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 :-)