Amber Waves of Grain...

That used to be the state of Indiana's slogan. Before that it was There's more than corn in Indiana. I'm not sure what it is nowadays... Anyway, the weather has been very mild up here this Christmas. Two years ago we got 2 feet of snow the day after we arrived, but no snow this year. I was up bright-and-early today with the sunrise. I've seen better, but this one wasn't so bad. I snapped a picture of it even. Nothing much else to report. We'll be home soon.

Face Time

Yet another picture of Molly on console during the space shuttle assembly flight to the International Space Station. Why don't you ever see pictures of me on console? Because I work too many weekends and nights!

Flight Controller Extraordinaire

STS-116/ISS 12A.1 is on Flight Day 7. The original plan was to undock the space shuttle from the space station on Monday, but considering some problems that have come up, there is talk of adding an additional docked day and space walk.
Here is a picture of Molly from a few days ago in Mission Control. Her OJT (On the Job Training) is Cory. Molly's shift is from 5am to 2pm... so, I've been getting into work a few hours before everyone else! You would be amazed how much more productive you can be between 5 and 7 am! Below is a screenshot I took from the NASA channel. Molly is in the front on the left. You can see the troublesome Solar Array on the left screen. If I haven't mentioned it before, or if you are curious as to what Molly does in Mission Control, here is the Wikipedia entry for her position, ADCO. My position isn't listed in Wikipedia, but we're mentioned in this article by James Oberg.

New Purchase

Molly and I couldn't resist some of the after Thanksgiving sales, we we broke down and went High Def. We had plenty of spare room, so we went with the Sony Grand WEGA 55", 1080 pixel, Rear-Projection, HDTV.

So far we're really happy with it. We still don't have any sort of cable television, and we do not intend on getting it. There are actually quite a few broadcast HD channels that we get - and that's not even including all the religious and Spanish channels!

In other news, the Space Shuttle Discovery (mission STS 116/ISS 12A.1) launched last night. It was quite an impressive night launch. Molly will be working the mission, and if I come across any snapshots of her on console, I'll post them.

Bring on the shuttle

Today's Launch minus 1 (day) Mission Management Team gave the Space Shuttle Discovery a Go for launch which is scheduled for tomorrow, December 7 at 8:35 PM Central Time. This will arguably be one of the most complex assembly missions of the International Space Station yet, and Molly's going to be right in the middle of it! Also, today NASA announced plans to build a permanent moon base. Exciting day!

Here is an Op. Ed. in USA Today from the NASA Administrator:

Opposing view: 15 cents a day - That’s what the space program costs each person in the USA.

USA Today (Opinion Page)
By Michael Griffin

America is a frontier nation. Two hundred years ago, the frontier was whatever Lewis & Clark would see the next day. One hundred years ago, it was in Alaska, labeled as "Seward's Folly" when it was purchased in 1867. Today, the human frontier is space, with the Apollo missions to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, the development of the International Space Station today, or future missions to build an outpost on the moon.

Our great-great-grandparents accepted the challenge of their frontier. Will today's generation do less? And if so, why? To save 15 cents per day? To save six-tenths of 1% of the federal budget? Because that is the cost to the average citizen of our nation's space program. Whether we wish to explore space or not, to say that we cannot afford space exploration is ridiculous.Almost four years ago, our nation faced some of the darkest days known to our space program with the loss of the shuttle Columbia and its crew.

In the months that followed, there was an extensive discourse concerning the lack of clear, coherent and compelling goals for the nation's human spaceflight program. We now have those goals. Congress has charged NASA to go beyond the International Space Station, to return to the moon.

Today's investments in space exploration are, like the Louisiana Purchase, a down payment on our future. We are focusing NASA's investments on key technologies that will enable our nation to bring the solar system into our economic sphere and for scientific discovery. The geography of our solar system dictates that our first, halting steps will be to the moon — three days journey away from Earth. A lunar outpost might follow soon afterward, allowing us to exploit the resources and vantage point of the moon.In the coming century, we must make important but careful investments of time, energy and resources when it comes to the exploration of space. Make no mistake: America is still a frontier nation. And space is today's frontier.

Michael Griffin is the NASA administrator.

Natasha's Birthday

Molly and I hosted a birthday party and general get-together last night with some members of her group and some of our Russian counterparts. The birthday girl was Natasha. She works in the Math Modeling Group in the Russian Mission Control Center - she's on the left in this picture. Also in the picture is Molly, Moose, and Lera. It was a fun night. The wine and beer was flowing, and the night ended with an impromptu singing around a circle.
Here is Alexander (Math Modeling Group) jamming out on his guitar. He is self-taught, and I don't think he even reads music. He's really good! Other people in this shot are Yuri (Russian Flight Director) in the back, Lera, and Galina (Power Specialist) on the left.
Tatiana, Moose, Melissa, and Lisa (with Ginger getting WAY too much attention). They are all in Molly's group. Oh, and that's Vaska's butt on the right...
This is Christina and Paul. Christina is in Molly's group, and Paul is a THOR (Thermal Control System) on Space Station. I just couldn't resist posting this one with that look Christina is giving.

