Svalbard part three, Arctic Beach Party

Tap tap tap...this thing on? Strangest thing about my blog life. The posts I think will get lots of comments get none, but then I get tons of comments on ones I don't expect. Hmm, strange. Am I boring you already? Oh well, at least I am entertained.

Ok, you non-commenting people, you. I've talked about Longyearbyen and the amazing scenery I've seen, so now lets get down to pictures of the best party I think I will ever attend. An Arctic Beach Party! Yes, after the incredibly steep hike up Storvolla (and a couple hours rest) our fearless (and very manly) leader decreed that we were about to have a party, on the beach. With bonfire and reindeer skins and Arctic nature and quite possibly panic from attacking polar bears. Oh, and lots and lots of liquor.

Downside? No bikinis necessary, but regatta suits mandatory. Have you ever worn a regatta suit? Ok, well think of it this way. It's a big puffy jumpsuit that is water repellent and floaty and is supposed to keep you alive in cold water for like, 2 minutes, but isn't actually water PROOF. So you might float ok, but you'll be wet and cold and will DIE anyways if they don't get to you within 3.5 minutes or whatever the time is you have in freezing cold water. It's big and cumbersome and stops you from being able to tie your shoes, or, in my unfortunate case, pee. Or move. We put them on OVER our wool undies, pants, sweaters and jackets. Ever seen the movie "A Christmas Story"? And the part where the kid gets so dressed up for winter by his mom that he can't put his arms down? That was me. I could NOT put my arms down. I was laughing my ass off and running around saying, "Mom! Mom! I can't put my arms down!", but that is apparently an American cultural thing because nobody laughed as hard as me. I got a giggle out of it every time I put one of those things one, which was about twice a day.

OK, so Arctic beach party in which we are all in matching neon green regatta suits (so much for my sexy bod) and woolly hats. Sorry boys, no Barbarella fur bikinis. Those things itch anyhow.

And yet. yet. We got DEErunk and had a fabulous time and finally me and a few other girls ended up doffing the damned regatta suits because, seriously, you CANNOT pee while wearing them, no matter HOW hard you try to squat away from it (you then end up with the horrid possibility of pissing in the hood, ew). About 7 of us had the funniest pee experience EVER when we all had to go for a pee, behind an Arctic shed nearby, and one of the brave brave guards had to escort us, because of polar bears, and stand guard with the gun while we exposed our lily white asses to the frigid air of the North. We were all laughing SO hard we had to pee even more. 7 women, bare assed, trying to get OUT of the damn suits, laughing and hollering and giggling and hooting and falling over, and this one bemused guy with a gun steadfastly keeping his back turned so the our modesty was intact. Seriously, that was awesome female bonding. I haven't laughed that hard in ages.

View of some of the party participants. Most parties would consider everyone showing up in the same outfit a disaster, but not here. We had a nice bbq of steaks and lots and lots of liquor.

The shed behind which we peed. And peed. And laughed. Even from this distance the guys could hear us all cackling and screaming as we negotiated out of our suits.

Around the fire. My clothes still smell of smoke. I rather like it and hope it lasts.

David the bone collector. He collected all the dead things he could and brought them back to Oslo with him. Here he's obviously horny. He's British. We just shrug it off and say he's British.

The boat staff hard at work. Actually the drunk Finnish chef had already called it a night by then. In this picture are the chief engineer, the first mate, an able seaman (woman) and Per, the one who gamely kept his back to us as we peed.

The woman on the ground is photographing (the suits allow you to fling yourself on the ground with abandon, you are so well padded) and a boy peeing. See how much simpler it was for HIM to pee?

Arctic bar. Seriously. I mean, SERIOUSLY. This does not include the thousands of beers that were also present.

The fire, the boat, the water and reindeer skins. This photo taken around 2am. I partied until about 3:30, then called it a night. Others made it to 4. Rumor has it that at 5am a polar bear sauntered past our party spot.

We had to be up at 7 the next morning. I think I was still drunk.

GPS route

One of the people on the trip tracked our route on his phone that had GPS. He didn't capture the whole trip, but most of it from the first day on. You can get an idea of where we went. The bits that say 'rollercoaster' mean seasickness, btw. (Argh.) Go below this post for pretty pictures of scenery.

I'll be in England this weekend for a wedding, so not sure if I can continue the Svalbard story, what with the drinking and the large hats and toasting and medieval churches and stuff, but will continue as I can. Certainly hope to get another installment in tomorrow!

Geology and scenery

Part 2 of the Svalbard Adventure, here are pictures of the AWESOME scenery. And I mean awesome in the way that it originally meant as in full of awe, not like 'Awesome, dude!' I only hope the blues and the colors come out on your monitor, I've noticed that the colors can vary wildly from monitor to monitor and I also think that maybe Blogger sort of dulls out the color a bit?

