Where Am I Going Next?

Epic Belly: Episode I

2009-07-08T20:41:00.004-05:00

I didn't take many belly pictures last pregnancy. I took 2 or 3 a few months apart. This time, though, it promises to be spectacular. Epic. So, without further ado, here is 16 weeks.

For comparison, I took this picture on February 10, 2007. I would have been somewhere around 24 weeks, people! Now I admit to having a bit more padding around the baby bump than I had the first time, but come on. Gavin's going to have to roll me out the door when I'm ready to go to the hospital with these.

On to more pleasant images. These are from my ultraxound on Tuesday. First, Twin A (first to be born).

Then Twin B.

Then both.

I've been feeling the babies move for about a week or two. Gavin can even feel some of the movements now. I guess there's less room in there! I just hope all the movement isn't being caused by "get back on your side". :)

This American Life #382: "The Watchmen" (2009)

2009-07-03T21:59:00.003-05:00

3.5/4

I occasionally listen to "This American Life", a radio show and podcast from Chicago. They had a recent episode about the watchmen, the regulators and others involved in the recent economy woes. Explaining it in plain english. If you're curious and want to actually understand it, I think it's well worth your time.

What I found most interesting, and most relevant to current events, is the discussion of how fiscal regulation currently works and, in particular, how steps taken by various Congresses and administrations since the Savings & Loans scandals in the 1980s led up to this situation.

Plus, they open with Battlestar Galactica music (from Season 1 premiere), how can't it be good?

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009)

2009-07-02T17:34:00.002-05:00

2/4

I liked the first movie. This one roams all over the map and never really comes together as a story. There are a few funny moments. It's like the guys writing and directing this just wanted a few cool scenes, and didn't bother with much homage or intelligent story like the first one aspired to. That's okay, I guess. Just don't expect much from this movie besides lots more fighting transformers and you'll enjoy yourself.

Tired of Eating

2009-07-02T17:26:00.001-05:00

I’m starting to feel I’ve-got-a-bump pregnant rather than just I’m-nauseous-hungry-and-tired pregnant. Every once in a while I try to bend over to help Carina do something and my body doesn’t fold as far as I expected it to. Along with that comes other discomforts…. But I won’t complain right now. Instead I’ll just say how now that I’ve mostly gotten over the shock of the idea that we are going to in fact have twins, it’s really fun shocking others. And also, it’s totally like being in a club. I’m following a couple twin pregnancy internet boards and totally identifying with the other moms. There’s even a thread about how we’re all SO SICK OF EATING, which I’m sure is a feeling that’s never occurred to anyone who hasn’t had more than one extra little life inside clamoring for calories.

It seems like the entire building has taken off early for the 4th of July holiday. Gavin went to see Transformers 2 a couple hours ago. Becca just left. I’m all alone. I’d really like to leave as well, but I am only working a 2 ½ day work week this week anyhow. With all the doctors I’m seeing for this pregnancy, I won’t be collecting a lot of sick leave between now and when the babies are due, and I rather think I will need a lot of leave this time. So, I’m trying to be good and not burn any of my annual leave that I don’t need to. Of course, I’m entitled to 12 weeks unpaid leave, but it’s nice to be getting paid when 2 new little babies need diapers and food and a new mini-van. Anyway, I’m taking advantage of the quiet office to play my music through the speakers instead of my headphones.

Want to Go Back

2009-06-29T20:02:00.004-05:00

Every time we go to Sigvor's I want to stay forever. I could sit on that deck and look at the bay every day for a very long time.

We had a great time catching up with everyone, and of course Carina was a big hit. She was particularly interested in Bruce, who is the fiancee of Jo. Jo is Sigvor's daughter from her first marriage. Bruce is probably around 60 and very San Fransisco Bay Area. Carina was fascinated with his hats and bushy white beard. I'm not sure she ever got up the courage to talk to him directly, but she would point to him and whisper in my ear "Bruce".

I was particularly amused that the minister that married Jenny and Nick was wearing Berkenstocks.

