Daily: June 2005 Archives

There is still talk of bring a Major League Soccer team to Houston in the near future. They'd play in the Astrodome, or in a smaller stadium that would be renovated. I think it'd be great for the city to have a soccer team. I'd certainly check out a few games each season.

Yesterday Craig Biggio broke the dubious record of being hit by pitches more than any other player. That website has a great disclaimer: Moral disclaimer: The author of this blog does not support or endorse intentionally throwing at Craig Biggio.

I went into the office at my apartment complex this morning to figure out what their latest deals are on leases, since mine is up at the end of August. The woman commented on how I'd been there for a while, which of course made me start thinking. The three-year anniversary of my moving permanently to Houston (and into my current apartment complex) is coming up in a few weeks. I've been in the same job and the same living situation the entire time. It's not as long as I was in college, but it's the longest period of time that I have been in one place in almost 10 years -- since I was in high school.

When I was in middle school and high school, every six months or so I'd get the itch to rearrange all the furniture in my bedroom, just to give myself something new to look at. I like change, but it also scares me; thus I seem to like change best when it is completely under my control.

I've had passing thoughts of moving, but it is such a hassle that it doesn't seem worth it to pack up my stuff and schlep it around just for the sake of new scenery. I've thought of moving to another apartment complex that is better-located for running and biking. I've thought of trying to find a room for rent in a house. I've even thought of buying something, though I have no down payment and am still very hesitant to buy something.

I'd shift the furniture in my apartment, but there's nowhere for it to go!

So I guess I'll renew my lease. They have no deals, except for $200 off the first month if I sign a 12-month lease. That's fairly useless, so I'm thinking of signing up for only another 6 months. I just don't know where I'd go after that.

In lieu of a better "signing deal," they offered to shampoo my carpets if I want. That would definitely be nice. Clean carpets would be a bit of a change...

Travelling feels like some sort of time warp. I am back in my apartment and at my desk and a part of my brain feels like my wonderful week at home never happened. This is why I take pictures -- to remember. ;)

I had a fantastic vacation. The wedding was just beautiful. The reception was the most fun reception I've ever been to, because I knew everyone there! I saw old neighbors, family friends, and many relatives. The reception could have been 10 times longer and I still would have been having a wonderful time. My family is the most awesome family in the world.

I am working on my photos, and should have most of them processed tonight. (It was dim enough in the church and reception that many of my photos need levels adjusted and noise removal since I shot at ISO 1600 quite a bit!) In the meantime, Brian posted a few photos on his moblog from the wedding. I like this one where you can see them coming down the stairs at the reception and this one where you can see me on the left as I was probably making eye contact with Katie before she threw the bouquet right at me. Yes, I caught the bouquet, which is even funnier when you hear that apparently the bouquet toss was momentarily delayed as they tried to find me. Awwww. (I was wandering around probably trying to get some water. Every time I tried to walk from one room to the drink room, it took at least 10 minutes because I couldn't help talking to everyone on the way.)

Jen also posted some photos including one of Joel dancing with the wrong sister and one of the 207 roommates.

It's nice to be back in my apartment, but it was nicer to be in Charlotte last week.

OH. Last night I had what could potentially be one of the more embarassing moments of my life. I say "potentially" because I don't know for sure how long I was walking around with a HUGE RIP IN THE BUTT OF MY JEANS. I wore the jeans all day yesterday. I get off the plane in Houston, go into the bathroom, and while pulling my pants back up I notice that the fabric, which was pretty thin, has literally pulled away from the seam and just ripped into a gap about 4 inches long and an inch wide. Thank goodness I had a sweater in my bag to tie around my waist. The whole thing is bizarre and cartoonish. The jeans aren't tight, so I guess they ripped when I bent over or sat down or something. It's not a rip so much as it's just like the fabric was worn out and just came apart -- it's not a hole, just like the weave of the jeans broke down. I would like to think that Carter or Kent or someone in my family would have mentioned it to me if they had noticed that I had, you know, a HUGE RIP IN THE BUTT OF MY JEANS, so I am hoping that they ripped on the airplane and that the only time I walked around flashing anyone was from the plane to the bathroom in Houston.

Geez.

Whew. This vacation is passing far too quickly for my tastes!

The days have been filled with working out, running countless errands with Mom (which isn't as dull as it sounds; we have a lot of fun), doing last-minute wedding preparation, and social events. Leave it to my generally non-social, improper, ill-mannered family to have a pre-wedding week filled with dinners, garden parties, and luncheons! :)

Joel's mother, best man Chris, and Chris's fiance arrived on Monday and came over to the house for dinner. We had these pork kebabs that Mom was making for the first time and they were really yummy. The rest of Joel's family (father, and brothers Carl and Neal) arrived in town yesterday and we all had dinner out at the Yoder's house on Lake Wylie. The Yoders were kind enough to volunteer their lakehouse as a hotel for Joel's family while they're here. The adults chatted while the "kids" played a lot of Battle Tetris and ... some game that's name escapes me at the moment. Sort of like Taboo and hot potato combined.

