7/26/16
The past week has just been beautiful. High temps have been in the low to mid 20's. That may not seem to be very nice, but with now wind combined with the strong solar rays and low humidity it feels incredibly warm. When exercising and working outside, we can be in t-shirts! Today Elissa and I skied out along one of the clean air flag lines to raise the flags. I was in shorts and a t-shirt and sweating. At the end of the line, we each enjoyed a beer that Elissa had brewed. Recently as there are now 2 kegs on station (Elissa's IPA and Nate's oatmeal stout) people have been enjoying beers on the bighouse porch where the sun's heat collects and it feels like summer. I've not been enjoying the festivities as happy hour lands during my exercise hour.
Lunch was a yummy vegetabe souflee, some bacon, and a fresh fruit salad. Dessert was this tasty dark chocolate "bark" with almonds like what you would find at Rocky mountain chocolate factory. Dinner was this amazingly delicious pumpkin (or sweet potato) dish with some strong cheeses in it. We also had pork tenderloin and coconut shrimp and key lime pie for dessert
7/27/16
Hannah and I went an measured and raised the flags on something called bamboo forest (forest of bamboo sticks) that NASA has to measure snow accumulation. It took a long time, but wasn't particularly difficult. So we talked a lot. A lot about our colleges (she went to St. Lawrence), future adventure plans, and skiing. She's a big skier and now lives on a boat with her boyfriend Lance in Bayview, Idaho which is near Sandpoint. They buy the mountain collective pass each year which is a pass for only $400 good for 2 days at about 20 resorts across the country and 6 or so internationally. I've thought about getting it before b/c it's such a good deal. Talking with her really made me miss living in a ski town and doing the skiing and biking thing.
I was also house mouse today. Kathy made creme brulee for dessert and I got to use the blow torch for melting the sugar on the top, which was fun. Dinner was delicious cajun mahi mahi and then this super tasty green bean/tomato thing. I guess maybe it had some vinegar and maple on it? Not sure.
I did a 10k run today. I'm getting fast (and also maybe the runway is getting firmer). My first run on the skiway about a month ago (roughly a 5k), I average 9:43 min miles. Today I average 8:11 minute miles and 7:58 minute miles on the 5k back. Can't imagine what it would be like to run at sea level!
7/28/16
Today was an amazing food day. For lunch we had a type of steak with a tasty, tasty sauce and for dinner we had steak filets with mushrooms as well as big ole Ahi tuna steaks. We had lemon bars and ginger cheesecake, respectively for desserts
7/29/16
Today for lunch we had yummy avocado, bacon, turkey, cheese sandwiches as well as portabello mushroom sandwiches. Dinner was artisan pizza! I worked on my project most of the evening, but did take a bit of a break to help Hannah and Elissa make fruity sangria for Saturday night
7/30/16
Today was the first cold day we've had since I initially got here. I think the high was 5F but never got above -15F with windchill. And the low was -25F (-45F with windchill). They're working on the skiway, so it's really bad for recreating on right now, so Hannah and I did our first round of hip hop abs with shaun T. It was kinda fun, and not near as intense as insanity. For dinner we had fried chicken with grilled corn on the cob per Thano's request as it was his 30th birthday. Kathy also made him a special berry, spongecake type thing thaw was delicious. There is a romance budding between Kathy and Thano, which is pretty cute. They both absolutely love crossword puzzles and word games (like boggle, bananagrams, scrabble).
I learned that for 6 summers (4 of them during college...he went to the excellent Carlton College), Thano worked as a guide for a guiding company that did backpacking and river trips in Alaska, and Northern Canada. He had some super amazing experiences with that. And was telling me all the cool wildlife he saw while doing it...lots of wolves, arctic wolves, grizzlies, lots of wolverines, tons of bobcats and lynxes, muskox, arctic foxes, but never a mountain lion, which he really wants to see. But what he really loves now is sharks, and Kathy put a cool 6-gilled shark (native to Victoria Island area) on his cake. After he's done here, Thano is going to travel around Greenland for a couple months doing some backpacking and then he's going to Victoria Island to get certified to do cold-water diving (dry-suit diving) and hopefully see the largest species of octopus in the world that lives in that area.
Today for our weekly ERT (Emergency Response Training), we did a tower rescue. Elissa was the person that needed to be rescue after having passed out on the tower and then fallen a few feet until her safety devices caught her. I had to be the rescuer and hook her up to a belay rope we anchored to TAWO and then lower her down. It takes a while and is pretty complex and difficult with all the wires and instruments up on the tower. And the cold didn't help. But I eventually got her down.
