The Journeyman's Journal
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in the "rgalexan" journal:[<< Previous 20 entries]
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10:42 am
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David Jacobs
David Jacobs was a friend of mine in high school. We weren't super close; we kind of ran in different crowds. But I drove him home pretty regularly, and the best man in my wedding, Chris, was also his best man. David was a tormentuous soul -- he was a known fighter, and he and I got into a fight at a dance in 7th grade. No suprise, I lost. He and my friend Jay got into a bad fight in 10th grade over who would ride shotgun in my car. Chris, my French teacher, and I tried in vain toi break it up, but the David's strength and Jay's pure adrenaline were too much for us (and for the school's windows, which got smashed).
I will never forget the assistant principal the next day, asking me to keep up my friendship with both of them, as Chris and I were "the only level-headed friends that either of them had."
Most people in High School never saw Davids decent side, but I did. When my lifetime friend Julia died after a ten year fight with cancer (we were 16), David sought me out to give his condolences. We ran into each other during a ski trip to Winter Park, he went out with me to give me some pointers, and to "keep you from getting yourself killed." I still suck at skiing. Most people don't know that David was also active in the Civil Air Patrol, which he took as a preparation for the Marine Corps. He signed up the day he was eligible, though his Marine career was cut short for medical reasons.
Chris said that he calmed down after that, looking into doing some police work in Atlanta while dealing with a failed marriage. He was struggling to make it, but he was going to make it, it seemed.
Jay called me several months ago when he found out that David was convicted of steroid trafficking. I wasn't really suprised, to be honest. Sadly, I had the same reaction yesterday when Jay called me to tell me that David Jacobs was found dead (http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3427526). The police are trying to hint at murder-suicide, but I know better. David and his girlfriend were murdered, and it was in connection with the steroid scandal. Call it a feeling if you will, and I know that it would never hold up in court. Though we haven't been in touch, I know that David was still had strength.
According to the stories, he was trying to do right by himself, and come forward with details of his trafficking. He'd already had some discussions with the NFL. Somebody didn't want him to talk. I hope that they find out who was responsible for this, and it all comes to light. Somehow, I get the feeling that the NFL is going to try and cover their own ass on it, just like they did with Belichek. I hope that I am wrong.
David wasn't perfect, and he made a lot of mistakes in his time. But he didn't deserve to die.
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10:41 am
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Memorial Day Weekend
I've been really busy since I've been back, so I haven't really been able to write down all of what happened on my trip to the Low Countries for Memorial Day weekend. My Dad, Uncle, and I joined veterans of the 104th Infantry Division (the Timberwolves) as they retraced their steps from World War II. This was my grandfather's division. Here is the condensed version, with pics to come later:
Thursday: Dad and I fly to Amsterdam. In one flight, KLM airlines gets their entry in my book changed from "Totally Awesome" to "Going Downhill Fast." They have taken out the old, more spacious seats, and replaced them with seats that I cannot fit into.
Friday: We arrive at Schipol, and my Unlce Buford meets us there. We meet up with the Timberwolves at a small Dutch village near the Belgian border where they saw a good bit of action. Some of the locals there have started a museum of the unit, as well as a reinactment group that dresses in American uniform. Several prominent town officials are involved. The founders of the museum, two boys now ages 20 and 17, are eager to meet the veterans. They drive us in vintage jeeps down through Belgium, and the locals show me exactly where my Grandfather was in all of this.
The three of us split off from the group at that point, and head to a hotel on the beach where members of the Roosevelt Foundation are staying. Buford and Dad ditch me for the night.
Saturday: The three of us attend the Roosevelt Foundation Four Freedoms awards ceremony, which is a pretty big deal there. It's an invitation only event, and Buford scored special VIP passes for himself and Dad. I got to attend, but I didn't get to sit with The Queen of the Netherlands like they did. After the awards ceremony, they have lunch with the Queen and the honorees, while I hang outside the castle with Dutch government officials and the Dutch Royal bodyguards.
We then drive to Henri-Chappelle, Belgium, a town that the Timberwolves liberated and where several Timberwolves are buried. They, too, have a local reinactment group there in uniform. The Timberwolves have not arrived yet, but one local enthusiastically greets us at the bar of the town's sports facility, where a memorial celebration is being held. He buys us several drinks, and when he finds out that we are with veterans, he makes sure that some seats are saved for the orchestra concert that is just beginning. That is, he clears the first three rows for the Timberwolves. When the veterans arrive (late), they stop the concert, and make an announcement that the Timberwolves have returned. The town makes a rousing standing ovation as the eighty-year old veterans enter. I will never forget seeing the veteran in front of me raise his fist in victory as the crowd cheers. Amazing.
