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 Colorado trip was great, but didn't help me feel any less tired. I've been in one of those moods where everyone is on my nerves for weeks now. Sleep would help.

Nick and Tiffany are apparently still in the mood to paint after doing Nick's bedroom over the weekend. I think they should come paint my apartment. That would be great. I keep talking about painting my place, but haven't had 1) the time or 2) the inclination to do all the little stuff like taping the trim and covering the furniture.

I've been pretty productive at work in this short week though. I've given a presentation, had a sheet of comments sent to the Europeans, and managed to get my neural net to train. I don't know if it's training correctly, but at least it's training, which is an improvement over what it was doing prior to vacation.

Oh, and we leave for Peru in exactly three weeks. Whoa.

Thursday, August 05, 2004

today's checklist

Tetanus vaccine and typhoid drug prescription: shot and filled.
Last-minute presentation slides for 3:30: completed.
Longs Peak money-owed email: sent.
Plans for tonight's Astros-Braves game: made.
Matlab data pre-processing script: still working on it.
Colorado trip pictures: posted in the gallery.
Detailed trip report: to follow by the end of the weekend!

Thursday, August 05, 2004

I remembered late last night

I remembered late last night that I had an appointment this morning to get a prescription for typhoid pills in anticipation of the upcoming trip to Peru, so I was at the doctor's office bright and early. I also updated my tetanus shot, and now my arm hurts.

Because I had the appointment, I missed Marty's exit pitch. I feel bad about that, especially because I've been working some with Marty all summer. His last day is tomorrow, then he heads to grad school at Purdue. But he'll be back next summer.

When I finally arrived at work close to 10:00, I was informed that I'm giving a presentation on uncrewed orbiter footprints. This afternoon. At 3:00. I don't have any slides, so I must hurry to make them.

And that's why this entry is so short and sweet!

Wednesday, August 04, 2004

for purple mountain majesties / above the fruited plain

We are back from glorious Rocky Mountain National Park -- alive, well, in one piece (though with some new aches and pains), and feeling very defeated by the flatness and humidity of Houston. The trip was awesome. The Rockies are awesome. Longs Peak is awesome. All this was confirmed by an Australian woman in a vintage Rolls Royce on Trail Ridge Road, who said "this is -- I'll use a new American word I've learned -- awesome."

Five of us caught a ballgame on Thursday at Coors Field. Friday we hiked 9.2 miles round trip to Sky Pond and camped in Glacier Basin at 9,000 feet. Saturday we hiked in 2.5 miles to the Battle Mountain backcountry site at 11,000 feet and set up camp. On Sunday we got up before sunrise and started on our way to Longs Peak. We hit the Boulderfield around 8 and the Keyhole by 9. Emily, Jen, Gavin and I traversed the Ledges and made it most of the way up the Trough before finally turning around about 400 feet below the summit because the climb got a bit too tricky for us. With snow and ice still in the Trough covering up the official route, the climb was a Class 4. (For reference, Class 5 is what I do on Monday nights with a harness and ropes at the climbing gym.) The bottom of the Trough was manageable, but the last 50 feet required scrambling up some pretty scary-looking ledges. The four of us agreed that we'd reached the edge of our comfort level, and turned around, arriving back at camp around 4:00.

We were happy with our decision to turn back, but disappointed that the snow and ice prevented us from making the top. In a week or so when the snow is completely gone, we probably would have made the summit without a serious problem. The way I see it, this just means that I'll have to go back and try again sometime!

On Monday morning, five of us hiked back up the trail and took a different fork to end up at Chasm Lake, directly below the sheer face of Longs. (The non-technical route we'd attempted the day before goes around the back.) It was gorgeous, and with binoculars, we spotted three people ascending the face. Wow -- talk about scary. That afternoon, we hiked back to the trailhead. Going down is so much easier than going up, although my calf muscles paid for it.

Yesterday we drove Trail Ridge Road from the east side to the west side of the park, topping out at just above 12,000 feet as the highest road in the country. From there it was back to Denver, say goodbye to Carter, return the rental car, say goodbye to Emily, and back on the plane. As we descending to Houston, we were enveloped in haze.

Sigh. I want to be back in Colorado!

Sheer face of Longs Peak lit by the rising sun:

At the Keyhole -- 13,162 feet:

Sheer face ("the Diamond") of Longs Peak from Chasm Lake below:

I took a couple hundred pictures and am in the process of organizing and posting them. I'd have more here, except my software did some weird compression thing where pictures with people in them look blurry. By the end of the week I hope to have a trip report up.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

here I am / perfect as I'm ever gonna be

We leave for Colorado tomorrow! Hooray! I packed last night, and will be re-packing a bit tonight because of course I packed too much. At the moment my pack is about 40 pounds (food and water included) and I'd like it to be around 35. I think I can get close. I know I packed a couple things that I don't truly need.

I really don't understand why photos of John Kerry in a bunny suit inside a space shuttle has become a news story. Republicans are trying to make him look silly? Democrats are trying to do damage control and complaining that the photos were leaked? I don't get it!! The facts are:

1. John Kerry visited Kennedy Space Center.
2. That is pretty cool, and even if it's a campaign tactic, I appreciate that he visited NASA, unlike, say, a certain President who never came to JSC until we had an accident.
3. While at KSC, Kerry and his companions, Sens. Bill Nelson and John Glenn (the latter who, of course, was the first American to orbit the earth), decided they wanted to see an orbiter up close and personal.
4. In order to go inside the orbiter, you have to wear a bunny suit to prevent dirt and hair and anything else from falling anywhere it shouldn't.
5. Voila, Kerry put on a bunny suit, and had his photo taken to commemorate him getting to do something really damn cool.

What is the big deal? He looks silly, yes, but so would anyone. Is he supposed to turn down going inside the space shuttle because he might look silly? That's dumb.

I was at work late enough last night that I missed the Astros game. Without me there, my boy, Adam Everett, hit two home runs. Maybe I should skip games more often! But that would be no fun. Anyway, I had to stay until I could get some stupid maps plotted. Do you know how frustrating it is to be able to plot points in minutes, but take hours to get Matlab to draw a freaking box around them?? With help from Gavin and Bini, I finally got it working and was able to leave at 7:00.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Becca went to the doctor

Becca went to the doctor yesterday and had about a million drugs prescribed to her for our upcoming Peru trip. It's totally making me paranoid. I had planned on just going to Peru with some Advil and Pepto, same as when I went to Mexico. But now I feel like I should go get Diamox, antibiotics, and other "fun" drugs.

Jason and I waterproofed the seams of our tents last night. We both have the same tent. Twins. Awww. We also hit Academy for a few last-minute items for this weekend's Colorado trip. Moleskin, biodegradable soap, bug spray, rope. While I am always thinking about how much different items weigh, Jason seems to not care. I predict that he will definitely be lugging the heaviest backpack on this trip!

Monday, July 26, 2004

Best quote from coke break:

Best quote from coke break:

"No, Jo, you cannot go tubing in the Princess Diana memorial fountain!!"

Monday, July 26, 2004

Lance Armstrong won his sixth

Lance Armstrong won his sixth Tour de France yesterday, and I'm already suffering from withdrawal. I have no idea what I'm going to watch on TV every morning and night now that the Tour is over. Maybe I'll have to -- gasp -- turn the TV off!

I'm pretty sure that the impending trip to Colorado will take my mind off cycling. We (Becca, Gavin, Jen, Jason, Rich, Emily, and Carter, oh, and me too) leave for Denver on Thursday and catch a baseball game that afternoon. We get to Rocky Mountain National Park on Friday and will spend four days wandering the trails, sucking in what little oxygen we can, and taking in the view of the mountains. Our attempt at Longs Peak may be thwarted by snow, but it should be an awesome trip no matter what.

I did zilch this weekend besides watch the Tour. Saturday night I did see Bourne Supremacy, and didn't really enjoy it very much. The shaky camera and frantic shot changes and editing made me dizzy. During the car chase, I actually had to close my eyes because I just couldn't keep up with the crazy camera movements. And the story itself just didn't keep me interested. It was a pretty forgettable movie.

Despite the huge thunderstorm that shook my apartment yesterday around 5:00, we did end up playing soccer. It hadn't rained at all at the fields, which are about 10 miles from my apartment. Even better, we actually won the game! The other team was three people short...but hey, we won. We never win, so we'll take what we can get. The only bad part of the game is that some large girl hurt my ankle. We were both going for the ball, and though I got it, she managed to step on my foot such that a cleat hit exactly between my shoes and the padding of my shinguards. Oddly, it's not bruised, but it hurts.

A month or so ago, we switched to a new payroll system at work. As a "cute" way to remind everyone of the website, they distributed little foam computers with the URL of the new timekeeping site on it. So far, we've used them for taking out our computer-related hostility. I like to put mine on the floor and stomp on it every time my sims don't work. Today, Matt decided to turn one into a prank computer (in the tradition of the Irwin-provided MS prankball):

It's the funniest thing I've seen all day.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

As I mentioned already, my

As I mentioned already, my sister is in France for the summer, and yesterday she and Joel went to see Stage 19 of the Tour.

Sunday, July 25, 2004

France being 7 hours ahead

France being 7 hours ahead of Houston time is bad for my sleep. They should really consider changing time zones.

In any case, I'm up early again this morning watching Lance ride into Paris. The Tour de France is so inspiring. It makes me want to go out and ride my bike forever.

Saturday, July 24, 2004

OLN is back, oh thank

OLN is back, oh thank God!

Saturday, July 24, 2004

I was up early this

I was up early this morning for a bike/run workout with Buzz and Laurie. The biking went well as it usually does, but I faded big time on the run. I just can't run in the heat, no matter what the time of day. It sucks.

I came home pumped up to watch Lance Armstrong in the 19th stage of the Tour de France, the second individual time trial. (My sister is there in person!) But my cable is out. AAGGHH! I can't remember another time that my cable has been out, so of course it would happen to me today of all days. To make things even more maddening, it's only a few channels that are out, and as luck would have it, one of them is OLN. I can watch all the baseball I want, as ESPN is still coming through. But on the day I want to watch cycling instead, that particular channel is out. AAAAAAAGH! I've tried calling the cable company but their phone line is incessantly busy. That's good in the sense that I suppose I can assume they're working on it, but bad in the sense that I can't get through to anybody to explain that I need my OLN, that I need to watch the Tour.

I did manage to find a live radio feed over the internet, so all is not lost. But the blue screen on the TV is driving me crazy.

Friday, July 23, 2004

From: Debbie To: Sarah I

From: Debbie
To: Sarah

I had a dream about you last night. You were training your dog to be a kid. It was a cute little thing like from a cartoon. You said it was some form of a dalmation. It was walking on 2 legs holding your hand. It looked both ways before it crossed the street and even wore glasses.

I guess that's what I get for eating wheat thins before bed.

Friday, July 23, 2004

wear yellow

So obviously I have a new layout, and in answer to the obvious question, no, I did not design it while in Photoshop class for the past four days. I may misuse government resources, but not that blatently. (And, for anyone reading who might not realize it, the previous sentence was said with sarcasm.)

The purple color was really supposed to be more of a blue, so I need to fix that. And I'm not totally satisfied with the header. But we'll see. So far I've gotten one "love it" vote, and three "liked the old one better" votes. I liked the old one a lot, but lately all the white was getting to me. Too much white.

Anyway. You can let me know what you think in the comments.

Softball got rained out again last night thanks to the freak afternoon 15-minute thunderstorm. Debbie and I had talked about going to the batting cages, but Jason (and his bat) weren't available. So then I thought about going to REI, but didn't. So finally I settled for a good bike ride.

When I dragged my bike out of the garage for the first time in a few weeks, I noticed that my front tire was flat. Upon closer inspection, the tube itself was messed up. When I popped the tire off in order to change the tube, I found a three-inch long gash in the tube. Huh?!? The tire itself was fine, so I am at a complete loss as to how my tube basically split in half. My only guess is that perhaps it got hot enough in my garage to cause the tire to burst (since when I put the bike away last time the tires were still fully inflated). Last night after I was done riding, I let air out of both tubes in an effort to prevent any future tire-splitting. In any case, it took me 15 minutes to change the stupid tube, so I had to cut my bike ride a bit short in order to make it home to watch Tour de France coverage. Summary: Lance Armstrong is awesome, and those guys ride really fast.

Last night on my ~9 mile bike ride on flat, flat ground, I averaged just over 16 mph. I think Lance averaged close to that speed going up l'Alpe d'Huez. Insane.

Thursday, July 22, 2004

and I will never see the sky the same way /
and I will learn to say goodbye to yesterday

I'm in the last day of my Photoshop class. It's been pretty cool, and I now know how to create all sorts of neat effects...and of course I can now put an alien's head on your body, or vice versa, and make it look real. National Enquirer, here I come!

I am all disgruntled with the state of the exercise room at my apartment complex. One of the two elliptical machines has been out of order for a couple weeks now, which is very annoying because it's hard to find a time when the other one isn't being used. Last night I dragged myself to work out despite being very tired, but when I got to the exercise room, the good elliptical was taken.

I was tired enough to decide that it was a sign, and went home to lay on the couch all night. Ha. Ha HA.

I need some ideas of some sort of photo manipulation to do today in class so I don't finish hours before the rest of the class. Send me photos or give me ideas, people!

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

TdF update: Lance Armstrong is

TdF update: Lance Armstrong is kicking ass! Yeah!

Wednesday, July 21, 2004

this land is your land / this land is my land / I'm a Texas tiger / you're a liberal weiner

Because I'm bored, and because I don't want to talk about how much the Astros are sucking it up, and how freaking depressing it is to go to the ballpark in Houston at the moment:

Last Cigarette: Hmm. Never actually smoked one. They're yucky.
Last Alcoholic Drink: Bailey's on the rocks.
Last Car Ride: I drove to work this morning.
Last Library Book: No idea.
Last Book Bought: Trying to remember...a Flash tutorial book, maybe?
Last Book Read: Bill Bryson, Travels in Small Town America
Last Movie Seen in Theatres: Spiderman 2
Last Movie Rented: Can't remember. I rarely rent movies.
Last Cuss Word Uttered: Long string of expletives aimed at the Astros dismal play last night.
Last Beverage Drank: Coffee being consumed as I type.
Last Food Consumed: Honey Nut Cheerios.
Last Crush: Adam Everett, Astros shortstop (actually, a current crush)
Last Phone Call: Monday evening, Fred asking if we were going climbing.
Last TV Show Watched: OLN Tour de France pre-race show this morning.
Last Time Showered: 11:00 last night.
Last Shoes Worn: Black work shoes from Payless.
Last CD Played: CDs are so 20th century. I use my iPod now.
Last Item Bought: Dinner at the ballgame last night.
Last Download: "This Land" cartoon (see previous post for the link). Awesome.
Last Annoyance: Astros sucking.
Last Disappointment: Astros really sucking.
Last Soda Drank: Diet Coke.
Last Thing Written: "Anatomy of a Debris Footprint" slide for a meeting this morning.
Last Key Used: A minor. Hahahahaha.
Last Words Spoken: "I want to go AWOL. You can put that on your timecard."
Last Sleep: Midnight last night till 6:45 this morning.
Last Ice Cream Eaten: Vanilla at the baseball game on Saturday.
Last Chair Sat In: Nasty blue desk chair.

Tuesday, July 20, 2004

let's get it started (ha) / let's get it started (in here)

Happy Man on the Moon Day! Thirty-five years ago, Neil Armstrong jumped down onto the surface of the moon. "We love da mooooooon...."

The guy who is teaching my Photoshop class is very amusing. This morning he came in singing the Black Eyed Peas song that was omnipresent on ESPN during the NBA playoffs, and is now acting out the difference between riding in a Mini Cooper and a Mercedes. "You buy the experience," he says. He is very funny.

Lance Armstrong is going to take the yellow jersey today (as I watch Stage 15 online). I am so obsessed with the Tour de France, and so jealous that my sister is going to see the second time trial in Besancon. Katie, get me a souvenir! Better yet, just take some good pictures and that will make me as happy as a souvenir. The Tour de France riders are just amazing. They average a speed that I can only maintain on flat ground for about 5 minutes.

Debbie, Becca, Fred and I went to the rock gym last night; it had been about a month since I'd climbed. In the past few months, the rock gym has been stressing me out, so last night I decided to just climb fun routes..."fun" meaning either challenging (in a good way) or easy (in an ego-boosting way). I swear my shoes have shrunk, or that my feet are getting fatter, because my shoes felt tighter last night than usual. My poor toe. But it was a good night. My arms aren't sore at the moment, but they probably will be soon.

AND the Braves are back in first place in the NL East. It's just my luck that as I'm finally adjusting to the Astros being "my team," the Braves (my "first team") start playing great baseball. But ah well. The Braves are where they belong. Happy day!

And this cartoon about Bush and Kerry (to the tune of "This Land is Your Land") is brought-tears-to-my-eyes hilarious. I love that they picked up on the fact that Bush can't pronounce nuclear correctly. That is one of my biggest pet peeves ever.

Monday, July 19, 2004

Here is the most awesome

Here is the most awesome "we never landed on the moon" article ever.

Monday, July 19, 2004

I'm in a training class

I'm in a training class today through Thursday. It's a class I've been wanting to take for a while and already had to back out of once, in June, when I was too busy. Three weeks ago when I found out I'd gotten into the class again, I thought I'd have plenty of time for it. But that was before I couldn't get the neural net code working correctly, and the Mars people wanted another point design, and the uncrewed orbiter people decided that they wanted to have the next sim on August 3.

I'm too busy to go to this class. And I'm feeling sort of guilty because it's not directly work-related (Intro to Photoshop). And yet I can't drop the class entirely or I'll be put down as a no-show, which would then make it harder for me to get into other training classes. So I'm going to be one of those "bad" employee-students, who goes to some parts of the class but not to all. C'est la vie.

Sunday, July 18, 2004

people watching I

(I don't know if it's common knowledge, but I really like to people watch. This journal has become pretty stale, so I figure I'll start to add some of my better people-watching experiences. Just interchanges I find interesting or funny. I don't know if they'll come across as well in writing, since often it's the tone of voice of the stranger that makes the watching fun. But we'll see.)

I want a frappachino and I need to grocery shop, so I head to the mini Starbucks at Kroger. Two men stand ahead of me in line. One of them is a short but round guy wearing a black t-shirt and khakis. His sunglasses are tinted orange, and he takes them off, then puts them back on. Off and on, repetitively, while he waits for his friend to get his coffee. His arms are covered in tattoos, and he has pulled up his sleeve to show them to the guy behind the counter.

"My brother does all mine."
"Single needle?"
"Yeah. He does 'em, so they have sentimental value. If I was in a car accident and lost my arms, I'd tell 'em, gimme my f--king arms!"

He can't stand still. He takes his sunglasses off, and puts them back on. He fidgets with the little toys Starbucks sells. His friend has a bag from the pharmacy.

"Gimme some drugs."

His friend mumbles something.

"If I had drugs, I'd give you some. Steroids, maybe. I'm gonna inject my dog with steroids. He'll be bigger than me."

He mimes the action of resting his arm on his dog as his friend takes his coffee and they walk away.

Saturday, July 17, 2004

So I'm sitting at home

So I'm sitting at home just now, minding my own business, when someone bangs on the door. It's only 1:30 and we're not meeting for the ballgame until 2, so I'm thinking Jason is just insanely early, and as I walk to the door I'm preparing some smartass comment to make to him about that. But when I open the door, it's not Jason. It's the mailwoman with a package that I have to sign for, because it's from Germany!

Favorite person of the day--hmm, no, favorite person of the week, at least: CARI. Cari, you rock! Thanks for the stuff! The chocolate is melted, but it's nothing my refrigerator won't fix. ;)

Friday, July 16, 2004

As the entire city holds

As the entire city holds their breath, waiting to see if the Astros can come out of the All-Star break differently than they went in--winning rather than losing--the Braves have quietly jumped into a tie for first place in the NL East.  Now, I know the East is a rather weak division this year, but it's nice to see the Braves still in it (and Marcus Giles back from his broken collarbone).

We finally had softball last night after five straight weeks of rainouts.  Unfortunately, the team was rusty and we were playing one of the better teams in the league, so we lost 9-2.  I played so-so in the field (caught one, misplayed one, and had another one bounce out of my glove, grr), but went 2-for-3 at the plate.  Hurrah!  One of my hits wasn't that great but I managed to beat the throw to first by half a step.  Made me feel speedy.  I'd like our team to have practice sometime soon though...I could really use the outfield practice.  I think the only thing that's going to improve my fielding is to just stand out there and have somebody hit fly balls at me.  I just don't get enough practice judging where they're going.  I don't really think softball is my sport, but I'll keep trying.

I worked all the way up until softball time last night, though I did have to go home to get my clothes.  Trying to make up hours for earlier in the week when I jetted early for the All-Star stuff.  I should end up getting 40 this week, as I will probably be here until 6 tonight.  On a Friday, I know!  But we have a presentation to give to a guy at NASA headquarters, and we're not starting until 3:15 and it's scheduled to go two hours...and of course we're trying to cram about a day's worth of material into two hours, which likely won't be possible.

This has been a link-happy week on my blog already, but I can't resist throwing up another one.  If you love Spiderman and Legos, you will love Spiderman 2: The Peril of Doc Ock, performed entirely by...Legos. It is so awesome.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

And finally today, in honor

And finally today, in honor of the 35th anniversary of the first moon landing (coming up on July 20), I give you this front page from the Onion. Don't read it if you're highly offended by profanity, but otherwise, it's pretty funny.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

Oh--I posted all my pictures

Oh--I posted all my pictures from the Futures Game & Celebrity Softball Game, Home Run Derby, and All-Star Game. Most of the pictures are bad, and though I know what/who it's a picture of, you won't be able to tell. But some of the ones I took during warmups are good, if you have time to sift through them.

Thursday, July 15, 2004

think I'm gonna stay home / have myself a home life /
sittin' in the slow mo / and listenin' to the daylight

Take the blog survey. It's fun and exciting! My favorite question was the one about how many other people you've influenced to start a blog. For me, it's pretty much everyone listed on the right side of this page. Boosts my ego. ;)

Jo and I went for much-needed pedicures last night. I am now the only one out of four of us that has not been encouraged to get my eyebrows waxed. I figure this either means that my eyebrows are so bad that they are beyond help, or that they are beautiful just the way they are. I'm going to stick with the latter explanation! In any case, I decided to go with pink polish last night instead of my usual red, so my toes look even more girly than usual. In case anyone was wondering.

If it's not obvious by this point that I don't have much to say today, you're not paying attention.

Other people have more exciting news though. Carter is buying a condo, and I might actually be more excited about it than he is...though it seems that his lack of outward excitement is mostly due to an aversion to having to move stuff (which I completely understand). If I were looking for a place in Atlanta, this one would be perfect. The layout is nice on the inside, and unique. It's in a nice quiet neighborhood next to the river, surrounded by Chattahoochee forest with great trails and stuff. Location, location, location. Plus the current owner is his uncle who is giving him a great deal.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

look at me / I can be / centerfield

Today feels like the day after Christmas. You still have all your new presents, but the fun and excitement of the holiday is already over. I still have my ticket stub and my t-shirt and as many pictures as I could fit on my camera, but the All-Star Game has come and gone.

Major sporting events never turn out quite the way you expect. Roger Clemens was set up to be the hero, starting the All-Star Game for the National League in his hometown in front of his home team fans. The stage was set for something incredible...and then the Rocket gave up 6 runs in the first inning. Kind of took the wind out of the sails of all the fans, as the noise in the stadium fell from roaring to a low-level buzz.

Last year Gagne blew a save in the All-Star Game, this year Clemens got rocked. I guess you never know what will happen when the best play the best.

Despite the less-than-ideal start, the All-Star Game was still great. To see so many great players all on one field was just awesome. I remembered to take my binoculars, and I must have spent half the night with them glued to my eyes, just tracking from first to second to short...to right field, staring at each player and thinking "wow, such-and-such is out there, on my baseball field!" (Yes, mine.) Clemens was followed by a trail of fantastic pitchers--Randy Johnson (freakishly tall), Tom Glavine, Ben Sheets, Eric Gagne... It was great.

Jason and Chris and I tracked strikeouts for the National League team, and though they ended up losing the game 9-4 (the AL was helped by home runs from Manny Ramirez, David Ortiz, and Alfonso Soriano), they did rack up 8 strikeouts for us to post on the wall below our seats. Gagne was fun to watch in the final inning; I actually like him a lot more now that he blew a save and is human again. I know, weird.

Other notes:

• Fantasia from American Idol sang the national anthem and she totally sucked. I'm sorry, call me old-fashioned, but I think you should just sing the damn anthem and make it sound nice. Don't improvise a new tune, don't do all sorts of strange vocal wailings, and don't scream the notes. She was horrible!!
  
• Ruben Studdard (from the second American Idol) sang God Bless America in the 7th inning stretch, and he was great.
  
• The Fox-broadcasted All-Star Game had two singers from another Fox show. Coincidence? Of course not. Fox is annoying.
  
• Sitting in the handicapped row of a stadium is all well and good until you sit there during a major event where lots of standing room only tickets have been sold. Then you have people breathing down your neck the entire game, and the usher (who's not really doing his job) keeps running into you.
  
• Nick got another batting practice ball. He got one from Home Run Derby day and one from last night. Not really fair. ;)
  
• Minute Maid Park has added some sort of canon, or maybe the fireworks are just really loud. Really loud. As in, take-cover-we're-being-attacked loud. The booms make me jump out of my seat every time, even when I know they're coming. Freaking loud.
  
• More pictures will be online tomorrow. I took 256, and would have taken more if I had a bigger compact flash card.

Oh, and Jen O. retook the Earth quiz I posted yesterday from the point-of-view of living in the U.S. then Ireland then Africa. Apparently, you take up more planets simply by living in the U.S. We are such an evil country.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Sarah will be hitting up Blockbuster this weekend

IMDB's Top 100 Best Movies of All Time generate this HTML for your own page at ObeytheFist.com
Rank Movie Didn't See It/ Started It/ Finished It/ Hated It! 1 Godfather, The (1972) 2 Shawshank Redemption, The (1994) Finished It 3 Godfather: Part II, The (1974) 4 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The (2003) Finished It 5 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The (2002) Finished It 6 Casablanca (1942) 7 Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The (2001) Finished It 8 Schindler's List (1993) 9 Shichinin no samurai (1954) 10 Star Wars (1977) Finished It 11 Citizen Kane (1941) 12 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) 13 Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) Started It 14 Rear Window (1954) 15 Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) Finished It 16 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) Finished It 17 Memento (2000) Finished It 18 Usual Suspects, The (1995) Finished It 19 Pulp Fiction (1994) Finished It 20 North by Northwest (1959) 21 12 Angry Men (1957) 22 Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le (2001) Finished It 23 Psycho (1960) 24 Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Finished It 25 Buono, il brutto, il cattivo, Il (1966) 26 Silence of the Lambs, The (1991) Finished It 27 It's a Wonderful Life (1946) Finished It 28 Goodfellas (1990) Finished It 29 American Beauty (1999) Finished It 30 Vertigo (1958) Finished It 31 Sunset Blvd. (1950) 32 Matrix, The (1999) Finished It 33 Apocalypse Now (1979) Finished It 34 Pianist, The (2002) 35 To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) Finished It 36 C'era una volta il West (1968) 37 Some Like It Hot (1959) 38 Third Man, The (1949) 39 Taxi Driver (1976) 40 Paths of Glory (1957) 41 Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi (2001) 42 Fight Club (1999) Finished It 43 Boot, Das (1981) 44 Double Indemnity (1944) 45 L.A. Confidential (1997) Finished It 46 Chinatown (1974) 47 Singin' in the Rain (1952) Finished It 48 Maltese Falcon, The (1941) 49 M (1931) 50 Requiem for a Dream (2000) 51 Bridge on the River Kwai, The (1957) Finished It 52 All About Eve (1950) 53 Se7en (1995) Started It 54 Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) Finished It 55 Saving Private Ryan (1998) Finished It 56 Cidade de Deus (2002) 57 Raging Bull (1980) 58 Rashômon (1950) 59 Wizard of Oz, The (1939) Finished It 60 Sting, The (1973) 61 Alien (1979) Started It 62 American History X (1998) Started It 63 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) Started It 64 Léon (1994) 65 Vita è bella, La (1997) Finished It 66 Touch of Evil (1958) 67 Manchurian Candidate, The (1962) 68 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) Started It 69 Treasure of the Sierra Madre, The (1948) 70 Great Escape, The (1963) Started It 71 Wo hu cang long (2000) 72 Reservoir Dogs (1992) 73 Clockwork Orange, A (1971) 74 Amadeus (1984) Finished It 75 Modern Times (1936) 76 Ran (1985) 77 Annie Hall (1977) 78 Jaws (1975) Started It 79 On the Waterfront (1954) 80 Braveheart (1995) Finished It 81 High Noon (1952) 82 Apartment, The (1960) 83 Fargo (1996) Started It 84 Sixth Sense, The (1999) Finished It 85 Aliens (1986) Started It 86 Shining, The (1980) Finished It 87 Strangers on a Train (1951) 88 Blade Runner (1982) Finished It 89 Metropolis (1927) 90 Duck Soup (1933) 91 Finding Nemo (2003) Finished It 92 Donnie Darko (2001) 93 General, The (1927) 94 City Lights (1931) 95 Princess Bride, The (1987) Finished It 96 Toy Story 2 (1999) Finished It 97 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003) 98 Great Dictator, The (1940) 99 Sjunde inseglet, Det (1957) 100 Lola rennt (1998)
Which movies have you seen?

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Here's a funny camera phone

Here's a funny camera phone picture of me from the cert party last Friday night. I think I forgot to mention that party. It was a work party in honor of the many, many people that have certified in the past couple years. And my boss's boss's boss did a keg stand. Yes.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

today will soon be gone / like yesterday is gone /
like history is gone / the world keeps spinning on /
you're going, going gone

My sister posted this little quiz that will tell you, if everyone lived like you, how many Earths we would need to support the planet. I scored 4.9 Earths. Surprisingly, I don't think this was due to my low MPG car, because the bucket for that one was 15-25 miles per gallon. Instead, I think my high score was mostly related to the fact that Houston has zip, zero, nada in the way of public transportation, so I never go anywhere by anything other than car. Taking the quiz from the viewpoint of when I lived at home in high school lowered me to 3.8 Earths.

Anyway.

Last night was the Home Run Derby, and despite the fact that Lance Berkman couldn't pull through in the end to win it (that honor went to Miguel Tejada, who set a new record for number of homers in one round and in the whole derby), it was still awesome. We got to the ballpark right as doors were opening and got in good position to hopefully catch a few batting practice balls. I was ignored by Homer the Brave, got a high-five from the Pirate Parrot, and watched Curt Schilling get interviewed for the Best Damn Sports Show Period. Later, Jason and I moved from left field to right field, where we walked past the ESPN guys and then watched NL and AL batting practice.

I got a lot of pictures of the NL guys, since most of them were hanging out in right field (since they have the 1st base -- home -- dugout). Clemens, Gagne, Randy Johnson (freakishly tall), Jeff Kent and sons, Glavine, Berkman...everybody! I didn't get as many pictures of the AL guys because most of them were standing over in right field, but I did get a couple shots of Vladimir Guerrero, Francisco Rodriguez, Kenny Rogers, and Francisco Cordero. And kids. I'll post them later.

Batting practice was fun to watch. Jim Thome was really launching them in our direction, so it surprised us when he didn't make it out of the first round of the derby. Ichiro had surprising power during batting practice too. Sosa was firing them into right field, Giambi hit one that our friend Nick caught in the upper right field deck... Jason and I didn't catch anything (not that I would have stuck my hand out there without a glove anyway), but the guy in front of us got one, and a guy a little farther in front got three. Just not fair. :)

The Derby was really fun to watch. Before it started, they brought out all of the living 500+ home run hitters, and that was so cool. All these great baseball players were standing down on the field, and I was watching! Awesome. Bonds led off the Derby with 8 home runs, including a 483-footer. Wow. Blalock only hit three, but then Berkman and Tejada both hit 7! Thome, Ortiz, and Sosa all disappointed, but Palmeiro finished the first round with 9!

Bonds disappointed in the second round with only 3, but Berkman came back up and hit 10! The stadium roof had been opened, and it was awesome seeing all his balls fly over the train tracks into the night. Lance got the loudest cheers by far, being the hometown boy. I felt sort of bad for the other guys; they would have gotten a lot more cheers if they hadn't been going against an Astro! Tejada followed Berkman with an even more astounding 15 second round homers. The crowd wasn't cheering at first, but once he passed Lance and closed in on the single-round Derby record, the fans livened up. Tejada hit one 497 feet--four feet farther than Lance's longest. Incredible.

Palmeiro was up last in the second round, and the crowd was starting to clap for outs, wanting Berkman to make it to the finals. With one out left, the announcer asked "come on Houston, are you going to cheer for Palmeiro?" to which the entire stadium chorused "NOOOOOO!" It was funny. Palmeiro only hit 5, so it was Berkman and Tejada in the final. Woohoo!

Poor Berkman though, he must have worn himself out in the second round, and only hit 4 in the finals. However, three of them came with only one out left, quite an awesome display of clutch homering. The crowd was going crazy! Tejada came up, and poor guy, everyone wanted him to lose. But he quickly tied Berkman's four, and hit the fifth with five outs still to go.

So the two last-minute derby subs were in the finals, and little Miguel Tejada won the entire thing. It was really fun to be there...and I can't wait for tonight!!

Monday, July 12, 2004

(she is the one) but I have a purpose / (she is the one) but I have to fight this

My mouse just took on a life of its own. All of a sudden the arrow scrolled across the screen to the right while my hand stayed in the same place on the desk. It's possessed!

And now on to other stuff that...doesn't matter either. Hmm. Oh well.

Not that I get more than a hundred hits a day, but even I have suffered Blogger Burnout before...just because it's hard to find something truly interesting to say every day. Take today's post for instance, because it's going to suck.

The weekend was full of baseball. Saturday afternoon, Chris and Jason and I went to FanFest, where we fought the crowds and waited in long lines to get baseball cards made (as seen below). We also raced from third base to home plate, and Jason (4.79) beat me (5.13) by less than half a second. Ha! He blamed the slim margin of victory on his shoes, but I prefer to think that I'm just faster than he expected. ;)

Saturday night we saw The Terminal. Not great, but not bad. Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't add anything to the story, but the supporting cast was excellent. And Diego Luna is cute (though the mustache has got to go). Ta daa, that about sums up my movie review. And you wonder why I hardly ever wrote the stories when I edited the Entertainment section...

Yesterday I spent all day at the ballpark for the Futures Game and Legends & Celebrity Softball Game. Both were entertaining enough, but I'm glad that Monday has arrived and the really good stuff begins. We're taking off work early to be downtown when the gates open at 3 for tonight's Home Run Derby.

After the stuff yesterday, we headed to the Becca/Nick/Tiffany abode for burgers and entertainment provided by Nick's $200 bird, Sara's cute purse, and Curt's dislike of that purse.

Saturday, July 10, 2004

Look, we're famous baseball players!

Look, we're famous baseball players!

Friday, July 09, 2004

mary belongs to the words of a song / I try to be strong for her / try not to be wrong for her

The rain gods don't like our softball team. We'd been rained out for four weeks in a row, and were finally going to play last night, last game of the night at 9:00. At 8:30, as our luck would have it, the heavens opened up and it poured for about twenty minutes. Just enough to call off the softball game. Sigh.

I was a very bad employee and didn't get much done this morning, mainly because I was buying a plane ticket to Colorado and debating with Gavin, Jen and Becca about what vaccinations we need for Peru. At this point, I think we've all agreed that malaria medicine isn't necessary, and that Hepatitis A and typhoid vaccinations are. What we can't figure out is whether we need yellow fever or not. Different travel clinics and websites have told us different things. If the shot was cheap, I'd just go ahead and get it, but it's $140 and I don't want to get immunized against something if I don't really need to be.

Rich is tempting me with a three-day southern California baseball trip (San Diego, Anaheim, and LA!) the weekend before we go to Peru. I want to go. I don't have the vacation time. But I want to go. With my recent trip to Chicago and the upcoming trip to Denver, that would be 7 baseball stadiums this summer, and would bring my total to 17--more than half! But I don't have the vacation time...

This afternoon and evening is the division cert party, honoring all the people that have certified for any console position in the past couple years. There are a ton of people on that list, so the entire division will probably be there. The weather is looking ominous, so even though we'll be under the pavilion, I'm hoping the rain holds off.

This weekend, of course, is the beginning of four days of MLB All-Star madness! Woohoo! Tomorrow, Chris and Jason and I are going to Fan Fest. Sunday we'll be at the Futures Game and Legends & Celebrities Softball Game. Monday we'll be at the Home Run Derby, and Tuesday at the All-Star Game itself. I am so excited.

And finally, a Tour de France update courtesy of my mini-obsession: Lance Armstrong finished with the pack today despite a major pileup in the last kilometer, neither gaining nor losing time over his major opponents. Go Lance!

Thursday, July 08, 2004

Ok, Blogger is acting up

Ok, Blogger is acting up this morning. I lost my previous post.

Anyway. My work schedule has been very strange lately. It's of my own doing, but still strange.

I get twenty days of vacation each year. I know that's a lot, and it's certainly one of the benefits of working for the government. Because my work is rarely time-critical, and because I like to travel, I strongly believe in using every iota of vacation time I have...and sometimes more. This year I've already overcommitted myself by a couple days. As a result, I'm always trying to earn a credit hour here and a credit hour there so that I can minimize the amount of annual leave I have to take. When Mom was visiting, I worked some strange (re: early!) hours in order to be able to spend more time with her without taking vacation. And recently, I took off almost 16 hours to go to Atlanta, but thanks to my weird scheduling, I only had to use 5.5 annual leave hours.

And all that is a complicated way of explaining why I was here last night until 6:30.

I went home prepared to exercise. It was murderously humid outside, so despite thinking about taking a bike ride (inspired I'm sure by the Tour de France) I decided to elliptical. Alas, alack, one machine was taken and the other was out of order. So instead, I did Dance, Dance Revolution for 40 minutes. ;) I know, I know. It really was a good workout though.

Thursday, July 08, 2004

How to make a

How to make a sarah

Ingredients: 3 parts competetiveness 5 parts silliness 5 parts beauty

Method: Stir together in a glass tumbler with a salted rim. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of lustfulness

Wednesday, July 07, 2004

the city lights shine for her / above them I cry for her /
everything's small on the ground below / down below

Over the past few years I've developed a minor obsession with Lance Armstrong. I can't explain it, but I find him fascinating. This morning I've been watching Stage 4 of the Tour de France (team time trial) live online while working on my neural net. The official website appears to be breaking down under the load of people trying to watch, so I turned to trusty old ESPN. The USPS team won, so hooray! I love the internet.

All of Debbie's excitement about the new season got to me last night, and I ended up watching the premiere of The Amazing Race 5. Reality TV is so addicting. The show was an hour and a half, and I was captivated the entire time. You'd think people would have figured out by now that the flight that appears to be the best isn't always the best (i.e. check the arrival times you wackos). Or that sometimes it pays to help each other, but sometimes it's not a good idea to give your taxi to someone else. Or that there's always a clue box.

Also, the girl on one team has previously been on another CBS reality show. Are they really hurting for people so badly that they had to choose someone who'd already been on their station? Weird.

I came home from Atlanta in the mood to buy a condo. There are problems with that mood, of course. I don't really have the money at the moment to buy anything. Most of the condos in this area are undesirable to my eyes due to being run-down, in a bad location, or just plain ugly. And then there is the biggest problem of all -- I still can't say with certainty that I'll be here for the next 3+ years. I've been here for two years now and will be for at least one more, and if I'd known that at the time I might have bought something.

But unless it's school (or the 5-year reunion trip to Australia!), I just haven't been able to commit to being in any place more than about a year in advance. Funny, isn't it? I'm a commitment-phobe in a non-traditional sense; I can't commit to a location. Sometimes I think life would be easier if someone else made the decision for me, and simply told me what to do for the next couple years. I am never very good at making those decisions on my own, and will likely convince myself that what I have is good enough. And just stay.

Of course, what I have is pretty good. I know this.

I'm about to turn in my lease for another year anyway, so the condo conversation is moot.

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

This is a pretty good

This is a pretty good post. (No, I don't know the guy. Just one of the many blogs I surf.)

"Being in a relationship takes time, energy, patience and coordination. You don?t fall into it, you work your way into it. A relationship isn?t your most comfortable pair of flannel pajamas going in, it?s the tightest pair of jeans you?ve ever bought, but once you get into them you look damned good and want to keep them on forever. A relationship isn?t taking a deep, luxurious drink of your favorite beverage at the perfect temperature. A relationship is lifting a mug to your lips and swallowing a draught without knowing what?s in the mug in the first place."

"He asked me about love, then, naturally. It?s how these questions work. You trade your stories because you want them to understand you and you want to understand them, and you can never be inside them to understand it all, everything, so you grasp at the glimpses of their lives before you, and the tales they have, and the feelings buried deep."

Tuesday, July 06, 2004

when all that you wanted / when all that you had don?t seem so much / for you to hold onto

I was in Atlanta all weekend. The days passed slowly, as summer vacation days should. On Friday, Carter only worked a half day so that we could drive up to James and Chrissy's house in Athens. Chris followed a few hours later and we ate grilled burgers and played croquet on the front lawn. James, Carter and I even squeezed in a game of Settlers, so that was fun.

Saturday we were back in Atlanta in time to have lunch with Iffy, check out the condo Carter is considering buying, and then have dinner with Karen and Brian. It was different to see Karen in Atlanta for once, and not in some strange foreign city! Sunday morning we got up early to hop on MARTA and head to the start line of the Peachtree Road Race, otherwise known as the world's largest 10K race. I went back to time group 5 with Carter, and we had to wait about half an hour after the official start of the race before we crossed the start line, but that wasn't a big deal.

This is the second year I've done this race, and I love it. There are people lining the course the entire way (though some spots are more populated than others), and I just love the feeling of running down a street that I knew so well for five years of my life. I love mentally picking out the landmarks along the way. There's the Cheesecake Factory, site of a couple birthday dinners, on the right, followed by the Catholic church Kent always went to, Houston's and Mick's and Fratelli's. We passed the Shepherd Center where Christina got better, the statue of the men holding up the world, the High, and finally finished at Piedmont Park right about where I went rollerblading my freshman year.

There are so many random memories along that road, I can't help but love running into them.

Rachel came down from the Georgia mountains Sunday afternoon, with a special request to go to the Avondale fireworks, so off we went. The fireworks were nice, if a little choppy, and afterward we wandered the dark streets in search of Carter and Rachel's friends, who don't ever remember me but would probably be surprised to find out how many stories I know about them. We walked into Andrew's house and his mom promptly fed us cake, because it was her birthday.

It was yummy cake.

The early morning wake-up time for the race finally got to me, and I trudged back to the car in a sleepy haze while Carter and Rachel rode their Avondale high. Yesterday the three of us spent time in the sun at the pool before taking in an afternoon movie. Rachel headed back to the mountains, while Carter and I took off to find a geocache and buy a board game. Neither of those ended up happening, because in the process of geocaching we disturbed a swarm of angry yellow jackets. We spent the rest of the night buying bee sting stuff at Walmart and commiserating about the pain of the stings. Carter got the worse end of the hive and ended up with about 16 stings. I lucked out with only four.

I recommend staying away from yellow jackets.

The trip ended with today with a delayed MARTA train, hellish security lines at the airport that backed up almost to the MARTA station, and a lovely couple that let me jump in line ahead of them. I never would have made the plane without them, and it was also good that Carter suggested printing my boarding pass last night.

And now I'm home. Or, rather, at work.

Visiting Atlanta is always interesting, because the city and the people leave me feeling two things at once. When I first see the skyline I feel as if I am coming home after a long trip, and I smile. It is so nice to catch up with good friends, and see people that I don't talk to regularly. And for a moment, I want to move back to Atlanta. But after a few days I begin to feel like I have overstayed my welcome with Carter, who has to put me up on his couch for nights in a row, and with the city itself. It's as if the city doesn't want me there anymore. And it stops feeling like home.

On Saturday night after dinner, Karen and Brian and Carter and I walked around campus to see the new student center and peek through the windows of the new rec center. It's all very nice, and I wish some of the improvements had been made while I was still there. But it's not my campus anymore, and I don't feel like I own it the way I once did. The Nique looks different, and the people look younger. It's all so familiar, and yet strange, as if I've fallen into some sort of parallel universe. And I realize that I can't go back. I don't know if Atlanta or Tech wants me back. I don't know if there is anything there for me anymore.

I know that makes it sound like I didn't have a good trip, and that's not true. I had a nice time.

Thursday, July 01, 2004

and I am flawed / but I am cleaning up so well /
I am seeing in me now the things you swore you saw yourself

Last night was a great night in space. The Expedition 9 crew successfully completed the spacewalk that had been aborted last week, and Cassini successfully entered orbit around Saturn. Saturn! When the mission launched in 1997, I remember thinking "wow, 2004, that's a long time away." And here it is, 2004, and I don't just watch NASA on tv, I work for NASA. And Cassini is orbiting Saturn.

Every time a mission reaches a major milestone, I feel like a giddy kid all over again. I mean -- Saturn! With the rings and the gas and the moons and everything! That is so cool!! And December, when they release the Huygens probe that will enter the atmosphere of Titan, will be exciting as well. It's stuff like this that boggles my mind, and makes me wonder how anyone can argue that space exploration isn't a good thing.

So I ended up seeing Spiderman 2 last night. I'll likely see it again in Atlanta this weekend, but I won't mind because it was awesome! Better than the first. My only negative comment would be that neither movie has had a good ending; both have sort of faltered in the last five minutes. But the rest of Spiderman 2 was incredible. The action sequences have gotten better, the special effects more seamless, and you just can't help but love Tobey Maguire. I know he's Spiderman and all, but I just wanted to give him a hug. He needed a hug.

Also, as requested, here's a link for everyone to go vote for Chris's friend Cheri to win the ESPY for Best Athlete with a Disability. Very cool.

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

When I was a co-op,

When I was a co-op, awards were given out at the end of every semester for good performance. You had to be nominated by your mentor, and out of six co-op tours, I only got one award; it was from the group I now work for full-time. There are various reasons that I didn't get more (mainly due to the timing differences between the normal co-op semester schedule and Georgia Tech's adherance to the quarter system), and so it never bothered me very much. But I was always a little disappointed that I didn't get a Flag Award.

There were two levels of co-op award. The higher one was a $500 bonus and a certificate; the lower was a certificate with a small American flag that had flown in space aboard the shuttle. The one award I got was the higher level, and while I appreciated the money greatly, it would have been cool to get a space-flown flag.

This afternoon in a casual awards presentation, all of my coworkers and I received a JSC Group Achievement Award for our work on the STS-107 Early Sightings Assessment Team. This is the team that investigated all the sighting reports, pictures, and video from Columbia's reentry, and produced the debris footprints and searched the radar for falling debris.

In addition, most of us who had committed considerable time to the investigation received a Spaceflight Awareness Team Award. Today I finally got a flag! On my certificate is an "Endeavour" shuttle flag that flew on STS-113, the last mission before the accident. I also got a pin that flew on the same mission.

How cool!

Wednesday, June 30, 2004

I don't have any solid

I don't have any solid reason for it, but Moises Alou drives me up the wall. I really hate him. Despite the fact that he is indeed a good baseball player, he gets under my skin and just generally annoys me. It bothers me that people cheer for him by going "ALOOOOOOUUUUUU" which sounds like "BOOOOOOOO." I think he's rude, and has a funny batting stance, and he's a big crybaby.

Case in point -- last night my little Adam Everett hit a ball way out into left field, whereupon Alou accidentally knocked it with his glove, sending it into the infamous Wrigley Field ivy. He glanced down for a moment before standing up and signaling for a ground rule double, despite the fact that (as validated by TV cameras and pointed out repeatedly on Sportscenter last night) THE BALL WAS RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIM! Fortunately the umpires realized this, and Everett scored on a double plus two-base error. After the game, Alou even said "I didn't know the rule. I don't know any of the rules. That's why I can't manage when I retire."

Dude. He just irks me.

I was at work late last night to get some extra hours. I was feeling pretty proud of my 9.5 hour day until Carter mentioned that he'd worked 13. Well then. He wins, but on the other hand, I hope I never have to work a 13-hour day. People who work that much make me worry. Today I plan on going home at a much more reasonable hour; however, I did get in at 7:30 so that I can leave at 5 and still have 9 hours. It's all part of an effort to save a few annual leave hours here and there, since my planned vacation for the year is about two days over the limit at the moment!

I came home last night and had planned to run 6 miles, but it started to drizzle, and the idea of running in the rain didn't really appeal to me. I was going to do the elliptical, but was talked into the treadmill. As if I haven't said it before, I will remind everyone that I despise the treadmill. It makes my legs hurt and leaves my kness sore, despite all the articles I've read that says treadmill running is easier than outdoors. I knew I would never stick with it through 6 miles, so I compromised and told myself that I could only run 3 miles if I made them really count. So I did my first ever "hill" run in Houston. I warmed up, then ran 2-4 minute intervals at 5-6.5 percent grade. It was tough! Hills suck.

I also realized that walking on the treadmill with a loaded backpack at maximum grade (15 percent) would probably be a really good Longs Peak prep workout. I may try that.

Starbucks is coming out with "light" versions of their Frappuchinos, and I ended up on their website looking at the nutritional info for my 3 usual beverages. Turns out that my grande mocha frappuchino (always without whipped cream) is not as bad as I thought--290 calories, 4 grams of fat. That's not great, but not horrible either. The whipped cream is where your diet really goes downhill, and I always leave that off because I don't like it. Score. A grande cafe mocha is 300 calories, 12 grams of fat (eek). A grande cappuchino, however, is the best at only 100 calories, and no fat. Knowing that, I'm now much more likely to get a cappuchino than a mocha. And I doubt I will be having any more of those blended ones (mmm, strawberry), knowing that there are 320 calories even in the smallest, no whip order.

I wonder how they calculate nutritional information. I have always wondered. I should look it up.

And finally, after seven years of drifting along through empty space, Cassini arrives at Saturn today. How exciting!

Tuesday, June 29, 2004

he came right over and said this is what you'll do /
you're gonna get a bike / you're gonna paint it blue

Planning a "simple" group trip to climb Longs Peak is more complicated than I expected. It's not that there are any major issues...it's more that it's just hard to work out the nitty gritty details (like arrival times, departure times, who wants to share a tent, who wants to eat what on the trail) for eight individuals. But plans are starting to come together. We have a place (or, rather, campsite) to stay each night, and I think we will have enough of the necessary equipment (tents, etc) to go around. Next up is figuring out dates and times for everyone to buy plane tickets. Whew.

I have to go take Mom to the airport in about an hour. We went out to dinner last night with Gavin, Jen, Becca, Chris, and Ignacio, and that was nice. I think she enjoys meeting my friends, and why shouldn't she? They're all cool people. Anyway, it has been really nice having Mom here. I don't know what we did before cell phones, but now that I talk to my parents so often, I sort of forget that I only see them in person twice a year. I hadn't seen Mom since Christmas, and probably won't see her again until next Christmas. But I'm glad she came to visit. Of course, now that she's leaving I will have time to exercise, and I won't eat out every meal (I think I've gained back each of the 5 pounds I'd lost in the previous month)....but still. Moms are good.

I have no big plans for tonight or tomorrow, which is probably good, since I need to catch up on sleep before going to Atlanta for the weekend. Tonight I may try to run 6 miles, just to reassure myself that I haven't lost the ability to complete at 10K... Well, I mean, I know I can run it, but I'm concerned that it might take me an hour and a half... Well, ok, not that long, but a long time.

Monday, June 28, 2004

I want to get away / I want to fly away

OH! I forgot to mention that while Mom and I were pulling into the parking deck at the Galleria on Saturday, Jen called with the great news that plane tickets from Houston to Lima (Peru!) for our trip dates had fallen to $625. "Buy!" I said excitedly, as if Jen needed the motivation. So buy she did, and we have tickets to Peru for August 29 through September 6.

Yay!

Monday, June 28, 2004

oh no / we gotta go / we're not gonna live forever /
why why / we gotta die / you know that we'll be together

Biggest sign that your fantasy baseball team totally sucks: in two days, they score 20 runs, hit 9 homers, rack up 30 RBIs, steal 2 bases...and they're still in 9th place by 11.5 points.

My mom and I had a nice relaxing weekend that consisted of shopping and more shopping, which in itself was pretty strange since neither of us are big shoppers. We went to the Galleria on Saturday and walked around for a while, and went into lots of stores, but only bought anything at Eddie Bauer. I tried on tons of pairs of khaki pants (I need a new pair for work) without any luck. Either I am too picky, or my body is too oddly shaped. Probably a bit of both! We also stopped by REI to exchange some socks, and made a detour on the way home to a teacher supply store. My mom spent an hour looking at all the teacher supplies, and wished there were one of the stores in Charlotte. That night we had dinner with Becca.

Yesterday we ran some more errands around Clear Lake, including a trip to Walmart for a cool sunshade for my car, and a trip to Lowe's to get a plant to put next to my front door. Mom decided that I needed something to distinguish my apartment from all the other boring brown doors, so now I have a lovely plant in a fake clay pot. It is awesome having your mom come visit, because she buys you plants. :) We also did just a bit of geocaching, since Mom was curious to see what that was all about. We had a yummy dinner at Saltgrass and then home again, home again.

Last night after stuffing myself with Saltgrass steak, I remembered that I am running a 10K on Sunday. I haven't run a 10K since March. Yikes.

Friday, June 25, 2004

Major Astros news today, for

Major Astros news today, for those of you who are living in a hole: last night in the middle of the game, they traded closer Octavio Dotel and minor-league catcher John Buck to the Royals for center-fielder Carlos Beltran. (Kansas City then immediately traded Dotel to the A's for a third base prospect and a pitcher.)

Mom and Jason and I were at the game last night, and around the 5th inning, while the Astros were up to bat, I looked in the dugout and noticed that there was practically no one there. The Astros were batting, but there were only about 6 people in the dugout. Weird, I thought, and commented to Jason.

