First Class!

Let the wine vs caffeine battle begin!

Swim!

Go baby! So Paul and I were doing silent cheering jumping jacks while watching her do stunts in he firs swim class. We amused the other parents and she just stared at us with a grin :)






I was supposed to be on a plane. About that...have you ever actually known personally a dumbass who gets in line for a flight, hands over their ticket, then is told they're getting on the plane to some place called Harlington when they're supposed to be going to Columbus? Seriously? Well you have now. I just showed up to my gate, saw they were boarding, and got in line. When my boarding pass kept going bong instead of beep, the attendant informed me, in front of everyone, that I was headed for the wrong plane! I don't even know where Harlington is. I then announced to the witnesses "I swear I'm a seasoned traveler!" Turns out my plane got delayed so far back that I got to go home and then go to the first half of Anna's first swim class. Paul called me with some grand finale stories I missed (yay!) and overall she really had fun!!

She loved her morning camp too. She fame back sweaty and dirty and all talks about their hay ride and how she got to let a rollie pollie climb all over her arms.

I'd say she'll sleep well tonight!
I, however, won't be landing until midnight. And I've got charts to make on this flight for my presentation tomorrow morning. Yawn. I'm up first for free upgrade to First Class. It's looking good! Fingers crossed though the wine would conflict with the caffeinated caramel mochiatto something er rather I just got from Starbucks.

Still! Waiting...

She's all sunscreen and bug spray

Ready for her first day of morning camps at Armand Bayou, she started this morning. When we arrived she realized that she's never been to THIS camp and she's excited as we walk in. Heck, me too! Sure we were sweating our butts off but Armand Bayou nature center is notorious for local wildlife fun. This week's theme for Anna's morning camp is Animal Homes.

She is such a big girl. Geeze. She was full of closed-lip smiles that said "mom, I'm good don't make a big deal!" But I'm beaming and only even get a half-kiss with zero hugs (mommmmm!) and she's off with about 8 other classmates led by a nice woman she's never me before. And she's a sticky mess of bug spray and sunscreen and morning sweat, all clear confirmation that it's summer in Houston.
















This afternoon I catch a plane to Ohio so I can give a presentation at Ohio State University in the morning. So I will miss her first swim lesson tonight. Booooo. I know she claims she's excited and I totally need to be there but now Paul's got this but let's face it: he and I handle these things differently. In the extreme, He pushes her too hard and I don't push hard enough. We recognize this at least. I am counting on the instructor to be the tie breaker. But is it just me or do you agree the first swim lesson makes a critical impression about her whole approach to water much less the remainder of the 2-week lesson? Maybe it's just me. Fine.

She's gotten really good about holding her breath and going under water. Swim lessons was her decision. We even went over and watched few so she'd see what it's like. Yesterday we bought 3 more swim suits because already she's pretty much in the pool daily. Here's hoping tonight goes well!

Camp: week 1

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAUL TODAY! We are glad you were born J

 

Anna’s first week at camp (mornings, M-Th) was really great. She loved it! It was “critter camp” where they learned about animals and reptiles and things at the University of Houston Clear Lake campus. On her first day, though, she was NOT excited about having to go back to “school” for the afternoon session. In fact when I picked her up from camp and told her where we were headed, she stopped in her tracks in the UHCL building and internally threatened a 4-yr-old-type tantrum if I dared take this any further. I sat wondering: bribe? Threats? Pick her up and carry her out kicking and screaming? (yes, that’s MY kid. She’s not USUALLY one of those. Honest!)…Ultimately I got her to move with threats. Later, explanations about the schedule and why she should obey it. And more threats.

