It's a little slow this week; Projects are on stand-down, many people are taking their use-or-lose leave. I'm reviewing some literature for one of my projects. Sintering is both fun AND educational.
Some friends from church that work on the Arsenal and I decided to meet up for lunch at the Redstone Officers and Civilians Club (ROCC), to sample the German cuisine at the Spirit of Soldatenstube. I had: schnitzel, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, boiled cabbage, and two sausages that were described thusly, "this one's like a hotdog and this one's like a sausage." They also had a salad bar (which I missed) and soft-serve ice-cream (which I did not miss).
Overall impression: Vunderbar!
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Meetings: None of Us are as Dumb as All of Us
I had two VERY different meeting today.
The first one was a visit from Robert Lightfoot, the Marshall Space Flight Center Director. He's been popping in at various building across the Center, as a way of taking our collective temperature. There were good questions from the group, and I learned a few things. Overall, a good hour-or-so.
The second meeting was a safety meeting. The focus this month was Health; specifically the many benefits of massage. Man, that was WEIRD. We wrapped it up with a tech brief on Lean Engineering. I'm proud to say that I remembered practically nothing from my time as a Lean Engineer.
Tomorrow: office Christmas lunch. Woohoo!
The first one was a visit from Robert Lightfoot, the Marshall Space Flight Center Director. He's been popping in at various building across the Center, as a way of taking our collective temperature. There were good questions from the group, and I learned a few things. Overall, a good hour-or-so.
The second meeting was a safety meeting. The focus this month was Health; specifically the many benefits of massage. Man, that was WEIRD. We wrapped it up with a tech brief on Lean Engineering. I'm proud to say that I remembered practically nothing from my time as a Lean Engineer.
Tomorrow: office Christmas lunch. Woohoo!
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
Bon App-etite
Well, it appears that someone actually requested an update. So, here it is.
2011 has been fairly eventful: I spoke at a conference, Jennifer got a new car, our volleyball team actually won a few games, we ran the Huntsville Half Marathon (improved our time by 17 minutes!), and I'm trying out the Blogger app.
Maybe more soon, maybe not.
2011 has been fairly eventful: I spoke at a conference, Jennifer got a new car, our volleyball team actually won a few games, we ran the Huntsville Half Marathon (improved our time by 17 minutes!), and I'm trying out the Blogger app.
Maybe more soon, maybe not.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Twenty Eleven
Well, 2010 didn't go out with a bang, more like a "meh." Hopefully 2011 ("twenty eleven," not "two thousand eleven," and certainly NOT "two thousand AND eleven") will be a good one. 2010 had some interesting times, hopefully 2011 will only be better.
Jennifer and I stayed in Huntsville this year. I think it's the first time I've not been in Memphis for the event. We were joined here at the house with Jeff and Morgan & Jen. There was plenty to eat: cocktails sausages and cookies from Morgan & Jen, some barbecue pulled pork from Jeff, and pizza, pigs-in-a-blanket, and killer cheese dip from us. I had plenty. We spent the evening playing board games and Wii, finally ringing in the new year at midnight. Dick Clark really needs to retire - seeing him post-stroke is extremely depressing.
Jennifer and I stayed in Huntsville this year. I think it's the first time I've not been in Memphis for the event. We were joined here at the house with Jeff and Morgan & Jen. There was plenty to eat: cocktails sausages and cookies from Morgan & Jen, some barbecue pulled pork from Jeff, and pizza, pigs-in-a-blanket, and killer cheese dip from us. I had plenty. We spent the evening playing board games and Wii, finally ringing in the new year at midnight. Dick Clark really needs to retire - seeing him post-stroke is extremely depressing.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
Jingle Bell Rock
Christmas Eve
The whole day was the kind of a riff on the usual Allen family tradtions. It was like it was the same, only different. Why is that? A lot of reasons: 1) Some things are a headache and didn't need repeating, 2) Lauren, Craig, and I are married and have the subsequent (yet wonderful) complications that go along with that 3) See number 1.
