Winter Wandering

We spent this holiday season up in the Pacific Northwest getting a dose of rain and cold. In particular we got reminded how far north the 49th parallel is when all of us (including Zara) slept until 8am when the sun pretends to come up behind the clouds. It appears Zara inherited her mommy's skill of waking with the sun, so in general (except for one night to be blogged about later) we got WAY more sleep from Zara than usual with an hour and a half extra darkness in the morning.

We had a great Christmas at Zara's grandparents and there are an assortment of pictures from the weekend below. We also go to meet our niece, Zara's cousin Anja for the first time. Anja is a little sweetheart and it was quite a change to pick up tiny Anja and not our hefty (although by no means large) toddler. Zara and Anja played as much as 7 and 14 month olds can, but certainly next trip they should be buddies.

Since I didn't really get on the computer while in Seattle, I have a couple specific posts to enter but they will follow in a day or so while I get caught up.

Monday Already?

Busy, busy weekend we had with house errands, soccer playoffs (1 win and then 1 loss to be knocked out), neighborhood Christmas party, and a baby shower. But in addition to all that, I managed to get a half marathon in at the RunGirl 13.1 women's only race. This was kind of a last minute deal having only signed up a couple weeks ago to support Erin and run with her. I've been running but not regularly enough to call it real "training" at least by my standards. Also my first women's only race, not sure it made much difference to me except I now have a pink medal in my collection.

The reason Texas running "season" is the winter was clearly in our favor this weekend. It finally cooled off with a front Saturday night and the race yesterday morning was a chilly 45-ish degrees which also means no humidity. This is good for runners since you get to wear enough clothes to stay warm but it is nearly impossible to overheat. So run we did and Erin, Sarah, and myself all PR'd (personal records for the non-athletes) thanks to our friend Mr. Frigid. We REALLY could have done without the wind though blowing 15+mph and making for the hardest finishing half mile ever straight into it. All the same, it was a good run and an unexpected finish for myself at an official 2:00:33 (1min 40sec off my old PR). 11th of 48 in my age group which makes me feel better even if it is only a small race. I do want to break the 2:00 mark, but I'll target a race in February for that. Apparently, I am closer than I thought already.

But in looking at the results I found we were all beaten by an 8-year old. sigh.

Santa is So Not Cool

Today we went to the Harborview Yacht Club with our neighbors to see Santa with Zara and their niece and nephew. Santa arrived by boat, what else at a yacht club, and we had a great afternoon hanging out and getting a little into the festive spirit.

Zara also visited Santa for the first time... which didn't go so well. Big fat man in a red suit is certainly not the perfect babysitter even for a minute in the eye of a toddler. So this is our first picture with Santa. I think its a keeper, maybe I'll put it on our Christmas cards like other parents.

But she did enjoy hanging an ornament on the tree with mommy.

Trial Experience Part 3 - Aftermath

Again another surprise in the process, the judge and lawyers can come talk to the jury after the trial. The judge came in first and we thought she was a great judge so it was nice to talk with her after. Turns out we had reached all the decisions she expected (and she doesn't know much about the trial before it starts either) and also landed on the exact sentence she predicted. This actually relieved me a lot. I was sure of the decisions I was making (you know, beyond a reasonable doubt) but still to have the judge tell us we were "right" still makes you feel better.

We also talked about the awful defense attorney and she told us if any of this goes to appeal it will probably be because of his behavior and inadequacy of his advice. We also found out since we the jury were speculating, that the defendant was offered a plea agreement originally on the first drug charge (prior to the aggravated assault) of the minimum 15 year sentence if he plead guilty. If you ever need a lawyer DO NOT HIRE A MR. DYER WITH A LONG BEARD! He is a horrible lawyer and my gut feel is that he is a horrible person in general. If you vote in Harris County, I suggest you continue to vote FOR Joan Campbell who from me experience was an excellent and competent judge.

We also talked to the prosecutor, a Mr. Lewis, from the DA's office. He was also very competent and told us about the plea agreement originally was for the defendant had taken responsibility for his crimes. Obviously, he won't, continues to lie about it even on the stand, and ultimately is paying the price. We also asked about the weapons charge we had such a hard time on and apparently this usually is decided 50/50 by juries. Since the legislature did not better define the words in the law, it really does get interpreted differently by juries but they include the charge to try and get it in the sentence.

All in all I was extremely grateful for the opportunity to basically be debriefed by judge and prosecutor and finally got to ask and have answered questions we had from the trial.

The defense lawyer did not come to see us, with is probably good for him because we were prepared to tear into him. We may think the defendant is a bad guy, but he is a young man that at least deserves appropriate council and advice in things that affect his future and his freedom in such a magnitude.

I honestly hope I never have to be on a jury again after this week.

Trial Experience Part 2

So since it was the end of the day Thursday when the verdict was turned in, we were told to come back Friday morning for sentencing. Seriously, here was BIG FAT SURPRISE number 2. We (the jury) thought sentencing would include some character witnesses, wrap up, decide on punishment, and go home. WRONG! Turns out our defendant while out on bond for the drug deal got into a little more trouble revoking his bond. Although, this cleared up one thing for us. On the stand he had stated he got his car back from the police all torn up, but he had been in the same clothes and had a jail bracelet on in the courtroom and we were confused earlier in the trial.

But ultimately, Friday for me was the day everything went downhill. The crime our defendant was suspected in was another "rip" but this time not on the cops. All day Friday we got to hear and see the pictures of how he and two others stormed an apartment and beat the crap out of the two people inside, neither of which lived there as their buddy the resident had gone out and they were playing xbox and waiting for him. During the beat down they were demanding the key to the safe which of course they didn't know about. The apartment is probably owned by someone that deals pot from what we were hearing in the implications from the still awful defense attorney, but even if it was that doesn't "justify" the violent, armed assault and aggravated robbery. The beat down of the two guys included being pistol whipped numerous times and ended as the left with our defendant shooting one of them. The only consolation here is that he is such a terrible shot, from only a foot away the bullet only grazed the forehead of the victim.

The jury was all pretty upset by this, we really had tried to give the defendant the benefit of the doubt during the drug trial, but it was obvious now he is a really, really bad guy. The defense, if you can believe this again, was the defendant again taking the stand and saying "it wasn't me, these guys are trying to set me up." Ummm... again we couldn't believe him at all. The prosecutor once again ripped him apart in cross and also produced a picture from his myspace page in gang colors and pose.

