Help Wanted

Paul and I actually have tickets to the No Doubt concert here in Houston on May 31. Anybody up for the love and caring of this little beauty for a few hours that evening? (When in doubt, said beauty responds well to "Time Out!")


PS you must be overly-qualified.

Looks like she's right on track...

I get these emails periodically from Baby Center. Actually, I've gotten them since I was pregnant and they're fun to read to see what's coming, or what's going on in short spurts. This explains the constant "What IS that mommy/daddy?" Anna started last weekend when I thought we'd already gone through that at like 18 months. It's clear to me that this second round of "What is that?" takes on a different meaning now than it did 6 months ago. She's really soaking it all in. It's a fabulous window of opportunity to tell her that it's a "Macaw" and not just a "Bird". Get the idea? Paul is actually better at that than I am. I underestimate her over and over.

Here's the little tidbit from the email. Timely:
Ask Me Anything
"Why, Mommy?" "Why?" "Why?" Questions are probably your preschooler's new favorite form of speech. And there's a reason for that: Asking is a good way of finding out, and your child is constantly coming across new situations he wants to know more about. Although endless questions can get wearisome — especially if you have a tenacious, super-curious child — answering them simply and patiently encourages your child to keep asking and learning.

Last night I gave her my watch and told her to listen to it "tick tock". She quietly held it up to her ear and focussed. She said she could hear it. Then she pointed to it and said, "dis is 10 minutes, mommy"...WHAT? Another one of those moments where Paul and I each guessed at where we thought it might have come from. He tells her 10 more minutes before bedtime and points at his watch. Anyway, super cool. She asks alot of "what" and I don't mind. If I hesitate for a second to think about the right answer, she gets impatient and asks again as if I didn't hear her.

I guess "Why" is forthcoming. I love a challenge.

This picture has it all...

Nice, huh?

The jets are the T-38 trainers the astronauts use. The two space shuttles on the pads will probably never be seen again together on the pads like that. The first shuttle will be used to launch the STS-125 crew into space to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The second shuttle (all the way in the back, on the left...can you see it?) is on the pad as a potential "rescue unit" that was instituted following the Columbia accident. It will actually be used again in a few months on the next launch to ISS.

This photo was taken from the NASA website:

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1336.html

I can feel it...

Normalcy will be returning soon.

Already I'm ahead of my lecture notes for tomorrow night's class so I'm not sure what to do with the little free time I might have tonight. What did I used to do before traveling and the respiratory and cardio system took over my schedule? I can't remember. I think I even exercised. Oh yeah, I rode the bike a bit.

Tomorrow night, my last lecture night. Woo-hoo!!! I will take the rest of the week off then start running in the evenings like I used to do around 7:30-8pm before Anna was born. I may even start swimming in the mornings if I'm that motivated. I'd like to but I'd also like to sleep I think. I guess we'll see.

Friday is media training at work. It's the same media training crash course the astronauts take. I'm really not looking forward to performing mock interviews. I think I'm probably much better under pressure, but then again I have NEVER watched any of my NEEMO6 interviews bc I thought I pretty much sucked on camera compared to the astronauts I was with. Digressing...

The Program Scientist crew conference that was scheduled for me to participate in while I was in Albany was canceled due to TVIS (the ISS on-orbit treadmill) maintenance over-runs. Congrats to TJ's husband (CM) and the TVIS team for pulling it off. It was a pretty major ordeal and had its bumps and so I imagined that the tension in the TJ housebold this past weekend could potentially have been a little higher than usual. But frankly I DON'T KNOW! TJ lives just around the block but I don't get out much to talk to anyone :)

Soon, that will change too!

My trip to Albany was great. The SUNY Albany campus has an amazing facility for superconductor work at the nano-scale. I learned a whole bunch of stuff about materials and the students/staff were really nice. They did pack my itinerary full of stuff to do, even though I'd been planning for some extra sleep and getting some work done in my hotel room. Alas, you don't go on travel just to hole up in the hotel room. So it was a nice outing. Also, Albany is in love with tulips. They even have a tulip fest for it. Tulips are my favorite. Nice.

I was only gone 3 days and I came back to Anna's latest cognitive leaps: "What IS that mommy/Daddy?" It occurs every minute or so and it's super cute. Did I blog about this already? I can't remember. Anyway, she catches EVERYTHING and asks about it. Today I had to ask Paul the name for a conduit because she asked me and I didn't know. Isn't it a little early for mommy not to be able to answer a 2 year-old's questions?

