Today has been another busy day.

I got to sleep in a bit, and then ran to the post office and bank before coming to work. I only got about an hour through the day, when I ran off to gather some Yuri's Night stuff from the printer. Then, a quick lunch, and off to 600 Gemini (a contracter building) for three lessons in two hours. After catching my breath, back to work.

Where I found out... that there were only two applicants for the FDO slot. Me and one other (ok, the other is a PhD Rhodes Scholar with way more visibility and more important work than me, but that's just a nit...). I had mentally expected 6 (or more) competitors, making my application basically a shot in the dark. I'm currently in the process of adjusting myself to the idea that I have at least at least a fighting chance of getting this job right off, and near-automatic shot of being next in line for it. All this stuff comes in a deluge. Two months ago, I was increasingly bored at work. Now, I have three things that I've just started that I really like doing -- and here's the opportunity for me to do something even bigger if I am willing to give up this other stuff I like. So, needless to say, my head is spinning. I guess in a few weeks I'll know how it all works itself out, but since I like what I'm doing now and I think I'd like being a FDO, its a win-win situation.

Then, off to Molly's, a quaint pub with awesome outdoor seating (to enjoy the PERFECT weather in), where I had a "dry" happy hour. Why, you ask? Well, because, now I'm back at work. I'm observing a sim with Diego Garcia (a navy base in the middle of the Indian Ocean) as part of my training. I expect to be done at 9:30, when I will head home to my neglected puppies and go to sleep.

Rinse, repeat.

This is an oh-so-special update. I have nothing to say and work to do, but Cari says she won't update her journal until I update mine. Never mind that I do mine every day, and we're lucky if we get an update from her once a week!!


Today is a beautiful day -- if only Houston could stay like this all year round. Hopefully I'll get back from class early enough to squeeze some outdoor activity in. Otherwise, I will just have to wait for Daylight Savings Time. Nothing else new or exciting to report. I watched three strait hours of Law and Order last night - that show is so addicting! And no matter how many episodes I've seen, I don't think I've ever seen a repeat. I did knit while watching, which made me feel productive in an old lady sort of way. My fingers hurt from this new hobby, though, I wonder if there is a way to avoid that...

Thrilling things from today: Sushi for lunch; Getting put on the schedule for a sim (I've been to sims before, but this is the first I've been scheduled for, I feel so official); Confirmation that I get to go to Ames (in California) to play with their Vertical Motion Simulator for a week.

Things that don't thrill me as much: Uncertainty about skipping class to go to a strange meeting; The annoying voice on the Computer Based Training (CBT); The fact that it rained today (preventing me from mowing my lawn tonight, and possibly messing up the 5K course for Saturday)

This weekend went pretty much exactly as planned, so no updates needed there.

Sarah took a million pictures of Bennet on Friday night. There were a couple that also included Apache. I like this one. Two crazy dogs that are all my problem.

Twice in two days, I've heard this rumor that the next space station crew might be up there for a year (which is double the usual 6 months). That's a long time to be stuck in a very small tin can circling the Earth with only one other person to keep you company (though they would get a week-long visit during a Soyuz taxi mission). Not a breath of fresh air for a whole year. It wouldn't be the longest space stay ever (some of the Russian Mir crews stayed longer). But, wow. I have spent many years dreaming about being an astronaut, but when you hear about stuff like this every day, it makes you wonder about the personality of someone who can do that or would VOLUNTEER to do that... going into space would be an amazing thing (sign me up!). But, on the other hand, can you imagine the confinement/isolation?

In case you can't tell, I've recently become re-energized about space stuff and my job in general. There's a definite morale boost from the recent tours I got to take and the new work assignments.

This weekend, what will I do? Tonight is Sarah's Birthday Game Night (at my house); Tomorrow, probably homework/yardwork; Sunday, Cheesecake factory and REI.

morning... Still sick, didn't sleep well. Got up early, went to work early early to study. Turns out LSO's get in even earlier, dratted Air Force. Ended up an unexpected weather sim where I got to play assistant-LSO. Met my new mentor (I'm participating in a program that pairs you with a more senior person in that works in a different organization) and she rocks. Went back to LSO-ing. Submitted my FDO appliation (in case you're overwhelmed with acronyms, FDO is a mission control position that I am not quite qualified for yet, but slots open so rarely I had to apply now because there is a potential for a long wait before another slot opens).

afternoon... Studied frantically. I suck at memorizing stuff. Group meetings both amuse and bore me. Had my tests (did pretty well, I think). Drive home was suprisingly traffic-free.

evening... Came home. Chatted with Nick & Tiff. Made spaghetti. Watched the Apprentice, wondered about how the women were winning at the start, but they all turned on each other so that now there's only one left, with four men. Update journal. Going to bed. Hopefully I'll sleep for a long time before getting up early to watch an orbit sim tomorrow so that I can understand what FDOs do during the non-ascent/entry part of flying...