At the moment we're about to head over to the Easts for a garden dinner party thrown by Mrs. East, the mother of Caroline, one of Katie's bridesmaids. I've heard that her garden is something to behold, so I'm expecting great things.

I never feel as interested in updating my blog when I'm home. Something about being on vacation, I guess. Whenever I'm here, it seems like I've put my life on pause and as such, can just flow through the days.

Let's see. First of all, the weather is lovely here. I've been told that it cooled down from the heat of last week, but all I know is that here it is nice, and when I left Houston, Houston was not nice. So I am enjoying the weather.

My flight home on Saturday was uneventful, and I arrived home in time to meet Katie and two of her friends for a "bachelorette" dinner before they went out for the night. Yesterday morning we all went to church, then spent a lazy afternoon running errands and taking batting practice. Brian played in his first work softball game last night and wanted some practice. Our first trip down the park ended after about 5 minutes when the lightning and thunder scared us back to the safety of the house. Katie and Joel and I headed out to the Sports Authority where they bought gloves to replace theirs that have mysteriously disappeared, and I bought a bat (I'd been meaning to for a while anyway). By the time we got home, the storm had passed so we headed back down to the park. We all took turns hitting and catching, some of us (Joel, Katie and Brian) with more success than others (me). Joel is the best athlete of the group, and hit 11 balls over the fence. Eleven!

Today I picked up my bridesmaids dress, altered and ready to go. I'm not totally happy with it because one of the straps is still a bit loose. The lady looked at it and said if she took it up any more, it wouldn't be even with the other strap. She was right, so I didn't have her do anything else, but it's still annoying. Whenever I see people having to pull up their dress straps, I always think that they should have just gotten something that fit right! Now I'm going to be that person. Maybe one of my shoulders is just not level or something. Who knows.

Katie and I went for a run this afternoon at 2:30. It was hot, but not too bad. I can't imagine going for a run at 2:30 in Houston without ending up in the hospital with heatstroke. After running I mowed the backyard. It was strange; I must be one of the only people in the world who has only mowed the lawn a dozen times or so in my life, if that. My mom loves doing that particular chore, and so I'd never really done it. The backyard is tough to mow! It's two levels with a hill in the middle and full of all sorts of weird corners and turns.

Ah, off to relax some more.

This afternoon I had signed up to volunteer at a robot competition out at the NBL (Neutral Buoyancy Lab, a.k.a. big freaking astronaut swimming pool). Becca and I showed up at 1:00 only to find that there were actually more volunteers than needed, and we were just standing around making sure people were wearing safety goggles and had closed-toed shoes. I know this is a necessary function, but do you need 8 people to do it? No. We asked if there was anything else to help with, and they didn't have anything. So, feeling only slightly guilty, I asked if it would be ok for me to go back to my office. They said sure, so here I am, about to finish up a brief analysis and watching the phone hope hope hoping that my potential angel from Langley will call me and tell me that my Monte Carlo sim is set up and ready to go. Hope hope hoping.

This has been a crazy busy week. It never fails that just as I am about to leave on vacation, I find a pile of work that needs to be done before I leave. However, I won't complain too much because it feels good to be busy for the first time in a while. Really good. And I am in a much better mood than this time last week when I was still arguing with the Stardust simulation.

Yesterday afternoon I gave a presentation to all of my management as well as a fair number of my peers about the Mars work that I am currently doing. It was part of a new thing my division and our contractor counterparts are starting, an "educational engineering exchange" where people present different things that they're working on just so everyone can get a better idea of what's going on across our large organization. It's a cool idea, even though after yesterday I think there are a few kinks to work out. I volunteered to present because 1) I thought it was going to be at the end of July and thus would be good practice for the conference I hope to go to in August and 2) because I figured "why not just be a guinea pig?"

It went pretty well, and I enjoyed the ego trip I got by realizing that as much as I might complain about my job, I am actually working on way cooler stuff than others. At least in my opinion. ;) The project I presented, in one sentence, is: using neural networks to determine whether a Mars precision lander is on a trajectory that will crash or not, and if it is going to crash, call an abort such that the lander can be saved by sacrificing landing target accuracy. It is a really interesting project even though I have been lazy thus far about taking it to the next level.