The cognitive leaps are apparent in her sleeping patterns lately. We watch her "run" in her sleep and talk and whine and stuff. Last night she even woke once and I had to go up to see her. She went right back to sleep after a round of "Wheels on the Bus" but it's still unusual.

More later I guess. Gotta go pick up the booger-bear from school.

I Love This

The below blog entry is taken from a Blog I love so much: Motherhood Is Not for Wimps (the link is posted on the right side here of my own blog). Liz, the writer, has just had her third baby and has asked her brother to write a guest post. He is also a new dad (2 months in). I LOVE his perspective on being PRESENT. It is actually something Paul and I are very cognizant of and have implemented since the day Anna was born. In the beginning, I was afraid to confuse being present with obsessing over Anna. But Paul and I both feel innately that what's the point in having a kid if you don't fully engage with them? They're a litte person. So many parents can simply "check out". And believe me, it'd be much easier to check out on days that are already draining and demanding. No lie, I am often grateful for Anna's early bedtime so that I can unwind. But even on days when Paul and I are both super exhausted for one reason or another, an inner voice remind us that parenting is a non-stop job and that's what we signed up for going in. Fortunately, Paul and I have great work ethic that I guess just keeps us going even when we're too tired. Anyway, I like this post from Liz's brother:

GUEST POST:What, me guest?
April 24th, 2009

Everybody asks me about what it’s like being a dad. I don’t want to tell them. Not because I’m afraid or overwhelmed, but because there is nothing new I can contribute. Everything everybody has ever told me, everything I thought was trite, and I only half listened to, about it being the greatest and most rewarding experience of your life – well all of that is true. And it’s been uttered by most of the nearly 3.5 billion fathers in the history of mankind. If you’re a parent you know what I’m talking about, if not you don’t, but I wish upon you that you might someday feel it, because nothing in the world prepares you for the first time your daughter smiles at you, and you know it’s because it’s you (as opposed to the fact she just pooped, which to her is always cause for celebration).

So I won’t discuss the pleasures of it – if you have a child you know, if you don’t, I can only be condescending and tell you you won’t get it until you have one, and since I hate condescending people…. Well I’ll shut up on how life changing this experience is.
So what can I say… What can I contribute to this blog?

Well, there is only one thing I have learned of any value (besides which end gets the diaper, a lesson which staggeringly improved my and my daughters relationship). That lesson is presence.
Presence. What is that? Certainly there are parents who are with their children all the time, and parents who work all the time and can’t be there with their kids. Neither is presence.
Presence, for me, means being there with my daughter. It means not thinking about the newest character on “Lost” to be… well lost, or the latest new idea for a book, or what the Dow Jones is doing. Honestly it doesn’t even involve thinking about my daughter, about her future, how I’ll pay for her education, or what will she chose to be.

Being present, to me, means being there on her terms. It means congratulating her when she poops, passes gas, lifts her head, or for the most part accomplishes much of anything. It means watching her actively, not simply to make sure she has not gotten into trouble, but for it’s own sake. It means putting a hand on her, not to steady her, but just to let her know that I am… well, present.

Sometimes presence means being involved, sometimes it involves just watching, but if it is true presence, it is always active, not passive. It costs energy, you have to make an effort and you have to let her be your focus.

Therein lies the rub. I don’t have a lot of energy. I get to stay home all day, I don’t even need to go into some job for $10 an hour, and I still feel too tired to be “present” in my relationship with Emily. Too often I feel like just tossing her onto the changing table, slapping on a pair of diapers, and watching television while I rock her to sleep. I get so few simple pleasures in life compared to B.E. (Before Emily), that I furiously hold onto the ones I get.

And yet, if I allow my love for her to fill me, if I watch her with the eyes and wonder of a new father, it’s not as hard to be “present” as I would think. And presence, while a wonderful ideal, can’t be achieved perpetually. You can not be present 100% of the time, even when you’re there all the time. Much of the time you’ll walk through the day a zombie, and you’ll not have a lot of energy to spare.

Yet above all else – loving your child unconditionally, keeping them from licking the electrical sockets, feeding and swaddling them, speaking to and singing to them – above all that, if someone asked me to write an essay, a “blog” if you will… If some sadist who thinks I have gobs of time to spend writing on subjects about which I know very little asked me to write on parenting and say something I thought was important on the subject – above all those things I would say that finding a little time each day, even if it’s only 15 minutes a day, to be “present”, has been both the most rewarding, and in my mind the most important part of being a father. Be present, and as far as I can tell, the rest takes much better care of itself.