A few innings later, the announcer alerted the fans to the trade. Turns out that the dugout was empty because the players were going into the clubhouse to say goodbye to Dotel before he left for the last time.

I'm excited about the trade, and the possibilities, but also a little worried. The Astros likely won't resign Beltran at the end of the year, so basically we traded Dotel for half a year of Carlos Beltran. Astros owner Drayton McLane is channeling Steinbrenner for the year, going out and buying what he thinks he needs for the Astros to win a World Series. I don't really know if that is the best method or not. If Lidge can close games as well as he did last night (9 pitches, 8 were strikes, 2 strikeouts), then we'll be ok without Dotel.

I don't have the heart to ever be a baseball businessperson though. Dotel's leaving makes me sad. I liked him.

So that's the big Astros news and I hope it works out well for the team. In the meantime, my Mom arrived last night. Hooray for Mom!

Thursday, June 24, 2004

he fires it up, hits the lights / and drives out on into the haze /
don't try to explain / it's the call of the wave

Carter called last night to say that he'd just run for 55 minutes and would have no problem making the Peachtree distance next weekend. This is good for him, but bad for me, since I will probably be slowing him down. I can run either fast or long, but not both. :)

After the conversation though, I fell asleep and dreamed that I was running in the Peachtree with Jen O., and we started ahead of the first wave. So I kept looking behind me and seeing a pack of tall, skinny Kenyans catching up to us. They passed us in a cloud of dust, a la that Nike commercial with all the people running through the plains, and Jen and I tried to keep up, but failed miserably. And all the while, I was trying to find Carter, who for whatever reason hadn't started the race with us.

Anyway.

The rain continues here in Houston. I like thunderstorms, but this is getting ridiculous. This morning the guards had closed the front gate down to only one lane of traffic. I can only assume it was because of the rain and lightning, but it was pretty annoying because traffic was backing up on Saturn and it wasn't even 8:00 yet (and thus not quite yet the busiest part of the morning). I feel sorry for the security guys having to stand out in the rain, but they do have super rain suits, and I don't see how causing traffic to back up on the main road makes anything better.

Mom is flying in this afternoon, so I hope the thunderstorms break at least long enough for her plane to make it in without major delay. In preparation for her visit, I stayed up late last night cleaning the apartment; there's nothing like the impending arrival of a parent to put me in cleaning mode. :) The bathroom is all shiny, the carpet is freshly vacuumed, and I threw away a whole trash bag of magazines and papers that had been piling up. Piles of paper are my arch-nemesis in the world of cleaning. I attack them and win the battle, but they always come back; the war never ends. In any case, my apartment hasn't looked this good since I moved in!! Seriously. I hope I can keep it even half as clean after Mom leaves.

Wednesday, June 23, 2004

take me out to the ballgame / take me out with the crowd

I have All-Star tickets!

They came in the mail yesterday. They are big and colorful and beautiful and suitable for framing. (Seriously, there's a little note that says if you want to frame them, just take the entire sheet to the park instead of tearing off the individual tickets. I mean, I had never even thought about framing them but now I feel a strange need to do so.) And they are mine. No, you cannot have them. No, you cannot buy them from me. They are mine, and I will be sitting there with Jason and Chris in section 309 watching the Futures Game and Celebrity Softball Game on July 11, the Home Run Derby on July 12, and the All-Star Game on July 13.

Woohoo!

Went to Minute Maid last night for the fourth time in a week (though it was Jason's sixth time in a week), and finally saw the Astros win one, 5-4 over the Pirates. It was pretty exciting, with two big triples driving in most of the Astros' runs. You don't see triples very often. Neat.

The most unexpected side effect (side effect isn't quite the right wording, but oh well) of having season tickets, even the mini plan that's "only" 27 games, is that we are all getting sick of stadium food. We never have time to eat dinner at home, since we basically go straight from work to the ballpark, and the fajita wraps, nachos, hot dogs, pizza, and potatoes are starting to get really old. Last night Chris and I were lamenting the menu's lack of anything even remotely healthy. Jason and I have had a thing for ice cream lately though...

The other funny thing is that the food doesn't seem quite so expensive when you're not paying for your ticket. I mean, of course we paid for our tickets, but that money was spent back in February, and so it sort of feels like I'm constantly going to Astros games for free. And if I'm going for free, I don't feel so cheated by having to spend $4 on a Coke and $6.50 on some semblance of a meal.

Yeah. I know it doesn't make sense if you think about it, but whatever.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

Wow! So many posts from

Wow! So many posts from me today! Anyway, Irwin was in town over the weekend and brought his really, really cool tablet PC. You just flip the screen around, and there was a plastic pen, and I got to draw fun pictures! Here are my sketches of Jo, Becca, and the classic "Jailbird Gavin."

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I love Paris in the springtime / I love Paris in the fall

Katie and Joel are in France for the summer, and posting pictures. This past weekend they went to Paris. Ah, Paris. Here are two pictures that I liked:

Yep. That's my future brother-in-law. What a weirdo.

Tuesday, June 22, 2004

I saw / pictures in my head / and I swear / I saw you opening up again

I have been really good about exercising for the past couple weeks. My weight has been creeping up ever since mid-February, when I got so sick after the half marathon in Austin. I didn't exercise while I was sick, and was slow to get back into a regular schedule. When I did do something, it was a soccer game, or swimming, or bike riding--mostly bike riding, as I prepared for the MS150. I haven't been running much, and the heat this summer is getting to me more than in the past, which will make the Peachtree interesting on the 4th.

But the past couple weeks I've been really good about working out, because I want to lose the 5 pounds I've gained since February, and hopefully 5 more. Marty was tallying calories at coke break one day (he's big into weight lifting and counts his calories religiously), so I had him add mine up. By coke break, I had already had almost 1600 calories! And I hadn't eaten dinner yet! What can I say--I like food.

So. I just have to be diligent in my exercise planning to make sure it actually happens. Last night I was going to sit at home, still sore from Saturday's adventure race, but I know I won't get any exercise tonight because we're going to the baseball game. So I dragged myself to the elliptical machine for half an hour. I watched the Astros while I ellipticalled. They went down 4-0, but rallied for the 7-5 win once I was back in my apartment watching the end. It was nice to see them come from behind for the first time in what feels like forever.

The toughest part about trying to lose this 5 pounds is staying away from Jo's candy drawer in the afternoons. Mmm, candy. I have no willpower.

Jen wrote up a trip report from the Jen-Gavin-Becca trip to Colorado, and I posted it for her here. You can all go read it and join me in being jealous that they got to go hike in the mountains while I was doing a triathlon in freaking hot Austin. :)

Monday, June 21, 2004

You have my postcard wrong.

You have my postcard wrong. Or, at the very least, you could correct it for me before putting it up for all and sundry to see (thanks, by the way, so now everyone thinks I'm a lush ;). As in fixing "greeting" to "greetings" and "mine" to "wine" (I am pretty sure, at least, that I wrote "wine" even if it looks like "mine").

I really wasn't drunk. But I'd had two glasses of wine which is enough to make me feel it and I thought it would make for a fun postcard. Which, apparently, it did. I am glad it made you laugh! ;)

Cari

Ok, to be fair, turns out that I did accidentally mistype "Greeting!" instead of "Greetings!" and the "mine" could maybe be "wine" upon closer inspection of the postcard. But still. Cari is funny. Hee hee hee.

Monday, June 21, 2004

come Josephine in my flying machine / and it up she goes / up she goes

Dude. I had been feeling sort of uninspired by the whole SpaceShipOne thing, but then it landed. And it was being towed off the runway by an ordinary pickup truck! And the pilot was sticking his arm out a tiny window and waving and giving a thumbs up! And then he just hopped out and started talking to the press! That is cool. Spaceflight gets such a reputation for being complicated that it's nice to see proof that it can be simpler, if not easier.

Anyway. Cool.

I had a fairly uneventful weekend. On Saturday morning, Debbie and I did an adventure race at Jack Brooks Park, about halfway between here and Galveston. The race advertised itself as being beginner-friendly, but it was mostly experienced teams, and we finished only a few seconds in front of the last place team. It was about 2 miles of trail running, followed by a ~4 mile mountain bike loop, followed by maybe 1.5 miles of paddling in an inflatable canoe, followed by another mountain bike lap. The winners finished in an hour and 44 minutes; we finished in 3:27. The paddling was the hardest part, as neither Debbie or I are experienced canoe-ers, and the distance we had to paddle was longer than expected. They'd advertised it as a 30-40 minute paddle and it took us over an hour. There was also a disappointing lack of mystery challenges, which was what had made the adventure race we did last fall so much fun. I don't think we'll be doing this one again.

Yesterday I stayed home to do some cleaning, because my mom is coming to visit on Thursday. Yay! I got a lot done, despite being very sore from the race. Sitting down and standing up was evil on my quads, and my arms hurt something awful from the paddling. I hadn't expected to be so sore, but I guess the length of the race and the heat of the day really took it out of me.

Jason and Debbie went to the Astros game yesterday 4 hours early to attend FujiFilm day or something, where they got to take pictures with all the Astros. It was originally supposed to be a big group for Jason's birthday, but the game sold out before we got tickets, so that plan fell through. I thought about going (Jason and Debbie just bought single-seat tickets and ended up sitting wherever they could find), but decided against it because 1) I wanted to sleep in and 2) I actually didn't care that much about getting my picture taken with the Astros. The only thing I missed, however, was getting my picture with dopey-eared shortstop Adam Everett, who I happen to find really cute in that dorky sort of way. I always go for the dorky looking ones. Say what you will, but I think Adam is so cute. :) Fortunately, Debbie got to see him for me.

Last night we had another soccer game. I've about had it with my team. At 5:00, the scheduled start time, we had three players there. Three. We waited until 5:30, thanks to the other team being extremely patient and wanting to simply play, since we'd driven all the way to Texas City, at which point we had 8 players and could at least start the game. By the second half, we had a full team of 11, but of course we lost anyway. It's pathetic that our team can't manage to show up on time. It's pathetic that even when we play, we can't play as a group and thus we lose. I don't really know what to do, short of jumping ship and joining one of the other women's teams. Sigh. I don't play to win, really; I just play to have fun, and because I enjoy soccer. But this is getting ridiculous.

So everyone went down to lunch today and left me here. Obviously I wasn't paying attention, as I didn't realize that no one was here until about 5 minutes ago. But you'd think they would think to say "hey Sarah, let's go." Oh well. I have to pick up Katie and Fred from the airport this afternoon, so I guess I'll just eat at my desk and get the extra half hour.

Monday, June 21, 2004

So, if you're interested, there's

So, if you're interested, there's a bunch of people out in the Mojave at this very moment trying to make spaceflight history. Fun stuff.

Saturday, June 19, 2004

I love having both a

I love having both a sister (Katie) and a friend (Cari) living in Europe at the moment, mainly because it means that I get a lot of postcards. I adore getting postcards. I have one of those French memo board things specifically for postcards, and it's already two layers thick.

Katie's first card arrived from Cologne on Thursday, and Cari's latest postcard is from Neuschwanstein in Germany. Becca and I went there three years ago. The card made me laugh:

Dear Sarah,

Greeting! I am drunk. Not really, but a little tipsy--my parents keep getting mine & I'm such a lightweight. But what do you care? :) Today we saw two castles. Impressive. This one's supposedly the inspiration for Disney's Cinderella castle. I want to live in a castle!

Love, Cari

Friday, June 18, 2004

It has been a long

It has been a long week, and I'm glad it's Friday. Today turned out well. We had a meeting this afternoon with some EX and EG guys to talk about our ideas for using neural networks as an abort determiner (or determinator as some call it, but Grammar Girl maintains that determiner is the correct word) for the 2009 Mars mission. It is a cool idea, and I presented our charts on it. I'm not very good at giving the presentation yet, because I am still learning about neural nets and how we plan to use them myself, but fortunately I had a lot of backup at the meeting. And it was less of a presentation than a roundtable discussion.

Kara, our co-op from last fall, proved that neural networks could work as an abort determiner, but she was only studying a very specific case--trying to land during a severe dust storm on Mars. So this summer it is my job to broaden the scope of the project. Anyway, the end result of today's meeting is that they want us to continue developing the neural network technology and revisit the problem in a few months to see how it's doing with a broader range of Mars entry trajectories.

So. I know what I will be doing at work for a while now, and that's a good thing. As I learn more about neural networks, I realize that they are really pretty interesting, and so even though it's more code, maybe it won't be so bad. And, I get to write the code, rather than just debug endlessly.

I'm pooped. Time to go home.

Thursday, June 17, 2004

It is nasty hot outside

It is nasty hot outside this morning. The humidity is such that it is hard to breathe, leaving me feeling suffocated by the thick and heavy air.

I walked into the office, and though the air is clearer in here, the feeling of just being stifled didn't go away. I am frustrated with work, and with tasks that are assigned to me but that I just don't understand. I lament not getting anything new to work on, and yet I can't seem to get anything done on my current projects. No wonder they don't want to assign me to anything else.

Last night I picked up Irwin from the airport, and since Debbie and I didn't go kayaking, I ended up sitting with him at the beach club watching the sailboat races and then, once Becca finished, going out to dinner with them at Mely's. It was a good night, but I'm in a weird mood, and when I got home just after 9:00, I was desperate for a run.

Let's just say that running after dinner at Mely's and one of their famously strong margaritas was not the best idea I've ever had. I made it through 5 kilometers, but slowly, and with much stomach discomfort.

Wednesday, June 16, 2004

we are living in a material world / and I am a material girl

My sister posted the link to this 80s music quiz on her site. It is really fun to take, especially if you're a child of the 80s like me. I have to admit that I didn't do that well (end score of 69.5), but I offer two reasons: first, I didn't listen to much radio in the 80s and when I did, it was whatever easy listening station my mom had on, and second, I've never been good at calling up song lyrics without the music that goes with them. On a lot of these, I couldn't quite get the correct answer but once I scored the quiz and saw the whole line, I could immediately start humming the tune.

Just the way my brain works, I guess. Without the music, I don't remember the lyrics nearly as well.

Last night the Astros gave away the baseball game. It was incredibly frustrating to be in the stands, surrounded by the Cubs fans that seem to pop up everywhere (now I understand how people are often annoyed by the numbers of Braves fans everywhere; thank WGN and TBS for that, I guess), and watching the Astros leave twelve men on base. Dotel took the blown save, although all three of his runs were unearned due to Lance Berkman's catching error to open the ninth. The really sad part is that Wade Miller pitched great, and really deserved the win. Instead, he got a no-decision, and the Astros dropped their second game in a row to the Cubs. Hopefully they'll win tonight and tomorrow to split the series. Though I'm sure Christina and Ben are happy about the past couple days...

It took me all afternoon yesterday (not to mention multiple days a few weeks ago), but I finally pinned down part of the problem in my sim. Thank god. It doesn't exactly make me happy, because the damn thing still doesn't work entirely as it should, but at least it's a step in the right direction. As I was saying to Jen last week, it wouldn't be so bad if I were 1) writing my own code or 2) debugging my own code. But I'm 1) trying to fix someone else's code and 2) trying to debug someone else's code. From my limited experience with code, I am convinced that no two people ever think about it in exactly the same way, thus making it exasperating for me to try and interpret someone else's stuff, much less fix it.

You'd think I'd be happy to find a bug that at least two other people haven't noticed. Instead, I'm just annoyed.

And so it goes. I'm picking up Irwin from the airport tonight since Becca is sailing, and then Debbie and I are going kayaking in her Walmart inflatable kayak. If it doesn't continue to thunderstorm, that is...

Tuesday, June 15, 2004

We are having an unusual

We are having an unusual morning thunderstorm. There were dark clouds and lightning all around as I drove to work. Maybe the weather had something to do with my bad dream last night. It was the second bad dream I've had in three days now, which is pretty strange.

On Saturday night in the hotel in Austin, I dreamed that my parents' house burned down. I know that's a fairly common dream, but I can't say I've ever had it before. I chalked it up to the fact that we all slept horribly in that hotel room, waking up every hour or so until we were all thinking "ugh, isn't it morning yet?? I can't sleep!" If any of us had known that any of the others was having the same trouble sleeping, we would've just gotten up and had a little party or something. The room had some kind of bad karma. Seriously.

But last night I dreamed about another shuttle accident, which really freaked me out. The accident was caused when the orbiter was hit by a mattress (yes, a bed mattress) that fell out of the sky, which of course is bizarre and impossible, but when you're dreaming you don't recognize things like that. The astronauts managed to bail out and survive, while the orbiter landed intact (tank, boosters, and everything still attached) on the deck of some tall office building and teetered back and forth like a see-saw. Also bizarre, but again, didn't realize that while asleep. So I was totally freaking out, and woke up all in a tizzy, heart pounding, only to realize that it was still dark out and I was still in bed.

Whew.

After a three week break, we finally get back to our baseball season tickets with a vengeance this week. We have tickets to the Astros vs. Cubs tonight and Thursday, and vs. Angels on Saturday. And only one month until the All-Star Game!

Monday, June 14, 2004

under the sea / under the sea /
darling it's better / down where it's wetter / take if from me

I posted the triathlon results last night (see below). James left a comment on the entry, saying "It's funny that Laurie's run time was so good, but you still beat her by seven minutes. I guess swimmers always are favored in triathalons." It was an interesting comment, so I thought about it for a minute.

But nah. It just looks that way because I didn't show the whole story.

Triathlons don't favor any particular discipline; they favor the person who can be nearly the best in all three. For reference, take a look at the breakdown for the top three finishers yesterday. The winner (1:05:23) was 23rd in the swim, 3rd in the bike, and 2nd in the run. Second place (1:06:22) was 15th, 2nd, and 7th. Third place (1:09:41) was 14th, 6th, and 10th. It's all about having the best balance of very fast times.

Or, you can look at it this way, as Jen put it in an email: "If the swim takes ~15 minutes for a very good swimmer and the run takes about ~20 minutes for a very good runner, then the run is more important because it lasts longer. Therefore, someone who does 10% worse in the run will lose more time than the same in the swim." That argument makes sense to me, and indicates by extension that the bike may actually be the most crucial part. The winners do the swim in 12-13 minutes, the bike in 31-33 minutes, and the run in 18-20 minutes.

You can be a great swimmer (like me) but if you can't be competitive on the run, you won't win; you can be a great runner (like Laurie), but if you can't be competitive on the swim, you won't win. Laurie beat me by 11.5 minutes on the run (25:00 as opposed to my sluggish 36:31), but I beat her by 12 minutes on the swim, 5+ minutes on the bike, and about 2 minutes in the transitions. I stayed ahead of her only because I'd built a lead in the first two disciplines. If the run had been longer (say, a 10K), she would have passed me. Even my advantage from the swim and bike wouldn't have kept me ahead of her if she'd had more time to run.

That said, the swim does seem to be the portion that either makes or breaks the "casual" racers like me. Everyone knows how to run and learns how to ride a bike, but not everyone is taught how to swim. I also think that being in the water is scary to people who didn't grow up around water; there is an element of unpredictability about it, especially when swimming in a open water where everything is murky, you can't see the bottom, and have no black line to follow or use as a point of reference. The water makes a lot of people uncomfortable. I think swimming is a skill that you have to learn and practice, just like riding a bike. The only difference is that going to swimming lessons isn't as common as going out on the sidewalk with your dad so he can let go of the bike while you aren't looking and thus teach you how to ride.

I've done three triathlons now, and at each one you see people who look more like they're fighting the water than gliding through it. Of course, you also see people that look like they've never been on a bike before, or people (like me) who are barely shuffling along at a jog. But just as with biking and running, some people will be naturally good at swimming, and I think I'm in that lucky category of being somewhat of a natural swimmer...which, for the record, is only fair since I'm definitely not a natural runner!! :)

In any case, the fact that the swim is my strongest discipline is a bit unusual.

Sunday, June 13, 2004

triathlon results

        Last Year   This Year
        ----------- -----------
SWIM    18:40       17:33
        (439/2374)  (276/2724)
T1      6:20        4:39
BIKE    50:41       46:19
        (1104/2374) (790/2724)
T2      2:51        2:13
RUN     38:22       36:31
        (1612/2374) (1488/2724)
        ----------- -----------
OVERALL 1:56:56     1:47:17
        (1214/2374) (807/2724)

The triathlon went very well this morning. Last night I told Laurie and Buzz that my goal was 1:50:00, and that if I was having a very good day, 1:45:00. I had hoped to go faster in the run, but forgot about how hilly the course was, and was pretty darn tired. But I improved my time on every single portion of the race, and improved my total time by almost 10 minutes. And I am ecstatic about it. :)

The triathlon series spokesperson had a mantra that she has everyone repeat as we're in the water counting down the final couple minutes until we start. With each stroke, you tell yourself: I. Am. A. Great. Swimmer! Out of 2700+ racers, my swim time was in the top 300. That is pretty darn cool.

Laurie and Buzz both did awesome as well, crossing the line in 1:54:12 and Buzz in 2:21:36. Laurie was 79th (yes, 79 out of 2724) in the run. She's crazy fast.

Friday, June 11, 2004

I looked up tonight as

I looked up tonight as I was finishing my swim to see a long wandering line of wispy clouds lit by the setting sun, and glowing orange against the blue of the sky. I was done with my laps and catching my breath from going just over a mile in the water, so I sat in the pool for a moment, transfixed by the orange of the clouds, the blue of the sky, the green of the palm trees and the pink of my apartment complex.

I spent too much money today, but got a lot of things I'm looking forward to using. A sleeping bag for the Longs Peak trip is in my living room right next to a new book from Barnes and Noble. A new mountain bike is in my garage. And a couple of DVDs and a few camping supplies are on their way from online merchants. If I had a million dollars at the moment, I could probably spend it entirely on athletic and camping equipment.

I talked to Jen this afternoon, and it was oh so nice. I have never been a phone person, and with so many of my friends blogging regularly, it is all too easy to keep up with their lives remotely, but simply reading what they write. It was good to talk on the phone though. Jen is one of those friends that I can come back to and forget that it's been months since we spoke, because it is easy to talk to her. It is good to have friends like that.

It's been a good day.

Friday, June 11, 2004

amazing grace / how sweet the sound

I was only two years old when Ronald Reagan was elected, and only ten when he left office. I don't follow politics closely now, and I certainly didn't when I was a child. My only vivid memories of world events in the 1980s are the Challenger accident and the tearing down of the Berlin Wall, and I remember more about Mikhail Gorbachev than Reagan. But I suppose that each of those can be traced to President Reagan, in his speech after the loss of the astronauts, and his work to end the Cold War (despite having left office by the time the wall actually fell), and his meetings with Gorbachev while establishing a relationship with the Soviet Union.

He looked like a movie star, and according to those who knew him, put people instantly at ease with a joke or a smile. And while watching the funeral this morning, on my unexpected federal holiday, even though I never knew him and don't really remember his presidency, it was impossible not to like him.

With so many world leaders and familiar faces together in one place, I have to wonder about the person they are all there to honor, and wish that he hadn't been quite so before my time. Amid the pomp and ceremony and quiet formality that constitutes a state funeral, it was impossible not to feel sad.

Thursday, June 10, 2004

I can almost see the sky / when I need to close my eyes

I decided while on vacation that I should try to start coming to work at 8:00. That's only a half hour earlier than I usually get in, which only means getting up when the alarm goes off instead of snoozing three times, but being here at 8 means I can leave at 4:30 instead of 5. At the end of the day, that final half hour feels like an eternity.

So this week I've been very diligent about getting in by 8:00, and it really does make a difference. Yesterday I was home in time to go on a 15-mile bike ride, shower, get a pedicure with Jo, pick up Quizno's for dinner, watch some baseball, talk to Carter for a while, load his Chicago pictures into my gallery, finish my May issue of Outside, and go to bed. Wow! I managed to do all that after work!

I still haven't decided what I'm going to do with my day off tomorrow. I may try to round up the remaining things I need for the Longs Peak trip, which might but hopefully won't involve a trip all the way back up to REI again. Though I have been wanting to go to IKEA for a while now anyway, and that's in the same general direction, so ending up at REI for the second time in a week wouldn't be too bad. ;) Outdoors stores are beginning to wrest Target and SuperTarget from their position as "Sarah's Favorite Store Ever."

I also need to stop by Barnes & Noble to find another Flash tutorial book. I'm helping Chris create a website for his friend Cheri, a pro wheelchair racer, and there's something I want to do that I can't for the life of me figure out: loading an external website's HTML into a Flash movie. Maybe it's not possible, but I dunno.

Wednesday, June 09, 2004

Yeah, I'm a big blogging

Yeah, I'm a big blogging slacker. This week has actually been pretty busy at work, so tomorrow I'll be thinking TGIFF, meaning Thank God It's Fake Friday. Because we have Friday off. So cool. We all keep talking about plans. I think some Ronald Reagan Memorial Laying-By-The-Pool may be in order for moi.

Chris ended up joining Becca, Jason and me for the trip up to REI last night, so we all had a grand old time. Jason bought boots (the same ones he originally tried on over a month ago, which made me laugh), Becca bought a whole slew of stuff in last-minute preparation for the weekend trip to Colorado, and I bought a bike rack for my car. Actually, the bike rack came from Sun & Ski Sports, after REI was sold out of the one I originally wanted. I'm starting to really like Sun & Ski, as every time I can't find something elsewhere, I always find it there. I should really consider going to them first, I suppose.

Anyway. Sun & Ski was having a 20% off sale that included all their Yakima bike racks and accessories. I had been planning on buying a rack that was $160, but ended up buying a nicer rack that, with the discount, was still $160. It's nicer in the sense that the arms that hold the bikes fold down, as well as the rack folding out to allow you to open the back door. (The cheaper rack had arms that didn't fold). I also bought a discounted hitch lock, so now I can lock the rack to my hitch, and the bikes to the rack.

It's all very cool, and now we have the means to get three bikes and four people to Austin this weekend in a single car. Joy. Little things like bike racks make me happy.

Tuesday, June 08, 2004

I wish for nothing but the rain / to fall and wash away

So I had a sim this morning, and it was both good and bad. On the plus side, it was cool to have an actual reason to be in the control center, and to be doing something different. But I just don't understand all the loop lingo and displays, and was left feeling very confused for most of the time. During the fifteen minutes that I was actually important, Rich was there as well and answered half the questions. And so it goes. I'll be at the debrief tomorrow with my pretty maps.

All the flight controllers kept asking me "so, where did we land?" It's a funny question, because there is no clear answer other than "we landed in the ocean, of course." And open ocean, as far as I know, has no landmarks of note. Though to be most accurate, I guess I should say "our simulated unmanned vehicle broke into approximately a bazillion pieces, 99.9% of which landed along a 1300 nautical mile long, 65 nautical mile wide swath in the south Pacific, east of New Zealand, southeast of Samoa, and due south of French Polynesia."

Ta daa. I am Footprint Girl. All ye bow down to my knowledge of deadly pieces of spacecraft.

And if that doesn't work, I decided yesterday afternoon after a discussion on the use of the word "quote" that my other superhero alter-ego will be Grammar Girl. I'll cover the globe until I rid the world of improper speech and spelling.

Now you can all make fun of me when I type something hideously misspelled. No comments on my bizarre inability to pronounce certain words though; pronunciation is not the same as grammar. :)

Tonight: REI with Becca and Jason. Becca, Gavin and Jen decided today to randomly jet off to Colorado for our unexpected three-day weekend, and I'm mad that I can't go too. Or probably just jealous. I have the triathlon on Sunday though, which I am looking forward to, so things will be ok.

Monday, June 07, 2004

there is a castle on a cloud / I like to go there in my sleep

Oh yeah. Becca and I went to Galveston on Saturday to see the sandcastle competition. It was really hot, but the sandcastles were really cool. Pictures here.

Monday, June 07, 2004

beet greens and blue are the colors I choose / won't you let me go down in my dreams

The rumors are flying; it appears that we will have Friday off work as President Bush has declared it a federal holiday and day of mourning for President Reagan. An unexpected but definitely welcome vacation day!

I'm such a flake sometimes. Last week I was updating my resume, which needed serious work since the last time I looked at it was November 2001. Last night in the shower, I was thinking about working on the Technique in college. It's sort of ironic, but I realized that James was the one who got me involved in the paper in the first place when he had me write that silly article about MARTA. Next thing I knew, I was Chris's assistant, then Entertainment Chica.

...Ok, so I started this entry at 10:30 a.m. and I'm just now getting back to it. Anyway, the point I was getting to was that in updating my resume, I had the dates wrong for when I did which section editor position. It's funny how quickly I've forgotten the nitty gritty details of what I've done in the past few years.

And, as I found out in the six hours since I began this entry, we do get Friday off work. Woohoo! Free holiday! I'm a little surprised. I don't know who was the last president to die (Nixon?), but I wonder if it was also named a federal holiday. Interesting.

Anyway. This is yet another dull entry. I just haven't had the energy to write lately, and when I do have things to write about, it's complaining. And I'm tired of complaining.

Friday, June 04, 2004

the wheels on the Xterra go round and round

My car turned 1000 miles yesterday as George and I were driving off-site to go pick up Chinese food. One month, one thousand miles. I am the epitome of the average driver. Woohoo!

Friday, June 04, 2004

I don't really like morning

I don't really like morning radio shows. I wake up to one, but it's not for the content as much as it's for the fact that I know the often-grating voices of the DJs will wake me up. They're occasionally funny, and I like some of the games they play...but on the whole, I'd rather just hit snooze repeatedly. This morning, however, I listened to the morning show for an entire half hour while I laid in bed dozing. They had this improv comedian on who does impressions, and he was freaking amazing! Maybe it seemed even better because it was radio, and I couldn't see his face...but he was incredibly good. His George W. Bush was dead on, as was his Jack Nicholson, Jeff Goldblum, John Madden, and Adam Sandler. He did Paulie Shore, Robin Williams, Terry Bradshow, Ted Koppel, Bill Clinton, Kermit the Frog...I mean, I can't even remember all the different voices he did. And he switched between them so fast that it sounded like all these people were literally in the radio booth having a conversation. And he was funny too!

I came to work and had to look the guy up. Gavin heard him on a different radio station this morning, so apparently he was making the rounds. His name is Frank Caliento and he's in Houston for three shows. We may go see him on Sunday. I'm telling you, he was good.

Anyway. That's my randomness of the day. Dude was hilarious.

Thursday, June 03, 2004

Nick showed me something yesterday

Nick showed me something yesterday that's sort of put me in a "career goals" tailspin. Yes, more than I was already in.

Rich said I should be a sportswriter. That would be awesome. A baseball writer. Or, I should get a job in the marketing department for a baseball team. Or, I should be a travel writer. There are so many awesome jobs I would love to do, that I'm totally not qualified for with an engineering degree!

Sigh.

So following the endless blog chain (you know, my friend's blog links to their friend's blog which links to their friend's blog), I came across this very funny summary of the movie Troy. Don't read it if you don't want to know the entire story, but then again, since it's all based on The Iliad anyway, hopefully you already know the story. In any case, it's funny. See:

PARIS: Hey, bro! Look what I have on board ship!
HECTOR: Is it a picnic lunch? Dear God! That's not a picnic lunch! Take it back! Also fetch a picnic lunch.
PARIS: I will go back with her and be killed!
HECTOR: Because there's no way my father would declare war on Menelaus for killing his son. I can't let you do that, RETARD.
PARIS: *looks pretty. and yet stupid. and yet, pretty.*
HECTOR: I'll take you two back to my dad. We can imprison you and send her back, and Troy will be saved.
PRIAM: Sons! And my new daughter!
HECTOR: Being retarded clearly runs in the family. Damn it.

And:

PARIS AND MENELAUS: *fightfightfight*
PARIS: *snivels and clings to Hector's feet* But I'm too preeeetty and retarded to die!
ALL THE TROJANS: Oh my Zeus, this is so embarrassing we think we might die.
PRIAM: His mother said we should send him to a special needs school. But I thought if we just sent him to an English boarding school, which is where he got the accent, he'd be fine!
HELEN: *facepalm*
ANDROMACHE: Ahahahahaha my husband rules and your lover drools. Ahahahahahahahaha!
HECTOR: Let go, Paris! Please! You're embarrassing us all? Come on, dude, you're getting snot on my sandal.
PARIS: Wah!
MENELAUS: You left me for this?
EVERYONE: Dude, it wasn't his sword she was interested in. It was like, his bow. He's really good with a bow.

So yeah. I love the Internet. What did we do before it existed? What did we do before cell phones existed? And (what the hell) ICQ? I've realized that I am firmly anti-technology only until I decide to get a piece of the previously despised technology. Then I love it.

Wednesday, June 02, 2004

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

So how bad is this: in looking through all the photos I took this past weekend in Chicago, I realized I have not a single picture of Christina. I only took pictures of the baseball games and at the top of the Hancock building, and thus I only have pictures of myself, Carter, Rich and Steve. I have a picture of Izzy the cat, but not of Izzy's owner. How bizarre, how bizarre.

In any case, I posted quite a few pictures for everyone to see. Here are a few of my favorites:

Chicago, from the top of the Hancock building
Comiskey, I mean, US Cellular Field
Frank Thomas, literally a split second away from hitting a double
Me at Wrigley Field
Milwaukee's racing sausages
Miller Park

Chicago was fun. It was excellent to see Christina, and meet Ben (who I liked a lot), and hang out with Carter, and go to three baseball games that were played despite the thunderstorms and their disappearing/reappearing act. I loved the city, of course, as much as I love all old cities with narrow streets and public transit. I love Christina's purple living room, and blue bedroom, and green hallway, and I think I may do some painting of my own soon.

It was an excellent weekend that ended annoyingly with a 4-hour delay at O'Hare. Our plane had "mechanical difficulties" and we were eventually rebooked on a United flight to Houston that left at 2:50 p.m. (Our original flight was supposed to leave at 11 a.m.) Oddly, it wasn't the lateness that annoyed me as much as the fact that there was no way to have known about the lateness ahead of time. If only I could've said from the beginning, "rebook me on the 5:00 flight and I'll go spend the day in Chicago." There was a lot downtown that I still wanted to see.

We got off the plane to hot, humid, hazy air. And again, I asked myself why I live here. And again, I didn't really have a great answer. It is so depressing to be back at work today, and I can't wait until my next vacation.

Sunday, May 30, 2004

I love urban apartment buildings,

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thursday, May 27, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

60 Seconds with Chris Lamoreaux...

Go here to read the background on this little post.

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

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

Chris, your 60 seconds are up!

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

ODIN guy tried to fix

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

So an ODIN guy finally

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

Oh wait, he just came back.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Yeah. My computer still is

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

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

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And my computer still isn't fixed.

Tuesday, May 25, 2004

and they say computers make life better...

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

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

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

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

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

Sunday, May 23, 2004

I won't be making your

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

Fore!

Saturday, May 22, 2004

put me in coach / I'm ready to play

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

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

Friday, May 21, 2004

I hate code. Hate it

I hate code.

Hate it hate it hate it.

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

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

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

"Smile, Sarah."

Thursday, May 20, 2004

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

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

Though I'd rather have Kool-Aid.

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

there is no shortage of things to amuse me today

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

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Swapping SUVs for smaller cars,

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

That is funny.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

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

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

Enough uses of the word "good."

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

on this perfect day / when nothing can go wrong

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 18, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, May 17, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

Saturday, May 15, 2004

because everybody's after love

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

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

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

Friday, May 14, 2004

60 Seconds with Jason Helms

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

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

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

Jason, your 60 seconds are up!

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

Thursday, May 13, 2004

blogger, blogger, make me a blog

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

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

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

Thursday, May 13, 2004

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

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

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

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

Good, good.

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

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

And that's all she wrote.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

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

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

Anyway.

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, May 10, 2004

choices, choices

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

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

...

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

Monday, May 10, 2004

and remembers being small / playing under the table and dreaming

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

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

Yeah. Like I said. Doing nothing.

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

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

And another long week lies ahead...

Sunday, May 09, 2004

baby you can drive my car (part 2)

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

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

Friday, May 07, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

...

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

Thursday, May 06, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

I was about to literally

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

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

And thus ends this exciting update.

Tuesday, May 04, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Monday, May 03, 2004

my friend Jes makes me laugh

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

Monday, May 03, 2004

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Friday, April 30, 2004

I bought a new car!

I bought a new car!

First, here's my old car, my fantastic, reliable, cheerful little Sentra. I almost cried when I had to leave it at the dealership. It will be an excellent car for someone else.

And now, here is my new car! A red Xterra. Yay! It feels weird to be driving a bigger car again, but I'll get used to it soon enough. And it does fit in my garage (I actually wasn't sure that it would). This picture is at the dealership...

And this picture is at my apartment complex!

Friday, April 30, 2004

I'm writing you to catch you up on places I've been / and you held this letter /
probably got excited / but there's nothing else inside it

I have been in some sort of weird limbo lately with my health. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, and yet I haven't actually come down with a cold. I just feel very blah. Tired, and my throat has been hurting for a few days. Not the type of hurt that usually precedes a true head cold though...just a scratchiness such that by bedtime, I feel like I've overtaxed my vocal cords or something.

Strange. I think I just need sleep. And a weekend "off," meaning, a weekend where I don't have 10 million things to do, at least one of which involves getting up before 6 a.m. Unfortunately, this weekend won't be it, because I'll be up at 5 a.m. on Saturday to drive over to Sugarland with Buzz to do the Speedo Women's Triathlon. However, next weekend is looking clear so far. I think I'm going to try to keep my projected May 8-9 plans to a minimum. Of course, the weekend after that is the Beach to Bay relay in Corpus Christi...

I think I need to slow down.

I left work early yesterday and Dad and I spent the afternoon checking out cars. I think I'm going with the Xterra. We went to one dealership in Sugarland (since I had to go over there anyway to pick up my race packet for Sunday), where I took an Xterra on an extended test drive. About 10 miles in all, including about 4 miles on the interstate to see how the car did with accelerating and passing. My dad likes the Xterra a lot. So we checked out two more dealerships to see what they had on the lot... I think I have decided not to get blue after all, and am currently trying to find a red one. Wouldn't you know, the only red one within 100 miles that's equipped just how I want it is in Port Arthur! (Port Arthur is basically on the TX/LA border.)

Anyway. Dad's calling the parts department this morning to see if an accessory can be added for a reasonable cost, and if so, the dealership just up the highway has a red one that's just what I want. Or, alternately, there are a bazillion silver ones out there. I guess I just was hoping for something different. My little Sentra is silver/beige, and I thought it might be nice to get a change of pace. But we'll see. I'll either get "thermal red" or "silver lightning." You can check the colors out here and let me know what you think in the comments section.

Yes, that was a blatant attempt to get you guys to write comments. I like comments. :)

Last night we did get home in time for me to go swimming with Buzz. She is improving a lot, especially in her swimming endurance. She can do a lot more laps than she used to be able to do! Yay. It was a good swim. I probably did 24 or 25 laps in all. I love swimming. Though the pool was dirty, and massively over-chlorinated. Made my skin all dry and my hair all yucky.

Thursday, April 29, 2004

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

Dad is here! Hooray!

Last night was crazy busy. I left work at 4:30 and met Jason to run a few errands, then we met everyone at the Seabrook Beach Club to watch sailboat races and meet Cari's friend Kelly. Kelly is from Canada, and was at ISU in France for the past nine months (as was Cari), and is working at UTMB in Galveston for the intern portion of the master's degree program. She seems pretty cool, and we are definitely enjoying the opportunity to tell Cari how Kelly is going to take over her life, her friends, and her dog while Cari is "stuck" in Germany for the next couple months.

The sailboat races were really fun to watch. Becca's been sailing in them for at least a year now, and Gavin has started crewing, but neither of them were racing last night. I'm interested in crewing, but at the moment I have pretty low confidence in my sailing ability. Once I get my new car this weekend and thus can tow the sailboat Becca and I bought last summer, I'll get a lot more practice and maybe can start racing. It looked like a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun just to watch as well. It made me want a Sunfish (small, one-person sailboat).

After the races, Paul and Jason and I hung out for a while, and at 10:00 my dad arrived! Yay! He made pretty good time from Charlotte...17 hours total. I think he was pretty tired of being in the car by the time he got here. He likes my new apartment (he'd only seen the old one, and without furniture), and seemed as happy with a bread and cheese sandwich as anything else. My dad is weird. :)

Today we're going to start serious car shopping!

Wednesday, April 28, 2004

oh I know / things are gonna change /
the only thing for certain / is that nothing stays the same

Last night I was tired and cranky and didn't get home from work until after 7:00, but when I opened my mailbox I was greeted with a beautiful sight: the order form for tickets for this summer's MLB All-Star game. I am so excited. The tickets have to be bought in the entire package, of course, which means I will be attending the Futures Game, the Celebrity Softball Game, the Home Run Derby, and the All-Star Game itself. July 13 can't get here quick enough.

I'm going to the baseball All-Star game!
I'm going to the baseball All-Star game!
I'm going to the baseball All-Star game!

I am really tired today. I got in at 7:30 because I had a meeting to go to at 8:30, and I figured an extra hour couldn't hurt. My dad is arriving tonight, so I will probably take tomorrow afternoon and Friday afternoon off to go car shopping/haggling. The rest of the week and weekend will be busy, with Dad in town, car shopping, baseball games, and a triathlon. Buzz and I are doing the Speedo Women's Triathlon in Sugarland on Sunday morning as a "warm-up" for the Danskin in Austin in June. This weekend's race is a bit shorter (only 300m swim, 10 mile bike, 3 mile run as opposed to 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 5k run) and, of course, the terrain is significantly flatter.

I should have people come visit me more often. My dad's imminent arrival has done wonders for the state of my apartment. It's cleaner and neater and less cluttered than it has been in months! I have a few more things to straighten up tonight before he gets here. He's driving, and left at 6 a.m. this morning. I called him at 8:15 my time to check that he was on his way, and he was about 50 miles from Atlanta. At the moment, five hours later, he's probably closing in on the Alabama/Mississippi border. About an hour across the bottom piece of Mississippi, about six hours through Louisiana, and another hour and a half in Texas till you reach me. That should put him here sometime between 10:00 and 11:00 tonight.

Ah, the Charlotte-to-Houston drive. It's been almost two years since I did it last, but I still feel like I know every inch of that road. I hated that drive, but at the same time, I sort of liked it. Early in the morning, in the first hour, knowing that I had a whole day of driving ahead of me just brought me down. But by mid-day, with the cruise control on and a Coke in the cup holder and the radio playing and me singing along happily, the miles just slid past. I used to play games with myself, trying to guess the mileage to the overpass I could see up in the distance. I was pretty good at guessing accurately! I measured my progress in cities or landmarks: the Peachoid, Greenville, the "Atlanta Braves, 1995 World Champions" highway sign, Georgia Tech, Carter's house, Birmingham, the big bridge outside of Mobile, Stennis Space Center, the I-12 shortcut, Baton Rouge, Lake Charles, the "El Paso, 768 miles" sign, Beaumont, and finally, the golden bridge on 146 over the Houston ship channel. I always felt like I was almost home when I reached the Texas border, or, going the other way, when I got to the Georgia border. I used to stop in Atlanta for the night, of course, to drop my stuff off at school before continuing on to Charlotte. My crazy dad does the whole thing in one huge gulp.

Crazy dad.

Semi-random site of the day: Nick got a bird a couple weeks ago, and has now set up a webcam that updates every 10 seconds or so, and you can watch Belle all day. Sometimes she's not there, but a lot of the time she is sitting on the windowsill. It's very amusing. Once it refreshed and she was looking right in the camera. Funny.

Another semi-random link: Here are the "official" photos of me riding in the MS150. Select "MS150 Houston to Austin 2004" as the race, and put in my last name and bib number 4161. So if you wanted a good look at me in my race-car-driver-esque jersey, take a look. :)

Tuesday, April 27, 2004

if I sorted it out / if I knew all about / this one thing / wouldn't that be something?

Ugh. Today has been very frustrating so far. Matlab is taking forever, since I'm having to deal with huge trajectory files. SORT is being a huge bother by continuing to violate the minimum altitude for reasons that are as yet unknown. I can't figure out why. This is why I didn't major in computer science, for god's sake. It's absurd. And the freaking debugger is only really effective if you know which subroutine the thing is breaking in, and I don't.

I really hate coding.

This whole day just started off on the wrong foot when I went downstairs to get into my car this morning and discovered that my water heated had exploded and was leaking water all over my garage. Beautiful. I've lived in this complex for less than two years, in two apartments, and the water heater in both has broken! I think the complex is about 10 years old, so maybe that's the lifespan on a water heater. Anyway, it wasn't a huge deal, since I took my shower last night, and this morning I washed my face, so it must have busted this morning right after that...but the leaking water got all over one of the cardboard boxes of Yuri's Night pint glasses in my garage. I came close to breaking the glasses as I tried to move the box without picking it up too far (since the bottom was so wet it was falling apart).

Annoying.

Last night Jason, Debbie and I had a group car-driving outing. I drove the Vue for the first time and the Liberty for a second time, both over a very bumpy and pothole-ridden road. The Liberty continues to ride better than expected, making it an annoyingly tough choice. I think I've ruled out the Saturn, because it doesn't seem to be as rugged overall as the Liberty and Xterra, and for some reason is just not as appealing to me. But the Liberty is really starting to give the Xterra a run for it. As Leila said this morning, basically now I have to choose between Kent and Leila. Kent drives a Liberty, Leila and Brian drive an Xterra. Funny.

Ok, this is truly bizarre. I went into the debugger to check the one subroutine I thought my code might be breaking in, couldn't find anything wrong, and so clicked "continue" to crash the run and exit the program...and now the damn thing appears to be running. WHY?????? I hate this program!!

To top it all off, it's absolutely beautiful outside today, and I just want to go home.

Monday, April 26, 2004

dubya

This is one of the funniest blog entries I've read lately. I don't really care whether or not you agree with him, and I'm not going to say how much or how little I agree with him. Basically, I don't know the guy, but his post cracked me up, especially the disclaimer part at the end. (I like cookies and ice cream and pretty kittens too!)

Monday, April 26, 2004

cars and trucks and bears, oh my!

The more I read about each of the three SUVs I am considering, the more stressed out I get. Under consideration: Jeep Liberty, Saturn Vue, Nissan Xterra. I wish I could take each one home for a 24 hour test drive.

Any advice or opinions are welcome.

Monday, April 26, 2004

if I traded it all / if I gave it all away / for one thing / just for one thing

Ok, let me clear one thing up. The picture below is of Viggo when he was alive. He's not dead in that picture. Do you people seriously think I would post a picture of a dead fish? Sick!

So the weekend was nice. Friday night was dinner and Laser Tag for Gavin's birthday. Gavin was the best at the game, but I was second. Woo! It was really hot in there though, and after only two games, I felt like I'd really had a workout for the night. Saturday morning, Gavin, Jason, Debbie and I headed over to Sugarland for the Bayou Bash relay race. Four team members each run 2.81 miles. It was a pretty frustrating morning; it was raining and the race coordinators were very unaccomodating. Turns out that we were supposed to have picked up our packets on Friday, but we didn't know that. We had tried to find out by checking the race webpage (which said no race day registration, but didn't say no race day packet pickup) and by calling the phone number listed there (but no one answered the phone). Since the packet pickup location was almost an hour's drive away, we decided that it would be ok to wait until Saturday morning before the race.

Mistake! People from the running club that organized the race repeatedly berated me for not having picked up our packets and numbers on Friday. The first woman gave me a blank look. The second woman said she didn't know where our numbers were. The third woman told me I was supposed to have picked them up yesterday (ok, fine, but that doesn't help me NOW does it?). Finally I found a helpful man who had seen our numbers and knew right where they were--in a box in the back of the SUV where the second woman had been standing when she told me she didn't know where they were! Ugh. At this point we had our numbers at least, so we could run. We figured we'd ask about our t-shirts afterward.

The race went really well, despite the rain. Jason ran well without any foot problems in about 22 minutes, I ran well (right at about 26 minutes) even though I apparently went 0.1-0.2 miles too far (the turnaround wasn't clearly marked, at least in my opinion), Gavin ran fast as usual (under 20 minutes), and Debbie did the run in under half an hour--this with both knees yelling at her from knee braces! Go Debbie! Our team finished in 1:36:04.

Afterwards, I made two more attempts to get our t-shirts, which we wanted because we had paid for them, but also because it was going to be really nice to have a dry t-shirt to change into! One man was very rude to me, saying that "well if you didn't pick up your packet yesterday, I'm sorry, but I think you're SOL..." but I finally got four t-shirts. Not wanting to push our luck, we immediately left.

Now that I've planned my own race, I feel like I have a little leeway to complain about bad organization on the part of others. ;) Well, not entirely, but I just don't understand how not having picked up our packets on Friday was as enormous a problem as they made it out to be. Totally unnecessary for them to be so rude and unhelpful to me.

Anyway. That's the end of my mini-rant. Saturday afternoon I test drove both the Jeep Liberty and the Nissan Xterra. I'd also planned on trying out the Saturn Vue, but ran out of time, so I'm gonna go check that one out tonight. I'm getting closer to a decision, though I actually liked the Liberty more than I had expected to. It was smoother than I'd thought it would be, being a Jeep and all. I don't know if I can get over the fact that it looks squished though. I know that's not a good reason to not buy a certain vehicle, but as Jason said, I was something I'm going to be happy driving for 5, 6, 7... years. So. I am leaning towards the Xterra. But at the same time, I'm starting to have major anxiety over buying a car. It's such a big purchase! What if I buy one and then something breaks! Or after 4 years I start having lots of problems! As I was telling Jason yesterday, I don't want to know how the car performs brand new...I want to know how it's going to perform five years from now. Wondering is stressing me out.

My dad is coming down to help, though he called today to say he's not coming until Wednesday (he had been planning to come tomorrow). I really want him to drive the Xterra and tell me his opinion. If he likes it, I think I'll be sold.

Saturday night we drove to the other freaking side of Houston to watch Nick perform in his company's spring ballet. It was better than advertised, and I enjoyed it a lot more than the Nutcracker that we saw at Christmas. Afterwards, we all went out to dinner. His dad paid for the entire thing! His dad is very cool.

Yesterday Jason, Gavin, Jen and I made the trek up to REI to take advantage of the last day of their spring sale. I got $60 back on the tent I bought at the end of March, and turned right around to use that money to buy hiking boots. The longer I stay in REI, the more money I spend! My hiking boots are awesome though. They were comfortable the minute I put them on, and my feet hardly move at all in them. I wore them last night as I vacuumed and cleaned the bathroom. You know, to start breaking them in. :)

Soccer was cancelled last night, so I had dinner with Debbie, Jason and Chris and then came home to watch the Braves while I cleaned my apartment. It was a good pitcher's duel until J.D. Drew cleared the bases with a triple, and came home on an error. Bit of a weird play, actually, I don't think I'd ever seen that before. At first I thought he had gotten an inside-the-park home run.

Sunday, April 25, 2004

moment of silence

He put up a good fight after I accidentally almost killed him last summer, but ever since then, Viggo has had a tendency to look a little...off. Sadly, he died yesterday. Vtot will miss having him to puff up at as the "evil red fish in the other bowl." Here's a picture of Viggo in happier times.

RIP Viggo. You were the best fish ever!

Saturday, April 24, 2004

"la la la la lay" called the master of the wise-eyed boat

An entire duck family just walked past my window. Mama Duck, Papa Duck, and about a dozen adorable little duckings. Some of them were running through the tall grass, and others were coming under the fence closer to my apartment, till Mama and Papa scooted them back to the other side with a stern quack. So cute!

Friday, April 23, 2004

take a drag and wait for the Greyhound / the world is your playground / and you wanna win

The Astros lost again. This time it took twelve innings and Reggie Sanders. He beat the throw the first to get on base, stole second, took third on Ausmus's throwing error when trying to get him out stealing, and came home on a squeeze play. You could hear the infield shout "squeeze!" even up at our seats, but it didn't help them get Sanders out. And so the Cardinals swept the Astros. Sad, sad.

Also, I don't know much about the NFL, but it seems to me that Eli Manning it being a bit of a baby by not wanting to play in San Diego. That's the way the draft works. The team chooses you, not the other way around.

It's been a hectic week, and I've been sleepy through it all, so I'm really looking forward to the weekend.

Tonight is Gavin's not-a-surprise surprise party. See, first we were supposed to have a surprise party for him tomorrow night. But then his parents surprised him last weekend, which made Matt think he'd missed the party, and he didn't quite cover it up enough, and so Gavin sorta figured it out, and then Jen thought they had something else to do tomorrow night, so she told him, but then it turns out that they don't have something to do tomorrow night, but by that time some of us had already made other plans for tomorrow night (going to Nick's ballet), SO...we're going out to dinner tonight. And playing Laser Tag. Woo! I suck at Laser Tag, but at least it's fun.

Tomorrow morning Gavin, Jason, Debbie and I are running a relay race. Same one we did around this time last year, where everyone runs 2.81 miles. (No, I have no idea why it's 2.81.) Anyway, it should be fun. Debbie has bad knees, Jason has a bum foot and lingering concussion, I'm tired and slow, and so basically Gavin is the only one who will run any sort of reasonable time. Must be nice to be a natural runner!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm test driving cars. Within two weeks, I'll have a new car. Or, rather, SUV. Yes, Katie, kill me now, I'm getting a gas guzzler.

Sunday night I have a soccer game. Yay!

Thursday, April 22, 2004

by the time I recognize this moment / this moment will be gone

Today has been busy, busy, busy. I finally have a task--uncrewed orbiter undocking and disposal--that's mine, and it's involved a lot of running around and input-providing and data-gathering this week. And another task--abort logic for the 2009 Mars mission--has suddenly become high priority at least through the end of the fiscal year (September), so that will begin to take a lot of my time.

Tonight's another Astros game. Hopefully they can win, and avoid being swept by the Cardinals.

Ok, so I didn't have as much to say as I thought.

p.s. Jason's head is ok. Just a concussion. Much relief on everyone's part.

Wednesday, April 21, 2004

buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks / I don't care if I never get back

So much to say, so little time.

I finally made it to the ballpark last night for my first game of the season. It was, as they say, good for my soul. The Astros ended up losing 5-3, unfortunately, but hopefully they'll win tomorrow night when we go to our next season ticket game! The usher in our section is pretty cool, if a little loopy, and so it should be a good season. My only complaint about the seats is that if I'm not sitting up on the edge of the seat, the railing obscures my view of the plate. But I suppose that goes along with the territory in getting gimp seats at the cheaper price! :) Pictures here.

