The Aerospace Female Mafia on the Move

(If you don't understand that reference, ask Karen)

Well, still busy with my kids (i.e. my Texas Aerospace High School Scholars - I did not start reproducing!). Unfortunately, my dear diary fans, I will be away from contact for the next week. I am heading off to Canada tomorrow afternoon. Yippee and whoo hoo more vacation. I come back on Sunday night. Don't worry for my dog, she is not getting left in the posh kennel this time, but instead at a friend's house..

So far, this week has been great. My intern pitch was successful and my Texas Aerospace Scholars are rock awesome! My roll as their team mentor has been great fun, though I have, unfortunately had to serve as the one who grounds them in reality occasionally...

I am starting to consider it a practice in crushing dreams. Patient explanations have given way to "No, that won't work.. no matter how many plants they bring with them, in 500 days, they are not going to be able to take their helmets off and breath the "air" on Mars." Really. They won't believe me. Or "No, you can't power your rover with a nuclear turbojet engine. I know in your vast experience as a high-school-intern-airplane-mechanic that someone told you the PT-6 is a really cool engine. But you can't turn it into a nuclear engine. And, while I'm at it, a turbojet is AIR BREATHING. That means you need AIR to run it. Just drop it and find another idea... <2 days later>... No, I don't want to hear your proposal for this engine, why haven't you started working on something else yet!!"

But their project is awesome, they are all smart motivated kids..

Other than that, I bought a dresser (yippee) which will actually start a chain of reoganization of my apartment - moving a bookshelf, a computer desk, and finally having room for a dining room table. On Friday I leave for Canada. WHoo hoo!

So, I am majorly busy with the Texas Aerospace Scholars (http://www.aerospacescholars.com) this week. Oh yeah, and that pesky huge presentation called an "Intern Pitch" to upper management. I will try to update when I can.

Happy Summer Solstice.

Maybe I should start celebrating Pagan holidays. You know, when in Rome.. Oh, wait, I'm not in Rome. I wish I was. Just for the moment. They had an article on Pompeii in the NY Times last week. I find it hard to believe I've actually been there twice.

Busy weekend ahead of me. Sarah's coming in town for a couple of days to move into her apartment, so I might go furniture shopping with her (especially since I need as much furniture as she does). And Saturday night looks like dinner and Minority report. Hopefully, I will get to go sailing on Saturday, too.

Nothing exciting happening today, I must say. I don't know why I put these updates up when nothing is happening, but I do, so, you're stuck with it.

Last night I went out and refreshed my CD collection with a couple of new purchases (funny when you don't download mp3's and burn them to a CD like I did in college) and bought another trashy novel to read (since my "literature" was left in my suitcase that got left in Philadelphia).

Yesterday the excitement at work was that one of my co-workers was complaining about being sent to KSC (florida) to go to a meeting about ground operations modeling. As that topic consumed my freshman through junior years at college and two summer internships, I asked him who he was meeting with. Low and behold, it was my former mentors at KSC. So, I actually got to use expertise I had from before this job to brief him on some of the topics. How random!!

I'm allergic to Texas.

That makes 2/50 states that give me seasonal allergies. The other one is Alabama. (Hm, maybe its all the conservatives here that I'm allergic to). I think I'm going to make an appoitnment to get some of that good prescription allergy stuff that doesn't make me drowsy.

Otherwise: I have to finish my intern pitch today. And maybe there will be some excitement if the shuttle lands today (it got waved off yesterday). And I want to go home and veg out tonight...

So, Karen woke me up at 6:30 a.m. to chat. Even though at that point I had 8 hours of sleep, I was pretty delirious. The irony is I thought about calling her last night, but then, figured, oh, its probably midnight there, she'll definitely be asleep. I don't remember the first 15 minutes of our conversation (must've been the haze of me in the morning - Karen should expect that after all those years of living with me!!). Anyway, it was fun to talk with her, I've been really slack in letter writing/phone calls lately. I need to get back on the ball. She must've been really nervous about her big presentation today, but she didn't sound that way. So, I hope it goes well.

