I have that reaction as well but I also work on Percy right now lol

Coming out of the woodwork after being 6ft under in rover work for the last several months.

I think you meant Opportunity in the first paragraph; Curiosity will be fine =) I drove her yesterday. We're re-tracing our steps to go do more drilling, so as long as we can localize ourselves the impact of the dust storm right now on that mission are minimal.

Oppy has -some- chance; she's in a low power state now, but if the ambient conditions are right (not too cold, Tau goes back down sooner than later) then even if she does turn off she has the ability to wake back up.

Right? I'm sure I was spending way too much time with my little screen. Ooops.

So now I've got a flip phone. I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to hang up calls by closing the phone. Plus hitting the keys a million times to text = just saying 'screw it' and calling people. I can see this being a good change already.

Lemon chicken pasta with capers. Pretty sure either this or homemade snicker-doodles is how I hooked my bae.

Recipe -

- salt & pepper 2 chicken breasts cut into large chunks

- add 1-2 tbsp olive oil to a deep pan

- brown the chicken on all sides on medium high and then remove from the pan

- sautee a few cloves of garlic in the same pan on medium with 1/2 tbsp butter until fragrant

- add about half a lemon sliced into 1/8" rounds and let cook for ~2 minutes while stirring

- de-glaze the pan with 1/4 cup white wine then add 1/4 cup chicken broth plus 1.5 cups water plus 1/4 cup lemon juice

- return chicken to the pan with 16oz of raw pasta

- bring to a light boil and then let simmer for 10-12 minutes (6-8 if you are using GF pasta) covered until chicken is cooked through, and pasta is cooked to al dente

- stir in about a tablespoon of capers

- serve with some shredded Parmesan on top

If your bae likes cheese like I do though there's an awesome one pot recipe for cheesy sun-dried tomato pasta that is so. freaking. good. Mine is mildly lactose intolerant, so I just make that when he's out of town.

That feeling when the square footage of my $2k/month apartment is only slightly more than the cost of your mortgage. Oof. Who wants to help me move JPL to the midwest on a big crawler...

Life is better this week; not feeling as overwhelmed which is nice, and I think getting to see some family over the weekend helped so much. Plus now my fiance's sister is married! Fiance and I were dancing during the reception and had this exciting but also kinda weird realization that the next wedding we'll go to is ours. Starting to set the fire under myself to get plans nailed down, though our date isn't until October.

I lost my cell phone on Friday. Left it, dead, on top of a car that then drove across Cincinnati, so it's gone for good. I've surprised myself in really dragging my feet on getting a new one though. Like the first couple days were super hard because I felt like no I neeeeeeed my phone ahhh but with the wedding and having to do pre-planned things for planning ours there really wasn't time to spend an hour or two at the store getting a new one. Then I noticed by Monday that I actually feel pretty great without a phone. When I go on runs it's just me whoever I'm with, the birds, the plants, etc. I used to hate running without music, but this week it has been so calming. And now about a week in, I can tell my focus is better and my mind is quiet. Kinda want to see how long this can go...

Mars driving post will happen in the next couple days. I got really inspired to work on the Nepal pictures/video so now that's here + shared with family & friends. Birthday is this weekend and I have no plans. Hopefully my more extroverted friends won't be mad if I just bake things and read because honestly that's all I want to do. Life is good =)

I think driving any of these all-electric vehicles is going to change your perception of driving, from "all the comforts of home, in the car", to transportation as utilitarian need.

Interesting, and that makes sense considering range is the name of the game with EVs right now and weight from extra BS = less range.

I wonder though how that will change when widespread use of autopilot enters the game, since my assumption is that autonomy is more likely to show up in all the EVs/hybrid/tech-y cars before the gassy ones (totally talking out of the air here). Once you remove the passenger from driving, it seems like the trend would go towards making the interior more home-y rather than less. I guess it makes the most sense to think two branches will emerge: one cheap utilitarian set of vehicles, and a set of luxury ones.

Those new Civics keep popping up in my life lately as a lot of my friends and family are getting them and loving it. I got to drive one over the weekend and yeah. If they could stuff a battery in the bottom I'd trade in my Prius for it yesterday.

Since I can't drink beer (celiac) I've been considering doing some homebrew ciders at some point. Really interested to see how yours goes! What's the long term timeline after step 3?