We had a party for Thano's birthday. We had the sangria that we had made the night before, and I also made some kalimotxos, which is a popular Basque drink that Lael had taught me to make. Hannah also supplied some boxed wine and grey brought out a bottle of bourbon. It started out pretty chill with lots of laughing as we sat around the bighouse couch talking. But Andrew is a great DJ, and a bit of wine in me makes me want to dance, so I got up and started dancing b/c I've been wanting to have a dance party. Eventually I got Hannah to get up and dance (didn't take too much convincing). Andrew put on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' dance off and Hannah and I had a dance off. The rest of the crowd judged it, and I won unanimously for my crazy dancing antics which included some somersaults, backrolls, and spraying water from a waterbottle on me, simulating rain). But the dance off was really fun, and we were both really tired and out of breath after it. Way harder workout than hip hop abs! Eventually, later in the night, after a few more macklemore songs, we were able to get the remaining folk that were still up ( Elissa, Thano, Kathy, Andrew, and K-dub) dancing and we had a really fun dance party with Andrew DJ'ing. In the morning I was very sore in my legs, more sore than I've been all season from all the crazy dancing and jumping.
7/31/16
Today I skied out to C-14 camp, which is an abandoned camp about 7 miles away. Everyone told me I wouldn't be able to make it b/c it took them forever to get out there by tractor/snowmobile when they were doing cleanup, but I made it no problem.
Today the Indian Summer definitely ended. It was 2F (without windchill) when I left and -6F when I returned. Over night it got down to -25F
8/1/16
I guess August is the start of winter. It's been pretty frigid here the past couple of days. Down to -45F with windchill.
Today they were still talking about my dance moves and how impressed they were with them. They must have been something. I think my brother would have been proud!
With the cold temps and the cold weather, I did my first indoor workout on the spinning bike here. Once it's consistently cold, I'll definitely miss working out outside.
I decided to take a break from my grad work today and have a chill night. I had some chocolate and wine and watched Les Miserables on the big screen with the big speakers in the big house. I love that musical. The music is so good, and it's so powerful.
8/2/16
We had bacon wrapped scallops for lunch today, which were delicious!
Thano and I had some long pillow talk. We are very similar in our love for travel. We were talking a lot about diving. He got his divemaster certification in Indonesia and was telling me a lot about some of the places I've always wanted to dive there like Bunaken and Lembeh. And we were talking about dream places that we'd like to dive. He just reserved a place on a couple of live aboards in Egypt and Sudan. That area is supposed to have awesome diving, though Egypt apparently has been a bit overrun by tourists in the last decade. But in the last couple of years b/c of political issues in both countries, the diving is way down and he got a couple really awesome deals, so that's why he's going. His 8 day drip in Egypt is only $800 and they're normally almost $3000. He's going there in February after his season in McMurdo. He's going there and then onto Greece to see family and then Turkey.
We also talked a lot about East Africa. He's been before, but only safaried in Tsavo NP. He's really interested in going to the Masai Mara and then also to Rwanda and Uganda to cycle through it b/c it's more off the beaten path. And he'd like to see the gorillas. He told me he'd also really like to go to the Congo and climb the 3rd highest peak in Africa, Mt. Stanley, which is also apparently the most glaciated peak in Africa. Sounds pretty awesome. I told him it has always been one of my dreams to hike up to the giant lava lake in Virunga NP in the Congo, and he told me that's maybe his biggest dream as well. Congo isn't a particularly safe place to go right now (to see gorillas it's best to go to Rwanda or Uganda), especially in the parks b/c the remaining gangs left over from their civil war inhabit the parks and roam around there. And it's quite common for firefights to break out amongst park rangers and the gangs b/c the gangs are responsible for most of the poaching. But he said that in the really popular tourist places, like the volcano, it's pretty safe, and hopefully by the time we'd have the time to go, things would be better as the civil war would be farther down the line.
8/3
Today we had yummy beef stirfry for lunch with magic bars for dessert. Dinner was cheese and spinach stuffed pork chops. I don't normally like porkchops, but they were delicious. For dessert was banana cream buy with a caramel topping.
Lately I've been working in the bighouse at night b/c it's quiet as everyone else is in bed. It also is more homey feeling. I feel like my dad when I'm in there. There's a comfy couch to sit on where I read statistics papers. There is a good sound system that I play classical music from as I study. I have my cup of tea with me and occasionally take some chocolate from the Reg Guy drawer.
