After my shift today, we are going out to my favorite sushi resteraunt in the universe to celebrate Sarah's birthday. Happy birthday Sarah - the big 3-0!

I am very excited about this, because, let's face it, I've gone a 16 day mission with basically zero social contact. Cari and I have been joking we're seeing each other "At the 3's". 3 a.m. when I wake up and she's getting back from work, and 3 p.m., when I'm getting home and she's getting ready for work. We've both been tired too, and I'm not sure which of us has been more grumpy (I think me). Its a good thing I love console work. Its fun even when the space shuttle is undynamically tied to space station making neat little circles. Its even more fun on days like yesterday where in 3 hours we planned, tossed the plan out the window, and replanned an orbit adjust burn.

Besides Cari, my only other form of social contact has been long phone conversations with Byron. We've only seen each other for two days in the last month, and its beginning to wear on me. I'm very excited for Florida next weekend 1. Because I haven't seen my mother and grandparents in a year (!!!) 2. I get to see Byron too, its like a double bonus.

Speaking of Florida... if the orbiter takes its first deorbit opportunity to KSC tomorrow, it will be flying straight up the east coast (groundtrack here. (If you want to calculate your own sightings wherever you are, look at this page.). My Florida friends should be able to hear the double sonic boom quite nicely.

I still think the 747 is my favorite commercial airliner ever (maybe next to the DC-3), and I'm so glad he's learning to fly it. In an e-mail from last night:

This 747 is hella complicated in the cockpit. Mostly the FE panel. Take, for instance the AC and pressurization system. The CRJ has a computer screen page which showed the ac packs (heat exchangers) and the outlet temp and the PSI inlet duct pressure input. The 747 has 3 packs, each of which has a man mode, auto mode, and 6 gauges which show the inlet door, outlet door, internal pack mixing valve, and the heated trim air valve position. Lots more too. It reminds me of a German WWII U-boat. Dark, greasy, smells of hydraulic fluid, periodic blasts of steam from hidden places with accompanied hissing noises. All we need is a dive klaxon... upon further research an actual german U-boat is less complicated. photo attached.

We've been talking about buying an airplane, either now or in the near (within a few years) future. Yes, to me that is a big and scary commitment of the same order of magnitude as marriage.

Talking about airplanes brings up the tradeoff between cost (anywhere between $30K and $100K, plus anywhere from 4 gallons per hour to 20 gallons per hour) and utility (I would really like two to three adults plus luggage). And for him, a neccessary component of any conversation is speed. Me, I am still ok puttering along.. he says when you spent your early career ferrying C-150's from Oklahoma to California, you have a lot of time to contemplate how slow 100 kts can be...

He's becoming a big fan of the Long EZ. I'm still not convinced that's the right plane yet because I don think it carries enough useful weight (if you go buy the numbers if you want more than an hour of gas, you shouldn't take a passenger... let along luggage). But it is damned cool. It gets 4 gallons per hour (a consideration when AvGas is $4 per gallon), goes fast, is impossible to stall (because the leading canard will stall and pitch you down before the main wing stalls -- isn't Burt Rutan a brilliant aircraft designer?), and it just looks a little like an alien space ship...

Anyway, we had the following conversation:
Him: I've flown all these airplanes but you really should start doing a little more research for yourself. Figure out what we should buy. You're pretty smart for a girl, after all...
Me: A girl?
Him: Ok, you're pretty smart for a boy too. Just don't pick a plane because it looks prety.
Me: Well, if I was picking a plane on looks, it would definitely be a Long EZ... with a pink racing stripe!
Him: How wide a stripe are we talking? (I think he thought I was serious about that)
Me: Wide. Wide enough when you fly without me, it will scream "I'm gay and proud of it!" Can't have the girls hitting on you while you're flying my airplane...
Him: Don't be silly, girls don't hang around airports...