Iceberglets in the sunlight.From a certain angle they looked like angels.

Blue sky water and ice. It was actually surprisingly warm, like, 5-6C.

This is a meadow at Ebbadalen. There was a stunt reindeer, I swear he stood around and posed just for us. And he always managed to be in a very photogenic spot, though maybe every spot was photogenic there? This was a very nice, easy hike. Ah. My kinda hiking.

View of the boat and surrounding mountains from the meadow.

"Sexy" geology. Huge folded rock strata (go on correct me on the terminology, I am not a geologist, just a fan of them!) on a mountainside, this is a view from the boat. I don't think I can express the sheer scale of it.

A cairn built in honor of a geologist who died in the mountains. Geology ain't for pussies.

Blue iceberglets and black and white mountains.

This is one of my favorite pictures from our first, vertiginous, hike at Storvolla. I had no idea the colors would come out that beautifully. I love the juxtaposition of the drab lunar landscape and the blue, violet and turquoise sky and mountains.

Me on top of Storvolla. Damn that was a hike. And no, the camera was not held crooked, it was actually that steep! The hard hat is not an accessory I care to continue wearing. Just not my style, you know?

Per, one of our amazing guides/guards/manly men, looking out for polar bears.

The hikes I did were to Storvolla, Ebbadalen and Pyramiden. Ok, so the last two weren't hikes, they were saunters. But that first one? Definitely a hike/climb. I was sore for 4 days afterwards, and I still have bruises. The hike the next day (was supposed to start at 8am after a day of hiking and night of drinking that lasted til 4am) was up the mountain, below.

See that tiny little dark line on the mountain on the upper middle of the picture? Those are GEOLOGISTS up there. Studly amazing geologists, for whom even a hangover wouldn't stop their research efforts. (Though the head geologist, Erling, did take pity on everyone and started the hike closer to 11am.)
THAT was the hike the second day. 4 people (including me) decided against going due to the pain from the day before (hangover and muscles!), and this was BEFORE we saw how high they climbed. 4 more quit early as the heights were too much for them. It was so steep that the remainder of them, to get down, sort of skied down the ravine you can see in front of them on their feet! I was just so glad I didn't go, I get clumsy when I am tired and I would have tumbled head over heels down that mountain. Much better to take pictures of them that climbed it! Rock stars, literally.

Longyearbyen

I've been trying to figure the best way to tell about my trip to the Arctic. In the interests of making it logical, I've decided to break it up geographically/chronologically, in the following manner:

• Longyearbyen
• Hiking/geology
• Beach party
• Scenery
• Pyramiden
• Whatever is left over.

That list also helps me remember what the hell I am going to write about!

Ok, so first? Longyearbyen. We flew into Longyearbyen from Oslo by way of Tromso. Longyearbyen is named after an American who came there in the 1800's. "Byen" means town or village. So, Longyeartown. Population 2000.

It's really small yet surprisingly modern. It's surrounded by looming mountains that make it feel a bit hemmed in, though in the distance you see a gap between two mountains where a glacier and bright white snow glow. The town nestles up to the mountains and then opens up to a nice harbor on the Advent fjord. Small colorful wooden row houses with big windows line the few roads. There's only about 50km of roads there, but a surprising number of cars for so little road space. Snowmobiles are parked EVERYWHERE. There are a few hotels, including a Radisson SAS, a compact shopping street, a very good library, and a good number of bars for such a small population. There are a lot more kids than I expected. (Well, the bars and the kids sort of show you what people do in winter, I guess. I mean, what else is there to do besides read, drink and screw?) The town has very good social services and a quite large health center. It also has an international airport. That was built in the late 70's, I think, and totally changed the town bringing with it fresh fruit and the flu.

And now for some pictures.

A snowmobile parking sign.

Row houses in Longyearbyen. We were in Longyearbyen only very briefly at the beginning of our trip, but had a day and a half there at the end. That was our only cloudy day of the whole trip, the mists rolled in really quickly.

Many of the houses had hunks of meat hanging on the outside of them, I guess it was just cool enough that they hung it there to cure. Very odd looking, jackets, shoes, snowshoes and meat all jumbled together on the side of the house under the rafters.

The Svalbar. Damn they made strong drinks.

Road in Longyearbyen towards the fjord. Note the little white flowers on the right? We saw reindeer and Arctic fox in the middle of town on a number of occasions.

More meat storage, this time in the family sized haunch!

View from my hotel room. The room was very cozy and I was oh-so-happy to have a bathtub!

