Mom & Tom in Town

The first week of December Mom & Tom were in town. Really they were at Disney, but that's close enough. I wanted to share some fun pictures from our visit with them.
Yarrr!!! But why is the rum gone?The claw is my master. Tim, you shrunk!The Behind the Seeds tour in D'land (The Land in Epcot). Hangin' out in Mexico with the Three Wise Guys.

Ball Pit Mania!

This has nothing to do with us, but it was just too good not to share :-) The picture above is of an actual ball pit in an apartment. The people decided to buy playground balls and a cage to contain them instead of a new couch (seriously). I am deeply jealous and want a ball pit of my own! There is only one problem: my wife.

You see, Jen was never allowed to go in the ball pit as a child. Her mom didn't want her playing in the gross germs that inevitably get all over the balls. While this makes perfect rational sense, it is hard to reconcile with my fond memories of diving, swimming, and lounging in the balls in the ginormous play areas. Given our different experiences, it is not surprising that we have differing opinions about the ball pits.

However, it is still a really cool idea and gets 100 bonus points for originality! And once they figure out how to wash the balls efficiently, I am so getting a ball pit... if Jen lets me ;-)

World Space Expo wrap-up

The 2007 World Space Expo at the Kennedy Space Center was a huge success! Thousands of people came out Nov 1-4 to see unique exhibits, special guest speakers, and an incredible air show.

The education program brought in 2700 teachers and students from across Florida for a day of educational activities and presentations including:

• NASA: Science on the Frontier by Jim Garvin, former NASA Chief Scientist
• a ride on the new Shuttle Launch Experience simulator
• Live Science demonstrations by the Educator Resource Center
• NOAA's Science on a Sphere
• Expo pavillions for NASA, Human Spaceflight and Commercial Space
• Aerospace Career Panels showcasing the diversity of engineers, scientists, and technicians that work at KSC and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station
  

An additional 300 local Girl Scouts came out on Friday to see the "Pioneering Women of Aerospace", a forum where six women from different aerospace fields described their path to success. Participating in the event were:

• Patty Grace Smith, Associate Administrator for the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation
• Kathy Sullivan, First Female Spacewalker
• Eileen Collins, First Female Mission Commander at NASA
  
• Anousheh Ansari, First Female Private Spaceflight Participant
• Maj. Nicole Malachowski, First Female Pilot for the USAF Thunderbirds
• Maj. Samantha Weeks, First Female Solo Pilot for the USAF Thunderbirds

Especially cool was the historic first flight of a female Shuttle Commander and the first female ISS Commander! Overall, a good week for showcasing the empowerment of women.

After putting on the education program and helping the Girl Scouts, we were pooped! Jen and Robert came out both Thursday and Friday to volunteer for the education program and made a WORLD of difference. Thanks to all of our great volunteers!!

As a 'thank you' for all of the hard work we put into the Expo, We I was treated to some VIP passes for the airshow on Saturday and Sunday. I got tickets for the airshow and let Dad and Uncle Tommie go out on Saturday. They took Tommie's grandson and had a great time! On Sunday Jen and I went with Mom, Robert, Teresa, our family friend John, and one of Mom's new co-workers, Charlie, and his wife. What a group! The aerial demonstrations were amazing and really showed the capabilities of our military. If you ever, ever, get to see an F-22 Raptor demonstration you MUST GO. It is unbelievable. Trust me, GO. In the mean time, check out our airshow pictures here.

Public Service Announcement

This is a small Public Service Announcement to tell everyone about a COOL new site that helps you improve your vocabulary while also giving rice to hungry people!! FreeRice.com has a simple word matching game that has you pick the meaning of a given word. As you play, the words get slightly harder until you get one wrong. Each time you get a correct answer, 10 grains of rice are donated to the United Nations World Food Program. Advertisers at the bottom of the screen pay for the rice while you play the game!

After only 5 minutes I had several hundred grains of rice donated and was in the 30's vocab range (max is 50--Genius level!). The game was fun and a good way to brush up on forgotten words. The skill level algorithm kept me on my toes without making me feel too dumb or too smart. Overall, FreeRice.com is a much more useful tool for burning a few minutes online than watching a YouTube video or reading another bogus chain email. Give it a try! At the very least, someone will get fed.

Weekend at Home!

After over a month of travel, I finally stayed at home for a few days! Jen and I enjoyed hanging out and each getting our hair cut in Viera on Friday night. Our friends Robert and Susie even joined us for dinner at Mimi's Cafe--YUM!

On Saturday we tried to go to the local driving range, but it was closed for a tournament. Instead, we hit practice balls in the back yard! It was fun to get lessons from Jen--she really knows her stuff! (Note: the club face should point to 11 o'clock. It works.)

We spent Sunday afternoon planting flowers around the back porch and doing general yard work. I got to plant a cool sea grape and dig up a bunch of ferns. The back yard has a lot more color now!!

The 'weekend' even extended to Monday night as my mom drove down to have dinner with us. It is nice to have her living so close now! I am enjoying having her nearby and look forward to having dad down soon too.

Pics and videos are online [here]. Now, back to work! The World Space Expo is coming up fast and I have 3,000 kids to teach!

Tim in the news

I just got a note from Keith Cowing at NASAWatch.com letting me know that I am mentioned in this SpaceRef online article: Returning to Weightlessness. Check it out to get a good perspective on the teachers flying as a part of the Northrop Grumman Weightless Flights of Discovery.

Thanks, Keith!! See you next time!

Wired NextFest in LA

What a whirlwind, wonderful weekend! Jen and I had a great time exploring the frontiers of technology at the WIRED NextFest in Los Angeles, CA. Didn't know we were going? Neither did we until earlier in the week!

Jen was in LA all last week for more safety training with the Air Force. (She really liked the class and is enjoying all of the neat stuff she is learning at all of these various training courses.) Her plans were to come back to FL Friday night. I was planning to be out and about with Zero G flying teachers all over the east coast during the week [vid link] and then going to a personal development weekend in Sarasota (part of my Landmark Wisdom course).

I have wanted to go to NextFest for the past few years, but I have always been out of the country with SGC. Since we decided not to go to India this year, I realized this was my golden opportunity to attend!! Jen looked over the NextFest website and was excited to go too. Here's what we did: I flew out of Dulles on Friday as planned, but instead of Sarasota I went to LA! Jen changed her flight plans and stayed over an extra night in LA. We rode the Metro bus to save $$ and experience more of the real culture of Los Angeles. It was a great experience! I now understand why many people in the city don't have cars.

