12 on the 12th

I'm spending the first few days of my spring break out at the McDonald Observatory in west Texas with my boyfriend JJ - he's an astronomer, and he has to work the whole week of break (and then some), so I decided to come out with him for a few days. We drove out here from Austin yesterday, and then tried to stay up as late as possible so we could adjust to the observing schedule. Right now, I'm in the control room of the telescope while he works, and I'm keeping myself busy by blogging, spending WAY too much time on Pinterest (I'm actually getting sick of it, I've been on it so much today!), and working on next week's lesson plans. 

Since today is the 12th, Kacey from Doodle Bugs Teaching has decided to turn what she's been doing for awhile into a linky party - on the 12th day of each month, take 12 pictures to document what your day was like, and then link up to Kacey's blog! So, since I'm on break and I'm out in the middle of nowhere at the observatory, my pictures are much different than what they would normally be like on a Tuesday, but here's what I've been up to today: 

1. A game of Gin Rummy at 2 am helped us stay awake.

2. Updated the background on my phone.

3. The view from our room at the Astronomer's Lodge. 

4. On a walk around the grounds - steep hills + altitude makes for one tough walk! 

5. Mirrors on the HET - 92 in all!

6. View from the catwalk on the 82" telescope, which is where my boyfriend works. 

7. JJ working in the control room. 

8. Love this compass on the ground floor of the telescope building. 

9. Got my hair to curl using this technique.

10. Dedication to W. J. McDonald. 

11. I went exploring in the library - so many volumes about Mercury! 

12. Still shot of JJ working on the telescope, as seen from a video camera that was streaming through his computer.

I'll be going to sleep when most of you are waking up tomorrow morning, so here's to a productive night for me and a restful sleep for y'all! :)