Moving blogging sites

We are testing out a new blog format over at WordPress, another free blogging site.  Check out the new site (with all the old posts!):

http://SpaceBaileys.wordpress.com

Guest Room: Painted!

This weekend we tackled one of the few remaining rooms we need to work on at the house: the guest room. We've done minor work before (curtains, closet knobs, etc), but never actually painted. When Jen's mom visited about a month ago, she helped take down the ugly loon border paper around the ceiling (thanks, Alice!!). That left a gross line around the top of the wall that demanded a paint job.

On Saturday I touched up a few holes and then we primed the top to cover over any residual border paper glue. We let it dry while we went to the Wilson's BBQ to meet new their baby, Danny. On Sunday we got up and got to work painting! The color Jen chose came out beautiful! It is a slight shade of lavender. What else would we put in "the princess room"?

Jack's First Post

Daddy said I could blog, so here I go.
I've been really busy lately. The geckos are running rampant in the yard. It's a hard job to keep their population in check. But it's fun to play with them. For some reason Mommy & Daddy yell at me when I bring them a gecko as a present.
This morning was really exciting. There was a squirrel on the food thing that the birds come to. But I scared him away.
I pulled a good one on Azriel the other day. She was sitting on Mommy's lap on the couch. I walked underneath them & tapped Az on her butt. Mommy screamed & Az hissed and ran away. It was a great day.
Blogging is a lot of work. I have to go take a nap in my cat tree. Meow!!!

Eureka video

Hilarious commercial for the new season of the sci-fi sitcom Eureka

Wild Weekend in Vegas

Jen and I are honored to have been selected as Matron of Honor and Best Man for the upcoming wedding of our long-time friends Paul & Susie. As part of our 'duties' we organized the Bachelor and Bachelorette parties last weekend in Las Vegas!!

We were excited to have 9 people from Florida, along with a friend living in VA, and 6 others living in Vegas come out and celebrate with us! All the out-of-towners stayed at the Platinum Resort & Spa behind Ballys. We got two 1000+ sqft suites--one for the bachelor party and one for the bachelorette. It was really nice!

On Friday night we went out to see the hilarious musical Spamalot at the Wynn. The Vegas locals scored us great half-price tickets to the closing weekend. It was a hilarious show!! Afterwards we hug out at a pub watching college kids playing beer pong (also hilarious).

Saturday morning the girls went to the Spa while the guys bummed at the pool. We met back up for lunch at the Cheesecake factory in the Forum Shops (Ceasar's Palace). Then we headed back to get ready for our Red Carpet VIP evening!

We started the night with 'bier und brauts' at the Hofbrauhaus Bavarian Restaurant. A live band featuring accordions and drums filled the great hall as we ate and drank. Everyone enjoyed the 1-Liter beer mugs! The restaurant made dinner an event unto itself.

We split up after that so that the guys could enjoy Sapphire, the worlds largest gentlemen's club, while the girls went to see the Australian male review, The Thunder From Down Under. We all had a very good time. (Sorry, no pictures!)

For the grand finale, the two parties merged into one at the Ghost Bar at the Palms. The limos dropped us off and we walked past the line to our VIP table, complete with bottle service. The table was next to the doorway to the amazing balcony with a view of the Vegas strip--and a floor window looking straight down! We had a great time partying into the early morning hours. Some partied harder than others...

Overall we had a fantastic time and loved this once-in-a-lifetime extravagent adventure. Thanks to everyone that came out with us in Las Vegas to make this a great time for Paul & Susie!

Our new laundry room!

The tile man is done! Our laundry room looks GREAT. We still have some work to do to put back up all of the baseboards and door molding (and possibly replace a door..). Still, it looks 100% better. The cats are gonna love their new room! See the before and after pics below:

Videos

Here are a couple of recent videos for you to enjoy!

First, I chase Jack around the backyard--one of his favorite outdoor games.


Next, Jen tests out a solar powered "car" she made to test out an educational kit for an upcoming Society of Women Engineers event.

bathroom, bike, & tile: a weekend at home

After spending so much time on the road or otherwise occupied on the weekends, we finally have a weekend at home! To celebrate, we worked on 3 big projects: fixing the bathroom wall (in progress for over a year), get the Buell in good working order & ready to ride, and getting tile for the laundry room.

When I got back from my 3-week adventure, Jen surprised me with a bare concrete floor in the laundry room. She had recruited her mom & Shannon to help her pull out the old carpet while they were in town. Although it was not the top of *my* list, Jen really hated the nasty old carpet and wanted it gone! This weekend we shopped for tile & have an appointment to get a final estimate this week! I hope the cats like beige tile...

