Swimmers Ear, without the Swimming

Antarctica likes to destroy my sinuses and ear canals. I'm currently battling the dry version of "swimmers ear" which HURTS! And I've had a fever for three-days! A mild one, 99.7, yet still not fun. What was really nice though, was this beautiful get well gift bag that my friends left outside my door...

Thanks friends!

A Dancing Penguin from Skua

After adding some new batteries to this little guy, I had a Dancing Penguin. He starts up pressing his nose and listens to my music while dancing and flapping his wings (quite cute). Periodically, his belly will light up with various patterns that indicate his "mood" which includes: hungry for more music, happy, sad, and sick (in need of more music). I can also press his nose again as any of these moods are displayed and he will reply with various chirps, songs and dance moves. And this, my friends, is how winterovers stay entertained.

Luckily, the instruction booklet was still taped to his foot, otherwise rather
than cute and entertaining, he might have been annoying and maddening.

Belly lights!

Dance penguin dance!

Who's That Knocking at my Door?

Well, in the event of an after-hours emergency or MCI (Mass Causality Incident), it would be the Doorknockers knocking on my door. As part of the EOC, we recruit volunteers to be Doorknockers - who, through a very simple and overly complicated system, knock on each door in the dorms to notify people of an emergency.

With three dorms open during winter (208, 209 and 155), that is a lot of doors to knock on. Which is why, Doorknockers get to have their very own little wooden handles to knock on all the doors. Because the knockers from previous years have gone missing, it was my assignment to coordinate the creation of new knockers!

With the help of old broom handles from Mike at the Firehouse and the clever and accommodating Kevin of the Carp Shop, we now have 18 new Doorknocker knockers.

Ta Da! Aren't they spiffy?

Humidity?

Despite the usual it's-so-dry-my-nose-is-bleeding-again climate of Antarctica, the open water has brought moisture to McMurdo. Such moisture is often a welcome change in a desert, however, here it makes for slippery surfaces, deeper more bitter cold and some really interesting ice formations on just about everything.








In lieu of the treachery, the ice is shockingly beautiful. Everything is covered, even the sides of buildings, the dirt, the doors, everything. It reminds me of the movie, "The Ice Storm" and when the wind is calm, I walk softly so as not to disturb the silence and sparkling gorgeousness of a peaceful moment.

Stalkers

As I was walking back to work one afternoon after lunch, I came to the main intersection in town and stopped by the stop sign. The IT-28 loader was backing out of 120, and I didn't like the idea of being flattened.

And so I waited, the loader backed up the hill and then stopped. The driver, very slowly, intently and eerily gave me the "I see you" hand signal. I signaled back that I saw him and crossed the road. But man, the way he gave that signal stayed with me.

Actually the driver turned out to be my coworker Gareth, who was intentionally being creepy, and so I've taken to calling him my stalker. So he left me this lovely present on my desk:


Awesome. And Joseph has taken to stalking me too. Not only did Joseph do just about the same thing in the loader on another day, but also lapped me in the intersection while driving the loader. Crazy boys.





I guess the moral of the story here is, there's always someone watching, and in this case, I'm glad it was the food monkey boys instead of aliens.

Smoothie Break!

Once a month during the winter, the MET (Mapcon Editing Team - of which I am a part) hosts a smoothie break. Larry, Shandra and I gather the ingredients of yogurt, ice, fruit, frozen bananas we've saved from the last freshies of February. And for a brief moment during winter, we can all pretend we're at the beach sipping our fruity concoction with the sun kissing our cheeks...

What time is it?
Smoothie Break Time!

Shandra prepares for the hoards of fruit-loving winterovers.

We got ice and yogurt from the Galley.

And used strawberry applesauce left over from
flight meals to sweeten the tartness of the yogurt.

I put a brilliantly beautiful purple fake flower on the table and
put out some dried Hibiscus flowers from Trader Joes to share.

Go blender go!

Mmmmmmmm...smoothie.

Jonathan, Cedar and Gareth partake in some fruity deliciousness.

Gareth and Joseph add a little Passion Fruit Squeeze to the mix.

Mark and Zachary try to describe the complex and delectable
taste while Amanda smiles away in the background.

Life is short. Antarctica is cold. Smoothies are good.

Off-Continent Communications Down!

A nightmare come true! From Tuesday, April 26th until Wednesday May 4th, all off-continent communications were down!!! Quite a few people went through some serious internet withdrawal. Thankfully, peer counselors were available to help us cope!

GASP!

However, thanks to the BBC, we were still able to watch the Royal Wedding!

Quite a nice picture I'd say!

Waiting for the kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace!

The Yellow Queen!

And THE KISS!

I even wore a fancy hat on the way over to Shane and Larissa's!