Cruising

Here are some great pics from the cruise last week. Anna did great without us and she had fun with my mom. I called just a few times ($2.40/min!) and she didn't even care to talk to me so we just texted the rest of the trip (still 50 cents per text!). Even her teacher texted me a few updates, which was really neat. The hugs when we got home were AWESOME. I beat Paul to the door so I sucked them all up (sorry hon). With her hugs she said, "I MISSED YOU!!". Now that we're back she still says, "I missed you!". We brought her just a few little treats from the trip and it's so fun to watch her "oooh and ahhh" over the little things. She's a trip! But since we've been home it's all stuck to mommy's hip. Wants mommy for everything, and daddy gets a kick to the curb unless he can save her from bedtime or getting in trouble!! I do love that she loves me so much and I've read about these phases but it's kind of exhausting not to be able to split the parenting equally like we usually do. Paul's not taking it personally since we've both heard this thing can happen...looks like I need another work trip soon so those two can bond again :) Besides I got my fair share of being kicked to the curb last fall. So I'll take all the sweet and cuddly Anna I can get right now.

She is becoming such a neat little person, it's so really cool.

Oops this is supposed to be a post about the cruise! The boat left out of New Orleans, which is where my dad lives with his wife and the family. Even though it was the WHO DAT Mardi Gras cruise from hell, it was great getting away for 7 days and also it was great seeing the family (my dad's side) for the week. Seriously, how many times does one get on a cruise with a bunch of people from New Orleans, the week after the Saints win the Superbowl and the weekend Mardi Gras begins? Saints jerseys and beads EVERYWHERE!

The family was free to do their own thing during the day as long as we met up for dinner, which worlked out really well in my opinion. On the days we were at sea Paul and I pretty much caught up with the family, read or ate or slept (our room had a balcony!). No one to take care of, no need to cook, clean, dress, drive, no NASA work to do. Just books to read. The biggest chore I had was taking a shower! I hadn't slept so hard since before Anna was born. There's something about being 1000 miles away by boat to tell your mind to just sleep since you're useless anyway. But we did realize just at day 1 that the more we rested, the more tired we got. By 3pm we needed a nap from all of the laziness! My dad called it stress detox. Indeed, it went away just in time for us to be energized for our zip line adventure through the Belize jungle on day 3! Day 4 was snorkeling and sea kayaking in Honduras (our scuba with the dolphins was cancelled), and day 5 was XCaret park in Cozumel (we floated down an underground river and had the best lunch). The final day was one last day on the boat of R&R. I don't think I ever stayed awake past 10:30 and I got through almost all of the reading I wanted! It was a great trip, if not a little colder than I'd have liked (highest was I think 78 due to the horrible snow storm weather that was over the east coast). But I had my wet suit with me for all water excursions so I was comfy enough (I get cold easily!)...

The trip forced us to face leaving Anna for such a long time without either one of us being there. Even though I hated it, I suspected it would be a good idea for so many reasons. I think it worked out the best for everyone, again for many different reasons. As much as we missed her we were so relaxed to be on a vacation where we weren't feeling the toddler stress. We saw other families onboard with their cute toddlers but then realized they were working much harder than we were at that moment. It's been a long time and reminded me of what travel used to be like for us before she was born (I was less controlling and way more flexible during travel: open to any schedule blip or flaw). I also remember noticing the difference in my stress levels between this trip and Disney. Both were amazing fun but obviously different levels of stress. So it's another subtle reminder of how a kid changes you. The whole cruise was a big fat subtle reminder (oxymoron?) of how a kid changes you.

Anyway, thanks again for the fantastic and much-needed trip, Dad and Chrys! I know it meant so much for you to have us all there and enjoying ourselves. It was good to see you relaxed and happy too :) even if the ship is a floating petri dish and gave you bronchitis in the end!!

Thanks mom for taking such good care of our baby. She had fun and asked about you again today.

But I LOOOOOVVE YOOUUUU!!!!

Her new exclamation when in trouble, since we've gotten back from the cruise (to mommy, crying, with look of betrayal, workin' it): BUT I LOOOOOVVVEEEE YYYOOOOUUUUU!!!!

