1. It’s my mom’s birthday today! What can you say about moms? They’re moms–they’re great. And my mom is in the top .05% of all moms (I’m pretty lucky). Happy birthday!

2. Since my mom told me she was looking forward to today’s space link, here is a thoughtful essay from the Bad Astronomy blog about the future of space exploration (marking, of course, the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin’s orbiting the earth).

3. Last night I found myself, as an agnostic, in the interesting position of picking out an Easter card for my deeply Christian grandmother that would satisfy her but not make me sound like too much of a hypocrite (any more than sending a card on a religious holiday does anyway). Fascinating times in the card aisle.