Kelly put on Futurama (the movie) last night around 8 PM and tried as I might, I couldn't make it through it. I fell asleep something like 40 minutes into the thing. When we finally went to bed, we were kept up by the noise of moving furniture in the next apartment. Given that it was April 30, I figured someone was moving out. It seemed to last until around midnight or so.

Luckily, I could sleep in this morning and I was into the office around 8:30 AM. Busy day today, writing SQL code. My grandboss was in the office too and hosted a luncheon for our group. We had a fire drill this morning. I had a "tip" that it was coming so I pulled out my softball mitt and a ball and when we all marched over to the gathering area as part of the drill, I had something to keep me occupied for the 15 minutes or so it took to count everyone. Turns out that the president of the company was in town. When I worked in Santa Monica, I was his assigned computer support guy and I hadn't seen him in a while. I said hello, and since he's a Red Sox fan, we talked baseball on the walk back to the office.

I had to walk home from the Metro station this evening because my car was at home (I drove Kelly's car into work yesterday), but it was nice out--warm even. I called Rich and left him a message. Tricia told me he's deploying to Iraq in about 3 weeks. He'd called the other night but I'd already gone to bed. I also called he11o_sunshine and we talked for a while.

Spent the rest of the evening watching episodes of the fifth season of The West Wing. I've only seen the 5th-7th seasons once and I was reminded of one of my favorite (and to be honest, one of the funniest) lines of the show. It's when President Bartlett, ranting about the importance of scientific research says, "Have you seen these grant applications? Thank God they didn't have these in Einstein's day or goodness knows what E would have equaled." I think that series was the last television show that had consistently brilliant writing. Even The Office, whose first three seasons were hysterically written, turned me off, more or less, with last week's episode. I'm not even bothering to watch it tonight.

Besides, I should be writing. I should be getting back to the gym. I should, I should, I should.

What the heck's the matter with me, anyway?

Mayday! Mayday!

Quoted here, from my diary, without comment:

Saturday, May 1, 1998 -- I think that I decided that I want to be an astronaut today. I know that sounds odd, especially since I'm already 26 years old and "grown up". But I was browsing some of NASA's web today and found their astronaut candidate program pages. I know I don't have a chance in hell to qualify. And I'm not kidding myself. It was only a daydream... but... I certainly may not make it. But think of what I can do for myself by trying. I can put myself into outstanding mental and physical condition. I can try to learn new things with a real heroic goal in mind. And as long as I remain realistic from the start (my chances are extraordinarily slim) I can't lose. I'll come out a far better person than I went in no matter what.