As you probably know, there was a total lunar eclipse last night, visible from most of the continental United States.  I tried my hand at photographing this event, and I think I got reasonably decent results, given my lack of a telephoto lens.  I used a tripod and the delayed-shot feature on my camera1.  I got half a dozen photos out of the event, which you can find on our photos page.  You can also see in all the pictures Saturn (down and to the left of the moon) and the star Regulus (above and slightly to the left).

While I was looking for information on the eclipse yesterday, I found NASA’s solar eclipse website, which has maps of every solar eclipse from 2000 BC to 3000 AD, in 20-year blocks.  It looks like I only get three chances to see a solar eclipse in my lifetime, assuming 1) I live in this general area of nation for my whole life; 2) I don’t want to travel more than 3-4 hours to see one; and 3) I live to be at least 96 years old.  There was a partial solar eclipse on May 30, 1984 which passed right over my hometown, but I guess I was too two to care at the time.  (See the map of 1981-2000 eclipses.2)  However, on Monday, August 21, 2017, a total solar eclipse will pass by very close to where I currently live.  I’m thinking on that day I’ll take the day off work and head out to somewhere in the western North Carolina mountains to see the eclipse.  If anyone wants to join me then go ahead and mark your calendars.

The third opporutunity for me to see an eclipse will be May 11, 2078.  I will be 96.5 years old then, so I’m not sure if I’ll still care (assuming, of course, that I’m still alive, which is statistically improbable).

One last thing that I couldn’t think of a way to segue into: there is an interesting story about how Christopher Columbus used a lunar eclipse to save his life.  Proof once again that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Part of our Christmas gift from Stephanie’s parents this year was some time at a timeshare.  We decided we would use the time before the baby gets here, and so we spent the last weekend in Atlanta.  While we were there we visited Zoo Atlanta and the Georgia Aquarium.  I have put up photos from this trip for any who are interested.  A lot of the pictures from the aquarium turned out much better than I had expected.

A few comments

• The elephant will hold a paint brush in its nose and create elephant art.  That was interesting to watch.

• Apparently dried up Christmas trees are a part of the wallaby’s natural habtat?  Actually they had these in several of the exhibits, I guess some kind of recycling program or something.

• The zoo had a baby panda, possibly God’s cutest creation.  The adult pandas must not appreciate this because they won’t breed even to save their species.

• I have determined that Bowser King of the Koopa is in fact not a Koopa at all, but an alligator snapping turtle.  Apparently some Wikipedia editor agrees with me.

• In the aquarium, they had this huge wall that was filled with jellyfish that was incredibly relaxing to look at.  It was kind of like a giant screensaver, only not annoying.

• There were a couple of tanks that arced over head, and one tank that had a glass tube running through the bottom of it.  This allowed you a few places where you could look up and see sea creatures flying overhead.

• The pictures of the sea turtle turned out surprisingly well.  I guess there was just plenty of light in the area.

Michael: Hey dude. I just got back from Jamaica.
Packer: Big whoop! I was in HOTlanta. That whole town is whack!

So I said over four months ago that I would try to put up some pictures of our new house.  Well when we decorated the house and then cleaned it up before we had company over, I decided I’d take some pictures.  Without further ado, you can find those pictures on our photos page.

Among the highlights is Stephanie’s snowman nativity scene.  Because, you know, most biblical scholars agree that it is likely that Jesus was a baby snowman.  You’ll also see a picture of Stephanie barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.  Making dinner no less!

I also want to make some comments about this picture of my messy bonus room/noise room/office.  You can see the following things in the picture, from (roughly) left to right:

• The cardboard cube you see there was going to be a Mario ? block to hang over my cubicle, but I never finished it.  In part because I would need to buy some yellow paper, and in part because I thought it might be too corny even for a programmer’s office.  And I’ll openly admit that I got the idea from someone else.

• You can see the Sumo Lounge bean bag chair that I won last year.

• There is a book of Christmas music for the ukulele that I got last year.  Mele Kalikimaka!

• You can see my big amp, my acoustic guitar, and my Micro Cube mini-amp (which I wrote about on this very blog a while back).

When I went to take the pictures off my memory card, I realized there were still pictures from our Labor Day trip to Lake Lure with Stephanie’s family (we also went there last year).  If anyone is interested, I put those pictures up for your perusal.

We’re having a baby GIRL!

Kip and I went to the doctor’s office on Tuesday and we learned that our baby is a girl.  It was exciting until they got started and we found out that Emma (that will be her name by the way) had decided to be camera shy.  It took about thirty minutes to get a decent shot of her face in the “4D” view.  I actually thought that the 2D view looked better than the 4D view.  (You can judge for yourself, but we think it looks weird.  In fact, Kip thinks the fourth dimension they are referring to must be creepiness.  Sorry, he made me put that in here.)  The technician kept shaking and poking my belly to try to get her to roll over, but somehow it gave her the hiccups.  It was actually really cute to see her with the hiccups because her whole body would spasm, but I still can’t feel it.  It is amazing just how much I love her already, just from seeing her on the monitor.  We think she is going to have my nose, chin, and (sadly) my feet.  You can see for yourself in the picture of her feet.  I had fun today getting out all of the baby girl’s clothes that we already have (from numerous yard sales over the last few months) and washing them so they will be ready for Emma’s auspicious arrival next March.

Other exciting news on the baby front
I actually felt the baby move Friday night.  She decided to finally let me know she was down there.  It feels a lot like somebody is thumping you, but from the inside out.  She is especially active in the last hour or so before I go to bed in the evenings.  She also will roll around if I wake up in the middle of the night.

