5....4.....3......2......1

[ed note: Hi!  Remember me?  It's been too long to bother with excuses- life happens. But we've got some major stuff going on that needs to be captured - so I'm back, for as long as I can be.  Also - I'm posting 2 months after writing it - does not bode well for continued posting....]


When I was a little girl my Dad got a telescope.  I can't tell you anything about the telescope - what kind it was, its resolution, field of view, anything useful at all.  But I can tell you that I was completely taken with it and thought my Dad was pretty much Carl Sagan.  I remember being woken up in the middle of the night anddriving out to the beach with him to view Haley's comet, constellations, the moon, Venus, whatever we could find.  He had a camera you could hook up to it and he took some great pictures.

A bunch of years later I got myself accepted to MIT and declared myself a mechanical engineering major.  I ended up interning at TRW (now Northrup Grumman) in Redondo Beach one summer (honestly - I was mostly interested in the idea of beach volleyball at lunch time) and through that experience received a fellowship to pursue a Master's degree at MIT.  My boss at TRW introduced me to a professor named Dave Miller in the aero-astro department who ran the Space Systems Laboratory.  I was a complete unknown to Dave, but he took a chance on me anyway (mostly because of his relationship with TRW). I completed a Master's thesis on reaction wheel vibrations with Dave and after a brief stint back at TRW continued on to do a PhD with him. My graduate work was in the area of integrated modeling of large space-based observatories.  I was thrilled to have found my way into the world that my Dad had introduced me to so many years ago.

After completing my PhD I went to work for Draper Laboratory where I found myself on the team that certified the Space Shuttle flight control for missions to the ISS.  It was a dream come true.  I put together models for pre-flight certification and travelled to Houston to provide flight support for the missions.  I remember clearly driving into work on my first day in August 2005 and listening to the coverage of Discovery landing after STS-116.  My first flight was STS-121 - it flew on July 4, 2006.

I've lost track a bit of all the flights I've worked since then.  When I started with the program the ISS only had one set of solar arrays installed.  Now, five years later ISS assembly is complete and I can only marvel at my very, very small role in this piece of history.  I've created model after model of paylaods on the station and shuttle robotic arms (SSRMS and SRMS).  I've designed mass properties and notch filter I-Loads that have been loaded onto the shuttle flight control system and flown.  I've helped produce documents and analysis that say, yes, okay - we can do this.  Our team also designed flight control for the HST assembly missions.  Over these years the Shuttle program has grown even nearer and dearer to my heart.

When then-President George Bush made the announcement that he was calling for the end of the STS program emotions ran high. A number of us on the team never really believed it would come to an end.  It seemed unthinkable that we as country, would not be continuing to put men and women in space.  A replacement program was proposed, but there was not enough money behind it and the gap in years between shuttle retirement and the new vehicles had everyone concerned.  One thing I did know however, was that I needed to get to KSC to view a launch before the whole thing was over.

As a member of the shuttle flight control team we had the opportunity to obtain tickets to the VIP viewing area.  We would talk about it in the MER (Mission Evaluation Room) while doing flight support.  I always said that I wanted to go, but it always seemed like there'd be plenty of time to make it happen.  It was hard to imagine going on travel that was so open-ended and uncertain with young kids at home. I wanted to find a way to take the whole family - and that felt like a lot of work too.

Finally the end starting drawing closer and I started taking the idea of a launch seriously.  I obtained tickets for the launch of STS-119, first scheduled for February 2009.  At the time I was 6 months pregnant with Quinn and Lily was just 2 years old.  My plan was for she, my Dad and I to fly to Florida together. We would view the launch and then they would head back to Boston together while I went on to Houston for flight support.  Unfortuantley the launch was scrubbed before we even got on the airplane and it was delayed a month.  STS-119 launched on March 15, 2009, but by then I was 7 months pregnant and didn't want to go through with the complications of traveling with Lily and flying multiple legs of the journey.  We passed on the launch and I flew directly to Houston to support my last mission before going off on maternity leave with Quinn.

