Hi,

First and Foremost, I'm Fine! I am not at JSC, I am in Colorado sitting at my Desk and studying my bumm off for final exams and such.

I've talked to a lot of my friends at JSC and they are all fine as well. Right now the situtation is isolated to Building 44 and everyone else has been asked to go home.

K

Me and the SEDS Boys at Laika Night - A tribute to the first Earthling in Space...

For anyone awake, Please give me the definition of the following word! Don't look it up, just give me the definition that comes out of your head when you see the word.

So here it is:


XENOLITH

Thanks,

Kennda

Here are some links to the TV News Shows that Mom appeared in:

Best Video - Chicago 7 ABC News

2. Fox News - Some Indiana Parents Take Cookie Cash

Happy Halloween!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


My friend Loretta Turned here house into a Giant Jack-o-Lantern...

My Mother Rules!

She is the CEO of Drifiting Dunes Girl Scout Council and they are in the Chicago Sun Times because they are suing parents who have not paid over $8,000 in cookie money that is owed from cookie sales over the last couple of years.

For those of you who don't know, The Girl Scout Cookie program is one of the biggest fundraisers for the Girl Scouts and all that money is put into programs for girls. So when parents don't pay their money...they are stealing from their own children.

Go MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Chorus, CU Women's Chorus, will be having it's fall concert on November 5th at 5PM. This is a free concert and anyone who is in town that weekend is invited to attend. The underlying theme behind all the musical pieces chosen is children.
Hence, we have a wonderful program of very challenging and beautiful music that was either written for, sung by or written about(or in honor of) children.

Here is a sneak peek of our program:

Part I
1. Laudate Pueri Dominum - Tomas Luis de Victoria
2. Dixit - Haydn
3. Memento Domine David - Haydn
4. De Profundis - Haydn

Part II
1. Thula Babana - (Xhosa Lullaby)
2. Perhaps they are not Stars - Inuit Proverb turned into a song in honor of a young student who died in 2003
3. Sing All Ye Joyful - Kirke Mechem

The last song, Sing All Ye Joyful is my particular favorite because of its background! This piece was written from a song/poem from a well known Sci-fi/fantasy book.

I am offering two dozen home-made cookies (and I will Fedex them out to people not in Boulder/Denver) to the first person who can tell me what book this piece originates from. The title is part of the song/poem and should be enough to get you started.

Here are the concert Details:

What: Women's, Men's and Collegiate Choir Fall Concert
When: Sunday, November 5th 7:30 PM
Where: Grusin Music Hall, University of Colorado at Boulder
Cost: Concert is free

Note: we've been told that parking is limited and so please arrive early or carpool.

The Opera was good. I was a little disappointed with the woman they cast as the queen. She is supposed to have this amazing and powerful aria called "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" ("The vengeance of Hell boils in my heart") or more commonly the Queen of the Night aria. Though the young lady they cast as the queen hit the notes perfectly, I don't feel like she had the power behind her voice to really reach out and grab the audience, and she looked like she was straining to hit the notes...which is not good for a singer.
I will say that it was technically perfect and beautiful... we just needed a little more power Scotty!!

In any case, it was good to see a theater/music performance again and I now have a "theater buddy". Eric likes all types of music and stage performances and so we planned a few other performances to attend. We are even going to gather up some of the other Aero grads and get them out to a few performances. After the show we went to Pearl street for a few drinks and to people-watch all the drunk and fully costumed Boulderites stumble from Bar to Bar for Halloween weekend celebration. It was quite a fun evening.

Today I watched the Bears completely thrash the 49ers and it was fantastic. Becky summarized the game very well in her post today.

Now I am working in my office and getting several reports that are due by Tuesday completed, and at some point will get to the homework as well.

It's Saturday Morning and I got up early to do my routine trip to the farmers market. I got my traditional stock of fresh meat bones for Mr. Melbourne, a double stock of fresh eggs from the Wisdom Poultry farm, and of course a bag of Sister's Pantry Dumplings!! I also visited the beautiful "mushroom man" (and I am not kidding, he has got these awesome blue eyes!!) and prepared to get my standard stock of yummy shitake mushrooms and today I was presented with an interesting option - Chanterelles. I've heard that Chanterelles are very good and people were starting to descend upon the mushroom both like vultures as he pulled boxes of chanterelles out of his truck, so I quickly paid my $7 for my bag and got out of the way before a riot ensued.

Tonight I am going to see Mozart's The Magic Flute. I'm going with my friend Eric (another Aerospace PhD Candidate at CU). I'm really looking forward to seeing this show, I've heard portions of the Magic flute over the years, but I've never seen the whole thing all the way through. My only reservation is that the singing will be in German and in general I'm not a fan of singing in German, but we will see.

And now, for your enjoyment - Hallucinogenic frogs and the Cocker Spaniel who loves them (Courtesy of Cherissa Fischer)

There are no limits to what we weirdos can do in the name of science!

