Early tomorrow morning Andy and I will be setting off on our two hour journey to go get Annabel, the dog we are adopting. We are both so excited and I am a little nervous, about whether she will like us or not. I mean I know she will eventually, but I hope it is an easy transition for her. Today I got a call from a lady at the poodle rescue organization we are getting Annabel from, and she asked if we could take another dog with us tomorrow, just to transport it to its foster home, as that dog will be fostered by the same family that fostered Annabel. Of course I said yes, absolutely. I heard a little bit about the dog that is coming with us tomorrow and she is just a four month old puppy. I am starting to be afraid I am going to want to keep her too. I love dogs so much that I just want to scoop them all up and love them and take care of them forever. But I think Andy will put his foot down at the idea of another dog. So anyway, it should be an exciting day tomorrow and I will post pictures as soon as possible.

There are some days I really love bloggers, and there are some days I hate them (not all of them, just a few). Today it is the latter. On the subject of the administrator of NASA completely betraying the space program, well there are a lot of opinions out there about it. According to Technorati, there are 1,407 posts found using the search terms "Michael Griffin NASA" and from the ones I read, they are mostly just parroting the damn news media, and adding commentary that shows that they know absolutely NOTHING about what they are posting about. Here is a perfect example I found on one idiot's blog:

"In fact, many parts of the STS are no longer manufactured, some engineers have had to go to places like Radio Shack at their own expense, to buy some small parts - its that dangerous a system."

I have no idea where this person got their information, but it is so completely untrue it is ridiculous. NEVER has anything remotely like this happened, and to post something like that as fact is downright irresponsible and morally wrong.

The same blogger went on to say:

"The failure of the STS (Space Transport System) is the same as its triumph. It's the most over-engineered piece of machinery that has ever been put together. Quite simply, it has always been a death trap. 14 deaths in about 130 flights - that's unacceptable for even military "X" planes."

Hmmm, I don't know what the acceptable rate is for military "X" planes, but I am willing to bet that this guy doesn't either. Only two failures in twenty-five years of the program, in an inherently dangerous business of space travel is actually fairly impressive. And take in to account that the Challenger and the Columbia disasters could have both been avoided if it were not for high ranking officials in NASA that refused to listen to the concerns of the engineers below them. People in postions like Michael Griffin is in. It was a well known fact that the O-rings on the solid rocket boosters would fail at low temperatures, but due to being pushed to launch in time for that evening's "State of the Union" address, the shuttle was launched anyway. And if Linda Ham had listened to her engineers, high resolution photographs of Columbia's damaged wing could have been obtained, and a possible rescue could have been organized.

So, I say all of these jerks that are tearing up the manned space program, I bet none of you have witnessed the power of a launch while standing in the shadow of the Vehicle Assembly Building feeling the earth shake underneath your feet. I bet none of you has felt the excitement of sitting in the Commander's seat of the Orbiter. And certainly you have never met any of the fantastic brave explorers that are our country's astronauts. So to all of you who are just talking out your asses, please stop, because it is making me sick. Do a little research before you go spreading lies.

I don't know why I never got around to this post before now, but I got a comment the other day from Kerri requesting me to post about Andy, since I mention him so much in my posts. Andy and I met in January of 2000 while we were both working at the Cessna Aircraft Company in Wichita, Kansas. Andy had just gotten out of the Army and had been working there for about six months before I got there. We started dating and the rest is history.

Shortly thereafter, Andy got offered a job at the Space center in Florida, and asked me to go along. I transferred with in the same company to Cessna's Orlando Citation Service Center until I got a job at the space center a couple of years later. We got married in November of 2001.

Andy and I have a great relationship. It is almost easy for us due to the fact that we have the same values and likes. We both have the dream of retiring to a log cabin in North Carolina one day, we both love poodles, we both like working on home improvement projects, and so on. One of the few things we differ on is TV shows. We like some of the same shows, but then he also likes Sci-Fi shows and I watch crappy reality TV.

