update: Housewarming Moved!

Updates?! Who has time for updates?? Jen and I are still busy with ZERO-G flights and unpacking boxes! This past weekend, Jen planed flowers and got the yard looking good while I went to Miami for our annual Flight Attendant refresher course. We both had fun!

We have moved our Housewarming to February 11 in the late afternoon. Don't wait for an invitation to come your way--just put it on the calendar and let us know you'll be here!

the Remodeling begins...

"I noticed the wallpaper in the guest bathroom was starting to peel in one corner."

And so begins our first round of home improvements! We've already ripped out the ugly shower doors, one of the medicine cabinets, the mirror, and about half of the wall paper*. Not bad for our first night!

* Does anyone know how to get off the other half of the wall paper that wasn't so easy??

Bonus Episode: Disneyland

And you thought Christmas was over! Alice and Tom gave us a uniqe present this year: a trip to Disneyland in California - WOW!!! We spent three nights at the Disneyland Hotel and four *magical* days at Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure.


Big thrills were on the remodeled Space Mountain and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (I'd never been on it!), and The Matterhorn (the world's first steel-tube coaster). It's A Small World was closed (no one cried) while they removed the holiday decorations. In California Adventure, the California Screamin' roller coaster looked like a large wooden coaster, but was realy a steel coaster with a loop! The Sun Wheel was a ferris wheel derivation with cabs that moved around as it spun--an experience you have to feel to understand.

Points of difference between Disneyland and the Walt Disney World parks:

• "land" is in California and was built first.
  
• "World" is in Florida and is waaaay bigger.
  
• The Haunted Mansion in CA was decorated in "the Nightmare Before Christmas" motif--never seen the movie, but it was much more interesting!
• The CA Tower of Terror was much shorter and didn't give the background story as much.
• While on the Pirates of the Carribean in Disnyeland, you float by an actual restaurant, the Blue Bayou, where we had dinner one night!

Big thanks to Alice and Tom for the most relaxing and "vacation" vacation we've had since our honeymoon! Of course, we have no more vacation time for the year, but it was worth it!

Cue the Halleluia Chorus

WE ARE IN OUR NEW HOUSE!!!

We closed on the new house Friday, January 6, 2006. Below is a picture of Jen on our back porch Saturday night--our first night in the house!

Thanks to everyone that made it possible for us to get our new house. We could not have dont this alone. Major appreciation goes out to our good friends Timber, Sniper, Paul, Susie, and Teresa for helping us move our stuff into the new place (see below).



The cats are adjusting nicely. The love having so much room to play. Azriel did hide under the covers during the entire move-in, but that is how she copes with change. Jack has already learned how to sit on the window sill on the back porch and listen to the birds!

We are excited to be in the new place, but don't have any weekends to use for unpacking and organizing. We'll make it work somehow :-)

The housewarming party is tentatively planned for Saturday, February 4, 2006. Fulmer Mortgage Company is hosting the party at our house as a "thank you" gift. What a great company!

Housing Finale!

Closing is set for noon on Friday, January 6, 2006!

Move in will happen on Sunday, January 8 due to a ZERO-G flight in Ft. Lauderdale on Saturday. Anyone available to help move us out of Teresa's house will be rewareded with pizza!

After-Christmas Special

Episode 1: Christmas in GA

Traveled up to Locust Grove, GA, on Thursday morning. Thought about leaving Wednesday night, but didn't see the need to drive all night. Besides, driving during the day meant we got to stop at the St. Augustine outlets! Hooray for new Sketchers!

Once we got to GA we had fun with Mom, Dad, Robbie, and Lindsey (his gf) just hanging out and doing Christmas. Dad made a ham and we ate off of it the whole time we were there! Maw-Maw decided not to make her traditional sausage balls for breakfast on Christmas, so Mom made (and burned) them instead :-) They were still a hit! Jen made mac & cheese to take to Aunt Jerri's house (we are married now and must contribute!).

