Wyoming

We are having a great time in Wyoming, as always. Monday and Tuesday we left Carina with her grandparents and did some hiking. We went to Lost Twin Lakes in the Bighorn mountains.

It was about a 5 or 5.5 mile hike in. This is the first time I've used my new backpack for actual hiking; I bought it before our trip to Patagonia, and we haven't been backpacking since. I was pretty tired by the time we got up there, but I can still walk a ways, it seems. We camped below the "lower" Twin lake. Before hiking out on Tuesday, we were discussing hiking up to the "upper" lake. Gavin turned to the side, though, and said "I'm interested in what's up there." So, we climbed a small mountain, instead.


We've been mainly playing with kiddos since. Carina is having fun with Cousin Caroline, although Caroline is a bit much for her sometimes. Carina has also definitely started talking. In addition to "daw" (dog) and "meel" (milk), which she's been saying for a while irregularly, we have heard new words "bir" (bird) and "Dacks" (Jackson).

Maroon Bells Photos

I'll write more later about the trip, but for now here are some photos.


by jmendeck

Maroon Bells

In about an hour we’re off to Colorado for a camping and hiking trip to Maroon Bells Wilderness. I’ve wanted to visit this wilderness area for a while. It is one of the most photographed areas in Colorado. It will be a good place for our first major camping trip with Carina, because Aspen is only a few miles down the road, so any emergency diaper runs can be accomplished. There are also a lot of shortish day hikes we can do.

I am NOT traveling with a laptop. (How 20th century!) I will be traveling with a camera, so I should have some good posts for next week.

I always become sort of useless at work about 2 hours before I’m scheduled to leave for vacation. Unfortunately, if I planned on leaving 2 hours earlier, I’d probably still be useless for 2 hours.

Need to Hike

I wrote a long e-mail to Melanie yesterday with a bunch of information and advice on what to do in Hawaii. It made me very nostalgic recounting all the best parts of that trip. Even though Gavin and I had a week long vacation in Florida less than a month ago, I still have a huge travel itch. The vacations we take that I reminisce about for years include hiking, camping, foreign lands, hiking, mountains, and more hiking. We haven’t done anything like that since before I got pregnant, and I’m totally missing it.

Becca and I have been talking at a half-serious level about going to Colorado for some hiking in the next month. I think it needs to happen. It will be a bit different going with Carina, but she needs to get used to sleeping outdoors from time to time. We probably won’t actually backpack this time out, though. Hmm… Need to research good car camping locations. :)

Florida Wrap

We're back. Our last three days in Florida were spent at the beach, and at Disney World. It has been years since we were at Disney, so we had a great time seeing all the updates. We made the most of our two days there; we visited Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom. We rode the new Toy Story ride (SO COOL!), saw Fantasmic, the SpectroMagic Parade, and the MK fireworks. We stayed out until midnight yesterday, even though we knew we had to get up before 7:00 to leave for the airport.

Florida was amazingly fun, but we were very ready to get back. We were both pointing out babies around Carina's age all the time in the parks. Carina was asleep when we got to Grammy and Grandad's, but she didn't make us wait too long. I heard her talking in her crib, so I cracked the door and stuck my head in. At first, she just stared at me. Then her eyes got huge - I mean HUGE - and she started running in place. Very satisfactory reaction. :)

So, now we're home, and tomorrow I go to work to see if the fact that we're flying means I'm less behind than I normally would be... I can hope. We actually got back home at around 4:00 this afternoon, so I have at least had time to do some stuff around the house.

T+2 minutes

The launch was great! We were maybe 3 or 4 miles away from the pad, and plumes were brilliant against the blue sky as the shuttle climbed. The photo above is just a few moments after SRB separation, at the full-res you can see the pinpoint of light as the shuttle races away from the 'dirty' SRB exhaust clouds. And if you zoom in, you can make out the SRBs tumbling away but they're only a few pixels big.

We're meeting some friends tomorrow and maybe we'll hang out on the beach near Canaveral. Mom and Dad have been emailing us some photos of Carina, and with those plus the ones Sarah put online we're managing to not call every day and see how things are going. :)

L-1

If you've been watching the Flickr screen, you'll see that we are in Florida. There are an amazing number of friends and acquantainces here for this launch as well. We got our tours today, which I have to say was a little underwhelming. They wouldn't let us into any buildings; something about stacking SRBs in the VAB and not wanting 200+ people tramping through.