 

When she’s at school in the afteroon, it’s with her same teacher with her same friends (a few new ones), and as it turns out the classroom has moved to one that has a pet chinchilla. Of course, that was a big hit! On Tuesday afternoon she was home between me and Paul, then to the Valeo PT Astros game that night, and on Wednesday afternoon she went to play at one of her little friend’s house for the entire afternoon I was at work! She was so tired she and her friend actually passed out for a nap on her friend’s bed! MY CHILD? Unheard of! She spent Thursday afternoon at the clinic, then gymnastics, and on Friday morning she was at school (water play day!) in the morning, and with TJ and the kids swimming at a client’s/friend’s house in their beautiful pool on Clear Lake! They even own a pet duck that wears a diaper around the house so yeah, Anna had a blast. Topped that evening with dinner with TJ and family, and whew, what a week! On Saturday, a friend from her school came to swim for a little while in our backyard, and on Sunday we went to M’s dance recital (who did a GREAT JOB!!).

 

Hello? I’d say this kid had a pretty great week of summer!!! Except for the Astros game, we did our best to keep to her sleep schedule by 8:30 max nightly. This kid needs 12 hours of sleep, for real. The night of the Astros game, she had a major nightmare that we heard all about the next day, that consisted of Cat Monsters. The next night she and I had lengthy discussions at bedtime about the existence monsters and how she is safe in our house and that everyone has bad dreams, and different things can cause bad dreams. When I told her that she’d stayed up too late for the baseball game, and that may have been a cause of her bad dream, she declared: “No more baseball games for me, then!”

 

I knew the bad dream and scared at night thing would come eventually. This little girl was obviously so scared in her bed even as I lay next to her! She was stiff as a board, looking off in every direction, asking about every sound. We’re working on bravery and what’s pretend vs real and it’s a fine, delicate line. Hey, we all get scared as kids. Some more than others. This is one area I feel that you have to kinda be careful about how you approach it because I feel like it could impact her reaction to all things in the future that may be potentially fearful. Not like I have the answers or anything. In the end, with respect to things that go bump in the night, I do believe that we fear that which we don’t understand (oh, also fortunately we do fear things we do understand, like serial killers, but that’s basic instinct and survival ;) HA!).

 

Anyway, we’re on week 2 of camp: Kids’ Chemistry. This morning when I picked her up, she could tell me the difference between a solid and a liquid and she came back with a jar full of good-smelling bath salts they made. She LOVED this class! She said they even made the classic volcano with paking powder and vinegar. Sounds like a great first day to me J She didn’t cry there at pick up but gave me some grief at school during drop off. Her teacher is out of town this week, and the sub, Ms. D, is AWESOME. She lets no child in that class get away with any crap; her discipline is right on. I SO wish Ms. A could learn from that! No matter, this makes me feel more at ease this week with Anna being there. Then just two more weeks of part time there until school starts again in the fall.

 

One last thing, Anna has become a rude little booger. We are working hard on her manners. It seems she can’t find them lately.

 

 

 

 

Anna's home!

Anna had a blast at mom's house for the weekend. As I suspected, she looked and acted older than when we left her as always is the case after I've not seen her in awhile. As much as she had fun she was excited to come home, and as we pulled into the neighborhood she couldn't contain her excitement. KC! Her bedroom! Her pool (oh yeah I forgot to mention we got this about 4 weeks ago):





She was all over that poor cat, claiming she'd forgotten what KC looked like! Claiming she forgot we had stairs (please), and ran up to go see her bed because she missed it! We played in the pool, ate pizza, and when bedtime came she said she was excited to sleep in her bed again.

Today we just hung around the house, swam, and played games and puzzles. We made peanut butter rice krispie treats and pumpkin pancakes. O and M came over for the evening and lo and behold, Anna started swimming with her face in the water! Like holy crap, she and M were all crazy swimming under water! Both did great holding their breath and swimming! Anna had her arm floaties on even though she can touch the bottom but we are floored and proud of this huge leap from just in early May when she hated getting her face wet. Wow! She says she's ready for actual swim lessons and Paul and I agree so we will be looking into it soon. I think having the pool in the back yard has been good for Anna getting more and more time in the water. So she's getting more comfortable. We still can't believe those girls tonight!

Oh and WE HAVE FREAKING CORN STALKS growing in our garden. Corn stalks, people!