After closing, the jury was sent in again to basically decide guilt or innocence in this charge although technically we were deciding "beyond a reasonable doubt" if the extra charge was "true" or "not true" since the trail was really about the drug deal. It took us in the jury all of about 30min to decide "true" and then an hour and a half to figure out how many years to sentence him for. Since we determined the aggravated assault to be "true" the punishment went from 5-life to 15-life, all with the possibility of parole which means he will in all likelihood serve much less than we actually give him. We threw out the minimum because we all agreed he had increasingly violent crimes and couldn't stand to let him out too soon, we threw out life because he still has a chance to change his life. We settled on 35 years and it is ridiculously hard to decide to send someone younger than me to prison for longer than we've been alive. Everyone on the jury was very emotional and no one is comfortable trying to decide these things.

It was this whole day that made me upset from beginning to end. I had previously been glad not to have to a "violent crime" case, only to find out it was. I wish no one had to do anything like this at all.

Trial Experience Part 1

Okay, so once picked for the jury, the 12 of us showed up Thursday morning and when called into the courtroom we immediately started hearing opening arguments. This was surprise number 1. I frankly still didn't know what the charge was for the trial and it just started going. Since we can't raise our hands and ask any questions, I pretty much felt like I was behind the 8-ball all morning. After the opening arguments, we pretty much established it was a drug sting and involved a gun, nothing else really new from voire dire.

Then the testimony started which from the prosecution was a string of cops who laid out the following story. An undercover narcotics officer had a drug deal setup from a woman after an informant tipped them off. The deal was supposed to occur in the bathroom of the Cadillac Bar in the Heights off Shepard. While staked out for the deal, the cops who had a deal set with a women smelled a trap when she said she was there alone but they watched a stocky black man actually get out of the car (our defendant). This was a suspected "rip" in which instead of doing the deal, the dealer is actually going in to beat up and rob the person who thinks they are buying drugs. This is one of the new terms I've learned this week.

Since the cops smelled a trap they didn't go in and let the suspects drive off and had a marked car follow them. When the suspects failed to signal a lane change, they were pulled over, arrested for having an open beverage container, and then by the rules the car can be searched of course. We got the testimony of the arresting officer, the K-9 cop that sniffed out the drugs (and loaded and chambered 45) in a hidden compartment, the undercover narc, and the crime lab tech that tested and confirms that the drugs found were cocaine and crack in the quantities of like 6g each. All very professional and very convincing.

I should say during all of this the defense attorney (hired, not a public defender who is certified and are generally very good) was awful. The prosecutor kept objecting and getting them sustained by the judge, he didn't seem to know what he was doing, and asked terrible questions. Frankly, the entire jury actually felt sorry for the defendant because he clearly wasn't getting adequate representation and it was all his fault.

When they prosecution rested, the awful defense lawyer put THE DEFENDANT ON THE STAND! To the shock of all of the jury really. The sum total of the defense was literally the defendant stating that, while he testified to his prior convictions to "be honest with us", he knew nothing about the drugs, the drug deal, the gun, and he would never do anything like this. But under cross-examination, he then admitted knowing about the drug deal his friend whom he has had relations with setup with the cops and was generally not believable to the jury. The defense attorney was trying to get us to believe that he really did signal, the cops were lying, and everything should be thrown out. Umm... didn't work, not convinced.

Testimony ended at the end of the day Wednesday and Thursday morning we were finally read off the charges for us to deliberate on. Charges were possession with intent to deliver (drug dealer) and an add-on for the "use or exhibit" of a deadly weapon during the crime to be decided on separately. As the jury we deliberated pretty much all day Thursday, the possession charge we fairly easily arrived at a unanimous decision of guilty in under an hour, but we spent most of the day on the gun charge. Since the word "use" is not defined we had long discussions and arguments about whether he needed to be holding the gun or have it on him to be "using". Ultimately, we decided that if we couldn't agree on the definition then we'd have to go "not guilty" on that part. Crappy part here was once back in court we turned in our verdict and then were polled so each of us had to state that this was our judgement to confirm that it was unanimous. Did not like that part, but at least all I had to say was "yes" and I certainly was not making eye contact with anyone but the judge during this part of the day.

Voire Dire

However you spell that title, it is latin for "find the crazies." In regular speak, it is jury selection. FYI for the readers, I'm going to write about service in chronological order because I think that is what I was most surprised about. It's not like TV in that you know very little about what is going on, on purpose of course.

Tuesday when the whole court thing started, I was number 37 on a panel of 65 for jury selection. Selection isn't really about "picking" jurors but eliminating them. The judge and both lawyers talked and asked questions for about 40 min each during which you got a gist of what the trial was about, drugs and police testimony. Questions centered on those two for basically can you be fair and impartial on a case dealing with those things. Some people seemed to have legitimate excuses "my son go tin trouble with drugs and I'm not sure", believable stuff.

...but then there were the crazies (or perhaps they were just plain stupid). I think some may generally have been dumb and couldn't figure out the questions, but several were just trying to get out of service. There were answers like "i think all drugs should be legalized, I'd never send someone to prison for it" to "I think all cops are crooked." Mind you these were all to yes/no questions. I was actually ticked off at the people making up ridiculous answers and attempting to debate the lawyers because they were just making it all take longer then it should. If you don't want to serve, then just say you don't trust cops and shut up.

In the end, the judge strikes everyone who gave answers that would make them biased, then the lawyers each get 10 free strikes for any undisclosed reason. I think this is normally where the "engineer" notation on my juror form would get me out of service, but with the unusually high number of crazies we ended up with two engineers and a probation officer on the jury which would normally be even more unlikely to serve. Regardless, I had a bad feeling the whole time and wasn't surprised when I got called to the box. This really ended day 1 since it was almost 5pm and we were told to come back in the morning for the start of testimony.

Drained

Tuesday afternoon I had jury duty for the Harris County District Court System. Harris county includes the city of Houston and has somewhere on the order of 4 million people in it since it covers the 3rd largest city in the country and then some. I say this because jury duty in these courts means a high possibility of something bad, real bad even and isn't just a traffic court. For me what started out as a "ha ha, hope I don't get picked and will still see you tomorrow at work" thing turned into one of the most emotionally draining weeks of my life. And I know for certain I didn't even get the worst possible things for a trial like murder. I will blog more about what happened probably in several installments later now that it is over and I can freely talk about however much or however little I want as it has been entered in public record.

