Meeting of the Minds

I've been at a conference in Orlando for the last couple days. I wrote a paper on my Orion Crew Optical Alignment Sight and presented with by co-author from L3 that I worked with on it. It was well received, but it is interesting to be here because it is a hodge-podge conference from the optical society and not aerospace specific. Seems most people think a) they know everything about NASA even when they don't work here and want to tell me what's really going on from what they read on (most likely) NASAWatch and b) apparently everyone thinks Orion doesn't exist anymore. Been kind of interesting getting out in the "real world" to find out what a well kept secret HQ has made us.

Otherwise though, I met a few people and had an okay time, but best part was the fact that my corporate "rate" at the hotel included free golf everyday. I only played once and had to pay for the rental clubs. Ouch, since it is the Marriott resort that was pretty much what I would pay for a round at home, but I wouldn't have played at all if I was paying for that and the greens fees. I got the earliest tee time I could this morning, played and then changed and headed into the conference and still got most of a full day in there. Not bad at all, but I think conferences in snow bound locations are still better. ;)

Pop Pop Pop Pop

All around the mulberry bush,
Someone learned to hand crank,
around, around until the monkey comes up,
... and POPs! for the 10th time.

Veggie Tales

About a month ago, Alison found out that Woodduck Farms CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) was adding drop offs in our next of Houston. They have been operating for a few years, but the dropoffs were way too far away to make a weekly excursion. For those that don't know CSAs are local farms that you buy a "share" of the crop from and get a regular supply of whatever is ripe and in season. Woodduck also uses organic growing methods, but as with most small farms is not "certified organic" which requires a lengthy and expensive government process.

For us this means we are getting a half share (splitting with Alison) once a week and has certainly upped our veggie intake which is for the better. For example this week we got salad greens, zucchini, little neck squash, a couple other i-don't-know squashes, beets, sugar snap peas, radishes, micro greens, and spring onions. We were getting strawberries but I am afraid that local season is probably over already. All the produce has been fairly good quality and I am thus far very happy. This week I made an awesome salad for Zara and my dinner when John wasn't home with fried zucchini patties. I didn't like beets as a kid but I though the roasted beets were tasty and, amazingly, Zara really liked them and cleaned her plate of those.

Eye Don't Know

I've had a fairly mild nearsightedness (as in can't see far stuff well) since high school. I started in glasses, went to contacts, hated them for making my vision worse, and have been back in glasses for a few years. When I say I am "in" glasses that mostly just means I forget to take them to meetings with me and squint at the screens instead. It also means I am terrible at recognizing faces from a distance (sorry, I'm not being mean if I don't wave, I just don't know its you). Further, I haven't gotten a new prescription for glasses in, oh, around 11 years and they are actually too strong for me now and give me a headache if I wear them too long anyway. In summary, I don't like them.

So I'm trying to find out if ponying up some money to get some high-tech laser action on my eyeballs will free me from my albatross of corrective lenses. This also means I have to accept the risks of doing so, but Lasik sure has come a long way and given my mild correction needed the risks are typically fairly low. BUT, and here it is, I've now been to two places for consultations and have been found to have an irregular astigmatism. Which means instead of have a normal goofed up eye where the corneal "cone" is a little flattened in only one axis, mine droops to form something like a horseshoe with the luck pouring out (although not that extreme).

The first place I went to which I knew was most likely to be an eye chop shop (since it was the only one "in-network" and has laser special pricing) said I was just flat out not a good candidate. Probably because they don't want to deal with anything other than easy stuff to make their buck. Yesterday I went to Mann eyes, which is a very well known and respected outfit, and they said Lasik may be an option but need to make sure my droop isn't continuing to droop and need a follow up a month from now. Basically if the astigmatism was continuing to shift and not be just how my eyes are, bad things could happen since the Lasik weakens your cornea and it could make that worse. If Lasik can't be done, then something like PRK could still correct my vision which doesn't have as much impact on the cornea but is a little more complex up front and needs more healing time.

I have a third consultation with Baylor Eye in a few days and we'll see what they say. Not 100% that I'd go through with anything, but it is interesting so far.

Increase of Awesomeness

Here is a great video about the James Webb Space Telescope. We need this guy to explain a lot more about the space program.

Harry Potter's Room

You know the project we started three months ago, yea the closet one. Well we are finally finished... for the most part. Over the last two weekends, it got primed, painted, carpet laid and fully trimmed out. I think it turned out great even if the drywall tape is not so pretty in a couple places. It is a closet after all and the worst seam really was the first one I did and the others got better as I figured it out. The last couple items we have to finish is really outside the closet, getting matching trim paint for the rest of the house to do the door and frame, caulking those seams, and putting down a threshold between the wood transition and carpet. All minor items I hope to do one night this week after I drop in to the hardware store to get what we need.

Here it is complete and all ready to move the stuff in now.