The wall in our guest bathroom has been 'in progress' for over a year. We pulled out the old medicine cabinets and filled in the holes with new drywall. After unsuccessfully trying to spackle the job (wrong stuff!) I hung a mirror that covered most of it and just ignored the problem. Armed with drywall mud and tape (the right stuff!) we scraped, sanded, mudded, and taped several times until it looked fairly smooth. Now we just need to prime and paint to be done!

The bike was a bit more of a challenge. Robert and Art both came over to help with the project. We stripped down and cleaned out the carburetor, gas tank, spark plug, and air system. In the end, it took a $2 can of carb cleaner and a $3 spark plug to get it running. That and 3 days of manual labor stripping it down, putting it back together, losing parts, finding parts, and testing it out. We had at least five "this must be the last thing" moments! In the end we did finally get it up and running and out for a test drive. This week Art is taking the bike out to use for his motorcycle license test. Good luck, Art!

It was a great, productive weekend! Good thing, too, as we'll be busy for the next month or so... as always!

Tim's 3-week trip begins!

Its been a while since we gave an actual update, so there may be some retroactive postings going up to fill in the gaps between... whenever and now. :-) Between the podcast, other website updates, and Twitter, sometimes I just don't feel like writing another thing! Thankfully, I have gotten some requests for updates so I know people read the blog and are interested. I'll be sure we post here more frequently!

This weekend I am in Las Vegas for a couple of Zero G flights. It is always great to see the ZG crew and hang out together! This weekend is super-cool because I got to fly from Orlando on the same flight as my friend Paul. Last night we had dinner with friends at the Bootlegger Bistro, a classic LAs Vegas eatery complete with lounge singer! This morning I'm are going out to scout locations for Paul's bachelor party in July. (Yes, Jen and Paul's fiance are both coming too!).

On Sunday I fly out to Washington DC for ISDC 2008, the annual National Space Society conference. This is especially important as our local NSS chapter is hosting ISDC 2009 in Orlando! I'll get to learn a LOT about how this conference runs (what comes up at the last minute, people's expectations, etc). Most of Wednesday will be spent talking to Congressional staffers about space issues. On Wed night, Jen will arrive!!! She's slated to be doing volunteer work at the conference.

Jen will head back home on Sunday after ISDC while I will head out to Ocean City, MD on the following Monday. I'm working as the Director of Volunteers & Training for the Ocean City Air Show June 10 & 11. On June 12, I'll finally head back home!!

I'm looking forward to this adventure, and to getting back home to see Jen & the cats at the end. Now, off to explore Vegas!

Interview live from SPACE on the Colbert Report!

On Thursday night, astronaut Garrett Reisman was a guest on the popular comedy/news show the Colbert Report on Comedy Central. Garrett was broadcast LIVE into the taping earlier in the week via a video hookup through Mission Control in Houston.

Stephen started the interview by showing Garrett wearing his signature "Wrist Strong" bracelet in a NASA photograph! The crowd LOVED Garrett and went wild when he admitted to being part of the "Colbert Nation" fan club--and suggested they expand it to be the Colbert Universe.

Stephen and Garrett had a long talk and touched on a wide variety of topics--including the new Constellation program! Garrett even did some neat tricks for the show like flipping around inside the international space station. Soon you will be able to check out clips from the show online.

Kudos to NASA for allowing the interview to happen! With the immense popularity of the Colbert Report and the GREAT performance by Garrett, this may do more to get people interested in space than any other single interview in the last few years. Thanks, Garrett!!

Yuri's Night Cocoa Beach!

For the past few months (ok, year), we have been working hard to create a big public outreach event down here in Florida to celebrate Yuri's Night, the anniversary of manned spaceflight, on April 12. Although we've done some of these events with our local NSS chapter before, we've never attempted anything on this scale! We've got a day of beach games followed by live music and food/drink specials at the Cocoa Beach Pier.

It always seems like things are flying around helter-skelter, but in the end it works out great. One of the best indicators that we are moving in the right direction is our new radio ad on 95.1FM.  Click below to listen.

Find out all about the event at www.SpaceBeachParty.com!

Depth Perception

Every wonder why I wear glasses? It's a depth perception issue. The audio clip below talks about some other depth news:

Eye movements combined with the motion of objects in the field of vision enable some depth perception even with only a single eye. Cynthia Graber reports for 6o Second Science from Scientific American.