Nick

This just in: The pigs are trying to kill us

In my JSC NASA inbox this morning:

JSC TODAY SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

From The Center Director:

Within the last week, a new strain of influenza has emerged in North America called swine influenza (H1N1). Confirmed cases have been reported in Mexico, California, Texas and most recently Kansas. Normally human cases of swine flu happen in people who are exposed to infected pigs but it is possible for the virus to spread from person to person.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), state and local health authorities are working together, increasing surveillance and assessing the potential threat to public health. At the Johnson Space Center, the Space Life Sciences Directorate and Center Operations Office of Emergency Management are working together with local officials to protect the health of the workforce, our families and the community.

Please understand that we are in the very early stages of learning about this potential emerging threat. What we do know is that it is an Influenza Type A virus and can spread from human to human through coughing or sneezing of infected people. It is not known how easily it spreads between people.

The signs and symptoms are very similar to the symptoms of regular human flu. Those symptoms include fever, sore throat, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people with swine flu are also reporting diarrhea and vomiting. Like human influenza, swine flu can lead to pneumonia and respiratory failure and can worsen underlying chronic medical conditions.

The swine flu can be treated with antiviral medication. If you think that you are having symptoms of influenza it is important to see your personal physician as soon as possible for these medications to be most effective. There is no vaccine available at this time.

We need the JSC workforce to take the following actions that can help prevent the spread of germs and cause respiratory illness such as influenza:

Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze.
Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze.
Alcohol-based hand cleaners are also effective.
Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
If you get sick with influenza, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to keep from infecting them.
If you develop an illness with fever and respiratory symptoms, such as cough and runny nose, and possibly other symptoms, such as body aches, nausea, or vomiting or diarrhea; DO NOT COME TO WORK AT JSC but instead contact your health care provider.

For more information visit www.pandemicflu.gov and www.cdc.gov/swineflu.

Want to know what Earth looks like from the Space Station at this minute?

Check here to see images of Earth that the astronauts can see right now according to the International Space Station's current location in space.

http://external.jsc.nasa.gov/events/issphotos/

Quick updates

Dang, more quick updates. Sometimes I wish my brain could tie directly into this blog when I don't have the time for the real info I want to post here...gggrrr...

This past Friday we drove out to my mom's place in Wimberley, TX (near Austin). The plan was to drop Anna off for the weekend fun fest with my mom, while Paul and I bussed back to Houston to then turn around and ride our bikes back to Austin over Saturday and Sunday during the MS150 bike ride. Plans changed when a huge storm fell between Austin and Houston and caused cancellation of Day 1 (Saturday) of the MS150. It's the first cancellation in the programs' 25-year history. Happy 25th anniversary, MS150. You're partly-cancelled! Day 2 (Sun) proceeded as planned from La Grange (again, near Austin) and finished at the downtown Capitol building. The day started for us at 4am though the ride didn't start till 9am. The entire ride had beautiful weather, except for the WIND, which averaged around 9mph but gusts up to 30mph. In the morning, that wind was slightly head-wind but mostly cross-wind. Which was great, considering we had to conquer long, rolling hills. But still, the wind plus hills averaged us at only 9.8 mph on the bikes all morning long!!!! Compare that to the previous year's, which saw perfect weather, at an average of 12-14mph with the hills (not exactly elite, but do-able). I'd swear at some point on Sunday morning the wind was actually pushing my bike backwards. Nothing like pedalling and getting NOWHERE. We started to feel the pain in the knees before lunch. The route after lunch was even worse when we turned directly head-wind. Then I averaged about 7 mph and the legs started cramping. Nothing like a constant head wind and hills for an entire day! It sure has been a windy spring, with every training ride leading up to this giving us some kind of head-wind (anyone wanna blame Ike for this too?). But at least during the training rides, we always made a loop back to the finish line. The MS150 was no loop. It was a straight line in the same direction all day. All in all, we didn't finish till 5:30. In the previous year, we finished by 2:30 or 3pm. Blah. Also, there's something to be said here for the 2-day bike ride. Crossing the finish line in Austin didn't seem as exciting to me for this one-day ride. There's just more achievement in my mind in a 2-day struggle.

