Snow (or what passes for it in Maryland)

A few days ago we got 'just' enough snow for the kids to go sled riding. This was Zoey's first time, and come to think of it Evan's too. In previous winters she has been too small, and for Evan we have either gotten no snow at all or too much for him to even see over.

So we did what normal people do; we went down the street and panhandled for sleds to borrow. And another sled-rider to boot! (Thanks Sophia).

They loved it. Zoey was so excited she actually tried to go down the first hill all by herself. Fearless.

Enjoy the pictures. I love that you can see just the pure joy in their smiles. If you care, you can see the rest of the whole set (click here).

Graduate!

She beat me. My youngest sister by 8 years got her Master's Degree before me. Sigh. I am only one class (design project) away though. I'm. Just. Having. A. Hard. Time. Getting. Started.

But, I am very proud of her! And the graduation was so great!

Well it wasn't really great, cause all graduations pretty much stink; they are long, drawn out, and you are only there for about 10 seconds of excited-ness for your student. And despite that, when I'm finished I will want my family to sit there for me too. Prepare people.

Jessie (slightly out of focus, but this was the best I could get)

Ah, much better.

Mom, Jessie, and Dad

Matt, Jessie, and me

Poppa Lance, Jessie, and Lance  (and notice Jessie's flip flops)

Jessie and Erin

(you can see the full-size picture here)

2012 in Review - Part 1

So since I was so bad at posting pictures this year or blogging or doing anything besides dressing and feeding my children (and other small things like launching two satellites), here is a Review of 2012 as seen through my pictures. So like, don't be mad if something is missing cause I must not have been there to document it. :-P

January
Here is what Zoey looked like at 8 months:

We took Evan ice skating for the first time (too bad in this picture you can't see his brand new Bauer's):

February:
Here I am with my friend Becca's Baby Amelia (born on Christmas Eve of 2011):

March
Cindy's baby shower (Tia Marie would be born on March 28th).

Visiting grandparents, and what is possibly the greatest picture of Zoey ever:

The kids first trip to Consol Arena to watch a Pittsburgh Penguins game

Oh, and Emma moved in with us temporarily while Jessie and Lance looked for a house. She was quite comfortable here.

We also started work on redoing the master bedroom, you can see how much help Evan was with the spackling (needs to be a little bit smoother there kid).

April

Zoey's 1st Easter, in which Mark takes some great pictures that we will use for her birthday invitation. We also had steamed crabs. What a great Easter.

Also in March, Evan met the Chick-Fil-A at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab fishing tournament. You know, instead of ACTUALLY attempting to catch any fish. Maybe next year.

On that day I also got to take my parents and Jessie to see the RBSP spacecraft as they were still being built (but only weeks away from shipping to the Cape in Florida).

At a cookout later I got to finally meet these cutie pie twins (plus Spencer and Zoey got in there too):

Finally, a trip to Hershey Park got Evan doing the thing he was obsessed with, driving a car. See? We weren't scared at all.

Phew, that was only four months worth. Stay tuned for more.

Merry Christmas

I have so many pictures from Christmas, and it was very busy and flew by quickly. Not to mention we had a few of us fighting colds and such so it wasn't really the 'rest and relax cause we are off of work' that we all imagine in our heads.

But there was this.

This is the Christmas tree at  +Jessie's house where we were on Christmas Eve.

At one point during the evening, I was sitting in the chair with Evan looking at the tree. I noticed one of the ornaments was a cloth unicorn that my mother made many years ago, with sparkly string purple mane and tail, and a gold threaded horn and bridle. I was explaining to him that Grammie made that many years ago when I was young.

"When you were little girl?" he said.

"Yup, and now I'm grown up" I replied.

"And now you're a mommy" he said.

And now I am. Of two really wonderful children.

Not the greatest picture, I'll have to get a better one at some point.

Thanks Mom

There are many things I have learned from my mother. How to enjoy the outdoors. How to make ornaments out of flour dough and bake and paint them (my friends had a blast once when we all did this one day. My Christmas tree actually has a teddy bear that I made when I was about 10). How to swim. How to put up with my younger sisters. How to embrace my newly found older sister into our family like she had always been there.

And.

How to make soup broth disappear. Seriously. My mom is famous for making delicious turkey stock, with celery and pepper and leftover turkey bits. And then she adds too many noodles, every time. And the broth just disappears, sucked up in to noodle-neverland.

Yesterday I came home with some turkey stock she had made. I heated it up, added a few MORE cups of water (cause it looked thick), and then some spaghetti noodles. I love noodles. Apparently too much.

Behold, I bring you turkey spaghetti.

And you know what? It was flippin' delicious.

Spacecraft Updates and Songs from the Universe!

Just a few more updates as RBSP near the end of it's Commissioning. After launch we have 60 days to get all of the instruments deployed correctly, doors opening, etc and collecting good science data. Then we can start our Primary Science phase.

