I haven't posted in months and months and it's been a busy time. The cold kept me inside all day today, and I have exhausted all my normal under-the-weather entertainments (didn't even make it down the street for used novels) to the point of remembering I had good intentions of keeping this thing up to date.
Here are some of the highlights of the summer:
May:
We finally found Eric a bicycle and spent lots of weekends this summer biking along the lakefront. We did 30 miles plus for the Bike the Drive ride on Lake Shore Drive. We really lucked out on weather that day. It was gourgeous.
June:
Not worth mentioning...lots of work and little play.
July:
I spent a lovely weekend with Eric in Montreal during the Jazz Festival following a meeting at McGill. It rained all day Saturday, but we found a little table under an awning, ordered a nice Chianti and some munchies, and listened to live music all afternoon.
August:
One of our really good friends from college got married in a lovely outdoor/indoor ceremony at the Richmond Botanical Gardens. We made it halfway through before the storm started. It was a great time and we got the chance to catch up with some other college friends. Being the perfect occasion to make good use of my new camera, I, of course, left it behind and can't show you nice pictures of roses and iris. However, for this wedding I managed to get the flight arrangements made properly (see last year's post) and we had a nice uneventful trip.
As always rain plays an important role in most of our vacations...
I escaped back to Maryland for most of a week to visit friends and tie up some loose ends for my thesis paper. It was just an amazing time and I still miss you all.
September:
For labor day we camped out near the I&M canal path and got in a nice chunk of it done in beautiful weather. (The bugs got a nice chunk out of us the night before though...have to remember to stock the camping box with bug repellent!)
I survived the successive visits of my in-laws and parents in the same week separated by a day. Whew! But a nice time was had by all.
My project has most of a second telescope up now!
And check out this cool sunset pic from three weeks ago in AZ.
Just this week we made a major test of a small prototype telescope that I'm working on right here in Chicago and it was pretty successful. If one of the next couple nights is clear, we'll take some more measurements.
Anyway, it was a very nice summer and I have conveniently left out all the annoying parts since revisionist history (and science!) is now apparently in vogue.
Now if I can get just one or two more lovely weekends, then I think I'll be all set for another winter.
