This may not be hard topic science, but what sort of amenities make it on to the space shuttle and space station? (Please move this if I am in the wrong area.)

Is there Internet access? Someone must have a PDA with a book or two installed? CD's or DVD players? Board games? A pad of paper and pencils for writing or sketching?

Do astronauts get to bring along personal items for downtime?

I understand that being sent into the vacuum of space on tons of explosive propellant just isn't a car trip, but people are adaptable. There has to be some boredom.

I know I'd find something to read, even if it was “The Big Black and White Dictionary of Obscure DOS-Commands.”

Solfe

Can I borrow it when you're finished?

I know the Apollo 13 astronauts had a bible and a cassette player, they used it to rig up an air filter

I seem to remember the Space Station folks having a bunch of books, postcards and letters to write, and of course training/workout facilities. There are some documentaries around...

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[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

I've seen a beautiful pic of a Shuttle, looking into the "windscreen", showing an iPod stuck to some blank surface. So someone was listening to music or something.

IIRC there was some mention of having to use alternative batteries, because the standard lithium-ion ones were not space-rated. There is this inconvenient detail that li-on batteries occasionally catch fire on Earth, and no-one wants to be the first one to find out how they react to ~10g take-off and the other stresses of space.

This is a NASA on-line article about a woman who is the "Shuttle Flight Crew Equipment Representative".
The article talks a little about what astronauts can bring with them.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

Here is an on-line article from scienceline.org with more info. It talks about the battery issue.

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

I'm sorry, but when I read the title of this post, I immediately had Aardman Animation animals in space suits pictured in my mind.

http://www.creaturecomforts.tv/uk/
(better than the USA version, although it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought)

CJSF

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Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

You know, Aardman and Nick Parks are the same people who also made Wallace & Gromit, and they went to the moon, so you might be on to something. And their spaceship did have a lot of creature comforts

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

But no cheese!

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The Russians have always brought along a supply of vodka:

http://englishrussia.com/?p=1717

Isn't there a Were-rabbit sequel coming up?

CJSF

__________________
Two years ago moved from my town
I was looking up past the city lights
But the city lights got in my way

See the constellation ride across the sky
No cigar, no lady on his arm
Just a guy made of dots and lines

-from "See The Constellation"
by They Might Be Giants

I saw on the Aardman site that there is a new W&G movie in the works, but I don't know if it is more Wererabbit stuff.

__________________
At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009

http://www.spaceislandgroup.com had the idea of using wet stage stations from Shuttle External tanks.

More roomy than Skylab. Ares V cores (minus payloads) might be used similarly.