It's not lost on me the wonder of how we've managed to pull off an actual garden (Paul's determination, the first one to survive after about 3 previous attempts in 10 years) a new rose garden, and a swimming pool in the middle of a Houston drought during the busiest times of our lives. Go figure.

Anna starts her first day of KidsU camp tomorrow. It's 8:30-11:30 M-Th and the first week is Critter Camp. It's at the U of H Clear Lake campus so Anna's excited to be going where mommy teaches :) I am taking off Tuesday afternoons and Paul Thurs and Fri afternoons to be home with Anna. She will go to her school at GD MW afternoons and Fri mornings. We're excited and hopeful she will like it! It's the first time that she's been anywhere other than GD so it will be new for us all. Hoping for the best!

Childless: Day 4 and 5

Well this week I skipped all my exercise because of the respiratory crud that's got me a little knocked down. And frankly by the end of the day, I'm too tired to do anything really exciting. Too bad, I had imagined that this week I'd get back to the 8pm summer running I used to do. Didn't pan out. Too tired over nothing.

Observations:

Night of Day 3:
Worked until 6:00pm, which is about an hour later than usual. Joked with my co-workers on the fact that there's nothing pressing me to leave by 5. Except grocery shopping, which I did, at a nice, slow pace, knowing I had no place really pressing to be once I was done. Discovered where they moved the canned chicken because I had time to get to the bottom of it. Picked up some stuff not on the list because I'd always thought it'd be neat to have them on hand in the house if I could ever remember to pick them up. Found the frozen "all-natural" section. WOW, now THAT is a cool section! Pryed my eyes open to finish knocking out some DVR'd Oprahs. Anna didn't want to talk to me on the phone, which is actually fine by me! It means she's happy out there.

Day 4:
Holy crap, is it Thursday already? We drive all the way back out to Austin tomorrow to get Anna already? What to do on my final night at the house? Too tired. Made dinner, watched DVR'd Office marathon (we have them taped back as far as December!!). Told the cat what I've been thinking the past few weeks: you're great except for the fact that you don't cuddle. CUDDLE, DAMN YOU!! Paul found green beans in our garden and brought in a bowl full! So now, in addition to all the tomoatoes we don't know what to do with, he have ACTUAL FREAKING GREEN BEANS, PEOPLE. The kind that look like they do in the store: like FOR REAL. Time is a double-edged sword: slow down so I can take in all the free mom time, but speed up because I miss Anna!

Day 5:
Why did I wake up at 6:19am? Oh yes, because Paul's alarm went off and that was it for me. My last chance to sleep in. I am at work by 8:30. This is 45 minutes sooner than when Anna's here. By 9:15 I think it's snack time, but no. It's only 9:15. This is screwy. On the way to work, I checked the mail, which I hadn't actually done since Day 2. So I guess some things don't change afterall.

Tonight we're going to grab dinner and head West to bring Anna home tomorrow. We will need the weekend to undo all of the no-doubt-spoilings that have occured over the week. Her summer camps start Monday.

Here we go!

Childless, the first 36 hours

This week Anna is staying at my mom's in Austin. We left her there Monday night. She was all excited and then when it came time for Paul and I to go she started to back peddle. I told her it was OK if she wanted to come home with us but told her all she'd miss out on so she decided to stay.

Observations:

Day 1:
On the ride home Paul and I realized we had an hour long conversation with complete sentences that made sense. The only interruptions were phone calls and text messages. Also I could not even figure out what music I even wanted to listen to now that I had a choice. When we got home I was a little too sad to go into Anna's room.

Day 2: I caught some crud Anna had so I stayed home sick from work. Had sudden concern I had to be somewhere and get out of bed. It was only 9:30am. Watched DVR'd Oprah shows all day. Thought I had to go somewhere or do something by 5. But realized I did not. Actually read the mail. The day seemed slow and steady. Went to a late showing of Pirates 4 with Paul.

