Sunday, March 9, 2008

Weekend Assignment #206: Happy Birthday!

Karen over at Outpost Mavarin is celebrating her birthday on Monday! Happy Birthday Karen! Since she is so nice, she is letting us ask for what we want on our birthday for this weekend assignment.

Weekend Assignment #206: My birthday is coming up on Monday. In the grand tradition of the Beatles and my mom*, I magnanimously declare this to be your birthday, too. So, what would you like for your birthday? (And no, I won't actually be buying it for you. Sorry!)

Hmmm, my birthday was less than two weeks ago, so I'm going to do this a little differently. OK? I'm going to say what I want, but don't necessarily need, nor expect people to buy for me.

First, I would like a nice telescope. I like Mead LX90GPS. I have an older Mead 4 inch reflector telescope, but since I'm a guy, I want a bigger and better one. I haven't used the old telescope for a while, but I'd like to start again when the kids get older. This one here has the computer controls and GPS. This thing can align itself, for me that is the best selling point. I have tried to do that with my old telescope, but I can't seem to figure it out. I even wrote an article about telescope alignment in college and I still can't do it. I think the kids, especially my son, would like it when he gets a bit older. I'd like to learn to take pictures with it as well. I really enjoy the Astronomy Picture of the Day and I'd like to try my hand at it. I know they won't be anything like the pictures from that site, but I'd still like to try.

Second, would be a new set of golf clubs. I got my old set about 7 years ago, and I know that if i had a new set I'd probably be good enough to play on the PGA Tour. (ha!) Seriously, they are getting a little worn out. Seven years is about 80 in golf years, it's very much like dog years.

Extra Credit: Do you ever tell anyone what present(s) you want in real life?

I'll admit it. I'm not very good at this.  I don't know  why. I guess I feel like since I'm an adult I shouldn't be asking for things anymore. I feel guilty about it. I'll ask for clothes, but not things that I really want. My wife is usually the person who will pass on to my family what I want or need. She's good at figuring that out.

Let's also say Happy Birthday to Florinda and Laura. Seems like everyone's birthday is in March!

7 comments:

Karen Funk Blocher said...

A telescope with GPS tracking of the skies! What a great innovation! I hope you treat yourself to one, by the time the kids are ready to benefit from it if not before. I had some crummy little 10x telescope all those years ago, and have occasionally toyed with the idea of getting a better one. They're not cheap, but for someone like you with a genuine interest, it should be worth the expense.

Florinda said...

That sounds like an awesome telescope, and it sounds like you could really use the golf clubs.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! (My husband is wishing I'd quit talking about it, though...)

Mike said...

Karen: I know! How much easier would that be to keep the planets in the view finder with our re-adjusting. I'd be afraid that I wouldn't get enough use out of it to justify the cost.

Florinda: You're welcome. The clubs could come in handy. Just need to save up and not have things break around the house all the time.

Megan said...

A few years ago I did a star themed birthday for my (ex)husband. He got black boxer shorts with silver shiny stars. Star shaped pizza, star cake. A new telescope. Other random star trinkets and whatnots. But the best piece was that I named a star for him. It is sort of a bogus concept because you don't change the name scientifically, I wanted to do it anyway. I got a friend to help me take my name idea and translate it into Latin, it seemed more realistic that way.

Congrats on the new puppy. For my (real) birthday my 4 year old daughter got me a kitten. When ever I say this people just say "Oh that's nice." And I wonder why they don't think its an odd statement. Literally on the morning of my birthday while I was still in bed my daughter went outside and took in at kitten!

Okay, I am going to be quiet now.
Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a comment. I was totally stumped with how you found me, but am stumped no longer!

Mike said...

Megan: Sorry, I should have mentioned how I came to you blog. The named star thing is a cool idea. I like the cat story! That's funny. Thanks for stopping by.

Kiva said...

That's another great choice for a present. As usual, I want a bigger and better one. We went up to Mauna Kea last summer and the guides up there were using a Celestron with sky alignment software that had 100s of space object locations already programmed in and a GPS locator. It was awesome to see the night sky up there with no light pollution.

Mike said...

Kiva: That sounds like it would be a lot of fun. Can't get away from light pollution here.