Another Fish Tank Pic

This one shows the whole wall.

New Fish Tank

We added a 52 gallon fish tank to our repertoire this weekend. It's an acrylic bow-front tank. We decided to go with an Egyptian theme on the decor. The first six fish are two different varieties of Molliensia (Mollies). One variety is the Dalmatian Lyretail Molly Sphenops (black and white like a Dalmatian) and the other variety is Poecilia Sphenops (some black and some white).

Here is a picture of the whole tank.

Here is Molly introducing the dogs to the new residents.

A closer shot of the Sphinx and one of the white mollies.

Of course, there was some time for roughhousing!

Visitors this weekend

We got a visit from Andy (Molly's brother) and Renee (Andy's wife) this weekend. We had a good time. We gave them a little tour of the Johnson Space Center. Here is Molly detailing the operation of the space shuttle.

Here is Andy and Renee in front of the access doors to Mission Control.

We also went to the Laff Stop to see the comedian Kevin Brennan who was the headliner. He was really funny, but we all liked Bob Biggerstaff better.

Ground Control to Major Tom (or Molly in this case)

I'm on the night shift, so I have some free time to post some random stuff. I nearly forgot about this picture of Molly in Mission Control. Isn't she awesome?!?!

Space Pics

I have run across a couple cool space pictures that I wanted to post. Here they are:

This is a picture of the International Space Station and Space Shuttle Atlantis not long after the space shuttle undocked from the space station. The picture is silhouette of the spacecraft in front of the Sun. Click on the image to open a window with a larger picture an explanation.
Space Shuttle Discovery approaches the ISS. This picture was taken during the STS-121 mission to the space station.

Back in the Game

It's been a long time since there has been a blog update. I assumed that no one would notice, but, much to my surprise, we've actually logged some complaints (you know who you are). What has been up with us?

In no particular order...

• My brother Matt got married.
• Way to go, Matt!!!
• Welcome to the family, Lisa!!
• We sold our old house
• Woo Hoo!!! What a load off.
• Successfully returned to Space Station Assembly by adding a new power module
• 35,000 lbs. on Earth
• Each solar wing is 115 feet by 38 feet
• The two new wings are capable of generating enough power to meet the needs of 30 average homes
(1.3MB)
• We've gotten through the hurricane season unscathed - so far. There is still just over a month left in the season, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!
• The dogs are still as nutty as can be...

Any questions??? Then I'll end with a quote...

Man is the only animal that can remain on friendly terms with the victims he intends to eat until he eats them.
- Samuel Butler

It's Hurricane Time

Granted, hurricane season officially started on June 1st, but we're starting to near the meat of the season. If you extend the predicted path of Chris, it'll roll right over Houston. Well, it's way to early to tell where it's going to actually land, but I absolutely hate to even have to think about it.

To recap last year's hurricane Rita fiasco, we spent 18 hours on the road in traffic driving to Round Rock, Texas. That's normally a 3.5 hour drive... We nearly ran out of gas, and we spent the bulk of those 18 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic (with two large dogs). We finally made it, then after a nap we got to start working. We were a part of the remote Mission Support team dubbed "BAT." Backup Control Center (BCC) Advisory Team (BAT). NASA loves those acronym.

Boy do I love this place. I hope we don't have to go through any of that this year.

- Mike

Welcome to Our World

I'm glad to see that the rest of the country is getting a feel for what it is like living in Houston. With temperatures bumping the 100 degree mark, you can finally see why we complain so much about the weather down here! Granted, not everyone is getting 100% humidity like us, but you can't have everything...

In other news, we went to the Butler, TN last week to meet up with Molly's family for a week of R&R. We stayed at The Iron Mountain Inn which sits on top of a mountain (maybe Iron Mountain?). It wasn't fall when we went, but here is a picture of the inn.

Settling In

It's been a while since the last post. It's been quite busy around the new house. Molly's parents visited last weekend, I worked the weekend before, Molly's sister is here this weekend, my parents are coming next weekend, we're out of town the next two weekends after than, then I work the weekend again. Hopefully after all that we'll have a weekend to just sit around and vegetate!

We did get a new set of chairs for our "library." Here is a picture of it with the lovely Ginger modeling in front of them. We have some more work to do with the walls, but it's coming together.

The old house is still being shown to potential buyers. We just haven't had that person come by yet that wants to take the next step! Hopefully soon. We haven't lost hope yet.