So, time for a funny Carina story. I think the endearments are getting out of hand. I don't know what it is about having a kid, but you call them lots of stuff in the profusion of your love. Things that you never thought you would say. Things you have no idea where they come from. In Carina's life I've called her "Cha-cha", "Chicabee", "Bubble-bum", and other similarly strange things.

Anyway, all that is to explain that I don't really know why I started calling her "Doll-face". I have been tending to do it when I'm just about ready to pull her out of her car seat. So after a very fun afternoon at Tilden Park in Berkeley that included a train ride, carousel ride, cows, sheep, and goats, I was getting her out of the car and I said "OK, you ready to go Doll-face?"

She handed me her sippy cup to hold for her and responded, "Here you go, Doll-Face."

We're Back

2009-06-29T15:43:00.003-05:00

It was a wonderful wedding. Happy couple, beautiful view of San Francisco bay, both families in abundance. Nice and short too, which was a relief because of the heat wave Berkeley suffered on Saturday meant we were all cooking on the back porch for 10 minutes during the ceremony.

Meanwhile, in the news, a few famous people died. Kinda sad.

But perhaps as tragic is the passing of the Waxman-Markey carbon cap-and-trade bill by the House on Friday.

I'll be happy to agree that we should be conscientious in our use of exhaustible resources. But a 1200 page bill that touches dramatically on our economy and, consequently, does practically nothing real for the environment should give everyone pause. Regardless of your political leanings. Look over this.

So if it's not saving the world, a la curtailing the threat of 'global warming'... then what exactly is this bill doing? Our President said, "Make no mistake: this is a jobs bill."

But I thought we already addressed jobs with the stimulus package, which further cemented the United States' unenviable position as being the world's largest debtor. So what's this bill doing?

I fear nothing good for most of us.

Getting Out of Town

2009-06-25T08:55:00.001-05:00

I can’t wait to get out of here tomorrow and go someplace it isn’t blistering hot. The heat index got up to 108 yesterday, and they’re expecting more of the same today and tomorrow. We went out for a Coke break yesterday afternoon and it was like baking in an oven for 10 minutes.

I’m really looking forward to Berkeley. I’m glad the flight slipped so that I could go. Weddings are such a nice way to get to see family every so often. Sigvor hasn’t seen Carina since she was 6 months old. Gavin’s cousins have never met her (I guess mine haven’t either, for that matter). The last time we saw Gavin’s cousins was when Stephanie got married in 2004 I think. Maybe 2003. Anyway, when you can’t remember what the last time you saw someone was, it’s been too long. It’s going to be quick, though. We’re flying in Friday at around 1PM, Saturday is the wedding, Sunday we’re going to try to meet up with Gavin’s friend Andy while Meg shows her granddaughter off, and Monday we’re flying home again. Really early.

Also between the Berkeley trip and the 4^th of July holiday, next week will be a 3 day work week. That’s always nice. J

More Ocean

2009-06-22T10:04:00.001-05:00

About a month ago, we started noticing that Carina was getting up earlier and earlier in the mornings. By last week, it was really getting annoying with multiple 6 AM days in a row. After attempting to take her back to bed one morning at 6:15 AM, I realized that it was getting quite light in her room at that time. Unwilling to wait for a blackout shade to be ordered and arrive, I decided to try the quick and dirty option of nailing a bedsheet over the window. She has been sleeping to her more normal wake-up time of 7:30 or so ever since. I forgot to close her closet door last night, though, and found out that is enough light to produce a 6:45 AM wake-up call. Which I couldn’t use “I’m pregnant with twins” to get out of because Gavin left at like 6:00 AM. :P

We went out to dinner in Galveston last night for Jason’s birthday. Everyone else was going mini-golfing afterward, but we decided Carina needed to get home reasonably early. So instead of going putt-putting, we stopped at the beach for about 20 minutes. I think we’re going to have to go back to the beach soon, with swimsuits this time, because Carina really loved it. Unfortunately, last night that meant we had to endure 15 minutes of “More ocean! More ocean!” once we went back to the car.

