Longwinded entry

Advance warning: I am feeling chatty today, so this may be a long winded entry.

Halloween

No, I am not wearing a costume at work - though I was tempted to throw on my Death robe and mask. Yes, I am wearing my festive skeleton earrings that Sarah hates (she says they're tacky, I say they would be tacky if I wore them in July, not if I wear them the week of Halloween). No, I didn't buy any candy, cause no kids live in my neighbourhood. Yes, I am going to a Halloween party tonight. Yes, I did get a costume for Apache (if you count little devil horns that she won't tolerate me putting on her).

The Opera

La Boheme was wonderful. I laughed through the first act. I swooned over Rodolfo, the Bohemian poet, during the second act (why doesn't anyone spout ridiculous love sonnets at me?). I worried for the fate of true love in the third act. And I cried when Mimi died in the fourth act. It was beautiful. Though Mimi got the standing ovation, I was completely enchanted by Rodolfo - (preface this with I have about ZERO musical knowledge or aptitude) but I love really deep baritone singing voices, and all the male parts had them, it was so warm and lovely.

Events surrounding the Opera

I almost ended up going to the opera alone. Buzz ended up having to go pick up her fiance at the airport 'cause his car had flooded while he was away and his insurance company wouldn't give him a rental car (add that to the list of reasons to hate insurance companies). Anyway, I called pretty much everyone who's number was stored in my cell phone to see if they wanted to come with me. It kind of made me happy to know that the first four or five people I called would be considered close enough friends to just randomly call to do something like that - that make me happy about having more of a social life in Houston. Then the last four or five people I called were all people who I know in passing and would like to become better friends with. That's good. That's about the right size social circle, the small, intimate type of social circle I've always had and felt comfortable with (I've never been one for huge groups of non-intimate friends). I guess that means life in Houston is progressing out of quiet of a minimal social life to actual people all around. That's good.

I was also happy with myself because it looked like that everyone else had plans, and I would go to the opera alone. I felt very independent, just doing something for myself. We read this short story in my French class in high school about a old woman who's whole family lived far away from her and was alone in the world and wouldn't go to resteraunts because she didn't want to be embarrassed to eat all alone. (It also had some social criticism about how people stare and wonder when they see a single woman). Then she realized how to appreciate doing things by herself. When I read that story, I never wanted to be the person who couldn't/didn't do something because no one else was with me. And I wasn't. I didn't even think twice about not going 'cause I didn't have a companion. Anyway, in the end, when I was about halfway there, Kennda called and she came to take the extra ticket.

And on Downtown Houston

With the World Space Congress, I really got my first glimpse of Houston as a city. And now the Theatre District. There were just theatre after theatre - an opera house, a symphony hall, a playhouse, etc. All brand new. Surrounded by trendy resteraunts, great parking and clean fresh open streets. Kennda and I went to this little jazz bar/resteraunt after the opera. It was great food, not crowded, not presumptious (despite its prices and obviously yuppy clientale). The really weird part about the whole thing (I realized something felt funny when I was there, but it didn't hit me until I was driving back home), there were no homeless people, no beggers, no dodgey characters loitering around, no trash on the streets, no sketchy dark alleys (seriously, everything was big open and well lit). I think this was the first city street I have every walked down in the middle of the night (I was there until 1 a.m.), with the exception of no-homicide-Switzerland, where I wasn't freaked out and watching my back and clutching my purse. That was nice.

Self-definition

Ok, this is the erudite :) and amateur philosophy section.

As I pulled out of the theatre district, I saw a little place over a trendy resteraunt advertising lofts for rent. I briefly pictured myself living in a big open loft, with high windows, no walls to separate rooms, wood floors, living the life of a city girl. I had this picture when I was in Rice Village for the World Space Congress too, me in a brownstone, lots of funky art, socializing with the Bohemian-university crowd. And then there's the picture of me on my ranch, sipping lemondade reading a book. And then there's me in suburbia, you know, house, dog, garage, finally having space to assemble my RC airplane and a vegetable garden. I don't know, the idea of city life sounds appealing to me, but in the end I think I'd end up with a constant stress headache from all the activity. I like a city to be accessible to me for the museums and theatres and trendy bars and shopping. But more and more, I like the idea of really living in some place more rural and quiet.

I realized something. A lot of people define themselves in college. That's when people go through these big changes and decide who they are and who they are going to be. I was like an arrow in college, just continuing a trajectory I started long ago. There were boxes I was checking in college, even if they were unspoken - do research, get summer internships, join organizations, take leadership positions, get involved.

I didn't really do a lot of the stupid self-discovery kind of things. Then I went away to Switzerland, and lived a life I have never lived before and probably never will again - complete with all-night raves and exotic people, but that was temporary. And now I am in Houston and this is my first REAL chance to define who I am and how I am going to live my life. What types of organizations do I want to be involved in (I don't have to be involved in any, no boxes to check anymore)? Am I the type to seek marriage and breed? Young or old? Am I the type to live in the countryside or the city? What do I do with my evenings? Who are the people I want to spend my time with? Where do I want to travel to? What do I want to do with my life?

All these are very self-defining questions, and questions I could not (or was unwilling to) answer in college, because, I had a plan for college - there were certain things I was going to accomplish and I was too young to think about the other stuff. Now, the plan is different, not as clearly defined, and, as an engineer would put it, I am going to start defining the parameters of my life.