Day 3: Slept till 7:30. quiet morning getting ready for work. Began to realize that even though Anna is a good kid with good behavior, she still brings an innate and inevitable amount of noise and rush to the house. This is a kid requirement. I'm starting to think I should start tuning out noise like Facebook and Twitter. I should slow down more often and read the mail. Should not run the TV in the morning. I never had the TV on before she was born. Realizing I can work as late as I want today but instead will go home, change my clothes, and go grocery shopping slowly and at a time while the world is still awake. Question: if I had no kid, what would make me come home from work at a reasonable hour? What did I do before Anna came and I have to pick her up by 5:30?

Interesting.

Last Week of Preschool-3

I'm not sure "thrilled" can even express enough how I feel about Anna's current school year coming to an end. Her teacher, Ms. A., wasn't as bad as we'd fear she'd be, but by that standard I mean Anna didn't end the year dumber than when she started.

Anna thrived DESPITE the crappy clasroom structure that lacked any kind of discipline, real curriculum, and parent communication. It was disorganized, cluttered, chaotic at times, and had kids who made me stare at their parents wondering "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG HERE?!"

Moral of the year: the world is full of messy people. This is where they start.

I can no longer recommend this school to anyone who may be considering sending their child there. Her teacher, Ms. A was one thing, though, and that was on the kids' level. The drawbacks: she sucked at any kind of parent communication, didn't like responsibility of being a staff member, and lacked discipline techniques.

Friday marks Anna's last day. Amen to that. Next week she goes to stay with my mom in Austin for a week (nobody comment on this to have to make me actually think this through and change my mind, please). When she gets back, she gets four weeks of morning camps that range from learning about animals to learning about chemistry. Afternoons will be alternated with me, Paul, her current school, and TJ. That's June. In July she starts a full-time camp at the school next door to hers that looks totally fun. This may seem like a lot of change all at once but we'll see what she's made of. Plus one of her friends, Emma, is going to be on the same schedule, same camp, so she'll have a little friend there along with her.

Bring on summer!

My Jon Bon Jovi story

Last week we got a last minute invite to see Jon Bon Jovi live here in concert in Houston at the Toyota Center. Paul works closely with a coach year round at one of the local high schools who had coached one of Bon Jovi's football teams in the past and so knew him personally. He got Paul and I free tickets, just about 5 rows back, which was pretty neat. I'm not really a Bon Jovi music fan but still the tickets were free and well, it IS Bon Jovi.

Coach also got us and a handful of others back-stage passes to meet Bon Jovi in person before the start of the concert. That was pretty neat, especially since I'd never gotten to do the "back stage" thing before...and this was BON JOVI, American icon. When he first came out to meet us he did seem tired (or high, I thought...NAHHHH...) and wondered out loud later how he found the energy to perform when he seemed so wiped out.

ANYWAY, because I was just coming off of NASA-loving Seth Green and LeVar Burton, I asked Bon Jovi what I thought was a benign enough question, which was if he'd ever had the chance to tour NASA during any of his Houston visits. It wasn't too far fetched, especially since I knew he was on the President's council for investigating what children's community programs were working and what wasn't in the cities he was touring in. He'd met with mayor Parker the day before over this. When I asked my question, he just GLARED at me long and hard like I was CUH-RAZY and I should know better (who let the geek in? I'm THE Bon Jovi, you little freak!). It was a long enough pause that I thought for a second, OMG, did I ask a politically incorrect question? WHAT IF HE'S ONE OF THOSE SPACE PROGRAM HATERS?! Yes. I was apparently uncoool. But at least he followed up with the fact that he doesn't get to tour much while on tour, going to so many places so quickly and yadda-yadda-yadda...and I was like "Oh, right, sure, um, of course" and I did NOT say "Well Bono and Aerosmith did it..." which would be bad because this was Bon Jovi's concert and I was backstage before it and well, you know.

And that is my Bon Jovi story. Later I learned that he'd done some PR affair where he did meet some of the STS-132 shuttle crew or something so I'm sure he's not a NASA hater. I just need to remember the next time I'm in the presence of a major rock star to maybe just keep my mouth shut and ask him to just sign my boobs.