And I forgot to mention yesterday that my MS150 pictures are posted as well, here.

Oh! During the 7th inning stretch, there was a streaker! I've never been at a game where anyone streaked before; it was hilarious. The crowd immediately ceased singing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and started laughing and cheering. He was a big fat ugly guy. He jumped down from the stands above the right field wall, stripped off all his clothes, and took off toward center field. He paused there to shake his booty for all the people up on the center field balcony overhang, then continued toward left field. By this time, four security guards were closing in, so the naked guy juked left and right, trying to avoid them. But he wasn't wearing any shoes, so he quickly slipped on the grass and fell down, at which point the security guards tackled him. I, of course, took a picture. Couldn't resist. Here's the dude being escorted off the field.

Very funny.

On to other news. When I got back to work on Monday, Debbie informed on Friday at a nearby park, Jason attempted to go over some jump on his mountain bike. In typical Jason fashion, he crashed, went over the handlebars, landed on his head and cracked his helmet. He got up laughing, I'm sure, as his reaction to pain is to laugh instead of cry. Freak. Anyway, yesterday I find out that his head has been hurting more and more, so he went to the doctor yesterday, who said "I think you have a concussion, well, I mean, you do have a concussion, let's get you a CAT scan to make sure it's nothing worse than that." So yesterday Jason literally had his head examined. The sheet he took to the CAT scan place had a line for which body part to image, and the doctor had checked "brain." So. That is that. It made for a lot of good jokes at the baseball game last night ("Jason, how many fingers?"), but hopefully it is only a concussion, and nothing more serious. In fact, as soon as I finish writing this I should call Jason to see if he has heard the results yet.

I don't know what we're going to do with that boy.

Oh, and the third cool thing of yesterday is that Cheri Blauwet, a good friend of Chris's, won the Boston Marathon on Monday. Yes, won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston freaking Marathon. Crazy. Her time was 1:39:53. Here is a picture of her on Chris's page. She's also won the New York and L.A. marathons, set a world record in the women's wheelchair 5K, has arms that could crush you, makes a living off winning races (she won $10,000 for Boston), and I think she's going to the Paralympic Games this summer. And she's smart enough that she's currently in medical school at Stanford. Pretty damn impressive.

Man. Makes me tired just thinking about it. Or maybe it's just that I'm really freaking tired, period. Tonight I have no plans though, so hopefully I will get to bed early. Hopefully.

And finally, there was a thing on the Blogger homepage this morning about testing out Google's Gmail service, so I signed up. Gmail me so I can play around with it. Need a topic? What's the best thing about baseball (or your favorite sport), and why?

Tuesday, April 20, 2004

Yeah, I didn't get around

Yeah, I didn't get around to updating yesterday. I was in a sleepy haze all morning, and then had work to do all afternoon. But better late than never, right? So here it is, my recap of the MS150.

SATURDAY - Houston to La Grange - 83.8 miles

I didn't sleep very well Friday night due to noisy neighbors and being generally nervous and anxious about the ride, and sort of tossed and turned all night until the alarm went off at 4:30 a.m. Yes, 4:30 a.m. For those keeping score, that is really freaking early. Anyway, I had packed everything Friday evening, so I just put on my biking clothes (including spiffy/ugly Dow team jersey; I felt like a race car driver covered with sponsor logos), at a bowl of cereal, threw my backpack and sleeping bag into the car, and put my bike in the back seat. I have to take the front wheel off to fit it in there, but it's better than using my sketchy bike rack on the highway at 70 mph. Ah, in two weeks when I have a new car I'll never have to worry about transporting my bike again!

Anyway. I was on the road by 5:10 and got to the stadium right at 6:00. The ride actually had two starting points: Tully Stadium in west Houston, and Rhodes Stadium in Katy. The ride from Tully was about 15 miles farther on the first day; in fact, I drove past Tully on my way to Rhodes. The Dow team had a team start arranged at Rhodes though, and I wanted to start with the team (and saving 15 miles didn't hurt)! In any case, I got to the stadium, unloaded my bike, dropped my backpack and sleeping bag in the big pile of luggage to be trucked to the overnight stop in La Grange, and headed to the start line.

From what I can tell, doing the ride with a team is definitely the way to go. The Dow team made sure everything was taken care of, from start to finish. We got to start right after the BP team, at 7:05 a.m., while people in the back of the line probably didn't even get out of the stadium until after 8:00 (they start people in waves to control the flow of bike traffic). I was on my way!

Lunch in Bellville was about 35 miles away. I made good time there, averaging over 18 miles an hour and stopping at only one of the break points to suck on some orange slices (which quickly became my favorite break point item) and drink some Gatorade. I was at the lunch stop at 9:15--early for lunch, but I ate it anyway. Turkey sandwich, yogurt, pasta, potato salad. Mmm. By 9:45 I was back on the road.

The second half of the first day was the hardest part of the entire ride for me. The weather was nice (sunny and about 75 degrees), but it was really windy. The last 30 miles of the first day were pretty much all into a headwind, and up and over one rolling hill after another, which made for some tough biking. I didn't mind the hills as much as the wind. It was brutal! The last 4 miles into La Grange were the worst of all--directly into the wind and up progressively steeper hills. Ugh! I was so happy to roll into the fairgrounds and across the first day's finish line. I arrived just before 2:00 having averaged 15.2 mph for the day. You can do the math--I averaged over 18 mph before lunch, so I had to have average below 12 mph after! I was totally worn out and wondering how in the world I'd ever be able to get back on my bike on Sunday.

After hanging out in the Dow tent for a couple hours though, I was feeling better. No sooner had I walked under the tent than I was greeted with a clean t-shirt, a dozen different drink choices, a full meal, and best of all, a free massage! With some food in my stomach and a masseuse working on my back and neck, I was a happy camper. I sat down with a couple guys who'd finished around 12:30 (speedy!) and talked to them for a while, and at 4:00, I finally saw Angela (a coworker of mine) and her friend Andy come into the tent. We hopped on a bus to a nearby middle school and took showers (ahh). We got back to the tent around 5:30, at which point I was already hungry again, so I ate a second dinner to go with the meal I'd eaten three hours earlier. After that I wandered around the fairgrounds for a while, taking pictures and seeing what was going on. The place was like a carnival--there were games, a climbing wall, a stage, live music, funnel cakes, etc. I walked over to the finish line around 7:00 and people were still steadily coming in, including some guy on a unicycle. Wow.

As the sun started to go down, I started getting really tired, so I headed back to the team tent. Dow provided air mattresses for everyone, which was awesome, so I got mine and found a nice spot at the edge of the tent to set up my bed. I laid around for a while and was just about to fall asleep when the 9:15 fireworks started. Boom! That woke me up again, so I went outside to watch them. They were over by 9:30 and I tumbled onto my air mattress once again and was conked out within minutes.

SUNDAY - La Grange to Austin - 69.7 miles

I woke up when someone in the tent next to us started crowing like a rooster. I figured it must be 5:30 or so...imagine my surprise when I looked at my watch and it was only 4:30 a.m.!! No way I was getting up that early again! I rolled over and dozed for another 45 minutes. At 5:15 I finally got up and hit the breakfast table in the back of the tent. Cereal, eggs, bacon, a big muffin and...coffee! Score. As my food digested, I put on another day's cycling clothes and packed up all my stuff. Dropped off my luggage at the trucks again to be taken to Austin, topped off the water in my camelback, and headed over to the start line with Angela and Andy. Trying to get 13,000 cyclists out of one gate is no small feat, and many people had been in line for an hour or more by the time we got there at 6:40. The official start was at 7, but we didn't get out until almost 8:00.

It was a bit chilly, and for the first few miles I wished I'd worn my windbreaker. By the first break point, though, I was warmed up. I didn't skip any break points on Sunday, as my poor butt needed the rest! I took the "easy" route out of La Grange; just like on Saturday morning, there were two routes to get to lunch. One was about 12 miles longer and went through a very hilly state park, while the other followed highway 71 into Bastrop. I chose the shorter route (the "FedEx Express Route" for those of you craving product placement), which was still pretty hilly, though not as scenic. It wasn't quite as windy early in the morning, and at some places we even had a tailwind, so the going was easier. I reached more than 36 miles per hour coasting down one long hill! That was exciting.

Lunch was in Bastrop at the high school there, Subway sandwiches, chips, and free ice cream sandwiches. By 10:30 I was on the road again with only about 40 miles to go! The break points were pretty evenly spaced out from lunch on, which my butt really appreciated. :) The road flattened out a lot, which was both good and bad--good to not have to climb many hills, but bad because there were no downhills to coast and give my legs a break! At the second-to-last break point there were three goats--very random--and the last break point had Girl Scout cookies and was blaring country music. I was in a great mood by this point, as I wasn't feeling as bad as I had Saturday afternoon, and I knew that I only had 10 more miles to go!

The miles into Austin were pretty slow since it seemed like more and more cyclists were being crammed into a smaller and smaller lane of traffic, but the last mile or so was awesome. It was really windy (I mean, really windy, like blowing trash cans over windy), but mostly downhill. I coasted happily down into the UT campus and past the Longhorn football stadium (just like how the Austin half marathon ended!), then it was just one last quick climb up a hill and around a corner, and there was the Capitol and the finish line! There were lines of people cheering on each side, and I was really excited to be there. Woohoo!

From there I put my bike on a truck back to Houston, and enjoyed a meal at the Hooters tent. That chicken sandwich really hit the spot! I checked in at the Dow tent, took some pictures, found my luggage, and found Angela and Andy (we'd gotten separated early in the day) at the shower trailers. After a lovely shower, I gathered my stuff and hopped on a bus back to Houston. I fell asleep for the first hour, but ended up talking to my seatmate for the rest of the trip back to the stadium in Katy. After talking about our experiences on the ride for a while, I discovered that he was a baseball fan, so we talked baseball for probably half an hour. Fun. :)

Next thing I knew, I was back at my car. All the bikes were trucked back to Tully Stadium, and since I'd left from Rhodes, I had to drive to Tully to get my bike. I expected my bike to be there, seeing as how the truck I'd put it on had left Austin at 2:05, I hadn't left Austin till 3:45, and it was now 6:45...but no luck. Each of the trucks were named after a baseball team so you could keep track of which truck your bike was on; I had put my bike on the Yankees truck (despite saying in Austin "I can't put my bike on the Yankees truck, I hate the Yankees!"). Stupid Yankees. I should have actually paid attention to what I was joking about! I don't know what the driver did on his way from Austin to Houston, but it took him a whole five hours to get to Tully, finally arriving at about 7:15. I only had to wait for half an hour but still--five hours?? Crazy.

Bike in hand, I finally headed home.

TOTAL - Houston to Austin - 153.5 miles

All in all, the MS150 was a cool experience, and I'll probably do it again next year. The one thing that would have made it better is if I'd been able to convince any of my friends to do it with me. I had a good time and raised more than $500 for the MS Society (speaking of which, if you would still like to donate, and in turn receive a really cool thank you card hand-made by yours truly, you can do so here).

Monday, April 19, 2004

I may not get to

I may not get to writing a full update till this afternoon, since it will be fairly long, and I'm very tired. But till then, enjoy the pictures I sent over the weekend! Or, you can get live updates on today's running of the 108th Boston Marathon.

Sunday, April 18, 2004

Back in my car,

Back in my car, now I just need to go get my trusty bike.

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

1:35. I'm in Austin!!

1:35. I'm in Austin!! HOORAY!

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

12:35...eating cookies. Only TEN

12:35...eating cookies. Only TEN more miles!!

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

At the 11:30 rest

At the 11:30 rest stop there was a goat.

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

11:25 and getting closer!

11:25 and getting closer!

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

Lunch break at 10:10.

Lunch break at 10:10. (We started just before 8:00.) Almost to Austin!

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Sunday, April 18, 2004

Ready or not, it's

Ready or not, it's time to ride again at 7:00...

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

Has anybody seen my

Has anybody seen my bike? Hee hee.

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

7:00 and people are

7:00 and people are still finishing for the day. I finished just before 2:00. Now I've showered and eaten and am feeling pretty good. My legs are sunburned though.

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

Hooray! In the Dow

Hooray! In the Dow tent in La Grange. I am seriously sore and cannot wait for my free massage!

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

1:00 with my trusty

1:00 with my trusty bike.

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

12:30 rest stop. 60

12:30 rest stop. 60 miles down, 20 to go.

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

11:00 port-a-potty break. I

11:00 port-a-potty break. I am officially tired!

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

Lunch at 9:30...

Lunch at 9:30...

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Saturday, April 17, 2004

First rest stop for

First rest stop for me.

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Friday, April 16, 2004

A quick note before I

A quick note before I go to bed (yes, at 9:30 on a Friday!)...I'm going to take a few pictures along the way to Austin with my camera phone and send them to this site. They should go through ok and show up within two hours of when I send them, unless my computer at home flips out or something. So check for updates if you're interested. :)

Friday, April 16, 2004

big wheel keep on turning / Proud Mary keep on burning

Ok, did anyone else find it a bit strange that when Donald Trump said "you're hired" to Bill, the Apprentice suddenly segued into something like a Price Is Right rip-off?? What was with the boardroom disappearing into a soundstage? And the cheesy band? Dude. So chintzy. I was just waiting for Rod Roddy to pipe in with "Hey, Bill, come on down, you're the next contestant on The Apprentice! Behind door number one, manage construction of a Chicago skyscraper! Behind door number two, manage a beautiful golf course in Los Angeles! And folks, he'll do it all in a.....newwwwww carrrrrrrrr!"

Cue the music. Doot doot do dooooo, doot doot do doooo, doot da-doo-doo da-doo-doo da-doo-doo doot doot do doooo.

If only they'd brought out the Plinko game.

Anyway. Twenty four hours from now, I'll be pedaling away on the road to LaGrange, and then Austin. The plan is thus: Tonight I pack, putting extra clothes, toiletries, and my sleeping bag in the new backpack I got at REI a few weeks ago. Woohoo, a chance to use my new backpack! Tomorrow morning I'll get up at like 4:45 (ugh), load my bike and pack into the car, and drive an hour over to Rhodes Stadium in Katy, one of the two locations the ride starts from. I'll drop off my luggage and find the Dow team, and we'll start riding at 7:00! It's 82.6 miles tomorrow to our overnight stop in LaGrange, where I'll relax, get a massage, and sleep under the big Dow tent. Sunday morning I'll be up bright and early again to ride the remaining 80.2 or 68.5 miles (there are two different routes you can take out of LaGrange, the normal and the "express," so I'll decide which one to take after seeing how I feel on Sunday morning!) into Austin. We finish in front of the state capital, at which point I'll put my bike on a truck headed back to Houston, and hang out, shower, and eat before hopping on a bus to follow my bike back home.

I have no idea what time I'll be back, but at the moment, I'm figuring on somewhere around 5-6 hours to ride the first day, not counting the lunch or rest stops...so that'd be getting to LaGrange between 2 and 3 tomorrow afternoon. Sunday, assuming I get started at 7 a.m. again, and take the "express" route, I figure on arriving in Austin by 1:00. Hang out for a few hours, hop on the bus, back in Houston by 7 or so. Get my bike and everything, and finally home by 9 or 10. Whew! What a weekend!

I will take plenty of pictures, and have many stories to tell on Monday morning, I'm sure. At the moment, I'm both anxious and excited.

I've been saying that once the MS150 is over, I'll have a chance to catch up on other things, but of course that's probably not true. As soon as that's over, I have to prepare to buy a new car (Dad's coming down on the 27th to help me with the purchase). And I have to go back to REI next weekend to exchange my tent; I got the spring sale catalog in the mail the other day, and the tent that I bought for $160 three weeks ago is not on sale for $110. I called them, and they have a 30-day guarantee, hooray. My obsession with keeping receipts for anything over ~$100, especially electronics and outdoor equipment!)

So I get $50 back that I can then turn around and apply to some new hiking boots. Oooh, soon I will have everything I need for the Colorado trip and beyond. So exciting. I think at least one or two people might end up with the same tent as me. $110 is too good to pass up if you've been thinking about buying a backpacking tent!

And finally: Jo sent us the link for the moon Quizno's spongemonkeys again yesterday, and Matt got to looking around the site and found this short, random, and slightly disturbing cartoon: Mr. Stabby. The worst part about it is that once you've watched it, the dang theme song gets totally stuck in your head!! "Mis-ter Stabby, la la la la la la..."

Thursday, April 15, 2004

I'm off on a rocket ship / prepared for something new /
I'm off on a rocket ship / ecstatic with the view

This morning I couldn't find my keys. Now, it's very unusual for me to misplace them, so after spending 30 seconds looking in the most obvious places (on the end table, on the couch if I threw them down the night before, on the bar, or on the floor around the end table) I stopped to think about the last place I'd had them. Which was last night when I came home from running errands and opened the door. I had a lot of stuff in my hands and was anxious to turn the TV on to catch The O.C. (pathetic, I know), so I left the keys in the door momentarily while I hurried in to drop the grocery bags on the kitchen counter, then back to the car for the second load, then back inside.

This morning when I couldn't find them, I remembered all that and opened the front door. There were my keys, still hanging in the lock. Just as they had been all night. Whoa. I felt some relief knowing that my door has a deadbolt that I always lock, and so even if someone had happened along, they wouldn't have been able to get into my apartment. But they could've gotten into my garage, and taken my car or something. Eek. Talk about dumb!

Anyway. Crisis averted, and I'm sure I won't do that again.

I am so excited about the Apprentice finale tonight, it's ridiculous. Ooh, and last night at the store I impulse bought these mint 'n creme Oreos (I love minty things) and they are SO yummy. And, for the moment, I'm in first place in my all-star fantasy baseball league. I'm in sixth place in my other league. I care a lot more about my placement in the all-star league since serious bragging rights (and a Homer Simpson beer trophy) are at stake.

Tonight after the Kwame vs Bill showdown, I'm going to start gathering everything I need for the MS150 this weekend. Yes, it's here, and I'm now officially getting a little anxious. I hope I'm prepared! I hope I can ride that far! I leave with the Dow team from Rhodes Stadium in Katy, which means I have to be in Katy by 6 a.m., which means I have to get up by like 4:45 at the latest. YUCK. But my bike is in good shape, I have spare tires tubes, and yesterday I bought new socks (one pair with Godzilla on them and one with flames). I also bought a new pair of bike shorts that were expensive (why are bike shorts so expensive??), but they do have super duper padding in the butt, so hopefully it will turn out to be a worthy purchase!!

If any of you would still like to donate to the cause (all money benefits the National MS Society), follow this link or the one in the sidebar. I've met the minimum fundraising requirement, but since when should I settle for the minimum? So donate away!

Wednesday, April 14, 2004

this is your life / is it everything you dreamed that it would be / when the world was younger

Well, I still got it. ("It" being the ability to run 6+ miles without collapsing.)

Buzz and I did a big lap around the center last night. She's been keeping up with her long runs, but I hadn't done anything longer than a 5K since the Bayou City Classic more than a month ago. We were both tired, so we took it slow, something around 10:45 miles. The wind was pretty brutal back on Space Center Blvd as well. Ugh.

I run a lot, but still I wouldn't say that I love to run. There are days when I definitely feel the need to get out there and relieve some stress and just work everything out, but there are other days when running is the last thing that I want to do, and every step feels like some monumental effort. I don't think I would be able to stick with running like I do if 1) there weren't so many races to keep me motivated and 2) I wasn't able to mix it up on a regular basis with biking, swimming, soccer, etc.

Buzz, on the other hand, really does enjoy running more than anything else. She'd rather run than bike or swim any day, while I definitely have different exercise modes for different moods. Last night I wasn't really in a running mood, but it turned out ok. I sort of got into a zone where I was just listening to Buzz breathe and watching the pavement pass underneath my feet.

Did I mention that my mp3 player broke a while back? Yeah. Not my iPod, but the little dinky player I used to run with. So I need a new one, and I'm going to buy it off Amazon with birthday gift certificates, but I don't know what to get. It seems like they sell most of the tiny ones these days with armbands, and I don't want an armband. I hate wearing an arm band while I run. I want one with a belt clip. Oh, and I want one for under $150 (I only need 128 MB). Anyone out there have any suggestions? I've put George on the case, so I'm sure he'll find me something acceptable...

John offered to take some of us entry folks sailing tonight on his boat (a big enough sailboat that he lives on it) since it's so nice out, and I would go, except I'm supposed to stay at work till 6:00 in order to make up hours from yesterday. Sigh. What to do, what to do... I should really just work till 6, then go home and relax, since I need to catch up on sleep still before the MS150 this weekend. But sailing sounds like so much fun!

Tuesday, April 13, 2004

this is your life / and today is all you got now / and today is all you'll ever have

I needed a night where I got at least 8 hours of sleep, and last night I finally decided that the only way I could do that anytime soon was to take this morning off. So I did. And slept blissfully until 10:00, when I got up, showered, picked up lunch at Quizno's, and finally made it to work around 11:30. Ahh. I will admit that there's at least one good thing about having a desk job--being able to sleep in without causing any problems for anyone else.

In any case, the fact that I took the morning off work should tell you that Yuri's Night last night was awesome, with about 250 people braving the oddly cold (about 55 degrees and windy) spring weather to party with us and celebrate spaceflight. As this Wired article says, "in 10,000 years, will humans still be partying on the Fourth of July? Probably not. Bastille Day? Doubt it. The day humans first left their home planet? If we're still around to party, probably so." So hooray for spaceflight, and hooray for a successful Yuri's Night Houston 2004. Pictures (mostly bad ones of people partying in dim light, but c'est la vie) are here.

Tonight I'm attempting to jumpstart my running again with a lap around the space center with Buzz. That's somewhere around 7 miles. We're both tired, so it'll be slooooow. After that, I absolutely positively must go to the grocery store. I've been living on take-out, pizza, Quizno's, and other assorted food for like three weeks now. The cupboard is bare.

Monday, April 12, 2004

cause I can't wait to figure out what's wrong with me /
so I can say this is the way that I used to be /
there's no substitute for time

These days, I need the weeks to recover from my weekends. How tiring! This weekend was crazy nonstop activity.

Friday night was swimming with Buzz and Becca in order to prepare Buzz for the swimming portion of the two triathlons we are doing on May 2 and June 13. After that session, I called my mom and thanked her for putting me in swimming lessons all those years! It's funny--on Friday I realized that 1) I really know how to swim and 2) I totally take it for granted. Poor Buzz cannot swim! Well, I mean, she can swim, as in she probably wouldn't immediately drown if thrown in the water...but she has never been really taught how to cover any sort of distance in the water. We needed accurate 300-meter swim times to submit for the first triathlon we're doing.

I'm not exactly sure how long the lap pool in my complex is (it's either 25 yards or 25 meters, don't know which), but my time for 6 laps/12 lengths was 6:10. If the pool is only 25 yards, I'd need to do one more length to get to 300 meters, which would put me right at 6:40, which is the time I submitted based on scaling my half mile swim time from the triathlon last year. Anyway. Becca covered the 6 lap/12 length distance in about 9:00 (though she's not doing the triathlon, she timed herself anyway). Buzz didn't actually do the distance all at once, but we estimated her time at somewhere around 13:00.

It was sort of surreal. Buzz is the most athletic girl that I know; she's incredibly strong and always pushes herself hard. But never having had a good swimming lesson, she's less-than-average in the water. I've never taught swimming before so I'm not quite sure how to help her, but I think practice will help as much as anything. Her stroke was getting better towards the end of the 45 minutes we spent in the pool, and I think it will continue to improve.

Saturday morning I got up early to run in the Resurrection Run at a church nearby in Nassau Bay. Sean and Amy were both there, along with Kristin (wife of a guy that works down the hall), so that was fun. I finished in 30:30, which is more than a minute off the last 5K that I ran back in December, but I guess it's ok considering I haven't done much running lately. I was really hoping to finish under 30 minutes, but I started too fast (a 9:28 first mile) and as a result, felt horrible enough during the second mile that I had to take a couple quick walking breaks. I am so bad at judging my pace, but I'm going to have to work on it if I ever want to consistently finish under 30 minutes. I think I could have done it on Saturday if I'd only started with a 10 minute mile, and then sped up.

From the race it was home to shower, then lunch with Becca and Buzz at Mediterraneo, followed by a cheesy yet satisfying girl flick, The Prince and Me. From there it was home to meet Debbie, Paul and Sonia and then head downtown for the "final" Aeros game of the season. "Final" because they've made the playoffs, so there will be at least a few more games this year...

Sunday I was up early again. I sort of forgot about Easter; it came and went, my mom sent me a pretty pottery basket and my cow-print egg bunny (hard to explain), and that is that. Instead of having a big meal or going to church, I spent the day in the cold rain getting covered with mud and bushwhacking through the woods. Debbie, Jason, Paul, Sonia, Laura and I headed about 100 miles north to Huntsville State Park to mountain bike and geocache.

It was definitely an adventure, thanks to six different people with six different ideas of how to proceed. It was chilly (about 55 degrees), rainy, and muddy and people were in cranky moods, but in the end, at least three of us had fun, I think. We left Clear Lake around 9:30, checked out the Sam Houston statue around 11:00, made a pit stop at McDonald's for lunch and Wal-Mart for sweatshirts and raincoats (it was colder and wetter than we expected!). We were in the park by 12:30. The six of us covered a mile or so on bikes before Paul's crappy Las Palmas borrowed bike gave out, and the others were cold and wet. They warmed up in the car while Jason, Debbie and I covered another 5 miles of trail on bikes. By then the rain had stopped, and we were already wet and muddy anyway, so we decided to do a little caching. We found three easily, and Jason, Debbie and I ended up covering another ~3 miles on foot after we got lost on our way back from finding two of them. Oops. :) We made a final pit stop at Walmart to change into dry clean clothes before heading back to Clear Lake. Jason, Debbie and I had dinner at Texas Roadhouse and I finally got home 12 hours after we'd left, at 9:30.

Despite the arguing and crankiness and worrying, I had a good time. Just another lesson on how groups don't always work well together. Pictures are here.

And finally, tonight is Yuri's Night--for real. We've already had the 5K and the educational events, but April 12 is the actual anniversary of 43 years of human spaceflight. So wherever you are, tell someone that space is cool, and if you're in Houston, fight the nasty weather and come to Outrigger's for a fun party!

Friday, April 09, 2004

Friday Five

1. What do you do for a living?
I'm an aerospace engineer for NASA at Johnson Space Center in Houston.

2. What do you like most about your job?
First, the subject matter. I really do feel passionately about space exploration. It's incredible and inspiring and mind-blowing stuff and I wish everyone could see that. Second, the "coolness" factor. As in, dude, I work for the space program. We send people into the cosmos. How crazy cool is that?!? And finally, the people. My coworkers are awesome.

3. What do you like least about your job?
The little day-to-day monotonies. I hate that I sit in front of a computer all day, and that none of my work requires hands-on or extensive face-to-face activity, and that all the days are pretty much exactly the same. And at the moment, I hate that I don't quite have enough to do to really keep me busy 40 hours a week.

4. When you have a bad day at work it's usually because _____...
I feel underappreciated, like I'm just the number cruncher. Or, because my sims don't work.

5. What other career(s) are you interested in?
Something involving design (web, print, graphic, layout). Or journalism, in some sort of layout or editing capacity (though writing would be fun too). Or being a small-business owner of something like a running (or other athletic pursuits) specialty store, or an independent book shop, or a coffeehouse...basically, some kind of store that fills a local niche and attracts the loyal, grassroots type of customer that comes back because they like you and you make them feel good.

Friday, April 09, 2004

so hard to be so far out living our separate lives /
your phone was really broken -- I tried your number twice

I can't believe Carter chose church and choir over dugout level tickets to the Braves game. Come on. I'm sure God understands how awesome those tickets were...He'd forgive you! Man oh man. (Sarah shakes her head.)

It's weird: having missed opening night in favor of the basketball game, I feel like I spaced out on the beginning of the season. I've been turning on ESPN at night regularly now, but whenever they give the baseball highlights it feels a bit out of place. Truly tragic. I need to get my butt to the ballpark to get myself back into it, but unfortunately the Astros have gone on the road till the end of next week. And at that point I'll be MS150ing it towards Austin. My first game of the season will be April 20, against the Cardinals. Sigh.

We won our softball game last night in a low-scoring affair, 6-4. I went 1-for-3 and made a good catch in the outfield, so yay. After the game, Jason and I took Fred and Katie to find their first geocache; Fred just got the GPS attachment for his PDA and was eager to test it out. We found the "Near NASA" cache, containing some STS-107 stuff and hidden just across the road from Gilruth. Cool.

From there it was home to watch The Apprentice (Bill's gonna win; Omorosa is sabotaging Kwame; Why did he pick her?!? Though he was choosing second, so he'd probably have ended up with her anyway...) and fix my computer. The freaking bastard computer.

Yeah, it's still not working perfectly. Managed to format the hard drive again and reinstall Windows, but then couldn't get the screen resolution above 640x480. Very maddening. Reinstalled the video card drivers and that finally made the screen resolution normal again, thank god. Got the sound card working again. Got the modem working (because SBC was having a DSL outage, bastards). Was finally feeling good when BAM, up pops some crazy error message I've never seen before that says something about RPC service and starts counting down from 60 seconds, then restarts the computer. What the hell is going on?!? So I do some research on it this morning when I get to work to figure it out, and I find that hey, beautiful, within an hour of reinstalling the OS from a completely blank hard drive, and not having been able to download the Windows patches since I have no DSL and didn't want to do it over the modem, I've picked up the Blaster worm virus!

I HATE WINDOWS!!!!

So to sum up, my computer still is screwed up, and tonight I get to install all the freaking security patches and some antivirus software. This computer has caused me nothing but headaches. But I'm sure not calling Tech Support!! (At this point, they'd probably just laugh at me anyway since nothing is as it was when they shipped it.)

I know computers have made our lives better and blah blah blah, but I think I would be a lot less cranky if they'd never been invented.

Thursday, April 08, 2004

the equipment won't work? / ok, allright, I'll go!

George didn't come to work on Tuesday because he has pink eye. Now, every time my eye so much as twitches, I think I'm coming down with it as well. Nevermind the fact that my eyes are generally itchy. It's got to be pink eye. I'm so paranoid.

So here comes a rant. With apologies to Irwin, I FREAKING HATE MICROSOFT WINDOWS! (Yes, I know Irwin doesn't work in the Windows division, but he works for Microsoft, so he gets my wrath today.)

Over the weekend, I set up my new computer. It came with Windows XP Home; I had a copy of Windows XP Pro (from Irwin, so he's not all evil). "Oh," I thought, "well, I'll upgrade to XP Pro. The software documentation says to use the upgrade option if you already have XP Home installed." BIG MISTAKE.

Lesson Learned #1: Never upgrade. Wipe the freaking hard drive and start over. Save yourself the headache.

I came home from dinner last night and the computer was frozen. No biggie, I think, so I hold the button in, computer shuts down, I press the button again, computer turns on. Computer won't boot. It comes to some DOS screen saying Windows is having difficulties and I need to choose either safe mode, last known configuration, or start normally. Well, none of the options work. Nothing is working. I can't get the computer to boot, and I can't even get it to boot from the Windows CD. Also, my new computer doesn't have a floppy drive; they don't install them anymore unless you specifically request it, which I didn't. C'est la vie. At a loss for what to do, I decide to call Dell Tech Support. Now, I have never called Tech Support in my life, and I probably never will again after last night.

Lesson Learned #2: Tech Support people who deal with "peons" like me are condescending and treat you like an idiot, even if you've said enough that they should be able to tell that you aren't an idiot.

The tech support guy was completely unhelpful. First, he said I should never use the upgrade option for Windows. Good advice, but not helpful since I had already done it. Second, he berated me for putting a second hard drive in the computer. ("Why did you do that?" "Because it's a 100 GB drive, it's useful, and it has all my data on it." "But why do you need it?" "Uh...why don't I need it?" "The 40 GB drive that came installed should be plenty!!" "Whatever, dude.") Finally, he told me to never tell a tech support person that I'd installed my own hardware, and a different operating system than what came pre-installed. This I knew already, I mean, Dell isn't required to provide support to stuff they didn't install, but come on, how is he supposed to help me if I'm lying to him about what I've done to the system?!?

Lesson Learned #3: If you do have to call Tech Support, lie to them. (Yeah, it doesn't make sense to me either.)

After 5 or 6 minutes, it became abundantly clear that the guy was going to be of no use to me, and was only going to tell me what I'd done wrong, and how I shouldn't have changed anything from the way the computer was shipped. What a load of crap. So I hung up on him. Since all signs pointed to the problem having originated with Windows, I briefly considered calling Microsoft Tech Support, but decided I'd rather not deal with another possible condescending jerk.

I took the Dell hard drive out of the new computer, and stuck it in my old computer. Booted up the old computer, formatted the Dell drive, and installed Windows XP Pro (which takes like a full freaking 45 minutes to install). Took the drive out, put it back in the new computer, started the new computer, and.....now the new computer won't recognize the hard drive! It says there's no hard drive found! What sort of CRAP is that?? By this point, I've figured out that the reason the computer wouldn't boot from the CD is that I had the CD in the slave drive (the CD-RW) and not the master drive (the DVD-R); stupid me, I've never had dual drives before and didn't realize that to boot from one, the disc had to be in the master drive. (Gee, I wonder why the Tech Support guy didn't suggest that when I told him I couldn't get the computer to boot from the CD. There was his shining opportunity to be useful, and he failed miserably.) So now I've got the computer booting from the Windows CD, but the computer can't find the hard drive!! I try all sorts of configurations in the BIOS and nothing works. I'm at a total loss.

It's now past 1:00 in the morning. Thoroughly annoyed and frustrated and on the verge of throwing the hard drive across the room till it smashed into a bazillion little pieces, I decide to go to bed. This morning, I get up and am faced with open computers and assorted hard drives littering the floor around my desk. I decide to give it one more brief try before heading to work, and took the Dell drive out of the new computer and back into the old computer.

And that's when the entire IDE cable came out in my hand. And that's when I realized that in all the hardware switching going on late last night, the IDE cable had gotten disconnected from the motherboard. My hard drive was getting power, but that was it. No wonder the damn thing couldn't find a hard drive.

Lesson Learned #4: If Sarah is trying to fix a computer at 1 a.m. and is tired, cranky, and pissed off at Tech Support, she should go to bed and just leave it till morning, at which point she'll discover that not only are Dell and Microsoft idiots, but she can be an idiot too.

Moral of the story: Don't use the Windows upgrade feature, Dell Tech Support is crappy, and if your hard drive isn't being recognized, it might be because your IDE cables aren't connected to the motherboard.

SIGH.

The good news is that last night before all the computer headaches, I learned how to change a bike tire and now I'm not scared of breaking something, I had a yummy dinner with good friends, and the Astros won behind Roger Clemens's NL debut. He even got a single in his first at-bat!

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

I was just looking through

I was just looking through some new pictures my sister posted. She and some friends went to Montreat the weekend before last, up in the mountains of North Carolina. I love this shot:

Wednesday, April 07, 2004

All I can say is

All I can say is thank you, Smithsonian. They are finally taking steps to spruce up the Saturn V rocket lying on JSC's front lawn. Every morning I drive through the gate and see the Saturn V, which is so impressive and yet so decrepit after years of lying under the Houston sun. There are animals living in it, the metal is rusting, the paint is flaking off in huge pieces. It's a shame to let it decay out there, and I've talked about it more than once, even throwing out the offer of volunteering my own time to give the poor thing a fresh coat of paint. In the past couple weeks, I've seen people out inspecting it, but I didn't get my hopes up that they might actually be preparing to make major improvements. But they are! Hooray!

It is such a cool and impressive piece of hardware, and it'd be a damn shame to let it waste away. I'm really, really glad they're finally going to do something about it. I want to find out how to donate to the Save America's Treasures fund the article talks about, as long as I can donate directly to refurbishing the Saturn V.

I don't know why this news makes me so happy, but it really does.

Last night I finally went running for the first time in a couple weeks. I managed a 5K at just under 10 minute pace, but it was a struggle. Two weeks I think is right on the edge of starting to really lose my running fitness, so I needed to go. Since we're not going camping this weekend (instead, maybe to Huntsville State Park for the day on Sunday), I'm going to run in the Resurrection Run on Saturday, which I just realized will be my first 5K since December, believe it or not. I've run four other races this year, but two were half marathons and two were 10Ks. So my athletic calendar now looks like this (italics aren't definite, but knowing me...):

- Resurrection Run 5K this Saturday
- MS150 next weekend
- Bayou Bash relay, 2.81 miles each on April 24
- Speedo Women's Triathlon (300 m swim, 10 mi bike, 5k run) in Sugarland on May 2
- On The Run 5K on May 8
- Beach to Bay relay in Corpus Christi, ~4.5 miles for each of 6 people for a total of 26.2, on May 15
- Summer Kick-off 5K on June 5
- Danskin Women's Triathlon (1/2 mi swim, 12 mi bike, 5k run) on June 13
- Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4
- Lunar Rendezvous Run 5K on July 17

Whew. Three years ago I'd never run a race in my life, and now look what I've turned into. Sort of scary.

Last night after my run, I relaxed. The guy who bought my monitor off Ebay lives in Clear Lake also, so he came by to pick it up instead of paying for me to ship it all of two miles, but after that, I just watched TV. John Stevens is just not good enough to win American Idol, despite the public being idiots. Ugh. After that it was a brand new One Tree Hill, where they've entered some sort of reverse world where all the characters have adopted the opposite behavior of what they used to have. Lucas is the jerk now; Nathan is the nice guy. Peyton is the bitch now; Brooke has turned into the sympathetic character. It's bizarre.

Oh well. Tonight I learn roadside maintenance for my bike and celebrate Stephanie's birthday. Whee!

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

if I'm feeling down and blue / or troubled by some foolish game / he always seems to make me change my mind

I was just looking through Jen's photos from her weekend with her sister in town. Every time I look through her photos, I miss California something awful. When I feel discouraged and beaten down, it helps to just get away to somewhere pretty and let everything else fade away.

When I was at Stanford, there was never a shortage of pretty places to escape to. One night I drove over to Half Moon Bay and watched the moon set over the ocean. Another evening I went running back into the neighborhood where a lot of professors lived and worked my way up until I was at the top of the hill and could see all the way to San Francisco Bay. One weekend I went as far as the top of Half Dome in Yosemite with Becca; another time I only had to go a mile away and walk up to the Dish when Carter was visiting. I watched meteors with the control lab boys while lying on the golf course. Mom and I walked up into the foothills until we could see all the way to downtown San Francisco, and watched a sailboat almost capsize under the pull of its spinnaker as it went under the Golden Gate bridge.

In Houston today, it's pouring rain. In Houston this summer, it will be sticky and hazy and hot. In California, even the highway had a view of golden, rolling hills; in Houston, it runs past endless strip joints and strip malls.

I know I must sound like a broken record sometimes, always talking about how I miss living in California. But Houston is just missing something.

Tuesday, April 06, 2004

one song / glory / one song / before I go / glory / one song to leave behind

So this morning my boss comes in and says "hey Sarah, you free at 10 to go talk to a flight director about ATV reentry?" Of course, I say. Cool, I think. Something new. Becca whispers "notice how he came to you," knowing my frustration with the whole footprint chain-of-command. For a moment, I let myself think that I really was the footprint person.

But I'm not. We went to the meeting, where I sat quietly while somebody else did all the talking. Sigh. I am never going to progress beyond being the footprint grunt worker unless I either a) start being really rude, i.e. interrupting people at meetings to try to get a word in to convey the fact that I understand what's going on, or b) purposefully circumvent the footprint analysis chain of command. Option A is not really my style, while Option B could make me look ignorant, vengeful or disgruntled...or all three.

I don't know what to do. I just feel like I'm the number cruncher, and that no one feels like I understand what we're doing other than how to run the numbers that somebody else gives me. I know I'm not the most experienced, but how am I supposed to become experienced when I never get the chance to do anything but run sims??

Agh. It is so frustrating. I am just really not happy with the way things are going right now and haven't yet figured out what to do about it. I wish I had thought about grad school earlier; this fall is looking like it would have been a great time to go back.

Last night after work I finally got down to setting up my new computer. Took the second hard drive out of my old computer, stuck it in the new. Took the Firewire card out of the old computer, stuck it in the new. Closed it back up, started it up, upgraded the Windows XP Home that it came pre-installed with to the Windows XP Pro that Irwin got me a while ago. Had to change all the display settings to make it less stupid-user-friendly and more Sarah-friendly. But everything seems to be lovely, and now I just have to reinstall a bunch of software. But I have a new computer, hurrah! And the flat panel monitor that was a free upgrade sold on Ebay last night for $410, meaning that with that, my computer cost a grand total of $300. Three hundred bucks for a Pentium 4, 2.8 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM. Nice.

Before heading over to Becca's to watch the basketball game, I found two geocaches in a Seabrook park, including Debbie's DVD exchange cache. I dropped off a DVD of Gosford Park that I never watch and scored The Patriot in return, which I will watch. Awesome. The park was cool; I need to go running on those trails sometime.

Monday, April 05, 2004

let's hear it for the boys

The NCAA championship game is not the time you want to have an off night, but unfortunately, Georgia Tech had a very off night. It seemed like nothing they shot went in, while UConn could throw the ball up with their eyes closed and it would swish through the net.

Still, Georgia Tech had a fabulous season. They ignored all those who predicted they'd wallow in the ACC cellar, and instead advanced all the way to the national championship, farther than all but one other team in the country.

I'm proud to be a Yellow Jacket tonight!

Monday, April 05, 2004

help them or keep them / support them / promote them / don't blame them / you're the same

What a dilemma I have today. I realized Saturday night as I was falling asleep that Tech would be playing for the national championship tonight....and that I have baseball tickets for Astros opening day tonight. I am so torn! It feels wrong to even consider missing opening day. But it feels worse to think that I would miss watching Georgia Tech play for the national championship!

So I am staying home. I am not going to the baseball game. Instead, I'm going to sit on the couch (or, if it's like Saturday night, I'm going to pace the room, kneel on the floor, plead with the tv, bite my fingernails, and jump up and down) and watch Tech play UConn.

I think Jason is tempted to kill me for skipping the baseball game.

Anyway. I'm back in the office feeling like I never had a weekend. Saturday was the race, followed by a long softball practice, followed by basketball games. Yesterday was Yuri's Night educational stuff at the Museum of Natural Science, followed by a five hour (five hour!!) baseball draft. Geez. The draft went on forever, it was so long. We drafted 40 players, the last 5 or 10 of whom I've never even heard of because they're like the backup backup catcher for the Padres or something. Seriously. In the last round I almost took Alex Rodriguez, just for kicks (our league is NL only and he'd do me no good). I don't know how Carter manages the eight hour draft his league does.

My officemates are on my nerves this morning, and they think it's funny. I hate that. It's only 10:30 and I'm already ready to go home. I'm tired. I'm bored. I have no meaningful work to do, I push the "go" button on work that someone else gets to analyze and present, and no one gives a crap. Some days I don't know why I bother.

Grrrrr. Today is not my day.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

WE WON WE WON WE

WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!!!
WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my god!!! Georgia Tech is playing for the national championship on Monday!!!!

I am SOOOOOOO excited! I think I almost had about 100 heart attacks, but when Bynum's shot went in and the clock ran out, I started jumping up and down in my apartment all by myself screaming "YES! YES! YES!" Then of course I called Katie. She was on SAC fields, where they'd set up a big screen TV. She said it was very, very loud.

My neighbors probably think I'm insane.

WE WON!

Saturday, April 03, 2004

go!

The race this morning went very well, all things considered. There were things we could have done a bit better...my throat wishes we'd had a megaphone, and there were about 15 runners who took an unintentional ~0.15 mile shortcut...but all in all, I think we did a really great job for a first-year race. Everyone was there on time; the EMTs, HAM radio guys, Jay and the timing equipment, the sheriff's deputies were all where I needed them to be. I had an awesome group of volunteers that included Jason, Debbie, Ron, Buzz, Gavin, Jen, Becca, Paul, Sonia, Leeward, Marianne, and others.

We had 138 registered 5K runners, and 8 kids for the Kid's K. The overall male winner was a Mexican man I've seen at many local races before, with a time of 17:46. The female winner is a NASA girl who was in training with me when I first started working with a time of 22:07. And we made $1000 for our charities.

Awesome.

Saturday, April 03, 2004

on your marks...get set...

Well, the moment of truth is here. The Yuri's Night 5K begins in two and a half hours!

I had my alarm set for 5 a.m. but it didn't even really need to go off; I was half-awake. I think I was half-awake for the entire five hours I slept. Now I'm just piddling around until it's time to meet Debbie at 5:45 to load up food. I'm anxious, but hopefully the worst is over--I forgot to take the coolers from the store yesterday when I left, and thus we may have to use our own, which Jason bought last night after I realized my mistake and couldn't get ahold of the store owner on the phone. Argh! I knew I would forget something; I just wish it hadn't been something we were supposed to borrow and thus not have to buy.

However, we do have the money for it, so if that's the worst that will happen, we're in good shape! :)

Friday, April 02, 2004

you're living in America / where it's like the twilight zone

Last night at softball I was in full sell mode. Sign up for the race! Volunteer for the race! Buy a Yuri's Night pint glass! Soemthing must have been working a little off...I didn't get anyone else to sign up, but I did go 3-for-3 from the plate. Woohoo! I was using this $30 bat that Jason bought a week ago that has something rattling inside it. Yes, rattling. Not a good thing. However, he can't take it back to the store because he took the plastic off (he'd have to send it back to Louisville Slugger)...but that doesn't matter anyway because I'm not going to allow him to take it back. It's my 3-for-3 rattlin' bat. I told him I'm keeping it. :) Though in exchange for my good night at the plate, I played some of the crappiest left field you've ever seen...

Yesterday Matt gave me the Dilbert cartoon from his daily calendar. It's perfect for my life this week. I'll have to scan it and put it up.

Catbert: "Why aren't you signed up for the 401K?"
Pointy-Haired Boss: "I'd never be able to run that far. I did a 10K wheelchair race once. The guy who pushed me still has whip marks."

As of this moment, we have 107 people signed up. 107! If Laurie does indeed come through with her 15 lacrosse players, and we get the 20-30 people on race morning that I expect, we are going to run out of t-shirts. Eek. Oh well, nothing I can do about it now. There are too many other things to worry about, such as the fact that we can only get into the park an hour and fifteen minutes before the race starts. I'm going to be lucky if I have any fingernails left 24 hours from now.

Last night's schedule was hectic, I didn't get to bed until 1 a.m., and I am sleeeeeepy. Left work a 5, ran to Home Depot to buy wooden stakes for course signage, ran to Office Depot to make 150 more copies. Got home. Debbie arrived at 6, and I put together all the age group medals (i.e. attached neck ribbon to medal) while we worried about why Jason, who is always, always, always on-time, was late. By 6:30, we were in worry mode and Debbie left to go to work to see if his truck was still there. Finally Jason calls saying he was trapped by the lease lady at his apartment complex. Crisis over. Debbie and I met him at Sam's Club at 7, where we bought 24 6-packs of bagels, 5 10-pound bags of oranges, 5 32-packs of water, and 3 48-packs of granola bars.

From there it was to SuperTarget, where we spent a gift card they'd donated to our race on plastic cups, duct tape, trash bags, and safety pins. From there Jason and I headed to softball, where we lost by 4 runs (bummer). After softball it was off to Debbie's to help her unload all the stuff we'd gotten at Sam's Club, then back to my apartment to stuff two more pieces of paper and a t-shirt in each race packet. Put the boxes of packets in my car, Jason went home, and I had fun with Jen's staple gun, stapling the posterboard signs I made on Wednesday night to the wooden stakes.

Whew. It makes me tired all over again just thinking about it! This race is gonna be great. :)

Thursday, April 01, 2004

we love the mooooon

Google Job Opportunities: Google Copernicus Center is hiring

Hee hee.

Thursday, April 01, 2004

My new computer came last

My new computer came last night and I didn't even have time to set it up. Instead, I spent the evening walking the race course again at Challenger Park to figure out where the mile markers should go, finding two geocaches in the process, and then coming home to stuff race packets (thanks Gavin, Jo, Ron, Debbie, Jason, and Jen for the help!) and make signs. When everyone left, I did have time to quickly list the monitor that came with my computer on ebay, so if anyone wants to bid on a 17" flat panel monitor, head this way. Also, American Idol was surprising last night, and reinforced the fact that the American public is a bunch of idiots. John sang like crap on Tuesday, and wasn't even in the bottom three. Idiots, I say.

Tonight I need to go to Home Depot to get sign stakes, and then at 6:00 Jason and Debbie and I are going to Sam's Club to buy food for the race, then I have softball at 9. Tomorrow I leave work before 2:00 to go to the running store for early packet pickup with Ron. At some point I'll also have to run home to get packages from my apartment complex office before they close for the day. I am just all over the place this week, and have been sleeeeeeeepy the whole time. When the race is over, hopefully I will get some rest.

In other news, every time I hear another of Becca's bad neighbor stories, it makes me never, ever want to buy a house. Last night her freaky overly sensitive neighbors called the police about Bennet barking. The police! And apparently the neighbors said the the only solution at this point is for Becca to get rid of Apache and Bennet; they told her they are "working on the situation" and trying to get rid of the dogs. It's bizarre to me that they think the only solution is for the dogs to disappear.

Now, I am not a huge dog person, and find constantly barking dogs extremely annoying, so I am predisposed to agreeing the neighbors instead of Becca...and I would, if Bennet was truly out in the backyard barking every day, non-stop. But I don't think he is. And Apache, though I think she has doggy A.D.D., is not really a barker from what I can tell. So it seems like a little neighborly compromise is in order. The neighbors have only spoken to Becca about the problem three or four times, and Becca has made a considerable effort to fix things--buying bark collars, and usually getting home by 5 or 6 to bring the dogs inside for the evening. Yet the neighbors leave anonymous threatening phone calls, and now have taken to calling the police?

I'm never buying a house. I'm going to stay in my nice apartment complex where I don't have a yard that has to be maintained a particular way, and I don't have appliances that are my responsibility to fix, and I don't have freaky neighbors that leave mean messages on my answering machine.

Anyway. I've already had two April Fool's pranks played on me, but I figured them out quickly. Hurrah.

And finally, send happy thoughts Katie's way. It must be in our family's nature to hate change, but like new things. She's stressed out by Tech...I think we can all relate. :)

Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Whoever came up with giving

Whoever came up with giving consumers the ability to track their packages over the internet is a genius. I've been checking the status of orders all week, and warned my apartment complex this morning that I will be getting a heck of a lot of stuff in the next few days. Last week, I got numbers and fliers in two boxes from Runner's World. Then yesterday it was age group awards for the race. Today my new computer is arriving (according to the website it's out for delivery!), and Friday I'll get seven boxes of Yuri's Night pint glasses (144 in all, some for race awards, some to sell). And I've gotten to track every single package. :) Tracking stuff is so addictive!

I am getting both really excited and really anxious about the 5K on Saturday. Part of me is thinking: "Wow! This race is really going to happen! COOL!" The other part is thinking: "Wow! This race is really going to happen! DON'T SCREW UP!" I don't think we're forgetting anything huge, so we should be set. I picked up the t-shirts yesterday, and they look fantastic. We're stuffing packets either tonight or tomorrow, marking miles tonight or tomorrow, doing early packet pickup on Friday at On The Run, buying food on Friday, checking out the park one last time on Friday...yeah, I need to be in three places at once. ;) But we're going to have a race! So cool. I'm really proud that it has all come together.

Last night after driving to Alvin and back and running other assorted run errands, I managed to take the night off and relax at home. American Idol was entertaining enough, though I have to say I'm not totally sold on any of them. John was horrid last night, Fantasia bugs me, Latoya had an off night, I liked Amy and Jasmine and George, and the rest were so-so. It'll be interesting to see who ends up winning.

Tuesday, March 30, 2004

so I'll check the weather wherever you are / cause I wanna know if you can see the stars tonight

Bad news. On Sunday night, I had to turn the air conditioning on.

I feel like I've failed myself. Last year I made it until May 1 without having to crank the a/c, but this year I crumbled early. Of course yesterday a cold front came through, so the a/c went back off as quickly as it came on, but alas, I am defeated. Sunday night was just too warm, and too muggy. Feeling sticky in my 80 degree, Houston humidity soaked apartment was just no fun.

The stars have been really great the past few nights, or actually, the planets have been really great. I took a look at them Friday night while talking to Dad, and checked them out again last night as I walked the trails in Challenger Park (which, thankfully, are no worse for the wear after yesterday's light rain). I haven't managed to spot Mercury because of clouds on the horizon, which is disappointing because I don't think I've ever actually seen Mercury! But Venus, Mars, the moon, Saturn, and Jupiter are all lined up and shining like diamonds.

Those of you who might be interested should take a look tonight. Mercury is almost due west, very low on the horizon and only visible just after sunset--it sets quickly. Venus is very bright, halfway up in the western sky. Mars is dimmer, but definitely reddish, a bit higher up than Venus. The moon is overhead, as is Saturn, but Saturn is a bit faint. With binoculars though, you might be able to make out a faintly oblong shape, from the rings. Jupiter is very bright in the east-southeastern sky. (For reference on finding Saturn, tonight the moon will be almost halfway between it and Jupiter.)

On Friday night, while I was sitting next to my garage looking at Jupiter with binoculars trying to see the moons, my neighbor came home. She gave me a funny look as she got out of her car, so I said "I'm looking at the planets." She was sounded a bit interested, so I pointed out Venus and Mars and Saturn and Jupiter (Mercury, dratted thing, was behind clouds) and her voice took on an awed tone. "Wow! They look just like stars! I didn't know that!" she said. I almost laughed, but managed to hold it in while I told her, yes, but that they're often brighter than the brightest star, and that they start to look different through binoculars.

When I was little, I used to lie on the tennis courts behind our house with Dad, bundled up against the winter cold as we looked at the stars. When I was in 3rd grade, my science project was about the constellations. Summer vacations at the farm provided great dark skies for stargazing. When I was in high school, I got up early one morning to join Dad in looking for the tethered satellite that broke free from the space shuttle, and to look at comet Hyakutake. Now I help shoot other things up there, and bring stuff down safely.

