Orange!

Bohemian Heaven: My Winter Room

After gathering a few remaining skua treasures and getting the last of the lights up, my winter room is finally done. I'm calling it Bohemian Heaven.

Care to take a tour?

Chichi and the Electric Car

It's a bird...it's a plane...it's a shiney new USAP Electric Car! We have two new toys on station. Every department will have the oppourtunity to use and test them out. They're bright cherry red with that certain spark!

Mainly, the electric vehicles will be used for running smaller, one to two person errands as the cargo limit is fairly low (1100 lbs). The batteries are underneath the car, which helps keep with stability, but they still seem like they might blow/tip over easily to me. I got to drive one during training! It definitely felt like a little clown car and didn't corner well. I only drove maybe 10-15mph but it sure felt zippy. And the soundtrack I envisioned for my little adventure was the Wicked Witch of the West theme.



Shiney and Red, here it is, one of our new Electric Cars.

Chichi and the Electric Car!

The e-ride.

Happy Driver!

The cab.

Yay for sustainable energy!

A view of the back.

The back cargo area.

And finally, the plugs, one for charging and one to keep the batteries warm.

Smoothie Break

Once a month, the MET (Mapcon Editing Team), of which I am a part this season, holds three-o'clock smoothie break up in B140. We stash away fruit and bananas in our freezers and get yogurt and honey from the galley.


My smoothie cup after the break was so pretty. I thought it might dry nicely as they do here with our lack of humidity, so I left it overnight. And then took this beautiful photo:


And then I turned the cup into a sun-flower for our window...


It's the simple things.

The Moon and Pink Mountains Majesty

I am blessed to have an office with a view this winter. And what a view this morning! The Royal Society Mountains were ablaze with hot pink, and the moon. Ahhh...the moon!

Island in the Clouds

Many an interesting cloud formation and weather phenomena has been appearing around station due to all the open water. This is the view from Hut 10 had a fog/cloud layer, which I've heard is actually ice crystals hanging over the water and just below the mountains. At sunset it was beautiful.

Dorm-Diving at the End of the World

It felt like the end of the world. Zachary and I walked through the empty (some unheated without lights or power) dorms to see if the departed summer folks had left anything worth saving.

While somewhat of an adventure for the Skua-minded, dorm-diving is still erie. It has the atmosphere of Armageddon. We were the last remaining survivors on the hunt for supplies and evidence of former human life. The unheated dorms with no lights were the most creepy - thankfully, Zachary came prepared with his flashlight, but we kept giving ourselves a fright with unexpected reflections and slowly closing creeking doors.

In the end, all was well, and we made out with some pretty good pirate booty too!

Zachary with his haute-pink-firefighting-hat!

Zachary and his booty!

My booty!

Carrying all the booty back to his dorm room!

Rust Water

This is the disgusting rust water that came out of the gunky-who-knows-when-it-was-last-cleaned water cooler up in B140.

Ewwwww!

Shawn explains the filter system and how it needs to be cleaned.
Thanks to Shawn, the water now is crystal clear water. Which is nice, as the regular water to our building has been broken and/or frozen for the past two days! So much for my dream of working in a building with running water and a bathroom! At least we still have heat! Nah...I know that people are working on the problem, it's just rather inconvenient to put all my gear on and go to other buildings to use the restroom or get drinking water. And still, I have it much better than some!

Down by the Sea

Having the opportunity to go down by the sea and snap a few pictures, I did.

The Royal Society Mountains.
I really love the composition of this photo:
lots of clouds, far-off snowy mountains with
blue sky and a blue thin layer of new ice with open water.
So many different blues in one picture!

Royals on the left, Hut Point on the right. Lovely.
(*Click on the photo to see a larger version!*)

A lone Adelie penguin down by the sea...

Right?

Women of Winter

A Woman's Place is in Antarctica. Or anywhere else she darn well wants to be for that matter! And every year at the beginning of the Winter season, we Women of Antarctica get together for a little meet-n-greet. Shandra, Cathy and I planned on put on the event this year.

This year, I made a nice log book for us to pass on to future
Women of Antarctica, so we can record our legacy.

The book already has a nice collection of signatures!

Shandra works on cutting up all the appetizers.

While Cathy arranges yummy bites on pretty platters.

Delicious and tasty punch - one with a little bubbly, one with out!

So pretty! I'm sure appreciating the freshies while they're still around.

To die for! Hot cheesy artichoke dip with banana peppers.

Just a nice afternoon of chit chat.

Jenn checks out the bookmarks.

Mingle ladies mingle.

Janette and Cynthia aka Rhyme and Reason.

Quite a nice crowd.

Molly, Gracie and Jamie are all smiles.

Jenn and Kelli take a moment to reflect on some powerful women quotes!

On Your Shamrocks, Get Set, Shuffle

On the Saturday of the first two-day weekend of Winter, I volunteered for registration duties for the 5K Shamrock Shuffle. Registration, as well as the start and finish of the race began at the Chapel. The course went up to the main intersection, down along the road in front of B155, the Firehouse and the BFC all the way up to the Scott Base sign at the top of the hill and back down to the Chapel.

It was nice to see people dressed up in costumes and out enjoying a beautiful, relatively low-wind morning. I was glad to be playing a small part of the fun!

The Chapel of Snows.

Keri ran registration with me and was a superior orange slicer!

Oh yeah! Antarctic Racing Series!

Gracie in the green.

This is what Clay looks like before 10a.m.

Cathy puts on her number.

Kelli got all decked out!

Those are some green girls!

Justin brought the coffee - a la "Starbucks" (aka The Coffee House).

Kelli's booty is ready to run!

Shamrock bling!

Terry's ready to run away from it all!

And thanks to Molly, the race announcer: "On Your Shamrocks..."

"Get Set..."

"SHUFFLE"!!!

And, I got a lovely, sparkling shamrock card from Gracie for volunteering!
Good times in McMurdo, good times.