Coffee from a Reusable Ceramic Mug

I couldn’t resist sharing…

Brian and I drove into yesterday. On the way from Socorro, we drove past the Trinity site, which is where they tested the first atomic bomb. The site is closed except for twice a year when they open it to the public. Then we went past White Sands missile range. There is a long history of bombs in this state. Perhaps it’s the lack of people that make it so attractive to the military.

As an aside, the movie “Contact” was on TV last night, and I saw the part that they filmed at the VLA. I realized that the ‘bad guy’ in the movie is the former head of my office! Apparently, the character was loosely based on the real guy. It was funny to see that the control room at the observatory hadn’t changed in 10 years. It was also funny to see Jody Foster go for a drive in New Mexico and park her car next to a canyon in Arizona.

Anyway, we arrived in Cloudcroft yesterday afternoon around 3:30. After taking some time to unwind at the hotel, we learned that most of the town closes at 6:00. We found a local diner though, and the food was pretty darn good. We are staying at The Lodge, which is a cute, old hotel. It is less elegant than the website makes it appear, but it is quaint. They have a restaurant in the hotel, but it is so busy that we couldn’t get a reservation. There is supposed to be a ghost, but I haven’t heard from her yet.

Brian and I finally had a day off today, so we walked around town and shopped a bit. (actually, Brian worked all morning and I responded to a few emails, but it was a theoretical day off). The people in town were really friendly, and I chatted away with the most people running the counters in the stores. We even ran into people we had met last night. There was a couple from the diner we went to last night and the masseuse from the spa. It really is a small place with a limited number of places to go, so it’s to be expected I guess. I knew the masseuse because I got a massage and a mud rap about an hour after arriving yesterday. With all of the driving and sitting in meetings, I needed it.

I could see myself in a place like this, though I suspect I might get bored after a year or so. The mountains are beautiful, and I assume I’d get used to the elevation eventually. I already have a business plan for Cloudcroft if I should ever live here - a laundromat! This came about because Brian needed to do some laundry last night and had to drive to the next town to find a place!

It is beautiful here even if it is a bit isolated. The pine forest is nice, and the temperatures are cool. There are a surprising number of Germans around. The masseuse, for example, is from Wurtzburg! His dad is German and they moved back to the U.S. when he was a teenager. He mentioned that there is a German airforce base nearby, which is where the rest came from, I assume. I really wanted to chat with the Germans I heard on the street, but aside from saying “Hey, you’re German,” I don’t have much more to share, so I secretly listened to their conversations instead.

OK, so since I wrote last, I have traveled a bit more. There are some more cool photos of really big stuff on our photo site.

After West Virginia, I went back to Arlington for a couple of days and then flew to Phoenix last Friday. I spent the Saturday with mom and Mark. I met Sara, my second cousin-twice removed, who is an undergrad in physics at ASU. It was nice for both of us to know there is another physicist in the family. She and I drove down to Tucson on Sunday where she accompanied Brian and me on our visit to NOAO and Kitt Peak to learn about what we do in my office and what the national observatories are doing. I suspect she got WAY more information than she needed, but she seemed to have a good time, and she asked some great questions. She may try to organize a trip down there again with a group of students.

Sara headed back to Phoenix on Tuesday evening, and Brian and I had a working dinner, which was awesome. Tucson is a great little town. They have good Mexican food and a nice feel. It is also the darkest city I have been to. They have a lot of ordances about excessive night time lighting because of the observatory. Imagine night time being dark! It was great. I also found my favorite radio station there. Check it out here.

On Wednesday, Brian and I spent the entire day driving! We arrived in Socorro at around dinner time. Socorro is an interesting place. It is a small town, but it has New Mexico Tech, which adds a lot of flavor to an apparent hick-town. I learned today that the school specialized in counter-terrorism techniques pre-911. They have classes, for example, where they blow stuff up to learn how to reconstruct an explosion and figure out what caused it. Needless to say, after 911 they were primed to grow with significant investments from the U.S. government. They have a large number of international grad students as well, so they small town int he middle of New Mexico is surprisingly diverse. As we drove in, I had the expectation that our only choices for food would be greasy, tasteless place. This morning, however, we found a gem! There is a brew pub near the hotel, and they have an espresso machine! They have a really simple menu with good food. The people at the observatory today said it;s the most popular place in town. The place started when a local woman needed to come up with a business plan for her business class, and the professor told her it would never work - she did it anyway. We had dinner there tonight, and it was good

So, that’s why I have to day, New Mexico is not as bad as I thought :-). I’m sure Tweed may have some other thoughts on New Mexico, but it is a nice to visit. Actually, it is a really empty place, beautiful landscapes and some gems like the Socorro Springs brewery. They are also the chile capitol of the world , and who doesn’t love chillies in everything! They also have a law here that when Pluto is visible from New Mexico, it will regain its status as a planet - they really tackle the tough political issues here, apparently.