We went to see Blue Man Group tonight. That was fun. I've never seen so much toilet paper in my life.

Tomorrow, hopefully, we get to see Discovery go to space!

Launch Trip

I'm backseating another operator for a simulation tonight, and it's much more interesting than I was afraid it would be. Luckily, I had checked out a laptop for a 2-day meeting earlier this week, so I can fill the slow times with e-mail and other small tasks. I'm still not totally used to being the "voice of experience" in this job, but I'm filling that role more and more every day.

I bought plane tickets yesterday to accompany Gavin to the launch at the end of the month. It's going to be fun. I haven't gotten any tours at KSC since I was there as a teenager and took the public tour, so I'm pretty excited about that. And seeing a Shuttle launch, of course.

Here's hoping for a launch no later than June 3.

Himalaya Dreams

Some folks I know are in Nepal right now hiking toward Everest base camp. I really, really want to valley trek in the Himalayas someday. I'm not entirely sold on Everest base camp as the destination of my Himalayan trip. There are other parts of the range that require less effort to get to with as good or better views, and I sort of have the impression that base camp is not the most scenic due to the number of people that go through there every year. (Plus it's really high. I'm more about seeing many mountains that standing on one of them, with the attendant potential for altitude sickness.)

Still, I'm very jealous of the crowd that's there right now. Who would have thought that two years not leaving the country would leave me so antsy? When I graduated college, I'd only been to Canada and Mexico. Our trips to South America were supposed to scratch that itch before the arrival of Carina. Maybe the travel bug one of those things that scratching just makes worse.

Solar Eclipse

Gavin: "We need to go visit your parents in 2017."
Jen: "Eclipse?"
Gavin: "Yeah... how'd you know?"
Jen: "I don't know."
Gavin: "You're awesome like that."

Hickory Dickory

As I am getting ready this morning in my hotel room, from the next room over I hear a small voice floating through the wall.

"Hickory, dickory, dock
The mouse ran up the clock"

I smile, then sniff. Suddenly, I miss Carina so much I have to sit down with my laptop and shuffle though the last set of pictures I have of her.

In some ways, I've been enjoying this trip away from the baby. We've been out at dinner every night until 10:30 or 11:00. When I get back to the hotel after work, I can just sit down and relax rather than feeding, bathing, and putting down an increasingly tired baby.

But I have also been finding myself daydreaming about chubby cheeks, gummy smiles, and babling voices. I have missed my evening cuddle. I wonder what she's doing new today.

*hugs* to Carina

Cali Day 1

Well, I made it to California, even if there was some last minute drama to getting my travel approved. It's crazy how trying to do something that makes total rational sense can completely bring the govt travel system to its knees. Oh well, I'll deal.

I've pretty much been on the go since 7AM central time today, and it's showing. It's really crazy how a two hour time change can screw with your body. Especially combined with two glasses of good wine for dinner.

Zzzzzzzz...

Baby's First Ski Trip

In spite of hurting my knee, the ski trip was not a complete failure. Our one day of skiing together was quite nice. Here's Gavin at the top of a couple double blues we tried early in the day. I have another nice panoramic shot from the top I'll have to add at home after I stitch it together.

And here's pictures of the both of us with Carina watching the Rusted Root concert from our balcony. She liked the music just as much as either of us. She didn't seem to mind the cold air, either, or the snow. That girl just rolls with it.

Back Home

It's nice being home after being out west for a few weeks. Roxy is curled up at my feet, snoring softly. The trips out to JPL were both great, I got a lot out of it. And some cool pictures, which will be posted later this weekend. Utah was fun, even though Jen bummed her knee. And I got a kick out of showing some pictures of Carina around. Lots of 'awwwws'.

Referral?

The knee is definitely busted. It doesn't hurt so much anymore, unless I move wrong. But, I can feel the joint moving in ways that it definitely shouldn't. Anyone know a good orthopedic surgeon in Houston? I know a couple people have used Dr. O'Neill, but he doesn't have any new patient openings until the end of June. I don't think I'll be waiting that long.