Sunday - We attended Memorial Day services at Maargraten Cemetary in the Netherlands. This was another big affair, with thousands of Dutch coming out to pay their respects. The two highest ranking Timberwolves laid a wreath for the unit -- it was one of about 40 wreaths that were laid on behalf of various groups, from the US government on down to the Boy and Girl Scouts. Extremely touching event.
Afterwards, a group of us went out for a gourmet patio dinner (Bufords treat) in the Dutch wine country. Beautiful place, and the Dutch white wine was suprisingly good. Bufor breaks out a bottle of 1945 Margeaux to celebrate the occasion. Fellow wine lovers, be jealous.
Monday - We join the Timerwolves for a cruise on the Rhine, and we were able to locate the site of the unit CP that had been hit by German artillery. Three Colonels were killed with that one shell. We are able to stop in Cologne for a brief hour, but had to move on to our hotel in Aachen. Buford, Dad, and I headed back to Amsterdam.
Tuesday -- Dad and I fly back. The flight is not nearly as crowded, so I was able to take up two seats. Unfortunately, the young lady right behind us didn't know how to take care of her baby, and he screamed at the top of his lungs for several hours of the trip. The stewardesses tried to intervene, but they were a bit gunshy on what to do. At one point, the she had laid the baby in the aisle as he kicked and screamed, which and people had to step over him as they went down the aisle.
We hit the Texas border, the pilot announced that DFW was closed due to bad weather, and we diverted here to Houston to refuel and wait on the tarmac. I swear that I could see my car out the window as we waiting. It was about a two hour wait until we were able to fly back up to DFW. Fortunatlely, my flight to Houston was also delayed, so I was able to catch it. I made it back to Houston five hours late.
But oh, what an experience it was...
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05:28 pm
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Flipt Skateshop
There's a couple of reasons that I haven't journaled in like three months. The first is that I got reassigned to a new project at work (again), and I am now working on the new COTS program as a subcontractor to Orbital Sciences Corporation. I'm still with SAIC in Houston, and I still love it.
More importantly, we now have Flipt Skateshop up and running. It's been a lot of work over the past four months, and though Angie is doing 90% of the work, I am staying involved with the marketing aspect, as well as campaigning in the local community to have some true public use skateparks built here in Clear Lake. I've been working with the Cities of El Lago, Seabrook, Webster, and Kemah, and have been having a good bit of progress thus far. I've got a co-worker who's charging the hill with me, and he was part of the group that raised $2 million to get a new park built in downtown Houston.
The shop is doing pretty well so far. The previous owners focused on clothing, but we quickly came to discover that the Clear Lake area was in need of a core shop that focused on skateboarding. Fortunately, the boys' uncle Tommy owns a skateshop in Tampa, and was able to help us get some direct contacts with some of the up-and-coming skate companies, many of who gave us exclusive rights to carry their stuff in the Clear Lake area. Already, we sport a pretty impressive deck wall:
Davido is getting more and more involved in operations of our skate sales, and Mikhail has been putting good time in helping to run the store as well. I've seen them learn and grow more in the past few months than I have seen from them in the past couple of years. It's been fun seeing them grow with the store, and I look forward to more of it.
One of the other things that we will be doing with the shop is starting a skate team. We're in the process of taking videos from local skaters as auditions for sponsorship. There are some perks with this. Last week, the boys and I tried out a local sports photographer for some action shots (he's on my soccer team, and works for the Houston Dynamo). What it amounted to was free photos, and a real cool Mother's Day present for Angela.
Mikhail (notice the peace sign he did for his mother):
Davido (you can actually see his face):
They even look like they've grown up a bit to me.
If you are ever in Kemah, please stop by the shop!
