I'm Baaack

So, part of the reason I haven't posted in so long is because I actually kinda lost interest in posting. But, I guess I have a new found interest. So, I'm back.

Anyway, life on the central coast is great! We've both been pretty busy with our jobs, but we both like what we're doing, and we're MUCH more content here than we ever were in our last location.

I had my first mission last month. We launched a NASA satellite. Here is a link that talks about the mission:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/aim/index.html

Here is another link that goes into more detail about the satellite and its mission.
http://science.hq.nasa.gov/missions/aim.htm

I have another launch coming up next week. I'll post some info on that afterwards.

Cheers!

New Location, New Life

Well, sorry I haven't posted in a while, but it's been for good cause. We've moved! We're all settled into our new place. We've painted the house, planted flowers out front, and water the lawn, which when we got here, was VERY dry. So, we're doing well.

This place, as expected, is SOOOO much better than Minot. The weather is AWESOME, there's plenty of stuff to do (beach, anyone?), and my work schedule is much better. Silvia has even found a job already! She'll be doing photography work for a company based out of a town about 15 minutes north of here. Basically, they train her, then they go around to all the schools in the area, presumably to take the students' school photos. It's a temporary job for now, until November. If she does well, though, they might hire her on full time. She's always been interested in photography, so this is a good opportunity for her. She starts training (and earning a paycheck) on Monday.

As for me, I've pretty much settled into my new job. It's mostly office work for now, but next week or so I'll start training for my operational duty. Basically, what my new unit does is support space launches out of the west coast. We operate all of the radar, telemetry, and tracking stations of what is called the Western Range. As our slogan says, "Nothing Flies Without Us." We're essentially the "other" Cape Canaveral, though I would be obligated to argue that we're better! :)

Well, I suppose that's all for now. We really love it here! Posts from here on out may be generally happier than anything from when we were in Minot.

2 more weeks....

... till we leave this place forever. We've been busy organizing the house, setting up appointments for the movers, my outprocessing crap, etc. I still have one more alert this Saturday. Just got back from one today.

Watched the U.S. get eliminated from the World Cup today. Of course, I'm upset, but at the same time, the U.S. has never been a World Cup powerhouse, so it's not like it wasn't inevitable that we'd get knocked eventually. That being said, however, some of the officiating in today's game against Ghana and *especially* the Italy game was CRAP. The first red card against the U.S. in the bloodmatch that was U.S./Italy was the worst. He touched the ball first, then tripped the other player. Yellow? Maybe. Red? Horseshit. And the supposed foul in the penalty area during today's game, the one that gave Ghana a penalty shot (which they of course made), was non-existent. The commentators said as much, and then some. And that goal off the penalty shot, having come immediately after the U.S.'s first (and only, as it turned out) goal of the game, completely killed the energy and momentum the US had as a result of their goal. Had that foul not been called, Ghana wouldn't have scored that penalty shot, and the game probably would have played out much differently. You tend to perform better when you're riding the energy of a great goal like the one Dempsey (U.S. player who scored the goal, for those who aren't even sure what the "World Cup" is) scored today.

Anyway, the Cup rolls on. There's always Brazil to cheer for, as well Australia, and plenty of other good teams. It looks like it's gearing up to be a pretty good cup. We'll see.

We leave on July 7. We'll stop somewhere on the road to watch the final match.

Latest News

Okay, so, I've decided that there are two types of bloggers:
1.) the obsessive, few friends, little-to-no life bloggers who post everyday, and
2.) those who are typically very busy with their lives, and therefore only manage to post once every month or so.

Guess which category I'm in...

Anyway, I do have some valid excuses, not that it matters. It's my blog, I'll post when I want to, dammit. Nevertheless, they include:
1.) We were out of town (back in Illinois) to visit family, etc. for Easter
2.) Been finishing up my research paper for my master's program, from which I will graduate next month. (Yay!!)
3.) Busy as hell at work. Stupid shit, as usual.
4.) Finding out where we are going next...

And speaking of which - and yes, we've known for about 3 weeks now - but we are moving to Vandenberg AFB, in California, where I will be working in the Range Squadron supporting space lift missions from there. It's basically the "other" Cape Canaveral. I'm pretty excited about the job, and the location is good, too! It's not anywhere that we would want to remain permanently - too damned expensive, the politics are just too fucked up - but we can handle it for 2-3 years. At first we had heard that we were going to Colorado Springs, where I would have done satellite operations, but then when the official "word" came down, the assignment was Vandenberg. We were looking forward to buying our own house in Colorado Springs, but that's okay, the job I'll be doing at Vandenberg will be quite a bit more interesting I think (satellite ops might sound cool, but it's rather boring, from what I hear). We're definitely NOT going to try and buy our own house in California, for reasons that should be fairly obvious. In C Springs, $225,000 will buy you a pretty nice, 3-4 bedroom, 2-3 bathroom house with a finished basement, possibly a deck, and other nice little features (not to mention a likely view of Pike's Peak), especially now that the housing bubble apparently seems to be deflating somewhat and it's becoming more of a buyer's market. In California, on the other hand, despite the housing bubble deflating, etc., $400,000+ will barely buy you a decent townhouse in one of the towns near to the base. So you wouldn't even have a yard, much less a basement. (For a useful, though pathetic reference, the town I'm referring to is Santa Maria, which is where the big Michael Jackson trial was held. His Neverland ranch is in the area. Fortunately, I think its closing, and even if it weren't, Livvy's NEVER going there. Though she's a girl, which apparently puts her less at risk... but I digress.)

So, we'll be living on base. Again. I will say, I was looking forward to getting out of military housing, but again, there are lots of people who would love to get an assignment to Vandenberg. It's about 45 minutes north of Santa Barbara, right in the heart of the central coast wine country. L.A. is 2 hours away, and it's a fun drive along the coast the whole way. For a better cultural reference than MJ, if you've seen the movie "Sideways," its right exactly in that area. Buellton, Solvang, the "Hitchin' Post." They're all basically straight east of base. If none of that makes sense, watch the movie. Pretty good. Anyway, it's a nice area, so I don't think we're allowed to complain. Besides, we can still get Colorado Springs after this assignment. There will always be jobs for me there.

"Loud, clear"

Hey, at least my three links read this then! :) Anyway, I wasn't sure if the page was actually publishing correctly lately. Thanks for the come-back!

Well, nothing new really from up here, although we are heading back down to Illinois next week to stay with my parents for New Years. We'll be celebrating New Years Eve at their "new" (as in, in the last 2 years) house, with the recently finished basement complete with bar. I think I've mentioned it before, but ever since I graduated high school I've realized that my parents are actually pretty cool to party with. :) We're having some friends over that night also. It should be a drinking good time!

Anyway, I got clean up some of the mess that a certain now-in-bed 1-yr-old made tonight, so I guess I'll cut this off here. More to come soon.