But first, one of the saddest parts of serving on the jury had nothing specifically to do with my trial. It was the babies and children. Every day for the last three days while I go into or out of the 20 something story criminal courthouse there were lines of people waiting for the metal detectors to get in, the elevators, or just in the hallways. Obviously, this included many people from the lawyers to those that stand accused. But there were way too many (frankly one was too many for me) babies and children there obviously with a parent that is in trouble. It is heartbreaking to see and know that many clearly aren't going to have mom or dad home to help raise them and be there for them. And then at the end of the day today I found out the person I had to put in prison also has a 10 month old, a baby only 3 months younger than my own. I don't even think I need to say that I would never do something to put my baby through anything like this.

Budget Bungle

Congress still hasn't approved NASA or any other agency's FY11 budget still. But they should rethink giving NASA any budget. I mean really we spend all this money to explore the universe and look for evidence of alien life and what a waste. Because apparently a man in Michigan is having a news conference at a Ramada Inn to reveal his ice meteorite replete with alien life all for pennies! Cancel NASA, hire Michigan Ice Man!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wednesday we trekked up to Arkansas for the big extended family Thanksgiving. Amazingly enough we actually had turkey for a change, weird huh? Usually there are so many people (50+) no one bothers with a turkey, but this year Jeannie and Ron brought a cajun fried turkey which is awesome and then there was the usual assortment of dishes. So we got turkey plus all the other good stuff. I brought the usual baklava because I wanted to sleep indoors and not be shut out of the house if I had come without it. Surprisingly enough there was a whopping 5 pieces that made it to Friday which Frank and Delores polished off. I think the only reason there was any left is that desserts were put in the sun room and the baklava was mysteriously positioned in the far back corner.

Zara once again proved to be a good traveler and when we stopped at a grocery store and she was excited by a little Tigger stuffed animal she got it as a reward. We came back early so we've had a few days to relax and finish off our vacation. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving and enjoy all you have! Here is a photo from this weekend of Zara in Mommy's hat, can't believe our baby isn't really a baby anymore and we are thankful she is a healthy and happy kid.

Terrible Teens

Last night while I was getting dinner ready, I think Zara and John got into their first "teen" argument (thirteen months that is). I made spaghetti squash and meatballs for dinner which turned out great and I don't think Zara even noticed the difference. Yay for extra veggie servings instead of pasta. But when I was trying to get the squash out of the oven, John was corralling the curious toddler away from it and kept saying "no". To which she replied "ya" at each one and still tried to reach for the door. It's going to be a long 18 years...

Bad Santa

These are toys that will definitely not make it under the tree for Zara. I think the best one is the girls only toy cleaning trolley. Pink toy vacuum cleaners weren't enough, someone had to go for the entire minimum wage job experience as a toy for girls.

10 Controversial Toys

How Not to Play

Last weekend in my coed rec soccer game at Gilruth, I missed wide of the goal. There is a thing that happens when playing soccer that suddenly when left with ample time and space to kick the stupid ball at the goal, you get really excited and send it way off target. Typically happens because in your excitement to power the ball as hard as you can you end up leaning backward and if lifts the ball over the top. Now when I missed I was outside the 18 and my wet cleat hit the wet ball and it skipped off to the side (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it). But I don't feel nearly as bad as this guy who was playing in a U-19 international match and I'm not sure there is any kind of excuse for this.

Training Wheels Off

Zara has been "walking" fine for awhile but insisted on having a finger/hand/pant leg to hold onto while doing so. We've managed a couple steps at a time between handholds but that was about all. We knew if would happen that she would one day decide she was capable of walking without training wheels, really we weren't going to be walking across the high school graduation stage still holding her hand. That day was apparently yesterday. While I was making breakfast and Daddy was playing with her, she decided she doesn't need the help anymore and took off. We even thought she was walking to me before she decided her new found freedom was worth exploring and took a left and kept on going. I'm glad for this change since it might mean I have a free hand getting everything in the car in the morning.

Also, calendars only work when you put things in them since I referred to my celendar and thought the day was free. As excited as I was about finally going to book club and having finished the book, it was not on my calendar and I managed to commit to a work function and double book myself. The work function will be fun, the Women's Forum is hosting a golf outing to teach those that want to learn but have never had the chance. I am "instructing" which means I can't really skip it now that I've committed. Still want to get back to book club at some point though.

Cowgirl Up

Today I went to the Texas Conference for Women, our company buys a table and those who want to can request to go. This was my first time and several others were there including Erin and Alison who I spent the day with. It was interesting to say the least and not actually as much big hair as you'd expected. The conference covered various topics from small business to personal finance and organizing your life. The panel sessions were pretty much eh which was disappointing because the descriptions sounded good beforehand. It was also fairly annoying that at a conference for women the bulk of the expo booths were jewelery, hair products, etc. Lame and stereotypical all at once.

The best parts though were easily the keynote speakers in the morning and lunch. Format was each speaker got like 15 min and there would be like 5 at a time. Which was nice because it then covered several different topics or perspectives. The so-so speakers were some fitness person from Austin and Marion Jones, yup the Balco steroid former olympic athlete. She was supposed to be speaking about her personal journey and how difficult it is to regain trust. But she didn't really offer any insight into her personal journey or provide any actual details on HOW she is trying to regain trust. I'm sure she's been through a lot, but it wasn't all the interesting of a talk.

The BEST talks BY FAR were from three ladies in particular. First and I was surprised by this one, Judge Glenda Hatchett from the TV court show. Very interesting talk about how she became a judge and making your own story out of your life. The second was Dr. Jen Arnold a director in pediatrics at Texas Children's and star of The Little Couple on TLC speaking on her outlook on life. Sorry, don't think they are all cool for having TV shows, but they seriously had the best talks and seemed like the most genuine and intelligent women of the speakers. Lastly, Leigh Ann Touhy (as in "The Blind Side" inspiration) spoke about doing something, anything to give back and help especially kids in the community. Just a plain super engaging talk.

If nothing else it was a good day to just stop and reflect on a few things and have a good time with some ladies while doing so.

