Nick bought an elliptical machine for his girlfriend (no comment). Anyway, I chipped in a small portion, so I get to use it (and it is in my living room). It is so much fun compared to running in a million degree heat! Tonight, though, I'll take a break from the elliptical to go climb stairs at a local parking garage with Jen. Not fun, but necessary.

Sarah drew this picture of me on Irwin's tablet PC. I find it very amusing:

Ok... on to some possibly boring work babble..

Today has been a really cool day at work. I sat in a simulation today as an LSO ALP (i.e. an assistant-LSO). I figured it would be just like the status quo -- which is me running a lot of "ALP"s which is a set of calculations that basically provide redundant information on the landing of the space shuttle and me asking my mentor on-console a lot and lot of questions. The sim usually ends with a deorbit burn to Kennedy Space Center, or on an "exciting day" to Edwards or Northrup. But today, oh, it was cool! At least for me... You see, a FDO was being evaluated, so they were making things difficult for him. One thing after another happened to the simulated orbiter until it could only land in the southern part of the southern hemisphere. Oh where oh where do we land? It was very entertaining. We ended up in Christchurch, New Zealand. Usually this type of exercise ends sometime shortly after deorbit burn, but this time, they carried it all the way to the ground (complete with a fire on-board). Well, actually, not quite, because the crew flying the simulated shuttle didn't have a simulated Christchurch runway to land on (that would take some serious programming).

Anyway, this might not sound ultra exciting. But, trust me, it was. Plus I learned oodles, especially about the "important" stuff LSO's do -- not the redundant calculations, but talking to all the people you would have to if you were really going to land a space shuttle in another country on 3 hours notice.

Now, I need to start working on NEEMO stuff? Why, you ask? Because I haven't been getting nearly enough done. Its ironic, because I've been spending an inordinate amount of time on NEEMO lately -- in meetings and updating procedures. Of course, since I am scheduling out these huge blocks of time for NEEMO meetings and training, I haven't actually been able to work on my own individual part of the project.