NextFest was a GREAT showcase of all kinds of entertainment, robotics, health, home, automotive, and space technologies. My favorites were the real human heart valve grown in a lab without stem cells and the living grass roof on the model home. Check out the pictures [here] for more neat stuff we saw and did, including the cute little restaurant we found while wandering the streets of LA.

Instead of flying out of LAX with Jen on Saturday night, I took the FlyAway bus up to Van Nyus, California for yet another Zero G flight! Turns out they needed a Flight Attendant and I was available--and close! Things worked out great.

This week it's back to work for both of us here in FL. Jen's birthday is this Tuesday (call her!) and we plan to have dinner with Mom. Things should be calm... until I head out to Las Vegas for another Zero G flight on Saturday and then off to Atlanta to make up the Wisdom course weekend.

We lead a crazy, fast, unexpected, improbable, absolutely blessed, fun and exciting life! Thanks for being on the journey with us :-)

Quick check-in

It's been almost a month and TONS of stuff has happened! We'll get a recap up soon. In the mean time, check out some new pictures on our Picasa site and this video of my mom, now available on YouTube.

Blue Springs and ZERO-G

Our good friends Robert and Chale invited us up to Deland on Saturday to go out to Blue Springs State Park. It was a beautiful park and we had a wonderful time! It was, however, freezing cold.

I know I've been swimming at the spring-fed lake at Camp Thunder in GA, but this was totally different. It was also totally opposite from the Tabacon *hot* springs in Costa Rica.

The park consisted mainly of a parking lot and long wooden walkways widing through the woods. One path lead down to a 'dock' where you can jump into the river and swim around or float in a tube. Our trail ended in a walkway int the water closer to the spring itself.

Once in the 72° water (YIKES! That is COLD!), we walked/swam upstream against the strong current to the start of the river. The spring is a 5 x 15 ft crevice at the bottom of a bowl-shaped pool of water. Although it was a bit cloudy due to lots of visitors that day, I could still swim down and see the spring and feel the rush of cold, cold water.

Next time we go (and we will go again!), we'll be sure to bring our snorkel gear and pick a really HOT day to swim. Thanks to Robert & Chale for taking us to this great Florida landmark!

Quick report from the road

Wow! Sincere apologies for the long lapse in posts. We've been keeping very busy as always. Here's a recap:

• Our good friend Shannon moved from Phoenix to Atlanta to take a new job at Delta Airlines and moved in with my Mom & Dad until she got an apartment
• Mom and Dad brought Maw-Maw down for a visit to the house in Port Orange
• I went to the STS-118 Pre-Launch Education Conference in Orlando and met with NASA's Associate Administrator for Education
• the new Marshalls, Quiznos, and Petco are all open in Titusville in the same plaza as the new Target and Home Depot
• We formally decided NOT to go to India for SGC & IAC this year and take some other trips instead
• we've bought paint and found a new door knob for the front door. It should be done and reinstalled this week!

Next post: weekend adventures!

Jen is in New Mexico, Tim gets an Optimash Prime

Jen is off to New Mexico for two weeks of additional safety training in Albuquerque. Seems as though her 3 months of training in Alabama just wasn't enough!! This time she is in an interesting place, so Jen already has plans to visit museums and cool local attractions.

I would be going out to visit, but our good friends Paul and Susie are moving into their new house this weekend!! Their new place is only about 2 miles from us--how exciting!! Jen and I spent most of last weekend painting the inside of the house before the furniture arrived. We are good using painters tape :-)

Being left all to myself, I ended up at a Toys-R-Us in Daytona Beach with Robert Fischer. There I found an Optimash Prime (Transformers-themed Mr. Potato Head). This is a **previously approved** purchase from a Wal-Mart trip with Jen. [Apparently there was some kind of recall on them that forced Wal-Mart to stop sales, even though some were still on the shelves. It was a disappointing trip to the cashier that day...]. I am excited that I have a new transformers toy :-D Yipee!

In other news, Shannon has been enjoying her time in GA with my parents. She has gotten a nice place in midtown Atlanta, but I'm not sure she wants to move away from the neighbors she's met in Locust Grove!

Also, there was a fatal accident this week at the Mojave Spaceport involving SpaceShipTwo. This is to be the first passenger-carrying spacecraft for Virgin Galactic. Sympathy goes out to the families of the 3 men that lost their lives in the explosion. I talked about it a good bit in this week's SpaceTaskForce podcast. These are the real risks of being rocket scientists and space visionaries. This is what we face as we make space travel a real industry.

"If we die, we want people to accept it. We're in a risky business, and we hope that if anything happens to us it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life."
~Gus Grissom, Apollo 1

Dinner with old friends

Robert and Chale Fischer came down to Titusville last night for dinner with me and Jen. It was nice to see them and show off our house. This was their first time coming to see us since we moved to Titusville. We visited their home in Deland back in May and were nearly eaten by bears.

To give the evening a bit more adventure, we tried a restaurant we found online: New York New York. The online reviews said it was great, so we figured "why not?!" Honestly, we did a double-take when we saw the place. It is nestled in between some really nice houses right on the Indian River but looked a little run-down. When we pulled into the parking lot we could see the extensive deck and tiki bar--along with the VAB and Shuttle pads just across the water! Definitely a hidden gem for watching launches.

The food was good with generous portions. Jen's fried shrimp dinner was overloaded with 12 shrimps! I still have half of my grilled chicken sandwich and homemade chips in the fridge. The mac & cheese was homemade as well and delicious. Chale enjoyed her huge grilled chicken with Key West seasoning (think 'lemon pepper' but with lime!) and Robert liked his grouper sandwich. All-in-all, a great meal!

Best, of course, was just being with Robert and Chale. It was nice to have them so close when we lived in Port Orange. We've decided we need to have a game night at least once every month. The challenge now is to find a date when we are all in town... :-)

Sunshine ZERO-G video

I am going on another ZERO-G flight this weekend!!! I am excited to be flying in the new 35-seat configuration. More seats and more floating space--what a combo!

Below is a clip showing some clips from a ZERO-G flight I was on with the production team for the movie "Sunshine" (opening July 20 in the US). Check it out for some shots of Dan Florez floating around!!

Touring Embry-Riddle

I got the unusual priveledge of taking an orientation tour of my alma mater this week! Our old family friends in Tampa have a son that is interested in an engineering degree. When they came over to the East coast for July 4th, I set up a tour of Embry-Riddle. I had seen the campus just after the Christmas Day tornado, but a lot has changed in the past 6 months!