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12:17 am
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Latest Version - Places I've Travelled
Updated to include Great Britain from last year. I plan on hitting a couple more next year (with Davido and Josiah).
create your own visited country map
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03:58 am
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While supporting the shuttle flight, I make an entry
There's a lot going on in my life, and with my family, that I know I am going to look back some day and regret not journaling it. There's been a lot of highs and lows, lessons learned, times that I want to remember. Alas, I'll once again settle for a bulleted list:
-- Yesterday was an anniversary for me. I suffered a personal tragedy on March 13, 1998, that changed my world forever. Without going into too much detail, let's just say that it was legal in nature, and I was Nifonged by the local authorities. In the end, I won, though the damage to my good name is still in the process of being recovered. Yet I can look back, and see all that I've done since that day that I lost everything.
-- But enough of looking back, now's a better time to be looking forward. The good news in our lives is that we have completed our purchase of Flipt Skateboards and Clothing. Angie has done a phenomenal job getting things done (this is really her show), and we were able to open up and take over the business at a greatly reduced price. We've been open for a week under our ownership, but we're still in the process of getting new clothing orders in. Angie's done a lot of great work, and has found fulfillment in opening the shop. If ever in Kemah, stop on by!
I hope that all is well with all of you.
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04:17 am
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Working the shuttle flight
Still in training, but I'm pulling a few overnight shifts. We're putting the European lab module onto the International Space Station during this flight, which is a big milestone for the program.
The purchase of Flipt Skateboards is moving forward slowly. Angie is handling 90% of it. It turns out that the previous owner is facing eviction from the building owner, which Angie parlayed into a 60% reduction in the purchase price. My wife is amazing.
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07:07 am
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Been way too busy
I've been in an intensive period of training for my new console at NASA, and Angie and I are working hard to get the skate shop in our names. To complicate things, she's been sick with a severe bout of the flu.
Plus, today happens to be Davido's 16th birthday. Yikes.
If this is coming off as an excuse for not journaling, well, it is.
On a good note, Flipt is opening in February, and there will be pictures!
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01:58 pm
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Checking in
It's been weeks since my last entry, so here are three quick points:
-- Christmas in Pensacola was fine, and we had some nice presents. It's a little tough balancing time with the various family members, which is a game that no one can win. All we can do is just enjoy the time for what it is. The holidays are tough enough as it is.
-- We are in the early stages of purchasing a skate shop in nearby Kemah. Anybody need some new decks?
-- I preached at the Unitarian church in Beaumont yesterday. It felt good to get back into the pulpit.
Have a safe celebration tonight, and I hope that the next 366 days are good ones for all of you!
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02:36 pm
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Getting over an illness
This past weekend sucked. I had a cold starting Friday afternoon, and it just got worse through the weekend. I was going to play soccer again Saturday morning, first time since my injury in October. Didn't happen. I was pretty useless throughout the weekend, and Angie felt pretty bad too. Ironically, I started feeling better on Sunday night, though Angie is still struggling. A perfectly good weekend, gone to hell.
A bigger piece of news: Mikhail's friend, Blake's, family is going through some real hard times. They are relocating for a short time, and we have decided to let Blake stay with us for the remainder of the school year. It's another child under my watch, so I've gone from zero to three in the last two years. He's a good kid, though, so I'm not too intimidated.
My parents bought the boys Guitar Hero III for Christmas, and everyone knew it. Since both the boys and Angie were already addicted to it from the demo that they downloaded. Since yesterday was the first day of Hanukkah, they decided it was an appropriate time to open it up and stary playing. I'm going to miss them.
Shuttle to launch tomorrow. I'm only going to do some on-the-job training during the first weekend, but I'll be on call for the "Team 4" problem resolution team for the rest of the flight. They'll be attaching the European Columbus module to the ISS, which will be a big addition. It should be a great flight.
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04:10 pm
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Thanksgiving was great, btw
We went over to my sister Deborah's place in nearby Rosharon to have a family dinner. Her kids were all there (save for Nathan, who is at Fort Irwin in California right now). A good time was had by all, though we didn't stay as long as we usually do. I was fighting off some sort of illness, and Mikhail had plans to have his buddy Blake come over that night. It was good to see Micah and Jonathan, though.
I was able to go to work the next day, and leave early to watch the Texas game. Then I got really sick from watching our team's performance.
Mikhail has his first cross country meet this evening. Our official word on his involvement to the team came about 6 hours ago. Well, that explains why he decided to not continue basketball tryouts (it looked like he was going to make the team). I know very little about the world of cross country, so this might be interesting.