Here is an absolutely stunning long exposure of the launch.

The picture was featured here as the "Astronomy Picture of the Day": http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120902.html.

And here is a really good write up about our launch and early orbit operations, with a nice video of the launch. http://storify.com/lydiazuraw/radiation-belt-storm-probes-post-launch-press-conf

So now that we have deployed many of our instruments and turned them on, we are starting to get some feedback on science data (this video has some of the 'sounds' from the radiation belts that we are getting back) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkTL2Ug6llE&feature=share.

In a couple weeks, we will move in to unattended operations, which means no more bizarre night shifts for me, and I'm moving on to another project. I've worked on this since about a year before Zoey was even born, and I am extremely proud of it's accomplishments already.

So wahoo for space. :)

Fountain Hair Dreams are Dashed

Even before we knew we were having a second child, and way before we knew she was a she, we always marveled at the tiny girls we would see with the fountain hair. And we couldn't wait to have one!

So Zoey was born, and her wispy hair finally grew some and voila!

I mean isn't that awesome? Except, it usually lasts for about 10 minutes, then it flops over, and then she pulls it out. Her hair is just too fine. So most of the time she had bangs way down in her eyes, full of dirt and food and boogers and who knows what. They did look good swooshed to the side, but Zoey wouldn't keep up with the swooshing.

Eventually my mother in law was right (dang it!), she needed to get her bangs cut. Which led us to here:

And literally three snips later to here:

So whoohooo for better looking hair.
Dammit for useless fountain pigtails.

Guns in Columbia

So, we went to happy hour last night with a few people from work, one of whom is here from out of town. I knew that the view from Union Jacks (uh, Little Patuxent Parkway) wouldn't be nearly as good as when we were in Cocoa Beach, but what can you do.

Except, you can watch guns get drawn.

I saw three young guys hanging out in the median strip, they had previously walked by the outdoor patio where we were eating on their way down the hill across the road. Two seconds later, a police cruiser pulled up next to them and the officer jumped out, gun drawn. This was closely followed by two other cruisers on the other side, two more guns drawn.

Police. With guns drawn. In Columbia.

The boys hit the deck. They were quickly handcuffed, and what appeared to be a gun was plucked from the one guy's belt.

Meanwhile, a biker happened by, and the rider didn't even stop eating his sandwich as he pedaled on and watched this unfold. And then another biker wheeled by, toting a weed whacker on his back.

Columbia is a weird place.

Turns out one of the restaurant patrons a few tables away saw the 'gun' in the kids waist band, and called the police. It must not have been an actual gun because they eventually uncuffed the boys, but they did put it in an evidence bag and threw it in their car.

Truthfully what we were waiting for was the arrival of one of the mother's, screaming at her hoodlum son and waving a purse as she got out. Oh well, you can only have so much excitement I suppose.

Take time to notice the guy across the street by the stop sign. He was yelling at the officers, trying to talk to the boys, and taking pictures with his cell phone.

Must have been a lawyer.

:)

LAUNCH!!!!!!

Well, after three times trying, we finally launch the RBSP mission this morning, at 4:05 am. We attempted to launch twice last week; we failed once because of a rocket sensor issue, and once because of weather. Then because of Hurricane Isaac, we rolled back into the VIF to wait it out, then back out again on Tuesday. 

Rolling back out (this view from the top of the VIF, you can see how close we are to the ocean):

Awaiting launch in the daytime:

And the night:

And finally this!

So far we have had our first few contacts on both spacecraft, solar arrays deployed successfully and various other activities are being performed. 

Thanks for everyone's support!!!

Launch on Friday!!!

So, we are getting ready to launch Friday morning!! (It was supposed to be Thursday but it got delayed a day for a rocket mechanical test).

August 24th, 2012
4:07 am

It's only a 20 minute launch window, so it either goes, or it doesn't. Then they try again the next day.

Some information about our mission, if you want to listen to a NPR recording, or you can just read the article.
http://www.npr.org/2012/06/25/155719933/twin-probes-to-investigate-mysteries-of-space-weather

Here is a picture from a few weeks ago, before the fairing was closed and moved over to Kennedy Space Center. I'm not in this picture, I was already back in Maryland.

Some really cool pictures of ULA stacking the rocket inside the VIF (Vertical Integration Facility):

http://spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/stacking/

And here's fairing moving past the VAB out to the VIF.

Then the important part; hoisting the nose cone on top of the rocket:

http://www.spaceflightnow.com/atlas/av032/hoisting/

So I will send more information out tomorrow about how you can view the launch. But basically it will be streaming live online and if you have DirecTV there is a NASA channel that should have it.

Please send me an e-mail if you have any questions (sbucior@gmail.com). I'm in Florida right now, got to see the rocket rolled out to the pad this morning, and we are taking pictures tomorrow morning. Then I'm flying home so I can support the launch in the Mission Operations Center Friday morning.

Can't wait!!