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 :-)