Plywood covers almost all of the windows on Spruance Hall. That's one of the only things that differentiates it from the other construction sites across campus.:

• the exterior of the new College of Business building is
  
• the new "Apollo Hall" dorm facility behind McKay Hall is nearing completion and should be open for the Fall 2007 class
  
• a towering new fitness center behind the pool looks ready to open any day
• the lobby and basketball courts in the ICI Center (aka 'Fieldhouse') are still being repared

Otherwise, things look pretty much the same from when we were in class. It's funny how much things change and how much they stay the same! I hope Austin decides to go to ERAU, but in any case I look forward to going back more often. I miss the school and it's eclectic demographic. Plus, I saw an APO jersey and want to meet all the new Brothers!!

Transformers: More than Meets the Eye

Last night Jen and I went out to see the new Transformers movie in Merritt Island with some friends. It was GREAT! MUCH better than I imagined.

There are a LOT of differences between the 2007 live-action movie and the 1980's cartoon and animated movie. LOTS. One glaring difference is that humble sidekick "Bumblebee" is a Camaro instead of a VW Beetle. I understand marketing, I really do. And I will admit that he did look HOT as a 2007 Camaro.

Despite the altered storyline and visual changes, the basic themes and characters were kept intact. The cheezy Good vs. Evil banter was still present between Optimus Prime and Megatron. And, yes, Optimus had the same commanding yet gentile voice we remember from our childhoods (best decision EVER).

If you are looking for a deep, thoughtful movie please go elsewhere. If you have tunnel vision and can not see past the original Generation One Transformers TV show and movie, you will not like what you see. However, if you want a good movie with amazing special effects that reimagines a piece of your childhood then this is the movie for you. "Autobots, transform and roll out!"

PS- the new theme song is pretty cool too!

2-Weekend Update

Well, we have been busy! Seems like we can't go a single weekend without something exciting happening.

June 14-16 Shannon flew into town after interviewing for a job at Delta in Atlanta (she got it and will be living with my parents until she finds her own place!). We all hung out and had a yard sale at Paul and Susie's house on Saturday. We hit a birthday party for some old ERAU friends. It was a quick trip for Shannon so we enjoyed every minute!

Last weekend (well, Thurs-Mon) we were in Pennsylvania for a reunion weekend! We flew into BWI and stayed with Bill and Lynn in Hershey. On Saturday, the whole family loaded up and went to Knoebels family amusement park in the mountains for the annual Schuck Family Reunion. Knoebels is a unique, family-owned park that does not have an admission price! You can roam about freely and buy tickets to go on each ride (sorta like at the county fair). They have a wide variety of attractions ranging from a swimming pool to bumper cars to world-class wooden coasters. We had a fun time grilling out with the Schuck family, playing in the nearby creek, and hanging out in the park.

On Sunday, Jen's friend Lisa from Girl Scouts came over for lunch. The girls talked all about Lisa's wedding next year where Jen will be a bridesmaid. We followed Lisa out the door to see some other Girl Scout friends. We trekked an hour or so to the 10-year reunion of girls that took trip to Kenya together. (Jen can elaborate on the details of what they did, and even show you a video!). The two other 'girls' that made it both had two kids in tow. WOW! From the stories, almost everyone has kids now! We also saw some of the adult leaders from the trip including Tom and Marti who came to our wedding.

Monday we headed home, but not before stopping off to see Jen's grandma and grandpa! They had lots of stories and pictures from the house in Virginia Beach. Seems like there is a lot of construction going on around there. We might just have to take a trip up and see what all has been happening since we were last at the beach!

While you are waiting for our pictures to be uploaded to the Picasa site, check out the improvements to Google Docs, fill out some family history at Ancestry.com, or tune in for the latest episode of the SpaceTaskForce podcast.

Random Musings

I'll skip the formal blog entry and any justification or organization for this list:

• [link] transcript of Stephen Hawking's presentation about his life before his ZERO-G flight
• [link] a cool space-themed t-shirt from Amorphia Apparel
• [link] a paper airplane shirt from NekkidTees
• [link] lunar politics tee
• [link] hilarious flight attendant t-shirt from Defunker
• [link] Facebook. I'm addicted, and you should be too.
  
• [link] a comic about stoplights
• [link] NPR space podcasts
• [link] awesome pic of a kid looking at Earth
• [link] the place I keep all my bookmarks, tagged for easy searching
  

Mr. Bailey goes to Washington

[cue the patriotic music]
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the 110th Congress, I beseech you to support the exploration and investigation of outer space!!!"

Ok, perhaps it was not that dramatic, but talking to Congressional staffers with the Space Exploration Alliance this week was a LOT of fun! I flew into DC on Sunday and got some basic training with the other Blitz participants. Then it was off to George and Loretta's place for a cook out!

A big THANK YOU to George and Loretta for allowing me to borrow their couch for a few nights. It is always a blast to hang out with the space honeymooners!!

Monday and Tuesday were spent running all over the Congressional office buildings talking to different staffers with long-time space nut Gary Barnhard. Gary is a great guy that knows a about solar power satellites as well as political stuff. We discussed several points with each of the staffers and got fairly positive responses. The meetings I learned the most from were the two toughest: a staffer from TN that was most concerned with science (not exploration) and the Congressman from TX that liked space but was unimpressed with NASA. In both cases, it was most important to listen and respond to their concerns instead of just hitting our talking points. All of the lobbying and meetings with numerous space groups over the past few months seem to have done some good as the House subcommittee increased NASA funding by $290 million!

You can read our press release (and my quote!) here: http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid=22839

Going home is usually the least-noteworthy portion of a trip, but this time was an exception! I got to DCA (Washington-Reagan National Airport) via the Metro and went quickly through security. I arrived at my gate to find rampant flight delays and cancellation. After about 3 hours of juggling, US Airways finally dropped my flight and had us reschedule for the next morning. My friend Brett lives just down the street from DCA and was kind enough to pick me up and let me crash for a few hours on his couch. THANKS, Brett! My other option was to sleep on the hard floor of the airport with a thin airplane blanket (many other people had to do this!). I love the small, efficient operation of DCA (especially the easy Metro access), but Orlando has everyone beat with the nice cushy couches and excellent food court.

Traveling is fun, but it is nice to be back at home again for a few days!!

Roo Wants a Facebook Account

I joined Facebook last week. I'm really excited about it, but I haven't been very attentive to it. Jack says he wants his own page, but he's not old enough yet. Poor Roony.

