crap" But what came out of my mouth as I hit the ground, landing painfully on the exact same elbow in the exact same place that was just finally starting to heal from my running fall of more than a month ago, was "F---!!" I didn't realize what I was saying until too late, and I looked up to see a crowd of children staring at me as they waited in line at the ice cream truck.

I felt really awful.

Nacho said they probably didn't hear what I said because they were all watching me fall. Maybe.

Monday, January 10, 2005

"Near sea level on Puget

"Near sea level on Puget Sound, where millions of bipedal worker ants toil away their daylight hours, many of those lucky enough to have a window cubicle stare wistfully to the southeast. They know the drizzle will eventually ease, the gray pall will lift, and they'll shout jubilantly, "The Mountain is out!" All will stop to stare at the brooding hulk just 50 miles inland, and they'll remember why they love it here. Worker productivity will plummet until the clouds draw the curtain again, and sad eyes return to flickering computers."
--from A Hiker in Wonderland, Backpacker Magazine

My coworker Chris sent me a link to an article about Rainier. He's going to come on our camping/hiking trip this year (destination: Seattle/Rainier/Olympic NP) and though the trip won't be until late July or even late August, he obviously already has camping on the brain.

Monday, January 10, 2005

Rich took care of my

Rich took care of my beta fish, Vtot, while I was home for Christmas. He brought little Vtot to work last week so I could take him home, and I decided to leave Vtot at work for a few days. It turned out to be really fun having a fish at work, so on Friday after lunch I went next door to Petco and bought another beta fish. His name is Vern and he will live at work (I took Vtot back home). Over the weekend, Jo got a goldfish that now sits on the bookcase behind her desk, and Becca and Cari both got beta fish. I am such a fish trend-setter!

My new fish, Vern, however, is retarded. He won't eat. Perhaps he has become self-conscious because I keep calling him ugly. He has pretty purple fins, but a nasty white/orange/brown body. I picked him because ugly fish need homes too. But dude. Fish has gotta eat.

Sunday, January 09, 2005

Jen has posted a neat

Jen has posted a neat little video showing three and a half minutes of the trip to Peru. You can see where we had breakfast the first day, about fifteen minutes up the trail, then where Becca and Jen spent the night after deciding not to continue, then the train ride to Machu Picchu, a little bit of the river in Aguas Calientes, and of course, Machu Picchu itself.

Saturday, January 08, 2005

"Peru now occupies the same

"Peru now occupies the same place in the popular imagination as Tibet used to have in the latter days of Empire, before the communist invasion made it more a place of pity than of mystery -- a Shangri-La where the imagination is licensed to allow all manner of utopias and adventure."
--from The White Rock: An Exploration of the Inca Heartland, by Hugh Thomson

"This is not a story of heroic feats, or merely the narrative of a cynic; at least I do not mean it to be. It is a glimpse of two lives running parallel for a time, with similar hopes and convergent dreams. In nine months of a man's life he can think a lot of things, from the loftiest meditations on philosophy to the most desperate longing for a bowl of soup -- in total accord with the state of his stomach. And if, at the same time, he's somewhat of an adventurer, he might live through episodes of interest to other people and his haphazard record might read something like these notes."
--from The Motorcycle Diaries, by Ernesto (Che) Guevara

Those are the first sentences from each of the two books I've just bought, books that I'm sure will only further my newfound interest in South America. (Note to Becca -- we are so going to visit Emily in Ecuador this year.) Which should I read first??

Friday, January 07, 2005

I rarely get anywhere exactly

I rarely get anywhere exactly on time; I'm always about five minutes late. (I prefer to think of it not as late, but just a tad behind.) This annoys my friend Jason, who is the most punctual person I know by far. So I predict that no matter what he thinks of today's entry, he will be slightly bothered, even if unconsciously so, that it comes a week late. A week, over the span of a year, probably equates to about five minutes, right?

With that said I can now, on January 7th, present my New Years Resolutions in peace. Some are big, some are small, but here they are:

1. Website stuff. This needs sub-bullets.
   1. Redesign this site. I've never completely liked the current design, and now I want to have a screenshot of my photoblog posts here, and maybe move the Flickr stream to the photoblog?
   2. Migrate this site to Movable Type.
   3. Incorporate my Diaryland archives (March 2004 back to July 2001), my Countdown 100 Days entries (spring semester 2001), and the hand-coded diary entries I was doing before I knew what a "blog" was and before Blogger had even been born (December 2000 all the way back to sometime in 1998). The latter two groups still exist on my computer but aren't online anywhere at the moment, which seems a shame.
   4. Finally get around to helping Chris with a design for Cheri's site. Something that looks really slick, but that he can easily maintain and update.
   
   
2. Gather enough material (re: create a portfolio) so that by the end of 2005 I can assemble a decent application for one of these graduate programs, or something similar. Submit the application, and see what happens. I'm not sure I want to go back to school, and I have doubts that I can even get accepted, but I'd like to try.

3. Back up my digital photos. Somehow. Because I would feel like poo and cry if I lost my photos. External harddrive probably?

4. Make sure that my sister has the best wedding of her life. Ok, granted, I hope that she will only have one wedding in her life, but still. It needs to be good.

5. Improve my photography skills. Yes, I know this is pretty generic and fuzzy and hard to really assess. Too bad for me.

6. Keep running, biking, swimming, playing soccer, playing softball, etc. Enter my now "standard" races -- the Speedo and Danskin triathlons, the Rodeo Run and Bayou City Classic 10Ks, and the MS150. Get 150+ people to do the Yuri's Night 5K. This really isn't much of a resolution, because I'll do it all regardless. See how sporty I have become? Mwa ha ha.

7. Update my blog earlier in the day so that Becca doesn't send me emails (from her desk that, for at least another week, is still five feet away from mine) that say: "UPDATE YOUR BLOG. Now make fun of me for e-mailing you rather than saying this outloud."
   

Ok, so maybe not that last one.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

From Becca's current entry, with

From Becca's current entry, with slight additions, describing yesterday's Giant Gumball Eating Dare That Matt Actually Accepted for Only Two Dollars. I was lax in downloading the pictures last night, but I promise to share them in full glory tomorrow.

Sarah: [cleaning desk] Hey, look, here's a giant gumball I've had on my desk for at least a year. [gumball is yellow and about 2 inches in diameter]
George: [raised eyebrow] Why do you have that?
Sarah: Well, I saw it and it's huge and I had to have it.
George: [sniffs nose] Yuck.
Sarah: Eat it, I dare you!
George: No way.
Sarah: Aw George, you're so boring.
Becca: I bet you could get Matt to eat it. Just offer him two dollars.
Sarah: [calling into other office] Hey Matt!! I'll give you two dollars to eat this gumball. I dare you...
Matt: [shrugs] Sure.

And antics ensue as he tries to eat a stale gumball that was larger than his mouth. He ended up getting three dollars and a breath mint.

Thursday, January 06, 2005

At lunch on Tuesday, I

At lunch on Tuesday, I asked someone how their holiday break went. They responded with something along the lines of: "It was nice, but after a few days I was ready for it to be over. None of my friends live at home anymore, so it was just me and my parents. I can only take so much time with them before they start to drive me crazy."

His comment made me realize what a great relationship I have with my parents. I suppose I'm lucky in that sense. They are awesome, and we get along fabulously. I spent the majority of the holiday break with either Mom or Dad or both, and never once wished that my vacation would end. Dad and I talked about the news, Mom and I shopped endlessly, we all went out to eat... Sure, we have our arguments (my Dad and I yelled at each other for 5 minutes last week when he started lecturing me on, of all things, how to correctly log out of a website), but I love them and love spending time with them, especially now that the times we see each other are so few and far between.

<HoustonWeatherComplaint>
Last night I went for a run in 70+ degree weather. A few hours later it was 55, and by this morning it was a chilly 44. Within a day and a half, it's supposed to be back in the 70s. And permanently gray.
</HoustonWeatherComplaint>

Thursday, January 06, 2005

The Blog of the Year,

The Blog of the Year, or the Year of the Blog?

"The Internet is going to make gigs like this obsolete, once enough people realize that some guy in his basement is capable of turning out commentary as insightful as a tenured eminence who was handed a column 30 years ago and has spent the last 10 coasting on a scoop from the Reagan years. It takes dynamite to get some writers out of the paper."

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

I'm still working on getting

I'm still working on getting all the pics into my gallery, but in the meantime, I proudly present the very quick-and-dirty "Christmas with My Family" montage... (click any photo for a larger version)

   

I arrived home on the chilly evening of December 24. Mom was so happy to see me that she stuck her head in the wreath. Once inside, I discovered that all of my cool light-up and sound-producing space ornaments have been relegated to a small fake tree in the kitchen in an attempt to keep the lights on the big tree from going out. Booooooooo.

The big tree was still very pretty though.

Katie immediately settled in on the couch to watch the second half of the GT bowl game and of course I joined her. Tech may have gone to a crappy bowl game, but we certainly kicked Syracuse's booty. HA!

         

Christmas came with presents galore. Grandmother was visiting as always. David got a cool DDay poster that Katie brought back from Europe and Mom had it framed as a gift. I happily unwrapped a Night Sky Monopoly game. Then David and I went outside to test his new GPS and it was really freaking cold but I was too lazy to go get my jacket, so I wrapped myself in the blanket Katie gave me.

         

On the 26th we drove up to Chapel Hill for lunch with my Aunt Nancy and cousin Casey. While there, David avoided the camera, Katie tried to make Brian wear a pink crown from his Christmas cracker, and Mom happily wore her yellow crown. Brian later looked pensive watching the Panthers on TV.

   

On the 30th, Mom and Dad and I went to the UNC-Boston College bowl game at Bank of America stadium. Mom and I posed nicely, then Dad and I posed with thumbs down as Boston College collected its bowl trophy in the background.

The End.

Wednesday, January 05, 2005

A Blog Entry In Bullet

A Blog Entry In Bullet Form

• Technology "Neat Thing" of the Day: Houston Marathon tracking.
  You can go here, put in my name, and get email or text messaged updates on my progress when I run the Houston Marathon on January 16. Be prepared to be getting updates for about 5 hours, because that's how long it'll take me to run 26.2!

• Horrible Singer of the Day: Ashlee Simpson.
  Her performance at halftime of the Orange Bowl last night was awful. I hadn't been watching the show but had the TV on the background, and her song actually got me up out of my desk chair and over to the television to gape at her jumping around and screaming like some sort of horrible train wreck. I've listened to her songs and even bopped around to them in the car, but good lord, the girl should not be allowed to sing outside of a studio.

• New Blog of the Moment: Preshrunk.
  A blog that links to cool t-shirts found online. I can't wait to see what else they find.

• Slightly Older but Still Cool Shopping Blog: Mighty Goods.
  I've been surfing this one for a while and I love the stuff they find. Dingo snack baby t-shirt, here I come. I just need friends with a baby.

• Blog You Should Comment On: George
  He likes it when people comment. So do I. :)

• Renewed Blog of the Day: Nick.
  He says his New Year's resolution is to start blogging regularly. And, I'm guessing, turn over a new leaf. ;)

• Interesting News Story of the Day: Guia del Migrante Mexicano.
  The Mexican government has published a comic book-style pamphlet with advice on how to cross rivers and navigate deserts. They say it's an attempt to save some of the 300+ lives that are lost along the border each year and that it doesn't promote illegal immigration, yet the pamphlet also gives tips on how to avoid attention from U.S. authorities. U.S. groups are all up in arms.

• Cool Guy of the Day: Allen Flynt.
  He took over as boss of the Mission Operations Directorate here at JSC a few months ago. This morning I went to one of the many small "team talk" sessions he's been hosting and left very encouraged. I was less interested in his view on specific programs and more interested in his philosophy of how MOD management should be structured and how the directorate should adapt to the changes coming down the road. What he had to say greatly impressed me. It's too early for things to have happened yet, but I think he has the right idea.

• Thing I Will Likely Never See: Snow at JSC.
  I can't believe I missed the once-in-a-lifetime Houston snow while I was home for Christmas. It didn't snow in North Carolina, but it snowed here. RANDOM.
  

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

BBC online has a good

BBC online has a good Photojournal about a porter on the Inca Trail. Ah, Peru. I so want to go back to South America...and it's looking possible! I had dinner with Nick, Melanie and Becca last night, at which point Becca informed me that Emily is going to be studying in Ecuador from August to March. We must go visit her! In Ecuador! Awesome.

I've already been reprimanded a couple times this morning for not having blogged since Thursday. So here we go. I was up early Friday morning to drive to Atlanta. I made fantastic time as there weren't many cars on the road, and arrived at Carter's new condo literally two minutes after he got there (he'd been in Athens the night before). Kent arrived an hour or so later and we hung out for a couple hours, then Chris arrived and we all headed to Maggiano's to meet James and Chrissy for a New Year's Eve dinner. It was delicious. I mean, YUM. We went back to Carter's and played Scene It (James and Chrissy won), exchanged calendars, and played Trivial Pursuit 90s Edition. I am so buying that game, because I totally rock at it. James, Chrissy and I easily beat Carter, Kent and Chris, who couldn't even answer the question "Shannon Lucid set a new American record by spending 188 days aboard this" despite the fact that Kent is an aerospace engineer. I was personally offended. :)

Carter, Kent and I spent New Year's Day quietly. I got up "early" at 9 a.m. for a lovely run in Carter's great neighborhood. The ~2 mile stretch of road leading to his condo has generous biking/running lanes in each direction and goes past beautiful million dollar homes along the shore of the Chattahoochee, so I just looked at all the pretty houses while I ran almost 4 miles. It was foggy when I started out, but the sun had burned it all away by the time I finished. Kent and I had breakfast at Dunkin Donuts while Carter was still asleep. We played a game of Settlers/Seafarers (I won), a game of regular Settlers (I won), a game of Risk (we stopped out of boredom so Kent and I shared the world), and took a walk on the 2 mile trail way down yonder by the Chattahoochee. I think it's so incredibly cool that Carter lives next to the river and has daily access to a pretty trail.

James came over on Sunday morning to play another game of Seafarers (Carter won, I think) and another game of Settlers (I won). Yeah, we played a lot of games, but it was fun. I headed home on Sunday afternoon and made fantastic time again; I just went with the flow of traffic, but the flow was almost 80 mph. Awesome. I enjoyed driving Katie's Corolla and once again having the zippiness of a small car. My Xterra is a lot of things, but it is definitely not zippy.

I got back to Charlotte in time to have dinner with Mom, Dad and David. Yesterday I hung out around the house and managed to squeeze all my things back into my suitcases. Despite all the trouble USAir had over the Christmas weekend, they were operating smoothly yesterday and my flight took off and landed on time. I was first to the baggage claim thanks to my seat in row 4, so I had to wait for a while till the bags came out. But soon enough I had all my stuff and was in Nick's car on my way back to Clear Lake.

The weather here...is sucky. Overcast. Humid. Yep, for better or for worse, I'm back in Houston.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

The engagement began more

The engagement began more than a year ago, but the announcement was finally in the paper. (Online here.)

Thursday, December 30, 2004

Mom, Dad and I had

Mom, Dad and I had a great time at the Tire Bowl today, even though Carolina lost to Boston College by a score or 37-24. I took some great pictures that will be posted over the next few days at my photoblog, and I loved being part of a sea of Carolina blue. I also finally got to see a game at the stadium here in Charlotte, even if it wasn't a Panthers game; I'd never been in the almost 10 years it's been there. I liked the stadium a lot.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Atlanta for a quick visit, just two nights. I'll be back in Charlotte for dinner on Sunday, and then after a final day here I'll be back in Houston Monday night. I can't believe my Christmas vacation has passed so quickly! I just want to stay on holiday forever.

Anyway. This will be short, as I've got to go pack a small bag and get to bed. I'd originally thought of driving to Atlanta tonight, but changed my mind. Instead, I'm hitting the road at 7 a.m. tomorrow! My sister's Corolla and my iPod will carry me down I-85 once again.

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

I've been thinking a lot

I've been thinking a lot about the earthquake and tsunami disaster over the past few days. Trying to figure out what to say about it. 80,000+ people dead. Hundreds of thousands of people homeless. Millions of lives and livelihoods forever changed or destroyed. It's hard for me to wrap my brain around, and I realized that I haven't been able to come up with anything to say for exactly that reason -- I just can't comprehend the enormity of the disaster.

The stories about the celebrities that survived sort of offend me. What am I supposed to say -- hooray, a supermodel lived, so it's not as bad that 80,000 others died? Somebody from the UN called the US stingy, so the Secretary of State made a statement arguing that we're not stingy -- are we seriously going to worry about petty arguments when thousands, if not millions, of people suddenly have inadequate medical care, no home, no food, and no clean water? An already poor area of the world was just completely flattened. Let's concentrate on what's important -- helping them.

Sigh. Stuff like this makes me think about how unfair it all seems -- how can we be so rich while others are so poor? While southeast Asia tries to pick up the pieces, my mom and I have spent the better part of the past two days shopping. So strange. So surreal.

For anyone like me (and Jen) who is a bit overwhelmed by the thought of where to send money, try Amazon, which is where I chose to donate. One hundred percent of the money sent there goes to the American Red Cross, which is sending many different kinds of assistance to Asia. They've already gathered almost $3 million from 50,000+ Amazon users.

Yesterday I made a necklace and earrings for myself at Beadlush, and found bike shoes that actually fit, unlike the ones I got on Christmas morning. (You'd think that a size 43 for the brand I was able to try on in Houston would be the same as a size 43 for the brand I told Mom to order. Of course it wasn't. I needed a 44. A 44. I hope my monster feet haven't decided to grow even more.)

Last night I saw my high school friends again, minus Cayce and Dave but plus Jes and Don. It was great to see Jes and hear her stories about med school. And Don totally cracks me up. But the biggest news is that as of the 26th, Andrew and Sari are finally engaged! And when I say finally, I mean it -- it took Andrew seven and a half years of dating to finally ask. The funniest part is that Sari was surprised; she hadn't known it was coming, even after all those years. The ring is absolutely beautiful, with an emerald set in platinum and two small diamonds on either side. I'm so excited for them, and it also puts another wedding on my calendar for sometime in 2005. ;) They haven't decided whether it will be in Charlotte or D.C. (where they both live now). But it will be fun.

Today I got to see David's apartment, then he joined Mom and me for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Mmm, it was delish. He headed to work while Mom and I shopped some more. I got a Carolina t-shirt to wear to the Tire Bowl tomorrow, a cool picture frame, and a new Life is Good shirt since my old one is too big. The Christmas money I got is quickly being spent!

Monday, December 27, 2004

I've been watching Monday Night

I've been watching Monday Night Football with my dad. We want Philadelphia to win, because if they do, and the Panthers win next week, then they go to the playoffs despite their 1-7 start to the season. My family has become big Panthers fans. I've never been to a game, since their first season in Charlotte was my freshman year of college. But I get to go to the stadium for the first time on Thursday; Mom bought three tickets to the Continental Tire Bowl and gave them to Dad for Christmas. The three of us are going to see Carolina battle Boston College.

Yesterday we all went to Chapel Hill for the day for the now-traditional day-after-Christmas lunch with my Aunt Nancy and cousin Casey. Dad wasn't able to come because of problems at work, but the rest of us had a nice time and Aunt Nancy fixed a fabulous meal as usual.

Today I did my longest marathon training run. WHEW, glad that's done. The marathon is in 20 days -- January 16. Today I ran four slightly different laps from the house, 5.8, 6.3, 5.3, and 4.6 miles for a total of 22 miles taking me just over 4:15. That's pretty slow, but I did take a break at the house in between each lap long enough to gulp some water and goo. The hills that I enjoyed on last week's shorter runs really started to do a number on me during my third and fourth laps and my legs, knees, and feet are pretty sore tonight.

All in all, it was a decent run and I accomplished what I needed to -- staying on my feet and moving forward for 4+ hours. At the end of the run I was very tired, but not totally spent, and I felt I could have done another 4.2 miles if necessary -- which is exactly what I'll do in 20 days. So I feel ready for the marathon. If things go well, I expect to finish right around the 5-hour mark. Not bad for someone who was definitely not meant to be a runner! :)

I'm happy to have stuck with the training, and happy that I'll be able to accomplish the goal of running 26.2. But I've also decided that I don't really think marathoning is my thing. It's just so far, and I don't like the discomfort the long runs cause. I'm happy to be doing one, but I don't think I'll run another one anytime soon. The half marathon distance is so much friendlier. Of course, now that I've said that, just wait, next year I'll probably be doing the full thing again. I'm stupid like that.

I had all sorts of grand plans for Christmas break, mainly involving making my Peru scrapbook, but it doesn't look like it will happen. I've been so busy and I only have a week left of vacation! And going to Atlanta takes away a few days of it. Mom and I have lots of plans for the next two days -- making necklaces, getting measurements taken for my bridesmaid dress, going to the Cheesecake Factory, going to the Tire Bowl... Whew! I do love being home.

Saturday, December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas! We have had

Merry Christmas!

We have had a lovely day here in Charlotte, though it is seriously cold. Like 35 degrees. As the high. Living in Houston has stripped me of all ability to deal with anything below 50.

In any case, Santa found us last night, and left lots of great gifts under the tree. I got a warm fuzzy GT blanket from Katie, a light/lantern and camping towel from Brian, a Photoshop book I'd asked for from David, money from both Grandmothers (which I plan to use part of to buy a new camera lens and a DVD), and clipless pedals and the shoes to go with them (for my bike) from Mom and Dad. I also got a few other little things -- a new ornament, lotion, a set of DVDs about the Apollo 8 mission, and a book. All in all, it has been a great Christmas.

I think everyone enjoyed the gifts I got them as well. A basic DVD player and a framed photo for Katie, Return of the King and geocaching gear (to go with the GPS receiver I knew he was getting) for David, an assortment of camping stuff for Brian, a necklace (made by me!) for Mom, a plant and a picture for Grandmother, and image-stabilized binoculars for Dad. Dad was so surprised to see that we'd all chipped in to get him the binoculars that he's only been talking about, oh, I dunno, since April. I love surprising people with exactly what they want but never thought they'd get! (Or, in Dad's case, what they would never actually gather the resolve to buy themselves.)

Oh, I also got Night Sky Monopoly, which kept Katie and Brian and me busy for a few hours this afternoon. I won one game; Brian won the other. Katie and Mom and I had a nice 3.5-mile walk all over the neighborhood, and my face almost froze off. Seriously. Have I mentioned that it's, like, majorly cold outside??

We had leftovers for dinner and then Katie, Mom and I headed out into the frigidity again to see Phantom of the Opera. Despite a few slight differences from the stage version, and the change in singers (after listening to the original so many times, anyone other than Michael Crawford as the Phantom sounds strange), I enjoyed it a lot. There are just so many different ways you can frame a scene on film that you can't do on stage, and it really makes a difference. The "Past the Point of No Return" scene was mesmerizing.

I didn't write yesterday because there was so much going on. I had brunch (that turned into lunch) with the old high school group -- Cayce, Amanda and Andrew along with Dave (Cayce's husband) and Sari (Andrew's longtime girlfriend). It was great to see them all, and hopefully I'll catch Jes and Don this coming week while they're in town. After that it was a quick trip to Walmart to pick up some photos, then home for a great run in the c-c-cold (7.3 miles at 10:26 pace!) followed by a great Christmas Eve meal. Brian was reading at the late church service, so we went at 11:00.

When I was in junior high, I babysat for two boys who are now a senior and freshman (?) in high school. Their parents both play for the Charlotte Symphony, tuba (him) and trumpet (her), and the boys are exceptionally musically talented as well. All four of them were playing as a brass quartet last night at church and they just sounded fabulous. I couldn't believe that the two boys up there, both of whom now tower over me, were the same two cute little boys that I babysat for so many years ago. I remember changing the younger one's diaper -- it made me feel so old! They're bigger, but I'd still recognize them if I passed them on the street. I only got a chance to speak to their parents, not to JD and Tucker. But I saw JD looking back at me as he went to put away his instrument. Tucker probably wouldn't remember me, but John David did. It was neat to see them.

Merry Christmas to all out there in internet-land, and to all a good night!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

George started a blog! Yippee!

George started a blog! Yippee!

Thursday, December 23, 2004

I've been in Charlotte for

I've been in Charlotte for two days, and I've already seen two awesome/crazy things while driving. Yesterday on the way to the mall, my mom was behind an old clunker of a car, belching smoke as it burned oil and proceeded down the road at about 25 miles per hour. As she pulled into the next lane and passed it, I glanced in the window to see an old man in a toboggan hat eating corn on the cob on a stick. Yes, corn on the cob. On a stick. While driving.

I laughed so hard. I tried to get a picture, but he moved into another lane and was turning. Too bad.

Today on our way back from a little last-minute shopping, Katie and I were passed by a yellow car with a "The Cheat" sticker on the back window. (If you don't know who The Cheat is, visit Homestar Runner and watch a few of the Strong Bad emails or The Cheat's intro.) Better yet, their license plate said "THECHEAT" as well. I was able to get a picture, and this, people, is why I always carry my camera with me. You just never know when you'll need to take a picture.

So let's see. Today I slept until 11:00. Bliss. Then Katie and I went to this place called Beadlush at Mom's request; it's a bead store and she wanted us to make her necklaces for Christmas. It was so cool, and so much fun! I've already decided that I'm going back after the holiday to make something for myself. I can also get around to making Becca's lanyard (for her work badge) that I promised her, and ooh, I can make one for myself too. If any other work girls are reading this and want one, let me know. Maybe I'll just go ahead and do it as Christmas presents for the girls. I don't usually do many friend Christmas presents, but making the necklace today for Mom was just so much fun. I seriously don't do enough creative things; every time I end up at a store like that, or a make-your-own-pottery place, etc, I feel so craft-deprived.

Grandmother arrived this afternoon so Mom and I drove up to Huntersville to pick her up. We had family dinner, all seven of us. Wow. And we didn't even argue! Double wow. :)

Katie and I went on another run today. We did the exact same 4.5 mile route as yesterday, but did it almost two minutes faster! Go us. We still talked a lot, but were huffing and puffing at the end. Tomorrow I'm gonna do a 6-miler and then take Saturday and Sunday off before the biiiiiig loooooooong run I have planned for Monday. Monday will be my longest training run of all, twenty days before the marathon. I plan to run for 4 hours, which should be close to 21 miles (my goal time for the marathon is 5 hours). I forgot to bring my Fuelbelt with me from Houston so I'm either going to have to run a 4-5 mile lap multiple times and stop in the house to get water, or stash water bottles along a pre-planned route.

