Urgent

I've had a somewhat low motivation for work this week. I think it's because after flying two missions in two months, we now have to wait until 12/7 for another launch attempt. Still, though, that's better than how things have been in the last few years.

That being said, though, I've wished every day this week that I could just play hookey. The weather is really nice, and it would be wonderful just to hang out in my backyard all day. (Nicer if we had a deck, but that project is still in its infancy - pre-natal actually.)

So, I was pretty happy this morning that today is Friday, looking forward to a fairly easy day with only one meeting.

Then I got to work.

It's like miniature bombs have been going off on my desk all day. Every time my phone rings or my e-mail pings, it's something new and annoying. And urgent.

Mow Pattern

I think the grass in Pitsburg right now is probably the coolest mowing pattern I've ever seen. They've mowed a giant baseball into the outfield with circles radiating from it. To see it (kind of) go here and click on the "Ausmus' sac fly" video. I've heard that some clubs are using chemicals now to do the mowing patterns. I wouldn't be suprised if this one was chemically enhanced. Still cool, though.

It really works

OH - MY - GOD!

It seems the gods of baseball really would like for the Astros to keep the $750 I had to pay them for post-season tickets in advance. I can't believe what's going on right now. All hail the magic glow skull.

Autumn

Fall has always been my favorite season. It was my favorite even back when I lived in Wyoming and fall was short and forbode of winter. But in Texas, fall is like a drink of cool water after slogging through the neverending desert of summer.

As I write this, I am sitting in my backyard basking in the low humidity. I came home early today with no other purpose than to come out here and sit. Maybe read a book. Just savoring the lack of sweatiness.

Bow Down

Today was a good sports day.

The Astros won in the bottom of the 9th with a Luke Scott walk-off homer - the first of the season for the 'Stros. That places them in 2nd in the NL central and 3rd in the wild card. They seem determined to rekindle my hope for the post-season. It's not quite there yet. Even if they sweep the Cardinals this weekend, which I think they can do, they still have to win 4 more than the Cards in the next week to win the division. Or 5 more than both the Dogers/Padres and Phillies. And this must be done in Philidelphia. The Astros haven't had much luck against the Phils this year.


The icing, though, came with a TELEVISED Washington vs. UCLA football game. Which the Huskies WON. Which makes them 3-1, 1-0 Pac 10. I knew Tyrone Willingham would turn things around. I am buoyant, at peace. GO DAWGS!

Oh, and the A/C got fixed this afternoon, which is a good thing because it was HOT last night.

Woe

I got home from a very satisfying baseball game last night to a hot house. Yes, our A/C has decided to take the plunge. I have meetings today, so we're going to have to wait for tomorrow for the guy to come out and take a look. Which means that it probably won't be fixed until Monday. Which means that we'll be sweating tonight too. Sunday night it's supposed to be cooler again (low 65 deg).

So, we opened all the windows last night and made the best of it. The dogs provided some mild amusement when the wind blew the bedroom door shut...

BANG!

Zoya: bark! (Looking toward the front of the house - away from the bedroom)

Roxy: Bark! (Looking where Zoya's looking)

Me: Quiet!

Zoya: BARK!

Roxy: B! A! R! K!

Me: QUIET! QUIET! QUIET!


Although it has been somewhat cooler over the last week, the temperature last night was not cold enough to make sleeping with the windows open terribly comfortable. At least there was a breeze last night. Although apparently Roxy was totally put out by the curtains blowing in the corner where she usually sleeps. She retreated into the front room.

Tagged out at home!

So I played softball tonight. It was fun. I tried too hard the first game, and then did great the second game when I relaxed. Too bad the first game was with my team and the second game was when I substituted for another team since Jen was still at the Astros' game.

I got to play third base today! I played it for a few games a couple of years ago, and really enjoyed it then. Of course, I had little idea of what to do this time since I didn't remember much. Thanks to some pointers from Matt and Nick, I did okay. I helped with an out in the first inning and later I overthrew first base when I probably should have just held the ball. My hitting sucked. The game ended and I wasn't tired at all, since I hadn't gotten on base and I hadn't run much since I was playing in-field. I was kinda bummed, I felt like I could have done better.

So when the team we just played needed two more for their next game, I said sure. They were nice people, said they saw me play 3rd and asked if I wanted to play shortstop. Well, they were very generous, but I didn't want to mislead them (or get frustrated trying a new position), so I declined and said I'd be best at outfield.

"How does left field sound, Gavin?" "Sure, Chris." As we jogged out to play the other sub, Donna, also from my team who had seen me drop several balls in the outfield the week before, mentioned to me that left field got a lot of fly balls. "I could use the practice," I said with much bravado. She also mentioned to me that we were playing against the only undefeated team in our league. (Gulp.)

