Porta nigra

Here's a leftover from the Roman empire in Trier, Germany - the same place I photographed Hiawatha a few weeks ago. In fact, this was taken the very same day. As if that mattered. At least it explains all the litter, which, as we know, was totally gone a few hours later.

I hear your puzzled cries. Why, you ask, is there a post on Sunday? Could it be that this is a Very Special Sunday post? And I answer: could be. Or it could just be that I forgot to post anything on Friday and need to make up for it. We'll just have to see, won't we?

We're all pretty preoccupied with the Big Move. We're still trying to figure out the myriad details, and considering that we don't have much information other than a start date yet, everything is pretty much speculation and conjecture at this point. Still, S and C can be pretty fun. We're getting hours of entertainment.

We've had our first showing of the house already. A neighbor heard we were moving and brought a friend over for a look. They were hoping to convince us to sell without a realtor, and at a bargain-basement price, so nothing came of it, of course. Still, it's nice to have some interest. We keep hearing how houses are selling well again around here, and today we heard that property values are not very good in the bay area right now. That's good news! Let's just hope there's some truth in there somewhere.

We got authorized to start with the relocation people, so we expect the house to go on the market sometime this coming week. Other houses in our neighborhood have sold recently in just a few days, so we just might all be ready to go at the beginning of June. Or, we might not sell it for months and I'll have to go to California by myself in June. Who knows? It's okay if it doesn't sell right away, of course, since we don't have any idea where we'll live anyway.

I finished Psmith, Journalist the other day. As previously mentioned, it managed to be humorous and entertaining without being really funny. This episode has Psmith talking the hapless assistant editor of an incredibly boring, poorly written old lady's newspaper into changing it to a crusading journal that protects the Oppressed Masses. They get into various scrapes but expose the bad guys and come out well in the end. I can't say I've really turned into a fan of Wodehouse's Psmith books, although I enjoyed them. I conditionally recommend them to my Loyal Readers, especially the ones who already know and like Wodehouse's work. Wodehouse neophytes would probably do well to check out the Jeeves books first.

I've added a few more Wodehouse books to the list, over there on the right. I'm reading Something New now, but I'm not far enough into it yet to have developed an opinion. I'll let you know later. Stay on the edge of your seat in the meantime.

Well, the Very Special Sunday Post is swiftly coming to an end. See you on Monday. Hopefully, we'll keep to the schedule this week.

Reader number nine

It's Loyal Reader Number Nine's time in the spotlight! You're famous now - try to use your newfound influence in constructive ways. The interesting thing about this shot (which, by the way, was provided by LRNN himself, and is thus one of the rare morrowlife photos not taken by Your Humble and Obedient Servant) is that it was taken on Alcatraz Island, a landmark well known for its proximity to San Francisco, which is thought to be part of The Bay Area, which is where we're moving soon. If you look carefully, you can see all kinds of prison-related rubble in the background. The rubble in the foreground is, of course, LRNN.

No posts for the last couple of days. Sorry about that. On Tuesday, we went down to Washington to attend our friend Jeri's wedding, and I was dog-tired when we got back and functionally illiterate for the evening (insert joke about my level of literacy on all other occasions here).

I stayed home from work on Wednesday and did a little bit of work around the house along with a little bit of recovering from my launch campaign, so there's no excuse for yesterday.

Speaking of dog-tired, I think we can all agree that's a term that evokes correct images of a dog's life. I've frankly become a little suspicious of people who tell me they've "worked like a dog." I have a dog and all she does is eat, sleep, and poop. Is that what these people have been doing? However, "dog-tired" pretty much describes my dog most of the time.

Speaking of dogs, The Girls (Jeri's dogs) are with us for only three more days. We've taken to calling them The Halfwit, since they're each about a quarter-wit on their own. It's a good thing they're cute or they wouldn't have any friends at all. They won't come when we call them, so why bother having names? They won't sit, lay down, play dead, or do anything else on command. They don't even so much as turn their heads. They circle around the dining room table like sharks while we eat. They go outside and can't seem to remember why. All in all, they make Belle seem like the World's Greatest Pet.

We're glad they're with us, though. Jeri's a great friend and we'd do anything for her. I just hope she isn't a Stealth Reader.

Got my report date to Sunnyvale figured out today. I'm starting on the fifth of June. That gives me a whole month and a little to tie up any loose ends around here. I've been working on the house a little and have a whole lot more to do. Compared to Loyal Reader Number Four's to-do list, however, mine looks pretty easy.