The weather went poof, magically transforming from wet, soggy and disgusting, to a sunny and pleasant autumn day. I feel bad for not taking advantage of it, I slept through my fitness class this morning (I know, I'll probably get disgusted emails from Sarah about being irresponsible or something). I am having the worst time getting used to the time change, its really weird, it shouldn't take much to get used to an hour shift. Yesterday, I woke up in a panic at 6 a.m. because it was daylight already and I thought I was late for work. Last night, when I drove home while the sun was setting, I got really tired really fast and had to force myself to stay up past 7 p.m. Then today I couldn't even stir out of bed for the life of me. Now, all I want to do is go lie in the grass and enjoy the sun (too bad the grass is soaking wet and I work in a room with no windows).

Tonight I am going to see La Boheme at the Houston Opera. I discovered last year that I actually like opera (gasp!). The Houston Opera usually only shows really ultra-modern, often-in-English operas, so I was excited when I found out about La Boheme. I really had to do some digging to find someone to go with me (I'm going with Buzz, who's a friend's girlfriend of many years, who've I've heard spoken about often, but I just met her for the first time when she started working here about a month ago). I was disappointed to find out that the version of La Boheme they are doing is not the traditional version, but some sort of upgraded version that takes place during World War I, instead of the 1800s. Oh well, the music is the same, I'm sure I'll enjoy it, since I am so inexperienced with opera anyway, I think I'd appreciate any of it.

Oh, and as a final thought. What is wrong with this picture? Tickets from Houston to London are $198.00, including for the best days to travel on for Thanksgiving (Wednesday through Sunday). That is the same price as tickets to Philly and S. Florida, and CHEAPER than tickets to D.C., Cleveland, Seattle, Vermont... And that's just a "best price" comparison. I am not even going to talk about the outrageous prices if I actually wanted to go on Wednesday through Sunday...

Last night I took a friend's border collie puppy to obedience class and kept him at my place until she finished her sim late at night. Oh, what a cute dog, and such a lap dog too, he just curled up on my lap while I read. Apache would never sit still for that! Anyway, both of them were curled up on my feet (keeping them warm) in coma-sleep after they spent 45 minutes tearing through my apartment. How sweet!

I hate insurance companies.

I had a lovely weekend. I slept A LOT. I went to see a really dumb (the producer must have been on drugs) IMAX film - the Haunted Castle, which was more like a bad goth music video than a scary movie.

I'm happy today

Today I am happy, despite the fact that it has been raining constantly for a week and there is no sign of it letting up (with today's flood watch: Heavy rains are expected to redevelop over the area today as an upper level disturbance approaches from the west.). And I am wearing my skeleton earrings! Oh, how I love Halloween. I was even chipper in fitness class this morning because the time change and my massive amount of weekend sleeping made getting up this morning VERY easy.

Unpleasantness

Let's see, in unpleasant news, when I was in a deli parking lot on Friday, a construction pickup truck backed into me and dented the area around my drivers' side tail light - including the trunk and the body panel next to the light (we have pictures, I'll make sure they get posted sometime). Anyway, because of the torrential rain I went and got a rental car so I could put my car some place sheltered (at the body shop) so water wouldn't get in the trunk. Anyway, I called the insurance company of the other driver this morning and the adjuster was, of course, taking the day off. However, her assistant read me the report that was filed and the other driver has claimed that we were BOTH backing up. This is, of course, entirely untrue, as I was driving strait down an aisle in the parking lot. Luckily there were two people in my car that were witnesses to this (as a matter of fact, one of them noticed that I was about to get hit and said "Becca go faster, hurry!" to warn me to get out of the way - at which point I did start moving down the aisle faster but it was too late, cause I was hit). And, to top that off, the guy who filed the claim wasn't even the driver, but the manager of the driver, meaning he didn't even know what happened, but he was trying to make it sound like I was partially to blame! Anyway, we'll see what happens tomorrow when I tell my story, but I'll be really upset if I have to notify my insurance company so they can fight it out. I'll be more upset if my car is totalled, because, well, I was hoping to be able to wait another 8 or 9 months (until I got a handle on this whole house thing) before buying a new car. Grumble grumble. I wish I lived in a place with good public transit, I don't really want a car, I wish I didn't really need one.

And, in other news, for those of you who can understand the implications, dad told me last night (in his words), "Rini is in that way again".

I want to buy a ranch now. Just yesterday I was thinking how nice it would be to get married to a handy-type man then I could buy a little farmhouse (ok, this was inspired by an article on a Bucks County farmhouse I read in the doctor's office), and have someone else that could take care of it. Ok, well, that's not really a reason to bind yourself to some guy for the rest of your life. But that would be a perk. Then I decided it would just be really nice to have a big plot of land and not be in suburban hell.

And today, as if on cue, I did a search of new listings, and there is a ranch in my price range, closer to work than many of the others I've looked at - in the same town/school district I've been looking at (only about 1/2 a mile from the other neighborhoods I've been considering). The house is small but newer than much of what I've looked at (built in 1996, and is 1600 sqft - 3 bedrooms, with a LARGE master). It has a two-horse stable. And 2.3 acres - talk about the maintenance! But then I could have a big veggie garden instead of a little one. And I could get some sheep that Apache could spend all day herding. It doesn't have a garage, but I could definitely turn part of the stable into a car port, from what I can tell in the pictures. Then I could get a horse and a boat and have a place to keep them. But how cool would it be to have a house like that though!

