Time flies...

Well Halloween came and went. Austin was a vampire, Faith Little Red Riding Hood, Erin wore a silly hat and glasses, and I wore a keg hat with a camelback bladder in it. The keg hat proved to be a bit top heavy at first, but got easier to work with as the evening went on. We went around to maybe a dozen houses with another family from Austin's school. Good times had by all. Just the right amount of candy to deal with.

I got out weekend before last to the Bankhead Land Trust. It is located about an hour away from Huntsville. The trails were still a bit on the muddy side, but much smoother than those in town. There are three loops there. We did the closest to the parking lot. I was happy to get out and hit trails that were lacking the rocks I have become accustomed to in Huntsville. When these trails are dry I would imagine they are very fast. As it was they were still some of the best flowing sections of trail in AL that I have sampled.
Some pictures:


This weekend was kind of a bust. We sat around on Saturday trying to make connection with Erin's cousins. That didn't happen, so we headed out and did some additional shopping at ToysRUs. Yesterday we did lunch with John, Mary, and Erin's cousins. Ended up getting home around 3pm. I grabbed my stuff and headed off for a short ride. Decided to hit a lap in Monte Sano. The Sultan gobbled up a couple of trails that have had me a bit sketched on the Raleigh. I was carrying enough speed that I managed to pinch flat my front tire. I have yet to pinch flat my raleigh and was beginning to wonder if pinch flats were possible on a 29er. Well, they are. So I am sitting there changing a tire on the Goat Trail as the daylight fades away. Since I am only about 1/3rd of the way along I turn back and head up Keith's Trail instead of slogging up Goat to Mtn Mist. For the first time since I got the Sultan I am noticing some suspension bob and heavy tire activity. Guess Monte Sano really is just a pain in the but when you are out of shape. I had a good ride and got to the truck just as it was getting too dim to see in the woods. I get home to find my tire is again going flat. Turned out to be a thorn. 2 for Monte Sano, 0 for Doug. Sometimes you are the nail.

Work is kind of stagnant. I am just filling out forms and cruising the net. I guess until my temporary security clearance comes in I am kind of dead in the water. Everyone knows it, so I just do what I can to pass the hours. It has been good in some respects as it has given me time to dig into some stuff like past employer info, birth certificates, etc... I have gone on a couple of tours of the NASA facility. There is some amazing equipment out there. It really blew me away at the sheer scale of operations. They have a tensile/compression facility capable of loading/pulling an entire rocket stage at up to 100 million tons of force. Very cool stuff to geek out on. I have another tour tomorrow to see a scale mock up of the stage of the rocket I will be working on.

Faith will be 2 tomorrow. Yippee, no more nursing. Countdown on daipers. It will be cool to be out of the baby phase. She is really a character and a handfull. She has really started to talk in complete sentences and the things that come out of her mouth are quite funny. She has started to declare anything that she wants, "Thats a mine" or something to that effect. Cute, but going to be trouble for a while.

Erin is now down to her pre-child weight goal. My beer diet hasn't been all it was cracked up to be. Guess you can't slack on it and only drink a beer or two. The key is that you have to drink enough to vomit. Guess I wasn't paying close enough attention...
Going on a diet post

That's about all I got for now. Thanks to everyone for getting me updated contact information for my security documents.