Book Discipline

...I forgot to post this earlier in the week, but Alicia's blog reminded me. I am seriously behind in books I want to read. I was actually forcing myself NOT to read The Girl Who Played with Fire for awhile because I needed to study for my Certified Systems Engineering Professional exam. I took and passed the exam last Friday the 29th which is only exciting because its done and not so much like it was really worth the cache that goes into it at work. It's also another item from my "development plan", catch the theme here. But its done, so full steam ahead reading!

I finished Fire on the flights to/from Norfolk (ok, so there is another plus to travel). But before I get wrapped up in Hornet's Nest to finish the Millennium trilogy which I really like, I need to read the book club book for the month The Stupidest Angel. I haven't gotten to go to book club for the last two months due to conflicts, so finally I get to go again. Yay, for not having a dumb exam to study for anymore to let me read!

Blotchy Blogging Baby

This week I had to head to Norfolk, VA for two days. I wasn't there for a business purpose really, but this month is my assessment at work and they take those "Development Plans" seriously. I had a training class on there that hadn't come to Houston, so off I go and headed to pretty much the only available choice to get it done before my review. Class was so-so, although there are lots of interesting people at my company and I met an a retired Admiral from the British Navy there. Funny thing is I was "cool" because I worked at NASA. But it wasn't all bad having to travel since I got to hang with Heather for dinner one night! Big thanks to her prof that gave them the night off. ;)

But I think there is a curse for moms that travel for work, this is the second time in a row Zara got sick while I was away. It started with a cold early in the week and turned into a fever on Tuesday for a couple hours when I picked her up from school early. Wednesday (the day I left) Daddy had to stay home for the mandatory 24hrs post fever daycare requires and then tried to take her back on Thursday, only to have them balk at the rash she developed and insisted on a doctors note to clear her. The rash was just sensitive skin from the remains of the cold, but didn't matter John had to spend the morning running her to the doctor and back to school for no reason. Ultimately, she was cleared, John got a little work done, Mommy got home Friday night, and we have a happy, healthy toddler on our hands again. It would be a lot easier if she would time her illnesses for when we were both home to deal with them.

Trick or Treat

Technically this was not Zara's first Halloween, but at a week old last year, there wasn't a whole lot of candy action. Growing up we always made our Halloween costumes and I figured I'd keep it up with Zara. For her first Halloween I whipped up a pretty rough starfish costume, a starfish because she used to just flail out and stretch arms and legs wide after a nap pretty much exactly like one. Our entry into costume didn't go so smoothly, the hat just made her madder so we ditched it pretty quick.

But we chilled out when we went outside and starting walking around to visit the neighbors. We trick or treated Ms. Carol all by our self even (standing only, still not walking without a handhold).


And after visiting all the neighbors we settled down in a driveway with a bunch of neighbors and gave candy away to the kids en masse while we got to talk. It works pretty well because you don't have to keep getting up answering the door and kids love it because one "house" covers like 6 of them on the street speeding their candy collection along. But while sitting there Zara had obviously figured out the whole Halloween thing as she systematically emptied our candy pumpkin into her trick or treat bag. Daddy's girl.

One-derful

Today was our baby girl's first birthday. There has been a lot of learning and growing over the past year and oh yea Zara did some that too. Our little girl has gone from being that tiny curled up ball in our arms to a happy bundle of energy. She continues to amaze us each and every day and we look forward to year 2 and continuing to grow with her.

For her birthday, we had a big (mostly adults) party with some great barbecue from Bay Area Meat Market and wonderful cake and cupcakes from Erin. Zara held up really well and loved all the people that came to visit her. Not only was today her birthday, but she has been walking holding our hand well for several weeks and this afternoon near the end of the party we even coaxed her into taking her first few steps all by herself. I believe it is truly official, we have a "toddler" on our hands!

Opening Presents:


Our first bite of birthday cake:


Having our cake and eating it too:


It's not a good party unless you are so tired you lay down under the table to rest.

Ultra-cool Urban Living

Growing up in the wonderful Pacific NW means a lot of cultural icons, Space Needle (of course), Tacoma Dome (largest wooden dome stadium), and other things like ferry systems and totem poles. One of the other buildings in Seattle that is a landmark is Smith Tower. I looked this up, but it was one of the world's first skyscrapers built in 1914 and was 6th tallest when built. But I had no idea that a remodel in 1999, turned the pyramid atop the tower was a private residence that a family lives in. Apparently, it used to have a water tank in there as most tall buildings also used to double as water towers. I think this is probably the neatest place I've ever heard of to live, especially in an urban environment. Go to the link to see the slideshow of the residence.

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/20/garden/21WHOss.html?ref=style

Small Fry

Today was the Booz company picnic which is actually pretty good. We have a small office, somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 people-ish, so we have a good time and it is pretty tight. The funny thing is that over the last year we have had a gazillion baby emails sent out for everyone's new arrival, ours being one of those. So in addition to older kids, there are A LOT of 6-18month olds. We are coming up on Zara's first birthday next week, but it is kinda funny to see her around all the kids. She is the same or older than many but easily smaller. But she is ridiculously cute, so who cares. Incidentally, I only got an Honorable Mention in the dessert baking contest at the picnic today. The "winners" were the single guys that made jello shots. LOL, next time apparently, we need rules, like "must actually be baked" or some better judges. I didn't get a picture at the picnic of Zara but here's a recent one of her helping with the laundry.

Hale-storm

One of the links on this blog, over there --> that has been here for awhile is that of Wayne Hale's NASA blog. Wayne was one of the longest serving Shuttle Flight Directors and moved into program leadership and has been a big influence around the agency for years. While at NASA the last few years he kept a public, official blog with great stories and philosophizing about the agency. He retired a couple months ago and now works for a small space consulting company, but I just found out he now has a personal blog out there to continue the storytelling as he promised.

Here is the link http://waynehale.wordpress.com/. I am very excited about this blog because no longer being an official government blog, he is ...umm... more at liberty to talk frank. He generally was before, but I think it is even better now to have the shackles off.

Tour d'Houston

Last weekend my sister Mona and her husband Shaun came down for a long weekend visit. Little slow getting pictures up, but it was great to have them down and we got to have a lot of fun all weekend. They got to play with their niece a bunch and she got her first 1st birthday present. And since Shaun had not previously been to Houston, all the "Texas" things were on the agenda. In order of accomplishment, this means cream gravy at breakfast, a NASA tour, true brisket barbecue, and a purchase of cowboy boots. I think we hit all the big ones. He also requested a fried twinkie, but we told him he'd have to come back on March during the rodeo to get one.

