Unwanted visitor

Dear Mr. Giant Cockroach,

I would appreciate it if you refrain from crawling up and out of my shower drail hole. The thought of you snooping around in the bathroom so close to where I sleep at night creeps me out.

Thanks,

The guest in room 507.

My "heirloom tomato"

I love how every week, babycenter.com compares your little sprout to some sort of vegetable, fruit or legume :). By now, we've graduated from rice kernel to heirloom tomato haha.
I'm 19 weeks +1 day along today! - From babycenter.com:

"Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.
Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches (= 15 cm), head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid."

My belly is slowly growing bigger and bigger :) - and, for about a week now I've been feeling the baby move! It is so fun, it puts the biggest smile on my face :) I feel it mostly in the afternoon and evenings, especially after something sweet or caffeinated. Love it!

Happy Birthday Bastian!

Gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag Broer!!

A few pictures of the proud papa:

Ahh :)

More pictures

Blogger didn't let me upload these last few pictures from yesterdays flight yesterday, so here they are:


My 'office' for the day


And zoomed in :) - note that the inside of the airplane is very loud, so we wear earplugs, and communicate via headsets. Everone makes comments about their scientific findings during the flights, so others can look for correlating interesting things in their measurements



The engine and ocean - on the "below-cloud-legs", we actually dip down to 100ft. above the sealevel, and then do 10-30 minute flight legs at 500 ft. above the sealevel, below cloud base. It always feels pretty close!



Sun peeping through holes in the cloud-deck.

Just another day at the office

The flight went great! We found some great clouds, and collected some great data by flying below them, through them and above them. It was a long night, but I had a nap as soon as I got back to the hotel, and will probably turn in early tonight :)

Here's some pictures:

The beast at 1 am.

Again - the C-130 at 1 am (longer exposure)

Fuelling the aircraft - this takes ~45 minutes, and we are stuck inside the whole time

f.l.t.r Jeff, Jorgen (Jensen - sits in seat next to mine) and Perry hanging out in the back of the plane during fuelling

Pre-take off activity inside the cabin

Right before sunrise, I sneaked into the cock-pit, and got the most gorgeous view ever! Sun rising over the cloud tops!

See the difference in cloud top level? Below that bump there, there is a drizzle shaft - one of the things we are studying - how the aerosol interacts with the cloud and interacts with the drizze (formation)

Co-pilot doing his job :)

And here it is, the copper ball!

And again a few minutes later

Flying tonight!

Decision made at today's meeting to fly tonight. Most likely a 20South survey mission.
Here is the schedule for the next two days:
10/23/08 - C-130 flight
Power & Access: 0000 local time - yes - that is midnight!!
Door Close: 0145
Fueling: 0200 - 0245
Takeoff: 0300
Duration: 9 hours
Post Flight Power: 30 minutes

10/24/08 - C-130 Maintenance Day
Power & Access: 0200 local

Extensive work on PMS probes - with single point calibration testing

I better find myself a place to take a nap :) - soon I will try to post some more info on why/where and what we are doing here :)

Amigos Hola!

One of these days, I will actually blog about the science and work I am down here for, and will give a report of my first flight and findings, but the last 1.5 days I was a little down (the time I was writing this post)- I feel a little stuck at the hotel sometimes, not feeling safe enough to really do something on my own - any walk I take, I always get comments from any men passing by, and even though I know it is part of the latin culture, it get very tiring, and sometimes is pretty intimidating, especially if no one else is around. (But - I promise I'm staying safe!) Also, I seem to be very dependent on others/coworkers to do anything besides sitting behind my computer and working, so that is also limiting.

Anywho - this made me take yesterday afternoon off :) - around lunch time I walked into town - on my own - it was so nice! It was busy enough in town that (nearly) no-one bothered me with a comment, and I shopped around for some post cards to send (though not very successful - I found one tiny store, which had 4 post cards - so I bought their entire stock :) - needles to say, don't feel left out if you don't receive a postcard from me this trip), I found a bakery where I bought some empanadas (pastries filled with meat and other goodies - they make GREAT lunches!), and just looked around town a bit.

When I got back, a coworker and his wife (and another coworker who wanted to come along) were actually just headed out of town to drive north along the coast to where the road ends - at the end of this road, there is a trail all along the coast, leading to a colony of sea lions! Of course I joined :)

The trail was nice, of course all desert like everywhere else here, but there were some caves we explored, watched some of the giant birds fly around (I'm sure I'll post something about these giant birds at some point too), again stared at the waves, and finally got to the sea lion colony:


We watched the swells splash through this hole - pretty fun!


Some parts of the rock walls were all white - after more detailed examination we determined this was years and years of bird poo!


(from left to right: Julie, Sam, Perry)




We explored some cool caves! (though they smelled awful - a buildup of years and years of birdpoo!)


My silhouet in the cave


Standing in front of the water spout :)


Pile 'O Sea Lions




All huddled together on one little Island



One scrawny little guy (right)- he looked very underfed :( - but maybe that is mom on the left?



Rodrigo de Butar - the friendly little crab



And some sea lion jerky for those interested? - look at those teeth!




Amigos Hola!