Flying Free

Yesterday I took the plane away from the airport by myself for the first time. It was really warm out, which makes the ride a bit bumpy. And there was a broken ceiling at 2600 ft, according to the weather recording, but when I got up to 1500 ft the clouds were looking kind of close. So, I took it kind of easy. I left the airport toward Alvin, and when I got across Highway 6, I just flew around in lazy circles for a bit. I did a couple S-turns across a drainage ditch, circled a couple trees, and did 2 legs of "slow flight". (I really nailed the slow flight, by the way!) Every time I turned the plane around I’d look out and feel better. "Yes, the airport is still there!".

After about 30 minutes of flying around, I headed back to the airport. All those nerves tire you out quickly! I did two landings. The first one was pretty good, although it was kind of bumpy coming in over the trees and I’m sure it looked kind of funny with the wings waggeling as I tried to keep centered. The second landing I got a bit off and ended up landing a bit on one wheel and then had a bit of trouble keeping the rollout straight as I slowed the plane.

I chalked it all up to not having flown in a couple weeks and the bumpy air. However, my instructor called me halfway home and told me he found a crack in one of the nosegear struts! Did I have any trouble with the rollout when I landed? Hmm. I couldn’t honestly tell him if I was having trouble because of my landing or because of the structural issue. I don’t think I landed hard enough to break anything, but... Guess I'd better look a little closer at things down there during my pre-flight from now on!

Anyway, the plane is grounded for a couple weeks, which really sucks because every week is closer to me not being able to fly for a while. If it takes him the full two weeks to fix the crack, I probably won’t get any more solo time before the baby is born. I’m thinking once I reach "full term" in a couple weeks that it will probably be a good idea to keep my instructor in the plane with me - just in case. :)

Home

I’m back in Houston, and rarely have I ever been so glad to be home after travel. The hotel had down pillows, which I normally really like. But, the down crushed down too much while I was sleeping to give the belly and the back the support they need these days, so I really didn’t sleep well the whole week. Plus, sitting in meetings all day 34 weeks pregnant is not very fun. And then there was the slight, but real, worry that I’d go into labor 6 weeks early and end up in a hospital in Colorado.

It was also disappointing to be in Colorado and have neither the time nor inclination to get out into nature at all. Under normal circumstances I would have shoehorned in a walk somewhere I could see Pikes Peak, at least. It acutally snowed the 2nd night I was there, although it didn’t stick. But it made me very aware that although I wasn’t stupid enough to go to Colorado in April without a coat, none of my coats zip up the front anymore.

After I got home last night, I fell asleep listening to Gavin suggest names for a boy. It’s getting down to crunch time now, and we aren’t very close to picking a boy name. We have very different tastes in the boy area. Gavin keeps suggesting names like Jefferson, Sherman, and Edison while I like names like Morgan, Liam, and Austin. We both kind of like Tucker, although I think Gavin was less enthused about that once he realized the name-calling potential in that one. And we came kind of close with my preference for Garrick and his for Garret.

Sigh. Maybe we’ll just call the kid “hey you”.

Plane Flights

3:00 PM

I’ve made it as far as Dallas. I now have a 2+ hour layover. It’s the middle of the afternoon, so it doesn’t do me any good as far as getting dinner goes. Probably about the time I get hungry, it will be time to get on the next plane. The meal for my flight is listed as “food for purchase”. I’m fairly forgiving so far as cafeteria-style food goes, but if I’m buying food I’d better be getting better than microwaved airplane food. So, I guess I’d better eat something before the plane whether I’m hungry or not, because I’ll definitely be starved by the time I get to Colorado Springs.

They had an upgrade to 1st class available for my Houston to Dallas leg, but not one on the next leg. I was very uncomfortable after an hour in first class, I’m sure I’ll be more so after 2 hours in coach. I should just consider – it could be more.

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9:00 PM

I was right – I was very uncomfortable in coach. Since when did those seats get so narrow? (Since my hips got so big.) It’s a good thing it was only two hours, and I slept for about an hour of it.

I’m quickly realizing that this trip is different that all the ones I’ve gone on before. On all the previous trips, there have been other JSC people I knew very well along. Well enough to “hang out” in the evenings. I think my dinners on this trip are going to be much more “networking” than “hanging out”. It’s strange.

Anyhow, I’m installed in my very nice hotel in downtown Colorado Springs. I’m also going to bed at 9:30 PM central time. Oh, well. It’s probably a good thing. I got up at 5:45 AM this morning, and I’m going to have to get up at about 6:00 AM tomorrow. I decided to spring for room service for breakfast – another first. I need breakfast, though. And I’m not sure I can wait until I’ve showered and everything, which leaves room service.

Social Studies

I'm off to Colorado Springs in a few hours for a work trip. I'm rather looking forward to studying the reactions of a room full of Air Force staff to the 7 1/2 months pregnant NASA rep. I actually packed clothing that I thought would make me look as un-pregnant as I can at this point. That's still pretty pregnant, but maybe I'll be able to avoid worrying people that I'll actually go into labor during the meeting.

