Throwback Thursday

The date: Around 1994

The place: NASA, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX

The mood: Fun and silly

This picture was sitting on the desk in our home office. When Fletcher first saw it, his eyes got really big and he took a deep breath and asked, "Mom, you were an astronaut in space???"

I was sad when I had to tell him that I really didn't ever go into space. He looked disappointed. He has picked up this picture several time since then and asked the same question hoping that one day I'll tell him that I really was an astronaut.

The guy on the left with the giant nametag that says PHIL is a real engineer for NASA. He's a smart one. He gave my friend Shelly and I a tour of NASA (obviously before 9/11). Not like the touristy tours, but a real backstage one. It was very interesting to see the water tanks they use to simulate weightlessness and see all the space gadgets. They were even doing an experiment with this guy in a room. Oops, I forgot I'm not supposed to divulge anything I learned that day. Phil also filled us in on the details of the Vomit Comet - the plane that they use to simulate weightlessness. You can make your own conclusions as to how it got that name.

On our "tour" there was an astronaut suit available so of course we had to take a picture.