My neighbor surprised me. When you've spent your whole life looking up, it's easy to forget that not everyone does.

Monday, March 29, 2004

on the road again / just can't wait to get on the road again / the life I love is goin' campin' with my friends

FINAL FOUR!! Georgia Tech is going to San Antonio! Woohoo, go Jackets!! Makes me wish I were still at Tech so I could really share in the excitement; Katie left me a voicemail yesterday sounding ecstatic. :) Despite my crappy picks, I am actually winning the March Madness pool I'm in with the same guys I play fantasy baseball with. My picks sucked through the early rounds, but I did successfully pick three of the Final Four (Tech, Duke, and Oklahoma State) so I'm ahead by a point! Too bad there's only pride at stake, instead of money.

It was a good weekend, but too short as usual. Friday night I hung out at Becca's to play Cranium, watch the Tech game, and put a nice ending on my 26th birthday. I do love my birthday. It's never about the presents, though you'd think it was from the amount I hint at it being my bday. I just love being told "happy birthday," as it always makes me smile. I even sang the birthday song to myself on Friday morning. Every year I stretch the occasion out as long as I can; I just feel like it's impossible not to be happy on your birthday! This year it lasted five days: from Wednesday night's dinner at Lupe's through yesterday. Ah. I am old. But at least I have a good time getting older.

Saturday morning I played soccer with my coed team, and we won! Woohoo! The final score was 1-0, but we really dominated the other team more than that score indicates. They were not happy that we were beating them either; they got more and more obviously frustrated as the game wore on, until they were yelling at each other as the ball pinballed up and down the tiny Gilruth field. It was nice for our team to get a win; we have really improved a lot. I hope I can say the same for my women's team when our spring season starts next week!

After soccer I took a trip to the batting cages with Jason, where I made good contact with the ball (why can't I do that during games??) and ripped a nice blister on my thumb. Ow. I need to wear a glove if I'm gonna swing more than about 30 pitches. From there it was home for a brief bit, then off to the Aeros game, where it was bobblehead night. I have to say, I am really impressed with the bobbleheads we got--they aren't dinky flimsy plastic things, no...they are nice ceramic heavy-duty bobbleheads! I brought mine to work, where Aeros right wing Dan Cavanaugh now sits on my desk and agrees with everything I say.

I just went to find his bio to make that link, and in reading it I realized he's younger than me. 24 years old and he already has his own bobblehead. Nice.

Maybe they should make a series of rocket scientist bobbleheads. I think I could sell a couple of me. I'd buy one. :)

Anyway. I finished the weekend with a very busy Sunday. I got up early to go for a bike ride. My destination was Pine Gully Park over in Seabrook, the plan being that I was going to find Debbie's geocache with my new GPS handheld (yes, I am a gadget freak). It was really windy, which slowed me down a bit, and the park was a little farther away than I thought--6.5 miles as the crow flies, but more than 11 as the Sarah bikes! By the time I got there, I knew I'd be cutting it close to get back to my apartment by 11:00, when people were coming over to carpool to lunch, so I decided not to search for the cache and instead turned right around to ride home. I ended up going 24 miles in all, and made it home 20 minutes before 11, just in time to shower.

From there, Jen, Becca, Jason, Debbie and I headed over to the Galleria for lunch at the Cheesecake Factory, which was yummy even though our waiter was really slow. From there we headed a couple miles down the road to REI, where, armed with my yearly dividend, 20% off coupon, and birthday gift certificate from my awesome parents, I bought a backpack and a tent. I already have a backpack, but it's for traveling, not hiking/camping. And I already have a tent, but it's huge and heavy and also not for backcountry hiking/camping. So....now I have great new stuff, and am dying to go break it in! You can click on the links to see exactly what I bought. At 4650 cubic inches, the backpack is a little larger than I had planned on getting, and I won't need all that space for our relatively short Colorado trip...but with a 20% off coupon, it was very affordable, and I can compress the space I don't need for a short trip but still have the space if/when I do a longer trip.

You know, sometimes I hesitate to go to REI, because they often charge a bit more for equipment you can find cheaper online...but I keep finding myself going back because they are so helpful. We were there for an hour and a half trying on backpacks, and the salesman was great. He stayed with us the whole time, answered all our questions and even gave me score updates on the Tech game! He was just awesome. I feel like I should write the store a letter praising his customer service.

After REI, Jason and Debbie and I went tromping around in the woods and found two geocaches, then it was finally home for tired ol' me. I vacuumed finally, admired my new gear, and watched Mona Lisa Smile. It was ok, but I had expected more. Back to the video store it goes.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Wooo! At the hockey

Wooo! At the hockey game.

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Friday, March 26, 2004

aloha Friday

Jo gave me a flower and now I'm famous!

Friday, March 26, 2004

In the jeep on

In the jeep on the way back from lunch, complete with silly hat.

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Friday, March 26, 2004

p.s.

I entered the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta again this year, thanks to my great friend James, who sent me the form on Sunday. Hooray! (See comment from yesterday's post.)

Friday, March 26, 2004

you need a friend / I'll be around / don't let this end / before I see you again

Good morning people! It is a great day! I am wearing a new shirt, and I smell like lotion, and I had Starbucks on my way to work. AND I have a new VCR. My friends are awesome.

Last night I finally got to just hang out at home, instead of running off to a play or a sport or a dinner or a class. It was nice. Well, I did have softball at 6, where we all apparently had butterfingers for the night, but I was home in time to watch the Apprentice and cook some dinner.

The string of women getting the axe on Apprentice continues to amaze me. The women worked well enough together to win, but even since they were split up, it's just cat-fight central. Four men fired, followed by seven women. I didn't mind seeing Katrina go last night, as she had become sort of whiny ("no one listens to my ideas about belly dancers, waaaaah"), and despite her protests, she did seem to use her sexuality in lieu of actual talent ("awww, Bob, come on Bobbbbb, you know you want to give me what I want, smile, wink wink"). Amy looked shocked to have lost, and didn't do that well in the boardroom...of course, she'd never been in there before, so she probably wasn't totally sure what to expect. Anyway, only five left now. Kwame's only around because he's managed to stay under the radar by not doing anything too stupid, Troy relies too much on his aw-shucks, I'm-an-Idaho-country-boy schtick, and Nick is a bit abrasive; I'm picking Bill or Amy to win.

This is shaping up to be a fun weekend. Georgia Tech is playing tonight hoping to make it to the Elite Eight, tomorrow I'm play soccer, hitting the batting cages, and going to a hockey game, and Sunday we're doing a group outing to the Cheesecake Factory and REI. I plan to gorge on cheesecake, then buy a tent that I've had my eye on since before Christmas, and a backpack. How exciting!

5K update: Ron called last night to say he has 11 entries in his mailbox, which takes us up to 71 people! Wow! We'll definitely get more than 100, which is aweseom! This morning I picked up two packages from Runner's World--race numbers as well as ad fliers and, randomly, little packets of Advil to put in all the race packets. The lady in the apartment office was like "oh, this is heavy" and I said "oh good, it should be stuff for the 5K I'm organizing for next weekend!" She thought that was really cool and asked me all sorts of questions about it. Made me feel cool.

Thursday, March 25, 2004

George says writing in a blog must be like writing an activity report, but I don't think so...

I have been listening to James Taylor for a few days now. I adore him. Other people I know listen to John Mayer or Counting Crows when they want comfort music, but I choose James Taylor.

Last night was yet another busy busy weeknight. I have been inundated with 5K planning tasks this week, so I guess it's good that I haven't really had much real work to do other than watch my sims run!... Anyway, after work I headed to Bike Barn with Debbie for a basic maintenance class. It was pretty cool, though I wish it had been more hands-on. Still, I learned how to adjust a lot of the mechanisms that I've been pretty scared to mess with in the past, and I learned the importance of regular cleaning and lubing of the chain and other parts. I need to start taking better care of my bike! In two weeks I'm going back for the roadside maintenance class, and that should cover everything else I need--the guy said it's hands-on and we learn how to change the tire tubes, etc. That should be good.

After the class I headed to Lupe's for a big group dinner in honor of Ami's birthday (the 30th) and her leaving town, my birthday, Nacho's birthday (the 21st)... yeah, it was just one big dinner party where we cheered everyone who came in one way or another. :) The food was good, the company was good, and yet again, I realize that I have really great friends.

We currently have 54 people signed up for the 5K, and Laurie is going to add another 20 by making her lacrosse team run it as training! I'm pumped. I think we'll get 100 or more, which will make me really happy.

There's an article on the BBC news site today about robot competitions. I was skimming, slightly interested, until I came across the following line, which totally cracked me up: "The competitions seemed to break down along cultural lines. The Japanese robots reigned supreme when it came to sumo-wrestling, while the European teams showed off their skills on the football pitch. As for the American machines, they specialised in demolishing the living hell out of each other in one-on-one robot combat."

It reminds me of a story my Dad read somewhere about a fireworks competition, and how the Europeans all made pretty fireworks displays that were eye-catching and aesthetically-pleasing and made everyone ooh and ahh. Then the Americans just shot up as much light and sound as humanly possible to overwhelm the crowd with explosions. Ah, America.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

if I'm feeling down and blue / and troubled by some foolish game /
she always seems to make me change my mind

Last night Jen, Jason, Debbie and I went downtown to see Brigadoon at the Hobby Center. It was an ok musical, and one of the tenors (not the lead, but another major part) was so incredible that I couldn't help but wonder why he's stuck doing shows in Houston and isn't starring on Broadway somewhere. But I've started to realize that, as uncultured as this sounds, I like the more modern musicals better than the "classic" shows of the 40s, 50s and 60s. I'll take Rent, Phantom, Aida, and Les Mis over Brigadoon, South Pacific, and The Music Man anyway. Not that the oldies aren't good, just that I prefer the newer ones. That probably makes me not a "true" musical fan or something.

I came home sleepy, but as I walked in the door my mind had unfortunately turned to thoughts of work. I have not in a happy place in a few aspects of my life for the past few weeks/months, and I don't really want to go into detail in writing. I have been thinking a lot about a few things, and have yet to come to any conclusions, so my racing thoughts left me tossing and turning in bed for almost an hour. I finally fell asleep sometime after 12:30, and have been foggy all day today. I am a really big wuss when it comes to approaching my superiors, preferring to think that if I perform well, they'll recognize it, and somehow read my mind about where I want my job to go. I know that's not true, and so I'm debating on how to proceed from here. I know I'll get to the bottom of things, but I'm not sure when or how. Suffice it to say that...I'm working it.

After lunch I went over to Challenger Park to meet with the park manager to finalize things for the 5K on the 3rd. We rode around the loop on a little ATV so I could point out our worrisome spots (that are still mucky despite having gone a week and a half without rain). It was amusing, the two of us on a little truck with me in my pinstriped works pants and boots and him in his coveralls and trucker hat. But things look good, and I'm excited that the race is almost here. It's looking like we may get close to 100 people which would be awesome!

WOW. I just got an email from Bike Barn, and they're having a demo program as part of the MS150 where you can ride nice bikes for free on either Saturday or Sunday of the ride. I immediately went to their website and spur-of-the-moment chose the Trek 5200, a $2,500 (!) bike, to ride on Saturday. I always second guess myself when I have to make quick decisions, but Gavin, George and Matt recommended I try the fancy bike on the first day, which, while longer, has fewer hills and will involve a not-yet-sore derriere.

C'est tout pour aujourd'hui.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

tapas + sangria + ice cream = fun!

Jo posted pictures from Friday night's outing to Mi Luna and Amy's. I stole some of them and put them here as well.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

can't you just feel the moon shining / ain't it just like a friend of mine?

The moon last night was beautiful. As I drove out of my apartment complex on my way to the rock gym, the tiny crescent caught my eye and I had to stop and take a picture. Of course my camera (the real one, not the phone one) doesn't do it justice, and so I didn't bother posting it. But it was really pretty. Just past new moon, a very slight crescent, with the rest of the moon lit up by earthshine. Very cool.

I was just looking at the photo I posted via my phone yesterday, and it makes me look like I have a retarded crooked front tooth. Weird. Must be the light. My front teeth are perfectly fine, except for being a little chipped for the past 10 or so years. But that can be blamed on my brother Brian.

I was really tired last night, and so I didn't climb anything too hard, and was even slipping on routes that are usually easier for me. Ah well. It was just Jason and me, and he seemed a bit tired too, so we probably chatted as much as we actually climbed. At Waffle House afterwards we ended up talking politics; well, actually, I think I ended up not shutting up, and thus it was me talking while he listened. Jason and I disagree on a lot of issues (he's conservative, I'm not as much so), but I still enjoy talking politics with him. I also ended up talking about Bush and Iraq with Gavin yesterday in a nice normal conversation. This leads me to believe that it's not that I can't or don't like to discuss the issues, as I've said many times before...it's just that I prefer to do it with people who remain very calm and rational even if you disagree with them. Who knew?

Dude. The rocks at the Opportunity landing site on Mars were apparently not merely altered by water, they were likely formed by water. That is so cool.

Monday, March 22, 2004

Messing around with camera

Messing around with camera phones. George got a new one that is so cool!

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Monday, March 22, 2004

show me where the sun comes through the sky / I'll show you where the rain gets in

Late update today, but not for any real reason. I basically got nothing done this morning because I couldn't upgrade to the software I needed. It's my own fault. A month ago, a sysadmin sent out an email telling us we needed to upgrade to Exceed 9 (software I use to remotely connect to the lab I do all my sim processing on). I hate upgrades because something always seems to go wrong, so I didn't upgrade at the time. Well, Friday afternoon they deleted the old version of the software from the server, so not only could I not use the old version, but I couldn't upgrade to the new version (because it needed the old version). UGH. This is why computers suck.

So he put the old version back on the server long enough this morning to allow me to upgrade right after lunch. And now I can be productive. Instead, I'm updating this. ;)

I need a new computer. Why? Well, my almost five year old computer at home is starting to show signs of aging; yep, it's slowing down. Photoshop already takes forever to load each time I use it, which I had decided I could just suffer through. But then this weekend I installed the 30-day trial of Flash MX 2004 and the damn thing (the computer, not the software) is using all it's got to simply get the software up and running before 60 seconds is up. Seriously. And then every time I click a different tool, there's a 2 second lag while the system tries to figure out what to do next. It's gonna drive me crazy. So I need something new.

The thing is, I don't really need anything in a new computer other than the ability to handle today's software. I don't need any fancy stuff because 1) I already have what I need and 2) since I'm not in school anymore, I really don't use my computer at home for anything more than web-surfing, email, financial stuff, photos and photo editing, and now messing around with Flash/graphics stuff. So I need a bare bones computer that'll do that for me without paying too much. If anyone out there has suggestions, I welcome them.

Other than that, it was a nice weekend. Friday night Jo organized a group to go to Mi Luna for tapas and sangria. Both were delicious, and our only complaint was that the restaurant was really loud and it was impossible to talk to anyone at the other end of the table. Still, the food was awesome and the sangria was tasty, if a bit weak (six people went through three pitchers of it without anyone showing the effects).

Saturday morning I completely forgot that I was supposed to play soccer, but Saturday night's belated St. Patrick's Day party at Edgar and Betsy's was entertaining as always, and complete with green beer. I posted some of the many pictures the two of them took here. I hadn't been to a true "party" in a while, so it was fun.

Yesterday morning Gavin and Debbie and I went over to Challenger Park for the final race course measurement, and I spent the rest of the afternoon watching basketball and messing around. Georgia Tech squeaked into the Sweet 16, thankfully! With Gonzaga and Kentucky out, Tech only has to worry about getting past Nevada (shouldn't be a huge problem) and Kansas (could be tougher) to be in the Final Four. That would be really cool. Though my "being reasonable" pick to win it all now is probably Duke...

Saturday, March 20, 2004

willkommen, bienvenue, welcome! / fremde, etranger, stranger

For those of you coming to this site from my old blog, welcome. It seems somehow self-involved or at least self-indulgent to have my own web domain, but I like it anyway. A couple new things to point out now that I'm on my own server:

• As you may notice, I can post pictures straight to this site from my cell phone. Neat, eh?
  
• You can add comments about any of my blog entries by clicking the "Comments" link beneath each one. So now you can tell me to quit hurting myself, or that I need to watch less TV, or that I'm whining too much.
  
• The "Gallery" link on the side is a bit misleading. It's only one little link, but it takes you to a whole collection of albums of pictures! Yay pictures!
  

Enjoy.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

honeybear - wait! / I'm on the other phone / yes, I have the cowbell / we're okay

Today so far has been sort of crazy, but in a fun way. I slept in until 11:00, got up, turned on my cell phone, and literally five minutes later Kent called. I haven't talked to him in forever, so it was really great to chat for an hour about life, trips, and careers. While on the phone with him, Becca IMed with the idea of Mediterraneo's for lunch, which I can never pass up, so when I got off to the phone with Kent, I changed clothes and headed over there to meet Becca, Nick, and Tiffany. On my way, James called, so I chatted with him until we sat down to order.

From lunch I had to run by work to get tickets that Debbie needs tomorrow; I'd forgotten and left them on my desk. While driving on site, Carter called, which began the most hectic phone conversation I may have ever had. While talking on the phone to him, I had to hang up to go up the elevator, hang up again to go down the elevator, and pause to click over twice more while Nick called with the idea of hanging out by the pool for a while (it is a gorgeous day here). Becca, Tiffany and Nick all ended up at my apartment, where Becca talked to Carter while I changed into my swimsuit, then I finally got to finish talking to Carter while lounging in the sun in my swimsuit. Ahh. The water was still very cold, so I didn't get in, but the sunshine was nice.

I should have just told Carter I'd call him back tomorrow, but I feel like I talk to people so rarely that I should make the most of the times when they call.

And now I have a few hours before I head off to a belated St. Patty's Day party.

Friday, March 19, 2004

Me at Amy's. -------------------------------------------------------

Me at Amy's.

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Friday, March 19, 2004

Jo and Tiffany at

Jo and Tiffany at Amy's Ice Cream.

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Friday, March 19, 2004

Friday Five

If you...

1. ...owned a restaurant, what kind of food would you serve?
Italian/lots of pasta, probably. That, or a French Fry stand. Those are the only two genres of food that I never seem to be out of the mood for.

2. ...owned a small store, what kind of merchandise would you sell?
Oh my gosh, I have so many different ideas here. I'd love to own any of the following: a running store (shoes, clothes, etc), a coffee shop, a book store, a restaurant, a shoe store for women with big feet, IKEA, an art supply store, a small design firm... the list goes on. I think it would be incredibly rewarding to be a successful small-business owner, and one day if I get up the guts, hopefully I will be.

3. ...wrote a book, what genre would it be?
A collection of short non-fiction stories or essays. I write better in blog/email-friendly blurbs than I do in long passages.

4. ...ran a school, what would you teach?
Art/design. Realistically I'm probably not qualified, but that's what I'd love to teach. I did crafts one summer for the church bible camp, and it was tons of fun.

5. ...recorded an album, what kind of music would be on it?
A totally eclectic mix of everything from rock to pop to jazz to classical/instrumental. I'm not much of a songwriter, really; I'd get more enjoyment and less stress out of compiling an album of my favorite 12 or 15 songs of all time (which, for the record, would still be a really strange mix of stuff).

Friday, March 19, 2004

all she wants to do is ride around Sally / ride Sally ride

Some weeknights go by in a blink, and I get to work the next morning feeling like I never left. Other weeknights seem to stretch in time and last twice as long as they actually do. Last night was one of those. I got so much accomplished after leaving work! I drove home just before 5 and hopped on my bike for a good hour-long 15-mile ride. After that I had time for some web-surfing, then fixed a yummy pasta dinner and watched Friends, Will & Grace, and the beginning of The Apprentice. Oh, and put together a quick Yuri's Night poster. Then we had a softball game at 9, which we won, and I got a hit (hooray!) and even an RBI (double hooray!). That's two weeks in a row that I've gotten a hit now. Maybe I am improving... I get so frustrated with myself when I don't hit.

My neck is still a little sore after biking. I need to adjust the handlebars one more notch in an effort to avoid that.

No big plans for the weekend. We were supposed to go out for tapas tonight at Mi Luna, but due to extenuating circumstances I'm not sure if that's still on or not. Tomorrow at some point I've got to go over to Challenger Park for a final 5k course measurement, and tomorrow night is the St. Patty's day party at Betsy and Edgar's place. Sunday I'm hoping to go on a long (at least 30 miles) bike ride.

Sadly, this is the last day of my Flash class. My debris footprint tutorial is looking great though, and is quite entertaining. The most recent version is here if you are interested. There are only four scenes so far, but believe me, the best is yet to come. ;)

Thursday, March 18, 2004

under the sea / under the sea /
darling it's better down where it's wetter / take it from me

This week has just been great. Great weather, great class, great stuff to do. Ah, this is why I love March and the beginning of spring. I know, it's not technically spring for another few days, but Houston has different seasons than the rest of the country, believe me. Here, it's already spring. (Of course, here, it never really was winter. Just straight from fall to spring.)

To make matters even better, this morning I got a FedEx package. They'd tried to deliver it yesterday, but I wasn't home, so they left it in the office. I assumed it was race numbers for the Yuri's Night race, which I've been expecting. But it was even better. I opened the envelope to find the most beautiful thing I think I have ever seen: pages and pages and pages of baseball tickets! 81 of them, in fact, 3 per game for 27 games. Yeah!! The arrival of the Astros season tickets that Jason, Chris and I bought reminded me that the beginning of the season is less than three weeks away. I can hardly wait!

One of the cool things about working at NASA is that there are always interesting people coming to visit us, because they think we are cool. (Whether we are cool is a matter of debate, but that's another story.) Yesterday James Cameron was at JSC. Yes, James Cameron, director of Terminator, Terminator 2, The Abyss, Aliens, and Titanic--talk about an impressive resume! Anyway, he was here to screen about an hour of footage he took last year during dives to multiple hydrothermal vent sites in both the Atlantic and Pacific; we're talking primordial stuff spewing out of the earth thousands of feet below the surface of the ocean. Since he already had funding to do the dives to make a 3D IMAX movie, he invited NASA and some other scientists and grad students to come along for the fun. A couple people I know got to go along, and were featured prominently in the footage that we saw that will actually be in the film, so that was cool--I now know some IMAX movie stars!

The rest of the footage he screened was science reel stuff that he'd picked out specifically for the JSC presentation, and it was absolutely incredible. Thousands of blind shrimp crawling all over each other trying to get nutrients out of the vent, mussel colonies, crabs, tube worms, weird-looking fish, and even some wispy anemone/amoeba things that no one's seen before. In some spots, the vents have formed the huge gravity-defying chimney structures that rise tens of meters from the ocean floor without toppling under their own weight. In another place, this really weird mushroom-shaped structure has formed, with the heated hydrothermal vent stuff spilling up around the edges.

It was so cool. I need a job where I can do cool stuff like that. Of course, I think I would have gotten a bit frightened/claustrophobic to go down into the dark in a bubble that's supposed to protect me from thousands of pounds of pressure...but still. It looked so cool.

And I love it when directors like James Cameron get excited about science stuff (or actors like Tom Hanks get excited about the space program). They really help get the message out to the masses.

Anyway. Point being, Cameron's casual lecture was incredibly interesting.

As of today we have 37 people signed up for the Yuri's Night 5K. Yeah!! The registrations are starting to come more frequently now that the event is getting closer. I'm hoping for at least 60, which I think is totally going to happen. I'm so excited.

Wednesday, March 17, 2004

come Josephine in my flying machine / and it's up she goes

Good morning lads and lassies, and a Happy St. Patrick's Day to you. (And a happy birthday to Betsy.) I'm wearing my green shirt so I don't get pinched!

Already this morning in Flash class, I have made a word explode, and drawn a satellite orbiting the earth. The latter is the first step in my first major Flash creation, suggested by Gavin: a tutorial to enlighten people on how we predict debris footprints. It is going to be so cool. I'll post it when I'm done, hopefully by the end of Friday, or at least by the beginning of next week.

I love saying that I'm in Flash class. It sounds borderline sketchy.

I was just reading Carter's blog, and he deleted ICQ from his computer last night, not remembering that there are all sorts of conversations stored in the program, from mundane "ready to leave for class?" messages to deep shouldn't-have-been-had-via-computer-but-were conversations. He deleted his own stuff, of course, but the mere thought sent a shiver down my spine.

I've stared at the ICQ folder many times since my hard drive went down over a year ago and I had to decide what to save and what to toss before it stopped working entirely. I tossed a lot of crap, but I couldn't bear to erase ICQ. I haven't read the conversations in years, and as I pointed to someone this morning, it would probably take me a whole day (and a lot of emotional trauma) to do so...but I can't bear the thought of erasing them entirely. I'm a pack rat in more ways than just hanging on to material stuff. I'm a pack rat for words too.

The rest of this week is going to be so great. Happy sigh. I love this Flash class, it is so cool. I should get some guts, quit my job, and go back to school to be a graphic designer or something.

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Debbie locked her keys

Debbie locked her keys in her new Vue at the carwash.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

He took one of

He took one of me, so I took one of him. Yay George.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Here's a picture of

Here's a picture of me that George took while playing with my phone. He just ordered a new camera phone and is quite excited about it.

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Tuesday, March 16, 2004

can't you just feel the sunshine / can't you just feel the moon shining

I am in the middle of an absolutely fantastic day. Why? Well...

1) The weather. Weather has the ability to affect my mood more than almost anything else, and today it is GORGEOUS outside. It is sunny, 70 degrees, Carolina blue sky, little bit of a breeze. As far as weather goes, today is my perfect day.

2) Love. Matt and Stephanie got engaged!! (Yes, as previously mentioned.) He proposed over the weekend while skiing in Colorado with Becca, Gavin, and Jen. He actually proposed in front of Becca, which is very amusing, and then poor Stephanie, who was caught totally off-guard and was shaking, had to ski down a mountain! That's Matt for you. But I am so excited for them. The wedding will be this fall or next spring in Kansas City (they're both from there), and as I said to Matt, "I've always wanted to go to Kansas City!...well, not really, but I'll make an exception for this." ;)

3) Fun software. For the rest of the week, I'm taking a class on how to use Flash MX (the software used to make a lot of the cool animations, movies, and interfaces on the web). I am so excited, as it's something I've been wanting to learn for a while. I tried teaching myself, but lost patience, and for the past year have been trying to get into the work-sponsored training class under slightly sketchy reasoning. I am the webmaster for our group, so that's how I justify taking the class, even though our website doesn't really need Flash per say... Anyway, I finally got in the class, on my 4th or 5th attempt! This morning I animated a bouncing ball, a flower growing out of the ground, and a red circle turning into a purple reindeer. Yes. By the end of the week, I plan on having little cartoons of everyone in our group. ;)

4) Graphic design. My version of our division logo was passed around to the branch chiefs and group leads at the staff meeting this morning, and as one group lead related to me: "Very cool, and you got a lot of compliments like 'ahhh, this is much better than the other ones', etc." Woohoo! People like my logo! The current version (there may still be a few tweaks) is here for those interested. I didn't come up with all the elements that needed to be included, but I did the layout and did all the graphics work. Parts of it are a bit fuzzy, but I'm gonna try to clean it up in the next few days.

5) Pampering. With any luck, Jo and I are going for pedicures tonight after work. Pedicures have become one of my most favorite things in the world. And again I apologize to Becca for ever making fun of her for getting them.

If my afternoon continues to go as swimmingly as the morning has, I will be a happy, happy girl.

Monday, March 15, 2004

happy happy joy joy

Matt and Stephanie got engaged while they were skiing this weekend!! I'm so excited!!!

And on a totally unrelated note, this is my current favorite thing ever. It was hilarious on Oscar night, and it is hilarious now; I adore Jack Black and Will Ferrell. Props to Nick for finding the clip for me.

Monday, March 15, 2004

the wheels on the bike go round and round / round and round / round and round

I am so tired today. I guess that's what happens when you get up at 6 a.m., ride 40 miles on your bike, then go out to lunch, wander the mall, come home, and have to draft a baseball team until 11:30 at night. Whew!

The 40-miler yesterday was quite an experience. It was 1) the farthest I've ridden since the bike ride across North Carolina I did the summer after 9th grade, 2) the first time I've ridden in the rain, and 3) the first time I've ever ridden in any sort of bike tour/race thingy. I also learned that I should possibly invest in 1) a waterproof windbreaker/shell and 2) some sort of shoes to wear while biking that don't soak up water like tennis shoes (and all their cushioning) do.

When the race started, it was overcast, but by the time we got over the Kemah bridge (about 10 miles into the ride) the rain had started. At first it was a light drizzle, but it grew to a steady rain. At first I was annoyed. "This sucks," I thought to myself as my cotton t-shirt got soaked, and my tennis shoes became boats, and mud splattered all over my back from my back tire, and mud splattered all over my front from the back tires of the bikers ahead of me.

But as the ride went on, the rain abated a bit (though it never stopped entirely), and it stopped bothering me. There comes a point where I think your body just becomes saturated with water, and you don't notice how wet you are anymore! By mile 25, I was laughing at the absurdity of it all. Here we were, literally hundreds of bikers in the rain, covered in mud, just chugging along, legs pumping. All the people who drove past us must have thought we were insane. :)

In the end, I did have a good time, and I was pleasantly surprised at how I felt. I averaged 16 miles an hour for a total time of exactly 2.5 hours, and was still feeling strong at the end. I feel like I could have done the 60 mile ride without major issue; my legs were still feeling good. My butt and back and neck were starting to feel sore, but nothing too horrible. It went well enough that I'm considering signing up for another MS150 warm-up ride, a 60-miler, in a couple weeks over in Katy.

Anyway, I crossed the finish line, scarfed down a banana and an orange and a Coke, then went home, gave my bike a good wipe down to get all the water and dirt off it (it's one of the more expensive things I own; I should probably treat it well, eh?), walked in the front door to my apartment, and basically stripped right there. Just inside the front door is one of the only places in my apartment that isn't carpeted, and I'm not kidding when I say you should have seen how covered-in-mud I was. My white socks and white t-shirt were brown. I didn't want to get it all over the carpet, so I just took everything off and left it in a big wet pile at the front door until I had showered and cleaned up and was ready to put it all in the washing machine. I was really a mess; I should have taken a picture.

This morning I climbed on my bike just for a moment to see how I felt sitting on the seat again, since the MS150 will involve riding a hundred miles, then doing another 70 the next day. Yeah. My butt didn't like being on a bike seat this morning. Hmm.

Anyway. As for my other major Sunday activity...

I am feeling very blah about the fantasy baseball team I drafted last night, but as George pointed out this morning, I'm always unsatisfied with my team after the draft. For those interested:

C - Jason Kendall
1B - Richie Sexson
2B - Bret Boone
3B - Bill Mueller
SS - Rafael Furcal
OF - Gary Sheffield
OF - Torii Hunter
OF - Richard Hidalgo
OF - Trot Nixon
OF - Reggie Sanders
OF - Jay Payton
OF - Carl Everett
OF - Cliff Floyd
3B - Eric Hinske

SP - Curt Schilling
SP - Kevin Brown
SP - Greg Maddux
SP - Mark Redman
SP - Livan Hernandez
RP - Octavio Dotel
RP - Trevor Hoffman
RP - Francisco Cordero
RP - Shawn Chacon
SP - Ted Lilly

Of course you see what the big problem is. I have a buttload of outfielders, which is totally unnecessary, no backups for my infielders, and not enough extra pitchers. My draft strategy last night sucked. And the move from 8 teams to 10 teams threw me off way more than I'd expected. In any case, we'll see what happens.

Sunday, March 14, 2004

put me in coach / I'm ready to play

Baseball season is a mere three weeks away, and faithful readers of this blog know what that means...it's time to create my fantasy team! I'll be playing in two fantasy leagues again this year, the "all-star" league and the "NL only" league. The All-Star league has 10 teams (up from eight last year) of 25 players each, and we draft from all of major league baseball. The NL only league has 9 teams (down from ten last year) of 40 players each, and we draft only from the National League. The NL league is the bigger challenge, and since we only alter our lineups once per week, it often gets overlooked in favor of my All-Star team, which is easier to draft and can be altered on a daily basis.

The draft for our All-Star league begins in 15 minutes. I haven't done much research this year, but I've done well in the past, finishing 3rd, 3rd or 4th (can't remember), and 2nd in the three years since Randy started the league. Hope I can put together a good team for 2004!

Saturday, March 13, 2004

so comfortable and / so broken in

I bought a new seat for my bike, just in time for tomorrow's 40-miler. My butt, I'm sure, will thank me.

Friday, March 12, 2004

Friday Five

1. What was the last song you heard?
"Home Life" by John Mayer, on my iPod in the car on the way home.

2. What were the last two movies you saw?
"Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights" (I know, shut up) and "Lost in Translation." Oh wait, I watched "Three Amigos" last weekend, but that was on DVD, obviously.

3. What were the last three things you purchased? Lunch today, dinner last night, and lunch yesterday. Did I mention I need to go to the grocery store? Yeah. The last three non-food things were gas for my car, league fees for the next season of the women's soccer league, and a day pass for the rock gym last Monday.

4. What four things do you need to do this weekend? Go to the grocery store (see above). Put my new bike seat on my bike before Sunday's 40-mile ride. Pick up my race packet for that ride. Get an oil change.

5. Who are the last five people you talked to? From most recent to least recent (but all were today): Nick, Ray, George, Rich, and Jo. The last five people I talked to who don't work in the same office as me: Katie, Fred, Betsy, Edgar, and Sean, all at softball last night.

Friday, March 12, 2004

I still believe it when you say / it's another perfect day

On Wednesday night as Jason, Jo and I drove downtown for Rent, we were chatting in the car and for some reason Howard Hughes came up. And I was relating how, for unknown reasons, I always confuse Howard Hughes with Hugh Hefner. I know, I know. One is dead, the other is alive. One built the Spruce Goose, the other created Playboy. But they are/were both filthy rich, and I think it's the "hugh" part of each name that does it. Anyway, when those two came up we also started confusing ourselves about Herbert Hoover and Hubert Humphrey, so today Jo posted mini-bios of each man. Just to clear up the confusion.

Thank you Jo. It had to be done.

Today in the Chronicle there is a neat story about a third grader from Katy who is a presidential history buff, has been on the Tonight Show three times for his knowledge, and recently interviewed John Kerry. He wants to run for president in 2032, when he's 35. Funny.

Work may be interesting today. That's what happens when someone way above your head gets the mistaken idea that what you've been doing for the past year is wrong. Sigh. So today I get to show that our group is right, and that people in Florida were just incredibly lucky. This is my job. Nothing to do, then suddenly I am called upon to put out a rapidly expanding fire. Whoosh.

For the past two days, before today's fire, I've been working on an art project--redesigning the division logo. It's such a piddly little job, and yet I am so excited to get to do it. If/when my design gets approved, I'll have to post it here so you can see. It's hokey and dorky and very un-sleek as far as logos in general, but it's good for NASA.

Thursday, March 11, 2004

take me for what I am / who I was meant to be /
and if you give a damn / take me baby / or leave me

I saw Rent last night for the fourth time. (Four? Let's see, New York, Greenville, Birmingham...and Houston. Yeah, four.) Unfortunately, this was probably the worst rendition I've seen. I didn't like Roger because he was too whiny, not enough rock-and-roll, had distracting hair, and kept hitting flat notes. I didn't like Mimi because she couldn't carry "Out Tonight" which is supposed to be her big moment. Mark, Maureen, Angel and Benny were all merely ok. And the theater was not doing a great job with the sound mixing--a lot of the songs would have been unintelligible if I hadn't already known the lyrics. Now, granted, I've seen the show and listened to the soundtrack enough times that I definitely have biases and opinions on what each character should be like...but if this had been my first time seeing the show, I might have left wondering what all the fuss is about.

I did like Collins, and Joanne, and there were a couple shining moments--"La Vie Boheme" was entertaining, and "Take Me or Leave Me" was notable. But half the time I felt like I was watching a high school performance rather than a professional-caliber show. And I don't mean "high school" in a positive, McIntosh-quality way, for the Greens that may be reading. ;)

Anyway. Today I'm listening to the original cast recording on my iPod. Ahhh.

We have softball tonight, and of course I didn't make it to the batting cages this week, so my hitting will likely absolutely suck again. Sigh.

It feels like a Friday, with Becca and Matt already gone for their ski trip, and Gavin and Jen joining them this afternoon. It'll just be me, George and Rich taking over the office tomorrow...

Wednesday, March 10, 2004

just slip me on / I'll be your blanket / wherever whatever I'll be your coat

It's beautiful outside. Maybe I will mysteriously become sick today.

We have 23 people signed up for our 5K, which is exactly halfway to the break-even point. This makes me quite happy, as I think getting 23 more people in the next three and a half weeks is utterly and completely doable.

I ended up staying at work last night later than I'd planned, but still managed to get my bike to the store before they closed at 7. I thought I'd have to leave it overnight, but it turns out that the safety inspection only took 5 minutes. The guy looked it over and pronounced it safe to ride in the MS150 (not that I was expecting any differently). And I asked the stupid question of how to adjust it so my neck doesn't get sore on long rides. He tweaked the handlebars to put more weight on my back. Ah, so simple. I always feel like such an idiot when I go to the bike store for a minor adjustment; I guess I feel like if I'm going to have an $850 bike, I should know how to take care of it! To remedy the situation, I've signed up for two classes at Bike Barn--one about roadside repair, and one about general bike maintenance. By next month, I won't feel so stupid. :)

I watched American Idol last night, after missing the past couple weeks. Is it me, or is the talent pool rapidly shrinking?? I wasn't really all that impressed by any of the eight wild cards last night. I think only about six of the people who end up in the final twelve will have deserved to be there. Not like I could sing any better, but hey. Most of the people this season have just not been that impressive!

Tonight I'm going to see Rent with Jason, Jo, and two people who work with Debbie. Becca and others went last night, and Becca said she couldn't tell what they were singing in the first act, and Jen apparently thought they were off-key. We'll see what I think of it tonight. Not being able to hear the words won't be a problem for me since I already know what they are, but if the singers are off-key, that's gonna been really annoying (not to mention unprofessional). In any case, yay, I get to go see Rent!

Tuesday, March 09, 2004

she's five feet tall and sick of me / and all my rattling on

Hooray, it's another chemical warehouse fire! Firefighters were gaining control until an explosion renewed the whole blaze. Ah, Houston, the city of space exploration, the rodeo, hot weather, and spreading toxic chemical fumes to the masses. What's not to love?

I had my birthday check-up at the clinic this morning. My birthday's at the end of the month, and the clinic here gives every civil servant a free check-up each year just before their bday. I got to give a vial of blood, get my height and weight checked, blood pressure and temperature taken, and all that good stuff. It was fun. I love the doctor. Seriously, I do, and that's probably weird, but I think all the little tests and things that they do are so cool. I can't wait to see my blood results. The best thing is that they compare our blood numbers not to an average person, but to an average astronaut. Thus I get to hear things like, "Well you're a little bit outside of our range for this, but you're still ok for a mere mortal."

Oh, fine, no, they don't say that. But it would be funny if they did.

Sigh. I have just been in a bad mood for too long now. I need to snap out of it. People are on my nerves.

Except for Irwin. He donated to my MS150 ride and wins the honor of being the person who pushed me over $400, which was the minimum I was required to raise. Yay Irwin! Thanks to all of you who have donated, and if you haven't but still want to, the link is at the bottom of this page. All the money goes to the National Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, so it's a good cause...and tax-deductable! See? No reason not to do it. ;)

Climbing last night was ok, it was just me and Jason and Fred. The crowd that shows up has thinned...Jason and I are the only ones who've been going regularly since Christmas, but ah well. I tried a red route I thought I had no chance of making headway on, and got almost halfway up the wall, so that was encouraging. Also did a few other routes...the yellow one with the skull hold, another red, and the infamous yellow (which I didn't try till late, and had more trouble than usual on). Did some bouldering as well. I must've been working hard, because I was pooped when I got home, and my hands were raw.

Tonight I plan to do absolutely nothing. Well, I do have to take my bike to the store for a MS150 safety inspection since I want to get it done before the 40-mile ride I registered for this Sunday. But other than that...nothing, I say!

Monday, March 08, 2004

when my pass came in you dropped the ball / it didn't change the way I feel

Poor Nick!! I went over to Becca's last night after soccer to have salmon (mmm), only to find the poor boy bandaged and drugged. He dislocated his shoulder for the third time. :(

Other than finding Nick all laid up, it was a great weekend. The nasty weather of last week finally cleared, and it was absolutely beautiful outside, sunny and in the upper 70s. March is definitely my favorite month in Houston.

Friday night I went over to Becca's to watch "The Apprentice" that she'd TiVoed for me since I missed it on Thursday. Omorosa got fired! Yeah! She was really annoying, it was about time. Though to her credit, this week she actually did a decent job, I mean, she was the only one that got any of the freaky art sold...she needed to be fired, but it's ironic that she was fired in the week that she actually did ok. After the show, Gavin, Jen, Becca and I played a game of Settlers that I won by sneak attack when I went from 7 points to 10 in one turn by building a city and taking largest army (in addition to my other two cities and longest road).

Saturday morning, Buzz, Ron, Gavin, Jess, Mitzi and I headed downtown to run in the Bayou City Classic 10K as a centipede. Becca also ran the race, her first 10K ever (hooray Becca!). It was great fun, and we won an award for being the loudest centipede. The only lesson learned was that it's hard to run with green makeup on if you are me, and sweat like a man. I couldn't wipe my face, so the sweat ran into my eyes, so I had to dab my eyes, which left me with racoon-like circles of non-green skin around my eyes. It was sort of funny. The pictures are posted here.

We came home from the race, Buzz and I washed off as much green makeup as we could, and then we all went to Cafe Express to celebrate Fred's birthday (which was actually last Tuesday). There were at least 20 people there--who knew Fred was so popular!? ;)

I spent Saturday afternoon lazing around my apartment. I was sleepy from getting up so early for the race, but I generally hate taking naps because they only make me feel worse when I wake up. So I watched TV, and messed around until 8:00, when I went back over to Becca's for more Settlers (we didn't get our fix with just one game the night before). Chris joined us so we had a five-person game. I don't remember who won...I think Jen took one game, and Becca the other, but I'm not sure.

Yesterday I went for a 15-mile bike ride and decided that I'm definitely going to have to get a more comfortable seat before I do the MS150! When I got home, the day was so lovely that I decided to go for a swim, so I went over to the pool...but unfortunately the water was still frigid. So I just sat in the sun and read instead. I had a soccer game last night, where we (and I) played like absolute crap (even worse than usual), and yet ironically, we won. Though the other team was two men down, so it would have been pathetic if we hadn't emerged victorious...

From there, I went over to Becca's again to enjoy some salmon for dinner. I have probably saved a ton in groceries over the past year simply by getting to mooch off the Becca/Kennda/Cari/Nick household when they cook a big dinner. Ah, life is good.

Friday, March 05, 2004

Friday Five

What was...

1. ...your first grade teacher's name?
Mrs. Gambino. She was cool. Actually, now that I think about it, I think I started the year with Mrs. Garbark. But she left for some reason, and Mrs. Gambino came in to replace her.

2. ...your favorite Saturday morning cartoon?
Hmm. The one I remember waiting for is Looney Tunes. It came on at 11.

3. ...the name of your very first best friend?
Thomas. We met before we could walk. When we started talking, he called me Sarah, but I couldn't say "Thomas" so I called him Daddus. Our friendship faded when we started school, and he went to a different school than me. These days, last I heard, he's living in Colorado or something with a wife and small kid.

4. ...your favorite breakfast cereal?
Honey Nut Cheerios. My mom would mix half Honey Nut with half plain Cheerios, but occasionally there were days when I'd sneak a full bowl of all Honey Nut. She never bought us the sugary stuff, but occasionally I'd get to have the stuff at a friend's house. My favorite "bad" cereal was Lucky Charms. They're magically delicious!

5. ...your favorite thing to do after school?
Well, we were only allowed a half hour of TV, so I usually tried to make it count. I remembering saving it for She-Ra and He-Man a lot. Once the half hour was over, I usually read books or played outside.

Friday, March 05, 2004

she's always buzzing just like / neon / neon

One of the random online diaries I read every so often is this one. She's into music in a big way, and lately has been talking a lot about some guy named Matt Nathanson. We seem to have similar musical tastes (she loves U2, Guster, etc), and the other night I was browsing the iTunes store, so on a whim I downloaded Matt Nathanson's album. I've been listening to it for the past couple days. And it's great!

Anyway. We had a softball game last night, and I can't hit for crap. It is so frustrating. I stand way back from the plate and choke up on the bat, and yet I still can't seem to get the barrel on the ball. It's always closer to the handle, and the ball flies like 15 feet. I seriously need to go to the batting cages, and ideally I'd find someone to come watch me and critique my stance. Jen says she thinks I lean way over when I swing, and that's why I'm having problems. If that's the case, I need to work on standing up straight as I swing. I did get to play first base though last night, and that was a lot of fun. I'd love to play first full-time (outfield is so intimidating), but I think Katie has first all sewn up. (She couldn't play last night because she did something weird to her neck.)

Got my hair(s) cut yesterday. She highlighted the top in another step towards my natural hair color (after a year of dark brown hair, blond highlights look really light to me, but c'est la vie), gave the layers a trim, and styled it to look all flirty and curly and cute again. And then of course I had to go put it up in a ponytail for softball. Ah well.

Perhaps I am just not destined for flirty, curly, cute hair.

The weekend is going to be fairly busy, again. Tomorrow morning, Buzz, Ron, Gavin, Jess, Mitzi and I are running as a centipede (six people connected together) in the Bayou City Classic 10K. Buzz and I are dressing up as aliens on the loose and looking to phone home, with the other four dressing up as the scientists chasing us. It should be a lot of fun, and we're hoping to win a costume prize. I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures and post them. Oh, and afterward we get to go to Fred's birthday lunch still sweaty and in costume. ;) Sunday I'm helping out with Houston Georgia Tech Club scholarship interviews and hopefully playing soccer (if the rains stays away).

P.S. There was an interesting story in the New York Times today about how many Division I college women's basketball programs have men's practice squads...basically, the women practice against men in order to hone their skills. The idea was pretty interesting, and seems to be a win-win situation for those involved. The male players are great, and could probably play ball at a Division II or III university. They get to play basketball, and have a stake in the women's teams, and as the article says, "Universally, the male practice players become ambassadors for the women's game..."I tell guys all the time that these girls are better than any other guy in the school who isn't on the men's basketball team."" And the women benefit from playing against tougher practice opponents. Neat.

Thursday, March 04, 2004

you're too much / and I can't control it / you got me all over the road /
my dear / i went for the steal / maybe it was rushed

So Bush has kicked off his re-election campaign, Kerry has all but locked up the Democratic nomination, and now the country gets to witness eight months of campaigning. Sigh.

I've always said that I hate politics, but maybe it's not the concept as much as it is the implementation. The workings of the government are pretty interesting, but I can't stand the bickering it takes to get to the point where you can actually do something. Every four years, for months in a row, I feel inundated with candidate after candidate pandering for my vote. I'd be so incredibly happy if campaigning were limited to just the month of October. One month is about the extent of my patience for politicians and their rhetoric.

This afternoon I get to go get my hair cut in the same "upscale" Rice Village shopping center where a woman was shot yesterday. Fun.

Last night I wasn't going to work out, because I was feeling very blah. George and Ginger came over to check out my bike (the hybrid one I bought out in California; George may buy it from me, then I can go get a mountain bike!), then I fixed some dinner, then I watched TV. At 9, Newlyweds came on (so sue me, I love that show) and after five minutes of watching at Jessica Simpson and her skinny, skinny self prance around the screen, I had guilted myself into my running clothes. I still didn't want to run, so I compromised by doing a half hour on the elliptical machine. The exercise room was empty, so I got to continue to watch silly Newlyweds while huffing and puffing and ellipticalling. Afterwards, I decided to try a pull-up or two, since upper body strength is what's holding me back most at the rock gym. I'm a solid 5.9 climber, but don't know that I'll get to 5.10 without bigger biceps! Anyway, man. My arms are still sore from climbing on Monday. That'll teach me to take three weeks off.

Today I'm in search of four white lab coats for our 10K centipede this weekend. They are harder to find than you think!!

Wednesday, March 03, 2004

thanks to the men on horses

I took the morning off to hang out with Leila and have lunch with her before she headed back to Austin. The rodeo last night was a lot of fun. To summarize, I'll just re-post something I put on gtcrows last night:

"First of all, the show started with an invocation that was downright creepy. This booming God voice came over the PA system and Leila thought it was from some sci-fi movie, you know, like a bad guy named Zoltor or something. Creepy. The rodeo started, and the calf scramble was very funny.

So Leila and I are sitting way the hell up in Reliant Stadium watching the steer wrestling, when suddenly I spot someone standing on the stage (which is stored in the wings, not having been pulled out to its center-of-the-field rotating position yet). I thought it might be John Mayer, so I say "Leila, give me the binoculars for a sec." She gives them to me, going "what, what?" I take a quick look, and the verdict is even better--it's Scotty Crowe!! (You may not all be aware, but Leila has an obsession with Scotty Crowe, who will now also be referred to "the pimp behind the magic.") We were so amused. He was all decked out in a too-small pink shirt. He's looking very buff though.

(Interjection from Leila: "Scotty Crowe!!! I'm so obsessed with him. I don't know why. It's unnatural. He makes my heart flutter.")

Anyway. The concert was tres, tres amusing. The rodeo is awesome. The concert, though short (he played for about an hour), was one of the better ones I've attended. The only disappointment was that there was no encore, however, you can't be too upset when everyone on stage leaves by jumping in the bed of a pick-up trick and being driven through the tunnel. The rotating stage, the fireworks, the closed-captioning (John: "You know they're typing everything I say on that little screen....watch...the best Houston rodeo rider ever, John Mayer! Look! See it?" ). And John Mayer makes funny faces when he plays the guitar and was wearing a jacket that bugged Leila because she thought he looked like a homeless man. At the end of the show, he even thanked the "men on horses" for opening the show.

After the concert, we almost got run over three times, lost the car, became convinced that grass had been planted over a large area of parking lot while we were inside, but then we found the car again. A guy told us "I love John Mayer" as we walked by, and Leila asked him "but how do you feel about Scotty Crowe?" Sadly, he didn't know who Scotty was.

(Interjection from Leila: "That guy was so drunk.")

Then, as we were jockeying for position to get out of the parking lot, these high school kids called out the window of their SUV that it was their turn, and I shouldn't cut in front of them. I laughed and didn't move, and then all of a sudden we hear, over a speaker coming out of their SUV, one of the kids saying "Apparently you didn't hear me...it's our turn!!" It was very funny, and would have been very redneck, if it weren't so funny. Then the guy at the Shell station tried to sell Leila beer and invite us to stay at the gas station all night.

(Interjection from Leila: "That was so fun. I would have just stayed to hang out with people in the parking lot if I didn't have a job and shit. By shit, I mean husband, house, and dog(s).")

And thus is the story of John Mayer at the rodeo. You should all go read the road journal on johnmayer.com, which has already been updated despite the fact that the show just ended two hours ago."

So yeah, the rodeo was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see Leila. There really is nothing quite like the spectacle that is the Houston rodeo. Horses, cowboys, cattle, fireworks, pick-up trucks, southern accents...with a video tribute to NASA thrown in. And John Mayer's site has a priceless picture of him in front of the rodeo looking confused. Yeeeeeeeeeeee ha!

Tuesday, March 02, 2004

it's the ropes and the reins / and the joy and the pain /
and they call the thing rodeo

Dude. If you have an hour and a half on the schedule to present your material, don't bring 74 slides, talk really s l o w l y, and go an hour over your given time, thus derailing the presentation of the person who has to go after you, who has to leave before you're even finished because you've used up your time and theirs. That is my rant for the day.

The 2.5 hour presentation I sat through this morning (about Mars sample return) was actually very interesting, and I learned a lot. But I had to struggle to keep my brain following the slow delivery, and was disappointed to not get to hear the presentation that was supposed to come afterward. C'est la vie.

Buzz, Jason and I went climbing last night for the first time in three weeks. Oh, my arms. I had a good night, but today I can tell that I took too long of a break. My fingers have that tingly tight feeling. :)

In other news...they found evidence of past liquid water on Mars. Hurrah! Speaking of Mars, I get to present neural network abort determination stuff (formerly co-op Kara's project, now mine) to the JPL guy this afternoon. Hurrah! The Houston Rodeo begins today, with Leila arriving from Austin in a few hours to go with me to watch John Mayer kick things off tonight after the cattle roping and bull riding. Hurrah! Apparently there are pig races at 6:30. Now that sounds entertaining...

Monday, March 01, 2004

baby baby baby / when all your love is gone /
who will save me from all I'm up against out in this world

It's only 9:30 and I'm already annoyed. But I'm not going to complain about work today.

Instead, I'll be happy, because it's March, and March is one of my two favorite months (the other being October). It's gray outside today, but it's also close the 70 degrees, which is lovely.

It was a quick weekend, and I am sleepy this morning. Saturday Buzz and I ran the Rodeo Run downtown, a 10K. We were both still a little under the weather, so it wasn't our best race, to say the least. I did set a new PR in the 10K (1:03:12), but that's not really saying much because my last official 10K was in July, and I'm in better shape now having done two half marathons. I had been hoping to do 10 minute miles and finish in 1:02:00, but I just didn't feel very good. It'd been two full weeks since I'd done any running (since I've been trying to shake this cold), and I could really feel it. My legs were heavy.

As if feeling bad weren't enough, I started out too fast, running a 9:30 first mile, and then got progressively slower each mile. I am really bad at judging my pace, and it really bit me in the butt on Saturday. The race was painful. Poor Buzz was doing even worse. While all my congestion is way back in my head, which made me uncomfortable but not downright crappy, her congestion was making it difficult to breathe. She finished a minute and a half behind me, which is definitely a rare occurrance. She was not a happy camper, because last weekend she'd run a 10K in under 57 minutes.

