Goodbye Tahoe

Tahoe was beautiful. :) We had great snow, great sun, and great skiing. Unfortunately, we had to come back home and go back to work. :(


As we were driving back to Clear Lake from the airport last night, I realized that I don't know when my next trip will be. I intend to go visit Gavin in California sometime in May, but I don't have firm plans there yet. Beyond that, I have ambitions to go to Wyoming again sometime this summer or fall, but again there are no firm plans.

Plus, we heard about some more potential problems on the shuttle that may threaten the July launch. I can't believe how long it is taking to get back to flight.

Fondest Dream

Is it wrong of me to hope to one day see Gavin write a blog entry like this on our blog? I mean, I'm tearing up just thinking about it. I particularly like #6.

Synopsis

Wow, I haven't written since Monday! What have I been doing? Well, let's see...

Tue. AM: New evap coil installed in the house A/C - bits of insulation all over my house
Tue. PM: One of the best sims of my career - lasted until 10 o'clock
Wed. AM: Attempted to get to work early - failed miserably
Wed. PM: Went to buy ski socks, then home for a bit, then Beauty and the Beast with Sarah arriving home at 11:45 PM
Thu. AM: Dogs to kennel, feel guilty guilty guilty, at work later than desired again

Yeah, so that's why I haven't written. And tonight we head off for Tahoe and skiing and Cari's parents' cabin, which I believe has no phone or internet access. It will be a few days before you hear from me again.

Rodeo Houston

I had a great time at the rodeo last night. The rodeo part was OK. It was college championship night, so the cowboys and cowgirls weren't quite as polished as the pros would have been. We did have to roll our eyes quite a bit at the announcers, who felt compelled to point out that getting stepped on by horses hurts and how one cowgirl has a bright future ahead of her because she's engaged to a steer roper (gag me). Probably the most amusing part, as advertised, was Becca's reactions to everything. "Oh the poor cow!" "Ha, ha, ha, I love the calf scramble."

The concert, however, was excellent! I love Gretchen Wilson. She opened with "Here for the Party", and Cari and I both immediately started dancing. Which prompted Becca to offer (insist) to change seats with me so we could dance together. :) It was a good concert. The only down point was that by the time she asked for the audience to sing "Redneck Woman", I didn't have much voice left.

Anyhow, my first Houston Rodeo was good. People keep saying "you've never been to the rodeo before?!", and I keep replying, "no, I've never been to this rodeo."

Play Ball

Softball was a blast last night. I went 4 for 4, all four hits being solid hits. (One was actually a fielder's choice, I think, but we don't really count E's and FC's on our team.) I think the secret of my success was that just before my first at-bat, I took a deep breath and told myself just to get the bat on the ball. Turns out, an easy swing getting the meat of the bat on the ball beats a hard swing and topping it any day. :) Plus, I got to catch, which I really like. AND nobody crashed into me at the plate. :)

I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Too much going on right now. I can't believe I'm going out of town AGAIN on Thursday. Sheesh, what a schedule.

Melted Stuff is Good

Melting Pot is soooooo good. We had a great four hour dinner last night, and it was incredibly fun. I think I'm still full. Seriosly, sitting here at my desk 14 hours later, I'm still full.

I have to buy a new evaporator coil for my air conditioner AGAIN this spring. The good news (sort of) is that since the home warranty company refused to fix it this time, I'm springing for it myself. Why is that good news, you ask? Well, I'm getting better, quicker service, it's costing about $1000 less than they quoted last time, and the tech told me there was no reason to replace other parts of the system because they were in good shape. Anytime someone says that your A/C is in good shape in Houston, it's good news.

I'm looking forward to the weekend. So far, the only thing I have on my schedule is the rodeo on Sunday. I'm going to try to keep it that way. I could really use the time at home.

Too Late, Take Two

Today has been long. First I had to take the pups to the vet. Roxy ratcheted up her vet nervousness another level. After about 1 minute sniffing the entire exam room, she cam and sat next to me and started trembling. She was leaning on my leg, looking up at me with scared eyes, her entire face vibrating. It was endearing and heatbreaking.

Just before I had to leave for work, Cari called to say that the dogs could come to her place tonight since I would have to work late. (As it turns out, that's a good thing because I'm not going to get to leave before 11PM at the earliest.) I dropped them off and set out for work. My drive in at 12:00PM should have taken 15-20 minutes. It took 45 min. There was construction and an accident on the road across the lake, so I sat in gridlock for 25 minutes. In Clear Lake! :P

So tired. So still at work. So over it.