Wednesday, December 22, 2004

oh there's no place like home for the holidays

If Santa's Deer don't make you laugh, nothing will.

I am home, and home is lovely. Charlotte is lovely. I forget how pretty this city can be, especially at this time of year when the trees are covered in lights. Mom, Dad, and Katie met me at the airport last night. I was so excited to be in Charlotte and to see my family that I was smiling like a loon as I speed-walked up the concourse and practically jumped down the escalator to the baggage claim. I spotted them just before they spotted me. I thought about sneaking up on them, but I couldn't wait any longer and started waving. HOORAY for being home and seeing my family. Brian was out last night but came back home today. I haven't seen David yet, now that he has his own apartment in Charlotte and doesn't live at the house over the holidays. Mom says he's coming over for dinner tomorrow night.

I had lunch today at Maggiano's with my family (Katie and Mom), the Easts (Mrs, Caroline, and Catherine), the Mickles (Mrs and Jennifer) and the Diehls (Mrs and Bekah); it was a mother-daughter thing. The food was yummy and we had a nice time.

Afterwards, Mom and Katie and I wandered the mall. Mom had a few specific things to do and buy, but Katie and I succeeded in getting her off track several times with side trips into different stores. Southpark has changed so much in the past couple years. There's a new wing now that Nordstrom's is there, and the mall itself has become so frou-frou; I can't afford to shop in at least half of the stores out there! I don't even recognize half the mall, so it felt a little weird, like I was in some other city.

Katie and I went for a nice run when we got home. I think we went just over 4 miles in 49:00. Slow! But we were talking the entire time, and if you're able to carry on a conversation, you know you're not pushing too hard! :) Oh, and there are hills here. Stupid hills. There's one nice thing about running in Houston -- lack of hills! Then again, without uphills there are no downhills, and I do love running downhill. That's how it goes, I guess.

After our run, we went with Mom and Dad to a different mall for...more shopping! I picked up a present for my cousin Laura, and Dad looked for boots. He is the most methodical, pickiest shopper I know, so of course we left with no boots for Dad. He's funny though. He has a beard at the moment that scratched my face when I hugged him after I got off the plane last night. I think it makes him look old, so I encouraged him to shave. :)

Tomorrow I have a few more Christmas presents to take care of, and Grandmother arrives. Friday morning I'm getting together with a few old high school friends. Saturday is Christmas, and Sunday we'll be going up to Chapel Hill for the day. It looks like I may head to Atlanta for a few days over New Year's, since I'm basically helpless to resist Kent's full-on assault in trying to get me to visit. The boy is relentless. Seriously.

Tuesday, December 21, 2004

here comes the bride / all fat and wide /
here comes the groom / skinny as a broom

Katie IMed me this morning while I was still at home and said she and Caroline and Jennifer (her other two bridesmaids) found a dress! It's the one pictured here except it has straps and is blue with blue trim (the 6th color up from the bottom in the lefthand column). Oooh, pretty. I'll be ordering mine next week while I'm home.

I'm flying home today and I'm so excited. It was really hard to work yesterday, and even harder to come in today. However, yesterday afternoon at about 4:30, I had a breakthrough with the code I've been arguing with on and off since September. I hadn't looked at it in a month and was trying to get back into it yesterday, just to be productive because Melanie was on the FADS terminal and I couldn't work on contingency abort stuff. So I made a small change in the sim and sent it running again and wasn't even really paying attention, because I just knew it would crash. My poor little simmed spacecraft would be pulverized on the surface of Mars.

Except...it ran. I happened to glance up at the screen and it was actually printing out the bank reversals (a good sign that things are going as planned)! Because I have never gotten it to perform the reversals before, I was quite surprised, and actually gasped. Melanie and Becca turned around. "It worked!" I said incredulously. "It's not supposed to work! I mean, it is supposed to work, but it never works. And it just worked!"

It was all very exciting, and now that I finally have it working and have a hundred things to do with it, I'm going home. It'll be waiting when I get back.

Yesterday we had a quick lunch and stopped by Space Center Houston to see the Liberty Bell 7, the second Mercury capsule that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1961 after the hatch "mysteriously" blew. It was pretty cool to see a spacecraft, especially one that sat on the bottom of the ocean for 38 years. It's in surprisingly good shape after being restored over the past five years.

Also, NASAWatch posted the website of a guy who built a Block I Apollo Guidance Computer in his basement. We totally must find a way to do this. Yes, the fact that I want to build one totally makes me a dork. Between me, Becca, Gavin, Jen, Jason, and others, I think we could actually get a group together that would want to do it. Seriously. We could use Gavin and Jen's rec room. Totally. Like, I'm serious.

I just realized this post has been pretty much nothing except dorky engineering stuff. Hmm. So last night was the branch Christmas party. We returned to Joe's Crab Shack since they're one of the few restaurants in the area that has a private party room, and fun was had by all. The monkey with a NASA t-shirt that I brought for the gift exchange was popular, and got stolen a few times before Jen ended up with it. At one point I had a bottle of Bailey's and was quite happy, but Gavin stole it (but then someone stole it from him, haHA). In the end, I got a bag of Starbucks coffee, which is still pretty cool. It's whole beans so I'll have to get it ground somewhere, but we'll have good coffee for a week at work when we all get back from the holidays!

Monday, December 20, 2004

I got a surprise Christmas

I got a surprise Christmas present from Gavin and Jen this morning -- a "How to Draw Peanuts" book. Now I can draw Snoopy and Woodstock (see the evidence on the Flickr pictures at right) and the rest of the gang. Fun! On Saturday night, we were talking about Peanuts because the music was playing at Carrabba's. I realized that I hadn't watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" yet this year, so I went right home and put it in the DVD player. Now it really feels like Christmas. :)

On Saturday afternoon, Nick and Cari and I made the mistake of going to the mall. (Well, actually, Nick probably enjoyed it because he loves the mall more than anyone I have ever known.) It was insane -- traffic everywhere, backups galore, crowds, etc. I was reminded why I now do 90% of my Christmas shopping online. The Internet is a beautiful thing.

My Christmas project for this year while I'm home is to make my scrapbook of the Peru trip. We finally got Karen's pictures from Peru, and yesterday I went through the combined 1000+ pictures that we have (from me, Jen/Gavin, Becca, Karen, Cari, and Nancy) to pick out the ones I wanted to use in my scrapbook. Becca posted these two of Karen's shots, but I feel like they need to be here as well. Let's call them, "the making of a group picture."

First, the before shot. Everyone is standing around getting prepared. Karen is setting up the camera, so you can't see her. Gavin's on the very edge of the frame at the right. Jen, who had been sick all week, is thinking "ugh, I still don't feel great, but at least I'm at Machu Picchu." Becca, Cari, Emily and I are all paying extremely close attention to whatever Pauld is saying because he is incredibly cute and funny and has an accent and we all totally want him. And Nancy is thinking "Pauld isn't really too young for me, is he?"

And here's the after shot. We are all publicly thinking "hooray, we're at the sun gate above Machu Picchu" and I am privately thinking "Pauld is so cute!" Meanwhile Pauld is thinking "I could so totally have any of these girls. Except the married one. Her husband's looking a little protective. Nah, I am very cute and Peruvian, I can probably woo her too." Except he's thinking that in Spanish. :)

We need to go back to Peru.

Saw Ocean's Twelve yesterday afternoon. I'd been prepared for it be very bad after hearing some of the reviews, but it was ok except for the dumb gimmick towards the end. Not as good as Ocean's Eleven, but entertaining enough. I also watched a French movie I rented from Blockbuster that I heard about a while ago -- L'Auberge Espagnole (The Spanish Apartment). It's not a movie I'd recommend to most of my friends, but I personally enjoyed it.

I still have so many errands to run and things to pack before I go home tomorrow, and I have zero time. Our branch Christmas party is tonight, which leaves me with even less than zero time. I'll be up late tonight, I can tell already.

Saturday, December 18, 2004

It was the middle of

It was the middle of January when I went to visit Nick while he was living in France. It was cold and dark, and even though his tiny apartment was well-heated, I'd come in from outside shivering. He would immediately set about preparing vanilla tea. There wasn't anything special about it. Plain vanilla tea. But every time we came in from outside, he would ask if I wanted tea, and every time, my answer was "ooooh, yes please!" When I got back to Houston, one of the first things I did was buy a box of vanilla teabags from the grocery store. Though I still occasionally buy a new box, especially during the winter, it has never tasted the same as it did in France.

It's funny how certain things become so entwined with certain places and events. It seems to happen most often with foods and smells, perhaps because my habits, likes, and dislikes seem to change when I am travelling. An experience strikes me while I am far from home and I know, sadly, that I will never be able to remember the exact, exquisite feeling once I have returned to Houston and rejoined my everyday life. So I look for the little things, the ones that will send me daydreaming back on my travels, if only for a moment.

To me, orchids are now synonymous with the thrill of meeting someone new and hiking the Inca Trail. A good curry makes me smile with thoughts of the crazy singing potter in Scotland. I pass a gelato -- oh, mmm, gelato -- stand and whoosh, I'm hopping off a water taxi in Venice. Nescafe puts me back on the ferry across the Aegean to Santorini.

And vanilla tea will always be that week in France, coming in from the chill of a Provence winter.

Friday, December 17, 2004

We did play golf yesterday,

We did play golf yesterday, in the cold and occasional drizzle. It was fun for about 14 holes, and then I think we were all ready to get back inside, dry out, and warm up. Buzz, Jen, Becca and I actually played a pretty decent round, especially considering the changes from the normal way of play and the sogginess of the course. Once again, Jen carried the team off the tee, but I had a pretty good run with the 3 iron for a while that advanced us down a few fairways. Buzz was much improved from last time, and Becca's the only one of us who can putt halfway decently, so everyone had something to contribute.

We finished something like 30 over par (really, not bad for us!) and would have saved another 5-10 strokes if we'd had the two yards of string that we usually do to put in balls that land inches from the cup and the course hadn't been so waterlogged that balls just splashed down in giant puddles instead of bouncing and rolling an additional 10-15 yards. When you're as bad as we are, you need those balls to roll!

The tournament was fun, and I think everyone enjoyed celebrating Ron's retirement...even if it was in cold, nasty weather and we couldn't feel our wet feet. Below is a picture of the "30 and under" (or "mostly sucky golfers") crowd that played, from left to right, Gavin, Buzz, Josh, Laurie, Marc (in front), George (in back), Ansley, Becca, me, Jen (behind cart), and Matt. Rich took the picture 'cause he's 32. Ha. ;)

The rest of the pictures are here.

I actually don't have many plans for the weekend, which seems odd since Christmas is only a week away. I suppose I could do some serious Christmas shopping, since I haven't done any of it yet, but I may just wait until I get home next week. I don't really know what I'm getting anybody anyway. I'm very behind this year.

The BBC posted an interesting article today about the inability of the human eye to keep track, simultaneously, of all the moving objects involved in making an offsides call in soccer. "The relative position of four players [two defenders and two attackers] and the ball cannot be assessed simultaneously by a referee, and unavoidable errors will be made in the attempt."

Thursday, December 16, 2004

This afternoon is supposed to

This afternoon is supposed to be the golf tournament in honor of our retiring division chief, but the cloudy skies and forecasted rain is putting it in jeopardy. Everybody around me seems to want the tournament cancelled, but I hope it's not. Sure, it'd be better in the long run for me to work this afternoon, because I don't really have the hours to take off, however...at this point I've been counting on the golf tournament for weeks and lack any motivation to actually work this afternoon. So we might as well play!

I dug the lovely sweater that I bought in Peru out of my closet to wear today. Bad idea. It's only 9:30 and I've already spent at least twenty minutes daydreaming about all the cool things I was doing the last time I wore this sweater. Hiking trails, camping at 12,000 feet in the shadow of awesome mountains...

George came into my office a little while ago and saw me doing the blog thing and wondered, with some incredulity, "what do you write every day?" I thought for a moment and replied, "I don't know. Stuff." Sadly, that pretty much describes the content of 99% of blogs, including this one. Hmm.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Create your own Southpark character

Create your own Southpark character

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Houston. It's Worth It. Oh

Houston. It's Worth It.

Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, this is the best website in the history of websites. I have so just ordered a t-shirt.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

I just discovered a Houston

I just discovered a Houston Chronicle op-ed from today that similarly conveys my worries about the search for a new NASA administrator.

Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Sometimes in the mornings while

Sometimes in the mornings while eating my cereal, I turn on the Today show. Twice in the past month I've watched Katie Couric interview actors, and twice I've felt the need to yell at the screen, "SHUT UP KATIE COURIC!" She is so annoying. A month ago she interviewed Hugh Grant, and it was the most awkward interview I've ever seen. She asked inane questions and giggled a lot while Hugh Grant sat there trying to answer her stupid queries and looking extremely uncomfortable. This morning she interviewed Alan Alda about his role in The Aviator and barely let the poor man get a word in edgewise between interrupting his sentences, sentences that I would have liked to have actually heard, with stuff like "Oh, speaking of The Aviator, I interviewed Cate Blanchett yesterday, she was just so articulate and so wonderful, don't you think so? Or did you get to work with her, I mean, you don't have any scenes together..." and "Did you know anything about Howard Hughes before doing this movie, no? Did you know he invented a bra, giggle giggle?"

Shut up Katie Couric! Jesus.

Anyway. I had an excellent run last night thanks mostly to the 50 degree weather. I've come to the conclusion that 50-60 degrees is really ideal running weather. Of course, it only actually reaches 50-60 degrees for maybe 4 months of the year in Houston, which explains why this is a sucky running city for me. If I'd moved straight here from Georgia Tech instead of to the beautiful weather of northern California, I doubt I'd have ever started running at all. The moral, then, is thank god for northern California.

Carter told me about his dad's/Dr. Green's blog a few weeks ago but I've been lazy about posting a link. However, his latest entry about the wonders of TiVo, and the last sentence, "I'm putting a Tivo sticker on the window of my VUE" made me laugh, and thus his blog deserves a link. The Greens are such a blog-saavy family! (Even if one of them has turned into a blog slacker since he moved.) If my own dad turns up with a blog, I'll know things have gotten out of hand. :)

Last night I made the mistake of bringing up potential future NASA administrators (specifically, the Air Force Lt. General who used to head Missile Defense) with someone who apparently thinks it would be awesome if we (NASA) were more closely linked to the military. Yeah, that conversation was fun (she says sarcastically). If someone thinks flying military missions would be more fun than flying ISS and science missions, I can't help but wonder why they're working for NASA and not the Air Force or Navy. Hell, there's a reason that NASA is not part of the DoD, people. It's the country's civilian space agency. We're supposed to be exploring, not launching spy satellites. Going to Mars, not acting as the DoD's lackey. I don't have a problem with the DoD coming to NASA if they need data from our satellites or assistance with launches, I mean, intergovernmental cooperation is a good thing. Yes, NASA will always be linked to the military. The Army launched the country's first satellite, some military research groups were incorporated into NASA when it was formed, their test pilots become our space shuttle pilots, we share tracking resources, we flew DoD missions in the early 1980s, etc etc. But there's a reason NASA was created completely separately from the DoD. We cooperate with them, but are an independent agency.

And to that end, I think that naming a very recently retired (only since July) military man whose previous job was managing a very controversial national security/defense program sends a very mixed message about what the administration thinks NASA should be doing, and sets a very bad precedent for future NASA leadership.

Finished.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Oooh oooh -- very exciting

Oooh oooh -- very exciting news! Becca and I both got picked to be mentors for the Reduced Gravity Program for the World Year of Physics 2005. I get to mentor a team of three physics teachers, help them get ready to fly on the KC-135 at the end of April, and...I get to fly on the Vomit Comet with them! WOOHOO!

12/16/04 Update: Ok, so it won't actually be a KC-135 airplane, which has been retired. It'll be a C-9 instead. But still a Vomit Comet!

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

Two more things: Last night

Two more things:

Last night I finally got around to posting a bunch of photos from this fall, including Betsy and Edgar's wedding, Katie and Joel's visit, and the boat parade on Saturday night. You can find them in the Fall 2004 gallery.

Also, I just reread the Dooce entry about vacuuming fleas off of a dog, and I am still cracking up about it. "The only thing a dog can really catch outdoors in Utah is heartworm and a testimony of Jesus Christ." Oh my god. So funny.

Tuesday, December 14, 2004

well I'm the king of the swingers, boy / the jungle V.I.P.

On Thursday, our division is abandoning the office for a golf tournament in honor of our retiring division chief. George, Matt, Rich and Gavin are one foursome, and Becca, Jen, Buzz and I are another; there are apparently 29 foursomes in all and the eight of us are certainly the worst golfers of the bunch. Seriously. We are really bad, and we know this.

So I would write about how our assistant division chief came into our office this morning and told us, in a very non-direct way, that we suck at golf and he's worried that we will be too slow on Thursday and hold everyone else up (which is definitely a possibility), but Becca has already described the conversation pretty well. It was obvious that he wanted us to be aware that we should try to play fast, but he didn't want to come right out and say it. It was funny.

In other news, Sean O'Keefe is resigning as NASA Administrator as explained in his hand-written letter to the President. I have mixed feelings about his leaving. When he was first named Administrator three years ago, we were all worried because he was coming from the Office of Management and Budget, and come on, a budget guy in charge of NASA? It seemed obvious that he was only sent to get costs under control, which didn't bode well for having any sort of future vision. But I ended up liking him. He seems to have the political saavy for the job, while recognizing that he might need to defer to others on very technical matters. It's unfortunate that his term will likely be remembered primarily for the STS-107 accident, because I think he's done a good job, and I'm extremely worried about who might be selected to replace him.

The leading candidate, according to the news anyway, is Lt. Gen. Kadish who formerly headed the Missile Defense Program. UGH. I can hardly think of a worse candidate for the job. I feel strongly that NASA, as the country's civilian space agency, should not have a former general who headed Missile Defense (and headed it badly) in charge. At first I thought it was the military thing that bothered me, but after talking at dinner last night I realized that a lot of the good candidates are former military men as well. The worrisome part is taking someone who ran Missile Defense and putting him in charge of a program that should in no way be defense-oriented. I'm hoping for Charlie Bolden, a former astronaut, although I don't know what his chances are.

I'm planning to go for a run tonight, and it's going to be cold out. Yes, in Houston. It's supposed to dip below freezing tonight, rather amazingly.

Monday, December 13, 2004

"I will not be so stupid as to take a vacuum cleaner to my daughter?s head if she ever comes down with a case of lice. Although I will be tempted."

Dooce is probably my favorite blog-written-by-somebody-I-don't-know-but-wish-I-did, and today's entry just had me laughing out loud in my empty apartment. Seriously funny.

Monday, December 13, 2004

I had a pretty quiet

I had a pretty quiet weekend, with nothing to get up early for or keep me up too late. Lovely. I played soccer Friday night and we won (yay!), and played again last night and we lost (boo). Last night's game was particularly frustrating. We lost 4-2, but really should have tied 2-2 if our goalie didn't suck. We played them well; they just got two lucky breaks from our keeper's inability to actually catch the ball and keep it from rolling through her legs. It's a lot more frustrating to lose when you know you could and probably should have won.

Saturday night I went to the boat parade in Kemah. There were somewhere around 100 boats, all decked out in Christmas lights and other decorations. They motored down the lake to the bridge, where they turned around and came back, so we got to see them all multiple times. It was really cool -- I don't know why I haven't watched it in past years. I took a lot of pictures, but only a dozen or so really turned out well. The slow shutter speed didn't mesh too well with the fact that the boats were moving. Go figure. ;)

We watched from the marina where Rich's friends Phil and Renee live on their very pretty 42-foot sailboat. That's twice in the past year I've visited someone who lives on a boat, and both times it's made me want to do the same -- drop everything and live on something that floats. I doubt I would actually like it for more than a few weeks, but there is something appealing about the minimalist lifestyle. If nothing else, it would force me to get rid of all my crap! And they're not as small as you'd think. We had 10 people on the boat on Saturday night after the parade watching a movie, and it wasn't even uncomfortable!

Yesterday I went for a run over in Nassau Bay, and the weather was wreaking havoc on my poor abused body. It was almost 80 degrees out, and a bit humid. In December. It was actually a lovely day, and would have been appreciated at almost any other time of year, but it was not the type of day that should occur in December. My planned 8-10 miles turned into only about 5.5. Sigh. My knee is hurting as well, and I've only run 8.5 miles since the 30K a week ago. This weekend I really need to do a 15-miler. And the week after that, while I'm home, I plan to do 20-22. Then another 12-13-miler, then an 8-miler or so. (All of those with at least a couple shorter runs on weekdays, of course.) Then...marathon day on January 16. Here's hoping my knee stops hurting.

Friday, December 10, 2004

let's go to the movies / let's go see the stars

First I've heard of it -- Spielberg is making a movie of War of the Worlds. Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, and Tim Robbins star. I can't tell how close it is to the book from this teaser trailer, but either way, I hope it will be good.

And I remember hearing about a new Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with Johnny Depp as Willy Wonka, but the trailer makes it look...worrisome.

Friday, December 10, 2004

This morning seven of us

This morning seven of us "young women" in the division got to chat with Cathy Osgood, a woman who worked for NASA starting back in the late 50s. She actually did all the talking, but it was really interesting to hear her background, and how she got into the NASA world. One of the most interesting things to me was how two-sided her career path was. For example, she got a degree in Mathematics, but said that the only good thing that came out of her college years was meeting her husband. She got a job as an engineer after working a few years as a "Math Aid" (the women who did calculations and plots in the pre-computer era), but when the Space Task Group moved from Langley to Houston in the early 60s, she left the decision of whether to move with the group entirely up to her husband.

She was a female engineer in the 1950s and 60s (a rather ground-breaking thing at the time) and yet I also got the impression that she deferred a lot of things to her husband or the other men around her. I just found the contradiction interesting. She was fun to listen to though, and my favorite quote was definitely when she referred to her husband and how she'd bounce ideas off him about engineering and trajectory problems:

"He was like my Google, but more user-friendly."

Thursday, December 09, 2004

put me in coach / I'm ready to play / today

Another night, another something on TV to keep me up past midnight. Last night it was a soccer game, but not just any soccer game. It was a US vs. Mexico women's match, and the final game of Mia Hamm, Julie Foudy, and Joy Fawcett's storied careers. They won 5-0, and Mia walked off the field with tears in her eyes. I'll miss watching them play for the women's national team; they had a really incredible run, and I'm especially glad I got to see them play back in October when they came through Houston on their farewell tour.

I went jogging with Rich and Phil again last night. We went a little faster than last week, but not too much, which turned out to be good because even after three days of rest since the 30K, my legs were really sluggish and heavy. My knees still ache a bit too. I'm ready for the marathon to get here, so I can tackle it, finish it, and go back to the slightly less painful kind of running. :)

Today is the holiday luncheon at work. It's my third Christmas (oh my god, third??) as a full-timer, but this is the first year I'll be at the luncheon. The past two years they've had it much later, and I was always already gone. It will be nice to be around for it, even if I've heard that the "door prizes" are crappy. The food should be good, anyway.

Wednesday, December 08, 2004

I just want you for my own / more than you could ever know /
make my wish come true / all I want for Christmas is you

So I've spent about 4 hours over the past two days making animations of our division chief doing silly things to put in a presentation Becca is giving tomorrow. See, he's retiring, and tomorrow is his last DM Issues meeting, so a request was sent out to "spice things up" in his honor. I created dancing Ron graphics, a sinking Apollo capsule, and lots of other fun things. All those Flash and Photoshop classes JSC has sent me to is paying off! ;)

But now it's back to "real" work. I have a couple things in my Mars work that I'd like to get done before I go home for Christmas, so hopefully I can motivate myself to really buckle down and get some stuff done.

I'm looking forward to a quiet night at home. After the weekend whirlwind and a busy past two nights, it will be nice to sit around. Not to mention that the place is a mess, so I need to do some cleaning...

Tuesday, December 07, 2004

I don't want a lot for Christmas / there is just one thing I need

I finally dug my Christmas music out of iTunes. It doesn't really feel like Christmas, what with it being 70 degrees outside, but the music helps. People have already started asking me if I've finished my shopping yet, but I haven't even started. I'm always a big holiday shopping slacker. I generally only buy presents for my family and a few close friends, so most of the time I just wait to shop until I get home. Of course if I do that this year it means I'll have to do all my shopping between the 22nd and 24th, which may drive me a little crazy. We'll see.

Last night we went out for dinner and drinks at Cafe Adobe with Sloan, our co-op. Her last day is Friday, and Cafe Adobe was her choice. This was the second time I'd been there; last time I had a fried stuffed avocado, this time I went with pollo rico (chicken with some kind of teriyaki sauce). It was yummy. The peach margaritas were also yummy, though I have serious doubts that there was any alcohol in them whatsoever. I drank two and didn't feel a thing, while a single Mely's margarita is plenty to make me feel all sorts of relaxed.

Nothing planned for tonight, thank goodness. I need an evening at home. Maybe I'll watch a movie.

Monday, December 06, 2004

I'm so tired / won't you sing me to sleep / and fly through my dreams

I am exhausted. It feels like the weekend never even happened; I blinked, and it was Monday morning again. Crap. In summary:

Soccer game Friday night. We lost, but only 3-1, so not horrible for once. I played ok. I came home and went to bed. Zzzzz.

Got up Saturday morning at 7. Got dressed, put air in bike tires, put bike in back of car, drove to Nassau Bay. Ran the Reindeer Run 5K. Was planning to take it easy, but then remembered that last year I'd set my 5K personal record at that very race (29:18), and then it was hard to "take it easy." So I ran pretty hard, but couldn't judge my pace because there were no mile markers. Surprised myself by finishing in 30:34. Sub-10:00 miles, yay! I haven't totally lost my ability to run sub-10:00 miles! Even better part -- bizarrely, there were only 8 people in my age group, and five of them were slower than me. I finished 3rd in my age group. Got a trophy. A trophy! I haven't gotten a trophy since I was 10. So cool! So excited! Don't know where all the 20-29 year old women were, but glad they weren't at the race.

A trophy! So excited!

After the race I went biking for an hour with Jason and Ignacio. Jason's thinking about buying a road bike, so Nacho and I are doing our best to convince him to buy one instead of another gun. Bikes, Jason, not guns. Went home, showered, picked up Jason, admired his injuries from crashing Nacho's bike because he couldn't get his feet out of the pedals (those clippy shoes) and drove to Sugarland. Registered for 30K race because I'd forgotten to register online. Dumb.