Still, a little exercise was better than nothing. :)

Saturday night a bunch of us went to this little theater that plays independent movies and stuff to see "Touching the Void," a movie/documentary about two climbers who did a first ascent of the face of a mountain in Peru in 1985. On the way down, Joe Simpson fell and severely broke his leg. His climbing partner, Simon Yates, tried to get him down the mountain, until they ended up in a bad situation with Joe hanging off an overhang, and Simon trying to hold him up. Not knowing what had happened at the other end of the line and starting to be pulled off the mountain himself, Simon had no other choice than to cut the rope. Joe fell about 150 feet into a crevasse, and Simon descended the mountain, thinking Joe was dead. Miraculously, Joe survived, fighting his broken leg, hunger, and severe dehydration to drag himself out of the crevasse, across a glacier, through a boulder field, and back to camp just before Simon and the other guy at camp were about to leave.

It's an amazing story, and the film is really intense, to the point of being both fascinating and hard to watch. It makes you wonder what you would do if you ever found yourself in a situation like that. The kicker is that Simon faced tons of criticism for cutting the rope on his partner when the pair got back home to the UK, but Joe has always defended him. I mean, what choice did he have? It was either one man died, or both men. If Joe hadn't survived, no one would have faulted Simon, and the mere fact that Joe did survive was practically a miracle.

Anyway. Interesting drama/documentary. Both men are still alive (they were only in their mid-twenties when they did the climb), and both provided commentary throughout the movie. I read in an article that they are still friends, though not as close as they once were, and they don't climb together anymore.

Yesterday I slept late, then did some shopping with Ron and Buzz for costume supplies for our centipede for Saturday's Bayou City Classic 10K (six people joined together in costume). Last night I had a soccer game in the drizzle and mud (fun, fun), then went to Becca's for the second half of the Oscars.

Soccer continues to be interesting. I have become a sort of mediator for our team. The team we played last night has a forward who's big and physical and wears a knee brace. Our team has a hothead "coach" who plays physically, but doesn't like it when people dish the physical-ness back at her. Every time our coach ends up sparring with knee brace woman, they end up talking back to each other and getting all upset. Now, I actually think the problem is more with our hothead than with knee brace woman, because I've been up against knee brace woman many times and never had a problem. She plays physically, but so do I, and hey, it's soccer, there's going to be some pushing for position and for the ball. Last night while the ball was at the other end of the field, knee brace woman asked me if our hothead was always like that. I told her my only advice was to just try to ignore hothead. Then I have to turn around and tell hothead that knee brace woman is a jerk, and she has to just try and ignore her.

Sigh. I'm telling each person to ignore the other just so we don't freaking come to blows on the soccer field. It's absurd. And our team is still hit or miss. We follow a brilliant play with an idiot play. And I'm failing as a defensive coordinator or something. As sweeper, I'm always trying to watch the play developing and direct my fullbacks and stopper to where they need to be. We need to mark players on defense, and so I try to do so, but it never fails--when I mark a player, the ball inevitably goes to another forward who isn't being marked well by our team. When I don't mark and instead try to follow the ball, there's too many people open. My defense and I can't seem to find a happy medium.

And thus was my busy weekend.

Friday, February 27, 2004

I could change my life / to better suit your mood

"Well, the official report says 15 inches of snow -- we got at least a foot here and are pretty much snowed in for the day. The snow is piled halfway up the railing on the back porch so I can't even get the door open. David went to work last night at 5:00 and the theatre closed at 10:00 -- he couldn't get his car out because it had snowed so much since 5:00, so called home and said he was going to walk home. Dad told him that we would come get him, but we couldn't get Dad's car out. First it got stuck against the curb and we dug it out, then it slid and almost hit the streetlight pole and was perpendicular in the street. With some neighbors' help, he got it back against the curb so it wouldn't get hit and one of the neighbors with a 4-wheel drive SUV took me up to Park Road to pick up David. When Dad tried to get out at 2:00 AM, he ended up parking the car a couple houses down the street. Sue (his boss) picked him up in her SUV and just brought him home. Only 6 carriers were able to get in, so most papers were not delivered."

I got that email from my mom this morning. Wow. Charlotte just got their biggest snowfall since I was 9 (almost 10) years old. And I'm stuck in Houston, where it never ever ever snows. It's not that I'm a huge fan of snow or anything, but it'd be nice to see every once in a while. Without having to leave the city, that is.

I'm currently in a "virtual waiting room" where customers are being randomly selected to buy Cubs tickets. It is very strange, I've never seen something like this before. A virtual waiting room. Hmm. We haven't even worked out the details of the trip yet, or thought about buying plane tickets, but the Cubs game we definitely want to see is against the Astros (popular division rivalry) and on Memorial Day. Tickets just went on sale online at 10:00 (you could get wristbands at 8 if you are actually in Chicago), so I guess there is high demand. Hopefully this virtual waiting room thing will let me through soon. It keeps counting down 30 seconds and then refreshing itself, only to count down another 30 seconds, and repeat. It also says that "internet customers that use computer based scripting language will have all potential orders cancelled." And I can only buy four. Man. They don't mess around.

Last night Jen taped "The Apprentice" during our Yuri's Night meeting, and we all watched it after we finished. I am so addicted to that show. Last week it dawned on me that Amy is the only person left who hasn't lost a challenge yet. And her team won again last night. She's the secret to winning! Trump should just pick her and fire everyone else. ;) In any case, when the show is finally over, I'll certainly miss the Friday morning pow-wow that George and I always have to discuss the previous night's show.

Still stuck in the virtual waiting room. I wonder how long this will last.

Our Yuri's Night webpage got 70 hits yesterday after getting linked to from the JSC homepage. And it was in JSC Today (a center-wide email) today and has already gotten 96 hits this morning! No one has signed up for the race yet, but we have 14 people signed up with just over a month to go, so I'm feeling good. Runners always sign up at the last minute.

Thursday, February 26, 2004

subs are a dollar off / when you bring in a couponnnn...

It's the cold that won't end. Last night, I was practically singing with satisfaction, knowing that this morning I would be able to come to work and write about how my ears finally cleared from the week-long cold. That's got to be one of the best feelings in the world--the random moment when my ears finally clear. No amount of nose-holding and ear-popping really does it, it has to happen on its own. And it happened last night while I was in the shower. Suddenly, the water seemed really loud, but I was ecstatic.

Then I went to bed, and this morning, wham, I'm all clogged up again. My mucus is trying to choke me. And I even had a sore throat, although that has gone away thankfully.

I'm tired of being sick already!

Geez.

Complaint for the day: I wish West Wing and The OC weren't on at the same time. I always have to pick. And, since I have the TV brain of a 14-year-old, I always end up watching The OC.

Confession of the day: I love the Quizno's sponge monkey things. Despite the fact that they look like mutant hamsters, I think they are hilarious. And an amazingly effective ad campaign (though Quizno's already had my business). I get their silly song stuck in my head. We love the subs...cause they are good to us....the Quizno's subs....they are tasty they are crunchy they are warm because they toast them....they got a pepper barrrr!

Yesterday I was in a horrible mood all day. Let's hope today is better. Oh. I just realized that I have softball tonight. At least I think I do. I didn't bring softball clothes. And according to the schedule, our game is at 6. I will have to go home and get clothes. Sigh.

Everything will seem much nicer when I'm not sick anymore.

Wednesday, February 25, 2004

soon the stream of people gets wider / then it becomes a river /
river becomes an ocean / carrying ships that bear /
women and men

Jen had a fun game on her site. "Step 1: Open your mp3 player. Step 2: Put all of your music on random. Step 3: List the first ten songs it plays, no matter how embarrassing." So here we go!

Dixie Chicks, "Sin Wagon"
Matchbox Twenty, "Crutch"
"Poor, Poor Joseph" from Joseph & the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
John Butler Trio, "Don't Understand"
3 Doors Down, "Be Like That"
"The Heat is on in Saigon", from Miss Saigon
Box Car Racer, "There Is"
Harry Connick Jr, "It's Time"
Angie Aparo, "Whatever We Become"
"Light My Candle" from Rent

That's fun. I think I'll do 10 more. :)

"Into the Lem" from the Apollo 13 soundtrack
Damesviolet, "Someday"
"Enchantment Passing Through" from Aida
Backstreet Boys, "Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely" (eek!)
U2, "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses"
Sister Hazel, "Concede"
Fastball, "Vampires"
"Angel of Music" from Phantom of the Opera
"On This Night of a Thousand Dreams" from Evita
Billy Joel, "Big Shot"
They Might Be Giants, "Women and Men"

Interesting. That's the first 20 random songs out of 2200 stored on my iPod. Random is weird. A lot of the musical soundtracks I have got queued up, but not a single one of the almost 100 classical songs I have on there. And nothing from the eight Counting Crows albums or six John Mayer albums. Weird.

Anyway. Last night we went out for Becca's birthday (which is actually today, but the birthday girl has to study for a test tomorrow, how much does that suck?). We went to this place called the Mockingbird Bistro, down a side street among a bunch of condos. Very hidden away. It was expensive, but yummy (I had salmon and rice and the best spinach ever, oh, and delicious calimari), and fun. Not to mention that the waiter was really cute. Also, he called all the females "the lady." As in, "is the lady finished with her plate?" and "would the lady like more wine?" There was even someone who pulled out my chair for me, and put my napkin in my lap. It was entertaining. I think I need to go to fancy restaurants more often just so that I'm not caught so off guard when I find myself in one.

In other news, Cari and friends went out and bought bikinis for the first time ever in preparation for their upcoming trip to...Tunisia. As Becca asked her, "You bought bikinis to wear in a Muslim country??? Great choice of a country to begin wearing skimpy clothes!" Yes, this does not seem like the best idea. Cari, please don't get spat upon, or hissed at, or stoned.

It has been an interesting morning. I have been offended, attacked by snot, asked to write up part of a document that someone else should probably write, and eaten a brownie. Mmm, brownie. I have a lot to do in the next couple weeks at work, for a change, and I'm not sure where to start. I need to make a list, and sort out the priorities.

Tuesday, February 24, 2004

we're off to see the wizard / the wonderful wizard of oz

I am busy planning our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park in August. It's going to be so cool. We (a group of six at the moment, but hopefully growing to eight) are flying to Denver on a Friday, and staying that night in Estes Park, right outside RMNP. On Saturday we'll do a cool dayhike past a waterfall and ending at a mountain lake. On Sunday we'll pack in to a backcountry campsite, and prepare for Monday, when we'll attempt to summit Longs Peak, the highest mountain in the park at 14,255 feet!

Today for lunch we get to go out to Ellington to see a beat-up thrust reverser that fell off the STA in Florida. This is the highlight of my week, actually. I am excited. I just wish my stupid head and stupid sinuses would stop their throbbing.

Last night I sat on my butt and worked on my cross-stitch. Yep, I'm an old lady. ;) I have this cross-stitch of a wizard that I've been working on on-and-off for almost two years now, but since Christmas I've been doing a lot more. It's really starting to take shape. His robe is almost entirely done, and last night I did his face and hands while I watched "The Fast and the Furious" on tv. That movie amuses me. Can you stand the excitement?

Monday, February 23, 2004

I think the sickness has

I think the sickness has migrated into my sinuses. All day yesterday I had this pressure inside my head. Last night it got worse, so I went to CVS to get some sort of medicine. As I stood in the aisle trying to decide between the 20 different boxes with the word "sinus" printed on them, slightly dazed because of my pounding head, the CVS pharmacist came up and asked if I needed any help. The conversation that followed was a little weird, although it could be just because I was sort of out of it.

Me: "Yeah, I think I have a sinus infection."
Him: "An infection? If so, you'll need antibiotics..."
Me: "Oh, well not an infection, but just...well, my head has all this pressure in it and it's getting worse."
Him: "This should do it." (hands me a box of generic CVS sinus relief medicine)
Me: "Ok, thanks."

I start to walk up to the front to pay.

Him: "Did you go to Stanford?"
Me: (looking down and realizing I'm wearing a Stanford shirt) "Oh, yes, a couple years ago."
Him: "Oh, you graduated?"
Me: "Yeah, well, I mean, I went to graduate school there, so I was only there for a year."
Him: "Where'd you go for undergrad?"
Me: "Georgia Tech."

There's a pause. He didn't say anything, but it felt like a weird pause, so as I started to walk away again, I turned around.

Me: "Both good basketball teams this year. Haha."
Him: "Yeah, but we'll get you in the end."
Me: "Oh--where did you go?"
Him: "Arizona."
Me: "Oh." (drawing a blank, but later I realize that Arizona and Stanford are both Pac-10 schools, so he must have been referring to that)
Him: "Stanford has springs under the court."
Me: "What?"
Him: "The basketball court. It has spring under it."
Me: "Springs?"
Him: "Yeah. For earthquakes."

At this point I was certain that I'd missed his train of thought somewhere, so I just said thanks, and paid for my medicine, and left. It was one of those conversations that doesn't sound all that weird when I recount it, but it felt very weird when I was having it.

Anyway. My head is feeling a little better today, although I'm having trouble focusing on the monitor without my head aching. When I lean over, I feel pressure on my nose and the roof of my mouth. It's all very weird, and I'm all paranoid about it. I had a sinus infection when I was like 8 years old, and the only thing I can remember about it is lying on my parents' bed sobbing because my head hurt so badly.

As a result of all this me-being-sick, I haven't done anything remotely active since the half marathon more than a week ago. I'm going stir crazy, but I don't want to push myself. Friday I got home and couldn't stand to be in my apartment, so I went out to dinner with Becca and Nick, and then conned Nick into folding race brochures with me. Saturday morning I got up and went to the local 10K; I didn't run, but I did hand out race brochures. Saturday afternoon I got a pedicure (my poor feet needed it), and then had girl's night with Buzz, Jess, Becca, Jen, Laurie, and Pooja. We had dinner out, then went back to Buzz's house where we watched movies (Sliding Doors and When Harry Met Sally, the latter for Laurie, who had (gasp!) never seen it) and did a lot of baking. I finally made double-iced brownies, and have a ton of them, so if anyone's within walking distance of my office, feel free to come and get some. Mmmm.

Yesterday I did a whole lot of nothing. In fact, the most productive thing I did was probably giving Carter directions on how to get to the Roxy so he could see John Kerry. I haven't lived in Atlanta for almost three years, he's lived there for 21 years, and yet he calls me for directions. It makes me laugh every time. It started to rain yesterday afternoon, so soccer was cancelled, which was probably a good thing considering I don't know how I would have fared trying to play defense with a head that felt like it might burst.

I did watch the final episode of "Sex and the City." I've never watched the show regularly, but I do enjoy it, and knew the story lines enough to think that last night's episode did a great job of tying up loose ends and ending the series on a high note. My only complaint is a personal one about the Charlotte-and-Harry-adopting-a-kid storyline. The couple they were supposed to adopt from was from Charlotte, North Carolina, my lovely hometown. Only the show depicted the Charlotte couple as total hicks! The guy had these huge mutton-chop sideburns, and the woman spoke with a huge southern accent. Talk about stereotyping!

Ok, that is really quite enough writing for today.

Saturday, February 21, 2004

Handing out race fliers

Handing out race fliers bright and early...

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This message was sent from a T-Mobile wireless phone.

Friday, February 20, 2004

twenty four oceans / twenty four skies

Well, I'm back at work, feeling marginally better. I don't know if it's the illness or the Tylenol Cold & Flu, but my head has been all spinny and fuzzy all morning. I feel slow. Slow to hear things, slow to respond, slow to comprehend what's going on.

This week has been extremely weird, and tiring, and frustrating. With Austin, post-race soreness, then being sick, and some frustrations at work, I'm just glad it's Friday and I can put the entire week behind me. I was supposed to run a 10K tomorrow morning, but I decided that might not be the best idea since I'm pretty sure it was the stress of the half marathon that weakened my immune system and made me get sick in the first place. So I'm wussing out of the 10K. It's not too bad though, as I'm already signed up for 10Ks on the 28th and 6th anyway. ;) In the latter, we're running as a 6 person centipede and dressing up as the space shuttle in hopes of winning a costume prize.

I may have to get up and go to the race anyway, though, to hand out fliers. I can't find anyone besides Chris to volunteer to do it. Sigh.

Thursday, February 19, 2004

and when you wake / the morning showers you with light

I hate being sick. (Then again, who likes being sick?)

I am home again, after waking up feeling even worse than yesterday. I tossed and turned for a while, but it seems impossible to ever get really comfortable when you don't feel good to begin with, so I dragged myself out of bed at 9:30. And here I sit. Feeling a little bit better since brushing my teeth and washing my face. That stuff always makes me feel better.

It's weird. I get colds on a fairly regular basis, but they usually don't keep me home from work, and definitely not for two days in a row. I feel like I'm playing hooky. Actually, I feel like I've been attacked by one huge cold that's been building up since November.

There is a guy mowing the grass by the bayou behind my apartment. It's February. The grass isn't long. I wonder why he is mowing.

Wednesday, February 18, 2004

bumped his head / went to bed / couldn't get up in the morning

I woke up at 7:00. Felt ucky. Woke up at 8:00. Still felt ucky. Called work. Emailed Gavin about our document. And finally, I crawled back into bed.

I didn't get up again until 10:30, at which point I felt marginally better, especially after washing my face and brushing my teeth. My throat has stopped hurting, but is now dry and scratchy and generally unpleasant to have to deal with. My eyes ache and my ears sound funny, but at the moment, happily, I can still breathe through my nose.

Nick is currently my favorite person in the world. He called me twice yesterday to see how I was feeling, and again today at lunchtime. He even brought me french fries (my favorite food of late) and a frosty (which made my throat feel much better, if temporarily). So hooray for Nick.

And on an unrelated note...I was doing some web surfing this morning in my stuffy-head-haze, and following link trails from one of the strangers' blogs I read regularly. I came across the following online photo display and couldn't help but think: I know it's a hotly contested issue, and that a lot of people feel very strongly against it, but how can you be against something that makes couples like them or them look so incredibly happy?

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

So I know this is

So I know this is going to sound really obvious and cliche, but I have made a new discovery: going to the dentist is a lot less unpleasant if you actually brush well and floss every day. Really! And it only took me 25 years to figure this out.

Tuesday, February 17, 2004

and in a wide sea of eyes / I see one pair that I recognize

If I ever get married, maybe it can be to someone who'll consent to living in an apartment next door, or a duplex, or something. I've become pretty accustomed to having my own space...

I had a nice weekend in Austin, though this morning has gotten off to a rough start. I have a sore throat and a looming dentist appointment in an hour. There is no coffee, at least not that I can find. And the work I thought I was going to do today has already been done by one of my workaholic colleagues. Some days I don't know why I bother getting out of bed.

Anyway. We met at Starbucks at 10 on Saturday and caravanned up to Austin. We arrived around 1:00, and were offended to find that we had to pay $7 to park at the expo center in order to go inside for 10 minutes to pick up our packets. Pretty absurd. From there, we went to the hotel, then to a massive group dinner at the very-crowded Spaghetti Warehouse. Leila and Brian even joined us, so it was good to see them, especially since our proposed dinner plans for Sunday didn't work out. We all were in bed with the lights out by 9:30 Saturday night.

We got up Sunday morning at 5, ate some breakfast, and got ready for the race. Our hotel was literally about 300 yards from the start line, and it was nice to be able to sit inside until about 6:30, when we finally had to head out into the freezing weather. It was about 38 degrees outside (it actually snowed in Austin Saturday morning), and I was not happy to be standing in the cold in my t-shirt and shorts. I ended up running in a long sleeve t-shirt, shorts, and gloves, and was fine while running. As soon as I finished, I picked up my clothing drop-off bag and bundled back up in a dry t-shirt, sweatshirt, and sweatpants.

From the finish, we walked down to the marathon finish line, about a mile and a half away (the marathon course zig-zagged a lot in the last half). After staring into the sun watching lots of marathoners finish, we cheered really loudly for Buzz, and I got my first sunburn of the year. Sunburn. In February. Ugh.

Results from this weekend are as follows:

HALF MARATHON
Ron - 2:05:47
Jeremy - 2:10:22
Jess - 2:13:35
Sarah - 2:16:35

MARATHON
Laurie - 3:55:20
Josh - 3:57:44
Buzz - 4:35:34

I was happy with my finish. Buzz ran the entire way with me before I peeled off to finish while she kept chugging along. We were incredibly consistent--you could have set your watch by our 10:30 miles. I would have finished right on pace with a 2:17:30 half marathon, but I had saved just enough in the tank to speed up for the last mile, and sprint the final tenth. It was enough to get me a 2:16:35. :)

That's a minute and a half slower than the Houston Half, but I wasn't expecting to beat that time. Austin, after all, has hills, and while there weren't any huge ones to climb, the constant slightly-uphill, slightly-downhill trends took their toll. My legs bothered me more during the race, and my knees were sore all day Saturday and yesterday. I really wasn't sore at all after Houston; the day after Houston, I went rock climbing. But last night, rock climbing was off my radar of possible activities, and I ended up just sitting at home watching tv. Fortunately, my legs are feeling much better today. I may try a very slow jog tonight to loosen them up.

On the whole, though, I think I'm done with long-distance running for the moment. My next goal is the Houston Marathon next January. I plan to maintain my current level of running fitness, and do a 10-12 miler once a month or so. Then, in late September when the weather starts to cool down, I'll start training for the full marathon. Till then, I have plenty to keep me busy. I'm doing the MS150 bike ride from Houston to Austin in mid-April, and there's the Danskin triathlon in mid-June, and the Peachtree in July.

Gotta run. More maybe later.

Monday, February 16, 2004

Nick playing with his

Nick playing with his camera in the shoe section at the mall...

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Saturday, February 14, 2004

Last interchange out of

Last interchange out of Houston. Austin here we come!

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Friday, February 13, 2004

and also reach she said for no one else but you / you won't turn away / when someone else is gone

Friday the 13th is cold and drizzly in Houston. How underwhelming.

There's a good article in the New York Times today about Greece's rush to be ready for the Olympics this summer. When we were in Athens last October, it was amazing to see the amount of construction going on in preparation for the Games, and yet it also seemed like everything was just teetering on the edge of falling into mass chaos and confusion. Take the airport, for example: we waltzed out of the terminal without ever going through any apparent security checkpoint, not to mention European customs. We made it into the city without our bags ever being checked, or our passports being scrutinized. We just walked out the door and ta da--hopped on a bus to the middle of the city. As the acticle says, "They have also begun to manage expectations downward, casting Greece as the little engine that could, and that will, but only barely." I wish Athens the best in getting ready for the Games, but I think it'll be a tumultuous six months.

Today in the cafeteria they are making "Why I Work Safely" badges. Most people take in a picture of their spouse, or their kids. The people laminate the picture and put in on a badge. Since I have no husband or children, I printed out a picture of my fish. I am curious to see what they'll say when I ask to have a picture of my fish laminated onto a badge.

I don't have any plans for tonight, but tomorrow morning we head to Austin. We'll have a big dinner tomorrow night and hopefully get to bed early. The half marathon starts at 7 on Sunday morning, then I'll come back to Houston. We have Monday off work (hooray!) so I'll get to take it easy again. I have to say, this trend of having a day off work after I run a half marathon ain't bad.

In other news though, I've decided to do the MS150 in April. It's a bike ride from Houston to Austin, about 180 miles, in two days. I was talking to Angela, a coworker who did it last year, about it and she answered all my questions with the answers I was hoping to hear, so I'm signing up. Yeah, I'm crazy. So now, by July, in 2004 I'll have run two half marathons, at least 4 10K races, probably a couple 5Ks, and done both the MS150 and the Danskin triathlon. Either I'm getting a tad obsessive, or I just really want to make another t-shirt quilt as soon as possible. You decide.

It's supposed to be 45 degrees on Sunday morning in Austin. Brr.

Thursday, February 12, 2004

rover on a rope

Next Generation Rover: The Mars Science Laboratory

This is the mission I'm starting to work entry guidance design for--the Mars Science Laboratory, headed towards Mars in 2009.

Thursday, February 12, 2004

My new lego Mars

My new lego Mars rover. So cool.

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Thursday, February 12, 2004

leggo my lego

Happy Birthday Dad! (Yes, Mom on Monday, Dad today. Together they are, as Dad pointed out, 108 years old.)

Last night I'd planned to stay at home, but got talked into playing bingo with Jason and Debbie. None of us won, as usual, but Debbie won $202 from those stupid pull tabs!! I was incredulous. She gave me $1 for being the one who actually pulled the tabs on the $200 winning card. ;)

George and I went and picked up Chinese food for everyone for lunch today. Ah, it was an excellent idea, as I hadn't packed my lunch anyway. Mmm. Now I am happily full of orange chicken.

Yesterday I fell under the spell of JSC Today's advertising, and went to the Exchange store to buy Mars legos. Dude. They are awesome. I bought an awesome set that came with a model of the orbiter, the rover, and the Delta rocket and launch tower. I wanted the big version of the rover, but it's $80. :( Maybe someday... In any case, they are all so cool! The rover even has a pancam ton top, a little robot arm in front, and independent suspension on the front wheels! So now the Mars set joins the International Space Station model I got a few months ago.

I love legos. When this NASA thing stops working, I'm moving to Denmark (or wherever) and working for Lego.

Wednesday, February 11, 2004

Playing bingo with the

Playing bingo with the old people on a random Wednesday night.

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Wednesday, February 11, 2004

well I'm the king of the swingers boy / the jungle VIP
I've reached the top / and had to stop / and that's what's bothering me

I hate the treadmill, I hate the treadmill, I hate the treadmill. Last night the rain slowed down, but it was so wet and chilly, not to mention still slightly drizzling, so I ran on the treadmill after watching all my silly TV. I managed to get in 4.75 miles of a planned 6 before I realized I had hated every minute of those 4.75 miles, and decided I'd had enough torture for one night. I read articles about people who do all their marathon training on treadmills, and I just don't get it. Outside, there is fresh air, and scenery, and sky. Inside, it's hot, and stuffy, and there's TV that I can't hear over the racket of the treadmill, and I feel like a rat in a cage. Outside is good. Inside sucks.

Last night was weird all around. After the dreaded treadmill, some reading, and hitting the sack, sometime around 3 a.m. the full effect of Monday night climbing hit me, and my arms began to burn "with the fire of a thousand suns," as I related to Rich this morning. Anyway, it was painful to even turn over or alter my position in bed, so I slept the rest of the night flat on my back with my arms limply at my sides. Fortunately, by the time I woke up for good at 8:00, the soreness has subsided.

So I have work to do today. Unfortunately, it involves showing that our methods are correct, despite the fact that we got the "wrong" answer while some other guys totally lucked into the "right" answer. Sigh. Is it Friday yet?

This weekend I'm running the Austin Half Marathon (on Sunday). It's funny. I had such a combination of anxiety, excitement, and apprehension before the Houston Half a month ago, and I have hardly been thinking about this one at all. I guess having done one takes some of the mystery out of it. I know I can go that far. I know I can finish. I'm not going to try to beat my time from a month ago, because Austin is hilly. If it happens, it happens, but I'm not going to go in with any expectations. I am both excited that Buzz is going to be doing the full 26.2 miles, and also a little jealous that I couldn't try the full thing with her. But I'll try this fall. In the meantime, after Austin, I think I'm going to switch gears to biking.

Yes, I have a new goal: to ride the MS150 from Houston to Austin in mid-April. A coworker of mine did it last year and is doing it again, and it turns out there's a NASA sub-team, part of the larger Dow Chemical team. So I would have a large group of people to ride with! I may just do it. If I decide to, you'll know because I'll post a link on this page asking for sponsorship. ;) I'll need to raise $400, but that's only 20 people giving $20. Or 40 people giving $10. Or...well, you can do the math.

I don't know when I started going insane with my athletic goals. But it's sort of fun.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

I'm addicted to you / don't you know that you're toxic

As I have mentioned here before, I bought a new phone off Ebay a few weeks ago. I paid about $40 more than I would have liked, but I justified the decision by realizing that I could sell my old phone, which was going on Ebay for $40-$60. So last week after I got my new phone and confirmed that everything was working with it, I put my old phone up for sale. Last night, the bidding was only at $24.50, and I was disappointed, but c'est la vie. The auction ended at 8:45 this morning, so I checked to see what the final winning bid was. $91! Woohoo! Someone spent $91 on my old used cell phone (which, for the record, I did advertise as being used, locked to T-Mobile, without sim card, and with a few slight scratches)! I am quickly becoming addicted to Ebay. I wonder what else I have in my apartment that I can sell??

Anyway. Climbing last night was thoroughly crappy. Buzz suggested I do a route that turned out to be much too hard for me (she overestimates my upper body strength; she has incredible upper body strengh for a girl, while I can barely do a pull-up). The bigger problem is that when I do something too hard, I don't really see it as a challenge; instead, I don't have any fun, and it just makes me angry. Sigh. I need to move in small increments, not leaps and bounds. It's a self-fulfilling thing. The purple was too hard, and I got angry, but then I had to keep trying, which only made me angrier. So yeah, it wasn't a good night for me. And my arms are going to be in serious pain tonight, I can tell. It's only morning, and I can already feel the effects.

It's rainy outside, and I'm having a crappy morning. The other day I realized that I have accumulated almost eight weeks of sick leave. Eight weeks! And yet my annual leave is already planned out for the rest of the year. I should get sick more often. It's so frustrating. We were talking about sick leave last week, and apparently when you leave government service, you don't get any credit for all the sick leave you might have accumulated during your career. Therefore, I've decided that right before I leave NASA, I'm going to get sick for like 3 months. ;)

I accidentally left my iPod in the car this morning. Some mornings I go until lunch without listening to any music, but today, when I don't have the option, it seems really quiet.

I have been really busy the past few days. I'm looking forward to my two-lap run tonight, and then sitting on my butt watching American Idol and One Tree Hill. Ah, stupid TV, I love you.

Except it's raining, which means I'll be relegated to the hated treadmill. I feel really weird today and want to go be a hermit.

Monday, February 09, 2004

The 2:00 ritual--Coke break!

The 2:00 ritual--Coke break!

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Monday, February 09, 2004

cold cold / would you light my candle?

Happy Birthday Mom!

I had a lovely weekend, even if I did spend all day Saturday trying to get warm. Ever have those days when you are just cold all the time? Me too.

I got up early Saturday morning to go with Jason, Debbie and Buzz to the Run for the Badge 5K nearby. We passed out fliers for our race, and that went well, but it was about 40 degrees outside and despite my three layers, I was still pretty cold. I have definitely lost any and all ability to deal with the cold after living in Houston for a year and a half. From the race, we went tromping around in the woods geocaching with Debbie, and then over to Challenger Park to check out one more potential route for our race (and find another geocache). But after 4 hours in the cold, I was done for the day. We had lunch, and I finally headed home, pooped at only 1:00 in the afternoon.

I spent the rest of the day getting a new tire for my car, going for a great 5k run, and having dinner with Becca, Nick, and Nacho. The tire was the most amusing thing. I went to NTB because 1) they had a big sign out front saying "guaranteed lowest price on any tire or it's free" and 2) I am very susceptible to advertising. Anyway. I just wanted one tire, for the left front. Now, I know you're supposed to buy tires in pairs and all, but my front tires haven't matched ever since I had the blowout in the middle of New Mexico a year and a half ago, and I wasn't too excited about the idea of buying a second tire that I didn't really need, especially when I'm selling the car in a couple months anyway. So I bought one. I was the only female in the entire place, and the salesguy seemed amazed that I even knew what a tire was, much less how to check the tread on them and such. This is why I hate dealing with car places--because four times out of five, they talk down to me. At the same time though, I love doing car maintenance. Makes me feel very "adult." :) Same with other mundane "adult" tasks like going to the dentist, and paying bills. I wonder if that feeling ever goes away...

Anyway. So that was Saturday. Yesterday I spent 5 hours at the mall, and in a brilliant display of willpower, only spent $5 (on a pair of earrings). The real reason for the mall extravaganza was Becca's immense need for work clothes, but she didn't have any luck. Jen, however, found an awesome leather jacket for only $75. She definitely won "best shopper" of the day. Nick, on the other hand, won the "most likely to get left in the mall looking at pictures of half naked women in watch ads" award.

Last night we had our first soccer game in a month, and I was reminded that there is perhaps nothing in the world as painful as taking a hard-kicked soccer ball on the inside of the thigh when it's cold outside. Man, that stings. We played well, but were short one person, and thus we lost again. It's getting easier to stay positive though, despite all the losses, because we really are improving.

Look! This article in Florida Today is about what I did a "footprint" for right before Christmas. Cool.

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Charlie Brown Hey Ya

I love it! -- Charlie Brown Hey Ya

Saturday, February 07, 2004

Geocaching in the woods

Geocaching in the woods with Debbie...

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Friday, February 06, 2004

it is the passion flowing right on through your veins /
and it's the feeling that you're oh so glad you came

Last night I was thinking about what an interesting group the online blog/diary/journal community is. There are probably a dozen blogs that I read on a regular basis that are written by people I have never met, and never knew before I stumbled across their online world and found some part of it interesting, or intriguing, or simply well-written. And though I never really thought about it, there are people out there who don't know me except for via what I've written. Case in point: Becky, aka mnnicegirl. I don't remember how I first came across her online diary, but I've been reading it for...well, it must be at least a couple years by now. I keep reading because her writing is good, her life is interesting, and her thoughts and feelings are often similar to mine. Yesterday she posted a map of states she's visited, after seeing it here on my page.

It's pretty cool, and flattering to know that other people read my page. And it definitely makes me want to write more interesting material. What can I say--my motivation always seems to come from unexpected sources!

Anyway. At some point I'll get around to posting the full list of "blogs of people I don't actually know" that I read regularly. Then perhaps those of you who scold me when I don't post first thing in the morning can busy yourself with the writings of others. ;)

This morning when I went in to get my coffee, Rich brought up our oft-mentioned, never-undertaken trip to Chicago to see the Cubs play at Wrigley. This year we may actually be serious about doing it...on Memorial Day, when the Cubbies play the Astros. I'm liking the idea. I've always wanted to go to Chicago, I want to add another stadium to my list, and I'd like to see Christina and her purple apartment and her boy and her fat cat. So we'll see.

Tonight is movie night, after a long absence of theater visits. We're seeing Miracle at 7, and possibly something else. I really want to see Lost in Translation (which has been on my list ever since I saw a preview back in August, but is now more urgent thanks to all the award nominations it's gotten) at 9:30. It would be close, but I think we can make it.

Tomorrow I'm up early to go hand out race fliers to people finishing a 5K over at UHCL, but other than that I have few plans for the weekend. Supposedly we'll play soccer on Sunday night, but all the rain may have already cancelled it.

Thursday, February 05, 2004

moblogging

Woohoo! After a six (eight?) month break from first playing around with Moblogger, it's always nice to see that the software still works...especially because it seems the code has disappeared from their website. I don't know what that means for the longevity or any chance of getting tech support if I need it, but at the moment it works for me, and so I plan on continuing to use it.

Thursday, February 05, 2004

Just lying on the

Just lying on the floor playing with my new phone.

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Thursday, February 05, 2004

someday i'll fly / someday i'll soar

I saw this a few days ago, and then today my sister did it, so I guess it's about time. Here's a nifty map of states I've visited:


create your own visited states map

You can also generate a map of all the countries you've been to, but it was sort of depressing to see only the U.S., Mexico, and western Europe highlighted. I need to get out of the country way more often! Of course, to do that, I need to make a lot more money...

So I finally have my new cell phone. It came on Monday, along with the battery (I ordered the phone and battery from two different Ebay sellers). However, when I opened the package with the battery, it was a battery for some Nextel phone--not the Samsung that I'd bought! Grr. With ebay, it's always such a crapshoot anyway. However, the guy I bought it from was very agreeable, and I was able to call him, tell him the problem, and he sent the correct battery Monday night, and it arrived yesterday! Woohoo. So my lovely new phone is working wonderfully. My only complaint is that it has no normal ringtones. Everything is a song, there's no simple "ring ring" option. So I downloaded a couple less annoying tones from the T-Mobile website. Did you know you can actually get your phone to ring with an actual song now?? Like, John Mayer singing "Bigger than my Body", instead of the muzak version. I didn't download that one yet, but it was tempting.

Rich came in this morning with the good news that the people at Kennedy found the part that fell off their airplane back before Christmas. The bad news is that they found it in a slightly different place than we told them they would. Now, this is bad news not because we were wrong, because we probably weren't completely wrong; it's much more likely that we were wrong because the initial conditions we were given were wrong. It's all about the assumptions. However, unless we can come up with a new IC, people will wonder why we couldn't predict the impact point. Silly people.

Yesterday afternoon in the 5 minutes between looking out George's office window and actually making it downstairs to walk to my car, it started to pour down rain. I have never cursed Houston as much as I did yesterday, as I got soaked on my way to the car, soaked on my way into the UPS store to mail some packages, and soaked on the way back to the car. Stupid, stupid rain.

There's a funny article in the Times today, about how computer-saavy people are less and less sympathetic to the people who don't know enough to avoid spreading computer viruses. Funniest line: "Many of the computationally confused say they suffer from genuine intimidation and even panic over how to handle the mysterious machines they have come to rely on for so much of daily life."

Everyone around here is complaining that they're sick. I think they're all big wusses.

Ok. That's enough for today.

Wednesday, February 04, 2004

all the leaves are brown / and the sky is gray

From my brother, I hear that "Dad is quite happy that they fixed the Spirit rover problem. He keeps putting different pictures of Mars on their computer." My dad is so cute.

So I came in early this morning to verify a piece of code for Gavin, who said yesterday that he needed it by 10 a.m. But he just now got to work (right as I was finishing the verification) and said we don't need it today. Sigh. I can't complain too much, because at least I have something to do. I guess I'm more annoyed by the fact that I have to go to the post office, and I didn't go this morning because they weren't open before when I thought I needed to be here at work. Now I'll have to go at lunchtime, which will take longer. Ah well. The post office and I have been arguing for the past few days about when they should be open versus when they are actually open. ;)

Last night Buzz and I went for an 11 mile run--one lap of the Gilruth trail followed by the large loop around the perimeter of the space center. We finished in 1:45, which I couldn't wrap my head around. 11 miles in 1:45 is less than 10 minutes a mile, and yet we were chatting away the entire run without much effort. It didn't add up. So after scarfing down some Quizno's, I drove the route that we'd run and it turns out that the perimeter of the center, which we thought was almost 8 miles, was actually only 6.8. So we did a total of about 9.7 miles, for about a 10:50 per mile pace. Much more reasonable! As cool as it would have been to have done sub-10:00 miles, I know I'm not to that point yet. In fact, the run yesterday wore me out. I am tired today, and the back of my knee still aches. But this was the longest run I've done since the half, and is the longest I'll do before I run another half on the 15th. I'm ready for it. And Buzz is ready for the full marathon. Hooray.

We are both looking forward to shifting gears to get ready for the Danskin triathlon in June though. The biking and swimming will keep us in shape, but give our poor tortured bodies a break from all the high-impact running. That will be lovely, and I'm sure my knees will like me better for it.

I'm supposed to have another soccer game this weekend, the first in a month. But it's also supposed to pour down rain this afternoon, which is bad news for soccer. Yes, even though it's not till Sunday, because the fields around here stay so swampy because everything's so flat.

I get to go to Kinko's after work today to make copies of the entry form for our 5k. Woohoo! We have five people signed up, and three of them are me, Jason, and Ron. Oh well. I'm just pumped that we have two people who I don't know already signed up. I feel confident that more people will sign up as we get closer to race day (April 3). In the meantime, if anyone out there wants to sign up, you can do so here. If you don't actually want to run, you can still sign up and consider it a $15 donation to Yuri's Night Houston.

And thus ends my plug for the day.

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

a tuesday case of the mondays

Work is alternating from being extremely frustrating to showing signs of improvement. I am ever-so-slowly getting things to do, and now must summon the motivation to get back to after having weeks of dullness.

When I was younger, every year or so I'd get the urge to rearrange all the furniture in my room. I don't know if this is a common thing or not, but after a year with my furniture and posters in the same places, I would come home from school one day desperately needing a change of scenery. In a couple hours, I could have what felt like an entirely new room.

I'm currently having the same feeling here at work. My desk area, which has always been cluttered, has been making me feel claustrophobic for a while now. I need a change of scenery.

Tuesday, February 03, 2004

who needs sleep / no you're never gonna get it

I am so tired today. No amount of sleep is really doing it for me lately. I feel like I should just sit at home every night and rest, but at the same time, that's what I feel like I've been doing for weeks! I have had a string of totally uneventful Friday and Saturday nights. I don't get it. Fortunately, my morning coffee pepped me up a bit. I hope it sticks, because Buzz and I are running about 11 miles tonight.

I went climbing last night with Jason, Betsy, and Becca and the rock gym was an absolute zoo. There was a troop of 20 Boy Scouts, along with 20 parents, all learning how to climb, running all over the place, and attempting routes that were too hard for them. It was maddening. When you got to the top of a route and called "dirt me!" to your belayer, half the time they couldn't even hear you. I have never seen the place so crowded, or heard it so noisy. The kids even drowned out the stereo. Thankfully, they left after an hour, and our last half hour of climbing was done in peace.

Not much else going on today.

Monday, February 02, 2004

you raise me up / so i can stand on mountains
you raise me up / to walk on stormy seas

Well, the Panthers couldn't quite pull off a win in the end, but it was a great Super Bowl except for that. Ah, they played so well! If only they'd had a few more minutes! It seemed like every time the Patriots scored, it lit a fire under the Panthers, who would then march down the field to a touchdown. I'm proud of the Panthers, and how well they played. I think they gave a lot of people a bit of a wake up call. And I enjoyed having a team in the big game that I actually cared about. :)

In other Super Bowl news, most of the ads were dumb, the pre-game NASA tribute left something to be desired (but I thank them for trying), and the halftime show was 15 minutes of stupidity followed by 3 seconds of shock and amusement. All it took was Janet Jackson's boob, and all the guys I was watching the game with simultaneously jumped to their feet howling. Very funny. Oh, and the streaker, that CBS tried to cover with a stats graphic! Also funny.

It was a fairly uneventful weekend besides last night. I did some shopping, and finally bought a new pair of jeans that somewhat fit. I've lost I guess about 20 pounds in the last two years, and now even though I'm not losing pounds, I must still be losing fat (and gaining muscle from all the climbing) because my pants are all too big now. The problem with losing weight--not that I'm complaining!!--is that you have to go out and buy new clothes. I haven't weighed what I do now since early high school, probably, and I don't really have the cash to buy a whole new wardrobe at the moment, so I've been replacing things gradually. On Friday, I finally decided that it was dumb to keep wearing a pair of jeans that absolutely had to have a belt or else they'd fall completely off. So Nick and I went to the mall and I bought new jeans. My body is so absurdly sized. The new jeans fit in the legs, but are still too big in the waist. My waist is an entire size smaller than my legs. Ugh. I hate trying to find clothes that fit.

And most of my long sleeve t-shirts are now too big, and make me look like I'm wearing a bag. It makes me embarassed that I didn't start all this running and active stuff earlier.

But in other clothing news, I bought a new pair of running shoes. Hooray! I love everything about new running shoes. They have that new shoe smell, and they feel so springy and cushiony. They make me feel extra fast the first few times I use them. Zoom zoom.

I think my car needs two new tires. I've just realized this during the past week, when the roads have been wet from drizzle and it seems my front tires haven't been gripping the road as well. I finally looked at the tread on one of them yesterday, and it's pretty shallow. Sigh. I hadn't anticipated buying new tires. Though my dad would be excited. He always likes buying new tires.

I bought a new cell phone off Ebay, and it should arrive today. I hope. I am anxious for its arrival, and annoyed that it has taken more than a week to get here. We really should invent some sort of transporter technology so I can get my stuff faster!

Sunday, February 01, 2004

high flight

I remember February 1 last year, sunny and cool. This year the air is chilly and the sky is a never ending shade of gray, but the view out my window is the same. I can see the flag on top of Mission Control, and it's flying at half staff. It's been there since Thursday. Houston has gone crazy for the Super Bowl, which finally arrives tonight and will leave as quickly as it came. But for me, and for a lot of us, today means something different.

You never forget where you were and how you felt when you suddenly hear news that shakes you to your very core. We lost Columbia and her crew one year ago today.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

Thursday, January 29, 2004

airports see it all the time / where someone's last goodbye /
blends in with someone's sigh / cause someone's coming home

I realized about a week ago that I have no vacations on the calendar until July 4. (With the possible exception of the half marathon in Austin, but is running 13.1 miles really a vacation?) Anyway, this is bad. I am going to need to get out of this town sometime before then. There is the Ron and Buzz Elvis-Chapel-in-Vegas plan for the weekend of my birthday--or, more accurately, the weekend before their first anniversary--but it's also the weekend before our 5k, and I'm afraid I may need to be here taking care of last minute race details. I should plan a camping trip or something, for spring when the weather's still nice.

I'm still feeling out of it today. I haven't been sleeping enough lately, or I haven't been eating right, or something. I don't know. Last night I had this weird heart palpitation thing, and my eye has been twitching for the past few days. George says I've been exercising too much, but I didn't do anything for the entire week between the half marathon and last Sunday, so I don't think that's it. It's all very weird, though it didn't stop me from going climbing last night with Betsy. We enjoyed our ladies night at the rock gym, which was practically empty. We had our pick of any route at any time. We each did 5 routes, and my forearms were really feeling it. I will probably be sore tonight. But sore in a good way!

I've been thinking a lot lately about the best way to paint my apartment (meaning, which walls to paint) and can't figure it out. It's hard to picture without actually starting. I have heard many different opinions though. George says Home Depot has some sort of program that will let you virtually paint your house. Sounds cool.

Wednesday, January 28, 2004

my brain is drawing a lyrics blank

This morning I judged science projects at Friendswood High School. It was pretty fun, and I was impressed with a few of the students and the amount of actual science they did--far more than I did when I was in high school! But now I'm somehow exhausted. I'm already aching to go home.

I had a decent run last night, 5.8 miles at about 10:40 pace. I am really horrible at judging my pace, and never really figure out how fast I was going until I'm totally done and can mentally do the math. I came home, showered, cooked myself a lovely dinner, and watched tv all night. I have become such a lazy bones when I'm at home.

This whole city is going Super Bowl crazy. All the local news stations are broadcasting from in front of the stadium, and there are all these commercials on tv telling everyone to "Smile Houston! Company's coming!" It's sort of freaking me out. I know it's a big event, and I know that it's bring 100,000 people to town or whatever, but do I really need to hear about how local hotels are upset because they were expecting more business? And how people thought they were going to be able to rent out their homes for thousands of dollars, but now they can't and don't understand why? Sheesh.

I had a very weird night last night. I'm probably exhausted today because I just didn't sleep well. I woke up at least four or five times during the night, for reasons unknown. It was just one of those tossy-turny nights. I also had weird dreams. I've been awake too long today already to remember what they were about, but I remember having them. Strange.

I feel so out of it today.

Holy crap. We got an announcement about our Yuri's Night race in JSC today (an email that goes out to everyone at the center) this morning, and I just checked the counter on my race webpage. 267 people have visited it today! Wahoo! Only 1 new person has actually signed up for the race, but I know it's only a matter of time. Hurrah!

Hee hee. The Houston-bashing has begun by the Super Bowl media, and I find it hilarious. One of the funniest:

Still, I can't shake something. When we landed in Houston on Saturday my buddy Sal asked an interesting question.
"Do you think anyone has ever spent nine straight days in Houston without actually living there?"
He was serious.
And I couldn't answer him.

Becca and I were laughing over another article from the San Jose paper where he said Houston was about the worst place on earth, when Becca said "it could be worse, it could be summer." Oh, how right she is.

Tuesday, January 27, 2004

i will keep calling you to see / if you're sleeping are you dreaming? / if you're dreaming are you dreaming of me?

Two rovers on Mars. Amazing. Last night I was talking to my dad and he said "I'm just so happy for Rover!" I like how he calls them both Rover. Not "Spirit" or "Opportunity," or even "those two Mars rovers," but just Rover. My dad is so funny. Sometimes he's like a little kid. "I'm just so happy for Rover!"

I also was inducted into Debbie's geocaching cult last night. For those who may have never heard of such a thing, it involves you, your handheld GPS unit, and walking around in the woods and other various locations looking for hidden treasure. Last night we went to a park up by the ship channel and found a cache that had these cool walking sticks in it, free for the taking. Then we found another one at Bay Area Park. I'm thinking geocaching is not the best thing to do in the dark when the temperature is rapidly dropping and it's really freaking windy...but it was still entertaining.

So we just got this email, sent to all JSC employees:

AEROSMITH TO VISIT JSC

Employees are invited to a brief photo opportunity with the band Aerosmith -- Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer -- from 11:30 to 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 28 at the southeast corner of Building 30 A, looking out over the pond. Cameras are permitted and employees will be able to take photos of the band from a distance. Due to the tight filming schedule, there is no opportunity for autographs. Band members may speak to the crowd briefly before leaving for closed-door filming sessions on site.

Aerosmith is the headline act for the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. A portion of the pre-game show, including a performance by Aerosmith, will pay tribute to NASA and the crew of Columbia.

I find this hilarious. The best has got to be the "take pictures from a distance." I can't believe they had to send out an email out about this. It just conjures up images in my head of Steven Tyler standing on high giving the beauty queen wave (elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist) and saying "hello, hello" with a british accent. Maybe it's just me.

I finally got my package from mom this morning, the one I've been trying to get the UPS man to deliver since Friday. Silly UPS man. Anyway, she sent me a Panthers NFC champions t-shirt and two copies of the Observer from the day after the Panthers beat the Eagles. Very cool. I put up the "Go Panthers" poster in my office. Matt says I'm a fair-weather fan, to which I say...of course I am. I am not really into football, as most of you know. I mean, come on, baseball is so much more interesting. ;) But when I do pay attention to the NFL, I root for the Panthers, being from Charlotte and all. So I'm a fair-weather fan, but I don't care. Go Panthers!

Tonight Buzz and I go for a two-lap (5.8 mile) run. My plan is to do 6 miles this Tuesday, almost 12 next Tuesday, then 6 the next Tuesday. Those will be my long runs before the Austin Half Marathon on February 15. Combined with my 2-3 other ~3 mile runs each week, and soccer, and rock climbing, I should be fully prepared for another half marathon. I don't have a clue how well I'll do since Austin, unlike Houston, has those mysterious things called hills.

There are three people signed up for my 5k race! Hooray! Two of them are me and Jason. Minor detail.

Monday, January 26, 2004

don't you know that i'd go crazy / but you're on your own tonight / though you know i miss your smile

So yesterday as Becca and I were driving back to Clear Lake, we saw five large tour buses go by, one after another, in the opposite direction, heading into town. This morning, reading the local news, I realized that they weren't just any old tour buses--inside were the New England Patriots, freshly arrived for the Super Bowl. Cool. Though it would have been cooler if they were the Panthers (who came in to Intercontinental on the other side of the city). Go Panthers!!

Anyway. Becca and I were up in town for the infamous President's Scholarship interviews. (For those non-Georgia Tech people reading, it's a scholarship Becca and I had while there, and now we get to join the rest of the Houston GT Alumni Club in interviewing people for it, mwa ha ha!) We had nine high school seniors to interview, and the afternoon was a lot of fun, if a little tiring--I'm not even the one being interviewed, and the whole process still wore me out. I interviewed two students, one who would be a good PS and one who wouldn't, and talked to a few more. It was fun, but also sort of a strange experience. I alternated between feeling close to and then miles away from being a high school senior. There are some things they go through that I feel like I can still identify with...and then I remember how much I have changed in the eight years since I was in their position, and realize that they still have so much to learn and experience.

On Saturday, Becca and I test drove cars. The Jeep dealership, which we are convinced is smoking too much crack, was closed again, so Becca still hasn't test-driven the Wrangler. But we both tried out the Toyota Rav4, and then she came along while I test drove the Mazda Tribute and Ford Escape. The Rav4 was fun, but not very zippy (if only it came with a V6!), and small. Too bad, because I like the way it looks. Neither the Ford or the Mazda salesman gave me a satisfactory answer about the differences between the Tribute and Escape, and so I had to research it for myself. From what I can tell, they have the same frame and engine and transmission, and the interiors are practically identical, but the Tribute has a sportier suspension. The differences are in increments, not leaps and bounds.

If I were going to buy a new car tomorrow, it'd come down to the Escape or Xterra. I'd buy the Escape over the Tribute simply because I liked the Ford dealership better. But I am really tempted to go for the Xterra because I like and trust Nissan so much. It was amazing to me to see how little the salesmen know about their own product; I knew more about the Rav4, and about the differences between the Escape and Tribute, than any of the salesmen did, and I only spent a day on the internet doing the research. You'd think that if they were trying to sell them, they would have done enough studying to know the answers to basic questions like "what's the Rav4's towing capacity?" But no. I was amazed at their lack of knowledge. Anyway. We'll see. There are still more cars to test drive, and I'm not buying for at least another two months anyway. But it's quite fun to test them out. :)

It was also a weekend of movies. On Friday night I rented "All I Want" after seeing it on the shelf at Blockbuster and wondering whether it was any good. I'd never heard of it before, but it stars Elijah Wood (filmed post-LOTR), Mandy Moore, and Franka Potente, the girl from "Run Lola Run" that I like a lot. It turned out to be a sort of coming-of-age story. Pretty good. I enjoyed it. Saturday afternoon, Becca and I went to see "Win a Date with Tad Hamilton" and thoroughly enjoyed the cheesiness of it, and commiserated over our mutual jealousy toward Kate Bosworth. Why? Well, if you know who she's dating, you'll understand. Saturday night, I watched my second Blockbuster rental, "SWAT." I missed it in the theater. I thought it was entertaining enough, but nothing special. There was surprisingly little at Blockbuster that interested me. I need to get out to the theater again though, as there are still a bunch of current movies on my list.

I got back from my weekly Monday lunch spanish class a little while ago, and it is so nice outside today. The weather in Houston this winter has been a roller coaster ride--lovely days like today followed by torrential rain, or cold, or a solid week of nothing but gray. A rainless cold front is supposed to come through this afternoon, and by tomorrow morning the lovely sunshine will have abated, and the current 70 degree temperature will have fallen to 35 degrees. Sigh.

