Good News...Bad News...Good News...

Good News: Baseball has started up again, in a more formal setting. Tonight was the first Exhibition game and Heather and I attended with glee. Tonight was also the first time the Canon S2 IS made a trip to Minute Maid. I was a bit camera happy and snapped off 344 pictures. I haven't gone through all the pictures yet, but i'm hoping there are some good ones in there.

Bad News: The Astros lost the exhibition game. Backe didn't have such a good outting and there were several errors made by the Astros in the field.

Good News: The loss doesn't count. Opening Day is April 3rd. Unfortunately, that day is already sold out...but you can bet Heather and I will be at many games this year.
Morgan Ensberg, Lance Berkman, and Preston Wilson hit home runs for the Astros. So the bats were a swinging.

Here are a few pics from the night. Overall, i'm pretty impressed with the Canon. Had the light been better, more of the shots would've come out...

Heather and I enjoying the night.



The Minute Maid logo.



Morgan Ensberg at bat.



Phil Garner and the Astros Doc look over Mike Lamb. Lamb was hit either by his bat or the ball after swinging through a pitch. He continued the at-bat sending a drive deep to left center for an out.

5 year pin...

Today I received my 5 years of service pin from Barrios Technology.

The pin shown below, is a representation of the company logo with a gold background and a silver "arrow". Imbedded in this pin is a ruby.



Sorry for the not so great picture of the pin, but it seems i've never been able to take really good pictures of jewelry. Just don't have the right set up i guess.
Actually, i'm almost done with my 5th year and on to my sixth year. We only do these award banquets once a year and it just happens to be closer to my 6th anniversary than my fifth.

Perfect Fit...

Today while i was killing time before my haircut, i wandered in to Lids at the mall. I saw a cap I couldn't leave without.

Here I am sportin' my new lid.







While I was at Lids, I realized I had a lot of caps and no where to put them. I saw this nifty device as I was checking out and decided this would suit my needs for our cap storage. Here are the caps situated on our closet door.



I'm a Pepper...
...what are you?

Heather Eats a STEAK!!!

This bit of information is definitely news worthy. Heather eats a steak at local establishment. Tonight, Heather's parents and brother took me and heather out to eat for my birthday. My choice of eating establishments was Texas Roadhouse. It's been a while since i've been there and of course I got their famous ribs. And to my surprise, heather ordered an 8 oz sirloin steak. Those of you that know heather know she is not a steak eater...well not anymore. She ate every last morsel of that USDA meaty goodness, and she liked it too!!!
Be on the lookout for heather the steak eater...

In other news, I think i have finally figured out what i'm going to buy myself for my 30th birthday. The Garmin Nuvi 350 GPS unit. For a full review of this cool gadget, see CNET's Review here. I'm gonna look for the best deals, cause this is an expensive gadget. I'll post more about it...if i even get it.

Small World

Today at work I met the prime crew and the backup crew for Expedition 14. I will be the lead ADCO for Expedition 14. Well, in talking with one of the backup crew members, I found out that he has done some high school basketball officiating in big ol' East Bernard. I was a bit shocked to find out that someone, an astronaut even, knows where East Bernard is...and has even been there! It's just a small world...
Do you have any small world stories to share???

Thirty...

The human odometer rolled over to 3-0 today. Yep, that's right, i'm thirty years old today. Happy Birthday to me. I'm just a year older now...nothing more, nothing less. As a dear friend (who just turned 30 a few days ago) said, "I'm a real adult now."

It's too early to have a mid-life crisis...so i don't see myself going out and buying that Range Rover. Or, should I? tempting...but no.

I don't know what i'm going buy myself. I'm sure i'll post it here when i finally get around to it.

Thanks for all those that have written me, called me, or printed to me to wish me a happy birthday. It means a lot. Thanks.

Interesting conversation...

Today, I was involved in this email conversation.
Today's players were Greg, Ben, and myself.
Here it goes...