Drove from Sugarland to Utah, a.k.a. Tomball, a.k.a. allllll the way on the other side of Houston. Watched Nick dance in the Nutcracker. Nick was good as the Snow King, but don't understand why he thinks the Nutcracker is a stupid part. You get to wear a big head, and be the title character! Anyway. Mouse kids were very cute. Guest performers from American Ballet Theater in NYC were freaking amazing. Had a quick dinner with Nick and 20 other friends at Chili's, then began the marathon drive home, with pit stop at Academy. Dropped off Jason. Went home. Went to bed at 9:30.

Got up at 4:45 a.m. Yes, 4:45. (Why do I run? At 4:45 a.m., I don't remember.) Buzz and Ron picked me up, we drove to Sugarland. Got chips, hit the port-a-potty, dropped off sweatshirt back at the car. At 7:00 a.m., I start running. At 8:00, I am still running. At 9:00, still running. At 10:00, still running.

After 3 hours, 32 minutes, 6 seconds and 18.6 miles, I stop running. I finished the 30K! HOOOOOOOOO-RAY! I am another step closer to finishing the marathon on January 16! The race overall went well. Did three packets of goo, and found it rather tasty, and not like snot. Amazing what tastes good when you have been running for multiple hours. Had thought I would finish slightly faster, but my legs were heavy from the start. Probably shouldn't run fast 5Ks the day before a long run. Needless to say, no trophy at the 30K. ;)

Came home, took one of the most satisfying showers of my life. Hungry, hungry. Eat, eat. Watched NCAA women's soccer championship on TV, then went to Bike Barn with Jason and Ignacio. Found the bike shoes and pedals I want for Christmas, and talked Nacho into buying some bike shorts. Went home. Was just starting to doze off on the couch when Nacho knocked on the door, very excited about his bike shorts and how they cushion his bum. Can't believe he has been riding so long without a comfy bum. Also can't believe the boy has a $2,500 bike and didn't have bike shorts. A bike that nice deserves all the accessories.

Went to dinner at Texas Roadhouse, then downtown mega-early (thanks, Jason) for Singin' in the Rain at the Hobby Center. I love Singin' in the Rain. Home afterwards, soooooo very sleepy. Bed.

Wake up this morning, still very tired, get Starbucks, drive to USA for training meeting at 9:00. Yusef isn't at his desk. Sigh. Suspect that he cancelled training for the day and I didn't know because I hadn't checked my email yet. Drive back to work. It has started to pour down rain. My legs get all wet. Grr.

But tonight -- stuffed avocado and margaritas at Cafe Adobe. Yay!

Friday, December 03, 2004

I'm counting down the days on my calendar /
till loving me won't be a sin

It's turned out to be a busy week. Which is good, because it makes me feel a bit better about my job. Though my training session for this afternoon just got cancelled. I know I said yesterday that I had some thoughts to share about the future of space travel and all, but now I don't really feel like explaining. Whatever. TGIF.

My white paper was done on time, but is now two days late in being officially delivered because of paperwork. I have to have four signatures, and by the end of it all, my signature, as the author of the stupid paper, doesn't even go on the damn thing. Ugh. I'm just frustrated. Most of the time I feel useless at work, and now I've got this paper where I actually feel like someone cares about the work I did, and...yeah. Well, enough complaining.

I went out on my balcony last night and tried some long night exposures with my camera. I haven't downloaded them yet but I'm curious to see how they look on the normal computer screen and not just the camera LCD. The moon and clouds were really cool.

We had softball last night; it was our final game of the season. We'd been postponed so many times because of rain and such. I went 1-for-2 with a walk, a pop-up, and a solid hit into right field, and I scored a run. We won 6-3, so that was a nice end to the season.

Wednesday, December 01, 2004

I'd heard that you were looking for prey /
hungry for a different girl every day

I was still at work at 6:30 last night when Rich called and said I needed to come to BW3s because Georgia Tech was playing Michigan on the big screen, and kicking butt. (He went to Michigan.) So that's how I ended up eating wings and drinking beer with Rich, Roger, and Ray. It was a little strange at first; I hang out with Rich regularly, but not the others. But it was fun. I thought I might see Katie on TV at the game, but no such luck. Tech won 99-68.

The new Strong Bad email is one of the funniest I've seen in a while. God I love that site.

My white paper is almost done. I finally got all the data incorporated this morning and am now cleaning up all the writing and grammar and getting the references straightened out. The paper is probably a bit more than Goddard is expecting, and maybe in retrospect it would have been easier to just start from scratch rather than try to update a paper format that was done four years ago. But it's going to turn out ok. I like writing papers. I should really try to do it a bit more. I feel like I'm pretty good at the whole process, anyway.

It was finally cold enough this morning -- 40 degrees -- to pull out my wool coat. It is December, after all.

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

who woulda thought I'd ever let somebody get to me /
who woulda thought I'd ever give a damn

I am so annoyed. Last week, realizing that the trip was less than a month away, I bought a ticket home for Christmas for $208, almost $100 cheaper than anything else. To get that price, I fly from Houston to Charlotte via Chicago. Ugh. I was already regretting the purchase and wishing I'd just spent the extra $100 to fly direct, when today, exactly three weeks before I go home, US Air drops their price on the Houston-Charlotte route. If I'd waited one week longer, I could buy a ticket today for a direct flight for $163. Damn damn DAMN the airlines and their bizarre ticket pricing policies. I will be cursing them through freaking O'Hare and all the way home.

I was at work a bit later than usual last night trying to get some work done on a white paper we have to deliver to Goddard tomorrow. In going back to the sims to verify what our co-op ran back in September, I realized that she hadn't run the numbers that she thought she was running. Her work was useful, but not what I thought it was. So I had to set up a couple more sims and get them going quickly. Not a huge problem, just a surprise. I should learn to check things more carefully, and not leave documentation to the last minute.

Tyler Hamilton, an elite cyclist, was fired by his team after his positive tests for blood doping in August and September. Sigh. Sad. Of course it doesn't bode well for any of the other cyclists either, and I'm sure Lance Armstrong will see a few more accusations thrown his way. I don't know if Lance is truly clean or not, but I hope so.

The Houston weather is doing its crazy flip-flop thing again. Last night when I went to bed, it was 74 outside and 80 inside, and I actually turned on the a/c to cool down my apartment. The air conditioning. On November 29. Then of course this morning I woke up, looked at my thermometer (which yes, I am obsessed with), and it was 48 degrees outside. And very windy. And sadly overcast. Hmm. I was telling Carter the other day that I don't seem to like cold weather as much as I used to -- a consequence of living in Houston and rarely experiencing the chilly stuff, I suppose. Gavin said they had 17 inches of snow in Casper while they were there for Thanksgiving. I've never seen that much snow in my entire life!

Monday, November 29, 2004

I'm sad to see the

I'm sad to see the Thanksgiving weekend end. It was a lovely break and I did lots of fun things like seeing movies, eating out, and crashing my elbow into the hard concrete sidewalk.

Yep.

Yesterday I went for a long run. I'd planned everything, bought a Fuelbelt to carry water, gone to bed early Saturday night, gotten up at 7, eaten cereal, and given it time to digest. I'd even laid out my route -- a 14.5 mile huge loop that ensured I didn't have to repeat any scenery. At 8:00, I started out. At 8:30, I was in front of the main JSC gate when I noticed there was a sign that had fallen over the sidewalk. I didn't want to run into the grass because it's still all mushy and muddy, so I thought I'd just hop over the sign. So I hopped, right as a car was driving past, and the next thing I knew I was flying through the air, thinking "oh god oh god I hope I don't seriously injure anything!!"

And the car didn't even stop to see if I was ok! Hmph. I was fine overall, but I'd taken a few square inches of skin off my elbow and it was bleeding somewhat profusely. Lovely. It's lucky I was wearing red shorts and could wipe my elbow on them occasionally and thus avoid looking blood-stained and psychotic. Since everything except my elbow appeared to be ok, I decided to continue with the run. Two and a half hours later I finally got home, where I was tut-tutted by the apartment complex maintenance man, who drove up behind me on his golf cart to ask what happened to my arm and then told me to "be careful, miss!"

I always hear about clumsy runners falling down, but never expected it to happen to me. So today my elbow is all bandaged and oozing, and the whole thing is actually sort of funny when you think about it. In trying to avoid muddy shoes, I ended up with a bloody elbow.

With my elbow all taken care of, I went ahead with the rest of my Sunday plans -- seeing Finding Neverland followed by dinner at Mely's. The movie was excellent, I really liked it.

Saturday, November 27, 2004

"Questions taken from an interview

"Questions taken from an interview with Mark Morris in the New York Times Sunday Magazine, altered accordingly, idea copped from the ever fabulous Lance Arthur." ...And then copped here from Heather Champ.

Best household chore
Fixing something. Replacing a light bulb, or silencing a squeaky hinge, or anything that requires a screwdriver. Worst household chore is cleaning the bathroom. I love a clean bathroom, but hate actually cleaning it.

Fantasy career
Journalist, photographer, web and graphic designer, all rolled into one.

Favorite place to shop
I don't know what the proper classification is, but anything like The Paper Skyscraper in Charlotte. A store that has paper goods, stationary, household decorative stuff, a few goofy random toys, greeting cards, some books, some art/office supplies... Random collection of neat and pretty things. Also, SuperTarget. Love love love SuperTarget.

Superstitions
Can't say I really have any. Lots of little traditions, things I do at certain times or on certain days, but I wouldn't call them superstitions.

Morning routine
Hit snooze for anywhere from 5 minutes to an hour, brush my teeth, get dressed, pack a lunch, sometimes eat a bowl of cereal while watching either Sportscenter (during baseball season) or the morning news. I take my showers at night so my morning routine is pretty quick, and since I only live 10 minutes from work, I can be at my desk within half an hour of waking up.

Evening routine
Monday nights sometimes means rock climbing, Thursday nights is softball. Friday and Sunday nights are soccer for nine months of the year. If sports get rained out or I just have the evening free, my routine is pretty set. Check the mail on the way in. My shoes come off as soon as I'm inside my apartment and, if I'm exercising, I do that immediately before I get too comfortable on the couch! Once I know I'm in for the rest of the night, I change into anything comfy, usually some variation on a tank top and pajama pants. I check email and mess around on the computer for a little while, then fix dinner. I usually have the TV on between 7 and 10; sometimes I'm watching it, sometimes it's on the background while I read a magazine, clean, or mess around on the computer some more. Shower. Floss. Brush teeth, take out contacts. Probably read for a bit, then bed.

Favorite memento
God, I have so many. My favorite, though, is the intangible one -- my photo collection. Photos from parties, travels, games, and other activities.

Favorite place in the house
Sitting on the living room floor, back against the couch or one of my big fuzzy pillows. I don't know why, but I like sitting there.

Best thing about being you
Currently? Having the money and independence to travel.

What's your reputation
Not entirely sure. Sarcastic, athletic, and occasionally moody?

Favorite movie
Changes a lot. Currently, Love Actually.

Book to recommend
The Sex Lives of Cannibals, by Maarten Troost. It's about the experiences of a guy living on a small atoll in the Pacific for two years, and it's absolutely hilarious.

Your welcome mat
Outside, a standard knotted rope mat provided by the apartment complex. Inside, a woven blue mat with fringe.

Little big toy
My month-old Canon 10D. I adore it.

Last meal request
Sweet potatoes, a really good steak, bruschetta or tomato mozzarella salad, cherry coke, and a slice of Cheesecake Factory cheesecake.

Technology item you can't live without
Digital camera. A close second is email.

Idea of the perfect party
Dinner party with close friends. Italian food and garlic bread. Really good wine. Cheesecake and chocolate for dessert. Big table with candles and a fire in the fireplace. Like out of the movies.

Topic you wouldn't bring up at a party
Religion and politics. I know those are "standard" but hey, there's a reason. People feel too strongly and get too upset about 'em.

Fictional character you most identify with
Absolutely no idea. Wow. No idea.

Favorite decorating technique
Paint. Color can totally change the feel of a room. After paint, hanging pictures on the wall. Photos, not paintings.

Thing in your house you're fussiest about
Hmm. I tend to be fussy about all my material things -- furniture, electronics, etc -- so nothing strikes me as bigger than another. As far as around the apartment, having the blinds open, maybe? (During the daytime, not at night.) I must have them open, or I just feel icky. I even open blinds in other people's homes.

Procrastination technique
Messing around on the computer or watching stupid TV.

Guilty pleasure
Eating chocolate chips out of the bag. Also, sneaking pictures of people when they're not suspecting it, i.e. when they're asleep. It seems creepy to some people, but I like asleep people because they always look so calm.

What's by your bedside
Alarm clock, chapstick, glass of water, candle holder, TV remote, a pile of books and a couple framed photos.

Pets
A blue beta fish name Vtot. It's pronounced "vee-tote." Don't ask.

Recent purchase
DVDs. 3 for $25 at Blockbuster!

Always in the fridge
Diet Coke, Minute Maid lemonade, yogurt.

Nagging injury
I dislocated my left knee in 2000 and it still aches from time to time. Not enough to cause me major problems, but enough to be annoying when it decides to act up.

Collections
Pins from every baseball stadium I visit, and ticket stubs.

Fitness routine
Prior to January 2002, I didn't do much at all despite being unsatisfied with my weight. All of a sudden though, I decided on a whim to enter a local 5K and wham -- the running thing finally stuck. I managed to keep with it regularly for a couple months, and as my fitness improved I finally felt comfortable taking on all sorts of other athletic pursuits that I hadn't done since I was much younger. These days, I run, bike, swim, play softball and soccer, and rock climb. Soccer's probably my favorite of those, but these days I'm also doing a hell of a lot of running as I prepare for my first marathon in January. If I lived somewhere with hills, hiking would definitely be added to the list of regular activities.

Recurring nightmare
Don't have one these days, but when I was younger, I had a recurring nightmare about being stuck in a haunted bowling alley. Yes, a haunted bowling alley.

Idea of a perfect day
Some grandiose outdoor hiking, mountain climbing extravaganza with stunning vistas, OR: In bed by midnight the night before, and sleep until around 9:00. Have breakfast and a cup of coffee while reading the paper. Go for a run, or a swim, or a bike ride with a friend. Long, lazy lunch at Mediterraneo's under the rainbow umbrellas outside (the weather would be 75 degrees and sunny). Read or chat with friends on my balcony. Take some photos. Get a pedicure. Do my favorite errand -- getting the car washed. Dinner at any of the cool little restaurants in Rice Village or Montrose, followed by a good independent flick at the River Oaks theater. Dessert at the Cheesecake Factory. Bed.

Friday, November 26, 2004

let the world change you...and you can change the world

My weekend plans are going swimmingly so far. I did run the Turkey Trot, I did stuff myself with food yesterday at Jo's, I'm currently at work for at least a few hours, am making plans for lunch, and have already seen one of the movies on my list. Woohoo!

I had a very strange dream last night where I was exploring some ancient ruins with Buzz, Carter, and Adam Duritz. And Adam Duritz and I were newlyweds. Very weird. But the ruins were cool, and required lots of scrambling around on rocks, which was very fun.

Jo's mother fixed a fabulous assortment of food yesterday for Thanksgiving lunch. Despite the plans not coming together until the last minute, there was a nice small group of us still around to share Thanksgiving -- Jo and her parents, Josh, Melanie and Carlos, Nick, and me. Oh my god, it was so good. Mrs. Aiken really went all out, fixing just about every Thanksgiving dish you can think of because she wanted everyone to have something that they usually have at home. It was so sweet of her. Afterward we sat around in our turkey comas, chatted, and watched Elf. I was sent home with not one but two plates of leftovers, so dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow are taken care of. Yummy.

On Wednesday night I went to River Oaks with Cari and Ignacio for a showing of Diarios de motocicleta (The Motorcycle Diaries). It's a Spanish-language movie based on the diaries of Alberto Granado and Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (later known as Che Guevara, of Cuban Revolution fame) written during a cross-continent road trip they took in the early 1950s. They began in Argentina, drove through Patagonia into Chile, up the continent into Peru, worked at a leper colony (Che was a medical student; Alberto a biochemist), and finished the trip in Venezuela.

I'd been wanting to see the movie for weeks, and I wasn't disappointed. It was well-written, well-acted, and generally fantastic. Highly recommended.

I know the United States is a big melting pot, and that's not a bad thing. Yet at the same time I feel like Americans have no strong, identifiable cultural traits precisely because we are a country of so many different backgrounds, ethnicities, and traditions. I've been thinking a lot about different parts of the world lately, and seeing that movie on Wednesday only deepened my newfound interest in Latin America. I can't explain it, but Mexico, Central, and South America are so much more intriguing to me than any other part of the globe. Since going to Peru, I've been constantly thinking of all the places there I want to go visit. I want to see more of Peru, and Argentina, and Chile, and Mexico. I want to learn enough Spanish to be at least conversational with people when I go there. The culture and traditions are fascinating.

Thursday, November 25, 2004

and I want to thank you

Rich and I ran the Turkey Trot this morning, so we now have license to eat whatever we want. My stomach is already rumbling despite having a bowl of cereal before I left for the race. Rich did the 5K and I did the 10K, which was added this year. I'm happy that area races are starting to add 10Ks to the slate, because I think it's a better distance for me. I took Advil in an attempt to keep my legs from hurting, and it worked -- I felt fantastic.

I started out slow because there were a lot of people and it was slow-going trying to pick my way through the walkers, but at the 5K turnaround more than half the pack turned, and the road really cleared out for me and the other 10K people. I ran the second half of the race a lot faster than the first, and finished in 1:06:08 -- 10:40 miles! Woohoo! Last year I did the 5K and it was my first ever 5K under 30 minutes. I probably couldn't have repeated that today, but ah well. I'm feeling good anyway.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out in Internet-land! :)

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

I want to live in the center of a circle / I want to live on the side of a square

I went running last night. It was overcast and looked like it was about to start thunderstorming at any moment, but it never did. It was, however, really humid in that "rain is definitely coming" sort of way. I did 9.4 miles and felt utterly exhausted at the end, so I spent the rest of the night lounging around. The rain did eventually come in a spectacular lightning storm around 10:30.

Bridget Jones's Diary (the first one) was on TV, so I ended up watching that. I remember reviewing the movie for the Technique when it came out in 2001, and recalled that I really didn't like it much. Last night was only the second time I've ever seen it, and I enjoyed it a lot more. Perhaps that's because I'm now comparing it to the sequel...which, despite some great Colin Firth moments, was worse than the first.

Anyway.

My plans for the Thanksgiving weekend are as follows:

• Run the Turkey Trot 10K tomorrow morning with Rich
• Stuff myself with food at Jo's
• Work a few hours on Friday
• Have lunch with Jo, since we will be the only two people here
• See Motorcycle Diaries, Finding Neverland, and A Very Long Engagement even if I have to go to the theater alone
• Watch the GT-UGA football game on Saturday (nationally televised, hooray!)
• Spend an absurd amount of time in my pajamas

Excitement abounds.

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

there's a girl on the car in the parking lot /
says man you should try to take a shot /
can't you see my walls are crumbling?

U2's new album came out today and I've already downloaded it (hooray for iTunes). I don't often get excited about an album release, but I love U2. They're the only band that I listened to in middle school that I still like today. Talk about longevity.

The gray weather continues here. Last night I was at work until 6; I'm trying to build up a few extra hours so I can only work 5 or so on Friday. I don't think anyone else will be here, so it will be really quiet. Jo will be at work, but over in the directorate (i.e. the big boss's) office, so no opportunities for mischief there, sadly. I did talk Rich into running the Turkey Trot with me on Thursday morning though, so at least I won't be doing that alone.

Nick lent me the Love Actually DVD, so I watched that last night. I'd only seen it once in the theater when it came out a year ago, and I'd forgotten how endearing the movie is. I mean, there's nothing hugely spectacular about it, but I dunno, I like it. I'd forgotten that the movie begins and ends with scenes at the airport of people reuniting, which is something I loved to watch even before the movie came out. I've just always loved people-watching at the airport.

Anyway. That was a completely non-eloquent way of expressing something that makes a lot more sense in my head. Nick is giving me a massage right now. "Wow, you actually put that in word-for-word," he says, since he told me to write that. Yeah, we haven't gotten much done so far this morning. It feels like the holiday has already started.

I bought my plane ticket home for Christmas this morning from Hotwire, since at $208 the ticket was almost $100 cheaper than anything else I could find. Of course you don't find out the airline or schedule until after you purchase the ticket, and so now I get to fly from Houston to Charlotte via...Chicago O'Hare. Um. Ok. Whatever.

On a blog-related note, I've been asked by two different people recently whether the little subject line ditties are something I make up, or something else. Unfortunately, I'm not that creative, people. They're song lyrics. If you don't know what the song is but want to, you can leave a comment and ask. Though today's should be pretty obvious.

Monday, November 22, 2004

try to remind myself that I was happy here /
before I knew that I could get on a plane and fly away

This weekend was weird. Maybe it was the gray and drizzly weather, maybe it was because last week at work was odd with my training class and everything, maybe it's because I'm just a weird person, but I just felt off. Defeated. Sad. Down. Whatever. Especially yesterday, when I stayed in bed until 3:00. I got up for a bowl of cereal, and when my dad called, but other than that I just lounged in bed, reading. It was lovely, but didn't make me feel any less blah.

I finally dragged myself out of my pajamas for a three mile run. I'd been planning to do a long run yesterday, but just couldn't summon the motivation. I'm glad I was able to force a short run though, and at a pretty decent pace as it turned out -- under 11:00 per mile for the second run in a row. I'll run tomorrow night, do the Turkey Trot 10K on Thursday, and do a 14-15 miler next weekend. The 30K is the weekend after that.

What else? Well, Friday night I played soccer on a field that was more like a swamp, and got eaten alive by mosquitos. The games I was supposed to ref on Saturday morning got cancelled due to the ongoing monsoon, so I slept in before hitting the grocery store, making my sweet potatoes, going to see Bridget Jones 2 with Jen (Colin Firth, sigh), coming home to finish off the potatoes with some marshmellows, and going to the Thanksgiving dinner at Brienne's. Everything was very yummy, even if the social situation was as self-segregated as a middle school dance. Weird. Yesterday was loafing, a run, dinner at Mely's, and a movie.

Today is still gray and rainy, and I still feel blah.

Sunday, November 21, 2004

"Drip...drip...drip" says the still-unfixed leak

"Drip...drip...drip" says the still-unfixed leak in my roof, as the rain continues.

I am supposed to go for a long run today, but I'm not feeling up for it and my heart just ain't in it. The rain is just a convenient excuse. It's gonna be one of those days.

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Brienne and Sara are having

Brienne and Sara are having their annual pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving tonight, where we all get together and have Thanksgiving dinner before most people leave town to celebrate the actual holiday with their family. I'm bringing sweet potatoes, of course, because they are and have always been my favorite Thanksgiving food.

Today, I discovered that my home state of North Carolina provides 40% of the country's sweet potatoes.

How appropriate. Yum yum!

Saturday, November 20, 2004

Type each single letter of

Type each single letter of the alphabet in the address bar of your browser and list something that the auto-complete function pulls up.

A is for Absolute Soccer ref uniforms.
B is for Backpacker Magazine.
C is for Chromasia.
D is for Daily Snap.
E is for Ebay.
F is for Flickr.
G is for Geocaching.
H is for Heather Champ.
I is for ING New York City Marathon.
J is for James Glenn Foundation's list of Houston area road races.
K is for Karen Thibodeaux Sports Photography.
L is for Lance Armstrong.
M is for Macromedia.
N is for NASA Youth Soccer.
O is for On The Run.
P is for photo.saroy.net.
Q is for NY Times article query.
R is for REI.
S is for Sara Lovering.
T is for Ten Years of my Life.
U is for US Soccer.
V is for verba.chromogenic.net.
W is for the weather.
X is for ...nothing.
Y is for Yuri's Night Houston.
Z is for Zackvision, the source of this game.

Friday, November 19, 2004

I'll hold your hand / if you hold mine / when it all comes down

It's my last day of Photoshop class. Look, I made Pauld into a Polaroid!

He's so cute. It's really a shame he never emailed back.

Anyway. I went on a run last night since 1) I needed to run and 2) softball was cancelled due to the monsoon earlier in the week. I did two laps out at the Gilruth. The first lap wasn't so good -- legs hurting, etc, etc. The second lap was much better. There was an older guy about 30-40 feet in front of me who seemed to be going at a reasonable pace, so I decided to try to stay just behind him. I did that for about a mile and a half, and then picked up the pace enough to pass him and finish the lap a minute or so ahead of him. I was really crusing along at the end, and ended up averaging 10:59 (under 11:00!!) per mile for the whole 5.8 mile run. That made my evening.

This afternoon I start training for a new task I have at work -- being the NSE (NASA Subsystem Engineer?) for contingency aborts. I am a little apprehensive, as I'm getting the impression from the guy at USA that he is not at all excited about having to train me. He's been fairly incommunicado via email, and already hasn't been giving me the information I ask for, i.e. where his desk is! I don't work in his building, rarely go over there, and don't know my way around the maze of cubicles at 600 Gemini. The first time I asked where I should meet him (and suggested he give me detailed directions), he didn't answer the question at all. The second time, he answered by saying that he sits right next to where Angela sits. Um, ok. I know Angela, but again, have no clue where she sits. So I wrote back again and said, I don't know where she sits, can you clue me in? And he writes back again and says "You have a badge, right? Just come upstairs."

What the hell?? I haven't been over to the building much, but I've been there once or twice, which was enough to show me that "upstairs" is a maze of cubicles. What am I supposed to do -- just wander around until I see his name on a cubicle? (Oh, and since I've never met him, I don't know what he looks like.) I hope the entire training process isn't going to be as much of a struggle as finding out where his desk is has been.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

Blogthings - You Are From Mars

You Are From Mars

You're energetic, althletic, and totally hyperactive. You love playing sports and being in the middle of all of the action. You're independent, corageous, and brave. Unafraid to do things your way. Mars can be reckless, quick tempered, and a little too spontaneous. So think before you act - and resist your natural urges to dominate others.

Thursday, November 18, 2004

January's just around the corner / I know that you'll be back by then

I have been drinking way too much Starbucks this week. That's what happens when I'm in training classes. But the pumpkin spice latte and the peppermint mocha are so yummy! At least I get them without whipped cream -- that makes them sort of less unhealthy, right?