I only have one more trip to Europe before the move. I'm going to Paris on the 17th and 18th of May. I have one more systemwide upgrade on United to use up, so I guess I don't mind the trip, even though it's right on top of Loyal Reader Number Four's birthday.

I finished a PG Wodehouse book yesterday, but will leave the morrowlife Book Club wrapup on it until tomorrow. See you then.

Rock sculptures

Here are some more of those rock sculptures we found during our wonderful family camping trip late last summer. Yes, I know they're just piles of rocks. It's not what they're made of that counts, it's what the artiste has done with them. They're artistic piles of rocks.

Well, the die is cast. We're moving back to California, something we thought we would absolutely, positively never do. This time it's the Bay Area. My new job will be at the Lockheed Martin facilities in Sunnyvale. I'll be a software engineering manager working on the Anti-Ballistic Laser project. I'm excited about the career change and looking forward to the move, although it's really hard to leave. The company here in Newtown is making it as easy as they possibly can by coming apart at the seams all of a sudden. We hear there will be massive layoffs and big management changes in the next few weeks. We don't know when the new job will start, but we kind of hope for it to be in the first week of June. The final offer just came in this evening, so I haven't yet formally accepted it. After I do that (tomorrow or Wednesday), we can start negotiating the start date and other details.

We think we'll probably end up living in or near Modesto, which will be a very long commute (although not really longer timewise than it was in Virginia) but hopefully a nice little community in a beautiful area (for the desert) with very reasonable housing prices. We need to get out there and look a little bit before we make a final decision, though.

Tomorrow is our friend Jeri's wedding. Congratulations Jeri and Art! Reader Number Four and I are going down to Washington to be there. We're really excited for her. We're dogsitting her two, umm, dogs for the week while she and Art go on their honeymoon. It's already kind of interesting to have that many animals around here. She'll come pick them up on Sunday.

There are so many things to get done before the move that I hardly know where to begin. Fortunately, Number Four has helped me out with a list of things I need to do to the house right away. Fortunately, I have a few days of comp time to take over the next week or two, so I should have time to get all the projects going. Then maybe I can find the time later to get all the projects completed.

Well, it's late and I have to be ready to go tomorrow morning at 4:00, so it would be a good idea to quit. More move details tomorrow.

Campout

Loyal Readers Number One and Number Two are camping tonight. Sadly, I'm not there. However, here's a recent picture of Reader Number One with his tent. It was a little cold.

The campaign is officially over! We cleaned the office and loaded up the trucks today, and I'm heading for home tomorrow morning. Hallelujah! I'm really ready.

Wrote a couple of poems - I work exclusively in limericks, with a special talent for Epic-length work - in support of Reader Number Four's act in Saturday night's talent show. I really hate talent shows. I'm not really sure why either. Maybe somebody was killed before my very eyes at a talent show I attended as an infant. Or maybe they're just terrible. Who knows? Hey, that would make a good mystery novel - "Murder at the Talent Show." The main character could be forced to come up with an act for a talent show he doesn't even want to attend, much less take part in. A woman would scream during his lame act - she's found a body behind the piano! Chaos ensues and the murderer is caught by the hero at last, but not before nearly making another victim of our hero. How exciting!

It's late, I'm sleepy, I have to get up early tomorrow morning, and the sooner I sleep, the sooner I will wake up and go home. So good night!

Outbound

Here's a picture taken from my balcony on Easter Sunday. Yes, it's slightly fuzzy. Sorry about that. I had to zoom all the way in to get the picture, including using the digital zoom. Not too sharp, but I like the picture, so my Loyal Readers will just have to live with it.

Success! We flew our spacecraft this afternoon, on the first day of the launch period, at the first moment of the launch window. That's very unusual for Atlas. It was picture perfect. Absolutely beautiful! And the best part is that I get to go home on Saturday!

Tomorrow we pack out and ship the stuff home. Since we're in the USA this time, we don't have to lease another Antonov. A bunch 'o trucks will show up in the morning and drive away in the afternoon - some to Newtown and others to Sunnyvale. I need to get a few personal items into the Newtown shipment, like my new DVD player.