Forming Opinions

2009-06-18T10:38:00.001-05:00

When we got into the car this morning, Carina had her own agenda for how the ride to daycare would go.

Carina: Mommy, I want some music.

Me: You want music? OK.

So I turned on the radio and managed to find a station that was actually playing music at 9AM. It happened to be Alanis Morisette.

15 seconds later…

Carina: Mommy… I don’t like this song.

Penetrating the Haze

2009-06-17T20:36:00.002-05:00

I think I might be coming out of the first trimester haze - my 2nd trimester officially begins Friday. I probably would have noticed sooner if I hadn't spent the last week sleep shifting to graveyard shift for the Shuttle launch, unshifting after the scrub, reshifting for the 2nd attempt, and unshifting yet again after another scrub. Eesh. Anyway, I'm feeling suprisingly well tonight considering I haven't had a full, uninterrupted night's sleep since last Wednesday. Unfortunately, nausea is already being replaced with heartburn. Time to put the Tums in my purse.

I am amused at the blurb that showed up on my pregnancy calendar this morning. "You should soon be getting your appetite back..." Um, back? This is my typical eating schedule the last several weeks (when I'm being good and not substituting one of these fairly healthy snacks for a bowl of ice cream):

8:00 AM - Bowl of cereal, large glass of milk
10:00 AM - Yogurt
11:30 AM - Full lunch
2:30 PM - Fruit cup, 2 string cheese
4:00 PM - Crackers, pretzles, or granola bar
6:30 PM - Full dinner
10:00 PM - PB&J
4:00 AM (sometimes) - Pop tarts

In spite of all this eating, I've been doing pretty well with my weight gain. My bathroom scale hit 170 the other day, which is about 7 pounds from my pre-pregnancy weight. Much better than the last time when I jumped 10 lb in the first week I knew I was pregnant. That being said, I'm popping out about as much as I did with Carina 5-6 months in. Definately two babies in there.

One of these days I'll write about Disney World, but I guess I'm feeling the mundane tonight.

Green

2009-06-16T22:29:00.005-05:00

As I write this, it is another morning in Tehran. Yesterday saw the March of Silence, as an estimated 2 million people filled the largest avenue of the city during a 3 hour silent protest. The organizers orchestrated it to debunk the government stance that the protesters are merely a bunch of thugs. It was an impressive demonstration.

It is interesting to see what is happening in Iran. Some have drawn parallels to the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon in 2005, which was also a greatly inspiring moment and a large step towards democracy. Lebanon has had its fair share of problems since then, although one might argue much of that may be instigated from a theocratic republic to their east.

The world watches as the will of a vibrant people comes into conflict with their government over what, from all appearances, was a fraudulent election. I wish them the best, and I hope our administration (understandingly surprised by this, as everyone is) will support the popular push for a more open democracy. It's in everyone's best interests, even if it places much at risk. I applaud the State department for asking Twitter to maintain their servers instead of taking them down for planned upgrades. Let's do more for these people.

In 1776, our founding fathers didn't stand alone either.

Day of Doctors

2009-06-02T22:05:00.002-05:00

We jet off tomorrow for 5 days at Walt Disney World with my sister's family. I plan on leaving the laptop here and not checking my e-mail until we return on Monday! (Very exciting.) We're staying at the Caribbean Beach Resort on the property, and should be having a ball all week.

I'm exhausted from the pre-trip hoopla in addition to the all-day doctor visit marathon I ran today. I had an uneventful eye appointment in the morning. Early afternoon was an OB appointment. Both babies are still looking great at 10 1/2 weeks. Since the doctor couldn't pick up the heartbeats yet with the doppler, we got another ultrasound. We saw each of them move a bit, and both hearts are beating away. The photo is on my Flickr stream - Blogger seems to be having trouble posting it right now. The baby labled "A" will be born first.

