Exciting

Today was exciting:

Back in February, there was this glass fish bowl with fake glass fish in it sitting on the
counter here in the stockroom. It kept clanking around every time someone bumped the
counter.�Man, it really annoyed Shandra and me, and we wanted to dump the water out. Then
we thought, "How long do you think it would take for all that water just to evaporate?"
Well, say no more, we had our bets down on the dates we thought the bowl would be dry. We
defined "dry" to be "a couple small pools of water on the bottom no bigger than your pinky
nail"- not "bone dry". Keeping in mind this was a humidified building with 30% humidity
(rather than the usual 3-5% in other buildings), Shandra placed her day 9 weeks out and I
placed mine at just over 12 weeks. We put the bowl in a place where people wouldn't fill it
up, thinking they would be doing us a favor, and we agreed not to mess with the water
levels.� We tracked its decline every week, making a mark on the side of the bowl with a
date.� Nine weeks came and went with ounces of water in the bowl. Today, twelve weeks and
one day after the bet, my date we recorded in the bet book, the bowl has been announced "dry"
by a third independent party. Victory!


Yesterday was exciting:


the beer I brewed Thursday night got crazy, clogged the airlock while it vigorously
fermented, I had no blow-off tube, so it blew out the lid and puked all over the floor. I
made a spur-of-the-moment blow-off tube and cleaned up the mess- I was late for work. As I
could spare the time during the day, I would continuously check on it, and like taking care
of a sick child, I wiped up the puke and cleaned its mouth and hoped for the best. It
settled down by the end of the day.� I'm hoping the whole "bacteria can't live in Antarctica"
thing will work for me. I see examples of it all the time. The banana someone hoarded away
since December and forgot about- it didn't rot, it just dried up and looks like a wrinkly,
shrunken, black banana for a hungry, wrinkly, shrunken head.� The orange Shandra hoarded on
her desk for 5 weeks after the last fresh fruit came in on a plane... the skin was all dry
and wrinkly and the color was closer to brown than orange, so it was, "hey Phil, want an
orange before it goes bad?" youbetcha! That orange tasted awesome. So I have hope for the
beer.

Tonight will be exciting:
League play for Dodge ball is back on!� Look for upcoming emails with news of broken specs...

My shirt is exciting:

A random trip to Squa Central a few weeks ago landed me a new work shirt. I dig it so much,
I wear it everyday. People say that's gross, but hey, I wash it... when it needs it.� Plus,
it's very official looking (for a host of a children's television show). I put this shirt on
for work, and I am full of pep- I could sing about letters and numbers all day long. All
Shandra needs is a moppet outfit, and we'd have some real adventures.

The next few days promise to be exciting:

Geomagnetic storms have sent us a good opportunity to see some awesome auroras- if the skies
stay clear. if not auroras, perhaps a huge storm- right around May 16th, for 7 out of 9
winters, condition one storms have beat up McMurdo. Doors and roofs ripped off buildings,
plywood impaling the sides of buildings, and crates of cargo disappearing leaving only shards
of their contents behind. Either way, auroras or storms, I hope to have some good
pictures...

Take care,
Phil