I'll catch up on the pool tournament and the sunrise weekend in a bit.

Right now I seem to be a bit grumpy. Maybe it's the end of the winter, maybe it's because I worked late last night because of my own procrastination, maybe it's because I forgot I was on dish pit today (our 'freebie' day to sleep in til 10:00am). Anyway, no matter how much I'm seething, it's nice to have a nice office view which is keeping me sane right now:


If the sun isn't on my side of the building, the moon might as well be!

BBIA

Periodically throughout the season Michael has put together the 'BBIA' (Biggest Breakfast in Antarctica). It comes complete with just about anything imaginable, except for things with fresh veggies and real eggs, but most importantly, the best cinamon rolls ever (sorry Mom). This Sunday Michael outdid himself and created a 'Restaurant Style BBIA'. We all came in and sat down and were catered to by a rather spirited set of servers:

Awwwwww, so precious Neil and Sven!:

Some of the guys enjoying their sit down meal:

On the line:

Man of the hour:


(Pictures by Heidi)

Also, it would appear that our SUNRISE celebration tomorrow might be lacking the sun. We'll see, but it has been stormy and cloudy and generally everything is just all one tone of 'blue'. But, you know, I could care less: I just bought my ticket to Costa Rica.

Camping "Trip"

Last weekend we decided to celebrate all the September birthdays at once and have an 80s themed birthday party:

We had chocolate cake, good costumes, stylin' hair, a highly decorated Game Room and Lynette's eyelashes:

Then Brian and I went out to the Pole to camp overnight. A couple guys set up a Scott's tent several weeks back and since the winter is nearly over, we'd thought we'd take our chance while it was still around:

It was -87F when we went out and warmed up to -83F by the next morning. By the time we finally got out and settled in it was nearly 1:00am and it was easy to fall asleep:

There was only some snow accumulation in the tent, but it doesn't really matter how much snow is in there, because it certianly isn't going to melt:

What did I bring on a near -90F camping trip?
3 sleeping bags (one as an insulating 'mat' and one inside the other to sleep in)
3 water bottles filled with boiling water... oh so nice!
2 hand warmers for the morning
1 thermos of hot chocolate and an emergency Snickers bar
1 boy

To Sleep In:
1 pair heavy weight long underwear
1 pair fleece pants
1 long underwear shirt
1 Primaloft jacket
2 pairs of thick wool socks
1 neck gaitor
1 wool hat
1 thin pair of gloves.


I actually stayed quite warm, but if my face ventured near the opening of the bag my nose and cheeks started to sting very quickly, so I spent the night burrowed in as far as I could get. In the morning, the inside of my bag near the opening was pretty wet from condensation and my sleeping bag was completely white with crytallized snow from our breath. It definitely took more motivation to get out of my bag than it did to get in it.

Looking Out My Backdoor

Hooray today, not only is it the weekend again, but we got to take the covers off our window. Still pretty dark out there away from the sun's horizon. Here's the view from my office so far:

But out the backdoor in my hallway the sun is about to blast the rest of the stars out of the sky. (The southern cross only has 3 stars now).