The shuttle launch was scrubbed today due to weather. Anvil clouds from storms 30 miles west of Cape Canaveral were blowing over the launch area, creating the risk of triggered lightning if the shuttle passed through these electrically charged clouds. The next launch attempt is 3:26 pm EDT tomorrow (Sunday). The weather outlook is similar - only a 40% chance of acceptable weather, with a repeat of today’s conditions considered likely. I took this photo at the time of the scrub, looking northwest from the Kennedy Space Center press site towards the approaching clouds.
Portugal wins on penalty kicks, 3-1, after a nil-nil tie in the game. The Brits are out. So much for the Italy-Germany and England-France, Axis and Allied powers semifinals. :)
The seven astronauts of mission STS-121 are currently at the launch pad boarding Discovery. The photo was taken about 12:10 pm and shows the astronauts passing the Launch Control Center on their way to the launch pad. The weather forecast has improved to 60% probability of acceptable weather, with the primary concern being anvil clouds blown east from thunderstorms over central Florida and the Gulf coast. There’s also a technical problem relating to a heater for a thruster that would be used in orbit, and it’s not clear if this could affect the launch, but there doesn’t seem to be much concern at the moment.
At a pub in L.A., watching the England-Portugal game. It's a scoreless tie in the 63rd minute, but England star Rooney just got red-carded.
No, this post isn’t about the father of Shannon’s baby — though he’s a pretty cool guy, too. Rather, it’s about another cool guy named P.J.: Pedro Rivera, one of my fellow summer associates at Bryan Cave (seen below during our recent pre-mock trial mini-retreat at the Hyatt Gainey Ranch in Scottsdale).
The reason I’m singling P.J. out for praise is because he rescued Becky and me from a rather sticky situation: we were planning to either take Robbie to Becky’s parents’ house or board him at a kennel while we’re on the West Coast, but then it turned out Becky’s parents are leaving town and we left Robbie’s vaccination paperwork in Indiana, so boarding him wasn’t an option. I sent an e-mail to my fellow summers, asking — I called it a “longshot” — if any of them would like to “borrow a dog” for the long weekend. To my surprise, I found a volunteer: P.J. So that’s where Robbie is right now, chilling with P.J. and his wife in Gilbert.
So basically, the whole point of this post is to say: thanks, P.J.!!!
Speaking of the two P.J.s, how’s this for an odd coincidence: during this summer before Shannon has her baby, I have a co-worker named P.J. (the same name as Shannon’s boyfriend) and a co-worker named Logan (the same name as Shannon’s baby)!
