"From Air to Air, like an empty net, dredging through streets and ambient atmosphere, I came lavish, at autumn's coronation, with the leaves' proffer of currency and - between spring and wheat ears - that which a boundless love, caught in a gauntlet fall, grants us like a long-fingered moon."



- Neruda, "Heights of Machu Picchu"



get out the map

get out the map and lay your finger anywhere down

we'll leave the figuring to those we pass on our way out of town

don't drink the water there seems to be something ailing everyone

i'm gonna clear my head

i'm gonna drink that sun



- Indigo Girls, "Get out the map"



When you see the Southern Cross for the first time,

You understand now why you came this way.



- Crosby, Stills, & Nash, "Southern Cross"



YEAH PERU! See you next Tuesday!

Jo posted this in her blogblog, from Dr. Dolittle:



I was thinking about people," said Polynesia. "People make me sick. They think they're wonderful. The world has been going on now for thousands of years, hasn't it? And the only thing in animal-language that people have learned to understand is that when a dog wags his tail he means 'I'm glad!'...I suppose if people ever learn to fly - like any common hedge-sparrow - we shall never hear the end of it!"



A sheep, a duck, and a rooster

The Ballunar Fest starts tomorrow, marking the anniversary of my first Hot Air Balloon ride. I'm really glad I'm going at least get to see the morning festivities (which means seeing the craziness of 100 hot air balloons landing in all the parking lots at work). (You can read about my experience last year here). Of course, I won't see the rest of the festival because I'm going to PERU!

Yeah Peru!

Ok, I got that out of my system for one more day. I am so not even packed yet.

Anometers

Sailing last night was oodles of fun (despite us losing, not terribly, but it wasn't that close either). The fun can be attributed to wind gusts over 20 kts. Gust wind is fun, and makes you work, and gives you a huge bruise on your left leg (or at least me).

Work babble

Some observers are coming to our group meeting this afternoon. I wonder who they are. Yesterday was an entertaining day at work. I didn't get much accomplished in the morning (stupid Matlab).

But in the afternoon, I quizzed Matt for his Landing Analyst certification grilling today. It was tons of fun, as it turns out, I really did absorb a lot of entry guidance knowledge while working on my Approach and Land stuff for the two months before I entered my current career limbo. Not to mention, I learned a bunch more while quizzing him. I really think we should invent a game of Flight Design jeopardy and do this every month or so until we all have memorized a bunch more stuff to make us sound really cool. Anyway, between driving Matt nutty with really specific Approach and Land questions, and not as specific everything else, I read through some of the flight rules to answer a few questions I had about the sim on Monday. My questions aren't really answered, but I have a whole bunch of new ones now. Is that bad?

Dashed Star Trek fantasies

Christina has dashed all my Star Trek fantasies about the invention of "transparent aluminum" (see this entry for background). She sent me this e-mail:

Alumina is not the same as aluminum. They are two vast differently compounds! seriously, for a scientist, i know you know that! Though it is cool that they made transparent alumina, it is a ceramic, not a metal. metal will never be transparent becuase of their band structure which is what makes them metals. ceramics can be transparent (ie glass) becuase of their band structure which makes them ceramics. sorry. i just couldn't live a minute longer without saying something...

Well, I guess this is why I got a "B" in the one materials science class I took, and Christina is going to get a PhD in it (someone tell her advisor to just give it to her already). Yeah for Christina, Boo for the implausibility of transparent aluminum, Hope for the creation of Warp Drive and Transporter beams.


Hats off?



There is so much wrong with this article on non-traditional jobs for women, I don't even know where to begin. I will start with the statement "Hats off to Barbie and her creators who more than 40 years ago planted the seed for the growing number of women who today work in nontraditional careers." Never mind that stewardess barbie and astronaut barbie and pilot barbie all wear the same slutty pink micro mini that hopefully no self-respecting astronaut or pilot would ever be caught dead in. Never mind that Barbie has distorted most young girls' perceptions of the ideal body so much that even the most beautiful women remain self-conscious and doubtful about their figure because they've got a ridiculous unrealistic notion of what they should look like thanks to Barbie -- taking from them confidence essential to succeed. OOOH. It just fries me to give Barbie any sort of credit for the inroads women are making in traditionally male dominated careers. I wonder how many members of Mattel also are inolved with CNN.