G: one night only! Finding Reason! Live at The Chisholm Retirement Home for Sickly Fish! 7:00!

B: come one, come all… see the amazing fishness of sickness… watch as they dazzle you with their upside-down floating trick...

T: Sounds fishy

B: yeah, but you should check it out, just for the halibut….

G: Seriously, it will be good to play some tunas...

B: would salmon please stop this guy?!

G: can't make it though. I took my stingray into the shell station and the mechanic said I'd blown a seal! I told him to leave my personal life out of it, and just fix the dang thing...

G: So come out of your shell, and maybe someday we'll get some groupers...That is if the band doesn't tank.

B: you beta cut it out… this is turning into a whale of a bad email chain.

G: don't be so crabby

G: ok ok I'm done...

fin

B: ok, but don't do anything squidly on your ride home...

T: Kelp me understand this madness...

G: That's terrible! You're really fishing for 'em now!

G: Squids are a type of motorcyclist who clown fishes around on the highways. They are a real bikers true anemone, because they turn the tide of law enforcement against them.


And I think that was it...pretty bizarre, huh?

Road Rage

I'll leave you with this last post.

Can someone answer me this, what are those white/yellow lines painted on the road called? A better question would be, what are they used for?

It seems that some people find them to be merely graffiti. At some large intersections there are these little dashed lines that help one stay in their LANE as they make this treacherous turn. This lady did not realize that was the intent of those little dashed lines...and cut me off, not once, but twice. It was just after the second time that a sudden urge of rage hit me. Some people are just lucky that i'm not interested in going to jail.

Here's another issue I have with stupid drivers (yes, i agree they should be eradicated). You can pass a cop as long as you don't break the speed limit. It drives me crazy when a mass of cars is going 5 to 10 MPH slower than the posted speed limit...only to find out they are petrified to pass a cop for fear of being pulled over. When in fact, they should be pulled over for being stupid.

I could go on and on and on and on about what drives me crazy on the road. I think i'll let you tell me what drives your crazy on the road??

Death of Lawn Equipment

Today after work, i decided i would break down and perform the first lawn work of the season. After all, i was nearly the last one in the immediate area to do so. Well, after about 18 pulls on the cord, the lawn mower finally started. Now, this has a Briggs and Stratton engine that is supposed to start in one pull. The most i've ever had to pull is 3 times. So, i suppose i'll do some general maintenance to see if that will solve that problem.

However, the self-propelled portion of the lawn mower is nearly toast. I was having major issues with it. While i don't mind pushing under my own power, the shaft is not straight through and it goes through some gears in the transmission. So, it's not as simple as just pushing. I could tear the transmission apart again and replace the gears, but call me lazy, too much work for the gain.

Alas, as I was about to blow the remnants of my victory off of the driveway, the blower/vacuum combo started to crap out. Luckily i was able to make it work long enough for me to get most of the clippings cleaned up. Now, I know what the culprit of the failure was on the blower--poor design. A simple electric motor with a rotating shaft. The rotor of the electric motor has a what appears to be an inferior bracket that holds the shaft of the rotor firmly in place. I think this inferior bracket was designed to fail after a few years worth of usage. This bracket has worn itself into a large oval...this is allowing the electric rotor to wobble and bind against the stator...this has caused a degradation in the motor...it's pretty much useless now.

Now, previously, i mentioned i was going to outsource the yard work duties. I've got a collection of cards that were left on the front door. Perhaps i'll see if i can find someone to do my yard for me. I think i might be able to get the gear working so i at least will mow my backyard...but we'll see?

Multiple Post Day

Well, i've got a few things to say today and i figured i'd make multiple posts today. I've been busy over the last few days and i think you deserve content.

The first bit of news is an old highschool friend and his wife are expecting.

CONGRATS KELLY AND JORDAN!!!!!!!!

For those of you who know Jordan, you can visit his website and follow the progress.

