dental story

It seams like everyone has a dental story... and now I do too!

The small piece of tissue connecting my bottom gum to my lip was not quite small enough and started pulling my gum tissue down (okay... my gum was receding at alarming rates). So I had to have periodontal surgery to cut that tissue and then graft some gum tissue over the now largely exposed tooth (you see, the tooth below your gum isn't as protected as the tooth above the gum, and is more subject to decay so it needs the protection).

Well - the procedure was easy due to nitrous gas (honestly I was having a ball the entire time)... and the rest hasn't been painful - just a little annoying for two reasons. First I wasn't allowed to have any crunchy food - since it might tear up the sensitive new tissue and thus my diet has been limited to soup, bananas, and pudding. Second, I wasn't allowed to look at the healing progress- since it might cause the stitches to come out, and me lose my new gum layer. But, then I'd have hints of it all the time: the stitches floating around, the weird new item I feel at the bottom of my lip... and I would swear it wasn't right.

So after being clueless for about a week - I got in to the dentist and he reported that it was mostly right. Good news is nothing was lost. Bad news was there was a slight tear in my graft, leaving a V shaped gum over the tooth. But it's not too big of a deal, hopefully in the next couple of months the new gum tissue will just grow into place. If not, it can be moved back up... just have to re-do the no eating solids and no peaking rules!

The Perfect Day

Today was the most ideal day I could imagine. We woke up this morning just as Space Shuttle Discovery launched out of our atmosphere, and got to watch the action from under the covers. This is the next great thing about today: the weather has finally cooled off here - and it's cold enough to use the blankets! Today we didn't have to go into work - so we spent the next hour in bed, reading mail & surfing the internet. After that Paul made a mushroom omelet for me and sunny side up eggs for himself. Then we cleaned up, bathed, and found ourselves back in bed reading again - catching up on some books. Finally at about 2:00 we decided it was time to face the world, so we took our bikes around the block for some exercise. We then made it downtown to the museum district (a little too late to see the exhibits - last entry at 4:00pm but in time to see a planetarium video on the evolution of life on Earth) and after a beautiful stroll through Herman park wound up at the Zoo. The Houston Zoo was fun (not as big as the Milwaukee Zoo - but definitely worth going) and a great place for an additional walk on a perfect day. After dusk, we managed back to find our car and then took off to rice village for dinner at Mi Luna, a tapas restaurant. Then to top off the night, on the way back home, we stopped at Bed Bath & Beyond to scope out the items we want for a gift certificate coming our way (possibly new sheets, my china soup bowls, or Port wine glasses for Paul). And now I get to tell you about it (back under the covers). The best news, is that we're both well rested and ready for the adventures of the mission ahead of us. Go Discovery!

Opera and Sushi

Tonight was our first opera of the season! It was a hit - Verdi's "A Masked Ball." Verdi happens to be my favorite composer - so there was no way it wasn't going to be great. But the Houston Opera put on a great production. Other Verdi Opera's we've seen - Falstaff and Aida (my favorite Opera of all time is also one of his - La Traviata - but it hasn't come to Houston yet).

Afterwards we went to out to eat in midtown for Sushi at The Fish. They have some of the best specialty sushi rolls we've had in awhile - adding avocado, onions & jalapenos to their spicy tuna and ell. If you go, definitely get the cheeseburger roll - sounds crazy - but it's awesome!

Movie Reccomendations

We broke down and signed up for some movie services - Netflix & Blockbuster rewards. Netflix for the selection (we get 2 per month + 5 hours online movies) and Blockbuster because for $10 a year you get 1 movie a month. That means for $7 we can get 3 DVDs plus watch 3 movies online.

So far so good.

Which brings us to this month's movie recommendations:

First - the more well known movie: The Motorcycle Diaries. This movie opened us up to the history of Ernesto "Che" Guevara & also takes you on a motorcycle ride across Latin America with all the exciting stories you'd expect along the way.

Our next recommendation: The Great Happiness Space. An incredible & fascinating documentary about the Japanese "Host Clubs." Since I won't do justice to the topic - check out the synopsis from the web page (linked in the picture).

Beautiful Weekend

Well - sandwiched in between two weeks of the over night shift at work I got the most beautiful weekend free! Although I tried to sleep through the best parts of the day, luckily I couldn't, and instead we spent a bunch of time outside. We got to catch a block BBQ our neighbors threw and also went bike riding through Brazos Bend.