We just spent the last week being wined and dined by Disney. We're trying to get a hotel contract signed for our ISDC 2009 Orlando bid. We spent Wednesday and Thursday nights at the Coronado Springs resort. Then Friday and Saturday nights we spent in a huge corner suite at the Rennaissance near SeaWorld. I definitely recommend bidding for a conference--you get all kinds of goodies from the hotels--wine, presents, free Disney hopper passes.

Thursday night we saw a cool movie--The Wonder of It All. It was an independent documentary about the moonwalkers. Edgar Mitchell (Apollo 14) was there in the theater. He answered some questions afterwards. I sure hope the filmmakers can get the film out to wider audiences. It is really well done.

Friday was the STS-117 launch. I worked the blast console. I'm in training for when Amber is out of town in the beginning of July. There is a Delta II launch that I'll need to do the launch day blast models for. It was scary to be on the console at first, but it's fun.

Saturday we spent at Disney--Epcot and Magic Kingdom--with Teresa, Robert, and Brett. We had tons of fun, but I let out a sigh of relief Sunday morning when I dropped Tim and Brett at the airport. I had all day Sunday to relax and unwind from such a busy week.

Tim's in DC lobbying congress. I'll let him tell you all about it when he gets home.

A space roundup in Dallas: Yeeee-haw!

Jen and I made it back safely from the 2007 International Space Development Conference in Dallas, TX. We had a great time and got to see some really great presentations! Jeremy and Kristin from ERAU and our good friend Robert Driscole came from Florida too. We all roomed together in a 2-story suite at the hotel!! It was a little cramped, but having 2 bathrooms helps a LOT.

Other neat things included:

• recording segments for the Space Task Force podcast
• giving a presentation on the World Space Expo education program
  
• meeting sci-fi author Ben Bova
• presenting our bid to host the 2009 ISDC in Orlando (thanks to DNC and Disney for your help!!)
  
• seeing Pete Worden, Center Director for NASA Ames, presenting both in person and via avatar in SecondLife
• attending the Space Blogger Summit and getting tips from heavyweights like Alan Boyle, Jeff Foust, Robert Pearlman and Glenn Reynolds
• listening to Alex Tai describe plans by Virgin Galactic
• hearing about the Mars Phoenix Lander and its cool logo
• seeing the lunar lander, Pixel, before it competes in another Lunar Lander Challenge
  
• and, of course, meeting new space friends!!
  

For a glimpse of what the conference is like, check out our photos.
The recent interview of our good friend and NSS Executive Director George Whitesides in Wired will also give you an idea of the tone of the conference (and it's a good read).

Glad to be back home with the cats. At least for a little while :-)

Wedding bells start ringing for friends

Congratulations to two spacey couples that have recently announced their engagements!

Todd Romberger, former ZERO-G intern and current Bigelow Aerospace employee, is marrying his sweetheart Nola Hogan here in FL on August 19. They live in Las Vegas, NV, and have been together forever (or so it seems). You can find their life story and wedding info here.

Also recently announced is the 2008 wedding of our long-time friends Paul Sierpinski and Susie Allen. We've known them since our college days and are excited that they have invited us both to be in their wedding! We have the privilege of serving as Best Man and Matron of Honor. (I can' wait to make my speech!!)

We are also excited that Paul and Susie are moving to Titusville from Melbourne :-) They are building a house about 3 miles from ours!!! See pics and more here.

Back from California--on to Dallas!

I just got home from a 3-day trip out to California and I'm already running out the door again! I love it :-)

Friday night I stopped by Port St. Lucie to record another episode of the Space Task Force. This episode of the podcast features some interviews we did at Jen's welcome home party. George and I are working well together and seem to have found a good rythm to the show. Please take a listen and let me know what you think!

Saturday morning I flew out of Opa Locka on G FORCE ONE going out to the NASA Ames Research Center. We arrived to find some warbirds doing flights from Moffett Field! We were parked next to some legendary aircraft. It was amazing to watch them fly over us as we loaded and unloaded the aircraft.

That evening, Bryan Rapoza (the ZG photographer for the weekend) and I went up to "The Mansion" for a party with the cool kids at Ames. (This was where Jen lived when she was out at Ames organizing the NGEC.) We met some new friends and got some old friends to take a ride on ZERO-G the next morning. Congrats to Will, Jessy, and Aaron on your first taste of weightlessness! Jessica also went, but she had already gone up in the NASA plane. For her, this was a totally relaxing trip instead of work.

We also had another birthday group: 10 Flyers + 8 crew = F U N ! I was able to play with the passengers and help them do some amazing tricks. One woman did 4 flips in a single parabola! Wow! I can't wait to see the video!

I was in the hotel lobby at 5am Monday morning for my flight back to FL. Jen picked me up and we had a nice dinner before heading home. I've had time to hit a doctor's appointment and unpack a few clothes but that's about it so far. Now I'm packing up again so we can leave tonight for ISDC! We'll be in Dallas for the conference until Monday. Plans are to do more podcast interviews, give a talk on the World Space Expo education program, and present a bid to host the 2009 ISDC in Orlando. Whew! Here we go...

I'm Back

Back home again in Florida!
I really enjoyed my welcome home party. Thanks, Tim! Though sitting there, in the middle of the party, I felt like some people were missing. Then I realized, my CP-12 classmates weren't there. :-( I met some really cool people and miss hanging out with them.
The cats and I have been hanging out this weekend. Tim is doing ZERO-G in CA. I've gotten good stuff done, though, while I have the house to myself.
Short week at work this week. We're going to Dallas for ISDC on Wednesday!

When BEARS Attack

We had a nice visit at Robert and Chale's new house last week! They moved to Deland, FL, over a year ago, and Jen and I finally went up to see them after she got home from Alabama. They took us to a cute restaurant in downtown Deland and then we got Baskin Robins ice cream! We went back and saw the final cut of the wedding video (I was the videographer!) and looked at their fancy-pants Disney Weddings album.

Before we left, Chale had me stand in the yard and make my turkey sound. This is one of my animal tricks, similar to how I talk to chickens. She wanted to have this as her phone ringer. then Robert got the same idea and I was gobbling away! Unfortunately, they had me gobble so much that bears came after us!!

No kidding.

We hear a rustling sound and Robert says "it's a bear." We are all inside so fast it was ridiculous. Robert got his big MagLite flashlight and went back out to see if it was safe to approach the cars. What he found was more bears!! There were several cubs climbing a tree in the yard across the street. After they ran off, Robert was able to count 5 bears roaming the neighborhood. I had no idea Deland was so far out in the country!!

