Big Day

Gavin's been quiet about it, but I'm excited so I'll blow his horn for him. He got a special award at work this week. It involves VIP travel for him and his spouse (me!) to go see a launch this spring. That's right, SFA!

The competitive part of me notes that this is the third time I've gotten to go to a cool space awards thing because of my husband. That would be him 3, me 0. But let's be honest here - he totally deserves it. I'm good at what I do, but I haven't done anything above and beyond. He has.

Anyway, at first I was totally bummed because the launch that was on his award is the mission I'm lead for. No way I can go to Florida for that launch. Fortunately, it wasn't a big deal to change it to the next launch. So, now I get to go. Yea!

For the current launch date, the window opens at about 8:30 AM Florida time. If the launch slips a week or so, it should be a night launch! :)

United 93 (2006)

3.5/4

This movie was a little controversial when it came out; many voiced their opinion that they felt it was too soon from the events of September 11th to make a movie about it. 5 years is enough time for some. I was interested in seeing it, but I was at JPL for several months and didn't make the time for it.

This movie is about the fourth plane, which was seized by hijackers and didn't make it to its target. It is filmed as if you were there, in the plane, in the military control center, and in the Boston and New York FAA control centers. You see the flight attendents arrive to prepare the aircraft for its first flight of the day. You see the passengers board. You see the flight controllers track the 4200 planes on the Eastern seaboard. Just a typical Tuesday.

It all feels very real. I felt my heart pumping as I watched the FAA flight controllers realize that, after American flight 11 went below their radars near Manhattan, that it must have been the first plane that hit the World Trade Center. You see the military commander deal with his frustration as he tries to get 4 fighters airborne -- with or without weapons -- and clarify their rules of engagement. You see some of the miscommunication that can happen between groups in critical situations with little information and delays in getting that information. Turns out they used real FAA and military controllers for those scenes.

I was feeding Carina her last meal at the very end of the movie, with her back to the TV and the sound turned down. I was watching the passengers realize that the hijackers have killed the pilots and that they're on a suicide mission, and as the passengers and crew attempt to retake the plane. Carina looked very concerned at me at that point, probably because of my expression. I gave her a bittersweet smile and said, "It's okay, Daddy's watching some Americans be brave."

Bad Cooking?

My cooking made Carina throw up last night.

All right, it probably wasn’t the cooking. She still has issues with texture, and it was new and probably a bit too lumpy for her. Still, she took a few spoon fulls, made a face, gagged, and threw up.

Anyway, Carina is officially 8 months old now. 8 months! That’s 2/3 of a year! It definitely doesn’t feel like it has been that long since she was born. Although I am starting to get nostalgic about when she would happily cuddle in my arms. I get about 5 minutes when she first starts sucking down a bottle, but that’s about it. Even though she isn’t crawling yet, she doesn’t really want to sit still. The favorite passtime is now bouncing.

I got some cute pictures of her and Lily at their playdate this weekend. I don’t have them downloaded yet, though. I’ll try to do that tonight.

Yes, She Was Indeed Born

I finally got Carina a birth certificate, nearly 8 months after she was born. You'd think that pretty much everyone would need/want a birth certificate for their baby, and that the certificates would therefore be easy to order. Not so.

I realized a few months ago that, hey, we never got one of those! Remembering that we filled out some paperwork for a birth certificate at the hospital, I called them. "Oh, you need to call the county and order it; here's the number."

So, I called the county. The lady asked if I needed a real one. Uh, yes?! "Oh well we don't issue real ones here, but we do have a computer printout that's good for most things." Like passports? "Oh, no. You'll have to order one from the state; here's the number."

So, I called the state. 5 phone menus later, I'm told that I need to either come in person to the office downtown, or I can go to the web site and mail the form in. I mail the form in, after following all the instructions. It gets returned because I didn't include a photocopy of my (the mother's) ID. That wasn't in the instructions. (Aside: Why only the mother's ID? It's like fathers don't exist in our baby culture.) I return the application with a copy of my drivers liscense, and finally we get a birth certificate out of it.

I'm glad that I thought to do that before I really needed to. All-in-all it took a couple months. Now, I need to start the passport rigamorole. I think I'm going to start working on Gavin to agree to a trip to Europe this summer.

Losing Sleep

One of the frustrating things about having a baby is that every once in a while there will be a day that's completely different for no apparent reason. Case in point: Monday night. Carina woke up 6 times - crying, wanting to be held, unwilling to be put back in her crib. The last time at 3:30 AM, we decided to just let her cry for a bit. She probably cried 10-15 minutes before going back to sleep.

The next day, she went back to her normal 12 hours straight sleep.

What the hell?

I'm glad that she's normally so happy, but it always makes me feel like she really, really needs something when she cries. It really sucks when you can't understand what she needs.

Travel Bug

Sarah was remarking the other night that she's really getting the travel itch, as she hasn't been out of the country since Patagonia two years ago.

Ditto.

I know for some people, the fact that we've taken our not-quite-8-month-old on two trips that required plane flights with major stays in 3 states, camping in TX once, and to Austin for a weekend seems like we're still getting around pretty well. I haven't done any major hiking, though, since before the pregnancy. That's about 18 months: way too long. I did go on the ski trip last winter, but I don't really count that since the only outdoorsy thing I got to do was one day of snowmobiling (although that was very fun).

We'll hopefully find a long weekend to go skiing sometime this spring. It will likely have to wait until after STS-123 lands. I just hope all the flights stay mostly on schedule so there's some opportunity to go.

