White and Nerdy

It's been a nerdy week here in the velocibadger household, which is just the way we like it. First there was the carnivorous plant terrarium. Then MB completed his new wine-rating spreadsheet, which includes the standard tasting / rating system as well as a custom rating system that caused last night's selection to be dubbed a "+2 wine of dining." Hee! On Wednesday afternoon, I received an email that said,

"As you may know, the Shuttle Atlantis recently separated from the International Space Station. Tonight, both spacecraft will pass directly over Badgertown. They should appear as two bright "stars" in the northwest sky at 9:52 PM. At that point, they will be 800 miles away over South Dakota. These babies will be moving straight toward the zenith. They will pass directly through the Big Dipper. They reach their greatest height at 9:55 PM, when they will pass directly overhead at an altitude of 214 miles. Don't wait too long--33 seconds later, the shuttle will disappear into the Earth's shadow, followed one second later by the Space Station."

I was hanging out with Danger and MacGyver that night at their house out in the country, and we went outside to watch. Indeed, we saw two bright dots appear out of nowhere at about 9:52, move steadily up the sky, pass through the Big Dipper, and then vanish again on the other side. Even though we were just staring at two points of light in the sky, it was really really cool. REALLY cool. (Interesting wikipedia tidbit:  In South Korea, a Swiss Army knife is commonly called "Maekgaibeo kal" and in Indonesia and Malaysia, they are commonly called "Pisau MacGyver/Pisau Lipat MacGyver." (Kal and Pisau mean knife in Korean and Malay, respectively.) In Malaysia, the term "MacGyver knife" (English) is also commonly used.)

Then I spent all day yesterday learning how to be a water quality monitor through Hoosier Riverwatch. My favorite part was using all the nifty chemical testing kits and checking out the macroinvertebrates that act as water quality indicators. Since my Master Naturalist class this past Spring, I've volunteered a few times at the local wetland, where kids get to go "bug fishing" to find macroinvertebrates. It's super cool to be able to teach them about the insects and what they mean for the water and why we should take care of them / not squish them even though they're "icky."

I could go on (and on and on) about the splendors of a geeky life, but I'm scheduled to meet up with my sister in about 10 minutes so we can see a movie and have lunch together one last time before she heads off to archaeological field school for the rest of the summer. Laters!