Pioneering indeed

For some reason, in the last couple of days, Andrew has become fixated on my parents flying here on Friday the 13th. He thinks my mom would freak out if she realized this. He thinks they probably got cheaper tickets then because people hate to do anything dangerous on that day.

Efforts to tell him that they're leaving, and doing most of their flying, on Thursday the 12th has, unfortunately but not unsurprisingly, not deterred him much.

So this is for him, to make him shut up about the date. It's the anniversary of something flying very well, the spacecraft Pioneer 10.

In many cultures, Friday the 13th is occasionally considered bad luck, but at least for 2008, Friday, June 13 will mark a momentous anniversary. Twenty five years ago–on June 13, 1983–the space probe Pioneer 10 became the first human construct to leave the planetary zone of our local space behind and brave the wilds of the Kuiper Belt, so June 13 1983 is a significant astronautic date.

In other news, yesterday I got some new pillows because the old ones are smelly and a summer-weight duvet because I've been meaning to do that for ages now. The only problem with this is that now my bed is so much more lovely and welcoming that I've found it nearly impossible to leave it today. (The migraine I had yesterday evening didn't help either; they always leave me exhausted the next day, and this one was a doozy.) So much for getting more tidying and stuff done on my day off, in preparation for my parents getting here on Friday.

The other thing I bought today was new deodorant. I just picked something cheap at random (because who's going to think about deodorant?) and only when I put it on realized it has a fatal flaw: it makes me smell like my grandma.