Ok, ok. I'll do it too.

[MEME]If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now, even if we don't speak often, please post a comment with a memory of you and me. It can be anything you want -- good or bad. When you're finished, post this little paragraph on your blog and be surprised (or mortified) about what people remember about you.[/MEME]

A manic week

So it's been a rather crazy week here in Ithaca.
Let's begin on Monday. As I walked to the bus stop in the morning I had to walk through about 2 inches (5 cm) of snow. I think to myself..."Funny. And I thought it was April". Actually what went through my head was "Ach du Scheisse!! I hate Ithaca." (By the way, German is a fantastic language to curse in. It's so very satisfying.)
As the day progressed the snow continued. As the temperature was just at freezing, the snow was rather wet and stuck to everything. That had the upside of making the trees pretty but the downside of making all the sidewalks slushy. By the end of the evening campus had about 9 inches or so (25 cm). Though there was enough of a temperature difference between campus (up on the hill) and downtown that at lake-level there was no snow. Just rain. And places higher up got even more than Cornell did. So weird living in a place with elevation.
Now fast forward to Friday. Sunny with temps approaching 70 (21 C). This weekend has been amazing. Clear blue skies, temps in the mid-70s (24 C). All that's left of the snow are the ever shrinking piles created by plowing of large parking lots.
So all in all it's been a great weekend. The sandals came out yesterday making it one of the best 10 days of the year. Last night I met up with some other astro ladies for a bit of shopping and fantastic BBQ. Tonight I should get my first grilled (Foreman, not fire) brat of the year. And by the end of the afternoon my first sunburn. Ah the little things in life.
As far as the rest of life goes, I've got nothing new. Still no summer plans. Two weeks of classes and A LOT of work to get done in the next four weeks.
Oh! And tomorrow's Moogie's birthday. Happy Birthday! Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag! Boldog Szuletesnapot Kivanok! (Hungarian) Janamdin mubarak ho! (Hindi)

Happy Easter

Happy Easter everyone!
Just a few half-way interesting things to report.
Thursday my little spectrometer arrived from Bonn. This spectrometer is what my work there was leading up to when I ran out of time. I hope to continue to play around with it and connect it to the radio telescope on the roof of SSB just for fun. We're not going to any ground breaking research with it, but I just want the experience of hooking it up to something.
Friday evening I went to the Fuertes Observatory on campus, which is run by the astronomy club, for a very interesting lecture on the Jantar Mantar, giant sun-dial observatories in India. Here's a website about them:

www.jantarmantar.org

Last night I finally saw "The Lives of Others" ("Das Leben der Anderen"). It's a movie out of Germany about the East German secret police spying on its citizens. It's good and even won the foreign film Oscar this year. It's not a happy, uplifting film, but it's a German movie, what do you expect? (Just joking!)
Otherwise after several days of beautiful weather, winter decided to return for one last roar. (Or at least I hope.) We've been below freezing most of the time with flurries on and off. Ah Ithaca. 10 square km surrounded by reality eh? (A popular bumper sticker around here. Just behind "Ithaca is Gorges", "Ithaca is Cold", and "Ithaca is not George's". The other day I even say one the read "Ithaca is bumper stickers". Had to laugh.) I'm not convinced.
Anyho! That's all for now.