Hey All! I know it has been a really long time since I posted. But there have been a few things that have changed since the last time I posted. To start out with, I am back in the sim flow at work. This means that I will be participating in simulations. Which is an wonderful thing fo rme, as it means that I can get myself certified to actually work console! If you can't tell, I am really excited about this. I am also slightly nervous, since it means that I will begin taking actual responsibility for that multibillion dollar, international venture that is orbiting above the earth right now! Next, as most of you know already, I have a new house, and I have been working rather hard to get things to the way that I want. I am slowly getting there. I have a wonderfulyl large list of things that I really want to do, and I am finally getting to the point where I will be able to get some of them done. Finally, some people out there have been wondering about recent developments in my personal life. So to quell the rumors, I have begun dating a wonderful girl. She and I have been dating for about three weeks at this point. I met her in a swing dancing class back in February. Since then, we hung out occasionally at dance classes and social dances. Several months ago, things started to head in a slightly different direction. She asked me to help her teach a swing dancing class at a local church, and things started going from there. If you want to know anything else, you will have to email me as I don't want to have too much out here in the open for the world to see.

Ciao for now!

Hey everyone!

So I have been rather busy lately. Since the last time that I posted, I have officially closed on a home. I am now a full homeowner. I just got my fridge delivered today! It fits perfectly. This is a wonderful thing to find out. I was a bit apprehensive about it fitting in the alcove that it has. I have also started the moving process. I have already moved a bunch of the small stuff over there, and am in the process of getting the big stuff moved. Hopefully, I will be done with that wonderful (wink wink) task by the end of next week. My plan will be to be living in the house before the 4th of July.

I have been keeping busy aside from the house thing, too. At work, I have pretty much completed all the paper training that I need to do. All that stands in the way of my getting certified is simulations. Not that those will be easy, quite the opposite in fact. But it does mean that I have nearly all of the paperwork out of the way! I have also begun working with some other groups and providing inputs that can only come from my group. On top of that, I am the mentor for a coop. That isn't an easy job, but I am certainly trying my best. I feel like I need to come up with more interesting things for our coop to do. I have been getting help in that department from the other people in my group. That has made it easier. But I still have work to do in that area.

On top of that stuff, I have been doing more interesting things in my personal life. I have found a number of places where I can go to do some swing dancing. I am even learning how to Charleston and Lindy. They are quite a bit different than what I have learned thus far, but they are far more interesting and lend themselves to more creative interpretations (and yes, I can be creative.)

Anyway, that is it for now. I will post more when I have completed moving.

Ciao for now!

So again, it has been a fair bit of time since the last time I posted. However, I have been waiting until I could report some very good information. This has been a while in the works. I am officially closing on MY FIRST HOUSE on Wednesday at 9:00 AM! So by this time next week, I will have joined the ranks of the real world as a homeowner. WOW. I have my mortgage lined up, I have insurance taken care of, everything is pretty much set up. Now I get to begin the very exciting journey towards getting my house to be what I want it to be. I am very excited to begin this adventure :)

So other than that, things have been going pretty well down here. I have been keeping rediculously busy at work (there just aren't enough hours in the day) and trying to find ways to keep myself active outside of work. You wouldn't think that would be very tough...but I am learning that the summer in Texas is very similar to the winter back home. You really just don't want to be outside here in the summer. It is just so freaking hot and humid. But it is feeling less so this summer compared to last.

Anyway, things have just been going nuts overall. With the new house coming, and work being busy in general, that can keep things interesting. But add to that the Shuttle launching Friday evening (hopefully) that adds a ton more complexity. There are so many what if's about everything. It makes it very difficult to plan anything for anytime in the near (-ish) future. Who knows. Things will settle out a little bit over the next week or so, and then I will be able to make a few plans for this summer.

Talk to y'all later!

Hey Everyone!

Nothing too extraordinary has been happening, but I am beginning to think that there are more things to talk about than the extraordinary. I mean, when you get right down to it...the ordinary stuff is what fills our lives. And when you think about it, some of that "ordinary" stuff can be pretty exciting...or not. I leave it up to you to decide.

As many of you know, lately I have been looking for a house. I have already had two fall through for various reasons. I will admit, this has had me very discouraged. However yesterday I went out yet again, got back on the proverbial horse. I found two very nice places. Both of which had positives and negatives. However, one was a fair bit less expensive and in my mind much nicer. So I decided to make an offer. We will have to see what happens. Either way, this has been one heck of an adventure. Hopefully, this one will work out much better than the last two have. Outside of that, I decided the other day that I wanted to get more dishes. So I bought several more plates and bowls. But then I realized that I needed to have more silverware, too. So I got some of that. Now all I have to do is wait for the stuff to show up at the front office. Then I get to wash all of the new dishes.

Anyway, that is all the news as of late. I am hoping that within a week or so, I will be able to tell people that I am moving into my very first house. But honestly, I want to wait and see if I can get all the way through the proces first.

I will talk to you all later!

Ciao for now.

