A Lovely New Paltz Weekend

This weekend was a happy little weekend in my town.  On Saturday I came to campus for our "Accepted students day" during which we try to woo students that we have accepted and want to come here.  It is kinda fun being able to answer questions about the University and area now.  We actually had about 5 students who are interested in physics, which is a lot considering how small our department is anyway and assuming that most people don't come for this weekend.  I also learned the lesson that, although it is possible to see a nice third quarter moon through a telescope during the day, a very tiny crescent that you can barely find by eye does not look good through the telescope.  The good news is that there is a nice landmark tower at the top of the mountains near us which makes for an impressive daytime telescope demo.

After that I walked from my house to the little local ice cream shop nearby and chatted with a friend outside for most of the evening.  I am loving the nice weather here and have been trying to walk a lot more.  And it is almost mandatory on the weekends, the traffic is nuts!  Apparently New Paltz is the place to go to in the Hudson Valley and there are a billion tourists on the weekends, especially now that the weather is nice.  Main Street is just bumper to bumper cars.  Fortunately the tourists don't know the back ways.  I guess the moral is that I picked a pretty cool city to live in.

That night I went to the new observatory because the weather was really clear (and unfortunately chilly).  I took forever to find mars by hand because I hadn't yet aligned the finder scope and there was nothing around (on Earth) for me to point it to at night.  After I got it fixed up I was able to point to a bunch of known stars and get the telescope's pointing way better than it was.  As in the objects I want are actually in the field of view now, as opposed to 10 degrees away.  I still have some fine tuning to do, but at least now I can reliably point it at things when people come to see the telescope.  Speaking of which, I don't think I have written about this yet, but we have scheduled the observatory grand opening and dedication for April 21.  There will be all kinds of important people and media and it should be very cool.  Good thing I have the telescope working!

On Sunday I met some friends for lunch at a great local outdoor shopping place.  (Including one new person!  Still working on making friends in a new town...)  We sat outside and chatted, then peeked into some of the cute shops.  I could have spent all day there, but it was probably good that I didn't money-wise.  We then saw an on-campus production of the play Lear's Daughters, a supposedly feminist take on the story of King Lear from the point of view of his daughters.  It was very... interesting.  Even the people I was with, some of who are theatery, didn't get it.  Several of the student actors were really good, though.

I otherwise filled the time by working on some knitting projects.  It is tough not being able to talk about the projects because they are mostly gifts for people who read this.  However, one of them I can share now.  I made my friend Abbe some baby booties and a baby bonnet for her new little boy.  I think it is due to arrive in the mail today, and since Abbe is currently in labor I think that she will probably get the present before she reads my blog again.  (Sending you good thoughts!)  I have pictures at home, but I am at work now, so watch for them on facebook.  Baby clothes are way too adorable!  I am pleased that I haven't gotten sick of knitting as a hobby; it just might stick.

So, all in all, a very nice, small town weekend.

In other news, my mom apparently went to a psychic fair in Key West and found out that I am going to meet a very nice guy (duh, I figured that would happen at some point in my life) and he is going to be older and move to be with me.  I also am going to be recognized for something very big career-wise and will move for a new career opportunity.  I am going to be very successful and make good money.  (So apparently I will be leaving astronomy...)  You heard it here first!