Despite the busted knee, I'm still making plans to go to Tahoe next weekend. It's practically free, after all, since work is sending me to Vandenberg Thursday and Friday. All I have to pay for is a rental car to get to Tahoe and food. Can't beat that. Gavin didn't have a great skiing experience in Utah either due to getting slow skis (really, really slow), so I'm pretty sure he's going to fly out, too. Carina might go with grandparents for the weekend, or she might come since we won't need a sitter with me being crippled and all.

My parents are coming in tomorrow to see Carina. They've never had much luck with the weather here, but it is supposed to be pretty good this weekend. They'll like that as it's still winter in Wyoming.

Knee

Skiing in Utah is pretty cool. It took us about 40 minutes to drive from the airport to the condo. Our condo is AWESOME! I mean, we're paying a pretty penny for it, but still. We have not one, but two balconies overlooking the village square from which we watched a totally awesome Rusted Root concert last night. This is particularly nice since with Carina, we wouldn't have wanted to stand out in the cold the whole time. We have two huge jacuzzi tubs in our two bathrooms (totally overbooked this, considering it just ended up being the three of us). There are two hot tubs on the roof of the building, about 20 steps from our room from which you can watch people skiing down to the base. We have a full kitchen, complete with POTS and PANS, which sounds like something you'd expect unless you've had experiences to the contrary like we have.

I have one complaint, though. As we were skiing in yesterday, about 50 feet from the base I caught a ski in the slush and twisted my knee. Bad. As in I hope I didn't tear anything. It's not too swollen, and I can walk on it - carefully. Maybe it's just a sprain (please, please, please). But, no more skiing for me this weekend. Probably not in Tahoe, either. :(

It's totally my fault. I knew I was getting too tired. It occurred to me after the fact that this is the first time I've been skiing after my 30th birthday. I've heard that most bad sports injuries occur in people's 30s because they haven't figured out yet that they're getting older and can't do everything they used to be able to do. I hate being a statistic.

Weekend - At Last

Here's hoping that the weather report is wrong and there will NOT be a 1500 ft ceiling tomorrow. My luck being what it is, though... The weather looks like crap for the next week. Maybe Becca can get something out of it.

Tomorrow is my first weekend day at home since March 8. That's 20 days. I got plenty of time off during the mission; I for one am a fan of the work guidelines that say we shouldn't work for 16 days straight. Still, when you aren't home on the weekend, you don't get to see your husband much. I did get to spend lots of quality time with Carina, though.

I'm putting the finishing touches on the trip plans for next weekend. I made daycare reservations today for the skiing days,

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.

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*

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. :)

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.

Strike two

At the airport in Casper, there are like 5 employees who do pretty much everything. First, you check in with them, then they check you through security, then they load your bags on the airplane, and finally they let you through the “gate”. This “gate” is a doorway that you walk through to go outside to walk to the plane, which you enter by climbing up the stairs. No jetways required in Casper.

Tonight, we got to the airport and checked in. After a while, they called our flight and we cleared security. Then we sat down by the gate to wait for them to let us board the plane. Carina went to sleep (finally – she’d been up since 1:00). We waited. And waited. 30 minutes, we started worrying about making our connection. You see, they cleared us through security, but there wasn’t anybody by the gate to ask what was going on. After 45 minutes, some of the other passengers started flagging down the TSA people to ask the airline people if the plane was coming. A few people started asking to be let back out to the check-in area to look for new flights. Carina woke up hungry.

After about an hour, we heard a rumor that the plane hadn’t even left Denver yet. Gavin went out to see if we should just take a flight tomorrow. About the time he sent word for me to come back out front, they finally made an announcement that the plane was on its way.

I understand that planes are late sometimes. But what’s the deal with the airlines thinking it’s OK to leave passengers in the dark about what’s going on. I’m sure United would have just flown us to Denver and let us get stranded there overnight if we hadn’t taken action to stay in Casper.

We’re 0 for 2 on this trip so far. :P

Happy New Year wherever you are - in 6 minutes (Houston), 66 minutes (here), 126 minutes (Berkeley), or yesterday (New Zeland).

Howdy from WY

Well, we made it to Wyoming, finally. Carina did very well on the airplane. We took her in to the doctor today, and her ears still have fluid in them. They may or may not still be infected, so we started her on a new antibiotic. She's still feeling well, though, so it's all good.

We've had like 18" of snow since we got here. There was about 15" at my parents on Christmas Day. Then we got a few more today. Carina doesn't seem to like the cold too much. Especially if it's windy.