Ok, without further adieu, I'm finally ready to mention the new website I've been working on -- photo.saroy.net. I'd been thinking about starting a photoblog for a while, mainly because 1) I like photos and love looking at other people's photoblogs and 2) I thought I could take better pictures than some of them. ;) Getting the new camera a month ago finally spurred me to work on it. So there it is. The plan is to post a new photo every day, of whatever I happen to feel like posting, or whatever I've been taking pictures of lately.

I may still add a few things to the site, but for now, it's pretty much complete. I should also say that I'm a little sensitive about it, so if you think it's stupid, I'd rather not know.

Softball is, of course, rained out for tonight after the deluge of the past couple days, so I have another free evening. This week has been full of free evenings, and I love it. Tonight I can watch The O.C., woohoo! ;)

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

I don't mind spending every day / out on your corner in the pouring rain

So I'm sitting on the couch just now watching the end of the final game of the World Cup qualifying semis for the US men's team, when...

"Drip...drip...drip...drip...drip...drip..."

My roof is leaking! As in, seriously leaking. As in, huge trash can under the leak instead of small bowl. As in, the leak is above the fluorescent light fixture in the kitchen so the water leaked into the light fixture and pooled on the plastic cover until the plastic cover couldn't hold the weight anymore and the water began pouring out onto my stove. That kind of leak.

So I called the apartment complex overnight phone answering people (complicated, anyone?) and told them to let the maintenance guys know ASAP tomorrow morning. They're gonna have fun fixing it, and I mean that in the completely sarcastic sense of the word. I have no idea where the leak actually is, because it's behind the light fixture. I managed to take down the wooden frame and the plastic cover, but the light fixture itself (which is ~2x2 feet square) is made of metal and has four fluorescent bulbs and is still firmly attached to the ceiling. The water's just working it was around the edges.

This is when I'm glad I live in an apartment instead of a house. Someone else will fix it for me! For "free!"

The US tied Jamaica 1-1. On to the qualifying finals, then to Germany in 2006!

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

no I would not sleep in this bed of lies / so toss me out and turn in

I came back to Photoshop class today after it went ok yesterday afternoon (I learned a few things they glazed over in the beginner class), and today is looking up as well. The guy brought a book he had at home for me to work from! Woohoo. The book is for an older version of Photoshop and the sample images aren't around anymore, so I'm using Google to find images similar to those the exercises in the book show.

Ooh -- in searching for a similar image, I found the webpage for the book! (The guy told me it didn't exist anymore.) It has all the original sample images! Rock on!

The guy teaching this class has a cool job. He's my age, studied fine arts in college, and now works for Pat Rawlings doing 3D animation. I want his job!

I went for a run last night, and it was quite possibly the worst run of my entire life. My legs were heavy, they were sore, they burned. It was not pretty, but I forced myself though three miles (had hoped for six) in a run/walk combination to "get the lead out" from Sunday's big 25K. I'll try again tonight, if the rain lets up. This morning it was pouring and the water level in the bayou was high. Rain, rain, rain. It's been overcast since Saturday and is basically supposed to thunderstorm on and off till next Tuesday.

My poor jammed finger is still all puffy. I'm ready to be able to make a fist again, darn it.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

up on the shore they work all day / out in the sun they slave away

I'm in another training class that lasts the rest of the week, but already I'm realizing that I may not be staying. We're currently waiting for a few more people to show, but the instructor just handed out the textbook and I glanced through it. Hmm. It's the same textbook we used for the Photoshop - Beginner class, and this is supposed to be Photoshop - Intermediate. Now, there are a few chapters at the end that we didn't get to in the first class, but those couple chapters ain't gonna take four days.

I really hope this isn't a repeat of the last class.

Yesterday my boss surprised me by saying that there's a new task in our group, and wondering if I'm interested. Of course I said yes. I don't really know what the job involves -- it's being a "subsystem engineer" for a particular part of the shuttle's flight, the return-to-launch-site abort -- but I would be an idiot to turn down the opportunity to do something even slightly new. I basically have no footprint stuff to do right now, and since I'm only allowed to charge ~10 hours per week to Mars stuff, I'm bored out of my skull. This will give me something new, and something to train for. I'm deathly afraid that it will end up being more sim work (I already know I'm going to have to learn two, possibly three new software tools), but at the moment it's better than nothing.

Last night Becca and I finally got to meet the "famous" Will, Cari's friend from ISU. He was in town for a job interview, and got an offer, so we all hope he takes it and moves here so we can stop stalking him through his blog and can instead stalk him in person. ;)

Ok, the guy just started the class and SIGH, the other three people have never taken a Photoshop class, and the guy really does intend on starting from the beginning of the textbook. This is supposed to be an intermediate class, and it's going to be exactly the same as the beginning class. This is such a pet peeve of mine, because it's wasting my time and JSC's money. JSC Training needs a serious overhaul.

Monday, November 15, 2004

Create your own superhero!

Create your own superhero!

Monday, November 15, 2004

uno, dos, tres, catorce / hello, hello (hola!)

Why does the new U2 song start out "1, 2, 3, 14" anyway? Catchy, but weird.

What a weekend -- I feel (and in some ways, look) like someone used me as a punching bag. My right ring finger is still swollen and bruised after jamming it during Saturday's goalkeeper practice with Matt and Josh, my left index finger is sore after being bent backward during the game last night, the goose egg on my ankle has turned a lovely shade of purple, my kicking foot is bruised from one too many goal kicks taken between Saturday's practice and last night's game, and my quads and gluts are tight and sore, sore, sore from the 25K yesterday.

Oh, and my arms are sore from who knows what.

My stint as goalkeeper went about as well as I could've expected. We lost the game 3-0. One of the goals was completely legitimate; it was a one-on-one situation, me versus a good striker. In that situation, a good forward always wins, and she did, popping the ball into the back corner of the net. The other two goals were miffs on my part. Oh well. They scored all three in the first half, but I played much better in the second half and didn't let anything past me.

The 25K went better than expected, which is a major relief. I finished in 2:54:07 for an average pace of 11:14 per mile. Even more encouraging was the fact that I ran miles 3-12 at a flat 11:00 pace. I took the first couple miles slower, and once I passed the half marathon mark and started setting a new personal distance record with every step, it was as if my legs suddenly went "hey...what are you doing??...we've never gone this far before...whoa, whoa, whoa!...we're not sure we like this!..." So my last few miles were slower as well, and by the last mile I'd fallen to 12:00 pace.

But overall I'm happy with the outcome. My goal pace for the full marathon is 11:00 miles (which would be a 4:48 marathon), and with 2 months still to train, it just might happen. The weather was perfect for running, in my opinion anyway -- overcast and about 55 degrees. A little too windy, but oh well.

Saturday, November 13, 2004

Reffing this morning was really

Reffing this morning was really fun. I did three games, one boys and two girls, all U-8. I was surprised by the skill level -- a few of the little kids were actually pretty good with the ball. There's still a tendency to play magnet ball (everyone follow the ball in one big clump), but not too bad. I made a few mistakes as ref, but overall I think it went well. It helped to have an assessor there -- he watched me do the first game, and we talked afterward about what I did right and wrong. He left at that point, and I was on my own for the next two games.

After the kids' games, Matt and Josh met me at the fields to help me get a bit of practice at playing goalkeeper before I have to play there tomorrow night. It turns out that playing keeper is harder than I thought, especially when Matt and Josh are firing balls at you at top speed. Sheesh! Tomorrow night may be a disaster. I could usually catch the slower ones, but when they really ripped it, it was all I could do to merely overcome the instinct to duck, much less actually catch the ball without it rebounding. After a while, Josh ripped a good one and I jammed my right ring finger trying to catch it. Ow ow ow OOOWWWWW. It hasn't turned any funny colors yet, but the knuckle's swollen to almost twice the size it should be.

I practiced punting as well, without wearing my shin guards with their lovely ankle padding, so I gave myself a nice goose egg on my ankle.

So now I have a jammed finger, a goose egg on the top of my ankle, and probably some other bruises that haven't appeared yet -- just in time for tomorrow's 25K in the marathon warmup series. Ugh! I do too much, I know. I'm starting to have doubts about doing the marathon, but will withhold judgment until I see how tomorrow goes.

Friday, November 12, 2004

remember / I will still be here / as long as you hold me / in your memory

I just had the most vivid "God I miss that" moment, and it's all Carter's fault for posting one of Alex's emails. I don't know how he could skip football season when every week you get to hang out with these crazy awesome people:

All,
The headcount I have based on your [half-assed] responses is approx. 22. Here is the breakdown:
Alex +1 (Beer+Cokes+Liquor=Good Times)
Chris (Smart ass comments from the peanut gallery. Are you coming or not?!)
Brad +3 (Publix veggie tray+Beer+Lots of school spirit)
Michael (7 Layer Dip+Chips+No ticket+Disturbing stories about kissing his...we won't go there)
Iffy (Iffy; as in questionable)
CatBryan (Ham Roll-ups[For the love of God, no mayo!]+Oatmeal cookies)
Liz (Boiled Peanuts+Chocolate chip cookies)
Cyndi (Mystery dish, hopefully not made out of fried chicken and/or beer)
Angie +2 (Chick-fil-a party tray+An as of yet to be determined desert)
Erik +a couple, maybe (Additional beer, maybe)
Kathryn (Side dish of her choosing)
Brian +1 (The lasagne I graciously offered in week 1+Bread)

I'm always lamenting leaving California, it's true that I miss Stanford terribly. But living in Harris during my fourth year at Georgia Tech was my best year of college. Rooming with Courtney, sharing a suite with Leila, having Alex and Josh across the hall, Iffy dropping by at random times, all the other guys on the long hall...

I could go on and on about all the crazy things we did that year, but instead I'll just say that living with great people makes life fun.

I had a nice day off yesterday. Slept in, went swimming with Becca and Buzz, messed around on the computer for a while, attempted a run. My legs hurt so much that I stopped after only two miles; I really need to figure out what's going on there and fix it before my training suffers any more. Dinner at Mely's and a soccer ref's meeting put me in a good mood, so I celebrated with Starbucks and watching celebrity poker (not my choice, but surprisingly gripping).

Coming up this weekend: soccer tonight, reffing tomorrow, 25K Sunday morning, and soccer Sunday night. I'm playing keeper, which I haven't played since that one time when I was 8. Anyone want to go kick balls at me sometime tomorrow so I can get some practice?

Thursday, November 11, 2004

It's 11:30 and I've only

It's 11:30 and I've only been up for a half hour. I love government holidays!

I was just surfing some of my favorite "blogs by people I don't know" and had a flashback moment. Dooce posted an entry about a Dr. Seuss book she's been reading to her baby, and as I read her entry, I realized she was speaking of Go Dog! Go!, one of my favorite books when I was little. The dogs, all moving fast, end up in a giant party at the top of a tree! So cool!

I loved that book.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

I'm just a girl / with good intentions / I don't cry / to get attention / most of the time

Last night I spoke to the area's soccer referee assignor (who also happens to own Mediterraneo, one of my favorite Clear Lake restaurants), and within two minutes of talking I'd already been assigned to ref three Under-8 games on Saturday morning. Talk about being thrown right into the fire! When I expressed a bit of hesitation because I've never reffed before, he told me to come to the local referees meeting tomorrow night and he'll go over the basics and introduce me to a veteran who will ref the games with me on Saturday.

So tomorrow I need to head to Friendswood to the soccer store and get a ref shirt and stuff. I'm a bit nervous -- not because of the kids, but because of the parents -- but it should be fun.

Nick finally got his new car today, a Toyota Prius that he ordered back in April. I was admittedly skeptical of the whole hybrid car idea, but he gave us the demonstration on coke break this afternoon, and it is really cool. It's got a power button instead of turning a key, a park button instead of a gear shift, GPS, the ability to pipe a cell phone through the car speakers and microphone, and a touch screen that controls basically everything. I drove it around the parking lot and was fascinated by watching the screen to find out whether it was running on battery or engine power. Yeah, so I should probably not get a Prius or I'd wreck it while watching the pretty screen.

Anyway. It's almost time to go home for the day, and oh! Tomorrow is a holiday! Hooray for Veteran's Day and hooray for the perks of being a government employee. I'm going to sleep late, go swimming, and veg out. I'll work a half day on Friday, then ahh, the weekend.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Sorry Everybody I could surf

Sorry Everybody

I could surf the gallery all day.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

I know, I won't cry / cause there is somebody somebody somebody waitin' for me / out in the rain

Time for more links. I should really write my blog entry before I browse my favorite news sites, eh?

There's an interesting article in the NY Times today about a guy who plays the pan flute. I think the article appealed to me because it made me remember Peru (ah, Peru) and the first bit describes how the guy took the journalist to a hardware store and twenty minutes later had built a pan flute out of PVC pipe. That is so cool.

There's also an article about supernovas that contains one of the best photo/illustration captions I've seen in a long time: "A three-billion-degree bubble of thermonuclear hell mushrooms upward through a star in the milliseconds of a supernova explosion. Sweeping around the star?s surface, the bubble could collide with itself, setting off a fatal detonation." Bubble of thermonuclear hell. (Noo-clee-ar, not noo-cue-ler.) That's awesome.

I love the Times. When I was at Stanford, Breakers had a subscription and I got to enjoy a good article or two every day when I ate lunch...at least when there weren't any Swedes, or Tibor, around to amuse myself with. I miss that.

I miss all of that. Chris is so lucky to be out there for a year. I can't wait to go see him for a weekend; it's hard to believe that by the time I go back for a visit, it will have been almost three years since I left California. Why I never made it out there to visit Jen is a big mystery. I guess I told myself I was using all my vacation (and money) on other trips. That was dumb. I'm always going to miss that place.

In the meantime, I'll keep trying to make peace with Houston. Now that the cool weather has arrived, I'm reminded of what I always forget from May till September -- I don't mind Houston that much when it's nice outside! I went for a run last night, 5k, and it wasn't too bad. Some pain in my legs again for the first mile and a half, but again, it disappeared after I got warmed up.

I'm thinking of switching blogging systems. I've been messing around with Movable Type for something else I'm working on, and it is so cool. Takes a bit of time and effort to understand how to use it effectively, but MT lends itself to tons of options that Blogger doesn't yet have.

And thus ends a very boring entry. Apologies all 'round.

Monday, November 08, 2004

who would have thought I'd ever let somebody get to me /
who would have thought I'd ever give a damn

GOOD: The Incredibles. We saw a late showing on Friday night, and it was fantastic. Great animation, great story, great characters, great jokes. Fantastic movie, highly recommended.

BAD: Before the movie, we'd planned to try the new Thai restaurant, but it was tiny and the wait was an hour long. Instead, we had to eat at Freebird's. Burritos aren't bad, but I was really in the mood for Thai.

GOOD: Jude Law. Yum.

BAD: Jude Law's new movie, Alfie, which we saw on Saturday night. Boring and pointless, with so much inner monologue that even Jude Law (yum) couldn't save it.

GOOD: Roger Clemens seems poised to win another Cy Young (his 7th) when they announce the award tomorrow.

BAD: "[Lance] Berkman suffered [a torn ACL] while running during the flag football game he played in late last week at Second Baptist Church. Berkman, who was not a member of a league, was simply filling in. "Someone just called up and said, 'We don't have a quarterback,'" Berkman said. Now the Astros may not have a right fielder, or at least the right fielder they want."

GOOD: I had a completely lazy weekend. I saw two movies, watched far too much TV, messed around on the computer for hours (working on a new project, tease tease), and played two soccer games. It only took two games with my new women's team to get promoted to sweeper, where I played last night. I love sweeper. Though next week I may end up playing goalie...

BAD: My coed team lost on Saturday in part because I played bad defense on a play against a girl who managed to score a goal.

GOOD: NBC aired a one-hour summary of the New York City Marathon yesterday, so I got to watch Paula Radcliffe redeem herself after having to drop out in Athens by winning the women's race, and Meb Keflezighi finish second in the men's race, the top finish for an American in a decade.

BAD: I couldn't run at their speed for even one mile. They are superhuman, I swear.

GOOD: Despite my incredible slowness, I can run pretty far. I did 11.3 miles on Friday night before dinner and the movie, which gives me a little more confidence for the 25K this weekend. Houston Marathon, here I come.

BAD: My throat hurts today, which is never a good sign. These long distance runs aren't going to hurt my muscles, they're just going to keep me constantly ill.

Friday, November 05, 2004

gotta meet the plane so I can get my monkey /
teach him to be cool but a little bit funky

Blogger has been really acting weird the past couple days. It seems to be ok now, so hopefully they've fixed the bug.

Not much to say. Last night I watched the season premiere of The O.C. (geez, love that stupid show) and played softball. Because of all the rain earlier in the week, Field 2, our normal field, was too wet. Instead, we played on Field 3, which wouldn't be a problem, except that it's a bigger field. The infield is bigger by about 5 feet along each baseline, and the outfield is about 40 feet deeper. The guys didn't have to reign in their swings as much, which led to two in-the-park home runs....for the other team. Sucked. After a great first inning (I had 2 RBIs!), we ended up losing 10-7. Ah well.

Tonight I'm doing a long training run, then meeting the gang for Thai food and a late showing of The Incredibles. Tomorrow I already have plans to see Jude Law, I mean Alfie, with Cari. I also have soccer tomorrow morning and Sunday night. Pretty much your standard weekend, eh?

Thursday, November 04, 2004

someday I'll fly / someday I'll soar

So I went to a meeting this morning where Rich and Gavin were explaining their past 18 months of work to the new chief of Mission Operations. The new guy is young and handsome. Is it wrong of me to use those two things as basis for liking him, without even knowing what he'll do as head of the directorate??

Because I totally am.

Oh well.

I had the best run in a while last night. I was going to do two Gilruth laps (5.8 miles), but with the weather finally having cooled off, I felt so good that I even added an extra mile and a half. I ran 7.3 in all, and felt great almost the entire time. My shins were hurting for the first mile and a half, but that is "normal" for me. If I run through the pain, it always goes away by mile 2. I think it's a little bit of a factor of jumping back into long distance running a bit too fast after basically not running all summer.

(Dad, no more lectures about the dangers of long distance running. I'm ok.)

I have decided, however, that next summer I should try to run at least a little more than I did this year. I ran more in summer 2003 than I did this year, and that's probably why last fall's training for the half marathon didn't get off to nearly as unpleasant a start as this year's training for the whole 26.2. By not running at all during the summer this year, I think I lost some of my ability to deal with the heat. I un-acclimated.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

I don't want you to feel sorry for me / you never gave us a chance to be

The networks are reporting that Kerry called Bush to concede. It's nice that the election was decided within 24 hours, but disappointing that Kerry lost. I'm actually more disappointed than I thought I'd be; I guess I cared about politics this year after all. Ew.

So I think my iPod is dying. It's acting weirder and weirder. Today all the buttons froze up and wouldn't respond to anything, not even a reset. I finally thought to hook it up to the computer, which seemed to set it straight and all the buttons started responding again. Considering the fact that it's only a year old, the weirdness leaves me a bit disillusioned with Apple; despite the numerous things I'd heard about iPods beginning to die around the 1-year mark, I hoped mine might defy the odds. The warranty expired a couple weeks ago, so I suppose I should have known it was coming.

In any case, it's working again, for now.

Becca, Jen, Lisa, Paul and I headed downtown through the drizzle last night to have dinner at Cafe Adobe (which our co-op had been raving about) and see A Chorus Line at the Hobby Center. Dinner was excellent, if a bit rushed because traffic sucked getting there. The show was a little disappointing though. I just didn't get into the story, and felt the whole thing moved really slowly. I hesitate to say it, but I was bored at times, and I'm not usually bored during musicals. Oh well. Singin' in the Rain is coming up and should be better.

Now I've just got to make it through another Wednesday.

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

VOTE TODAY! You should vote.

VOTE TODAY!

You should vote. Yes, you. If you don't vote, you're an idiot. Ok, not really, but just vote, ok?

It's been a rainy 24 hours, but cool weather is finally (!!) working its way into Houston. I went for a run last night and it was actually pleasant. Cool breeze, no oppressive sun, no sweat in my eyes. Imagine that.

Monday, November 01, 2004

guess I'll circle / while I'm waiting / for my fuse to dry

I had another relaxing, calming weekend. A girl could get used to this. But with the holidays coming, I know it won't last. I feel like I need my weekends to be quiet and filled with nothing, two straight days of decompressing, in order to gear up for yet another week at work. It's just not right.

I played soccer Friday and last night. I'll leave it up to you to guess the outcome of the games. On Saturday night we went on a Haunted Tour of Galveston, which was entertaining, but left a little to be desired. I wanted to hear more actual history (that city is full of it) and more unexplained happenings and fewer hokey ghost stories and made-up science about why we can't see ghosts (but cameras can) and how electricity was generated in the late 1800s. At one point someone commented on the lemony smell that was filling the bus and as the tour leader started talking about how ghosts can manifest themselves in smells as well as orbs and ectoplasm, Matt and Stephanie sat giggling in their seat because the smell was from their home-brewed bug repellant.

(Yes, home-brewed bug repellant.)

We did visit a neat old hotel (though it's been renovated, rendering it less spooky) and an elaborate old cemetary, so that was neat. Unfortunately, the restaurant we'd planned on going to for dinner closed at 9:30, so we ended up at Denny's. It feels like I've been to the Denny's in Galveston a zillion times; somehow we always just end up there. Very odd, because let's face it, Denny's is not that good.

And today begins another long week. I can't believe it's already November; you wouldn't know it from the weather. I went running on Saturday morning around 10:30 and think I suffered mild heat exhaustion -- it was almost 90, with the sun beating down on me. Today, however, it's raining and the weathermen are promising that the long-awaited "first cold front of fall" is coming. I hope they're right.

Friday, October 29, 2004

"It breaks your heart. It

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops." ?A. Bartlett Giamatti

It just hit me that the baseball season is really over. I had been mourning the Astros' NLCS loss and was just coming out of that funk when the Sox swept the Cardinals. The World Series was over and done with so quickly that I barely noticed it was happening at all. I thought it was going to be a good series, a competitive series, a seven-gamer...and then it was done. And the winter is here.

Three and a half months till pitchers and catchers report for spring training!

My new lens got here yesterday, and it is so cool. It's a 75-300mm image-stabilized zoom. I wish I'd had it while baseball was still going on -- my shots would have been even better. I wish I'd had it Wednesday night for the eclipse too.

Last night's softball game was excellent -- I had the game-winning hit! Me! Woohoo! That kind of stuff never happens to me, but it did last night. The game started out well because I got to play first base (since Katie was out), which I love. The other team jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but we battled back to tie it 3-3, go up 5-3, and then allowed two more runs to leave the score tied at 5-5 going into the 7th inning. We held them scoreless and then it was our turn to bat. Jen and Gavin both got on base, and I came up with one out, Jen on third, Gavin on first. The other team actually moved their infield in. (Does double play depth exist in coed rec softball?)

All I needed was a hit to score Jen and we'd win the game, and on the first pitch I managed to knock one over the first baseman's head into right field. We win! Yay! I felt like Jeff Kent in Game 5 of the NLCS; if I'd had a helmet, I would have tossed it as I jumped into the pile of teammates. ;)

Seriously though, it was cool.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

Oh, and for the record

Oh, and for the record -- congrats to the Red Sox, and the Astros so could have put up a better fight than the freaking Cardinals.

Thursday, October 28, 2004

like sometimes / when I hear myself / on the radio / have you seen me lately?

Gavin, Nacho and I watched the eclipse over in Nassau Bay last night. I am a bit disappointed in the performance of my camera, because I really didn't get many great shots. Many of the shots, especially those taken with longer shutter speeds during full totality, were too blurry to be useful despite the fact that I was shooting on a tripod both with and without the lens's image stabilization turned on. It was pretty windy by the water though; my best guess is simply that the wind blew the camera around just enough to blur the pictures. They're not so blurry that you can't tell what I was taking a picture of, but I didn't get any of the detail of the lunar topography that I expected to be able to capture.

When totality hit, I started shooting in RAW format, and the files were too big for me to transfer quickly to my server this morning, so I'll have some of those tomorrow. In the meantime, here are the better shots from pre-totality.

The moon, pre-eclipse:

Our eclipse viewing spot:

Overexposed glowing moon:

Partial eclipse:

Overexposed just enough to show the red color:

Bonus picture of me looking very creepy taken through Ignacio's camera with night vision:

Wednesday, October 27, 2004

Not much to say today.

Not much to say today. It's Safety and Total Health Day at work, which I think is actually pretty dumb, because no one does any work. It's a stand-down day to think about safety, but there's not actually that much to do, so we just sit around and goof off. Matt and I left to go vote though, so that was productive. We had to wait in line for an hour. An hour! For early voting! Crazy.

I'm going to try to take some good pictures of the lunar eclipse tonight with my new camera. Hopefully I'll get some good ones.

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

I'm just so tired / won't you sing me to sleep / and fly through my dreams /
so I can hitch a ride with you tonight

Hey -- this guy hates the Right Now! graphic on Fox baseball broadcasts as much as I do! God forbid you actually have to pay attention to the game to find out what's happening.

"Then there's Fox's "Right Now!" graphic. It tells you what's happening Right Now! I'm glad they're clear about that, because once in a while they might put up information about, say, August 1939, and due to the length of the game and my diminished mental capacity, I might think that stuff pertains to Right Now!"

I think it's the exclamation point that really makes it so irksome.

Anyway.

We hit the climbing gym last night for the first time in a couple months, and my arms and hands are paying for it today. It was fun to go back, but I'm still getting far too frustrated over not seeing much improvement in my climbing abilities. I just don't have the arm strength to haul myself up certain parts of the wall, and I'm starting to doubt that I'll ever have it. I have bigger biceps than I ever have, and I still can't do a pull-up. Doesn't seem promising.

While pondering why I wasn't climbing on the previous Monday, I remembered that it was because I was attending the BEST BASEBALL GAME I HAVE EVER WITNESSED. (Brandon Backe, Woody Williams, NLCS Game 5.) Ah, the memories.

Monday, October 25, 2004

and I'm sure the view from heaven / beats the hell out of mine here /
and if we all believe in heaven / maybe we'll make it through one more year

This weekend was filled with two of my favorite things: soccer and owl cookies! I played Friday night (we lost horribly, and I was extremely frustrated with my team) and Saturday morning (we lost, but only slightly, and the extremely hot Brazilian subbing for my team made everything better).

Last night I played my first game with my new women's team, and it went pretty well. We lost the game 3-1 after losing two players at halftime and having to play the second half short a player, but I personally had a great game at right fullback. I miss playing sweeper, but maybe I'll get to fill in there occasionally. In the meantime, I'll be content at fullback. I was glad I played well, because I wanted to make a good first impression! I love playing in the women's league -- I feel like I can be so much more competitive when I don't have to try to out-sprint speedy boys.

