Labor Day Vacation means no Labor

Hi Boys and Girls! Time for an update from blog land! Last week I took off a few days and headed off to Houston for some fun with my visitors!

We drove most of the way to TX on Wednesday night, making a gas stop in Kenwood, LA (home of Brittney and Jaimie Lynn Spears). Thursday we finished the drive into TX and hit the beach in Galveston. It was pretty neat. I always think of Galveston as being particularly petro-chemicaly, or oily at the very least. Turns out it is just like any other beach town! We had lunch overlooking the gulf, and watched some dolphins frolicking out in the ocean. After eating a buger and some unsweet tea we went wading in the ocean. I really love the ocean, and I love water. Be warned, Palko clan, I may be inviting myself out for shore week again sometime soon!

While on the ferry to Galveston we saw a coast gaurd cutter -

Katie Grace, this is your shout out.

Thursday night we got to pick up Jane's new man Eric at the airport. This was my first chance to meet him and see if he passed the test. Friday was the beginning of the fun. Nik and I did a qick run by the Macy's across the street from our hotel. Seriously, that was awesome. Then we all met up and went to the Johnson Space Center. It was pretty neat to see the room featured in Apollo 13. I enjoyed the tram ride and looking at all the cool space stuff. It brought back good memories of my times at Space Academy in Jr. High. One of these days I need to make my way down to FL to watch a shuttle takeoff!

Me with a Saturn V rocket

The Mars Rover - You saw it here first!

Friday night I attended my first Cardinals game - AND my first Astro's game! The 'Stros won. I must say, their ballpark was neat! It has a really cool retractable roof. The engineer in me was absolutely loving it. Plus it makes cool inside during a hot TX game. They opened it up Friday night so that we could check out the post-game fireworks. That totally made my night. After the game Nikki and I found this really cool bar, The Flying Saucer. Check out their website! They had over 200 kinds of beer there. I enjoyed a semi-local Live Oak, brewed over in Austin.

Saturday morning Nikki and I headed over to the Houston Downtown Aquarium, which also happened to be across the street from the Hard Rock. The Aquarium was smaller than the Shedd, but well put together. Very cute! Plus we caught a nifty little presentation where a diver was in their Gulf of Mexico tank and talked about the fish in there and the advantages that oil rigs can bring to the aquatic community.

I also got to see a big yummy Red Snapper!!!

They had a cool Shark Tunnel too! It reminded me of one of the Jaws movies... although not nearly so large, and we were on a trolley.

Saturday afternon we took a tour of the park and saw another game. I don't really get why the Houston Ladies like Hunter Pence so much. He needs to learn what type of product is best for a curly mop like his! Sunday I grabed a flight home, read a good book (more on that later) and made it home just in time to prepare for the storm.

For some reason they had White Tigers at the Aquarium too. They were gorgeous, and about as lazy as smokie!

For more pics and videos check out Jane's blog at Jano Fabulous!

Give me a B!

this post is broughtto you for the man named Bob. Creepy Bob.

One of the highlights of going back to C-U for my QE was getting a chance to hang with my Illinois peeps. When I arrived on Tuesday night I had planned to meet my friend Nikki for dinner. Nik and I go waaaaay back - we used to work at the Assembly Hall as ushers. During our sophomore year we both started working there. We met and bonded while working a portal together at the John Mellencamp show. We discovered that we had a mutal crush on a certain supervisor of ours. We also each had a little brother named Matthew, a friend back at home with some issues, and we got to watch my friend Marc get pulled on stage to sing with Johnny Cougar! Unfortunately we had blizzard style winds, so we agreed that Nik should stay in Decatur with her parents rather than driving the hour to get back to C-U. Instead I wound up hanging out with Jane, also part of the Assembly Hall crew. Jane is a member of a great sounding church, Quest. Her small group was meeting to have a fun night of snacks and Wii. I tagged along, and got to see what all of the fuss with Wii is all about. i am not allowed to get one of those as I could totally get sucked in!!!

Wednesday I did some official studying at Panera, my absolute favorite study spot int he world. I LOVE panera. I wish we had one here in Vicksburg. Funny side story - Amanda and I were bonding over of love of Panera, and she told me that at her church ack in Atlanta they used to get their communion bread from Panera. i would not mind participating in that communion!!

After my exam I had a great conversation with my advisor. We discussed my dissertation, and saw some really good progress. We are both really excited about it. I'm gung ho ready to get going, if only I had an extra hour or two in my week! I'll probably be heading back up to IL sometime this summer to keep in contact with him and to do my preliminary exam in which I defend my dissertation proposal.

Back to Bob. Apparently Bob is a semi-avid reader of my blog. He likes that i write as much/often as I do. He also is really sad that I don't talk about him. As I said, it was great to see my peeps. Along with my Assembly Hall peeps, i got to see my peeps from the CEE department. A bunch of us hit Murphy's, my home away from my office away from my home in C-U (do you follow that one!) What better night to hit Murph's than Weds, Logo Glass Night!!! I was able to get the special - a mega bacon cheeseburger and famous fries, as well as enjoy time with my friends. BOB, Matt, Victor, Carrie, and Jimmy all spent some time with me. It was great to see them.

A little bit about Bob. His officia nickname is Creepy Bob. Why you ask? Because he is creepy! Bob was my officemate last spring and summer. he sat at the desk next to me, and we annoyed the rest of the office. I think our idle banter definitely chased out at least one officemate. We had some good times. One time I thought I looked really cute. I was in my little jean skirt and a white cami and a black wraparound sweater. Bob decided that the white lacey cami made him think of someone Amish. But he coudln't remember that word, so he told me I was a Quaker. Smooth. Another time we were discussing men, women, relationships, and cars. In likening men and women to cars, he was discussing how all men want a ferrarie or a porche 911 turbo. he proceeded to then tell me that if I were a car I would be a Volvo. Station Wagon. WITH A DOG CRATE IN THE BACK. You know, like from the 90's... Super Smooth. Bob is also a big fan of the 'NSynch. How straight is that? Bob is also the creator of two disgusting drinks: Gin and Pepsi, and Limeade Gin with a splace of tonic. In all seriousnous, we had some good times and he is a nice guy. Just a creepy guy. Plus, on my last night in Champaign we went to Kams and saw some guy getting the crap beat out of him and watched as the cops came up. It was a crazy sobering and scary and very memoable event.

So Here is to you Bob, a Blog almost all about Bob.