We talked until about 7:30, which is when I would normally wake up and ready myself for work. Then I realized all my pants were in the washing machine and needed to be dried. I managed to throw one pair in on super-high-plastic melting heat and made it here by 8:30. This is good, today is going to be a busy day. I am going to go sit in the back room of mission control during the shuttle's entry and landing today! How cool is that!? And on the next mission, I am going to sit in for launch.

In the meantime, I have one day left to prepare my intern pitch to be reviewed by my boss. Why oh why do excel charts look SO bad on powerpoint? I also have to go back to a little piece of code I was avoiding writing for the last couple of days.

While we were on the phone, Apache was in rare form, managing to go on my carpet not once, but twice. And she barked at me like a mad dog almost the entire conversation. The little bitch! I feel bad, having abandonned her to the posh expensive kennel on the horse farm all weekend. BUT, I don't feel that bad. Anyway, I dropped her off in a friend's backyard for the day, so that should wear her out (the two dogs were chasing each other in circles, they didn't even see me leave).

Well, I am back from Philadelphia, safe and sound (which is why, Karen, I never called you back this weekend). It was a bit of a whirlwind, but really fun. I stayed at my Aunt Mary's. On Sunday, I went to my dad's. My brother William Richard is cute, and exceedingly small at 10 pounds. He threw up on me. Normally this wouldn't be a problem. But typical of absent-minded me, I left my suitcase in Uncle Dean's car when he dropped me off at my Aunt Julies house, so I didn't have a change of clothes (and I will have to wait until I go up to the cottage in two weeks to recover my possessions from it). It was strangely liberating, though, to travel home to Houston without any luggage.

Stange Koharts

We went to a graduation party for my cousin Emily on Saturday. It was at my Grandma's house. There were all these random Koharts there that I didn't even know I had. You see, my Grandfather Kohart had 10 brothers and sisters. They had many children. Actually, last count I heard, my dad and his 3 sisters had 52 first cousins. Anyway, so much of the party went like this

Me: "Hi, I'm Rebecca."

Someone else: "That's Donny's oldest."

Strange relative: "Oh! I haven't seen you since you were an infant! My how you've grown."

Me: "And you are..?"

Strange relative: "I'm your Aunt/Cousin/First Cousin Once removed/Second Cousin Louise, I was married to your Grandpa's brother Ralph's son."

Me: "Well, that clears things up. Though I didn't know Grandpa had a brother Ralph, he must not have been very good at sending Christmas cards... So glad to see you!!... kisses hugs!"

Oh, they weren't all that strangely related. Many of them were actually great-aunts and uncles (my Grandpa's brothers and sisters and their spouses). But it was still very weird. At least I wasn't surprised about their number - I always knew Grandpa had lots of brothers and sisters.

I remember how shocked I was a few years back when someone came and introduced themselves to me as "I am your Aunt Rose, your Grandmother Cutri's sister." Up until that point, I always thought Grandma Cutri only had two sisters - the ones I knew, Aunt Annette and Aunt Joan. But, low an behold, I was shocked to find, in her family too, there were 11 children.

My great-grandparents must've been extrodinary people to deal with 11 children - I still don't know how most parents deal with 1 child (especially the poor mother who had to give birth 11 times!).

My first cousins Emily and Caroline, my brother Nick, and I all teamed up to attempt to remind each other of people's names and how they were related to us. One introduction simply wasn't enough.

My rant on the Bourne Identity

While my shorter cousins saw Scooby Doo, some of those taller ones went to see the Bourne Identity. I have to rant about one thing - the first part of the movie takes place at the U.S. EMBASSY IN ZURICH. Now, if you will see my rants here and here and here you will recall that there is NO EMBASSY IN ZURICH. Additionally, the consular office in Zurich is a one room office with only two people working there - and it is NEVER open. The real Embassy in Bern is not nearly as tall, nor is it as well-decorated as the one in the movie. I was very disappointed at the lack of realism. I was entertained, though, that Matt Damon's partner in crime was this Swiss girl he picked up at the embassy. She kept cursing in German (not subtitled), which of course, I understood (since cursing is about the only thing I understood in German). But the funny part was the adolescents sitting behind us trying to figure out what she was saying.