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11:41 am
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A great birthday campout
This past weekend, we took another family camping trip. After a couple of weeks deliberation, we decided on Pace Bend Park on the shores of Lake Travis near Austin. I spent a decent amount of time at Lake Travis during my time at UT, so it was a welcome return to familiar territory for me. As usual, it wasn't just Angie, Davido, Mikhail and myself, but we took their friend the Blake and my nephew Josiah along. This was a trip especially planned so that we can take the dogs, Perro and Skylos, along for a little more fun. The extra special element was that Angie's brother Buddy flew in from Oregon to join us as well.
Friday night we left as soon as school was out in a vain attempt to beat Houston traffic. For those of you who don't know, everything gets stuck in Houston traffic. I had to go across Clear Lake to get Josiah after his wrestling practice, as was planned, and thus arrived at the camp site about an hour after the rest. Thankfully, they had finished putting up Blake's huge tent by the time Josiah and I got there, so I just had to work with Angie to get our tent up.
Buddy flew into Bergstrom airport on Saturday morning, so Angie went to get him while I stayed with the boys (minus a still sleeping Davido) to go swimming in Lake Travis. Actually, Perro did the great majority of the swimming, but the boys got to experience the joy of making him fetch stuff in the water. Buddy and Angie got back in time for lunch, and we took a hike around the park in the afternoon -- three and a half miles of hiking that covered a good bit of Pace Bend.
We got back late in the afternoon, which was time to get dinner started. My old friend Daniel drove in from Austin to help Angie to cook the dinner, which was a special birthday meal of grilled salmon that had been marinating the whole time. Now, I love the way that Angie cooks salmon, and she always seems to get it just right and flaky. I will try to avoid salmon in a restaurant because I like hers so much. However, this was her first time to cook in on a grill, and but Daniel knew just how to get it done. Unfortunately, it started raining right as the salmon began to cook. It didn't matter, though, because the coals were under some foil. The whole situation caused the fish to steam as well as grill (they were "greamed," we joked. It turned out great, as well as the grilled veggie sides. This was followed by a birthday brownie dessert. We spent the rest of the evening with some family time around the camp fire, until we all racked out from being so tired.
The next day was devoted to an excursion to Enchanted Rock. Buddy was especially excited about this, as he had done some advanced reading on it beforehand. I'm proud to say that both our dogs have been up to the top of Enchanted Rock. After the initial dash up to the top, we split up to let Buddy and the boys boulder there way back down while we took the dogs down a more established path. We met up for lunch at "Lunchtime Rock," in between Enchanted Rock and Little Rock. Lunchtime rock was big enough for Buddy to get things set up and instruct the boys on some climbing. We all did it, though I admit it was pretty easy for me because I had a long enough reach to grab the key handhold. Once we all had a crack at climbing, we were running a bit low on water, so we headed back to the cars and back to the Lake.
Sunday dinner was a meal of foil packs, which is an Angie specialty. Though it was a holiday weekend, the majority of the other campers were gone, and we were pretty much left to our own devices. Despite our busy day thus far, we enjoyed a night hike after dinner. It was a nice, leisurely stroll of just a mile or so. We seemed to time it just right, because once we got back, the boys discovered a couple going at it in the bathroom stall of the camp ground. What a thing to for a bunch of teenage boys to discover... well, at least we had something to talk about. We were all pretty exhausted, and ready to sleep. Apparently Perro wasn't, because he had about a two hour "conversation" with a dog on the other side of the lake. He didn't shut up until we moved him closer to our tents, but the damage was kind of done already.
Monday morning was a quick breakfast, a camp takedown, and some rock climbing on one of the lakeside cliffs at Pace Bend. After the challenge at Enchanted Rock, the boys had no trouble on the cliffs. While they were doing that, Perro swam back and forth across the cove below. After all the boys had a crack at that, we packed up and met Daniel at the Magnolia Cafe on South Congress in Austin. We ate on the patio to let Skylos join us, though Perro was content to sleep in the convertible. It had been a long time since I had been to Magnolia; I forgot how awesome it was.
We dropped Buddy off at Bergstrom on the way out, and headed back to Houston. After I dropped Josiah off at his place, I came home to find that the Expedition had already been completely unpacked. All I had to do was through our cooking supplies into the dishwasher, empty out the coolers, and it was done. Not a bad way to finish.
A great weekend. A good time was had by all.
