Saturday May 2nd, 2009

Science, science, and more science, but that is why we are here isn’t it? 🙂

Saturday afternoons here at Palmer Station are scheduled for station-wide meetings and chores…

– At 2 pm the entire station community gathers in the galley and draws their tasks for “House Mouse” the thorough           weekly cleaning of all parts of Palmer Station. There is no custodial staff here, so tasks include cleaning the kitchen, and all of the bathrooms, the bar/lounge, trash duty (during which you get to use the big trash compactor), and other general cleaning tasks. My draw was the Bar/Lounge area with Webster (Cargo and Logistics) and Mark (Waste); those two tackled the bar area and I took the lounge which included vacumming, rearranging couches, dusting, and disinfecting touchable surfaces. Overall, not a bad draw. We were done fairly quick, so I was able to get a workout in before our 3 pm Station Meeting.

– 3 pm Station Meetings cover everything that has happened during the previous week including updates from other US Antartica Program sites.

More science…

– Dinner is pushed back slightly on Saturday nights to accomodate a Happy Hour from 5:30-6:00. In honor of the Kentucky Derby, today’s drink was obviously a Mint Julep. This one was special though, becuse it was made with Bar Ice (pieces of glacier that have broken off and are now free floating). Ryan (the boating coordinator) went out in a Zodiac and grabbed some earlier in the day. Nothing like a little ice pick and glacier ice to make a drink special.

More science until bed…

Lisa took a dive after dinner on the walkway tonigh and sprained her thumb… she now is now sporting a beautiful black brace. Unfortunately it was her pipetting hand.