The next opportunity was STS-128, scheduled to launch in August, 2009. I had high hopes for this one as I was home on maternity leave so everything was a bit easier.  In addition, the entire Draper shuttle
flight control team (present and past memebers included) had been invited.  Special tours were put together for us.  It was the perfect opportunity.  I got tickets for my Dad, Gordon and the kids. We had our flights - we were ready.  Then a week before the trip my Dad gave us all quite the scare and the trip was cancelled.  STS-119 did launch on August 28, 2009 - a good week after originally schedueled.  Only a couple of members of the Draper team were able to hang around KSC long enough to catch it.  It was a hard time for so many reasons, but the fact that I was so close to seeing a launch with my Dad and had failed was crushing.  After STS-128 I kind of gave up on the dream.  Tickets became harder and harder to come by as the program approached its end.  I won causeway tickets in a lottery for STS-133, but my Dad couldn't go due to business travel and I just didn't have it in me to attempt the trip without him.  I let that opportunity pass.

In January 2011 I took another leave of absence from Draper to take a post-doctoral fellowship at MIT with Dave Miller.  My return to the Space Systems Lab is worth a post all in itself - hopefully I'll get
to that (although my new crazy work schedule is a lot of the reason that the posting has dried up around here!)  I retained my status as a Draper employee so I could help certify the remaining flights. Congress agreed to add one extra flight to the program and I sadly put together the final "mission data file" and build my last models.  I never really entertained thoughts of getting to view the final launch as everyone in the country wanted to be there.

A couple of weeks before launch I received an email from Dave and colleagues at SSL that I was invited to attend a kick-off for one of our new flight experiments.  That kick-off would be held at KSC and would be tied to the launch date.  We would fly into KSC the Thursday before launch, would be badged to get on campus and would stay to view the launch on Friday.  I was taken completely by surprise, but quickly made arrangments.  I planned to fly into Orlando on Thursday and then fly to Houston the day after launch to be in the MER in time for docking and MPLM install.  I tried not to get too excited.  I was certain that the launch would be cancelled or the "too good to be true" all-access badge to KSC would be denied for some reason.  I was worried about the extended time away from home - espcially during what was becoming a very very busy July for our family (more on that too, later) - but I couldn't pass up the opportunity.  I was sad that I couldn't take my Dad or Lily with me for this one, but knew I had to go anyway.

Thursday arrived and I woke up early to catch the first flight out of Boston to Orlando on Delta.  My colleague and friend, Alvar, and I flew together and he acted as my chauffer during the trip.  We checked in at our hotel in Titusville and then drove down to Melbourne for a very fun and productive meeting at Florida Institute of Technology.  There were torrential downpours all day and the probability of launch was a dismal 30% due to weather.  We ate dinner that night in Coco Beach - Alvar, myself and Brent, a PhD candidate in SSL.  We sat outside under a canopy and tried to stay dry as the skies poured my rain down around us.  We all doubted that we'd be viewing anything the next day.

I woke up many times before my alarm at 5AM on Friday morning.  I checked the NASA shuttle website around 3AM to confirm my suspicion that the launch would be scrubbed due to weather before tanking began.  To my surprise, tanking had occurred and they were pressing on.  The odds of the weather cooperating were still not in our favor.  We woke up at 5AM anyway and headed out to KSC.  A SSL-alum who works at KSC had gotten us badged and gave us some tips on how to avoid the traffic crunch heading to the causeway.  We got to KSC, made it on campus and met up with our colleague there.  She led us to where the astronauts quarters were and we stood with the crowd who watched them leave the building and load onto the AstroVan for the ride to the launch pad. KSC employees brought step-stools and ladders with them to see the astronauts above the crowd.  I was too short to see much, but had to keep pinching myself to prove I was really there.

The Crew of STS-135

As launch approached we piled in the car along with an KSC intern and drove out towards the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building).  We parked and followed the rest of the crowd out towards the launch pad.  We stood in the parking lot just outside LCC (Launch Control Center).  We were as close as the VIP stands and the press.  We had an amazing view of the shuttle on the pad, waiting for lift off.  We couldn't see the countdown clock or hear the announcements from LCC clearly.  So we just waited.  The weather had miraculously cleared and it all looked good. Launch was scheduled for 11:26AM EDT.

Waiting for the launch - I'm the one with crazy hair.