The Forgotten Birthday photos

I use my iPhone so much to take pictures these days because it's quicker and easier to post than the "old" camera and its sim card. With the iphone I can just post it anywhere at anytime and with this sim card...well, gotta find the camera, eject the card, pull out the laptop, find the photos I want, transfer, wait...wait...wait...configure the blog layout, then success!

So I forgot about these until I saw the camera laying there today and decided to take a look at what was on the card. Sweet birthday photos from Anna's 4th birthday in March on the overnight camping trip to Brazos Bend. Lovely!

Anna in action

This morning I was ironing my pants.

Anna points to my thigh and says, "Mommy, what's wrong with your BUTT?"

Me: "huh?"

Anna, pointing: "What are all those BUMPS?!"

Me: "That's cellulite. You'll get it when you're older."

Several notes to self here.


**************************************
On the ride to school this morning, Beat It came on the radio.

Anna: Momma, is that MICHAEL JACKSON?!

Me: What?!

She said it's Beat It. Apparently the Bad Influence kid in her class loves MJ. I guess he can't be all that bad. Except couldn't he at least picked "Ebony and Ivory?"

She asked for another MJ song but I told her Daddy has tons. Not mama!

In other news...

Back to the real world, happy to be here.

Incidentally I Started up Spin class again this morning after 3 weeks off the bike. I think I'm drained today now for it. And I am still around 12lbs heavier than I was this time last year. Who knew all that exercise would make me add 4 lbs. to where I Started out trying to lose. Oh well, it's so insane I'm beyond comprehending those kind of numbers.

Of course first thing before spin class the buzz on the news station and a text from my mom was that Osama bin Laden was killed. And that's the extent of any of that discussion for the day. Strangely, it was not of much talk around any water cooler or anything else for that matter. My personal thoughts: yay I guess but I'm not sure it will have much, if any, impact on stopping the massive terrorist cells over in places that hate us. These days they're probably younger, bigger, and more bad ass anyway than the old fogie Bin Laden was. I think it's part of the world we live in. But hopefully this will bring some closure to the 9/11 families at the very least. I'm not sure. I frankly just don't know.

In matters I do have a better (somewhat) understanding of...last week I kept getting reports from Paul that Anna's afternoons at school were not good reports from her teacher, and that the evenings weren't much better. Complete with knock-down, drag-out fights with Paul and then apologies. But it's like she was pushing buttons on authority and I was sure that when I got home to have a talk with her about how it's better to be a good person, yadda yadda yadda, that she'd recover and move on. So we had a good little discussion. Or so I thought.

Our take on part of this is that there are a few holy terrors in her class who are FLAT OUT AWFUL in terms of behavior. We've seen first hand the effects it has had on the otherwise good kids in the class. They see this little jerk getting away with murder and the best behaved kids pull that same crap right in front of my eyes. Both Paul and I have told them if they keep it up we're telling their parents! Anna's teacher does very little to actively squash the madness from this one particular brat who instigates fights and chases and overall poor behavior from others in the class. And Anna is I think picking up on the fact that this brat gets away with it and so it's time for her to test the water.

The thing is she gets her little butt into trouble at home for this, and at school the teacher tells us of the latest crap she's pulled and does little more I'm sure during the day to check Anna on it at school. So once home, the fun stuff and activities get taken away for that. Last week she lost some privileges with Paul. Tonight she lost going over to TJ's house to play while I was teaching (instead she did time at the clinic with daddy). She totally hated losing out on the fun, pitched a sad, sad fit, promised to behave tomorrow and it seemed to hit home but I guess we'll see how tomorrow goes at school.

