Went to the movies - saw 'About Schmidt' - Jack Nicholson is passable in this, although I don't rank him in the top 100 actors. Nice but sad movie with no plot, no pacing, and no real story. Just life in general. Chick Flick.

Got back from movies and puttered about the house for a while (Patty worked on her book, I watched the special features part of 'Battlefield Earth') then turned on the news. Then I called Patty downstairs with the horrible news.

Seven astronauts dead, and all the newsies can talk about is the loss of the Columbia and how this is a major setback for NASA. Geez. Who cares about NASA? They will recover quickly, just like always. What about the 12 orphaned children? The 5 single parents? The parents of the astronauts? They made noises about it being the least experienced crew - but quickly stated that had nothing to do with the destruction of the shuttle. So why mention it? The more I see american TV news, the more I dislike it intensely.

Just last week we were watching them tumble around and perfoming the experiments onboard - one of the cable channels we get had them on it for several hours one evening. They enjoyed their jobs, and were having a great time, laughing and joking with each other and the TV camera.

Our prayers and condolences go out to the families of the astronauts.