19 November, 1998

Thursday, November 19th, 1998

Hi! Quote of the day…"It's good to have multiple airlines here." (by Peter Webb at our morning meeting…when speaking about another day with no American planes arriving in McMurdo yesterday, and the Italian visitors being taken to Terra Nova-the Italian base-and being flown back to Christchurch on the Italian Hercules.

It has been a few days since any planes have come into McMurdo. Ken Verosub was supposed to leave today as well, but got bumped off the Air National Guard flight that left today. It was just as well because none of us really got to say a proper good-bye, since Ken got back to Mactown so late last night. He had been out at the drill site for the past 24+ hours. I was glad to get a chance to talk with him about this "field trip" and find out what to expect tomorrow night when I fly out. Also, I was happy to be able to say good-bye, and the paleomag team went to the Coffee House tonight (when Fabio returned from the drill site) to have a few relaxing minutes together. Today's plane did make it into McMurdo, so Ken should leave tomorrow morning.

The drill hole…down to 428 meters as of this morning. Today's core: 331.0 through 355.0 and I was able to tape Chris as he gave us the details of the core.

My daily routine…label yesterday's samples…measure their magnetic susceptibility…drill and sample during the afternoon. A big difference today was that Fabio was gone, so I did ALL the drilling with Jason (one of the downhole loggers) on the assist. It was pretty funny really…I am not quite as smooth as Fabio when it comes to the water and drilling. Jason and I were covered with mud and water by the time I drilled 40 small core samples. We had a lot of laughs and took some great photos when we finished. All things considered, I drilled all 40 samples without any problems (except how we looked!), and Gary complimented me when we were through. By the time we finished cleaning things up, it was dinner time, as usual.

After dinner I headed straight to the computer lab, where I have been just about all night, except for a "time out" at the Coffee House with Ken, Gary, Fabio, and Leo. I have answered almost 60 e-mail messages today from students, teachers, friends, and family. I have "typer's cramp" and I think I need to go to sleep now. I have a VERY exciting day planned for tomorrow. I'm not going to give it ALL away now, so you will have to tune in to find out what I did! Have a great day, wherever you are and I will talk to you tomorrow.

Smiles and miles away,

Betty :)

I was "head driller" today, on the job with my assistant, Jason. I think we made a pretty good, but very messy, team. The mess was mostly my fault! Oops! Sorry ab out that, Jason, but thanks for being a good sport about it all.

Jason and I are posed with the trusty lab assistant, Bob, after drilling our 40 small samples this afternoon.