so i’m taking a class this week, one of the many that jsc offers as “professional development.” this one is called spreadsheet-aided engineering, and at a glance i thought it was going to be horribly boring. but actually it’s going to be pretty good. we already learned some cool shortcuts that will make my life easier, and this afternoon we dove into excel’s visual basic interface, which is something that i’ve never taken the time to learn but always thought it would be a good thing to know. so hurrah. i am learning useful things in one of these classes at last. it runs tomorrow and wednesday as well, before i’m back in the office on thursday.
well, actually, i’m in the office now. and not leaving until i get this damn sim working. if only i could figure out the steering model. all i need is for my bank angle to go from 0 to 60 degrees. this should not be difficult. if only i could find the command!
anyway, enough geeking.
i had a nice weekend. debbie, jason, chris and i celebrated halloween in costume at an aeros (minor-league hockey) game, where everyone in the crowd got a free glow-in-the-dark hockey mask. that was cool. i broke out the devil costume from last year. (aside: carter says i am always a devil or some form of evil thing. i say he has no right to insult my costume if he’s not even dressing up himself. besides, i like dressing up as evil things. and so what if i’m uncreative with my costumes?!)
anyway. i came home after hockey and was in bed by 11 so i would be rested enough to run in the 5-mile kemah bridge run on saturday morning. i really wanted to do this race because it’s the only opportunity each year to run over the bridge (which is the only appreciable hill around here) without paralyzing fear of getting mowed down by 55-mph traffic. i finished in 54:19, which had me totally pumped for the rest of the day because that’s under 11 minutes a mile despite the fact that i had to run up the bridge twice. woohoo. i feel like every day i’m in better and better shape; i love it.
saturday afternoon i treated myself to a pedicure and starbucks, and then headed over to becca’s for game night. katie, fred, gavin, jen, becca, and i played cranium while irwin headed to a game store we found online to get the game i couldn’t find at target or toys r us–settlers of catan. carter, james, and kent will all be happy to know that within a week of playing it for the first time, i bought my own copy. freaks. anyway, we had a grand time, actually following the official rules (as opposed to what we did when carter, jelly and i played in atlanta), and i won one of three games.
yesterday i slept till almost noon (ahh, though i am still tired today, i have no idea what’s up with me lately) and then bummed around all afternoon, cleaning, doing laundry, watching the u.s. women’s soccer team beat mexico…and then finally heading to my soccer game last night. we lost. again. i played especially badly. frustration.