Andy is really great at woodworking. He has built a lot of nice things for me around the house and is very creative in designing them. Sometimes we collaborate on designs for new projects. He lets me take care of all of the interior design of the house, and the landscape design, but I always ask for his input or approval. He is going to school right now in addition to working in order to use his GI Bill money. Our company pays for the tuition, so whatever he makes from the GI Bill he gets to bank. He calls going to school his "second job" because he gets over $500 a month for it.

So that is Andy in a nutshell. The dogs absolutely love him, and so do I. I never feel that I have to be jealous or worry about him because for some weird reason he thinks I am the greatest. I know, it is his one flaw- he is crazy!

Glitter tagged me on this one and since I am too tired to write a real post tonight, this should fill in quite nicely.

Three Random Facts About My Closet:
1) I share it with Andy
2) It was recently thinned out by an entire truckload to Goodwill
3) One of my dogs has peed in there at least once

Three Items I've Never Worn But Still Haven't Tossed:
1) A pair of shoes I got right after I had foot surgery and I wore only one of them- now the two don't match.
2) A "springish" shirt that I never got around to wearing
3) A pair of capris that are too small

Three Items I'll Never Get Rid Of, No Matter How Ugly They Get:
I will get rid of anything if it gets yucky enough!

Three Items People Wouldn't Expect To Find In My Closet:
1) Pillows
2) Light bulbs
3) A bedspread

Three items that made me go, "Oh Lord, what was I thinking?":
I just got rid of all of these in the recent purge, and I'm not telling what they are!

Three things that I have a surprising number of:
1) Jeans
2) Flip flops (six pairs)
3) Things with long sleeves (we can almost never wear them here)

Three dominant colors in my wardrobe:
1) Navy Blue
2) Grey
3) Denim

Three items that never fail to put me in a good mood whenever I wear them:
1) Reef flip flops
2) A navy blue polo shirt with the logo from the last space shuttle mission embroidered on it.
3) Capri pants (weekend wear!)

Thanks Glitter, and I tag Shannon, Rebecca, and Stacey.

I almost never tag anyone, so I hope you girls are up to the task.

Late last night Andy returned from his two day trip to North Carolina. He went up there and picked out the land for us to build our log cabin on. We purchased just under two acres in Maggie Valley with a gorgeous view. It was foggy when Andy went up there yesterday, and our lot was up above the fog. Now we have to select a log cabin design and builder and get moving on construction. We are not rushing though, it will probably be at least six months before we get started. These pictures were taken by Andy while standing on our new lot. Click on the pictures to view them larger.

I apologize in advance to any realtors that might be reading this, but I think most realtors come from another planet. I picked up a copy of Homes and Land this morning at the grocery store and leafed through it while I was floating around in the pool this afternoon. I like to see what is out there for sale and how property values are doing in the area, and I always get a good chuckle out of the way houses and properties are described by realtors. It is just cliche after cliche, and tons of exaggerated claims. Here are a few:

Priced to sell- What the hell is that supposed to mean? Isn't everything priced to sell?

Motivated seller- Aren't all sellers motivated? Isn't that why the property is listed?

Shows like a model- They use this a lot, and most of the houses are nothing like a model.

Fruit trees in backyard- Probably two banana plants bought for $3.99 apiece.

Paddle Fans- Why can't they call them ceiling fans like everyone else?

Custom built- If it isn't a manufactured home, it is probably custom built, right?

Maintenance free- Show me a home anywhere that is maintenance free and I will buy it today.

Just steps from the beach- Yeah, so is my house, or a house in Kansas for that matter, it is just a whole lot of steps!

Darling home- It is so small you can hardly move inside it.

These are just a few examples. I am looking at one ad right now that says "breathtaking inside and out" and then has a photo of a dumpy little house. Nothing that takes my breath away. Now the price for the dumpy little house, THAT might be breathtaking.

I will also never understand why realtors always plaster their photograph all over the place. Yes, I know, it is supposed to make them seem more approchable and all but those cheesy Glamour Shots they use make most of them look like Stepford women and there are some of them that are so scary looking that putting their picture on their ads could not possibly do anything but hurt their sales.