As the time neared, the excitement in the air was palatable.  The minutes seemed to drag on and then someone realized that it was now 11:27 and nothing had happened. We strained to hear the LCC
announcements, watching as time ticked on, getting closer to the end of the window.  Soon we heard the words "press on" and "in progress".  Everyone cheered and next thing we knew the air filled with the sound of rocket engines, fire and smoke billowed out from the pad and the shuttle, attached to the bright orange external tank, was in the air.  I had told myself that I could *not* cry during lift off, afraid I would blind myself with tears.  I held on watching this beautiful vehicle carry these four brave men and wommen into space for the last time.  I was surprised at how the shuttle hung there in the air in front of us for a little while - perhaps a trick of perspective or time.  I wish I could explain it in words, but it's really really hard to do.  Soon Atlantis seemed to accelerate quickly and took off through the clouds.  The cloud cover was low, so we didn't get to watch much of the ascent, but what we saw was amazing and will be forever burned in my memory and in my heart.  When she was gone - I let myself cry.

The only regret about my launch experience is that my Dad, Dave and my family were not there as well.  Dave has seen many launches, so he's good in that respect, but it would have been apropos to watch this last one with him.  Although I worked on the shuttle program for six years, it was my work with Dave that allowed me to have this experience.  I will always be grateful to him for giving me the opportunity.  I wanted more than anything to share the launch with my Dad.  I wanted to give him this gift to thank him for sparking my interest in space when I was a little girl - for raising me to believe that working on the space program was in my reach - for never setting limitations based on my gender.  In the same way I wanted my daughter Lily there too.  So I could tell her that there was a woman on that vehicle blasting off to space, and that the sky could be the limit for her as well.  Although they could not be with me in person at the time, they were all in my heart.

I flew to Houston on Saturday. I workd my last two shifts in the MER supporting docking on Sunday and MPLM install on Monday.  The Monday morning shift began at 4AM - a reminder of all the crazy times of day I had driven from various hotels in Webster, Texas to JSC to provide mission support.  At the end of the final shift I packed up my computer, returned my headset and went to our local office to say goodbye to my team.  The mood in the MER and at JSC was mixed.  People were taking lots of pictures, signing banners, ordering memory books and calling family members from mission control "one last time".  We were all glad to be there, but all sad that this would be the end.  As I write this Atlantis is still docked to the ISS and the crew are busy transferring payload from the MPLM and getting ready for tomorrow's EVA.  The mission will continue for another 10 days or so and then Atlantis will bring her crew home.  These feats of engineering will be sent to museums and people will go to visit them - marveling that they once travelled to space and back.  Those of us who worked on the program will try to stay connected to and employed in the space industry.  There will be lay-offs and areas of Florida that are supported by tourism will suffer.  But hopefully there will be a new vehicle soon, a new way to get to space, to keep exploring.  It is with a heavy, but hopeful heart that those of us who love the space program look to the future.

Godspeed Atlantis - I wish you a safe journey home.
STS-135 July 8, 2011

Another Note:  All pictures here are by Alvar or Brent.  I forgot my camera, only had my iphone and then restored that to factory defaults before removing the pictures.  Go Me.  Thankfully others were much more prepared and competent.

Four!

Today Lily officially became a four-year-old.  All day she kept asking me - "am I four yet?"  Finally at dinner time I could tell her - "yes, honey you're four now".  Playing that little game with her made me wonder if I had forgotten what time she was born.  It seemed crazy to think I got to the hospital at 6AM, but she didn't make her entrance until twelve hours later!  On the way home from dinner she remarked from the back seat "I dont' FEEL like I'm four".  And boy can I echo that sentiment - how can our baby girl be FOUR?

Four years feels like such a long time - as in how can she be SO OLD?  Yet, at the same time it's such a blip in her life.  I know I hardly remember anything about being four.  How can it some so young and yet so old at that same time?

Our baby girl has changed a lot this year - and although she still enjoys being wrapped in a blanket post-bath so we can ooo and ahh over the "cute little baby" - she is very much a pre-schooler now.  She can write her name and a bunch of other things.  She can read some words here and there.  She asks us math questions formulated around allocating cookies.  She is independent, stubborn and mouthy.  She is her Dad, through and through, but with her Mom's quick temper.  She is fiercely inquisitive and is quickly driven to tears of frustration when she can't get an answer to a question quickly.  She likes figuring out how things work.