Explaining Twitter

Here is a great video to explain the little box on the right labeled "Tim's Twitter Updates" and why the stuff in it changes so randomly. Enjoy the show and check out more web concepts explained in plain english at http://www.CommonCraft.com/show

Mr. Bailey goes to Washington (again)

I was in Washington Feb 10-12 to chat with Congress. You may recall that last year I went to DC for the Space Exploration Alliance Legislative Blitz. This is an annual event where space advocates meet with Congressional staffers (and the occasional Senator or Representative!) to discuss space issues and do a bit of informal education. This year we chose to organize the Blitz to fall just after the new 2009 NASA budget request was released by the White House. I realized how much I'd learned in my previous trips when I had a conversation about appropriated verses allocated funds and how continuing resolutions to the omnibus bill was bad for everyone. (Did you get all that?)

The 2008 SEA Blitz was successful with over 100 meetings on the Hill. I was typically grouped with several other people--including an 8th grader who came with her dad. She was well spoken and knew a lot about NASA's prize competitions and the COTS program. We ended up having so many meetings scheduled that I even talked to a few staffers alone instead of with a group!

The trip was fun, but unexpectedly COLD. I figured we'd get into the 30's, but one morning it was 12 degrees. That is ridiculous. I don't own clothing appropriate for that kind of weather! I almost bought a $250 wool coat to stay warm (it was a nice coat). My journey became more perilous when the icy cold weather caused traffic accidents and shut down the highway going to the Dulles airport. I missed my flight and had to stay in Virginia overnight!

Normally I prefer to fly from Reagan National (DCA) in the heart of DC and accessible via the Metro. It is so easy to get in and out of there! However, this time I was flying out to California and had managed to get a seat on the new Virgin America airline. Even with all of the delays and unexpected overnight stay, it was worth it! Everything from the check-in line to the cabin lighting was cool, sleek, and hip. I even ordered a snack from the touchscreen entertainment system at my seat! If you ever get the chance to fly VA, just do it. It is a great example of how well an airline can run!

The Amazing Sticky-Note Trick

This has nothing to do with anything, but it is a neat trick and a great example of how a small change in a process can have a dramatic effect on the whole system.

Originally posted at Communication Nation.

Click To Play

Great video

This is a cool video made from an Obama speech by some musicians, actors, and artists. I thought it was really powerful, no matter what you think of Obama as a presidential candidate.

January Update

Ahh, the new year! Already a month has gone by. Hard to beleive. I think it has already lost that 'new year' smell. Perhaps that's a good thing...

We started the new year with a *BANG* out in Las Vegas with friends. We drove out to where we could see the strip and the coordinated fireworks display. It was cool, but I've seen Disney shows that were about as good. The coolest part was watching the fireworks coming off of the Stratosphere (think Seattle Sky Needle). THAT was a neat thing to see!!

Unfortunately it was disturbingly cold and dry in Las Vegas. Being there for several days led to me getting a viral infection that kept me company for most of the month.

I spent several days up in New York for Zero G flights--including a taping of Good Morning America! We did a studio tour early in the morning and I was pulled off the street to do an interview for FOX Business News. It was surreal. And COLD. Very cold. After all the Zero G fun, I got to attend a party for Virgin Galactic where they had the new models of SpaceShipTwo. It was very swanky and a great time to meet some new space friends.

While I was gone, Jack had some eye surgery and had to wear a funny collar for two weeks. Poor thing! He bathed for a whole day when he finally got the stitches out of his eye. Things seem better and he isn't sneezing nearly as much. We are watching him to see if his eye stops being so cloudy and whether it helps him see better.

After New York, I got to spend a day with Jen and the cats before heading off to a whirlwind session of annual Flight Attendant training for Zero G. We squeezed 20 hrs of training into 2 days! Early mornings and late nights helped everyone to make it to training without missing work.

More fun is ahead in February with the SEA Blitz in Washington, DC, and NGEC-2 at NASA Ames in California followed by a week long cruise in the Eastern Caribbean!

Jack's Surgery

Jack had surgery on his eye today. His third eyelid was curled under (since birth). It was rubbing his eye making his eye water and his nose run. That's why he sneezed all the time.
He is home now and feeling fine. He's still a little woozy from the drugs, but he's playing with his string. He has to wear a collar so he doesn't scratch his stitches--for 2 weeks! Plus he has the added indignity of having pink stitches.
Here are some post-surgery pics. Sorry for the low quality. They were taken with my video camera. Tim has the digital camera in NY.