They did enjoy the NASA tour and here we are in the Apollo Flight Control Room. Don't tell Shaun the phone doesn't go anywhere anymore.


We also went to the shuttle simulator in building 5 soon after the days run was complete. It happened my friend Lia had been filling in as pilot for the day and she let them try some of the leftover astronaut food from the day. Mona and Shaun are now experts in space food service and are ready to fly.

Truth Model

There is a disturbance down in the gulf that will probably develop into a depression today and potentially continue on to a hurricane. When I peaked at the tracking predictions last night this is what it looked like. Did you really need fancy algorithms and computing power to come up with likely land strikes on Louisiana or Florida?

End of Story

This morning I had an old Betty Grable movie on while I was playing with Zara, Pin Up Girl. While I like old movies, sometimes they leave me completely baffled by the endings. Normally, I'd give you a spoiler alert here, but seriously you can tell exactly what the ending is so you might as well keep reading. That and the movie is from 1944, so if you haven't seen it then you likely weren't going to and who cares.

The plot is one of those super believable ones, where the guy is in love with a stage star whose daytime alter ego is as his mild mannered secretary to which he doesn't realize they are the same person. But getting past all that, the movie ends with a way too long and mostly irrelevant musical sequence in which he is in the audience for the big reveal. Which he only figures out because she goes on stage in the same clothes he just saw her in. I know the the guys is a genius!. And then that's it, nothing, "The End", credits roll. Most of the time old movies have very little resolution beyond the 'happily ever after ending'. But in this case it hardly even seems like an ending, more like they just ran out of film after the extraordinarily long music number. Anyone else find the lack of even a pretense of closure in movies annoying even it is supposed to be assumed they live happily ever after?

Big Bites

We've been introducing non-pureed foods to Zara for several weeks now and even the pureed foods I've been making chunkier and less smooth. We didn't have any issues with her continuing to eat what was served up... until last week on vacation. Zara has refused almost all spoon-fed pureed foods for a week now with a few exceptions like yogurt in the morning. She is apparently a big girl now and we have moved right along to regular(ish) foods either finger fed by herself or by us.

The only thing we aren't looking forward to about this is letting her have the spoon. Maybe one night this week we'll just strip her down and let her have at it and see how much food makes it into her mouth.

Yankee'Z

We are up in Connecticut visiting family this week and have been having a great time seeing everyone. But yesterday was our 8th Anniversary and we got tickets to the afternoon Yankees game to take Zara to her first game, see the new stadium, and John's uncle Rick also came. But we had awesome tickets to the Champions Suite, row 4, which includes a private area to get food (free/included) and restrooms and everything. It was an awesome way to see our first game in the new Yankee Stadium, great weather, and the Yanks won in a walk off two run shot by Swisher. Plus, since we were sitting right behind the ball boy we also got a ball from him when the game ended which will be going in Zara's room to commemorate her first Yankee's baseball game. Couldn't have asked for a better game or a better way to celebrate our anniversary.

Also snapped a picture of Zara with her great-grandfather Merancy, who seems to like his second great-grandchild a bunch. We've had a great time up here, but haven't been pulling out the camera a whole lot during the visiting. So I am a bit remiss and don't have a lot of other pictures to post other than one I got from playing outside with daddy.

Minority Report

This has been an interesting week (or couple weeks really) at work on Project Orion. Orion is supposed to be the vehicle that replaces the space shuttle and carries the crew in orbit after being launched on an Ares rocket (or potentially other rockets). The project has been run really well, however the budgets that were projected never materialized so it always "appeared" to be over budget when things got trimmed over the years for the smaller budgets. Don't be misled by people or companies that stand to gain by telling you otherwise because if Orion were to get cancelled they would 'get' that money, nice huh.

Anyway, the powers that be in the executive branch really, really hate Orion, Ares, and all of Constellation and tried to cancel it. Congress is pushing back, but now there is sort of a limbo where we will probably, not certainly continue but at significantly reduced, as in less than the already smaller, budget. The immediate effect of this has been a massive reduction in non-prime contractor staff (e.g. me and my coworkers) in the neighborhood of 60-70% reduction. This week was all the final decisions on the who stays and mostly the who goes. Thankfully, I am staying for now, at least until the NASA budget is approved and Orion either continues to exist with this or more budget. If Orion gets cut again, I doubt very much the project will even be functional.

So the short story is, I am still working on Orion but most of my colleagues are not starting October 1. Which means it has been a tense week, to be followed by several more especially for those more much more dramatically affected than me. Oh, and the first major round of Shuttle layoffs also occur in October given the only 2 maybe 3 flights left and the reduced amount of staff needed to support these and retirement. Anyone looking to invest in cheap real estate may want to check out Clear Lake, TX.

Knees and Toes

The ladies at Zara's school have started calling her their little Navy SEAL because she has her commando/army crawl down pat and does not seem at all inclined to crawl on her knees thus far. She swims across the floor on her belly pulling with her arms and pushes with her toes. She is quite adept at it though and can track us down in different rooms if you leave her alone. She is also pulling up on the furniture and couch surfing lately too.

But she doesn't mind her knees at other times...

"Work"

Lately, I've had a little fun at work courtesy of STORRM (Sensor Test for Orion Relative Navigation (RelNav) Risk Mitigation). Perhaps you've heard of us on such sites as Popular Science? Or maybe the NASA webpage? Note that cool and aloof person standing behind the crew in the first picture on the NASA webpage.

Anyway, this project is flying the Orion rendezvous sensor on the last Shuttle flight STS-134 next February to test it out. This week we installed the hardware and performed an integration test to make sure everything is working in the shuttle Endeavour. Everything went great and now its ready to go for February. After the test went off well, most of us were able to get in and see for ourselves. Also went a few other places at KSC this week. The external tank in the photos is the one flying with Discovery in November but it is all stacked with the SRBs already.

Back to Flight

It's been awhile (3 months in fact) since I last flew, but Saturday Becca arranged a flight up to Brenham again for a hamburger and it was a good excuse for me to ping Jim and get up in the air. Jim is one of my managers from my Boeing days and he is the dude crazy enough to start teaching me to fly, this being unofficial off the record teaching. I officially "learned" at the Delta Flight School, but really Jim taught me first, thus making me the best student ever at school. Here is us with Jim's Tomahawk before takeoff from Brenham.

