McMurdo Birthday

Yesterday, I celebrated my birthday for the 6th time
in Antarctica. I feel much older than 6 years old,
but I'm pretty close to 6 years old in dog years I
guess. Anyway, the Air Services Reps were nice enough
to decorate the Flight Board in honor of my day and
also did some nice decorating in my desk area. As you
can see, my desk is a fairly bleak cubicle, so any
decorating certainly helps liven things up. When you're
on the Ice and from the United States, you technically
get two birthdays. One in Antarctica, and for me, one
in Colorado since it's nineteen hours behind us, on the
other side of the International Date Line. Our Kiwi
friend, Gid, from Scott Base brought me over a delicious
piece of chocolate mousse cake from the Kiwi baker in
honor of the day as well and everyone enjoyed it. I've
had more momentous birthdays, but this one was very
calm and enjoyable.

Happy Birthday Lynn!

Today is Lynn's Birthday! The Birthday Fairy was extra
nice to her this year. She not only got a new Kindle to
read all of her books on, she also received a Little Debbie
birthday cake!

My Birthday

I received several nice surprises on my birthday today.
First, when I got up, I found that Kaska and Jamie who
work in Air Services with me, had given me my own slide
on the Channel 7 television scroll!


Then, when I got to work, I found that someone (I suspect
Lynn and Christen) decorated my desk. All in all it was
a pretty nice birthday, even though I had to work.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my Mom's Birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

It's also October 10, 2010...or 10/10/10
The next time this happens will be 100 years from now!
We're both pretty healthy, but I would hazard a guess
that neither of us will be around to see it. It's
interesting to think what the world will be like when
it does happen again though!

Happy Birthday Lynn!

Because Lynn is many miles and many time
zones away, I get to celebrate her birthday
on two different days! Happy Birthday Lynn!

My Birthday!

It's never fun to be sick...especially on your birthday!
But, I was invited over to Carrie and Tony's to play
Euchre with Kaska as my Lynn-surrogate partner.
When I walked in the door, I was greeted with a cool
looking Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting (my fav)
and this very fun cut out of Lynn in a showgirl outfit
popping out of the cake! Being a Hamann, I was early
and was the first one there instead of the last one so
the "surprise" was out of the bag. I did have a great
time though and it took my mind off a being sick for
a few hours. Most of my closest Ice Friends were there
including many from our favorite winter of 2007. It was
a great time and I've very grateful to everyone who
attended to make it a special birthday I will remember
for many years to come.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Abe!

Today is the two-hundredth anniversary of the birth of
Abraham Lincoln. In my opinion, America's greatest
president, and of course, my favorite. Yes, Darwin is
probably getting more worldwide attention today since
it is also the 200th anniversary of his birth, but Abe
Lincoln is really someone that the rest of the world should
know more about.

Happy Birthday Nathan!

One of my favorite shirts of all time!

Happy Birthday Lynn!

They Say It's My Birthday!

This morning, Lynn and I were talking about being
at interesting and odd places on my birthday. This
year is relatively mellow, attending my refresher
Happy Camper push class and getting a good portion of
the day off while preparing to go to nights on Monday.
Last year on this day I was wandering the halls of
Dracula's Castle, in 2005 I was wandering the ruins
of Chaco Canyon. Both less creepy than the bug-infested
hut with the weed-filled mattress on Aitutaki in the
Cook Islands. Next year...who knows. Maybe McMurdo.
As long as it isn't creepy!

2002 - Christchurch
2003 - Aitutaki
2004 - Indiana
2005 - Chaco Canyon
2006 - McMurdo
2007 - Transylvania
2008 - McMurdo

Happy Birthday Mom!

There is NO Sanctuary

In honor of our friend Sandwich's recent 30th birthday,
we hosted a two film filmfest on Sunday of Tron, followed
by Logan's Run. If you haven't seen Logan's Run, here's
the premise...Life is perfect, you have everything you
need. Only one catch. You have to die at age 30. It's
one of my favorite movies and we have a DVD copy of it that
I've practically worn out. Lynn had never seen the whole
movie before and since she's now seen the whole thing...is
not a big fan. The remaining people toward the end of the
viewing felt the same unfortunately. My only ally, Jed
left early to call his girlfriend...traitor! Anyway, I'm
sure that Sandwich was either renewed or reached Sanctuary
and she is no longer a Red-29 and is not flying around on
Carousel anymore. Me? I've been officially a "Runner" for
12 years now. No Carousel for me!

Too Many Chips

Today was Antz's birthday so Shandra and Lisa threw a
party for him at Hut 10 and with Sean's help, made
pizza for everybody. Especially good was the chicken-
Gouda-cranberry variety. Antz is a lover of potato
chips and the Store just happened to have a number of
cans of chips available just in time for his birthday.
A number of decorative and imaginative wrapping styles
tried to disguise the chips but the end result was the
same. I told Antz that this is what happens when he
doesn't register somewhere for his birthday. Unfortun-
ately, it looks like he did register...at 7-Eleven.

Let 'em Eat Cake

A winter tradition the last few years is to receive a
birthday cake from Mark...also known as Poo-baca,
Poo-Man-Chu, Poo-Man or any number of other Poo-related
names. Mark is the Waste Water Treatment Plant Tech
and some feel he sometimes has a little too much
time on his hands. We went to a birthday party this
weekend where Jay-Bird was presented with this pretty
cake from Poo-baca. Sometimes they look good enough to
eat. However, if you look at the ingredients, however
good it may look, it might cause a few Pepto-Bismo
momments when digested. When I asked him for a recipe
I could put on my blog, he was more than happy to oblige:

Grammy Bacca’s Poo-licious Cake

6 cups Class A or B processed sludge*

*this can be biosolids processed from belt press, centrifuge,
or compost pile; pre-tested for microbial and organic nutrient
& at least 14-17% solids content after de-watering for
consistency and body

3-4 cups Hand-whipped cream topping--cooled
6 oz. Syrup of choice--warmed
4 oz. Sprinkles of choice
2-3 oz. Candy of choice

---------------------------- --------------------------

Take the sludge and pack into a non-stick or pre-coated
decorative mold. Let stand at room temperature (preferably
20 C [ 70 F ]) for 2-4 hrs. When ready to decorate, carefully
turn molded sludge onto a serving plate/platter (preferably
fine china, silver, or acceptable equivalent) and release
sludge from mold by tapping and slight force. If mold crumbles
at all you will have to start all over or apply delicate hand
“spackling” techniques to the molded sludge to put it to rights.

After cake is satisfactorily positioned onto the plate or
platter, take the pre-refrigerated hand-whipped cream and
spread evenly onto the surface—taking extra care in easing it
over the edges of the mold. Then—as liberally and decoratively
as you wish—apply dobs of your favorite syrups, sprinkles,
candies, and accents (edible or non-edible)

***be careful when pressing or inserting decorations, for the
molded cake may crumble

Keep at cooled temperature (0-4 C [ 32-40 F ]) until ready
to serve

Serves 4-8 per cake

Enjoy!!!
Love Ya…Grammy Poo-bacca!!!

Happy Birthday K-Dub

Tonight I went to a birthday party at the BFC for our
friend Kevin. He's going to be celebrating his golden
birthday on the 28th. BFC parties are always a lot of
fun and it had been a couple of years since I'd been to
one there. It's interesting what kind of fun you can
have when frisbees, dry ice and Swedish block throwing
games are involved. I came home without a headache so
the party was definitely a success.