Had a big dinner with the spacecraft launch team at the Sunset Grill this evening. They're in a very pretty location - right on the Banana River. It was pretty busy when we got there, so we stood around for a while waiting for our table. During our Standing Period, somebody rang a ship's bell and they started playing loud music to go along with the sunset. It was a very pretty sunset. They had a guy playing a guitar and singing. He was pretty good but didn't get much applause. I hope he at least got paid. After he was done, they started playing rock music from the 80's. We all enjoyed identifying the songs and bands and, in most cases, cringing (link warning - cheesy 80's music) at the thought that we ever listened to them.

Happy birthday to my brother Chris. I got my dinner group to sing the birthday song to him, after which he told me all the people in his meeting enjoyed the music. Perfect.

Time for bed - I have a lot of packing to do tomorrow. See you then.

Boards

Here are a couple of surfboards somebody left on the grass outside the condo the other day. Whoa, dude.

Things continue to be fine here at the Cape. Tomorrow is our scheduled launch day and all systems are go. Keep your fingers crossed and watch us on the internet.

I left work at just about the right time this afternoon, which was unusual for me on a launch campaign. We've had strangely few difficulties in my area, so I've been trying to help my coworkers when the opportunity presents itself. Today I helped Sam find the ASOC, for example.

Not much else to talk about tonight. The launch looms large in my consciousness right now, pushing most other thoughts aside. Also, I'm sleepy. So you tomorrow.

Wish us luck!

Airboat

Here's the airboat I rode in a couple of weeks ago on my infamous alligator-picture-taking trip. It was loud. Pretty high-class outfit, huh?

Well, a previously-unimaginable event has occurred. Are you ready? Sit down. No, really, sit down. Okay. We have our ninth Loyal Reader! Welcome, Tony. Send your picture (or maybe I can dig one out from somewhere when I get home) and you'll be photographically featured right here in the blog. And check out your name in actual pixels over there on the right (link alert: "The Dead Pixels" would be a great name for a rock band, don't you think?).

Went to the launch team banquet tonight. It went from 7:30 to about 11:30 and I'm tired. Dog tired. It was a nice time, though. I like the people on the team and will miss them when I'm no longer hanging around with them.

I did a little bit of Financial Negotiation this afternoon. We'll see the results tomorrow, I hope. Maybe it will work out to my advantage! Maybe not. That's the beauty of negotiation - it's so unpredictable.

I want to go to bed now, and since none of my loyal readers are actually here telling me to keep typing (although I know you're thinking it), I'm quitting for now. My Loyal Readers can definitely count on more content tomorrow - unless it's absolutely inconvenient.

German tower

As promised on Friday, here's Germany's version of the Ron Jon tower. Although there's a chance this one has been around a little longer. Compare and contrast.

It's late on Monday night and I just got home from work (stopped on the way to pick up some Chinese food at Ginseng, which is excellent) after 13.5 hours at the office. Fortunately, about an hour and a half of that was spent on the phone with Reader Number Four, so the day wasn't a total waste. We've got some Big Exciting Things in the works - stay tuned!

It was a tough day at work. We're moving along, but not as quickly as we'd like. Hence the long day. And another very long one tomorrow, most likely.

At least the weekend was nice. I worked five hours on Saturday and took Easter Sunday off. I spent the day going to church (nice ward - good Gospel Doctrine class and friendly High Priests group), barbecuing my lunch, washing some clothes, reading the scriptures, reading my book, watching a couple of movies, and chatting with Reader Number Four. It would only have been better if I had been at home.

Gotta get to bed, so this will be short tonight. Let's hope for a shorter workday tomorrow. See you then.

American tower

Here's my last picture from Ron Jon's (unless I run out of Blog Fodder, of course). See next Monday's post for its German counterpoint.

It's a beautiful Saturday evening and I'm leaning back in my chair with a nice glass of Smoothie. Note that this post is dated on Friday; through the miracle of Blogger, I'm able to travel to the past and get the right date in there. Why is this bit of trickery necessary, you ask? Simple: I forgot. I had kind of a late night last night and just dropped into bed without taking care of my obligations to my Loyal Readers. Mercy.

I went out at about 7:00 this evening to wander around aimlessly until I came across a restaurant that looked appealing. My colleague Joe passed me on the road and signaled me to follow him, so I did. It turns out he was meeting a group at Bernard's Surf restaurant, so I invited myself to join them. The meal was great but expensive. I had some excellent seared Ahi tuna as an appetizer, a very nice filet mignon for dinner, and creme brulee for dessert. We split the bill evenly, so it cost me a great deal more than it would have otherwise, since my beverage choices tend to be much cheaper than those of my colleagues. Doesn't matter - it was a great meal and the company was pleasant.