Even so, I skipped the part of the story where my legs cramped so much I had to ride a little support van between rest stops just to get a break and keep up with time. $)!@$!@(#!! this year. We got back so late, we held off to head back home to Houston till Monday morning, where we both had 10am appointments. So tired, sunburned, and sore, we packed up with Anna and actually made it back to Houston in time!

Nothing really went right with the MS150 this year, it seems. BUT the good news is that we did get out there to ride and we did raise money for MS. So sweeeet. And thanks to you guys who donated. YOU ROCK! I bet the MS society looks forward to this income every year because I think the last time I checked, things were looking like $12 million was brought in this year! I'm, not sure the final numbers yet, though. But I am looking forward to things going better next year, all around (curse you, wind and bad weather)!

Anna had fun at my mom's place, where she and my two Aunts spoiled the CRAP out of her. I guess that's what extended family does :) but now she's back in the real world. I guess that hurts.

Two of my close girlfriends had babies over the weekend. One's a new mom, and the other is only on #3 of planned 8 ;) (Sorry, ER I can't help tease you...it's just so easy). Congrats to both!!!! Good luck and keep in touch! You are so far away...

As for my job, I am still enjoying it. I learned today that I will have a conference call with the crew that's currently on-orbit on ISS to discuss science. I should prep for that call but in the meantime I'll also have to work out the technical logistics of how to do that since I'll be in Albany. Figures the first crew conference I get and I've got a conflict. Hopefully it works out. Dang it.

Also I'll be working with PAO (NASA's Public Affairs Office) to create a story concerning the use of the ARED and COLBERT in research. Yes, all NASA officials have been told that COLBERT is indeed the official name, and we actually use it interchangeably here with "T2" (Treadmill 2) depending on what company you're in ;)

On the Anna front, she has gone from sweet, agreeable, happy toddler the week before Easter, to "NO"-over-100-times-per-day Anna this past week. True to toddler form, she's up and down. But boogie can hold a conversation. And good ones, too. They're super fun, especially when she tells you about her day, or about something that happened a few days ago that she hasn't forgotten. I LOVE it when she talks to us. Including when she tells us what incidents can lead up to a "Time Out" and how to avoid them. Heh.

I only have two more class lectures before the semester is DONE. I think I may be looking forward to it more than the students because frankly I can't keep up with preparing for the lectures with so much else going on around me. Where is the time going? I'm supposed to teach 3 hours of digestion tomorrow night. I'm only half way through the chapter. Think I can bluff it? ;) Food goes in, crap comes out. Any questions? Read your book.

I'm tired. I want to watch TV. The up side of DVR'ing everything and not getting to watch it yet at all this season is that when re-runs come on this summer, I'll have a full DVR!!! Yay to that.

One thing that occurred to me on the MS150. I guess I'm tired of being mediocre with the athletic stuff I do. I must be a pretty pathetic performer, because my friends who tell me they're slow, or they haven't done XXX in so long seem to still out-perform me when it comes right down to it. I mean I knew I am super slow and all, but the last 5k really bugged me, and the MS150 reminded me I could do better. I have done better. I run the half marathons and do the long bike rides because I can endure, but I can't really perform. I want to perform better, I think. I've never really been motivated to perform better. I've always been just happy enough with being out there and finishing. But now I think that's changing.

At least it will change after I get through the next two weeks of freaking busy life. For now, running shoes stay in the closet, and the bike is getting put back on the garage wall till I can get through the next 2 weeks of schedule.

Hopefully I'll talk to you before then...

COLBERT

Paul and I have watched the Daily Show with Jon Stewart for years. OK, the last year we've kinda been out of touch. But Stephen Colbert was one of the "fake news" correspondents on the show. Definitely one of the funnier ones, till he left and started his own show, The Colbert Report. He's still super funny but we still only watch occasionally, and if we had to choose which to watch in the interest of time these days, it'd be the Daily Show.

But you can google more on Colbert. In the meantime, 230,000 votes came in to name the upcoming NASA Node 3 after Colbert. While he technically won the vote, NASA opted to name the Node 3 "Tranquility" (in observance of the Apollo 11 that landed on the moon at the "Sea of Tranquility" 40 years ago this July) and instead named the new exercise treadmill the COLBERT. The treadmill will be launching in August if all goes well.

Ofcourse, everything at NASA is an acronym. COLBERT is no exception.