Friday, January 23, 2004

fun with lists

Bold the states you've been to, underline the states you've lived in, italicize
the state you're in now...

Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C.

Friday, January 23, 2004

i don't wanna be anything other than what i been tryin' to be lately /
all i have to do is think of me and i have peace of mind

Apparently my Friday night soccer team has forfeited the rest of the season, about six games. Seems no one saw fit to tell me about it though, as I had to deduce it myself from the league webpage. Slightly annoying, but no big loss, as that team was in complete disarray anyway. The first time I played with them, we had six or seven extra people on the sidelines, but every time since, we've been short people. (Which culminated in the half hour stand-in-the-cold-rain debacle before Christmas.) Anyway. That's that. Anybody want a too-big white t-shirt with the number "13" on the back? Katie?

I'm relieved to hear that the Mars rover sent something other than a beep; JPL got a half hour of comm this morning. Spirit has been doing so well for almost three weeks that it will really be disappointing if they can't diagnose and fix the problem. But in the meantime, opportunity is supposed to touch down on the other side of Mars tomorrow night. It's all so exciting! I hope the landing is as trouble-free as possible.

Last night Jen had a Yuri's Night meeting at Oriental Gourmet (a chinese buffet place). It actually turned out to be a good place to have the meeting, since it allowed us to eat dinner at the same time. I am not volunteering for anything related to the Yuri's Night party, since I'm organizing the race, but I go to the meetings to stay updated. When the discussion moved to venues, I started doodling race t-shirt designs on a napkin. I came up with one I really like, but it's going to be a challenge to draw. I'm going to attempt it and see what happens.

In the meantime, we opened online registration for the race yesterday, so if you are in the Houston area and want to run a 5k on April 3 and want to make me really happy, go here and sign up.

My weekend should be pretty nice. Maybe a movie tonight. Becca and I are going to test drive all sorts of cars tomorrow. And we're doing PS interviews on Sunday. Plus a soccer game sunday night, if it doesn't pour down rain like it did last weekend; the weather at the moment looks ominous.

Thursday, January 22, 2004

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

An array of thoughts today.

So I signed up for the Austin Half Marathon over President's Day weekend. Buzz talked me into it. (Or rather, she talked me out of attempting to do the full marathon!) In any case, I'm set to do another 13.1 miles.

When I got my hair cut a couple weeks ago, the girl styled it curly. You know, put some goop in, blew it dry, put some more goop in, and voila--curly hair. It looked good, and I liked it enough that I decided to try it myself. So I did, this morning. I showered. Combed my hair. Put the same goop she used in it. Blew it dry. Put some more goop in.

And now, those of you who tell me I should do more with my hair get to hear this: it's not that I don't want to do cool things with my hair. It's just that I am a miserable failure at doing it! I did the same things the hair girl did, and yet when she was done it looked great, and when I was done, it just looked frizzy and unkempt. Sigh. So I picked up the brush and straightened it all out. I will try again sometime, but no guarantees on the level of success.

Last night I went with Debbie to check out the Saturn dealership's stock of Vues. She wants to buy one, but has specific wants as far as features and packages go. The salesman there was most unhelpful, so we left without test driving, and without Debbie getting a straight answer on whether they had what she wanted. Instead, we went next door to the Nissan dealership, where I test drove an Xterra. Woohoo! The credit union is offering auto loans at 4% right now, which seems so good that it makes me want to go out and buy a car this weekend instead of waiting until April, as is dictated by my "master plan." The Xterra was nice. It rode more smoothly than I had expected, though it felt very large. But I suppose any of the vehicles I'm considering will feel large after driving my little Sentra for six and a half years. Anyway, the Xterra is on the long list of possibilities; others under consideration include the Toyota Rav4 or Highlander, Jeep Liberty, Mazda Tribute, Ford Escape or Explorer, Honda CR-V or Pilot. I plan to test drive them all over the next month or two, but the list can probably be reduced realistically to the Rav4, Xterra, Liberty, or Tribute/Escape. I plan to buy in late March or April. I will miss my little Sentra, but the idea of getting a new car is exciting.

I have been annoyed with work lately, lacking motivation/inspiration, disappointed that no one seems to care about what I'm doing, and tired of being subject to the whims of politics. But sometimes all you need is a fresh perspective. I was halfheartedly venting my frustrations over the phone to a friend last night when he jumped in to say that NASA is the only part of the government that is in the business of looking forward, of being visionary, of looking beyond ourselves.

And I realized he was right.

I may not be crazy about my day-to-day job, but I am still passionate about the space program, and about exploration. And that's pretty cool.

Wednesday, January 21, 2004

you can play the game / you can act out the part / but you know it wasn't written for you

I have to preface this by saying that Becca gave me permission to post it!

I had a dream last night that I went with Becca to her dad's house. From all the stories I have heard, I must have a low opinion of her dad. There were four children under the age of two, the place was a pigsty, and there was nothing to eat. I relayed this to Becca this morning, who responded "that's pretty accurate," with a laugh. The only difference was that I felt like I was in a mobile home, sort of like the one my grandmother used to have at Myrtle Beach. And Becca's dad definitely doesn't live in a mobile home.

Anyway. That was my weird dream. If you are a member of Becca's family, don't kill me. :)

The older I get, the more I like to people watch. One of my favorite things about big cities like New York is that you can walk down quiet streets and look into people's homes. I know that sounds creepy and stalker-ish, but bear with me. Sometimes they'll be getting ready for dinner, or working on the computer, or walking out the door. Sometimes they're not even home, and in that case, I just look at how they've decorated.

Lately, I have been wanting my own house. not for the permanence of it, or for the tax benefits, or for the yard...but for the decoration potential. I want to paint my walls and have perfect spaces for my knick-knacks. Much of the time, I people watch and look in windows simply because I love seeing what people do with the space they live in. It's a rare occurance in Houston for me to do anything like that, especially living in an apartment complex. But last night as I was walking back from the mailbox in the dark, I saw an apartment that was brightly lit, blinds still open. One room had a pink glow, another was light blue. I wondered if they were using colored light bulbs or something to make everything look so calm and pretty. In any case, it all looked so inviting that I walked out-of-the-way to get a closer look.

And then it hit me. They painted their walls! Painted! They did that thing that the complex management told me a year ago that I couldn't do!

That's it. I'm painting. I can't decide whether to ask permission first or not. If I ask and they say no, then I'm knowingly violating something, which is probably not the best idea. But if I do it without asking... I need to find the copy of my lease so I can look and see if it says anything specific. I'm willing to lose my security deposit, or at the least, paint the walls back when I'm done. I just want to paint. I can't really explain it, but I want to paint!

So now I'm trying to think of colors. Maybe a yellow for the living room. Hmm. We shall see!

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

but this morning / there's a calm i can't explain

Ok, so I had an entry all written, but then this woman came in to check the configuration of a piece of software, and she restarted my computer, and poof! The entry was gone. So I will retype what I remember.

The half marathon gave us "finisher" sweatshirts, and I have been wearing mine pretty much non-stop since Sunday morning. Well, ok, I didn't wear it to work today, but I'll probably put it on again as soon as I go home. The design is actually sort of ugly (red and black on a white sweatshirt, who wants a white sweatshirt, I mean, that's just asking to get filthy), but I am so proud of myself for running the thing that I wear it proudly anyway. I am probably going to sign up for the Austin half marathon in a month, since Buzz and Ron are already going and have invited me to share the hotel room. I am really, really tempted to enter the full marathon. I probably couldn't run the whole way, but even if I walked some, I could finish well within the 8 hour time limit. I could probably keep pace with the 5-hour pace team... Very tempting.

My official time, as listed on the race website, was 2:15:01. I'm just going to round down to 2:15. :)

I had a wonderful MLK day off work yesterday, sleeping till 10:30 and staying in my PJs until almost 2:00. I bummed around the ol' apartment, vacuumed, straightened up, did some rearranging of the front closet to make it possible to find things in, watched Spiderman on HBO. I had very little post-race soreness, and by evening I was ready to get out of the house, so I went rock climbing with Betsy and Jason! I finally remembered to pull out the camera and take some pictures of us doing battle with the wall, so those of you who don't live here, or don't climb, can finally see the rock gym that I'm always talking about on Tuesdays. Last night was sparsely attented, so I'll have to take more pictures in the future when Buzz, Becca, Gavin, Fred, and others come.

That's it for now. This week is going to throw me off, since I keep forgetting it's actually Tuesday instead of Monday. But that's not really a complaint so much as an observation.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

run, run, as fast as you can

Last night I went to bed at 9:00 for the first time in ages, but because I did, I got almost a full 8 hours of sleep. I woke up at 5 a.m., got dressed, and ate a bowl of cereal with a banana on top. Buzz picked me up at 5:20. We drove downtown in the dark, parked the car, and headed for the bright lights of the convention center. We used the bathroom, ate a power bar, pinned our numbers carefully on our shirts, lubed up with the sportglide, and left our sweatshirts at the baggage area. We shivered for 10 minutes in the semi-darkness, the sun just beginning to creep up. Suddenly, there was a boom like a cannon (literally--it scared me) and we were off!

My plan was to start out running 11 minute miles, because that is the pace I know I can handle over long distances. At the first mile marker, I glanced at my watch. 10:50. Pretty close. I was feeling good, and kept plugging along.

All along, I have been saying that my first and only real goal was to finish the race. To give Ron and Buzz some idea of when to look for me, I told them that I should be done in 2:30:00, and maybe 2:20:00 on a really good day.

By the 10K mark, which I passed in 1:05:15 (my best 10K time ever), I realized that I was indeed having a really great day. I was averaging a 10:30 mile and was still feeling fantastic. The crowd was cheering, and I couldn't help but smile. I was going to finish in 2:20:00!

I saw Buzz heading back the other way around mile 8, and cheered for her. I reached the turnaround at mile 9 still feeling strong. When I checked my watch at mile 10 and saw that I was under 1:45:00 with only a 5K to go--and I still felt great--I started to get really excited. I turned my headphones on for the first time, Counting Crows singing in my ears to keep me going.

I passed mile 11 on Allen Parkway, and mile 12 just shy of downtown. With 1.1 miles to go, I pushed against the breeze that had picked up between the tall buildings, and could see the convention center looming in the distance. I was almost there! I never saw the mile 13 sign, but saw the still-covered mile 26 marker, and knew I only had 0.2 miles to go. I picked up the pace again.

I rounded the corner for the last tenth of a mile and could see the finish line ahead of me! I looked at my watch and almost fell over right then and there. Instead, I went from run to full sprint, breath heaving as I steamed toward the finish line. I crossed it and looked at my watch...

2:15:03!!!

My first half marathon ever, the farthest I've ever run, and I did it in 2:15:03! 10:19 a mile!

Ohmigod! I don't know if I have ever been so excited in my life. I am so pumped up right now! When I stopped running, my knees tightened up for a while, but it's been almost three hours now since I finished, and I'm feeling great except for one thing: my stomach is rumbling and I am famished. Off to make myself a great big celebratory lunch!

Friday, January 16, 2004

you think to yourself how good it feels / put away all your walking shoes / then you come running to me

i made the mistake of popping in my "pirates of the caribbean" dvd last night at about 11:00, and thus was up till midnight again. and i'm paying for it this morning. i didn't get to work until almost 9, and i'm still sleepy. this week has just been weird for my sleeping habits; i just haven't felt tired in the evening. oh well. at least the first 45 minutes or so of the movie was entertaining. johnny depp's character repeatedly cracks me up.

when i left work last night it was drizzling really lightly, and i was hoping that i could still run outside. i don't mind running in drizzle, but if it's hard enough to drip in my eyes and form puddles that threaten the dryness of my shoes, i won't go. by the time i had changed clothes, the drizzle had picked up to that point, so i hit the treadmill. there was one other guy in the workout room doing weights, but other than that i had it to myself. i set it on 5.5 miles per hour and started running.

god, i hate the treadmill. i read so many articles about how treadmill running is easier, and better for your joints because it's more cushioned and all. but every time i run inside, i find myself counting the minutes until i can stop. i just don't feel like i can run as fast or as well inside--case in point being that last night over 3 miles i only averaged a 10:40 mile, and felt exhausted when i finally stopped. and my lower legs ached more afterward. i have almost come to the conclusion that it's the environment. when i'm inside, in a climate-controlled area, i always get hotter and more sweaty than i prefer to be while running. maybe treadmill running would be better if i could do it in a 55 degree room instead of 75.

i don't really understand why i find treadmill running to be harder than outdoor, when it is supposed to be easier. but i do.

i have been thinking about training for a full marathon in either march/april or october/november. it seems to make sense, because i'm already halfway through the training that i'd need to do. march/april is tempting, but it would involve traveling somewhere. october/november would be good, especially since november is the beginning of the 4-month-long texas marathon season (san antonio in november, dallas in december, houston in january, austin in february)...but to be ready in late fall means training in late summer. late summer. in houston. UGH. which means i'd either be doing my long runs inside on the dreaded treadmill or outside in the 80-degree "chill" of darkness. so i dunno.

on tuesday, buzz mentioned interest in the marine corps marathon (in dc in october), which is supposed to be good for beginners and is one i would consider traveling for. not to mention i know people in dc. so that is tempting. but the summertime training might kill me!

we shall see. at the least, i know that i'm going to have to at least maintain my current level of training, which means probably a 1.5-2 hour run every other week. i think i can do that while i decide what my next step is.

anyway. i've rambled on about running enough for one day, but only because i didn't really have anything else to talk about. yesterday was uneventful, and the weekend is "quiet." soccer was cancelled for tonight by forfeit, though i don't know if it was my team that forfeited, or the other one. weird.

tomorrow morning debbie and gavin and i are getting up early to go to challenger park and map out a 5k race course using debbie's handheld gps. from there debbie and i are headed to reliant stadium for super bowl volunteer training--we are both volunteering to work at the nfl experience on the saturday before the game, so we have to go get oriented and get our t-shirts. from there debbie kindly agreed to go with me to the convention center to pick up my (and buzz's) half-marathon packet. then home to sit on my butt all afternoon in preparation for 13.1 miles on sunday morning!

we have monday off work for mlk day. good thing. i will likely be sitting at home resting my poor abused leggies.

Thursday, January 15, 2004

we drove out to the desert / just to lie down beneath this bowl of stars

people never look up anymore.

i know that light pollution is a huge problem, and is quite depressing, but even from major cities, you can usually see a star or two. people never look. i wonder why this is, and i wonder when people stopped looking.

i always look. i don't really know why, but i always do. perhaps it's just ingrained, from being interested in space, and from all those chilly nights lying under blankets on the tennis courts with dad, looking up. last night it was cloudy, but a few nights ago, as i drove home from ron and buzz's, orion was brilliant, and high in the sky. sirius was bright and steady. all the stars were twinkling like they always do.

gavin mentioned yesterday that we will have to study up on the southern sky before we go to peru. ee gads! i hadn't even thought of that yet! we'll get to see a totally different sky! the southern cross! it will be so cool.

last night, i vegged. got home from work at 6:30, popped in a tv dinner, and sat on my butt on the couch. i watched smallville. i watched the o.c. i contemplated doing my taxes, but didn't. i hung curtains in my bedroom. i didn't run. and i didn't shower till this morning.

it was great.

full-time life is hectic. my first few months of full-time, no-more-school work were slow, but the past year has flown by. it seems like i always have something to do in the evening, so going straight home from work and staying there feels like such a luxury. i don't think i have anything on the schedule for tonight either, except a leisurely 3 mile run (my last before the race), so hopefully i will just lounge at home again. watch friends. watch the apprentice. watch someone get fired by donald trump.

i never used to watch tv. when i was little, we were only allowed a half hour of tv per day. and now it's always on. sometimes for the shows, sometimes just for the noise. and i know what shows are on each night. how pathetic. it's probably turning my brain to sawdust.

three more days until the half marathon, on sunday. the webpage has this very cool feature where you can sign up to track any runner, and it will send a message to your email account, pager, or cell phone whenever the person crosses the splits, and the finish line. i don't know what the splits are, but i'd imagine it's probably 5k, halfway mark, 10 miles, and finish, or something like that. in any case, i already signed my parents up, but if anyone out there would like to receive emails or text messages on sunday as i am running, you can go here, put in my name, and sign up!

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

blind comatose monkeys

Mars Needs Dim Republicans / Dubya dons a shiny spacesuit, dreams of spending billions to meet little green men. The nation cringes

ok, so this article is pretty negative, but this guy still cracks me up every time...this time, the whole article was worth it for these 2 paragraphs:

"Look. NASA is wonderful. Space exploration is magnificent and essential and we learn enormous amounts about ourselves in the process. The Spirit rover on Mars right now? Breathtaking.

Astounding new technologies are developed during major NASA missions, ideas that trickle down into the cultural mainstream and make life, if not easier, then at least more interesting, or lighter, or thinner, or edible at temperatures down to minus 450 degrees with a battery pack that lasts 127 hours and a new infrared extrasensory ink that can be read by blind comatose monkeys. Space is good."

Wednesday, January 14, 2004

heeere fishie fishie fishe

last night i was treated to a delicious alaskan feast. nick and steph brought all sorts of food back from their trip home to alaska for the holidays, and fed us all at edgar and betsy's last night. there was alaskan beer (like 3 different kinds), two kinds of smoked salmon, blackened salmon, grilled salmon, king crab legs, beer-battered halibut, and moose. it was all delicious. i think my favorites were the halibut and the smoked salmon. the moose tasted pretty much like pot roast. the beer was good.

it was all good, and i was stuffed by the end. i had only planned on staying long enough to eat and chat briefly, because i was pretty tired. buzz and i ran last night (i went two laps, 5.8 miles), then i went home to shower quickly before heading over to the alaskan feast. add to that hecticness the fact that i haven't slept well the past few nights, and i was pooped. but the food was so good, and the people were so entertaining, and nacho was talking to me in excited spanish, and we were all having a good time...and next thing i knew it was 10:00, and so i am still sleepy today. i need to get some serious sleep before the half marathon on sunday.

i met with the people at challenger park this morning about having our yuri's night race there, and the news is excellent! they approved of our plans, and so we are truly off and "running" now. i'm a race director. yee! i am excited.

Tuesday, January 13, 2004

but if you think it, want it, dream it / then it's real / you are what you feel

check it out. extremely cool.

i am going to be so sore tonight, after climbing last night. i am getting really close to conquering the yellow 5.9 in one go, and so last night i tried a new blue one. it was tough! it may be my new yellow--the one i keep struggling with every week, improving ever so slowly. after that, i climbed a red that the key sheet said was pretty easy, but i had to take like 5 breaks. i don't know if the marking was wrong (very possible) or if my arms were just too dead to do it late in the evening (also very possible). i'll have to give it a go again next week. last night i did warm up on my new favorite route thought--a green one that is mostly easy, but has one challenging move at the top. it's fun. my new rock shoes felt tighter last night though and were rubbing my heel, i banged my right knee into the wall multiple times (bruise), i took a nice layer of skin off my pinky finger, and i scraped the back of one knuckle. not the greatest night in terms of boo-boos gotten.

ok, so i have decided that today is my day to pat myself on the back for 5 minutes. why? because i forgot to mention the satisfying personal moment of sunday night's soccer game, and that was: it's always nice to find out that the other team is just a wee bit scared...of you.

now, i'm an average soccer player, at best. even when i do play well, i'm not the star because i play defense, and am never the one scoring goals or dribbling circles around the other players. i'm fine with this, in fact, i prefer it this way. my dribbling skills are actually pretty shoddy, which means that my saving graces are two simple things. first, i'm not scared of the ball. my reflexes, though very good when they absolutely need to be, are too unconcerned with things coming at me for me be scared of a soccer ball (but that's another story). second, i'm a "big foot" and thus have a good, solid, over-your-head, distance-covering kick. now, compared to men, or even to college women, my kick sucks. but compared to the vast majority of girls i've ever played against, it's pretty good.

i played for five or six years from about third grade to eighth grade, when i got up the guts to try out for my junior high team. i made the team, but the details are sort of hazy except for one play. we were at home, at sedgefield, and i was playing stopper. or maybe sweeper. point being, i was in the back, in the middle. the other team came charging down the field, but the forward with the ball kicked it just a little too far ahead, and i was able to get to the ball just a couple steps ahead of her. bam! the ball went flying in the air off my foot, booted back down the field. on the sidelines, as he was just hanging out after school watching the game, chris walker yelled something like "wow!" (only remembering chris walker, it was probably something much less geeky-sounding and more more profanity-laden.)

i entertained thoughts of trying out for my high school's soccer team, but i was young and naive and a really big wuss back then, and i talked myself out of it. i used some excuse about doing marching band in the fall, so i wouldn't want to have to go straight from that to soccer in the spring. looking back, i obviously wish i had tried out, because i think i had a decent chance of making the team. but i didn't. and i didn't play soccer again until my spring quarter at stanford, when i decided to buy some new cleats and play with the aero/astro intramural team. i moved to houston, joined the co-op team, found out from cari about the bay area soccer league, and next thing i know, i'm on three different teams and loving it. my favorite team is the women's team, despite my frequent little frustrations with how our games turn out. i like playing against all women, and one reason is that while we're playing, we talk to each other, and joke around a
little. it makes for some fun moments, and occasionally some unintentional
compliments, like those i got on sunday night.

the first time, the opposing team was running down the field, coming towards me and my defense. buzz marked the girl on the outside, maria marked the girl in the middle, and i was left with the girl coming between those two. the ball was kicked up from midfield, and rolled toward me. i was about 15 feet from the ball; the girl i was marking was about the same distance on the other side. i sprinted toward it, hoping to get there before she did.

she took a few quick steps, and then...she stopped. i reached the ball, and sent it flying up to our forwards. i had already taken a few good goal kicks, and gotten a couple other touches in the game, and i guess they had noticed. as i jogged upfield, i heard the girl call to a teammate,
"sorry, but i didn't want to get in front of that!!"

"ha HA!" i thought. "stay away from my kick of doom!" i laughed to myself for the rest of the half. then, in the second half, a loose ball came rolling toward me. the other team was pressuring, but not hard, and as i dribbed the ball away from the center of the field, i heard a defensive back on the other team yell all the way down the field, "don't give her time to set it up!" it was too late though, as i already had the ball where i wanted it. kick. back up the field it went. and i giggled again.

like i said: it's always nice to know the other team's a wee bit scared of you.

i like soccer.

Monday, January 12, 2004

thought i might get a rocket ride / when i was a child / but it was (NOT!) a lie

friday afternoon, chris, jason and i became season ticket holders for the houston astros. i was pumped for two reasons. one: ever since i really got into baseball, i've waited for the day i could afford season tickets (we got a 27-game mini-plan). and two: we get an option for the all-star game, which is going to be in houston this year. so it was friday afternoon, and i'm feeling good, feeling proud, feeling ready for april. and then i just get back to my desk today after a morning and early afternoon of meetings, and find out that the astros just signed roger clemens!!

holy crap!!

i mean, seriously, HOLY CRAP!!!

i had a nice weekend. get-together at ron and buzz's place on friday night; 4 mile run, errands, and settles/seafarers of catan on saturday; chatting, cleaning, errands, and soccer game on sunday. i did manage to forget to watch the panthers game (but fortunately saw the highlights on sportscenter), and couldn't watch the tech-carolina game last night because of soccer (oh well, tech got pummelled anyway).

and soccer last night was infinitely frustrating. we played incredibly well the first half, and it was a fluke that we didn't score. we played worse the second half, but the game was still tied 0-0 with 45 seconds left when the other team scored. i was so silently enraged for one simple reason: if my team had held the defensive line, the other team would not have scored. i'm the sweeper, thus i'm the "keeper of the line." so the other team is setting up for their kick, and i'm standing about 20 feet in front of the goal yelling "hold the line, yellow!" i turn to look at the girl on the other team. she kicks the ball, it goes over my head, i turn around, and BAM--two of my own teammates have run behind me, thus allowing three members of the other team to run behind me, thus allowing one of them to kick the ball in the goal just before megan, our keeper can reach it.

so maddening.

then, to make matters worse, as the game ended and we were walking back over to the sidelines, two of my own teammates started yelling at each other. i tried to calm them down, but they wouldn't listen. one of our others players turned to me quietly and said "it's not worth it sarah, they've been arguing the entire game." i couldn't get them to drop it. apparently each of them thought the other was getting in her way, but come on! we are the only team that fights among itself! how absurd is that!

so it was 85 minutes good, and 5 minutes bad. but those 5 minutes were enough to leave a bad taste in my mouth for a few hours last night. c'est la vie. we are improving, though, and at this point i think the thing that's holding us back is our communication, not our athletic skills.

Friday, January 09, 2004

talking about love is like dancing without architecture

i am disgruntled with t-mobile. they won't give me the phone that i want, the samsung e715. basically, if i weren't already a t-mobile customer, i could get the phone for $50 and keep my number. since i am already a customer, the only way to get the phone for $50 is to change my number. if i want to keep my number and stay with t-mobile, i have to pay $250. this makes no sense!! so now i'm debating whether to switch companies or not. if anyone wants to chime in with praise for cingular, verizon, at&t, or someone else, now is the time to do it.

last night i was really out of it, after staying at work late and then getting stuck in traffic on my drive home (which is rather absurd, seeing as how my drive home is only about 2 miles). i had planned to go to the mall, and to the grocery store, and ended up doing neither. there was enough in my freezer to make stir fry, so i did manage to feed myself for another day despite the desperate lack-of-groceries situation. i don't know why, but i just don't like going to the grocery store, and always end up avoiding it for as long as possible. so i stayed home, and watched friends, and watched that new show "the apprentice" with donald trump. i didn't really pay much attention to either, but just ended up sitting on the floor for two hours zoned out and thinking about things.

i often end up sitting on the floor leaning against the couch rather than just sitting on the couch. i can't really think of anyone else i know who does this, so perhaps it is a bit weird. i never really thought about it until last night when i realized i'd watched the entire hour and a half tv show from the floor.

anyway. at 9 i was aimlessly channel surfing when i came across the movie "playing by heart." it came out sometime during college, but i never saw it in the theater; i get the impression that it didn't do that well, despite having a wonderfully eclectic cast of angelina jolie (in my favorite of her many roles), gillian anderson, sean connery, anthony edwards, dennis quaid, jon stewart, ryan phillippe, etc. whenever i see it on tv, i always stop channel flipping, and i can't watch the movie without thinking of christina. it's one of her favorites. i can guess why she likes it, because it's probably for a lot of the same reasons that i ended up liking it when i finally saw it, and every time since. it's about love, and relationships. i guess if that sounds interesting to you, i'd recommend you go watch it, but i don't really want to try to explain it any more. i'm not really good with explaining movies, or why i like or don't like them. but this one always reminds me of one of my other favorite movie quotes.

i don't want to be in love. i want to be in love in a movie.

i'm glad it's the weekend.

Thursday, January 08, 2004

here at the end of all things

i feel crappy. when i am sick, it is usually in the half-sick sort of way, where i don't really want to go to work, but i don't really want to stay home. at work, there's at least something to do. at home, i'd just be sick and bored. so here i am. i actually feel better at the moment than i did this morning. becca must be feeling worse than she did yesterday, because it's 10:00 and she still hasn't shown up for work.

i'm foggy though. ray came in about half an hour after me and informed me that i left my headlights on. so i headed back out to the parking lot in the drizzle to turn them off. the weather is nasty, and depressing. i haven't seen the sun in the week since i got back to houston, and it's getting old.

yesterday i went to get my hair cut and dyed. i had considered cancelling because, duh, i felt crappy, but i went anyway. it turned out well. the guy i used to go to no longer works at the salon (i didn't ask why, so i don't know if he left, or was fired, or what), so i went to a new girl named amanda. i really liked her, and she did an awesome job with my hair. when i told her i'm trying to go back to my natural dirty blond, she had a great suggestion to lighten it up from its current dark brown. so three hours (yes, three hours, good lord) and about ten pounds of foil later, my hair is lighter, but not fake-looking. happy me. hurrah.

i was reading yesterday about a continental flight from tokyo to houston that developed an oil leak in one engine and had to make an emergency landing on midway island. now, mechanical problems on a plane over the middle of nowhere in the pacific ocean is nothing to joke about, but i do think it is sort of cool that the people on the plane got to stop at midway island! i mean, how often does anybody have a chance to go there?? random.

so the hour and a half run on tuesday night was probably not such a good idea. it certainly didn't help me get rid of this cold, or whatever bug i have. and my legs have been really sore ever since. odd. my legs don't get sore from running anymore, or so i thought. maybe it also has something to do with climbing on monday after not having worked my muscles for three weeks.

well. i think i'll try to get gavin's parameterized footprints ready by lunchtime, then maybe take the afternoon off. in the meantime, my ipod and complete lord of the rings trilogy soundtracks will comfort me.

Wednesday, January 07, 2004

reliving 2003 in 10 short minutes

so here it is, a full week into 2004, and i still haven't really done a wrap-up of 2003, save the stats i posted about how much i ran, biked, and swam last year. odd, since i am usually big on quantifying and categorizing things. so let's see...

2003 started off beautifully with a trip to france, which was a lot of fun. but on february 1, columbia broke up and the days from then until the end of june were a blur of sims, presentations, questions, and trying to find answers. the only way i can keep track of those five months is by the things that squeezed their way around work--my first 10k in february, a trip to atlanta in march, ron and buzz's wedding in april, and winning unexpected money with my camera phone.

in june, i emerged from the work fog and checked fenway park and yankee stadium off my list of stadiums to visit. on one of those visits i saw the astros no-hit the yankees using 6 different pitchers, which was both bizarre and a thing of beauty. i had a steady stream of activity in the summer, with a triathlon, mom and david coming at the end of june, a trip to atlanta to run the peachtree 10k for independence day, buying a sailboat, katie here for a post-mexico weekend in mid-july, leila here for a concert at the end of july, a trip to atlanta for james and chrissy's wedding, a professional conference in austin, and moving to a new apartment less than 300 feet from my old one. september brought a camping trip to enchanted rock, an unexpected phone call from the newly-engaged katie, and the beginning of a new soccer season, when i suddenly was playing on three different teams. in october i was out of town every weekend--an adventure race followed by 9 days in greece followed by daniel and virginia's wedding. by the beginning of november i had begun training (with the help of "coach" buzz) for my first half marathon, which is now only 10 days away. the rest of november was the calm before the storm of activity in early december. i finally got to escape for two wonderful weeks in charlotte with my wonderful family, where i made a wonderful quilt, and then rang in the new year in atlanta with two of my wonderful friends. wonderful.

so that's the quick recap. i'm sure i've forgotten stuff but wow, the year really flew by. here's hoping for a great 2004. i'm going to simply reuse my one resolution from last year: keep running. carter lost 25 pounds in the last year, which is amazing to me. but then i realized that i've lost 25 pounds in the last two years, which is also pretty amazing. not to mention that i actually have muscle now. hurrah. linda hamilton in terminator 2, here i come. (ok, yeah, right. hee hee.)

on to other things. mars continues to amaze me. i was talking to a friend about it last night, and my wayward attempts to construct 3d glasses here in the office yesterday out of a transparency, a file folder tab, and a lebanese flag, when i had a revelation. i had a national geographic from 1998 that had 3d pictures from pathfinder, and included in the magazine were two pairs of 3d glasses! hurrah! as i told becca this morning, you can make fun of me all you want for being a packrat and using the "shifting piles" method of organization, but give me credit for one thing: when i remember that i have something, i know right where to go to find it. once i remembered i had the magazine, it was in my hands in less than a minute. score. so this morning, armed with real 3d glasses, i checked out all the anaglyphs (anaglyph, noun: a moving or still picture consisting of two slightly different perspectives of the same subject in contrasting colors that are superimposed on each other, producing a three-dimensional effect when viewed through two correspondingly colored filters) from mars. very cool, very cool.

i also called t-mobile yesterday, and am disgruntled because i haven't talked them into giving me the phone that i want for less than $250 yet. i'll pay $100 for it. but not $250. grumble. i could get it for $100 if i weren't already a t-mobile customer, but since i am their customer, i can't. or i can, but only if i'm willing to change my phone number, again. something about that doesn't make sense. grumble grumble. any suggestions?

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

spinning around like nobody's watching / nobody else but me / so far beyond my imagination / if only they could see

two things. first, i need some 3D glasses. i wonder if i could color saran wrap red and blue and make them myself... second, just ridiculously hot.

now that that's out of the way...

i am ecstatic that the spirit rover landed successfully on mars, and i am anxiously awaiting color pictures (hopefully sometime today). if spirit had had problems landing, it would have a big effect on the 2009 mars science laboratory lander, the mission for which i'm now working on the entry guidance team. entry guidance! until this week, i don't think i had really registered how huge and important an issue that is. good entry guidance = successful landing. bad entry guidance = lost in space forever. anyway. i am incredibly excited, and incredibly relieved, that spirit is there (on mars! good lord!) and sending back incredible pictures.

so this morning it is 34 degrees outside, and i swear this weather is going to kill me. not the 34 degree weather, and not the 80 degree weather, no, not either separately. but i can't deal with the temperature dropping 50 degrees in 36 hours, then going back up in another 36. yesterday my throat was doing its telltale achy, scratchy, needles thing...and sure enough, today my throat feels fine, but my nose is slowly stuffing up. it's how a typical sarah cold always progresses, so maybe the cold that has been threatening literally since the beginning of december is finally here. oh well, at least i can finally get over it. i have been gulping the orange juice.

because of the cold (temperature, not virus), i pulled a sweater out of the closet that i haven't worn in, hmm, probably at least a year and a half, maybe two years. it's a green lambswool cardigan from old navy. i bought it one of my last years at tech, probably, so it's old, but not that old. however, when i went in to get coffee, george kindly pointed out to me that it has holes in it! on the back, and in the armpit, where i didn't notice them this morning. i am so embarrassed! i have no idea what happened, other than something must have eaten it. rich says ants eat clothes, which i don't know if i believe, but it certainly looks like something liked the taste of it.

colds are weird though. they make me uncomfortable, but usually not to the point where i want to stay home. last night for instance, despite the sore throat, i went climbing. i mean, i had to, i had new shoes and a new harness, and i couldn't wait to use them! i'm happy to report that the harness is quite a bit more comfortable than the crappy rock gym harnesses. and the shoes, though stiff because of their newness, are going to be great. it's funny--a lot of people at the gym have the same shoes, but you can tell that mine are new because mine are bright purple, while theirs have faded. i don't know why rock shoes are so colorful. anyway, climbing was excellent. i am getting really close to climbing the yellow nemesis in one go (despite the fact that i swear they've moved the volcano hold about 6 inches from where it used to be). and last night they had the coolest thing--a list that finally had accurate route ratings for each rope. the yellow nemesis is a 5.9. the green on the other wall that i can do pretty easily now is also a 5.9. there's a new blue 5.9 that i need to try. it's nice to know what you're climbing, and to use to list to determine what else you should be trying.

for anyone interested in structures, materials, or general engineering analysis, this is an interesting article in the new york times today about the analysis being done on the world trade center collapse, fire science, building construction, and more. i found it to be a really interesting article. things like this, and the fact that nasa can land a tiny robot on freaking mars, always remind me that there are some really smart people in the world.

Monday, January 05, 2004

it's only her first day

it's only her first day back at tech, and karen is already cracking me up with her 6:30 wake-up time and frustration at not being able to find the key man. hee hee hee. i don't know, i think i am just in the kind of mood this morning where everything is tickling me. especially the phrase "tickling me."

believe it or not, i was actually looking forward to getting back to work this morning. not for work, but to see my lovely coworkers. when you spend 40 hours a week with people, you start to miss their crazy antics when you don't see them for two weeks. i got off the elevator this morning and saw rich coming down the hall towards me, and just started smiling uncontrollably. it is nice to see him, and matt, and george (even though george has not officially come in to talk to me yet, punk). and that damn homer simpson rubik's cube, which still haunts me. becca is here of course, as she was on friday, and gavin will be back tomorrow.

so this weekend was lovely, except for the freaking weather. it was like 75 degrees and really muggy outside, with ominous clouds that never actually rained. i had all the windows in my apartment open, and my ceiling fans running, and i was still hot. i didn't turn on the a/c, but only because it was a matter of principle; it just would have felt wrong to turn on the a/c during the first week of january, but i was so tempted. but finally, the warm weather fever broke. last night after dinner with kennda, becca, and nick, i went to work out around 9:30. i did the elliptical while watching the third quarter of the sugar bowl, and when i walked back to my apartment, i couldn't help noticing that it was really windy, and that i was actually feeling cold again. miracle of miracles! a cold front rushed in with amazing speed--the temperature probably dropped 20 degrees in the 45 minutes i was working out. i had to close all my windows, and this morning i wore a sweater and a coat. hurrah. winter, or at least houston's version of it, has returned.

let's see, the rest of the weekend... friday night i joined chris, jason, and debbie for a trip downtown to see thoroughly modern millie. we have season tickets to theater under the stars (tuts), but originally our tickets were for december 22 or something when none of us were going to be around. so we rescheduled for friday. i really enjoyed the show! i didn't know what the story was about, and didn't know any of the music, but it was a neat story, and fun roaring 20's music. and there was tap dancing! hurrah. i loved it.

saturday morning i headed over to chris's new apartment to watch the tech bowl game on his gigantic new tv. ron came over too, decked out in more tech gear than i had! how embarassing. anyway, chris's tv is awesome. we watched the bowl game on one half of the split screen feature, and the unc-kentucky basketball game on the other half. (tech trashed tulsa. yay. but unc lost. boo.) it was a big day for sports--later, i watched the tech-uga bball game via internet. (tech lost. boo.) and then to top everything off, i watched the panthers beat the cowboys to move on to the next round of the nfl playoffs. so: four games, two wins for my teams. decent, though it could/should have been better.

yesterday i slept in, then attempted to test drive jeeps with becca, but apparently car dealerships are closed on sundays. who knew? we consoled ourselves with a trip to wal-mart, where i got embroidery floss to tie my quilt with, and something hilarious to send alex.

so i was reading an article about getting fit in the new year, and it had the following paragraph:

"Change is an all-or-nothing proposition. You either do it, or you don't. You can't just exercise for 3 times one week, once the next week, take a couple of weeks off, go twice a week, and so on and expect to reap all the benefits. Only a handful of people can get into a regular exercise routine by suddenly beginning to exercise. Something just clicks inside and they workout with energy, and they enjoy it. But for the other 95%, getting into a regular routine with exercise is not so easy."

it was interesting to me because 1) it's totally true and 2) i hadn't ever seen it written down before. for years and years, i was unhappy with my health and weight, but whenever i started to exercise, it only lasted for a few weeks. then suddenly, one day i started running, and for some unknown reason it stuck, and two years later i'm still running. i think part of it was gathering the courage to enter a road race, and finding that to be a really fun experience. i try to run at least one race a month to keep me motivated. and i think another part of it was that i was in california at the time i started running, and californians are big on exercise, and stanford was in such an outdoor-friendly environment.

anyway. off i go.

Friday, January 02, 2004

2003 summary

• 289 miles run
• 141.7 miles biked
• 3.75 miles swum
• 14 road races, 1 triathlon, 1 adventure race
• ~1 trip to the rock gym per week since august
• ~40 soccer games
• ~20 softball games

last year my resolution was to keep on running, and i did that. i lowered my 5k time from 30:09 to 29:18. by this time next year, i will have run a half marathon (coming up on january 18!), and i hope to have run a 5k close to 28:00. and maybe a marathon.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true

Friday, January 02, 2004

if i get home before daylight / just might get some sleep tonight

no matter how much i enjoyed a vacation, and no matter how much i wanted to stay there forever, there is one thing i always love about coming back to my little apartment by the bayou. and i always forget until i'm back, and it happens: after days or weeks away, i fall asleep in my own bed again.

after the squishy, trampoline-like springs of katie's extra bed, the odd feel and slippery blankets of james and chrissy's guest bed, and the rock solid mattress of rachel's bed at carter's parents' house, climbing into my bed last night felt like heaven. my bed is queen size, so there is plenty of room to sprawl out. it is the perfect softness, carefully constructed with a pillowtop mattress covered by a mattress pad covered by sheets that are juuuuust right. and my pillow has just the right amount of stuffing. my bed is perfect for me, and last night it felt so good.

it's been a couple days since i updated, so i guess i should recap my new year's. i spent tuesday night at james and chrissy's new house in athens. it is a really nice place, with hard wood floors throughout, and an amazing amount of furniture for a couple who just bought their first house. (as a side note, chrissy must be an obsessive cleaner, because the place was spotless!) it's a pseudo split level house. you come in the front door and go up half a flight to the kitchen, living room, bedrooms, etc. you go down a flight to get to the basement/rec room, where we spent most of our time. they got dance revolution for james's playstation for christmas, and good lord, that game is so addictive! i must have played it (rotating in and out with james, chrissy, kent, and occasionally anit or carter) for at least an hour on tuesday night, and probably 2 or 3 more on wednesday morning. i want to go buy a playstation just for that game!

we were up late on tuesday night, dancing, playing cards, and chatting. we finally crashed around 2:30, anit and i in the guest bed, carter and kent on couches. anit said she wasn't feeling sleepy, so we must have talked for another half hour at least before i couldn't stay awake any longer. it was really great to see anit, who i see less frequently than the others.

wednesday morning we had some delicious pancakes courtesy of chef james, and played more dance revolution. :) we had burgers for lunch, played a game of settlers, and headed down to atlanta around 5. multiple closed restaurants thwarted our plans to get together for dinner with chris and j.r., and it was just getting too complicated, so carter and kent and i just headed down to sharpsburg, which turned out to be lovely. we had pizza, played ping pong (god, i suck at ping pong, but with the help of dr. green, we beat carter and kent at doubles, woohoo), and barely made it to midnight. kent was falling asleep on the couch, and all three of us were in bed by 12:30. we are old now, i guess. ;)

yesterday we had a delicious chik-fil-a lunch and headed to the airport. my flight was at 3:30, so with the threat level at orange and all, i thought i'd need to be there at 1:30. carter said oh, no, you're fine if you're there by 2, so that's when i arrived. and i got through security quicker than i ever have before, i swear! by 2:25 i was sitting at my gate! there weren't enough chairs in the boarding area, so i made myself comfortable on the floor and called my mom and dad. while chatting with my dad, i look up and lo and behold, there's phil! i told my dad i'd call back when i got in to houston. "phil!" i said. he looked down, did a double take, and then plopped down on the floor next to me to chat. i asked who was picking him up at the airport, thinking we could save either that person or becca a trip to IAH, but alas, he was only connecting through houston on his way to snowboarding somewhere near salt lake city. he was like 15 rows in front of me on the plane, so i didn't see him again after we boarded, but it was fun to have someone to chat with in the atlanta airport. that's the second time in the past year that i've randomly run into someone from houston in atlanta!

the flight back was uneventful. i was in the very last row of the plane, and thus was the very last person to get off, exiting behind a young guy with a backpack the smelled really good (the guy, not the backpack). the clouds i saw yesterday as we descended into houston were some of the coolest i have ever seen from the air. there were layers upon layers--big puffy ones, and thin, wispy ones. we approached from over the gulf, and either the clouds were low on the water or the light was playing an optical illustion on me, because i could see cargo ships leaving long wakes in the water, but it also looked like they were plowing through the clouds. there were wakes in the fog, making the ships look ghostly. it was strange and yet beautiful.

i lounged around my apartment last night, watching a guilty pleasure tv show marathon while checking email, unpacking, and scavenging food from my bare cupboards. oh! i almost forget--my quilt is almost finished, and looks awesome. all i have to do is put some darts in the middle of each column/row intersection to keep the batting in place and it will be done. i laid it on my bed last night, and it's long enough to use there. not quite wide enough (another column of t-shirts would have done it) but c'est la vie. i love it. i sat on the couch last night under it feeling proud of my non-sewing skills. i have a few pictures of the quilt-making process (unfortunately not the beginning part with cutting and interfacing the shirts, only the sewing part, because that's when mom decided to start documenting things), as well as the finished product, here.

i feel like i had a lot more to say, but i've forgotten. so maybe more later, if i remember.

Monday, December 29, 2003

it's so hard / to say goodbye / to yesterday

and so it is here. my last night at home on katie's other bed's too-squishy mattress. the last night to tiptoe around at odd times of the night--and day--because dad is sleeping. the last night to smell the still-fragrant christmas tree (the best tree ever).

i am really not looking forward to leaving. i am looking forward to the next couple days in atlanta, and seeing friends, but not to the end of my vacation. it has been so nice to be home. mom said tonight that it's been a pleasure having me, which sounds formal coming from a parent, but she laughed and said she meant it. when i told her how happy i have been to be back in charlotte, she said it probably has a little bit to do with the fact that it had been so long--a whole year--since i had been here.

she might be right. there have been at least half a dozen moments in the past two weeks when i've turned to whoever i was with and said "i should come home more often." i said it to cayce and jes and amanda, to katie, to mom, to dad, to david. i might even say it to brian, if he didn't keep "accidentally" hitting me in the back with his new football. ;)

anyway. tomorrow dad and i are leaving shortly after lunchtime. he'll drop me off in athens at james and chrissy's house, then head back to charlotte without me. and thursday i'll fly back to houston, and friday i'll be back at work. ugh! it is too sad to think about.

tonight mom and brian and i went out to dinner at a new deli way out colony road. bear rocks cafe. i wasn't too hungry after a big lunch at chili's with cayce and amanda, so i just had a salad, but it was good. nice place. with the exception of lunch and dinner, i spent the rest of the day working on my t-shirt quilt. it is almost done! there are four more seams left to sew; two of them are pinned and i will sew them first thing in the morning, then i'll pin the last two and sew the thing closed. after that, i'll just need to sew some darts to keep the batting in place, which i'll do once i get back to houston.

the quilt looks pretty darn good, if i do say so myself. you can take one look and tell that it wasn't done by someone with any actual sewing knowledge, but that's not the point. :) i am proud of it, and it is awesome for reliving memories from the past two years of running and associated stories. the cool thing about making the quilt so soon after gathering the t-shirts is that i can still remember each individual race, and picture parts of the course in my mind. i love it. it is so cool.

Saturday, December 27, 2003

memory / all alone in the moonlight

the crescent moon was hanging low on the horizon as i drove home from starbucks tonight. we met at the one "way out" in pineville, next to catholic high school, as it is a more central location for the combination of cayce and dave coming from their house in indian trail, jes and don coming from her parents' new house across the border in south carolina, and me coming from the gang's old myers park and dilworth haunts.

i drove out the direct route, park road to pineville-matthews. i drove back home by a different route, winding my way through dark streets that i used to know well, but now look a little off. i passed the mall, my high school, the pool where we used to pass the summers. i can't believe i have only two more days left in charlotte before i go to atlanta, and then back to houston. being home has been absolutely wonderful, but also, as i realized tonight, a bit surreal.

i am starting to forget some of the "back routes" to certain places, and have to ask mom to remind me of directions; though i still know my way around, the exact intersections and turns feel a little less sure. i forget the names of roads. new buildings are going up all the time, new stores, new houses. there is a monstrosity of a mansion going up on the corner of princeton and queens road, a 17,000 square foot house that takes up every spare inch of the lot. mom and i walked through it on our christmas day walk. it's only been framed on the inside, and there are so many rooms that we couldn't even figure out what they are all for. it's far too big a house for the neighborhood, and stands out in a garish way, and yet the thing that distresses me most is that there is no yard. when did people stop wanting yards?

my neighborhood in charlotte is so different from clear lake and league city, where becca and others have their houses. i never realized how much i took cumberland avenue for granted. the hilly streets, the cute houses, the old trees, the park as a backyard. by comparison, the neighborhoods in houston feel so cookie-cutter and sterile. growing up with two parents and four kids in one 1900 square foot house made our home permanently loud and a bit chaotic and cramped, but these days it feels cozy and warm.

i thought about all this as i was driving home on streets that felt a little bit strange, after coffee with friends that i don't keep up with as well as i should. but it's ok.

it's true that i can never remember exactly what cayce, jes, or their spouses are doing, but that doesn't mean they don't still make me laugh as hard as they did in high school. and though the streets make me feel a little off-kilter, i can still find my way home.

Thursday, December 25, 2003

have yourself a merry little christmas / let your heart be light

merry christmas one and all! it has been a great day so far here in charlotte. we had a big family breakfast at 9; dad was home from work before i even got up, which was quite a feat for him. ;) afterwards we hurried to open presents so that david could go to work at 11:45. he gets paid time and a half for working holidays, so he always works christmas day.

i got a lot of great stuff. a calendar, books, jewelry, a shirt and cropped exercise pants from ll bean, gloves (which i totally need), a set of charlie brown holiday dvds from david, a cool tote bag and map of rocky mountain national park from brian, risk (the game) from katie, money from grandmother...and of course the two pieces de la resistance--a climbing harness and rock shoes, woohoo! no more paying to rent ill-fitting shoes and a stretched out harness from the rock gym!

everyone liked their presents from me i think. i got the two towers dvd set for david, a pretty candle hanging thing from greece for katie, an rei gift certificate for brian, paperwhites for grandmother, two books for dad, and running tights and a picture in a sarah-decored frame for mom. i love giving people good presents.

i tried to update yesterday, but diaryland was down. gasp. anyway, we didn't do much. read, watched katie's new "finding nemo" dvd, worked on squares for my t-shirt quilt, went to the 11:00 service at church. when mr. east told me there is no santa claus, i feigned shock and disappointment. he gave me a hug while saying "for a rocket scientist, you're not very smart!" hee hee.

off for a christmas day walk with mom.

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

all i need is scraps of colored paper and some rubber cement

i can't believe there are only two more days until christmas. vacation is flying by. today i went to the mother/daughter lunch that apparently is becoming a tradition whether i'm here or not. ;) today it was mom, katie and me, caroline and mrs. east, bekah and mrs. diehl, and jennifer and mrs. mickle. we ate at the red rocks cafe, which i'd never been to. it was tasty. i had a spinach salad with pan-seared shrimp, mmm. the yummy lunch made up for the fact that i ended up having cereal for dinner.

katie and i ran a few more errands after lunch, and then dad took us out to gold's gym, where he has a membership. they charge $15 for a visitor, which is pretty much absurd, but dad can be quite persuasive, and he talked us in for free. i wanted to take it easy since i'm planning to do a 2 hour run tomorrow (the weather has warmed up enough to allow it), so i just followed katie's lead of half an hour on the elliptical and 10 minutes on the bike. while ellipticalling, i watched some mtv show on justin timberlake. mindless tv is great for working out; last summer i used to elliptical to braves games.

"elliptical" can now be a verb, thanks to the machines. interesting.

tonight i spent a few hours putting together a scrapbook of pictures for my grandmother (dad's mom). just a small collection of pictures of our family involved in all sorts of activity over the past year and a half. my graduation from stanford, the reynosa trip that katie, brian and i went on, my travels, mom, david and dad at byron and carol's wedding, and david's graduation last week. plus a few more. it turned out well despite the fact that all i really had to work with was construction paper and microsoft clip art. i think she'll like it. tomorrow i've got to mail it; of course it will be late, but c'est la vie. i sent her a card last week warning her of the lateness, so at least she's prepared. ;)

tomorrow grandmother (mom's mom) arrives, i attempt to run for 2 straight hours, and hopefully i'll get started on backing the t-shirt squares for my quilt.

ooh i am so productive when i don't have to be at work!

Sunday, December 21, 2003

step on a steam train / step out in the driving rain, maybe / run from the darkness in the night

home continues to be wonderful, as things beyond home continue to be unnecessarily complicated. i don't really know what to do about the complications, other than to try not to let them stress me out. they are really not my issues anyway; i'm just subjected to them. on to better things.

went to church this morning with mom and katie. i know i am a tad biased, but i think covenant does music better than any other church i've been to. the sermon always seems to long, as i wait impatiently for them to get back to the music. the other thing i always remember is how beautiful the place is, a point driven home twice as hard today as it was the 50th anniversary of covenant's first services in the current sanctuary, and as i thought about katie's wedding. june 25, 2005. she's having it there, of course. it's such a dramatic, soaring, majestic building.

spent the afternoon getting the necessary materials for my t-shirt quilt, so hopefully i'll start on that tomorrow. watched tech beat st. john's. went for another 5k run, three laps around the "long block." i ran it 2 minutes faster than two nights ago, which made me happy. it was about 10 degrees warmer this afternoon when i ran than it was the other night, which is probably a big factor in the time decrease. today i did about 10:10 miles, which pleases me greatly considering the amount of hills in each long block loop. it's pretty much constantly up and down, with few flat spots. i run two loops counterclockwise, and one clockwise, to take full advantage of the hill workout i'm getting, since i certainly can't match it in flat houston.

Saturday, December 20, 2003

shiver chatter brr

another glorious morning to sleep late, have a bowl of special k red berries, and read the paper. the only downside to this being-at-home morning routine i've found is that mom doesn't buy caffeinated coffee anymore. i've added it to the grocery list.

katie and i headed out just after noon to run a few final christmas errands. next thing we knew it was 4:30! we went to, let's see, omega sports, great outdoor provisions, dillard's, godiva, hecht's, wal-mart, omega sports again (but a different location), the gap, hand picked, barnes and noble, wal-mart again, rackroom shoes, michael's, and wal-mart a third time (developing pictures was the reason for the three wal-mart stops). whew!! what a day of shopping. but we got everything done, and have no more shopping to do for anyone (well, at least not anyone in the family), so that's excellent. we watched the second half of all three overtimes in the unc-wake forest game (which carolina lost, unfortunately), and went with mom to a holiday party at her teaching assistant kim's house. it was nice, and there were so many desserts that i had to really exercise some major willpower to keep from stuffing myself with fudge, pie, and cookies. the fudge was excellent. i looooove fudge.

it has been freaking cold all day. i can't deal with cold anymore. it's very sad and pathetic. i've been cold pretty much constantly since i got home wednesday night.