My first at-bat went right to the pitcher, but I got hits the rest of the time. In the outfield we played alright, and then... fate struck. It was getting dark, and the ump noticed that some of the outfield lights weren't working. We couldn't play safely in the dark, so, he moved us to the other open field. Which is the co-ed rec field, with the fenceline much closer and the bases are a bit closer together. After playing in the competitive field, the co-ed field seemed tiny! But, it meant that we didn't have to run too far in the outfield. I caught 4 fly balls with some nice spotting by Donna, let one bounce off my glove, and then made an awesome play backing up third.

One guy was running from first to third and so I sprinted in from left field towards third... seconds later to see the ball overthrown past third and rolling along the left fence. In moments I was on the ball, just as the runner left third and ran for home. I scooped up the ball, fixed my feet, and hurled it perfectly to the pitcher who was able to make the tag a few feet in front of home! It was awesome! My best play of the season so far!

We ended up tying the other team, went into extra innings, and managed to beat them by one run! I caught the last out. I think playing on the smaller field helped us win, but hey, we'll take it. It was a lot of fun. I need to stop trying so hard when I play on my team and just relax a bit. Until next week!

Texas Proud

Texas is so strange.

Apparently, there is a state law called the "Sportsman's Rights Act" which makes it illegal "to intentionally interfere with another person lawfully engaged in the process of hunting or catching wildlife."

OK, so Texas is big on guns and hunting and places where they release birds from traps so that the hunter doesn't even have to bother to look for the game. So, I can understand that the law exists. Probably at some time in the past there was an animal rights group that went out with cowbells and whistles and tried to scare all the game away from a group of hunters. And so the state legislature passed a law to make that illegal, because nothing is more un-American or un-Texan than interfering with a person's basic right to shoot things.

But in the particular case that was in the paper this morning, the Sportsman's Rights Act is being used to fine a man who's kids "play loud music and ride ATVs" on HIS OWN PROPERTY before 12AM and after 4PM during hunting season. The ranch next door apparently complained that the noise was scaring off the deer.

' "I kind of got mixed feelings out of it," Morris said. "Basically what they're saying is, during deer season you got to keep your kids indoors. You could sneeze and scare a deer off." '

It's completely absurd. Of course, I shouldn't make too much fun of Texas, because this easily could have happened in Wyoming as well. Except that I think people in Wyoming basically take it for granted that you just go somewhere further from people to hunt so that there's no noise.


P.S. In case anyone is about to send me a nasty comment about hating hunters, I just want to state for the record that I have no problem with hunting. I don't see the appeal myself. I particualrly don't see the appeal in going to one of those places that releases game right in front of your face to shoot at. But as long as people use the meat, I don't see any problem without people going out and killing their dinner themselves. It's probably more humane than how the beef in the grocery store is produced.

"Break right, Blue Two!"

A few nights ago my sister Lauren and I relived our youth, courtesy of an old video game and the internet. We used to love playing the old Star Wars computer games X-Wing and TIE Fighter, where you fly as a starfighter pilot and complete various missions. LucasArts came out with a 'sequel' of sorts in the late 1990s, X-Wing Alliance, which has a great single-player game. But the multiplayer aspect is awesome!

My sister and I set up Ventrilo, which allowed us to talk to each other over the internet while we played our game. Jen was sitting down stairs and couldn't believe how clear Lauren sounded. It was like she was sitting in the same room with me! Seriously, who needs long-distance phones these days?

Over the next several hours Lauren and I figured out how to fly again. As it turns out, flying a starfighter is like riding a bike. You really don't forget. Soon we were deep in a swarm of TIE fighters, 10 Rebels versus 40 Imperials! There was green laser fire, red laser fire, explosions left and right! The Imperial March boomed over the loudspeakers as TIE reinforcements arrived! Every once in a while we'd call out for help, or just scream crazily like Han Solo! It was very fun. :)

Hope

I got a Travelocity alert today that plane tickets to Denver can be had for $143 - roundtrip. If only I had unlimited vacation time!

I have high hopes that college football will not be completely depressing this year. The Huskies are 2-1. That means we only have to win 4 more games to be bowl elligable. Admitedly, four more is twice what we won all year last year, but they really do look better.

The ghosts of Huskies past are now going to haunt me for just hoping for bowl elligibility. There was a time when anything less than the Rose Bowl was a bitter disappointment. How times do change.

Take That

The following was printed in the Houston Chronicle in response to this article.

OK, I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and hope that your jab at the astronauts for having "butterfingers" and losing bolts was meant in jest and that you are truly not that ignorant of the complexity of the tasks they are performing. If not, try this easy simulation at home and find out how many bolts you lose:

Go buy a piece of ready-to-assemble furniture from Ikea with 240 bolts. Suspend the pieces from the rafters in your garage. Go don (that means "put on" in NASA-speak) a ski suit and ski gloves and a football helmet with face mask on. (Remember: You can't cheat by using your mouth to hold anything temporarily or you will die when you remove your spacesuit helmet.) Put all the bolts in a pouch tethered to your ski suit. Stand on a ladder (you can tie yourself to the ladder for safety purposes), and see if you can put the thing together without dropping a bolt on the floor. Remember, there is no floor in space . Consider anything you drop during your simulation to be floating in space from now on. Good luck.

