She made it!

Yesterday evening at around 7:00 pm Oregon time, Laura landed in Antarctica. This is a brief bit of what she had to say about it:

I made it; I'm here.... It was -33 degrees C when we landed.

Celcius means nothing to me, but I am assuming that is somewhere around -14 F.  I know this because on all my winter visits to Poland as a child, my father would torture me by only telling me the temperature --which was always ass cold, in Celcius.  Laura also got lucky because the program counted her time on an ice breaking research vessle as time in Antarctica and did not put her in a quad room.  Instead, she is in a double.  (more time in Antarctica=better room assignment).  It's hard to believe that she is seriously in Antarctica.  I spent a good amount of time yesterday watching the McMurdo webcam.  I discovered that nothing much changes--at least in front of the webcam.

While Laura was landing in Antarctica, I was subbing on a friend's soccer team. Unfortunately, I learned that eating a burrito from Chipotle with extra hot hot sauce at 1:00 pm is not a good idea before running sprints at 7:00 pm.  I seriously felt like I had swallowed a flaming sword whole.  I managed to have an OK game, but will be staying away from skillet queso and hot sauce on soccer days from now on!  Of course, perhaps it was the flu shot that I had gotten at 3:15 pm that also contributed to my feelings of having a raging fire inside my stomach--who knows. 

Also yesterday, I met another homeless rat--well another rat who was the pet of a homeless kid.  This homeless kid seemed much better adjusted than the former crack whore who has smokey the rat.  The girl had the rat out in the park on a harness. I stopped to check it out and the rat came right up to me.  The girl told me her name was weezy.  After I petted weezy for a second, weezy reached up her little rat hands and grabbed the sleeve of my jacket and hoisted her little rat self into my hand. So cute (but slightly alarming, I was not sure if weezy had decided I smelled like I might taste good and her tiny claws were sharp, so I can just imagine how her teeth would feel).  Rats=so cute.  But laura was sure to include in one of her emails from Antarctica last night that I am not to get a pet rat while she is gone!