Andy and I are so excited that next weekend, we get to bring home Annabel, the puppy we are adopting. I feel like a kid waiting for Christmas. I just got a picture of her from her foster mom, and she is just gorgeous. Here is the pretty little girl.

Early this morning as I set out for work, I had just turned out of my neighborhood when I saw a large gopher tortoise on the side of the road, heading like he was going to cross the street. If you are not familiar with gopher tortoises they are huge land turtles that live in our area and are endangered. They have mostly sweet dispositions and are called gopher tortises because they live in elaborate underground homes which they excavate themselves. They are quite large, around a foot and a half long when full grown. Here is what a gopher tortise looks like.

Anyway, back to my story. I saw this tortoise starting to cross the road, and I just had to help it. It was very dark out still, and I pulled over to the side of the road and parked. I ran over to the tortoise, who was just starting to venture out into the street. I put my foot in front of him to block him, because a car was coming. A couple of things happened really fast just then. The light from the oncoming car illuminated the tortoise a little better and I saw a long tail sticking out from its shell. That's strange, I thought, tortoises only have small tails. Also in that split second, I felt something hit my shoe instep, like it was being punched. I realized in that instant that the tortoise was not a tortoise, it was an alligator snapping turtle and it had just tried to bite my foot! I squealed and jumped out of the way. "Sorry buddy, you are on your own" I said as I hurried back to the car with my heart racing but also laughing at myself. I found it all quite funny. I am just glad I used my foot and didn't reach down to the turtle with my hands, because those things can snap your fingers off with their powerful jaws. Here is the meanie I found instead of a tortoise. I would have helped him across the street too, except he would have bitten the crap out of me.

It seems these recent hurricanes are devasting the space program, one center at a time. Last year we had Charley, Frances, and Jeanne, each of which had some impact on Kennedy Space Center, then this year Katrina devasted the Michoud Assembly Facility where our external tanks are made and NASA's Stennis Space Center in coastal Mississippi. Now Hurricane Rita is on a path toward Houston, home to Nasa's Johnson Space Center and our Mission Control Center. Today they closed down all operations in Houston and turned over the International Space Station operations to the Russians for the duration of the storm. Many computer systems were shut down, and everyone at JSC was sent home from work to prepare for the storm. If only we could get a break and get back to the business of human space flight!

For those of you who have been following along about the potential dog rescue, I have an update. The truck that came in from Mississippi had only big dogs and horses, no poodles for us to rescue. In the meantime though, I heard about an organization called Coastal Poodle Rescue that is located in our area, and has many displaced dogs available for rescue. Although these dogs did not come from the areas ravaged by Katrina, adopting them leaves more room for dogs that eventually will come from that area and eases the overall burden. I contacted the agency and last night I was busy filling out their online application forms. I swear, I have gotten a mortgage with less information! I had to have my vet's name and number as a reference as well as my groomer and three personal references. They wanted to know everything about how the dog would be cared for, what kind of flea and tick prevention would be used, where the dog would sleep, what other pets are in the house, and so on. They called all of my references today and we were approved, pending a home visit, and this afternoon I already got a call that a suitable dog was available for us to meet potentially.

The little baby that is waiting to be rescued is Annabel, a ten month old little girl whose elderly owner was keeping her in a condo where no pets were allowed and gave her up. She is white, and a long legged toy poodle with a sweet and slightly timid personality. I spoke to her foster mom today and she sounds like she will fit in to our "pack" very well. She is already housebroken and does not display any of the typical wild puppy behaviors such as chewing up things and being crazy. She is a very calm and sweet girl who likes to sit next to you on the couch and is a little bit "licky" according to her foster mom. I absolutely can't wait to meet her. Andy is happy because he would love to get a little girl poodle because we have all boys. I just know she is going to be perfect. I have already set up a "home visit" where the rescue people come to see our house and make sure it is a suitable home, and we will be going to meet Annabel the Saturday after this one. She was just spayed and doesn't get her stitches out until next Wednesday, so next Saturday is the first time both Andy and I can get down there to meet her, make sure she likes us, and possibly take her home. How exciting!

Here is a quick picture that my friend at work took of me during an awards ceremony yesterday. He was pretty proud of himself for taking a good picture, so I figured I'd better post it. My hair was a mess.

