The second best thing to be in Costa Rica

I just returned from a week in San Jose, Costa Rica for work. I discovered that saying you are with the NASA group is the second best thing in their value system. (#1 would be a soccer star.) It is reminiscent of the way the Japanese treated us when Sapporo hosted IUGG (Internation Union of Geodesy and Geophysics). The Emperor and Empress flew to Sapporo to welcome us. I don't recall any president or even a governor taping a hello for us at the AGU (American Geophysical Union) annual fall meeting in San Francisco.

Ending a top 10 list at 8

One of my journalist friends (OK, my only journalist friend) said that her least favorite part of her job is writing the list article. That's when the editor assigns a stuckee to write an article with top 10 this, top 15 that! Suppose there really aren't top 10 whatevers to write about? How do you keep your professional pride and yet submit a long enough list to keep your job?

That's why I love the www.crazyauntpurl.com blog. She ended her list at 8 because she had run out of good ideas! What a concept. And don't miss this classic list of 8. I took her advice and printed off a pile of "Please steal this car" flyers that we keep by the front door. So far so good.

Out to lunch, and dinner and breakfast...

Sometimes I discover that someone I have never met and I belong to the same tribe. Shortly after the Columbia disaster I read a newspaper story that quoted one of Laurel Clark's neighbors. The neighbor ran into Clark at an all night supermarket. She asked why one would be grocery shopping only hours before being due at the launch complex. Clark replied, she needed to make sure her family had food to eat while she was gone.

I am thinking about this as I prepare to leave my family once again for work related travel. I am going nuts thinking about how much I need to do before leaving. Will everyone, at home and abroad, stay healthy and safe? What will the house look like when I get back? (This is not an idle worry as one of my former coworkers returned from a month in Antarctica to discover that her husband left the laundry for her. Yes, a month's worth of laundry.)

And how will I plan her birthday party from a far away country where I am not sure I will have broadband internet access?