This weekend turned out to be pretty busy. Ana finished sanding one of our pieces of bedroom furniture and was able to prime and paint it; photos soon. Shopping for Father’s Day gifts took up most of the day on Saturday, and I spent Friday and Saturday night out under the stars getting some pretty good pictures of some small Deep Sky Objects. They can be seen in my gallery. Last night I was out until 1:40am so I’m looking forward to getting some rest tonight.

Took a few photos of the sun with the solar filter. Click to view gallery.

Picked up my copy of X-Files Mythology 1 tonight from Best Buy. I really enjoyed X-Files when it was on, but stopped really keeping track of the main story line once I went to college. Watching the Pilot episode now!

At work today we only had a half day, we spent the other half at Lake Springfield for a family picnic. Ana was able to take off the afternoon and partake as well. The food and drinks were good and I set up my telescope for some solar viewing – a couple dozen people and their kids were able to take a look. It turned out to be a lot of fun, albeit hot (90s I think).

Nothing really planned for the weekend right now, we’ll see what transpires.

Ana and I went to a few stores tonight and ended up purchasing 12 DVDs that were on the “cheap racks”. Our collection has exploded to over 140 now.

In other news, Springfield finally has two Taco Bells open again. The most recent was about 5 minutes from our house that opened last week; mmm gorditas! Hopefully they won’t go bankrupt and force us to be without for 2+ years again.

We were at the Taco Bell tonight and witnessed some idiot teenage girl back out of her parking spot and proceed to swipe the Grand Am next to her as she turned. The Grand Am shook as she got stuck in its trim and had to rock the car out, hitting it over and over. To our amazement, the girl looked around and saw about a dozen witnesses (all of us just staring at her) and DROVE OFF! We got the plates and found the owner inside to let them know; two local newscasters were also in the lot at the time and called police. As we were eating our food we were able to give info to the police officer.

A week ago, shortly after our 25″ RCA TV was called the “pinnacle of television entertainment”, we went out and purchased a new television. Now sitting in our family room is a 30″ widescreen HDTV. Had a little problem with the first one we brought home and had to exchange it at Circuit City, but now it’s great. I’ll probably be calling our cable company and upgrading to their HD package soon.

In other news, on Thursday our neighbors across the boulevard put a large (5-6′ tall) fountain on their lawn. It appears it’s here to stay, with 10 bags of mulch ready to landscape around it. Interesting.. I’ll try to get a photo of it up.

Ana’s azalea bushes out front have bloomed in the past week and look great.
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Saturday brought Ana’s graduation from UIS with her MBA. Congratulations Ana!

We had our families over afterwards for a small celebration, then headed over to Jay’s where his family was celebrating his brother’s college graduation as well.

Happy Mother’s Day!

I stand corrected from my last post. Here’s a quick glance at what it’s like.
. Awesome.

Last Friday I ordered a Green Laser Pointer and it arrived today. I tried it out in a room without light and wasn’t able to see the beam like you’re supposed to, kinda disappointing but it may have been because my eyes weren’t really dark adapted at all. I can’t wait to take it outside tonight once the sun goes down.

The weekend was nice and relaxing. Friday was spent mowing the lawn and looking all over town for the laser pointer. Had to order it since nobody carries them. Friday night we (myself, Ana, Jay, and Katherine) watched Spanglish (suprisingly good) and an episode of The Office (BBC). Ended up being a late night, but fun.

Saturday involved us enslaving Jay for some yard work because he had mentioned on IM that he was bored. That’ll be the last time he mutters those words. We all enjoyed a huge meal on the grill though.

To top off the weekend we went to the Springfield Air Rendezvous to catch the Blue Angels. It was sunny, cold, and windy. Both our faces are red with a sun/wind burn combo.