Tomorrow I go to Philadelphia for the weekend. It will be nice to see everyone.

I got a hutch over my desk at work today (as did the desk-that-will-be-Sarah's). It was an immensely practical addition, because it provides more storage space. But, unfortunately, it limits my access to the magnetic wall, and makes our little cube seem all that much smaller. Hopefully soon they will move the whiteboard, because its completely blocked now.

The good news is, Karen found Jen on their trip to the Aran islands. Its amazing how small my world has gotten. I no longer think of Europe as a million miles away, but think about it in the same way I used to think about D.C. or Boston or something. Distant. But understandable.

So, the puppy experiment was a success. I picked up Apache last night, and she was practically comatose from spending the day with another puppy. She slept the whole night (I didn't even have to put her in the crate!). Now, I think this will be a regular thing... at least until I get my own house.

And for adventures

Since I don't have any new adventures to report today, I can tell you about my dream last night. I dreamt that Sarah, Karen and I drove to Antarctica (don't ask me how this is possible, but they warned us to keep our car started or it would freeze -- I can only imagine this means that the gas and oil actually solidifies in such cold weather). All of us being warm-climate people, none of us had appropriate clothes, and Karen kept muttering about frostbite. Then we bought a ticket in the bus station ($3) for a ride to the South Pole. It was a 30 minute trip, and I almost missed the bus because I couldn't get a ticket (this is actually a reoccuring part of my dreams... me getting on some form of mass transit to somewhere, but always nearly missing it, or some chaos resulting). Anyway, the bus ride was 3 hours, and we arrived at a mountain (who would've known, in my dreams, the south pole is at the top of a mountain). Anyway, we had 1 hour to climb the mountain or we would miss the bus back to the car, and my car would run out of gas from being left on, and we would never get home. So we climbed the mountain. Karen's shoes hurt. Sarah was cold. And I was reduced to crawling. Anyway, that's how the dream ended.

Funny, the dream ended before the triumph of the actually getting to the South Pole. But when I woke up I decided that eventually I want to take a year off, go up to Alaska, buy a Land Rover or something (with a GPS), and drive it ALL the way down to the tip of South America, and then take one of those cruise things to Antarctica. Anyone want to come?

Last night a bunch of random people from work went out to the docks by my apartment and we watched the eclipse-sunset. It was lovely. Purple and pink setting next to the light house. I really don't know how to describe it in words, and, unfortunately, I don't have the photography talent to take a picture of it. I think I must of looked at it a bit too much though, because I have a bit of a headache this morning.

Afterwards we went to a Beer Garden (a la Switzerland, but not nearly as nice) and just hung out for a while.

Today, Apache is involved in a grand experiment. I dropped her off in Gavin and Jen's backyard this morning - they live pretty close to my apartment. They have an adorable full-grown lab puppy and the two of them play very well. Anyway, they were playing happily when I was there watching this morning. But the minute I closed the fence, Apache started yipping and whining for me. So, we'll see if this turns out to be a great thing for both our dogs (theirs gets bored during the day too), and in that case, I'll drop her off a few times a week. Or it might turn out to be a bad thing (they received an anonymous note a while back complaining that their dog barked too much, and now they think that the note-sender is occasionally throwing rocks over the fence). The hope is, the companionship will alleviate the boredome and the therefore the need to bark so much. That is, after Apache gets over the trauma of being abandonned in this random yard.

Actually an eventful weekend

Despite the boring weekend I had planned, it actually turned out rather busy. On Friday evening, our division had a going-away party for someone I didn't even know. So, I hadn't actually planned on attending the party. But the couple people in my work group that did know him said that didn't matter and dragged me along anyway. It was lot's of fun, even though I finally cut out at about 10 p.m. because I was starved (they only had hamburgers and hotdogs) and I was running out of witty, intelligent conversational topics.

