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
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• 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