The block party was fun! I made chocolate chip cookies - which to my disappointment - flattened out - I can't get them to fluff up since I've been in Texas. But every one still loved them. The best part was the mom's yelling at their kids not to eat any more!!

And Brazos Bend was just awesome. If you have a bike - definitely take it there!! Even though I've been to the park just about 10 times, we'd never seen half the trails before. Plus the alligators are less scary when you zoom by!

Cruisin'

This last weekend I went on a cruise with the girls - 7 of my favorite sorority sisters from school!! We went on a Royal Caribbean adventure to the Bahamas and had a great time...

Here was our BIG boat!! 11 decks total!! We slept on deck 6 in a tiny room with no windows - I forgot to take a picture - but there was really no room too!
Here is me at the helm :)

Me at the aft of the boat - it was really neat! The boat really moved! I didn't expect it so much - but we rocked all over the place... couldn't really ever walk in a straight line. It was really fun - in fact I'm still moving!!
Us girls on the cruise

All of us girls for formal night! Aren't we good looking :)

obviously me! This is a group of us getting ready to snorkel at Nassau. It's always fun to snorkel - but the spot wasn't too great (I think it was too close to the port). I saw a bunch of brain coral (not a technical term :), and the best part was when the guides feed the fish and about 40 fish swarmed around. It was neat.
Having fun at Senior Frogs - a dance club in Nassau after the formal...
Me at the beach :) This was at Coco Cay, an island owned by the cruise line. It was pretty awesome - there were chairs and hammocks all over. This was me 90% of the time, applying SPF 55 sun screen - I did really well - and am only 3% tanner than I was before I left!

Hountsville State Park

What's at huntsville state park?

Over an hour worth of great bike riding! Thanks to Paul's lesson on shifting I made it - maybe that's why I didn't like it all those years!!

You can also swim or rent a canoe and hang out - definitly a great picnic spot!

Surprise & New Hobby at home

So I made it back home safely - with my luggage :) Overall, it was a good trip since I got to get to know some other coworkers and I got to be in my favorite city. Also this was the first trip I was leading other people around - and now feel very confident in my getting around skills - so I look forward to trips with better weather to explore more places!

Then I got to come home to a surprise - a new bike for me. Paul had found a great deal on a barely used hybrid bike for me and more used bike for him. The hybrid bike was exactly what I wanted - so it won't be too hard to ride on the street but will handle moderate mountain bike trails. He also got everything we needed - helmets and a bike rack for the end of the car.

Although in the end his bike didn't work out... so we opted to find him a better one... which was challenging. All the bike shops around here start with bikes at $350 (more than we want to spend since we are just biking casually). Then we went to Walmart, and after 30 min of waiting for a sales rep which we called twice, we left because we couldn't reach the adult bikes on the third shelf. We tried target, but after a test drive, the gear changer broke... finally we remembered Academy, where although not very knowledgeable, they actually had someone to help us, and a much larger selection - so we got a moderate Mountain bike from Columbia (I didn't know they had bikes - but the suspension is great - and they are reasonably priced). Plus, it looks cool!

So then we took off for the trail, and went to our usual (as in used to be usual) running trail. What used to take us 45 min to an hour took us 15 minutes... so we went off exploring other parts of the trail and rode past a small skate park and disc course! Not that we're going to pick up those new hobbies as well - but we had a great time checking everything out. Hopefully this will be a great way to get in some exercise too - I think some of the past excuses are out. If I'm tired I can take it slow and coast & even when it's hot, you pick up a breeze & don't overheat as easily!

I'm also excited because there are a lot of great easy level mountain bike trails within 2 hours of us - so we'll have some more adventures coming up!

Russian Space Museum at Energia

On Thursday I got to visit the Russian Space History Museum at the Energia site. Energia is the main contractor used for the Russian space program and they have a museum with the early and main space vehicles that were flown by Russia... it was very awesome.

Here were the highlights:

Sputnik: first satellite in space.

Earth's second launched space vehicle - with a dog!

Here is how the first animal in space, Laika , got up - not very comfortable... temperature wise either. Although, the original plans included poisoned food to be eaten on the 20th day in space, in reality Laika died from overheating due to poor thermal systems.