I'm looking forward to Easter Sunday. We will NOT work that day, so I can go to church without getting a last-minute call to come to the office. I'm just sorry to not be home. No jelly beans, no Easter baskets, no family fun, no nothing. Pity my solitary loneliness. And pity my poor family members who have to endure the holiday without me. Those are the ones I really feel sorry for.

Sorry to end that last sentence with a preposition. I guess I just got carried away. Or was that caught up? You be the judge.

Anyway, Happy Easter to each and every one of my Loyal Readers. Hug your family members and thank Heavenly Father for your blessings. See you on Monday.

Fence

Here's the little surfer guy from the Cocoa Beach Surf Company, Ron Jon's arch nemesis. They're right across the street from each other and they're both going for the throat.

There's a TON of news today! First and foremost, a big morrowlife welcome to Julie, Reader Number Eight! Actually, I kind of talked her into becoming a Loyal Reader, but morrowlife mania knows no limits. She's in. Send me a picture, Number Eight!

Let's see, what was secondmost? Oh yeah, a little update to the morrowlife book club, over there on the right. I finished Psmith in the City a few days ago and forgot to note the fact. As previously advertised, it was delightful. It was a bit more subtle than much of Wodehouse's other work, and I'm thinking the Jeeves books here in particular. Psmith is more eccentric than hilarious, but I found myself liking him and his friend Mike. The story moved quickly, it was Veddy British like every other Wodehouse novel (but in a charming pre-WWI way), and it was amusing. It left me wanting more Psmith. Luckily, that's exactly what I'm reading! I started Psmith, Journalist this afternoon. It's obviously more of the same, which is a good thing. I simply can't recommend P.G. Wodehouse to my Loyal Readers enough. Try any of his stuff, but it's a safe bet to start with anything in the Jeeves series. I encourage any Loyal Readers who actually take this advice to let me know what they think. I'll be waiting right here.

Okay, it seems to me that there was a thirdmost here, but I can't for the life of me remember what it was. I always think of these things while I'm walking up the stairs to the condo, and they don't bother writing them down as soon as I get inside. Inevitably, they disappear long before I get around to writing. Well, maybe I'll ramble on a little bit and see if anything comes to me.

Had a great dinner tonight at a place called A Taste of Goa. It's advertised as an Indian-Portuguese restaurant, but it looked and tasted to me like just a plain Indian place. That's not a bad thing though - quite the contrary, in fact. I had a mango lassi that was so good I ordered another one for dessert. I also got some shrimp in a coconut milk/spice sauce and some vegetable soup. Outstanding. I might go there again. It's pretty close to the condo to boot.

The campaign proceeds in good order. Last night's launch resulted in a healthy satellite in a very good orbit, so there's no 'splainin' to be done there. I'm cautiously optimistic about next Thursday for us. If so, I'm home on Saturday! If not, I'll be home one of these days.

I wish there was more of interest in my life right now, but there just isn't. I hate to say it, but Cocoa Beach is getting kind of old. I'm clicking my heels together three times and saying "there's no place like home" several times a day, but without result so far. Maybe tomorrow. I want to go home and see my family - and my little dog too!

I'm listening to an old Leo Laporte podcast and heard one of his callers talk about an application called SeaMonkey. It's a Mozilla project that includes a web browser, email application, chat client, newsgroup client, and HTML editor. It's available for Mac, Windows, and Linux and looks like it might be pretty cool. It is beyond version 1, so it ought to be stable at this point. I think I'll download it and try it on my Mac when I get home. Maybe a loyal reader would like to download it first and let me know what he/she thinks.

Well, Big News Item Number Three never materialized in my mind, so I'll end with a bang.

Tower

Here's another picture of Ron Jon's. I took those on a beautiful day, and the colors turned out to be really interesting. I'm starting to run out of blog pictures, though, so it's time to get out there with the camera again.

Another mostly uneventful day. I went over to the launch complex right after lunch for a checkout task, a tower visit, and a meeting. That was pleasantly different. I need to stay in the office tomorrow, though. I have a lot of little things to get done before we get much closer to launch.

I've been watching the web broadcast of the JCSAT 9 launch on Sea Launch this evening. I was about to go out to dinner at 7:00 when I remembered the launch was scheduled for 7:30. So I stayed home, cooked a couple of burgers (yum!) and watched the launch on my computer. It looked beautiful. As I write this, the upper stage final burn has completed and they're about four minutes away from spacecraft separation. That will mean we're up next!