View from the dining room of the hotel. In the distance, on the side of the hill, you see an old coal mine. Coal mining used to be the main industry in Svalbard, now replaced by research and tourism.

This was the location of my 40th birthday and the ensuing craziness! (No pictures of that, just fuzzy memories of dancing, drinking and everyone putting ice down everyone else's clothes. Might have been a 40th birthday, but we were acting like 15 year olds.) (15 year olds with cranky knees, at least, in my case.)

stuff I learned in Svalbard

Woolen underwear is very comfortable. No, really, it is! Norwegians ain't lyin' when they say the weather can change in a minute. In three minutes we had sun, wind, a little rain, and then sun. This kind of weather makes it very hard to dress. On...off...on...off...on...on...off. You can go from just wearing a t shirt to needing full on t shirt, wool undershirt, fleece, sweater AND jacket like THAT (snaps fingers). I got sort of sick of carrying around clothes all the time, 'just in case'. There are no trees on Svalbard. At all. Anywhere. Very strange looking for about a minute and then you get used to it. Trees look strange when you see them again. It's amazing how fast you can get used to looking like a scruff. Cuz, you know, me? Not so much sporty girl. But that shit is comfy. While I missed my wardrobe (and hairdryer!), it was kind of nice to wake up and know you pretty much had to wear those same jeans and shoes again because that is all you have. My jeans stretched out alot. By the end they were REALLY baggy. And they did not smell spring fresh, but more like wood smoke, sweat, stark fear and beer. Laundry is my primary goal for this weekend. I think I lost a couple pounds, what with the climbing, relative lack of food on the boat and the seasickness. Oh GOD the seasickness. One thing that is marked off my List of Future Careers? Sailor. (Also Geologist and Mountain Climber. Too much uphill climbing.) I did make up for the lack of food and seasickness with an amazing amount of drinking. I think I could enter the Olympics of drinking, if there was one. I never saw a polar bear. I drank a Pink Polar Bear. Made with vodka, Bohl's strawberry, lime and Sprite. I did see an Arctic fox and alot of reindeer. And I saw a seal peep its head out of the water for a split second. And two crazy Norwegian manly men who jumped into the 36 degree (fahrenheit, people, fahrenheit) water. I have now pretty much finished organizing my pictures and can show them to you. Which I will begin doing over this weekend. In the meantime, please read up on this place, as I will have many pictures and things to show you, as it is one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. I have now been to Russia, circa 1972.

a video for your enjoyment

Here's a video I took on the boat on the Arctic trip. We were at the end of a fjord looking at a glacier (picture to come).


Yes there were little iceberglets floating around and it was cold, (not unbearably so) but beautiful. Somehow the colors aren't as nice on blogger as they are on my camera. The trip by the iceberg was a nice bonus, we were ahead of schedule and so could make a quick visit.

If you watch the video, you'll see my friend David flipping me off as I film. Around the office we also call David Stewie. Because, seriously, he IS Stewie, complete with poshy deep British accent and completely warped sense of humor. I assume the diaper will come later in life.

At the very end of the video you'll see a man with a beard come into the picture. That was Erling, our guide, a very knowledgeable and enthusiastic geologist and also the Indiana Jones of the Arctic. Seriously. The guy was so manly that it was almost funny. He just could NOT be more manly if he tried. So were his assistants, Mathis and Per. Gun totin', woman helpin', mountain climbin', lantern jawed manly men. All us girls (7 of us and 20 boys, which made it very enjoyable for us gals) rather enjoyed being assisted by them at every opportunity. But then, if you are an Arctic explorer, I guess you gotta be pretty tough. And manly. (sigh)(swoon)

Here's the glacier. Not the best picture, but dammit, glaciers are BIG and it's hard to get a picture with a normal camera.

Yeah I did that

I am still recuperating from my trip, catching up with emails, SpaceFace, phone calls, sleep and laundry. Not to mention the hangover that might last until I turn 41.

The trip was so great I almost don't want to talk about it, like I want to keep it close because it was such a special time. But then, I have almost 1000 pictures, sooo.......

......in the meantime, here is a picture of me pointing at the mountain I climbed that was considered a mere hike by Norwegian terms. You can see the trail we took to come down the mountain, there, on the left? STRAIGHT DOWN.

It was a MOUNTAIN. I CLIMBED IT. I still hurt! I will never trust a Norwegian again when they say it is a nice easy climb. A nice easy climb to an American is a flight of stairs. A nice easy climb to a Norwegian? This mountain, called Storvola.

1am Longyearbyen

1am Longyearbyen, originally uploaded by karlakp.

Midnight sun.

The world's most northerly kebabs.

The world's most northerly kebabs., originally uploaded by karlakp.

No, really. The truth!

This is Karla

This is Karla, originally uploaded by karlakp.

