Thursday, November 29, 2007

Getting ready for Christmas

I guess I have already broken my promise to update every week, but I'm back. We had great Thanksgiving. We got together with our Clear Lake family - all of our friends here in Houston who live really far away from their families. Over the weekend we worked on the house and garage. We also started our Christmas shopping - I can't believe how fast time flies. It was just September. We also put up our decorations. It was great to have a few days off. I needed it and I know Lenny did. Unfortunately, I had to travel right away after the relaxation. I went out the Kennedy Space Center for some meetings. The nice part was the you could see Atlantis stacked for STS-122 on pad A from conference room window. I also got to see a design unit of the heat shield for the CEV crew module. It's great to see the result of all the design and analysis. I posted a picture below - just imagine the big disk around the blunt edge of the gum drop shaped entry vehicle. It's pretty big for a capsule. I will have to shift back over to Space Shuttle work next week for the mission - it's scheduled for December 6 - 17. Let's cross our fingers that it all goes well and on time so Lenny and I can go up to Michigan for the holidays to see our family. It's been too long since we have seen everyone - we miss them! I think all my nieces are growing up too fast! TTFN!



Our family in front of the tree.



A big piece of hardware and the team that built it.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Italy and Paris

Hi! Welcome to our blog - this is a long time coming. I hope that Lenny and I can update at least every week. We are getting ready for a few days off of work. We plan on working on the house, training Grommit, and starting our Christmas shopping. I will be traveling for work a lot before heading to Michigan for Christmas, so we need to get a lot done!

We recently took a month off work (September) and spend an amazing time in the Carribean, France and Italy. Our first trip was a 7 day cruise in the Carribean with 8 of our friends - it was a blast. We went to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. After a week back, we headed to Europe. We started in Florence where Lenny attended an International Electric Propolsion Conference and I got to sight see. We revisited the bridge where we got engaged back in 2002 - Pointe Vecchio and got to know the city. We stayed there for six days and then headed to Manarola - a small city in Cinque Terre on the Mediterranean coast. It was beatiful. We hiked to four of the five cities in the area and had some of the best seafood and pasta we've ever had! After a weekend there, we got on a train and went through the Alps to Paris. Paris was fantastic - we tried to see everything. The Louvre was impressive and I can't even describe what it's like to stand under the Effiel Tower. We went up in it while it was raining and when we got to the top two beautiful rainbows were shining over Paris. Here's couple pictures from our adventures. Later gators!

Here we are in front of Pointe Vecchio.



This is Manarola in Cique Terre, Italy - we stayed here for three days.



This is at Montmarte in Paris.