Comets!
An old friend of mine posted a link (on Facebook, of course) this morning to a National Geographic article about a green-tinted comet that is visible for the next few days.
As I can't seem to sleep past 3:30 or 4:00 a.m. lately, I got in the car and drove out into the "country" to check it out. Even at four in the morning the sunrise is starting so it was probably a bit lighter out than would have been ideal, but if the comet is what I think it is, it's a hair north of straight NE and about 15-20 degrees up from the horizon. I didn't catch a glimpse of the green tint--I'll try to get out there earlier tomorrow.
Not sure why I've been having a hard time sleeping lately. I think it ends up becoming a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy: I wake up too early in the morning, work all day, come home and make/eat dinner, have a glass of wine, and then am out like a light by 9:00 p.m. or so, and seven hours later, I'm wide awake. Rinse, lather, repeat.
It looks like we're going to have a full house for the Fourth of July this year. Our (9th annual!) party is going to be Saturday the 3rd. If I have this straight, my one sister is flying (by herself?) down to Florida to see my other sister the week prior to the Fourth, and then the two of them, and my two nephews, are going to drive back up to Chicago, and stay at our place for a day or two that weekend. And I just got word from my cousin in Missouri that he and his daughter may make the trek over to see us that weekend as well. We should have room for everyone, but Alex may be sleeping on a couch downstairs and the redhead and I may have to sprawl out on the sectional. Shouldn't be a problem--Alex sleeps down there half the time anyway and I'll be so, er, tired for all of the cooking and preparations and such that falling asleep on the couch will probably happen anyway for me as well. It will all work out--the house is more than big enough for all of us!
Work has been interesting lately. We're still waiting to see if our wonderful President is going to continue to fund the IPM Centers or not. Even if they don't, and all other funding goes away, my boss said she has enough money to pay our salaries through at least September of 2012. And by all other funding, I mean that right now I don't get paid 100% by that grant--bits and pieces of my salary are picked up by lots of other grants and groups (the department pays for a quarter of my salary now, for example).
I'm not worried yet--that's over two years away. If all goes well, I'll finish up graduate school next May, and the University and State of Illinois had better figure something out in the next two years or they may as well close the doors (on the University and the state...). So who knows. I'm not going to worry about it--I have too much else on my plate to worry about right now as it is.
Anyway. I don't know much else.
Got paid yesterday. I signed up for the "summer skip a payment" from the credit union to skip my car payment for June (which I sort of hate doing, because I want nothing more than to pay the stupid car off and now that's one more month that I have to pay on it now) so I was going to have all sorts of extra money to get caught up on bills and get the pool situated for the year, etc., etc. Then the air conditioner broke. And lookie there, the bill was just about the same amount as my car payment. Fantastic. Funny how stuff works sometimes. I guess I should just be thankful that by skipping that payment I had the money laying around to pay for the a/c. Oh well. It's all good.
Okay, I'm going to go see if I can't get another hour of sleep in.
Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2010, 6:15 am
Mood: Happy