Black Island and Minke Whale

You could hear the whale breathing before it surfaced. It came up about 5 or 6 times for a breath then dived down again. I'm pretty sure it sensed us there on the hill. With no other sounds around, the sound of our rustling plastic jackets, backpacks and camera clicks travels clearly through the air and water. When we got up to leave it took a big breath and dived under the ice.

Scott's Hut

I need to retake, the shot was too slow and the reflection is blurry.

New lip balm

Apparently made with avocado oil

Relentless

Take from a buddy's facebook page. Adelie don't know the meaning of no (they have small brains).

Tanker

Today the fuel vessel showed up. Its blue.

Recently I discovered the wonders of Boxer Briefs

Pretty Awe-Full. More freedom than briefs and doesn't bunch up like boxers. Its kinds of like an El Camino. Car that's a truck, or trucks that's a car? Who cares, its just full of awe. This pair from patagonia (not from skua) is the pinacle, its also anti-microbial. Its pretty much a downward slope from here as far as civilization and technology goes.

The Ice Breaker is Here

The Vladimir Ingnatyuk. Its smaller than we though it would be and much more red. THe USAP sure does like the color red. It has been cross crossing the channel infront of McMurdo all day. The fue vessel should be somewhere behind it now. Its the first shipe we've all seen in about 4 months now.

McMurdo Marathon

Today we had the McMurdo Marathon, Half Marathon and the VMF sponsored 1/4 Marathon. THe VMF marches to to a different tune. It was quite a race run from the LDB transition to Pegasus field and all the way back for the marathoners. I'm pretty impressed with the finishing times. Apparently it takes a tough mofo to come down to Antarctica and an even tougher to decide to run the Marathon. I volunteered to take pictures and stayed for all the run and ski finishers, all but one person finished in under 6 hours. Impressive. Most of them were under or just over 4 hours.

Softball Game Going On

This is the Championship Game between the Janos and the Carps. The Carps won but the Janos with some GA reinforcements were the scrappy favorites. The Carps had some sluggers but the Janos played good small ball, got the small bats on base and came through with some timely hitting. The Carps were too much for them though in the end.

Air Italia

Walking back from the kite disappointment, we ran into two helicopters at Scott Base. These had the seal of Italia Antarctica, so the Italians must have choppered in from Terra Nova Bay to have dinner with the Kiwis today.

Kite Fail

Took my kite out for the first time. No wind. Usually the wind is in my way when I'm trying to run or ski. Now that I got a kite to bring out there, the wind disappeared. Will have to try it another day.

Moustache Roulette

This turned out to be one of the funnier nights in Antarctica despite me being beard deficient and not being able to participate. This is Dan hosting the heavyweight beard round of roulette. Little did he know that he was going to get the "Good Morning" shaved on his face (5th from left). I shared with my room with the guy all season, this is the first time I've seen the bottom half of his face.
Ben from the galley, the pirate sitting in the corner won. He got a 50 dollar gift card to use in New Zealand. He did opt to shave his beard anyway despite surving 2 rounds of Moustache Roulette. Everyone got to bid on the beards, with money, and each player played for the Moustaches in order from least money to most. So the most comical ones ended up going to the 2nd to last man standing. All the money gets donated to Prostate Cancer Research. Didn't have a drink all night, I donated all the money in my pockets to the cause.

The Tea of the Week

I'll definately have a Tea Plantation if make it big. Sun never sets on the empire of Chai. We'll search under every rock in every corner for every variety.

Some Somber News

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Rescue officials say a U.S. Air Force plane will airlift seven crewmen burned in a raging fire on their ship near Antarctica that killed three other fishermen.
They say the plane will leave New Zealand on Thursday and fly to Antarctica to pick up the four Vietnamese and three Indonesian crew.
The fire on the South Korean ship Jung Woo 2 quickly spread despite the crew's attempts to fight it Wednesday. Thirty-seven crew members were rescued, including the injured. Two were severely burned and were initially unconscious.
The injured crewmen have been receiving medical treatment on an Antarctic-bound U.S. research vessel with medical staff and facilities.
Weather and other factors will determine when the ship and plane rendezvous at McMurdo base. New Zealand's rescue coordination center estimated the plane would return with the injured crewmen to Christchurch late Friday morning New Zealand time.
The burning boat will be towed from Antarctica to minimize the environmental impact.

Pulling Fiber Cables with Telco today

JP tebowing over his fiber figure 8s. Great day outside today, so we pulled some fiber cable today. This particular strand is 7000 feet that snakes through McMurdo so we can connect it to our building, the JSOC. We have to be careful not to kink the cable because its glass fiber and a shatttered glass cable isn't going to do us any good. One of the best things about working in IT down here is you get a lot of exposure to everybody else's job, and not just other people in IT. A couple weeks ago I chopped onions and mushrooms for a few hours. Thankfully I still have all my fingers.

Ran the Scott's Hut 10K this Sunday

I think it wasn't quite 10k but a lot of fun anyway. Ate a big slab of prime rib afterwards and took a big nap. Excellent way to spend sunday.

Chocolate Covered Elephants

Actually macademia nuts from Thailand. Really good stuff. Big thanks to Martin at the Help Desk for bringing them all the way from Thailand to here.

You Call that a Carabiner?

Will never loose my keys again.

Gag Posters

Posted on the door into the galley.Got my hopes all up about getting local organically grown freshies.

Present from Dr. Kubomoto

Scott sent down this pen light for Christmas with some lithium batteries. Granted I haven't seen the sun go down since October, but it will be using getting in and out of the man cave and checking under my desk.

My Kite Arrived!

Can't wanit to give it a try outside. If I get the hang of it, I can try using it to pull me on my snowboard.

Ice Stock in Full Swing

Had a lot of fun this weekend. I came out to check out what was going on, ended up having one of the best New Years.

Self Portrait

Made it to the top of Castle Rock. Its a pretty fun scramble to the top, and it was a gorgeous non windy day.

Snowboarding

Did quite a bit of hiking and snowboarding this weekend. On Friday we visited Kiwki Ski Hill. Here's Talia falling but making it look like a board grab. The conditions were perfet, no ice and some bumps to get a little air off. On Saturday I did the Castle Rock loop. once you get to the top of Castle Rock, its one long run down to the bottom of Kiwi Ski Hill. What was even more amazing is that Jules from LDB groomed the hill so it was pretty nice.

Puzzles in the Library

Valerie's crazy sorting syste at work.