I'm feeling better today, though I think I sound worse. Basically, my cough makes me sound like the Pope -- at least from the one time I saw the Pope, he was coughing so hard that we worried that he was going to fall off his balcony (is thinking that some sort of sacrilidge?)

Jo put up some pictures from Friday night Mi Luna (the tapas and sangria place) and Amy's Ice Cream. You can see them here, here, and here.

Nutty Cari went to the Waterford factory (in Waterford, Ireland) and she bought crystal dog dishes for Bennet. How freaky. She also sent Bennet a postcard from Prague -- she told him to be good since he was the man of the house and told him about some of the sights to see. Bennet (ok, I'm translating for the dog) replied with this: Thanks for the postcard Mommy. Glad to know you think I'm more of a man than Nick, it seems people here agree with you. I would love to see Prague - that way I could pee on the castles, cathedrals, and clocks. That's my favorite thing to do. Nick is teaching me to be more flexible so I can lift my leg even higher. Aren't you proud!?

Today has been a roller coaster of sickness and health. I stayed home from work today. I slept a really long time this morning, and I woke up feeling practically normal. Then the banging started. I couldn't tell if it was my head throbbing or something else, then I realized they were roofing across the street. Oh, my poor head. Plus, coughing and sniffles. So, I fled. I drove up to Rice, and sat in their happily silent library in a completely isolated nook. I tried to study (two tests in the next week are coming up), but I think I passed out a few times on the table.

Then came class one, which I survived ok, thanks to an upper of a chocolate bar (the first food I've eaten since lunch yesterday) and more Tylenol cold. If you're asking yourself why I skipped work but went to class - its because last week the professor pointed at me and one other student and said "You two, no more skipping my class! I expect perfect attendence." Now, to put this in perspective, I have missed exactly 3 classes this semester (2 for legitimate work reasons, 1 for skiing). Compare this to my less than 50% attendence rate as an undergrad, and I think I'm doing pretty damned good, especially considering I work full time and commute. But, I figured it might not make the best impression to be absent immediately after the finger pointing. I tried not to make too much of a show of using a whole pack of tissues during the lecture.

Then came class two. Somewhere in the middle of a discussion on communicating with expansion waves (I'm still not sure if this was sickness-induced neurosis or an actual gas dynamics topic) I nearly passed out. Seriously, I got so dizzy I had to catch myself on the chair. Since there are only two of us in this class, the professor obviously noticed, and cut off the endless lecture a little bit early for me. Then I had to make the hellishly long drive home (at least it was late enough that there was no traffic). My talked to me pretty much the whole way. She's in Philadelphia at the moment and after visiting the Kohart relatives, she says she feels like she's been sucked into a time warp. That made me laugh.

I'm feeling fine again now, though. I checked my e-mail and it doesn't seem like I missed anything too exciting at work today. Tomorrow should be a busy day, so hopefully I am feeling well enough to go in...

Sniffle, sniffle, cough, cough.

That's me today. And yesterday. And some of Saturday. Hopefully it will go away soon, or at least the Tylenol Cold will kick-in.

I have a busy week this week. Two tests, two homework assignments, & a ton of Yuri's Night stuff to do.

I need to make another cup of tea.

My bored and annoying dog decided she didn't want to sleep past 6:30 a.m. this morning. It made me really grumpy. But now I'm feeling better.

This weekend I am going to be spending most of my time preparing for my hell week of classes next week, complete with no less than two tests and two homework assignments -- none of which I have even begun preparing for. I might try to squeeze in some yard work too. And I have to do something that makes my stomach churn with nerves and may hurt a friendship, but needs to get done.

Tonight, I am going out for tapas and sangria - yum!

I am so tired this morning. I don't know why, but I'm really dragging. Maybe coffee is perking me up.

Yesterday, I had a productive day at work. There was an opportunitiy to learn to use a new simulation that is basically completely unintelligible, but I was getting the hang of it by the end of the day. Then, I got confirmation that I am going to get to go to Ames (in San Fran!) for a week of simulator flying (whoo hoo!) during one of the last two weeks of April. Now, if I can somehow get myself onto a trip to the bailout simulation at KSC (in Florida!) the other week in April, my job is beginning to qualify as exciting.

