The Best Weekend Ever

I had a very good weekend.

There was not only one, but two Halloween parties. Mark brought 40 LB! of dry ice to my party. Then he put some in his mouth - stupid boy. I think maybe he got Sarah to try it. I think putting anything that can give you frostbite in 1 second flat into your mouth is insane. Halloween party #2 was at my friend Nujoud's house. I hadn't seen a lot of the people in that crowd for like a year, so that was pretty fun.

On Saturday, between the Halloween craziness, I had my first flying lesson!!! It was great. I taxied, took off *basically* by myself, did climbs, turns, descents, and one sloppy decending turn. I then flew the plane into the pattern at the airport, and watched my instructor land. He was telling me what he was doing to land the plane, but I was pretty overloaded at the time so I don't remember more than the basic sketch of the sequence. Something about 60 kts, two different flap settings, and then idling onto the runway. I think it might be a few more lessons before I'm ready to do that!

Anyway, it was totally, totally cool and I'm really excited that I'm finally doing this. Yea, me!

Sunday I passed on a movie outing because I was pretty tuckered out from the rest of the weekend. In fact, I was asleep on the couch when Becca picked Gavin up to go. The house is still a mess from the party Friday - not sure when I'm going to tackle that. I needed the lazy day yesterday, though.

Grown up?

Mark came over last night to help decorate for the Halloween party. The combination of the stuff I have and the stuff he has has made a marked improvement to the ambiance for this year. The entry in particular is pretty spectacular. It's going to be fun!

However, he did persist in insinuating that I am *old*. He kept asking questions like "I'm used to parties with 22-year-olds... What kind of music do adults usually have at parties." I kept thinking, my God I'm only a few years older than you! Is this what I have to look forward to for the rest of life? People 5 years younger than me (of which there will necessarily be more and more) thinking I'm ancient? When did 30 become too old to listen to the same music as 20?

Weeknight

Saw Jo last night at Mi Luna. She did her best to shock us all with the colorful life she's leading in Nac these days. :) On the way back home, Christina accused Becca, Cari, and I of not being capable of talking about anything except work. This is the danger of hanging out with co-workers all the time. It's a difficult pitfall to avoid.

I have to get ready for the Halloween party tonight. This week has been busier than I expected. At least the house is mostly still clean from last weekend.

Flying Back West

Next week I fly back out to JPL for a few days, talking about software and then the Mars atmosphere. Should be a nice trip although it will take nearly the whole week. I get to come back to the Halloween party that Jen and Mark are co-hosting. Maybe I'll find a costume out there.

Today Jen and I lazed around the house, watching football (Huskies lost in overtime, A&M won in overtime) and last week's Battlestar Galactica episode. Perhaps one of the most exciting TV I've ever seen! It was great. I went back and rewatched a few scenes. Adama is my hero.

Tomorrow my parents come down for lunch and then perhaps I'll go over to Ellington Field to catch the end of the airshow. If the weather is good tomorrow morning Jen may have her first flying lesson.

Weighty Letter

I love poorly written spam. Here's a few excerpts from one I got today at work...


Weighty letter. You require to read.

Please read it. Today is the exact day to buy that stock.
Read that note attentively. Here you will find the intimate news about GDKI. Please Read this news.

In an violent attempt to stay ahead of the game, the Corporation moved fast in
taking on the already triumphant and rising famous person. Sean "P.Diddy" Combs tells that it is pleasantly to deal with these guys. They as anybody else know entertainment industriousness and exactly know what is required for the American spectators. He also emphasizes individuality of his fresh album Press Play and tells that the appearance of this album on october 17 will make an effect of the blasted bomb.

Overheard

Overheard at work today:

"I know this woman who was attacked by three hens..."

God Bless Texas

That said, though, I have some sympathy for that woman. I've been attacked by birds a couple times in my life, and it always leaves you feeling vulnerable. Like the universal order is out of wack.

Damn geese.

A Good Day

Saturday was great for three reasons.

First, Jen's birthday party. Four cars, five dogs, and ten people (Becca, Sarah, Jose, Buzz, Debbie, Troy, Val, and not-so-little Tayne) convoyed down to Bolivar. It was a popular trip when we were co-ops but I don't think we had been back since. It was a cloudy, windy Saturday and so we pretty much had the beach to ourselves. The dogs ran free, Tayne went swimming, and everyone pretty much had fun.

Second, A&M won against Missouri! We watched the first 15 minutes of the game, it looked like it was going to be good. I had just been commenting to Sarah and Rich on Friday that I thought A&M might be ranked this year (much to their amusement) and, viola, now they are.

Finally, after we got home late in the evening, Jen gave the dogs a bath while I drove to the store to grab some dogfood. While I was there I grabbed some donuts and, on a whim, wandered past the DVD section. For months, nay, years, I've been asking for the original Gojira on DVD. In 1954 Japan made perhaps the greatest of all monster movies, considered by many to be a cinematic masterpiece, later to be re-edited and released in the US as Godzilla. But the original Japanese version, with subtitles, has never been available in the US. UNTIL NOW! There it was on the shelf, a sleek looking box with 2 movies, both the original Japanese and American versions of my favorite monster of all time! Naturally, I bought it. I've been grinning about it ever since. It's sitting next to my keyboard at the moment.

Gojira party at our place soon.

Party Time

Today, all 3 dogs have done pretty much nothing but sleep. They're all worn out from a great beach party yesterday. I'm a bit worn out myself, and I've been happy to relax on this rainy afternoon and listen to an internet replay of the UW - OSU football game. It's 4th quarter right now, and things are looking not-so-good.