I think I'm taking this whole high risk pregnancy thing to heart. I'm more nervous about this on than I was about the last one. I worried a bit with Carina, but I never really got nervous before an appointment that something would be wrong. I totally sighed in relief when I saw both those hearts beating today. They made us an appointment with a perinatologist (a doctor that specializes in high risk pregnancies) in a week just for an assessment. So, my saga of seeing doctors all the time will be continuing. It will be about that time that I may be getting an MRI on my hand as well. (I'll complain about that some other time.)

To round out the day of doctors, I took Carina to her 2 year appointment. After a slight false start in not realizing their office had moved, we had a very successful appointment. Carina was very cooperative with the doctor, and even smiled at her once or twice. The doctor says that you can usually double the height of the child at this age to figure out how tall they'll be as an adult. Carina is 37" tall. Do the math - that's 6'2"! Wow. Maybe she'll be the volleyball star I was never tall enough to be. :)

Two Years Old

2009-05-29T21:26:00.002-05:00

Carina turned two years old on Wednesday. How unbelievable is that? It seems like we just brought her home a few weeks ago. We had a pretty low-key birthday since it was in the middle of the week, but we're having a BBQ tomorrow evening. It promises to be a great time, with an expected 6 kids and 18 adults in attendance! Her big birthday present from Gavin and I is a slide for the backyard. We decided to put it together tomorrow during naptime, so her big surprise is still to come.

What is Carina doing at 2? She's very proud of her burgeoning abilities. We've been pooping on the potty pretty consistently for a week now (Mom and Dad rejoice!). One of her favorite new phrases is "Watch this!", which she usually uses before hanging off the side of the dinner table or sofa. She still likes cuddling and gives the best hugs and kisses in the world.

To Our Friends

2009-05-24T14:01:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Sarah and Jose!

They were married last night in a beautiful wedding that had their personal touch all over it. We had a great time, especially Carina. She loved the dancing, and got both Mommy and Daddy out on the floor to help her participate. She was a champ, allowing us to stay until almost 10:30 PM! I'm not sure whether Carina or I was more tired by the time we left, but it was great.

I really didn't take any pictures. I think Gavin got some, and I'm pretty sure that the most formally photographed non-wedding-party attendee there was Carina. She's such a charmer.

Anyway, I just can't say how happy I am for them. I usually don't cry at weddings, but the double preganacy hormones got to me, and I shed a few last night. To Sarah and Jose!

The Babies are Where?

2009-05-20T19:25:00.003-05:00

I'm working in Mission Control the next day, or two, or Heaven forbid three. I'm here until we land, and the weather isn't looking like it's going to cooperate. Since I've been going home at 4:30 the last few days to take a nap, I thought I might be in trouble having to work until 8:30 tonight, but it turns out there's nothing like Important Space Business to keep you from feeling fatigue.

People keep asking me if Carina understands yet about the impending arrival of new babies onto the scene. Of course, she doesn't really. We've been trying to talk to her about the babies in Mommy's tummy, mainly in an effort to get her to be a bit careful with me. At first, she just looked at us like we were crazy, but she's starting to get used to the idea.

Gavin has started to ask her if she wants to kiss the babies good night. We can tell she doesn't completely have the idea, though, since she usually kisses my breasts instead of my stomach.

PSA

2009-05-14T22:33:00.003-05:00

Nature is amazing. I've been having progressively worse "morning" sickness - what a misnomer! - for the last week. I was starting to get to the point where I was pretty miserable pretty much all day long. All I wanted to do most of the day was curl up in a ball and try to sleep. The doctor had told me at the last appointment that I should get some vitamin B6 tablets, becuase they often helped with the morning sickness. I didn't find time to get to the drug store until two days ago. I should have sent Gavin much earlier, because those pills are miracle workers. I still have a bad spell between about 4pm and 8pm, but that's much better than all day.

Incidentally, public service announcement from Gavin's foot in mouth library:

What not to say in the hearing of your pregnant wife...

"I sure hope Jen feels better soon. She's been feeling so bad she doesn't want to cook."