Our house today

We got Anna a new pair of scissors to help her practice at home. Not sure what the fuss is about, I think she's getting it down just fine. But now she's obsessed because we got her the metal ones instead of those toddler plastic ones that frustrate her at school. Anyway now that's all she wants to do at home: Cut. And "Mommy, will you cut with me?" If I stop, she says, "CUT!" If I say, "I don't want to cut", she says "But I want you to!" CUT CUT CUT. Construction paper everywhere inside her little castle tent thing.

Meanwhile Paul assembled a swingset. Well, it's 8:22pm and he's still out there.

SUCKER

CHUMP

Skip sucker, Straight to CHUMP

Random thoughts

I got our first RSVP from Anna's classmates, saying they'll attend her birthday party! Yay!

Is it wrong it's a little too early in her age for me to be anxious on whether anyone will come to her little party? The irony is not that I'm worried for her socially (oh please, she's 3!). It's just that I will have a Tumblebus to fill with 15 kids max. I'd rather it not go empty :) At least it's at my house...I wonder if there are any parents out there who rent out one of those big jumping places or Little Gym places for their kids' birthday and not many show? Is that like a natural concern of most parents?

Anyway this birthday party pressure has come too early in Anna's little age. Or else I need to get back to work because this sick leave week allows me to think too much about stupid stuff I wouldn't otherwise slow down on.

I think we're up to 6 kids so far... 10 would be plenty.

Last night we were playing with a new game with Anna. It involved colors and shapes. Several times she referred to stuff in Spanish again. I'm not sure if what she's saying is right, LOL! What's spanish for circle??? Ciest or something? It sounded like that...She does it while looking at books lately, too. Just goes back and forth. It's weird coming out of her little mouth!

Anna school update

Anna can apparently count to 10 in spanish. It just started flowing out of her mouth during bath time the other night as she was counting her bath crayons. WTH? I didn't know what she's saying but now it's perfectly clear. I don't speak spanish. She's already one-upped me.

We asked her teacher about it this morning and she confirmed to me how to count to 10 and Anna had been right. Apparently she also knows her colors and shapes in Spanish. SAY WHAT?!

She has been spending some time in the older classroom so they can evaluate whether she should jump a level at the start of next school year. As of right now, their big concern is they don't want her to lose her leadership qualities if she moves to an older classroom. Also her fine motor skills aren't quite advanced enough yet to keep up with the older ones (cutting with scissors, holding a pencil correctly ALL of the time (she does most of the time. And she's a Lefty)). They don't want her to become frustrated with those types of things if she can't keep up with the older classes.

All of this is fine with us. We will work on her fine motor skills more with her at home too. If she jumps a class room in the fall, she'll start kindergrarten a year early, be young in her class, and graduate at 17. Not all bad things: I started college at 17 and I LOVED being the youngest all the time. If she doesn't jump a class we are fine with that too because frankly who needs the rush. But her teachers are doing an amazing job really analyzing this and paying attention. We are so happy and lucky they are so involved, and so we're doing our best to work with them.

In other news, Anna got in trouble a few weeks ago when she interrupted the class prayers not once, but twice, by saying "POOPIE! POOPIE!". They had to start prayer over as a class 3 times, while they were waiting to start snack time! When the teacher told me this I swear I heard the voice in my head say, "Ha, oops...oh wait: straight face." What actually came out of my mouth was: "oh what the little class clown..." and "we will talk to her..." And we did. She hasn't done it since.

And I giggled as we walked out of the classroom. Not out of disrespect for this Luthern school (or God or Jesus), but because of the gall of toddlers.

She gets it from her dad.

The hard thing is now she's on to "I toot-tooted!" and thinks it's hilarious. "I toot-tooted on you! ...on the floor!...in the water!" And while that's fine with me, the voice of restraint in my head reminds me that her teachers at some point are going to notice her doing it at an otherwise inappropriate time and so I am trying to teach her it's OK to say at home but not so silly at school. Then the other day she said, in front of her teachers: "it's OK to say at home but not school!" Ugh, kids.

Commencing the initiation of the post-all-u-can-eat-cruise-wisdom-teeth-removal weightloss plan

Yanked all 4 of my wisdom teeth today, about 15 years after the first one chipped while eating a simple soft taco. They'd been weak for a long time, chipping away... and every dentist I'd seen said they're going to have to go. I've just been putting it off for the right time.

Mostly I will miss those teeth: they've been handy for chewing.

I figure the best time to implement is after the cruise where food is available 24 hours a day and I may have gained a few pounds. Don't feel like I did but now I may never know because the liquid diet has begun.