Friday, December 19, 2003

oh tannenbaum oh tannenbaum / da doo doo da doo da daaa

it's funny how quickly ingrained habits change when you're put into a new setting. in houston, i dutifully update my blog every morning; it's part of the routine, no more, no less. but here, at home, i sleep late, i mess around, i run errands, i hang out with my family...and i don't sit down to do my daily web surfing until just before bed.

david is being kind enough to let me use his laptop, as mom and dad's computer is pretty much crap. yay david.

today i slept until 11:00 and it was marvelous. katie and i had lunch at einstein's, ran a few errands for mom, got her van washed, and then headed over to her school, where i talked to her kindergardeners about nasa and the space shuttle. they were excited, but also rambunctious. the combination of two fire drills, a birthday party (with krispy kreme and juice boxes), and it being the last day before the break proved to be too much for them, i guess. but it was fun. i always like talking to mom's classes, and especially about space. she has a couple kids who are really bright, and knew a lot already. future rocket scientists. :)

we got the christmas tree tonight, and i swear it is the best christmas tree ever! it is the perfect shape and height, and there are no bare spots. and it smells fantastic. dad helped us get it in the stand this year, so hopefully it is nice and secure and we'll avoid a repeat of last year, when the tree fell over with a crash and stressed us all out. it is lovely. we set it up, put on the lights, and then mom, katie and i went to jason's deli for dinner and did some shopping/browsing at omega sports and great outdoor provisions. we came home with enough time for katie and i to do a 5k run (brrrr, it was freezing outside, i had to wear sweatpants, a long sleeve shirt, gloves, and a hat!). three laps around the long block is almost exactly 3.1 miles--perfect. after that it was back home to put the ornaments on the tree.

ah. a lovely day.

Thursday, December 18, 2003

and in the darkness bind them

well, home has been lovely so far. i got in about 10:15 last night and mom, dad, and katie arrived to pick me up just as my bag came off the claim belt. from there it was home via the familiar streets i haven't seen in a year.

this morning we got up bright and early (mom made it bearable with chik-fil-a biscuits) and headed up to greensboro. brian met us at the coliseum, and two and half hours later, david was a graduate! hooray!! we celebrated by taking the rare all-six-in-one-place family picture, and had a delicious lunch at harper's. then we went to david's apartment (which i had never seen) and took a quick driving tour of the uncg campus (which i had also never seen). from there it was back to charlotte (well, except for brian, who went back to chapel hill and isn't coming home till saturday, and david, who stayed to pack and then got home a couple hours after us).

it was a very nice day. david is all gradjamatated! and i am home. at lunch, when brian was about to leave to head back to chapel hill, he said "sarah, are you coming home for christmas?" i said "brian, i am home for christmas." i guess he thought i was going back to houston until next week! funny.

so that is that.

yesterday five of us skipped out for a long lunch and saw return of the king. it was absolutely spectacular. despite knowing the story from the books, i found myself sitting in the theater, silently thinking "oh my god, throw it in! throw it in already!! throw the ring into the fire!!! AHHHHH!!!!! DO IT!!!!!" my heart was pounding despite already knowing the outcome! i don't know if i've ever been as keyed up over something where i knew exactly how the events were going to unfold as i was yesterday.

the battle scenes, with their sheer numbers of orcs and men and horses and trolls and elephants and nazgul, were stunning; the enormity of the scenes boggled my mind. the acting was great (sean astin and viggo mortensen in particular, in my humble opinion). the cinematography made me drop my jaw and practically drool with the longing to go to new zealand; the scene where the signal fires are lit across the mountain tops gave me goose bumps. i think i watched literally half the movie with my mouth hanging open in amazement.

wow. so it was an absolutely spectacular movie. and that's my far-from-eloquent movie review. :)

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

here's a toast to the host / of those who love the vastness of the sky

happy centennial of flight day! 100 years ago, orville and wilbur were standing on the beach getting ready to make the first airplane flight. we just watched president bush's speech from kitty hawk, and he didn't say anything about going back to the moon. guess those rumors weren't quite accurate about today. but maybe he'll still make some sort of landmark speech in the next few months about the direction of the space program.

ugh, i am really sore today, the product of monday night rock climbing and last night's almost 6-miler (two laps of the trail, which is 5.8 total). my legs screamed at me the whole run, instead of the usual first two miles, and we finished the loops a full 3 minutes slower than we did two weeks ago. buzz said it was fine, but i always get frustrated by being slow. ah well. next week if it's not too cold in charlotte, i'll try to go for 2 hours. it will be interesting, since charlotte actually has those strange things called hills.

anyway. in a couple hours we're all taking a mega-long lunch break to go see return of the king. woohoo! then nick is driving me to the airport and i will fly home! double woohoo!

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

god rest ye merry, gentlemen / let nothing you dismay

i have been listening to christmas music non-stop, but haven't overloaded yet. the easy listening station in houston has been playing all christmas music, all the time since the beginning of the month. i find that my favorites are the "sacred" music, as carter was talking about yesterday, and i also like bopping in my car to the tune of "classics" like rockin' around the christmas tree and sleigh ride. it's the newer stuff that annoys me, like some sappy song i keep hearing about shoes. i'd rather they skip those, and just play extra versions of carol of the bells, o holy night, and god rest ye merry gentlemen. :)

yesterday was weird. i got up early so i could be at work by 8:00 (need to make sure i get in enough hours this week to both go running this afternoon at 4 and take a 4 hour lunch break for "return of the king" tomorrow), and was really groggy most of the morning. at 11, we went out to lunch in honor of kara, our departing co-op, and i finally started to wake up. it was a pretty productive afternoon, but i started feeling crappy around 4. i stayed at work until 6:30, at which point i hurried home to change clothes and run to super target before going to the rock gym. by this time i was feeling better, and i happily told the guy behind the counter that this was the last week i'd have to pay them to rent shoes, as i am getting them for christmas. woohoo!

climbing was rough; i can already tell i am going to be sore tonight. at the end of the night when we were bouldering a la simon says, a handlebar hold was really doing a number on my hand. felt like i was about to rip a layer of skin off. lovely. i think there is also something seriously wrong with my middle toe on my left foot. when i try to curl my toes, the middle one just stays straight. it is very strange, because it doesn't really hurt (except when i try to curl it) and doesn't affect my climbing or walking or even running...it just doesn't want to bend. bizarre.

rich, gavin, becca and i were pleasantly surprised yesterday when greg gave us (collectively) the dm4 up-front parking award. i must say, every time i think i'm about to explode out of frustration with this stupid simulation code we use, someone turns around and gives me an award. they are really good at recognizing when i've had it up to my ears with SORT (that's the code) and need some added motivation.

anyway, rich got the usual k-70 spot, while i, gavin, and becca were given k-44, k-45, and k-46, respectively. the caveat, greg said, was that those three spots don't officially belong to anyone at the moment, so we'd have to get to work before the people who have been illegally parking there. this morning i overslept a tad and when i got here, my k-44 spot was already taken, gavin was in k-45...but k-46 was open. so i parked in k-46. i figured if becca is the last one to work, she can be the one who has to park across the road. i don't think she liked that solution, but if nothing else, it'll make her get to work earlier tomorrow. ;) plus, she gets to park in the spot all next week, while i will be gone, so in the end she'll get to use it more than me anyway!

i felt sort of guilty, but not that guilty. rich said she should have me towed, but i counter that you can't have someone towed from a spot that's not technically yours to begin with. anyway. gavin just shook his head, and becca said "dude! you took my spot! that's so wrong!" amusing.

oh, you must go read becca's idea for a footprint informercial. it is very funny. that's us, the late-night tv debris footprint specialists.

i am so excited for tomorrow. lord of the rings, and then i go home!

home home home home home home home.

Monday, December 15, 2003

"let's go break open that glow stick and pour it in homestar's mountain dew...i hear they have to pump your stomach if you drink that stuff!"

i got up yesterday morning and turned on my computer to find news that the military had found saddam hussein. "holy crap!" i exclaimed to my empty apartment. i guess i never really expected anyone to find him, at least not alive. it is sort of amazing. it will be very interesting to see how things in iraq, and our policies there, shift now that the threat of saddam returning is gone. very interesting.

in other news, jason and i are considering finding roger clemens's house and standing on his front lawn begging until he comes out of retirement to reteam with andy pettitte and play for the astros. dude. that would be so awesome. with the braves doing their whole get-rid-of-everyone-we-have-to-cut-payroll thing, at least the astros are looking good.

had a nice weekend. if you missed my rare weekend entry, you can go down and read about how i was up till 3 a.m. friday night after making the "mistake" of putting in the two towers dvd. i should have known i could never watch just the first disc. anyway. saturday i slept in, then did some shopping (but not at best buy, where the line was at least 50 people deep; i walked in, guffawed, and walked out), then went to a "progressive dinner" that began at sara's, moved to curt and lisa's, and ended at mark's enormous (and very bachelor-style) house. saturday night culminated with ami's going-away party, which was quite entertaining. the party was held at a house that i'd never been to before, and i totally got lost trying to find my way out of the neighborhood at 1:30 in the morning. craziness. it took about 10 minutes, but i finally did find my way out.

yesterday i slept in again, watched the news for a while, and then headed downtown with buzz and jes for a 5-mile race that started (oddly) at 3:00 in the afternoon. not that i'm complaining--it was nice to be able to run a race without having to get up before the sun! and the weather was nice, bright sunshine that made me regret having worn a long sleeve shirt. the race went really well. i finished in 48:11! if you do the math, that comes out to 9:38 per mile, which amazes me. i didn't feel like i was going that fast, and since buzz also finished pretty fast, we have suspicions that the course may have been a tad short. but i'm not sure...see, i ran this same race last year, and didn't notice any differences in the course yesterday...and last year i only ran it just under 54 minutes. could i really have improved by almost 6 minutes in one year?? i don't know. so it's a new personal record for me in the 5-mile distance, but with an asterisk. i mean, by that result, i would have finished a full 10k in under an hour, which i didn't think was quite possible for me yet.

so a little strange. not sure what was going on; next time i'm downtown i'll have to drive the course to measure it myself.

then last night we had a soccer game, and played the best team in the league to a mere 2-1 loss. in a way, it was actually more exasperating than the games where we get blown out, because we played really well, and i was proud of our team. unfortunately, at one point i did get really frustrated and vented at our manager/coach who was playing defense with me. oops. i think she was mad at me. sigh. i emailed her an apology last night after stewing on it the whole drive home. people seem to laugh at me for doing that, but i couldn't help it; i absolutely cannot stand to have people mad at me! if i know someone's upset with me, i just think and think about it and feel horribly guilty until i've managed to apologize or try to do something to make it better. half the time this leads to more confusion, but what can i say? it's a character flaw.

after soccer, i was again reminded that i have awesome friends. i went over to chris's, where he gave me homestar runner figurines as a christmas present and, when he found out i hadn't eaten, fed me steak! wow.

Saturday, December 13, 2003

"there is always hope."

so last night was frustrating. i show up at the soccer fields at 7:20 for our co-ed 7:30 game. there are exacly 3 other people there. 10 minutes later, there are only 6 of us there, and it's starting to rain. it's also windy and chilly, and we're ready to either start running around, or cancel the game altogether. but no one else from our team shows up. so finally it's almost 8:00, and we forfeit the game. so basically, i paid $5 in ref fees (which the refs get to keep, because we forfeited) to go stand in the blowing rain for half an hour.

i was quite annoyed.

with the game cancelled though, i came home and had quite an evening. i took advantage of the extra time to pop in the extended version of "the two towers" that i borrowed from chris; i wanted to watch it again before "return of the king" comes out on wednesday.

good lord, what a movie. it was only the second time i'd seen it; the first time was in the theater last december. i put in the disc thinking i'd only watch the first disc last night, since it was already almost 10:00 and i knew how long the thing was. but next thing i knew, it was almost 2 a.m. and i had watched the entire thing! the 3.5+ hour film just flew by in what seemed like minutes, and only reinforced my opinion that peter jackson and company have simply done a freaking amazing job with the lord of the rings movies. they are absolutely stunning to watch, and rewatch. they suck you in. wow! i was so keyed up after the movie ended that i couldn't go to bed, i mean, how can you sleep after watching the battle of helm's deep?? i burned another hour watching some of the dvd extras, and finally crashed around 3. whew.

anyway. just wanted to exclaim about the movie. :) off to do some christmas shopping!

Friday, December 12, 2003

yeah, i was that dense

when i was in 9th or 10th grade, a male friend of mine gave me a pair of plaid boxer shorts for christmas. i had the most enormous crush on him at the time, but was too clueless to realize that giving a girl a pair of men's underwear might have been his way of saying something. i don't even know what the guy is doing these days, but i still have the pair of boxers, as i realized this last night when i pulled them on as pajamas and climbed into bed. i'm all but certain that they're the oldest item of clothing i own.

it struck me as funny, somehow, and i laughed though a lot of high school memories as i fell asleep.

but before that, i headed over to the west side of houston to have dinner with a bunch of tech alumni. it was fun, and especially nice to see liz. we did our traditional "we live in the same city but never see each other" lament, emphasized this time by the fact that the last time we saw each other was actually in atlanta at james and chrissy's wedding.

oh well. one of the guys there had a bunch of 2002 and 2003 team buzz shirts to get rid of, and so i mentioned that katie is team buzz chair for next year. this may have been a mistake, as he grabbed my hand and shook vigorously, saying something about how i could organize the houston event. uh oh.

not much else to say today. there's a lot on tap for the weekend--dinner party, followed by normal party, as well as a 5-miler and two soccer games.

Thursday, December 11, 2003

i don't wanna change the world / could be better, could be worse

it's been a depressing baseball offseason so far, in my opinion, with the braves cutting ties with maddux, sheffield, and javy (waaah!), and the astros trading away billy wagner and his 100 mph fastball. but today the astros are signing andy pettitte, so at least that's a positive thing for one of the two teams i follow closely.

last night we went downtown to see nunsense. i'd never even heard of the show until carter's dad did it a while ago with some of his girls, and i heard how much kent laughed. so i heard it was coming to houston, and got a group together. it was indeed quite funny, but the performances were so-so. there were only two women who really stood out; the rest weren't really singers as much as they were actresses. i think i would rather have seen the mcintosh kids perform it. ah well.

joey's alphabet game is my office's current obsession. using our combined retail and corporate logo knowledge, we've gotten 17 of 26.

tonight is the houston georgia tech club holiday dinner (mexican food, oddly and yet appropriately enough). it should be fun, as i'll get to see liz and grace and bing. yes, they all live in the same city as me, and no, i never see them. it's absurd, and simply begs the refrain of "houston is too big." sigh.

work is annoying me. we're creating a footprint for a single well-defined object, and yet the process involves at least 6 different people each doing one little part. it seems like we should have a single tool that will do everything; that would be so much more efficient. i dunno. it's just been one of those weeks where i feel like work is making me dumber. it probably wouldn't bug me as much if i wasn't so short on patience at the moment, and if i didn't feel tired and achy. with all the december and christmas stuff going on outside of work, i have too much to do, and not enough time to do it all. does anyone have a good idea for a present for a grandmother?? sigh.

i just keep reminding myself that in a week, i will be home!

yay.

Wednesday, December 10, 2003

but it wouldn't be make believe if you believed me

despite his faults, today i'm going to have to adore president bush for the simple reason that he signed an executive order giving me (and, well, every other executive branch employee) the day after christmas off work! hurrah. i needed it; otherwise, i would have been working 16 hours on january 2 (so yes, i was gambling on dubya being nice this year).

my whole body sort of aches today after running for an hour and 45 minutes last night. wow. if you had told me two years ago when the whole running thing finally took (and stuck, on the umpteenth try) that i would be running for almost two hours last night, i probably would have laughed. but i did. buzz was with me for the first hour and 15 minutes, at which point she headed back to the gilruth with a bothersome foot. she's in better shape anyway, so it wasn't as important for her to get the entire run in.

the weirdest thing is that after 105 minutes, my body was so used to running that it was painful to stop. as soon as i slowed to a walk, my knees tightened up, and the tendon behind my right knee felt like a rubber band that had suddenly been stretched tight. it hurt. i walked a half mile, stopping every so often to bend my knees all the way, and they started to feel better. when i got back to the gilruth, i gulped down some water and started my post-run stretching.

as i stretched, there was a kid, probably in about 4th grade (though i have never been good at guessing ages), sitting in the lobby playing a recorder. it made me smile, and i stretched for an extra long time just to listen to him play.

Tuesday, December 09, 2003

hark hear the bells / sweet silver bells

buzz and i are supposed to run for an hour and 40 minutes tonight, but the weather is looking ominous. thunderstorms and a cold front are supposed to sweep through later today, which may rain on our run. i sort of hope we make it though; otherwise, we'll have to try to run tomorrow or thursday, and since i have plans on those days already, we'd have to leave at like 3:00 to fit in the run. trying to fit in a long run before it gets too dark is definitely a challenge in december. good thing we don't live farther north!

last night was the branch christmas party at zio's, which went well i think. we had a bigger turnout than last year, so i think that made the boss happy. we also did the gift exchange again, and i ended up with a cool gift for once! it's a book of "letters from father christmas" that j.r.r. tolkien sent to his children each year, postmarked from the north pole. i started reading through them this morning while i was eating breakfast, and they are really clever and cute. well-illustrated, too.

i am in such a christmas mood. i dug out my handful of christmas cds and mp3s on saturday, and i've been listening to christmas music non-stop (in the car, on my ipod) ever since. i am picky about my christmas music, but in a strange way; there is no one particular genre that i like or don't, but i definitely have preferences. currently in the rotation are two mannheim steamroller christmas albums, the vince guaraldi trio's "a charlie brown christmas", a random christmas cd from old navy with lots of jazzy upbeat rock-n-roll-ish songs, bing crosby, and the american boys choir, along with a lot of miscellaneous mp3s.

so yeah. did i mention i'm ready to go home for the holidays? yeah.

work is frustrating. i'll leave it at that.

james is in town today and tomorrow, but is staying all the way up in the woodlands and i don't know if i'm going to have time to see him. the best time for me would be tonight, but he said something about having a work dinner tonight. it's stuff like this that reminds me how freaking big houston is. i'm in houston, james is in houston...but it would take me at least an hour to get to him.

Monday, December 08, 2003

i'll be home for christmas / you can count on me

i can't believe i'll be home in less than 10 days. i can't wait! i didn't realize how much i missed home until i started to realize that it's been a full year since i was there, and until north carolina things started popping up and beating me over the head. for instance, did you know that north carolina produces 40% of the nation's sweet potatoes (so the ones i ate at thanksgiving were likely "homegrown"). and that the wreath that i bought at lowe's all the way here in texas is made of branches from a north carolina christmas tree? ah. i can't wait to be home. mom says she gives me two days before i start complaining that i'm bored, but i think i'll be just fine.

anyway. it was a nice weekend. soccer friday night (we lost), 5k saturday morning, soccer right after that (we lost, but it was soooo close). saturday afternoon i made the mistake of venturing out to the galleria area to do some shopping, only to find that half the highways in this freaking city were closed. 59 south was closed, so i had to go up to i-10, over to 610, and then back down to the galleria. then after shopping i had to come back in on westheimer because, yeah, 59 was closed. then the ramp from 610 onto 45 south was closed, so i had to wind my way under the interchange. ugh. it was a mess. it took me 3 hours to do 45 minutes of shopping!

saturday night we drove to montana (ok, it was tomball, but it felt as far away as montana) to see nick perform in the nutcracker, which was lovely. nick did a good job, wore a lot of makeup, and was smiling so big i thought his head might explode. i think that about sums it up.

yesterday was pretty quiet. i went to the bike store with debbie and got jealous when she bought a shiny new mountain bike. i'd love to have a mountain bike, for things like the adventure race we did a couple months ago, but i am not allowing myself to buy one unless i get rid of my current hybrid bike, because let's face it, having three bikes would just be absurd. anyway. inspired by debbie's purchase, i came home and finally fixed the toe clip on my road bike. i broke the reflector off a couple months ago when i accidentally caught the pedal on a speedbump, and one of the screws holding the toe clip on came off as well. the screw was stripped and wouldn't go back on, but i finally found a suitable replacement. hurrah.

i ended the weekend with an extremely frustrating soccer game with my women's team. i'm not sure who i was more annoyed with--the other team, or the ref, who was calling a very poor game. oh well.

Monday, December 08, 2003

hit and run

now that karen is going to be back at georgia tech, the ae female mafia has a woman on the inside again. first piece of news: dr. kamat is retiring! at last, the rumors are true. aw. the tech aerospace department won't be the same without him around to tease.

sad news this morning. the braves didn't offer arbitration to javy lopez (or maddux or sheffield for that matter). after 10 full seasons, my favorite player won't be a brave anymore. i am distraught. distraught, i tell you.

wahhhhh.

i've got to run. perhaps a better update later.

Saturday, December 06, 2003

but i doubt i could outrun that lexus convertible...

It has been a good morning for the sisters. Katie got to drive this (!) in the Children's Healthcare Parade in Atlanta, and I ran a 29:18 (!) in the Reindeer Run 5k this morning in Nassau Bay! Hooray!

Now it's time for lunch, followed by some errands and Christmas shopping, then off to see Nick in the Nutcracker.

Friday, December 05, 2003

you just call out my name / and you know wherever i am / i'll come running

more evidence to support my theory that i can only do one or the other, catch or hit: last night i caught a long fly ball, but didn't get on base except via a walk. but we won the game to finish 3-4 on the season. i think 3 of our 4 losses came in extra innings, or "overtime" as we have started calling them, since they aren't really extra innings in the traditional sense. apparently we are not so good with the overtime. yeah.

this has been a great week for catching up with friends. last night after softball, jason and i had a lovely chat on the tailgate of his truck that ended after an hour only because we started shivering in the chilly weather. (yes, houston has finally cooled off a bit; it's even supposed to freeze in north houston tonight.) talking to jason is always nice. we share a lot of the same personality traits (or quirks, i should probably say), and because of that, i feel like he's one of the few people who truly "gets" me. anyone can get to know you, and know how you feel about things. but i think it's hard to really understand why someone acts the way they do unless you're driven by the same type of things that they are.

i drove home with the heat on to warm up, took a warm shower, and settled down with some russian tea to find a lovely email from my sister. yes, it was a good night.

curt (aka one) just came into my office. hooray for one.

after a two-week break for the thanksgiving holidays, soccer is back this weekend. i've got a game tonight with the soccernauts (co-ed team). then a 5k tomorrow morning and another soccer game with the dirty leprachauns (gilruth co-ed team) immediately after. as in, the race is at 8 and the game is at 9. i signed up for the race before i knew we had a game; the only reason we're even playing is that they decided to put all eight teams in the playoffs. and it's just my rotten luck that we drew the first game of the morning instead of the 10:15, 11:30, or 12:45 game. then a game with the freedom (women's team) on sunday night. mix in a trip to see nick in the nutcracker tomorrow night, and maybe jason teaching me how to shoot at some point, and it's already a busy weekend. then next week it's the branch christmas party on monday, a long run on tuesday, nunsense on wednesday, nothing (yet!) on thursday, soccer friday, dinner and party on saturday, gingerbread houses and soccer on sunday. then climbing, long run, and then it's the 17th and i fly home.

whoosh. this is what happens in december.

Thursday, December 04, 2003

keep breaking me in / and this is how we will end

i had a lovely evening over at katie and fred's last night. the official reason for the get-together was a mary kay party, which is especially amusing since i am decidedly more tomboy than frilly makeup girl. there are exceptions, but not too many. but the get-together was fun, and fred made us a delicious dinner, and i got to play with their puppy bella, who is already 30 pounds at the ripe old age of 3 and a half months. she is so funny; she is still in that stage where she trips over her own enormous paws. it cracked me up.

as we were all talking last night, we were figuring out how we all first met each other. it reminded me of what a great group the co-ops were when we were in college, and what a great extended group we are now that we're all full-time, and the group has expanded to include people who (gasp!) didn't co-op here. i could gush for paragraphs, but instead i'll just say that this time of year always overloads me with reminders of how great my friends are, and how lucky i am to have them.

though i do have to say that the proliferation of young marrieds is crazy. from the start, there were the couples in my own group--gavin and jen, george and ginger, matt and stephanie (though to be fair, matt is not actually married, and doesn't seem in a hurry to get engaged). and then my non-houston friends--cayce and dave, jes and don, leila and brian, james and chrissy, daniel and virginia. then all the women on my soccer team that i see every week, that ask me if i'm married. and then the friends like katie and fred, ron and buzz, nick and steph, darby and hilary, randy and ami, betsy and edgar (who aren't officially married yet, but that's a minor detail). and then there is my engaged sister. i know we are at "that age" and all, but seeing as how i am about as far from getting married as a person can get, it sorta makes my head spin.

i don't really think i'm ready to be married. i like my single life, and the independence that goes with it. i like being able to dance around my apartment free of embarassment, and being able to stretch across both halves of the bed, and not having to share a bathroom. but all the couples, and especially my sister, give me the vague feeling that i should be ready, and that i should be out there trying to find someone.

rumors are building that bush will announce the goal of returning to the moon on december 17, the 100th anniversary of the wright brothers' flight. this should be a good story to follow, though i'm viewing it through cynical glasses...

Wednesday, December 03, 2003

she said "well, anyway" / just dying for a subject change

so this online diary thing used to be wonderful and insightful and well-written...at least that is what i prefer to think. and now? now it's just a summary of the what happened the day or the weekend before. how dull.

last night after a lot of mario kart, i thought up with this lovely entry for today, but this morning i am exhausted and have only just started slurping the coffee, and i don't think i'm quite prepared to string the thoughts together eloquently enough to satisfy myself. so it'll have to wait. and whoosh, here comes the summary.

buzz and i had a good run last night. after 90 minutes last week, and a planned 100 next week, this was an easy week. we ran two laps of the gilruth trail, 5.8 miles. but the incredible part is that we ran them at a 10:15 average pace. if i'd run .4 more miles, i would have beaten my personal 10k record by more than 4 minutes. so yeah. it was a good run.

after that, and a shower, i headed over to betsy and edgar's for candles (don't ask) and mario kart. the new mario kart, where you can play in teams, and one person drives and the other does the weapons. it was quite entertaining. steph and i paired up on the girl power machine, with a blonde princess in pink and a redhead princess in orange (eek), complete with a pink car and ended up beating sean and peter. ha. girl power.

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

all the while thinking this is the good luck / stays with her most of the time...

mondays = rock gym + waffle house. this is the new routine. we arrive at 7:30 and after some quick banter with the 20-year-olds behind the counter, we put on the harnesses, lace up the shoes, hook into the ropes, and climb until our arms can't hold us up anymore. around 9, or closer to 9:30 on a good night, we hear the waffle calling to us. "come and get my hashbrowned goodness," it says, and who are we to argue with the waffle? mmm. it always gives me something to look forward to on mondays.

though as is requisite after a night of climbing, i will go ahead and list my pain of the day: left triceps.

one of the tv channels i find myself spending the most time watching on weekends is tlc. lately they've been previewing a couple interesting shows. one is on the discovery channel (tlc's parent channel) called "extreme martial arts" (or something similar) and goes into the biomechanics of martial arts. you know, how it's physically possible for someone to break a board with their hand, and stuff like that. i've recently been fascinated by all the body's bones and muscles and ligaments, etc (probably influenced by the fact that all this climbing is making me painfully aware of them), so i'm going to have to catch this show one of the many times they replay it.

the other show that i'm going to have to watch purely because the commercials are so funny is "ancient egyptians," which is on this weekend. in the commercials, they have some guy dressed like a pharaoh (but with socks and sneakers) interviewing people on the street about whether ancient egypt has influenced their lives today. when they say "uh, no," he goes beserk and starts yelling about ancient egypt and pyramids busting up out of the ground. the spots are hilarious; i wish i could find them online.

anyway. my little plug for tlc and the discovery channel. i'm such a dork. don't worry though--i balance those channels out with a good helping of fox and the wb. hmm. i watch too much tv. on sunday i turned to hbo to find them playing the 2nd star wars movie. it was bad when nick and i saw it the first time, and yet i got sucked into watching it again. it was still bad. well, except for the scene where yoda kicks butt.

anyway.

nick just came into my office and asked me a physics question. i didn't know the answer. it's like i leave school and become stupid.

i am sleepy today. buzz wants to go running at 4 this afternoon, so i had to come in at 7:30 in order to get 8 hours. that's a full hour earlier than i usually get in, which doesn't seem like so much...but somehow, it is. our co-op was already here when i got here. whoa. kara is one dedicated co-op.

but coffee is making it better.

Monday, December 01, 2003

if i could give you more / i'd give the world a phrase / that could not be erased

i can't believe it is december already. this year has gone by in a blink. in two weeks and two days i will be on my way home! i haven't seen my house, one brother, or my dad since last christmas. crazy. but ah, the magic of cell phones. when you talk to someone at least once a week, it's not hard to forget, or at least ignore, the fact that you never actually see them.

work on friday didn't really seem like work, with so few people around, so the weekend seemed to last for four days. i didn't do much of anything. stayed home friday night, ran some errands on saturday and got a lovely wreath (from north carolina!) for my front door. saturday night i picked nick up from the airport and was rewarded with what was practically a fourth thanksgiving dinner. his mom sent him back with an entire shopping bag full of delicious lebanese food, from lamb to grape leaves to baklava (of course nick called them all by their arabic names, but i can't remember them, much less try to spell them, except maybe for hummus). mmm. mad props to nick's mom, dad, and teita.

yesterday i chilled at home again. i finally pulled my bike out of the garage for the first time in a while. i've been so busy with the running, soccer, softball, and climbing (whew, it makes me tired just thinking about it) that i haven't been on my bike since september. ah, my poor neglected bike. with it getting dark so early, and me not wanting to tempt fate (or cars) by riding in the dark, i'm sort of confined to riding only on the weekends. it was fairly windy yesterday, which gave me quite a workout. i feel like i've been slacking if i don't maintain an average of at least 15 mph, and with the wind yesterday and the long absense from riding, it was tough. my legs felt all rubbery by the time i got home almost an hour later.

i have so much to do in the next couple weeks. it seems like december always fills up before it even gets here. i already have plans for pretty much every weeknight between now and when i go home on the 17th. miraculously, i have few weekend plans, so i might actually be able to get some christmas shopping done before i go home. i already have presents for katie, dad, and grandmother, and ideas for some other people, so we shall see.

Friday, November 28, 2003

one's a small corporate jet, the other's air force one

it is really quiet here at work today. i think becca, josh and i are probably the only three people on the whole floor. we're considering having a chair race later.

i think it is really cool that bush visited iraq for thanksgiving. go bushie. i don't agree with his policies most of the time, but visiting troops in baghdad is something i can get behind. the funniest part of the above article:

On the flight over, Air Force One had come within sight of a British Airways plane, Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, told reporters on the trip, according to the transcript.

The British Airways pilot radioed over and asked, Mr. Bartlett said, "Did I just see Air Force One?" There was silence from the Air Force One pilot, who then replied, "Gulfstream 5."

There was a longer silence from the British Airways pilot, Mr. Bartlett said, who, seeming to get that he was in on a secret, then said, "Oh."

(p.s. for those of you who are not aircraft-inclined, a gulfstream 5 looks absolutely nothing like air force one, a 747. ha.)

Friday, November 28, 2003

you've got a good thing / gonna have a good thing

so if you didn't read my entry yesterday, you will have to go back and check it out. it has little to do with thanksgiving, and everything to do with the fact that i finally broke the 30-minute mark (29:28!) at the turkey trot 5k yesterday morning. i am so pumped. i have been telling everyone, probably to the point of annoyance, but it's just because i am so excited that i finally did it.

thanksgiving was lovely though. after the run, i came home, showered, and headed over to becca's house for kennda's brunch (though i think it really should have been called lunch). she had a lot of "non-traditional" things to eat: quiche (made by a german), turkey sweet potato hash, salmon cakes (made by becca's friend david), brie (which i didn't think i liked, but it turns out that i do), and more. it was all yummy, and the table was set just-so, and everything was prim and proper. the conversation was interesting too, since there were only 10 people, and at least 3 countries represented (the u.s., germany, and sri lanka). there was also one very cute 5 1/2 month old baby who is going to grow up speaking three languages. wow.

from there, i went back home for a couple hours to make my sweet potato casserole. while i was baking, i had the air conditioning on because it was about 75 and humid outside, and my apartment was hot with the oven on. however, by this morning, i had the heat on because it dropped to the low 40s outside. i am sick of this crazy weather! i wish it would just stay cool.

anyway, my sweet potatoes finished and i headed over to paul and josh's for thanksgiving dinner. theirs was quite a contrast to the prettiness of kennda's brunch, with all of us just sitting around a table (without place settings or centerpieces) and serving ourselves from the bar, but it was great. we ate turkey (which turned out very well after all our worrying about paul and josh's inability to thaw it, much less actually cook it--thank you 1-800-butterball!), my sweet potatoes, david and becca's stuffing and pumpkin pie, chris's artichoke cheese thingys, james's chocolate pie, and more. chris also brought some very strong bourbon balls, nacho uncorked a bottle of 40 proof port, and there was champagne, so a good time was had by all. especially nacho. ;) it was all great, and by the time 8:30 rolled around, i was both very full and very tired.

so it was a good day. even though i don't go home for the holiday anymore, i still end up having great thanksgiving celebrations. i was busy all day, but it still felt relaxing; i think it's just the magic of thanksgiving. it's hard to feel stressed when you are eating great food and laughing with your friends. it just gives me that warm fuzzy feeling.

aw.

Thursday, November 27, 2003

i'm so excited / and i just can't hide it

happy thanksgiving!

i've already eaten one meal, and am in recovery preparing for the next one. but all this gorging is ok, because this morning i ran the turkey trot 5k over near the galleria, and not only did i run it, but i finished in 29:28! my fastest time ever, and the first time i've ever finished under half an hour. i've been working towards this for almost two years! i am SO pumped! i came home and immediately called my parents. hurrah!!

i love thanksgiving!

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

RIGHT a book with 49 pages then you'll see how many are LEFT....

the 90 minute run last night went amazingly well, and i am yet again astounded by the effect the weather has on my running. if it's warm and humid, i struggle (hence my slacking in the summertime). but if it's cool and breezy, like last night, i'm great. we stopped at an hour and a half, and i felt like i could have gone ahead for another hour and finished my half marathon right then! we did a slow couple miles for my poor legs to warm up, then maintained a good 10:30-10:45 pace for the rest of the time. the only hitch to speak of was getting stopped by a jsc security guard and told that it's against jsc rules to run past avenue b. we had no idea. sort of a silly rule, if you ask me.

i am looking forward to a day full of yummy food tomorrow, and a quiet weekend (sigh, though i will be working friday, sigh). becca and i are running the turkey trot tomorrow morning, and hopefully we will avoid temporarily losing the car key like we did last year! it's warmer now than it was this time last year; despite monday's practically freezing temperatures, last night it was back up to 65. the wacky weather never ceases. hopefully the weather will be nice and cool in the morning for the race. and it's a good thing i'm running, because apparently i will be eating a lot of turkey. paul and josh got a 20-pound turkey for only 8 people...two of whom don't eat meat in the first place. ay yi yi.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

crazy as can be / yeah / but she's alright with me

so, i do a lot of running (as if it weren't obvious enough from reading this blog). i always have visions of athletic greatness dancing in my head, and with my competitive nature, you'd think i would be frustrated by the fact that pretty much all of my friends can run faster than me. but time and time again, i'm surprised to find that i'm perfectly happy playing the tortoise.

it would be nice if i could do a 5k in 22 minutes and win some races (or at least my age group), but i'm just not that person. and i'm ok with finishing at the back of the pack. i started running to lose weight and improve my fitness, but i've kept running because it became sort of fun. tortuous, sometimes, sure, but overall, i feel better having run than when i don't. and i run a lot of races, not because i ever expect to win, but because it keeps me motivated, and because i think runners are some of the nicest people i know. where else can you go and get cheered for finishing in 327th place?

i am pumped to plan this yuri's night race. now if only the ellington airport manager's secretary would call becca back so we could arrange a meeting...

Monday, November 24, 2003

puff puff kick puff

yesterday when i got up, it was 75 degrees and humid. then it rained, and the wind blew. and this morning it was a brisk 38 degrees outside. now this feels more like november. ahh.

i had one of those weekends that went by too quickly, and left me sitting at home last night in a tired haze bemoaning the fact that i had to go back to work today.

i had a soccer game friday night and was thoroughly amused by this guy named scott, who plays on defense with me. he's got a british accent, but not a really refined one, so i can't tell where he's from. he smoked a cigarette right before taking the field, another one after the game was over, and as if that wasn't enough, he smoked one at halftime. i don't know how he could run after all that smoking (if it were me, i would probably lose a lung within the first five minutes), but he's actually pretty good. very fast. he would be interesting if he didn't smoke like a chimney. ah well.

saturday i joined the legions of friends helping edgar and betsy move to their absolutely freaking gorgeous new house. let me reiterate: their house is incredible. i could move into one of their bedrooms and they might not notice; in fact, now that i think of it, that's not a bad plan. i can't believe they already have a house! it is so cool. it makes me want a house... but anyway, moving day was fun. anytime you get a dozen people together for something that involves lifting heavy things, it's a good time. or something like that.

saturday night we went to the aeros game, and after having to deal with the immense hassle of their ticketing office and their utter incompetance in finding a wheelchair seat for chris, we ended up getting all 6 tickets for free. score! the toyota center is nice and new and all, but they still have a lot of kinks to work out. the place is so obviously designed for the rockets that the poor aeros sort of get the shaft in terms of space, concessions, etc.

yesterday i got up with plans to go bike riding and then to the bike store with debbie (she wants to get a bike), but the thunder and torrential rain (and associated 30-degrees-in-4-hours temperature drop) but a damper on that. but soon enough it was time to head over to sara's for the pre-thanksgiving dinner. since most people will be out of town on thursday, sara and brienne decided to throw a shindig yesterday, with everything you'd expect at a turkey day feast plus more. turkey, sweet potatoes (my favorite!), green bean casserole, bread, pumpkin pie, and of course, mujudhra. you know, like the lebanese eat on lebanese thanksgiving. uh...yeah. ;) anyway, it was all delicious, and by the time i got home around 8:00, it was too late for me to do anything but lay around till bedtime in a post-eating coma. sigh.

and now it's monday once again. we went out to lunch today, which will throw me off for the rest of the week because we usually only go out on fridays. yes, our office life is so regimented. :)

Friday, November 21, 2003

click

i almost forgot: at his request, i finally got around to posting pictures from daniel and virginia's wedding.

Friday, November 21, 2003

"and tim, the loaded bats have a 1-3 record in extra innings..."

ooh, i am so excited. we are trying to finalize where our 5k race will be held in april, and becca has gotten in touch with the airport manager at ellington. we're going to meet with her sometime soon, and hopefully she will be interested enough in the idea for us to go forward. everyone i've recruited to help plan the race has agreed that running on the taxiway past all the planes and hangars would be awesome.

last night we had a half-inning of softball that will go down in loaded bats history. we eventually lost the game in extra innings (what is it with us and extra innings?), but that didn't cheapen the bottom of the 6th, when we came back from a 6-0 deficit to tie the game (and had to stop only because there's a 6 runs per inning mercy rule). it was beautiful. hit after hit after hit. not to mention that i finally broke out of my hitting slump. the only downside is that apparently i can only have one of two--catching or hitting. i started to hit well again, and lost all ability to catch. sigh. actually, i think my catching is ok, but i just have trouble judging the ball off the bat when i'm all the way out in left center. i can judge side-to-side distance, but i'm always slightly off on the depth. last night i missed a ball i totally should have caught. dammit.

after our game, i stuck around to sub for the 9:00 game for a team that was short a girl. i played catcher for them. now, i've never played catcher before, but i've always thought it would be fun. and it was. a little nerve-wracking at first to get used to a bat being swung close to my head, but fun.

soccer tonight. my shins hurt, but i will make do. as for the weekend... tomorrow i'm helping edgar and betsy move into their new house (!), and sunday i'm going to a pre-thanksgiving get-together. lovely.

and as a side note: so the cat in the hat movie comes out today. yes, not until today. what's that? you thought it came out weeks ago? me too. why? because it's been so heavily advertised and promoted that i'm already sick of it! and it hasn't even opened yet! why do studios do that? why do they recruit everyone from dawn dishwashing liquid to the us postal service to hawk their movie? ugh. i like mike myers, but i'm already sick of the stupid cat.

Thursday, November 20, 2003

in the absense of a place to be / she stands there looking back at me / hesitates / and then turns away...

last night after my run (almost 6 miles total, which went well after running two slow miles to let my legs warm up, thus proving the fact that i run much, much better when it's nice and cool outside than when it's sticky) i watched the o.c. you know, my new tv indulgence. anyway. the quick summary is that there's this 16-year-old kid, ryan, who was from a ratty area of los angeles but got taken in by a rich family from newport beach. last night it was thanksgiving on the show, and ryan got a call from his brother, who's in jail, so he drove back to chino to see him and take care of some shady business.

anyway, my point being that they shot all the chino/seedy l.a. scenes with this over-contrasty, gritty filter on the cameras. i guess they were trying to illustrate the differences between chino and newport, but i think the grittiness of the shots was overdone. it was sort of distracting. every time the shot switched to ryan in chino, i wanted to fiddle with the dials on the tv to try to clear up the picture.

just an observation.

yeah, so as i already alluded to, my run went well last night. the weather was nicer than it has been the past two weeks, about 65 degrees with a light breeze. my lower legs went through their customary aches and pains, but after a very slow (like 12 minute pace) first two miles, they loosened up and i was able to run back at my more normal 10:30 pace. i ended up doing two laps on the trail, with the only real negative being that the battery in my mp3 player died about 20 minutes into the run. suck.

see, jsc has actually a pretty good running trail. it leaves from the rec center and goes through a locked gate onto site. for the first mile and a quarter, it goes through trees and past fields along the fence that separates the space center from the boulevard along the back. it comes out by the back entrance gate and goes all the way down the long road, past some of the industrial-looking building and to the water tower, at which point you turn to head past the child care center and back through a gate in the fence to the gilruth center. it's 2.9 miles total, according to the map. i did two laps, so that's 5.8 miles. woohoo. the best part is that there's always something to watch or someone to see. last night i saw co-ops, astronauts, multiple deer, and a possum.

possums are ugly, ugly creatures.

Wednesday, November 19, 2003

there's gotta be more to life / than chasing down every temporary high / to satisfy me

now this feels more like november. a houston november, anyway. it was about 55 degrees outside this morning, and thankfully not humid for once.

i bought my ticket home for christmas. hooray! i even have a couple projects in mind for the break. see, i always have things that i've been meaning to do but haven't had time for, and christmas vacation is the perfect time for them. this year i'm going to work on the scrapbooks for my past couple jaunts to europe, and hopefully turn some of my growing pile of race t-shirts into a karen-inspired quilt (with much sewing help from mom).

wow. those two projects make me sound like an old woman.

though maybe i am an old woman. it feels like it's been weeks since i came to work and wasn't sore in one part of my body or another. today, my arms, shoulders, and upper back ache. i'm sure it's from climbing on monday, and granted, i hadn't been climbing in probably a month, but geez, you'd think that with as active as i've been lately, the soreness would go away as my body adjusted. but at least the weird leg pain from yesterday has gone away. i took some advil this morning, which is supposed to relieve muscular pain, so hopefully that will help. i'm starting to feel like i'm 90 years old.

because of the whole weird toe tendon pain thing yesterday, i skipped the usual tuesday long run. buzz is out of town, but i had been planning to run for about an hour, to keep fresh because next week we're planning to increase to a 90 minute run. i didn't go. instead, i went home, cooked dinner, and sat around. i'm gonna run tonight instead, though i may go just for a half hour or so instead of a full hour. i dunno. maybe i'm trying to do too much too fast.

when i booked my ticket this morning, i checked out my frequent flier miles. a couple more trips and i'll have 25,000 miles, enough for a ticket within the 48 states (or, as george said, "just get their credit card and charge your rent each month"). but then i saw that you only have to have 35,000 to get a ticket to hawaii. so that may be my new goal. or, if i just keep saving, when it's time for our trip to australia in 2006 or 2007, i may just have the 80,000 miles needed for that ticket!

rambling. i'm feeling restless.

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

water, water everywhere

so we went climbing last night for the first time in a few weeks, jason, betsy, buzz and me. i was belaying jason, and he is just disgustingly spritely (that is the word we came up with for him--spritely). it's like he's just jumping up the wall. he makes it look so easy, as if he only weighs 20 pounds or something. while i have less upper body strength, and more weight to carry. sigh. ;) but it was still a pretty good night. i took it a bit easy after finding myself (mainly my legs) surprisingly sore from soccer sunday night. i think it was all the sprinting; really, i did more sprinting than i usually do, and i felt it.

i wonder if anyone out there knows much about tendons and ligaments. based on the way my legs feel, i'm guessing there is one tendon or something that runs from my second toe up the top of my foot and then up the front of my leg. or maybe a series of them that are all connected. in any case, that corridor--second toe to top of foot to front of leg on the outside of my shinbone--is mega-sore. if i flex my foot (either one, because both legs feel the same), i can feel it all the way up to just below my knee. it is very, very weird.

but i climbed the yellow route. with help from the rope, but still. i am slowly, slowly, slowly getting better at that route.

i'm about to buy my plane ticket home for christmas. my boss has been nice enough to let me take a couple extra days off (using credit time) so i'll be able to go home in time for my brother's college graduation, which i'm excited about. all my siblings came to both my graduations (well, david didn't make it to tech, but that's ok), but i haven't been to any of theirs so far because i was always in school or houston or out of the country. i'm excited i get to go to david's. and i'll have plenty of time to relax at home, and even catch a couple people in atlanta on the tail end. at least that is the idea, though it seems that new year's plans are nebulous at best.

we had a huge storm yesterday afternoon and last night that dumped buckets of rain on houston. fortunately the most intense part of the storm was downtown, and not in the southeast part of the city, where i live. we got about 4.5 inches of rain, but closer to downtown saw more than 8 inches in a span of about 6 hours. so while clear lake escaped relatively unscathed, with little to no flooding, other parts of houston do not appear to have been so lucky. i saw a poor little nissan just like mine on the news last night under an overpass with water up to its roof. lesson to anyone considering starting a new city: don't build it in a freaking flat flood plain!

though i do have to wonder why every time there's a storm, some idiot decides to drive their car through the water. every time it floods, you see cars on the news where the driver thought they could make it though the water, but didn't make it. you'd think people would learn...

Monday, November 17, 2003

"name a plant after me, something prickly and hard to eradicate"...

so the houston rodeo announced its concert lineup for the 2004 rodeo in march, and leading off the whole shebang is none other than john mayer! i am so amused, and i am so there.

i had a nice weekend. one of my three soccer games got rained out after a late afternoon downpour on saturday, and last night's game was frustrating because my women's team still isn't consistent enough. we finally have enough people to field a full 11-person team each week, but it seems like it's always a slightly different group of 11. last night we were missing three regulars, one of which is a mainstay of my little defensive squad, and we definitely missed them. as a result, we had four or five people who were always playing slightly out-of-position. maria is a great right fullback, but not so adept at stopper (where the mainstay, meghan, usually is); veronica is ok as our right midfielder, but she's just not aggressive enough to play center mid. stuff like that. people get used to their one position, and it becomes difficult to switch things up. there was a lot of confusion as to who was supposed to be where. i did the best i could to direct traffic from my position as sweeper, but i wasn't always successful. when there are two players racing downfield and only me to stop them...well, i can't cover them both at the same time. our midfield has got to improve. i did far too much sprinting after the ball last night.

anyway. i also went to the movies for the first time in ages. i can't even remember the last time i went to the movies, but it was at least september (which is a long time for me). friday night we saw "master and commander," the new russell crowe flick, and it was pretty good. very well cast--paul bettany was great as the doctor/naturalist, crowe had the right authority to play the captain, and i loved the kid who played lord blakeney. he was fantastic. then saturday we saw "love actually," which was a little different than what i'd expected, but still very enjoyable. i'll take hugh grant or colin firth home with me any day. ;) the ensemble cast worked well together, i adored the kid who played liam neeson's son ("come on dad, let's go get the shit kicked out of us by love"), and i laughed a lot. my only complaint is that there were a few story lines that weren't exactly tied up. not that i wanted them neatly resolved, but i felt like a couple story lines got dropped at the end, without explanation. oh well. i did love how the movie began and ended at the arrivals gate at the airport; i have similar thoughts every time i pick someone up at the airport.

this morning as i was leaning over to put on my shoes, i slammed my knee into a table (by accident, of course), and it still hurts. stupid me. stupid knee. it was already hurting from me playing too much soccer and doing too much running, but slamming it into immovable objects is certainly not going to help. ugh.

lunch time. we eat lunch too early.

Friday, November 14, 2003

so this animation has been

so this animation has been making its way around our office, and i have to say, it's pretty hilarious. it originally went to becca from the "no weapons in space" email list; apparently this is one of the few good things that has gone out on that list. anyway, it's a funny take on nuclear war. i know that sounds contradictory--funny and nuclear war--but just watch it.

the new york times has an article today on traveling to my lovely hometown, charlotte! yay charlotte. though i've never heard of half the places they mention... i guess that's what happens when you haven't lived someplace in 7 years. still, they mentioned one of my favorite stores in charlotte, the paper skyscraper; they carry everything from boxing nuns to test tube vases to little statues of buddha.

anyway. i went running last night, and my legs felt sort of weird. but the good thing about doing these long runs on tuesday is that i am already starting to cope much better with the boredom factor. i used to get bored really quickly on a run, but last night i didn't. in fact, the whole half hour (three miles) passed in a blur or my listening to good music and looking in the windows of other people's houses, and before i knew it, it was time to head home and get my stuff for softball. we lost the game in extra innings, by one run, so that sucked. and last night i not only bobbled a catch and screwed up some baserunning, but i also still can't hit worth crap. i really need to go to the batting cages. sigh. i know i'm probably too hard on myself when it comes to athletic skill, and it's just a coed rec league...but still! i don't want to suck!

Thursday, November 13, 2003

i wanna run through the halls of my high school / i wanna scream at the top of my lungs

this morning, i followed a trail from aaron's baseball blog to the periodic table of bloggers to the real treasure: how to learn swedish in 1000 difficult lessons. i haven't actually read any of the guy's blog yet, but anything with that title has got to be at least decent.

well that's enough linking for one day.

it sounds like my sister has had a rough morning, with some idiot telling her that her activities aren't "focused" enough to make her a strong candidate for the truman scholarship. sounds like it's time for me to go to atlanta and break some knees. well, not really, but that kind of thing totally pisses me off. whoever she talked to obviously has a very narrow-minded view of what a scholarship candidate should be. my sister isn't president of sga, but who the hell cares? she does more community service than anyone i know. she tutors kids, she is committed to making team buzz a success despite having to deal with some uncooperative and unhelpful people, and she's been going to mexico building houses for six years now, even spending two months down there last summer. where does this woman get off telling katie that she's not "focused" enough??

god, i hate that. i hate that you have be involved in the "right" activities at tech to be taken seriously. my first few years of college, i did a lot of random stuff, partly because i was trying to figure out what i really wanted to do, but partly because i was just trying to do what i thought other people would view as the "good" activities. it wasn't until my last couple years, and my year in grad school, that i finally narrowed my extracurriculars down to just the stuff i cared about--playing the flute, working for the paper, and being involved in the aerospace department. the sad truth is that when i got involved in something i didn't truly care about, i was pretty lousy at it. (just ask karen, who was infinitely frustrated by my half-hearted involvement in an organization she ran!) it would be far worse for katie to be sga president just to make her scholarship application look good, when doing the other stuff, the unfairly unappreciated stuff, is what really makes her happy.

rant rant rant.

well. when i came in this morning, i had nothing to say, but look what happened.

Wednesday, November 12, 2003

waiting for old man winter

my job seems to be one of those "when it rains, it pours" type of things. the past month has been crazy busy. we're still dealing with the fallout from the degrees vs. radians tizzy, and then today i had a class most of the day. the spaceflight meteorology group's weather class. counterintuitively (ooh, big word), they don't predict space weather. but they do predict any and all ground weather that could affect spaceflight. there were some dull parts, and i was tired, but on the whole it was pretty interesting.

yesterday i ran with buzz, and i have to say, it is tough to stay positive about these long runs. our first week was so great, and i felt so good, but then the past two weeks i've felt horrible. i am really hoping that it's just the weather. the first week we ran it was lovely and cool and not humid, but the past two weeks have been sunny and very humid. it's amazing how much worse i run in the heat/humidity. today it's 84 degrees outside, which is only a degree away from a new record. i had to turn my air conditioning on yesterday because it was so humid that i was sweating inside my apartment. it's freaking november! houston sucks.

anyway, after our run i had lunch with nick and then got my car washed. it is all shiny and clean and lovely, so hooray. i went home and did two home improvement projects (these in addition to the two bulbs i planted over the weekend). i finally hung the candle-holder-thingy i got in greece, and also finally got around to filling a 20"x20" picture frame. it has openings for 16 pictures, but with my shutter-happy finger, i actually had trouble narrowing all my pictures down to 16 for the frame. but it turned out great, and now my bedroom has something new on the wall. perfect.

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

measure. measure again. then cut...

so i'm updating from home. from home? from home. this is one of those days when i love being a civil servant, and today i'm going to use the day off (and you know, honor the veterans) letting buzz torture me on another long run and then just relaxing at home all afternoon.

i need to destress after yesterday anyway. i alluded to a typo in a report we wrote, a simple "degrees per second" where it should have been "radians per second." all of our calculations had it right, it just got typed wrong. i confirmed the typo, confirmed that our calculations were right, and thought that was the end of story.

nope.

because the amateur analyst who found the typo happened to email the head of the space center, the typo worked its way into the management chain. and now all of my division has to check all of its software for this one parameter (the rotation rate of the earth) and make sure it's correct.

sigh. it's not a huge deal, and i would be incredibly surprised if anyone found any errors, but it's annoying to have to do it. i'm glad that this guy found a typo in our report; that's something we needed to know. but he compared it to the mars climate orbiter (which crashed in 1999 due to an english-to-metric conversion error), and just hearing that phrase got way too many people in a tizzy.

it creates more work for me, because it raises all these questions about our software, and the modifications we/i make to it. but at the same time, i can admit that it's about time we started documenting our code. especially if we're going to use it for mission-critical stuff.

anyway. look at that. i have a day off from work and yet i write multiple paragraphs about work. crazy.

i gotta go get dressed to meet buzz for our run.

