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My job has me on an "Alternative Work Schedule," or "AWS" in Fed parlance. That means I work a nine-hour day, and get one day every other week off. Mine was yesterday.

•  I spent the afternoon at Dulles Airport, as one of the "ambassadors" for arriving Scouts and Scouters to attend the 2005 BSA National Jamboree. I spoke with a group of female Venture Scouts from Fort Worth. We talked about how much the town had changed since I had a job on the road in that area in the summer of '75. (Another story for another day).) We also had people from Alaska, California, Idaho, and Illinois.

•  President Bush nominated John Roberts to the Supreme Court... (Update: This item moved to a separate post.)

•  This time, it's Scotty who's getting beamed up. James Doohan, who played the chief engineer on the original "Star Trek" TV series in the late 1960s, died yesterday at his home in Redmond, Washington. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease. He was 85. According to MSNBC.com, his ashes will be sent into space.

•  We have another passing worthy of note. The inventor of the TV dinner died last Monday at 83. "Gerry Thomas... was a salesman for Omaha, Nebraska-based C.A. Swanson and Sons in 1954 when he got the idea of packaging frozen meals in a disposable aluminum-foil tray, divided into compartments to keep the foods from mixing. He also gave the product its singular name."