The thing is we've thought about confronting the teacher on this, particularly letting on that we feel like half of this is a result of the fact that it's apparent to Anna the classroom is in chaos with this other kid in there, and that if he can do it, she can do it too. But instead, there are just 4 weeks left in this class and we've decided to use this as some kind of learning lesson for Anna (and us). Call us naive, fine. But we're using this short remaining period to try to teach Anna that just because the kids in her classroom act like that, doesn't mean she can too. We're using it as a way to teach her not to follow, and that it's not acceptable to act like a little brat. In the real world, you don't jump off that bridge because the village idiot did. OK she's only 4 but she's impressionable all the way around. She gets it.

We'll see if she implements it :)

KSC Day 3: The Scrub

Last night I hung out in the press building waiting to ride the buses to the launch pad to watch the shuttle RSS retraction.





Waiting with Abe Benrubi to go to the RSS retraction.



This means CLOSEST EVER TO THE SHUTTLE ON THE PAD. it was supposed to happen at 7 but then a stream of fabulous lightening storms came through so it was pushed back and back all the way till midnight.


What a beautiful shot with just my iPhone. You should have SEEN the lightening that followed.



They ended up pushing the RSS retraction back till
Midnight so I had to bail because it would have meant getting back to my hotel room at around 2am. If I hadn't had interviews the next morning I'd have done it easy, but work called so I and my PAO buddy headed home in the crazy-ass storms.

The next morning of interviews went really well! They were mostly written stories and only 3 or so had the cameras in my face. One was a live streaming interview to 1.2 million viewers. But this particular show was very laid back and silly and short so it was pretty easy.

The more I interviewed, the more fluent I became so I do see that these things get easier with practice. One chick who interviewed me asked me how I felt about Obama canceling the shuttle program. When I informed her that the Bush administration canceled it she argued for a second and then realized I must be right, frantically picked up her blackberry and said, "oh no! I just sent a story out for publishing that says Obama canceled the shuttle program!" Holy cow. If a reporter from the Miami Herold can't get that right, can you imagine the amount of misinformation that must be circulating out there about everything in the media? OMG.





My interview sign up sheet. NASA PAO was too busy to get my last name right!




I was outside for a camera interview when the AstroVan came past the entrance to the press site on the way to the launch pad with the STS-134 crew. We waited till they would go completely past before we started out interview but it had disappeared behind stuff and we never saw it come out. As we were pressed for time we just did the interview. When I got back inside, relieved all interviews were over, I ran into a friend who told me the launch was scrubbed. She had been talking to me as if I knew or something and then I realized how ironic it was that the scrub happened during my interview right in the middle of the press site and I was just learning it from her! The AstroVan had turned around in the LCC parking lot right across the street from us, which is why we hadn't seen it go by during the interview.

Bummed? Yes, but not completely. I got a first hand look a the zoo that was the press site on a launch scrub. All interviews (mine were done) changed from standard Pre-launch stuff to GIVE US THE WORD ON THE APU FAILURE. The energy was chaotic! I got to see the start of the scrub press conference that you see on TV live, in its little auditorium, but then it was too crowded for me so I bailed back to the news room.

Overall impressions: I was really well taken care if while there. I got access to all the employee break rooms and offices, including the food and drinks for the astronauts, (who, by the way, were very impressed with the amount of pizza I could put down). People were very respectful to me and just appreciated me being there, even though I was the one Geeking out. And the reporters were as cliche as you can imagine. Being in the news room for those few days was so fantastic! Very full of energy. Such an exciting thing for me to be a part of.

The scrub meant new free time. I returned the spider habitat to the scientists. In the meantime the Tweetup attendees had started a spoof Twitter account for the spider: @space_spider. We had a good laugh over it and I showed the scientists how to use Twitter to follow it.




A golden orb spider. Her sisters will be sent to space station as part of the CSI-05 experiment.



After that there was extra time so my good friend who was out there showed me how to legally get as close as possible to the space shuttle on the launch pad. When I got there I realized it trumped RSS retraction and everything had turned out the way it was supposed to. I have seen launches but I have never seen a fully stacked shuttle on the launch pad even remotely up close. The beach was right on the side of me. The breeze was cool and the air was clear and I could have sat there all day. Thanks for bringing me out there! That topped all else on this trip!!! This picture does no justice to the real life visual.