For those of you wondering about the dog we might be rescuing from Katrina, we have not heard anything yet. I was supposed to find out if a poodle would be on the truck yesterday, but it may be as late as Monday before I find out, possibly even longer, and the poor baby wouldn't be able to come home to us for a few days after that. I will keep you posted on what happens.

Tonight Andy text messaged me that he got his raise at work and how much it was. It was a pretty good raise and I text messaged back "Wow! Now we can almost afford to buy gas!"

It is truly amazing to me that there are so many people in this world that still think the earth is their trash can. I was driving behind someone in a Bronco on the way to work the other day, and they had apparently finished off their fast food meal and threw the entire balled up bag of trash right out the window. We were on a bridge so it fell right over the side and into the water. I know this person is not alone either; I am forever seeing trash on the sides of the roads, on the beaches, in my neighborhood. Where have we failed as a society that people cannot learn to throw trash away properly. How hard is it? I have never had any problem doing it, but it must be really challenging for some people.

Just the other day someone at work was laughing about how they were throwing their beer bottles around in the water when they went jet skiing. All I think about is that someone has to clean those up, or they will be there forever. Cigarette smokers that throw butts on the ground are doing essentially the same thing. Do they think that those butts just melt away? One of the worst though, is people who throw gum on the ground. If you have ever stepped in gum, you might agree with me on this one. I see people do it all the time and I just don't understand, especially because I chew gum a lot myself. I have never had a problem throwing it in a trash can, but for some people it is just not important, I guess, or their time is too important to take those two extra seconds to do the right thing. If someone can explain to me why littering is okay, please feel free because I just don't get it.

This morning Andy took our dog Cody to the vet for blood glucose testing. Cody is my little sweetie that was recently diagnosed with diabetes. He checked out good, but he had to go back for another test four hours later. When they tested him the second time, his blood sugar had plummeted to an extremely low level and they gave him a little bit of Karo syrup (plain corn syrup; very sugary) to bring his glucose up. I had to bring him back this afternoon for yet a third time at which he tested okay. It is clear that we need to do a little work to get his insulin level regulated better. The vet is lowering the dose we give him and he will go back for testing again on Saturday. The vet tech told me that diabetes in a dog can be hard to regulate, just like with people. She said that the dosage can be just perfect, and then all of a sudden it is too much or too little. That is why we have to bring him in for testing every month.

His diet is going fairly well; he has gone from almost fifteen pounds to thirteen pounds. Our vet still calls him "Tubby" though. Cody acts like we are starving him to death too, even though he gets to eat three times a day. He gets a prescribed amount of his special diabetic food, but he tries like hell to sneak some of the food from the other dogs' bowl. We watch him carelully when the food for the other dogs is down, but he has a knack of waiting till we are distracted, running to the bowl, and gulping down food as fast as he can. It is not good for him, and several hours after he has had the food he is not supposed to, he gets really thirsty, which is a symptom of his disesase. I feel bad for the little guy because I know he is hungry and I can't let him eat the way he wants to. I hope he doesn't think I am a bad mom.

This morning I heard that one of my co-workers, Melanie, went to Orlando this past weekend and brought back eight dogs that were rescued from Hurricane Katrina and shipped over by truck. She is a big dog lover and brought all of those dogs into her home for a few days until she could find homes for them in our county. She already had three dogs of her own and ended up keeping one of the rescued dogs. I talked to her today about the dogs and she said there are tons of them, of all different breeds, some even with papers that need homes. These are the pets that were voluntarily given up forever by their owners because they don't know what to do with them. There is another huge truck coming Friday with a load of dogs, and after discussing it with Andy, I told her that if there was a small poodle among them we would adopt it. Andy and I agreed that another dog is probably the last thing we need, but these are extenuating circumstances and these animals need help. Besides that, we are fairly well equipped to take on another poodle. We already have everything it would need, and have a fenced yard with a dog door and everything. I swear our house is like dog heaven so it would really just be one more mouth to feed.