The morning started out with a big breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrown cassarole, crescent roll / cream cheese icing thing). This is a fairly recent tradition, usually done at IHOP. As you all know, eating at IHOP can be ridiculous. Instead, we stayed in and Mom & Dad did the cooking. That saved a headache, and helped garuntee that Craig & Amber could leave for Hernando, MS when they needed to. Also, it had to be cheaper.
After breakfast and clean-up, we exchanged gifts. Usually we do this at Granny's (dad's mom's house). It's always seemed kinda of silly, hauling them to her house and back just to unwrap them. I think it also calmed my 2.5-year-old neice down. Worth it.
At 2:30, the family (minus Craig & Amber) went to go see Yogi Bear in completely adequate 2D! All told, it wasn't awful, Analise enjoyed it, and it wasn't terribly long. Probably ate too much popcorn though (more on that later).
Almost immediately after the movie, we regrouped at the house and headed down to Granny's for dinner and a few presents. Jennifer & I got Granny some Jack Daniel's coffe, which went over really well. All told, it was a pretty mellow evening, which is what I think we were going for. We got back well after 10:30pm, which was not ideal, but much better than we've done before.
Christmas Day
In the wee hours of the morning, I was visited by that old holiday elf: indigestion. That's no fun at 5:00am. Several TUMS and 2 tblsp of Pepto Bismol later, I was good enough to go.
Jennifer & I made it to her parent's house a little after 8:00am. There was a nice calm before the storm. With six siblings, and something like +10 kids under the age of 13, the best thing to do is stake out a corner of the room and don't move. They can detect motion. Jennifer & I got some nice gifts, both individual and for the both of us. There was too much food before and at lunch.
Around 1:00pm, we made a break for it and headed to Nan & Pop's (Mom's parents' house). What did we do there? Eat lunch, again. This was a pretty low-key event as well - mostly adults. Jennifer got a nice robe and basket and I got a Scrade Old Timer 3-blade knife. Good times.
Finally, it was over to one of Jennifer's aunt & uncle's for Christmas desserts. We missed a good bit of the drama (oh well), but things were still simmering a little bit. This time we found the house without too much trouble, at least.
The whole day was the kind of a riff on the usual Allen family tradtions. It was like it was the same, only different. Why is that? A lot of reasons: 1) Some things are a headache and didn't need repeating, 2) Lauren, Craig, and I are married and have the subsequent (yet wonderful) complications that go along with that 3) See number 1.
The morning started out with a big breakfast (pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrown cassarole, crescent roll / cream cheese icing thing). This is a fairly recent tradition, usually done at IHOP. As you all know, eating at IHOP can be ridiculous. Instead, we stayed in and Mom & Dad did the cooking. That saved a headache, and helped garuntee that Craig & Amber could leave for Hernando, MS when they needed to. Also, it had to be cheaper.
After breakfast and clean-up, we exchanged gifts. Usually we do this at Granny's (dad's mom's house). It's always seemed kinda of silly, hauling them to her house and back just to unwrap them. I think it also calmed my 2.5-year-old neice down. Worth it.
At 2:30, the family (minus Craig & Amber) went to go see Yogi Bear in completely adequate 2D! All told, it wasn't awful, Analise enjoyed it, and it wasn't terribly long. Probably ate too much popcorn though (more on that later).
Almost immediately after the movie, we regrouped at the house and headed down to Granny's for dinner and a few presents. Jennifer & I got Granny some Jack Daniel's coffe, which went over really well. All told, it was a pretty mellow evening, which is what I think we were going for. We got back well after 10:30pm, which was not ideal, but much better than we've done before.
Christmas Day
In the wee hours of the morning, I was visited by that old holiday elf: indigestion. That's no fun at 5:00am. Several TUMS and 2 tblsp of Pepto Bismol later, I was good enough to go.
Jennifer & I made it to her parent's house a little after 8:00am. There was a nice calm before the storm. With six siblings, and something like +10 kids under the age of 13, the best thing to do is stake out a corner of the room and don't move. They can detect motion. Jennifer & I got some nice gifts, both individual and for the both of us. There was too much food before and at lunch.
