Monday, July 7, 2014
Happy July 4th!
Another year at my Dad's house in New Orleans for the long holiday weekend. Always a fun, relaxing time to catch up with everyone.
Headed to Europe!
I was 33 I think the first time I ever went to Europe. That was just a few years ago! Now I've been a few times, all for work, and while they're great opportunities, I have gotten to the point where it starts to feel lonely and isolating going by myself.
This time I get to take Paul and Anna with me :) Thank you frequent flyer miles! Paul and I are each going to give presentations to students at Mission Discovery camps in London, England, and Paisley, Scotland this week and next. We leave tomorrow and return next week. It will be so great having them with me, and we will get to squeeze in some local day trips to Loch Ness, Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. The schedule will be fast-paced and likely exhausting, especially given the time change but we will power through!
I'll have to remind my co-travelers my two rules tomorrow:
1) keep up
2) no complaining
This time last year we were preparing for our Hawaii trip (vacation, no work!). I'd have never thought that a year later we would be headed to Europe. Too much, especially since this was boy something I'd have done at her age!!!
We are fortunate for these opportunities, and know they may not always last. So we take advantage of it all now!
Flight leaves tomorrow. Giddey-up!
This time I get to take Paul and Anna with me :) Thank you frequent flyer miles! Paul and I are each going to give presentations to students at Mission Discovery camps in London, England, and Paisley, Scotland this week and next. We leave tomorrow and return next week. It will be so great having them with me, and we will get to squeeze in some local day trips to Loch Ness, Stonehenge, Bath, and Windsor Castle. The schedule will be fast-paced and likely exhausting, especially given the time change but we will power through!
I'll have to remind my co-travelers my two rules tomorrow:
1) keep up
2) no complaining
This time last year we were preparing for our Hawaii trip (vacation, no work!). I'd have never thought that a year later we would be headed to Europe. Too much, especially since this was boy something I'd have done at her age!!!
We are fortunate for these opportunities, and know they may not always last. So we take advantage of it all now!
Flight leaves tomorrow. Giddey-up!
Saturday, June 28, 2014
More summer
She just wrapped up a week of Kitchen Chemistry camp and Basketball camp. I can't even believe how much she is loving basketball! It's wild! She has learned all kinds of moves and made new friends. This was the most fun she's had at any camp (and she's loved the science ones but not as much as this one!). I hope we can find her a league or something around here to keep her in as long as she's interested.
A few weeks ago, her Girl Scout painting day inspired her to come home and look up on YouTube "how to draw a cute cat". All by herself. This is what she created from the instructional video:
Geeze the kid is good!
It was so cool to see her engaged in a team sport, for the short time I stuck around at drop off. She's never participated in team sports before. I think she'll get so much out of it!
Anna's been busy...
:)
A few weeks ago, her Girl Scout painting day inspired her to come home and look up on YouTube "how to draw a cute cat". All by herself. This is what she created from the instructional video:
Geeze the kid is good!
It was so cool to see her engaged in a team sport, for the short time I stuck around at drop off. She's never participated in team sports before. I think she'll get so much out of it!
Anna's been busy...
:)
Friday, June 20, 2014
Summer stuff
I just returned from the week at a conference in Chicago, full of my favorite coworkers, and I met lots of new NASA faces too. I love my job! I learned tons and got much done. Such a productive trip!
This is the last work trip for me this summer without Paul and Anna. Next up: Dad's house for the 4th of July and then London and Scotland (the 3 of us!) for my last work trip of the summer. We will manage a day trip to Stonehenge/Windsor Castle/Bath and a second day trip to (THE) Loch Ness in between work! So excited!
I know these travel opportunities won't last long so I am so very grateful to get them and to include Paul and Anna. She's lucky to be coming on such trips so young, but I make sure she knows this isn't common for most kids and she should be grateful for all of it. She gets it.
Two rules when traveling with me:
1) Keep up!
2) No complaining!
In between trips Anna is in various science and art camps. She's asked to also be in basketball camp so we signed her up to see how she likes it! She's still loving hoops in the front yard :)
She had a painting class at the Paint Pub with her Girl Scout buds yesterday and this is the result:
She's good :)
Between camps, trips, tons of pool time, and neighborhood friends, she's ha in a dream summer in my opinion! She even got a job at the clinic for days she has downtime at home and had to hang with Paul there. She is saving her money for the London trip.
