My Part Is Done

I am waking up from a short 3 hour nap. What a nap in the middle of the morning, you say? For the past 10 days or so i've been working the dreaded overnight hours for the current mission to the ISS. So, the nap was necessary in making an effort to get back to normal sleeping hours. I am very groggy right now.

Here are a few pictures from this mission.







Don't let the "thumbs up" fool you. It was a hard mission!
I know am ready to rest...

My shuttle brethren still have a few days left as Discovery isn't due to land until Saturday.

It's Coming...

JenFest 2009!!!

For those of you that missed it last year (on account that there were limited invitations), this is your year! This year's JenFest will be at a different venue that can support a few more people. The date is May 30.

Keep up on the latest here: www.jenfest.org

Finding Reason will be making an appearance!

If you would like to donate or help out this cause, let me know and i'll put you in contact with the right people.

For those about to rock...

"Foot Soldiers of Space"

Today at work, my division got the opportunity to hear the one and only Mr. Gene Kranz speak on "Failure is Not an Option". The man is an excellent speaker and his passion for manned space flight is still very prevalent in his speech. Mr. Kranz took us through his career including the now famous Apollo 13 experience. Pretty nifty stuff.

This is not the first time i've seen Gene give a speech in person. Several years ago, my company invited him to some talk at one of our awards banquets. Mr. Kranz and I arrived at the same time and i was able to chat with him for the short walk to the function. And as a surprise we received autographed copies of his new book, "Failure Is Not an Option".

Anyway...back to the title of the post. In the question and answer session following the speech today, one young flight controller asked how would you educate the public about the importance of NASA? The question was actually worded differently, but you get the idea. Mr. Kranz responded that it starts with the "foot soldiers of space"...those that are passionate about space...those that work in the space business...go out and talk to the community and spread the passion. From there it will perpetuate to the masses.

It's no secret that i'm passionate about the job i do...and i'll talk to you about it for hours if you let me.

I'm a foot soldier of space...are you?

2009 Houston Rodeo Run

Yesterday, several of us ran the ConocoPhillips Houston Rodeo Run. Earlier in the week the temperatures were in the low 80s. During the run, the temparature was in the low 60s...with a nasty biting wind. Effectively, the running partner and i improved our times (of course we only ran slightly less than 1/2 of a 1/2 marathon). It was expected that our times would improve.

10k
chip time: 59:47 (mm:ss)
pace: 9:37 min/mile

You can seem my information here.

And the video of us crossing the finish line here.

I didn't think this run was as fun as the Houston 1/2 marathon. Supposedly there were 10000 runners between the 5k and the 10k race. We spent most of the time dodging slow(er) runners/walkers. It was like a mad game of Frogger.