A busy day...

There is something called Cafe Express across Bay Area Boulevard from the shopping center that houses the Barnes & Noble and the associated Starbucks coffee shop within a stone's throw of I-45. Unbelievably, the Cafe Express doesn't open until 11 am, which is several hours after the world has become caffeine-besotted (courtesy of said Starbucks, among others). I wonder how they came to the conclusion that the best operating hours for their kind of business is between 11 am and 10 pm? (I'm not sure I'd buy their stock, if I were in a stock-buying mood.)

The first quarter's unemployment insurance return is filed and all that is left is to send them the money (the check is in the envelope, which is ready for tomorrow's mail). I cannot find the templates for my travel reports, so those will have to wait, apparently, until I get back to Pagosa, where I shall have a very short window within which to submit my travel expenses.

The Execute Package went well today, up until about 3 pm, when two last-minute radiograms arrived from the Russian side. This is unusual, since it means the planners Over There had been up to nearly midnight their time putting these messages together. Fortunately, they were not too long and did not overly tax my abilities; in any event I had them done in short order. Expedition 8 undocked and returned today, leaving Padalka and Fincke in charge. The latter loves to chatter, apparently, or so comes the word from the space-to-ground interpreters, who must interpret everything said between the ISS and the MCCs in Houston and Moscow.

I've also translated about 3200 source words of the translation due next Tuesday, the day before I leave for my trip. Doing the same tomorrow and Saturday will leave a mere pittance to do on Sunday, which means I can take my sweet time checking over the work before sending it in.

I need to go rest. Tomorrow promises to be pretty hectic, too.

Cheers...