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We went to the observatory as we always do when we're home for the holiday. We had three Americans, two Russians, and five Chinese for dinner, which is one of the really cool things about the observatory. I remember we had some visiting Japanese scientists one year who brought saki and weren't sure how to chill it, I suggested they take it outside and stuff it in a snow bank. They loved the idea. No snow this year, though. Also no saki: they discourage/prohibit alcohol consumption around multi-million dollar telescopes.
The dinner was: Proteins: mango ham (devoured with great enthusiasm), a Chinese pork salad sort of thing (yummy), a shrimp ceviche salad (amazingly yummy), Sides: my glazed carrots (also devoured with great enthusiasm: I freaked out people with their 1.5mm sliced thinness (mandolin) - no survivors), mashed potatoes, a bread stuffed Christmas wreath (no survivors), celery soup - amazing (no survivors), my wife's mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert featured: my flourless chocolate cake (reverent silence while consuming), apple pie, and a puff pastry Napoleon. We learned that the woman running the 3.5 meter has an uncooked egg allergy, but she was willing to suffer some lip puffiness for the flourless chocolate cake.
There were survivors of the flourless chocolate cake. In the end, I left six pieces at the observatory and took home the remaining four pieces of cake for the spousal unit and me. You bring your own food to observatories and label it with your name, and sometimes if you don't want to take it home when your shift ends you label it House, which is what I did with the cake and a pound or so of ham.
No game playing - the weather was quite excellent with only light high and high-speed clouds (long exposures, especially with infrared instruments completely ignore light clouds), so no weather shutdown. Maybe New Years will have some game playing, but the forecast doesn't look like snow, so that may not be very likely.
The dinner was: Proteins: mango ham (devoured with great enthusiasm), a Chinese pork salad sort of thing (yummy), a shrimp ceviche salad (amazingly yummy), Sides: my glazed carrots (also devoured with great enthusiasm: I freaked out people with their 1.5mm sliced thinness (mandolin) - no survivors), mashed potatoes, a bread stuffed Christmas wreath (no survivors), celery soup - amazing (no survivors), my wife's mashed sweet potatoes. Dessert featured: my flourless chocolate cake (reverent silence while consuming), apple pie, and a puff pastry Napoleon. We learned that the woman running the 3.5 meter has an uncooked egg allergy, but she was willing to suffer some lip puffiness for the flourless chocolate cake.
There were survivors of the flourless chocolate cake. In the end, I left six pieces at the observatory and took home the remaining four pieces of cake for the spousal unit and me. You bring your own food to observatories and label it with your name, and sometimes if you don't want to take it home when your shift ends you label it House, which is what I did with the cake and a pound or so of ham.
No game playing - the weather was quite excellent with only light high and high-speed clouds (long exposures, especially with infrared instruments completely ignore light clouds), so no weather shutdown. Maybe New Years will have some game playing, but the forecast doesn't look like snow, so that may not be very likely.