I am very disappointed I left early, because at about 11 p.m., conversation broke down and the keg-stands began (including one participant from our group). Since I have never seen a keg stand, I was quite upset when I found out I missed it. For those of you who still haven't figured out what I'm talking about, a keg stand is when someone stands on their hands on top of a keg of beer (with people holding his legs up) and drinks out of the nozzle as long as they can. Ah, I love working for NASA.

And on Saturday

I arrived home to a very upset puppy who pooped in her crate for the first time ever - a big, bad, no no. (Though, don't worry, I've divined a solution to this problem -- well, actually Gavin came up with the solution, she is going to spend a few days a week in Gavin and Jen's backyard with their dog while I am away at work). But more importantly, I also had a phone call from someone who needed sailing crew for Saturday.

Whoo hoo, I spent Saturday as crew in a mini-Regatta, doing a fine job indeed, though not winning anything (there were only four boats and we were kinda practicing anyway), since one of the other boats was being skippered by the wife of an America's Cup sailor.

That night I met a bunch of people to go see Sum of All Fears, which I highly recommend. Afterwards, we went to Matt's apartment to watch the Mothman Prophecies, which totally freaked me out. For those of you who have seen it before, let's just say I drove home in the dark on long, empty roads. And evil Matt told me today that he was going to call my cell phone after I left and fake the spooky calls that were part of the movie. Ag, I totally didn't sleep that night until the sun started rising.

And in politics

Scarily from a bleeding heart liberal like myself, I am going to post another National Review article (where you find Over 60 conservative columnists at your fingertips. This time, a "feminist" perspective on why we should go to Mars. I think that the author meant it to be tongue-and-cheek, but, well, read it.

Today I mailed off my enrollment form for my first graduate class (whoo hoo... i think). Its a University of Colorado class being offered here, onsite, by an adjunct faculty member this summer. So, back to school I go. Now, this doesn't actually mean I am enrolled in any specific master's degree program (since I still haven't really decided on which master's degree program I want - this just means I can delay that decision a little bit longer), but I will be able to transfer the credit, so its all good.

No plans for the weekend - though I should really clean my apartment. I'm thinking of hiring a cleaning lady to at least do the surfaces (floors, bathrooms, etc.). It needs it pretty desperately.

I am very entertained that they are talking about renaming (and responsoring) Astros Field. It was formly most-hated-Satanic-company-Enron Field, but of course, no one wanted that any more. So the new name: Minute Maid Park. Teee heee heee. :) I can't imagine all the jokes that are going to churn about that one.

I decided last night that I like the theme song to the new Star Trek spinoff Enterprise. I don't really watch the show a lot (I am actually pretty weened off the t.v. kick I was on when I first got here - amazing what 6 months without t.v. will do to your desire to become a couch potato). But I caught it last night while I was making scrumptious boboli white pizza for dinner, and even with the corny, country twang (very UN-Star Trek), I decided I like it. So here are the lyrics (I know you miss me posting weird lyrics everyday like when I was listening to all that bizarre Euro-techno)...

It´s been a long road, getting from there to here.
It´s been a long time, but my time is finally near.
And I can feel the change in the wind right now. Nothing´s in my way.
And they´re not gonna hold me down no more, no they're not gonna hold me down.

Cause I´ve got faith of the heart.
I´m going where my heart will take me.
I´ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I´ve got strength of the soul. And no one´s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I´ve got faith, faith of the heart.

It´s been a long night. Trying to find my way.
Been through the darkness. Now I finally have my day.
And I will see my dream come alive at last. I will touch the sky.
And they´re not gonna hold me down no more, no they're not gonna change my mind.

Cause I´ve got faith of the heart.
I´m going where my heart will take me.
I´ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I´ve got strength of the soul. And no one´s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I´ve got faith, faith of the heart.

I´ve known the wind so cold, I´ve seen the darkest days.
But now the winds I feel, are only winds of change.
I´ve been through the fire and I´ve been through the rain.
But I´ll be fine ...