I want one-up, though. I'm thinking that Carina would do very well in Europe, thank you very much. Maybe after it gets hot later this year. I also think this might be a good year to show interested parties around Wyoming. We could probably arrange some time with the grandparents for Carina and go backpacking in the Tetons, swing by Yellowstone...

*sigh*

Once Upon a Time in China (1991)

1.5/5

This was a Jet Li movie from the early 1990s, so Cari and I watched it yesterday. At several points we were asking each other, what's going on? At one point she had to wake me up. There are a few cool fight scenes and we laughed several times, but that's it. They try to do some story, and I liked some of the elements they had... but it didn't come together well. Overall it seemed 'amateurish' compared to the much better martial arts productions we've seen in the last ten years.

We're going to pass on Once Upon a Time in China, parts 2, 3, and 4. And 5.

Choose Your Candidate

Jen O has a link to a nice Washington Post exercise where you can review presidential candidate responses to questions and then, at the the end, see who you most agreed with. Since I began voting I generally lean Republican. That said, I've voted for 1 Republican and 2 Democrats in the last 3 Presidential elections.

Of the Republican candidates, I had 46 points with McCain, 24 points with Romney, 12 points with Paul, and 11 points with Thompson. Guiliani and Huckabee each got 3. Mostly no surprise, although I definitely like Thompson much more than Paul... I think Thompson's stances on many issues are somewhat similar to McCain or Romney. I just happened to pick theirs more often, based off of the points raised and the writing of the response.

I had some difficulty with the Democratic candidates. Often I found myself staring at three responses I didn't agree with at all. So I clicked on one and then ranked the importance to be zero. Clinton with 38 points, Obama with 19, and Edwards with 16. Not much surprise there, although I'm a little surprised I ended up with Edwards as high as Obama.

Anyways, several more weeks until the Texas primaries.

Rocking Friday

Gavin went to see Cloverfield last night, obviously. I stayed home with the baby. At around 8:30 PM, I found myslef in the kitchen making oodles of applesauce.

Check my pulse.

When I realized what was happening, I had to share my pain with someone. So, I text messaged Becca. Somehow in my bored, restless state it seemed funnier to complain to her because I knew she was playing poker with a bunch of guys from work. Don't ask me why.

Anyway, I have considered writing about every day for the last week and a half, but I don't have much to say. Life is just going right now. Enjoying some time off, working a lot, spending time with Carina. I know that probably sounds like I'm bored, but I'm not. I like my boring life.

Cloverfield (2008)

3.5/5

I really enjoyed this movie. I love Godzilla movies, and the trailers for this one were definitely intriguing. Think Godzilla meets Blair Witch Project... but with even worse jitter cam. Nice blend of humor and 'gotcha' moments as we watch a band of friends try to rescue each other and flee NYC without really knowing what the hell is going on. Acting was great. Story was pretty good, although the number of close calls was getting a bit ridiculous by the end. (I understand dramatic license, but when you go through a lot of effort to make it look and feel realistic, you might as well follow through with things like crashes.) If it weren't for the excessive jitter cam, I might have given it a 4.

Twist and Shout

Unfortunately, this came out a bit dark, but it is hi-larious! Turn on the sound or it will only be mildly funny. :)

Last Night

It's really hard to believe I've been on vacation for almost two full weeks. It sure went by quickly!

Tomorrow we head back home (knock on wood). There has been a terrific storm here since last night. The rain was pounding on the windows all night; it kept waking me up, actually. I ventured out in it today (after the worst of the wind died down) to go to the North Face outlet store. I always get such great stuff there.

I'm looking forward to seeing the puppies. Cari says they pretty much pulled her out of Sea Dog. I'm sure they'll be happy to see us - after Roxy sulks for a day or so.

Tonight is the big family dinner at Sigvor's. It has actually felt strange the last two nights having dinner just us and her. Normal dinners are like 10 people here. :)

My Holiday Highlights

Father: "Twist and shout."
Baby: (giggle)

Niece: "But, I want to make it dark."
Uncle: "If you can make Darkness, it would be best if we learn that sooner rather than later."

Grandmother: "The book of Norwegian Knowledge..."
Grandson: (grins)
Grandmother: "... oh, it's empty!" (much laughter)

Father-in-Law: "Want to watch Battlestar Galactica?"
Son-in-Law: "Sure!"

Aggie: "Whoop! Touchdown!"
(2 hours later)
Aggie: "Well, it was a good game."

A Real Trooper

Carina is the best baby. I mean, she is sooooo good. She went to sleep about 10 PM in the airport, and she slept all the way to Oakland. She woke up in the airport in Oakland until we got the car, but then she went back to sleep for the night. Not once did she cry while we dragged her around the country in the middle of the night. She woke up this morning her smiling self and is only a bit more tired than usual.

I'm thinking this means that Carina travels well. So, now I'm asking myself, where should we go this year?

Delayed Again

It's 11:05 PM, and we're sitting in an airport waiting for at least two more hours for our flight to leave. For those who may not have read all the gore, here's how this trip has gone for us so far.

12/19 - Carina runs a 103 deg fever overnight, and we cancel our flight to Wyoming.

12/24 - We leave Houston for Casper 1 hour late: luckily we have a 2 hour layover.

12/31 - We wait for more than an hour for our plane from Casper to Denver to arrive. It does not. We rebook for New Year's Day.

1/1 - We leave Casper for Denver 1 hour late. We have a 2 hour layover, so we think things will work out. However, upon arriving in Denver, we learn that our plane won't depart until at least 12:50 AM.

So far, I'm not hugely impressed with United's operations this holiday season. The silver lining is that Denver International now has free wireless internet.