Current Music: Jean-Michel Jarre - Zoolookology
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11:12 am
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Proud Stepdad
Mikhail's football team won the district championship last night. To do so, they had to beat a team that had beat them handily before, and talked a lot of crap while doing so. To make matters worse, the team had a few players from their youth league team from last year. Final score: 20-0.
I'm hoping that Davido will start playing soccer with my team in the spring, when he turns 16 (the minimum age in our league). He would be playing the Nathan Adams Memorial Family slot, I guess. I always enjoyed playing with the young guys of the family -- Nathan and Micah -- and hope to have that time with Davido. Granted, Davido doesn't have as much soccer experience as they did, but he does have speed and a good team player ethic. Mikhail is planning on running cross country then, to keep him busy. Angie will be getting into biking pretty seriously, as well I plan on being over my injury by then, so a good time should be had by all.
Speaking of Nathan, the eldest nephew, I'm delighted to say that he's been promoted recently. He is now known as Sergeant Nathan Adams, combat engineer in the 4th Infantry Division. The only unfortunate thing is that he's going to spend Thanksgiving at Fort Irwin, California, which is in an especially crappy part of the Mojave Desert. He'll be home for Christmas, but he goes back to Iraq in June.
As for myself, I just found out that I am ahead of what already was an ambitious schedule on my training, but I won't be fully certified until January. This rules out certification for the next shuttle flight. All the same, I'm giving it all I've got.
Current Mood: proud
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10:11 am
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The saga continues
I just got off the phone with American Airlines baggage services about my bag that was (and still is) lost on the trip to Scotland. They claim that they cut a check two weeks ago, and mailed it to our home. This check has not arrived.
Apparently, the check was lost in the mail.
This is ironic, infuriating, and just sad, all at the same time.
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02:11 pm
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At least the weather is nice right now
I can't believe that it's been so long since my last journal entry. Again.
The annual wine party was a success. The prizes were split between our close friends the Duncans and the young couple that just moved in across the street from us.
I'm really missing playing both soccer and aikido right about now.
Plans this weekend to cook for some friends who really need to have a dinner cooked for them right about now.
Nobody in the Houston area seemed to sleep well this week. This must have been a bad week for fumes from all the chemical plants and refineries along the coast.
Hook'em Horns. I'm hoping that they finish the season off on a good run.
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11:10 am
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Being that guy
I can't believe that it's been a whole month since I've journaled. I guess that it's one of those periods in my life that there's a good bit going on, but nothing that compels me to sit down and make an entry lest I lose the memory forever. Until now.
But first, a couple of notes:
-- I recently got an abdominal muscle tear while playing on the soccer pitch. I then reaggravated it in aikido class. I'm out of sports until the holidays. I'm more bummed about that than even I realized.
-- Our annual wine party is tomorrow night. It's a lot of work, but it's always a joy to put on.
So, the point of the entry. I think that one thing I enjoy most in the professional world is the rare opportunity to give someone else a shot -- be it a job, an educational opportunity, or whatever. I guess I get a jones out of being "that guy who gave someone the chance to make it." That was one of the things that I was most excited about with the Kistler program: I was going to be in a position of authority, able to assemble a team, and able to give someone a shot to excel in a new and exciting project. I had a stack of resumes of people that I was planning on trying to bring in for the team.
That did not turn out so well. In NASA news today: "NASA drops contract with Oklahoma based Rocketplane." Well no shit.
So when I came to SAIC, I took that stack of resumes with me. SAIC has a generous referral program, so I contacted each of the folks to see if they were interested in consideration for the multitude of opportunities here. Most of them were open to it, so into the system they went.
One of those folks, Jason L, was actually a complete stranger to me. I got his resume from a fraternity brother, Jim Lowe, who I just got back into contact with via the LonghornNation web site. Jason has an impressive resume from the US Air Force, and I had fully intended to hire him for the Kistler program. When I called him about SAIC (our first conversation ever), and he was enthusiastic about the idea. I got the sense that he needed something to happen.
Well, to make a long story short, Jason got the interview, and blew my management away. He's moving down here in November, and will be one of my new coworkers. It was a much needed shot for someone, and I was able to provide.
