Wedding Planning Update -6 months to go!

Oy, got so very little done last month.

At the 7 month update there were these to-do items

• Find an officiant (still)
• Look for a Florist, bus for the family from hotel to wedding and back, and hairdresser
• Honeymoon planning! 

What did I do?

• Find an officiant, maybe: The venue actually has one that can be used, but we were trying to find our own from out own religions. Of course, at the end of the day we really need to be married so if the Deacon can't sign the marriage license and the Jews won't come, then we just need a person allowed by the state of Texas to perform our marriage. We're going to meet with him on August 18th and see if he is amenable to our interfaith, written from scratch, visit from a Deacon, mostly custom ceremony.
• Find a hairdresser. She'll be coming to the hotel before the wedding to do our hairs, and going with us to the venue (we can arrive at 1pm) to finish things up in the bridal suite. I also found a couple good salons near the place who, while they don't do on-site stuff like we wanted, would be useful for other relatives looking for hair appointments (moms, grandma, etc.)
• And that's about it. We went to the bridal show so I got plenty of flyers for different florists and buses, just need to start contacting them and comparing... I had briefly contemplated doing our own flowers- buying wholesale and assembling- but I'm thinking its probably not worth the stress. I can do some DIY that will not have to be done the day before the wedding, instead.

 What needs to be done this month?

• Honeymoon! Transportation! Florist!
• Invitations- they are included with our reception package, but we need to go set them up with the printer.
• Officiant... finally. I wish I were done with this. My bff Meg says that a wedding is a success as long as you're married at the end, so it is the only real, actual problem that we don't have one locked down. Everything else is frosting, right?

Things start getting interesting now... it's time to start with all the specifics. Our place is very inclusive, which saved us plenty of shopping, but we still have to pick things. Like cake flavors. And appetizers. And linen colors. So in the next couple months is when we do all that.

Pumplemas!

Two years ago today, the External Thermal Control System's Loop A pump failed.

Yes, that's a mouthful, so let me break it down for you:
My group, SPARTAN, controls the External cooling loops. We have 2 of them, and they flow pure ammonia through their lines. Each loop cools half of each module (which each have 2 internal cooling loops) and half of the electrical power boxes. Our electrical converters put off a lot of heat (the price of converting power from one voltage to another) and without this cooling, they would overheat and need to be powered off. There is no cross-over capability externally, so those boxes cooled by one loop cannot be cooled by the other loop.

 So, on July 31st, 2010, the power feed to the Loop A pump failed, causing that ammonia to go stagnant. As a result, we had to turn off the power converters on the loop. It leaves you in a terrible place- there's no spare power for payloads and you have to turn off most of your redundant computers, so its putting all your eggs in one basket. Another coolant loop or power failure could break all your eggs!

Source

The pump is the size of a washing machine , full of pressurized, dangerous ammonia, and, oh yeah, outside. So to fix it, we needed to do several spacewalks. Usually for spacewalks, the actual crewmembers who are doing the walk practice the actual tasks they will do many times in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab pool. By the time they are on-orbit, in a space suit, they have practiced the exact motions, almost like a choreographed dance. However, for a contingency EVA, they are already on the ISS and have not practiced the task in many many months, if at all. Each EVA was run through several times on the ground by a different pair of astronauts, and then the detailed instructions were delivered to the crew... the best we could do on short notice!

It ended up taking 3 spacewalks to complete the removal of the old pump, and complete install of the new pump. A little over 2 weeks after the pump went down, we had a new pump! It was a very busy time for several members of our team who worked on the EVA plans. I was new, only been certified for a few months, so I spent most of the time watching and learning. Hopefully it'll be a long time before I have to put those skills to use again!

This video is from the whole increment, but if you go to 4 minutes (until about 6:30), you can hear actual warning tones (the sound the station makes when something bad happens), space to ground communication, and see some EVA pics/video.