Stupid redistricting



As the whole country is probably aware, Mr. Evil, Congressman Tom Delay, took it upon himself to redraw all of the Congressional districts in Texas to give a distinct advantages to the Republicans. My district (which in the past had included NASA) was served faithfully by a moderate Democrat Nick Lampson, who's been in Congress for several terms and served as a ranking member of the House Science Committee as an advocate of the space program. Well, anyway, now his district has been moved way out of NASA zone to the northeast side of town, and his seat is hotly contested (he was one of the Democrats specifically targeted by the redistricting efforts). Mr. Delay drew himself a nice little meandering line all over town, taking the big industries, including the NASA area. I thought, fortunately for me, for some reason he cut out League City and gave it to someone else. Well, that someone, as it turns out, is none other than Ron Paul. I'll leave it to you to read about him and just try to imagine why I am not happy that I can't even vote against him (his seat is uncontested). I would sign up and run myself, but, unfortunately, 'tis illegal thanks to the Hatch Act. At least he's a little on the libertarian end, which are at least Republican arguments that I understand and even occasionally empathize with. But still. Ug.

Class is the same old same old. Though this time there are only 4 people in the class, including me, and two of the other people are girls, and the guy is also a part-time student (yeah for someone to comiserate with). I do believe they are the first girls I've seen in the Mech department at Rice. That's pretty disturbing considering this is my 5th class there.

Afterwards, we (Cari, Fred and I) spent a good 2 hours at REI, which is like a wonderland. I got: a pair of Tevas (on-sale for $30!), a second pair of parachute pants, some Luna bars, iodine tablets (just in case all our water filters end up someplace where I'm not), a smaller compression sack for my sleeping bag... I think that's it. I had to restrain myself from going on a spending spree (I kept thinking "I could either buy this or more souvenirs in Peru"). Poor Cari was a bit unprepared, so she went on a serious spending spree like I did before our last Colorado trip. Afterwords, we had a yummy dinner at Freebirds Burrito and Amy's Ice Cream. I think I'm possibly still full.

Of course, this meant getting home late, and since I am busy after work today (sailing) and will be packing after class tomorrow night, I had to do all my bill paying, etc. before going to bed. Plus the requisite roommate social time. Anyway, I barely dragged myself out of bed this morning, got in late, entertained myself by watching my favorite Strongbad cartoon about Trogdor, the Burninator. TROGDOR!

I am way too excited about Peru. Will Friday every come???

Ok, I'm still really excited about Peru. I dreamt about it all night. Except for the dream where Sarah keyed my car and then deflated the tires so that it somehow flipped over and crushed another car. Sarah, you're in trouble now!

Cari is back and in full force. Silly girl still hasn't updated her blog yet.

My TV is doing something weird in the middle of the night.

That was a random sentence.

Today classes start. I go Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. I'm taking Calculus of Variations, which is actually a pre-req to the two optimization classes I've already taken. Oh well. Its the only thing that was scheduled at a good time. Don't know what I'm going to do about next semester yet now that I seem to have exhausted all the classes that are regularly scheduled in the afternoons.

And my favorite link for the day, someone has finally developed "transparent aluminum". The predictive powers of Star Trek have been proven again. Now all I want to know is where is my transporter beam and warp drive so I can get the heck off this rock.

I am still absolutely unprepared for Peru. I had planned on packing and purchasing this weekend. Did I do either? No. Actually, I did buy a couple of novels to read on the plane (Incas: In the Shadow of the Puma and Incas: The Gold of Cuzco). I'm a little worried about the trip, because we just had a little more evidence about our tour companies lack of organization present itself this week. But I am sure everything will work itself out.

I went to the bridal shower on Friday night. Yesterday, G&J, Sarah and I went to the Museum of Natural History because (coincidently?) they were having a summer exhibit on Machu Picchu. This was followed by a quick run home to pick up Cari (who has arrived safely back from France, Greece, Italy, Germany, wherever...) and off to Jo's birthday party. Hamburgers, volleyball, and swimming (well, not so much for me) later, I went home and crashed.