We went to the Laff Stop last night. Jimmy Pardo was the main act, and I have to say, he was pretty darn funny. A lot of his stuff was improv and just quick whit. We had a good time. We also ate at a great Moroccan place called Saffron.

Today we also went to the Houston Museum of Natural Science to see Body Worlds 3. It was friggin' cool! It was a bit expensive and crowded, but it was worth it. If you're not familiar with it, they plasticize human bodies and display them for science and for what appears to be general amusement.

Space Shuttle Discovery is on the pad and poised for a July 1st launch of STS-121 to the ISS. We're all hoping for good weather!

- Mike

Moving Fiasco

Well, we're getting settled into the new house. The move is done, but of course it didn't go as smooth as we had planned. It's a good thing that Molly and I are crisis management specialists!

The Move

We had scheduled movers for Sunday, but they were short staffed, so they cancelled on us. They came the next morning (Memorial Day). Everything started out fine; we got several things loaded. Then, just on queue, it started raining. And I don't mean a light rain, I mean a good ol' Texas Gulf Coast torrential downpour. This kept up for several hours - long enough that we released the movers after we got the stuff that was already in the truck unloaded into the garage at the new house. Now 30 minutes after they left, the skies opened up, and the sun came out. Molly, the eternal optimist, said, "let's rent a U-Haul and get it done." Turns out we found a U-Haul place with a truck, and we moved the rest of the stuff ourselves - probably about 2/3 of everything.

It got done, and we had a feeling of accomplishment considering we did it with just the two of us.

Now we're plowing through the unpacking. It's more fun than packing!

- Mike

OK, OK, Discovery Rolls to the Pad

OK, so we can't be the only NASA nerds in Houston not to post something about Space Shuttle Discovery rolling to launch pad 39B today. It's a very exciting time indeed with the launch to the International Space Station scheduled for July 1st.

Here's a piece of trivia for you. Each crawler has 458 tread "shoes" and each one of them weighs 2100 pounds! The entire crawler weighs (minus the shuttle) 5.5 million pounds. Read more about it here (PDF).

- Mike

James Blunt Concert

Molly and I went to see James Blunt in concert Saturday night. It was a really great show! The opening act was Toby Lightman, and she was fantastic as well! To the left is a picture of Toby Lightman that our friend Josh took with his cell phone. The show was at the Verizon Wireless Theater downtown Houston. We could only get general admission tickets, so we didn't have seats. It was kind of not fun on the legs standing the whole time, but we were only about 5 rows back from the stage. I guess you have to give-and-take in this life.

We had dinner before the concert at a mom-and-pop Italian place called Perbacco. I had the Gnocchi. It was the second time I had ever had it - the first time was at Chez Dr. Bob (which was also very good).

Here is my quote of the day: "When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it."
-- Henry Ford

- Mike

SARQuest Training

Today Molly and I took Vaska and Ginger to personality evaluation day with the team from SARQuest. SARQuest is a Texas Gulf Coast search and rescue team. We're going to get them involved with Search and Rescue training. Both of them performed extremely well on the testing. We thought that Ginger would score better, but Vaska nailed it. Basically they are both very well suited for training. I guess it's on us now to learn how to do said training! At first it was a little touchy because they both take a little time to warm up to other dogs. Between working weekends and moving soon, it's going to be tough, but we'll get there. Stand by for future updates on training.

- Mike

Busy Week

It was a busy week at the Allyn-Meyer household. I was at the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal performing some remote command testing to the space station. Molly was at home taking care of the dogs and acting for the group lead at work (both tasks should take more than one person!). Montreal is a pretty cool town. I was only there from Monday to Friday, so I didn't get to explore a whole lot other than dinner and walking around. It reminded me quite a bit of Europe, but with everything that we have here. French is the predominate language, but one can get by on English. They are quite as repulsed to speak English as the French are.

We're getting closer to closing on our new house, and we keep showing this one. We're getting a pretty consistent turnout for viewings, so hopefully we'll sell it soon.

- Mike

Today is a day of thought.

1. "Much smoking kills live men and cures dead swine." George Dennison Prentice
I agree.

2. "Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood." - HL Mencken
This is the the beauty and the curse of "perception is reality." And I truly believe that is what life is - perception. So be ready.

3. "Suffering is defined as clinging to our narrow view – we are addicted to me”. Pema Chödrön
I think it’s ego that fears change or fears pain. It’s ego that resists the flow and ebb of this thing called life. Our suffering is so grounded in our fear of impermanence.

- Molly

The Show Goes On

Well, we continue to show our house. There seems to be a fair amount of interest, which is good. It's a pain in the rear, but we are interested in selling after all! Every time someone is scheduled to come by, we pack up the dogs and get out to do something to kill a couple hours. Here are some less then recent pictures of the dogs. Ginger (Yellow Lab) is on the top and Vaska (Golden Retriever) is on the bottom. They do a good job of keeping us on our toes! We'll add more pictures (and more recent) soon.

