Day 9 -- Surprise Guests

Who were the mystery surprise guests? You may have heard by now, but the surprise guests were former President George H. W. Bush and former first Lady Barbara Bush. The Bush's are big NASA and manned space flight supporters. Why the visit? George and Barbara were at JSC for the Columbia memorial and they said that they'd like to return to the control center once we returned to flight. Well, i suppose their schedules were a little swamped, because we've had 6+ missions since then. But they fulfilled their promise to return.

Their brief visit took them to the WFRC (Shuttle Flight control room) where they were able to speak to the crew and watch them perform zero-G antics. After the visit to the WFCR, they visited FCR-1 (Space Station Flight Control room). This is the room that i would normally be in, but not today. I didn't want to crowd in that room and potentially distract the controller on console (not that we were doing much at the time). I just decided to go down to where the Engineering support personnel sit and watch the events unfold on the TV screens. Several of my friends and colleagues got to see and talk to the Bush's. They even asked Melissa the name of her unborn child...(there is a funny story that goes here, but i'll let melissa tell that one).
Did I get to see President Bush and the Silver Fox? You bet! Turns out that the last stop on their visit was to the very location i had decided to camp out. We exchanged a few words with the Silver Fox as she admired the console that our engineering counterparts work at. On the way out President Bush and i gave each other the manly nod as he acknowledged my presence. It would have been rude of me to reach around the lady that was guiding him out to shake his hand...the manly nod works for me just the same.

We weren't able to do much today...since plans are still being developed. As happens so often, we are waiting on others to finish their work before we can finish our work. But we were able to develop some theories as to some data that we are seeing on the vehicle now...not a terribly exciting work day, but it seemed to fly by without warning...

Oh, and there is something so wrong feasting on lasagna (excellent lasagna Erin)at 5am or fajitas at 7am. I didn't partake in both on the same day...but given a bigger stomach, i would have. The one bad/good thing about missions is all the food...there isn't a lot of healthy items there to choose from, but it's all very tasty. I have a feeling lots of diets will go into effect following the mission.

Just a few more days left in the mission...then i can get back on a regular schedule...

OH...i was super hyper today for some reason. I had this tune in my head and i needed a guitar to see if i could work out that tune...it was the beginning of the next Finding Reason hit. Unfortunately, i think i lost it before i could get home. I did get into the studio today to do some work though. In fact, this post comes to you from the studio computer. The past few days i've been too wiped out to think about getting in the studio...but i made it happen today. Maybe tomorrow will yield similar results?