She is getting an education in comic book super heros from her Dad and has latched onto J'on J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter.  Her favorite music groups are the Somerville Sunsetters, They Might be Giants and the Monkees (in that order).   She does not like having her picture taken or wearing tutus.  She likes to wear bright colors and has organized her clothes into "special day" and non-special day categories.  The distinctions don't exactly align with how her Mom would like it.   She requested a short haircut, "like Quinn's".   Her favorite TV shows are Curious George and Between the Lions.  She loves doing puzzles and is pretty good at them.  She loves books.

She is sweet, playful and sharp as a tack.   She still likes to cuddle, but has informed me that I tell her that I love her "too many times".  She is growing up way too fast for my liking. She is angsty and has taken to telling us that she doesn't like us or that we're mean.  But she loves to make cards for us and runs to greet us at the door when either of us comes home with a big hug.  We put sweet dreams in her head every night before she goes to bed and we both sort of like it when she occasionally crawls into bed with us in the middle of the night.  She still likes to be carried and enjoys riding on my back while singing "Piggy-Back Rider" to the tune of Paperback Writer.

Happy Birthday Lily.  Thank you for another fantastic year of awesomeness.  We are so lucky.

Holiday Madness: Illumination Tour

The true beginning of Christmas for me every year is marked by the Somerville Arts Council Illumination Tour. The Arts Council gets together a bunch of trolleys to take folks on a tour of the awesome Christmas light displays in Somerville. It's a pretty big deal locally and everyone gets really into it. The tickets go on sale at Blue Cloud Gallery a couple of weeks before the tour and you have to get there right when they open in order to get on an early trolley.  This year I managed to run up there during lunch so we snagged the LAST four tickets on a 4:30 trolley.  Success!

The Tour takes place the weekend before Christmas - this year it was the same day as Lily's birthday party.  Having just finished the birthday festivities it really felt like the Illumination Tour opened up the Christmas festivities.  Finally we had all the other celebrating behind us and could just hang around since Jingle Bells while stuffing Christmas cookies in our mouths.  (okay, so maybe we still had to BAKE said cookies, but whatever, we'll get to it).

We've done the tours four years in a row now - the first time was when Lily had just turned one.  This year was Quinn's first tour  -last year he was feeling a little under the weather, so Gordon stayed home with him while I took Lily.   The tour doesn't change that much from year to year but I still love doing it.  I get all misty-eyed when the tour guide talks about the 70 year old guy who builds all his decorations by hand in his downstairs woodshop.  Or the couple from the Azores who have been decorating their house for 30+ years.  Old the 70 year old man (yeah, they're all about that age in my memory) who decorates his house as well as those of his daughters next door and across the street.  I usually have to actively wipe my eyes when the proud home-owners show up on their porches waving at the trolley.  I'm such a sucker for adorable, holiday, community, happy stuff.


Running to check out the awesome tree at City Hall before the tour:

Gratuitous picture of cute pre-schooler and giant silver ornament

The gorgeous wreath at City Hall

The lights are hard to capture on film - but our intrepid photographer was right there anyway!  Here are a few of the shots that he managed to get.   After decorating a SINGLE deck rail with icicle lights this year I am just in awe of how much work these displays must be.  Perhaps some day Lily will be proud of our house too ;)

Holiday Madness: The Carousel and La Salette

Every year my Mom's school, Holy Name, rents out the Carousel at Battleship Cove for a Christmas party.  We've driven down there to take advantage of the unlimited carousel rides - and get bonus Grammy and Papa time - for the past three years.  I dare say it's become somewhat of a Christmas tradition for us.

This year was the first time I'd been there not pregnant or toting around a little baby.   Lily spent most of her time on the carousel and could ride and switch horses all by herself for the most part.  She was again totally uninterested in the Santa Claus part of the day choosing instead to stay as far away from the Jolly Old Elf as possible.  Quinn was more interested in Santa, but stopped shy of actually going up to chat with him. At the end of the day he did go up Santa and yell "Bye Santa! Bye Santa!" very enthusiastically.  So there's some hope for this one and the whole "magic of Christmas" thing yet.

 A carousel action shot.  The stripey blur in the center is Quinn.

Lily practicing her surly teenager look.  I suspect she's going to have this down pat by the time she's actually a teenager.

Being goofy - a face I much prefer!

Apparently Quinn takes his carousel riding VERY seriously.  I swear he was having a much better time than this picture suggests.

Even Mommy got to ride on her own this year!