The pitch went fairly well. I haven't given it enough yet to really have the routine down, and since neural networks aren't the easiest concept to pick up in the span of 3 minutes, I'm not sure how well I really got the message across. I felt rather tongue-tied. But most people said it went fine, and last night as Jen, Becca, Cari and I ate at Mely's, a man I didn't recognize actually came up to our table and said "I really enjoyed your presentation this afternoon." So that was random and surprising and nice.

For volunteering to present at the first of these meetings, my branch chief decided to give me a K-88 award (i.e. I get to use his reserved parking spot, K-88, for a week; minor thing, but nice all the same).

Last night I had softball and the game was totally bizarre. It was the weirdest game I personally have ever had. First of all, I was alternating between catcher and first base and I had the hardest time, you know, catching the ball. I missed so many balls I should have caught. Second, I walked three times. I never walk because I'm really bad at judging the ball so I usually just swing away. But I walked three times. On my third time up, Russ (the ump) even gave me an extra pitch in an attempt to let me hit a ball, but the pitch was wide. For some reason, the girl just couldn't pitch a strike to me, so I went 0-for-0 with a run scored. Bizarre stat line.

Finally, after my second walk, I got caught in a run-down between second and third. Nick (not Saadah) had hit the ball and it went to the center fielder, so I stopped at second thinking he would throw to second. He threw home instead, but I stayed at second because I didn't have time to make it to third. THEN I turned around to see Nick basically on top of me. He just hadn't seen me at second base, and had kept running. So he ran back towards first, and I thought they tagged him out, so I started walking toward the dugout (would've been the third out), but then I guess they hadn't tagged him out, so I started running to get to third, but the ball got there first. It was a very bizarre play, aided by the fact that Jason, third base coach extraordinaire, just sorta stood there dumbfounded. ;)

Tonight I stupidly said I'd play soccer as a sub for my coed team, so not only do I have to go out instead of packing to go home tomorrow, but I also have to play soccer in the FRIKKIN HOT weather. It is really disgusting humid and hot outside. The heat index at 2:00 was 104. And it's only June.

My potential angel from Langley had not called me back yet. :(

Last night I had four rather attractice future Air Force officers riding to the movies crammed in the back of my car. Woohoo!

They are here for a four-week internship and have no cars. The Air Force is putting them up in the Hilton, provides them with a shuttle to work, and even packs them boxed lunches! Wow. Talk about being taken care of. Anyway, they wanted to go see Batman Begins, and Gavin, Becca and I wanted to go see Batman Begins, and so we all did.

I think I may have already mentioned this, but last week I heard the DJs on the radio talking about this new Batman movie. They'd seen an advance screening and were raving about it, saying it was as good as the original. I didn't really believe them, but I had hope. Turns out they were right! Batman Begins won't win any Oscars, but it is really good and very entertaining. Here are 10 reasons why:

1. Christian Bale. He's hot.
2. There are glaciers and mountains at the beginning.
3. I was able to watch Katie Holmes without remembering how grossed out I am by the Tom Cruise thing.
4. Gary Oldman is a good guy!
5. As much as I adored the old Alfred (and I did adore him, don't know why they changed actors), I must say that Michael Caine makes an outstanding Alfred as well.
6. That awesome main samurai from Last Samurai is in it.
7. Christian Bale is hot.
8. Morgan Freeman is awesome, even in a relatively small supporting role.
9. You get to see Batman getting all his cool gadgets and building the Batcave.
10. Did I mention that Christian Bale is hot?

Seriously, it's a good flick.

We went to the Star Cinema Grill for the second time, and tried the dinner food. I had a pizza, and Becca and I split a bottle of wine. Lovely. I think we may be going to this theater more and more often. The tickets are actually 50 cents cheaper than the Cinemark, you don't have to order food if you don't want to (so that makes the price the same as regular movies), if you do order food then it's reasonably priced, and -- best of all -- there are no pre-teens running around, giggling, and wearing far-too-skimpy outfits. Yes, it's official, I am old.

It is steamy outside. Hot. Sticky. I can't stand it. You can't do anything in this kind of weather except sit around in the shade and cool of an air-conditioned building. Breathing the air is hard, because you're slightly afraid you might drown. I have no problem with Houston: the city. It's Houston: the climate that needs to change.

Work continues to be, well, work. Often I feel like I am talking to a brick wall. I talk, but no one listens to my concerns. Every day I think about doing other things. I've lost patience, I've lost motivation, and I don't really know what to do about it. On Sunday, one of the models at the photo class I took commented on how cool it must be to work at NASA. I just smiled and said "yeah."

Today I get to take two papers (well, one paper and one abstract) through the export control process. Both should have gone through months ago, so I expect to get yelled out and I am not looking forward to it at all.