We're on the market!

Our house officially hit the market at the end of the week. We had a bit of a scramble there at the end to get it in place before the weekend, but we made it. We are also getting the tile guy in today to repair some of the tile that he screwed up the first time around. A couple tiles didn't adhere well enough, so the grout started cracking. You could see the tile moving when pressed, so that is way unacceptable! It should (we hope) be resolved this weekend.

If anyone is looking for a place in Houston, click here!

We got an inspection complete on the house we're trying to buy. We sent back a couple minor things that we're asking the sellers to fix. Nothing major, just a few odds-and-ends. We hope to have that finalized soon.

Work Continues

Who would have thought selling a house would be so much work?! We continue to work to tidy up, pack up, clean up, etc. We also have a re-tiling effort ongoing in the master bathroom. It should turn out pretty nice. It's a wonder we didn't do it sooner so that we could enjoy it!

In other news, we had a contract (offer) accepted on a house that we would like to purchase. We actually found a house much sooner than we expected. Such is life - hopefully it won't take us long to sell this house. Here is a picture of our future (hopefully) home. Click the picture to see more pictures of it.

Z Machine Sets Unexpected Earth Temperature Record

I found this on the web and thougth it was absolutely amazing (text from APOD). The Z Machine running at Sandia National Laboratories created a plasma that was unexpectedly hot. The plasma reached a temperature in excess of two billion Kelvin, making it arguably the hottest human made thing ever in the history of the Earth and, for a brief time, hotter than the interiors of stars. The Z Machine experiment, pictured above, purposely creates high temperatures by focusing 20 million amps of electricity into a small region further confined by a magnetic field. Vertical wires give the Z Machine its name. During the unexpected powerful contained explosion, the Z machine released about 80 times the world's entire electrical power usage for a brief fraction of a second. Experiments with the Z Machine are helping to explain the physics of Solar flares, design more efficient nuclear fusion plants, test materials under extreme heat, and gather data for the computer modeling of nuclear explosions.

House For Sale

So, Molly and I are putting the house on the market. We figured it was a good starter house, but it's time for us to move on. Right now we're finishing up those projects we've let linger and generally getting the place into it's top condition. It doesn't seem like that long ago that I bought it (March, 2001), but that was 5 years ago! Hopefully we'll find something that matches all or most of our criteria. We definitely learned a lot owning this one, and we're looking forward to applying it to this time around!

Central America

My first near-real-time blog post...

At the end of February, Molly and I went on a cruise to Central America with our friends Josh and Lisa. Our port of call was LaPorte, Texas (Spanish for The Port) and we spent days in Cozumel, Mexico; Roatan, Honduras; and Belize City, Belize.

This picture is of Molly and I in front of El Castillo at the Mayan ruin of Xunantunich. El Castillo is a pyramid that stands 130 feet. Xunantunich is in Western Belize about 500 meters from Guatemala.

Josh and Lisa wrote extensively about the cruise. Read more in their blog.

Honeymoon in the Mediterranean

In May of 2004, for our Honeymoon, we took a cruise in the Mediterranean Sea. Our port of call was Rome, Italy and we visited Naples, Italy; Santorini, Greece; Mykonos, Greece; Valletta, Malta; Barcelona, Spain; and Nice, France. To the left is a random sampling of pictures. You'll see, from left: St. Peter's Basilica (outside and inside), The Pantheon at night (we were having dinner right there), Mt. Vesuvius' crater, Mike and Molly in front of Mt. Vesuvius (this link is a live webcam), Mykonos, the inside of St John’s Cathedral in Valletta, Malta, Temple of the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain, and Molly in Nice, France.

Engagement Trip to Scandinavia

In April of 2003, Molly and I took a two week trip to Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. This is where I proposed to her. The image to the right is the one we used for our engagement notice. It is chocked full of pictures from our trip. All 3 of the countries are represented. One of our favorite stops was the Vasa Mueseum in Stockholm. It's centerpiece is a 17th century warship that sank on the maiden voyage. It was raised in the 1950's. Check out the Museum site to learn more; it's facinating! While in Stockholm we stayed in the Gustav Vasa Hotel, which was right across the street from the Gustav Vasa Church.

Man fears Time, yet Time fears the Pyramids (Arab proverb)

The Great Pyramid is 451 feet tall. There are approximately 2 million blocks of stone, each weighing over 2 tons. This is the only one of the seven ancient wonders to still stand. You can see Molly at the base of the pyramid. This gives a good perspective as to how big the thing really is. This is from our trip to Egypt in April of 2005.

Below is a collage of a few other pictures from the trip.