Coffee, Cartons and Curdles.

Sunday was another nice and mellow day. After we got off shift and changing clothes we had coffee party in the morning since there was no brunch today due to ship offload stuff going on. It's a huge downer to not have the special treats that we get at brunch such as fresh fruit, cheeses, real eggs and waffles. Oh well. Our coffee party was good. We go to all lengths to have good coffee rather than the swill they serve in the galley, even if that means crawling under tables to find an outlet to grind fresh beans.

The cargo vessel, the "American Tern" made it into the pier and is busy at work bringing in all the supplies for the next year. The vessel looked like a Lego ship when it first arrived with the many colored milvans all stacked up. Each color means something different and designates where the milvan belongs. Ship offload operations have been going on for a couple of days around town and with all the bars closed during this time it's been pretty quiet. I've kind of liked the mellow feeling. They've had several areas closed off to vehicles and pedestrians as they move all the large cargo pallets around on flatbed trucks. It makes it a little longer of a walk to get places but is much better than being smooshed by a pallet of blazin' redfish! The cold storage building is right next to my dorm and there have been pallets lining all four sides of the buildings with such food items as 165-lbs of pretzel twists, 770-lbs of pasta and spaghetti, 90 cases of gingersnaps, 50 cases of shortening, etc. I was much more interested in the entire pallet of Snickers bars. This will be the dry food for the whole of McMurdo station for the next year. There is an entire other freezer storage building that houses all the frozen food. Now there's food storage for you!

Today I was excited to hear that I had mail! This is always good news and never bad...until today that is. It was a box of goodies from my dear, lovely friend Emily in Colorado. I thought it was a bit odd that it came double wrapped in plastic bags. I cut the bags open and the box was mooshy and soaked through. I tore open the box and got a face full of the nastiest smell of them all...spoiled milk. Em had mailed the box early November and it's now February 8th. My other dear friend here, Diane, had really wanted some eggnog during the holidays. Em sent a carton of it in a ziploc bag thinking it would be a funny joke. Had it stayed contained in the bag it may have been funnier. I blame Diane for this whole mishap! :-) As it was it had leaked all over everything; the treats, Lucky Charms, CD's, a book, Cheetos, notes, marshmallow fluff and the Peter Pan pen. I did my best to salvage all that I could and washed everything in a sink full of soapy water. I think all but perhaps the book have survived. The entire station smelled like two month old milk vomit and it took a lot of open bay doors, windows and such to clear the smell out. I accidentally got a bit of the wretchedness on my shirt and had to trade it out with a clean one to wash it in the machine. Nasty!! Hopefully I'll be able to get the smell out of my nose one of these days. Anyhow, thank you Em for the goodies, despite their haggard appearance here, they have been enjoyed! And boy am I loving a good fluffer-nutter sandwich!