Delayed

Everything's delayed lately. Including this blog.

This morning I was delayed in getting to work because of some tummy issues with Anna. Tonight we'll be delayed in delivering her to my mom in Austin because we're waiting till tomorrow while watching what the bad weather might do on our MS150 bike route from Houston to Austin Saturday. I am hearing that the MS150 start might get delayed, too because of the weather.

I'm super delayed in getting out the photos that are backed up on my camera. I am still delaying the Renal study guide that should have been posted last week but I forgot. My TV shows are delayed: still only time to watch one night per week and so I've picked Hell's Kitchen (isn't he fun when he spits in your face while yelling?) and Ghost Hunters. Although occasionally I can sneak in 30 min of Paranormal State sometime during the week.

Lately I'm totally bummed my life is flying by like this. SLOW DOWN, ALREADY PLEASE? If it keeps going this fast, Anna will start high school and I will be OLD. I LIKE being in my early 30's. Can we slow down a bit and enjoy it, please?

I can't wait for class to end. Only 2 more lectures and I will be FREE again in the evenings! No more creation of lecture notes. I will teach in the fall, but the lectures will be done. Amen to that.

I hope my plane to Albany next week isn't delayed. I am super excited to having been invited to a Women In Science and Technology event at SUNY Albany. I was supposed to give my usual keynote address but now the time has been cut down to only a panel discussion. I prefer the panel discussion anyway...less blah blah of hearing myself talk and more actual interaction and Q&A from the students.

Last night we decided not to take a break in class so we could get out early. I talked for 2 hours straight and by the end I was confusing myself. Tripping over my own words. Next time, I'll take a break before I become useless (or a very funny circus act).

Here's what Anna's been up to:
Anna is such a big girl now. She's talking so much and saying such funny stuff I wish I could write it all down everytime. It's seriously a running commentary and she says everything she's thinking. It surprises me more and more everyday. Seriously. She's a little kid now.

I took off work good Friday to get the house ready for our annual crawfish boil and thought I’d have my hands full with her (bc she was home too) but no way. She just helped me clean or played with her toys or watched TV or busied herself. It was SUPER AMAZING. I couldn’t even believe it. She was just chilling out. I remember this time in 07 I was praying to get to TWO and now we have TWO and she’s so cool. She’s super sweet and is talking sentences like: “No ma’m, daddy! Don’t do that!” “We do not hit our friends!” “No, bird, don’t eat my French fry!” When I ask her where her X is, she’ll say “around the corner” or “this way” and point. She gives me running commentary of her day and of stories she makes up or whatever else (how to make grits). She knows my first and last name, hers, and Paul’s first and last name!! This weekend I was in the kitchen and she goes: “Mom?” (not mommy so much anymore, isn’t that weird?) I said “yes?” and looked at her. She started dancing and singing: “I Like to move it move it!” And she ran around to family members singing that over and over! WTH? I was rolling. The girl says stuff that makes me laugh so hard. I wish I could write it all down every time.

When we pass NASA on the way to/from school, she says “Hi NASA!” She knows the NASA emblem anywhere.

She has to pour her own milk, stir her food, whatever like that. If we do it for her, she gets mad! She copies everything I do, which is super sweet.

As for discipline we’re having to use Time Out sometimes and it works really well with her for now. She usually gets it for throwing things or not doing what I ask. She’ll cry on the chair for the entire 2 min, then say sorry and totally comply

She’s been off the paci at school (even for naps) for months and off the paci in the car for about a month (that’s a big deal for us). She gets the paci for sleep at home but I am super OK with that. Everyone needs a way to unwind at the end of the day.

Her top 2 year molars are slowly coming through and some days it bothers her more than others. We still have to use tactics to get her to let us brush her teeth, though! Lately she lets us brush hers while she brushes Pooh bear’s or Paul's. For months I had to hold her down on the bed and force it. It kinda broke my heart a little the other day when she brought Pooh bear over to the bed to lay him down and brush his teeth! Oops!!!

She’s doing well at school. When I go to pick her up she doesn’t want to leave! She’s great at drop offs too. She likes her friends and tells me all about them everyday. This morning she told me she wanted to go to chapel (at school). I asked her if they sang songs in chapel and she said yes and went into a score of "Jesus loves me". I've gotten to watch her on the playground, and it's fabulous. Today when I dropped her off, her class was already on the playground. Her friend Emory came and grabbed her by the hand and they giggled and took off to go play. It was disgustingly cute.