We also flew both ways in formation with Becca in the 172. In case you need a little perspective on what that means. Here are the photos.

Blueberry Girl

This weekend my mom was in town for a visit. She arrived Saturday afternoon and stayed through Wednesday. Sunday morning I got a little retribution for my childhood spent in strawberry fields and got her and Alicia to go do some blueberry picking. The picking was great and we each had about 6lbs in just over an hours work. The bushes were still loaded even this late in the season. So we have been enjoying blueberry cobbler and Zara has gotten some yummy blueberry banana combos. Now I have a good 10 lbs in my freezer for pancakes and muffins to come.

Zara got to spend all day Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday with her Tayta. She also got a few new toys included a rolling caterpillar (if baby could give a shout out, she'd say holla for that rockin' crawly) and some new blocks.

Cat o' 9 Months

Today Zara is 9 months old. We had our standard checkup and she is doing great. Got a prescription though because she has a cough leftover from a cold that just wont go away. Otherwise she has returned to her petite ways and weighed in at 16lbs 1oz, 10th percentile. Length is 27 3/4in so she remains over 50th on height. She still has just the one lonely tooth but is becoming an expert army crawler and we may have to break out the barbed wire obstacles for her soon.


I haven't talked about her sleeping habits in awhile, but she is making her own decisions when it comes to that. Apparently, we now sleep on our back sometimes and get mad if we aren't laid down like that. But this week she also started falling asleep by herself instead of being rocked. She will continue to wiggle her way around in your arms until you put her down. So its taken a little time and patience, but she is turning into a good sleeper (8-9hrs solid), but it is in her own terms.

Park No More

Yesterday, I arrived back at Hobby from a trip up to Denver. I have been using the Parking Spot to leave my car for years now and, even though they are a little more expensive, have always had great service. Well, now they have starting parking cars in the aisles and blocking others in when all the spots fill up. These car owners leave their keys and then they get jimmied around when people come and go, which I frankly would have a really difficult time being comfortable with myself. This time though, I was one of those blocked in cars and spent 15min waiting for someone to move the car behind me (they didn't) and finally Austin Power-ed my way out of the spot and around the car that was parked half behind me.

On the one hand, it's only 15 minutes and seems pretty trivial to get upset by. On the other, at the end of a trip when I make it to my car I really, really am ready to leave and don't like being inconvenienced by someone else's greed in over filling the lot. I guess I will be voting with my dollars and find somewhere else to park, that should help them figure out their overcrowding problem.

Frozen Assets

I have been making Zara's food (and drink for that matter :P) since we started solids which is actually pretty easy. We were starting to run low and I am going to be on travel again for a few days this week, so I got caught up today and restocked the freezer. This is the fullest it will ever be as we are starting to dip into the frozen milk as well. So here it is, Zara's freezer complete with veggies, fruits, and meats and everything a growing girl needs. I should say everything a growing, army crawling (officially mobile, but limited range), toothy (1 of em) girl needs.

There is Always Something Worse

I know I've previously had a conversation about how awful this consumer product is: Smucker's Uncrustables.

But, leave it to someone to come up with an idea even more terrible: Candwich.

Seriously, cannot think of a single redeeming quality about this thing.

Healthier How?

Last night I was watching "The Next Food Network Star" because I find myself on the Food Network a lot but am not necessarily a frequent watcher of that show. One of the contestants is a "healthy" eating guy, that's his schtick. At one point he said something along the lines of "if you make something a wrap, it's automatically healthier." At which point he lost all credibility with me on healthy food since it appears he hasn't actually done any research on what he's pushing.

Personally, I think the whole "healthy" wrap thing was an awesome marketing campaign because everyone generally assumes it to be true. But let's examine the facts with two comparitive options for making a sandwich:

1 Mission brand 96% Fat Free Heart Healthy 10" Tortilla, 180cal, 18 from fat, 2g Fat, 0.5g sat fat, 450mg sodium, 35g carbs, 5g fiber, 2g sugar, 5g protein.

2 slices Orowheat 100% whole wheat bread, 200cal, 20 from fat, 2g fat, 0g sat fat, 420mg sodium, 38g carbs, 6g fiber, 8g sugar, 8g protein.

Seriously the numbers are nearly a wash and if anything you get the benefit of extra protein in the bread. I think a tortilla is healthier, if you compared it to say Wonder Bread. But I also believe reasonable test and evaluation methodologies, just that engineer part of me that kicks in.

p.s. I like Chiptole burritos but there is another place the tortilla = healthy thing falls on its face. Their flour tortlla has 290cal, 80! from fat, 9g fat, 3g sat fat, 670!mg sodium, 44g carbs, 2g fiber and only 7g protein. Seriously, save yourself and order the bowl in which you can throw some lettuce in and actually make it a reasonably healthy meal if you eat there.

We're Feeling Hot Hot Hot!

This weekend we figured out that the large A/C (downstairs) unit in our house wasn't working. Even before the peak heating of the day (which was 91) our A/C wasn't keeping up and it was only blowing hot air. So we had to cancel plans for folks to come over and watch the World Cup at our house yesterday since most people don't want to sit inside an 80+ deg home to watch TV. By shutting the blinds and the curtains on all the windows and with the small upstairs unit going we peaked at 83deg inside yesterday. It is just barely tolerable during the day. At night, we are retreating upstairs and closing the doors to Zara's room and a guest room to sleep so the cold air can build up in the rooms from the small unit and they stay comfortable.

The units are still under our home warranty we got when we bought the house, so that's good. But this is the THIRD A/C repair since April we've needed. Clearly, these units are on their last legs and need to be replaced. But whether we can get the warranty company to agree is probably a long shot. Repair company won't be over until tomorrow morning so we have at least one more night of this.

Mo Betta Mo Hawk

I forgot I took these pictures a couple weeks ago during bath time. I was having a little fun while washing her hair and snapped a couple pics of Zara's first up-do on her hair. Crazy hair is too long to get it to really stand up, we'll have to break out the egg whites for that some other time.

Daddy Day

For John's first Father's Day, we had tickets to the Astros and the three of us plus my cousin Grant headed to the ballpark. It was a good game, especially for Grant since the Rangers won. But it was also Zara's first baseball game. I think daughter and daddy had a good day. Zara has also started making her "d" sounds but I don't think we are quite ready to call it a word yet when she says "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da". But I'm pretty sure I'm going to 'lose' in the first word battle.



