Total Eclipse of the Sun!

Ever since learning that for the first time in my lifetime there would be a total eclipse of the sun in North America from NASA while at Awesome Con, I have been looking forward to today. Here in DC we only experienced 81% totality, but it was cool enough I am hoping to go to the path of totality, probably in PA or OH during the next North American total eclipse coming on April 8, 2024.

 a few photos we were able to take using eclipse glasses as a filter

watching the eclipse with coworkers

had made it to the area of totality, I would have seen this...

Awesome Con 2017!

This year I went for the second year in a row to Awesome Con - basically a weekend for nerds that is, well...Awesome! I spent a lot of time attending NASA discussions about the solar eclipse coming up later in the summer, physics talks about parallel universes and their role in SciFi/Fantasy, and a World Building panel. And of course I spent a lot of time shopping in the amazing Exhibits Hall.

Here are a few photos:

 

...with Chewie and R2D2 in the Exhibit Hall and a dragon that made his way home...

you never know who you might run into at Awesome Con...

Climate March

The Climate March was the weekend after the March for Science, only many degrees hotter. Fitting considering the theme of the march…

March for Science

Rain didn't stop thousands of scientists from taking to the streets here in Washington and throughout the country and world. Very empowering, but also sad that such a protest was necessary. 

Infinity Mirrors Exhibit

Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Mirrors exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum - pretty spectacular!:

Writing a Novel!

One of the reasons why I haven't been blogging much lately is that I have another blog only viewable by me as I work on writing the first book of a fantasy series that I have had swimming around in my head for over a decade. It's not the always evolving plot that has been in my head so much as some of the principle characters and imagined world that I wish I too could find my way into one day.

Without wanting to give too much away, here are a few of the many fantastic drawings I found and pinned on a locked Pinterest board that most closely match some of the settings in my novel:

Board Games!

I finally expanded my storage space and have a whole bookcase to store my board games. Newest games purchased, next to try: Pandemic, Forbidden Desert, and the expansion to Castle Panic. I also found a great game store called Labyrinth, just by the Eastern Market Metro station: Labyrinth

My current favorite: Pandemic. I roped my mother into coming over for a day of geeky gaming the other day and we managed to win the first time through (she takes gaming very seriously--good thing this is a cooperative game!), so next time we may need to set the difficulty level higher than "novice", but a great game with lots of available expansions.