Stars!

Since tonight (well, Sunday early early morning) was the peak of the Perseids meteor shower, Katia and I walked out to the observatory, decided it was way too light there, and walked out to the Plantations to get a fairly dark sky.. ran into one other person with the same idea, parted ways, and we then laid out in a field for an hour or two, saw the occasional nifty meteorite streaking across the sky, and came home when it clouded over.. and now, going to sleep for four hours until we have to get up to catch our ride to Six Flags Darien Lake.

Notes:
1) There's far too much light pollution around here in general, and there are lights right by the observatory now due to the new dorms.. it's sad.
2) In the parking lot right outside a door with no outside light is a -bad- place for a cinderblock to be standing. My left shin bore the brunt of this mistake.

Fun, or something!

So hauled my tired self out of bed around 0600 today, David showed up at 0700, and the four of us (me, Katia, Neal, David) drove out to Six Flags Darien Lake.. had quite a time getting there, since David just can't do directions, and we had multiple sets to go by--turns out the ones right from the park's site took us off the major highway much earlier than necessary, and we still got there half an hour early. Spent most of the day hopping around there, went on most of the 'coasters, except Predator (headache-for-the-rest-of-the-day wooden coaster), and Katia and I passed on Superman (219-ft main drop, just didn't want to, today).. weather was great--70s and dry, occasionally sprinkling, passed on the waterpark because it wasn't hot enough (but did the river rafting and log flume). Eventually left around 1700 or 1800.. chilled in the parking lot for a while, and headed home, returning around 2100, to a temperate 73 and terribly humid 79%. Now food, then pick up birthday card for mom, and mail her gifts tomorrow (which is her birthday--so they'll be a little late, oops :).

Motorcycles Seen notes:
Saw some very nice motorcycles in the parking lot (awesome Harleys), and some ridiculous ones (huge cruisers with radio/tape player, cruise control, CB, digital readouts, a dashboard, step plates for the passenger.. ridiculous! It's a car with two too few wheels!)

Oh, that was fabulous.

Tonight's dinner: Spaghetti with a white clam sauce. Probably the best dinner we've made all summer, with the least work. =)

( You know you want the recipe! )