We opened presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning to keep from being so rushed all of Christmas day. It didn't work, but it was nice to have some time to play with new toys before heading out the door. The highlights:

• iPod Nano from Jen (2GB)
  
• digital camera from Mom & Dad (Fuji FinePix F460)
  
• super cool remote from Robbie (Logitech Harmony 676)
• new printer for Jen (HP PSC 1510xi)
• cool print of Mars picture from Tom
• a chocolate fountain
• DVDs
• books
• clothes

Christmas day was a blast! We were still late leaving the house, but got to Maw-Maw's in time to eat. It was good to see everyone, though the many of the cousins were missing. We grow up so fast!

Aunt Jerri's house was packed with people and food. Yum! It was nice to catch up with everyone before playing the present game. We started out nice, but got busy stealing in no time (the Pyrex set was a hit). I ended up with an electric screw driver!

The day went by quick, but we still made time to see Robyn and Craig in Stockbridge.

Next up: Episode II: The Northeast!

Disclaimer

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit our best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral, celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all...

...and a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2005, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great, (not to imply that America is necessarily greaterthan any other country or is the only "AMERICA" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, choice of computer platform, or sexual preference of the wishee.

(By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms. This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others, and is void where prohibited by law, and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher. This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first, and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)

Settling in to the Space Coast

We are having fun while waiting for final mortgatge approval for the house. I have been working steadily at FSRI while Jen has been keeping up with her ZERO-G duties from Teresa's living room. This week we are getting Jen a badge and a desk at the FSRI offices at KSC so that she can get out of the house and quit watching so much daytime tv!

Last week we went back down to Ft. Lauderdale to complete my Communication Course at Landmark Education. That is a long drive for one night! We drove down for the 4-hour class completion and then turned around and headed back. Jen did most of the driving while I snoozed. Eventually we stopped for a nap at a rest area. No sense driving when you're too tired!

After that trip, we didn't go back for the ZERO-G Christmas Party on Saturday night. It would have been a great time, but we were pooped! We ended up sleeping in and then going to Timber's house for a cookout. It is so nice to have friends around so that you can get together on a Saturday night!


We stayed over at Susie's house on Saturday night so that we could all get up early and go to Busch Gardens in Tampa Bay! It was a fun drive with Paul and Susie in the car and a cheap trip as Susie used complimentary employee passes to get us in the door. The day was mostly grey and rainy, so there were very few people in the park. We rode all of the roller coasters with almost no waiting! The new coaster, ShieKra, gave some amazing free-fall time as you dangle over the top and then drop straight down over 200 feet. You can't even see the bottom! WOO-HOO! It zips you along at over 70 mph. (it feels much faster in the front row). Thanks Susie, Paul, Timber and Sniper! We had a great time.

Now it's back to work for a few days before heading up to GA. See you soon!

Housing Updates & Holiday Plans

It's been a busy week! The inspection went well with only minor issues identified. We are now gathering all of the necessary W-2's and account statements for our mortgage company.

Closing is still looks like it will happen the first week of January. Until then Teresa has graciously allowed us to continue staying with her.

Here is our Holiday Travel Schedule:

• Dec 22-26 - Georgia
• Dec 26-31 - Pennsylvania
• Dec 31 - Jan 1- Washington DC
• Jan 1-2 - Georgia

If you will be in one of those states and want to make a plan, let us know!

Jen's First Post

Here's my first addition to the blog. Let's see how it goes.
We had the home inspection this morning. It lasted almost 3 hours, because the homeowner, Michelle, really can talk! She didn't want anything to be wrong with her house. She had an explanation or a story for everything the inspector found. But we did get to spend more time at the house figuring out where furniture would go, etc. There isn't anything significantly wrong with the house, so it looks like we're still a GO!

Nice floating picture

While we're waiting for news on the house, enjoy a cute picture of Jen and I floating around!

(actual news: contract is signed, inspection on Tuesday at 10am)

Contract Pending

We found a cute little house in Titusville and have put a contract on it! The address is 3540 Young Street, Titusville, FL. It is a 3-bedroom, 2-bath (1574 sqft total under air) with a 2-car garage and large back porch (adding another 948 sqft). The house was built in 1967 and sits on .23 acres.


Here we are looking into the laundry room and then into the kitchen.