Now I have to stop thinking about it before I go see it and convince myself to buy it. Sarah thinks I'm crazy. I just like to think about these things. This house has personality which is something completely different from everything else I've looked at. I want a house with personality. Probably by the time I'm old enough and responsible enough to take care of a cute house like this, I won't be able to afford one. Or I'd have to buy one a million miles away from work. Or I'll be living in a ultra-populated area where there are no ranches. Sigh. Oh well. I guess I am a little crazy. But that doesn't stop me from picturing myself on a porch swing, reading the afternoon away, on the front patio, with a glass of lemondade.

Yesterday was a very randomly exciting day at work. It was "Safety and Total Health Day" and we were supposed to have a half-day stand-down to just study how to be safe. However, at least for me, it pretty much amounted to a full day shut-down, because all I managed to get accomplished in the morning was to collect all my notes on how to run DDS (its an entry shaping simulation) and record them in one place, rather than scattered through notebooks.

Anyway, the morning started at 7:30 because I had volunteered to be a pancake flipper at our division's breakfast. I must say, my pancakes turned out excellently for the first time I've ever made them (I know, I was as surprised by that realization as you might be).

Then we went to Indian food for lunch (whoo hoo!). I really like curry and nan and spicey food, but no one at work usually wants to go to foreign food, but I'm glad I collected a little contingent. On the way out we saw PROTESTORS at the front gate. I was so entertained. I hope Sarah posts some pictures of them. The Chinese president came to visit NASA yesterday, so there were some anti-Chinese protestors from the oppressed religious minority (cult?) Falun Gong. And then there were pro-China supporters having a counter-demonstration. All at the front gate. It was so exciting :).

After lunch was actually the safety part. First, there was a morbid presentation on recent launch failures. But then, we got to watch SAFETY MAN! Which is a video that my co-workers did two years ago when they first started working and I've been hearing about non-stop. It was just as hilarious as I expected (I'll never forget the line How bout we put a rattlesnake in the elevator. he he)

Then in the afternoon, I walked the 5K run/walk held on site. Most of the people I knew ran. And then all of the walkers turned to only walk the mile route instead of the whole 3 miles. So I was pretty much alone most of the walk (there were 5 other women who were kind of run/walking that were pretty close to me until about the last mile when they took off running). But it was nice and pleasant. And I didn't finish last, despite being the only walker on the 5K route, either, cause at around the second mile, a very nice guy named Steve who started late, caught up to me, and decided he was through running, so he walked the rest of the way with me. We pretty much talked about how nice it is to live around mountains (he had just finished up his post-doc at Stanford). And then at the finish line, there was Sarah and Laura and Greta (the personal fitness class instructor) screaming for me to hurry up - and they had a megaphone! It was very funny :)

It was a fun distinction to be last, too, cause on the part that was along the road, I had a police car following behind me picking up cones. And then I got to see the Chinese president's motorcade (coming in the back gate, so the irony is, he didn't see any of the protestors). And I had a lovely conversation with the guys that were giving out water at the halfway mark. And then they wheeled away the timer (53 minutes) as I passed the finish line.

Attitude. That makes a big difference on whether you enjoy something or not. That's my lesson for the day (and yes its based in reality, but I don't want to tell the story for fear of offending certain readers who this lesson applies to - how's that for cryptic!?).

I'm submitting my grad school application to Rice so I can start taking classes in January. I think suddenly my life is going to get a lot busier. And last night I went to another drill with the volunteer fire department/medics. It was interesting, I definitely want to do my EMT (I wonder how I can fit that in).

Yesterday I did two things not on my daily schedule of activities: visit another house and have a doctor's appointment. Anyway, this is going to be a long entry cause I'm feeling wordy today.

The Routine.

Work has been a little slow this month. With me spending the last three weeks fixing up this paper for the World Space Congress, and then actually attending the event, I seem to have lost momentum on all my work projects. Plus I'm a little disenheartened. Two weeks ago we went to an X-38 Flight Design shutdown meeting (in case you didn't know, X-38 is an escape ship for the space station and is currently my primary project, but officially it was canceled when they decided to focus on building a space station for 3 people rather than 7).

The meeting started with a "Thanks for coming I know a lot of you haven't been working on X-38 for a while..." Which I found tragic, because that's still all I do. To give my management some credit, the reason I'm still working on it is that I am trying to complete a simulation tool that we developed for it that has lots of other applications. Once I have completed the tool and finished testing it with X-38, I will be using it on things (specifically on shuttle/external tank separation and breakup) - so it didn't make sense to stop work on it.

But somehow it just seems silly and pointless to keep working on a canceled project when no one outside my immediate group cares about the results at all.

That said, I only have about 2 more months left of work on it before I can move on. But I am procrastinating, so..

The Doctor.

Let's start with the doctor. I decided it was finally time to establish real relationships with actual medical practitioners in the same town I live in (something that I haven't done really since we moved to Florida in 9th grade). So, I started with a physical (which I had been advised to have by the flight doc anyway, cause I was slightly anemic).

I have to say, I really like people from West Texas, which quite obviously was where my doctor was from. First of all they talk at a breakneck pace, something I can not only relate to, but makes me feel right at home (you'd have to know my family to understand). And they use the word "scotche" (as in "just a little bit", used as "I'll just have a scotche of that apple pie, ma'am").

Anyway, he passed the good doctor test. He was funny though. He asked me what I did for a living and I told him I was an aerospace engineer at NASA. He said "Wow. You're not really what I'd expect an aerospace engineer to be like... I mean, uh oh, I didn't mean to sound sexist or anything... its just that you always picture them as nerdy, softspoken, pocket-protector wearing..."

