Zara-Zoo

Since what was supposed to be a rainy weekend turns out will just be a rainy Sunday, we took Zara to the zoo for the first time. We actually hadn't been to the Houston Zoo before so this was a first for of us. The zoo isn't a large one but they did open a new area for African animals that is nice and are in the process of expanding the elephant area. The downside is the parking area is too small for even a small zoo and its ridiculous trying to find a parking space.

Overall Zara had a great time. She could only really see and pay attention to a few animals, small ones that don't move aren't particularly entertaining. The best ones were a juvenile elephant throwing logs around and the chimps who were also being playful. Zara also loved just walking around with all the people and playing on some hand drums in the African area. Not so big on the petting zoo though, goats aren't enough like dogs for her to want to pet. All in all a good time and we'll go again.

More Space on a Sad Anniversary

Today is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger disaster, yesterday was the Apollo 1 fire anniversary, and in four days will be the 8th anniversary of the Columbia disaster. Yes, it is a sad week at NASA. There have been lots of "lessons learned" but some of those lessons are even more relevant in the uncertain times in which the agency now finds itself. Here is are two good articles out about those types of lessons How Apollo was Saved and Space Disasters.

I was just going to post those, but Alicia's comment on the Space Policy video below needed a longer reply that I feel is possible in the comment section. To paraphrase the comment was about how hard it is to see people laid off from ISS/Shuttle when NASA is forced (by law) to waste money on projects that are just waiting to be killed. Couldn't agree more. But the layoffs have also been steep on these waiting to die projects among the contractors (my company alone has lost over 2/3rds of the people on my contract). The only people not in any danger are of course civil servants. So, if ISS cut people to save budget, Shuttle has cut people and comes nearer to retirement everyday, Constellation cut people due to reduced budgets, AND under Continuing Resolution the government cannot (again by law) start new contracts (e.g. projects) but still has the same budget as last year by CR, one has to ask where did the money go? The real tragedy is that HQ is sitting on a pile of money that neither new or old programs are spending and lots of people around us are losing their jobs while the government takes no action whatsoever.

Closer to a Closet

Just an update on the work for the closet. We intended to spend last Friday (our off-Friday) going all out working on the closet while we could still take Zara to school. But she was running a fever and we kept her home. We still got some progress done during naps Friday and Saturday, but still have a long way to go. Drywall seems like it should be easy, but the weird shapes and small space ensured that it was not. It's at least all up, but I'm glad it's in a closet.

We are also getting some work done in the backyard, a new metal fence/gate is in and a new patio goes down starting this weekend. Pictures will be up when I get around to it after it finishes.

NASA Budgets Explained

This is, sadly, actually a true explanation of NASA's current fiscal non-direction.

Space Drivel

Just a short comment on my side links over there -->. I have replaced NASAWatch with Spaceflight Now. NASAWatch is run by someone that got laid off from NASA in the 80s. While the guy has always been a critic of NASA, the website was at least useful for linking to all kinds of related articles and stories even if I didn't always agree with his commentary. But it has been getting worse and worse so much so that it has turned into blatant bias and outright lies, whether intentional or because he doesn't think critically enough to know better. Further, he has simply stopped posting ANY of the positive NASA news stories to further brainwash his general public followers. So I'm done with his site and am now linking to an actual space news type of org.

Yummy in My Tummy

We've had a nice weekend with Zara and it's sort of a long weekend for us. Neither of us really have tomorrow off from work, but Zara's school is closed and we will both be working from home. We'll trade off who actually gets to work except during her nap, but it will keep us from at least having to take a whole day's vacation.

Last weekend we had some folks over to eat a triple meat trifecta of turducken courtesy of one of John's contractors. A 12 pound turducken is more than we can manage on our own, but even with people over there were still leftovers. Since I needed something to do with them I turned them into turducken enchilada's, which might be a first. They turned out decently well, but Zara couldn't wait for them to cook.

Three Strikes

I was watching an episode of Human Target on the DVR tonight.  If you don't know the show, its about an ex-assassin and his team that go around helping people.  Not Emmy quality but entertaining enough.  This particular episode include them out of their normal element and not enjoying it.  They were helping people in the suburbs, with loads of Christmas decor on the street, wife was in a book club, and she had a blog... ouch.  I am so uncool.

In the Station's Shadow

Here is a cool space photo someone forwarded me today. This is from a partial solar eclipse earlier this week and photographed by Theirry Legault in Oman. Top center, that's the ISS. Click on it for a larger version.

Dead Space No More

When our house was built, the area under the stairs was just walled off. Since the one thing any house can always use more of is storage, it has been a no brainer to want to turn that dead space into something usable. In particular, I really want a place to park the vacuum and the stroller downstairs, as in somewhere other than the entry. "Hi how are you, please step around the vacuum and come in."

We are currently mid project but its time to get a little pictorial going for the transformation. Here is the "before" photo with John marking off the studs as we figured out where to sink our exploratory hole.

Once we had a small peak through a hole that could be patched easy in case we had been totally off our rocker on this, we took the plunge. Here is the "before" of the guts. The construction team left us some awesome 1994 vintage beer cans, flashing, bits and pieces of house material, and (an actually usable item) a bundle of shims. Not really so bad considering some of the horror stories I've heard about junk left in home walls and stuff.

Here is the space today. We relocated a stud to make room for the door, hung the door we had custom built (see above usable item), removed some useless interior framing to open it up, and rerouted the electrical and included a switch and wiring for a new light. Still to do: drywall, light install, painting, carpet, and trim it out in that order. Not too much work, but we are really being leisurely and getting it done in small chunks on the weekends.

Toy Nirvana

Here is Zara getting her first peek at her Christmas Present from us.  We hand oiled the wood instead of staining and assembled it last night.  I am still going to apply her initial(s) to the front to personalize. But it is ready for use and was stocked with all her living room toys last night.

Toy Story

My sister is currently mid-kitchen remodel and doesn't yet have the doors up from staining. But this is why you need them...

Black n' Blue Angel

One of the events from our holiday vacation was Zara's first real injury. She has been sick of course but always some viral whatever going around from daycare and not a uh-oh (which she is very found of saying already). We aren't even quite sure how it happened but she was walking around with a big plastic serving spoon a lot and slipped on the wood floors twice. Maybe she whacked herself good once during a fall or maybe it was something else entirely. But either way, she got a good shiner that had her eye swollen shut at one point in the morning. Overall it only lasted a day which is good because then we didn't have to get questions or anything from TSA on our flight home about our sweet parenting skillz.


These were taken mid-morning day after and the swelling was worst when she woke up in the morning. But she's all better now and is none the worse for wear. She is starting to walk/run around so much I think we are just beginning our injury phase.