It was yet another windy, cool day. I think it got only into the mid-70's. It's 71 right now. Not that I'm complaining. My sliding glass door is open yet again and the condo feels absolutely great.

Disaster! I'm out of ice cream. What will I do for dessert tonight? I know - I'll run out to the store and get some more. I'm out of Cocoa Krispies too, so there's an urgent need to shop. I don't think I need any other groceries at this point, with only eight more days until our planned launch date. If it ends up going longer, I can always go resupply.

Separation is about a minute and a half away. Keep your fingers crossed.

My hamburgers were on toasted English muffins. They're really good that way. I recommend the recipe to my loyal readers. No charge (warning: this link has been rated Y for yuckiness).

Spacecraft separation was just confirmed! Congratulations all around! That used to be pretty much the end of the mission for me, back when I was a launch vehicle guy. Now that I'm on the spacecraft side, most of the hard work is ahead of us. We have to get the orbit raising done, make all the deployments, check out the payload, and make it productive for at least twelve years. Fortunately, our folks are pretty good at it.

Happy birthday to my sister Julie! I need to call her on the way to the grocery store.

Well, it's time to go out and buy that ice cream and cereal, so I'll just say cheery bye.

Cheery bye.

Dude

Whoa, dude. Gnarly. Like, totally awesome. Here's the cement surfer in front of Ron Jon's. Far out, man. Sorry about the light pole. I tried to get them to move it in the name of Art, but the Ron Jon dudes turn out to be Philistines. Who would have guessed? I suppose I could Photoshop it out (well, actually Gimp it out), but that would be inconsistent with my Artistic Vision. And inconvenient too.

Had a pretty good day today. I got out of the office at about 6:00 this afternoon, having arrived at 7:00 this morning, which was actually a pretty short work day around here. Had lunch at the NASA KSC Headquarters Building cafeteria with Joe and John. If the food had been just a little bit better it would have been absolutely mediocre. I believe my hamburger was cooked sometime today, but I couldn't swear to it. On the plus side, I got tater tots. On the other plus side, their ATM was working, so I'm resupplied with cash.

Dinner was on my own tonight. I had Chinese food at Ginseng. They're owned by the same people who own Yen Yen, and they told me as I was walking out the door that they can make anything you can get on Yen Yen's much larger (outrageously large!) menu. Maybe they should have mentioned it before I started eating. Maybe I'll go back. Maybe that's what they were trying to get me to do.

We had mainly pleasant weather today. It only got up to the mid-seventies, and the wind was still blowing pretty hard, but it felt good to be outside. My sliding glass door is open even as I type this, giving me comfortably warm air and beautiful ocean sounds. Aah, this is the life. If only my family were here, it might be hard to get me to go home. But it might not.

I washed some shirts this evening - they're drying now. I'm hoping I don't end up regretting that decision. I could have taken them to the Cape Laundry, of course, and gotten them washed and pressed by Professionals. I suppose if they come out looking terrible, I can just take them over to the Professionals tomorrow morning and have them done again (as opposed to ironing them myself, which is beyond unthinkable). Stay tuned for the exciting conclusion!

I'm listening to the dl.tv (formerly Digital Life TV) podcast from March 16th, featuring Patrick Norton and Robert Heron. It has become one of my very favorite podcasts (right up there with James Lileks, Click and Clack, and Leo's KFI weekend show. Highly recommended. I'm on podcast number 20 of the 53 shows on my iPod right now, hoping to get through all of them by the time I get home. Then I can load the 'Pod back up with all the new shows that have arrived during my month-long absence. I can't catch up!

Time to go. See you tomorrow.

Sailboat

Here's the model boat on my current condo's television cabinet. I like it. Not much of a picture, though. Some of these "reality" shots are hard on my reputation as a photographic artiste.

Long day today. In fact, I'm still in the office, although I stopped working almost half an hour ago. I'm kind of waiting around for a couple of the guys to finish what they're doing so we can go out to dinner together.

Oops - dinner just got postponed again. Those guys may not be going out anywhere tonight. But I am. I'm giving them a few more minutes before I just take off.

