jay | (no subject)

It's been a long week... lots of work developments in drilling projects. Today we decided to put together a proposal team for a subsurface sampling mole as an instrument on the 2009 MSL Mars rover, working with the Germans (DLR-Munich) and Ball Aerospace.

Ducking out of the proposal discussion, I joined

patgreene and

geekchick for a relaxed brunch at a Hobee's, then we made a Fry's trip before Cathy had to go to the airport. She found a laptop battery and some games, I bought some equipment and software for work, and this year's Quicken for home use. Then we sadly dropped her at San Jose airport... after I tried to get a (confused, because the battery was too low to take a picture) policeman to take a picture of the three of us there.

It's been great getting to see

geekchick this past week, and she's gone beyond the call of duty IMO, working to exhaustion and then trying to socialize. I feel both loved, and sad to see her leave.

Tonight

patgreene and I went to

hopeforyou's birthday party in SF... there were almost 20 people there. I met three people for the first time:

sarahh,

iceblink and

insomnia. Food was excellent, the company comfortable and not bored with my rantings about Bush's new NASA initiative, and there was a surfeit of wittiness ;-). Rather than go out dancing, most people preferred to stay in and talk and/or do crafts (is this a sign of age?). That was OK, though. I had fun, and saw

lunatravels for the first time in a long while. A few of us diehards stayed past midnight to wish

hopeforyou happy birthday on the actual date;)...