8/4
Today, being Thursday, was bollywood day. Kathy made masala potato dosas, some sort of masala chicken, and a spicy sambar vegetable thing to put on the dosas. She also made mango lassies and some chai tea. I had been bugging her to show me how to make chai tea (she lives in India on her off season, so I assumed she'd be good at it). Her chai was indeed good, even though she doesn't have all the perfect ingredients here. For lunch we had fish tacos and super yummy tostadas.
In case you're interested, here's how she makes chai. Recipe for 2 people drinking
ingredients:
cardamom- about 6 pods
ginger-small amount (1/4 inch = a bit more than a teaspoon chopped), or to taste
cinnamon--dash
sugar--2 heaping spoonfuls (or more)
tea--2.5 regular spoonfuls of tea granules (can buy at an Indian shop). Or you can take regular lipton tea bags and cut some up and dump in the granules and use some to steep normally
milk-- equal to amount of water you add
1. add water to pan
2. add cardamom to water
3. add ginger to water
4. boil water and let boil for several minutes
5. add milk (equal to amount of water you started with)
6. add dash of cinnamon
7. boil
8. Add tea granules/tea bags
9. Add sugar
10. Steep for 2-5 minutes (just like normal tea)
11. Pour it through a sieve to get rid of the chunks
12. Enjoy
Funny thing is we've been having some sewer issues the last couple of days so the kitchen and dish areas has smelled really bad. I joked today that the Indian food was really authentic b/c it came with the tasted and SMELL of India
8/5/15
Today I biked over 1000lbs of cylinders out to TAWO. It took me 10 trips and and covered 11.5 miles. One of my favorite tasks here so far!
Lunch was burgers and this really tasty cheese and potato soup. Dinner was scallops in a tasty lemon sauce and big ole steaks
The past week has just been beautiful. High temps have been in the low to mid 20's. That may not seem to be very nice, but with now wind combined with the strong solar rays and low humidity it feels incredibly warm. When exercising and working outside, we can be in t-shirts! Today Elissa and I skied out along one of the clean air flag lines to raise the flags. I was in shorts and a t-shirt and sweating. At the end of the line, we each enjoyed a beer that Elissa had brewed. Recently as there are now 2 kegs on station (Elissa's IPA and Nate's oatmeal stout) people have been enjoying beers on the bighouse porch where the sun's heat collects and it feels like summer. I've not been enjoying the festivities as happy hour lands during my exercise hour.
Lunch was a yummy vegetabe souflee, some bacon, and a fresh fruit salad. Dessert was this tasty dark chocolate "bark" with almonds like what you would find at Rocky mountain chocolate factory. Dinner was this amazingly delicious pumpkin (or sweet potato) dish with some strong cheeses in it. We also had pork tenderloin and coconut shrimp and key lime pie for dessert
7/27/16
Hannah and I went an measured and raised the flags on something called bamboo forest (forest of bamboo sticks) that NASA has to measure snow accumulation. It took a long time, but wasn't particularly difficult. So we talked a lot. A lot about our colleges (she went to St. Lawrence), future adventure plans, and skiing. She's a big skier and now lives on a boat with her boyfriend Lance in Bayview, Idaho which is near Sandpoint. They buy the mountain collective pass each year which is a pass for only $400 good for 2 days at about 20 resorts across the country and 6 or so internationally. I've thought about getting it before b/c it's such a good deal. Talking with her really made me miss living in a ski town and doing the skiing and biking thing.
I was also house mouse today. Kathy made creme brulee for dessert and I got to use the blow torch for melting the sugar on the top, which was fun. Dinner was delicious cajun mahi mahi and then this super tasty green bean/tomato thing. I guess maybe it had some vinegar and maple on it? Not sure.
I did a 10k run today. I'm getting fast (and also maybe the runway is getting firmer). My first run on the skiway about a month ago (roughly a 5k), I average 9:43 min miles. Today I average 8:11 minute miles and 7:58 minute miles on the 5k back. Can't imagine what it would be like to run at sea level!