Susan Hanley, Houston


The columnist claims that he was kidding.

Smile

I've been on call for most of this shuttle mission. I worked two shifts in the back room at the beginning. I'll probably be in the back room for the next couple days, too. Yesterday and today, I worked in the front room (once as FDO and once as TRAJ) to give a some of the other folks a day off. And I managed to work it so that I was FDO on picture day. :)

Everyone is very excited to see the pictures from the flyaround tomorrow. For the first time in 4 years, the ISS will look different when we leave than it did when we came. It's nice to be making progress on construction again.

Weakness

I've been talked into working a shift on Saturday so that one of my co-workers can take a day off. And, incindentally, go to the UT/Rice football game. :) It won't be too bad, but I will have to get up at 6:00AM or so - much earlier than my Saturday norm!

I have a weakness for shoes. A while back I bought a pair of shoes on a whim, which Becca calls my "Jackie-O shoes". The impulse part is that I normally have a very strict rule about all my shoes being at least somewhat comfortable. I have to be able to walk in them. My Jackie-O shoes, though, not so much. I see them in the closet and put them on because they're cute. I then spend all day wishing I was wearing steel traps on my feet because they'd hurt less.

Oh well, nobody's perfectly rational.

Wind Eye

Busy morning. I stayed up until 2am working on the layout for my first ever photoblog, then I took the dogs to the vet this morning at 9am. Roxy was fine, but Zoya was very scared. I wonder if Roxy is more comfortable around strangers when I'm there, and Zoya is the same with Jen? They both also gained 10% weight from the last time we took them. I blame Becca's house with its fabulous cooking.

Anyways, here's the link to my photoblog. It is currently driven by Blogger, although I suspect I will continue to make changes to the template. Feel free to make any comments on the layout, etc. The photo on there today is actually an old scanned image from a picture I took in 1997, so, it isn't the best quality. I'm going to have to figure out a simple way to allow people to flip between previous and next posts.

Desires

Today I'm in the office, only on call for the rest of the mission. It's nice to be working a mission and still getting to keep normal hours. And since I worked Saturday and Sunday, I can even go home early if I want. (I have no doubt that I will want.) It's starting to cool down here - highs only in the upper 80's this week.

Gavin is after me about what I want for my birthday. I think he's feeling a little pressure since he loves the camera I got him for his birthday last week so much. The thing is that I can't think of anything that big I want right now. My computer and camera are still hanging in there, and I want to wait a bit longer to replace them.

There must be something. What secret, burning desire has stolen into my heart while I wasn't looking?

Pictures from Colorado

by jmendeck

Speaks to me Today

Like the picture, love the caption

At least somebody's flying

World without color

For Sarah...

Grammar

Pictures from Casper

by jmendeck

Decision Point

Today was frustrating. And depressing. And amazing.

The people who make the big decisions about human spaceflight have a TOUGH JOB. Anyone that thinks these things are obvious has no idea. There are lives at stake. A lot of money is at stake. International agreements are at stake. There is pressure from the public, pressure from the congress, and pressure from engineers. Nothing is ever 100% for sure.

This is why I have such a hard time with people who want to condemn decisions made by others. What I see is a lot of people that are never put on the spot like this jawing off about how this or that or the other thing is so obvious and those jerks at NA*SA don't have a clue. I believe those people would look like a deer in the headlights if they were ever asked to put their asses on the line for a decision like the being made this week.

Every flight controller knows that anyone can make a bad call. And that a bad call can have devastating consequences. Usually, my decisions aren't so big. There is more guidance available from the past. But there's always the chance. And so I'm reluctant to say "they should have known". Because most of the time, you don't.

Kids Say

OK, so it's way past time for me to post already.

I talked to my sister yesterday. She says that Caroline has been asking for us ever since we left Wyoming. She was in the grocery store the other day, and there was a guy that looked *a bit* like Gavin. Caroline starts yelling "Gabbin! Gaaaabbbin!" across the store. Jessica had trouble convincing her that it wasn't Gavin. They also took a car trip over the holiday weekend, and as soon as they buckeled Caroline into her car seat she started demanding "Jen! Come Jen!". Doesn't that just melt your heart?

I had a busy weekend. Here's the short version...

Sundance Grill in Seabrook is good, but the birds are mean (I got pooped on and pecked at) and the tiki tourches catch on fire - more than they're supposed to, I mean.

Talladega Nights is 60% funny, 15% boring, and 25% over the top.

We were the "Bubba Burger Lucky Row" at the Astros game. We got t-shirts and coupons for frozen hamburgers shaped like Texas.

I hate cleaning.

One more of my friends is 30 now.

Josh went to DC, and I ate lots of fried stuff.