The world continues to spin, at an increasingly dizzy rate! We are
heading up to Maine tomorrow for a short weekend with friends. This is
the first time we have gone to “Patapalooza”, a weekend of fun with
our friend Pat. The first we heard of these, no one had kids. Now
there are 4 kids going, Leslie being the oldest.

Work, UGH. Turns out the 1 paragraph abstract I wrote for the meeting
in Hawai’i is supposed to be TWO PAGES! GAH! Like I have time to write
up two pages by Monday? No! So I’ll just swipe what I wrote in my last
poster and continue on. Next week, I am giving up my Monday off and
going to X-ray astronomy school. Every one I work with is amazed I am
doing this. Just because I wrote x-ray astronomical software and
because I work on science projects doesn’t mean I know what I am
doing. My background is in optical astronomy, not x-ray. VERY
different. So I want to learn so I can do more with x-ray data.

We had a team meeting yesterday at the other end of the city at the
OCC (operation control center). The owners of the building are
expanding the building, so we felt the whole building shake the entire
3.5 hours we were there. I got so sick. In addition, I went to the
bathroom and realized I forgot some extra “supplies”. The problem with
working on an all male team is that you can’t just walk up to your
co-worker and say “Hey, do you have a spare tampon I can use? I forgot
one.” Somehow, I don’t think any of the 4 guys on my team would know
what to do.

I came away from the meeting with about 12 things to do in the next
two weeks. I should be working instead of writing, but I want to get
into the habit of writing. I want to get better at writing since some
day, I would like to write something. It ranks up there with the
pastry chef idea and my oil paintings.

And the check engine light is still on. Think I should call the Ford
dealer and get that taken care of?