On Saturday afternoon I made the dough for my owl cookies, and that night I didn't play soccer, but watched it instead. The US Women's National Team was in town for an exhibition against Ireland as part of their "yay we won the gold medal and now some of our best players are retiring" tour. It was a really fun game to watch, even if Ireland was completely overmatched. I'm constantly amazed at the skill level of professional soccer players -- they way their passes always go right where they're intended to go, their trapping skills, and especially the way they seem to intuitively know where their teammates are. They have such incredible awareness of what's happening on the field, where to place the ball so that their teammate can rush in. There's no hoarding the ball, and good passing is of utmost importance. It was awesome to watch.

When I started playing soccer again a year and a half ago, I rediscovered how much I like the sport. It's such a great game, and unlike most other sports, I love watching women play even more than men. Women soccer players seem so much more real to me; I feel like I understand them a bit. What they do is something that I feel like I might have been able to do if I'd followed a different path. Once upon a time, with lots of dedication and practice, I feel like playing pro soccer could have been a realistic goal for me.

Of course, today I'm a mediocre player (at best), but I guess I feel like at one point in my life, playing pro soccer might have been attainable. And that makes it much more interesting to me.

Did I mention how cool my new camera is? I took it to the game Saturday and got the above shots, plus a few more good ones. Later that night, Nick accidentally dropped my camera -- but only about 6 inches, and it was ok, just scratched. I momentarily freaked out, but calmed down once I realized that nothing was irreparably damaged. I even colored in the scratch with black sharpie, and you can hardly see it. Crisis averted, but Nick felt so bad that he surprised me last night with gifts of a tripod, lens cloth, lens cap leash, and remote controller. Nick is awesome. I told him that he can drop my stuff anytime. ;)

Yesterday I had a lovely lazy day in which I made owl cookies, watched my new Aladdin DVD, and finally went to the grocery store -- my first real grocery trip since September 8. Yes, September 8. I discovered that when I went to enter the money I spent into my money software. Now, grocery shopping is one of my least favorite chores, but I can't believe I went a month and a half without a major grocery store trip. I knew I was seriously low on food (as Katie and Joel can attest to), but geez. I have no idea what I've been eating for the past month!

Friday, October 22, 2004

if I could find you now things would get better /
we could leave this town and run forever

I'm so incredibly bummed that the Astros lost. I really felt good about their chances; I really thought they were going to the Series. But 2 runs just isn't enough to beat the Cardinals, even with Clemens on the mound. Sad, sad. But I have to look at the bright side -- the Astros had a fantastic, magical season that ended in a way no one could have predicted two months ago. So thanks Astros, it was an exciting end to my summer.

Now please pull off another feat and re-sign Beltran!

I'll probably watch the World Series, but for me, baseball is over until April. Winter's dark enough without having to hate the day after the end of baseball. Poo.

I don't have anything scheduled for the weekend except lots of soccer. Soccer tonight, soccer tomorrow morning, going to see the US women's soccer team play at Reliant tomorrow night, and more soccer on Sunday. For the first time this fall, all three of my teams (two coed and a women's) are playing this weekend.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

The Astros lost. Sadness, and

The Astros lost. Sadness, and a long winter ahead.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

World on Fire --------

World on Fire

Thursday, October 21, 2004

thought I'd let you know / who you are / what you've done / makes me burn

I'm so bummed that the Astros lost last night. Despite Munro's poor outing, the bullpen pulled a reversal and actually shut the Cardinals down! Amazing. I don't hate the Chads (Harville and Qualls) quite as much as I did last week, so that's a start. Clemens takes the mound tonight as I have a zillion heart attacks hoping the Astros will win.

This morning at badge check, the security guard was joking around with me and called me a pretty girl. It totally made my morning. My friends can tell me that I look nice all day long, but it matters more when it comes from a total stranger. Why is that? It makes no sense whatsoever and is very bizarre. What my friends think is much more important.

On Tuesday night, I was sitting at home when I suddenly realized there were dozens, maybe hundreds, of dragonflies flitting about outside my apartment window. I went outside to sit on the balcony and watch them. I don't know where they came from or what they were doing, but they were everywhere. It was both weird and cool at the same time.

I didn't go to bed early enough last night, despite promising that I'd try. I don't know what it is, but it's very hard for me to make myself go to sleep.

Thursday, October 21, 2004

I was reading this article

I was reading this article and had to laugh at the following:

Heading into yesterday most media types were treating the NLCS as a mere warm-up act for the main attraction over in the American League. For example, the front page of ESPN.com, loosely translated, looked something like this for most of the day:

SOX-YANKEES
DIVINE WARFARE
ARMAGEDDON
APOCALYPSE

*cards vs. astros at 4pm eastern

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

being emailed around the office

T'was the day of the game and all through the park
Not a Cardinal was stirring, the place was still dark
The dugout was ready, gloves hung with care
In hopes that St Backe would soon be there

The fans were ready, kids had been fed
And visions of winning ran through their head
Garner was waiting, the Astros would come
The NLCS was not yet done

Then out on the field the 'Stros did appear
TVs turned on fans ready to cheer
The line up was set, the umpires had met
St Backe appeared, ready and set

Then out on the field the first pitch was thrown
Strike one called the ump he let it be known
The fans just roared, the walls they rumbled
Strike three from the ump, the Cardinals had tumbled

Backe looked up at the white flags flying
No time to give up, we just keep trying
More rapid than rockets, the strikes kept coming
Three Cardinals down, Backe was stunning

The roar of the fans, the smiles on our face
Nothing to fear, not in this place
From the top of the 1st to the top of eight
The Astros were patient, Cardinals waiting their fate

Lidge had appeared, in the top of nine
No time to falter, just look at the signs
The Cardinals went down, the B's started humming
On Biggio, On Bagwell, On Beltran and Berkman

Then Beltran came up, bat ready and waiting
Cardinals in awe, not anticipating
The fire in the drive, the stolen base
The walk to Berkman, the look on Kents face

As he came to the plate, fire in his eyes
Don't mess with the 'Stros, you'll meet your demise
The pitch neared the plate, Kent raised his bat
One crack it was gone and that was that

The Astros had won, the damage was done,
Meet us in St Louis, we only need one!

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

I'll be around / what else am I supposed to do

My heel hurts for reasons unknown. My nose is running again because I haven't been getting enough sleep. Nick's desk looks girly because someone put fake flowers all over it. I'm wearing my Astros jersey at work, and am already getting nervous about the game this afternoon. I haven't decided whether to listen on internet radio here at work, or just take the afternoon off to go home and watch on TV.

That's about it.

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

the day after

Astros.com: "Astros second baseman Jeff Kent and third baseman Morgan Ensberg were conferring near the on-deck circle at Minute Maid Park moments before Kent launched his walk-off home run on Monday night to beat St. Louis, 3-0, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

"We were just wondering, since neither one of us are Killer B's, what are we exactly?," Ensberg said. "Are we the pollen? Are we the pollen spreaders who supply the B's? We just figured it was time for the rest of us who aren't Killer B's to step up, even if we don't have a nickname."

Due to pressing matters awaiting Kent at the plate, the two Astros never did resolve their philosophical discussion..."

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "In Game 5 of the NL Championship Series at Minute Maid Park, the Astros and the Cardinals hooked up in a memorable duel, with the drama and tension escalating to the point where you hoped someone would press a button and open the stadium's retractable roof, just to let the steam out."

Houston Chronicle: "Once it ended, fans did what they've almost never done in Houston ? refused to leave.

They stayed to cheer and celebrate. They screamed at replays of Kent's homer as if they were living it over again. They savored the moment, the finest this franchise has had."

Post-Dispatch: "That nugget ? actually, it's a gleaming, brilliant pitching gem ? is Astros closer Brad Lidge. Within a dazzling (for the Astros) and disheartening (for the Cardinals) 24-hour span, Lidge has taken this NLCS and flipped it completely upside down."

Mike Gallo via Astros.com: "Our crowd was unbelievable, again. That's the loudest I've ever heard the crowd. Houston's pumped. It's awesome."

Astros.com: "In between, just one hit, some amazing defense behind him, and a city full of fellow Texans chanting his name.

Of that, too, Backe was aware.

"I kind of fall back on the crowd, to tell you the truth," Backe said. "They help me out, keep me going."

Chronicle:"Whatever the next few games bring, whether the Astros get to the World Series or not, thank you, guys, for making this the best baseball year of my life."

Jayson Stark via ESPN.com: "Backe was such a mystery man before this postseason, you might think he's just some guy the Astros stumbled across walking around the Galleria. Well, even though his catcher, Brad Ausmus, concedes that "you might see him walking around the Galleria," he is stamping himself these days as a pitcher to watch."

More Jayson Stark: "Astros 3, Cardinals 0 -- in a classic postseason baseball game that just about no one will ever tell their grandchildren they saw. Because they didn't.

And it's all because those bums, the Yankees and Red Sox, kept hogging TV screens all across America, in that greedy way of theirs. Maybe one of these days, they'll figure out a way to play a game in under five hours. Maybe one of these days, somebody will notice there's another series going on -- and it's every bit as good as that one."

ESPN.com: "Instead, it was headed for the very top of the only center-field hill in baseball -- until Beltran sprinted to the mountain peak, then smoothly backpedaled up the hill and caught it. "He didn't just make it look easy," Bagwell marveled. "He went up the hill backward. In case you hadn't noticed, he's a decent player."

More: "A Beltran single to start the ninth. An intentional walk of Berkman -- with two strikes on him -- following a Beltran steal of second. And then a first-pitch NASA launch by Kent that practically tore up the left-field train tracks and threw Minute Maid Park into rarified bedlam."

Monday, October 18, 2004

Last summer, I was lucky

Last summer, I was lucky enough to be in the crowd at Yankee Stadium when the Astros used six pitchers to no-hit the Yankees at home for the first time in forty-something years. It was the best baseball game I'd ever seen.

It's now second-best.

Tonight I was at Minute Maid Park for the most exciting, most nail-biting, most incredible, most nerve-wracking, most FREAKING AMAZING BASEBALL GAME I HAVE EVER SEEN.

Brandon Backe, a kid from Galveston who was in the minor leagues 4 months ago -- eight innings, one hit. Woody Williams, the veteran from Houston pitching for the enemy -- seven innings, one hit. Brad Lidge, the lights out closer -- one inning, no hits. Carlos Beltran, the guy who's so hot that last night he golfed a pitch a foot off the ground for a home run -- an incredible, gravity-defying center field catch. Jeff Kent, the country boy in a bit of a slump -- bottom of the ninth, three-run game-winning walk-off HOME RUN.

Astros win! Astros win! Astros win!

Monday, October 18, 2004

don't waste your time on me / you're already the voice inside my head

Whew -- what a weekend! Katie and Joel are visiting and the Astros are playing and life is crazy and busy.

I spent Friday night relaxing and watching movies, and stayed up far too late, but ah well, that's how it goes. Katie and Joel couldn't leave Atlanta until 6 or so because Joel had an interview, so they drove through the night and arrived around 5 a.m. Saturday morning. After letting them in, we all crashed. I got up and went to my soccer game, and by the time I got home around 12:30, they were up and about, if a little sleepy. Ah, I remember life as a college student. Crazy hours and crazy road trips.

We grabbed lunch at Jason's Deli and headed downtown for Game 3 of the NLCS. (When Katie told me they were officially coming for the weekend, the Astros hadn't yet won the NLDS and I thought my weekend might be pretty open. But the Astros beat the Braves, and suddenly I had three baseball games in three days on my schedule.)

Saturday's game was awesome. Chris flew back for the weekend for the games, and Jason and Betsy and Edgar were all along as well, and Katie and Joel had standing-room-only tickets but managed to find seats right behind us, and then of course Clemens threw seven innings and gave up only four hits, and two runs on two solo homers. It was a pitcher's duel until the Astros tacked on 2 runs in the 8th to make it 5-2, and Lidge closed it out. Woohoo!! Katie and Joel and I then had dinner at Mely's and went to bed fairly early.

Yesterday morning I was up far too early again to run the 20K downtown. I really was not to the point in my marathon training to run 20k (12.4 miles), but I did it anyway, and survived -- barely. The first 10 miles were ok, and I passed the 10 mile mark in about the same time as in the 10-miler race two weeks ago, despite having only run 3 miles in the past two weeks because I was sick for much of it. But after mile 10, I totally hit the wall. I don't think that had ever happened to me before -- seriously.

I could not get my legs to move any faster. It was a struggle just to keep jogging, and not slow entirely to a walk. My legs have never felt so heavy. My knees ached, and my hips ached (never had that happen before). I finished the run in 2:29:45, for a horribly depressing average of 12:05 per mile. Yes, 12:05 per mile despite the fact that I really did run, er, jog, the entire way. I didn't walk at all, and the fastest jog I could manage was 12:05 per mile!! Granted, that average was raised by a good 20-30 seconds per mile by my struggles in the last 2.4 miles of the race, but still. UGH.

I really have got to start running more regularly or I'll never make the marathon. Now that my cold seems to be disappearing, that shouldn't be a problem.

I came home from the race and Katie and Joel and I had lunch in Kemah. I met Jason to head to the ballpark for Game 4 while the Techies headed over to the Galleria area to visit with some family friends of Joel's that live in Houston. Game 4 was incredibly nerve-wracking, but turned out wonderfully in the end -- a 6-5 win for the Astros. The series is all tied up, 2-2, with Backe pitching tonight! I'll be in the stands!

The only thing I won't be able to do tonight is yell. The race yesterday, or more likely the combined effect of my screaming through two NLCS games already, have made me lose my voice. Yup, I sound horrible today, like a teenage boy whose voice is breaking. Sometimes normal things come out, but sometimes I sound like a horse. If I whisper, it's usually ok. I can't even remember the last time I lost my voice, but it is sort of funny and frustrating at the same time. Woe is me. How will I cheer tonight??? I guess I will just have to wave my rally towel even more.

Anyway. I'm off to head home to get Katie and Joel so I can give them the NASA tour before they end their quick weekend trip to Houston and head back to Atlanta.
--------

Sunday, October 17, 2004

Oh. My. God. The Astros

Oh. My. God. The Astros are going. To give me. A heart attack.

Four games into the NLCS and the Astros have tied it up 2-2, my nerves are shot, my arm hurts from waving my rally towel, and my voice is gone from screaming my head off yesterday and today. It was so incredibly loud at the park today. SO loud. I hope my voice recovers in time for tomorrow night's game!

Friday, October 15, 2004

the closer you get, the better I feel /
the closer you are, the more I see /
why everyone says that I look happier when you're around

This morning I hit the snooze button a few times. Suddenly I woke up with a start, knowing that I had overslept. I hesitated to look at the clock for a moment, trying to guess how late I was for work, but I finally rolled over and the clock stared at me. 10:15. Very late.

At least I'm well-rested today.

The Astros game last night was painful and nerve-wracking again, and this time all I could do was pace myself apartment with no one else there to distract me. The worst part is that the Astros really had legitimate chances to win both of the first two games, but the middle relief is just not getting it done. I also think Phil Garner has yanked both Backe (in game 1) and Munro (last night) a bit too early. They were both pitching decently, got into some trouble, and weren't given the opportunity to work themselves out of the inning. Instead, Garner turns it over to the verrrrrry shaky bullpen. The only consolation at the moment is that Clemens and Oswalt will be starting the next couple games and Phil Garner should hopefully let them go past the 5th inning.

Funny line from an article about Carlos Beltran's impending free agency: "But now that Beltran has been unleashed in October, thanks to Houston's surprising dash to the wild card, the numbers he's put up so far translate to a conga line of zeroes on his next contract, wherever he decides to sign."

Sigh. Go Astros! Please win tomorrow for me!

People are working on the room across the hall from us here at work, and I have no idea what they're doing, but the noise is incredibly grating. I turn up the volume on the iPod, loving this new U2 song...

The biggest news of all for today, however, is being buried here at the bottom of my entry in an attempt to avoid "you bought what for how much?" comments. I just bought a new camera! For those keeping score at home, I now have a film point-n-shoot, a film SLR, a digital point-n-shoot, and...a digital SLR. A used Canon 10D. I'm such a closet camera junkie. It is pretty, and should take even prettier pictures. Yay!

Thursday, October 14, 2004

you were just friends / at least that's what you said /
now I know better

My nose has reclogged. My ears have remuffled themselves. I'm sneezing. My throat has started to ache again. My eyes are watering. Yes, I've relapsed and am sick again. Boo hoo.

I am, however, for the time being, at work. And on the plus side, this means more delicious cherry NyQuil for me! JAJA.

On another topic, here's a note to Phil Garner: Chad Qualls sucks. That's twice in four days that he's let the opposing team back into the game. So, please don't let him pitch in key situations. Please. It's not good for my nerves. Thanks.

I watched most of the ballgame last night. I say "most" only because I get so nervous watching my team in playoff games that I can't sit still. So I pace around the apartment busying myself with little things. I make tea, send email, call people, distract myself a bit. Pace some more. Curse at Chad Qualls.

I just get so nervous! My dad told me once that he used to get so nervous watching Duke play that he couldn't watch at all. I guess I picked up some of that quality. But by the time the 9th inning rolled around, the nerves were gone and I was just feeling glum. I'd been wearing my Astros jersey over my pajamas, but took it off with 2 outs. As soon as I hung it in the closet, Mike Lamb hit a home run and Craig Biggio hit a double. It was suggested that I take off more clothes to help the Astros win, and maybe I should have, because Isringhausen then came in and got the final out. Poo.

I was impressed with Backe's performance on only 3 days rest, however. He pitched well enough; it was the bullpen that allowed the Cardinals to blow the game wide open. Here's hoping Pete Munro pitches the game of his life tonight.

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

As I wait for the

As I wait for the NLCS to begin, I'm watching the US-Panama World Cup qualifier on ESPN2. I watch. They run. I watch. The team captain for this game scores a goal to put the US up 1-0. And I think...

"Dude. I met that guy. We had a two hour, late night, pajama-clad conversation."

Pause. Watch him celebrate. Think...

"That is cool."

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

shake it / shake it / shake it like a Polaroid picture

You are Snoopy!


Which Peanuts Character are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Wednesday, October 13, 2004

I don't wanna be anything other than what I've been trying to be lately

Hello and greetings to those of you with short attention spans. Today's entry won't be as long as yesterday's, so rest easy. My incredibly fun weekend has left me sleepy, a bit confused, and asking a couple "life questions"...but all in a good, possibly exciting, possibly fun way. We'll see where that takes me, but I'm thinking that it could be something good. Or at least good for me...

Anyway. I know that's cryptic, but you'll all survive till I'm ready to say more. Also, Gavin is reading over my shoulder and it creeps me out. I know he reads my blog and all, but over my shoulder is still work-in-progress, Gavin, so cut it out!

The Chronicle has a great sidebar today comparing the presidential debates to the first game of the NLCS -- which will you be watching??

TIME
? Politics: 8 p.m. on most broadcast and cable TV stations
? Playoffs: 7:19 p.m. on Channel 26

PLACE
? Politics: Arizona State University
? Playoffs: Busch Stadium

MANAGERS
? Politics: Ken Mehlman for Bush, Mary Beth Cahill for Kerry
? Playoffs: Phil Garner for Astros, Tony La Russa for Cardinals

THE STAKES
? Politics: Leadership of the free world
? Playoffs: NL championship and a spot in the World Series

AUDIENCE
? Politics: In the hall, 100-150 "soft" supporters of either candidate. They must sit on their hands and not cheer.
? Playoffs: In the stadium, more than 50,000 Cardinals fans. Standing, cheering and shouting are encoured.

GROUND RULES
? Politics: Sixteen questions. Topic is economic and domestic policy. No props or diagrams. No nose-to-nose direct questioning. Debaters must stay at podiums. Coin toss determines order of closing statements. No extra innings.
? Playoffs: Double-switches and flipflopping OK, as long as you win. So is being single-minded and sticking to your guns, unless it costs you the game. At postgame interview, team members may be questioned, blamed or criticized, depending on their performance.

TEAM LOGOS
? Politics: Elephant and donkey.
? Playoffs: Star and cardinal.

UNIFORM
? Politics: Dark blue suits, with power ties in red or blue. No caps.
? Playoffs: Gray for Astros, white for Cardinals. No suits. No ties.

Tuesday, October 12, 2004

sometimes the only way is jumping / hope you're not afraid of heights

Yesterday was a government holiday (thanks Columbus!), which meant no work for me and a three-day weekend of which I took full advantage. I haven't had a weekend as good as this one in a long time. In short summary before I get into the details:

• I love haunted houses.
• I love Minute Maid Park with the roof closed.
• I love cheering loud enough to shake the entire building.
• I love weddings.
• I love wedding receptions.
• I love dancing.
• I love forcing guys who don't like to dance to dance.
• I love discovering that a guy who says he doesn't know how to dance actually does -- and better than me.
• I love getting the ultimate shoot-the-moon hand in hearts.
• I love the boot game.
• I love Carlos Beltran.
• I love the Astros going to the NLCS.

Onward to the details...

It started with a slow, relaxing Friday night. I stayed at home alone watching movies, which turned out to be a good move -- saving my energy for the next 48 hours during which I was alone only to sleep just enough to allow myself to continue to function!

Things got off to a great start on Saturday when Jason and I headed down to Minute Maid Park bright and early for the noon game. We had to wait in an annoyingly long line at the clubhouse store, but I finally left just before first pitch with a new Astros jersey. I promised the team I'd buy one if they won the Wild Card, so I had to make good on it. Chris was in town and sitting with us as usual, and Ron and Edgar were a couple sections over. I have never heard a baseball stadium as loud as Minute Maid was on Saturday -- we wondered why they didn't open the roof, but later realized that having the roof closed only helped to make the atmosphere inside more electric. Good move, Astros grounds staff.

The Astros won the game 8-5 and we left the park feeling really good about their chances for Sunday. We weren't sure we would make the game Sunday because they still hadn't announced the time -- noon if either the Yankees or Cardinals lost, but 6:30 otherwise. Noon we could make, 6:30 we couldn't because of Edgar and Betsy's wedding. Thankfully the Dodgers beat the Cardinals, and Sunday's game was set for noon.

From the game, I went to the mall and found a new dress to wear to the wedding. Ok, actually I found a new dress, and three new skirts. I have no idea where I'm going to wear all these skirts, but I liked them all! What's a girl to do?

From the mall I went to BJ's to celebrate Curt's 27th birthday. After that we decided to forget about laser tag and go to the haunted house in Kemah instead. At least three people in the group (Nick, Jo, and Debbie) had never been to a haunted house before, which was just sad and...sad. As haunted houses go, I was actually pretty impressed with Kemah's. A good mix of gruesome scenes with plenty of people popping out at you in scary costumes. I love it when people pop out at you -- I always scream, then laugh. It's great. I also had a bit of fun with Jo, hiding in a corner and waiting until she caught up to me to jump out at her. Sorry Jo! :)

From Kemah I headed over to Boondoggle's where the boys were all reliving the previous night's bachelor party. I didn't realize it was going to be the entire group of guys there, but it was fun anyway. I don't know how I do it, but I have a strong tendancy to end up as the only girl in large groups of guys. It's fun though.

I made it home Saturday night by 1:00 or so, in time to crash for 8 hours before getting up to prepare for both an Astros game and a wedding! Jason and I hopped in my car decked out in Astros gear with our wedding clothes carefully laid in the backseat. The game was a nailbiter, and we were not happy when we had to leave after the top of the 9th. (The wedding was at 4:30; we left the ballpark at 3:20.) We heard the end of the game in the car and would have been in a bad mood for the rest of the night if not for Betsy and Edgar and their awesome, awesome wedding.

Jason and I drove straight from the park to the wedding and changed clothes in the bathroom. We got a few weird looks walking in wearing pants and t-shirts, but most of our friends knew where we'd been, and we changed quickly! The wedding ceremony was short and sweet, but lovely. Stephanie, Hilary and Trish looked great in their bridesmaid dresses, Betsy was gorgeous, and even Edgar, Ron, and Chris cleaned up well for their roles as groom and groomsmen. :)

After the ceremony we headed inside for the reception. There was a fountain of chocolate, which, when paired with the candle at our table, allowed us to make s'mores! There was a keg of Shiner and lots of wine. There was polka music for the Wisconsonites (Betsy's side), salsa and meringue for the Colombian-Americans (Edgar's side), and plenty of other music for the rest of us. And did I mention there was a fountain of chocolate??

I did a lot of dancing, as I usually do at weddings. I danced with Chris and spun him around in his chair till he was dizzy. I forced Jason to dance with me after promising that if he did, I'd stop harassing him. Phil and I tore up the dance floor on song after song and he even serenaded me. Woo woo!

I even got Ignacio to dance with me for two songs, which I thought would be impressive on my part, but it turns out that he's a big liar and that he does, in fact, know how to dance. Beautifully. And better than me. For the record, it's slightly embarassing to spend a lot of time telling someone you're going to make them dance with you while they protest saying they don't know how...and then it turns out that they do know how. But Nacho, I forgive you. ;)

The reception wound down around 9:00, but we all followed the keg to Chip's place for the "wedding after-party." I played hearts for a while and won (I had the lowest score when poor Chris hit 100 points), and had the best hand ever to shoot the moon -- 10, jack, queen, king and ace of clubs, king and ace of hearts, king and ace of diamonds, and ace of spaces. I won every single trick in that round, it was awesome! When the hearts game finished, I played pinball for a while and then decided to join Kevin, Chip, Kylie, Trish and Nacho for the boot game.

Apparently the boot game is from a specific bar in Madison (Wisconsin). It involves filling a boot with beer, and passing it around the table, never letting it touch the table until it's empty. You don't want to drink so much that you get sick, but you also don't want to leave so little in the boot that the next person can finish it -- or you lose that round (which at the bar means you have to buy the next boot, but at Chip's meant that you had to dance and be given a nickname). Simple, and fairly pointless, as most drinking games are...but fun. The six of us went through 7 one-liter boots, and needless to say, finished off the keg. Each person ended up finishing off the boot at one point or another, and we didn't leave Chip's until 4 a.m. at which point sober Jason, Chris, and Ian were kind enough to drive the rest of us home. Much fun was had by all.

After only 3 hours of sleep (I didn't get into bed until almost 5 a.m.), I woke up and felt surprisingly good! I tried tracking down Ignacio but he was dead to the world, so I headed over to South Shore for the breakfast Edgar and Betsy were having for everybody before people left town. It was then that I realized I hadn't eaten anything meaningful since lunch the day before, except some things dipped in the chocolate fountain (chocolate fountain!!). I was starved.

