Chocolate Fix

When I can't get my hands on one of my mom's homemade yolk-less chocolate chip cookies or a homemade truffle/chocolate covered pretzel/etc, I have no qualms about making the jump to store bought chocolates. 

Three of my favorites are Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Whole Hazelnuts, No Pudge Fudge (an egg-free brownie), and Kinder Bueno bars - a candy bar I discovered in Europe consisting of a chocolate coated wafer filled with hazelnut cream.  Yes, it's a little hazelnut heavy, but that's my particular flavor profile preference.  The Ritter Sport is virtually guilt free as it is dark chocolate (anti-oxidants!) and has nuts (healthy fats!), plus it can be chunked into 16 mini squares that can break up the calorie intake a bit, if you have the willpower...  The No Pudge Fudge only requires the addition of a container of yogurt, so it's super easy to make, and it is also deliciously fudgy and tastes best served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.   Mmmmm.  As for the Kinder Buenos, these are my kryptonite.  They're becoming a bit more popular in the States and an usually be found at european food stores or if you're lucky, like me, the import food aisle at your local grocery store.  It's dangerous...

When I go to the mall, it's virtually impossible to stop me from swinging by Godiva Chocolatier and picking up a few Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles.  They're by far my favorite offering at the store.  And if I'm feeling particularly naughty, I can find the ice cream version at the grocery store every now and then.  Absolutely sinful and ridiculously fattening as I can rarely hold myself to the recommended serving size...

(Top picture from here)

Shuttle Simulators and Art Cars

 I had no anticipation of an actual "weekend" last week.  Friday was a bit of a slow day because we were waiting on data we would get during the focused inspection early Saturday morning and so my coworkers and I took the opportunity to let off some steam. 

One of my coworkers had scheduled an appointment for us in the shuttle simulator for that day and luckily it fit into our schedule perfectly!  I got to sit in the commander seat and feel a simulated launch.  Then our instructor let me take the controls and I got to perform a landing!  I actually did pretty good too!  After my turn, my coworker took the commander seat and I got to feel what it's like from the backseat.  Let me say, it's a good thing I took a dramamine before hand because it's a bit of a bumpy ride...

One of the cool things about the simulator, it attempts to recreate the images you would see during a normal launch and landing in the windows.  So during launch there is an image of the launch pad out of the left window and during reentry you see the coast of Florida and the VAB as you approach the runway.  One of the coolest things we saw in my opinion was the image of the external tank floating away once we reached orbit:

While we were in the simulator, all of my other coworkers were getting some fresh air an exercise with a bit organized kickball game!  So once we got out, we headed over to the field to have a drink and watch the game.

We all went for hibachi dinner afterwards followed by an early night since the new data would be coming in early in the morning.  It was a pretty wonderful surprise when I woke up to see emails stating that the new imagery indicated that the damage was not the full tile depth and therefore would not require an on orbit repair!  When I got in to work the analysts were able to run the thermal models quickly and it turned out that not only would we not require repair, we would be able to clear the vehicle for reentry that day!  It is a tradition on the Damage Assessment Team to get a special mission polo shirt that everyone wears on the day we clear the vehicle, so we sent one guy back to all of the hotel rooms to collect the shirts and then we went down to the Mission Management Team and gave the all clear for TPS!

The following day I stuck around for a while to spend some time with my good friend B!  We went out for brunch at an Irish pub and had bloody mary's and then headed over to Houston's famous Art Car Parade!  It is exactly what it sounds like and was a lot of fun - the parade was insanely long, I couldn't believe how many different types of painted/decorated cars there were.  There were tons of crazy, original designs, but I think my favorites were the nostalgic re-creations, namely the car from National Lampoon's Vacation complete with the dog leash hanging off of the back and a School House Rock van!

I got back to Florida pretty late on Sunday night and took Monday off to catch up on my sleep :0)

Seeing Red

Doesn't Emmerson look fantastic in her red pants???  I've been craving a pair all spring and the craving appears to be lasting into summer.  They're definitely statement making, but can be simple when paired with neutral basics.  The pair Emmerson sells at her site are pretty fantastic.  There are a couple of other pairs I've found on yoox too, here and here:

 What do you think?  Should I just go for it??