Now, the busy week. I have a sim from 2 - 9 p.m. tonight; tomorrow class starts, keeping me at Rice until late; Wednesday is sailing; Thursday is class again; Friday afternoon, off to Peru! Somewhere in there, I'm hoping to go on a shopping spree for the bare minimum of the following things: some medicines (pepto, advil, sudafed), a new pair of zip off pants, iodine tablets, granola/power bars, teva sandals. Then I just need to do laundry and pack and I'll be ready to go.

Best line in a technical draft paper: "Fortunately, as long as you're willing to accept a trivial fact without proof..."

I am going to take it easy this weekend. Cari comes back on Sunday. Jo's birthday picnic is on Sunday. I have some shopping to do for Peru (again, Yeah Peru!). Classes start next week. That's it.

Ok, if you have "virgin ears" (or eyes in the case of a blog), don't keep reading..

Last night I went to buy a gift for a "Lingerie Bridal Shower" for tonight. There's been no small amount of discussion about whether to get something appropriate or funny for such a party. Since I knew several people would be getting something appropriate, I decided to spice things up and go with the inappropriate. Tiffany and I (safety in numbers) headed to a gag gift-sex shop last night. It was quite an experience (I feel more than slightly less pure -- I'm such a prude, 25 and never been exposed to a lot of this stuff). So, I found something fur. That's all I'm going to say about that. Oh, and the prices were unbelievably high for such tiny things, pieces of paper, and plastic "objects." If only I was less of a prude, I feel like I could make a killing selling such specialty items.

Sailing was fun last night. We had a brisk wind for the first part of the race, though the end kind of let us down as the wind died off (I actually wondered for a little while there if I was going to have to row back again). Because the wind was so up and down, though, I was constantly going from hiked out (hanging all the way off the edge of the boat to keep it upright) to leaning into the middle of the boat. I am sore in all sorts of weird places from that.

Yesterday was one of the AF LSO's retirements. Now, military retirements are very scripted events -- and this one kind of had the pace of a church service, along with some amusing jokes at the retiree's expense, and grown men in uniforms crying. All that said, it was a neat experience. It was followed by an extremely long luncheon at Perry's during pork-chop-Wednesday, where I had basically the biggest pork chop I have ever seen in my life (more than 3 fingers thick). They said their dinner pork chop is 7 fingers thick and has to be cut professionally. Good thing I am not a vegetarian this week (preparing my stomach for Peru)

Speaking of which, Yeah PERU!!!.

My TiVO finally managed to record Olympic sailing. I was looking forward to at least an hour of good commentary, interviews with sailors, and several different types of boats. Instead, I got 20 minutes, with one Laser race, two 470 starts (men's and women's), and the 2 minute Mistral (windsurf board) race in wind so light they were flapping their sails to go forward. This, out of 26 Olympic races so far! Sigh. I know it takes a while to show a whole race, but they could at least show all the starts, and maybe the mark roundings. The Laser race was kind of comic, because the Brazilian who was in the lead most of the time (and eventually won the race) name is Scheidt (or something like that), which the announce pronounced "Schiet" which sounded like a combo of Jo's word for "Shit" and the German word for it "Scheiz." And the announcer just kept saying it over and over. Anyway, I eventually "settled" for watching men's gymnastics instead.

The Olympics are doing bad things for my sleeping patterns. Plus I'm having really weird dreams. Kidnapped by aliens, jailed for theft, sailing with mom, Peru with strangers, and Apache learning to talk were all featured in last night's dreams. This morning, when my alarm went off (you know, the first time), I heard Apache's tail thumping and she jumped on my bed (which I find endearing only because she does it once in a blue moon) and then she wormed her way onto my pillow and basically stole it from me. Stupid dog.