This was the next major manned or dogged vehicle, the Vostok. In total Russia launched around 60 dogs into space, and about 50% lived and returned to earth.

Here is Yuri Gagarin's capsule that returned to Earth (although he used the jettison system and did not "touch ground" in the actual capsule). In the display there is also a letter from Yuri to his wife. He was only chosen a few days before the mission, and it was highly top secret information so even his wife did not know he would be the first man in space. The letter was very sweet and heroic, and in the end was not needed because he lived to tell his story to his wife himself.

Here is a picture of the Soyuz vehicle, which began flying in 1963 and continues today to send astronauts and cosmonauts to the ISS.

Here is me in a Soyuz!!!

I'm a bit to short :(

And here are the control panels! What an awesome museum!

Things are looking up!

So - I thought I'd update that things here are looking up!

I finnaly got my luggage (Wednesday) and have been getting some good rest! I've been taking it easy now that the mad dash for buying work clothes is over and I am also wearing comfortable shoes :) Yes, those boots absolutly destroyed my feet!

Now - I'm trying to put together some last minute slides for additional information asked by our Russian counterparts... hopefully it will all go well! But I seam to be having trouble accessing the information I need here... uh oh!

Signing off to finish up before I call it a night (with my comfy PJ's and waking up to a nice instant oatmeal breakfast)!!

Bad trip of the year

It happens to everyone now and then - you have a bad trip... and this is mine...

My luggage didn't make it with me and is now stuck in the Moscow airport in room L... and I don't know why they won't deliever it, and delta says that it is the responsibility of Czec airline which I was transfered to when my flight got delayed... and Chez airlines gave me another number which doesn't work!! Man!!!

And it is rainy and cold... the good news is that I bought a super cute big green bag just before coming out here and at Izmolova I bought a super cute green scarf & green hat to match it...

Also - the people on my trip have been very nice - one of the guys packed an extra jacket and although it's way too big and I look like the hunch back from Notre Dame in it - it keeps me warm! Also, for the first day of the meeting, a girl on the trip let me borrow a shirt and pair of pants. She was also going to let me borrow her brand new Bebe jacket - but I couldn't!

Another good thing is that I have a faboulous throw over sweater from a day of shopping with Linda that is perfect for hear - and I've worn it every day!! So I am so happy I have something so perfect... and I also stole a book from Tam - Jarhead - which I absolutly love... it's very interesting!

I also have a big room - but it's not wired with a NASA phone or internet - so I have to check email and call from the conference room in the next tower - which is why I havn't called everyone (plus I am generally in a bad mood - so I am a little anti social). But my bathtub is wonderful - so it's a great place to be anti-social!

Here is the one picture I took... and then my camera ran out of batteries... guess where my charger is??? In my luggage at the airport!!

But - you will notice the fun boots - I went shopping & got underware, a super cute skirt and a pair of these fun (although probably soon to be painful) boots so I don't have to borrow Olga's clothes tomorrow!!

Oh man... my bag better arrive soon... otherwise I won't be able to bring any Vodka home :)

The Grand Tetons

It's been over 10 years since I was in the Rocky Mountains - but I still remembered that the Mountains get bigger and more beautiful as you go North... Not that Colorado isn't beautiful - but if you want to see some truly rocky mountains you have to go into Wyoming, Idaho & Montana... and it really does get even better from there in Canada... and I'm not wrong - Paul definitely agreed when we got to the Tetons!

Our first day - we camped at the North end of the park and got in a sunset hike before listening to the Ranger talks. (I haven't mentioned Ranger talks since they aren't something you photograph - but they are one of my favorite parts about national parks. Sometimes they are designed for kids - but I haven't been to one talk where I didn't learn something new about the area. We heard several talks this trip, from the formation of the Sand Dunes and rocks, to interactions between the raven & wolf, and native american use & beliefs of the land).