We managed to say our goodbyes and get to the car without being eaten. It was exciting and memorable to visit Robert and Chale's new house! Look here for a few more pics.

Tim's Treo Saga

As many of you may know, I am addicted to my phone.

I am very aware of this fact. Really, it comes in quite handy. I can make phone calls, send text messages (using a full QWERTY keyboard!), check my email (POP, IMAP or web-based!), and even use Google Maps.

As you can imagine, I behave like any addicted person: I LIKE HAVING MY PHONE. So when my trusty Treo 700p died during a recent ZERO-G trip, I was not a happy camper. Have you watched an addict do detox cold-turkey? I can tell you from experience, it is not fun.

I ran through the mall in DC hoping that the Sprint Store could save me from total withdrawal, only to be told that they couldn't help me (franchise retail center only). When I got home (a day later), I took the phone in to a Sprint repair center and was told, "yep, it's broke." Other than being annoyed at having to get a professional opinion on this fact, I was annoyed that I couldn't get another phone right away. They had to ship one to me. Until then, I was out of communication with the world (no land line at the house and no long-distance calling at the office). I might as well have been back in Japan!

When I left on Thursday for the ZERO-G trip to Vegas, I still hadn't seen my new phone. I reactivated an ooooold Sanyo and bought a charger for it just to last me through the trip. It was gross, but it made and received phone calls.

Getting back from my stone-age vacation with a 'normal' phone, I was frantic to discover that my new phone still had not arrived! I made my 15th call to Sprint and (after being transferred to a dialtone once) finally got a smart customer service agent that figured out how to call the repair center in Merritt Island. Turns out, my phone was shipped to them instead of directly to me. "Ooops!"

No problem, let's just get the phone.... and it's a 700 WX. This means it runs Windows Mobile operating system instead of the Palm OS. (Think of it as PC vs. Mac). I was ok with the change, at least willing to try it! But alas, the new phone didn't work! At this point, even the repair tech felt bad for me. It had been well over a week without my Treo. He put in for 2-day express shipping directly to my house. The phone arrived 5 days later.

After 2 solid weeks without my Treo, it was a joy to spend hours upon hours synching the phone, rebooting the phone, installing cool software and resetting the phone (about 3 times that day). I've had to completely start over about 3 more times since then (WinMobile is very sensitive). Still, I can't complain too much: I would rather have my Treo than no smart phone at all!

The Best (and Last) Weekend in LA

This weekend was a blast!

Friday night a few of us went to Dothan for dinner, had a drink at Beef O'Brady's, then found a new nightclub in "downtown" Dothan. The club would have been cool if there were more people there, but we managed to have a good time. On the way back, we made an unscheduled stop at Adventureland to go go-karting!

Saturday was the end of class party on base at Lake Tholocco. We went expecting to only stay for an hour, but it ended up being much more fun than anticipated. There was way too much food, as always. I spotted some 4-person paddleboats along the shore, so we "borrowed" them and went paddleboating around the lake. After the party, I took a nap, then we headed back to Beef O'Brady's. We had the party room in the back so we could make a ruckus (and have control over the TVs). After a couple hours at Beef's we headed back to Adventureland to mini-golf. I finally found my mini-golf nemesis--Steve. He beat me by 4 points!

Sunday we got up early to drive to Panama City Beach. We had lunch at Pineapple Willy's, then went to the beach at the state park. The water is beautiful there! We barbequed by the boat launch, then headed home a little more toasty then we started. (That's toasty, not toasted.)

Jough, LT, Margaret, Emily, JB (me), Kenny, and Steve in front. (My new nickname is JB :-P )

Tim goes to Vegas, Baby!

Last weekend I went to Las Vegas for the first time!

I was out for some ZERO-G flying to roll out their new look and logo. We did one flight on Saturday and had several mechanical issues in a row that kept us grounded until Monday. We were supposed to go to California and fly from Moffett Field at the NASA Ames Research Center on Sunday but didn't make it there. I was looking forward to the flights because I would get to see friends that work at Ames and put on a great Yuri's Night party.

ZERO-G kept us well-fed while we were in town with meals at the Terrace Pointe Cafe at the Wynn and Olives at the Bellagio. (Delicious Fiery Chicken Sausage flatbred and olive tapenade! ) I also got to see the fountain show at the Bellagio [pic] [vid] and watch The Producers (starring David Hasselhoff). Thanks to Sabrina and Allen for getting us tickets!!

Vegas was a lot of fun and a lot of work. I can't wait to go back and explore more of the city! I really want to ride the roof-top roller coaster at New York New York :-)

My pictures from the trip are available here. You can find ZERO-G pictures here.

Update from LA

We're closing in on graduation day here at Fort Rucker. The mood is definitely more upbeat, especially since we finished our big presentations yesterday!

Here's a shot from Yuri's Night a couple weeks ago.

And last night we had a party at Beef O'Brady's to celebrate the completion of the dreaded Council of Colonels. This is me and Jough.

YNDC + Zero Gravity flights hit #100

This past weekend I flew up to DC with ZERO-G for flights 99 & 100. We left early on Thursday, so I wasn't able to attend the Yuri's Night party in Cocoa Beach that we organized under our local NSS chapter. Good news is that I did get to attend the DC event and hang out with Shandy (see pic). She is another ERAU alum and an old classmate of Jen's. Every time we see each other we are in another town! So far it's been in Mojave, Valencia, and DC. What a traveling friendship! Hightlights of the evening included free vodka shots (!), browsing around the Russian Cultural Center in DC, and enjoying the live band "To the Moon". I also snagged a pint glass branded with a YN logo. we need those at all the parties next year!

Our ZERO-G flights on Friday and Saturday operated from the Smithsonian's Udvar-Hazy Center at the Dulles Airport. This is a new facility dedicated to showcasing the amazing collection of aerospace artifacts like the Space Shuttle Enterprise and an SR-71 Blackbird. Basing our missions from the Hazy Center made us feel like real space heroes!

Our customers were great and we had a blast finishing out our double-digit flights. ZG-100 was a great trip with outstanding long parabolas. We had a little champagne toast back at the hotel to celebrate this milestone flight. It is an honor to have been crew on ZG-1 and ZG-100.