We will find out sometime during the day on Friday if there is a poodle coming this way. I would rescue another breed, but I am comfortable with toy (or miniature) poodles and know that they would fit well into our family "pack."
I actually am looking forward to Friday and hoping that there is a poodle coming to live with us. I am trying not to get my hopes up, but they are kind of up already. I was really surprised that Andy agreed to this, but he is a real dog lover himself.

Andy is flying up to North Carolina next Friday. He is going up there for two days to pick out a piece of land for us to build our log cabin on just outside of Maggie Valley, so it is pretty exciting. Anyways, just thinking about him flying makes me a little nervous. And for me it is not fear of the unknown, because I worked as an Aircraft Mechanic and Quality Control Inspector for about three years before moving into aerospace work. I also used to fly small planes for fun and have logged somewhere around 80 hours of flight time. I guess you could say I have seen too much to feel completely comfortable about flying. There is one particular situation that comes to mind that I posted about on a message board back in 2000 when I was working in the aircraft industry. I have a copy of the messages and so here is the first one, almost exactly as typed five years ago.

Message: Mentally ill co-worker compromises safety
Sent by: FlyingJenny (me)
Sent on: 11/16/00

The real problem is that in the work we do, each person must trust one another enormously (we do work with very dangerous equipment- heavy machinery and jet engines and all) and I cannot trust this co-worker at all. I have seen him very narrowly escape dangerous situations that he has caused too many times. He does not pay attention to what he is doing or what is going on around him because he is so wrapped up in himself and his problems. I understand that he is mentally ill through no fualt of his own and that it is considered a disability. I know he has the right to work, but does his right to work as a disabled person outweigh my right to feel safe on the job? There are many times each day that this person who is considered "extremely suicidal" holds my life in his hands and from what I have found, I don't have any rights to protect myself- all of the laws protect his right to employment even though he is a terrible employee. So far he has not injured anyone, but he has damaged aircraft that the company has to pay to fix. I welcome any comments/suggestions anyone has about this situation.

Well that was the first message I posted. I had several very interesting replies and the messages go into greater detail about the situation. I can post the rest of the correspondence and tell the story as it turned out if anyone is interested. I would like to hear some comments to see if this story is interesting to anyone before I do any continuations. I don't want to bore anyone. Also keep in mind that I do not have anything against people with any kind of disabilities, I was just concerned for the safety of myself and others.

While walking out to my Jeep today after leaving the book store, I saw that there was a good sized nail sticking out of the side of my tire. It was about an inch past the tread and into the sidewall and sticking out about three quarters of an inch. The tire is trashed. You cannot plug the hole if it is in the sidewall. I think that my tires must have magnets in them or something, because I am constantly picking up nails in them. And it is not like I am out driving around construction sites or anything.

When I got home, Andy was busy repairing a leak in the pool. It made me think of how much time we actually spend trying to contain fluids such as air in a tire, water in a pool, freon in our air conditioners, oil in our car engines, sewage in pipes, etc. It seems like it is a constant struggle to keep fluids in the places we want them, instead of leaking out all over the place. In worst case scenarios we can see levees breached and dams break as part of our failures to contain fluids. It seems that we have a long way to go before we get the upper hand over these substances that want only to follow the path of least resistance.

We get to talking at work sometimes and this was a story I heard yesterday that I found really interesting. If I had heard the same story from a different person, I might be really skeptical, but Charlie is a very level-headed down to earth type of person, so that makes it an even better story.

Charlie and his brother were living in a century old farmhouse in 1975 about 25 miles south of Athens, Georgia on a large acreage of land. The facilities of the house were not good at all: they had sort of an outhouse in the back yard. One night as they were studying, Charlie's brother went outside towards the outhouse, and came running in saying "Come out here! You've got to see this!" Charlie went outside and what they saw on the path to the outhouse remains clear in his memory even today.

