Off to Astrobiology...
I'm heading out momentarily to go back to the Astrobiology conference, which started yesterday afternoon in downtown DC.
Saturday night was also spent downtown, having dinner with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
geekchick at Zaytinya, drinking a pitcher of pomegranate drinks and eating small tapas-like dishes of Mediterranean food. Astounded observers would have seen me actually eating fava beans and eggplant. (grin). A good choice on Cathy's part.
Yesterday... slept in, as we were up until 3am. Got brunch nearby, while waiting for Kinko's to reprint my 3'x4' poster (they'd printed from a PPT file, losing several small graphics which Cathy noticed). Corrected vinyl received, Cathy headed home while I went to the conference's opening at 2pm. Lots of bored security guards, in the old Post Office building at 12th and E NW.
Afterward, driving back from the West Falls Church Metro, I just kept going up Rt. 7 toward Leesburg, finally stopping to stick my head inside a church... projected liturgy up above the altar, contemporary music, modernist church architecture, saying hello to KP... I could have been at my home parish. Except it was KP's new parish at St. David's. Hard to find, as it is surrounded by new townhome construction.
Finally,geekchick and I met and went together to a small 30-person gathering last night... the Association of Mars Explorers biannual dinner. Failing any human explorers as yet of Mars itself, the criteria for membership is either doing work at a Mars-analog site or sending instruments to Mars. I knew about a quarter of the attendees. It was comfy and collegial and informal, and after dinner Steve Squyres got up and showed us his MER-as-narrative take, and how he'd felt during various crises and triumphs. We also had a presentation from ESA's Mars Express chief, but he was badly jetlagged.
Off to work, now...
Saturday night was also spent downtown, having dinner with
geekchick at Zaytinya, drinking a pitcher of pomegranate drinks and eating small tapas-like dishes of Mediterranean food. Astounded observers would have seen me actually eating fava beans and eggplant. (grin). A good choice on Cathy's part. Yesterday... slept in, as we were up until 3am. Got brunch nearby, while waiting for Kinko's to reprint my 3'x4' poster (they'd printed from a PPT file, losing several small graphics which Cathy noticed). Corrected vinyl received, Cathy headed home while I went to the conference's opening at 2pm. Lots of bored security guards, in the old Post Office building at 12th and E NW.
Afterward, driving back from the West Falls Church Metro, I just kept going up Rt. 7 toward Leesburg, finally stopping to stick my head inside a church... projected liturgy up above the altar, contemporary music, modernist church architecture, saying hello to KP... I could have been at my home parish. Except it was KP's new parish at St. David's. Hard to find, as it is surrounded by new townhome construction.
Finally,
geekchick and I met and went together to a small 30-person gathering last night... the Association of Mars Explorers biannual dinner. Failing any human explorers as yet of Mars itself, the criteria for membership is either doing work at a Mars-analog site or sending instruments to Mars. I knew about a quarter of the attendees. It was comfy and collegial and informal, and after dinner Steve Squyres got up and showed us his MER-as-narrative take, and how he'd felt during various crises and triumphs. We also had a presentation from ESA's Mars Express chief, but he was badly jetlagged. Off to work, now...