He he. I thought that was funny.

The House.

I had been warned before we went that the house we were looking at was a foreclosure -- so I knew I was getting a mixed bag. However, it was listed at $150,000 (just my price), was built in 1997 (most of the houses built that recently in the neighbourhoods I'm interested in are out of my price range), and had 2500 sqft (500 more than I usually can afford). And, to top that off, was in a perfect location in the neighbourhood - in the very back on a cul-du-sac, its back yard overlooked a farm field (which will soon be turned into $300,000 homes). So, the point is, if the house wasn't a foreclosure, it should have been offered at around $180,000.

Now, that's how it looked on paper. Too bad I won't be buying it 'cause Hell's Kitchen is probably a nicer place than this one. Let's talk abou the nightmare that was the inside. I know people get emotional when they are evicted from their homes. It makes you wonder, considering the amount of time it takes for a bank to foreclose on a house, why the owners don't just sell it. Anyway, we were the first people in the house (it had just gotten listed that morning, and the listing agent hadn't even been there except to put a lock box on the door.)

So, these owners just trashed the place (my realtor guessed it was a messy divorce). They left all there stuff behind - and smashed it. Poured out food on the floor. Left dog messes behind. There were fleas everywhere. What was once a beautiful piano in the library was smashed to bits. The garage had unstuffed furniture knee deep. Tiles had been taken out of the shower. In one of the rooms there was a whole ripped out of the ceiling. The A/C looked like it had a sledge hammer taken to it. There were clothes strewn everywhere. The smell. The grass was all dead. The said part about it was, the house looked like it had been "loved" before the foreclosure - it had cute landscaping, despite the mess the surfaces under the mess looked like they had been clean before stuff was dumped on it, the walls all looked freshly painted. The owners were the original owners and had paid for little upgrades like a marble entry-way and art niches in the walls. Even though I think I could get the house for $40,000 less than its worth, I couldn't take on the shear amount of cash repairs (just visually I estimated $15,000) that were required to get that house in order. Not to mention, it smelled so bad, I couldn't really get a good look. Apparently the realator is going to have the trash hauled out and it cleaned and de-bugged for future showings. What a nightmare! What makes someone do that to their beautiful house..

The weekend was about as lazy as I expected it to be. I got Apache a 22" long bone, which kept her busy for the weekend. I visited the kittens (now I want one, despite my allergies!). I went to IKEA. I watched TV. I read. I slept, a lot (especially on Saturday). No news on the house front - I checked the listings this morning and there is nothing new for sale.

I actually updated last night, too, if you click previous.

I was such a lazy bum this morning. First of all, I didn't even make it to the gym until 7:10 (class is supposed to start at 6:30 -- but because there are no lectures on Friday, well...). Then I practically had to force myself to run, and ended up giving up one lap short of the distance I ran on Wednesday. Oh well.

Today I will work in the morning, then this afternoon I am going to go help out at the Kids Rock! space education festival. This weekend, I have no plans, except maybe visit kittens with Sarah and maybe go on a little shopping trip. This is kind of unfortunate, because the following weekend I have too many plans and really need to decide what I want to do and commit to someone (next weekend: a bunch of people going to see 3D IMAX movies, possibly a haunted house visit, the wings over houston airshow and a camping trip. Must decide...)

On NASA

I've kind of been in a dialog (no, really, this time it wasn't an argument, more like a discussion, not even a forceful one) with Sarah about NASA.

First of all, we both agree that NASA is cool. It is. Now, I am not inspired to work for NASA because I have wanted, my entire life, to sit in front of a computer running simulations all day and using my education to try to make sense of the results. I am inspired to work for NASA because of, in no particular order: Shuttle launches, landing on the moon, space stations, big wind tunnels, the potential for sending people to Mars, astronauts, mission control, probes penetrating the depths of the solar system.

Anyway, our conversation has focused around the "astronaut" aspect of that. Sarah has gotten to the point where (and I will try to quote her correctly) "I'm sorry, I'm just not really that impressed with astronauts anymore."

I have to say, I'm still impressed. I am impressed not only by virtue of the qualifications that led them to be astronauts (honestly, if you were really tunnel visioned about becoming an astronaut, you could stack up the right set of qualifications too). I am impressed by what they do - even more impressed because I know I will probably never get to do what they do, as much as I want to, unless there is some sort of technological breakthrough (or public opinion breakthrough) that lets space travel become more commonplace.

When I worked at Kennedy Space Center, I met people that were at the point of "You've seen one launch you've seen them all" and "I can't believe you are excited to see the Vehicle Assembly Building, we pass it every day driving to work." At Langley I got laughed at when I begged to be taken to what must have been the 20th wind tunnel I visited. People here at Johnson think launches are cool and inspiring. I remember at Kennedy how when the crew of the Discovery came for a pre-launch inspection of everything, practically the whole center was engaged in "astronaut spotting" because they were so excited to see astronauts (probably more so than usual, because John Glenn was on that particular flight).

I don't want to become so jaded that I don't think what happens under my own nose right here at work is so commonplace and heros to become less impressive. I would lose my motivation to sit here and run simulations all day if I did.

I was at the World Space Congress today, which is why I have such a late entry.

I just want to clarify something to my concerned readership (especially Karen and Mom):

Making pumpkin pie and carving a pumpkin are two separate events. I will not actually be making the pie from the pumpkin I carve. In fact, usually many pumpkins have to give their life for a single pie. Which is why I will make the pie from canned pumpkin. Sorry for the confusion.

