Hi! I just wanted to update everyone on the fantastic trip to NASA. It was "super fantastic" (inside joke). Ron Gyure, Natalie Walsh and I took 35 students to Space Center Houston at Johnson Space Center. The students saw IMAX films on the 50 years of space flight, saw real artifacts from Apollo and Gemini missions. They saw pieces of Skylab - who remembers that? I was at W.A. Blair in Pleasant Grove when we assembled in a classroom to watch the broadcast. They saw films on what astronaut training is like. The tram tour was great. They saw Mission Control for the Apollo missions. They saw the vehicle mock-up buildings with the life-size models of the moon base we will build on the upcoming series of moon missions, the training pod for the shuttle crew, and a life-size model of the space shuttle. They were amazed at the actual size of some of these things. The Smithsonian just finished the restoration of a Saturn 5 rocket on display in a building at Rocket Park.

We also stopped at the Sam Houston Memorial in Huntsville. I was surprised. They really liked it! They were on their best behavior the entire time and were complimented by several people in Corsicana at the McDonald's. They came in, they ordered their food, they ate like civilized people, at one point the other sponsors and I looked at each other and tried to figure out when the Stepford children" swapped places on the bus. They were happy, they were "free", they learned something. Ask any one of them, they will all tell you something different. Isn't that what it's all about? It was so neat. Three of the students had never been out of the Dallas city limits.

We were also accompanied by one of the soldiers from the military troop my students sponsored at Christmas. He and his lovely wife were great chaperones! The kids really listened to them. One last thing, some of the kids who are basketball fans had the chance to be photographed with David Robinson, formerly of the San Antonio Spurs, who was chaperoning his own children's field trip.

I know, I know, it's sickeningly sweet and happy and drama free, not the usual posting. Mr. Editor, maybe I can be the cream to your coffee, the salt to your pepper, the - well - whatever, you know what I mean.

Thanks to Mr. Castro and his assistant Berenice for finding a way to get us transportation to Houston, otherwise all these NEAT-O things couldn't have happened. Thanks to Mr. Sosa for approving our trip. Thanks to the other chaperones, without whose tireless dedication this trip wouldn't have been possible. Wait, I hear the orchestra playing me off - let's just say we just had a great time!