Countdown

Someone wrote this on the community whiteboard a couple of days ago, and ain't it funny and the truth. We're all ready to leave Antarctica and head north to warmer climes and see familiar (and perhaps unfamiliar) faces, perhaps spending some time lounging around on a warm beach or hiking through a forest somewhere. We're expecting the LMG to arrive here on the 18th or so, depending on the ice conditions, and then we'll have a week of turnover with the summer folks and then it's buh-bye.

Tonight we had our last Saturday dinner together, and as I do every Saturday evening I hosted "Science Happy Hour". The bar here at Palmer is self-serve, but on Saturday nights I get to play bartender and serve up some adult beverages in the galley, while our chef, Diane, makes some great appetizers. Usually I try to have a theme of some sort for the occasion, so tonight I decided to whip up some Pisco Sours, which is a traditional Chilean beverage consisting of Pisco, lemon juice, sugar, egg whites, and bitters. Since we'll be back in Chile in a couple of weeks, it seemed like a good idea, plus we made sushi tonight, and Piscos are a light beverage which went well with it. The sushi was incredibly tasty, and reminded me of my favorite sushi restaurant back in San Luis Obispo, Tsurugi's.
We also have a pool going, to see who can guess what time of day the LMG will call us when it gets close to arrival. Usually they call about an hour or two before arriving in here. I chose 11:00...