To make matters even more exciting, James Cameron, famous film director, was here talking about some diving he did to hydrothermal vents for an IMAX movie. Anyway, people I knew actually went on the trip with him, and he showed us a cut of some of the footage, and it was so cool, cause I felt like I knew movie stars. They went down in these subs several thousand meters underwater and saw the coolest things. Ok, blind shrimp aren't that exciting. But there were these huge spires or rocks formed by precipitates from the vents that were unbelievably gorgeous. Kennda got to go out to dinner with him and now she calls him "Jim." Ha ha ha!

Last night I had the weirdest dream about Switzerland. We were doing an experiment, but the set up was different. The burner was sitting on a pole out in the grass by the crazy fountain in front of the building (normally it was behind multiple layers of shielding when we ran experiments). We lit it and the Swedish engineers that I worked with for a couple of weeks were frantic making notes on their laptops. The flame got bigger, and more like a flame thrower. A bird flew into the flame and cooked and fell to the ground. Then, someone brought a camera, and Bruno (my boss/mentor), Tina (another praktikant who worked for my boss), and I started posing for them in front of the flame thrower, with two thumbs up. And then we burst into a little song and dance number. It was really weird.

The great civilized state of Utah has dropped firing squads as a form of execution. (Can you sense the sarcasm?) I work in the county that executes the greatest number of people each year. Its such a mad world.

First, some commentary.

Road Trip

Cari had another adventure. I used to think I was a crazy traveller -- covering Scotland in a 7 day road trip. Or doing Vienna in a weekend. She goes to Turkey for two days and apparently can't find enough to do there, so she figures, "Hell, let's go touch the soil in Bulgaria and Greece, too, I mean, its not like we have anything better to do..." Unfortunatley the Greek and Bulgarian authorities weren't so accomodating, so they remained trapped in Turkey. Stay tuned, this weekend, she is going to attempt London, Edinburgh, the Isle of Man, & Ireland in 5 days with one rental car + train + ferry + airplane. Its sure to be a real adventure. Though don't say anything to her like "Oh, I love Westminster Abbey" or "Did you climb Arthur's Seat?" because in all likelihood the response you'll get was "Um, I think I drove by that..."

Dog's Life

I wanted to post a link for you of "This Dog's Life", which, in my humble opinion, was the best article in the latest issue of Ms. Magazine (which is a kick-ass magazine, and I'm not just saying that because of the twice-over family connection). Anyway, they haven't actually put up articles from the latest issue, so I'll have to summarize this one. Its not about a heady or controversial topic, not about the porn industry, or the growing feminist movement in Iraq, or the role of First Ladies, or the treatment of rape victims. Its about a lady who has a dog. And people keep telling her she wants a baby because she's so good to her dog. She expresses outrage at people who assume a dog and a baby are the same thing (you can leave a dog home with a toy and go out to the movies, and you'd get arrested if you do that with a baby). Anyway, the article comes to a very entertaining conclusion: I imagine there are people out there who got a dog when what they wanted was a baby, but I wonder if there aren't other people who had a baby when all they really needed was a dog. It made me laugh, and its SO true.

Steamboat

Ok, you're waiting with baited breath to hear all about the trip. Here's the executive summary:

Day 1 Highlights:

Matt proposes to Stephanie (right in front of me, and I think I was more surprised than Steph was, how WEIRD is that?). She says yes. He does it at the top of the first run of the day, I guess the ring was burning a hole in his pocket. The run was called "Why Not." Perfect, if unplanned. Then, amusingly, he says "Let's ski", and poor, shaken Stephanie has to hop on her skis and continue down the mountain despite the fact that she can barely stand up straight she's so shocked.


Day 2 Highlights: Another beautiful sunny day (I'm starting to get a tan). Gavin and Jen arrive and we start exploring more of the mountain. We finally make it to the top at 10,000+ feet. The mountain feels small compaired to the 14,000 feet of Breckenridge (Steamboat actually has the same verticle drop and the same number of skiable acres, its just lower). Its a strange feeling considering I grew up skiing at 4500 feet of altitude in Vermont. We cap the day with spending way too long in the hot tub (we cool off by running outside through the snow, jumping in the lukewarm outdoor swimming pool, and then running back, water freezing to our bodies, and jumping in the hot tub again).


Day 3 Highlights: The day gets a little more challenging as we tackle some of the more difficult runs on the mountain (no double blacks, but several blacks & blue-blacks). I have decided that even though I'm not much of a better skier than the rest, I've been doing it so long, these things don't intimidate me nearly as much, and I think I'm more efficient with my energy, because I don't get tired. However, I am terrified of the multiple lifts that didn't have safety bars. We can't be perfect, can we?



