Sunday, January 06, 2008
What a Blur
The past couple of weeks have just flown by. I can't believe it's already a week into 2008. My apologies for not keeping up on the weblog lately. I'm posting a few massive posts of pictures to make up for it. This entry includes pictures from a few of the things that have kept me busy in December.This first picture was taken at two of my co-workers' birthday party. The venue was the BFC (Berg Field Center) where all of the gear used at field camps is stored and cared for. The woman who is running the building for this season picked up these fun headbands at an art sale this past summer, and they made their first appearance at Cara and Joselyn's birthday. Thomas and I thought it would be funny to wear the spatula and knife headbands near the fresh pie! Thanks to Cara Sucher for the photo.
At the very last minute, I was asked to volunteer to help with the cyclecross. Luckily, I was enjoying a nice slow Sunday so I agreed. My job was to stand at a certain corner and direct participants to the next turn. The first picture from the cyclecross race is of Kish, from Recreation, directing the racers. As you can see, most people turn out in costume! The second pic is of my friend Brian Nelson who dressed as the Biking Viking and strapped the viking helmet to his bike helmet. It weighed an extra 5 pounds easily. The third pic is of Brian on the course coming towards me. My friend Dave, another volunteer, is crouched in the background.
My boss Cara let me sneak out of a Wednesday Night Science Lecture early so that I could go watch the annual McMurdo Geography Bee. I figured I would be too late to participate, but due to a late start not only was I able to join, but I WON! The grand prize was a day swimming with dolphins in Akaroa, a town south of Christchurch, New Zealand!
Right after that last picture was taken, I raced outside to Derelict Junction (where this next picture was taken... also a Shuttle pick-up and drop-off point) for the Longest Chain of Katies in Antarctica. Last year, two other Katies approached me and asked if I'd be interested in helping them break a world record. One night prior, they had made what they thought to be the Longest Chain of Katies in Antarctica. The two of them held hands and stretched as far as they could. As most of you know, I'm up for anything random so of course I agreed. One night we grabbed hands and made the Longest Chain of Katies in Antarctica at three Katies in length. Well, this year one of those Katies returned and we started talking about breaking our record. We recruited three other Katies, and I took it upon myself to make a poster to hang around town and post on the TV scroll. We even ended up getting a 6th Katie to join us at the last minute. The only picture I have is of 5 of us stretching out. After this picture was taken, the 6th Katie showed up and we stretched a total of 41'8" (12.73 meters), thanks to Katie (Kate) Austin's genius plan to stretch as long as possible by going hand to foot. We did a few stretches to prepare, and we even had a few spectators. Special thanks to the Carp Shop (Carpenter Shop) for supplying us with the incredibly long measuring tape, and to Rich Joss and Jeff Bechtel for being the Official Measurers! The Julies threatened to break our record, but I told them we weren't in competition with any other names on station (the Mikes would beat us all - there must be 15); we are out to beat the Longest Chain of Katies in Antarctica record. Even if you made the Longest Chain of Katies in South America - you wouldn't beat OUR record!
The town Christmas party always promises to be a fun night out for almost everyone in town. The VMF (Vehicle Maintenance Facility) cleans out their workspace and calls it the VMF Grand Ballroom. There is a big screen showing a slideshow of pictures that anyone can include, and there is a DJ and a dance floor. Every workcenter is supposed to submit a decoration as well. Some people get really dressed up, but I just decided to wear a mistletoe headband. It served me well...
Michiel, my Dutch friend, and me
Bamma, Jonathan, and me
Usually you can run up and sit with Santa to get your picture taken. I'm pretty sure Santa had been hauled off to HR for harassing too many women, so Jonathan and I decided to hop on and take our own pictures.
On Christmas day, there is an event that used to be run by Sandwich every year. Since this is her first year off the Ice since it started in 2003 or 2004, Richard (on top of the sign) decided to take over. Santarctica is the largest southernmost gathering of Santas in the world (that we know of). Basically a bunch of crazy people running around in Santa and elf suits harassing people on the "streets" of McMurdo. We also crashed a firefighter party at Hut 10, visited friends who had to work at MacOps and Firehouse Dispatch, lifted weights, went climbing in the bouldering cave, and yelled at Brian the bartender at Gallagher's and Peggy at the Coffeehouse before stumbling into dinner.
New Year's Pics coming soon...
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Looks like you up to a lot of fun! Miss you!