Actually it started with brownie flavored pudding. Yummmm.

I am actually feeling pretty good after the surgery. No pain yet and just a little groggy from the drugs. Hell I am coherent enough to go back to work except I don't think my co-workers would appreciate the uncontrollable bloody slobber. Some people are just sensitive ;)

In fact I've scheduled sick leave through Friday and I just might use it all no matter how I am feeling! There are lots of things to get done...

You'd think I'd sleep all day after the surgery. But no, instead there are too many cool things for me to do, like planning Anna's third birthday party, March 6. We never thought we'd have a formal birthday till Anna was older but apparently she understands those parties of her friends as they turn 3 and she is excited by them. Now who can deny her of a fun little time of her own? March 6 we'll have snacks, cake, and the Tumblebus at our house. The Tumblebus is this cool bus that's been tricked out with nothing but ball pits, monkey bars, and even little zip lines. It's like the Little Gym in a box. It comes to Anna's (and others') schools once a week so the kids can play. ANNA LOVES THE TUMBLEBUS (mommy, I can do a tuck and roll all by myself!). And it's pretty reasonable cost-wise to get them to do birthday parties. It can hold up to 15 kids so we're throwing out the net of invitations to our close friends with kids who Anna likes, and the kids in Anna's class. All of them. Even the ones that she and I both think are weird. Hopefully a small turnout of about 10 kids can make it. Anyway, you should see the cake I'm going for but OH NO YOU WILL HAVE TO BE SURPRISED AND WAIT FOR IT!

And hell no, I'm not making it myself.

She also doesn't know the Tumblebus is coming. In fact we're not hyping about the party at all. It'll all mostly be a surprise for her so shhhhh...

That night we're going camping too. And Ommom is going out of town so we're taking O & M for the weekend, including camping, so it should be a really fun weekend for Anna!

I am proud of myself for getting the jump on this, huh? I usually wait till the last minute for these things. Thanks to the wisdome teeth, I am TOTALLY ON THIS. HA!!!

Now let's just hope some kids actually show up :)

Check out Anna's Disney 100m dash photos

Action Sports International

Click on the link above. Darling.

Nana's here!

Anna's so happy Nana's here! (My mom).

Nana loves her and adores on her so Anna ofcourse diggs that. But it's also fun to have my mom here because I love to share her with someone who obviously loves her so much! It's fun to watch Anna interact with her and show her how she is such a big girl.

I just hope she doesn't run all over Nana when mommy and daddy are on a boat to Mexico next week with my dad's side of the family. I hope Nana picks the right time to instill Time Outs, or can figure out the tricks to get her dressed in the morning or to get her into the bathtub. Or to get her to bed at night. Or for goodness sake, Nana, how to get that DVD player working in the truck! :)

Nana's here this week for some Anna training!

When I dropped Anna off at school this morning her teacher told me that she told Anna "I love you!" during naptime yesterday. Anna said "I love you too! And I love Nana! And KC!" And then of course only later after some prompting said "I love mommy and daddy." (Scum at the bottom of the list).

Anyway, I know Anna loves Nana and they will have fun next week. My main worry is safety. What if there's a fire?! What if Anna falls down the stairs, or Nana falls down the stairs and can't get to a phone? Or what if Anna chokes on her food (not likely, I know). What if there's a serious car accident? FIRST THINGS FIRST CALL 911!!! Then call Ommom :) I know I'll have access to my cell phone but still. Ugh.

I'm less worried about the stupid stuff like getting Anna to school or the bath without a fight. It's the serious stuff that worries me.

Anna is growing up to be such a great little girl. I enjoy spending time with her. I am going to miss her awfully. I know she'll miss me and Paul even though she will have fun with Nana. But next week will still be a tough week. At $2.45 per minute while on the cruise, my cell phone bill might spike next week. I'm OK with that.

We leave Friday night for the drive to New Orleans and the boat returns to New Orleans Saturday the 20th at 8am. So hopefully we'll be home before Anna's bedtime on Saturday night.

Dance Girls

Dear Ommom,

OK, you must ask M why when Anna woke up this morning, she puts one hand on her hip, hikes the hip into the air, tilts her head to the side, puts her opposite toe into a point, and smiles as if she is one little dance goddess? You know the pose I’m talking about... Dance girls!!

