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