Waking Up Wonky

So there's obviously been a lot going on in my life over the past week.  Last Friday I left straight from work to drive up to Gainesville to celebrate my cousin David's graduation from UF Law School!  He's put in so much work and I'm so proud of him!  This trip was planned a bit last minute, so I was up late the night before packing, then I spent 2.5 hours driving, followed by surprising my entire family and then dealing with the ensuing craziness, celebrating at the bar, and then passing out on my cousin's couch.  The next morning I had a delicious brunch with the fam while torrential downpours trapped me in the area.  I finally left for home, but it was a super stressful drive as there were moments I was gripping the steering wheel with white knuckles to keep the car from blowing off the road in the wind while also driving at 20 mph with my hazard lights on as the rain was so heavy I couldn't see the car in front of me. 

I got home with a completely tensed and stiff body.  J had friends in town for launch, but I was a horrible host and wound up taking a 4 hour nap to reset my body.  The next day I was more social, but I couldn't go out drinking with them late because I had to wake up at 3 am to support my 5 am interview at the KSC press site (which went well by the way and I'm working to find a video of it).  The launch was incredible and afterwards I had to arrange my stuff for travel to Houston.  By the time I got home I was completely exhausted and once again wound up being a bad host and taking a ridiculously long nap.  I was up late packing once again and had to wake up early the next day to catch my flight.

In Houston I got lunch, food to bring to the imagery lab, and then fell asleep once again around 5:30 in the afternoon since I had to be at work at 3 am for the imagery inspection. Wound up waking up at 12:30 am, which is a pretty good amount of sleep and I was okay being at work for a while.  After a 15 hour work day I was once again exhausted, though.  I met up with my friend B for dinner and then basically passed out.  Now I'm back at work at 8 am, which is at least somewhat normal.  But my body is already out of whack and the weird, sometimes lacking, sleep schedule is definitely taking it's toll on me.

As for what we found during the imagery, we have a deep tile damage on the lower right wing that requires us to do a focused inspection.  This means I'm out here working more wonky hours until we can clear this damage for reentry.  Focused inspection will use a tool on the end of the shuttle's extendable arm to take a 3-D digital impression of the damage so we have a more accurate geometry to use in our analysis.  It is a somewhat similar damage to what we saw on STS-118, so I'm hopeful we won't have to perform an on orbit repair.  You can get an idea of the damages we're working at this link.

(launch photo courtesty of a coworker, alarm and airplane photo from here)

Go Girls!

The Huffington Post reports that census figures show that women outnumber men for the first time when it comes to finishing college and holding advanced degrees.  100,000 more women have masters degrees than men, although men still hold higher numbers in the business, science and engineering subcategories.  In terms of finishing college, women surpass men in earning bachelor's degrees, by 1.5 million.  Go women!

Did you see??

So Endeavour launched on it's final mission this morning, headed to the international space station!  I was up at 3:00 this morning to get all gussied up in order to support a 5:00 interview at the KSC press site.  The interview went well (see the screen shot my coworker captured of it below), some people even saw it despite the insane hour.  I stayed at the press site to watch the launch and it was gorgeous, although the cloud cover limited visibility after the first few seconds.  And the shock waves!!! Oh my goodness, they were the strongest I have ever felt during a shuttle launch, how exhilarating!!! However now that the excitement has died down I am completely and totally exhausted. Time to go home and nap before I pack my bags to head for Houston!

Reminder: Shuttle Launch Attempt Monday Morning!

Don't forget!  Endeavour is scheduled to launch on Monday morning (May 16) at 8:56 EST!!!  And if you're up early enough, I am scheduled to be interviewed on SpaceFlightNow from the Kennedy Space Center press site around 5:00 am EST on Monday morning for their live news webcast so you should tune in!

Enjoy your weekend!

(photo from here)

Increasing the Awesome

This is a video that has been making the rounds at KSC, and I think most of us here agree :0)

Also, here are some websites that list all of the current technologies that are a direct result of NASA research.  Proof that what little money each of us puts into space research actually does benefit our lives directly:
NASA @ Home and City
NASA Space Place
NASA Spinoffs
Top 20 New NASA Spinoff Technologies