And you can entertain yourself reading about the Geeks who fix computers (we called their help line 1-800-Geek-Squad and I was able to listen to a computer being launched into a pool of paranas. he he): Geeks wear strict uniforms: short-sleeved, white-collared shirts with clip-on ties, and black shoes worn with white socks...Each double agent has a "geekmobile" -- a black and white Volkswagen Beetle with Geek Squad decals on its doors -- to drive at all times. The Geek Squad web site

Sorry for my silence yesterday! I had a sim (which was interminably slow from a LSO perspective). The most interesting part was watching Matt (conspiracy theorist, anti-Bush) and Chris (conservative, far right) debating the war in Iraq and Michael Moore. It was funny, because they started debating, Marty left and practiced retiring Frank, had lunch, came back, and they were STILL debating. Very amusing. I restrained myself (is everyone surprised or what?) because I can't remain quiet while debating, and it wasn't the right venue for me to wage an all out attack.

For reference, my opinion: I think at the time (of our invasion) there was a consensus that Iraq was attempting to develop WMD (this was an opinion shared by the international community, the Clinton administration, the intelligence community, etc.) We know that all those sources were not as good as we thought now, but at the time, that was our best info. I don't think the threat from Iraq using these were imminent, and we should've let the weapons inspectors finish their job like they asked and exhausted all peaceful alternatives first -- I think the President jumped the gun and had other motivations for invading then. Therefore I think it was wrong to invade based on that argument alone. Now there's other arguments that make Saadam an oppressive ruler, but he's not the only world leader supporting atrocities, and if we don't invade other countries, why Iraq? But, we're there now, so I think we have an obligation to stick it out, even with a growing casualty count, until we've restored the stability we ripped out from underneath the feet of the Iraqi people and that we make sure what we leave in the place of Saadam Hussein isn't another power hungry, oppressive regime.

Ok, enough politics... I must be feeling ultra argumentative, because on Monday night, Nick, my roommate, basically announced that he thought Israel should be disbanded. He proceeded to tell me that I had no right to an opinion on the subject, because I had never lived there. For reference, his mother is Palestian-Christian, he had a very privledged upbringing, and would go there on extended vacations as a child. But that's another argument for another time, but we've been exchanging a lot of e-mails on the subject. As you might imagine, I have a very different opinion on the situation in Israel. Personally I think the Palestians would get a lot more accomplished in fighting oppression if they took an example from the civil rights movements instead of blowing up buses of civilians.

Ok, really enough about politics. I have been obsessed with the Olympics. I even caught the beginning of sailing last night (its TiVO-ed, so I'll watch the rest today). I was quite unimpressed by the announcer - the guy who announces our Wednesday night races on the lake would be better. Oh well. I also made chicken curry caserole, a dish Karen introduced me to. Basically, chicken, brocolli and cheese, how could you go wrong? Unfortunately, I got the portions wrong, and it was more like chicken curry soup. Still good though.

That's it.

Today



I was completely obsessed with the Olympics. My TiVO has made it even worse, since it records my favorite events in the middlde of the night. I would have the Olympics on while trying to clean, and suddenly I would get absorbed and a half hour would pass without even realizing it! I'm recording: diving, gymanstics, equestrian, sailing, and beach volleyball. I'm sure that's more than enough to keep me busy during every down moment all week.



The weather all weekend was freakin' beautiful. I spent most of Saturday puttering around my yard, instead of trying to get things done as fast as possible like I usually do.



Yesterday, we had a girls' night at Princess Diaries 2, which was entertaining in an everyone has a 14 year old girl who wants to be a Princess living inside them kind of way. There were some very random scenes too.



That was my uneventful weekend. Less than 2 weeks until we go to Peru. Yeah Peru!


My class difficulties for next semester have just been resolved in one swoop. The class I was planning on taking is now scheduled MWF 1-2 p.m. There's no way that will work for my schedule. So, I've switched to the class that comes before a class I took last semester -- not a thrilling topic/professor, but not bad either. At least I know what to expect. As for a second class, my only option is Independent Study. I just can't think of any topic to, you know, study.. Of course, Independent Study topics will be even harder to find once I move to the FDO office. I'm getting worried because I feel like I'm rapidly exhausting the course offerings that interest me.


Begin homeowners rant



I reached a new Homeowners Association high when I received two letters in the same envelope! (Since I didn't get any letters last month, this maintains my average of 1 per month.) One was for grass in the cracks in my driveway (which I actually sprayed with weed-be-gone last week and pulled out this week before I even opened the letter). The other was for bricks and trash recepticles in my driveway. I couldn't figure out what they meant by trash recepticles (I keep my garbage in the garage where it belongs). But I do have about 5 edging bricks that a neighbor gave me a few weeks ago sitting in my driveway right in front of my garage door -- I'm planning on using them eventually, but I'm in no rush.