But we hiked along a lake and some beautiful ponds - where we spotted 4 Moose bathing in the lake... Here's an interpretive picture of one...
Okay - they were too far away to make a good picture :)
But this picture of a bear turned out... it's baby cub is in front of it playing in the bushes. This is another very dangerous situation - Moma Bears with babies are nothing to mess with!
The next day we took a bigger hike into a canyon in between two of the mountains... we took a ferry across Lake Jenny to save us some time... It was really a fun hike because I had done this hike with my Mom, brother & sister when I was 8 or so. We had started together - but the hike was really difficult for me - so my mom and sister were hanging with me but my brother ran up ahead. It turns out that I wasn't going to make it to the look out point, and we took a wrong turn and went to a waterfall instead of the original destination of look out point.

Here is the waterfall we had stopped at - with Paul in front this time...

On the way back down from the trip years ago, since there was no more going up for me at that time, my mom, sister and I ran into so many people that said "Oh - you must be the family that is lost - we met your son and he said you were lost and didn't know where you were." So my little brother told everyone we were lost - when in reality we just had picked an alternate route... it was pretty funny - we meet him back at the ferry at the bottom... looking at the picture below one can see that the trail gets a little more difficult - I'm actually not convinced even my brother made it to the top...

But the lookout at the top of the trail wasn't the beautiful spot - it was the trail going into the canyon the next 4 miles. We didn't make it the whole way in because we started the trail late - but it was definitely the best trail of the trip!

After hiking as long as we thought we could with making it back to camp safely before sundown - we turned around... it was sad to leave what we knew would only be more beautiful views - but stumbling through the darkness wasn't an exciting idea either. And it was at this point that we couldn't hitch a ride with the ferry that took us out, and would half to hike the two extra miles around the lake. The lake trail was still gorgeous - but we really love being in the mountains!

Above is the view near the end of the trail and close to our campsite - when we got back our feet were so soar that we went to soak them in the lake. Since it is all snow melt from the mountains it was nice and cool... so nice - that ankle deep wasn't enough so we dove in for a refreshing twilight swim just as the stars were coming out! It was a fantastic evening!

Rocky Mountian National Park

Our next destination was Rocky Mountain National Park... it's got great views & tons of wildlife!

Just after we got into the park we spotted three Moose roadside... You can see two in this picture. Photographing wildlife can be very tricky - it seams like if you just got a little closer you'd get a much better picture - but if these animals feel threatened they will not hesitate to run into you and ram you with their horns. Every year people in the park system are hurt for Moose, Elk, Buffalo & bears.

We didn't have any problems - but we saw a crazy video at Yellowstone where people got rammed by male Elk with large antlers and one woman trying to get a close up picture got rammed into by a buffalo and then toppled over, causing her to roll across the prairie.
So now you know why we don't have super close up pictures of the wildlife...

This picture was from a quick hike in a valley.

This next picture is from the highest point on the trail in the tundra. The Tundra , or high altitude areas on the tops of mountains, is always such an interesting place because of the harsh conditions that plants and animals are exposed to. Plants are dwarfed in size and also evolved to deal with the extreme cold and extreme sunlight - at high elevation, with the atmosphere thinning there are higher concentrations of UV light. So even though it was raining (the weather system up there is constantly changing but most often dreary) I got a little sunburn pink on my nose.

Another interesting thing about the Tundra is that it is very fragile - at the national parks, originally people we allowed to walk all over, but the tundra can't take the pressure, turns a sun burnt red, and dies off.

After our trip through the main highway across the park we were scheduled to head off to Wyoming and other parks... but we were pretty exhausted - so we stopped near a visitor center and pulled out our new hammock! This is definitely a must for car camping - you can set your hammock up virtually anywhere and get a quick snooze to refresh before your next adventure!

And here was our next adventure - driving out of the park we saw a couple Elk munching on bushes by a river. You can spot Elk by their darker colored heads and white butts!
And coming out East of Rockey Mt Nat Park, one exits through this incredible canyon... the drive through here was about 10 miles and just incredible!

On to Wyoming...

Great Sand Dunes - CO

The Great Sand Dunes were incredible... we didn't arrive until later at night - and here is a little known fact: if you arrive after dark and the handicap spot is not taken - it's up for grabs! But don't tell this to everyone - we got it when about 20 other cars driving around the camping ground did not!
Here are the majestic dunes!

Hiking up was a ton harder than we thought - this is the tallest dune - a total hike of 750 feet up - but for every step up you take two down... the best reward was running down the dunes - which we'll post soon with youtube... but lets just say that there is still sand in our tennis shoes!