Check this out - Shrimps on a treadmill

and I highly recommend the "Remix Version"

or the "Hearts On Fire Version"

or, Last but not least, "The Final Countdown Version"

Here is the original website that outlines the Science

So, I was in New Mexico this weekend at the X-prize Cup with my friends Cherissa and Evan and it was a total blast!!

(...uh, no pun intended)

For those of my friends who don't know, X-prize cup is a follow-on the the Globally Successful X-prize! It is a 2-day Space Exhibition in the New Mexico Desert featuring rocket launches, technology competitions with millions of dollars in prizes, Rocket races and much more!

For my fellow Midwesterners - Think the OshKosh Fly-in for Space!


Here is a picture of the whole gang at Skyfire Lab's Exibitor Booth. From the black girl on the left: Kennda, Jen, Robert (in the back), Tim, Karen, Evan, and Cherissa.

Skyfire Lab is a hot new Space Culture and Design Company started by my friends Tim and Karen. Check them out, they are going to be hot!!!!



Just a little rocket fire in the New Mexico Desert.



Evan on a "virtual" Skydive



Kennda, Cherissa and Brooke on the flightline at the Flight Operation Control Center.



Kennda and Cherissa hanging out with John Carmack and the Armadillo Aerospace Crew, and Pixel (one of two lunar lander modules that competed in the 2006 X-prize Challenges)

After a couple of inquiries as to my whereabouts and when I am going to update this stinkin journal, I have finally decided to re-initiate my droll diatribe about life as a Marsgirl.

So let's see, what has been happening in my life lately - Part I.

Well 1st of all I am not at NASA anymore and I feel surprisingly good about the whole situation. I took what I am calling a "strategic" layoff from my contractor job and head north to the mountains of Colorado and to a temporary life of poverty as a PhD student. Strangely enough, when I turned over my badge and committed to 3-5 years of abject poverty and servitude, I actually felt better! I walked away from the security office with a lightness in my step and a feeling of freedom and renewal. It was a strange feeling that I did not expect.

So I am looking for any theories that you all may have as to where this elation came from...any creative takers?

I am so inspired today by Anousheh Ansari .....You Go Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you who wanted to know why I am in Spain...

check out http://marte.arc.nasa.gov

and all shall become clear!

Hurricane Rita

Chivalry is not dead and I have proof!!!

As you all know, I adopted my new puppy, Melbourne, before I left for Spain. Now, the original plan was that Mel was to stay with his foster mom until I got back, at which time I would come and claim him for good. Hurricane Rita has accelerated this process.

Janet lives in a little town called Van Vleck which is right off the coast of Matagorda Island, which is one of the high probability strike zones for Texas and until today she was not planning on leaving and she also has about 20 other dogs, cats, birds and a horse to care for...

**Hence Kennda starts to panic**

So I put an e-mail call out to all of my friends to see if someone, ANYONE, would be willing to go down to Van Vleck (Normally a 3 hour round trip drive) to evacuate my baby. Most people did not bother to respond or said that they could not help...suddenly my visions of hiking the Colorado Mountains with Mel looked bleak and near non-existent...and then enter Sir Athmer.

Today at 1PM Houston time the Valiant Knight, Sir Toon Athmer, mounted his mighty German steed (a.k.a a blue Volkswagen Touareg) and began his mighty quest to save Melbourne from thy evil Rita. On his journey he encountered many perils such as the vile, oppressive TXdot overlords that slowed that path to Van Vleck with their monstrous constructions machines. He also had to navigate through the vast amounts of peasants fleeing the southern coast in anticipation of Rita's wrath.

And he was successful in his quest which was completed at 8:30 PM this evening as he returned to the sanctity of Houston with Melbourne in tow. And from my last report, Melbourne has been bathed, fed, and watered and will be happily keeping Sir Athmer company over the weekend.

That is probably the most selfless and loving thing anyone has ever done for me...

La Rabida Replicas of the Santa Maria and the Pinta in La Rabida, Spain

On Sunday we went down to the Atlantic coast and chilled out at the beach. We also took some time to go to the area of Huelva where Christopher Columbus launched his ships for his voyages to the Americas. So here is a picture of replicas of the Santa Maria and the Pinta that reside in La Rabida. La Rabida is a little town in the Province of Huelva and it is said that Christopher eColumbus visited a Monastery in La Rabida quite often while planning his trips to the Americas.

BSEDS in Spain My instrument hanging out in the Museo Minero.

Hi All,

Here is a picture of my instrument in the field lab in Spain! It is so weird to see this thing built and sitting on a table when it has only been powerpoint images and Pro-E drawings for the last two years. So far the instrument works in the general sense. One of my pump control boards went down and we are getting another sent to us from the US and my solenoid valves are not firing correctly. So I am currently in debugging mode and I am having a lot of fun.