morrowlife

Here’s a public telephone I noticed here in Trier the other day. Bright colors, no? I’m not sure what that handle on the right is supposed to be for – maybe you’re supposed to think it’s really a slot machine. I doubt it pays out very well. (NOTE: Picture uploads are still dead. A million curses on Vizaweb! See my Flickr link over there on the right instead.)

Finished our meeting today, right on schedule. I was worried yesterday when we ended for the day at 5:00, but we were finished and out of there at about that same time today! We had our banquet at a fancy restaurant whose name none of us could pronounce, let alone spell, so I won’t be providing a link, for which I am truly sorry to my devoted readers who have come to depend on such things.

I’m driving back to Frankfurt tomorrow morning at a million miles an hour and then flying home (only slightly faster). Can’t wait to get there.

No blog post tomorrow, in all likelihood, due to travel. I’ll try to make up for it with a Very Special Saturday Post. I can hear my Esteemed Readers cheering from here. See you then.

This guy is just a little more inviting than yesterday’s, huh? I might actually go into this restaurant (although I haven’t been so inspired yet). Note: my web server is still having problems and I can’t currently post pictures. I’ll go back and modify these posts as soon as it’s fixed. In the meantime, please have a look at the pictures posted on Flickr (as always, the link’s over there on the right) (unless it’s also not working – sheesh). And thanks to Reader Number Two for suggesting I put them there!

Today’s meeting went pretty well, although I think we ended a little early. That’s normally a good thing, but I fear it will mean tomorrow’s session will last well into the night. And I need to get up early on Friday morning to drive to Frankfurt at 220 km/h so I can make my flight to Washington so I can make my flight to Philadelphia so I can drive home at 55 mph so I can be with my family for a few days and finally sleep in my own bed. But I can always sleep on the plane.

There’s not a lot else to report. Had dinner with Russ, Mike, and Paul at the Krokodil restaurant (warning – this is perhaps the lamest link I’ve ever included here, and that’s saying a lot). I’ve eaten there before. I had a huge platter full of meat and French fries. Most of the meat was pretty good. Definitely not the best meal I’ve ever had, but also definitely not the worst.

I’m really tired – jet lag is setting in – so I’m off to bed. ‘Night.

This guy creeps me out. And he’s supposed to make you want to go into a restaurant! If that’s what they look like in there, no thank you for that.

I’m back in Trier, and it was a beautiful and sunny day, if just a little bit cold. There’s a possibility of snow later in the week – I hope it doesn’t come on Friday, when I’m driving back to Frankfurt.

I have a BMW 118 this week, which turns out to be a nice little car. It’s about the size of a Volkswagen Golf. Does it drive like a BMW? I don’t know, but it does go and handle very well for the kind of car it is. It will do 220 km/h downhill and cruise at 200 to 205 on a level surface. I enjoyed the two-hour drive over here from the airport.

I’ve been trying to upload today’s picture to the server for quite a while now, and it doesn’t seem to be working at all. I don’t understand the problem, but if there’s no picture today, I’ll revise the site to add it as soon as I can figure it out. In the meantime, you can look at the morrowlife picture gallery. Just click the link over there on the right.

Later – Now I’m having troubles publishing anything at all. I just gets partway through and hangs. I have a trouble report in to Blogger. Can’t figure out what I could be doing wrong, so it must be in their servers (or maybe the Gardenville Software server, I guess).

Well, the computer’s just about out of juice. I’m in the hotel lobby where the wireless connection is, but there’s no power down here. So, I have to log off and go back up to my room to recharge. Have a great rest of the day. See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view from my condo’s balcony last night. The moonlight on the water was pretty.

I’m on my way in a few minutes from Cocoa Beach, Florida to Luxembourg. I’m sorry to leave the campaign and not necessarily looking forward to another transatlantic flight. I’m in first class again, though, so don’t worry about me too much.

Gotta get going. More on Tuesday.

I’m heading back to Luxembourg in three days so, in honor of that, here’s another picture from there. It’s a detail from one of the numerous fountains in Trier. Sadly, the water isn’t running this time of year, so the little guys with pipes in their mouths look a little strange. Still, it’s a cool fountain.

I spent eleven hours at work today and never got to anything on my to-do list. I’m hoping to keep it down to five or so hours the next couple of days, but I have my doubts. On a launch campaign, there are always an infinite number of things that need doing. For example, I fixed a golf cart yesterday. It was broken, we needed it, and all the techs were (or at least should have been) busy testing the spacecraft, so I volunteered. I enjoyed doing it and we now have a working golf cart. I guess I probably should been engineering this or integrating that, but the team needed the cart. Something else is bound to come up tomorrow and every day thereafter. I guess that’s part of the excitement of the campaign.

It was very warm and another beautiful day today. When I spoke with the family, I learned that they’ve been having warm, nice weather today too, so I can’t lord it over them today. Too bad. Maybe it will be great here and terrible there tomorrow. We can only hope not.

Today’s fitcheck went very well, and we’re moving full-steam ahead with spacecraft testing tomorrow morning.

I was able to change my lodging reservations to add a few days at the beginning of my next trip here, so I won’t have to move right in the middle of things next time. I don’t want to come back earlier, but I’m needed, so I’ll come. Sadly, my stay at home between trips will only last ten days. The good news is that it looks like I’ll be able to take a couple of comp days during that time, maximizing my (and even possibly my family’s) enjoyment.

Monk (link warning – sound!) was pretty good tonight, no? There were a few little obvious moments there, and I’m not really crazy about Randy’s band, but I still enjoyed it. However, I’m afraid to go to the dentist now, of course. Right now, I’m watching the end of Pillow Talk, with Rock Hudson and Doris Day on TCM. Very amusing. Interestingly, Doris Day’s character is named Jan Morrow. A long-lost relative!

Had dinner with three co-workers tonight at the Durango Steakhouse, the finest restaurant in Beautiful Titusville, Florida. Roy mentioned that if it was just a little bit better, it would be absolutely average.

It’s late, the movie is over now, my laptop’s battery is nearly dead, and I’m going to bed. Gotta get up early again tomorrow. I continue to wish a speedy recovery to Reader Number One. G’night, mate!