I basically filed the letters away and am going to ignore tham. Ignore ignore ignore. That's my new policy. Until this year's Homeowners Assocation meeting where I propose that the property management company we employ needs to be reigned in.



You know, its not that I have any problems with the rules and deed restrictions in our neighborhood. They are all fairly reasonable -- don't let your grass get above ankle height, keep your yard neat, don't paint your house green. Its the letters I have a problem with. They send you a letter just to inform you that one day you might just be in violation of a deed restriction.



Its the paternalism that bothers me. The letters inform you "its time to mow your lawn." Well, I know full well when its time to mow my lawn, or if I've been away and I've let the grass very long. I don't need a scolding letter to remind me how to take care of my house. They should trust the homeowners to maintain their property and be aware when things are bordering on the edge of violating a deed restriction. They should send a letter when I *actually* violate a deed restriction and they are planning on taking action! Not the maybe-could-possibly-well, let's just tell you how to cut your trees kind of way (for instance, the whole neighborhood received a letter at the beginning of spring instructing us on the specifications for trim the trees so the lowest branches were exactly 6 feet 6 inches above the ground).



End rant.



Sunday, August 15, 3:30 p.m.


Sarah *finally* posted a log of our trip to Longs Peak here. Yeah Sarah!

I was very depressed by this story about the young women who blogged her sexual exploits while working for a Senator. I used to feel sorry for her, a mostly private blog ending up public. But her outlook on life sends a terrible message...

"I used to read, like, Ms. Magazine and all that stuff when I was in high school," she says. "I was really, like, earnest back then. When I grew up and saw the way people are, I had to adapt. It's more about your looks than anything you can do. If you are not attractive, if you are fat, you don't get seated [at a restaurant], like, in the window or outside. If you want to do what you want to do, you have to look a certain way."

I don't think the weather could get any more perfect right now. Sunny. 70s-80s. Last night, I did the unthinkable. Is August in Houston. I turned the air off and I opened the windows. In August. In Houston. It was perfect. I woke up to a breeze and birds tweeting. It felt like Switzerland (well, without the occasional roar of the trains and the electronic women's voice saying "Zurich Gleis Einz" every 15 minutes). I kind of feel a little bad enjoying this perfect weather, with two hurricanes cutting a swath through the panhandle and up the eastern seaboard in a natural disaster sort of double-whammy. But c'est la vie.

I'm trying to have a girls night on Saturday, but it seems no girls are actually available. Whoever will I see Princess Diaries 2 with? I guess I'm still a tween at heart.

I don't understand why people always want to go to fast food on our Friday lunch outings. Fast food is what you get when you are busy, in a rush, or otherwise can't think of anything else to eat. I end up having fast food for dinner at least once a week. I personally think it should be banned from Friday lunches unless someone in the group has a pressing reason for taking a short lunch. The problem is everyone is SO picky, you give a list of 10 resteraunts and fast food is the only one everyone will agree to/settle for -- to top that off, some of the boys actually PREFER fast food to normal food. Heaven forbid we try foreign food (sushi, chinese, mediterranean, thai and indian are all completely out). Ok, that's my very random rant. Sounds like I'm going to end up having Quizno's for lunch today. Gack. More fast food. Jen M. transcribed our discussion (ok, well paraphrased it), which was hilarious.

I've been really talkative today. I have a lot to get done today because I was a big slacker yesterday. Must work.

Dreams

I had the weirdest dreams again last night. I dreamt a lot about Switzerland, I guess wander lust is striking again. I dreamt that the whole group for the Peru trip came with me to Switzerland first.

They were terribly unimpressed by Baden (I don't see why!!). I went to work, and when I came back, Sarah kept complaining that they had "summitted" the town castle at least 15 times.

So, I took them to Interlaken to see "real" mountains. There are these three huge mountains you can see there, one of which is Eiger (you know the famous "North Face of Eiger" one of the most difficult climbing routes ever). I had to talk Sarah and Jason (he was there too for whatever reason) out of attempting to climb Eiger. Finally they succumbed to my arguments and decided that we should summit Jungfrau instead.