The other thing is big news for Angie and me. The founders of the International Space School, have decided to fold the organization so that they can focus on other aspects of their lives. This came as a shock to a lot of people, because the school has been a large part of so many lives, including my own. Though one thing I didn't fully realize, and still probably don't fully realize, is how instrumental coming to the Space School as been for its students. Every year, one or two get college scholarships coming out of the publicity that they get for their participation in the school. Several of them have come back and taken part in the space program. It has measurable impacts.
I started hearing quite a few of the stories of our alumni, and decided to see if we could reform the organization to continue the good works. On Wednesday night, Angie, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) mslilly, and I met with some of the other former Board members, and we decided that we can give it a go. I will serve as the Executive Director, Angie will be handling a lot of the program coordination, Mel will handle our information resources, etc. We are putting together a strong, enthusiastic team to make this happen, despite the fact that the whole thing is kind of scary. I'm just praying that we'll be able to pull it off.
But it looks like I'll be that guy for a while.
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10:16 am
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A football parent's dilemna
As those of you who have been following my journal should know, my stepson Mikhail has been playing youth football for a couple of years now. He has a little natural skill, but rarely played more than the minimum allotment of plays (sometimes even less) while other kids got to play most of the games (anyone who has been involved with youth sports can guess why). He still loved the game, despite how hard he had to train for so little playing time.
This year he started junior high ball, and was good enough to make the A team. They have a good coach, who is teaching them good fundamentals and has them running the option extremely well (their high school runs the option, as well). We were very excited for him, until the first scrimmage a couple of weeks ago. He got to play just 10 plays out of the whole game. Last Tuesday, for their first game, he only got to play two series.
Apparently, as good as their coach is, he has no substitution scheme. The same 11 kids start both offense and defense, and play most of the game. During a change of possesion, nobody switches in from the sidelines. It's like they're the Texas State Fighting Armadillos. The huddle pretty much stays where it is, and the kids basically just start playing their position on the other side of the ball. These kids are getting worn out, and injuries are piling up. Meanwhile, there are kids on the bench who can spell them if need be. There are enough kids to do seperate platoons for offense and defense (which is the normal way), but the same 11 are on the field. One of the players on the bench was the star player from Mikhail's youth team, so there is talent there in the waiting. Mikhail was going to ask to go to the B team to try and get more playing time.
Last week during the game, one of the starting players broke his arm late in the game. The coach decided to put Mikhail in this kid's position: linebacker (Mikhail's favorite), and blocking running back. Mikhail was finally getting his chance to play and shine. We were all excited, but Angie and I were concerned about the chances of his getting hurt being high. Last Thursday at the school open house, I introduced myself to the coach, and he was very complimentary of Mikhail. He then mentioned (without any comment from me), that they were going to start him at linebacker, and have him be the second string blocking back. His quote: "We don't want to wear him out." Problem averted, I thought.
Yesterday was the first game for Mikhail to start. Despite what the coach said, the kids were all playing both ways. Mikhail did great -- made all his blocks, had several key tackles, including one play where he ran down the other team's ball carrier to save a touchdown. A lot of parents were happy for "Bam Bam," and the team as a whole looked great. They had an 8-0 lead going into the fourth quarter. That's when the team got exhausted, and the other team was able to mount a long touchdown drive against our boys. Two more of our players got hurt. Luckily, the other team missed their extra point try, so our boys won 8-6.
More and more of the starters' parents are getting concerned about the exhaustion and injuries, while the second string players and parents are frustrated with their not getting ANY playing time. This is a problem that shouldn't be there, and it's having some major consequences. The coach had told me once that he was going to avoid this, but that's not what's happening. I'm wondering if I should say something, as this is negatively affecting the whole team. I really don't want my kid to get hurt. Then again, I don't want to risk Mikhail's chance here. He finally has a shot to excel at something he loves, and I don't want to jeopardize that. I pride myself in not being an overprotective parent. What would be the right thing to do?
Some mud in the water: the high school varsity coach has a kid on the squad, and is watching every game. This is Mikhail's chance to shine in front of him, too. That makes it just a little bit tougher.
Current Mood:  pensive
Current Music: Live - Shit Towne
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03:51 pm
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It was a good weekend
The boys and I made the trip up to Austin on Saturday morning, making something of a detour to get their dad in north Houston. Though the traffic in Houston was a real pain (as always), we made good time out to New Braunfels to get Jay before heading up to Austin. Though the Rice game was the big item on the agenda, the real reason for the trip was the tailgating. It was great to meet my new friends at the LonghornNation tailgate (RamJet, phrog8v8r, wimpy, jaustindds, latweety, and many more that I can name), as well as my old friends there and at Skipper's tailgate as well. So many of them I hadn't seen in years: Skipper, Becky, Lowe, Squirrel, Dal, Bellman, Rob Latsha, Knutsen, Shultis, Ellis, etc. These are the people who took care of me in college, and don't seem to have changed much. I'm thankful for that.