She's proud of her work and on her first day she took me around he clinic to show me all she had done :)
She's started the public library's summer reading challenge. She's reading at a few levels higher than 1st grade (awesome!) but as for craving books, she can take me or leave em. So when I told her the library was having a "challenge" that definitely got her interested! Girl loves a good challenge and she's already read through many of her required 10 books for the summer :) I'm trying to find some really good chapter book series she'd be interested in but I'm new at this. Just bought her the first of he Magic Treehouse and I also got her Nim's Island because she loves adventure like those. We shall see!
Life is good. We are so very grateful.
This is the last work trip for me this summer without Paul and Anna. Next up: Dad's house for the 4th of July and then London and Scotland (the 3 of us!) for my last work trip of the summer. We will manage a day trip to Stonehenge/Windsor Castle/Bath and a second day trip to (THE) Loch Ness in between work! So excited!
I know these travel opportunities won't last long so I am so very grateful to get them and to include Paul and Anna. She's lucky to be coming on such trips so young, but I make sure she knows this isn't common for most kids and she should be grateful for all of it. She gets it.
Two rules when traveling with me:
1) Keep up!
2) No complaining!
In between trips Anna is in various science and art camps. She's asked to also be in basketball camp so we signed her up to see how she likes it! She's still loving hoops in the front yard :)
She had a painting class at the Paint Pub with her Girl Scout buds yesterday and this is the result:
She's good :)
Between camps, trips, tons of pool time, and neighborhood friends, she's ha in a dream summer in my opinion! She even got a job at the clinic for days she has downtime at home and had to hang with Paul there. She is saving her money for the London trip.
She's proud of her work and on her first day she took me around he clinic to show me all she had done :)
She's started the public library's summer reading challenge. She's reading at a few levels higher than 1st grade (awesome!) but as for craving books, she can take me or leave em. So when I told her the library was having a "challenge" that definitely got her interested! Girl loves a good challenge and she's already read through many of her required 10 books for the summer :) I'm trying to find some really good chapter book series she'd be interested in but I'm new at this. Just bought her the first of he Magic Treehouse and I also got her Nim's Island because she loves adventure like those. We shall see!
Life is good. We are so very grateful.
Father's Day 2014
We had a great Father's Day last weekend. Breakfast in bed, a homemade card, and she read Paul a book I for her called, "The Perfect Father's Day". It was a story about a little girl who takes her dad to all his (actually hers!) favorite places on Father's Day :) About right! We also got him the new mug.
Made it to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the afternoon and ended with them building a tin can robot from a kit Anna had wanted for several weeks :)
Good day, good Daddy!!
Made it to the Houston Museum of Natural Science for the afternoon and ended with them building a tin can robot from a kit Anna had wanted for several weeks :)
Good day, good Daddy!!
Wednesday, June 11, 2014
Saturday, May 31, 2014
Yay for NYC!
The family (Anna, Paul, mom, Ray) came with me on this work trip! We hit NYC hard, I worked and played with them, and now they've left and I'm still here to work through tomorrow for the World Science Festival. I'll miss both of Anna's dance recitals this weekend, but mom is there with them and they're FaceTiming the events (hair, makeup, prep, and eventually her actual dance) so it helps me feel better about being absent.
It's one of those supposed milestones: crap, I'm missing a major child event because of work! Well fine, check that one off, but neither she nor I feel too bad about it. This is because for the entire week, Sunday through Friday, Anna, Paul, my mom, and Ray were able to come along with me to NYC. So Anna understands I have to stay and they all return for her recital. I'm relieved she's not seemingly sentimental about it!
NASA's presence at the World Science Festival is because I reached out to their producers last fall. Because I'm the main point of contact and space station scientist, it's critical I'm there for their biggest event, which is this Sunday, so here I stay, and now they're gone and I'm tied in via technology! And I'm sooooo grateful my mom is there with them to fill in for the role of "female parent". Whew. If I can't be there in person, this is the best set up we will have!
Here's a recap of the week's visit in images. Basically, we hit every stinking highlight a NYC tourist could expect to hit! All attendees were warned ahead of time that when you do NYC with me, you need to be prepared for sore feet, swelling, exhaustion, and positive attitudes. No complaining! They all took that oath, so...
