Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 23:28:23 -0700
Subject: July 29: Full Moon(s) in San Fran Tonight
Yet another frustrating day has come and gone on with the PI's laptop and I still don't have it done. To get the packages I needed for the printer driver, I had to reinstall Linux. Reinstalling linux meant that I lost all the stuff I had the guy do for me last week so I get to do that over with. On the plus side, I was able to get all the packages my PI wants installed and that were needed for the printer driver to be installed (reinstalling Linux was a piece of cake). On the negative, I tried all afternoon to get the laptop to print on my PI's computer and succeeded at making my PI really, really nervous. I apologized about taking so long in an e-mail tonight and also casually mentioned that he's going to have to show me some Orion stuff when I'm done with his computer - brown nosing at it's finest.
But enough about the computer stuff. I'm sure I've confused you enough. I've confused myself. Now on to the funner stuff. Today, it was Nellymar's (fellow research associate from Puerto Rico) birthday. We went out to celebrate tonight at Chevy's mexican place. I got in trouble for commenting on the last place so let's just say not the greatest, but I've also seen worse. That was not the fun part. The guys rode in one car and the gals in another. On the way home, there were full moons on El Camino Real and vain attempts at flashing. NUFF said!! I guess you can say I am guilty of being innocent. You could also say that I am NOT the "man in the moon". For safety sake (I know that some of you will be reading this in the middle of the morning from a nice cramped up office), let's not go any further on this subject. Again, NUFF said!!!!!!!!!!!!
As I said earlier, I was a bit frustrated by today. I worked at full steam the whole day and I still didn't get the job done. I need a break. I need to go to, ohhhhhhh, say Disneyland. What the heck. Let's go for it. Who needs work? Forget about it these next few days. We'll just take off for LA in the morning and not come back for Monday.
Sound outragious? It doesn't to me. Sounds more like the last offical trip of the Ames Astrobiology Academy to me. We're leaving tomorrow at 6 AM and headed to Lancaster (close to Dryden Flight Research Center and Edwards Air Force Base). Going to go through Yosemite. On Thursday, we will tour and attend presentations at Dryden and be hoseted by the Dryden academy. Then on Friday, we have a tour and more presentations at the JPL (Jet Propulsion Labratory). We attended a presentation at JPL a few weeks ago. JPL is also the place where all the stuff concerning Mars Pathfinder goes on. Those two should both be lots of fun.
Then on Saturday, we get to see the famous big earred mouse that everybody know's as mickey. Gates open at 8 and close at 1. I don't know how long we will be there. All the activities, including Disneyland will be done with the Dryden academy. Then on Sunday, we head home for a long drive along the coast. Looks like we will take the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway) for part of the way. We will definitely be going through Monterey.
Tonight, five of the group are leaving at 3 AM to see more of Yosemite. The rest of us slightly more sane folk are headed out at 6 to meet them there.
That's about it for this weekend. Family, be prepared to give me Hank's number if I call. I might try to get ahold of him. We will be staying at the Rio Mirada in Lancaster for at least tomorrow night. Hope that helps.
I guess that's it for e-mail this week. I should have e-mail access while I'm gone (thanks to my doings), but it will be extremely limited. I'll e-mail you on Sunday or later. Until then, have a great weekend. It will probably be better than mine becuase you'll have natural beauty rather than man-made beauty.
So long from Palo Alto once again.
Don Olinger
Research Associate
Ames Astrobiology Academy
p.s. two of the weekly summaries are up on the web page. Two more will be going up tonight or sunday or monday night so surf on over to http://www.mcn.net/~dolinger.