From breakfast, Chris and Ian and I headed to Starbucks (three hours of sleep means you need lots of caffeine), and then found Nacho alive, if not well. Ian had to head to the airport, but Chris and Nacho and I had lunch on the patio at Mediterraneo's before heading to Betsy and Edgar's to pick up Trish, whose flight was leaving at the same time as Chris's. I drove them both all the way to IAH with Nacho along for the ride. We'd forgotten that most people did have to work yesterday and we were momentarily stuck in sucky rush hour traffic, but luckily the two of us got to take the HOV lane on the way back to Clear Lake. Smooth sailing, baby.

We didn't get back to my apartment until 5:30, at which point Ignacio crashed on my couch amidst my fuzzy pillows and Mexico blanket while I took a much-wanted, and possibly much-needed, shower. I had to wake Nacho up a little before 7 so we could go back to Betsy and Edgar's to watch the Astros-Braves game on Chris's hi-def, widescreen TV (the TV is on loan while Chris is at Stanford for the year). It was a nailbiter for the first 6 innings, but the Astros exploded in the 7th and 8th to win big and advance to the National League Championship Series -- the team's first postseason series win in franchise history! WOOOOOOHOOOOOO! Bring on the Cardinals! I'd never cheered against the Braves in my life before this past week, but it turned out well enough in the end. Go 'Stros!

God I hope Drayton McLane resigns Carlos Beltran next year.

So that was my incredibly busy and incredibly fun weekend. This coming weekend promises to be great as well -- Katie and Joel are officially coming to visit, and will be here late Friday, and then I'll be going to NLCS games Saturday, Sunday, and likely Monday as well.

My fingers are tired, that's enough writing for today.

Monday, October 11, 2004

It has been an amazing

It has been an amazing weekend, perfectly capped by the huge Astros win tonight to move on to the NLCS. Full update in the a.m. :)

Saturday, October 09, 2004

"Do you wanna go out sometime? I'm like, totally adorable"

I rented two movies last night, "Mean Girls" on Jo's recommendation, and "Saved!" on nobody's recommendation. The first was mildly entertaining but not that great, and I lost interest before even 45 minutes had passed. "Saved!" however, was awesome. It was clever, it was funny, it was well-written and well-acted. I've always been a fan of Jena Malone, who plays the main character, and she was good in this. Mandy Moore, as a holier-than-thou senior, completely cracked me up ("I crashed my van into Jesus!"). Patrick Fugit is still adorable ("what about tomorrow night, will you be dating then?"). And the rest of the cast was great as well.

I'm not really in the mood to write much more of a movie review, so I'll just stop here. But I highly recommend "Saved!" Very funny and clever movie.

Friday, October 08, 2004

So I just watched the

So I just watched the end of the Red Sox-Angels game, and all I could say as it ended was wow, how much does it SUCK to be Jarrod Washburn right now?? One pitch from Washburn, one home run by Ortiz, one sweep by the Sox.

Friday, October 08, 2004

baby if you could love someone like me / there's no end to the possibilities

While I'm home sleeping every night, I think my computer here at work is doing some SERIOUS CRACK COCAINE. I have no other explanation for why it appears possessed. It must be drugs.

In other news, I rode along with Nacho to pick up Chris at the airport last night. It was so weird for him to be coming into town for the weekend (for Betsy and Edgar's wedding on Sunday) when three weeks ago he still lived here. It was good to see him, and we all had a lovely, if late, dinner at Chili's. He's enjoying Stanford, but it's more work than he expected. "I told you so," says I.

He and all the boys are doing the Edgar-bachelor-party-thing today. They're renting a 15-passenger van to drive around town in. I volunteered to be the designated driver and even said I'd wear something skimpy, but alas, I'm a girl, and thus I am not allowed to participate in the bachelor party. Too bad. Bachelor parties sound much more fun than bridal showers.

(Note to Betsy -- not that bridal showers aren't fun! Yours was very fun!)

I am very excited about their wedding on Sunday. I love going to weddings, and it should be lots of fun.

So I was at work until almost 7:00 last night working on stupid footprints (sorry Dad, but they're stupid) and listening to the Astros-Braves game. I can't believe Rafael Furcal hit the game-winning home run. He's like three feet tall! Come on! It was a weird game, all in all. Bullpen phones supposedly not working, Garner putting Lidge in with only 1 out in the 7th, Lidge then giving up the tying run, etc etc. Weird. But it's good for the Astros to leave Atlanta with a split, and hopefully Backe can pitch another good game tomorrow for a win.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

I just paid $10 to

I just paid $10 to be able to listen to the Braves-Astros game online while at work for the rest of the afternoon. Granted, that $10 gets me live audio for every game for the rest of the postseason, so it's not that bad a deal, but still... Addiction to baseball is a bad thing.

Thursday, October 07, 2004

To summarize the most important

To summarize the most important parts of yesterday -- the Astros won behind a barrage of home runs and a gutsy Clemens performance, and the freaking Yankees won on a freaking sac fly in the freaking 12th.

I'll let you guess which outcome made me happy and which didn't.

"Over those first four innings, the Braves moved eight runners into scoring position. How six walks, two wild pitches, three hits, one error and one stolen base translated into a grand total of one Atlanta run (and no earned runs) is hard to explain. But there's no better way to sum it up than this: That was Roger Clemens, official living legend, out there."

Clemens, despite not having his best stuff, muscled through seven innings and the Astros took a 1-0 series lead over the Braves. I really, really, really hope Carlos Beltran is ok to play today after taking a pitch off his ribcage (ouch!). It makes me sad to root against the Braves, but that's the way it goes. In August, when the Braves came to Houston and the Astros were a bazillion games out of the wild card lead and everyone thought their season was over, I cheered for the Braves. Because they've been my team for so long, and because they had a chance for October, while the Astros were dead dead dead.

But then the Astros pulled their miracle recovery, won the wild card by a game, and here they are. It's October 7, but they're still playing. After a finish like the Astros had, I can't not root for them. They are, after all, my hometown team now.

So that's yesterday's news. And if you didn't see my post last night and are in need of a web domain or hosting space, see below...

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

HEY! Attention anyone out there

HEY! Attention anyone out there who has been thinking of getting their own domain name and/or web hosting...

The host I use for this site, Dreamhost, is having a huge sale at the moment in celebration of their 7th anniversary. The first 777 people to sign up for new accounts can get the basic level (800MB of storage space, free domain registration, lots of other good stuff that I can attest to) at only $0.77 per month for the first year. Seriously, I'm not kidding. I just signed up a new domain for the Houston Yuri's Night party myself, and it was only $9.24 for the next 12 months. All you have to do is make sure to put in "777" as the promotion code.

It doesn't get any better than that, people. All I ask is that if you do decide you want your own domain name and 800MB of space, you put me (www.saroy.net) down as a referral -- follow this link and it will do it automatically. Then we both win! :)

Wednesday, October 06, 2004

So here I am at

So here I am at work. I felt ok again this morning and made it in without incident. But now I feel like crap again, enough that I'm going home after I finish starting more sims. Also, today my throat really hurts. This is absurd. And sucky. I freaking hate being sick. Why did I run freaking 10 miles on Sunday?

Yesterday I did nothing but sit around watching TV. Thank goodness baseball was on, or I might have fallen into a stupid-TV-induced stupor. Instead, I watched 7 hours of baseball, with the Cardinals whomping the Dodgers and the Red Sox doing the same to the Angels, interrupted only by a nap.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

I noticed this ad in

I noticed this ad in a recent issue of Runner's World and it made me laugh. I don't know exactly why; I just thought it was very clever, and worthy of sharing.

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

I love Nyquil. It is

I love Nyquil. It is a beautiful, beautiful thing. It's pretty and red! It tastes like cherries! It lets me sleep at night! All hail Nyquil!

I got up this morning with every intention of going to work. I felt a bit better, and wanted to go to my training class. So I got dressed, got in the car, drove to Starbucks...and as I sat in line at the drive-thru, I realized that I still feel like poo. The feeling-better thing I'd had when I woke up, alas, was temporary. As I sat in my car (the line was long), I decided that it was stupid to force myself to go to a training class when I feel bad and have more than 300 hours of sick time.

So I came back home. I'd feel like I was playing hooky if I weren't having to concentrate so hard on breathing. And the tumor on the back of my head. (Buzz says it's a swollen lymph node, and Nacho has assured me it's not a tumor. But it's still weird.)

I shouldn't have done that 10-miler, I guess. I can see George shaking his head and saying I do too much...

Monday, October 04, 2004

I ran the 10-miler yesterday

I ran the 10-miler yesterday and it went well enough. I covered the distance, though slowly, and didn't have to walk at all. Today, however, I feel like crap. I was going to stay home from work, but 1) I'm supposed to be in a training class all week and 2) Rich and Gavin need their stupid footprint data. Grr. It's not their fault I'm sick, but I wish I could have stayed home. Anyway, I went to the class to at least pick up the textbook so I can learn the stuff on my own, and now I'm in my office to fix the footprint stuff, and then with any luck I can take some sick hours, go home and sleep.

The weekend was crazy and busy, which is probably why I'm now sick. Friday night I played soccer (we lost), then Saturday morning I was up early to get an oil change (my Xterra's first -- awwww) and then headed over to Gavin and Jen's to visit the dogs. I was (sort of) taking care of them this weekend, but I did a really bad job of it because I was too freaking busy and not feeling good. But for the record, Gavin and Jen, I took them on two long walks.

Saturday afternoon I had another soccer game (we won), then quickly ran home to shower and head to the Astros game. It was a home run fest that the Astros won, and with the Giants loss, the stadium was rockin' as the Astros took the wild card lead. Yesterday morning I ran the 10-miler, came home, showered, went over to Becca's to take Roxy and Zoya on a walk, and ended up getting fed a great breakfast thanks to Cari, who was being all homemaker-ish despite me having woken her up at 10 a.m. Yay Cari.

Yesterday afternoon I went to the Astros game with Nacho and Jason, the final game of the regular season but not of the season itself, because they won and thus clinched the National League Wild Card. I've never heard the park as loud as it was during the 9th inning yesterday as Brad Lidge struck out the side. It was awesome.

Sunday, October 03, 2004

Astros win! Astros win! The

Astros win! Astros win! The Astros win the wild card! Postseason, baby!

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Amazing. The Cubs lost to

Amazing.

The Cubs lost to the Braves today, eliminating themselves from the postseason.

Amazing.

The Dodgers came back with seven runs in the bottom of the 9th inning, including a walk-off grand slam, to beat the Giants, throwing the Giants a half game behind the Astros for the wild card.

Amazing.

The Astros went home run crazy tonight at Minute Maid in front of me and 43,000 others to beat the Rockies and go a full game ahead of the Giants for the wild card. Two homers for Biggio, two for Kent, and a bunch of others. It was the highest-scoring sub-2.5 hour game I've ever seen. You should have heard the crowd when we saw the Giants loss posted on the scoreboard. You should have heard the crowd when the Astros win became official.

Amazing.

The Astros control their own destiny. They win tomorrow, they go to the postseason. And I'll be at the game screaming my lungs out. This is the best end-of-the-season I have ever seen.

Friday, October 01, 2004

Note to my new Friday

Note to my new Friday night coed team: You can't play the offside trap if you're not going to stay with your runner.

Dude. Seriously. It's not hard. If you want to play the trap, you have to watch the runners. Otherwise, there's no freaking point.

Friday, October 01, 2004

I only saw about 10

I only saw about 10 minutes of the debates last night; I played softball instead (and we won). Of the little that I did see, Kerry looked pretty pulled together, while Bush said "um" a lot and "nu-cu-ler" at least once. Sigh. I can't really comment on what they said -- which, yes, was the more important part -- because I only saw ten minutes, and half of that was closing arguments. But then again, I already know who I'm voting for, and there's not much that will change that.

We just gave a slideshow about our Peru trip to the rest of the division, and Jo helpfully reminded everyone about it yesterday with this (click for bigger version):

I think both the email poster and the slideshow were hits, though I had nothing to do with the email -- Jo obviously has too much time on her hands! I mean, why did I have to be clinging to Gavin's leg?? Ew! ;) Anyway, after Marc and Josh's Kilimanjaro slideshow and our Peru trip, I think people are antsy to go on a cool hiking trip as well.

As for me, the whole thing just made me want to go back to Peru for the umpteenth time.

Because it was, you know, just so pretty there.

Thursday, September 30, 2004

Some people need to update

Some people need to update their blogs. That is all.

Thursday, September 30, 2004

I'm a wanderer / I have no place or time /
I'm just drifting along this lonely road of mine

The highlight of last night was that I had stuffed peppers for dinner -- mmm. Granted, they came out of a Stouffer's box, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I enjoyed my yummy dinner while watching cheesy TV. The WB's new show "The Mountain" is very stupid, but the lead actor is very cute.

I then watched the end of the Astros game (they won!), already knowing the outcome of the Cubs game (they lost!), and then fell asleep after the Padres had tied the Giants at 3-3 hoping the Padres could pull out a win while I slept (they did!). All this means that the Astros are a 1/2 game ahead of the Cubs and Giants for the wild card. The Cubs and Giants both play today, while the Astros have the day off. I'll be crossing my fingers for losses by both teams, but even if they win, the Astros have put themselves into a position where they control their own destiny (cue music). They don't have to count on other teams losing as long as they keep winning.

I'm going to have a heart attack before this season is over, seriously.

And in the fantasy baseball world, everyone needs to root for the Clowns (wonderful me) to stay ahead of the Boulders (evil Glenn)...

Name     Avg HR  R   RBI SB  ERA K   S   W   WHIP Total
Clowns   8.0 7.0 7.5 8.0 4.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 4.5 8.0  68.0
Boulders 4.0 9.0 9.0 7.0 8.0 5.0 5.0 9.0 6.0 5.0  67.0

Wednesday, September 29, 2004

stopped the car / pulled out the guitar / halfway to New Orleans

My computer sucks because IE freezes and eats my blog entries.

Matt is back at work today after two and a half weeks away for his wedding and honeymoon, and he is very tan from Belize. I was so excited to see him this morning -- there has been a terrible lack of absurdity in the office without him around.

SpaceShipOne flew again this morning on its first flight (of two) towards winning the $10 million X-Prize. I watched the live feed on NASA TV and freaked out momentarily when the ship started rolling on the way up, but it straightened itself out and landed safely having made it just past 100 km. I still love the fact that the entire ship gets towed down the runway by a normal pick-up truck.

I have been a complete flake lately and did it again last night, when I realized at 4:50, ten minutes before I was supposed to meet Buzz for a run, that I couldn't go running because I was going to the baseball game. It's a good thing I remembered, otherwise Jason and Debbie would have been sitting outside my apartment wondering where I was.

The game was great, with the Astros eeking out a 2-1 win over the Cardinals on the same night the Cubs lost to the Reds. Houston is only a half game out of the wild card lead with four games remaining. Clemens is pitching tonight, which bodes well for a sweep of the Cardinals, and then they end the season against the Rockies this weekend. These final few days are going to be nail-biters as I wait to see if the Astros can make it to the playoffs.

It's some consolation to me that the Braves are already in, so I have at least one team to root for.

Tuesday, September 28, 2004

Another Monday meant another dinner

Another Monday meant another dinner at Mely's last night.

Yesterday while my sims were running, I surfed the Peace Corps website, inspired by Jen's friend Rosa who has just started her 2-year stint in the Dominican Republic. It made me want to join so that I could travel to another country and learn another language and do something with people. I know you don't get a whole lot of choice over where you go, what you do, or when you leave...but if you get any say, I think I'd request the Caribbean or South America.

Anyway, this lead to multiple "so I hear you're joining the Peace Corps!" moments at dinner. This is how rumors get started, people. One moment you're surfing a website, and a few hours later you're unknowingly about to move to Kazakhstan.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Last night I finally

Last night I finally got to see Cari's pictures from Peru. This one was taken the second night on the Inca Trail. It's blurry, and dim, but I love it. Remembering our campsite that night, and the spectacular view, and the impromptu disco we threw inside our tent just makes me happy.

I don't know if I would be happy in the long term if I could hike every day and gaze at the mountains every night. Part of the reason I love it so much is probably that the moments when I am there are so few and far between. But sometimes I think that's what would make me happiest. In most of the world, computers and sims don't matter. But to work with people, in a beautiful place... Sometimes I think that might be enough.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Living close enough to work

Living close enough to work that you can get up at 8:00, get dressed, pack a lunch, leave the apartment, return to the apartment to get the aforementioned lunch that you forgot, go to Starbucks, the post office, and the gas station and still get to work by 9:00 is nice.

I had a pretty good weekend, and enjoyed finally being home without much to do for the first time in about a month. I played soccer on Saturday and we won, which was a nice change of pace. I've gotten complimented at both of the past two games for improvements in my play, which is a little strange because I don't actually feel like I'm any better than I was a year ago. But on Saturday, our team manager turned to me after the game and said "Sarah, you were awesome today! I mean, you were good before, but this season you've been great!" So it was an unexpected and maybe undeserved compliment, but still nice. I hope I can keep it up.

Saturday night Becca, Cari, Jo, Jen, Melanie and I had a girls night. It was supposed to be girls night all along, but then boys worked their way in...but in the end, all the boys cancelled! We had Star Pizza for dinner and then went to the Mad Potter, a paint-your-own-pottery place. I made a large vase and painted a mountain scene on it. Melanie did a fish (painting it to look like Nemo), Jen did a picture frame and bowl, Jo did a teapot and tile, Becca did a set of coasters, and Cari did an airplane bank. I had so much fun; I love doing creative things. I don't get to be creative nearly often enough.

I even got to paint more than expected when I realized that the light blue I'd asked for (and painted on my vase) was actually gray. It happened to Becca and Jen as well. It was actually a bit frustrating, since we'd harassed the guy multiple times with "are you sure this is light blue?? It really looks gray..." and he'd reassured us that it was definitely light blue, and that the colors just looked different before they get fired. Sigh. It was not light blue, as I finally had to figure out on my own. (They had two bottles labeled as the same color number, but they were obviously different when I finally looked at the color names -- "Pool Party" is blue, while "Copenhagen" is not. I shouldn't have trusted the guy.) So I had to erase what I'd already painted with a sponge and do my sky all over, but I think it will be ok. I'll get it back next weekend.

Yesterday I slept in and then took it easy, cleaning the apartment, watching the Astros, and reading. I just finished The Sex Lives of Cannibals, a hilarious account of two years of life as a foreigner on Kiribati in the equatorial Pacific. Nancy was reading it in Peru, Becca bought it when we got back, and I just had to read it. I highly recommend it.

Around 5:00, I went for a run -- almost 8 miles, with the sole purpose of reassuring myself that the 10-miler I'm signed up for next weekend is doable. The whole marathon training thing is going to be tough! (Oh, if anyone out there is curious about my marathon training, I made a separate site that I'm going to use to document my training. You can read it if you like that sort of thing, or ignore it entirely. I don't care. It's only real purpose is to publish my training schedule in an attempt to keep myself motivated -- it'll be hard to skip a workout if I know people will read about it the next day.)

Friday, September 24, 2004

Do you ever have days

Do you ever have days where people get on your nerves? Not for any particular reason, but just their existance in general? I know it's not rational, but I am totally having one of those weeks where I just want to sit quietly in a corner by myself. I have zero patience for mentoring, and questions, and sims. I just want (almost) everyone to just leave me alone.

The past few weeks have been stressful as I try to wrap up a project by the end of next week, and I don't have the knowledge that I need to get it done by myself. The past few weeks have left me tired, achy, and cranky. The past few weeks have made me question the thought of going back to school to get a Ph.D. so that I can teach, because apparently I am really bad at it.

The past few weeks, in short, have sucked.

So it's nice that it's Friday.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

rollin', rollin', rollin' in the Gulf

Yesterday I mentioned that the water level in the bayou behind my apartment has been higher than normal, thanks to unusual winds out in the Gulf. Last night as I was watching TV, a blue line of scrolling text appeared across the bottom informing me that a tropical storm warning had just been issued for my county. "What the...?" I thought, as I tried to figure out which tropical storm was within striking distance. Because my coworkers and I check the NHC webpage with obsessive frequency around here, I knew there wasn't anything headed our way. For a moment, I was puzzled.

As the scrolling text continued, it finally named the storm -- Ivan. Tropical Storm Ivan, remnants of the original storm that have reorganized in the Gulf, is likely to hit us tonight.

Normally this would be a nuisance, bringing lots of rain, wind, and generally unpleasant weather. But I find it so incredibly funny that it's Ivan that it's hard to be too annoyed. I mean, I'm sorry, but it's sort of funny! It's the storm that won't die!

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Received today. As spam goes,

Received today. As spam goes, this just about takes the cake:

To: Saroy
From: Spammer

You're invited to shop for large selection of bombs and different kinds of rockets such as surface-to-air, surface-to-surface and weaponry available at reduced price. With the following types of rockets you will be able to commit terrorist attacks, destroy buildings, electric power stations, bridges, factories and anything else that comes your mind. Most items are in stock and available for next day freight delivery in the USA. Worldwide delivery is available at additional cost. Prices are negotiable.

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

Forgot to mention that I

Forgot to mention that I posted most of the pictures from our weekend in Kansas City. You can choose a slide show of my pictures and Jen, George, and Nick's pictures. I've found that in general, amateur pictures taken at weddings never turn out very well because it's always so dim. It's too bad, but in any case, four of my favorites are below:

Here I am having lots of fun in the Crayola store:

Here are Matt and Stephanie just after saying "I do":

Here I am swooning at the reception thinking about the soccer team at our hotel:

And here's everyone at the reception:

Wednesday, September 22, 2004

I don't mind spending every day / out on your corner in the pouring rain

Cruelest headline ever, courtesy the Houston Chronicle today:
Fall means fabulous foliage ? but not here.

As if I don't already know that the only good thing about fall in Houston is a slight decrease in the oppressive heat, the newspaper has to rub it in. "Few things are sadder, leaf lovers may tell you, than fall in Houston, a city where, if you talk about the four seasons, people think you mean a hotel." Instead, the article describes how Houstonites can view the fall colors via Internet leaf cams. Seriously. BIG FREAKING SIGH. I have to get out of this city.

Also in the news this morning is the explanation for why the bayou behind my apartment has been unusually full lately -- weird winds. Slow news day, anyone?

I don't think I've given a fantasy baseball update in a while. My All-Star team clawed its way out of 9th place (out of 10), is now solidly in 8th, and is knocking on the door of 7th. It's a classic case of too little, too late. My NL-only team, however, after flip-flopping between 1st and 2nd for months, made a huge jump over the weekend and is in 1st place (first!) by 4.5 points with less than two weeks left in the season. This is especially exciting for three reasons:

1. If I finish anywhere in the top three (which is guaranteed since I'd have to lose 14.5 points to fall into 4th place), I get a cash prize. Cash is good.
2. Seven of the other 8 guys are rooting for me to win in order to take down Glenn, who has won the league something like 10 out of 15 years.
3. If I win an NL-only league, Carter and Dr. G. might actually consider me a "real" fantasy baseball person.

I was supposed to go see Hair last night with Becca and Jen, but I felt crappy so I just went home. I still feel pretty icky today, and my neck/back hurts for unknown reasons. Gavin was just diagnosed with strep throat, and since we spent all weekend together in Kansas City I'd be worried that I was getting strep...except for the fact that my throat doesn't hurt at all.

Is it Friday yet?

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

dress her in white and gold

Katie is a nominee for Ms. Georgia Tech!

My sister is so cool!

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

everybody was kung-fu fighting

I know I'm very late in posting today. No reason other than I don't have much to say. I have half an entry written about Matt and Stephanie's wedding, which was the more important part of the trip to Kansas City despite pro soccer player appearances that may indicate otherwise. I also have half a trip report written about Peru and the Inca Trail. Both will hopefully be finished...sometime.

Other than that, I'm just sleepy. I can't remember the last time I was up until 4:30 in the morning like we were on Saturday, and the late night is still taking its toll. God, I've gotten old.

Monday, September 20, 2004

Slip a note under his door, or...

"How Sarah Got A Major League Soccer Player Into Our Hotel Room"
By Becca

Step 1: Go to Nick and Jo's hotel room and swing the door wide open (their room was across the hall, rather than next to, his door).
Step 2: Primp for a wedding, giggling and talking really loudly by the mirror by the wide open door.
Step 3: Flirt with his Dad as he comes by.
Step 4: Yell through the door "Good luck on the game" as you leave for the wedding.
Step 5: Spend all wedding talking about cute soccer players during all breaks in dancing. Check game score using t-mobile phone.
Step 6: Rush back to the hotel, thinking the team would win the game and be partying.
Step 7: Be surprised when all is quiet at hotel. Put ear to soccer players' door and hear them talking quietly inside.
Step 8: When it becomes apparent that players aren't leaving the room, slide a note under the door congratulating them on win.
Step 9: Have Nick exchange a few words with players, feel very stupid when you find out they actually lost.
Step 10: Go to bed, giving up on soccer players. Put on pajamas.
Step 11: Be very surprised when soccer player calls you and ask where the party is. You offer to have a pajama party. No joke.
Step 12: Soccer player arrives in room.

The end.

I'd like to now add the optional...

Step 13: Spend Monday morning reliving the experience to everyone within earshot. Find picture of soccer player on cover of Sports Illustrated, yes, that Sports Illustrated. Still omit his name for fear of Google.

Step 14: Wonder how long you should wait before emailing him to see if he gave you a real address.

Sunday, September 19, 2004

Back from Kansas City. I'll

Back from Kansas City. I'll write up the full report tomorrow, but I'm still on such an adrenaline rush from the trip that I can't wait any longer to give the highlights:

1) Matt and Stephanie got married, Matt looked very handsome, Stephanie was absolutely beautiful, the ceremony was short but sweet, the reception was fun, the dancing was even more fun, and Matt and Stephanie looked so happy that we all almost cried (and one person did cry -- the one of us that you'd least expect).

2) The San Jose Earthquakes major league soccer team was staying on our floor at the hotel, not just on our floor, but in the rooms immediately surrounding us, and Jo lost all ability to speak, and I swooned a lot, and when one of the guys came out of the room next door to mine I recognized him from watching the 2002 World Cup as [name omitted for fear of Google searches], a.k.a. really freaking amazing world-caliber soccer player, and we joked with him as we were getting all dolled up for the wedding, and when we came back he was still awake, so we stuck a note under his door and a while later, just as we'd given up, he called my room, and so he came over and Jo, Becca, Nick, [incredibly hot pro soccer player] and I sat around talking about soccer, space and sex until 4 a.m. He was nice, articulate, very down-to-earth, and really fun to talk to. Oh, and he may not have been wearing a shirt.