In other experiments, I have decided to grow an avacado tree. You do this in the same fashion that you would make a potato sprout - that is, stick some toothpicks in the seed and put it in a glass of water. It has sprouted roots. You see, even though I am making big bucks as a civil servant, I am getting terribly fed up with spending $5/week on avacado. I will keep you updated on her progress - I don't intend on naming this particular plant until she looks more like a tree than a seed.

I am going to doing a Karen-style entry and talk about the weather. It is beautiful out - about as perfect as you get in Houston. It is crisp, low humidity, cool, clear air. I even wore a light sweater today. Ok, I know I didn't need it and even though it was 50 degrees out when I went jogging this morning it will probably climb into the seventies today, but its nice. I love autumn weather, it is most definitely my favorite season. I am going to carve a pumpkin this weekend and make pumpkin pie.

I went to the World Space Congress poster session last night and ran into Dr. Olds and about half the grad students I knew when I was at Georgia Tech -- it is SO funny how small the world is. Plus the two team leaders from the disasterous Europa project were there too. It was a real reunion.

I am going on a quest today to find someone who is willing to go to the Houston Opera with me - because for a rare occasion they are putting on an opera sung in a language other than English (La Boheme) rather than some modernized-appeal-to-the-masses-only-Opera.

I've been getting complaints because people are sick about reading the terms of my contract. Anyway, that's all settled now, I terminated it (read below for details) and am back on the market again. AND as an extra bonus for those of you who waited, I have an extra-long entry.

Yesterday I had Columbus Day off. Last year at this time, I wrote:

Unfortunately the consulate was closed on both Swiss and American holidays. Since I knew it was not a Swiss holiday, I scanned my brain to figure out what possible American holiday it could be... Columbus Day. Have you ever met an American that gets Columbus Day off of work??

I find it IRONIC that I just had Columbus Day off.

The Space Generation Summit

I spent Friday-Sunday at the World Space Congress -- a once in every 10 year gathering of space professionals. Anyway, I participated in this Summit for young people -- it had a lot of potential to be a waste of time or potential to be excellent. I think it was excellent.

You'll laugh at the discussion I had though, especially if you know my usual political opinions (i.e. Becca is a peace-nick) I was specifically in the "Space to Enhance Security on Earth" working group. Some of the summit organizers had decided to make this big push to get everyone to sign a petition for a treaty called the Space Preservation Treaty through the U.N. to ban all militarization of space (including spy satellites, missile defense, etc.). Even peace-nick me realizes how impossibly unrealistic that is - though I remain staunchly opposed to missile defense.

However, the two space lawyers in my group and one engineering student (not so coincidentally, all of that particular group were from the European Space Agency delegation) and the Zambian engineering graduate student were HUGE proponants of this plan. Luckily my group also contained an Israeli missile engineer and a flight officer from the Royal Australian Air Force that supported me as I tried to temper such an unrealistic idea with more practical recommendations to limit space from being used as a battle ground (all of us agreed that "Peace in Space" was a wonderful ideology, but we disagreed on how close we could come to achieving it).

My conclusion as long as there isn't Peace on Earth, there isn't going to be Peace in Space. Anyway, typical of me, this thought angered some of the really KEY people running this summit, and I got yelled at by one of them over drinks on Saturday night because the two other "warmongers" weren't around to support me and got told that I "was in the minority of one. how could I not support peace in space!" and it was fine that I had this horrible opinion, but I "should express that opinion then excuse myself from the working group so the visionairies could make progress."

Anyway, luckily for me, my working group kind of banded together to support me, saying that I wasn't in a minority of one, and we all agreed that we made significant progress on our recommendations that were ways to make space more peaceful (one recommendation was "Prohibit the intentional use of hostile anti-satellite weapons, while still recognizing the right given in the U.N. charter for a soveirgn nation to defend itself." another was the recommendation to establish something like "world heritage satellites", kind of like terrestrial world herritage sites that are beneficial to all humanity, like forest fire detection satellites and crop monitoring satellites that are protected from attack or being victims of collateral damage from an EM pulse).

I don't think the summit orginizers were as happy with our recommendation as our own group was though, because they really wanted us to endorse this petition and made it clear when all 200 of us met for the final session. When they opened up the floor to discussion several of them made shish-coom-ra! speaches for the impossible to actually pass Peace in Space Treaty and how we should endorse it as a summit. It was making me sick, mostly because I was afraid it would hurt our credibility as an organization to support such an extreme stance.

So, during the discussion, I was the first to get up, and not outright speak against the petition, but express my reservations, especially against the association of this particular political movement and the entire group. I was really surprised how much support I got though! I guess sometimes me being a contrarian really works out - after I spoke, so many people got up to express agreement with me, they had to cut short the discussion time. In the post-conference party about 20 people came to me to tell me individually that they appreciated me speaking and I said exactly what was on their mind, but they didn't want to say it because it was so supported by the "leadership" of the conference and instead they were just going to disassociate themselves with the group, but since so many people agreed with my sentiment, they didn't feel they had to anymore. Even some supporters of the no-military in space initiative came to tell me that they agreed with me that the initiative shouldn't stay associated with our group.

So, I guess sometimes being argumentative works.