The other gem is the Very Large Array, which we got a tour of today. I got to hear some cool stories about the making of “Contact” and Bon Jovi videos.
Plus, we got to go up into one of the Antennas, that one right behind me, actually! I love this part of my job! If you ever find yourself with the desire to do along drive through empty country, I highly recommend it. If you are a science geek, then I even more highly recommend it - I have a shirt with little radio dishes down the torso and arms so that when I lift my arms over my head, I am in the same shape as the array! (just to remind myself what a dork I am)

If you ever get a chance to go to the VLA, try to arrange a tour with Dave Finley. He is their press officer, and he is filled with stories, facts and antic dotes about the VLA. For example, if you could see with the resolution of the Very Large Array, you could see a Volkswagon Beetle in Los Angeles while you were sitting in New York City. Likewise, if you could see with the resolution of the Very Large Baseline Array, you could read the owners manual. Good stuff.

I saw lightening strike a power line on the drive back too. It looked only a little like this. Actually, it was really far from the antennas, but it was still cool. I have never seen lightening strike anything before.

The coolest thing about this project I am working on in the office is that I get to visit lots of the world’s biggest stuff! For example, that picture there is a photo of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (sadly, the Wiki site has more interesting info than on the proper NRAO site). This telescope is the largest moving mass in the world! The photo was taken from a mile away because it is in the National “Radio quite zone,” which means no digital cameras can be used within about a mile of the instrument. I learned a lot about radio interference being there. If you ever want to get away from teh glow of blinking lights, I suggest going there.

Here’s a list of the big stuff I have gotten to see on my travels for this project so far:

• World’s tallest mountain (from base to summit) - Mauna Kea
• World’s most Massive Mountain - Mauna Loa (I actually only got to see this one, but still, it’s impressive)
• Largest moving mass - Green Bank Telescope
• Largest Equatorial Mounted Telescope - The 43 Meter Telescope
• World’s Largest Ball Bearings! - OK, I didn’t actually SEE this one, but it’s in Green Bank in the building of 43-meter. They are 17.5 feet in diameter!

I better get my apartment cleaned up now and repack for the southwest tour…..

That’s right, I am back in West Virginia (for those John Denver fans out there).

I got back from Phoenix on Monday, and the time there was valuable. There was some sadness and a lot of laughs during the time of mourning. I was really glad that I went and was able to be with everyone and pay my respects to grandma and my condolences to grandpop. I can only imagine how he feels at the moment, but I am glad I could be there with him and hold his hand. I was glad that he seemed to remember me (I always reminded him that I am his favorite grandkid and he took my word for it! ). I’ll be back in Phoenix on Saturday to go to lunch with him again.

As I said, at the moment, I am in West Virginia (notice the nice photo of a beautiful valley on the way here). After a 4.5 hour drive from DC, Brian and I arrived at Green bank. It is the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, and it is cool! There are huge radio telescopes everywhere. I couldn’t capture them so well because of the fact that the sun was behind them when we got in, and I can’t use my digital camera anywhere near the telescopes. Basically, it is forbidden to use any electronic gadgets within a certain distance, and I have to leave my cell phone and wireless card turned off in the dorm room. I hope to get some cool photos before the meeting starts tomorrow. The sun will be in a better spot.

You get to learn a lot about the transmission of the Electro-Magnetic spectrum working in my office. For example, I learned that digital TV signals ‘pollute’ the radio spectrum more than the analog signals. They have a much broader spectrum of transmission. This will cause interfere with some radio observatories (including this one). Since the U.S. is going all digital by 2009, it will be interesting to see what the consequences will be on radio astronomy. The “E&M spectrum manager” in my office is the guy who keeps track of these things for the astronomers who like to use the same frequency to do science. I also learned that TV stations lease radio frequencies - so essentially, they pay for the right to use radio waves. That means that our governments ‘own’ the E&M spectrum over our lands. That’s kind of a strange idea I think.

It is cool to stay in an observatory dorm room while I am here. I haven’t stayed in one since 2003, and they are usually cute (and sometimes a bit gross). This one is of the same genre as the others I have seen. They were all decorated in the ’60s or ’70s and they seem to have the same furniture. They are practical and functional. Since it’s raining now, I’ll be here all night. I hope it clears up tomorrow. I’d like to get a closer look at the 100-meter radio telescope tomorrow!

“King’s College London scientists compared key aging DNA with the number of moles in a study of 1,800 twins.

They found the more moles a person had, the more likely their DNA was to have the properties to fight off aging. “

According to this research, I will live to about 200 years old! or at least I’d like to interpret it that way.

