A few months ago, I thought I’d be spending this weekend running with my BAM buddies in the Texas Independence Relay. But since the shuttle actually stuck to its launch date this time around, I’ve been at work both Saturday and today instead.
The mission is winding down and they’ll be back on the ground soon. I’m getting off console at noon now, so yesterday I was able to have a nice relaxing afternoon with Jose. We battled the crowd at Panera and then went to Babies R Us to get a present for Jose’s old college friend Meryl, who is due with her first kid in April. I’ll be spending most of my not-at-work awake time today at the coed baby shower. (It’s at a wine bar up in midtown, which I find ironic given that Meryl obviously can’t drink wine at the moment.)
I had never been to Babies R Us before and it was definitely an adventure. We never did find the “ultra plush changing pad cover” that was on the registry list, despite inspecting every other variation of changing pad cover on that aisle. (“What’s a changing pad?” was the first question we had to figure out.) So we went with some items that were easier to find, and threw in a pack of boy-colored bibs that had airplanes on them. Because even though the baby is a girl, we decided she needed some airplanes. And hey, girls like blue too.
STS-133 undocking is scheduled for tomorrow morning at 6:00 am on the nose (Houston time), for those keeping track at home. Tomorrow will be my last shift. I’ll be working the last two shuttle flights as well, but I won’t be the lead so my role will be much reduced. I won’t get this opportunity again, so even though the past few days have been slow, I’ve been soaking up my time in Mission Control because it may never happen again.