Nothing much to blog about tonight. The weekend was fine. I worked a few hours both days and spent a lot of time at home in the condo otherwise. My new condo has a George Foreman barbecue, which I've already taken advantage of by cooking a few steaks and hamburgers. Both the living room and the master bedroom face the ocean, giving me a double-wide balcony. There's a new refrigerator and dishwasher and everything else is in very good shape. And then there's the nice sailboat model pictured above. The only thing it was missing was a DVD player, so I spent forty-five bucks at WalMart and bought one. I'll take it home and use it in our bedroom when the campaign is over. I was looking for a good price on a DVD recorder, but the 'Mart didn't have any.

The weather was terrible yesterday. It only got up to about 75 degrees, it was cloudy, and the wind was blowing to beat the band. They really need some rain here, but we got about two drops. The good thing was that I kept my sliding glass doors open all day and the condo felt quite comfortable. The wind kept blowing doors shut, but that wasn't a problem. Saturday was warm and sunny, if a little bit windy. There were plenty of people on the beach Saturday; it was deserted yesterday. Not even the tourists went out there. It was nice again today - not too warm and mostly cloudy, but comfortable. Can't complain.

Well, that's about it for today. I'm going to pack up and go get some dinner, friends or no friends. See you tomorrow.

Doorway

This is another detail from Ron Jon's. They certainly use interesting colors there.

Had a better day today - no lousy meals at all. The culinary highlight was the barbecued beef brisket for lunch.

I only worked six hours today but that was enough, considering that today was my off Friday. I'm not planning to go to the office on Saturday or Sunday either. My orders are to minimize overtime and I plan to obey my orders. I don't have any plans for the weekend other than moving to the ocean-facing condo on Saturday and going to church on Sunday. Since tomorrow's move has to take place between 2:00 and 3:00, I can't really make any Saturday plans. Maybe I'll have time to go to the alligator farm.

On the other hand, maybe I've seen enough alligators for now. I drove to the base twice yesterday and saw a grand total of eight of the little critters in the various waterways around there. However, I didn't see a giant non-organic 'gator. So there's something to look forward to.

No other news today. I'm watching Forbidden Planet on TCM right now. It's a sci-fi movie from 1956 and is incredibly entertaining in its goofy 1950's way. The young Leslie Nielsen is especially entertaining (great ducktail haircut!), as is the predecessor to the Lost in Space Robot ("You bumbling booby!"). Definitely recommended.

Speaking of recommended, I'm continuing to enjoy Psmith in the City (see the book club over there on the right). I'm about three quarters of the way through it. It's not laughing-out-load funny like Wodehouse's Jeeves books, but it's definitely an amusing tale. I still recommend it to my discerning Readers.

Oops, Forbidden Planet just ended, so it must be time for bed. See you on Monday!

Tiki guy 2

As promised yesterday, here's Tiki guy 2! He's right next to Number One. (Not Reader Number One, of course; see yesterday's picture. This guy only vaguely resembles Reader Number One.)

What a lousy dinner tonight! I went to my formerly favorite Japanese restaurant. Got there at about seven, got a table, and ordered some sushi. It turns out I was right behind a party of about ten people, all of whom ordered sushi too. I got my soup and salad, ate them, and waited for my sushi. And waited, and waited, and waited. About fifty minutes later, my food arrived. I ate one piece of shrimp, which tasted like two-day-old fish. Yuck! Called the waitress over and asked if we could just call the whole thing off. She offered to replace the food, of course, but I just didn't feel like waiting any longer and I certainly didn't feel like eating any more sushi. I stopped on the way home and picked up a TV dinner, which I just finished. Not my best meal ever. And you can be sure I'm never going back to that restaurant. That wasn't their first strike with me.

On a brighter note, our campaign is moving along right on schedule. I got over to the Cape this morning, finished my training, and got my safety badge. Some meetings tomorrow and then we transport on Saturday. Keep crossing those fingers!

Nothing else of note today, so I'm done.

Tiki guy 1

As today's title suggests, watch for Tiki guy 2 tomorrow! The Tiki guys are out in front of Ron Jon's. Pretty cool.

It was nice to hear from Reader Number Seven in yesterday's comments. Those 'gators were pretty big, but I heard about somewhere I can find some bigger ones. Apparently, there's an alligator farm (link warning - talking alligator) not far from here (it's near Christmas, Florida - home of the world's largest non-organic alligator) where they grow 'em really big. However, I'm not sure that really counts since they're in captivity. Still, if I get another free day, I'll probably go over there and take a look. And a picture or two.

