For those who noticed that there was no text appearing in my posts, it was a problem with a plug in for my Twitter feed. I’ve deactivated it.
Category Archives: Administrative
Hitting The Road
Today is Patricia’s birthday, and we’re celebrating by going to the mountains and desert of San Diego County for a few days, to see the super bloom of desert wildflowers, which are peaking about now. I’ll take a computer, but not sure how much posting I’ll be doing.
Light And Scattered Blogging
We’re closing on the house (just signed yesterday, and should get funds next week) and Monday’s my birthday (and the 33rd anniversary of the Challenger loss), so we’re splurging on a trip to Vegas this weekend. Be good in comments.
Kitten Update
The gray one has figured out how to climb stairs. This could be a problem.
[Afternoon update]
When I say figured out how to climb, I meant that she is willing to come down them now that she knows she can go back up. They’ve spent their entire life with us (i.e., since Saturday) upstairs, because our house is upside down, with the living area upstairs, and the bedrooms (including my office) down. They’ve been living in Patricia’s upstairs office/bath, but now at least the gray one will have the run of the house, including my office. The black one is a little less developed; when she fell halfway down the stairs on Sunday, I had to carry her back up. But it’s only a matter of time until they’re both heading up and down.
[Update a while later]
These kittens are hilarious. I set down two bowls of food for them. One of them starts eating, and the other insists on eating from the same bowl. I pick her up and stick her face in the other one, and then she starts to eat from it.
[Update Friday morning]
Last night, we named them: Ashe and Ember (Ashe is the gray one, and I spell it like Ashe Schow’s name: she approved).
[Bumped]
The Florida House
We put it on the market a couple weeks ago, and we got an offer of $275K on Saturday (the asking price was $280K). We counteroffered to split the difference, and they accepted it. It’s a young couple who reportedly loved the place. It’s their first house, and we’re told by the realtor that she was crying in joy, so that made us feel good. According to the realtor, everyone who saw it liked it, but apparently many thought it was priced too high. Fortunately, this couple didn’t, at least not much.
Vacation
We decided to drive up to Santa Ynez for a weekend holiday wine tour. We left last night in hopes of getting up here in time for the Delta IV launch out of Vandenberg, but it was scrubbed for a technical issue. The good news is that it’s rescheduled for an earlier launch tonight (1006), and we’ll still be up here. The weather is clear, and it should be good viewing of a night launch if it goes. It’s the first time in many months that we’ve traveled just for pleasure, with no business. Back to the grind on Monday.
[Update after the launch scrub]
Well, that was disappointing. We had a great spot on Ocean Avenue to view, a clear sky, and it aborted seven seconds before liftoff. No word on cause yet.
Still Off The Air
I flew up to DC on Tuesday after checking out the house in Florida, and was at the Galloway Symposium all day yesterday, with two back-to-back receptions afterward, and didn’t get back to my room until midnight. It was a very useful day, but it was marred by texts from my realtor that someone had attempted to break into the patio door and damage it, and she has open houses scheduled this weekend. So this morning first thing I had to find a handyman to go check out the situation.
Today is getting caught up in emails this morning, then a meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where I’ll have meetings with some officials from the Dept of Commerce, then a late-afternoon flight back to California. So no blogging today (either).
The House In Florida
For those curious, it went on the market today. Our long national nightmare is almost over. I’m flying down there tomorrow for a couple days for some final things, then up to DC for the Galloway Symposium on Space Law.
These Are The Crazy Years
Progressive organizations really held mass demonstrations last night in defense of… Jeff Sessions. That really happened
— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) November 9, 2018
I know that posting has been light/non-existent. Between dealing with the house, and all the travel (I’ve been in DC most of the week, going back home tonight), I’m suffering from a little blog burnout. But things will probably be back to normal on Monday, probably until Thanksgiving, after which I’m off to Luxembourg and other European destinations.
The Election
I’m concerned about the loss of the House, of course, both because it will stymie any useful legislation for the next two years and because some loons will be in charge of committees (e.g., Maxine Waters). Also, it will mean all investigations of the Trump administration all the time. On the other hand, that will make it more likely that both Trump and the Republicans in the House will win in 2020.
I assume that Sessions’ resignation was requested, now that Trump has more votes in the Senate to confirm someone who will actually know what he’s doing and what the job of the Attorney General is.
In terms of space, I won’t miss Culberson; his defeat probably means no Europa mission. The biggest loss from a space standpoint is Rohrabacher, unless he can find enough votes in absentees to pull it out. He is one of the few on the Hill who understands what has to happen in space, and if he’d won, and the Republicans had kept their majority, he’d have finally been chair of the Science Committee, where he would have had a lot more clout to make better things happen.
Note: Posting remains light because I’m in DC this week after the dual conferences in LA last weekend. Hopefully things will be back to normal next week, for a couple weeks, before I go to Europe at the end of the month.
[Update after driving to Manassas from Falls Church]
Maybe it’s not a great idea to blab on the phone on the Acela. Jerry Nadler’s plans to impeach Trump and Kavanaugh. Yeah, you want more Trump? That’s how you’ll get more Trump in 2020.