Understanding

"I can explain it to you again, but I can't understand it for you."

I heard that Mike Griffin said this to a reporter during a press conference once. On the one hand, I laugh because I know exactly how he feels. A few days ago, I was reading the comments on this post Wired's science blog, and I got so mad I had to quit reading. I don't understand how people can possibly think that NASA is just being dense about the foam falling off the tank. Don't you think that if it was easy, we would have fixed it long ago? I mean obviously we just love having to go through all this analysis and discussion every mission.

On the other hand, it's the job of the administrator to make congress and the nation understand the difficult technical issues that face us. It's his job to explain why it's so hard for us to solve these problems. It's unfortunate that it seems to be difficult to get a person into the position that both has the technical skills to understand the problem and has the people skills to explain it.

lit'l drummer girl

Carina's been doing well today. Still has a head cold but she's in good spirits. She was spoiled with lots of snuggle time today after her feedings. After her late afternoon feeding I brought her upstairs and played some music on the computer while she laid on a blanket with one of her toys. When Eileen Iver's fiddle music started playing I got up and "danced" (jumped?) around the room, much to Carina's amusement. Then later for Hotel California I brought out the bongo drums and she watched those intently for several minutes as I "played" (banged!). I suspect she'll show more of her mom's musical talent than her dad's lack of talent.

Freak out!

So, everybody is freaking out about Hurricane Dean. I can't work up much excitement yet. It could basically end up anywhere from Louisiana to Mexico. I figure our chances of another evacuation only 2 years after Rita are probably slim.

Nevertheless, it has prompted me to consider our evacuation supply situation. In the past, we've always just said we'll throw the camping bins in the car and then pack up all the non-essential but important stuff like our computer hard drives and photos. We definitely need to update the bins for the baby, though. It wouldn't be good to evacuate and then realize we didn't have any diapers or formula with us. So, I think that will be my project for the weekend.

Carina got my cold, but she is such a trooper! You can hear all the congestion in her head, and she gets fussy sometimes. But, overall she's still the happy little girl we know and love. We still get smiles when she's done eating. We are soooo lucky she's such an easy baby!

Exhausting

I'm so exhausted. Carina caught my cold, and she was a bit fussy last night with all the congestion. She kept me up from about 4:00 to 5:30. Fortunately, Grammy and Grandad Mendeck were down for the day, so she didn't have to go to day care. She didn't sleep much, though, so she's pretty exhausted now. Maybe she'll sleep all night.

My two shifts for the mission were just about right. Working console is much more fun than working in the office, but it's just a bit more time, a bit more stress. I don't really need either right now. I'm trying not to speculate on what the big gouge in the belly is going to do to our ability to launch again soon, not to mention any problems with the entry for this mission. I just hope the analysis comes back and says this isn't a problem.

Different Life

As I was putting Carina to bed tonight after dinner out with Becca and Cari, I was thinking about some of the things that changed in my life after becoming a parent. At dinner Carina spit up on me, which caused Becca to make the comment "babies are gross". So started my list of things that change when you become a parent. Any parents out there have ones to add?


Things that change when you become a parent
-----------------------------------------------

Spit-up is no longer gross, but a fact of life.

Milk is no longer something that just comes from cows.

You believe making a fool of yourself by buzzing like a bee is worth it for nothing more than a smile.

Bottles are now evil things that have to be washed with much greater frequency than the other dishes.

"Poopy" becomes part of your daily vocabulary.

Doing laundry every day no longer seems excessive.

Your criteria for wearing pants again becomes not if the baby spit up on them, but can you tell the baby spit up on them.

You make a list like this and then say in all seriousness - it's great!

Show-Off

Aren't I cute? Would you like to see more? Well, you're in luck. My mommy loves to show me off.

Sick

I must have a wimpy immune system. I have the second summer cold I've caught in a month. And, like usual, I didn't just catch a little cold. I got laid up for two days and ran a fever. I just hope that Carina's tendency toward crankiness today doesn't mean that she caught it too.

So, I've been home sick 3 days in my first full week back at work. That must be some kind of record.

Letting Go

I’m rather depressed today. Carina had her 2-month checkup yesterday, and the doctor wasn’t happy with the amount of weight she’s gained over the last few weeks. He suggested that after I nurse her, to try giving her a bottle and see if she will take a significant portion. So this morning, I nursed her for her typical 40 minutes, and then gave her a bottle. She drank 5 oz; that’s pretty much a whole feeding. Basically, she's playing with me because she likes being close, but waiting for the bottle to eat for calories.

The upshot is that we’re probably about at the end of the breastfeeding journey. I can’t see myself nursing for 40 min and then bottle feeding for another 20 min. This is kind of ironic, because back when I was feeding her 6 times a day, I wasn’t enjoying breast feeding too much. It was too much time, often in the middle of the night, I was too tired, etc. Since I went back to work, the number of direct nursing sessions has been cut down to two - one in the morning and one in the evening. Since that reduction, I’ve been quite enjoying breast feeding. Enough that I haven’t really minded the pumping at work, etc. So, when I was doing it all the time I wanted to quit, and now that it looks like I may not be able to do it anymore I’m going to miss it.

And so begins the mother's lament - My baby is growing too fast!

Back in the Cockpit

I went flying this morning! I flatter myself that I did tolerably well for someone who hasn't been out in 2 1/2 months. The clouds were a bit low, if spotty, so it took us a while to find somewhere to practice. I did a couple turns, some slow flight, a couple stalls, and then we went back and I did a few landings. The first one was a bit rough, but after that I figured it out again.

The weekends are too short. I can't believe tomorrow is Monday already. Working half-time for a while would be really cool. However, I'm perfectly convinced that it's impossible to do my job part-time. I was trying to work a 30 hour week last week, and I ended up with a couple extra hours because I just couldn't get out on time. And I left a bunch of stuff undone.

Smile!

We finally got a picture of Carina's smile. She's been doing it for a couple weeks, but it has been tough capturing it.



I'm going flying tomorrow, if the weather is OK (knock on wood). It will be good to get out again. Some progress has been made on the written test front. I'll get there, eventually.

"... and stay out of politics!"

Last year I saw that Jim Baker, Reagan's Chief-of-Staff and Secretary of Treasury, Bush 41's Secretary of State, had a book out. "Work Hard, Study... and Keep Out of Politics!" After blitzkrieging through Harry Potter, this book has been a fun and different read. It covers his life before and during public service. Baker has some great perspective on the fall of Communism and the first Gulf War. He also touches upon several presidential campaigns and the Florida recount in 2000. But what I really enjoyed are the stories of President Reagan. From pp159:

The president often directed his wit at his own alleged frailties in a way that charmed his friends and disarmed all but the most humor-impaired critics. [...] After a U.S. fighter plane shot down two Libyan jets one night, controversy erupted because the president had not been awakened. "I've laid down the law, though," he joked later at a dinner for White House correspondents. "From now on... no matter what time it is, wake me... even if it's in the middle of a cabinet meeting.

It turns out he wrote a larger book in 1995, The Politics of Diplomacy, which goes in much greater detail concerning his role in the global events between 1989 and 1992. He wrote it to serve as a historical record and analysis of his work as Secretary of State. I think it might be a good read as well.