Here's some links to read more about it:
Wikipedia Expedition 24

NASA Spaceflight Failure overview

NASA's press release about our new pump

Disneyland Half Week 10 Training

Wednesday: 5:45am wakeup call, 4 mile run
Not such a pretty run. Dan had ankle pain around 2 miles, so we stopped to walk. Then I had tummy troubles around mile 3 and decided to swing by the house before continuing. Then a bug flew into Dan's eye when we were getting near the house, so we walked more and quit when we got home. 3.25 miles. Meh.

Thursday: 6am wakeup call, 4 mile Speedwork
Skipped it. When the alarm goes off early, I can usually convince myself to get out of bed by telling myself that going back to bed for another hour won't really help. ( I've found it to generally be true that you feel no better after snoozing a little longer compared to getting up) But, this day I was super tired and thought the extra sleep would help so I cancelled the run and went back to bed. And an hour later woke up feeling 10 times better. Sometimes, you do need the break.

Saturday: 5am wakeup call, 9 mile long run
Whew. 9 miles is long. We did 4 miles run, 0.5 walk, 2.5 run, 0.5 walk, 1.5 run and were sweaty, wobbly legged messes at the end. At our first walk break we stopped for bathroom and snacks.

Snack report: On our weekday runs we generally don't eat anything before we go out. It isn't really that hard to run 4 miles on an empty stomach. However, anything longer than that and I definitely feel hungry and slower without food. For our long runs we eat a whole grain Eggo with some kind of nut butter about 30 minutes before the run. Then at our first walk break we have a snack. So far we've tried Shot blocks, sport beans, and today I had a chocolate Gu. Dan thinks the Gu sounds gross and wouldn't taste it, but it really was just like eating delicious, delicious frosting. Also I felt a little crampy with the sport beans the first time around (probably not enough water) but no ill effects from the other two.


Sunday Set-up
Last week was an absolutely terrible week for discipline and diet. Due to various happy hours and going away parties, I ended up having bar snacks and beer for dinner on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday,  then unhealthy BBQ for dinner Friday night. I didn't cook any of those nights, so I didn't have leftovers for lunch. So basically an entire week of eating out for lunch and dinner. No wonder I was too drowsy to skip Thursday's run!
Therefore this week's mealplan is the reusing some of last week's unused mealplan:
Monday: Roasted beet pizza
Tuesday: Some kind of Peas and Crayons Quiche
Wednesday: Risotto
... and that's where it falls off. I'm working until 8:30 on Thursday and my bff Ali is coming to visit for the weekend so it's back to eating out.

Runs:
Tuesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 4 miles Speedwork
Sunday: 10 miles (eep! the most important run of our half marathon training... survive this and we can survive our race!)

Disneyland Half Week 9 Training

Tuesday: 6am wakeup, 4 miles
Thursday: 6am wakeup, 4 miles tempo
Sunday: 5am wakeup, 8 miles long run

Nothing too remarkable about our runs this week. We did them. It was hot and sweaty, but overall I think those 4 mile runs are becoming normal. Not easy, but not too difficult either. We were still out of breath at the end of the tempo run, but I think I see improvement.

After the run on Sunday, we stopped for bagels on the way home. We got home and changed into non sweaty clothes. And this is how I fed my fiancé to the ants...
A trail of evil red ants had worked their way in and were creeping along the wall in my bedroom. Dan had put his shirt on the floor in their path and when he put it on, he got bites all over! Poor guy :-( So I spent our nap time spraying the whole outside of the house with Ortho Home Defense. I had used it in the past- you spray it around the base of your house outside and it's supposed to stop them from getting in. It did a pretty good job, but it only lasts for a year. Whoops. And this is my way of telling you that I didn't take a picture of our magnificent lox and bagel sandwiches, because I was too busy freaking out of my ant infestation. Living in the swamp is the opposite of fun.

Finally, the ant crisis was over so we ate breakfast and then headed off to the bridal showcase. It was really overwhelming. People swarming all over who knew what to do, and me and Dan were feeling kinda lost and overwhelmed. The majority of people were venues, which we already had, but there were some other vendors too. I grabbed flyers for some florists, bus rentals, and hair people, so maybe some good will come out of it.