So, that's that.

You may try to check my journal tomorrow. But you won't see anything new. Why? Because I will be flying down the slopes, at breakneck speed (or a little slower), at Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I'll be gone for 5 days (three days of skiing) - I'll be back on Tuesday. I can hardly wait to ski - I've been checking the weather forecast constantly for three days, it looks perfect. Yeh skiing!

Last night I went to see Rent with some friends. I had kind of built it up in my head, because so many people who share my tastes in musicals raved about it. It did have its moments. But the whole first Act was basically unintelligible (bad sound?). If I didn't know the plot of La Boheme, I think I would've been completely lost (as it was Jen & Stephanie were completely lost). And I'm a member of the rock 'n roll generation and used to listening to unintelligible lyrics -- I wonder what my elders would think about it. To add to the distractions, there was a bird lose in the hall and it kept flying through the spotlight, which was very amusing. The second Act was better - there was defininitely more memorable music (though I did really like "La Boheme Vie" and I think that was in the first Act). I was caught completely off-guard by the ending (I expected something different, again based on La Boheme) so I walked out in a little bit of shock, because I mentally prepared for one thing and got the complete opposite.

Ok, I need to buckle down and get some work done today and stop day dreaming about skiing.

Its going to be a good week. Tonight, I'm going to see Rent (the musical). Then, Thursday, I leave for a long weekend of skiing in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Ah. Skiing. The weather forecasts look beautiful - warm and sunny, but with the potential for fresh snow overnight. The weather is perfect here in Houston, too. Ah, the good life.

Today, I am reading about emergency crew escape from the orbiter. I'm having a hard time concentrating. But, I leave for class in a couple of hours, so I only have to focus a bit longer.

There's a space shuttle cookie jar on my desk in LSO-land. Every day, the supply of cookies in its payload bay is magically replenished by a mystery FDO. Its making me a very popular person to visit as people come to sample the cookie-of-the-day.

Yesterday, I got a random e-mail from a guy named Chris who is from the University of Calgary and will be doing an internship with Alstom in Switzerland. It made me nostalgic about my European adventures with the crazy Canadians. It made me nostalgic about Switzerland in general. Ah, that was also the good life.

I love pleasantly sunny weather. All weekend. Perfect. I spent the vast majority of the weekend outside.

I ran my first 10K ever on Saturday morning (I was slow, but I ran the whole thing and I have achy legs to prove it). It might be my last 10K unless I get faster -- its too boring to run for that long.

Then, off to Fred's birthday party with yummy food and Sarah and Buzz with their residual green tints from the alien costumes they ran the 10K in.

Once at home, I pruned my palm trees (I managed to only get slightly scratched up this time from those freakin' sharp branches) -- I took off 48 fronds between the two trees! I mowed and edged my lawn. I finished just as the sun was setting and the mosquitos were coming out.

I had to mow my lawn because next weekend I'm going skiing. Ridiculous. Skiing and lawn mowing should NOT occur during the same season. Dratted Houston! Hurray for skiing!

I rushed in, showered, ordered a pizza, and people arrived to play Settlers for the second night in a row. That game is addictive! The first game was fun, but I was rapidly fading during Game 2. Mostly because it was past 11 p.m., I had been up since 6 a.m., run a 10K, and spent all day working in the yard. If the game had gone on much longer, I probably would've passed out in my chair.

Saturday was a LONG day.

Sunday also got an early start, and Kennda, Nick and I did the roommate bonding thing by taking out my hideous oleanders. Four huge bushes. Bushwhacked! We only managed to get one of the four stumps out though (I'll have to hire someone to finish the job). We did try our engineering skills out by attempting to pull one of the stumps out by tying it up and attaching the rope to the frame of my car. This attracted some spectators, but the only result is that the rope snapped. 250 pound test line obviously wasn't strong enough. But it was amusing though.

You should have seen the amount of yard waste sitting on my curb for the trash pickup! My neighbors assured me that as long as everything was tied in bundles (which it is), they'll take it. But we're talking 6 bundles of palm fronds and four huge oleander bushes!

Then, I took a 4 hour afternoon nap, took the dogs for a walk, and cooked dinner. This is how things work in my house. Kennda gets all inspired to buy four pounds of salmon at the fish market, and then I need to figure out what to do with it before it goes bad. So I poached it in a creamy mushroom sauce. Yum.