Pop Goes the Weasel

2009-05-13T22:11:00.002-05:00

Meg and I taught Carina "Pop Goes the Weasel" this weekend. She loves it! She gets a little carried away with the improv, though.

Pride Goeth Before the Fall

2009-05-10T20:40:00.003-05:00

Friday afternoon, Gavin and I went to the doctor for the first pre-natal appointment for Baby-2. The appointment started by filling out forms ("Are you and the baby's father blood relatives?" - Uh, no.). Then we talked with the nurse about genetic screenings, what not to eat, hospital registration, delivery classes, and so forth. We were flying through the appointment, feeling very wise in our experience of having a baby already.

The doctor came in and started asking about my symptoms. I told him I was having pretty constant nausea, although it wasn't debilitating. I was tired, but no more than expected really. We talked a bit about my hand and what was going on there. Then he turned on the ultrasound, and in the middle of a thought broke off and said "Oh, look at you!"

Look at me, I'm thinking? Look at me what? That looks a bit different than I remember. Why is there a line down the middle? Is there a baby in there, or is something wrong? Is that...

"Did you see what I did?" he asked, as he backed out of the picture and started typing on the screen.

"I don't know... What did you see?" I hesitated. Still not really believing what was nagging at the back of my brain.

Gavin was a bit quicker on the uptake. "It's two, right?"

"Uh, huh." The doctor is typing Twin A / Twin B on to the screen.

My whole world shifted in that moment. TWINS. Two babies. At once. We need a bigger car. Another car seat. A bigger stroller. Another crib. OH, MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO HAVE THREE KIDS!!!

Two days later, I'm still trying to really believe it and finding it easier to ignore the reality of it. On the other hand, it's been fun shocking people with the news. I feel pretty overwhelmed by the prospect, though. I will have 3 children under 3. I'm back on the pregnancy and parenting boards trying to figure out how people do this.

Coming Up For Air

2009-04-29T21:46:00.003-05:00

So I hear from several people that I should be updating more. Especially after our big news last week. What can I say? Work has been I-N-S-A-N-E this month. I've been simming 3-4 days per week and trying to fit the close-to-launch data publications, meetings, and other duties as assigned into the remaining days. Not to mention that I am suddenly looking at a bunch more visits to the doctor(s) than I'm normally used to.

At home things are busy as well, especially considering the fact that once or twice a week my body decides it needs 12 hours of sleep instead of the normal 8. I had hoped I wouldn't be quite as fatigued this time - dream on, Jen.

I'm having all the normal first trimester stuff. I don't really think the first trimester is worse than the third, but you get a lot more sympathy in the third because everything bothering you is visible. Swollen ankles - visible. Big belly - visible. Painful gas and bloating - not visible. (Thankfully.)

My parents are coming down here Friday, and I'm very excited. Carina is so fun to show off right now. The verbal explosion is amazing to watch on a daily basis. She understands so much about the world around her. It's also nice to be able to start to talk about things that are bothering her rather than just doing the whine-cry thing. Don't get me wrong; she still does that. But, at least I can see the beginnings of reason.

Getting Crazier, In a Good Way

2009-04-22T20:42:00.002-05:00

After my initial freak-out last week, things got even more interesting. I told the doctors that I wasn't on birth control, so as part of my pre-operative blood work they did a pregnancy test. See where this is going?

Yep, as of today, I am 4 weeks 5 days pregnant. I spent Friday frantically trying to get an appointment with my OB so we could discuss the procedure I was scheduled to have and all the drugs I was taking. I managed to get in, and he changed my antibiotic, but generally reassured me I shouldn't worry too much about the one I had been on. He also told me to get the procedure done, as he didn't want to deal with an infected hand later in the pregnancy. It was so early, he couldn't really even do much else, even to confirm the viability of the pregnancy.