So yeah, you could say it was a good vacation.

Friday, September 17, 2004

I'm off to Kansas City

I'm off to Kansas City for the weekend for Matt and Stephanie's wedding. It should be a lot of fun, since basically my entire group is coming as well -- me, Becca, Jo, Nick, Gavin, Jen, George, and Rich. Eight in all. We leave this afternoon, go to the wedding tomorrow evening, and return to Houston on Sunday evening. We're staying at a fancy hotel in a big mall next to a park, and there will only be two people in each room. It's all so posh compared to my usual standards.

I went 3-for-4 in softball last night! I've been consciously trying to change my batting stance ever since Jason suggested once at the batting cages that I was leaning into the pitches too much, such that I was hunched over the plate and swinging out too far. It made sense, because for a long time I never seemed to get the barrel of the bat on the ball; it always went off the narrower part toward my hands (which didn't send the ball very far, in addition to painfully stinging my hands). Lately I've been making a conscious effort to stand more upright as I prepare to swing, and it seems to be helping.

Thursday, September 16, 2004

my life was black and white / until you came around /
so baby come around / keep on comin' around

A quick trip to the mall last night resulted in strike two. Still no dress for this weekend. I may try one more time tonight, as I just want an excuse to buy a new dress, even if I'll only get to wear it a grand total of once or twice. I really need more opportunities to wear dresses. They're fun.

Five years ago, I never would have said that.

After that it was another day, another "last" dinner with Chris before he leaves for a year at Stanford. Last night really was the last dinner (as opposed to Sunday night, and Monday night) because he's starting the drive west today. Tonight he and his mom are supposed to be somewhere around Abilene. Ah, west Texas. It's flat and empty and brown and scrubby, and I wouldn't want to live there...and yet it's somehow pretty in its own unique way.

After dinner I relived the entire Peru trip. Sigh. I need another vacation.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

I want to break free / I want to break free /
God knows / God knows I want to break free

Is the weekend here yet?

I watched an ascent sim this morning from the ARD console. I was supposed to be here at 7:45, but I completely forgot until I was pulling into the parking lot at 8:30.

Last night Jen, Becca, Jo and I went to the Galleria and had dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Dinner was excellent, but the shopping was not. I didn't find a dress for the wedding this weekend. Oh well, back to the old standby.

Perhaps I'll move to Peru and raise alpacas. They're huggable.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

A picture from Saturday night

A picture from Saturday night Legos:

And Jen finally finished her Longs Peak trip report and it's posted.

Tuesday, September 14, 2004

ave Maria / cuando seras mia /
al mismo cielo / yo te llevaria

I just lost the entire post I'd written for this morning, which is a perfect indication of how this week is going so far. And it's only Tuesday.

In summary of what I lost though:

1) The lyrics above are from a song our bus driver played obsessively at 4:30 a.m. on the way to the beginning of the Inca Trail. I thought the song was like 20 minutes long; turns out it's only 3 and a half minutes, and the driver was just very fond of the repeat button.

2) I dreamed last night that I went to Atlanta just for one day, and didn't tell anyone I was there except my sister. I told her that I was visiting Tech for the day to talk about grad school, but really I had just come to Atlanta to drive the section of I-85 that was my favorite part of the trip from Charlotte back to school -- the last 20 or so miles into the city. I can't explain why, but I always loved that portion. I dreamed that I was driving it again, and enjoying the trees despite the urban sprawl. I miss trees. I don't think I'm a Texas kind of girl. I need more green plants and blue water, and less brown scrub.

3) I finally googled "Peru red black beads" to find out about the beads in a necklace that I bought there. After buying it, I began to notice that the beads -- half black and half red and oblong -- were everywhere. With my luck, I joked, they probably mean EVIL! or something. So I searched. And found two sites explaining that my lovely beads are actually seeds from a plant, and are highly poisonous and deadly if ingested. There is a lesson here, and it is: don't eat your jewelry.

4) Last night after explaining to Nacho and Chris at dinner that I love photography, I was forced to promise to take lots of pictures. The funny part is that the taking has never really been the problem.

Livin' la vida loca. I'm out of here.

Monday, September 13, 2004

Ok, this is cracking me

Ok, this is cracking me up -- and I love the picture:
'Batman' protest at queen's palace

Monday, September 13, 2004

grew up in a small town / and when the rain would fall down /
I'd just stare out my window

From the Chronicle today:

"Can you imagine the folks at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh running out of ketchup? How about all the ATM machines at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., being out of money? If that sounds impossible, then you weren't at Reliant Stadium on Sunday when the power went out."

Good to know that I wasn't the only one who noted the irony. I went to my first-ever NFL game yesterday (the Texans home opener) with Nacho, Nick, Sarah, and Peter. With about 5 minutes left in the 4th quarter, the scoreboard went out and all the ads blinked off. I actually wouldn't have noticed the power outage if not for the jumbotron and scoreboard (the roof is sort of translucent and lets a lot of light in), but they stopped the game anyway. After about 10 minutes, the refs announced that they'd decided there was enough light to continue (hello, refs, like, DUH) and the game went on. The Texans, sadly, lost.

I feel like a much more complete sports fan now. I've never loved football all that much, but it just seemed wrong that I had never attended a pro football game. We tailgated from about 10:00 till game time and had a great time. It's really a shame that people don't tailgate for other sports.

"So, how does one explain a power outage at a stadium bearing the name of the Houston-based energy giant?"

I don't know, but it was funny.

It was a busy weekend, and suddenly I find myself back at work. Friday night we all got to see Matt and Stephanie's new house; it's on stilts, only a few blocks from Galveston Bay, and has a hot tub. We did try out the hot tub, but it was just too warm outside to make it very comfortable. Their house is very cute though. It's the type of house I'd like...if I were in the state of mind to buy a house. Which I am not.

The soccer season has finally begun, so I had a game on Saturday morning. It was hot outside and I think I almost died from heat stroke. Seriously. It was HOT. Houston sucks. I had a heat-induced headache for the rest of the afternoon until Nacho was kind enough to provide me with some Excedrin before we went for a bike ride. We rode all over the place, 26 miles in all. Crazy. His bike is much nicer and much faster than mine, and he's also in better biking shape. I felt really bad for slowing him down the whole time. However, I did decide how to spend my Christmas-in-September bonus -- new pedals and shoes for my bike! I've been thinking about getting them for a while.

Saturday night I hogged all of Nick's space shuttle legos and put the whole thing together. I don't think anyone took me seriously when I said that I love Legos, but they probably believe me now. Nick also cooked dinner (gyros, mujudhra, Greek salad, potatoes) and it was delicious.

Yesterday was the football game followed by dinner with Chris, who is leaving for Stanford on Thursday and will be gone for a year. It will be sad that he's not in Houston, but at least I will still have someone to visit in California. I never did make it there while Jen was on campus (because I'm a big slacker) but hopefully I'll make it out to see Chris. Sometime after January when my annual leave count has been refreshed!

So that was my busy weekend. And in case anyone has forgotten, it was only a week ago that I was relaxing in Peru and dreading getting on a US-bound airplane. Sigh.

Saturday, September 11, 2004

I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly / though it's not easy to tell you goodbye

Despite all the good food we were fed (and thus ate) in Peru, I came home to find that I'd lost 4 pounds. Wow! If only weight loss were always that easy! You can eat as much as you want and still lose weight because you're expending so much energy. It's just not fair that one of my favorite forms of exercise -- hiking up and down for miles amidst beautiful mountains and rivers -- is virtually impossible anywhere within 200 miles of Houston.

In all seriousness though, I was really surprised to find that I'd lost weight, because I know I was eating a lot. So I tried to think about what I did differently, and came up with the following:

1. Lots of tea (mostly coca).
2. Very little coffee.
3. Lots of water.
4. Very little soda.
5. Lots of soup.
6. Very few prepackaged foods or snacks.

I actually didn't eat many fresh fruits or vegetables for fear of getting sick. And I don't think the types of meals I was eating were all that different from what I'd eat at home, except that everything there was prepared more freshly (or, less out-of-a-box) than it would be here. But what I was drinking was really different, so now I'm wondering what would happen here at home if I cut back on the coffee and soda, and drank more water and tea instead. (And yes, I already knew that tea and water are better for you, but it's harder to avoid coffee and soda at work than it is on vacation.)

It's really too bad that it's illegal to import coca tea to the U.S. That stuff was awesome.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Sarah: (looking at bank account,

Sarah: (looking at bank account, which has more money than expected)
Matt: "Hey."
Sarah: "Oh, hey. This new getting-paid-on-Friday thing (instead of Tuesday) is screwing me up."
Matt: "Yeah, but it's nice."
Sarah: "Yeah."

(pause)

Sarah: "Is it performance award time or something?"
Matt: "I don't know, why?"
Sarah: "Um, my paycheck this week was for more than it should be."

(pause)

Ray: (walks into office) "Performance awards for everyone!"
Sarah: "And that explains that."

Ray's timing was impeccable. Anyway, hooray for "performance" awards that everyone gets at the end of the fiscal year! What should I buy with my extra money?? :)

Friday, September 10, 2004

Yes, the week of Peru-related

Yes, the week of Peru-related entries continues. I'm still going through withdrawal from vacation, and it's rough. Yesterday afternoon I was extremely productive, and yet the more I worked, the more depressed I got, because all I was doing was sitting in front of my computer. I'd much rather be productive when the term implies hiking miles through the mountains.

Until now, I've forgotten to mention the song we wrote while hiking the Inca Trail and Huayna Picchu. It was a joint effort, mainly by Cari, Karen and me, and is sung to the tune of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane." Without further ado:

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
Pauld is standing outside my tent door
He says "let's go and walk, the sun is high"
The porters are taking down the tents
the cook's bringing breakfast that's fit for a prince
but already we're so full, we just could cry

Chorus:
So feed me and carry my stuff
'Cause the trail is really tough
Cuddle with me in my tent so I don't freeze
'Cause I'm leavin' on the Inca Trail
I really hope that I don't fail
Oh baby, my aching knees!

There's so many times we've climbed more stairs
Ups and downs always come in pairs
We're all tired but Pauld just climbs and smiles
He tells Reynaldi "oh, te llamo"
But the English-speakers hear "te amo!"
We all laugh and hike a few more miles

(Chorus)

Now we've trekked across Peru
Down below is Machu Picchu
And I'm so sad we have to say goodbye
Snow-capped peaks on every side
Inca ruins left behind
But we've got to catch that big jet plane and fly

(Chorus)

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Good call by Karen --

Good call by Karen -- I need to update my map too! It's still pretty bare, but at least part of South America is accounted for...

create your own visited country map

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Karen discovered a feature of

Karen discovered a feature of my photo gallery that I knew was there, but had never used -- the slide show. It's fantasic! It'll automatically go through all 461 of my Peru pictures in 10-20 minutes! I can relive the trip over and over again. Happy sigh.

Since I haven't captioned any of the pictures, and probably won't until I at least finish the trip report, here are a few of the better ones:

On our first day in Cusco after having flown directly from sea level to 11,000 feet, four of us decided "screw the altitude" and headed up a long, steep staircase into the hills above the city. Cari and Gavin stayed at the top of the staircase while Emily and I hiked up the road around a bend in search of the Cristo Blanco. He looks very holy, doesn't he? Funny part is that he was given to the city by a group of...Palestinians. Small world.

Here I am at the ruins of Sacsayhuaman. Yes, it is pronounced much like "sexy woman." Alas, we forgot to take a picture of all the sexy women in our group here. This was an Incan fortress above Cusco (which was the capital city) and the head/teeth of the puma that Cusco was supposed to represent. "Qosqo" is the Quechuan spelling of the city, and means "navel of the Earth."

Here we are rafting on the Urubamba River. At the moment, we are actually perched on a rock and posing while Jaime, our Chilean guide, takes the picture. Jaime was hilarious. The water was freaking cold.

The Inca Trail begins with little fanfare. Just a control point and a sign pointing to a bridge across the river, and ta-da, you're on your way.

Of course, as you start, you can look behind you and see this -- Wakay Willka. The name means teardrop of God, if I remember correctly. The sheer height of the mountain was stupefying. I kept turning to look back, and my eyes would come to rest where I thought the top of the mountain should be...only to find that the top was actually a few thousand feet higher still (over 18,000 feet above sea level). Amazing.

Here's a view of Cari at our campsite for the first night on the trail. We were at 12,600 feet, and it was freaking cold (despite Cari's lack of jackets). But the view was awesome. I thought the campsites couldn't get any better, but I was wrong.

On our second day of hiking, we passed the ruins of Sayacmarca. The weather that day alternated between being so misty that we couldn't see 100 feet ahead of us to clearing enough that we could see all the way to the valley below (which wasn't much fun when we knew we had to descend all the way down just to go back up). Sayacmarca was beyond the second pass, and looked very mysterious in the mist. These were some of the most impressive ruins we passed.

Here I am at Sayacmarca. The mist has cleared a bit, but we never really saw the sun that day. I didn't mind too much -- climbing three passes kept me plenty warm enough and it would have been hot if the sun had been out.

The view from our campsite the second night. I am in love with the Andes. They are simply stunning. After exclaiming that they were awesome, stupendous, gorgeous, beautiful, amazing, and even far out, we ran out of adjectives.

This is Pauld, our Inca Trail guide and my future husband. Here he's pretending to be a slave driver using my walking stick. In reality, all it took was a simple "let's go girls!" to get us moving -- and laughing. Pauld was awesome. I adore him. I'm moving back to Peru and marrying him as soon as I figure out how to say "I love you and want to spend the rest of my days having beautiful Peruvian/American babies with you while we trek through the Andes" in Spanish.

(For those keeping score at home, this means that in the last three years, the "loves of my life" have been 5 Swedes, one Slovakian, one first/second-generation American, and one Peruvian. Apparently, if you want to catch my eye, it helps to be cute, funny, sarcastic, outdoorsy, and foreign.)

Another amazing view of the Andes, as seen from our final campsite at Huinay Huana. Again, I have no more adjectives for how beautiful it was.

Here we all are together again at Intipunku, the Sun Gate. Karen, Becca, and Jen hiked up from Machu Picchu to meet us (they didn't hike the trail -- explanation later), and arrived about five minutes after we'd emerged from the Inca Trail to the sight of Machu Picchu below. One woman was shocked to see us. "Where did you come from?!?" she asked, alarmed. "Uh...the Inca Trail," we replied. It was funny. And I love Pauld. (Did I mention that already?)

We returned to Machu Picchu the day after we got off the trail and climbed Huayna Picchu, the mountain you see in the background of all the photos. The trail was quite steep. More stairs = tired legs. All the hiking finally caught up to me on this day, and I could really feel my quads burning on the way up.

Here I am on top. Yet more stunning views, which never ceased to amaze me.

The sun made its best appearance during our final hours in Machu Picchu and I was able to take this "classic" shot of the ruins.

We took the train back to Cusco, had dinner with Pauld for a final time (adore him!), said our goodbyes, and flew back to Lima the next day. I can't remember ever being sadder to realize that a vacation was over; I could hardly watch as Cusco faded outside the plane window. Gavin, Jen, Cari and I ended up with a full day in Lima thanks to our red-eye flight, so we caught a final sunset over the Pacific from the exotic locale of...a shopping mall. Asi es la vida.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Pictures from Peru are online.

Pictures from Peru are online. Enter at your own risk -- there are almost 500 of them, and they don't have descriptions yet. Trip report to follow within the next week or so!

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

I expected tall mountains; I

I expected tall mountains; I got snow-capped peaks more than 20,000 feet high.

I expected decent food; I got so many delicious meals, so beautifully presented, and so much of it that I couldn't finish it all.

I expected friendly people; I got great tour guides, including one that I totally adore, to the point that I want to go be a guide on the Inca Trail.

I expected a tough trip; I got the most strenuous hike I've ever done on a trail that was "Peruvian flat," climbing up and down and up and down and crossing three breathtaking mountain passes.

I expected to like Peru; I got an experience that made me sadder to come home than I can ever remember being before.

There's much more to come, but for now, let me just say that my 10 days in Peru were absolutely incredible.

Sunday, September 05, 2004

I?ve met the perfect guy

I?ve met the perfect guy for me. He lives in Peru. Hmm.

Friday, August 27, 2004

Last night I discovered the

Last night I discovered the the $20 Walmart duffle bag I bought has a faulty zipper. Now I have to rush back to Walmart today to exchange it before I go to the airport. Annoying. However...

We're going to Peru today! How random! I can't believe the trip is actually here after talking about it for more than a year. Tonight I will be in Lima, and this time next week I'll be exploring the "old pile of rock" known as Machu Picchu.

For those interested, our group consists of me, Becca, Gavin, Jen, Cari, Karen, Emily (Becca's cousin who came with us to Longs Peak), and Nancy (Becca's aunt). I realized last night that there are 7 women...and Gavin. Ha! Our itinerary, briefly, is:

Friday night -- fly to Lima
Saturday -- fly from Lima to Cusco
Sunday, Monday -- hang out in Cusco
Tuesday - Thursday -- hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu
Friday -- arrive at Machu Picchu, spend the night at Aguas Calientes
Saturday -- more Machu Picchu, train back to Cusco
Sunday -- fly from Cusco back to Lima
Monday -- hang out in Lima all day, red-eye back to Houston
Tuesday -- get back to Houston, go to work (boo)

I'll update with plenty of stories and plenty of pictures when we get back!

Thursday, August 26, 2004

Last night they showed the

Last night they showed the women's triathlon during the primetime Olympics coverage. I was so excited! I think triathletes are some of the most amazing athletes around, as being great at three sports is a huge accomplishment. They swim, bike and run faster than I can do any of the three, and their transitions are lightning-quick. They already have their bike shoes clipped into the pedals, and ride the first mile or so with their bare feet on top of their bike shoes! Then at the end, they slip their feet out of their shoes for the last bit. I never even thought about the logistics of the transitions before, but they were really quick.

The only disappointment was seeing the Austrian pass the Australian only a couple hundred yards ahead of the finish line. The Australian had led the entire race and had the gold medal in the bag...until the Austrian somehow summoned a major charge during the run. She just went into a totally different gear. It was cool.

I'm pretty much all packed for Peru. Just a couple more things to throw in (toiletries and such). I can't believe that tomorrow night I'll be in the southern hemisphere. Very weird.

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Interesting bit on the Olympics

Interesting bit on the Olympics vs. the Paralympics that Chris forwarded me from his friend Cheri, an elite wheelchair racer who finished 5th in the women's 800-meter wheelchair race -- an "exhibition" -- this past week in Athens. I was surprised to hear that the Paralympics are so well-covered in other countries, but not here; it makes me frustrated to realize that the U.S. is still acting in such a backwards manner by not treating Paralympics athletes in the same manner as their Olympic counterparts. The media puts such a focus on winning medals, and yet ignores Paralympians entirely, all because of politics and money.

I can provide a bit of clarification. The wheelchair racing event is an exhibition in the Olympics, and is there to promote the Paralympics. When it was started as an exhibition, in 1984, there was still a large push for integration of the Olympics and Paralympics. Now, there seems to be more of a push for "seperate but equal." The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) is the one promoting this agenda, and currently works with the International Olympic Comimttee (IOC) to stage this event in the Olympics.

There was no NBC coverage of our event (aside from a quick blurb at about 3 am that one of my friends happened to catch), nor will there be any coverage of the Paralympics on any major network in the U.S. The BBC, Eurosport, and almost all other major sports networks worldwide will be covering the Paralympics in primetime broadcasts every night, however, here in the U.S. the best we as athletes can do is tell our friends to check the BBC disability sport website (which is awesome, by the way).

Why is this? In short, the United States Olympic Comittee, which also runs the Paralympics, has failed for many years to create equal opportunities for Olympians and Paralympians, and one area where this disparity is especially troubling is in the selling of media rights and media sponsorships for the Paralympics. In addition, the major Olympic sponsors that FUND NBC (the ones with the cash that REALLY control what gets shown) also have not stepped up to the plate to request Paralympic coverage. There is currently a lawsuit against the USOC from Scot Hollonbeck and a few other athletes that deals with this - most directly regarding the fact that the USOC has closed the Paralympic market from a sponsorship standpoint. Unfortunately, as we all know, here in the U.S., money talks.

This is why everyone in the world OUTSIDE of the U.S. knows what the Paralympics is and who their national Paralympic stars are. The Paralympics are breaking down disability barriers and misconceptions all over the world. Yet here in the U.S. we as athletes struggle to be able to tell our families back home that they can watch us compete.

This exhibition event, as cool as it is (I?m not complaining that they have it - in my opinion it was pretty damn fun :), actually also complicates things even more. Because it is not a full medal event, the IOC has placed restrictions on us as participants. Two months before the event we recieved a memo stating that, among other things, that: 1) we would not be allowed to march in opening ceremonies, 2)we would only be able to live in the Olympic village for days, and 3)we were not guaranteed to be housed with our teams. Although this is not a direct USOC ruling, it still leaves the door open for further discrimination and segregation of wheelchair athletes. We had a meeting with IOC and IPC administrators after the event in reponse to bad press that went out in Canada and around Europe with regards to this discrimination. As athletes, requested that, based on the tenets of respect, equality, and for the growth of the sport, this event needs to be either full-medal or not happen at all in the future. Because the word exhibition makes it lie in such a grey area, in many ways it?s doing more bad than good. We definately want it to occur, and want desperately to promote the Paraympics, but in a respectful manner...

Sorry so long...it?s a complicated issue. For now I just try to push fast and enjoy it without getting mared by the politics. :)

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

We just had to write

We just had to write a JAVA code to generate 6 different numbers between 1 and 49, like a lottery drawing. The point was to illustrate loops. It would be much easier if we'd learned how to do arrays yet, but we haven't, so I'm stuck with a dozen different loops to check to make sure each number is different. Sigh.

I got a pedicure yesterday along with Jo and Tiffany, and the woman painted a flower on each of my big toes. It is pretty, I guess, but so just...not me. I don't really like it, but don't want to ruin the rest of the nail polish just to get rid of the silly flower.

After pedicures, I killed time at Walmart to buy the last of my Peru supplies, including a huge duffel bag to put my backpack and extra stuff in. (It makes sense, trust me.) I couldn't find the duffel bags in sporting goods, so I asked the guy behind the counter. He seemed very confused, as if he had never heard the term "duffel bag" before, and directed me to the sleeping bag stuff sacks. Hmm. So I asked where the luggage was, figuring the bags must be there. No luck on the luggage aisle either. Finally I called Jen (who got hers at Walmart, so I knew they had to be there somewhere), who directed me back to the sporting goods section and to the very top of one of the shelves in the corner. Success! Too bad the Walmart employee couldn't point them out to me, especially since I was on the right aisle to begin with!

This is my issue with Walmart. I love the place, and they have everything...but it's so big that if you're looking for something specific, it's often almost impossible to find it! Last night I couldn't find sunscreen! That's a pretty normal purchase, and you'd expect it to be in/near the cosmetics section, right? Nope. Couldn't find it anywhere.

I also bought a load of school supplies (love the back-to-school sales). Peru is a very poor country, and the tour agency told us to expect to see many children begging. Tourists usually give them toys or candy, but toys only encourage the behavior, and candy only hurts their already-in-bad-shape teeth. The tour agency said that if we brought school supplies (notebooks, markers, crayons, pencils), they would arrange for us to go to a local school and give them the supplies. It not only provides the kids with something useful, but it encourages them to go to school! That sounded like a great idea to us, so we're all taking a bunch of school supplies with us on the trip.

After Walmart, it was off to dinner with Nick, Tiffany and Jo, and then home for more packing. Packing is a very lengthy process for me...

Tuesday, August 24, 2004

I finished my JAVA exercises

I finished my JAVA exercises for chapter two almost an hour ago, and yet other people in the class are still working on them. Curses on people who didn't grow up using a computer. Curses on no one emailing me to give me something to do. I guess I'll start on the next chapter. These computer classes are so educational, and yet so inefficient.

I think JSC should start doing two sets of classes if the subject is anything to do with a computer -- one class for people under the age of 30 and one class for anyone else. I know that sounds very discriminatory, but I truly believe it would make every computer training class run more smoothly. When it comes to computer-related topics, there is a world of difference in the speed with which people "get it." In my experience, a person's ability to understand computers is directly related to whether the person has grown up using computers or not. People who have graduated from college within the last 10 years have a much better, almost instinctive understanding of computers; older colleagues just don't have the same grasp. There are exceptions, of course, but the exceptions aren't taking these classes!

It will be interesting to see what things are like when I'm 50, and my kids are doing something that's second-nature to them but a mystery to me.

Last night I started packing for Peru. The first step was to create a comprehensive list of everything I need to pack, and where I need to pack it. I consulted lists from Jen, Becca, and the trail guide and made three separate lists. First, there's the list of what I need for the Inca Trail -- camping clothes, water filter, hiking boots, etc -- that all goes in big pack. Then there's the list of what I need for the time in Cusco and Lima -- nicer clothes, a swimsuit -- that goes into the extra space in my enormous duffel bag (the big pack fits into the duffel bag for the plane flight, then I take the pack on the trail while the duffel stays in Cusco). Then finally there's the list of what I need with me at all times -- wallet, camera, sunglasses, book, etc -- that all goes into my daypack. Whew. I know that I'm obsessing way too much about my packing list, but it makes me feel so much better to have a really good list. After making my huge list, I'm feeling less anxious about the whole trip.

I am so weird. Yup.

Monday, August 23, 2004

I made it into The

I made it into The Mirror Project.

Monday, August 23, 2004

I'm in another class this

I'm in another class this week, Beginning JAVA. I don't know what it is about this summer, but I've managed to get into every class I signed up for. That's pretty unusual (which is why I often sign up for lots of classes -- because I don't expect to get them) but it's been nice to have the change of pace. Though it does stress me out a bit to not be in the office working on my neural net.

I don't know why it stresses me out to not be in the office, because when I'm actually there, I don't have a full eight hours of work anyway. This week, it's probably because I know I'm going to be gone all next week anyway because of Peru, so it stresses me out to think I'll be out of the office for two weeks in a row.

I'm excited about learning JAVA, as I've wanted to learn the basics for a while. However, it's only the first day and I'm already very frustrated with the instructor. He's already told us a couple blatantly wrong things (which we figured out were wrong once the compiler starting showing lots of red text), and he doesn't seem to have a good handle on how to actually use the compiling software. I've had to figure out some things on my own, and ask Jen a couple other questions. She took the Advanced JAVA class last week, so she may be my "expert" for the week.