And onto the house

Here's the email I sent describing what/how I decided:

After having a bad first inspection, being jerked around by the sellers yesterday, and almost being a victim of the Texas two-step, I terminated the contract on the house today. My realtor and inspector really wanted me to give the sellers the benefit of the doubt by letting them cut into the sheet rock around the bay window. They only cut above the bay window, and my inspector was fairly happy with what he saw up there, saying it wasn't really moist at all and a little trim would fix any chance of future problems for good. However, the owners somehow "forgot" to cut below the bay window -- so we called the realtor and got permission for my inspector to cut his own hole. Anyway, the cavity below had TONS of moisture in it - the inspector had a moisture gage, which he demonstrated to me on his wood ladder and the wood on the ceiling above the bay window, as about 7% moist (the normal range is 5-10%). Then he put it at different spots in the cavity below the bay window where the moisture readings went from 23 - 26% (the "red line" starts at about 18%). This is particularly interesting considering upon our first inspection, he had assumed that the area under the window was mostly repaired and the moisture was probably dried out.

As you may know, in Texas a license to inspect homes does not come with a license to inspect for mold (you have to hire a mold inspector for that). Anyway, my inspector said to me something along the lines of "Did you notice the dark splotches on the back of the sheet rock I cut out? Well, moisture stains are usually pretty even and curved, not all splotchy like that. I'll leave you to conclude what the splotches could indicate..."

So, I went strait to the realtor and terminated the contract and requested the refund of my earnest money. I'm glad I did it this way, because if I had terminated before, there would still be the element of the unknown, but now, it is known -- the house is rotten! :) So, I'm back on the market. I'll keep you updated.

The Saga

Since my house-purchase has now evolved from a simple, painless process as it once was, to a saga, I figured I'd update y'all. The Seller has come back with an offer to fix everything found in the inspection, including tearing out the walls and roof around the bay window to determine the extent of the water damage, let me (and my inspector) look at it, and then decide then whether I want to terminate the contract. In the meantime they will fix ALL the other faults found by the inspector, which is something that usually never happens (usually you only discuss the big things found by inspections). So, I've modified the contract to the following obnoxiousness (though I have told the realtor that I am willing to eliminate many of the little nit-picky things from this list -- I am concerned with the termites, A/C coil, siding, back door, and of course the bay window):

(2) In addition to any repairs and treatments otherwise required by the contract, Seller, at Seller’s expense, shall complete the following repairs and treatments.

(Repairs shall be repaired to correct defects found in home inspection 2002-1008263, preformed by William Winning III, license number 4637, performed on 10/9/02. Inspection document is attached hereto).

1. Perform corrective and preventative treatment for termite infestation, with a service that provides a warranty for a minimum of 1 year, renewable up to 5 years.

2. Ensure that the grass and soil not at or above the weep holes around the residence (Item IB)

3. Front door protective covering (paint) will be replaced/repaired (Item IG)

4. Repair/replace latch on the window to the left of the breakfast room exit door so that it latches properly (Item IH)

5. Repair power receptacle in half bath so that it has power. (Item IIB)

6. A qualified A/C technician should inspect the A/C coil to determine its condition and make necessary repairs. (Item IIIB)

7. Repair/replace master shower head to eliminate the leak at the shower head (Item IVA)

8. Repair/replace the broken ring to the seal on the p-trap drain pipe in the upstairs lavatory (Item IVB)

9. Replace missing insulation in attic areas to prevent loss of heating and cooling. (Property Inspection Report: Overflow Comment Addendum)

10. Replace temporary trim at bay windows, and the freeze and facia trim that is showing signs of wood decay. (Property Inspection Report: Overflow Comment Addendum)

11. Replace all siding in locations where siding has deteriorated or swollen (to include, at the least, all siding on both sides of the house and the rear). Buyer will assume costs to upgrade siding from replacement quality to Hardy plank. (Property Inspection Report: Overflow Comment Addendum)

(9) Other modifications:

1. Seller will pay $750 to the Buyer at closing to cover purchase of replacement back door and frame. (Item IG)

2. Seller will remove roofing, exterior coverings, slab, and any other items surrounding the bay window that are necessary to inspect the condition of the roof decking and structural framing and assess the extent of the water damage. Before repairs are initiated, the Buyer, Buyer’s Agent, and/or Buyer’s Inspector will be permitted to inspect the condition of the framing. Seller, at Seller’s expense, will make all necessary repairs to prevent future leaks associated with the bay window and bay window roofing and correct the existing water damage. (Item IF, Property Inspection Report: Overflow Comment Addendum)

3. Buyer has paid Seller an additional non-refundable Option Fee of $1.00 for an extension of the unrestricted right to terminate the contract on or before 5 days following the Buyer’s inspection of the extent of the water damage associated with the bay window. The Buyer may inspect the property within 5 days of the completion of all repairs specified in this contract and amendment with the exception of siding repairs. Siding shall be replaced after satisfactory inspection of other repairs. If the inspection shows that the faults have not been corrected to the Buyer inspector’s satisfaction, the Buyer has the right to terminate the contract within 2 days of inspection.

4. Seller will provide documentation in the form of itemized receipts or invoices at the completion of all repairs.

So, once again I am on the hunt for a house. Woe is me. The inspector told me last night, 4 hours into the inspection, that the house was starting to give him a really bad feeling and if I were his daughter he wouldn't let me buy the house. So I'm not.

The details of the inspection

It started off pretty well, all things considered. Here's what was found in the approximate chronological order:

1. Termites. The termite guy found a nest of termites in the wooden fence, which he said was very common in Houston, and he would recommend that the seller de-bug the house. There were no signs of termites or past termite damage anywhere actually on or in the house.