Monday, November 10, 2003

hook hook! dunk dunk!

well, so far today i've had an hour and a half of quiet interrupted by 10 minutes of near-panic. word to the wise: when writing a report that will get released to the entire freaking country, try not to make typos, especially in units. i wasn't the person who actually typed "degrees per second" when it should have been radians per second, but i was one of three people who should have caught it.

fortunately, it was just a typo, and not an actual error in the number.

i had a nice weekend. played soccer friday night, saturday morning, and last night (yes, it may be getting a bit obsessive), and it turned out to be a good weekend for it. though the co-ed team i joined friday night lost (and made me appreciate the defense on my other teams, as the defense on this team is one mass of confusion), both my other teams won! saturday morning my other co-ed team played the co-op team, and won like 7-0. last night my women's team played the galveston brutes (ok, they're not really named the brutes, but they should be because they play really rough) and we beat them 5-1. and i got an assist! granted, they were three players short...but i'll take the win. if nothing else, we needed the ego boost. as drea said, "this must be what other teams feel like when they play us!"

the rest of the weekend, i took it easy. i ran errands, watched a new dvd, and drilled useless holes in my ceiling (long story).

yesterday i had lunch with nick, his high school friend eric, and eric's wife jane. i'd met them before and it was nice to see them again, as they are both really cool. they used to live in houston (they met while students at rice), but recently moved to austin for jane to go to grad school at UT. we went to this place called the hobbit cafe, and sat outside on the patio. it was nice out, and as we sat there, i felt like we weren't in houston anymore. the trees were pretty, and it was quiet, and cool, and just lovely. i have to remember to tell becca about this restaurant because she would love it--all sorts of vegetarian options.

nick also came to watch our soccer game last night, and then we had a wendy's dinner. it was nice to have a spectator at the game, and even nicer to finally get to hang out with nick. he's been here for almost two months, and i think last night may have been the first time we've gotten to hang out on our own. turns out that i sorta miss the big jerk.

i mean, nice guy.

Friday, November 07, 2003

sniff sniff

this morning i rode upstairs in the elevator with a woman i've never seen before. she got off on the second floor, but she left some of her smell in the elevator. i know that sounds weird, but i had to mention it because she smelled fantastic. i wanted to stay in the elevator past the third floor (which is my floor, and besides, staying would have been impossible because our building is only three stories tall). it made me want to go buy some nice perfume, and wear it all the time.

last night i ran 4 miles, but before anyone pats me on the back, they should know that it was truly a struggle. i started out at the buzz-recommended (and sarah-approved) 10-minutes-per-mile pace and immediately my legs (specifically, my lower calf and Achilles tendon) started to ache. after a mile, i had to stop and give them a minute-long break. i started up again, but had to stop again after half a mile for another minute break. started again, did another half mile, needed another break. it wasn't until this point, two miles in, that the pain started to subside. i was able to run a solid third mile back to gilruth, where i'd parked my car. total time not including stops: 30:34, so not quite on the goal pace. i was so annoyed with my legs though that when i got home, and they weren't really hurting anymore, i ran another mile (two laps around my apartment complex) to finish with 4 total miles in 40:21. but not 4 continuous miles.

stupid legs.

we had the late 9:00 softball game last night. i was talking to james while i was driving over, and he must have sent me good vibes or something because i had a good night, with my first legitimate hit in ages (over the shortstop's head) and two runs scored. woohoo.

carter posted something today from the meyers-briggs personality tests that i've seen so many times. a couple months ago i took a leadership class here at work where we took the personality type test again. the last time i'd taken it was freshman year of college, when i turned up as ISTJ. but this time, in that leadership class, i came out ESFJ. at first i thought changing by half the categories was weird, but after reading the description, it seems to be a reasonably accurate description of me. and even before the test, i knew i'd changed since i was 18. interesting.

anyway. i don't have much planned for the weekend, other than three soccer games and a possible 5 mile race. it will be sort of weird, because we have the weekend, then work on monday, but then we have tuesday off for veteran's day. if i didn't need all the rest of my annual leave for christmas, i'd take monday off and skip town. go camping or to austin or something. hmm. i'm sure i'll manage. :)

Thursday, November 06, 2003

they keep going and going and going and going...

my sims run. and run, and run. they are ever-running.

this morning i spent like an hour (while the sims run, and run, and run) looking at all of rich's pictures from europe. he was just there for two weeks, and went to the french riviera, venice, innsbruck, interlaken, and london. (that is a lot of moving around in just two weeks!) he had some really good pictures from the mountains. ahh.

and the sims run, and run, and run.

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

"the best thing for being sad," said merlin, "is to learn something."

after taking a class for three days where i was actually learning interesting things, i am reminded why there are days when i ache for being back in college.

i chose to leave stanford because i didn't feel like i was cut out to be a grad student, and because i thought i needed to get away from school. and that decision has turned out well enough, and i feel privileged to have worked on the things i have in the past 16 months. but in retrospect, that is, if i had it to do again, i don't think i would have left grad school.

i had to make my to-ph.d.-or-not-to-ph.d. decision in december of my first (and only) year of grad school, at the absolute low point of my time there. it was winter, so i was already marginally seasonally depressed; i also was burned out after the first quarter, had just gotten my worst grade ever in a class, and honestly felt i was too stupid for grad school. i remember sitting by a secluded fountain near the quad after taking my final exam in linear algebra, and calling home in tears because i felt so overwhelmed and so incredibly dumb. (as an aside, this seems to be a theme repeated among many of the grad students i know and have known, particularly the females.) and then i had to make a decision on whether to move to houston. so i decided to do it, and i decided to leave school. i decided that a ph.d. wasn't that important to me after all.

by april or may, things had calmed down, and i was starting to enjoy grad school, and my new friends there. and if i'd been able to wait until then, i think i would have decided to stay.

the past three days have reminded me that i like learning. it's not the classes at school that stress me out; it's the hours. i love to learn new things. i just can't stay up until all hours of the night to do them without starting to hate it, or without going a little crazy. that's a really simplified way to characterize college for me, but it's not that far off.

anyway. all that rambling basically to make the point that i do want to go back to school. sooner rather than later.

last night buzz, jess and i ran for 84 minutes; buzz and me at a slower pace than jess, so she kept looping behind and then catching up. must be nice to be a natural runner! anyway, it was a lot harder run than last week, despite the fact that we didn't up the pace. i'm not sure what's to blame for that, other than the facts that i was tired and the weather was warmer and more humid. i think next week we'll going to stay at 85 minutes before increasing the time again.

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

but i don't mind the dark / discovering the day

but i do mind the dark.

leaving work in the dark has got to be one of the more depressing things in life. it happened last night, and that was all i could think. i always get down in the winter, and there's only one thing that does it. it's the darkness. i hate the early darkness.

buzz and i are running tonight for 80 minutes. it will get dark as we run. but since we'll start in the sunset, it will be ok.

last night as i laid in bed waiting for sleep, i had a thousand thoughts running through my head, but today i can only remember the echoes. something about missing college friends, and not keeping in touch. something about being 25, and wondering if i expected to be here at 25. i don't really remember all the thoughts. ah well.

back to my spreadsheet class. the classroom has no internet connection and it's driving pooja and me batty.

Monday, November 03, 2003

all i need is a nap

so i'm taking a class this week, one of the many that jsc offers as "professional development." this one is called spreadsheet-aided engineering, and at a glance i thought it was going to be horribly boring. but actually it's going to be pretty good. we already learned some cool shortcuts that will make my life easier, and this afternoon we dove into excel's visual basic interface, which is something that i've never taken the time to learn but always thought it would be a good thing to know. so hurrah. i am learning useful things in one of these classes at last. it runs tomorrow and wednesday as well, before i'm back in the office on thursday.

well, actually, i'm in the office now. and not leaving until i get this damn sim working. if only i could figure out the steering model. all i need is for my bank angle to go from 0 to 60 degrees. this should not be difficult. if only i could find the command!

anyway, enough geeking.

i had a nice weekend. debbie, jason, chris and i celebrated halloween in costume at an aeros (minor-league hockey) game, where everyone in the crowd got a free glow-in-the-dark hockey mask. that was cool. i broke out the devil costume from last year. (aside: carter says i am always a devil or some form of evil thing. i say he has no right to insult my costume if he's not even dressing up himself. besides, i like dressing up as evil things. and so what if i'm uncreative with my costumes?!)

anyway. i came home after hockey and was in bed by 11 so i would be rested enough to run in the 5-mile kemah bridge run on saturday morning. i really wanted to do this race because it's the only opportunity each year to run over the bridge (which is the only appreciable hill around here) without paralyzing fear of getting mowed down by 55-mph traffic. i finished in 54:19, which had me totally pumped for the rest of the day because that's under 11 minutes a mile despite the fact that i had to run up the bridge twice. woohoo. i feel like every day i'm in better and better shape; i love it.

saturday afternoon i treated myself to a pedicure and starbucks, and then headed over to becca's for game night. katie, fred, gavin, jen, becca, and i played cranium while irwin headed to a game store we found online to get the game i couldn't find at target or toys r us--settlers of catan. carter, james, and kent will all be happy to know that within a week of playing it for the first time, i bought my own copy. freaks. anyway, we had a grand time, actually following the official rules (as opposed to what we did when carter, jelly and i played in atlanta), and i won one of three games.

yesterday i slept till almost noon (ahh, though i am still tired today, i have no idea what's up with me lately) and then bummed around all afternoon, cleaning, doing laundry, watching the u.s. women's soccer team beat mexico...and then finally heading to my soccer game last night. we lost. again. i played especially badly. frustration.

Friday, October 31, 2003

why don't skeletons ever go out on the town? / because they don't have any body to go out with!

happy halloween! (cue spooky music) in honor of the day, i am wearing my red sequined devil ears. and a "spooky" t-shirt i got last year from target. and tonight we are going to the aeros game, where the first 3,000 people in the door get a free glow-in-the-dark hockey mask. i am going to be so disappointed if we are not among the first 3,000.

last night was hectic. i had softball at 6 (a few solid hits, but right to outfielders, so still nothing doing there), then a spaceweek wrap-up meeting (er, annoyance) at 7, then over to debbie's to carve my jack-o-lantern at 8:30. it's a good thing i had an excuse to leave the spaceweek meeting, otherwise i might have strangled someone. poor becca had to sit through it all because it was at her house; that'll teach her to volunteer her house as a meeting place. ;)

my jack-o-lantern, however, is very cool, and very sinister. rawr!

i got home from pumpkin carving exhausted, as has been the theme ever since i got back from greece. i just can't seem to get enough sleep, and am beginning to wonder if i really am coming down with something. last night was a bad night, as my fatigue combined with a moment of obsessive-compulsiveness. whew. i get in these moods where all of a sudden i become frustrated with any mess in my apartment. last night when i got home, i couldn't go to bed until i had cleaned up the pile of clothes in the middle of the floor, washed the pots in the sink, and put away some papers that have been sitting on my desk for weeks. so i stayed up even later, exacerbating my tiredness, all because the mess was making me antsy.

i am so weird.

in other news, karen sent becca a postcard from pisa. it had, obviously, the leaning tower of pisa on it, on top of which karen had drawn a stick figure leaning over the edge and said "karen pretending to be sarah." my love of climbing things and leaning over the edge lives on. hurrah.

Thursday, October 30, 2003

shout outs and shout ats

the woman who lives in the apartment beneath mine apparently has a new boyfriend. a new boyfriend who likes to park parallel to the road behind both her garage and my garage (thus blocking me in) instead of in the visitor's parking spots that are literally 20 feet away. i first noticed his large, white suburban on monday when i got back from atlanta and went home at 9:30 a.m. to change clothes before coming to work. that day, i just parked in the visitor's spot and forgot all about it. but today i walked out to find myself completely blocked in my garage, hemmed in on all sides by the building, my neighbor's car, some bushes, and my neighbor's boyfriend's car. sigh.

i knocked on her door, and 5 minutes later the boyfriend finally appeared to move his car, looking slightly annoyed. perhaps i should have just had him towed; that might have annoyed him less, eh?

now i know i've been out of town for much of the last month, and maybe she thought i moved out or something, but seriously--is it really necessary to park where you're blocking someone's garage when there's a legitimate visitor's spot 20 feet away?

people are weird.

i feel obliged to mention cari today, since she says being mentioned in anyone's diary is a huge highlight for her. ah, she is still so new to the online diary thing that she still gets excited about it!

just kidding, cari. thanks for adoring me and being amused by me. i do what i can. ;)

james also mentioned me the other day in an entry pondering the blogging/diaryland community. he said i am most likely to read his blog, which i take as victory over carter and christina, who are my obsessive blog-reading competition. (i knew james was updating again even before he advertised the fact, so ha!) his observation that there always seems to be something stirring in my soul was interesting. i liked his wording. i guess i do have a tendency for the melodramatic when i write things down. i've stopped trying to fight it; it's easier that way.

well, this has been a waste of an entry, yes? only because i really didn't do anything last night except run errands. bought a new dvd (bend it like beckham), scoped out the new super target (ah, heaven), bought a case for my ipod so i can go running with it, bought a usb cord for the ipod (even the cords come in cute little boxes! i want to buy all the accessories just for the cute little boxes!!), bought a scrapbook for greece stuff, finally bought some new towels to replace the ones that mysteriously disappeared when i moved a couple months ago (dude, seriously, they disappeared, i have no idea what happened to them). then came home to watch my new indulgence--the o.c.

for the past day or so i have been deep in a classical/instrumental music mood. i put all of my classical mp3s onto my ipod last night, so i can listen to lovely music all day. i'm currently listening to alfred reed's "russian christmas music," which got stuck in my head yesterday despite not having heard it in at least a year. it's called christmas music, but it doesn't conjure christmas for me. it's a lovely 15-minute piece that we played it in band in high school; i liked it then, and i like it now.

gotta go do some "real" work now.

Wednesday, October 29, 2003

hippy pappy government birthday

i'm five years old today. government years, that is. at the flight operations meeting this morning, i got my five year service award--a pin and a certificate "in grateful recognition and appreciation of faithful service to the national aeronautics and space administration and to the government of the united states of america." despite what your or my opinions of our government might be, i have to say it made me feel pretty good to see those words in print, even if it was just a dinky length-of-service award. i feel sort of proud. i don't know if i would feel that way if i were in private industry.

anyway. that's that.

last night buzz and i went for the first long run of my half marathon training! this morning i registered for the houston half-marathon, to be held january 18 in conjunction with the full marathon. that means i have a little less than 3 months to prepare for 13.1 miles, which is 5.6 miles farther than i have ever run before. my goal is to run the half marathon in january, and then complete a full marathon within a year of that (meaning any race up to and including the 2005 houston marathon).

buzz is planning to use the houston half as a final tune-up for the austin marathon in february, while if all goes well, i will try to run the austin half. last night we ran for just over 70 minutes, and though we didn't measure the distance, we probably covered around 6.5 miles. last night was a slow distance run, just to gain time on our feet, since my goal finish time for the half marathon will probably be around 2.5 hours. last night was good as we ran around the trails and roads of the space center.

we left the gilruth at 5:15 and settled into what i call my "comfort pace," which is just under 11 minutes per mile, and the pace at which i feel i could run indefinitely. we ran as the sun went down, and finished with a sprint in the dark back to the fence separating the space center from the gilruth. walk through the gate, and we were done. i felt good. i'm a bit sore today, and tired, but pleasantly surprised that i was able to cover the distance and time last night after not running for the past month. (i've been active with soccer, softball, adventure races, and greece, but i hadn't actually run lately.)

it's funny to me that i have become one of "the runners" around here, and in my group of friends, despite the fact that i am really slow and will never be winning any races. josh came in this morning asking me for advice on a sports medicine clinic, and i was able to provide it. i'm also the one everyone goes to for news on upcoming races. i'm also the one wanting to plan a race next spring.

it's sort of crazy. if you'd told me 3 years that i would be running 70 minutes last night as my first long training run for my attempt at a half marathon, and that within a year i wanted to run a full marathon, i would probably have laughed. this whole process of becoming more athletic is fascinating to me. between running, soccer, and rock climbing, i'm starting to actually feel fit. i look at my legs and arms in the mirror and think "oh, that's what it looks like to have muscle" or "oh, that's what it looks like to have clothes that fit properly." pretty cool.

last night i cooked owl cookies and brought them in to work today. i sent out an email announcing the arrival of the "world-famous halloween owl cookies" and have had a steady stream of visitors ever since. yay.

Tuesday, October 28, 2003

i won't put my hands up and surrender / there will be no white flag above my door

if i could change one thing, it might be this: i am always quick with a sarcastic comment, but find myself rendered speechless and fumbling for words at times when i want them more than ever. in the end, i have to trust that those i care about know that i care about them, despite what i may say. sometimes it feels like walking a tightrope.

thanks to those of you who sent good thoughts my way for my intern pitch. it went well, and despite being nervous all day, i relaxed while i was actually giving the pitch. this can probably be attributed to the fact that the "big boss" who was supposed to see the pitch did not come. i'm sure he had other important things to do, but it is frustrating to work so hard on something only to feel ignored, or that no one really cared about what you had to say. i got my raise. yay. i said all along that the raise was all i cared about, but i discovered yesterday that i was wrong. the raise is nice, to be sure, but i also cared about the opportunity to talk about what i've been doing for 16 months.

i can't really explain the disappointment, other than to say that i am. disappointed. i don't feel angry or annoyed. just deflated.

and tired. there are some sad things going on that i don't know how to explain, or make sense of. i have an overwhelming sense of needing to move on. despite all my vacation recently, i still feel too keyed up, and in need of a day to just stay at home and sleep. i may get this wish, as i've been feeling vaguely ill for about a week now. but it hasn't turned into anything full blown. last night i had soup for dinner, and that was comforting.

well, back to the same old same old at work. it's nice that the stress of the intern pitch is over.

Monday, October 27, 2003

this is your sarah. this is your sarah on stress...

i am all sorts of stressed about my intern pitch this afternoon. send happy thoughts my way.

things i adore:

• my sister. she is awesome to begin with, plus she got up at 5:30 this morning to take me to the airport. there is no better sister in the world than katie.
• my sister's fiance. he is awesome, and funny, and too good at foosball, and bought me chik-fil-a. the only fault i have found to date is that joel has no older brother.
• crate and barrel.

things that amuse me:

• daniel's father. picture the absent-minded professor and you will picture daniel's dad. tufts of white hair, glasses that make his eyeballs look larger than life, a goofy smile, a faraway look, and a german accent.
• daniel's mother, who has the coolest accent in her voice. it sounds very regal.
• virginia's father, who used to be in the alabama state legislature and will henceforth scream "politician!" every time i look back at the pictures from the wedding.
• silly string.
• the mayor of opelika, who made us breakfast.
• the marlins winning the world series. seriously, what is up with that? i'm glad it wasn't the yankees, but come on, the marlins??
• the wedding photographer, who had to try to do his job amidst a reception full of semi-professional photographers, including the groom himself.
• the bathroom that jen and i shared. it had no shower, but two bathtubs. i guess so that we could take baths together. but no bubble bath.

things that annoy me:

• george bush intercontinental airport. construction is everywhere, and their signage is so bad that last thursday i parked in not the hourly parking, but also not the economy parking. apparently i was in long-term parking, which is a whopping $12 a day. as i pulled out of the parking lot this morning, already stressed about my pitch and groggy from getting up early, i was hit with a $51 parking bill. holy crap.
• it is colder today in houston than it is in atlanta or auburn.
• the mayor of opelika, who locked me out of my room for hours.
• suits. i've made it 25 years without a suit, through interviews and presentations and the like, and i think i've done pretty well for myself. so why did i suddenly allow people to convince me that i need one? i don't know. jackets make me look stupid. instead, i bought just a skirt, and am wearing that for my pitch.

hmm. those lists aren't complete, but it's all i can think of at the moment.

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

turn the radio up / for that sweet sound

incidentally, i splurged on an ipod before we went to greece. and sunday when we got back, i downloaded the brand-spanking-new itunes for windows. and i'm happy to report that...

i'm absolutely, completely, crazy, head over heels in love with them both.

Wednesday, October 22, 2003

what you plan to do with your foolish pride / when you're all by yourself alone

betsy and buzz say i'm too hard on myself when we go rock climbing. i want too much too fast; i have trouble being patient in trying a route over and over and over again; i view resting on the rope as failure instead of a means to an end, which is the hope of eventually climbing the route in a single effort.

i'm starting to realize that maybe i'm too hard on myself in other aspects of my life as well. self-motivation is better with a bit of moderation, i suppose.

i am so stressed out. the stress i was feeling pre-greece has returned. i am exhausted, and have much to do. i haven't caught up on sleep since i got back because i've had three straight nights of activity--soccer, rock climbing, volleyball. thankfully, last night were the final 2 games of our volleyball season, and i don't plan on returning. instead, i think i'll trade tuesday volleyball for friday soccer. or maybe just nothing. maybe i just need to scale back.

on the bright side, all the stress and hectic-ness abated while i was soaking up some mediterranean sunshine and climbing around some really cool rocks. last night, as promised, i did post some commentary and pictures from the trip. my mom has already requested more, so i'll try to comply in a week or two. :)

and while we're on the bright side, the first run-through of my intern pitch went very well yesterday afternoon. despite the fact that i finished the presentation only minutes before the dry run, and hadn't even been able to mentally go through the slides in order, i did a good job on the fly. my bosses and coworkers had only minor suggestions, and despite the bulky 31-slide presentation, i managed to talk it all in only 23 minutes. (i know that goes against the one minute per slide rule, but trust me, 31 slides is as small as it's gonna get.) we are allotted "approximately 20 minutes," which allows about 10 minutes for questions. so with a couple more practices, i will be set to jet off to atlanta for the weekend and not worry about the presentation till showtime on monday.

i am really looking forward to seeing my sister this weekend. my mom sent me two pictures in the mail yesterday, so i figure it's time to share the news here on my journal: my sister got engaged about a month and a half ago! i get to be maid of honor when they get married after they graduate from tech in 2005, and i am so excited. here she is with joel:

aren't they cute? :)

Tuesday, October 21, 2003

no time to say "hello!" "goodbye!"

it's a good thing i was on vacation all last week, because boy am i stressed out today with this stupid intern pitch. i have to do a dry run in an hour, and i just finished putting it together. i haven't practiced it at all yet.

the "greece picture teaser" will hopefully be online later tonight, to be located here.

Monday, October 20, 2003

i know she loves the sunrise / no longer sees it with her sleeping eyes

it's going to be a hectic three days here at work before i leave again on thursday to head to auburn via atlanta for daniel's wedding. i found out on friday before we left for greece that my intern pitch will be next monday, so that leaves me today, tomorrow, and wednesday to write the pitch, practice it, show it to my boss, and show it to my boss's boss. next monday i'll present to my boss's boss's boss, along with becca and jason. all three of us have our pitches on the same day, so that will be fun.

(note for the curious: it's called an intern pitch not because i am an intern, but because for the first year or two of a person's full-time work here, they are in the "technical intern" program. basically, it's a test-out time just to make sure you're a good employee, and as such, you can be fired without the normal difficulty of firing a government worker. after this pitch i'll no longer be an intern and thus will have even more job security, but by far the best part of giving the pitch is the sizeable pay raise that goes with it!)

i also found out that next wednesday i'll be receiving my 5-year government service award, which i get, despite having only been full-time for 16 months, because of all my co-op time. my first day as a co-op was in 1997, but my "adjusted" start date is august 1998, so i'm finally receiving the 5 year service award (they only do the ceremony quarterly) that i officially received back in august of this year. yes, it's unnecessarily complicated. but still cool.

anyway. becca and i got back to houston yesterday afternoon just after 2:00 and i was back at my apartment by 3:30 after a lonnnnng plane flight. the more long flights i take, the less i like them. i get so stiff and sore; if it's like this at 25 i can't think about how much i'll hate it when i'm 75. our trip was great, and i will post some pictures soon. i have 28 good ones that i will get online sometime this evening; take them as a preview of a bigger posting that will probably have to wait until i get back from the wedding and have finished my intern pitch. i'll also try to post some journal entries.

in the meantime, the highlight list goes like this:

• two nights in athens with visits to the flea market, the acropolis, and the ancient agora
  
• three nights on the island of santorini with beautiful sunsets, whitewashed, blue-domed churches, black beaches, red cliffs, tons of sun, incredibly blue water and (of course) an update on game 6 of the nlcs
  
• two nights in meteora with a day of walking all over tall pillars of rocks and the 6 monasteries perched precariously atop them
  
• one more night in athens and a lot of souvenir shopping
  
• SOOOOO much good food
  

having to come back to work was definitely tough...

Friday, October 10, 2003

leavin' on a jet plane

our plane leaves this afternoon, and since about 7:00 last night i have been in traditional sarah-traveling-frenzy mode.

i don't really know why i get so stressed out just before going somewhere, but there's no arguing the fact that i do. and it seems like the farther away i'm going, the worse it gets. since we're going to greece, which will be the farthest away i've ever been, the frenzy is at a max. not to mention that there is the worry of strikes that are currently ongoing in athens. hopefully the taxi drivers will get over it in time to be ready to drive us around! eek eek eek.

but i have my passport and i have underwear, and really, those are the two essentials, right?

anyway. we fly direct from houston to frankfurt, where we have a four hour layover during which i'm sure we'll sleep on the airport floor or something similarly uncomfortable. then we hop on a flight to athens, finally arriving around 5:00 greece-time on saturday. we'll find karen, eat something, and crash at the hostel. then it's exploring athens, going to santorini, maybe another island, maybe delphi, maybe meteora...we don't really have a plan. that's what the 14 hour flight is for. :)

we get back on the 19th and will be back at work on the 20th. i'll update then.

Thursday, October 09, 2003

if i wasn't a celebrity / would you still want to be with me

last night gavin and i drove over to challenger park to check things out as a potential course for our yuri's night 5k. we've had some scheduling issues, and so in addition to moving the race to april 3, we may also move the location. in challenger park, we could do a semi-trail run, which might alienate some runners but would encourage others. not to mention that challenger park is quite appropriate for a space-themed race.

now if only we could find a trail map...

after getting home, i did pretty much nothing all night except sit in front of the tv. after three hours of chaos at the high school for the lance bass visit, i was exhausted. remind me never to become a celebrity!

tomorrow becca and i leave for greece to meet karen in athens on saturday, and i still have so many things to do before i leave. i'll be gone for all of next week, then back for three days, then gone for four more to atlanta/auburn for daniel's wedding. i'm glad the space week stuff is over, and that my vacations are here. but it will also be nice once the trips are past and i have a whole weekend at home with nothing scheduled. i am ready for some down time.

Wednesday, October 08, 2003

my brush with fame

i am too frustrated and annoyed and stressed out by too many things right now, so it's probably best to just not talk about any of them.

so i met lance bass (of nsync) today. or rather, i said a few sentences to lance bass while trying to manage the accelerating chaos at rayburn high school.

i don't think i ever really mentioned what all this is about, so here's the quick recap: i have been helping organize houston's world space week activities. world space week was declared by the united nations in 1999 and is held every year, around the world, from october 4-10. for more information, you can visit http://www.spaceweek.org, which i plug merely because, ahem, i designed the page. it's not my best web design ever, but let's just say it's a hell of a lot better than what was there before, and becca and buzz and gavin and jen will all back me up on that one.

anyway, this year the world space week powers-that-be got lance bass to come to houston as world space week youth spokesperson, because he was supposed to fly in space last year, because he likes space, and because kids like him. so he's in town visiting houston schools and giving them telescopes donated by a non-profit foundation called permission to dream, doing a mini-media blitz, promoting world space week, and basically saying "yay space." and this afternoon jen and i were his technical liaisons at rayburn high school in pasadena.

i don't have the patience to describe the whole three hours at the high school as things snowballed more and more out of control (a schedule? what's a schedule?), but, in the end, everything turned out ok, the kids loved him, the class finally got their telescope, and the news people got their footage. happiness all around.

and lance's personal assistant jesse is cuter than he is.

if you want my opinion.

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

think i'm gonna stay home / have myself a home life / sitting in the slow mo / listening to the daylight

i posted late yesterday, so if you didn't get a chance to read my epic-length recounting of the adventure race, go back and read it. i posted the pictures that chris took; there was also an official race photographer, so i'll post the pictures they took whenever they get around to putting them on their website.

yesterday i didn't end up leaving work until 6, which i guess is good since it turns out i have to leave early this afternoon to help finalize plans for tomorrow's world space week activities. lance bass is coming to houston as world space week spokesperson, and jen and i are his technical liaisons for his visit to a local high school tomorrow. this morning a woman won tickets on the radio to see him when he goes to the radio station on friday, and she called him her fantasy boyfriend. this woman is 48 years old.

yep. should be interesting, to say the least.

i'm still tired. but i am a little more excited about greece today, which is good. the thing is, in the past year, and especially in the past 6 months or so, i have really turned into a homebody. i know this sounds funny coming from a person who is constantly running off to rock climbing or a race or a movie or dinner or some other crazy activity, but it's somehow true. as much as i like all the other things i do, i also really like just spending time with me, myself, and i in my little apartment.

i know. i contradict myself.

last night nick told me he hoped i got more into the trip, because greece is beautiful. this i knew. so i decided to picture myself sitting on some little restaurant terrace on the island of santorini in the sunshine, eating yummy mediterannean food (which i know i will enjoy, despite the fact that, as becca continuously laments, i don't like olives and feta). and that sounds nice.

still not really pumped about the plane flight though. is it possible to get cabin fever on an airplane?

Monday, October 06, 2003

adventure racing

what a weekend. i am exhausted.

i know i should be really excited about going to greece, especially considering the money i've already spent on a plane ticket. but i just feel blah about it. add the fact that there is apparently a massive strike going on in the country this week, and it just stresses me out.

i'm tired.

chris and debbie and i left town friday around 4 bound for marble falls, texas, about 40 miles west of austin. we stopped for dinner at the applebee's near where leila and brian used to live, and i watched the cubs defeat the braves in game 3. we got to the hotel shortly after 10 and crashed pretty quickly, considering the alarm was set for 5 a.m.

5 a.m. came far too soon, as it always does, and we groggily headed towards muleshoe bend recreation area, the site of the adventure race. we reassembled the borrowed mountain bikes, in the dark. it was extremely frustrating, as the bikes are pieces of crap. we finally got them assembled and put our stuff in the transition area, then rode a few hundred feet farther where chris was able to park his van practically on top of the finish line. prime parking, aw yeah.

we sat around killing time, and then decided to go back over to the transition area to drop off a few final items. it was at this point that debbie asked me to grab my hex wrench and raise the handlebars on her bike. it turns out this unscrewing was one time too many, as the screw would not go back in (i suspected a stripped groove, since the screw itself was fine), and the handlebars thus were far too loose. a mere 20 minutes from race time, and we had one unrideable bike!

thinking fast, we rolled it over to the bike repair tent, where our hero-of-the-day bicycle repair man was able to force the screw through the stripped portion of the grooves and tighten the handlebars. we left the tent to the echos of his warning: "just take it easy, ok?" oooook. this should be interesting.

with the race start only five minutes away, we were told only that we would start the race on foot. part of the "thrill" of adventure racing is that you're never quite sure what you're going to have to do, or what order you'll have to do it in. every team (there were maybe 150 teams) was given an envelope, and when the starter finally called "go!" we all ripped them open to find a full sheet of single-space, 12-point text. only about 4 sentences, in the middle of the page, were actually applicable. they told us to find the volunteer holding the sign with the number of dots corresponding to the last number of our team number (thus, 3, since we were team #163) and they'd tell us where to go. off we went. we were told to keep going staight, where the letter said we'd find a field full of tennis balls. we had to find the ball with our team number on it.

our team name was the hobbling wonder chicks, thanks to debbie's bad knees, so we weren't running. we walked briskly to the field, at which point we were in the back of the pack. this turned out to help us, because we only had to search through about 20 tennis balls instead of over a hundred, so we found our ball in about 10 seconds and kept going. we walked a mile or so and then encountered the first mystery challenge. we had to throw the tennis ball in leapfrog fashion about 200 feet--debbie throwing to me, me catching, then standing still while she moved forward, then me throwing to her, her standing still while i moved forward, her throwing to me again, etc. we did that and rounded a corner to find the second mystery challenge--kicking the tennis ball about 200 feet through the grass. after that we walked back to the transition area, where we found the third mystery challenge--trying to throw the tennis ball into a cardboard box from concentric circles. with each miss, we got to move in to the next closest circle. after that, it was time to transition to the bikes.

the park was very scenic, and we enjoyed riding the bikes through tall grass and along the shores of lake travis. soon the trail headed into the woods and turned into a single-track mountain biking trail. some sections were too rocky for our mountain biking inexperience, and so we got off and walked through the tough parts. at one point, we got back up behind a long line of racers for a good 15 minutes or so because of a large dip in the trail that only the really good bikers could successfully ride. but we were past that soon enough, and got to the next mystery challenge. here, we weren't allowed to talk, and had to get across 30 feet of grass without touching the ground. we had one 1.5 foot square piece of plywood per person, so we had to stand close together on one board while i reached down and picked up the other board and tossed it in front of us. then we'd move to that board, and repeat. we totally rocked that challenge, and passed a few teams who were having more trouble.

we rode some more, and then encountered the next challenge. a volunteer (a cute irish volunteer with an awesome accent!) had a number between 1 and 1000, and we had to figure it out based on guessing and being told "higher" or "lower." from there, it was more biking through the woods to the final challenge of the biking portion, a sheet of paper with three puzzles. we had to do two out of three; the first was to list 18 words that all rhymed with each other, the second was a word search, and the third was a cryptogram. i did the 18 rhyming words (at, bat, cat, flat, fat, hat, splat...) while debbie got to work on the cryptogram. when i finished the rhymes, i started from the end of the cryptogram, and we were finished in lightning fast time. then we were back on the bikes and finally back to the transition area. the biking portion was really long (we were on the bikes for more than two hours) and debbie and i were both getting pretty darn tired at the end.

the last portion involved going in the water, but first we had to leave the transition area, crawl on our stomachs underneath a cargo net, walk across a pipe like a balance beam (i fell off and had to start over!), and fill a large piece of pvc pipe with water until it came out a set of holes in the middle of the pipe. making this more difficult was the fact that both the water carrier and the water receiver pipes had holes in the bottom that we had to make sure to cover with our hands. we finished those challenges and made our way to the lake shore, where we had to wade across about a hundred feet of waist-deep water.

on the other side, we then had to follow a zig-zag route while walking on two-by-four boards like skis. with debbie playing drill sargeant (left! right! left! right!) we zigged and zagged like nobody's business. after that came the "adventure tubing" part of the race, which involved navigating maybe 1/5 of a mile of water with a large innertube. we started sitting in the tubes and paddling with our arms, but that was pretty tiring. then we discovered that the water was shallow enough to simply walk along dragging the tube behind us. that worked almost until the end, when the water got deep and we simply side-stroked, still pulling the innertubes. the life jackets that we were required to wear made swimming more of a challenge than usual, but c'est la vie.

we climbed out of the lake and dropped off our tubes, and headed up the hill for the final two challenges. the first was the hardest of the day--two metal pipes were laid on the ground in a v-shape, close on one end and about 5 or 6 feet apart on the other end. one team member had to be blindfolded (me), and we had to each stand on one pipe and make our way to the other end. we started out holding onto each other shoulders for balance, but by the end we were grabbing each other's forearms, and starting to get wobbly. it was close, but we made it. go team hobble!

the last challenge was simply to bounce to the back of a moonwalk and then back out the door, and then we power-walked to the finish line, finishing in four hours and 5 minutes! (the winners finished in just over 2 hours, while the last people crossed the line just under 5 hours.)

anyway. the is the speed retelling of the race. it was a lot of fun, and debbie and i are already planning to do it again next year.

we came back from austin on saturday and nick fixed us a lovely dinner. i crashed, exhausted, only to get up at 5:45 a.m. to go volunteer at the space city 10-miler, a road race put on by the local running store. i went to help and to gain some race-planning experience in preparation for directing the 5k we're putting on next spring. i helped at the registration table, and then cut the timing chips off at least a hundred sweaty, just-run-10-miles shoes. now that was quite an icky job, but at the same time, it was fun to watch everyone finishing. the winner came in just over 52 minutes. damn. that's at least twice as fast as i'd be able to run 10 miles. it was really impressive. the guy was all muscle and sinew; i swear he must have had like 0.5% body fat. but volunteering was a lot of fun, and i got to cheer for laurie, josh, jess, and buzz as they successfully finished the race. next year i'll hopefully be in it as well. at the moment, i'm entertaining thoughts of registering for the half-marathon in january (it's run simultaneously with the houston marathon). i would have just over three months to prepare, which is enough time if i start now.

yesterday afternoon i was so zonked that i took a three hour nap in front of the sox-a's game. if you know me, you know i must have been really tired, because i almost never take naps, mainly because they only leave me feeling fuzzy-headed and confused. but yesterday i was so tired that the nap actually did help, and it revitalized me enough for sunday night soccer. we played a team from galveston that i remember from last season for their rough play. nothing has changed; they were still pushing and elbowing like no tomorrow. even i lost my temper at one point and yelled at a girl who had pushed me repeated as i turned the ball upfield, and if you've ever played soccer with me, you know that it takes a lot to make me lose my temper and yell. i figure soccer is a tough game, and some jostling is expected. but this team really took it to the extreme. they got two yellow cards, and probably deserved more. it was absurd.

the soccer game continued through most of the braves-cubs game, and i only got to see the last two innings. i'm sad that the braves lost. carter and i watched the last inning together via phone. it was disappointing. wood and prior both pitched very well, but i can't help but feel like the braves sort of defeated themselves. the offense that's been so overwhelming all season long was absent.

and another winter begins. i'll watch the lcs and world series, but it won't be the same.

whew. i just wrote a book.

Friday, October 03, 2003

no rest for the weary

well, i finally got a hit in softball last night. i went 1-for-7, and am batting something like .050 for the season, but hey--i got a hit. and two rbi's. thank god. i would be really mad this morning if i still hadn't gotten one.

i wore my "yankees suck" shirt, but it didn't have the desired effect, and the yankees won last night. ah well.

debbie and i are taking a stab at this adventure race thing tomorrow. it should be fun. yesterday in preparation, we went to academy and then to oshman's and each bought one of those little backpacks that carry a water bladder in them. i've been thinking about getting one for biking anyway, so this seemed like a good excuse. it will come in quite handy tomorrow as we race for close to five hours. it even has enough pocket room for some granola bars and an extra tire tube. wahoo.

it will be a busy weekend. i'll be west of austin for tonight and most of tomorrow. sunday morning i'm helping out at the space city 10-miler to get some race organizing experience. then we have a soccer game sunday night. whew.

Thursday, October 02, 2003

every pitch is an adventure

exhale.

with each pitch, i hold my breath and hope for a strike (if it's the braves pitching) or a hit (if they're at bat). i want them to win so badly. alone in my apartment, i cheer as loudly and as frantically as if i were sitting in the stands in atlanta. i wonder if my downstairs neighbor can hear me jumping up and down. then i realize that i don't really care, because i won't be able to stop doing it until they either win the world series or die trying. the anxiety only gets worse with each passing post-season.

every march when the ncaa tournament rolled around, my dad used to say that he couldn't watch duke play. especially not in the big games. he just got too nervous. now i understand.

debbie and chris and i took two las palmas mountain bikes over to bike barn last night to get them checked out before debbie and i ride them in the women's adventure race we're doing this weekend. they're in ok shape, but the bike store man laughed when we told him what we were doing, saying "you do realize these bikes weight like a hundred pounds, right?" well, not a hundred pounds, but they are heavy. still, nothing we can do about it short of buying ourselves mountain bikes, which is dumb considering we live in flat-as-a-pancake houston.

anyway. the bikes are in good enough condition i suppose, so off we shall go on saturday. the adventure race involves mountain biking, trail running, "adventure tubing" and mystery challenges. the tubing part is just pulling yourself across a lake on an inner tube, while the mystery challenges can be anything from doing a puzzle to climbing a cargo net. it's not a relay, so debbie and i have to stay together. they say good teams will finish in two hours, and everyone should finish in five. since i'm slow and debbie has rocks for knees, i figure we'll be on the five hour side. :) it should be fun.

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

oh yeah

happy october!

i've been waiting for a week for this month to get here so i could say that, and then this morning i forgot. how could i?

i love october. it is one of my two favorite months.

Wednesday, October 01, 2003

fumbles

they say good pitching beats good hitting.

who are "they" anyway? i hate "them."

the braves lost. kerry wood pitched a good game, but honestly, i think the braves beat themselves. wood wasn't perfect; he threw a lot of balls and put a lot of men on base. the braves just weren't hitting.

and then their defense shot themselves in the foot. russ ortiz brilliantly pitched out of a jam in the 3rd, and a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the 4th. in the 6th he loaded the bases again, then got a strikeout and a double play ball...but robert fick bobbled the catch and thus an inning-ending double play turned into an inning-continuing single out.

sigh.

the fox broadcast of the game was quite annoying. i didn't like the announcers. and they kept on showing kerry wood's wife, squinching her eyes and gasping and cheering and crap. ugh. it was driving me crazy. i almost muted the sound, except i don't like muting it because then i can't pace around my apartment without losing track of the game.

ah. such are my problems.

i'm stressed out. the weather outside is perfect.

Tuesday, September 30, 2003

hit or miss

there was a meeting this morning about return-to-flight stuff. it was supposed to last from 8 until noon. it ended at 3:00. fortunately, it was an interesting meeting and therefore didn't put me to sleep.

the playoffs start tonight. wahoo. go braves.

i counted up my ticket stubs and it turns out that this year i went to (drumroll please)...17 baseball games. 12 here in houston. two in new york. two in boston. one in atlanta. ta da. this means that buying a 20-game season ticket package next year will almostly certainly be on my agenda.

i just realized i'm going to be out of town every single saturday in october. this saturday debbie and i are doing an adventure race west of austin. then two saturdays in greece. then a saturday in auburn for daniel's wedding.

it stresses me out just thinking about it. and it means i'll miss 4 of the 7 soccer games in the gilruth coed season.

i'm stressed. my ankle is hurting again.

Monday, September 29, 2003

aah blah ess pan yole?

so i don't think i've mentioned it on this site, but i'm taking a beginning spanish class with betsy, chris, sean, and nick. it's over at uhcl and meets at lunchtime on mondays. there are two people in the class who are very nice, but are quite possibly the two worst people i have ever heard attempt to speak spanish. they appear to be unable to read all the letters in some words, and their accents are so absolutely horrible that it's comical. it's spanish, but with a deep, deep texas accent. i am amused.

Monday, September 29, 2003

i don't care if i never get back...

there is something bittersweet about the last baseball game of the year.

yes, there are still eight teams playing, and one of them is my beloved atlanta braves. but living in houston and having watched the astros throw away the nl central pennant on saturday meant that yesterday was my last chance to take in a game this year. my last chance to smell the grass and the hot dogs and hear the crowd cheering and watch the balls flying. i savored it.

after two innings, the roof cracked open and the sun streamed in. there was a light breeze, and the weather was perfect. for a moment, i almost mistook the day for an afternoon in april, at the beginning of the season, with endless possibilities.

it was happy. it was sad. i already can't wait for april, when i get to go back to the ballpark. in the meantime, i'll be glued to the tv for the postseason and suffer through the winter.

though i realized yesterday that i will be out of the country for a solid 9 days, during which time the league champions will be decided and the world series will start. i will definitely be stopping at an internet cafe (or five) in greece to get baseball playoff updates.

in other baseball news, the final standings in my "all-star" fantasy baseball league are: ron, ME!, randy, jeremy, chris, edgar and jason (tie), and kevin. i finished second! that's my best finish yet in the 3 years we've played, after i finished 3rd the first year and either 3rd or 4th last year. i finished seventh in the NL-only league. i'm quite happy with both finishes, even the 7th place (out of 10), as i was the only new person in the league this year and therefore was the only one without keepers. finishing anything other than last is a success.

i tweaked my groin again in soccer last night. ow.

Friday, September 26, 2003

one hand would have a bucket on it, that way, i would always...have...a bucket

i ran 3.5 miles last night. i figure that maybe the reason i can't quite break through the 30 minute 5k barrier is that i never run longer than a 5k. thus my body isn't used to having to run any farther, thus it starts to get tired around the 2 mile mark. so i'm going to try to add one long run a week (i want to work up to 5 miles) and see if that helps. maybe i'll add a day of speedwork too.

softball was cancelled last night, for reasons unknown. and thus my hitless streak continues.

i am looking forward to a relatively quiet weekend. tomorrow is the unofficial dm4 (that's my branch at work) day at the ballpark, so i'm going with a bunch of people from work to see the astros hopefully beat the brewers. they won last night, and the cubs lost, so they're tied for the central division lead. man, it's gonna be a close finish.

becca will make fun of me, since i'm about to talk about a book that i've been reading since march 2001 or something, BUT... last night i read another travel essay in my "best travel writing" book. it was called "weird karma" by pj o'rourke. a quick search didn't turn up a copy online (it was worth a shot), but if you ever see it in print, or in a back issue of men's journal, i highly recommend it. it was an enjoyable read, about a 6 day, 1600 mile trip sponsored by land rover to promote the discovery. they started in pakistan and quickly crossed the border into india, where they followed the "grand trunk" road to calcutta.

the final sentence said it all (i'm paraphrasing; i don't have the actual text in front of me): "the front cover of a popular magazine touts this month's feature story about the intricacies particle physics. you think you're in nation of geniuses! then you turn around and see a guy walking by with a bucket on his head." it was an essay that was well-written, and managed to be quirky and funny while still conveying the seriousness of india's problems with overpopulation and extreme poverty.

my description really doesn't do the essay justice. ah well.

i wish i could write like that.

Thursday, September 25, 2003

she called out a warning / don't ever let life pass you by

"Impersonality seems to be a key in a lot of the blogs that I read, but on the flip side whether we like it or not our persona shines through." it's always satisfying to me to see someone else express an opinion on an issue that i constantly struggle with. how much do i write on a blog? how much information do i give away?

i have weird quirks when it comes to blogs. i tend to be very open with what i write about most things. there are some issues that i don't mention here, but not many. for me, it turns into a distinction between "in writing" and "in person." i think i have always been willing to share more if i can write it down. at the least, i know i'm more coherent in writing. in person, i don't like to say as much.

my recent frustrations have started to boil over into all aspects of my life. case in point: i have regressed when it comes to rock climbing. after a kick butt night of climbing with betsy three weeks ago, i haven't been able to return to that form. last night i went to the gym for the first time in two weeks, with betsy, and it was the worst night; i almost fell off a route i've been able to do since the very first week. ugh. the harder i try, the worse i get.

at least part of it is mental. i get frustrated and mad, and then it's all over. some people get mad and it inspires them to try harder; i get mad and i just want to kick the wall and then quit. this is unfortunate.

my hands hurt. we ended on a good note, with betsy and me bouldering across the easy wall to build some confidence. i like the stretching and balance that bouldering requires. sigh.

all frustration was eventually driven away with a post-climbing stop at the waffle house though. i had decaf coffee and hashbrowns, and then ate betsy's toast. the toast was just a way for her to get to the eggs and waffle. there is something comforting about toast.

i know that sounds weird. but it's true.

Wednesday, September 24, 2003

oh now i've gotta say / that the wind and the waves / and the moon winkin' down at me / eases my mind...

when i'm in a foul mood, i find it's better to say nothing than to say something rude. if i absolutely must vent, i try to slow down and unwind enough to be able to make an intelligent decision on picking the appropriate person.

last night i sat on the balcony with the citronella candles burning (although there were few chiquito mosquitos; perhaps summer really is fading). i read the rest of this month's outside magazine. i drank a beer. (sadly, i have no wine. i don't even like beer all that much. but i have become partial to sam adams summer ale after taking the brewery tour in boston.) i read more of my book. i thought about running away to zimbabwe.

well, not zimbabwe. that was just the first country that came to mind. but maybe australia. or spain. or maybe just a nicer part of the u.s.

on monday night at the astros game, jason and debbie and karen and i were on the jumbotron. this was especially neat because we were sitting in the upper deck, and come on, everyone knows that they rarely show the upper deck on the jumbotron. but we were on there. me in my astros hat. smiling and waving like the idiot that everyone turns into when they realize that they're on the jumbotron.

anyway. the astros have fallen a game behind the cubs. this sucks. i want the braves to come here for the division series.

i hope we're going climbing tonight.

Tuesday, September 23, 2003

if you are among the very young at heart...

my friends are an odd group. we have strange senses of humor, laugh easily, and are surprisingly willing to embarrass ourselves in public as long as it means we'll get a good reaction from the others.

take jason, for instance. we were at the cheesecake factory on sunday when the following conversation took place. (i'm paraphrasing, but sadly, it's probably fairly accurate.)

betsy: "i think february or october would be good months for an outdoor wedding."
edgar: "i think march or april."
sarah: "yeah. you've just got to make sure it's before it gets too hot, or the mosquitos arrive."
jason: "i want to eat my cheesecake like a dinosaur."

we look at jason.

betsy: "ok..."
sarah:"make sure you keep your elbows in against your body, so you have short little useless dinosaur arms."
betsy: "yeah, and only two fingers, like the little claws."

jason wiggles his thumb, index, and middle fingers.

jason: "didn't they have three claws?"
sarah: "yeah, i think so, but no opposable thumbs."
jason: "oh, good call."

jason switches to wiggling his index, middle, and ring fingers. the waiter comes with our cheesecake. he leaves. jason grins. betsy and i watch as he bats the cheesecake around for a moment with one hand, er, claw, like a tyrannosaurus toying with a little dinosaur before killing it.

jason: "grrrrrrrr!"

jason dives face first into the cheesecake, looking up a moment later with teeth bared and cheesecake all over his mouth and chin. betsy and i collapse with laughter. at the other end of the table, ron, buzz, gavin, jen, becca, and phil look at us strangely.

it was very funny.

Monday, September 22, 2003

that's the way this wheel keeps working

it was a strange-feeling weekend, to end a sucky week. i woke up saturday morning to low gray clouds, and a light drizzle. the rain continued, almost without interruption, through the entire weekend, and it's still gray and threatening outside this morning. it felt almost wintery.

i ran a 5k yesterday, and for the whole last 1.1 miles, i was planning a wonderful celebratory diary entry for this morning. i find that i do this often, the habit of writing down my stories in my head, and editing them, and re-editing them to perfectly convey the crux of the story. by the time i actually get to the computer, i've often forgotten the story, or the wit or cleverness with which it was mentally composed. c'est la vie, i guess. but it's a process that has become so engrained that i hardly realize i'm doing it anymore. mental composition.

anyway. the reason for the planned celebratory entry was that i thought i was finally going to break the 30 minute mark in a 5k. i did the first mile in about 9:20. woohoo! doing good. then i rounded the turn at the halfway mark and discovered that the entire second half of the race would be run into the wind, and with the rain blowing in my face. still, i hit mile 2 in 19:45 or so, and thought to myself "ok, just a little more than 10 minutes to do 1.1 miles. i can do this. i can totally do this." and for the last 1.1 miles, i cheered myself on. when the rain blew in my eyes, i cheered myself on. when i landed in a huge puddle, i cheered myself on. i rounded the last corner, and looked for the clock. couldn't see it. i ran a little farther, still looking for the clock.

when i finally spotted it, i saw it count "29:58...29:59...30:00..." and i was still 30 feet from the finish line. oh, the disappointment! i crossed the line in 30:12, and though i was able to subtract the 7 seconds it took me to cross the start line, it still left me at 30:05. a measly 5 seconds from what has been my goal for almost two years. sigh.

30:05 is still the fastest 5k i've ever officially run (previously it was 30:08), but i was so disappointed after having gone the last 1.1 miles thinking i was going to break 30 minutes. yuck yuck yuck. i hate being so damn slow.

next race, i'll be out for blood.

after the 5k, a large group of us headed downtown to celebrate buzz's 27th birthday with lunch at p.f. chang's and dessert at the cheesecake factory, thus destroying any of the good running the race did us. ah well. p.f. chang's was delicious (i'd never been there before), and as always, cheesecake makes me happy. i came home very full, and didn't need to eat dinner. soccer was cancelled due to the fields being a swamp after the weekend of rain, so i just hung out at home and did nothing. literally, i stared at the wall for a while. then i cleaned, watched baseball, and talked on the phone. i am almost done unpacking/organizing my stuff. almost.

Saturday, September 20, 2003

goth

ok. the great experiment in dying my hair is over. yesterday afternoon i had lovely dark brown and a bit reddish hair. i went to get it cut and touched up, and left with hair so dark it practically looks black.

i don't know what happened. he said "what are we doing today?" i said, "take off about an inch and a half, and color it the same as last time." they have a computer system. it prints out a sheet of paper to remind them what they did last time, especially if it involves mixing hair colors. i don't know what happened, but he must have read the sheet wrong, or simply mixed it wrong. he put in the color, he washed it out, i looked in the mirror, and froze. it looked a lot darker than i was expecting. it's ok, it's just because it's wet, i told myself. so he dried it. nope. it's dark. darker than it was even back in january.

i didn't say anything to him. but i'm very bothered. every time i look in the mirror, i whimper. it'll be ok, i'll buy some very harsh shampoo, and numerous people, in an attempt to make me feel better, have told me that it looks mysterious and sexy. that's nice of them. but i don't like it.

i don't really know what to do about it. i really should call the salon back, and ask them to do something about it. but after yesterday, i don't really want to deal with them.

what a way to end my week. i just want to crawl into a hole.

Friday, September 19, 2003

beware of the sarah, she may bite

it has been a week.

i'm tired, because i'm having trouble falling asleep at night. this morning, i overslept because i was up too late last night. and i'm cranky, because i'm tired. world space week is under my skin. there are a million different plans for getting division series tickets. my apartment is a mess. i haven't had a hit in softball in what feels like years, i suck at volleyball, my soccer team never wins, and i wish i were a better athlete. i find that there are some people around whom i can't control what i say, and i wish that i could. i am always overly sarcastic, or overly critical, or overly prone to being annoyed. who knows why.

it has just been...a week. fortunately, all weeks are followed by weekends, and opportunities to regroup.

tonight i may just stay home alone on a friday, flat on the floor looking back. hurry up and get here.