Thanks...

I just wanted to say thanks to all those that have been commenting. The comments are what makes this fun...it also lets me know that someone is at least reading some of the things that i've been sharing. I know there are some lurkers out there, and I appreciate your business as well...

So, keep up the good work of commenting, and i'll try to keep the blogs coming.

Eradication?

Here's an off the wall topic for tonight.
This will be a two part question. If you had your choice of eradicating cockroaches or stupid people, which would you choose?

If you could erradicate anything from existence, what would that be?

While cockroaches and stupid people are very similar, i believe that stupid people do more harm to the world...good bye stupid people.

Hmmm...the second question is a little bit tougher. I believe that everything has its place in life and removing one thing would upset the balance and life as we know it would implode in a world of chaos. So, that leads me to eradicating stupid questions...like this post.

Discuss amongst yourselves...

On call

This week I'm on call. That means that if something happens during the middle of the night and the person on console can't handle it or has questions, i get a call. Usually the person we have on console in the middle of the night is one that is looking after 3 systems, not just one. So there are certain things that these operators just can't handle...hence, the reason we are call.

Last night, er early this morning, i got my first call at 2:27am. I won't go in details as to why I got the call, but i got the call. Nothing major happened. I was back asleep by about 3:45am then got another (expected) call at about 5:15am. Was asleep not 5 minutes later.

Being on call is not a fun part of the job, but i suppose it's a necessity.

No worries melissa...

Let's play a game...

Josh's post has inspired me to think about automobiles.
So, here's the game:
You have been given an opportunity to pick out any vehicle you want and customize it however you want. The amount must not exceed $100k. There are caveats to this unbelievable deal. You can only have one vehicle...you can't get two cheaper ones and you don't get the difference between the amount of your vehicle and the $100k. I think that's pretty much it...one vehicle worth up to $100k.
What would that vehicle be?

For me? It would be this



Yeah, a 2006 Range Rover HSE Supercharged. At this point i haven't decided on a color, but it would be either black or silver. I think the beast comes with just about everything, so i don't imagine any upgrades. If I wnet with the black, i might upgrade the rims to a nice set of black rims...black on black with some dark tinting. That of course would probably come close to maxing out my $100k limit.

Well, with all the vehicles out there...what would you get with $100k.

Short term....what?

I must be getting old. Don't respond to that...that was a rhetorical statement. I've noticed over the last few days that my short term memory is well...what was i saying?
Ok, so that was slightly exaggerated. But seriously, i've had some issues with my short term memory, or maybe it's just a bad case of ADHD. I eventually remember whatever it is that i was trying to remember.

I guess everyone is susceptible to older age. Perhaps, i'll remember what it is that i wanted to post about tonight...

Do i know you??

What's in a weekend?

Well, it's been a few days since i've last posted. Weird thing is, i haven't been all that busy. What have i been doing?

Friday: After getting off a busy day on console, i went to a going away party for one of our Russian counterparts, Natasha. She's been with us here in Houston for a few months; now it's time to head back to freezing Moscow.

Saturday: Well, i couldn't hold out anymore. I had to start doing some yardwork. The front yard hasn't even started growing yet...just a few random weeds. I mowed the backyard jungle of weeds and cleaned that up. After i was finished in the back, i moved to the front to do a little work. I removed the flowers that we planted last season. They were getting too large. I haven't replaced them yet, but i haven't decided what to put in their place. I'll be looking for some more mulch for sure...but that is for another day.

Sunday: Two-thirds of Finding Reason went to the Pasadena Gun Show today. Why, might you ask? Well, our music may be just that bad to incite riots...we need protection. Okay, that's not the reason. Greg is looking for a handgun for protection. I went along cause i've been thinking about getting another gun. I didn't do any buying today, but perhaps in the near future. Now, i'm watching Titanic -- it's such a long damn movie, we had to start it early today.

Hope you enjoyed your weekend?