I went around the world and all I got was a shirt.

Merry Christmas everyone,

As the title states, I did the traditional race around the world on Thursday. I wasn't in any elite shape or anything like that, but I kept a steady pace, didn't stop to walk and finished the 2.3 mile (3.7 km) track under 25 minutes (unofficially). It was a long day for me overall spanning 21.5 hours, which included getting ready for Christmas dinner by doing laundry and showering, a nine-hour shift, the race and finally, picture taking and chatting it up with one of my old roommates from McMurdo before he got sent home.

Also, I have a picture of an upper-air sounding (just to let you know that I actually DO work around here). The data on this chart comes from our radiosondes during our bi-daily balloon launches. Since I'm on night shift now, this is the first thing that I do on shift. This graph tells us what the temperature, moisture, and winds are above us are and that information is used to help us forecast the weather in this nearly isolated environment. For the next two weeks or so, I will be responsible for the 1200 UTC sounding. For past soundings for the Pole and anywhere else in the world, use this link which I like: http://weather.uwyo.edu/upperair/sounding.html

I hope you have a wonderful holiday, whichever you celebrate.

Peace.