Normally I would have waited a bit longer to publish the news on the blog, but since I blurted out the news to a couple co-workers on Friday while explaining why I was flaking on my sim to go to the doctor RIGHT NOW, I guess the cat is kind of out of the bag. Hopefully, all will be well, and if not I think I will want to have this outlet anyway. I'm already having daily nausea and needing lots of sleep, so I guess those are good signs. :P

So I had my little procedure yesterday. I have to say, it was one of the nicer ORs I think I've ever seen. The office is in an office building near South Shore Marina, so I was looking out a glass wall at boats moored on the docks. They only put me totally under for a few minutes. Just long enough to get a hefty local into my hand.

The incisions were smaller than I had feared, and seem to be healing well already. Other than the fact that apparently the only way to keep a bandage on a hand is to wrap the whole thing up, it's all pretty good. They only removed the three that were still tender to the touch, as he didn't want to go digging all over the place. So it is possible I'll have to have more removed in the future.

Status

2009-04-16T10:31:00.003-05:00

I don't want to keep people in suspense, so I can tell you today that Carina seems much better. She didn't vomit at all yesterday, and is just upset that I won't asceed to her constant requests for milk. Daycare said she was much more her normal happy self.

As for my hand, it's about the same. The antibiotics seem to have controlled the infection, but it's still definitely infected.

Looking forward to Gavin getting home tonight.

A Rough Patch

2009-04-15T09:40:00.002-05:00

I'm having a rough week. This post is one long whine - be warned.

Friday I went to the doctor to have my swollen sea urchin hand examined. He put me on hefty antibiotics and referred me to a plastic surgeon to remove the spines.

Carina started vomiting on Saturday. Just twice both in the morning. She seemed fine on Sunday.

Monday morning I got to work and called the plastic surgeon's office to schedule an emergency appointment for the afternoon. I then started working on getting the trajectory for STS-400, which was due Tuesday, ready to publish. At 9:30, the daycare called and said Carina had thrown up. She seemed OK after, and they could keep her if she didn't throw up again. Gavin was on his way to the airport already for a work trip. I told daycare to let me know if she threw up again or seemed unhappy.

At lunch I went to the plastic surgeon. I was expecting him to give me a local and dig the spines out with a needle. Instead he looked incredibly concerned and asked a bunch of questions about which antibiotics I was on. In the end, he told me that he wanted to give the antibiotics another week to take the swelling down and then schedule me for surgery under general anesthesia. The words "fillet the skin back and wash under it with antibiotics" were mentioned. After that, I decided it was better not to think about it too much...

I raced back to work after the 2 hour appointment and frantically tried to catch up on my trajectory. Was hoping to get it done Monday - no dice.

Picked Carina up 3 minutes before daycare closed and went to the store to pick up prescriptions for pre-surgery stuff and another gallon of milk in case the milk was bad and that's why Carina was throwing up. Carina didn't eat dinner, and though she didn't throw up again she was pretty fussy like her tummy hurt.

Zoya was carrying her back leg entirely off the floor all night. Great, I bet that other knee blew out and she's going to need another $3000 surgery.

Tuesday I took Carina to daycare hoping she'd be OK even though she didn't eat any breakfast except milk. I had a Flight Readiness Review at work and really couldn't stay home. Daycare got through the deadzone in the conference room at 9:30 to say she had thrown up again. Feeling terrible, I asked if they could keep her anyway since I had my pitch coming up and still needed to finish the trajectory. They agreed.

The rest of the day at work passed in a whirlwind of activity, although I did get everything done. Managed to call the pediatrician's office and get the following advice:

- No milk for 24-48 hours: done
- 1 tsp clear liquid every 5 minutes for 4 hours, then double that every 10 minutes for 4 hours
- After that, bland starcy diet
- Take her to the hospital if she stops peeing

Are you kidding me? Set aside the fact that I was hoping to get another 2 hours of work in, and there was no way the daycare would follow those instructions. I think Carina would start refusing after 3-4 times of trying her to take a tsp of liquid every five minutes. Decided to follow a more sustainable plan of giving her a quarter cup of clear liquids every 15 minutes.