Our hotel was in Times Square, so this was our view:
Crazy crowds for sure, it's definitely tourist saturated, and like Bourbon street on steroids. But whaddeva!
We had a dinner at the rotating rooftop restaurant of our hotel, visited the statue of liberty, did the hop on/hop off bus tour of most of downtown Manhattan, did the most awesome night tour on the open-air bus that also covered Brooklyn (where They Might Be Giants lives!), and same bus tour around Central Park/Harlem, the Natural History Museum (we didn't go in), and Anna pointed out the NYC Public Library as one of the scenes she'd seen in Ghostbusters (remember the library ghost? Yes!) That kid cracked us up at that one, and we spent the rest of the tour trying to identify the apartment building in the movie! While I worked, Paul and Anna went to Discovery Times Square to see the Body Worlds exhibit (Anna wouldn't let up on attending this one: momma I saw a brain and a cut open heart and a mother with her baby inside. She loved the whole thing) and the Lego Brick exhibit (Paul says they gave them free tickets because they thought she was cute?!). We took a tour at the tenement museum to learn how immigrants lived in old NYC, saw Cinderella on Broadway (mom and Ray saw Kinky Boots), listened to the Trinity Church choir sing Bach within the church, and then toured the centuries-old graveyard (the oldest grave was 16-something, and a 5 year old boy. The graveyard also has Alexander Hamilton buried there). Anna loved roaming the graveyard (she always does, another thing to love about her!). We had pizza from the best local spot around (what we were told), and they had lunch at the Singing Ellen's Stardust Diner and then went on a 90 minute cruise of the Manhattan skyline while I worked. We also squeezed in a carriage ride around Central Park, where the tour guide pointed out the top of the apartment building where Ghostbusters was filmed (yay!). She got to climb some boulders in Central Park too. In between it all we rode the Subway (her first subway ride!), taxis (her first taxi ride!), tried Uber (our first Uber experience, which was awesome), had an egg creme at Junior's, saw a topless, painted Statue of Liberty chick giving photos in Times Square (Anna got a kick out of that one: Is that HER...HER...BOOBS? And why does she have earrings in her "nibbles" (nipples)? Haaaaaaaa!!!), saw the (semi)-naked cowboy, whoever that is supposed to be, visited the Toys R Us in Times Square (Anna had a birthday gift card to use!) and rode that indoor Ferris wheel there. In between there were plenty of street hot dogs, big soft pretzels, bottled water, and ice cream. Their week ended at an even I worked, which was held at the Intrepid museum. They got to watch the move Gravity as they sat under the suspended Enterprise orbiter that NYC received when the shuttles retired. Enterprise never flew in space, but it was an engineering unit for mostly aerodynamics and has its own history. They got to walk through the NASA mobile exhibit that I and my team built (and based on my vision!!) while there too.
Anna insisted on this sunset shot over the Hudson from the rotating restaurant :)
She's in the background above :) I took this shot of her as she was running through the graveyard. She was like a happy little spirit!
NYC Museum of Natural History. Think movie, "Night at the Museum". Turns out they'll hold sleep overs here, where they take you on flashlight museum adventures overnight :) How cool is that?
My mom and Ray went to a Good Morning America taping outdoors, right across the street from our hotel.
Are you exhausted too?
They left yesterday, I continued to work, and then crashed out super early! Today I've been on and off of FaceTime for the recital stuff, since I don't work again until tonight. Nice timing!
And tomorrow I get on a plane from here to head to Brussels for some international meetings. I need to get my head on straight!
I am so lucky to have the career that I do. The World Science Festival producers treated me with such respect and care, as if I was some celebrity (they're used to dealing with celebs!). Wait, I did do a 3 minute national Weather Channel interview for the Sam Champion show while here, which was cool. But it was the least informative interview I'd ever done, and more about promoting NASA's presence at the World Science Festival.
Because I am doing the work that I love, I was able to have an amazing week working and playing with my family in NYC. I'm so very grateful always. I know I travel a whole lot, but the frequent flyer miles add up in a way that I can give back to them with travel memories and new experiences. I also know I'm making solid contributions when I travel...so my time is not wasted. This won't last forever, so for now, it goes on. We in ISS who travel alot know that now is the time at NASA for science. Finally, the focus is science. Not just launches and engineering, but bench, laboratory science in a very special laboratory. So we work on it very hard.