After the Carousel we decided to drive out to La Salette Shrine with Grammy and Papa on our way home.  My parents took me there many times when I was little and Lily loves Christmas lights  - so we were eager to take her.  It was a pretty mild night and as a result the crowds were pretty crazy.  We sat in a ton of traffic, but eventually managed to get there.  It's hard to capture the beauty of the light display in photos.  But Gordon made a valiant effort:

Despite the crowds we had a nice time and Grammy was excited to share the beauty of the shrine with the kids.  Our favorite Lily quotes from the night:

• Upon exiting the car and seeing the amazing display of lights: "There are too many lights! It hurts my eyes!"
• After Grammy explained the "praying steps" to her: "Grammy, what's a prayer?"  (I cannot even count the number of relatives of mine that rolled over in the graves and began reciting Hail Marys at that one).

The Madness Begins: Tree Trimming

[Ed Note: We are in New Jersey now visiting family and in a fit of fit time while the cousins play out in the snow I am going to try to do some catch-up here.  It would be lunacy to try to, you know, actually catch up - so let's just see if I can post about our December]

December is a particularly crazy time for us.  It starts back on November 16th with our niece Sera's birthday and then just accelerates into insanity.  Soon following is Thanksgiving and then my Mom's birthday on Nov 28.  Next up is Gordon on Dec 8th, his Mom on Dec 12th and Lily on Dec 22nd.  Then there's Christmas.  I literally spend the entire month in a state of panic and usually flub on at least one birthday gift a year (this year it was Gordon's - sorry honey!).

The official start to the season of nuttiness in the MasterWong household is Thanksgiving weekend.  We spend Thanksgiving in Fall River at my cousin Gail's with extended family and then head back to Somerville for a pretty lazy few days.  Later in the weekend we have my parents and Eric and Liza over for yet another dinner, tree trimming and Mom's birthday cake.  One reason we can get the tree up so early is that we're still rocking the artificial tree that we bought 5 or 6 years ago while we were living in Medford.  Every year I think that perhaps we'll get a real tree - but then cannot resist the siren song of the pre-lit, happy little number sitting in our storage closet.  Perhaps when we move into a bigger place.....

Lily is super into decorations so she loves the tree trimming frenzy. Quinn got pretty into it this year too.  Here he is making sure we assembled the pieces in the right order:

Jeh Jeh quickly came over to show him how it was done.

Note that the tree decorating is proceeding nicely with ornaments well placed on the tree - some on the bottom and the top.  You should know that our tree only looked this way for one day.  After that the ornaments quickly migrated to the top of the tree as Quinn took them off and hid them around the house.  Sometimes he'd bring them to me "Here you go!".  By now the bottom third of the tree is completely bear, and I'm sure we'll be finding ornaments in the couch cushions until we move out.

Getting help with the all-important "filling of the ornament bowl".  The bowl is then placed where no little hands can reach it so we don't like end up in the ER or anything.

Uncle Eric takes his tree decorating duties very seriously.  Good thing he hasn't been around to see the state the tree is in now.

The celebratory "First Tree We Win" Dance.  Let the crazy commence!

Halloween 2010

Halloween is a big deal in our house  - it is hands down Lily's favorite holiday.  I'm not entirely sure why this is as neither Gordon nor I are big Halloween people. But man that kid - she loves Halloween.  She was talking about her costume months before.  We went through a bunch of potentials.  First she wanted to be John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants - I was supposed to dress as John Linnell.  As much as I adore "The Johns" I was quite happy when she gave up on this idea as I had no clue how to pull it off.  I just pictured myself trying to explain to all the neighbors "you know, like from They Might Be Giants?" while getting a bunch of empty, concerned stares.

The next memorable costume idea had me wishing for the days of John and John again - "a bad guy with guns".  I have no idea where she got this idea (okay that's a lie - I do - at school).  But she was adamant about it.  One day, on a whim,  I let her look through one of those costume catalogs that start showing up at the house in October.  She paged through the whole thing, skipping over fairies and princesses and every other thing 3-year-old girls are supposed to be in to.  She only paused when she got to this.  Yup, folks - that's Jango Fett.  And for those not in the "nerd know" - he's a bounty hunter from Star Wars Espisode II.  Lily picked him out and said - 'hey! he looks like a bad guy! and he has guns!"  Those that knew me as a young'un may not be surprised by Lily's affinity for science fiction characters - but you guys - this is a child who does not watch any TV besides the occasional Curious George and Between the Lions.  Is it possible that this stuff is just hard-wired?  

