What's making you happy today?

[TheMercenary]

I closed on my contract for the next three years of work. Wo hoo.

[Sundae]

Bri knows about Cader Idris.
Somewhere more to go when our shipsies come in.
With Dani & Shawnee of course.

Oh and Mum laughed immoderately at her Fuck Cancer card.
I told her it was from all you too.

[classicman]

congrats Merc! Thats great. God only knows what we all would have had to put up with if you were home ALL DAY with nothing to do - heh heh heh.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by classicman

congrats Merc! Thats great. God only knows what we all would have had to put up with if you were home ALL DAY with nothing to do - heh heh heh.

Tard!

[lookout123]

Heading out of town for our first major tournament of the year! WooHoo! Of course, Lil Lookout woke up this morning unable to breath because of his allergies...

[DanaC]

I just ordered a new Big Finish Doctor Who audioplay - Patient Zero

I am sooo excited. Tragic huh? But I've been waiting for this for nearly two months! The last play finished on a cliffhanger, with a month to wait til the next one in the story arc...then when it was released, I was broke.

It's a Colin Baker one. He is a brilliant audio actor. Really understands the medium. Always liked his tv doctor as well, though I know many didn't.

What's brilliant about this one is that the cliffhanger is less a plot thing than a character thing. His companion, Charley is travelling with him without letting on that she has already travelled with his later 8th incarnation (lots of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey, web of time stuff with an epic cross-species romance thrown in for good measure) and he's been growing more and more suspicious of her. the last one ended with him giving an ultimatum and demanding to know exactly who she is.

...yes I know...it's not exactly winning the lottery or buying a new car...but I am doing a happy dance right now, 'cause I am going to download it and listen to it tonight Har!

[wolf]

More fireworks, unexpected today ... apparently the township decided to have today as the rain date for part of last weekend's funfair. I saw the moonbounce and heard the band playing as I came home this evening. What I didn't expect was fireworks. When I heard the first bangs I ran out onto my porch, which turned out to be the perfect viewing point. It was most excellent.

And momwolf is out of the hospital.

[classicman]

Yeah for the wolf family!

[monster]

Held my yard sale despite not really wanting to and wimping out last night on the prep. made a little cash, shifted a litttle stuff and one big stuff. Thor had a good first hockey practice by all accounts. Despite last minute rush (almost doubling takings from small junk)finished packing yard sale away in time for family to go to watch Plymouth Whalers Hockey game (tix free through Thor hockey). Our row of seats won free pizza, game tied and went into overtime -we won. Got home, house not on fire or burglarized.

a great day Let's do it over tomorrow..... (well everything except the whaler's game and add a soccer game...heehee)

[lumberjim]

Tomorrow, I'll get to see my first Twin Valley football game, where Ippy is cheering. The weather was absolutely PERFECT here today, and i heard tomorrow was to be the same. Crisp, clear, bright and sparkly.

[Pie]

We had a great night's observing with my Astronomy club...

We saw the Black Brant XII Sounding Rocket carrying the CARE experiment launch from Wallops (about 170 miles away!) and saw a beautiful comet-like tail that we think was the 4th stage separation.

Then we saw the Hubble telescope, crossing from Scorpio to Sagittarius. About 3rd mag, but still easily visible.

Then we saw an Iridium flare. That was bright! Brightest thing in the sky, far brighter than Jupiter.

Next, the ISS, low on the horizon just below the Big Dipper.

And a few other things while we were waiting (Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, random satellites and shooting stars). Columbia usually has fairly polluted skies, but this was a great night!

We have one guy who lives for occultations, and there was a possible tonight. He tried to set up in time, but missed the window. Oh well, you can't have everything!

[ZenGum]

This is an awsome result for one night!

Originally Posted by Pie

We had a great night's observing with my Astronomy club...

We saw the Black Brant XII Sounding Rocket carrying the CARE experiment launch from Wallops (about 170 miles away!) and saw a beautiful comet-like tail that we think was the 4th stage separation.

I've been wanting to see a rocket launch for years. I almost saw one in Japan but it was resheduled - they had a gizmo in the satellite in backwards and needed to fix it.

Then we saw the Hubble telescope, crossing from Scorpio to Sagittarius. About 3rd mag, but still easily visible.

Then we saw an Iridium flare. That was bright! Brightest thing in the sky, far brighter than Jupiter.

Check - bright, brief, beautiful.

Next, the ISS, low on the horizon just below the Big Dipper.

Check - pretty big, I saw it about 70 deg above horizon.

And a few other things while we were waiting (Jupiter, the Ring Nebula, random satellites and shooting stars). Columbia usually has fairly polluted skies, but this was a great night!

We have one guy who lives for occultations, and there was a possible tonight. He tried to set up in time, but missed the window. Oh well, you can't have everything!

Have you seen a total solar eclipse? Totally awesome.


[has nerd-crush on Pie].

[Pie]

Saw an annular eclipse back in . . . '94? Ah, yes, May 10, 1994. I was grateful to be working in an optics lab at the time; made it easier to get the right set of ND filters for viewing. Never had the pleasure of a total, tho.

We were totally psyched to see the launch. Given our distance from it, we didn't expect to see it at all, but there it was, looking like a roman candle from far away. A BIG honkin' roman candle! At the time, I wondered how many UFO sightings would be reported from the launch.

Originally Posted by AP

Sun Sep 20, 12:29 am ET
WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. – NASA says it successfully launched a rocket in Virginia as part of an experiment, and the blast may have caused dozens of people to report seeing strange lights in the sky.
The space agency said it launched the Black Brant XII on Saturday evening to gather data on the highest clouds in the Earth's atmosphere. About the time of the launch, dozens of people in the Northeast started calling local television stations to report seeing strange lights.
The calls came from as far away as Boston, which is about 380 miles northeast of the launch site.
The rocket is designed to create an artificial cloud. NASA hopes the experiment will provide information on the formation and properties of noctilucent clouds, which occur at high altitudes.

One of the observing sites for the NL cloud was Bermuda, so it was designed to be seen from far away. Send out the Batsignal!

[glatt]

I read about that launch the next day. I wish I had known about it. If we could figure out a way to make it work, we would have watched.

[Madman]

Originally Posted by TheMercenary

I closed on my contract for the next three years of work. Wo hoo.

Good for you! That should be worth another 13,000 posts.