It's 10:00 AM on Wednesday. Daycare has not called yet to tell me Carina has puked again. Maybe I won't have to take her to the pediatrician today after all. I'm waiting on inputs from flight planning so I can finish my backup day trajectory for the flight, which has to be done this afternoon. I am really, really looking forward to my mother-in-law coming down this afternoon and helping with Carina. I have to be at work at 6:30 AM tomorrow.

Friday morning Roxy goes into the vet to get a lump removed from her paw. Hoping that is benign. Tuesday (Gavin's birthday for all the good it's going to do him) I am scheduled for apparently fairly major hand surgery. Won't be able to eat after midnight, but have to come to work to work a sim shift before going in for the surgery. Ugh. Zoya scheduled for teeth cleaning on the 27th, but might cancel that if she's going to need orthopedic surgery soon.

Help.

This and That

2009-04-08T19:46:00.002-05:00

Work is so incredibly busy this month. As STS-125 is scheduled to launch on May 12 and land on May 23, with a rescue mission waiting in the wings, followed a few short weeks later by STS-127 launching on June 13... there's a lot going on this month. I'm doing sims for 3 flights, "conjunction FDO" duties for one flight, and Lead FDO duties for a flight. Throw in a DoD meeting and attendant coordination, and I'm not entirely sure where I'm going to find the time. Plus, my parents are coming down for another short trip, so I'll want to spend some time with them.

Carina's lingual explosion continues, but she seems not to want to talk much in front of anyone except Gavin and I. Tonight's longest phrase was "Daddy, your dinner is right there." (Food is very important to this kid.) I think Grammy and Grandpa-pa got her to open up when they had her for 4 days. Hopefully the few days my folks will be here in May will be enough to get the same thing.

Roxy has a "mass" in her paw. The vet thinks it's probably benign, but not 100% sure. I scheduled her for surgery to remove it. This kind of thing makes me nervous because we lost a dog when I was a kid to a tumor. Here's hoping it's nothing worse than it always is when you have a dog recovering from surgery.

Mexico, Briefly

2009-04-03T09:44:00.002-05:00

Mexico was super fun.

The wedding was gorgeous. The stiff wind that kept the surf up all weekend blew spray onto our faces as Becca and Byron were admonished to "not fight" and "be good parents". The surf made a gorgeous backdrop for the wedding and the 45 min mariachi concert that came after.

The day after the wedding, we went to Coba to see some Myan ruins. This particular site hasn't been completely excavated, so it's somewhat "Indiana Jones" like. The highlight was this pyramid. 113 steps to the top, and Byron only climbed about 45 of them.

We had fun at the resort, as well. It was a very family oriented resort, and it was cool seeing all the toddlers playing in the sand and sleeping on beach chairs. This is definitely something you could easily do with young kids.

Imagination Made Reality

2009-03-26T10:42:00.003-05:00

Image credit NASA
Today I have to talk about this picture.

Leading up to this flight, there was a lot of talk about the flyaround the Shuttle does after undock being higher priority than it usually is because the ISS program wanted a picture of the ISS in its final symmetrical solar array configuration. I was kind of cynical about the idea; gotta have our pretty pictures. Until I saw this picture today, that is. Now I get it.

No matter what you think about human spaceflight in general, or the ISS program in particular, you have to be impressed by this. This is an incredible feat; the assembly in space of a huge space station whose different pieces were built in different countries, launched from different countries, and all fit together to make this picture. This picture which I have seen a thousand times as artist's conceptions, and am now seeing as an actual photograph taken in Earth orbit. I was not expecting it to be so emotional.

Click on the picture above to bring up the full size image, zoom in, and you can see logos of JAXA and ESA, our partners. You can see dozens of antennas, two robotic arms, cameras, and all the little pieces that make this thing work. You can see the ocntrast between the bright sunlight and the dark shadow of the Shuttle as it's flying by and taking the photo.

So today I am proud of us for taking this step toward the completion of this ambitious project. I am happy that human beings have been constantly inhabiting Earth orbit since October 31, 2000, as they did for 10 years on Mir from 1989-1999. I hope the future holds even more exciting things yet to come.