They saw a large sphere, glowing red suspended about three or four feet in the air. Although it was lit from within, it did not illuminate anything around it. From it came a strange whining sound, almost like a child crying. The sphere changed from the the glowing red to a turquoise and a purple as they stood there and watched it, transfixed. They talked to each other throughout the incident to make sure they were both seeing the same thing. Finally, Charlie's brother said "I am going to get my gun" and ran upstairs. He yelled out from the second floor "get up here quick!" and Charlie ran up the stairs. From the bedroom window upstairs, they could see the strage sphere still changing colors. Every so often the light would change to white, and when it did, Charlie said that both he and his brother had the feeling that whatever it was sensed their presence. He said it ws like when the headlights of a turning car play across your body and you know that you are seen, but the light did not radiate. They were both terrified and ran downstairs and jumped in the car to drive to a friends house and relate their story. When they came back to the house a short time later with their friend, the thing was gone.

Charlie says of the situation "I have always wanted an opprtunity like that, and when it happened I was so scared that I ran away." About two weeks after the incident he and his brother were at a party and were recounting their story. A girl came up to them who lived about five miles away and said that her twelve year old sister had been out walking the dog on the same night and had seen the same thing, but in her case it whooshed right down in front of her and she went off running into the house.

Have you or someone you know had any close encounters?

Thanks for all the well wishes about the hurrricane. I am sure we will be fine as we are pretty well prepared here and it doesn't look to be too bad of a storm. One of the comments I got on my last post about the hurricane had this statement in it:

Don’t forget to include your pets in evacuation planning. A lot of shelters for people won’t allow them.

This is good advice and all, but it made me realize that some of my readers may not realize how important my pets are to me. So I will tell a little story about the horror that was last year's Hurricane Frances evacuation.

Right around this time last year Hurricane Frances was churning off the coast of Florida much as Ophelia is now, but as a category four hurricane. Massive evacuations were ordered and since we live on a barrier island, we packed all of our stuff and animals and hit the road. Most people leave the area and don't go to shelters. I have never known anyone that has gone to a shelter. Sadly they are packed with people who can't afford to leave the area. So, me, Andy, three small dogs and Charley, the parrot were packed tightly in the truck. There is no way I would ever leave any of my babies ANYWHERE. I don't even take them to a kennel ever. They go on vacations with us as they are part of the family. I hate to even take the dogs to the groomer for a few hours because I miss them so much.

Anyways, we got on the road along with millions of other evacuees and sat through hours of traffic smelling nothing but dog breath along the way to finally arrive in Tallahassee where my parents live. That is our designated evacuation site. We were there for around five days while that miserable storm churned in the Atlantic teasing us, before it finally came onshore. We were glued to the TV the entire time being able to think of nothing but the fate of our home and community. It was a miserable experience. But at least when it was over we had a home to go back to. It was untouched and the power even came back on before we got back.

So you needn't worry, my pets will never be among those left behind. They are some of the most spoiled animals on the planet. Most of them sleep in our bed and they all have everything they could possibly want.

I also realized some people think we are crazy for living in an area prone to hurricanes. Well, at least you have warning before a hurricane and can get out to safety. I think people that live in earthquake prone areas are far worse off, because they never know when one is going to hit. They could be in their car and be crushed by a bridge collapsing on top of them and never even get to say goodbye to loved ones. I would take a hurricane that gives me days of advance notice over that any day. To each his or her own.

I have never been superstitious. I actually don't understand superstition. I am the one who breaks all the chain letters and e-mails, walks under ladders, steps over people's feet, and doesn't balk at the number thirteen or black cats. I step on cracks all the time, and so far my mother's back is in fine shape. I don't knock on wood, or think that people die in threes. As far as I can see, famous people (or otherwise) die all the time and you can always group them in threes if you want to. I just think it is stupid, but I have known plenty of people that will swear that famous people always die in threes. I think they must be the same people that call the Psychic Friends Hotline and believe everything they hear. Actually, that brings up a funny point. I mentioned one time to Andy that I thought the thing about famous people dying in threes was crap, and he thinks so too, but just to piss me off when two "important" people die in a short period of time he will say to me "there's two" in a serious tone. He will go on to add "there's three" if someone else dies within a short period of time. He thinks it is so funny! Also for the record, I don't believe in horoscopes or astrological signs either. Go ahead all you superstitious types and crucify me, I am ready for it!