Jungfrau is called the "Top of Europe" for whatever reason. Anyway, there's a train that goes to the top of it, and I was having a hard time convincing Gavin and Jen that any mountain was worth summitting via train. Emily kept saying "Well, they had to build the tracks somehow, so someone had to climb it". I kept saying it wasn't going to be us (I've seen the tracks, it would be a precarious route). I finally convinced them to take the train by luring them with the promise of ice caves at the top.

I basically dreamt about Switzerland all night. Well, ok, briefly I dreamt about Jo. I came home and she had completely relandscaped my back yard with all these random trees and shrubs, and it wasn't quite finished (there were big ditches everywhere). I was pleased though that she did away with some of my least favorite parts of my yard. She kept calling it her God-Garden. It was pretty hideous. Well, not all of it, and because she put so much work into it, I didn't know what to say.

Then I went back to dreaming about Switzerland. You know, I rarely, if ever, dream about Atlanta/Georgia Tech, or Virginia, or Florida, or Philadelphia. But I dream about Switzerland all the time.

Then, my alarm went off at 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, and 8:00, when Nick came in and said "You know, you will have to go to work sometime." I'm not even going to comment on the irony of that (Nick's usually a pretty late riser).

Where in the world?

I got an e-mail from Cari today. It didn't indicate where she was or how her trip was going. It was from her hotmail account and when I tried to reply, it was full. I like that her handle is contrarycari -- I wish I could come up with something like that for my domain name.

The great name hunt

So far, oldpilesofrock.com seems to be getting the most votes. I like it too, it just kind of looks funny (old piles of rock OR old pile so frock... see what I mean?). Mindy had a few suggestions but they're in my hotmail account which is now blocked at work. Karen suggested booky.com and throughtheconstructionzone.com (which I think is probably a better name for her journal than mine!) When I finally settle on a name, I'm probably going to even impose on Sarah, web designer extrodinaire, to help me with my layout.

Let's talk about the weather!


Either I'm getting too used to Houston, or I think this summer has been unusually pleasant. I mean, we still had our week with heat indexes in the 110's. But, it didn't really start getting too hot until July. And today, its in the 70s, low humidy and breezy. Downright pleasant. In Sarah's words: "I think the city mistakenly thinks it's late October." They are expecting record lows for August this weekend. I am absolutely thrilled (and will probably use this opportunity to get even more yardwork done and take the dogs on even longer walks). So, keep an eye on my little weather nymph in the corner -- she may even have to put on a jacket.

The running list of domain names:

beccasbordinghouse.net

travelswithartemis.net

boatsjeepsandrockets.net

itchyfeets.net (itchyfeet is taken)

allmybagsarepacked.net

maidenbecca.net

wearingsandals.net

lostinabook.net

windinmyface.net

3lawssafe.net

comesailaway.org

scifigirl.net

longcurlyhair.net

windinmysails.net

windatmyback.net

spaceorbust.com

apachesmom.com

airbabebecca.com

oldpilesofrock.com

beccastreks.com

booka.com

headinthestars.com

beccanaut.com

beccainspace.com

beccainorbit.com

beccaspace.com

worldofbecca.com

aerobecca.com

airbecca.com

flybecca.com

daringadventure.org

notayak.net

ettuBecca.net

beccack.net

innubibus.net (in the clouds)

postfactum.net (after the fact)

Keep sending suggestions and votes!There will be a prize I promise! I would really like something short, and preferably only one or two words. Something easy to remember and spell and that looks good.

I had a terrible stair-climbing work out last night with Jen. I started all energized and gung-ho, but I rapidly became so sick and dizzy that I had to stop. Jen hit a wall at about the same time I did. I pretty much felt crappy all evening after that. Blame it on my recent experience as typhoid-mary or something.

Any suggestions on women explorers in the northeastern U.S. from the 1500s - 1800s? Talk about narrow parameters...