Thanks go out to the fun folks onboard the plane during the ferry flights too! my ex-intern Katie got to take her first ferry flight as did new coaches Niki and Vanessa. Deb showed off her new Kids 2 Space patch. I co-authored a chapter and now she is writing the teacher's guide! What a small world!

Check out more pictures here.

Easter Weekend in GA

I drove from AL, and Tim & Jack drove from FL to GA for the Easter weekend. Here were the highlights:
--Tried to go the Aquarium, but ended up at Truett's Grill and the flea/antique market instead
--Visited Tim's cousin Greg Cobb and his new wife and baby
--Went bowling with Jim, Scarlett, Robbie & Lindsey, saw frost on the cars when we came out of the bowling alley. Brrr...rabbits!
--Attended Scarlett's church on Easter morning
--Had a big Easter linner (that's lunch/dinner) with Mawmaw and company on Sunday afternoon
--Toured Robbie & Lindsey's house for the first time

Space Task Force update

Quick update from the Space Coast. NASA looks to June for Space Shuttle Atlantis, Charles Simonyi talks about life on board the International Space Station - and is Bill Gates booting up a trip into space? My Space Task Force co-host George Schellenger takes a look.

More at SpaceTaskForce.com

Weekly Dinner in AL

For the past month or so, my classmates and I have been going out to dinner on Wednesday night's to get away from the boredom of Ft. Rucker. This picture is from last week at Longhorn Steakhouse in Dothan. We're still deciding on this week's location.

Multimedia extravaganza!

Big news of the week: Tim is now on a weekly podcast! I have been invited to co-host a new weekly space show, the Space Task Force Netcast. I met George Schellenger (Emmy-award-winning producer) through my work with the World Space Expo. We've done our "test flight" of the concept by recording our first show with guest Frank Miller (the Expo's Event Manager).

Our intention is to create a fun, easy-to-understand show that anyone can understand. We recap the space events of the week and have some interesting guests. Our first run was almost an hour long and is available online at SpaceTaskForce.com. Please listen to the show and send me feedback!

This past weekend was not quite as exciting, but I did get to see the new Disney movie Meet the Robinsons with Robert and Teresa. It was really good even though we didn't see it in "Disney 3-D". Robert went back the next day and saw it again in 3-D. I think that is cheating :-P

I also held a "Global Chat" for the organizers of the 95+ Yuri's Night events happening world-wide around April 12. I love to hear all of the plans for space parties and really get people fired-up about their celebrations! Where will you be on the anniversary of manned space flight? Is there a Yuri's Night World Space Party near you? We are partying at Paddy Cassidy's Irish Pub in Cocoa Beach. Come by if you are in the area!

Birthday Recap

I forgot to recap my Birthday!

With the delay of the space shuttle flight due to freakish hail damage, March 16 was open for my birthday cookout. Bonus: people scheduled meetings around the launch and then still had to come to FL even though the launch was canceled! It was great to have some out-of-towners at the house for a relaxing evening.

This was the year of books! Jen sent me the new Heinlein novel Variable Star in the mail, my mom got me the Heinlein classic, Starman Jones, and I got a cool signed copy of Riding Rockets! Add in a sledge hammer (for easier removal of bathroom furniture). What more could I ask for?

Our friend Chris from our ERAU days flew in from Huntsville for the whole weekend and hung out. We went mini golfing with Robert on Saturday. They were nice and let me win :-) Pics are online here.

Jen visits FL

Jen came home late on Friday and spent a [short!] weekend at home. We stayed at the house with the cats for the most part, only venturing out to get food and watch Premonition. (The movie was OK, but not anything to run out and see.)

Saturday we started out with a lazy brunch at Cracker Barrel and then went home and washed our cars. It's amazing how much I miss doing those little everyday tasks with Jen! I was really glad to have her home when I realized I had gotten sunburned while I was washing & waxing my car :-P

Later on Saturday we went down to Merritt Island and returned some unused supplies from the new vanity in the master bathroom. After getting some new pans for the cat box (Wal-Mart no longer carries them! Yikes!), we ate a nice dinner at Carrabba's. Instead of waiting in the hour-long line, we grabbed a table on the patio and got started right away. It was a beautiful day and a joy to be outside for dinner!

After dinner we went to the Funtasia MiniGolf place that we found with Robbie and Lindsey. There are two paths: Elephant or Zebra. We tried to go down "the other path", but realized we picked the same trail as last time! (Reminder: we've done Zebra: next time try Elephant!) We had fun and Jen beat me by a wide margin (as usual!).

We went back north to the Searstown Mall in Titusville to see the movie. It is a far cry from the nice new Rave theaters in Viera, but it was great because Jen was there! Also, she is the only reason I did not freeze to death in the sub-arctic air conditioning.

Sunday morning I tried to be cool and take Jen to a local eatery, Kloiber's Cobbler Eatery in "historic downtown Titusville." I'd been there with Robert and Chris last week on my birthday and had an excellent Irish lamb stew for lunch. Unfortunately, the place is closed on Sunday. So is most everything else. We ended up at the Village Inn instead. Not bad, but we were definitely not in the 'regular crowd' of elderly folk that come each Sunday!

When we got home, it was time to cook! Jen whipped up several batches of cookies and a pan of brownies before heading off to Alabama again.

I had a great time with Jen and enjoyed having a quiet weekend at home with my wife and cats. I look forward to having her back on a full-time basis :-)

St. Patrick's Day 5k

We survived! Our whole team crossed the finish line.
That was certainly a once in a lifetime event. Really...never again.

New Orleans!

Last weekend we met up in New Orleans with our friends Shannon and Roiann for a weekend of fun and relaxation. I flew into New Orleans while Jen drove from Ft. Rucker. Shannon found the St. Pierre hotel for us right in the French Quarter! It was very cute and the perfect place to base our adventure!

We had been to New Orleans in college, but somehow we didn't get much done other than drinking on Bourbon street! This time we set goals and objectives to do all of the cool stuff we'd seen before.

Friday night:

• Arrive at the St. Pierre and park in the scary old parking garage
• Get Hurricanes at Pat O'Brien's on Bourbon Street
• Drink Hand Grenades on the street from Tropical Isle
• Eat late-night, post-drinking pizza
  

Saturday:

• Tour of Lafeyette Cemetary
• Walk through the Garden District and admire the houses
• Get some daqueris for lunch
  
• Explore the riverfront area including the fountain where Jen and I got engaged

Saturday night:

• Ghost tour on foot with "Scary Mary"!
• Absinthe at the pirate bar

Sunday:

• Breakfast at Cafe du Monde
  
• Coach tour of the French Quarter with David and Knucklehead the mule
• Explore the shops in the French Quarter
• Leave!