Too Late

I didn't get home from work until 8:20 tonight. That sucks. The dogs think so, too. Roxy has been following me around since I got home. Poor things, tomorrow they have to go to the vet and then I have a night sim.

The Essence of my Frustration

Why, oh why, do we live in Houston. This morning, Gavin and I left his hotel at 9am. Our goal was a waterfall in the mountains above Pasadena. 20 minutes later we were on a trail, skipping back and forth over a creek up Millard Canyon. 40 minutes after leaving the trailhead we found the waterfall, a thin, pretty curtain of water falling about 25 ft into a small pool. We spotted a trail winding up the hillside above it, and walked another 45 minutes up the canyon. Just prior to turning around, we started to walk past the remnants of the snow that had fallen on the hills during the night. It was about 40 deg, but very comfortable while walking. We turned around, not having brought any food or water, and were back in Pasadena in time for lunch at 12:30.

Half a day. One waterfall. One canyon. Tons of fun.

Not Houston.

MOI

I'm in California tonight. Today I got to see the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) Mars Orbit Insertion (MOI) burn. Live and in person. Well, not actually live, because it takes the signal 11 minutes to travel to Earth from Mars. Watching 10 minute delayed space events is rather disconcerting for those of us that are used to space shuttle operations. We kept wanting to fast forward. We decided that physics is like God's TiVo. Although you can't rewind it. I suppose if you were God, though, you could rewind it if you wanted to.

Anyway, we're still not sure what we're going to do tomorrow. It's supposed to be a rainy, rainy day in southern California.

Busy

Work has been busy. Also, I'm starting to realize that unless the launch gets delayed soon when we get back from Tahoe the flight will be really close. I can see this wall of work approaching like a tsunami.

Our trip out to JPL has been the source of much confusion and discussion. I haven't packed yet. The dogs will freak when I do.

Strawberry Goodness

Cari is working nights this week, so we hosted Oscars and Daiquiris last night. The motor on my blender almost bit the dust on one round of daiquiris, so I have almost an entire bottle of rum and another of daiquiri mix sitting on my counter tonight. If I get really lonely, I could get pretty happy on that. :)

Cry Baby

So, I need to get back into the habit of blog posting. It always hits a low when I have vacation photos to mess with. :)

The weekend was fun. We ate out a lot. I was starting to have trouble pushing the thought of Gavin leaving town out of my head, though. I know I get to see him on Thursday and then after that it will only be two weeks before I see him in Tahoe, but there's something about putting your husband on a plane knowing that the time he'll be gone will be greater than the time he'll be here for the next 3/4 months. It reminds me of when we were dating long-distance and everytime we saw each other it was so great, but we knew it was only for a few days. I didn't like that; I didn't like that at all. That feeling was what made me realize I was going to marry Gavin.

So anyway, boo-hoo. Wah-wah. Woe is me. Exeunt.

Finally, Photos

I had some trouble getting my pictures up online. However, I've now posted everything to a photo album here. I've done nothing to the pictures yet except rotate everything right-side-up and create panoramics. I'll update it with descriptions later.

Westward, 'ho

Yesterday was my last day at JSC for a month. I'll be working out at JPL for much of the next four months, which I'm really excited about. I've been working with them remotely for several years, so, it will be great to work closely with them for a time. These guys have sent things to Mars before, and I think I'll learn a lot from them. Plus I'll get to hang out with my friend Andy who's been working there for a year or so. In June there will be a big technical review of our work, then I'll be heading back home to Houston.

Yesterday was also the viewing for Claude Graves, a man I greatly respected and am finding I greatly miss. He passed away while we were in South America, which I was somewhat expectant of. I didn't know his family, nor much of his life away from NASA. Claude played a pivotal role in the entry guidance design for the Shuttle, and was involved with the space program since the 1960s. He tried to retire once... but the next Monday he was back at work after he ripped up his retirement papers. He just loved what he did.

I find it very difficult going to viewings or funerals.

Today we cleaned up the house, to get ready for my parents' visit tomorrow and we'll be hosting the Oscar's party for the girls. I've been gathering odds and ends together for my trip. Clothes, books, papers, music, computer games. A webcam so I can virtually visit Jen or some of my other friends. Tonight another friend of ours is moving to Colorado to do something new.

Meanwhile I found this Chron.com blog entry interesting. Especially for Becca. I guess this means she'll be giving up coffee now too. Poor Becca. :)

Stalling

I'm having ftp problems, so my photos aren't on the net yet. Meanwhile, amuse yourself with this thing Becca posted. See if the person I think I am matches up with what you think here.