This was an interesting article compariing Laura Bush and Theresa Heinz Kerry. Not that the comparisons were all that novel, but because apparently the reporter (and Laura Bush) must have recently visited Bucks County. They refer to an event at the Sheraton (formerly The Royce where my brother had his famous indoor-pool-in-December birthday party when he was 8), the one reasonably large hotel in the entire area. And then they quote people from Southhampton, Yardley (where my grandparents lived), and Langhorne (which was my old postal code in Holland). Of course, they are all big pro-Bush people, imagine that! (In other words, I'm not at all surprised.) And then I learned a new word, apparently that area is an "exurb", meaning a rural area that has become a suburb because of its proximity to the city -- described with its cookie-cutter hotel ballrooms, in cookie-cutter phrases, in cookie-cutter suburbs. I'll leave my relatives that still live in that place to judge the accuracy of that description... Personally I used to think it was cookie-cutter until I experienced the planned communities and model homes of Houston. Now, I think it has a little bit more personality than that! But that may just be hometown loyalty.

I am really tired. I had crazy dreams last night. I dreamt about the "Its a Small World" ride (Oh, we had some entertaining times on that ride on a certain French club field trip that happened to coincide with Gay Day at Disney). Then I dreamt about being in that movie with the SCUBA divers left in the middle of their ocean by a dive boat. Then I dreamt it was Wednesday, leaving me very confused this morning about whether I should pack my sailing clothes or not.

In other news, I am totally stoked about Peru. I need to stop thinking about it. I read this in National Geographic yesterday. I also recently became aware of this and had to contact our travel agent to confirm our domestic flights were going to be on Lan Peru not Aero Continente. (Its weird, I had checked the Consular info sheet pretty regularly, and it said it hadn't been updated since March, but then when I looked at it, it said as of June 1 it is illegal for US citizens to fly on Aero Continente, which happens to be the largest domestic carrier in Peru). Anyway, its always something when traveling out of the industrialized world. Last time I went to a less-developed country (Morocco), Sept 11 almost interfered with my trip (and I got told I was insane for going to an Muslim country a month after the terrorist attack, but I had a perfectly lovely time). Anyway, I have confidence that everything will work out.

I talked to Karen last night and confirmed she was still alive, despite her tragic lack of diary updates.

I'm thinking of getting my web space, especially now that I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures with my brand new digital camera (a Canon Powershot SD410). So, I need to come up with a domain name. I'm taking suggestions (I wish becca.net wasn't taken!). These are what I have going right now (boring!): beccablog.net, beccaworld.net, bexxa.net... I feel like I should give some sort of prize to someone who comes up with one for me without my birthday in it. You can go to www.register.com to check the availability of a domain name. I could always be boring and get cutrikohart.net. Dull dull dull.

Here's some suggestions that people have sent. Keep them coming. I kind of like beccaspace and pilesofrock so far..

spaceorbust.com

apachesmom.com

airbabebecca.com

oldpilesofrock.com

beccastreks.com

booka.com

headinthestars.com

beccanaut.com

beccainspace.com

beccainorbit.com

beccaspace.com

worldofbecca.com

aerobecca.com

airbecca.com

flybecca.com

daringadventure.org

notayak.net

ettuBecca.net

beccack.net

innubibus.net (in the clouds)

postfactum.net (after the fact)

I accomplished my to-do list amazingly well -- especially since Nick & Tiff pitched in with the yard work. (I won't be getting any mean letters from The Association this week!) That basically summed up Saturday. But these things do go much faster with three people working. In about 4 hours, we mowed, edged, weedwhacked the lawn (front and back), trimmed the trees, weeded all the flower beds, socialized with the neighbors enough to fend off any gossip, trimmed the hedges... yep, very productive.

The rest of Saturday, I finished reading Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. I know, that's substandard even for my usual collection of trash-reading. But I didn't have anything else to read, and Gavin lent it to me for the plane ride back from Colorado... anyway, I know, excuses excuses. I've been in a real comfort-book phase -- I've re-read a bunch of Anne McCaffrey in the last couple of weeks, and now I'm on Raymond Feist, with some Peirs Anthony sitting on my nightstand. How weird is that? Its taking me back to my teenage years!

