All Hallows

As a late addition to this Halloween, my neighbors smelled gas in their house so... LCFD to the rescue!! Fire trucks and sirens and flashing lights! Wooohooo! Everything turned out okay, so that's good news for all.

Also, the kids who came to the door said both: "it's not as scary as last year" and "it's the scariest house ever!!" Some of the parents were also joking they had to bribe the kids to come up to our door cuz it was so scary... Yay, I guess? :D

Happy Halloween everyone!

Bikes & 'Cakes

Today was gorgeous outside, yay!! Sunny, breezy, perfect temperature. Lauren and I biked from my house to a local cupcake shop, Rise Cupcakes (www.risecupcakes.com). They just opened in September and I will definitely go back. Moist cake, strong flavors and cute decor. All in all we biked almost 12 miles round trip!! Woohoo! I expect a sore butt-crotch tomorrow from the journey, but it will have been well worth it :)

I hope you all had a bright and sweet weekend!

Mmmmm

It's a New Age and Jersey Girl kind of night.
...someone here might be jealous.

Bounty!

A cool front came through last night, so I was able to finally get a reprieve from the mosquitoes and tend to the garden. This is probably close to the season's last fruits...

Hot

A little "post-run with Mommy" fat tongue. So hot!!

Note: Mommy is also sweating profusely from the brief run x2 in capri pants and a long sleeve tshirt, but you will not see any pix of that! Separate runs with each dog, since both are too much to handle for me at one time = double sweat!! Why the full-body cover in 80+ degree weather? Yep, still skeeto infested here!

I hope you're living skeetie-free!

Ahhhhhhh...

This is the way to spend a morning with your husband! Cup of tea, breezy air and foot cuddles :)

Mozzies

I remember when we went to Africa and I was all worried about contracting Yellow Fever and Malaria from mosquitos. It turned out there weren't very many mosquitos there (at the time at least) and I was so un-worried I began to adore their name for mosquitos, "mozzies". "Mozzie-spray" this and "mozzie coil" that... "Oh how cute!" I thought. Tee hee hee...

Ahhhhhhhhh mozzies. I remember why I dislike you, MANY!

The area I live in got a few inches of rain a few weeks ago and since it has "cooled off" to a balmy high of 85 only (yay!), the rain has stayed and the mozzies, they are-a-breedin'. It's a literal swarm of mozzies all over the dogs as they go outside for potty and it's a Marshik-family slap-fest when they get in.

The dogs are faring okay still, though their little legs (less hair) and faces (least hair) get bitten pretty frequently. The fat-juicy mozzies get smashed by Mama Marshik and it's bye-bye suckers! Mama Marshik is the entree du jour every time, probably because I'm so sweet. My feet and ankles and neck and arms have SO many bites, it's crazy.

I do think Texas mozzies are worse than MN ones. It's true folks, it's true. MN is a close second, but Texas takes the cake for big ol' skeeties.

I'm usually against sprays and chemicals and what have you, but in this case...SPRAY CITY SPRAYYYYYYY! They are supposed to be spraying the area I live in tonight, so let's hope it helps.

Our cooler temps are a welcome reprieve from the sweltering drought this summer season, and I am thrilled to be able to enjoy those temperatures :) I hope you are all enjoying this lovely autumn!

Hi There

Hello there world! It's time again for another session of Bloggo!

Life has been pretty crazy lately, so let's get caught up:

1. I'm still navigating my way through the mystical world of my new job. So far I am managing okay, and looking forward to getting the most out of this new position that I can.
2. In August Charlie and I had our 6-year anniversary -woo!!! It's been a fabulous 6 years of marriage and I am thankful every day to be married to such a rock-star of a husband. Mwah!
3. Carey and Chris brought our new nephew Henry Molton Meehan into the world and he is super cute! Charlie got the opportunity to see him in person upon arrival in MN for his sister's big 40th birthday bash. Great times abound on the Marshik side of the family!
4. My sister's kids are doing really well and Noah started school this year. Preschool, that is. He's simply adorable and little B is always stylin' with his cheeks and glasses, so you can't beat that!
5. Charlie and I took an Indian Cooking class during Houston Restaurant Weeks at Rice Epicurian Market and had a wonderful time - our table ruled! Good food and good times.
6. Thanks to Groupon we got to take an Intro to Scuba open water class and that was super fun. I was a bit freaked out at first, which surprised me, but in the end I think I got the idea and paddled myself around the practice lake. I might try for my Scuba cert even! Stay tuned for that one.
7. Mom just came to visit and it was really nice to have some girl time :) Faith and Mom will be coming to visit in November for a "real" girls weekend and I can't wait!

That's all for now - I hope life is treating you all well!

Sniff!

...I can't help it. I'm a lost cause.

I deplore Billy Ray Cyrus and his re-emerging mullet.

And yet, this DOES. NOT. STOP. ME.

At the very first snippet of a 'reveal' from the commercial for that new show "Surprise Homecoming" on TLC (a show about deployed servicemen coming home as a surprise to their families)...you guessed it. I start boo-hooing like an idiot.

What's worse is this eye-watering happens every time I see the commercial. EVERY TIME. If you watch HGTV as often as I do, you obviously know that TLC commercials are like the plague on that network. I'm doomed.

Final Mission

In a couple short days I will have the privilege to be working the last week of the FINAL space shuttle mission of all time: STS-135/ULF7.

Many of you have asked about the climate at NASA as the end of the shuttle program arrives in full force. The general feeling at NASA is one best characterized as bittersweet. The end of an era in human spaceflight and an ever-fluctuating direction for the future and the agency as a whole is hard on the dedicated NASA workforce - including those not involved in the shuttle program directly. There are a lot of layoffs that have occurred and the last round of them is soon to come. By the end of the shuttle "retirement phase" we will have lost much legacy manned spaceflight knowledge and more importantly, really good folks.

In my thirty-some years of life, the space shuttle has been a staple - in fact, I can't remember a time in life without the space shuttle. I remember specifically the tragedy of Challenger in 1986 as a young student and again the tragedy of Columbia in 2003 as a just-graduating new hire at NASA.

I cannot forget what it felt like watching the launch of this magnificent, engineering marvel in person. The roaring sound, the tactile feeling of the sheer power coming from her engines as she rocketed into space on her dynamic 8 minute ride. To this day I cry at the sight of it.

I will never forget how honored I have felt working in Mission Control Center for each shuttle mission over the past ten years.

Having been blessed to have been a part of this amazing program, and in general as a proud American citizen (even with her downfalls), I will miss the space shuttle dearly after the wheels have stopped upon landing. Until then, however, I will relish every second of the mission!