Girls are fabulous. Toddler girls are super cool.

How much do I love this child?

No time to really post but I had to get this down. In the past 2 weeks or so Anna has gotten even more cooler, sweet, smart, and beautiful. She's the neatest toddler ever. She cracks us up. I enjoy spending all my time with her, so much so that the coveted 7:30/8:00 bedtime (so that mommy and daddy have "get stuff done" time) has stretched to 8:30 or 9. Way too late for a growing toddler but she's so much fun.

This weekend we had our annual crawfish boil with friends and family. Here's a quick photo. I'll post more about it with pics probably later this week because till Wed night my evenings will be consumed with preparing a 3-hour renal lecture for class.

Who can seriously resist this???

We need more grits

She wants grits for dinner...it's been that way all week since she has started helping me make them.

These are instant grits, people. In this household.

She explains how she's going to pour the package into the bowl, then puts the water in the microwave, closes the doors, presses the buttons, then it comes out HOT HOT HOT, don't touch! She stirs the mix as mommy pours the HOT water, then we blow to cool it off and take a bite, "I Like it!"

It was the same go-round with the instant oatmeal this week too. She REALLY liked the blueberry instant oatmeal.

I think we're starting to run low on instant grits. Nobody around here wants that.

*********************
Last night on my way out the door:

"Bye bye, baby, mommy's going to go teach about...." (trailed off to nothing because she wouldn't care anyway)

Then, from Anna: "JESUS!"

"What, baby? What's mommy going to go teach about?"

"JESUS!"

Well I don't think I'm properly certified to teach about Jesus but it Paul and I got laughs out of it.

*******************
Paul's fixing a slow drain on our kitchen sink. Anna is helping. Last night while I was teaching, they took a trip the Home Depot. She helps Paul by carrying the glue. She also wants to hold his watch.

He tells me that when they go to leave, he asks where the glue is. Her response: "I put away!" She did show him where she put the glue...

Then the watch...gone. He asks where the watch is and she points, "Over there!" She led him back to where she set his watch down.

*********************
Should I save the story he told me that followed after when Paul was spending time on the potty with the door open so he could keep an eye on her and she insisted, eyebrows furrowed (according to Paul) about 10 times, "NO M'AM! Close the door!" And she would close the door. Apparently she shares my insistence on privacy in these kind of situations. You go, girl.

She locked herself in the bathroom this week as a result of her obsession with closing doors. She kinda freaked. She kicked the door and called for me as I was fishing the butter knife that I would use to turn the little tab on the outside of the doorknob to get her out. I had training with this before, pre-Anna, and I wanna say it was MM who locked herself in briefly. But I can't quite remember...anyway, I was prepared and in fact saved the day.

********************
Driving in the car, these days she tells you which direction she wants to go. "Let's go this way!" and she points. If you deny her, she insists. It doesn't mean I actually GO HER WAY. It just means I say, "OK baby!" while continuing down the planned path. She seems content with that so far.

I have lots more to report that goes back two weeks, complete with photos. They include a wedding, an Easter egg hunt at NASA (that included a pony ride), and her weekend with my mom in town last weekend when we went to the crawfish festival. I have pictures scattered between my phone and my camera but have had no time to chronicle about it all. Bummer.

I survived the 5k last weekend but got beat by 2 astronauts who just came back from short-duration spaceflight, where the body becomes deconditioned the longer you stay (even to some level, a two week shuttle flight). So I am for the first time a little motivated to start running again and this time focus on speed.

Paul and I did great on the bike ride the next day. That's making me feel more confident about the MS150 that's about a week away. Even though it's triple the number of miles we rode that day...

In the meantime, here's Paul's favorite video that he took last weekend on his camera phone. Turn your volume down a bit. She's shakin' it....

This is Anna-Marie

Hi Mommy-
Although you left me to sleep in my crib, I am at your computer to say I'm sorry for the crap I pulled in the restaurant tonight.

Look, I know it's been awhile since we went out to eat together. Give me some credit, I'm usually very good! But you knew you were taking a chance tonight knowing that I hadn't napped all day. And the fact that I actually fell asleep in the car and woke up rather crabby should have made you and daddy stop in your tracks and head back to the house.

