off and away, again... springlike activity

I'm at SFO, waiting for my flight to Houston... the one person I know from LJ isn't responding, so it looks to be a very non-social week. Other than work-related schmoozing...

OTOH, the weekend was busy... Kevin had a great opening game at Little league on Saturday (3 for 3, his team's first hit and drove in the winning run, made the only two fielded put-outs), LB's birthday party was a lot of fun Sat. night, and after church we went to the Rabbit Warren's egg hunt. 21 kids, 22 adults... noisy, but I had fun and I think the kids did as well -- thanks to the Rabbits! Apart from the moment when the two actual pet bunnies on display decided to perform their own fertility ceremony, in front of the kids and in the middle of purplerabbit's ceremony ;^).

And then we dropped off some of our well-loved baby equipment with p3aches before Pat and I went out together.

So, I guess I'm braced for some degree of isolation, this week ;). At least I get to talk to adults, unlike Pat...

in Houston...

Crowded flight, no upgrade, and some guy moved up and simply took the vacant middle seat next to me (I was in an exit row). I made sure to give him as little room as civilly possible. And a couple of accidental elbows.

Rental car... I had a full-size 2-door reserved, usually a Mustang (this was Hertz), nonsmoking, no foreign cars specified. They gave me... a Toyota Solara that smelled of tobacco. Plus it only had a 4-cylinder engine... looked sporty, but couldn't take it seriously with an econobox engine. I wondered if Hertz had somehow learned that I was a friend of dawnd and akienm's... I went back and got a Taurus with a sunroof.

Looks like a piece of highway history is disappearing... "NASA Road 1", which is the Texas state highway that connects I-45 to JSC to Galveston Bay, is being renamed "NASA Parkway" and given some generic highway number. Maybe this is truly trivial, but somehow it feels like one more of those 1960s Space Age artifacts is vanishing.

Now... working on my poster for Thursday night, IMs with people at home, while indulging in comfort food (ribs, corn, fried okra...) that I brought into my hotel room.

more signs of a cash crunch at work...

SUBJECT: Cancellation of Bottled Water Service

This is to notify you that the bottled water service is being cancelled effective February 28, 2005. While this action is regrettable, it is necessary to bring the Center into compliance with appropriation laws.

... we asked the Environmental Services Division to verify that the tap water at the Center is in compliance with the California Safe Drinking Water Act. In January, they certified that the tap water at the Center has been deemed safe to drink per California's Safe Drinking Water Act (as approved by the US EPA). For this reason, the Center is required to discontinue the use of a bottled water service that is funded by the Center's budget.

Keep in mind that Moffett Field has a dozen Superfund sites on the premises, and no one currently drinks the tap water (it tastes a bit off)...