We had a lovely weekend with my mom and sister here, as well as Gavin's aunt and uncle and grandmother. The shower was lovely, and Baby got tons of stuff! It's starting to feel like we're actually going to do this parent thing after all.

Lost Dog

Some ladies found a huge dog running along South Shore near our house this morning. (HUGE - see the Flickr stream!) I put him in the yard until we can get ahold of his owners; there are signs up for a lost dog that looks like him. According to the signs, he's been gone since April 12. He looks like wherever he's been, he's had plenty to eat.

I didn't realize until last night that iFest is here this weekend. I think we're going to go do that for the afternoon. That's a unique Houston thing for my mom and sister to see.

We're OK

What a crazy thing. We and everyone we know well are OK tonight.

Rid of the Cat

We had fish night last night for the first time in a while, which was fun. After dinner, we had a good time reminiscing about the semester Jason and Gavin lived together when we were co-ops. "Well, there was that time that Gavin asked me to go to the mall with him, and then after 20 minutes left me alone with Jason to go meet another girl..." And, everybody marveled at my swollen feet, which I had shamelessly displayed on top of the coffee table.

Cookie went home last night, so we are catless again. I made a sarcastic comment at a work gathering yesterday that we had to get home by 7:00 to "get rid of a cat". Gavin's boss took the comment at face value and started trying to convince me that the cat wouldn't hurt our baby, and that I just needed to steer clear of the litter, and... I had to quickly correct him that we were just cat sitting and that I wouldn't get rid of a pet preemptively like that. :)

Gavin dragged me in to work at 8:00 this morning, which is good because I need to get home tonight, clean, get groceries, and do some laundry in preparation for my mom and sister getting here tomorrow.

Blink!

Time is just flying by these days. I really don’t know how I’m going to get things done if the days pass so quickly. My week starts Monday morning and then, Blink!, it’s Wednesday. Blink!, it’s Friday!

Last night Gavin graciously agreed (like that better Gav?) to go to the baseball game with me, since Sarah and Jason were both busy at work. He spent the whole time playing with his camera, which is probably all that prevented him from getting really bored in about the 5th inning so I should not complain. I went to relieve my baby-compressed bladder and get food in the 4th inning, and the Astros decided to start scoring runs while I was gone. Luckily, there was more action to be had once I got back.

Two observations on games this year:

1) I’m going to have to start getting food before we sit down all the time, because they seem to run out fairly quickly. They were out of pizza and foot long hot dogs by the time I went out in the 4th last night.

2) Stadium seats and baby enhanced hips / swollen feet are not a good combination. I was pretty uncomfortable by the 7th inning or so last night.

Anyhow, I got to see another Astros win, so yea!

Perspectives from Iraq

After a year of only remotely following the Iraq situation, I've been more interested of late. I would like to see the coalition leave Iraq in better shape, and with a brighter future, than it had before we went in 4 years ago. The question these days is whether that is possible, or should we 'give up' and pull out, leading the Iraqis to determine their future themselves -- a move that might result in greater violence than we've seen under the coalition occupation.

A few weeks ago I read about Jane Stillwater, a grandmother from Berkeley, who had saved up her own money to head off to Iraq and blog from it. As you might expect from Berkeley, she's very anti-war, anti-Bush, and originally felt that the troops needed to come home right away. After spending several days there and learning what the situation was really like, she isn't sure when would be best to bring the troops home. I imagine she's not alone. She was witness to the aftermath of the Parliament bombing a few days ago. It's an interesting read, I recommend starting from late March when she arrives.

There's another reporter blogging from Iraq, Michael Yon. He doesn't post often, but his posts are often very revealing in terms of what life is like out of the Green Zone for the coalition forces.

Here's a 9 minute youtube clip of Pamela Hess, a UPI reporter, relating her recent journey to Iraq circa a month ago and comparing it to her visit in 2003. The recent trip obviously had a great emotional impact for her. Her message is essentially that regardless of the original rationale for deposing Saddam, there is a real need right now for security, that there are many people who need the help the coalition forces are trying to provide. Here's a short interview with her before her latest trip, for a contrast.

I have not yet found a good blog from an Iraqi, but I only started looking tonight.

Out of Breath

Since my mom and sister will be here on Friday morning, I started off the weekend by trying to work on cleaning the house a bit. We're going to have to vaccuum later in the week, but at least I could get all the stuff picked up, right? So, I started in the bedroom, which is one of the places that doesn't get cleaned a lot.

NEWS FLASH: Being 7 1/2 months pregnant makes you get tired easily!

After about 40 minutes of picking up stuff, dusting, etc., I had to take a break. I so need to call that maid that Becca uses. Why haven't I done that yet?

