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.