That said, it does sting a little I'll be missing her final week of school next week because I'll be in Brussels. Paul had better remember to take a final school day photo! That kid has grown so much since that first day of 1st grade. It's crazy.
While here and working in NYC at the World Science Festival I got to listen to brain scientists talk about consciousness, and astrophysicists talk about the universe and the beginning of time. The brain and the universe were 2 areas I wish I'd have studied, but I know that it'd have killed me because the questions are endless, will never be answered, and any answers we find are somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of things. So while my PhD is in fact in Neuroscience, my research was in locomotion (more finite than the brain!), and while I didn't study the universe, I do get to work for NASA and at least study low Earth orbit. Both are satisfying for me! I'll leave it to the philosopher-astrophysicists-brain-scientists to answer the meaning of existence. Out here in NYC, a local catholic student asked me if my understanding of science has impacted my religion. I answered her in terms of spirituality, not religion. I told her that science is the study of nature, so if anything, it makes me stronger in my faith, though it may be different from hers. And then astronaut Sandy Magnus, who was with me, added her opinions as a catholic herself, which were outstanding and awesome. I hadn't met her before but I think I like her. She too underscored the religion vs spirituality thing. I think she loved answering the question as I did. And in fact, it was the second time a catholic student as asked me that in the last few months. I've never otherwise been asked that! Interesting!
Kids, go into science. It's amazing fun to learn along the way, you meet some cool people, and have the greatest experiences. Well, maybe that can be said for any career you choose, as long as you're fulfilled and doing whatever it is you're supposed to be doing...
It's one of those supposed milestones: crap, I'm missing a major child event because of work! Well fine, check that one off, but neither she nor I feel too bad about it. This is because for the entire week, Sunday through Friday, Anna, Paul, my mom, and Ray were able to come along with me to NYC. So Anna understands I have to stay and they all return for her recital. I'm relieved she's not seemingly sentimental about it!
NASA's presence at the World Science Festival is because I reached out to their producers last fall. Because I'm the main point of contact and space station scientist, it's critical I'm there for their biggest event, which is this Sunday, so here I stay, and now they're gone and I'm tied in via technology! And I'm sooooo grateful my mom is there with them to fill in for the role of "female parent". Whew. If I can't be there in person, this is the best set up we will have!
Here's a recap of the week's visit in images. Basically, we hit every stinking highlight a NYC tourist could expect to hit! All attendees were warned ahead of time that when you do NYC with me, you need to be prepared for sore feet, swelling, exhaustion, and positive attitudes. No complaining! They all took that oath, so...
Our hotel was in Times Square, so this was our view:
Crazy crowds for sure, it's definitely tourist saturated, and like Bourbon street on steroids. But whaddeva!
We had a dinner at the rotating rooftop restaurant of our hotel, visited the statue of liberty, did the hop on/hop off bus tour of most of downtown Manhattan, did the most awesome night tour on the open-air bus that also covered Brooklyn (where They Might Be Giants lives!), and same bus tour around Central Park/Harlem, the Natural History Museum (we didn't go in), and Anna pointed out the NYC Public Library as one of the scenes she'd seen in Ghostbusters (remember the library ghost? Yes!) That kid cracked us up at that one, and we spent the rest of the tour trying to identify the apartment building in the movie! While I worked, Paul and Anna went to Discovery Times Square to see the Body Worlds exhibit (Anna wouldn't let up on attending this one: momma I saw a brain and a cut open heart and a mother with her baby inside. She loved the whole thing) and the Lego Brick exhibit (Paul says they gave them free tickets because they thought she was cute?!). We took a tour at the tenement museum to learn how immigrants lived in old NYC, saw Cinderella on Broadway (mom and Ray saw Kinky Boots), listened to the Trinity Church choir sing Bach within the church, and then toured the centuries-old graveyard (the oldest grave was 16-something, and a 5 year old boy. The graveyard also has Alexander Hamilton buried there). Anna loved roaming the graveyard (she always does, another thing to love about her!). We had pizza from the best local spot around (what we were told), and they had lunch at the Singing Ellen's Stardust Diner and then went on a 90 minute cruise of the Manhattan skyline while I worked. We also squeezed in a carriage ride around Central Park, where the tour guide pointed out the top of the apartment building where Ghostbusters was filmed (yay!). She got to climb some boulders in Central Park too. In between it all we rode the Subway (her first subway ride!), taxis (her first taxi ride!), tried Uber (our first Uber experience, which was awesome), had an egg creme at Junior's, saw a topless, painted Statue of Liberty chick giving photos in Times Square (Anna got a kick out of that one: Is that HER...HER...BOOBS? And why does she have earrings in her "nibbles" (nipples)? Haaaaaaaa!!!), saw the (semi)-naked cowboy, whoever that is supposed to be, visited the Toys R Us in Times Square (Anna had a birthday gift card to use!) and rode that indoor Ferris wheel there. In between there were plenty of street hot dogs, big soft pretzels, bottled water, and ice cream. Their week ended at an even I worked, which was held at the Intrepid museum. They got to watch the move Gravity as they sat under the suspended Enterprise orbiter that NYC received when the shuttles retired. Enterprise never flew in space, but it was an engineering unit for mostly aerodynamics and has its own history. They got to walk through the NASA mobile exhibit that I and my team built (and based on my vision!!) while there too.