Anyway, since "bad guy with guns" was out of the running for so many reasons we ended up agreeing on a spider.  And I decided to try my hand at making her costume.  So I searched online a little and decided that I could take this one on.  I bought a black hoodie and some black kid tights.  I cut the legs off the tights, stuffed them with poly-fill and sewed them onto the sweatshirt.  I also glued a bunch of eyes on the hood, but you can't really see them in any of the pictures.  My grand spider-vision included black tights with rainbow stripes on them and a black/silver/purple tutu.  But Lily was having NONE of the tutu idea.  She flat out refused.  "I. Don't. Like. TuTus!"  She insisted.  So in the end she wore plain black jogging pants to complete the look.  She made one adorable spider if I do say so myself!

Quinn is still to young to have much opinion about this kind of stuff.  AND we had Lily's monkey costume from 2 years ago just sitting here waiting to be used again.  When Lily wore the costume she was nearly 2, but Quinn wasn't even 18 months yet.  I was a little worried that it'd be too big for him.   Instead he filled it out much better than she ever did - because he is a ginormous little toddler.  At first he didn't like wearing the little hood with the monkey face on it, but Lily convinced him to do it.  He thought it was hysterical to walk around making little monkey sounds "oo oo oo ah ah ah".  Too flippin' cute.  Here is walking on the wall outside with Papa.  It's really tough to get him to stand still long enough for picture taking these days.

Here's Lily and her Dad - I guess you can give even BETTER hugs if you have 6 arms (+2 legs) instead of only 2.  See the ghost and pumpkin signs in the lawn there?  I bought those this year in an attempt to make the building look festive for Halloween.  Lily begs to decorate the house like crazy every year.  She found this attempt sorely lacking.  She told me that these guys don't count at all because they are not scary.  Apparently smiling pumpkins are totally uncool.  Next year she is demanding a giant spider crawling up the side of the house and zombies on the lawn.  Ummm.. help? I'm in so in over my head here.

Grammy and Papa came up to go trick or treating with us.  We started by walking up to Kathy's - where Quinn spends his days while I'm at work.  We visited with her and Paul a bit and then walked over to Lexington Street.  It was totally hopping with kids and elaborately decorated houses.  We walked Lexington back down to Hudson and then visited with our own neighbors.  Both kids had a great time, although Quinn tired out about 3/4 of the way through.  There are quite a few front stairs to haul yourself up and down and he has little legs (and a lot to carry around on them)!

We had a great time, as always and the kids came home with quite the haul.  Lily picked out a little to keep and the rest was left out for the Switch Witch.  She visited us later that night and swapped the candy with some fun activity books for Lily and stacking pegs for Quinn.  

Lily's already talking about "next Halloween".  Apparently she's going to be a skeleton. She also told me the other day: "Mom, I HATE that it's not Halloween anymore".  I tried to explain to her that "hate" wasn't such a great word and that it shouldn't be used lightly.  I told her it was a "serious" word.  She replied with, "well I'm serious about this!".  Sigh, how many more days to I have to get my act together?

Memory Walk 2010

"Reggie's Runners" 2010

This year we decided to do the Memory Walk in Newport, RI instead of Portsmouth.  We were hoping to get the whole gang to walk this time, but as usual our efforts were thwarted.  My poor Mom ended up with a terrible case of pneumonia that landed her in the hospital for over 2 weeks!  The Walk was during the first weekend of her hospital stay.  So we had to split up the team - Eric and Liza stayed behind to keep Mom company at the hospital while the my Dad and the rest of us went to Newport to walk with Lisa, Eric and Victoria. 

While we were more than a bit bummed not to have everyone together as planned, we still had a great walk and enjoyed the time thinking about Grams.  The kids were completely psyched to see Victoria, as always.  She had even made Memory Walk shirts for Lily and Quinn since the ones that they gave out didn't come in children's sizes.

Hanging out with cousin Victoria

Showing off the fabulous "Reggie's Runners" shirts

Thank you to all who supported our team - we raised over $500 by the online tally and potentially more if folks supported the old-fashioned way.  I love that we come together to do this in Gram's name every year.  Miss you Grams!