We had a great time last weekend, and have been reasonably busy over the past week, hence the lack of updates! I also seem to possibly have picked up a new hobby and have been doing a great deal of reading on the subject; more below :)

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We finally got our new air conditioning installed the Wednesday before last, and we're currently enjoying not turning into vaguely human-like puddles on the floor. I had the day off, so I also took one of our cats to the vet for her shots.

On the Saturday morning (July 2nd) we drove to a camera place in Vernon Hills to pick up a pair of binoculars (Celestron Optiview 10x50). I was hoping I could catch the impact of the Comet Tempel 1 with the Deep Impact probe late on Sunday night, although I knew there probably wasn't much chance of seeing anything. After that we caught a train into Chicago (it was packed!) to visit Adler Planetarium, and the Taste of Chicago.

We were wondering if we'd have enough time for the planetarium, since it was about 3pm by the time we arrived. We decided to go anyway, and were just in time to catch a documentary in their SkyRider Theater about stars in the time of the Pharaohs. We had a decent look around, although we probably would've taken our time more if we hadn't thought the place was closing at 4:30 (it actually closed at 6). I had a look in their gift shop to look at telescopes, but the selection was abysmal.

After the planetarium, we walked across to Grant Park for the Taste of Chicago. The Taste is an annual event (a week long) where restauranteurs and other purveyors of tasty morsels set up stands in Grant Park and serve up vast quantities of food, including taste-sized portions.

We picked up four rolls of food tickets, followed by a further two rolls when the first lot ran out. It was pretty crowded, but we still had fun. Among other things, we tried some Pakistani food, pizza, Polish food, Chinese, Mexican, and lobster tail. Just before we left we tried to get some icecream, but a massive crowd surrounded the stall and we would've been waiting all night. We ended up getting Italian ice at another stall instead :)

Back at the train station, it was a frenzy. The trains were infrequent (only one every 2 hours), so several hundred people were lined up, waiting to board. We were lucky to get seats--by the time the train left (10 minutes late), there were people lined up all through the aisles. It's a wonder there wasn't any rioting when people were told to wait for the next train at 10:30pm! As if that wasn't bad enough, the train stopped for over an hour at one station where apparently a car was positioned across the tracks.

We eventually got home much later than expected, but I still spent a few minutes stargazing with the new binoculars.

On Sunday morning I fertilized and watered the lawn, then we had a barbeque in the afternoon. Steaks, sausages, hamburgers, and salad were the order of the day. Although the results were improved over my earlier effort, I still have much to learn about the fine art of grilling ;)

Later on we watched the original Romero zombie flick, Dawn of the Dead, which I've been meaning to watch for years. That was a good one, although the TiVo missed the last 5-10 minutes and we didn't see what happened at the end! If anyone can tell me what happens after the two remaining survivors head to the roof after shooting one of their zombified companions, I'd be most grateful :)

Around 12:30am on Sunday night/Monday morning, we headed out to look at the stars again, and saw mostly clouds. We waited patiently until the estimated time of the comet impact, but alas, the clouds remained. We went inside and just watched the NASA webcast instead. The impact pictures didn't come through until later on Monday, though.

We had considered seeing nearby fireworks on the 4th, but figured it wasn't worth it after the thunderstorms rolling through, and the crowds which no doubt would be in attendance.

Since last weekend, I've been reading various astronomy magazines, and some books which had arrived from Amazon.com. This past Friday some stuff from Orion Telescopes arrived, among which was a star map and a red LED light. We used both last night as we tried to figure out what was what with the binoculars, other than the Little Dipper :)

Among my online readings, I discovered the site of the Northwest Suburban Astronomers, and learned of an upcoming public observing event. We might have to check that out when Carrie's parents are visiting next weekend :)

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I've been moderately busy with my writing lately, although I still haven't written anything new over the past few weeks. After a challenge on the critique group, I worked on some of my older stories, trimming and polishing them before sending them out to various markets. I managed to get my current submission tally up to 6, which I think is a new personal best. The challenge now will be to increase that number!

I've got three older stories in need of rework, so they can probably go out soon. I also need to work on some new stuff and get back to that collaborative Egypt-themed story in the critique group (sorry I'm taking so long, Sam!).

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Today I watered the lawn, which is looking a bit greener since the fertilizer was applied. There are still plenty of brown patches, but there's not much I can do about those with the high temperatures and hardly any rain. I used to hate rain when we lived in our crappy apartment, since it usually meant we were stuck indoors all weekend. Now that we have a house, I wish it'd rain so the lawn and garden don't get hit so hard by the heat, and so we don't have to water things ;)

Other than that, we finished watching a movie we'd started last night (The Guns of Navarone), played 18 holes of mini-golf, bought a new bird-feeder and more seed, and went out to dinner. Tomorrow we may or may not visit Illinois' largest Civil War re-enactment (it depends how lazy we feel). We probably should, since we enjoyed the last one we went to back in 2003.

2005 Stats:

2005 Word count:	20,683
Stories written:	3
Total submissions:	16
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	9
Waiting for response:	6
Books read:	7
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	8
Audiobooks:	14

What I'm Reading:
Black Seas of Infinity, H.P. Lovecraft (SFBC collection)
Star Ware: The Amateur Astronomer's Ultimate Guide to Choosing, Buying, & Using Telescopes and Accessories, Philip S. Harrington
Classic American Short Stories, Volume 1, Various (audiobook)
Locus January '05
Astronomy July '05, and Sky & Telescope August '05