Had dinner at Roberto's again tonight, with Bill and his wife once again. Also, we had Steve and Bridget - old friends who live here in town and have been very kind to me in the past - and Craig and a guy named Bill who I hadn't met before yesterday. It was another great meal at a wonderful restaurant with delightful company. Let's just say I'm not exactly losing weight on this campaign.

Operations are still on schedule today. Keep your fingers, toes, and eyes crossed. I want to go home on time! We don't have much joint work tomorrow. The Atlas folks will prepare for transport to the launch pad and we'll do other things. I'm going over to the pad for my familiarization walkdown. It's the last step I have to take to renew my Cape safety badge. After that, I'll probably spend the rest of the day working on charts for yet another management pre-launch review. Oh joy.

Nothing else to report today, so I won't. After all, I got up, got dressed, went to work, worked, went straight to dinner, came home, talked to Reader Number Four for a long while, blogged, had a nice glass of smoothie, and went to bed (still to come, of course, but I can pretty safely predict in this area), so there's not a lot of news. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, try to survive without me.

Gator

As promised yesterday, here's a picture of the biggest alligator I saw on Saturday. Do you think that was worth sixteen bucks?

Saw another gator for free this afternoon, on the NASA causeway. There are a bunch of runoff ponds on either side of the road. On the way back to Astrotech from the ASOC, I noticed about a four-footer floating in one of them. Note to self: if my car breaks down on the base, don't walk home. Call somebody.

I have to agree with Loyal Reader Number One's comments on the obtuseness of the OCC website. Ironically, the subtext of last night's American Chopper episode was Mikey's new job as chief web architect for the company. They had a professional web designer do the coding, but Mikey did the redesign. I guess it just didn't work out. As my Loyal Readers may or may not know, Mikey is widely thought to be the family member who's a little bit short on know-how. Bluntly put, he's an idiot. At least that's how they treat him. Maybe it's not really true, but it's interesting how he acts when everybody else is giving him the usual grief. Hey - he might make an interesting case study. Maybe he acts stupid because of his environment. Maybe he would turn out to be a super-genius if only they would treat him like one. Maybe I could get together with some of my wealthy, snobbish friends and offer to take Mikey in and teach him to be a true gentleman. We could make a movie and call it "My Fair Biker."

Or maybe he's just stupid.

I just polished off another bottle of Smoothie. Yum. Luckily, there's another one in the fridge.

The campaign went well today. We're right on track for tomorrow's operation, which is about the best we can hope for at this stage of the game. Keep watching for a launch on the twentieth!

Had dinner at Roberto's Cuban Restaurant tonight. I got out of the office pretty late, picked up my laundry, went home and dropped it off, and then went directly to the restaurant. Still, I didn't get out of there until just before 9:00. The food was outstanding - I had a Cuban tamale, garlic-and-lemon-encrusted shrimp, and flan - and the company turned out to be very nice. My old friend Bill Raynor and his wife were there when I arrived, just finishing up their meal. They came over and chatted with me for my entire meal, which was really nice of them. I had dinner with them last night too. Now I need to find out where they're eating tomorrow.

See you tomorrow.

Surf shop

Here's an artist's-eye view of Ron Jon's surf shop here in Cocoa Beach. How artistic!

Had a pretty good day today. Our integrated operations started this morning with very good success. The only tough part of the day was that we started at 6:00 this morning. On top of the time change over the weekend, we had a pretty sleepy team, including me.

I went to Thai Thai for the third time on this campaign. Some friends from Denver invited me. The food was great, just as it has been every time, and the company was great. I really enjoyed the meal. After dinner, I came back to the condo and jacuzzified for an hour or so. There were a couple of families down there from Michigan - I enjoyed talking with them. Now I'm watching American Chopper on Discovery (they're making a drag racing bike tonight, which is something new for the guys at OCC [link alert - sound!]), drinking a little bit of V8 Splash Smoothie, and writing my Monday blog post. The perfect end to a very nice day. The only thing I would change about today would be to spend it at home. Sigh.

I didn't work over the weekend! On Saturday, I took a few pictures, including the highly artistic one featured above, and went to the Lone Cabbage Fish Camp for an airboat tour and fried lunch. I saw a bunch of alligators and some pretty (if somewhat swampy) scenery. I'll work a couple of pictures in over the next few blog days. Sunday I spent at home in the condo, including listening to general conference, which I enjoyed.

And now, to bed!