I also spent Monday through Wednesday in Boulder doing some software testing for work. It was a short trip again but we had dinner one night at a pretty cool teahouse from Boulder's sister city in one of the "stans", Dushanbe.

California Dreaming

Monday I headed out to the other, larger Bay Area for a meeting at NASA-Ames. I'd previously never been in the area, so I was looking forward to it. We got in early enough Monday to head up to Napa Valley for a little sight seeing/tasting before the sun went away. My favorite stop was at V. Sattui where they have a deli and we also picked up some great cheese, salami, and bread and enjoyed a mini-feast on the picnic table. We also had dinner at Michael Chiarello's restaurant Bortega. I had oh so yummy braised beef short ribs with Meyer lemon spinach.

Tuesday all day was the meeting and we also got to tour the unitary wind tunnel where they were getting our model setup for testing. After formerly working in a wind tunnel in college it was neat to see the Ames tunnel, too bad I couldn't sneak into the 120x80 foot tunnel I've always wanted to see. In the evening, some of us headed into San Francisco for dinner, we made it to Fisherman's Wharf just in time for sunset. The rock below is actually The Rock, Alcatraz from the end of the pier. And that was it with a return to H-town the next morning. Didn't get to see much, but it was pretty what I did see.

Reverse Psycology

We must be close to crawling... because we started out just an inch out of reach.

EVOlution

John and I have finally joined the 21st century and are now proud owners of smartphones tapping away with our thumbs. Our contract was up so we could get whatever phone we wanted. With all our research we settled on the HTC Evo 4G. Ummm.... it's awesome. It's is blazing fast, especially on 4G, has a huge screen, and other bells and whistles like 8MP camera/camcorder, HD 720P HDMI output, and a whole lot of goodies. Having owned an iPod touch for awhile now, I also think the HTC sense Android interface is way better than the iPhone. The iPhone 4th generation (not actually 4g) is coming out soon and I'm sure a lot of people will like it. But really, the phones are if nothing else comparable but ours comes without the apple overlord at least.

Oh and minor correction, Zara wasn't teething so much as she was sick two weekends ago. how do we know? Because she gave it to us this last weekend. It's special, 8months old and already giving us presents.

All the Pain, No Gain

Zara is teething, well at least we think so, big time. She ran a fever (but was otherwise happy) for Fri/Sat nights and didn't sleep well either night, she has gone from her normal drool quantity to Drumheller Fountain, and has been refusing a lot of her solids. In general, all the symptoms of teething, but we have yet to see a pearly white crack the gum. It's really rather annoying as Zara's poor sleep means Mommy and Daddy aren't sleeping well. In fact we platooned on sleep Saturday night after Zara kept me up for 3 hours, I woke John up and told him it was his turn. I say bring on the teeth and let's end this madness.

Also, we have another baby addition to the family. Nolan joined the family on Thursday and is the proud son of my cousin Rachel and her husband Grant. We'll hopefully get over to Sugarland to meet the new fella in the next week or so when everyone has had time to settle in.

Anja Happy to See Me?

I have been totally remiss in getting this post up but I'm an Auntie!! Again, really since we already have a niece and two nephews on John's side, but this is the first Fahoum cousin for Zara. But I do have a great picture to include now.

My brother Yousef and sister-in-law Kari had little Anja Safa (pronounced aun-ya) last Wednesday. She had to join us in the world a month early and is a tiny little thing at 4lb 5oz and 17.25 in (I think those are correct), but she came out making noise and healthy which is all we asked for. It was an anxious day here in Houston as we were waiting for phone calls to update us on the arrival. Momma and baby are doing great and we most certainly can't wait to meet her at Christmas time when we go to visit! Welcome to the family Anja and keep on growing sweetie!

Clap for Credit

The title of this post is actually one of the nicknames for a class I took in college to fulfill my last two arts credits. The class involved going to a university concert once a week and clap when its over, the end. But Zara can now officially participate since John taught her to clap this morning. Apparently she wouldn't stop, that is until just before Mommy got home from work and I'm still waiting to see it.

In other news, we are making the switch to cloth diapers 100% of the time. We had been using disposables at school and g flushables at home. But I decided to try out cloth inserts for the g's at home and they've been great, so I've ordered more so we can do them 24/7 and launder 2-3 times per week. It really isn't very difficult to deal with and, especially since I am using a thin flushable paper liner to catch the poop, it is less work than wholly flusahable inserts. I also ordered organic bamboo and hemp cloth inserts made by work at home moms and they are great and are way better than the inserts available from the g diaper company. Zara is now one green baby as pictured below this morning on her 7 month birthday.

Sharing in Disaster

The Gulf oil spill is pretty awful, but what makes it even worse is stuff like this.

Deepwater Horizon Springs Another Leak - Harper's Bazaar

So in addition to bank profits being private, but losses public (thanks to BOTH dem and rep control- don't kid yourself. Not trying to get political here, just heading that off now.), oil industry profits are private and disaster/cleanup obligations will be public. I didn't really expect anything less.

Can You Hear Me Now?

This morning we had two appointments for Zara, the first a follow up for the tubes at the ENT and the second another set of shots at the pedi. Good news for Zara she can hear, which we knew all along because she responded and looked around at sounds. But now she can hear in that passed the test, gold star, teacher's pet kind of way.

As for the pedi, nothing wrong there but it is thankfully the last "monthly" visit in our shot schedule and we don't have to go for two months. I'm uber-glad for that because I like the pedi, but I spend so much time waiting because they are never on time. I really want to bill them for my time spent waiting. I'm a consultant, I have a going rate and I know how to use it darn it! :P But updated 7 month stats for the Z-ster. Drumroll please.... brrrrrrrrrr.... we are ABOVE the 10th percentile line in weight! All the solid foods kicked off another growth spurt and she is now 15lb 3 oz (15-20th%) and 26.75 in (~60th%).

Whereas we like the growth spurt, we totally don't like the teething. Zara is officially moved into her own room upstairs as of Friday, but just in time to get woken up several times a night with sore gums. Baby girl is not happy about these first teeth. Hopefully, they cut pretty soon and we can all sleep again.

