Both sets of parents were in town over the weekend, so Eliazbeth & I were more than just a little busy, but it was a good busy. We also got to see Elizabeth's cousin Ayisha (sp?), who will graduate from the Naval Academy in a few months & meet 2 of her friends ( Read more... )

Aside from the background melancholy of having to pack up the library & the appalling possibility of sequestration hanging over my head, it's been a pretty good week. For the first time since the operations, I was able to wear a button-down shirt for 4 days in a row ( Read more... )

Yesterday's asteroid/meteorite combo hit the library like an express train, & we handled it splendidly. We directed many members of the public to NASA's webcast (as well as catching just a bit of it ourselves), & reassuring a lot of them that what happened in Russia was a freak of Nature, in the truest sense. I hope that the people in Russia who ( Read more... )

Today, I had my first appointment of the New Year with Dr. Hausner, my cardiologist. It was the first appointment I've had with her since I returned to work. I was hoping that she believed the month had gone well.

Dr. Hausner did. I'm not over the whole string of events of November & December, nor will I be for some time, but ad astra per aspera ( Read more... )

As it turned out, I did take the day off on 1/22 to recover. This probably was a good idea. I came back to work in much better spirits than I would have otherwise. While, again, all I worked was a half-week, I think I'm further along in knowing how to pace myself, so that I'm not a mess by the end of the week. My birthday was on Wednesday, but we ( Read more... )

The eyes of the world were focussed on the Mall this weekend, but a lot of people who live in the DC area were otherwise inclined. Elizabeth & I stayed in, most of the time. The one exception was yesterday evening, when we went to celebrate my birthday a couple of days ahead of time with David. I kept the worst part of my sore shoulders at bay with ( Read more... )

I was able to wear a button-down shirt Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday. Then my left shoulder started acting up again, & I thought I could reduce some stress on the shoulder by going back to sweaters. It still hurt. In fact, Thursday night, it hurt so much I could scarcely sleep, & I went through Friday, which was NASA HQ's Open House, exhausted & in ( Read more... )

My first full work week ended well. I don't think I'm at full strength, but I think I'm closer to it than I was on the day after New Year's. If this continues, I'll be closer still on Monday ( Read more... )

I've been able to do more & more at the library: Pushing lightly laden carts, sitting more sessions at our reference desk, writing (in fact, one new webpage should go up tomorrow), & restarting news alert services. People's inboxes are once more getting my emails, & they're happy to see me back. Today, I took advantage of the nearly fifty degree ( Read more... )

My first three days back at work took more out of me than I expected. I had a lot of paperwork & associated BFJV (Beacon Fusion Joint Venture-the new contract) hijinks to take care of, because the company wanted me to actually be on the job before it could be seen to. I don't know why, honestly, unless it has to do with arcane FMLA details that ( Read more... )