October 6 - On October 2nd SpaceShipOne went 70 miles high into sub-orbital flight. It was the second time in 5 days that this was achieved. Thus, Burt Rutan and team won the X-prize of 10 million dollars. The reason john was so thrilled about this accomplishment is because he had met Burt Rutan and Mike Melvill, the first civilian astronaut, at Scaled Composites in Mojave California. For details, see Gary.html.

October 18 - john and joyce took a short car trip to the Amana Colonies, Iowa and to Galena, Illinois this last weekend. Here are a few pictures of the Amana Colonies. Pictures of Galena will be posted shortly.

October 31 (2:14 A.M.) - john accidently had a latte last night made with real coffee (not decaffeinated). As a result, john was awake as the clocks changed this morning. john was watching the cable T.V. clock at 1:58 A.M. when he looked up at his atomic projection clock projecting the time on the ceiling. It was reading 2:58 A.M. ! Apparently there is some confusion as whether the change at "2:00 A.M." means 2:00 A.M. Daylight Savings Time or 2 A.M. Normal Time. john suspects the atomic clock was the correct one, as it's signal is coming from the federal government. Both clocks then agreed at 2:00 A.M. Normal Time.

john has found a great way to clean the price sticker glue from glassware. he uses the cleaner designed to clean PVC pipe before gluing two pieces together. he wears gloves as anything that is that good a solvent probably penetrates though the skin rather fast. Remember too that this cleaner is flammable.