And in case you haven’t noticed, the pictures link to larger versions of the sonograms.

What you are reading right now is the official announcement that the shrimp-shaped person pictured below is looking forward to meeting all of you, sometime around March 19th.

That is all.

Update: Additional information can be found on my follow-up post.

Last week we went to visit Stephanie’s older sister Emily and her family, including our seven-month-old niece, in Tampa, Florida.  A few things to mention:

Riley loves the ukulele!  She was completely fascinated by it.  She would just stare at it when I played, looking back and forth trying to figure out which hand she wanted to look at.  I tried to let her play, and she would kind of strum, but she mainly wanted to grab the strings and pull on them.  Fortunately this was a ukulele, which has nylon strings, so she can’t really hurt herself doing that.  If it were a guitar, I’d be afraid she’d cut her hands pulling like that on the smaller strings.

We went to Busch Gardens, where we rode The Sheikra.  I’ve built this type of roller coaster in Roller Coaster Tycoon, but I had never been to a real park that had one until this weekend.  This has to be one of the coolest rides I’ve ever ridden.  At the top of that hill they stop the car, facing nearly straight down.  Then you drop on the track that is straight down.  It was the most intense feeling I’ve ever felt on a roller coaster.  Later on there is another hill like that, although it’s not as tall and they don’t bring you to a complete stop before dropping you.  I would highly recommend this ride to anyone who likes roller coasters.

I put up a collection of photos from our trip, if you’re interested.

I think this is pretty cool:  Microsoft got some of the wallpaper images for Vista from amateurs they found by searching Flickr.  Read more here or maybe over here.

We spent Thanksgiving in Williamsburg, Virginia with Stephanie’s family, and I just put some pictures up.  Most are either our new niece, Riley, or some kinda artsy pictures from Colonial Williamsburg like the one that can be seen to your left.

Stephanie and I decided to carve a pumpkin on Sunday, but the new Über Target up the street only had white pumpkins left.  Rather than look for an orange pumpkin, I suggested we take the white pumpkin and turn it into a ghost, because I’m lazy like that.  We then put it on a little table we had and put some white sheets over it, so it looks sort of like a ghost.  The outline of the head we stole from Strong Sad, but we gave him a more menacing face and a goofy looking mouth.

In other news, the Red Cross comes to my company about four times a year for blood drives.  They will be here today.. on Halloween.  To suck our blood!  That’s funny isn’t it?  I think that’s a little funny.  Or at least a little ironic.  What would be awesome is if the Red Cross workers were dressed up as vampires.

I know, I know, it has been way too long since I last posted anything on the site.  I’m sorry to all those who are just waiting to hear what is happening in my life lately.  Well, here’s the scoop...

Kip and I are officially an uncle and aunt respectfully!!  My older sister, Emily, gave birth to a bright-eyed baby girl on August 2nd!! Riley Paige was welcomed into the world by a very loving and happy family to meet her.  Though I haven’t seen her yet in person, and I can’t wait to do so at Thanksgiving, there are pictures of her online for those of you curious to see what she looks like.  She definitely looks like Emily as far as her hair goes (Emily was born with a full head of dark black hair, who’d have thought that she would be a total blonde).  Riley does have Dustin’s very distinct forehead though.  I think she is just so precious and I love her to pieces already!!!

I’m now officially the Nursery Coordinator at church.  I find it ironic that the only married lady without children in the church should be in charge of the ministry that takes care of all the babies in the church.  My duties (go ahead, laugh, I know you want to) include: organizing the schedule of who works in the nursery when, making sure there are enough snacks and diapers and whatnot in supply, and creating a working list of nursery policies to be followed while working in the nursery.  That last one I actually took on myself simply because to my knowledge there wasn’t one, and we weren’t exactly following the recommended policies to the full extent to which they covered.  The first job was the schedule, which I know you are thinking sounds really easy.  Well, it isn’t as easy as one might think.  You have to take into account who teaches Sunday school, who is scheduled to play the piano and organ during the church services, who teaches AWANA on Wednesdays, who has a preferred time slot that they like to work, who doesn’t want to serve a whole lot, and who loves to serve and wishes they were always in there.  I have to also make sure that people are getting into the services regularly to hear some good preaching.  It was kind of complicated to begin with, but I got the hang of it.  So I think as far as that goes I’m doing ok.  I do know that I have the full support of my husband, the pastor is behind the changes I’ve made (though he doesn’t want me to offend people with creating too many changes suddenly as people are often resistant to change), and the police officer and his family that attend our church.

Another big development at church is this years Christmas play.  I have been asked to direct the acting portion of the performance.  I am very excited about this, but also extremely nervous, as I have never actually directed before.  Those of you who know me already know that I am extremely dramatic, so it isn’t that much of a stretch to see me teaching other people how to be dramatic.  But still, it is a little different when you are acting in the performance as well.  That’s right, ladies and gentlemen.  I’m also acting in the play.  The lady I had cast as Mom, decided that she had too much to do this fall, which I respect as she is a school teacher with tests and papers to grade.  So the task fell to me to portray Mom in this year’s performance of “A Peanut Butter Christmas”.  We will be performing on December 17th, in the evening service, if you are interested in coming and watching.

I guess that gets everybody caught up on my life.  If you didn’t want to know all the cool things happening, well, then why did you read my post??  If you did want to know all the cool things happening, now you know, and knowing is half the battle!! :)