2/4

Tuesday again. It's always Tuesday. Four long hours of class tonight. I'm just finishing up my homework. But it's only 12:08 p.m. -- that leaves me with five usable hours between now and time to leave. I better double-check my assignment log, I probably missed something.

I'm flying Friday night. I keep complaining that the trip is going to be too short (arrive Saturday, return Tuesday) but then I think of everything that's being thrown up in the air (school, observation assignment, work) and then it seems too long to be gone. And I have to bring my homework with me, which is a bummer but it seems terrible to waste 10 travel hours which otherwise would be spent in half-sleep which is kind of like no sleep anyway.

I have consumed too many powdered donuts.

Hello, I had a dream. Columbia was docked alongside the Arizona, bobbing a bit crookedly in the warm water but otherwise looking like it belonged right where it was. I lived in a gigantic flat South of Market in San Francisco. I had a party, but it wasn't much fun. Some other things. A weirdy dream.

Class last night was long and tiring and I've decided to get next week's homework done by tonight so I can turn it in tomorrow so I won't lose any more stupid points for this class. I'm already losing 4 (1 point for each HOUR of attendance) while I'm away. Personally I think if I can manage to catch up on the missed material, the attendance thing shouldn't be held against me because catching up will require so much effort I should actually get extra credit. Did that make sense? I don't care.

Bentley had school tonight (we're just a family of scholars) ... he learned (or, should I say, we learned) "OFF" (which simply means "please don't touch that") and how to clip doggie nails. I have to get something called a guillotine clipper and learn how to do it myself. He got some pina colada shampoo today, so before I leave on Friday I will give him a tropical bath and he should be okay till I get back. Bentley gets a lot of baths. I like using baby shampoo on him, as it's about 1/8 the price of doggie shampoo and it can't hurt since it's made for human babies. But I couldn't resist this special shampoo, and I hope it really will make him smell like a little coconutty pineapple. I probably will have to bathe him with something less silly when he's a fearsome 70-pounder (which I'm secretly hoping for -- come on, rottie genes!). But for now he's still fits in my lap, just barely, floppy-eared snuggle bean.

Newsweek published a great cartoon ... seven falling stars, the star of David in the middle, like the streak of shuttle debris, across the American flag.

Before Challenger went up, Ellison Onizuka spoke at his niece and nephew's elementary school (and probably lots of other elementary schools, too, now that I think about it.) We read about it in our Weekly Reader and told space jokes, like where do rocket ships go when they get hungry? To the lunch pad! And talked about gravity and "rocket ships" and the brave teacher, the first schoolteacher ever to travel to space. It was pretty exciting, we all felt very close to the mission by the time the launch rolled around. I don't remember if we watched the launch, but I know we watched the memorial. For some reason I remember my first-grade teacher talking about it all, but doing the math I can see I was in second grade.

I wonder how the International Space Station crew members are holding up.