2. A foundation crack. We had noticed a crack in the tile of the breakfast room when we first looked at the house. What we didn't notice was that the crack extended from a corner in the garage to the corner of the breakfast room, through the cement. This is the point when the inspector told me not to worry about it too much and he isn't shy about letting his clients know when and if a house started giving him "bad vibes." The way the breakfast room was build, a crack was almost inevitable (it was like a cantelever on the rest of the house and built on yucky, flexible Houston mud), and he said it looked like the crack had been there for a long time and hadn't grown or widened (it was hairline), so it was fine.

3. Bad door. The back door was rusted and warped. We had noticed this before and already factored in replacing it (since I want a doggy door there anyway). Turns out this warping actually probably came from when the crack appeared, since it was right on the line of the crack.

4. Ceiling cracks He pointed out several cracks starting to form at the stress points of my lovely cathedral ceiling. Again, he said this is normal for a 12 year old house, but he spent a lot of time looking at the ceiling and decided, basically, that the engineer who designed it must have been on crack, because all the supports seemed precariously positioned, with certain forces being directed in weird ways. But in the end, he concluded that it worked, it was just weird. Up to this point, he was pretty convinced things would work out. The only other defect that we would have to talk to the seller about was a bad AC coil.

4. Warped siding This is a MUCH bigger issue. The house is mostly brick, but on the second story on both sides of the house, there is some siding. Anyway, it was all warped. More disturbing was some warped parts had obviously been hammered back in, meaning that the owners noticed it, and instead of fixing it (or painting it, which would have prevented the rest of the warping in the first place) they tried to conceal it. Not to mention, it was pretty clear they were aware of it and didn't disclose it like they should have (the disclosure questionnaire is very specific about siding). That made the inspector worried, he started ho-humming saying there were lots of issues I would need to sort out before I bought the house.

5. The straw that broke the camel's back. As we were circling the house outside (in the rain), he did a double take at the gorgeous bay window. He said the trim around the edge of the window was most definitely not standard for the builders in the area, and the owners must have added it and he wondered why the did that. Anyway, we went back inside and he pulled up the carpet that goes up to the wall where the bay window is, and sure enough, there was water damage on the floor. He said there was no sign of water damage around the window sills, meaning the water didn't come through the window, but through the wall. He said the owners probably added the trim because they notices the damage and wanted to stop the leak. Anyway, he said there was no way to tell how much damage was inside the wall without taking out the bricks from the outside. He said, this was starting to be trouble. Then he looked up and there was a dark water stain on the ceiling above the bay window. How mom and David and I didn't notice the stain is beyond me, as I think all of us spent a lot of time looking at ceilings and notice water stains in multiple houses. Anyway, this was one of the darkest stains I've seen. Maybe because it was raining, it was actually getting wetter. The inspector said the stain was old, but still wet -- meaning water had been coming through the roof above the bay window for a long time (he said possibly years or even the lifetime of the house). Best case scenario, the roof above the bay window would need to be replaced and the dry wall torn out.

Then he said, in almost these words, "I've got the bad vibes now. This is really not good at all. (frowns, pauses for about 2 minutes) Because on either side of your bay window are the two beams that structurally support the cathedral ceiling [I mentioned earlier how we talked in detail about how precariously balanced the ceiling structure was] and if the water got into those beams, which is very well could have, because the stain stretched the whole length of the window to the edges where the beams are, the water could have gotten into the beams, weakening them to the point of eventual buckling. Then, in a few years from now, the roof could collapse onto the living room." He said the only way to assess the level of damage was to pretty much tear out the whole front wall.

Lovely. This is when he informed me I should "run, not walk" away from this house. So I did.

And the post-decision frenzy

So of course this started the phone tree of the realtor, the mom, the aunt diane and the rest of the family gossip circle. I was just a little rattled, well, mostly because I was really delighted that the inspector found these things before I made a really big mistake. However, I was also upset -- what if something like that happens to me when I go to sell whatever house I do buy -- the owners were looking at $30k+ just to take care of the few major issues (termites, siding, determine the extent of the water damage, door, and AC), I'll barely have that much equity in a house when I go to sell.

All in all, it was a roller coaster (a very expensive one). So, I dragged Sarah over to my apartment to be tortured by my dog (she doesn't like to be licked) and opened a bottle of wine and ordered a pizza. Then I talked on the phone to concerned family members and Irwin half the night. And I stayed up late just in general worrying.

The conclusion I came to is that I should quit my job and use my down payment to take an around-the-world trip or buy an BMW convertable or something let nerve racking and less sensible.

So this morning, I woke up 5 minutes before (6:10 am) I needed to leave for exercise class, only to determine that all my running shorts and sports bras were still in the washing machine soaking wet. I threw them in the dryer and went back to sleep for a desparately needed extra 30 minutes of sleep, and went jogging at home -- so I know its not my training class, but I needed to do it, especially since I'll be at the Space Generation Summit on Friday instead of at class then too. That was a nice change, but there was no way to judge distances (my plan gradually pushes me up to greater and greater distances) so I don't know if I jogged for long-enough or far-enough. Judging by my aching legs, I think I did, though.