Sunday turned out to be really busy (no, Karen, I didn't forget about you just got really distracted yesterday!). I slept later than I planned, then lolled around the house until the absolute last minute for me to shower (this is when Karen called) and get out the door. I met a friend for lunch, went to Michael's and Old Navy (never ever ever let me shop on Tax Free weekend! stupid stupid), B&N and the library (looking for books on the history of Peru). Then I headed to the grocery store. Went home, burned copies of pictures on CD's (apparently their machine doesn't take USB memory sticks) and drove them back to Walmart. I ended up running errands for the better part of the day (it doesn't help that the bookstore and the library suck lots of time out of life). Finally, we had our nice "family" dinner at Mely's (it really does feel that way, because its almost always the same group of people and it occurs on nearly a weekly basis).

Instead of going strait home, Nick, Tiff, and I unsuccessfully tried a few more "errands" in the most inefficient manner possible: 1. A trip to the Starbucks at Randall's (closed - ended up driving to another Starbucks) 2. Went to Walmart to pick up my photos (photo lab closed) 3. Back to near the Starbucks to rent a teen-chick flick (The Prince and Me isn't out yet, and the Princess Diaries was out). Finally, we went back home, basically failing at all the post-dinner errands. Tiff and I settled on watching The 4400 (which I'm really enjoying!) due to lack of chick flicks and the yet-again poor performance of the I-Control function on my digital cable.

I had my first meat since Greece this weekend. It really upset my stomach (this surprised me, because I eat things with beef broth and I'm not *that* careful about avoiding meat-things). I guess that's why I start early, to prepare my stomach for Peru! At the grocery store, I bought meat and ingredients for two meals I miss -- chicken curry caserole (thanks, feighs, for getting me addicted to that) and steak and potato salad (yum!). I've also started to take Typhoid. Oh, that's so fun to say: Hey, its time for a little dose of typhoid. Giggle. Its the vaccine actually, but its a live virus. I'm just doing all sorts of crazy stuff to my body right now.

My agenda for the weekend:

Mow backyard, weedwack & edge front yard (purchase a new edger), weed all the beds in the front yard, shampoo my bedroom carpet, try to fend Nick & Tiff off from "encouraging" me to paint my bedroom, print photos from Colorado, finish Scotland scapbook and start with Greece. Thrilling, eh? While trying to convince Nick that now was not the weekend to paint my bedroom, I blew myself away by how many things are on my "immediate" improvement list for the house: new curtains for the dining room and study, a futon for the study, finish the molding (ag, I finally got a quote, but still haven't gotten around to scheduling it), new carpets, French doors for the study, a bedroom set for me + painting my bedroom, several pictures to be framed, floating shelves for the hallway, replacing some of the cabinet doors in the kitchen, pulling about 5 unwanted trees/shrubs from my yard, adding a porch swing, a big picture for the wall behind my couch...

Last night, I realized that I need to start eating meat again next week to get myself used to it for Peru. Then I dreamt that I worked in a grocery store and I was handing out samples of sweet gherkins wrapped in cheese and bacon. Weird. But I do have a list of things I'd like to eat in the brief period of non-vegetarianism: hamburger, steak, lamb chops, chicken sandwhich, French dip sandwhich, pepperoni pizza. Yum.

Sarah posted pictures of our trip here.

Some of my favorites:

I promise, tomorrow (or maybe this weekend) I will get to a trip report and photos. Until then, read all about it from my travel companions: Sarah, Jen, or Carter.

I was very productive this morning. I had a sim this morning where I did my LSO stuff, plus roll-played at being the crew about to get in the space shuttle and a pilot out in Spain. Simultaneously, I did all the prepatory work for an ascent sim tomorrow. AND, I even escaped to watch our co-op's exit pitch.

Now, I'm just bizarrely tired and less productive than usual.

I missed this bit of news a few months ago. Its the administration's plan to fight forest fires by increasing clear cutting in parks. After all, you can't have forest fires if you don't have forests! Stupid stupid stupid.

I'm back. I'm happy. My legs have mostly stopped aching. I'm obviously in calorie-debt because I've been famished for the last 24 hours. The mountains are beautiful, the lakes were beautiful, the weather was beautiful, the waterfalls were beautiful. I want to move there. Only 23 days until Peru!

More later ...