The following news story caught my eye on CNN…

Space station’s sole toilet out of order

I really felt bad for the people in space - I’ve had a fair share of plumbing problems but luckily there was always an extra toilet near by, and in the worst cases a plumber available 24 hours a day to fix the problem.  When I was renovating the cabin over the winter of ‘03 we didn’t have a toilet at the cabin and had to drive down the road to use the frozen outhouse at the park…no toilet in space has to be so much worse.

I can imagine the conversation about the toilet went something like this:

Astronaut 1: Um, Guys…I think I had some bad Tang or freeze dried ravioli
Astronaut 2: Man, sorry to hear that - everything OK?
Astronaut 1: Well, I’m feeling a lot better now but I think I plugged the space toilet…
Astronaut 2: Damnit Bob! Not again…you know what the ravioli does to you!
Astronaut 1: I can’t help it…it tastes so good.  I guess I’ll call NASA…