I topped of the evening with dinner with a couple of PAO friends (these are the NASA press representative). They were both exhausted from the day's events. And starving. They're so busy they don't eat real food all day. I got back to the hotel and passed out. Now I'm about to pack up, go buy some souvenirs, and head to the airport for home!

Out of all the travels I've done for work, nothing beat this one. Even without the launch. Ready for some hugs from home!

KSC Day 2

Today was my Tweetup presentation. I think it went pretty well. Good thing I'm not afraid of public speaking! This was aired on NASA TV and after it was over Paul texted me that it looked great (he played it at the clinic) So I trust him. He did say that some of his clients giggled when I said the contractor's name SpaceX. I had never thought about it before but say it out loud. Sheesh.

There were some good questions and of course the indirect one about whether people have had sex in space (worded differently). I said whatever happens in space stays in space unless it's peer reviewed, and that one got a good laugh :)

The scientists out here at KSC gave me some flight-like hardware I was able to pass around for show and tell. One was a habitat with a live spider like those that are launching tomorrow! It was a big hit! I'm hoping I can keep it alive :) Currently it's going around KSC with me in my back pack.

My interview with LeVar Burton went really well (Reading Rainbow and Star Trek). He is filming a new e-program for kids about science. Still in production. He was really excited about the spider and focused our interview on that. It was easy and fun! I talked to him a bit about the alpha magnetic spectrometer and bs loved it! He said in his Star Trek voice, "the alpha magnetic spectrometer is offline!" I told him never say that! So he changed it to "online" :) Then he patiently signed every copy of the Velveteen Rabbit I could find from Books A Million last night for my co-workers' kids. :) Super Nice guy!

I was asked to escort Seth Green and his friends for a bit today. I got to drive them in my car! Hahaha. One of his friends just seemed so familiar every time we talked. I started to wonder if I recognized him from Tv or something. Maybe scrubs? When I got back We looked him up. It's Jerry from the TV show ER. (Abaraham Bendubi). I had no idea! I had asked him if he works at KSC :) haha.

Anyway now I've had a few hours of downtime before we go out to the launch pad to see the RSS retraction. That will likely run late and so I'm gonna be trashed my the time I get to my hotel room :)

Tomorrow morning I have open press interviews from 10-12 and then it's launch in the afternoon!








LeVar Burton





Tweetup tent.







Spider hardware.


I'm learning so much and having so much fun, it's freakish.

KSC Day 1

Obvious





Vehicle Assembly Building where they mate the orbiter to its orange external tank and solid rocket boosters. It's so tall it rains in there from its own clouds.









Well gave it my best shot.






Countdown!




Endeavour on the launch pad.





Seth Green and his wife Clare are visiting for the Tweetup.





Seth Green.










NASA Press room at KSC.






Unexpected brush fires across the river behind the press site!






Seth's tweet about meeting me. He and his wife and I just ran into each other at the Tweetup site, and zero other people around. So we were able to exchange some words on space station, tours, and stuff. His idea to take the pictures. He thought it was cool to meet me (NASA!) and I thought the same about him! He loves NASA. He's having fun on their visit!

Tomorrow I meet LeVar Burton. He is doing a Reading Rainbow 2.0 and would like to interview me for it. Cool, yes?

Today I got to go inside of the Orbiter Processing Facility, where Atlantis is being prepped for launch in June. It dawned on me I was staring at the last orbiter that will ever be processed there. The only other time I'd visited was as a student, and Columbia was in there. Also visited the VAB today and I was tagging along with the Public Affairs and Outreach (PAO) folks so I got to watch them interview some of the vehicle leads. One was Jerry Cook, director of the Space Shuttle Main Engines. He recognized me from my FRR presentation last week and was happy to meet me! He said that was the best part of FRR and at dinner that night, it was the highlight of the managers' table talk. It's so cool to be recognized for my work. So very cool.

Will post more pictures soon. Tomorrow's my Tweetup speech. Time to cram!