So, I have about 7 weeks left as a Arlington resident. Of those 7 weeks, I’ll be on the road for 4 weeks. If you are wondering where I am in the next few weeks, ‘on a plane or in a car’ would be a good guess. Here’s the plan…

• July 12-15 - Pay my respects to grandma’s memory (still strange to think of her in the past tense).

• Sometime on the week of the 16th (If I get this organized)- Green Bank, West Virginia - There is a big telescope there with some students, and I am trying to arrange a trip (hopefully, only 2 days).
• July 20 - 22 - Back to Phoenix, for my previously planned trip to visit before my road trip for work.
• July 22 - 25 - Tucson for meeting number 1 along with Brian (from the Hawaii adventure) and my long-lost second cousin, twice removed, Sara who will come see the telescopes with us.
• July 25 - 28 - Socorro, New Mexico (after a long drive from Tucson) for another meeting.
• July 28 - Aug 1 - Cloudcroft, NM for ANOTHER meeting (you see why I deemed this trip the “Southwest Tour” )
• Aug 5 - 8 (after 3 whole days at home) Puerto Rico for the final meeting in this tour!

Dude! I just invested in some travel gear (seat cushion & a lumbar support) to try to protect my back, hips and sacrum. Let’s see if I can keep my yoga practice up through all of this. Brian may start to learn some Sanskrit chants through all of this! (that’s what I am working on at the moment).

I get about three weeks at home in Arlington to start writing up the results of these meetings and finish getting rid of my possessions before flying out to Germany (WITH Matthias this time!) Matthias will be here for two of those 3 weeks, so that will be so helpful. Of course, I may drive him nuts being all wound up from traveling, but he loves me so he’ll deal! (won’t you, honey )

The world lost a big personality last night when grandma passed away. How could someone with such a small body take up an entire room with her personality? Her personality may not have always been appreciated (by her own kids), but it usually made the grandkids giggle :-). A lot of little moments keep popping up since I heard the news. It’s funny the things that come to mind when you realize that you’ll never see someone again.

I remember not liking the sponge bath she gave me in the hospital when I was 4. I remember the crazy trip to California with an earth quake, some stolen money, and it ended with a bird pooping on Grandma’s purse! I remember Easters and Christmas and her crisp, clean $5 bills. I remember her little bit of constant craziness (which I seemed to have inherited just a bit:-) ) and for always looking just a bit overwhelmed. She always saw me as the 12 year old little girl who moved away from Phoenix and came back a grown up.

She leaves behind many copies of her DNA, namely after 89 year (almost 70 of those years she spent married to that handsome man on her left): Jim, George, Bob, (Dick), Louise, Ralph, Ken, Wendy, Daneen, Dave, Tara, Niki, Bryan, Scott, Mark, me, Kelly, Jay, Kasey, Mathew, Tatiana, Jaydan, Devon, Caleb, Ryan, Cole, Jake, and Jake2 (still in Niki’s tummy)!!

and a little fear of heights. I went to a beginners class at a local rock climbing club today. I was inspired to try out climbing by an awesome rock climber I met at the yoga training. Matthias found a place not far from our place in Regensburg, so it’s something we can do together there.

I went ‘boldering’ last week. That’s where you just climb around on a short wall (only about ten feet high) with really steep walls and overhangs. That takes a lot of strength and was fun. Today, I learned how to tie up the harness and to spot someone climbing. That’s when I learned about my “trust issues” and my uncomforatbleness with heights. I can climb really high (which surprised me), but once I get up there, I needed a little convincing to let go of the wall and let my partner lower me down. My partner kept leaving the rope a bit slack when I was at the top of the wall, and I wasn’t too comfortable letting go with a slack rope. And ten meters is REALLY high! Eventually, we worked it out; I can talk myself out of most silly fears enough to enjoy what I am doing. I suspect it will be easier with Matthias holding the rope. I have noticed that he is usually more concerned with my safety than I am - so I figure he won’t drop me :-).

Rock climbing reminds me of sailing because it involves tying knots and you are supposed to follow a little protocol for announcing what you are going to do to your partner. Hopefully Matthias likes it too.

Today was also exciting because I rented a car for the weekend. It feels to normal to be in the U.S. with a car. It takes so much less energy to run errands! The fact the the rental company only had a Mercedes (again) was also nice. I really like the fancy Mercedes!

Tomorrow, I am supposed to go Kayaking on the Potomac… I can’t wait. I haven’t been kayaking since 2001.

The video clip of me looking like a dorky scientist is here, but I don’t know how to grab it so I can save it on my computer. Can anyone help me with that? (ahem.. Cliff, & Seth). If you want to see the video, click on “Related Videos.”