Daily: March 2007 Archives

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life is good...

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

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

Or maybe it is.

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

My mission is cursed. :(

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four things:

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

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

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

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

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

So I got up early for nothing.

Grr!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sigh.

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

(Note the incredibly sexy sunburn.)

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, enough work talk. Too much work talk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

See? Small stuff. Details.

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

I guess everyone has their crazy moments.