Around 1:00pm, we made a break for it and headed to Nan & Pop's (Mom's parents' house). What did we do there? Eat lunch, again. This was a pretty low-key event as well - mostly adults. Jennifer got a nice robe and basket and I got a Scrade Old Timer 3-blade knife. Good times.
Finally, it was over to one of Jennifer's aunt & uncle's for Christmas desserts. We missed a good bit of the drama (oh well), but things were still simmering a little bit. This time we found the house without too much trouble, at least.
Sunday, December 26, 2010
November Five One Seven Niner Hotel
Got into Memphis, TN pretty late Wednesday evening. We got on the road right around 6:00pm, as I figured we would. However, sometime shortly outside of Trinity, AL we realized that I had not grabbed Jennifer's home-made chocolate truffles from the freezer. Doubling back for that added about another hour to the trip, putting us at my parents' house around 11:00pm. It was my fault, I admit; but it was the only thing I forgot, considering all the gifts, luggage, food, and cat paraphernalia that I had stuffed into the Pontiac, that's not too bad.
The intent of the day was to finally redeem the birthday gift I got from my parents - an introductory flight lesson at Downtown Aviation. Dad was originally going to join me (he nabbed a lesson for himself on some discount online store), but had to cancel due to work demands, so Jennifer rode along instead. Getting started was a little bumpy: 1) I had a 10:00am reservation, which they had marked down; however, no instructor had been booked. We got started at 10:30am, which was good enough; Doug was a great guy 2) After the pre-flight check-out of our Cessna 172, we couldn't get her engine to turn over due to the recent cold snap. The eventually got her running (by jumping her off with a Suburban! - I think).
I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go, other than my certainty that I would not be doing the taking off or the landing. Once we got airborne and above 1200 ft, however, I had the stick. In a word: Righteous. Mind you, Doug was in more control than a driving instructor the entire time (I didn't really fool with the throttle). We made a few turns, buzzed downtown Memphis, and flew under the Hernando-Desoto bridge (well, not really, but how cool would that have been?). A short 30 minutes in the air, but it was awesome. I may just be hooked.
Later in the day, we met up with Angela Dunn to exchange Christmas presents. We got her some UT salt-and-pepper shakers, she gave us a picture frame and some home-made cookies. I think we won that little exchange, but at least Angela's chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal-raisin cookies don't look the same.
We wrapped up the day with dinner with my parents & Blake at Memphis Pizza Cafe. Delicious.
The intent of the day was to finally redeem the birthday gift I got from my parents - an introductory flight lesson at Downtown Aviation. Dad was originally going to join me (he nabbed a lesson for himself on some discount online store), but had to cancel due to work demands, so Jennifer rode along instead. Getting started was a little bumpy: 1) I had a 10:00am reservation, which they had marked down; however, no instructor had been booked. We got started at 10:30am, which was good enough; Doug was a great guy 2) After the pre-flight check-out of our Cessna 172, we couldn't get her engine to turn over due to the recent cold snap. The eventually got her running (by jumping her off with a Suburban! - I think).
I wasn't quite sure how it was going to go, other than my certainty that I would not be doing the taking off or the landing. Once we got airborne and above 1200 ft, however, I had the stick. In a word: Righteous. Mind you, Doug was in more control than a driving instructor the entire time (I didn't really fool with the throttle). We made a few turns, buzzed downtown Memphis, and flew under the Hernando-Desoto bridge (well, not really, but how cool would that have been?). A short 30 minutes in the air, but it was awesome. I may just be hooked.
Later in the day, we met up with Angela Dunn to exchange Christmas presents. We got her some UT salt-and-pepper shakers, she gave us a picture frame and some home-made cookies. I think we won that little exchange, but at least Angela's chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal-raisin cookies don't look the same.
We wrapped up the day with dinner with my parents & Blake at Memphis Pizza Cafe. Delicious.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
West Bound & Down
Hitting the road in a few hours, with a car load of presents and a drugged-up cat.
Good times. Good times.
Good times. Good times.
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