Cause I´ve got faith of the heart.
I´m going where my heart will take me.
I´ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I´ve got strength of the soul. And no one´s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I´ve got faith, faith of the heart.

Cause I´ve got faith of the heart.
I´m going where my heart will take me.
I´ve got faith to believe. I can do anything.
I´ve got strength of the soul. And no one´s gonna bend or break me.
I can reach any star. I´ve got faith, faith of the heart.

I made a lot of progress yesterday on the project I have to get results from for my intern pitch. Hopefully today won't be too frustrating, as I need to write Matlab code to visualize that progress.

Anyway, nothing else exciting here. Well except for the fact that Karen appears to be morphing into a football (e.g. soccer) hooligan. Just doesn't seem like her sport. But what can I say, I watched untold amounts of rugby while I was in Switzerland, and no one would have expected that, either.

And, then, for all the liberal-artsy's in my family (which is pretty much everyone but me), for your amusement, The NSF announces - Science Hard: The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard.

My favorite line is: "I guess there's cool stuff about science," Watanabe continued, "like space travel and bombs. But that stuff is so hard, it's honestly not even worth the effort."

Today is my 101st day of work.

I've been counting in my work journal (where I keep notes of my progress each day, relevant results, changes to code, etc.). I wonder when I should stop counting. I'm thinking 1000 days.

It doesn't feel like that long. People keep asking me how I like my job, because I don't talk about it in this diary at at all. Well, that's mostly because its going well. Nothing exciting lately, but when exciting things happen, I'll report them, I promise. But its interesting, and I'm glad I'm here, so that's what's important.

I got scheduled for my intern-pitch, its kind of like a big "Here I am and this is what I do" presentation to upper-management. I do two of these, one now, and one in a year from now. I get a promotion after each one (whoo hoo!). Its kind of nerve-racking though, because I have about 2 weeks to churn out some results. I am assured by my co-workers that this is a normal state of affairs, especially for the first intern pitch.

I had a lovely weekend. I went on a fruit eating fetish, and subsisted on a huge salad I made of melon, honeydew, strawberries, peaches, apples and bananas. It was so good. And I got to go sailing in PERFECT weather on Saturday. While there I met a couple, one of whom works at NASA, who have too many Sunfish and said that next time they take them out on the water, they'll give me a call and let me tool around in one of their Sunfish. Yippee!

In other amusement, Karen is scheduled to meet up with Jen in the Aran islands (that's Ireland) this week. Now they started making a plan, but apparently never finished. This is hilarious to me, because of a certain trip to Iceland, Scotland and Ireland that Karen and I took a couple of years ago. We elaborately constructed our itinerary to meet up with Jen in Ireland, only to find that she stopped checking her email and apparently never calls home (we left several messages with her parents). Her idea of meeting was "Let's meet in Tralee on January 3." Hmmm, towns are small, but not THAT small. Anyway, now Karen is experiencing Deja Vu doing the same thing. But its amazing how stuff like this works out. We had all but given up on Jen during our last trip. But low and behold, behind us, in a bus station in Cork, Ireland, there's Jen (and Maggie, another school chum), yelling "BECCA! KAREN! What are you doing here?" We even have the the picture to prove it.

This is all part of my bizarre European coincidence files that prove there is no "road less taken" anymore. For instance, standing in the train station in Munich while backpacking, I hear "BECCA! Becca!" and turn around and there is Kris Koster - a friend of mine from high school, who I knew would be in Europe at the same time I was backpacking, but it is a pretty big continent. Or then there was the time in Florence, where Kim and I were walking up the street, and Kim says "That looks like J.R.'s head", and I respond "Yeah, that looks a little like Joey with him", and low and behold it was JR and Joey, two random Student Gov't people from Georgia Tech who we both knew (we knew they were backpacking on a similar route to ours, but we thought they had already left Italy several days before). That was fun, because we got to tackle them from behind and really scare them :), speaking of which, I think one of them owes me about 30,000 lyre for buying them McDonald's... :)