Look at these photos

I didn't really watch the game and I didn't even see the post-game stuff (but we DVR'd it and now I want to watch it!)...but I saw these this morning and melted. Too. Cute.

Seriously. What shots!

I love how in the top one Brees is looking at the confetti in his hand, as if to enjoy it with his son, with all the other craziness going on around them. And then ofcourse, picture #2 is now a forever classic.

This is a picture of a man on top of the world, who has it all. At the end of such a night, he gets to share it with his little family.

AWESOME.

Anxiety attack

OMG I cannot leave my baby for SEVEN nights next week while Paul and I
are both on a cruise. Crap crap crap. What the hell?!

Pretty awesome kid

Anna's second week of dance class went really well. I forgot the camera so I can't exactly show you how well but dang, she was fun to watch! She's such a big girl, balancing on one foot with the other high behind her. Making big arm movements. Prancing across the floor. Putting on her own shoes. Well, they were on the wrong foot but her teacher realized it during an across-the-floor-prance. They were her tap shoes.

I even sort of taught myself to put her hair up into the required bun. She fit right in with the best of them. And follows directions really well.

She's really a cool kid. She's going to the potty now from beginning to end (AND #1 and #2) without wanting us to come in and help. She's tossed the potty adapter seat sized for her little butt in favor or sitting (with balance) on the big potty seat herself. The sheer logistics of getting her undies/pants down, climbing up the step stool and balancing on the seat all by herself made me worry she'd find it all too troublesome, but no. She's a big girl. She's regularly in undies now everywhere we go and she's even stayed dry a few days this week during her nap.

She wants to do EVERYTHING by herself and I have to remember to stop myself and let her. Paul's better about that than me. She's such a big girl and says these things that make you say, "my gosh, she's not even 3!" She's developing into such a cool kid.

Her teacher called last night and said she talked to the director of her pre-school and they are recommending she start to be transitioned to the next older class. I have mixed feelings about this but it's the third time it's happened and so I have come to realize it's always been the right decision. More challenges and more fun. They're going to start sending her over to the other class to see if she can hang with that age socially (they're 3's going on 4), and since some are her friends from a previous class, I think she'll do fine. I have just hated it, though, when this happens and she leaves her current friends behind even though it's never seemed to have an impact on her as far as I can tell. Plus I like her current teachers so much. Lately more than other times she has her favorite buddies so I wonder what she'll think of all this. Guess we'll see how it all shakes out. I'm optimistic even though change kinda sucks.

It's the phrase of the week.

I Love This

Found this as a comment on NASA Watch. And even though I think about it more sensitively, this is good:

You guys need to get out of the Constellation echo chamber and listen to reality. No one is abdicating America's lead in space, and no one has taken the Moon off the table as a destination. In fact, if anything we'll be leaving Earth orbit sooner than the 2028 date that Constellation would have handed us.

We're going to save the few bits of Constellation that actually made sense. You'll see that Orion on top of an Atlas V, but it will be called the Boeing/Bigelow capsule, will seat seven, and (since it's on top of a far superior launch vehicle) will have a toilet instead of buggy springs for seats. Alongside of the Boeing solution you'll also see at least three other vehicles with different characteristics and strengths, reflecting the vitality of free enterprise as opposed to the central planning approach you so cherish.

We're going to get that heavy launch vehicle, we're going to get it sooner than 2028, it's going to cost less, and it's not going to blow a hole in the ozone layer every time it blasts off. You'll probably see Buzz Aldrin have a fair amount of input in its design; the guy is true American patriot with a good dose of common sense.

As for game changers, if you don't try to make them exist, they never will. The attitudes you guys show would have never made the cut back in the Apollo days.

Constellation is dead; get used to it because Congress will not bring it back. If you won't help us shape the future of manned spaceflight, then leave. We've got work to do.

What's new?