Sunday Set-up
Workouts
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: Speedwork 2x1600s with 800 rest
Saturday: 9 miles

Meals
Tuesday: Takeout, maybe Pizza
Wednesday: Happy hour with some peeps, so probably eat there.
Thursday: Risotto
Friday: Greek casserole- plenty of leftovers for console over the weekend.

Today is very exciting for me. I'm in my first sim in a very long time, getting ready to get a higher level of certification. Plus, I love to sim!

Three Things Wednesday (x3)

Because I have some things to say, but it is not alliterative.

I feel like I barely have time to write my weekly training log posts, let alone post any other content these days. I have a few space station posts brewing, but I haven't had a chance to give them the attention they deserve so I haven't posted any of those. And I have a few wedding-ish musings, but I haven't finished those either.
Fun fact, I wrote the outline of my week 8 training post before I left for Chicago and finished it up on the Blogger app on my cell phone. Technology is the coolest.
Since I still don't have time for a real post, here's some random things.

Three things that are awesome:

1. Surprise Reunions
   We went to Chicago to see my fiancé's family, but squeezed in a surprise reunion with Meg!
   
   
   You may remember we went to visit her in April and run a race in Champaign, IL where she goes to grad school. I didn't tell her we were coming because she lives 3 hours away and we were going to be hanging with his relatives; I didn't think she should make the trip for me since I wouldn't have much time to see her. Well, as luck would have it, she was planning to be in Chicago that weekend to visit some friends anyways, so we managed to meet up Sunday morning. She suggested brunch, but we were going to church with Dan's parents so she came with us. Then we went for a little jaunt in the Lincoln Park/Oldtown area and grabbed some lunch before she had to head off to her next adventure and we had to head to the airport.
2. This popcorn:
   
   
   This is Salt and Pepper flavor Orville Redenbacher's Natural. It comes in a single serving small-ish bag. I was eating them on console and it was the perfect size for the perfect snack!
3. Cookies.
   I know I posted about these Blueberry, Lemon and White Chocolate chip cookies already but you really REALLY should make them. Perfect combo of sweet and fruity and crumbly and yummy and summery. Yes, they're that good.
   
    

Three things that are NOT awesome:

1. Delayed flights
   Friday our flight was supposed to leave at 4:20, so we left work around noon, grabbed some lunch, and headed to the airport. There was no traffic and we got there early. After wandering the airport for snack options (grabbed turkey sandwiches on bagels from Einsteins) we settled in for some drinks at the Mexican restaurant near our gate. Below, some pics with the giant former president (It's George H. W. Bush Intercontinental Airport after all)... I grabbed his butt!
   
   We got an email that our flight was delayed until 4:45. Then 5. Then 5:30. We finally pushed back around 6:15. And waited, and waited. Turns out there was bad weather in Chicago and we were on a ground hold. Eventually it cleared and off we went, around 7pm. We landed at 10. And waited. See, because of the bad weather, there was also no open gates in Chicago, so we sat on the runway again for an hour until something opened up. On the way back we were delayed an hour, though I'm not sure why. Certainly not our lucky weekend, but at least we were flying direct so didn't have to worry about missed connections!
2. Weird shin pain
   Sunday morning I woke up with weird shin pain all up the front of both shins. We didn't run, so I'm blaming these shoes. They are oh-so-cute but not really good for standing around for 8 hours at a garden party!
   
   
   I didn't even feel it during the run, but I do feel it while walking. I spent the evening in my snazzy compression socks hoping it would help.
3. Laundry
   The two worst parts of going on vacation: the empty fridge and the full laundry hamper. I remedied the fridge yesterday afternoon, but the hamper is still overflowing! Sigh.

 Three things I'm doing this weekend:

1. An 8 mile run... this'll be another new distance record. Eek!
2. A pile of laundry (see the second #3 above)
3. Going to a wedding show downtown.  I need hairdresser, florist, transportation, and an officiant (still)... maybe we'll find some good ones there!