#NASATweetUp

In less than a week, I leave for Florida and get to hang with 149 other Tweeps and watch the Space Shuttle Endeavour make it's last voyage into space. There are people from 43 states, DC and 6 countries. Quite the diverse gang.

Earlier this week, we got the agenda for the two days. It is quite jam packed.

Thursday, April 28/L-1: Tweetup Day 1*

7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. – Registration at the Kennedy Space Center Press Accreditation Badging Building; travel to the press site, set up, meet fellow participants

10:00 a.m. – Welcome by @NASA team members Stephanie Schierholz and John Yembrick

10:07 a.m. – Meet the tweeps

10:45 a.m. – Demo of Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) and Mark III spacesuits

11:00 a.m. – Lunch break

12:00 p.m.-1:40 p.m. -- NASA TV starts for the formal #NASATweetup program, featuring:

· Dana M. Hutcherson, space shuttle Endeavour’s flow director, , Kennedy Space Center

· Tara Ruttley, International Space Station associate program scientist, NASA's Johnson Space Center, @ISS_research

· Astronaut Clay Anderson, @Astro_Clay, Expedition 15 flight engineer, STS-131 mission specialist, shuttle Discovery (April 5-20, 2010)

1:45 p.m. – Board tour buses

2:00 p.m. – Tour of NASA's Kennedy Space Center, including visits to the Apollo Saturn V Center, a drive by the Shuttle Landing Facility, Mate-Demate Device, Orbiter Processing Facility, Vehicle Assembly Building and Mobile Launcher Platforms, and viewing of the retraction of the Rotating Service Structure, scheduled for 7 p.m.

8:15 p.m. – Return to the press site

Friday, April 29/ Launch: Tweetup Day 2

8:00 a.m. – Badges will get you in Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 press site

9:00 a.m. – Group picture beside the countdown clock

9:05 a.m. – Astronaut Ricky Arnold, STS-119 Discovery (March 15-28, 2009)

9:30 a.m. – Astronaut Leland Melvin, associate administrator for Education, NASA Headquarters, @Astro_Flow

10:00 a.m. – Daire McCabe, designer at LEGO

10:30 a.m. – Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, 45th Weather Squadron, U.S. Air Force

~11:57 a.m. – Astronauts depart their crew quarters for Launch Pad 39A

~12:10 p.m. – Tweetup participants (assembled along the road across from the Launch Control Center) wave to the crew as they drive by in the astrovan on their way to the launch pad

~2:15 p.m. – STS-134 Closeout Crew member (Endeavour's hatch is closed and latched for launch at ~1:42 p.m. EDT)

3:47 p.m. – Launch of space shuttle Endeavour on the STS-134 mission

~5:00 p.m. – Post-launch news conference on NASA TV

7:30 p.m. - #NASABrewUp commences. Everyone is bringing a beer from their home state/country for a sampling event. I am bringing several bottles of New Glarus products.

One of my favorite disclaimers is this "NASA's Kennedy Space Center is part of the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge. While on Kennedy Space Center you may encounter a variety of wildlife, including alligators and poisonous snakes. If you see such an animal, do not approach it or attempt to feed it. Please notify a public affairs officer or other NASA personnel."

It seems like it has been so long since I first found out about the Tweetup. Now it is almost here. I am now beginning to get more excited about going. I know that may sound geeky to some people, but I think that launching human beings into space it still pretty fucking cool.

Follow me on Twitter (HeyJo1) to see my thoughts and impressions of my journey.

Spring Cleaning

Spent a portion of this weekend doing some spring cleaning. Helped a friend clean out a spare room on Saturday. On Sunday, I tackled my house.

The first thing was the truck. It needed a good vacuuming out. I am picky about several things and one of them is my truck. I don't eat in there nor do I use it as a place to store stuff. All I ever have in there is the dog seat, umbrella and the snow brush and blanket. The last two items came back into the house for the season. I wanted to do the windows but the truck was in the sun and I was too lazy to move it.

I then washed the bird cage. Ollie's cage is rather large and cleaning it is a pain in the butt. I will usually just roll it outside and use the hose on it. Since it was in the mid 80's, outside it went. Ollie loved it. He was singing with the outside birds. I keep waiting for some of them to try and land on his cage.

Next on the agenda was the lawn. When snowpocalypse hit, the neighbor's pine tree lost a lot of little branches. Most of them ended up in my yard. I thought about getting the lawn mower out and using the bagger to pick them up but it was under some bags of rummage sale stuff. So I raked. 3 bags of stuff. I can feel that in my shoulders and upper back today. It felt good to get the yard looking all nice again. The one thing that concerned me was that I was finding lots of little pieces of glass under the living room window. It looks like it had been there a long time, but still where was it coming from?? I'll bet I had a good two big handfuls of glass.

Took a break and walked the dogs at the park.

I then headed inside. I finally remembered to buy Windex at the store so I cleaned the dog prints off the windows. I was going to do the outsides but with storms approaching I felt it didn't pay to wash them and have them get dirty right away.

I still have some other things inside to tackle but most of that can wait until closer to the rummage sale time.

It is a good feeling to rid yourself of unwanted stuff. Like a weight has been lifted from your shoulders.

Kicking the Crap Out of Crohn's & Colitis

Once again, I am running a half marathon with Team Challenge. Team Challenge supports the Crohn's & Colitis Foundation of America.

You may remember last year when I ran in the Las Vegas half marathon. Or maybe not since I looked back and realized I never gave a race recap. Opps. Sorry for that. Here it is in a nutshell. Vegas, Dec 5th. I run from Mandalay Bay to downtown and back again. Have to stop to pee and it costs me about 15 minutes in time. Darn. Finished the race in 3:25. I was very happy with that time.

Anyhoo... I'm back at it. Last year I raised over $3800. This year I need to raise $2600.

If you don't already know, Crohn's & colitis are pretty crappy diseases. Literally. They affect the intestinal tracts of people. I won't go into all the icky details but suffice it to say that no one wants to have diarrhea for three months straight. Yeah.... totally not fun.

So I need your help! All 7 of you who read my blog. I need to raise money and lots of it. You can donate online by going here.

I am also selling Tupperware. 40% of what you buy goes back to my fundraising. That's alot. So buy lots and help me! You can buy stuff that you can't get a a normal party. The items are shipped directly to you and you should have it in about a week after placing your order. Click here for Tupperware.

Feel free to pimp out my fundraising efforts to yoru family and friends. I need all the help I can get.

Thanks!!