Almost a week has gone by since the announcement of the cancellation of the Constellation program. For the last two days I have been here at the Human Research Program Investigators' Workshop, which is full of happy people. Well, nobody's outright happy about the cancellation exactly. In fact there has been lots of akwardness as they talk through the slides of their research that have been centered around sending astronauts to the moon. But the thing is about this group is that for the most part they say, "when we DO eventually go back..." The thing is that they do research on how astronauts can safely live in space, given that there are so many changes that occur to the body in space. Because we still don't have answers for many problems. They will always have a job as long as they have human access to space, like the ISS. Oh, they could also be happy because in the same White House budget, the Human Research Program got an increase of 42% for research in 2011. This after having been yanked of important funding for the past 5 years as science was kicked to the curb in favor of engineering the new vision to go to the moon. As a result, the science on ISS has suffered compared to what it could really be. What Nobel laureate would apply to do top rated science if there's no funding really? Well with the new budget announcement, there will now be money to attract great scientists to ISS for great research.


So for the past 2 days I've been in a friendly cocoon (even though there's nobody celebrating the loss of Constellation).


Then again even if there are people happy about the cancellation who in their right mind would admit it? You'd be flamed.


Yesterday I gave my first presentation on ISS science as the Associate Program Scientist for ISS. Following me was supposed to be a speaker for the Constellation program. But she did not come. She had to go to headquarters over this recent mess. I had to modify my charts to remove talk of Ares and Constellation. Btw in the end it went really well. I have no fear of public speaking but I was nervous giving the presentation Julie usually gives! But it turns out that a group of teachers is the best audience to get your feet wet. They are so excited about being at NASA and just love it all.


Anyway, I have started to realize more and more the friends I have who have been working for the Constellation program, both civil servants and contractors. Right now they are unsure of their fate and while the contractors may get fired, civil servants can't and so they face the potential of having to work at a new position they may hate.


Like me after I came back from maternity leave and all of my co-workers jumped ship from ISS to Constellation. And my work was restructured in a way that left me bored and unmotivated until I got lucky with getting this current position last year. So I feel like I'm just a year ahead of them.

Holy Crap, Cancellation of Constellation!

The White House announced its budget and plans for NASA today:
http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/420990main_FY_201_%20Budget_Overview_1_Feb_2010.pdf

Today, aerospace engineers are mad.

Specifically the ones with stars in their eyes who really wanted to build vehicles associated with going back to the moon and sustaining humans on the moon and even Mars. The ones who have all dreamed themselves of stepping foot on the moon, who have watched all the science fiction space movies and TV shows and who think that "going boldly beyond" is the most important thing to advance humankind. The ones who cite multiple Christopher Columbus quotes and references when they try to pinpoint why it's so important to go to the moon and Mars. The ones that wanted to tell their grandkids they helped to build that.

Forgive how I am writing today, I am trying to listen to the NASA budget press conference while I write...you know, so I can get smart on all of this.

Anyway, today they're mad. Twitter is a-flutter with pissed-off aerospace engineers who fear for the loss of their jobs because yes, there's a big fat line in the budget that says, "Cancellation of the Constellation program." And most of those pissed off aerospace engineers work for the Constellation program.

I am pissed that they are so selfish that they can't even see the big picture. But I am trying to see that much of their fear is based on the potential loss of their jobs, which is an incredible fear I can't relate to. I can't even imagine the dread that comes with worrying over how to support my family with such destructive news.

Or maybe I'm just biased because hell, I work for the International Space Station, which as a result of this budget, has been given direction to extend its life to 2020 (at least), and a little bit of money came along with that. So good news for me and my little team who have been seriously understaffed for the last year I've been here trying to keep up with all the research that's being done on ISS. Seriously, there's good stuff going on up there but we haven't even had the money to adequately tell the public about it. Maybe now we'll be able to. I was told, even before this budget came out, that change is in the air for my office. I expect that this next year and 2011 will get even wilder than it has been.

Get this straight, I'm NOT OPPOSED to going to the moon and Mars. Who would actually be opposed to going? I am opposed to the way that for the last 6 years our Constellation program has made such minimal progress for so much money, and is already behind. Even if Constellation continued and got all the money it needed, China is still on track to "beat us" back to the moon. Incidentally, China is also talking to ISS to become invested partners.

Beating another nation may have been a good reason to go to the moon in 1969, especially when there were no other major space programs to support (right now we're juggling ISS, space shuttle, and Constellation). I suck at stats, honestly, but we have gads more workforce here at NASA than there ever was during Apollo. So we need more money. Things are more challenging on so many levels now than they were during Apollo. We have THREE programs to try to muddle through.

