Yuri's Goodbye Party

Last night, Paul and I had decided not to go out since I've had a small cold & big headache... but after a nice long nap we actually got restless and needed to get out!

So we went to hag out with some friends for Yuri Malenchenko's (Increment 16 crew) last night in Houston before he's off to Russia for his October trip to the space station. We had a blast and I'm really glad we decided to go out after all.

Our friend Kyle threw a great party at a place called the Kasbah. It's a Moroccan Furniture warehouse/club... All the furniture is for sale - but it's in a club layout so it's rented out for parties... Here's a picture of a bunch of us hanging out!
At the party I ran into Inna, one of my colleges from Russia is here working in Houston. We gabbed all night - it was great to have time to get to know her better!
Paul and also meet Igor, a Russian flight director here for a month. Here's a picture of Yuri, Inna and Igor. (You might ask why Paul and I don't have any pictures with Yuri - partly I didn't want to give anyone my cold germs even though I shouldn't be contagious at this point and partly we just don't like to crowd people we don't know all that well).
The best part was Yuri's goodbye cake... not only was it a 3 incredible layers of chocolate cake & mouse - but it also had a rocket that blasted off after our countdown!