Hello everyone! I am sure by now, everyone has seen what happened here in Houston. I just wanted to make sure that everyone knows that I am ok. The event occured in a building that was quite a bit away from where I work. I had no direct connection to the people involved. The victim was the person who coordinated the motorcycle group that I am a part of. Beyond that, I don't know anything other than what is being reported in the news. Kind of bizarre, but that is how it seems to work. When I called my mom to let her know that I was ok, she put her phone up to the TV and I listened to what was going on through the phone.

Besides that, things have seemed pretty normal here. Lately, I have been working on a new venture. I am currently trying to purchase a home. My first foray into the real estate world didn't work out so well...the woman selling the home didn't want to adjust her price to reflect the amount of work that needed to be done to the home per the Inspectors report. Needless to say, I decided to try again. Currently, I am awaiting a response to an offer that I have placed on a new (to me) home. Hopefully, this one will go much better than the last one did. Either way, I am not too worried. I know that I will end up in a house before the Summer is up anyway.

I have also been taking some dance classes lately. I am in a Ballroom dancing class, and I am starting to take an Intermediate Swing Dancing class. It is a lot of fun to do. I had almost forgotten how much fun dancing is. It is also one heck of a workout. I went to a Coffee House downtown last night, and within an hour of dancing I was sweating up a storm (I am sure you didn't need to know, but now you do anyway.)

Anyway, I am gonna get going. I am going to try to get a good amount of sleep tonight. Hopefully, I will be a little more diligent at keeping this thing up.

Ciao for now!

So again, it has been a long time since I last wrote anything here. Like usual, I can come up with all sorts of reasons for it. But what it comes down to is this: In my mind, I haven't done anything worthy of writing down here.

However, as of late, I have had a bit of an attitude reversal. To start out with, I have been learning that there are lots of things out there that just aren't exciting. There are many normal things that seem to get a lot of attention because they happen to people who have been deemed important. On the other hand, there are extraordinary things that happen to normal people every day.

Take me for example...On Thursday of this past week I sent about 10 commands to a multi-billion dollar, international vehicle that is moving around the planet at around 17500 miles per hour. These commands actually did something to make a difference. On top of that, the commands were sent at the beginning of an EVA (spacewalk). I thought that was pretty cool. :)

Every day that I go into work, I spend hours upon hours reading manuals and updating federal documents. These are things that are pretty boring on the surface, but when I step back and think about it it is pretty cool.

Another pretty cool thing is that I have begun working on simulations at the Control Center. That means that I have begun the journey to becoming a full flegged flight controller. Basically, I spent 9 hours sitting at a console and fixing things as they broke. I also got to make decisions that would matter if it were real. I can think of no way to describe the feeling of it other than awesome.

For those of you who read this, I can't wait until I get to see you down here. I am thinking that most of you will probably want to try coming down in the middle of winter. I would tend to agree with that thought. We have been having weather in the 50s-70s. The only problem is that we have been getting a ton of rain. But I think that I would rather deal with rain than scraping ice off my windshield.

Well, I am pretty good for now, so I am gonna get going. I will try to be more diligent about updating this, but I know that things will be very busy over the next several months. You will probably be able to keep up with the major things that are going on in my life by watching the news. I think that I will have a nice little break in June or July, but until then I know that things will be insanely busy at work gearing up for the flights.

I know that it has been a long time since I last wrote, but I really haven't felt that things were worth writing in here. Most of what I have been doing lately revolves around the constant reading that I do at work. I thought that I had done a lot in the first few weeks, but things picked up 10 fold once that stuff was done. Currently, I am working on getting myself command certified. What that means is that I will be able to send real commands to the actual Space Station. Pretty cool stuff. But first, I have to learn every detail of the systems involved as well as the details of the commands that get sent. Just a little bit to know. Oh well. It will all be worth it when I get done with it.

On another note, my personal life has been a bit interesting of late. For a long time now, I have been, well depressed isn't the right word but we can use it. Things are so different here. The leaves aren't changing colors at all, the weather is still in the 80s, and I have none of my good friends near by. But over the last few weeks, I have come to a few realizations. To start with, my friends will always be as close as I want them. The same goes for my family. Another thing that I have learned is that my life isn't something to be upset about. I have a wonderful job, I am making several new friends down here, my family loves me, my friends are always there for me. On top of that, I started playing football with several people down here. I think that getting myself active again make a fair bit of difference. It definately made me feel alive again. And it made me wish that I wasn't. Just a note for all you out there...playing football after about 4 months of not doing anything physical will leave you very, very sore the next day.

Another recent development. I have several friends from various places (grade school, middle/high school, college) who are recently engaged. And for the first time, I am truly happy for them without being the least bit jealous. It is kind of wierd. I think that I am finally happy with who I am. Not just who I am when I am dating someone, but who I am as me. It really has me feeling good.

Anyway, I think that I am done for now. It may be a while before I write again, but I don't know. What I do know is this:
If you are reading this, I probably know you. If I know you, you have most likely made an impact in my life. If you have made an impact in my life, then you have helped get me to where I am right now. And for that, I am forever in your debt. Thank you all very much. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. I love all of you.

By the way, feel free to call me at any time. I won't post my number here, because I don't want random internet folks calling me. But if you post a comment, I will get my number to you.

Ciao for now.