ow!

Tonight, I tried out my new ice skating boots and blades... I caught a toe pick and flipped over, face-forward. Reflexively rolling as I fell, towards my left side. Landing... square on the Treo 650 in my front pocket. It's fine, but I now have a large rectangular bruise on my upper thigh.

[update: this morning it's gone, overnight. Really. I took an Advil before going to bed... last night I was limping at S&P, now it is fine...]

Otherwise.. the new skates felt stiff and awkward. In class, I learned a new jump -- toe loop. Afterwards went by Sunset and Port for the first time in a couple of months and enjoyed an hour there, mostly chatting with emmett_the_sane and plymouth. Then patgreene and I left together and went out for coffee...

Still no word on proposals, so I'm staying at work tomorrow, meanwhile making travel plans to Tucson if we're selected.

Travel bugs away...

James's and Kevin's travel bugs are off and away... picked up yesterday by a geocacher whose photo identifies him as Rich Rodriguez, head coach of the West Virginia football team. Who beat my brother and sister-in-law's Georgia Bulldogs in last month's Sugar Bowl game (*cackle*... as a Georgia Tech alum, anyone that beats Georgia is a natural ally ;-). That Sugar Bowl was, incidentally, played in Atlanta because of the Katrina damage to the Superdome...

rumors abound...

Apparently the Exploration office wants one of each mission type to be studied for the secondary payload... one impactor, one comms orbiter, one science orbiter, one lander. Delays are due to briefing Griffin (NASA Administrator) on the final selections, plus the usual last-minute politicking. Rumor also has it that GSFC has the communications orbiter nod (they were apparently celebrating yesterday), JPL has the impactor, and no one knows who has the approved science orbiter idea. There were apparently two competitive lander proposals, ours and one from GSFC, both with Raytheon (but run separately). GSFC getting the comms orbiter would tend to then improve our odds of getting the lander nod. At this point, no word is expected before the weekend, so I'm cancelling my Tucson reservations, and any kickoff gathering would be here early next week. So I'll push back my Idaho trip as late as possible on Monday, just in case...