The city is rebuilding beautifully with all of the French Quarter up and operating. There are numerous "Help Wanted" signs around showing how many residents chose not to return. Some of the shops and restaurants closed early due to a lack of staff!

We had a great time and recommend everyone go and enjoy New Orleans!

More pictures are available online at: http://picasaweb.google.com/spacebaileys/NewOrleans2007

Flight Attendant training

I completed my 3-day ZERO-G Flight Attendant refresher training! We were in class 8 hours each day (just like Jen!) doing things like reading over our emergency procedures and testing our skills at doing the safety demonstration. We even got to use fire extinguishers and a PBE (oxygen hood)! The slide was not as slippery this year, so it was not as fun (and gave me a wedgie!).

Andrea did a great job as our Director of In Flight for ZERO-G and FA trainer for Amerijet. It was great to see the other Flight Attendants and go over some of the things we've learned over the past year. It was also great to just hang out together! I miss seeing everyone all together. We are really a big family. In fact, we ate off each other's plates at dinner!! After three years together, we've bonded in ways we never expected. I'm so glad I have the opportunity to be a part of such an amazing group of people.

More pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/tim846/ZEROGFlightAttendantTraining

Thanks for reading! Bu-Bye! Uh-huh, bu-bye. Bye now! Thanks, bye... ;-)

OSHA Construction

Hi from my desk in the CP-12 classroom.

We're learning all about OSHA construction requirements this week. What fun. :-(

I'm surviving in AL. Class isn't too demanding, so I've been working on some craft projects that I've been meaning to do for a while. I got from freshman year of college all the way to senior year done on my scrapbooking.

I've also been training for a 5k run some of us from the class are doing on St. Patrick's Day. Last night I ran 3.25 miles! I couldn't do much else the rest of the evening, though. I also go to yoga class twice a week.

Here's a photo from our class BBQ last weekend.

Tim, Shannon, Roiann, and I going to Nawlins (New Orleans) this weekend, so watch for some good pictures.

Tales from Miami

After spilling both my chicken nuggets (not so bad) and huge Coke Zero (very bad) all over myself in the car , I thought Flight Attendant annual training was going to be horrible.

Then I picked up Loretta (I found her on the third loop through the airport!) and brought her back to the hotel. Where she did not have a reservation.

Sounds bad, right?

Well, while we got her checked in to a non-reserved room I wandered over to the coffee station to get a drink that was hot, sweet, and didn't have caffeine. Alas, only regular tea bags! (the Courtyard Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale has great decaf fruit tea.) Instead I stumbled upon a new and CHEAP late-night beverage. To make it, add the following:

• lemons
• hot water
• Splenda

It makes a GREAT cup of... something delicious! Mmmmmm...... What a way to end the day!

Lazy Alabama days...

Yes, I'm back home, but I am still thinking about all the time I spent in beautiful Alabama! Really, Ft. Rucker was pretty nice, but it was COLD. Except in the room at the Army Lodging building. It was HOT in that room. So we evened out things by keeping the windows open. While this may sound odd, I can assure you that it was much more odd to experience the blasts of frigid air piercing the oven-like dry heat of the room as I sat working at my computer. I got lots of exercise walking 3 feet to the window to adjust how much it was open every 15 minutes :-)

I did get to meet some of Jen's classmates while in LA. They were a nice bunch from all over the US. We went out to eat every day together while I was there. I think we hit all the major food sources in only 5 visits!

Valentines Day was an unexpected treat for us. We each sent things for our 8 year dating anniversary on Feb 9, so on Feb 14 we didn't have anything to do! (By the way, it is GREAT having an anniversary just before Valentine's Day. We can skip all of the expensive stuff and V-Day rush!) We went into town and hit the TGI Friday's for dinner. We would have waited over an hour to get seated, but instead we had a wonderful time eating at the bar. Again, we skipped the lines by thinking smart!

I'm glad I got to see into Jen's life in AL so I can picture all of the funny things that happen and place some of the characters in her stories. While it's not a horrible place to go, I am not in any hurry to spend a lot more time there. It was nice to get back home and be together with our cats for a while :-)

Enjoy the picture of Jen at her desk! More pics (and perhaps some video!) coming soon...

Tim's trip to LA

Hello from Alabama! (I'll let that sink in. It took me a minute too.)

On Sunday night I got a call asking if I was going to the Space Florida meeting in Tallahassee on Monday. When I was considering the 4-5 hour drive across the state, I realized I'd be close to Jen! After a few minutes of frantic calling I got Teresa to watch the cats, Jen to agree to come get me, and Eddie was set to come pick me up instead of meeting me part way. Then I stayed up all night to pack! Not hard as we already planned to meet at 4am so we could be in Tallahassee by 9am. In less time that most people take to sleep, I'd completely changed my plans for the week, packed, and was off to another state!

After the state space meetings and a delicious lunch in beautiful downtown Tallahassee, I got to go to the Capital with some colleagues to check in on local legislators. They weren't there, but it was a neat thing to do. I hung out at the Challenger Center until Jen got done with her class and drove 2 hours to get me. While I waited I got a great tour of the facility and got to sit in on a fantastic IMAX movie about the oceans. If you are in the area, check out the Challenger Center!

I'll spare you the details of driving to Ft. Rucker--mostly because there are no details to give! There's not a lot out there in Lower Alabama. But Jen is there, and now, so am I.

Still alive and kickin'

I spent three days at home with the cats and nearly went insane*. Not that the cats aren't great, but I needed to get out of the house for a bit. Going to the bank and to pay the water bill today seemed like a huge treat. And even then, Jack rode with me in the car...

Tonight I went out with Robert and Teresa to the Ruby Tuesdays in Merritt Island for dinner. (WOO-HOO! PEOPLE!!) It was Robert's birthday and we sat and talked for several hours after we'd finished the meal. In fact, the servers were all sitting together playing cards waiting for us last few tables to finally clear out at the end of the night! I enjoyed stories from scout camp and discussions of belay techniques when doing ropes courses. What a departure from our normal "space, space, space" conversation! Perhaps we are tired of the media coverage we've gotten lately... (YES, we are painfully aware of the "crazy astronaut" story in the news. "Astronaut" is a job title, not a decree of sainthood. We don't know her and are as confused by her behavior as anyone else.)