HOWEVER. On Saturday I get to go home and spend a glorious week away from Houston and away from work and having lots of fun with my sister's wedding! Hurrah. I have a lot to do between now and then including: finding/ordering silver sandals, making sure I have enough cute dressy outfits for all the wedding lunches and dinners, cleaning my apartment, preparing photos for the Katie/Joel reception poster thing, and attempting to camoflage my unsightly farmer's tan lines before getting in the bridesmaid dress.

First of all, congrats to my internet running friend Cassie, who ran her first marathon in San Diego on Sunday. Hooray! Though with her IT band problems, she may be joining me in the MRI room. :(

I went climbing last night for the first time in a while, and after two hours my knee was throbbing a bit and painful to the touch. Here's an experiment you can do at home to understand exactly what is hurting: Stand up. Lift your left leg off the ground. Now squat as low as you can on your right leg (starting to look very Karate Kid-ish), and then push yourself back up to a standing position using just your right leg. It's that type of motion -- using my leg to push myself up, a perfect example of which is going up stairs -- that hurts my knee. Well, that motion and the impact of running.

I guess I should have the MRI and see what needs to be done, eh? I just don't want to have surgery. Surgery = bad. I mean, I can still walk! And run! And play soccer and bike and rock climb! How can my knee be damaged badly enough that I might need surgery? I've very much enjoyed my 27 years with no cutting into any joints or organs, thank you very much.

Sigh. Well. Hopefully I won't need it.

Climbing was fun though. I haven't been regularly enough for long enough now that I have basically reverted to where I was a year and a half ago. In other words, I have no skills. I have no muscle endurance. I have no strength. So I gotta build all that up again.

Softball got cancelled last night. Softball tends to get cancelled a lot, since apparently we can't play if the fields have had even a DROP of water on them within three days before the game. It's a bit annoying.

So Cari is buying my 10D. I am always hesitant to sell things to friends; is that weird? And my hesitancy goes up with the cost of the item. I guess my worry is just that if all of a sudden the item were to break, I'd feel bad about it. But I don't anticipate that happening, and it's way easier to sell to Cari than to do the eBay thing. :)

I have a few things on tap for the weekend...let's see...there is a party after work today to celebrate the recent management shuffle (my branch chief moved up to deputy division chief, another branch chief moved over to my branch), so that should be entertaining. Though at the last party, the old division chief (now retired) did a keg stand, and I think the chances of that happening again are slim to none. After the party, if it winds down at a reasonable hour, I am thinking of heading over to Kemah. They are having fireworks at 9:30 every Friday this month, and I'd like to try to get some photos.

Tomorrow morning Debbie and I are running the Summer Kickoff 5K in League City. I've thought about running this race every year, because it's one of the few that are held less than 10 miles from my apartment (thus meaning I don't have to drive half an hour to get there!), but for various reasons I've never done it before. Should be fun, even though I'm not expecting much in the way of a fast time!

Tomorrow night is a bday party, and then I don't have anything scheduled for Sunday...at least I don't think so.

Happy Birthday Katie and Brian! My "little" brother and sister are 22 years old today.

We went out to Mely's last night for Melanie's going-away dinner. She quit her job in the Ascent Group (counterpart to the Descent Group I work in) a couple weeks ago after almost a year of being very unsatisfied, and is leaving Houston entirely. Today she's driving to El Paso, then on to San Diego, then up the west coast until she gets to Seattle, where she is interning with Jen's company for the summer before going back to grad school at MIT this fall. It will be a little sad not having her around, living in my apartment building and keeping me company in my office while grunting at the FADS terminal.

Today I woke up to a rare morning thunderstorm. I opened the blinds, pulled back the curtains, and just laid in back watching the rain and lightning and listening to the thunder for a while. Despite all the flashes and noise, to me there's something very calming about a thunderstorm. It put me in a good mood...

...until I drove to work and had to wait in a line of cars halfway down Saturn to get in the front gate because the security guards had one lane open earlier, and traffic was still suffering from the residual backup. I know that they do it so, you know, we don't have any security guards getting struck by lightning and all. But I can usually get from my garage to my desk in 10-12 minutes. Today it took half an hour. That sort of dampened my good mood.

So I am starting to get significant comment spam..."significant" meaning that I've had to delete probably 15-20 spam comments from this site and my photoblog within the past 24 hours. Time to figure out the MT-Blacklist plugin, I guess.

Everyone is getting their own domain names! Most recent are Christina and Chris. I love it. These days, with registration and hosting available so cheaply, there's really no reason not to have your own little corner of the web.

I went running last night, as you can see from the previous post. It was hot.