7/28/16
Today was an amazing food day. For lunch we had a type of steak with a tasty, tasty sauce and for dinner we had steak filets with mushrooms as well as big ole Ahi tuna steaks. We had lemon bars and ginger cheesecake, respectively for desserts
7/29/16
Today for lunch we had yummy avocado, bacon, turkey, cheese sandwiches as well as portabello mushroom sandwiches. Dinner was artisan pizza! I worked on my project most of the evening, but did take a bit of a break to help Hannah and Elissa make fruity sangria for Saturday night
7/30/16
Today was the first cold day we've had since I initially got here. I think the high was 5F but never got above -15F with windchill. And the low was -25F (-45F with windchill). They're working on the skiway, so it's really bad for recreating on right now, so Hannah and I did our first round of hip hop abs with shaun T. It was kinda fun, and not near as intense as insanity. For dinner we had fried chicken with grilled corn on the cob per Thano's request as it was his 30th birthday. Kathy also made him a special berry, spongecake type thing thaw was delicious. There is a romance budding between Kathy and Thano, which is pretty cute. They both absolutely love crossword puzzles and word games (like boggle, bananagrams, scrabble).
I learned that for 6 summers (4 of them during college...he went to the excellent Carlton College), Thano worked as a guide for a guiding company that did backpacking and river trips in Alaska, and Northern Canada. He had some super amazing experiences with that. And was telling me all the cool wildlife he saw while doing it...lots of wolves, arctic wolves, grizzlies, lots of wolverines, tons of bobcats and lynxes, muskox, arctic foxes, but never a mountain lion, which he really wants to see. But what he really loves now is sharks, and Kathy put a cool 6-gilled shark (native to Victoria Island area) on his cake. After he's done here, Thano is going to travel around Greenland for a couple months doing some backpacking and then he's going to Victoria Island to get certified to do cold-water diving (dry-suit diving) and hopefully see the largest species of octopus in the world that lives in that area.
Today for our weekly ERT (Emergency Response Training), we did a tower rescue. Elissa was the person that needed to be rescue after having passed out on the tower and then fallen a few feet until her safety devices caught her. I had to be the rescuer and hook her up to a belay rope we anchored to TAWO and then lower her down. It takes a while and is pretty complex and difficult with all the wires and instruments up on the tower. And the cold didn't help. But I eventually got her down.
We had a party for Thano's birthday. We had the sangria that we had made the night before, and I also made some kalimotxos, which is a popular Basque drink that Lael had taught me to make. Hannah also supplied some boxed wine and grey brought out a bottle of bourbon. It started out pretty chill with lots of laughing as we sat around the bighouse couch talking. But Andrew is a great DJ, and a bit of wine in me makes me want to dance, so I got up and started dancing b/c I've been wanting to have a dance party. Eventually I got Hannah to get up and dance (didn't take too much convincing). Andrew put on Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' dance off and Hannah and I had a dance off. The rest of the crowd judged it, and I won unanimously for my crazy dancing antics which included some somersaults, backrolls, and spraying water from a waterbottle on me, simulating rain). But the dance off was really fun, and we were both really tired and out of breath after it. Way harder workout than hip hop abs! Eventually, later in the night, after a few more macklemore songs, we were able to get the remaining folk that were still up ( Elissa, Thano, Kathy, Andrew, and K-dub) dancing and we had a really fun dance party with Andrew DJ'ing. In the morning I was very sore in my legs, more sore than I've been all season from all the crazy dancing and jumping.
7/31/16
Today I skied out to C-14 camp, which is an abandoned camp about 7 miles away. Everyone told me I wouldn't be able to make it b/c it took them forever to get out there by tractor/snowmobile when they were doing cleanup, but I made it no problem.
Today the Indian Summer definitely ended. It was 2F (without windchill) when I left and -6F when I returned. Over night it got down to -25F
8/1/16
I guess August is the start of winter. It's been pretty frigid here the past couple of days. Down to -45F with windchill.
Today they were still talking about my dance moves and how impressed they were with them. They must have been something. I think my brother would have been proud!
With the cold temps and the cold weather, I did my first indoor workout on the spinning bike here. Once it's consistently cold, I'll definitely miss working out outside.
I decided to take a break from my grad work today and have a chill night. I had some chocolate and wine and watched Les Miserables on the big screen with the big speakers in the big house. I love that musical. The music is so good, and it's so powerful.
8/2/16
We had bacon wrapped scallops for lunch today, which were delicious!