Aiming for the Grass

I went flying last night for the first time in 2 weeks. It was a good lesson. The winds were pretty light (at least compared to what I’ve had to deal with a lot), and the air was almost completely smooth. We started off by doing softfield takeoffs and landings again. I did better this time than the last time. I pulled the nose up higher on my softfield takeoffs, so we actually got in the air at a low airspeed. After pulling the airplane off the runway at as low an airspeed as possible, you level out and fly in ground effect until you’ve sped up to normal flying speed. I had a bit of trouble with staying low enough as I flew down the runway, but

Then we did shortfield takeoffs and landings. Shortfield landings are kind of nervous-making because you feel like you’re going to land short of the runway. You have to aim for the grass in front of the runway so that you hit right on the end. I never managed to hit right on the end, because I’d freak out at the last minute and pull the nose up early or add power, causing the plane to float further than desired. I did get the plane stopped in about 600 feet both times, though, so I wasn’t a complete failure.

I’ve got another lesson scheduled for Sunday. The idea for that one is to go do what Jose did Tuesday. My instructor is going to be out of town all week next week, and then I’m going to be out of town the week following. It would be good if I could get to the point where I can take the plane out by myself soon, because I probably don’t have a lot of time left before the baby break. The belly still isn’t getting in the way, but it sure is getting hard to reach stuff that’s not right in front of me in the cockpit. Like the air vents, or the handle to adjust the seat. And it takes me so long to climb out that my instructor can get out, go into the hanger to retrieve the tow bar, come back out and hook it on and still have to wait for me to finish climbing out.

Shower, In Every Sense

Our first baby shower Saturday turned out to be, well, literally a shower. On the coldest April day I ever remember in Houston. I think the temperature was in the low 40s for most of the time we were out there. And it was raining. Did I mention that we had planned a picnic? I can’t say “thank you” enough to all our friends that braved the weather to come.

I felt like I was short-changing the opening of all the cute baby stuff, but I think people were just as happy I hurried so they could all go home and get warm. Even I was pretty cold, and that takes a lot these days.

I filled up an entire laundry basket with baby clothes, towels, and blankets yesterday. I guess that’s a preview of how much laundry one tiny baby can generate. I also did pretty well at organizing all the stuff, so it’s at least not lying all over the living room today. I put together the two little chairs we got. It made me think that putting together the crib is going to be interesting. I’m not so much bendable anymore.

New Stuff

We got our new sofas yesterday! (See a picure on my Flickr stream.) I’m very excited. As it turns out, papasan chairs are hard to get out of while you’re growing a baby. The couches are a little deeper than the old ones, so we may need to do some creative shuffling to get the arm of the big couch out from behind the love seat without blocking access to the kitchen. All in all, though, they look as good as I thought they would in our living room. And they’re very soft.

Roxy has been getting into trouble when we leave her in the house for a few hours recently. Last week she ate about half a bag of trail mix, which I had admittedly left on an end table. That made for some interesting colors in the back yard. But last night, she stole a bag of chips off the kitchen table! She hasn’t taken anything off the table since she was a puppy. Gavin yelled at her good. I think she still remembered it this morning - she was tucking her tail as she walked past the table on her way outside.

At least last night was our last Lamaze class. We had to watch a video of a C-Section being performed. Ew! I really hope I don’t have to experience that. I’m going to try to go back to not thinking about the birth again for a couple months. Let’s concentrate on all the cute baby stuff we’ll be getting at our showers. Think about putting the crib together and setting up the diaper service. Pick a day care. Anything, everything else!

Motivation

Becca did me a favor tonight and shamed my lazy, pregnant butt into taking the dogs for a decently long walk. I have been really terrible about not getting exercise during the pregnancy. I'm just too lazy to make myself go out and do something unless it's scheduled. This is why playing softball and volleyball is really good for me. Playing co-ed rec softball may not be great exercise, but it's better than sitting on my sofa in front of the TV.

I had a great time at the baseball game last night, even though the result was less than thrilling. I'm excited that it's baseball season again. I like baseball. :)

Here's a little friendly constructive criticism for the Astros, though... I think we should gracefully retire the "Killer B's". I mean, there are only two legitimate Killer B's left - Biggio and Berkman. It was very sad last night when they tried to make the intro work by including Burke and Bruntlett. I mean, Bruntlett is in Round Rock right now. And I think Burke is a great kid; I'm really excited to see how he does playing every day this year. But, he hasn't quite earned Killer B status yet.

Let's let this team find their own identity. Come up with something new.

Out on the Town

I went to see Wicked (the musical) last night for the 2nd time. I went when it was in Houston last year, too. Glinda was much more, uh, high energy this time. She was very funny, though. I think I liked her better than the one from last year, but it was a bit over the top a couple times. She actually got so out of control once, that she (accidentally, I think) threw her want offstage. I say that I think it was accidental because Elphaba started laughing.

Anyway, if you haven’t seen it and you like musicals, I definitely recommend this one. It is one of my favorites that I’ve ever seen live. Maybe that’s because this is its first tour off Broadway, so it is still pretty lavish. It’s really good.

And tonight is the Astro’s opening day! I love the beginning of baseball season. I’m always so into it. The only bad thing is that I actually have something I have to do at work this afternoon, so I couldn’t try to talk Sarah and Jason into skipping out on the afternoon to go party at the street festival before the game. Oh, well - baseball tonight! Wahoo!