So, I know its been a long time since I have done one of these entries - I am on a one-day break from my Training Academy, so there will be some more downtown before I come back to doing this daily. Anyway, I want to do a quick catchup.

What did I do today...

I went to a kickoff meeting for the Space Generation portion of the World Space Congress - a week long, once every 10 year event that Houston will be hosting in the fall. It was kind of cheesey, all rock-and-roll, space is cool, type stuff, but I am definitely going to get involved, so I guess they one me over. I even decided to submit an application to be a delegate the Space Generation summit, one of the U.N. events at the conference - I probably am not very competitive for a position, but it would be cool if I got one, anyway.

Also in other coolness, I finally saw Ron, who I have been playing phone tag with, since he was at the meeting too. We are definitely going to get together, sometime, eventually, if he is ever home :). I also, in all randomness, ran into Ricardo Leon. If that name doesn't sound familiar to you, let me explain. He was my team leader in the ill-fated Europa exploration project I participated in my freshman year. He graduated that year and left, and I never saw him again. Though I heard from a mutual friend that he had gone to Thailand, and then ended up at the International Space University in France. Certainly, I didn't expect him to end up here. Anyway, as it turns out, he married a Canadian who got transfered down here, and he came down with her and he now works for Lockheed. He lives in the apartment complex across the street from me! What a small world! So we spent a while reminsing about how the Europa project was a perfect example of what-not-to-do in a design team, and he said he felt decidedly better that when I finally got my own chance to lead a design team, I learned from all our mistakes. Oh, and Karen, he wants to see a copy of our presentation about the foibles of team projects :).

On to the apartment

I moved in this weekend (though all my clothes are still at Kathleen's house). In a feet of remarkable coordination, the electricity was on when it was supposed to be. The movers showed up ON TIME at 9 a.m. sharp on Monday morning, and were done unloading the truck and unpacking all the boxes I asked them to (more on that subject later) by noon. The cable company showed up at 12:05 (pretty good, considering they were scheduled to come anywhere between noon - 5 pm). And, that's that.

So, I now have:

1. A chair

2. A beat up table which I will refinish as a weekend project

3. A bed

4. A wall of boxes of books (that are currently serving as my entertainment center/tv stand)

5. A closet full of clothes (with no shelves to put them on)

6. A MILLION wooden spoons and spatulas (thanks mom!)

7. A finished bathroom (I went with "Seamist", a sea-green type color, with blue and green butterflies on a white cloth shower curtain. I almost screemed at the stupid color naming process "Sea foam", "Sea glass", grumble! Why couldn't it just be blue, green, yellow, light blue.... I felt really pitiful that I spent so much idiot time deciding which of these color schemes to go with)

8. A beautiful view of a beach (sand volleyball court), gazebo, water, sailboats and a fake lighthouse.

And that's all I have, so feel free to send anything and everything (or just cash) to help me buy chairs, a dresser and bookshelves (the most pressing items on my list)

In other stuff..

Talked to Karen this weekend. That was fun. She found an awesome inconsistancy between the British and American version of the 4th Harry Potter book. You know all the gossip about the mother and father coming out of the wand in the wrong order (not the order in which they died), well, they come out in the right order in the British version. So, it was just a typo, not part of the "legend". I also finally caught up on reading Sarah's journal, Sarah, I must say, I am very disappointed in not being on your list of fun phone-talking people. :(

So, here I am, signing off again for another two weeks... :)