Thano and I had some long pillow talk. We are very similar in our love for travel. We were talking a lot about diving. He got his divemaster certification in Indonesia and was telling me a lot about some of the places I've always wanted to dive there like Bunaken and Lembeh. And we were talking about dream places that we'd like to dive. He just reserved a place on a couple of live aboards in Egypt and Sudan. That area is supposed to have awesome diving, though Egypt apparently has been a bit overrun by tourists in the last decade. But in the last couple of years b/c of political issues in both countries, the diving is way down and he got a couple really awesome deals, so that's why he's going. His 8 day drip in Egypt is only $800 and they're normally almost $3000. He's going there in February after his season in McMurdo. He's going there and then onto Greece to see family and then Turkey.
We also talked a lot about East Africa. He's been before, but only safaried in Tsavo NP. He's really interested in going to the Masai Mara and then also to Rwanda and Uganda to cycle through it b/c it's more off the beaten path. And he'd like to see the gorillas. He told me he'd also really like to go to the Congo and climb the 3rd highest peak in Africa, Mt. Stanley, which is also apparently the most glaciated peak in Africa. Sounds pretty awesome. I told him it has always been one of my dreams to hike up to the giant lava lake in Virunga NP in the Congo, and he told me that's maybe his biggest dream as well. Congo isn't a particularly safe place to go right now (to see gorillas it's best to go to Rwanda or Uganda), especially in the parks b/c the remaining gangs left over from their civil war inhabit the parks and roam around there. And it's quite common for firefights to break out amongst park rangers and the gangs b/c the gangs are responsible for most of the poaching. But he said that in the really popular tourist places, like the volcano, it's pretty safe, and hopefully by the time we'd have the time to go, things would be better as the civil war would be farther down the line.
8/3
Today we had yummy beef stirfry for lunch with magic bars for dessert. Dinner was cheese and spinach stuffed pork chops. I don't normally like porkchops, but they were delicious. For dessert was banana cream buy with a caramel topping.
Lately I've been working in the bighouse at night b/c it's quiet as everyone else is in bed. It also is more homey feeling. I feel like my dad when I'm in there. There's a comfy couch to sit on where I read statistics papers. There is a good sound system that I play classical music from as I study. I have my cup of tea with me and occasionally take some chocolate from the Reg Guy drawer.
8/4
Today, being Thursday, was bollywood day. Kathy made masala potato dosas, some sort of masala chicken, and a spicy sambar vegetable thing to put on the dosas. She also made mango lassies and some chai tea. I had been bugging her to show me how to make chai tea (she lives in India on her off season, so I assumed she'd be good at it). Her chai was indeed good, even though she doesn't have all the perfect ingredients here. For lunch we had fish tacos and super yummy tostadas.
In case you're interested, here's how she makes chai. Recipe for 2 people drinking
ingredients:
cardamom- about 6 pods
ginger-small amount (1/4 inch = a bit more than a teaspoon chopped), or to taste
cinnamon--dash
sugar--2 heaping spoonfuls (or more)
tea--2.5 regular spoonfuls of tea granules (can buy at an Indian shop). Or you can take regular lipton tea bags and cut some up and dump in the granules and use some to steep normally
milk-- equal to amount of water you add
1. add water to pan
2. add cardamom to water
3. add ginger to water
4. boil water and let boil for several minutes
5. add milk (equal to amount of water you started with)
6. add dash of cinnamon
7. boil
8. Add tea granules/tea bags
9. Add sugar
10. Steep for 2-5 minutes (just like normal tea)
11. Pour it through a sieve to get rid of the chunks
12. Enjoy
Funny thing is we've been having some sewer issues the last couple of days so the kitchen and dish areas has smelled really bad. I joked today that the Indian food was really authentic b/c it came with the tasted and SMELL of India
8/5/15
Today I biked over 1000lbs of cylinders out to TAWO. It took me 10 trips and and covered 11.5 miles. One of my favorite tasks here so far!
Lunch was burgers and this really tasty cheese and potato soup. Dinner was scallops in a tasty lemon sauce and big ole steaks
 |
| still no sunset, but sun is getting low in the horizon late at night now |
 |
| fogbow over the outhouse |
 |
| the oatmeal stout that Nate brewed |
 |
| The moon and the 50-meter swiss tower |
 |
| Elissa and me at the end of our long flag-pulling ski |
 |
 |
| biking cylinders out to TAWO |
 |
| long shadows |
 |
| frosty bike |
 |
| abandoned C-14 camp. All that remains are piles of snow after James went out and dug everything up |
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| nose piece Elisha made me |
2 comments:
Wish there was a video of the dance off!!
me too!
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