Things are going well around the house. Last week I tested out the new mop by scrubbing down all of the floors in the kitchen, foyer, hall, and bathroom (it worked great). Monday and Tuesday I cooked food and ate like a real person, so I am not starving. I have done laundry once since Jen left--and will finally fold it tonight!

Talking with my business partner Karen, I realized that I do my best work around and with other people. I've been spending a lot of time lately just looking at a computer screen working budget numbers or other paperwork. Alone. Cats not withstanding, I haven't been around other people and have definitely not been working up to my potential. I do have an office at the Center for Space Education at KSC that I moved into last week. (No windows, one other person in the maze of rooms, but it gets me out.) My new goal is to create more interactions with people on a daily basis. Anyone want to meet for lunch?

Thanks to everyone that has been checking in on me to make sure I am eating. I appreciate your help! Please keep the letters, phone calls, and dinner invitations coming.

*Just kidding! I think...

Why "Stars Fell in Alabama"

One of my goals while in AL was to figure out why the heck their license plates say "Stars Fell in Alabama." So today I found this on Alabama's official state website:

"In 2002 the phrase 'Stars Fell on Alabama' began to appear on license plates. It refers to the night of November 12, 1833, when a fantastic meteor shower seen across the Southeast caused this night to be known as 'the night stars fell on Alabama.' The shower created such great excitement across the state that it became a part of Alabama folklore and for years was used to date events. A century later it inspired a song and book."

Those lovely lyrics recall another inspired song about the heavens...written by our friend Peter. "It's time....time to go..."

Space videos from MARS

Our space friend Ryan Kobrick has been posting video updates from his team at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah online. If you want to know what the future of space exploration looks like (including a preview of who will be there doing the exploring), check out the videos.

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=Rykoby

Falling into Orbit

Here is a funny little space factoid Craig Damlo made for Yuri's Night.
I laugh out loud every time I read it...

Falling into Orbit

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has this to say about flying: "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss. Clearly, it is this second part—the missing—that provides the difficulties." Although mankind may never fully learn to fly, we have become very proficient at falling. And on April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first man to miss the ground.

That is all there is to space travel—falling, continuously falling. In the simplest of terms, a space launch works like this: take an object—in this case a space capsule—and throw it toward the horizon; if you throw it far enough, it simply will miss the ground as it falls back to Earth, and will enter an orbit around the planet. This may be, in fact, the greatest benefit of living on a round planet—well, that and the stability and strength of a sphere.

Redesign!

Hooray! Google upgraded the tools available for our blog! We have new features like our picture, feeds from my Space Culture blog, and a link to our online picture galleries.

Let me know what you do/don't like about the design!

Hi from LA

So I made it to Lower Alabama. I'm pretty much in the boonies. I'll explore a little this coming weekend and let you know if I find anything interesting. So far the people that live here talk about hunting and mudding as their leisure activities. You know those don't appeal to me. I have heard there is a JCPenney's somewhere close, so maybe I'll find that on Saturday.
My class is going well. There's another space geek in my group, but he thinks that 40 people walked on the Moon, so I don't know how much of a space geek he truly is. I thought, at first, that he was including the people that orbited, but that's still less than 30.
So the instructors tried to scare us yesterday. They told us about the 15 page paper we have to write in order to graduate. Woo-hoo! Only 15 pages--that's easy compared to my thesis. ...But then today we learned all about military writing techniques and how you're supposed to keep everything as simple and short as possible. That's a little contradictory to a 15 page report. Maybe the 15 pages includes title page, references, and the like? Apparently we'll find out more on Friday.
My room is okay. It's like living in McKay hall again, without roommates, though. I have a kitchenette with a stove top, a microwave, a mini-fridge, sink, and a coffee pot. There is a pot, a pan, and some dishes. But so far I've made it work. I had spagetti tonight and chicken strips with rices and veggies yesterday. I also have a nice sized closet, and a sofa/TV area. The bed is "walled off." The wall doesn't go all the way up to the ceiling. And I have a nice bathroom with a medicine cabinet.
I'll try to keep you updated on my adventures in LA. (Someone please check on Tim and make sure he eats.)

Post Holiday

We made it! After two weeks filled with family and friends, we've settled back into regular life...for a few days. So far, the new year has consisted mainly of us having a blast with our fancy new fridge and spending gift cards like crazy!

We went to see Children of Men last weekend. It was a great movie! Set in a future where all women are infertile, it showed how life could be in a closed-border, nationalistic, terrorist-filled country. Guess again: it's the UK! Don't worry, their Homeland Security looks just as scary as ours in the movie.

Jen leaves for her 3-month stay in Alabama in a few weeks :-( I can come visit her during her safety training class at Ft. Rucker, but only on the weekend. That's a looong drive for a weekend! If you're around the area (which nothing is around that area), be sure to give Jen a call! She's sure to get lonely in LA ("Lower Alabama").

As for me, I'll be deep into creating the education program for the World Space Expo and managing Sky Fire Lab. Both have picked up steam and are moving fast! Last week I shipped our first order from the online store :-) Hooray for garage-based inventory management!

This weekend we're movin' and shakin' around the house as we get a bunch of little projects done before Jen leaves. We're putting up shelves in closets and putting office stuff back in the office. A bunch of stuff has been living in the guest room as it had to move so my massive desk could come in! You may remember the 6ft. x 7 ft. "L" desk and hutch that was in the Port Orange House. Ok, maybe you don't. In any case, it's a BIG desk. If Sniper hadn't come over to help me figure out how to get it in, I would still have it in the garage (HINT: it's too big to come through the door and too heavy to think about while you're carrying it).

Happy holiday weekend! Jen doesn't work on Monday so neither will I. I love getting all federal holidays off :-)

Yeeee-Haw! Dixie Stampede!

Did I mention that we went to see Dolly Parton's Dixie Stampede in Orlando while Bill, Lynn, and Dave were in town? Well, we did. And it was really neat! They did a whole Christmas-themed rodeo show (North Pole vs. South Pole) and put in a touching little manger scene that dropped right out of the ceiling! Jen was squealing at the herds of real head-butting sheep and cute baby goats.

Other cute animals included the racing pigs and the chickens being chased by kids from the audience. The kids ran toward the chickens to scare them into running across the finish line. I don't think any of those kids had ever seen a real chicken before in their lives. I'm not sure who was more scared of whom! At any rate, the chickens seemed to know what to do (they're pros) and made it across the line. Oh the memories! (I had a pet chicken as a child.)

I like these dinner show things :-) There's lots more in Orlando... just give us a good reason to go see one!