Posted by barb on Dec 27, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Armed with my new camera and clear Canada skies, I made my first attempt at astrophotography tonight.
One big challenge was the 40 cm of snow on the ground coupled with a 5-inch tall tripod. Andrew and I borrowed a plastic tray from his mom for me to set the camera on. However, this meant that I either needed to point the camera and see what came out, or crouch in the snow to see if I could figure out what was in the lens. I did the former, so bascially I didn’t know what would come out until the shutter closed and I looked at the resulting picture.
I set the shutter to stay open for 60 seconds (the maximum allowed by my camera). I didn’t set the film speed, but I think it was on ISO 50 — unfortunatley, I think that’s the least light sensitive. The next time I try this, I’ll step through the different ISO settings and the shutter settings. I also want to get a taller tripod.
The first couple of pictures didn’t turn out, and it was fairly cold, so I was ready to give up. Then I got this way cool picture of Orion.
Bolstered by this, Andrew and I decided that it wasn’t quite as cold as we’d thought. I took a couple pointed straight up at the sky, and caught Auriga, Taurus and the Pleiades (click on the image to get to the Flickr pages with the constellations marked).
Andrew and I think we might try and go back to Creek Crossing Farm, where we stayed for our honeymoon, and play around with my camera sometime next year. Maybe we could time it with a meteor shower — that would be way cool.
Tags: photography
Posted by barb on Dec 25, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts We spent another quiet day in Hemmingford today. After sleeping in late, Andrew and I walked around his parents’ yard. They live on an old horse farm and have about 5 acres, so we walked around and played with taking pictures of the snowy landscape. Then I made Andrew help me with a snowman:
After kicking around the house for a while, we popped over to Auntie’s house to visit with her, Uncle, Maggie, and Bob. Auntie gave Andrew and I a tour around her place, pointing out some of her favorite odds ‘n’ ends. She has a vast collection of dresses, along with treasures from every corner of the world. It’s a lot of fun to tour her place.
I also heard from Dad today. They sent him home from the hospital this morning, and he was able to make it to Christmas-morning church service. The doctor had told him that it was okay, and that he liked to get patients back to their normal schedule as soon as possible. He needs to watch his activity, but should be taking 10-15 minute walks every day. It was good to hear from him.
Tags: christmas, trip report
Posted by barb on Dec 24, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Andrew and I arrived in Montreal yesterday without any incident – all of our luggage even arrived (which, if you know me, is a bit of a triumph). Despite Andrew’s mom’s worries, I was able to drive to Hemmingford with no trouble, though the directions we got from Yahoo were a bit odd (Andrew didn’t recognize bits of the ride, which we later discovered was because we took a totally different way from his parents). We spent a quiet evening with his parents.
After sleeping in this morning, we headed off to a mall on the South Shore, where Andrew bought me another Christmas present – dolphin slippers. The main point of our trip was to get Andrew a new pair of boots, and we were successful on that point. The mall was busy, but we were able to navigate it without too much trouble.
When we returned to his parent’s house, I had expected a message from my parents – they were going to call sometime Christmas Eve. But there was no message. Andrew and his mom got busy making Christmas Eve dinner, and I settled in the living room to work on Sudoku.
Finally, after dinner, a call came from my mom. Dad was in the hospital. He’d had a heart attack yesterday. He’s doing fine now – they put in two more stents and he needs to stay home from work for a week or two. But, they’re probably going to send him home tomorow morning. The whole family – my brothers and their families, mom, and grandma – all went to the hospital this morning with all of the Christmas gifts and celebrated in Dad’s hospital room. Then they all had dinner in the hospital cafeteria (except Dad, who had his Christmas Eve dinner in his room alone).
As if that wasn’t enough, Mom passed the phone on to my brother, Kevin. He was staying at my parents’ house for a little while because he found out yesterday that his live-in girlfriend had been cheating on him. She had profiles up on Match.com and SingleMoms.com. Yup. She and her two kids had been living at Kevin’s house for about a year (I can’t remember exactly how long), and she had singles profiles up. Lovely. So, Kevin left the house, and told her to move out.
After talking with everyone else at Mom’s house, I spent a quiet evening with Andrew’s parents tonight. I’ve been fighting back tears – there’s nothing like a family emergency to remind us how fragile life can be. I have a feeling I’ll have a good cry in bed tonight. I wish I were home to be with the family.
Tags: christmas, family, trip report
Posted by barb on Dec 22, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts 
Things are going to be quiet around here for a week – hope everyone has a wonderful and safe holiday!
Tags: build-a-bear, christmas
Posted by barb on Dec 21, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts 
I’m happier today with my haircut than I was on Monday. The difference? For one, all of the “product” is now out of my hair, and I’m no longer dizzy from the fumes. Also, I can actually run my fingers through my hair without catching it on some crusty goop. The other difference is that I have my hair pulled back. I never wear my hair down completely – there’s always a barrette or two, a clip, a headband or a wrap holding it out of my face. Frankly, I think I look much cuter with it pulled back. (And, it doesn’t annoy me as much.)