We are getting a ton of rain and overall general nastiness right now from Tropical Storm Ophelia. The forecast track still shows it moving to the north of us, but if you watch the movement on the radar, it appears to be moving due west right toward our county. We are the little "bump" on the east coast of Florida. We'll see. If there is anything I have learned in the past two hurricane seasons it is that the forecasters don't have a clue where the storms are going until they are bearing down on land.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to live in a log cabin in the woods, preferably in the mountains. This is a dream that Andy shares with me and we have often talked of having a cabin the mountains of North Carolina for when we retire. Recently we have been talking about the fact that if we ever want to have a house up there, we should do it now, while it is still relatively affordable. We have seen the property values here in our area triple in three years, so we don't want to get priced out of the market by waiting too long. I have my eye on a 4.5 acre piece of property that is wooded with a stream and mountain views. We are still in the investigative process right now to see if it is even feasible for us. We have a couple of options- to buy the land and hold it, or to buy the land and put a cabin on it and then use it as a vacation rental to offset the expense, and then go up there a couple of times a year ourselves. Do you have a second home? Is it more trouble than it is worth or a fabulous retreat?

It was such a beautiful morning that I decided to get the pool in shape and go for a nice leisurely swim. I added chemicals, skimmed the crap off the surface of the water, cleaned the filter, sprayed off the deck and even went around with a squirt bottle of chlorine to clean the little bits of algae off the rocks. I finally finished and then...

...it started raining. Oh well, at least the pool is clean. Andy pointed out to me after it had been raining pretty hard for quite a while that Brian, our neighbor, who is an engineer on the space shuttle program, no less, was still out pressure washing his driveway. Ever heard that saying "He doesn't have enough sense to come in out of the rain?" I think that may apply here.

Some of you may remember this post, on our most recent launch day where I posted about the amazing crackling sounds of a launch. I finally found a crummy little video I took with my digital camera of Columbia's final launch in January of 2003. It gives you an idea at least of what it is like to view a launch as close up as possible. Click on the picture to see (and hear) the video. In person the noise rattles all the buildings and you can actually fee the sound. Turn up your speakers for a better effect, and be patient with the video hosting, it is a little slow sometimes.

Here is something I just don't understand. Why is it that people are always forcing food on me? I am not skinny, so it is not like I need it, and I try to eat very healthily. I eat only "good carbs" and no sugar at all. I will eat things like tortillas and pasta, but only if they are whole grain. I don't drink any caffeine. I am one of those people that could gain weight just be being in the same room as a donut, so I stay away from all of that crap. I have a lot of will power to resist these things and I do not feel left out when other people eat these things around me. Why is it that it absolutely drives some people crazy when I don't eat these foods that are constantly brought in to work, such as donuts, cake, and so on? One of my friends, who is a little stick-man and complains about not being able to gain weight, takes it personally when I won't eat the garbage food that is brought in all the time. He is always offering it, saying "have a piece of cake, come on, just a little one, just a bite" and I always say no, or just smile and ignore it. He knows that I don't eat sugar or bad carbs and that I have no desire to, but constantly is shoving it in my face, trying to get me to eat it. When I don't he gets frustrated with me and says "You're impossible." Personally I don't understand why it matters to anyone other than myself what I eat. It certainly shouldn't.

My grandma, who I love dearly, is the grand champion of all time of getting people to eat. Everytime we would go out she would be trying to give us part of her meal. At home she would cook wonderful meals and desserts such as the best rice pudding you could imagine. She would even package the pudding into individual disposable containers to make the food extra easy to eat. You had no excuse not to eat because all you needed was a spoon and there were no dishes to do afterward. Me and my cousins would sit around the kitchen table at Grandma's a lot, talking and playing cards. She would ask us if we wanted some fruit to eat, and we would always say no. She would ignore that and prepare bowls of perfectly bite-sized cut up fruit and place them around the table right at our fingertips. Of course we would start picking at the fruit and eventually it would be gone, without us even noticing we'd eaten it. She tricked us into it every time!

Writing these things is kind of addictive and Captain Hops at Beer Haiku Daily has posted two more of my creations today. Click here to check it out.

