DDR, stargazing and summer fun

Although the past week has been uneventful (filled with Six Feet Under watching, some cooking, working and reading), the last two days have been pretty fun. After work on Thursday, I went over to a friend's house because she was having some people over. It was nice to hang out with a fairly diverse group of people. I think most of the people were transplants to Eugene, and it was interesting to hear how THEY arrived here. We also played Dance Dance Revolution, which I haven't played since college.

Work was a typical Friday. We did celebrate my boss's recent engagement! Working in such a small office, it's very easy to feel more connected with people and their lives, so these events are celebrated more than they would be in another work setting. My boss actually had invited me over to a "Young Women's BBQ" at her house. A friend of her's from high school and a girl she met at a women's leadership conference were both there. The friend from high school had her 14-month-old son there, and he was really cute playing with the dogs.

After that I went home to spend some quality time with Luna, and then I headed off to the monthly star watching party put on by the Eugene Astronomical Society. There's evidently a HUGE reservoir really close to my house, and next to (or on top of..not sure) it is a giant cement platform. Every month members of the society come out and bring their enormously awesome telescopes and talk about ...stars! I went with several of the people I had met the night before. It was VERY cool. I was able to see the "equatorial lines" on Jupiter, or the different colors. Below are some of the things I was able to see:

Jupiter and its moons. I tried to find a picture that actually looks like what I saw, and this is about right.

"Ring Nebula" - also very close to what I saw through the telescope.

The "swan's eye" and its partner star. I was able to see the colors like this. One star is easy to see with the plain eye, and the other is much more difficult.

"Messier 13" (M13) - This is a large mass of stars, outside of the Milky Way. Things like this really boggle my mind and hurt my brain as I think of the endless possibilities something like this could mean.

This was actually a really cool night. I learned a lot of new things, saw many interesting constellations, stars and telescopes and I got to enjoy yet another lovely evening in Oregon.

I think Luna and I are going to the coast today. I haven't made up my mind yet if I'll go today or tomorrow.