Mommy Dearest

Yesterday was mother's day, my very first, although I did get flowers last years. I had a great day with John and Zara taking me to brunch and then the Galleria mall to pick out a new purse for my present. We had a great time and Zara was a very good girl all during brunch charming all the staff at Mo's. Later on, we took Zara to the neighborhood pool which opened this weekend and she clearly loved it even if we didn't stay long because it was a little chilly. I will definately be signing us up for mommy daughter baby swim class at the Y.

But even more than the "stuff" we did yesterday, I was just incredibly happy to spend the day as a family. I think I like this whole motherhood thing even if my sleep will never be the same, I have a greater empathy to bovine friends, and poop has been normalized so much you don't get grossed out when you accidentally touch it.

High Flier

Last weekend we headed up to the always beautiful Pacific Northwest for my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was great to see Kari and she is looking a wonderful 7 months pregnant with Zara's baby girl cousin on the way in June. We can't wait to meet her soon. We also got to see the whole family and Zara's grandparents even happily got the chance to babysit for a few hours Sunday night.

Since Southwest had some wonderfully timed cheap tickets, it was a whole family affair with Zara getting her first plane trip and even John, still trussed up in his sling, along too. As for the plane trip, Zara is a champ and we are those parents. You know the good ones whose baby never says a peep on the plane and is happy or sleeps the whole trip. It's good to be that kind, wish we could really take credit for that but I think Zara deserves it.

Other first for the weekend was Zara's first time in a high chair. We were getting lunch at Sea-Tac before we left and they gave us a high chair at the table. We gave it a shot and once packed in with the carrier around her to take up the space, we were good. So momma gets two hands to eat with again, yay! Picture from Sea-Tac and one from the last pedi appointment when I was getting bored waiting for the doc.

Totally Tubular

Quick update on Zara's big week. Monday we got a second opinion on the ear tubes from a pediatric ENT and we were a go for tubes after that. We also had an echocardiograph at Texas Childrens since our pedi thought he heard a heart murmur in the wee one. Results were clear though, nothing abnormal. Then this morning was the tube surgery. It went very well (15min) and our ENT said the fluid was very thick so it was really good we drained it. Zara woke up from the surgery super upset because the anesthesia made her gassy. But she eventually calmed down and took a couple nice long naps to sleep the rest of it off. She is already back to normal and babbling up a storm like always.

Six for Sitting

I am one day late putting this post up but yesterday was Zara's half birthday! Which means we've made it through half a year of diapers, drool, poop, and feedings and still have a healthy happy baby we haven't totally screwed up yet. We had her 6mo shots a week ago so her half-year stats are 13lb 12oz, 25.5in. We also wanted to demonstrate our new trick in the pictures. She can sit-up unsupported. Most of the time we've still got the boppy around her since she isn't totally stable, but she is getting better quickly. She is also highly entertained by the puppies and reaches out to pet or rather grab their fur. So far the dogs are cool with it.

The only bad news we have is that she is most likely getting tubes in her ears this coming week. She has never passed the hearing tests on her right ear because it is retaining fluid. Her left ear passed as a newborn, but failed all subsequent for the same reason. She can hear through the fluid but probably not correctly. A fantastic trait she inherited from mommy. The options are get the tubes so it can drain or try or wait it out some more. Since we've been waiting 6 months, we think its unlikely to happen soon and would rather prevent ear infections and potential complications as she learns to talk.

Shoulder Pressed

John had shoulder surgery Thursday. We went in with a potential rotator cuff tear, torn labrum, and ligament damage from the MRI which would have been quite a lot of work and recovery for him. Turns out on actual inspection, he just had some stretched ligaments which have now been fixed. It will still take awhile to heal, but is a lot less painful and hopefully means fewer chances for issues later.

Right now he's tied up in a pretty complicated sling and wasn't allowed to even remove it for three days. Which means, no showers, no change of shirts, etc. for the last three days. This morning he finally got to be set free long enough for a shower and change of clothes. It is a few weeks before he is allowed to move the arm and even then it will be limited. So for super bonus fun, I get to do ALL the diapers for awhile. The only good thing is I can stick Zara in the bumbo and John has been doing the solid food feedings with the good hand.

But the good thing is the surgery went well and John gets to have a two week vacation playing PS3 on the couch.

Art vs. Life

Funny because its true.

Click on the image for a larger version and FYI someone else inserted the NASA.

Beach Bum Baby

This weekend Zara got to go to the beach for the first time. We had a good time even if she didn't get to wear her new surf skirt and top because it was too chilly with a strong wind. We'll save those for later this spring/summer. John got a beach house from a contractor for the weekend, yup, yet another perk. It was a really nice place right on India Beach, just west of Jamaica Beach if you know the island. The Todd (link to the right) family joined us and we had a great time hanging out and playing with the kids. And, frankly, it was about time we all got to meet. The Johns work together and Liz and I have just heard about the other forever without getting to meet. Let's hope it doesn't take this long again to all hang out together.

Space Sightings

Monday morning Discovery launched on a mission to the space station. A scant 15 minutes before that, the space station flew in front of the moon. Coincidence? No, not really, it's just physics and something about a dude named Newton that cause the stars to align from time to time. Just a cool picture to post here for everyone. In case you can't figure it out, the bright spot on the lower right is the ISS.

Banana in Pajamas

We had previously decided to start introducing Zara to solid foods when she appeared to want them. For several weeks now we've been learning just how long her little arms are as we've had small hands landing in our dinner plates and wide eyes staring at us eating. We decided to try small sampling of foods to see how it would do and without jumping into actual meals and there would be plenty of time to adjust.

Supposedly everyone says rice cereal is the best first food, maybe but not for Zara as even a tiny bit gave her BIG TIME gas, like crying for an hour gas. We laid off solids again for more than a week and tried a tiny bit of oatmeal. Again, no chance big time gas. Google to the rescue, she isn't the first baby to not tolerate grains well right off the bat so we aren't going to revisit those for a long time now.

Last night, I tried a little mashed banana and holy cow do we have a winner. She loved it and ate it up like no tomorrow! We had no gas and, if wonders don't cease to amaze, we suddenly slept 7 hrs straight again without needing Mommy for one of the 2-4 night time feedings that started after a growth spurt a month and a half ago. HOLY COW! I think we just stumbled across an invisible line of awesomeness last night. I was so excited that I could sleep, I wasn't and didn't care at all. Here's hoping for a repeat performance!