My hair feels funny on my head, though. I suspect this won’t last much longer, as I’ll get used to it fairly quickly. The difference is that it swings more than it did when it was another 12″ longer. I find myself swinging my head from side to side just to feel it move.
Oh, one other thing. Someone left a comment on a couple of my Flickr pics of my hair and haircut. The comment said something like, “Too bad Locks of Love will probably just sell your hair. They only make 20-30 wigs a year, and sell the other donations.” I deleted the comments and banned the user from commenting on my pictures. According to the Locks of Love website, they use donated hair to manufacture hair pieces for children who have been nominated by a parent, nurse, or doctor.
But, I would be fine if they did sell my hair and use the proceeds for synthetic wigs. Human-hair wigs are expensive, and according to the Locks of Love website, it takes 6-10 ponytails to make one wig. And, they still have to pay the manufacturing cost, which I imagine is expensive (they only list the retail price of the wig, which is $3500 – 6000). Synthetic wigs are much less expensive, and, according to a wig FAQ are much easier to care for.
The commenter sounds like a bitter person who can’t see past their own selfishness.
Tags: causes
Posted by barb on Dec 19, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts …maybe it’s the foot of hair that’s missing.
Yup. You heard me right. A foot of hair.
Here’s my before and after:
  
And the leftover ponytail of hair:
That ponytail is going to be sent off to Locks of Love, a charity that makes wigs from hair donations to give to kids losing their hair due to chemotherapy.
Normally, I wouldn’t cut my hair this short, but I wanted to donate at least a foot. I can’t say I really like the results of the cut, but I don’t hate it, either. I’m also a bit dizzy from the “product” stench emanating from my hair right now. The main problem is that it’s too short to make a ponytail. But, you know what, that’s not so bad when you think about the good that my donation will do for some kid who is bald or has patchy hair due to medical problems. My hair will grow back, and I should be able to do a ponytail in another couple months, so I’m going to stop complaining now.
Tags: causes
Posted by barb on Dec 16, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts When I went into the office on Wednesday, this is what greeted me on my co-worker’s desk:
Note that those are Star Wars, Star Trek, and NASA lit ornaments.
Not to worry. My desk had this:
Tags: christmas, geekery
Posted by barb on Dec 13, 2005 in
Pictures 
Tags: christmas, photography
Posted by barb on Dec 12, 2005 in
Pictures,
Random Thoughts Between outreach activities last week and Christmas, I’ve been very, very busy for the last couple weeks.
Last Monday, Andrew and I trekked out in the evening to the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center, which has a free show every evening at 6PM. Monday’s show was Merry TubaChristmas, where a number (not sure how many) of ubas, euphoniums, and sousaphones play a Christmas program. I’m glad we went once (it’s an annual event at the Millennium Stage), but don’t think I’ll go back again, unless we have family in town.
Tuesday, I stayed at work late to have dinner with a group of Girl Scouts who are coming to Goddard regularly to participate in space-themed activities (and, by the end of the school year, probably earn their space exploration badges). Anyway, the organizer has been asking scientists and engineers from the space exploration and earth sciences labs to come and have lunch with the girls.
When I got home, I dragged Andrew off to pick out a tree.
Wednesday evening, I decorated the tree (a few of my favorite ornaments are pictured to the right, but I haven’t gotten a good picture of the whole tree), and made spritz cookies.
Thursday I was busy all day at work, preparing for two meetings in the afternoon and my Teacher Thursday presentation at the Maryland Science Center in the evening. The talk went fairly well (though not quite as well as the one I gave at the UMD Observatory a couple weeks ago). The weather forecast called for snow after 10PM, which kept many people away from the museum. But, my talk was being webcast to a few other sites in West Virginia, Maryland, Mississippi, and New York, and one of the guys helping with AV said that he thought we had about 100 people call in for that. So, even though the audience I could see seemed fairly small, my overall audience was more than decent (and about twice what the organizers had originally estimated).
I worked from home on Friday, but can’t for the life in me remember what we did that evening. Saturday we did a bit of Christmas shopping in the morning, and then I baked Christmas cookies all day. Sunday we braved the grocery store and Michael’s, and then I finished up my Christmas baking (though I may still make divinity, because I have some left-over egg whites from the Spritz cookies).
This week isn’t looking any less busy, either. But, I’m having fun, which is all that matters! Hope everyone else is having a great Christmas season, too.
Tags: baking, christmas
Posted by barb on Dec 7, 2005 in
Cute Pets,
Pictures 
Ever since he was a kitten, Ares has loved curling up under the Christmas tree (though, in his first couple years with me, it was a Christmas tumbleweed). The tree hasn’t even been in the house for more than a day, and the tree skirt has only been on for an hour, and he’s already settled. He’ll be in heaven when we add some wrapped boxes and Christmas stuffed toys. Silly guy.
Tags: christmas, pets