There are tons of kiddos around this year. But we can't seem to get them all awake and happy at the same time for a picture. We definitely need to do that soon.

Better

Carina feels a lot better today. Her fever is down to between 100 and 101. She stayed up for more than 20 minutes at a time and wanted to play. She smiled. :) We still have lots of boogers, but she'll get over that.

We are going to have to delay leaving town until Monday. Plane tickets between now and then cost about $1100-1200 per ticket. I'm kind of bummed - this was going to be the longest we'd been in Casper for years. We'll still be there for a week, though. And we'll have a happy and healtier baby.

Meanwhile, I "get" to go do the things at work that I was going to miss by leaving Wednesday. Including a sim at 8:00 AM tomorrow. So, it's bedtime.

Ear Infection

After another really tough night last night, it was obvious that we couldn't get on an airplane with Carina today. She was obviously completly miserable, and her temperature had spiked to 103 deg. So, we cancelled our tickets and took her to the doctor instead. Turns out she has an ear infection. So, now she is on antibiotics, still feeling pretty miserable, and we don't know when or how we're going to be leaving for Christmas.

Our original plan was to fly from Houston to Casper today. Then we were going to fly from Casper to Oakland on the 31st and spend a few days with Gavin's grandmother. We were returning directly from Oakland to Houston on Jan 4.

Recreating that itinerary is now going to cost us no less than $760 each. Not including the $200 we forfeited for cancelling the flight today. With 5 fewer days in Wyoming.

:(

Camping Recap

Camping with Carina is definitely different. We picked out a camp site and set her down in the shade to watch the trees for a bit. Gavin and I started pulling stuff out of the car, but before we could start setting up the tent Carina decided it was time for food! Meanwhile, another car had shown up and parked in the camp site right next to us. I was kind of hoping that when they heard the baby crying they'd choose to head down the road (there were plenty of open sites). They stayed, though.

Well, at least they knew what they were in for. Carina came down with a cold that night. Her nose was getting all stuffy, and about every four hours during the night she woke up and fussed for 15-20 minutes until she made her nose run enough to clear out. Gavin says that they actually packed up and left about 1AM when it threatened to rain. (They had no tent!)

Fussy night aside, we had fun. We found our way down to the cove near the camp site and Zoya went swimming (there was a little lip, and Roxy wouldn't jump off it). We tried walking the other way a bit, but the dogs were getting burrs in their feet. Carina was tired anyway, so we went back to the camp site.

The next day, we drove to the other side of the pinninsula where there were beaches. I dangled Carina's feet in the water, and she seemed to really like it. I think she's going to be a water baby! I didn't put her all the way in; it was a bit cold.

All in all, a mostly sucessful first outing! Many more to go.

Camping with Baby

It took us one more month that I thought, but we're going to take Carina camping tomorrow. One night only - we figured it would be better to start small. The first thing we debated was where she should sleep. We finally decided that the family bed concept might be best for camping. I had to go get a car roof carrier since we can't fit all the equipment in the car with the baby and the dogs. I think we've got it all set, though. I'm excited!

My parents flew through Houston today on their way to the Caymans for a dive trip. Thanks to all the airport security these days, it wasn't really practical to take Carina up there for a couple hours to see them. It seems like such a wasted opportunity, though. Mom called me from the airport; I could tell it was killing her to be so close to her granddaughter without seeing her.

What to do in Austin?

Does anyone else think it's strange that your Google account user name is another e-mail address. I mean, it seems like it should be your Google address, if anything.

Life is flying by, as usual. I booked a hotel room in Austin for this weekend. A suite, actually, so that there is a door between us and the Baby Who Makes Noise All Night. I think that's the one thing I learned (again) from our ND trip - it's hard to sleep in the same room as Carina! I knew that from when she was bitty, too.

We are going up for a baby shower, but I didn't want to drive there and back in one day. So, I'm trying to decide if we should try to do anything else while we're there. Maybe a short hike the next day? What's that BBQ place that everyone says is so good?

Back from ND

I have soooo much going on right now! I'm going completely crazy.

We had a good time in ND. My grandmother keeps her house a little warm for my taste, but after we convinced her to use the A/C, it was nice. My parents were able to come up, too. Carina has her grandma wrapped around her little finger! :)

The best part is that Carina did really well on the airplanes. All four legs went by with very minimal fussing. And the fussing she did was because she was hungry and her mean parents didn't want to feed her until the plane took off.