On the way home from Bolivar yesterday, I remarked to Gavin that my 20-year-old self would probably be horrified to know that my 30-year-old self would leave the beach at 9:30PM - probably about the same time as I would have been arriving 10 years ago. Still, I didn't get to bed until midnight, which is about as late as I can go these days.

I guess life goes on.

Wild Blue Yonder

For Gavin's 30th birthday, I gave him a digital SLR. It was a big hit, and he was feeling some pressure to give me something special for my birthday. For a while, I couldn't really think of anything that I really wanted. Then, after a few weeks and a few conversations with Becca it hit me.

In high school and college, I always assumed that once I got a job and had some money, I'd get my private pilot's license. Flying in a small plane has always been one of my favorite treats. But, I met Gavin and we got married. We didn't really have much extra money that first year. And then by the 2nd year we were working on buying the house. And then the 3rd year we were busy owning the house. And then I just kind of had put it out of my mind.

The idea had been growning on me for a while, and I finally realized a couple weeks ago that the answer to my birthday quandary was clear. Flying lessons.

So this afternoon, I have an appointment to meet with a very highly recommended flight instructor. We're going to talk over the process, and probably set up my first lesson. I've still got some lingering concerns with the time commitment. But the way I see it if I can get to the point where I've soloed, then I can go at my own pace. If it takes me two years to get my license, so be it. In the meantime, I'll be flying and that's the whole point.

30-Something

I think the light sensor in my camera is shot. It's getting harder and harder to take good pictures in all but the most perfect of lighting. Almost everything is coming out either too light or too dark. It's not too suprising, I guess. Gavin bought me that camera for my birthday in 2001. I'll have to think about which camera I'd like to put on my Christmas list. That sounds fun. :)

Yesterday was pretty busy for a birthday. I had to get to work at 6AM for an early, early sim. I went home at 3PM, which was nice, and talked to my sister on the phone for a while until Gavin got home. Then dinner (nothing special), volleyball (we won our first match and game!), back home for cheesecake (mmmm), and bed. More elaborate celebrations to come this weekend - don't worry!

October Sky

Last night's sunset was one of the best I'd seen in a while. I was driving to pick up some cheesecake for Jen's birthday, so I was sans camera. First there was a brilliant, complete rainbow that rose like the Arch of St. Louis over the nearby town Kemah, courtesy of the sun being on the horizon. As I filled up my car with gas and admired it, lots of families stopped their cars in the parking lot to show their kids the rainbow. As I later walked out of the store with our cheesecake, the clouds had turned spectacular shades of red and orange and yellow, with deep blue sky peeking out from behind. There were a few cars that had trouble following the lines of the road as their drivers were distracted by the sight.

I always love October in east Texas. The weather is very pleasant and, I'm not sure why, but the late afternoon sunlight is always fantastic. Maybe the air is clearer, maybe there are fewer clouds to block the sun, I'm not sure. It also makes for memorable sunsets such as yesterday's.

Sommerville

After much convincing on my part, and a last-minute search for camping reservations in the fall in TX, Gavin consented to go camping this weekend. I'm not one to get the last-minute jitters about going out of town. If we haven't actually made firm plans the week of the trip though, Gavin usually thinks up reasons that he doesn't want to go. He's always glad we went after, though.

We went out to Lake Sommerville. We'd been there once before, exactly one day after we adopted Zoya. We took a new dog with us this time, too. We're pet sitting for some friends who are in France for 10 weeks, so Oscar got to go camping on his 2nd day away from his owners.

Lake Sommerville is nice. It's fairly close to Houston. It's got lots of hiking, although Gavin's enjoyment of one of the hikes we took was somewhat lessened by the fight he had with a stubborn tick afterward. I'm just glad we didn't "waste" the Columbus day weekend by staying in town.

Battlestar Galactica

I don't watch TV much these days. There are a few exceptions. Daily Show and the Colbert Report. Numbers. And Battlestar Galactica.

I missed out on Battlestar when it first came out. Enough friends recommended it to me that I watched an episode, found it interesting enough to borrow some DVDs, and that was it. Now Jen and I are both hooked, ready for the third season premiere. A few friends are coming over tonight, so, I must go make sure that our sound system will work with the TV direct (we originally set it up for just DVDs).

There's a lot of hype about the show in the news the last few days. For once, I'm inclined to believe the hype. The first two seasons were great stories with characters that seem real, with the second being stronger than the first. I would be surprised if they didn't get even better.

Universal Truth

You know what's annoying? Meetings around lunchtime. But, it's so easy to schedule meetings then because everyone hates meetings around lunchtime. So nobody schedules meetings between 10:30 and 1:00 until all the other slots are full and they have no choice. So it's usually last-minute meetings that end up there.

Which just means that you get blindsided by the noon meeting. Suprises are not always good.

00 - Dark - 30

I've almost made it through my single overnight shift. Nothing much
happened. Well, to be honest, the building with the simulator in it
suffered a power failure that lasted most of the night. Which isn't
nothing for the poor electricians that had to come to work in the middle
of the night to try to fix it, but it sure made my night less
interesting.

I'm fighting hard to stay awake right now. I'm at the point where just
thinking the word "sleep" sends shivers of anticipation through my body.

In Denial

We had a pleasant weekend visiting with friends. We had what basically amounted to a slumber party in Fort Worth, with a bunch of us from Houston driving up to visit our friends that moved to D-FW a few years ago. I lost the staying-up-late contest, falling asleep in a chair in a very loud room full of people.

It's back to work after what seemed like a very short weekend. Next weekend is Columbus day, though, so we're talking about going camping for the weekend. Now we just need to figure out where to go last-minute in October in TX (not easy).

I won't talk about the biggest news of the day. I am trying to concentrate on other, less heart-rending things.