Anna insisted on this sunset shot over the Hudson from the rotating restaurant :)
She's in the background above :) I took this shot of her as she was running through the graveyard. She was like a happy little spirit!
Toys R Us Ferris Wheel
NYC Museum of Natural History. Think movie, "Night at the Museum". Turns out they'll hold sleep overs here, where they take you on flashlight museum adventures overnight :) How cool is that?
Of course she had to get a photo in front of the Ghostbusters apartment tops (they're tiny in the background on top of the trees!), and in her curious famous peace out pose she seems to do in most of her photos these days! WTH?!
Begged to climb in Central Park
Taken from the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
Are you exhausted too?
They left yesterday, I continued to work, and then crashed out super early! Today I've been on and off of FaceTime for the recital stuff, since I don't work again until tonight. Nice timing!
And tomorrow I get on a plane from here to head to Brussels for some international meetings. I need to get my head on straight!
I am so lucky to have the career that I do. The World Science Festival producers treated me with such respect and care, as if I was some celebrity (they're used to dealing with celebs!). Wait, I did do a 3 minute national Weather Channel interview for the Sam Champion show while here, which was cool. But it was the least informative interview I'd ever done, and more about promoting NASA's presence at the World Science Festival.
Because I am doing the work that I love, I was able to have an amazing week working and playing with my family in NYC. I'm so very grateful always. I know I travel a whole lot, but the frequent flyer miles add up in a way that I can give back to them with travel memories and new experiences. I also know I'm making solid contributions when I travel...so my time is not wasted. This won't last forever, so for now, it goes on. We in ISS who travel alot know that now is the time at NASA for science. Finally, the focus is science. Not just launches and engineering, but bench, laboratory science in a very special laboratory. So we work on it very hard.
That said, it does sting a little I'll be missing her final week of school next week because I'll be in Brussels. Paul had better remember to take a final school day photo! That kid has grown so much since that first day of 1st grade. It's crazy.
While here and working in NYC at the World Science Festival I got to listen to brain scientists talk about consciousness, and astrophysicists talk about the universe and the beginning of time. The brain and the universe were 2 areas I wish I'd have studied, but I know that it'd have killed me because the questions are endless, will never be answered, and any answers we find are somewhat meaningless in the grand scheme of things. So while my PhD is in fact in Neuroscience, my research was in locomotion (more finite than the brain!), and while I didn't study the universe, I do get to work for NASA and at least study low Earth orbit. Both are satisfying for me! I'll leave it to the philosopher-astrophysicists-brain-scientists to answer the meaning of existence. Out here in NYC, a local catholic student asked me if my understanding of science has impacted my religion. I answered her in terms of spirituality, not religion. I told her that science is the study of nature, so if anything, it makes me stronger in my faith, though it may be different from hers. And then astronaut Sandy Magnus, who was with me, added her opinions as a catholic herself, which were outstanding and awesome. I hadn't met her before but I think I like her. She too underscored the religion vs spirituality thing. I think she loved answering the question as I did. And in fact, it was the second time a catholic student as asked me that in the last few months. I've never otherwise been asked that! Interesting!
Kids, go into science. It's amazing fun to learn along the way, you meet some cool people, and have the greatest experiences. Well, maybe that can be said for any career you choose, as long as you're fulfilled and doing whatever it is you're supposed to be doing...
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