Did I mention that it has a fireplace!?!



We are so excited!

Dec 1 - We are officially Homeless

Driving up the highway last night, we couldn't find an extended-stay motel in the area that had any rooms! We had Sniper calling all over the place looking, but he wsn't finding much. Finally he IM'ed Teresa and she agreed to let us stay for a few days--Hooray!


Teresa lives near KSC and has three cats (so our two were no problem). She bought a house and moved in about a month ago, so she has been having fun repainting and decorating. Teresa is even painting Parisian scenes on the bathroom wall--how artistic!

Now we are intently looking for houses--and a place to store our stuff. If you have any ideas, please let us know!

This is where we used to live...

With Alice & Tom's help, we finished moving all the big stuff on Tuesday and finally got it all out on Wednesday before 5pm. It was weird to see the whole place so empty! We filled up an entire 24-ft moving truck plus Jen's car and still had to leave a few things in my car at the office. WOW. We have a lot of stuff.

So, now we are refugees! We are heading North to the Space Coast, but we don't know where we'll sleep or what we'll do with our stuff before we have to return the truck on Saturday morning. The Adventure Begins!

Three flight weekend

We pulled off three flights this weekend! We had a birthday party flight on Saturday morning, a filming flight on Saturday afternoon, and a last-minute individual/corporate/media flight on Sunday morning. It was a blast, but we are dead tired. And now we have to really get moving on packing...

HINT: You may want to watch NBC on December 9.

Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Jen made an amazing dinner:

• ham
• homemade mashed potatoes with gravy
  
• Stovetop stuffing
• green bean casserole
• cranberry sauce
• rolls

It was fantastic. And then we had a Grasshopper Pie! MmmmMmmm!

It was nice to have a few minutes with just the two of us to reflect on our lives and how thankful we are for each other and all of the people around us. It would be great to have found a good house by now, or to have that next great/high-paying job or some other thing. But we both are thankful for the people in our lives more than anything else. We can go and do great things because we get supported by our family and friends. Even when we do crazy things like announce our move to a city where we have no jobs and no place to live, we get help. We've been offered housing, storage, and job opportunities by a multitude of people in addition to the moral support of our families and friends. WOW.

Thank you to everyone. Thank you for making it possible for Jen and I to live our dreams.

2 out of 4 ain't bad...

We had a big plan for this weekend: two individual flights on Saturday from FLL and then two flights on Sunday from the SLF for the residents of the WORLD Ship! We were all worried about the logistics of moving everyone and everything three hours away, but Jen had it all planned out. She even dealt with the WORLD Ship being the training and party location. I was preoccupied with a Japanese TV crew and a British TV show both filming on the same flight!

Everything was going fine. We took off almost on time for our first flight, ZG-51, and were getting ready to take the group picture when we got the call to return shoes and get ready to go back! Frustrating, but necessary. Apparently one of our AC packs had quit working and the crew couldn't maintain a constant cabin pressure. While this is slightly irregular on a normal flight, it is a NOGO for parabolic manuvers. We went back.

While the plane was being repaired, we went ahead with the next training on schedule. We might have to cancel one flight, but the second one would definatly go...right? Wrong. Another problem creeped up and needed to be fixed on the plane. Easy enough, but we had a lift for one mechanic and the job required two. Well, it takes two people to get it done in a reasonable amount of time... So both Saturday flights were cancelled. The group that was set to ferry up with the aircraft (me, Jen, Sarah, Edwin, the AJ crew and mechanics) sat at Jetscape until after 10pm waiting for a GO/NOGO for the flight up to KSC. We finally waived off for the night and got sleep.

The next day we had two good flights from the SLF, though both were a bit bumpy from turbulence. The WORLD Ship passengers and crew had a great time. I learned later that the Ansaris paid for the ship crew to come on the airplane with them. I was astonished. The story is that Anousheh Ansari gave away 14 tickets that got raffled off to the crewmembers. That is worth over $50,000. Jen told me that some of the flyers were engine room workers that had never even seen the conference room on the ship where the pre-flight training was held. It is that strict around there.