I'm trying to see the bright side of this whole house thing. This is why we have inspectors. And it helped me make up my mind about what I want -- when I talked to my realtor last night she told me we could go look at the other one I had been considering, but I think after going through all the rigimorale of deciding, I really want a two story, open-plan house, so I'm going to stop looking at the one-floors. There are less two-stories on the market, but I have until the end of December before my rent goes to obscene heights. Now, I'm tired, and fed up, and want to move to Australia.

Busy at work

Sorry I didn't update yesterday. It was a busy day. I am helping with this paper for the World Space Congress. Actually, I was reduced to writing most of it -- even though I am only a co-author, the primary author (my mentor) is mucho busy, and I got worried he would never finish in time for export control to read it. So, I started revising it. Talk about opening a can of worms, I've been almost non-stop working on it for two weeks now. I think its done, though, and I can get on to bigger and better things.

I bought a house

Oh, I bought a house. Well at least we have a signed contract. And I have a mortgage (5.75%, 30-year fixed, isn't that a rock-awesome interest rate?). My inspection is today. Closing is October 30. I am going to try to take pictures to provide you with details later. But to make a long story short: 2 floors, fireplace, 2.5 baths, 3 bedrooms, living, dining, kitchen, breakfast room - master down (with whirlpool tub!) and 2 rooms up, along with a game room, big bay window, big back yard, two car garage. And Sarah's right, I don't know what I'm going to do with it -- but now I desperately want a $5,000 plasma flat TV (like in the Phillips commercials) to hang over my fireplace!

Long, confusing conversation

I've had some very entertaining conversations with random house-related people. There was the one insurance compnay who I SWEAR had two separate names and ended up calling and providing details to twice (that would be American National -- kind of a redundant name, don't you think?). And then there was the talk with USAA to determine eligibility (I'm not, as I expected, but I would have been if my grandfather had ever been a member of USAA -- but he can't join now, he would've had to join before, when I couldn't establish), but you wouldn't believe the strange rules and strange relationships you can have with people, but the operator seemed to know all of them. And then, good old Allstate -- you'd figure they could find native English speakers to answer the phone!

Oh, and Sarah's journal entry yesterday was very good, very NASA-inspiring!

I got absolutely nothing done yesterday at work. Basically, as Sarah so eloquently put it, we all played "arm chair" meteorologists, desperately waiting for the next weather forecast. The ironic thing is, at the end of the day, it was pretty clear that the worst Lili would do to us is a few wind gusts, and maybe some rain (not even heavy rain!). And the better news for Louisiana is that she was downgraded to a MUCH safer Category 2 hurricane overnight. Still, it is kind of disappointing, I was hoping for a little exciting inclement weather. Just a little.

I had a very disturbing dream last night. I don’t think this journal would be a good place to describe it, but it was disturbing.

My mom is en route right now -- I don't even think her little puddle jumper flight will be delayed in this weather. I'm very excited, I may be buying a house VERY soon. Though now I have to worry about it being blown away in the NEXT hurricane, whenever that may be.

I’ve started a new project too. I decided that I if I’m ever going to write my-family-is-a-soap-opera in novel form (don’t worry, I’ll fictionalize and change names, a little), I should work to improve my writing by studying others. The problem is that I read a LOT, but I usually get so absorbed in a novel, that I don’t even notice the writing, I just sink myself into the story. So, I don’t really know what draws me to some writing over others. I’ve decided to try to be more conscious of the words and sentences and structures that catch my attention – to this end, I’ve started a journal where I will copy the most interesting phrases. My first entry was a description of the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) that was the most perfect picture (from the two times I’ve ever seen them).

TRACK FORECAST GUIDANCE IS TIGHTLY
CLUSTERED WITH A RANGE OF LANDFALLS FROM VERMILLION BAY TO SABINE
PASS. WHILE THERE IS ALWAYS A CHANCE SUCH UNANIMOUSLY CLUSTERED
GUIDANCE COULD BE UNANIMOUSLY WRONG...

The imminent hurricane (well, maybe tropical storm force winds here) is making life at least slightly exciting around here. The most unfortunate part is the potential delay of my mom's trip to visit. The last weather forecast said we will likely be getting tropical storm force winds starting in the late morning tomorrow (conveniently exactly the time my mom and David should be boarding an extremely small and low-flying plane to fly from north Houston to here -- and if they get trapped at Intercontinental, the airport on the north end of Houston, the weather will be so incliment that it would probably take forever to fight my way up there).

So. That's the excitement. Oh, and I am the Mistress of the Spice, because I was able to explain to Karen the difference between cumin, cayenne pepper, and chili powder. I was at my exercise class ON TIME this morning. Yah for me!

I got CPR certified this morning. I have a LOT to do before mom and her "friend" arrive. Clean car, clean bathroom, clean kitchen, vacuum. The good news is, I just got word I was approved for the 80-10-10 mortgage. No PMI. Yippee!

That is, if mom arrives, thanks to hurricane Lily.

The weather channel put it best with:

Lili could be a category 3 powerhouse by tomorrow morning and driving on a beeline toward the upper Texas Gulf Coast. Trouble is, most of the forecast models suggest Lili's beeline might not be that much of a line as it nears the coast on Thursday. (Nothing is ever easy when forecasting hurricanes.) The majority of models suggest a last-minute swerve into the southwest Louisiana coast. So the challenge becomes, does Lili indeed zig in time to spare the Houston-Galveston area? Or does it roar straight on in? Or, heaven forbid, does it give a shake of the hips sooner than anticipated and peel off towards New Orleans threatening the Crescent City with a major disaster? Wish we knew. But we really don't. Not yet. Stay tuned and get ready for anything.