Where I've been

Thanks to you-know-who for the link.

States I've visited...


create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

If I take off the ones that I've only been to for single night drum corps shows...



I don't care so much about the midwest, but I really need to take a trip to New England.

Here are Gavin's:

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.

------------
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.

Patagonia!

At long last, I finished another trip report! Patagonia is available merely a year after return!

Back in Town

We're back in Houston today. I had a great time on vacation, and for once I actually feel more rested at the end than I did in the beginning. Strange!

I have a flying lesson scheduled at noon. It's beautiful here - sunny and 70 deg. Today, my goal is to do the patten with the radio calls. And maybe not bounce at least a few of my landings.

Vail Trip Photo Recap

Here's a quick photo survey of the trip...


Warming up in Vail



Snowmobiling



A beautiful day at Breckenridge

Breckenridge

Today we all went to Breckenridge. I shopped until I pretty much dropped. Carrying 25 extra pounds around at 9000 ft isn't a picnic. Fortunately, I had the foresight to think that I might want a break in the afternoon, and found a place to get my hair cut. That took some of the afternoon. Then I took my book (more foresight) and found a bench by a firepit at the base of the mountain.

They have these fire sculptures at all the ski resorts here. There is a metal sculputure in the shape of burning logs, which is lit with a gas fire. I'm sure these are much easier for the ski resorts to maintain. And, they look nice. They're really warm. But, sitting by one for a couple hours made me wonder what kind of fumes I was breathing. Smoke isn't so great for your health either, but it is more familiar, I guess.

I had thought that I might take a car and go for a mountain drive tomorrow, but after looking at the weather forecast I think I might have to abort that plan. The snow is supposed to start around noon and blow around to boot. Not great weather to try to drive across a mountain pass by oneself. Oh, well. Maybe I'll actually work on my ground school studies like I planned.

Pampering

Today I did something very unusual for me. I went to a spa and got pampered for two hours. I had a "prenatal massage" and got a pedicure. The massage was AWESOME! They had a special pregnancy pillow that had cutouts for my stomach and boobs. Even the baby liked it. Baby started moving around the second she started the massage. The masseus even commented that she could feel it moving.

After that I got some lunch and headed to Vail to meet up with everyone else. For a day when I did so little, it was amazingly fulfilling.

Avon, Colorado

We're in Colorado this week. Everybody else is out skiing today, leaving me to take a long bath and check out what Avon has to offer. I'm going to set up snowmobile tours, find someplace to rent snowshoes, and check out the spa for pedicures for the girls. I never take vacations where I just relax. Usually my vacations are busier than when I'm at home. (Although, still way more fun.) So, this is going to be an experience for me. I've already spent more time in the condo than I normally would over about 2 days.

The good news is that the snowmobiling looks like it will happen without me having to hide the pregnancy. The first couple places I called wouldn't touch me with a 10 foot pole. The last couple, while hesitant, say that they'll take me out. I promised to discuss it with my doctor, which I did. He has absolutely no problem with it (although, he was happy to hear that I'm not skiing). At least these last couple places left the decision on what's best for me to me. :P

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.

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.

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.

Pictures from Colorado

by jmendeck

Pictures from Casper

by jmendeck

Wx

I had hoped to get back home this week to an immediate transition into console work for the mission. Unfortunately, the weather gods are not only uncooperative, they are actively throwing obstacles into our path. Between lightning and hurricanes, it looks like launch won't be until next week at the earliest. Meanwhile, everyone in the world has just turned into an amateur meteorologist.

In local weather, although it will be September on Friday, Houston is still well in the grips of summer. Heat index today is expected to rise above 100 deg F. I melt.

Still, being home is nice. The dogs are happy to have both their people back for the first time in almost a month. I did a bunch of laundry Sunday, which, although it is not as sexy as working a Shuttle mission, absolutely had to be done. As Gavin noted, we went to see a good movie.

I think I've traveled enough this month to place me on an isolationist trend for a few weeks at least.

Back Home

Colorado time is over, for now.

I had to come right back to get ready to work the Shuttle mission, which as it turns out won't be until at least Monday. Hopefully the grounding system worked. Lightning can make a big mess.