Many people may not realize it, but Hurricane Katrina has a had a profound effect on the "NASA family." With the Stennis Space Center in coastal Mississippi, and the Michoud Assembly Facility in eastern New Orleans, many employees lost their homes and the facilities sustained damage. From an e-mail distributed to us at work:

"In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we fortunately have no reports of any injuries or deaths among NASA employees, contractors or family members at our Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility. Based on early assessments, both locations did suffer building damage from the storm with no immediate indications of damage to flight hardware.

We also are grateful that the Stennis Space Center provided shelter to 4,000 people -- NASA employees, contractors and family members and stranded local residents -- as the hurricane moved through. The Stennis Space Center is still being used as a shelter location, and the center's parking lot is being used by Federal Emergency Management Agency officials as a staging area for recovery operations. The Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility will be closed for business while recovery efforts continue.

Currently, Emergency Operations Centers at the affected centers and Headquarters are now open and will remain open during business hours as needed. As emergency crews begin the difficult work of clearing debris and restoring power and other services to the facilities on site, we also are assessing how resources across the entire Agency can best be used to offer support to the Stennis Space Center and Michoud Assembly Facility. The Marshall Space Flight Center is already helping tremendously by serving as a hub for offsite emergency procurement activities. Two helicopter flights from Marshall will deliver communication equipment and other supplies to the facilities today."

I have also heard that at the Michoud Assembly Facility, which is where the enormous orange external tanks for the Space Shuttle are made, that approximately 60% of workers have lost their homes. Possible plans include bringing them and their families here to Florida and setting up a temporary place for them to work on the two external tanks we have here, stored in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). Normally the tanks are made at their facility in Louisiana and are shipped by barge here to Florida. The two tanks we have were slated to be returned to Michoud for rework, but now it seems that a better option would be to bring the workers here.

I have been e-mailing back and forth quite a bit with my web designer in the past week, as she was helping me move to a new host,and it was discussed what a tech geek I am. I would say that I am more of a "gadget geek" if anything. This was brought up because I would e-mail her from work in the middle of the day, and I mentioned to her that I could not check my blog while away from home, because I was e-mailing on my Pocket PC, connected wirelessly by bluetooth to my cellphone using a dial-up connection and that my cell phone's data plan would get eaten up too quickly viewing such a large file. Just in case you're wondering, we use a lot of computers at work and they all have internet access, but we are not allowed to use them for personal use. It is that whole "misuse of company assets" kind of thing. And we have keystroke monitoring among other things so they WILL find out if we break the rules.

Anyway, my bluetooth connection for e-mailing is geeky enough, but I also use my Pocket PC to play TV shows and movies when I am on the go. I have a bunch of movies that I have converted from DVDs and store on a one gigabyte SD card. I also use a TV tuner connected to my laptop to record shows that I want to watch that come on too late at night. The software I have shows the local program guide and all I have to do is scroll through it with a remote and click on the shows I want to record. It automatically converts the recorded shows and compresses them for viewing on my Pocket PC. Then I quickly store the shows to my SD card and I have the latest shows on the go. I watch them at lunch and breaks. I can carry about 10 hours worth of TV and movies with me on one SD card. Pretty amazing and pretty geeky at the same time, huh?

Oh relief! This is the first time I have been able to access my blog since Monday when I last posted. Apparently the server belonging to my host's host, experienced "dos attacks" over the weekend, and when they got all that straightened out after being down ALL weekend, they banned my IP thinking I was the problem. I don't even know what dos attacks are, and even if I did, I put all my energy into trying to make computers run correctly, not the other way around! Just so you know, I am a daily blogger. If you don't see a post from me every day (well once in a while I skip a day, but that is all) then I am experiencing extreme technical difficulties and you must pray for me because without my blog I am lost. This week has been so incredibly stressful without my blog, and I am afraid that it will go away again, so I am considering some other hosting options at this point. I have a whole ton of post ideas saved up from the past week; thankfully I wrote them all down, so there should be some good stuff to read here pretty soon. I can't get into the good stuff now because it is 5:04 am and I have to finish getting ready for work.