It didn't help that I burned my mouth on the mac n cheese. Sure you felt the mac n cheese and it felt just right. But in between screams I was trying to tell you it wasn't the mac n cheese, it was the SPOON that freaking burned me to tears. Then to calm myself down I asked for the paci. Denied. You claimed you didn't have one. What, was I born yesterday? I know you don't leave the house without one.

After enjoying my mac n cheese, Daddy promised ice cream. It came on top of a big warm cookie, straight from the oven. All I went to do was take a bite and YOUCH! The freaking pan burned my fingers!!! Stupid ice cream! I thought it was supposed to be COLD!

Sorry I was so unhappy during the whole outing. But I really liked it when we got home and you opened the window in my bedroom and stroked my face with a cool wash rag. Aaaahhhhh...that was so nice! Then you tickled my feet with it, then my ears and my hands! It was cool...oh, and thanks for reading with me and singing with me before bedtime.

I love you,
Anna-Marie

PS, please don't be mad for the virus I downloaded from Baby Facebook.

ISS Science

Here's a link to the International Space Station Science Report I try to get out weekly. It's basically a compilation of lots of different daily reports I have to read through from NASA and our international partners.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science/experiments/Summary.html

Me: Under prepared

I have to run a 5k tomorrow morning and I haven't run since January. I am also fighting a cold that sets off a coughing fit every time I simply climb the stairs to my office.

On Sunday I am riding in a 62-mile bike ride. I haven't touched the bike in almost two weeks, again, thanks to said cold-fighting. I can hardly breathe but I am getting energy back. This is going to hurt my butt and my hips. This is going to be painful. And it's only a little over half the distance of the entire Day ONE alone in the MS150 we'll be riding April 18-19.

This morning it hit me. I thought I had one more week. But no, our annual Easter crawfish boil is next weekend. NEXT weekend. I thought we had a weekend in between to prepare. The yard is a wreck from winter. I need to double check our crawfish supplier. And stuff, and stuff, and stuff.

Oh yeah, the 2-day, 180-mile MS150 bike ride is the very next weekend. I thought I had one more week to train. But I don't. In all, I only have two solid weeks. Is it possible to bust my butt on the bike every day for the next two weeks? Maybe, if my lungs cooperate through this cold.

Darn it. None of this was supposed to go this way. I was supposed to be super prepared for everything. It's not like I've been slacking. Where does the time go? Why can't I ride my bike every day for real, and train like I'm supposed to? Why isn't the yard done yet and the crawfish accounted for?

Where does the time go? The worst feeling is that of being under prepared.

The first year I rode in the MS150 was a nightmare. I swore I'd never ride again. That year I hadn't trained, didn't know what was coming, and just got on the bike and unexpectedly suffered. The last year I rode, in 2006, it was the most fun ever. I had energy, no pain, and we made our best times ever. It was freaking fun. Now I know how fun it can be and I am afraid that's not going to happen this year.

It really needs to be fun. For sooooo many reasons.

Pre-baby, I used to come home and run at 7:30pm when the air cooled off [or insert "ride bike or swim" here]. Then we'd eat dinner and watch TV. My biggest excuse for putting off the exercise was: I just ate dinner, I have to let my food go down! Now I come home, feed Anna, play, and do the bedtime routine. Sometimes I wish I had a live-in babysitter, but then I realize: no one replaces Mommy or Daddy for a bedtime routine (unless it's Nanna or Nanny Kristi who both spoil her with much more adoration and love).

Or else I go teach. Or else I prep my notes to go teach. I remind myself that teaching actually IS my part time job. So I should expect it to take up some of my time outside of class. And it does. I am teaching in the fall as well. However, the worst part about the first semester is creating all these lecture notes and reviewing material I haven't seen in years. So that takes up much more of my time than I'd planned for. It won't be the same in the fall.

There's always SOMETHING to do. And even my DVR is backing up.

I want to run in the evening when it's still daylight. I want to swim. I want to decide which I want to do and not have to plan for it. I want to go outside and enjoy the long daylight that is left in the evenings with lots of energy. It's wrong that I am buckled up indoors on perfectly wonderful, sunny and cool spring evenings.

The thing is, these days, when I have any spare time, the first word that comes to my mind is "rest". Not "exercise". So I am struggling. So none of the above things is to blame. If I really WANTED to, I could make it all work. Everyone is responsible for the choices they make. But I am choosing "rest" over "exercise" and I feel like I am losing a grip on motivation. So I guess that's my real complaint here. I used to be motivated all the time.

Pish....