Yesterday, Becca, Jen, Gavin and I went downtown to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see a travelling exhibit on (coincidence?) Machu Picchu. It was cool enough that I am a bit excited about our trip now!

I know that implies that I wasn't excited before...and quite honestly, I wasn't. I react strangely to taking trips. I don't have any problems when the vacation is somewhere within the United States, but as soon as I get ready to leave the country I'm burdened down with some weird anxiety. Leaving the country totally stresses me out! I obsess over what to pack, and whether I've packed everything I need, and I don't sleep well the nights before leaving.

But to make it even weirder, the feeling only lasts until I'm on the plane. Once I'm on the plane, I'm pumped. I've left the country several times now, and it's happened each time. Last year when Becca and I went to Greece, I was so stressed out beforehand that I was wondering whether it was even worth going! But once the plane's wheels left the tarmac, I was so excited. And Greece was awesome.

What can I say, I'm weird. But the Machu Picchu exhibit got me excited before I'm even on the plane, which is a good thing, I think.

Last night Jo had a cookout at her apartment pool, and it was tons of fun. We played volleyball, and then when it got hot, we took to the pool for some Ultimate Pool Frisbee. I scored all four goals for my team, and today the skin on the bottom of my toes is all peeling off as a result of trying to get traction on the concrete pool bottom last night. But it was very fun. And tiring! Water polo players must be in very good shape.

Ah well, back to JAVA.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Last night I decided

Last night I decided to finally quit talking about painting my apartment, and just do it. I don't think the complex manager will be very excited about it, but I decided it's better to ask forgiveness later than to ask permission. Besides, I'm willing to lose my security deposit and/or repaint it before I move out, whenever that day comes.

So, decision made, my last stop while running errands was Lowe's where I bought some paint and a plastic drop cloth. I let myself into Becca's house to borrow her ladder and extra paintbrushes and rollers. I came home, moved the furniture, and five hours later...

I have a beautiful blue wall in my living room. The color reminds me of Greece.

(This picture makes the color look a little different than it does in person. It's actually a bit darker/deeper in person. But not much.)

Saturday, August 21, 2004

Bumper sticker seen today: "Reelect

Bumper sticker seen today:

"Reelect Bush. Because you've been waiting for Armageddon long enough."

Friday, August 20, 2004

I feel 40 kinds of sadness when you're gone /
I feel the same thing always happens when you're gone

You would think that by the time we get into our twenties, we would have all learned how to communicate calmly and reasonably. Unfortunately, it seems we never cease to be dysfunctional. I've noticed that in the past year I've become more and more impatient with...well, with people in general. All the pointless arguments annoy me, the egos get under my skin, and the constant competitiveness drives me a little batty. I even admit that sometimes I'm the source, which only annoys me more.

Maybe it's because I'm bored at work, maybe it's because I'm not getting enough sleep. I don't know. But I find myself turning down more social engagements for no reason other than "I don't feel like it." I just don't want to deal with everybody's quirks. It has been a long week, and I seriously want to just go home and spend the entire weekend alone, continuing to be an Olympics junkie, and sleep late. I can't entirely, because tonight is Stephanie's bridal/lingerie shower and Sunday is Jo's birthday cookout. But I don't think I have anything scheduled tomorrow, so that's a start.

Marc and Josh took an hour after lunch today and gave half of our division a slide show of their recent trip to Africa to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. They had some amazing pictures, both of the mountain and of the safari they went on afterwards. Some of the safari pictures were really amazing -- close-ups of cheetahs, elephants, hippos, giraffes, and an ultra close-up of a lion that walked right past their land rover. I guess the animals in the parks have grown fairly accustomed to having vans and buses drive past, but nonetheless, they are still wild animals. Oh, and of course I've now added Kilimanjaro to my "places I want to go" list.

Today is Bini's last day as our grad co-op, and on Monday we get a new co-op, a girl named Sloan. It will be her first tour, but we found out today that before she went to college she was in the Air Force for three years. So from what we can tell, she's probably 24 or 25 -- only a year or two younger than the most of us, and the same age as Becca. That will be a big difference from our usual 19-year-old first-timers in terms of experience. She has done a lot of work in spacecraft operations already with the military.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

When it comes to sports,

When it comes to sports, I'm really more of an endurance athlete. If I have even a one-percent chance of someday being a competitive athlete, I have about 0.000001 percent chance of being a sprinter. I'm not fast, and I never will be. But I'm a pretty good tortoise. Slow and steady.

Carter didn't believe that Olympic swimmers are twice as fast as me, but they really are. The world record for the women's 50 free is 24.13; despite being the best swimmer I know besides Carter, the best I could pull off (these days, anyway) is probably about 45 seconds. I don't know for sure as I don't have a pool that's very condusive to testing that, but it's a guess. That's if I tried really, really hard. And was allowed to collapse, gasping, on the pool deck at the end. But ask me to swim consistent laps of 50 meters per minute or so, and I can go for a long while. I can probably swim a mile faster than anyone I know. Again, not because I'm fast, but because my endurance at a medium level of effort is better.

It's the same with running. I don't really fall into a good stride until I've covered at least 3 miles. It's annoying, because I absolutely hate the 20-30 minute "warm-up phase" when my legs hurt a little and my breathing is unsteady. But once I'm past the 5k mark, I get into a zone. Not "THE" zone, but a comfort area where I feel like I could reel off mile after mile forever. Last February at the Austin half marathon, I ran 10:30 miles. Not fast at all. But I was like clockwork. 10:30 for the first mile, 21:00 at the second mile, 31:30, 42:00. I was amazed at how dead-on I was each time I passed a mile marker. My last mile was a bit faster, as would be expected.

I ain't fast, but I'm consistent.

The Olympics have only reminded me how much I love all the intricacies of sports. How to people perfect their technique? What makes one guy faster than the next? Sometimes I think it's a shame that someone as interested in all the different aspects of athletics as I am isn't faster, or strong, or better. But that's the way it goes. In the meantime, it just makes me appreciate Olympians that much more.

Thursday, August 19, 2004

I have spoken at least

I have spoken at least a few times here about being somewhat of a stickler for proper grammar. I don't claim to be an expert (I do misspell things from time to time, and I used to -- gasp -- blog in all lower-case letters) but I do like to edit, and I do catch more mistakes than most. I come by it honestly enough. From kindergarden through my senior year of high school, I doubt I ever submitted a paper that my mother hadn't first read with red pen in hand. She's a teacher, which probably explains her own attention to grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

Today, Blogger indulged my pet peeve with an entire article about it, containing such gems as: "Though Blogger gives everything else away for free, sadly the service does not come with a cranky grammar bitch with blue pencil in hand." and "You don't need to know the 17 reasons to insert a comma into a sentence. (Although, if you did know all 17 reasons, that would be totally hot.)"

Love it.

That article also led me to a New Yorker piece pointing out all the errors in a best-selling book about proper punctuation. I've considered buying the book ("Eats, Shoots & Leaves") myself, but am less inclined to do so after reading the New Yorker article.

In other linkage, the BBC site had an interesting article today as well, discussing the aftermath of Hurricane Charley. Not in terms of homes and lives lost, but in terms of the incredible amount of stuff that Americans have, and the odd things they bemoan losing.

Wednesday, August 18, 2004

The men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay

The men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay last night was one of the more exciting swimming races I have ever watched. Michael Phelps got the Americans off to a good lead, which the second and third legs stretched a bit farther. But Klete Keller had to dive in for the final leg knowing that Ian Thorpe (the Thorpedo, the best middle-distance freestyler around at the moment) would be in the pool less than 2 seconds after him. Talk about pressure! Thorpe closed the gap with the first 50 meters, but Keller somehow found the strengh to keep him at bay for three more lengths of the pool, and touched the wall first by 13 thousandths of a second. Wow. I knew the outcome ahead of time because I had checked ESPN (such is life when they broadcast on tape delay -- it's hard to avoid hearing results), but watching was still a thrill.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

The beautiful weather continues. It

The beautiful weather continues. It has been lovely for almost a week now, which is basically unheard of for August in Houston. The weathermen keep saying that the nice weather is about to end, and that we'll soon be returning to our regularly scheduled heat. Each time I walk outside I find myself holding my breath in anxious anticipation, hoping that the oppressive humidity hasn't quite returned.

It hasn't. Yet.

This morning Jen O. pointed out the other reason swimming is so appealing as an Olympic sport -- the incredible hotness of the swimmers, of course. ;) She just made it to Seattle and is trying to settle in while trying not to miss California too much. I wish I could offer her some advice, but the truth is that it's been more than two years since I left and I still miss it. She's right -- the weather out there really does make you happy every time you walk outside, and the proximity to beautiful recreation areas was awesome.

Wistful sigh.

I was doing mental calculations last night as I watched more Olympic swimming. I'm a pretty decent swimmer, not spectacular, but I won a few races in my time. So though I knew the Olympic swimmers were fast, I didn't know how fast. They cover any given distance in almost half the time it would take me. I guess that shouldn't surprise me so much, as marathon runners run twice as fast as I do. I guess I thought that, compared to the best in the respective sports, I was a much better swimmer than runner. Turns out that the difference is pretty slight.

I also read an interesting NY Times article debating whether elite athletes are approaching the limit of human ability. The article explains that records have not been falling as often as they used to; however, it also explains that performances today are just now catching up to the performances of the 70s and 80s when widespread drug use was suspected, but not always detectable. Today, with the intense focus on drug use, athletes seem less likely to dope.

I read articles like this on a fairly regular basis, but I find the issue interesting every time. I have no doubt that someone will eventually break the marathon record, for example. A man will run it faster than Paul Tergat's 2:04:55 and a woman will beat Paula Radcliffe's 2:15:25. But I highly doubt that anyone will ever run it faster than, say, an hour and a half. Obviously that would be a huge gap to close, and the point is that somewhere between 2:04:55 and 1:30:00 lies a time that humans will never beat without some sort of genetic mutation! Is there any way to figure out where that line is? I wonder.

Monday, August 16, 2004

Warning -- don't read this

Warning -- don't read this if you care about the 200 men's freestyle, the much-hyped "showdown" between Michael Phelps (the American phenom) and Ian Thorpe (the Australian star), and want to see it live in primetime tonight. Because I'm about to talk about the result.

...

...

...

Ok.

Minor Olympic rant: Michael Phelps and how he's been treated by the media. The kid is an amazing swimmer, perhaps the most versatile in the world at the moment. The media has gotten itself into a frenzy over the fact that he entered eight events, and thus could theoretically break Mark Spitz's record of 7 gold medals in one Olympic games. Today he took bronze in the 200 freestyle, finishing third to Thorpe and Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands. Now, after this and the U.S. team taking bronze in the 4x100 freestyle last night, the best Phelps can do is leave Athens with six golds, and the media is starting to say things like "despite his talent, fewer than 7 golds could look like a failure."

Um...hello? Michael Phelps has entered three events so far, and left with three medals. One gold, two bronze. Three Olympic medals already, and he'll almost certainly win more. Holy crap.

It sort of makes me want to smack someone. He's 19 years old, seems like an all-around good guy. He's got a long swimming career ahead of him, and in addition to other world records he already held, he set a new one in the 400 IM on Saturday when he won by a body length. A world record. By a body length. Pretty damn impressive. He may not win all golds, but he's going to go home with quite a haul nonetheless.

And so it really irks me that the media is now suggesting he may be a "failure" simply because he didn't accomplish what they over-hyped in the first place.

Monday, August 16, 2004

I'm happy to report that

I'm happy to report that I am now a Grade 8 soccer referee as certified by the United States Soccer Federation. Pretty cool, eh? I passed the test yesterday with a 93, which was the second highest score of anyone in the class and well above the 75 needed to pass. Boo yeah. I got my official 2004/2005 patch, a South Texas Soccer Referees coin (to use for the coin flips, of course), and got registered with the local league. I just have to go buy a cool referee's shirt and call the assignor and tell him I'm ready to start calling games and he'll assign me to some. I'm not sure what age group I'll start with, but I imagine that my first few games (at least) will be kids, probably 10 and under.

My favorite question of the weekend came from a 12-year-old girl on the front row. We were certifying to be Grade 8 referees; the lowest grade is 12 and the highest is 1. "What happens when you become a Grade 1 referee?" she asked. The instructor paused for a moment and then responded with "well, you shave your head, become Italian, and start reffing the World Cup!"

Hee hee.

Last night I found myself watching water polo at midnight. Water polo. I don't really know anything about water polo, but it was fascinating. That's when I realized that the Olympics are going to cost me a lot of sleep over the next few weeks.

I love the Olympics. I mean, I really love them. I love how sports that no one ever pays attention to are suddenly thrust into the limelight. I love that swimmers, beach volleyball players, sailors, and gymnasts get their 15 minutes of fame, along with all the even lesser-known athletes. I love the patriotism that everyone shows for their country, the flag-waving and anthem-singing. I love the crazy fans in the stands decked out in bizarre costumes all for the sake of cheering on someone most people have never heard of.

I don't have any memories of the Los Angeles games. Seoul is hazy except for Matt Biondi's seven medals and Janet Evans's three golds, all in swimming. I do remember the Calgary Winter Olympics from 1988 very clearly, as I watched Debi Thomas and Katarina Witt skate, but the first Summer Olympics I remember with real clarity were in Barcelona in 1992. I was 14 and sat on the couch watching the swimming, and the diving, and drawing.

Swimming has always been my favorite of the summer Olympic sports. At 14, I was playing soccer for my junior high, and I was still on the swim team winning ribbons in the breaststroke and on the relay teams, and I wanted to be an artist when I grew up. I did a lot of sketches that summer, copying photographs from the newspaper. I thought I still had a lot of them, but when I went through all my old artwork last night I only managed to find one. But finding it brought back a lot of memories.

With only a couple exceptions (Cayce, mainly), none of my friends today knew me before high school, and most of them didn't know me until college. During those six years, I was an engineer, and a good one, but I was definitely not an athlete or an artist. To them, the interest I've shown in both sports (running, triathlons, soccer) and art (web design, wanting to do graphic design) over the past couple years probably seems strange and sudden.

I played soccer from ages 8-14 or so, and I almost played in high school. I went to the summer workouts before I started 9th grade...but then I wussed out. I was intimidated by the older girls, and I didn't try out for the high school team. I stopped taking art lessons when my teacher got sick, and I didn't bother to find a new one. By the time I got to college, I thought I was too overweight and out-of-shape to play any sports, and not well-trained or talented enough to do any art.

But as I'm watching the Olympics and remembering the things I used to dream about when I was barely even a teenager, I realize that maybe I've always been an athlete and an artist; I just took a break for a while. I won't ever win any gold medals (heck, I won't even ever win a local road race) and I won't ever have anything gracing the walls of a museum, but I've always loved sports and art.

I had forgotten that.

Sunday, August 15, 2004

I just finished my Longs

I just finished my Longs Peak trip report. (I know, finally.)

It's long -- don't say I didn't warn you! -- but I hope you all enjoy it.

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Oh. My. God. It is

Oh. My. God. It is so. freaking. beautiful. outside today. And I am so. freaking. stuck inside. learning about soccer.

The soccer referee clinic is cool, and I'm learning all the little rule intricacies and will be able to ref games after this. I'm looking forward to that because I think it will be fun. And the class is amusing because of the 13-year-old girls who are extremely overeager to demonstrate their knowledge of soccer.

But it's just evil that this class happened to be scheduled such that I will spend 16 hours of the most beautiful Houston weekend ever sitting in an overly air-conditioned classroom.

Friday, August 13, 2004

To: Matt, George, Gavin, Jen,

To: Matt, George, Gavin, Jen, Becca, Bini, Jo & Nick:
From: Sarah
Subject: hear ye, hear ye

I now hereby declare that we will go somewhere for lunch that allows us to sit outside. Options include but are not limited to: Quizno's, Fuddrucker's, Mediterraneo's, Jason's Deli, and possibly La Madeline's or Zio's. That is all.

I just want to eat lunch somewhere outside, because it is gorgeous today. I can't remember a day in August ever being this nice anywhere I've lived, not Charlotte, not Atlanta, and definitely not Houston. But here it is. August 13 and the high is only supposed to be 89 degrees, with low humidity.

So I just want to eat outside. But our lunch group can never settle on a place to eat. One person doesn't like green things. Another couple people refuse to eat mediterranean food. Another person doesn't want to have anything that's remotely fast food-ish. In my email I gave six choices, and we can't settle on any of them. Apparently Quizno's is too boring, Fuddrucker's and Meidterraneo's were immediately vetoed because people don't like them, Jason's Deli was out because their outdoor seating looks over the parking lot, La Madeleine's wasn't even considered, and Zio's was rejected because a couple weeks ago they had, I kid you not, "oily tables."

So no decision has been made as of yet, which means that around 11:15 we'll all head down to the parking lot still arguing over where we should go. It happens every freaking week, and it's so annoying. I think I've reached my limit on trying to make entire groups of people all happy at the same time.

Nacho bought a new bike on Wednesday and came over last night to go riding with me. My bike had another flat tire (my third since April -- what gives?) so I went outside to change it. I put the new tube in and was pumping it up, when around 60 psi, BAM! The tube popped. It was so loud and sounded so much like a gunshot that I was afraid people might come running out of their apartments in a panic. Anyway, that was my last tube, so instead of riding speedy-fast down the road with Nacho and his Trek 5200, I got to dink around on my mountain bike while he zoomed in circles around me. Stupid tire tubes.

Oh my, Jen just posted the most hilarious account of our lunch wars ever. Read it.

Thursday, August 12, 2004

I just totally burned my

I just totally burned my tongue on hot coffee. The cup didn't feel hot, so I took a big gulp. Ow ow ow ow ow. Just in time to go to the dentist this morning too. Ow ow.

Last night I went running for the first time since we went to Colorado. I'm planning to do the Houston Marathon in January, and so I'll have to start training by mid-September, but summer has become the season where I just don't run. Hardly at all. I'll swim, I'll bike, I'll play sports or hike or do the elliptical machine. But it's just too hot and too humid to deal with running, so I only do it occasionally. Once or twice a week, and only to avoid losing my fitness entirely.

I ran 5 km last night, and though I felt ok, I was going so slowly. When I got home and saw myself in the mirror, I realized why everyone always gives me funny looks and asking if I'm ok. My face was so, so red. I have a lot of histamines, or something.

Anyway.

I borrowed The Last Samurai from Matt and watched it last night in between calls from Mom and Dad trying to figure out when Katie and Joel would finally make it back to North Carolina. Their British Airways flight from London got into Newark on time, but their US Air flight to Charlotte was cancelled because of bad weather. US Air wouldn't put them up in a hotel for the night, and they didn't have any clothes anyway because their bags were still in London, so they got transferred to an American Airlines flight into Raleigh. That flight was then delayed for more than two hours. In the end, my parents drove up to Chapel Hill, took a nap at my aunt's house, drove over to Raleigh at 1:30 a.m. to get Katie and Joel, and finally got back home to Charlotte after 4 a.m. Whew.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Can you tell Matlab is

Can you tell Matlab is being slow today? So many posts.

Here's Debbie looking very Gollum-ish with her yellow Jeep travel bug. (It's a geocaching thing.) There's a photo contest to take neat pictures of the little things, so we were getting creative at the rock gym on Monday. Debbie was the actress, Jason the director, and me the photographer. Not a bad team.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Christina posted a link to

Christina posted a link to Why Joggers Labor and Olympians Fly, a good NY Times article about the physiology of running and why some people will just always be faster than others.

When I run, I have a bad habit of turning out my right foot. I first noticed it when I saw video of my crossing the finish line at the end of a 10K, but others who run with me have confirmed that the turnout is always there (and seems more pronounced at the end of a run when I'm tired). It's only my right foot, which I kick back and out as I push off that foot. I can't feel that I'm doing it, and thus far have been unable to correct it even though I know it makes me a less efficient runner than I could be otherwise. Though I will never be anything close to an elite runner like those mentioned in the article, I feel like I could improve over where I am now.

Next time I run I may do it on a track, so I can concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other like mentioned in the article. I don't think it will correct the problem entirely, since it's less to do with placing my feet in a straight line and more to do with the direction my leg kick goes in, but we'll see.

Wednesday, August 11, 2004

I'm thinking of going to

I'm thinking of going to the soccer referee clinic my league is holding this weekend, but I'm having trouble deciding for certain. I think it would be fun to really learn the rules (more in-depth than I know as a player) and I've always thought it would be fun to ref games. Once I took the clinic, I'd be eligible to ref any of the games in the 6 different divisions my league has, and it'd be a way to earn a couple extra bucks here and there. The thing holding me back, silly as it sounds, is that the clinic is literally all weekend. Four hours on Friday night, a full 8-hour day on Saturday, and five more hours on Sunday. That's giving a lot of my weekend to learning about soccer.

But I'll probably do it.

I watched a few innings of the Astros game last night before heading over to Debbie's for TV and Jason's yummy Creme de Menthe pie. (Mmmmm...pie.) Anyway, it has become just downright depressing to watch the Astros play. Even the Braves, who have lost time and time again in the postseason, don't give me the sad feeling the Astros have given me this year. They had so much promise, and they just... I don't even know. They say they're trying, but their hearts aren't in it. I don't see them trying, I don't see them running all the way through first base when they make contact, or stepping it up on defense, or coming to the mound with utter conviction that there's no way the guy at the plate will hit their pitch. And so they continue to halfheartedly jog to first, miss routine catches and throws, and give up runs in the middle and late innings.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

I was just reading an

I was just reading an old journal that listed my fantasy baseball team from the beginning of the season. I didn't realize it had changed so much. Too bad they all still suck.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Climbing last night was ok,

Climbing last night was ok, but I still can't do a pull-up. I have visible muscles in my arms, but they don't actually do anything. Hmph. Rather disappointing.

A couple tropical storms have finally started brewing in the Caribbean, making Matt far too excited. He seems confident that his house (that he's closing on in two weeks) will be fine no matter what hits because...it's on stilts. I haven't managed to convince him that a storm surge can be higher than 15 feet.

Actually, he just likes playing armchair weatherman.

We had lunch with Laura, our co-op from fall 2002. She's graduating next summer and had lots of questions for me about grad school and job stuff. I love talking about grad school. Every time I have that conversation, I walk away convinced that I need to go back.

I think I'm suffering from delayed exhaustion from the Colorado trip. Yesterday it was hard to get out of bed; this morning I hit the snooze button at 7:00 and next thing I knew it was 8:15. Oops. I was here by 8:45, so it wasn't that bad.

Monday, August 09, 2004

If you love swimming and/or

If you love swimming and/or love good photography, you should check out this New York Times online slideshow: The Strokes.

Monday, August 09, 2004

oh you drive me crazy / oh you just bring me down /
look out your window / my sunshine's all around

The following sentence is for Jason:

Sometimes I like Houston.

Yes, sometimes, Houston is nice. This weekend was gorgeous thanks to some random rainless cold front that came through on Friday. I walked outside on Saturday morning prepared for the blast of humidity but was instead surprised by a lovely 90-degree, 60% humidity day. I know 90 degrees doesn't sound exactly cool, but when it's been 95 with 90% humidity since you got back from Colorado, 90F/60% is absolutely glorious. And it stayed that way all day. Yesterday was slightly warmer and stickier, but not bad.

To celebrate the great weather, I went for my first swim since the triathlon (in mid-June) on Saturday evening. I've slacked off on my swimming since realizing that the final triathlon I'd planned to do this year is on the same weekend I'll be in Kansas City for Matt and Stephanie's wedding. The water felt great and the only thing bothering me was my arm. Even this morning, four days later, I can still feel where I got the tetanus shot when I pull my arm back behind my body. It's not painful, just a dull ache that I feel when I stretch the muscle. With each stroke in the pool, I could feel the soreness. I don't know what's in that shot, but it's slightly frightening that it makes your arm sore for days. If the shot is that annoying, tetanus is bound to be worse, I suppose.

I promised the Longs Peak trip report would be done by the end of the weekend, but hey, I lied. I've written up the first and second days, but still have more to go. I'll hopefully have it done by the end of tomorrow.

I had Jamba Juice for lunch both Saturday and Sunday. They just opened a store nearby, and it may be my downfall. Hmm. But there's nothing better than enjoying some Jamba Juice on a Sunday afternoon in the sunshine while your car is getting washed for the first time since you bought it three months ago. My Xterra looks so pretty and shiny now!

Saturday, August 07, 2004

of note for today

Derek's website has been on my list of random surfs for a while now. I don't know him, but he posts great pictures all the time. He and his wife (who also posts great stuff) were in Paris for the honeymoon and just happened to catch the end of the Tour de France. This picture of Lance Armstrong flying down the Champs-Elysses is simply amazing. Look at the muscles in his legs -- I don't know whether to admire them or be slightly scared!

Greg Maddux got his 300th win this afternoon. Awesome.

Adam Everett was hit on the wrist by a pitch last night in the Astros game. The impact fractured his ulna bone, and he's out for 4-6 weeks. Yet more bad news for the Astros.

Friday, August 06, 2004

Still working on the trip

Still working on the trip report, but here are the six panoramas I stitched together from the trip. Click for bigger versions.

Sky Pond and surrounding peaks:

Twin Sisters:

View from the Keyhole:

View from the bottom of the Trough:

Chasm Lake and Longs Peak face:

View from Trail Ridge Road:

Friday, August 06, 2004

i would be / heavenly / if baby you'd just rescue me

The Braves were in town last night to play the Astros. I sat most of the night watching the game without clapping for either team, partly because I was tired, but partly because I didn't know who to cheer for. Old habits die hard, though. In the 8th and 9th innings, I found myself silenty rooting for the Braves to score one so that Smoltz could come in and close it out. (And that's what happened.) As much as I want to see the Astros recover from their gigantic slump and make the postseason, I couldn't root against the Braves. I just couldn't.

I know it's only been a three-day week for me, but I am incredibly glad it's Friday. The "Gettin' Smart" party is tonight, in honor of Randy, Stephanie and Chris all going back to school (for a Ph.D., J.D. and M.S., respectively), and Betsy's bridal shower and bachelorette party are tomorrow (two months before the wedding due to Steph going back to school), but I plan on sleeping late and vegging out with the rest of my weekend time. The spring soccer season has finally ended, in August thanks to all the rainouts we had, and so even Sunday night is free.

I think I just need a lot of sleep. The Colorad