Anyway, we had quite a crowd for dinner. Poor Nick dislocated his shoulder (at DANCE, not pulling up my bushes). His morphine-induced short term memory loss made dinner conversation VERY entertaining.

And now, back at work. Its going to be 80 degrees today, and the air handlers in the building are down. So they have an industrial sized fan in the hallway. Its like a wind tunnel. Jo wrote a very amusing entry about it...

I've spent today reading about DDMS. That's the Air Force unit that has representatives in the Landing Support Office (which is the new part of my job). The part that amuses me is that DDMS stands for "Department of Defense Mercury Support". Mercury, as in the first capsules that put men into space (followed by Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Space Shuttle and Space Station). The name of the unit has changed multiple times. But they hang onto that acronym because it just sounds cooler than the other options. Ah, the aerospace industry and its acronyms. They're just hard to let go of.

Oooh, hanging participle. One of these days I am going to try to be a better writer in this journal.

Sometimes comments really stick with me. Three days ago, my instructor in my Excel spreadsheet class (a PhD student in Aerospace Engineering) was talking about Colorado Springs. I said "Colorado Springs must be a nice place to live." Then he said he'd rather move his family back to Alabama. Alabama! Why? Well, he said that a lot of "liberal" types are moving to Colorado Springs (implying that there was a mass exodus from California to Colorado Springs) -- to take advantage of the lower cost of living and friendly laws towards small business. Therefore, he wants to move his family to a place where his children could be raised with "conservative values". Those were his exact words, "conservative values".

I thought I'd be able to dismiss his statement by now, but its still stuck in my head. "I want to raise my children around people with 'conservative values'" What exactly are those?! What kind of statement is that?! Are they the type of values that don't accept lifestyle choices that aren't exactly what you'd make? Or the type of values that wants sameness (how boring!)? Or the type of values that result in flying a confederate flag and putting a gun rack in the back of your pickup truck? Ok, now I'm being intolerant and stereotyping. You would think children would be better off in a diverse place, with clean air, and easy access to the outdoors, than in a swamp like Alabama. No offense to Alabama. There are reasons to live in Alabama, like a job, or because you had family there. But all things being equal... conservative values. No way.

On that topic, I've been following the "rash" of gay marriages. I am a huge fan of the civil disobedience. The mayors that are basically saying "To hell with stupid laws" and are issuing the marriage licenses are my heroes. That's what our country was founded on, that's how great strides have been made in liberties and freedoms. I applaud the rebellious nature of Americans that say "No" to bad laws. That's the way we Americans are, we're prickly, and opinionated, and rebellious, and this is the finest examples of patriotism I have seen in a while. Today, someone e-mailed me this commentary: Where Is My Gay Apocalypse? Over 3,500 gay marriages and, what, no hellfire? I was promised hellfire. And riots. What gives? I practically fell off my chair laughing. I don't even know what to quote here because it was all so entertaining. Here are some of the highlights:

"It's anarchy," some guy named Rick Forcier, of the Washington state chapter of the Christian Coalition, actually whined. "We seem to have lost the rule of law. It's very frightening when every community decides what laws they will obey." Why, yes, Rick. It's total anarchy. Just look at all the screaming and the bloodshed and the gunfire. Run and hide, Rick. The gay people in love are coming. And they've got tattoos and funny haircuts and want to get married and celebrate their love and be left alone. Hide the children. ...

Is this true? Are there actual verses decrying gay marriage? Are they anything like those other Biblical verses, about the rules and regulations surrounding marriage that are making the rounds on the Net right now? Real verses. Actual verses. Verses o' sanctimonious fun. Have you seen them?

Like this: "Marriage shall not impede a man's right to take multiple concubines in addition to his wife or wives." (II Sam 5:13; I Kings 11:3; II Chron 11:21).

Or maybe: "A marriage shall be considered valid only if the wife is a virgin. If the wife is not a virgin, she shall be stoned to death." (Deut 22:13-21)

Isn't that cute? Isn't quoting Bible verse fun? Ask your local pastor about that one. ...

Maybe Beelzebub is waiting for a big moment so as to really leverage the coming news flash, the special report, the sudden activation of the Emergency Broadcast System. Something like:

"This just in: Earthquakes rocked the globe today as giant fire-breathing bees of death swarmed the countryside, feasting on fat white heterosexual babies mostly from Texas and Colorado Springs and Utah and Idaho, as the institution of hetero marriage careened around the mad vortex of space-time like a savage drunken pinball high on black-tar heroin, just like the Christian Right predicted.