I was very suprised that Mikhail and Davido weren't more into the whole scene on Saturday. During the tailgates, they sat to the side and read their schoolbooks. What's a parent to do? They were really reserved during the game, too, which was a pretty big suprise. That didn't keep the grown ups from having a good time, at least.
I forgot who it was, but someone at one of the tailgates called it. The boys were just humoring their stepdad so that we would still go toobin on Sunday. Of course, Jay knew exactly the best places to go and what to do for that. Unfortunately, Big David had a brown recluse bite from earlier in the week start swelling up on his bicep (it wasn't steroids, after all :)), and his wife came and got him rather than causing the boys to miss out on the toobin trip. That was a bummer, but the boys really were looking forward to it, so we pressed on.
To quote Kristoff Knutsen: Toobin is good. I forgot how awesome it really is, even shile staying sober this time. The Guadelope had a perfect mix of rapids and easy floats, and we made it through with only one major spill: I bit it over some rapids, and I think I bruised a rib or something. I'm still a little sore. All the same, a good time was had by all.
So, thanks to all for a great weekend!
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04:46 pm
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Of all my last days at work
...that was one of them.
Today was my last day at MDA. There was not a lot to do -- I'd already done most of the paperwork, cleaned out my desk, etc. With the wife out of town this week (helping our sister-in-law recover from surgery in Portland), I have mostly been busy with the boys. For instance, Mikhail's school had Open House last night. It was my first time to do that as a parent, and I was flying solo. Fortunately, Mikhail's doing pretty well so far, and it was a good experience overall to meet the teachers.
So I had no expectations going in today. There were rumors of a pizza party in the honor of me and the other three people who are leaving soon. Funny thing is, nobody bothered to tell any of US about it until pretty much the last minute. At least the company picked up the tab. And, as is tradition around here, they gave me a picture of the space station that they all signed. Unfortunately, they gave me a picture of the wrong space station! The gave me a picture of the Mir, which was the Russian space station that was retired several years ago. I guess I did at least work on the Mir program for a while. In 1997...
I hope my first day at SAIC next week is much less awkward.
Oh well. On to Austin tomorrow, to see the Longhorns play!
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03:30 pm
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Things settling down, a little
My stepson, Mikhail, starts football next Tuesday. He made the 7th grade A team at his school, which he was excited about. Unfortunately, he did not get to play much at his scrimmage last night, and may ask to move to B team to try and get more playing time.
Davido is cruising along in school, it seems. He's not playing any sports yet until his rec soccer starts up next month. He might try and get a job if his early grades are good.
I have another game tomorrow morning with my new squad. Hopefully we'll do better than we did last week.
We've postponed our wine party until October 20th. I need to get the invites printed. If you can read this, you are invited.
And I now realize how nice it is to think about these types of things, now that my job situation is more settled!
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03:07 pm
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Changes in time
Six years ago today I was at a meeting at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. We had waited for months to pull our team together from around the country to disuss adding a an electric propulsion module to the International Space Station. We persisted with the meeting after one of our coworkers got the news of the first plane via a text message. News made its way in from others at the center: the second tower being hit, the Pentagon, and a rumor of a bomb being found on a plane that was now being diverted to the Cleveland airport, which is located just next door to Glenn. We were officially evacuated soon after. When we walked out to the parking lot, there was the supposedly bombed plane on the other side of the fence about 50 feet away. This is one of the most enduring visions of that day for me. We continued our meeting at our hotel (it was good to stay busy), but it sucked to be so far away from home and family on that day. Even for a single guy like I was back then.
Today is the start of a new beginning for me. I have accepted a job at SAIC in the ISS Safety and Mission Assurance team as an Operations Systems Engineer. I get a good feeling from my new boss, and they sweetened the deal financially to get me to take it. I'm apparently going to fill a big need for them, and they'll let me work some business development and Constellation program work to keep things interesting. I start in two weeks. Let's hope that I've found my niche.
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