Other highlights from the day: hanging out with Jim Kennedy (KSC Center Director), finally meeting Jack Fox (local NSS coordinator), and getting to see the WORLD Ship (after going through 2 metal detectors and 3 security checkpoints). The guys at KSC are really excited about having ZERO-G around. The WORLD is a nice ship. And it is harder to get into than KSC.

Spelling is for losers

Can you read this?

Olny srmat poelpe can.

cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig huh? yaeh and I awlyas ! tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

if you can raed tihs psas it on !!

Florida Space 2005

Went house hunting again this Wednesday. Saw 3 places with Susie and her mom, but only one in Rockledge was really nice. I drove through the surrounding neighborhoods and through some of Port St. John to get a 'feel' for the area.

I went over to the Florida Space 2005 reception and talked with Gwendolyn (ZERO-G's Director of Educational Programs) and people from the Economic Development Commission. I learned that there is a Young Professionals of Brevard group that meets several times per month to meet and network with other young people in the area. Sounds cool!
Thursday Robert gave a presentation on ZERO-G during a panel on research and development. That was nice, as was Alan Ladwig's presentation on... it didn't matter what it was supposed to be, Alan made it good :-) That was about all I could stay awake to watch. [Robert and Alan were both approached numerous times that evening and thanked for their great presentations!] Dinner was at the Apollo/Saturn V Center and was delicious! We munched and told stories about the tour to Alan's co-worker at Northrop and the AGI reps. We couldn't make up stuff that crazy!

During the maddness, I talked with Sam Durrance and Eddie Ellegood to finalize the details of my employment with FSRI. I am expecting an offer letter tomorrow! It is a lower salary than what I requested, but that gives me room to negotiate time out of the office for SGC in Valencia.

"I've got a beautiful feeling everything's going my way!"

SEDS Conference Mania

Went to the SEDS conferece, SpaceVision2005, at the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana to

1. exhibit for ZERO-G
2. get interns
3. tell the students how to get on our airplane
4. hang out with all* my cool space friends
   

(*note: some cool space people were not there, but enough that it was still a good time!)

I arrived in Chicago late Friday night and was picked up by Will Pomerantz. His friend "Chema" let us crash at his place in the city. Chema is now a cop in Chicago. He and Will met during school at Harvard.

Will and I got up early and made the 2 hour drive to the conference just in time to set up our displays (Will was representing ISU and the NASA Academy programs). I met a lot of enthusiastic and well-qualified intern applicants and handed out a lot of brochures. Unfortunately, this meant we missed the talks by our cool space friends and colleagues! [As a side note, it is extremely wierd to know half of the people presenting at a conference. It's also extremely neat to be included in such a group:-) ]. After checking into our hotel, we went to the closing banquet. Bob Richards was the keynote speaker and highlighted the 25 anniversary of SEDS and the enormous contributions of the late Todd Hawley. It was a phenomenal presentation that really made me proud to be part of the drive to push humanity out into the stars.

Then we went drinkin' at a local pub. Oh my, college town bars are cheap. You can buy a dozen shots for under $10. (Trust me.) We all had a good time together talking about the next steps after the conferece to bring to life the ideas from the SEDS workshops. Later we toured a lab office and had pizza [?] and then Will and I chased rabbits on our way back to the hotel. (Yes, we were surprised that there were rabbits too!)

The next morning we were treated to a presentation from Loretta about her appearance in James Cameron's Aliens of the Deep. I had no idea she was featured so prominently! She talks about it like she was on screen in the background when really she narrates parts of the film! I am amazed, but not surprised. Loretta is a champion of "what's possible in the world" and is always doing some new, impossible thing. Her fiance, George, was the keynote speaker at lunch. What a couple!

After several hours discussing the Space Generation, Will and I drove back to Chicago with Josh and John from X PRIZE. John just needed a ride to the airport, but Josh came back to Chema's with Will and I for the night. Getting up at 4am on Monday morning to make a 6am flight out was not fun and highlighted the damage that cold Illinois air (and cheap liquor) had done to my immune system. I'm sure I'll get over it in a few days. Or not. Either way, I can't stop now--too much to do!