The Bush administration was trying to leave a mark by giving us direction to go to the moon 6 years ago. The plan as I understand it involved de-orbiting ISS in 2015 and that, combined with retirement of the space shuttle, would be the biggest source of funding for Constellation. How much new money was actually given to support Constellation? I don't know. I suspect a very minimal amount. Basically we all know we were given direction with no new money, which poses issues. You can't sustain a program like Constellation without major new money. And what were the Constellation goals, anyway? Anyone know? I know they're baselined somewhere. I just don't know them formally. Shame on me. I have talked with a few aerospace engineers who were tasked to design a lunar habitat. When one asked where the darned windows should go, he couldn't get a straight answer. He wondered: should they look at the horizon? At Earth? At the lunar geography? What do we do once we get there?

Shame on me, maybe I'm the only loser who doesn't know what our lunar plans were in the first place. So my own opinion on my own blog is an ignorant one I suppose. But I've always wondered, for the last 6 years: how is going to the moon going to help our world? Is it going to be useful in stopping wide-spread health pandemics somehow? Is it going to tell us more about our climate change so we can do something to take care of our planet? How exactly will it benefit mankind? Not saying it won't, I just don't know these things.

I guess it would do a few things:
1) Excite students to get involved in Math/Science/Engineering as potential future aerospace engineers and astronauts. There's always something sexy about going to the moon and Mars that would excite our students, right?
2) It would give us a haven, in some visions, of a place to go when we destroy our own planet.
3) I guess we could look at the soil once there. Remember, I am poorly educated about the goodness of going to the moon and Mars so I accept that I'm an idiot.

I don't know what we're missing out on by canceling Constellation. But I do know that the alternatives, based on today's budget release, includes:

1) Increased use of ISS. (YESSSS, let's get our ROI, people! Plus give it a chance to develop new technologies). FOCUS, PEOPLE! USE WHAT WE HAVE! HATE WASTE? SURE YOU DO!
2) Climate change research is boosted (but do you really care? That's our grandkids' problem!)
3) Green aviation
4) Commercialization of spaceflight for LEO and heavy-lift (that's potentially a good thing, it gives us in the long run lots of choices of companies to send our astronauts and supplies to space)
5)Increased focus on education, particularly STEM.

When I heard the announcement of Constellation a few years ago, I was not happy. I couldn't understand why everyone else around me (save for a few people who actually GET IT), was happy. I told myself they're happy because it's a direction forward. Since they were all happy, I should be happy. This is a good thing for NASA, yay! What's wrong with me that I'm not happy? Why am I the only one who thinks ISS was getting the short end of the stick? (Though I do remember a conversation with two particular people, I should say, who agreed with me 100%. I really still respect those two people).

This is all easy to say because I have job security, I guess, since I work for ISS. But if you're a real supporter of Human Space Flight, you'll realize that using the International Space Station (ISS) to its full potential could potentially yield results that could save lives. Seriously, how many of you knew that cures for salmonella are in progress because of ISS research? That's just one example but our office has had such a challenge trying to get the word out. Hopefully in the next year or so we'll be able to do a better job.

If you're a real supporter of human space flight, you'd see the potential in this budget, even beyond the ISS part.

My final thoughts on this:

1) The psychics were right, I will not be going into space. The second one who told me this was this past November. He actually said he was "being told" that the reason was because there'd be no hiring. He said I have all the credentials, but there's just not the need (and he didn't seem the type to me to have forehand knowledge of such things, nor read up in the papers to make an educated guess). Yes, we will have ISS but we have plenty of current astronauts in the corps in line for ISS already and there won't be a need for new ones for awhile I am certain. Think about it: now the thing that sucks for most current high school and college grads who want to be astronauts is: space won't need you for a long time. And there is much liklihood that the future of astronaut selection will change entirely as we know it.

2) A little over a year ago today, I had my interview with this office and tried to sabbotage my chances of getting hired here in the ISS Program Science office. I had a major concern that I'd be going to a "dead horse" that was ISS. Why go to a dying program? I wrestled with taking such a career risk versus staying in Engineering and doing Constellation work like all the other engineers.

Holy s***, someone was looking out for me.

3) Congress still has to approve this budget anyway since it's just the White House proposal. Expect this to be drawn out and painful.

This all being said, I am pretty sure there will be major changes in our own office. Especially since the ISS National Lab initiative will take off. This has lots of implications for us and how we are structured that can go different ways. So no one is exempt from this change. We're all going to feel it. And I'm just going to try to roll with it...