This is what 40 and still drunk at 730am looks like! Woo! You don't get a hangover if u are still drunk!

Stillness

Stillness, originally uploaded by karlakp.

The boat has stopped and my seasickness (wtf?) has abated for now. Here's the view.

Stillness

Stillness, originally uploaded by karlakp.

The boat has stopped and my seasickness (wtf?) has abated for now. Here's the view.

1st look

1st look, originally uploaded by karlakp.

First view of Svalbard from the airport tarmac.

randomness on the eve of my arctic adventure

Shitballs. I just did a huge post and it disappeared and I can't get it back so I have to rewrite it. Time for a bullet post! Tomorrow I go to Svalbard. I'm really excited. But worried about my packing as the weather there changes literally every hour. Go here to see what I mean (pay special attention to cams from Longyearbyen). Heh...tomorrow I'll stand in front of the camera at the harbor, say around between 2 and 4pm?? and you can check if you can see me. If you do, screen shot it and send it to me, ok? On Monday I got a birthday present in a HUGE box from my friend Julia. I've known Julia since I was 5. She knows me better than just about anyone. Certainly has got all my dirt. (And she won't tell.) (Right, Julia?) Though she sure does like to tell embarrassing Karla stories at any gathering we go to. (Luckily I can get her back with my own Julia stories.) Anyhow..... She banded together with my parents and my two other oldest friends, Anne (since 7th grade) and Bookhart (freshman year college, though we made up for lost time damned fast) and created and printed this amazing photo book for me, entitled "40th Anniversary Edition". It's gorgeous. Black cover with fleurs de lis (my symbol, it's also my first tattoo) A poem Julia wrote is on the first page Pictures of my life (me, friends, family, godkids) from my birth til my recent trip to Tunisia. See there's a part of a page on the left, was I a cute kid or what? I opened it, read the poem, and proceeded to cry for an hour. I mean, blubbering, hooting, hollering, sniffling, weeping CRYING. I've never been so moved by a gift EVER. There are pictures in there I have never seen before. Took me hours to get over it and I still am verklempt. I must be getting sentimental in my old age. Seriously, though, I have been totally and completely blessed by the friends and family (and husband) in my life. I can't begin to describe how important they are to me. To have people love you like that, to know you well enough to make you a gift like this one, is, in my opinion, the ultimate of anything I have ever accomplished. I am loved. I am lucky as hell. Anyhow, as I begin an adventurous few days where I will turn 40 and be out of phone and internet contact, just want to say I love y'all too. With all my heart. I'll be out of phone and internet reach for 5 days. (There might be phone access in Longyearbyen and I will try to send some photos here if I can.) But this will be my last substantial post for a bit. See you on the other side of 40. It won't hurt too bad, right? Just say yes.

Aw COME ON!

Seriously?    I mean, REALLY?   Shit, that just sucks ASS.   I'm NOT READY TO GIVE UP THE SANDALS YET!

Texpatriate goes on an adventure

Well, next week I am going to have a bit of an adventure. I'm going to travel so far north, that still, my mind sort of is boggling over the idea. I'm SO excited.

I'm going to Svalbard. See the little green bit on this map? WAY north of Norway? On top of the world? Yeah, that's where it is. Arctic Circle Baby! I'm gonna be an Arctic explorer!

The trip is a geological exploratory/research trip sponsored by the company I work for. I'm very lucky to get to go. I've been on the planning committee for months and was hoping some spots might open up for me to go, and a few did, so I totally lucked out. We will be on a boat for 4 days, checking out the fjords and geological formations that only exist in such pristine form on Svalbard. The landscape there is ancient and geologists swoon over the stuff they can see. (Bet ya didn't know I studied some geology when I was in college and my first dream when I was a kid was to be a paleontologist. As I got older, of course, I realized that geologists and paleontologists (and archaeologists) always had to wear hiking boots and strange jackets with unflatteringly placed pockets, and my desire for the job waned.)

So, yeah, I will be in the Arctic Circle for my birthday!!!!! If that is not a memorable 40th birthday for a girl from Texas I don't know what is! (Only bummer here is that Rich won't be there with me, as he does not work for my company.)

I'll see bear crossing signs! And glaciers! And polar bears and whales and seals and puffins! And all sorts of interesting sedimentary formations! The midnight sun will still be in effect until Aug 26th! I'll be about 700 miles from the north Pole!

Holy CRAP!

My biggest worry about the whole thing was wardrobe. The list they sent us of what to pack included NOTHING I own. Everything has to be waterproof, windproof, warm and yet breathable. Wool underclothes, no cotton. No jeans. What the HELL was I gonna do? No jeans? I'm from Texas, I just don't understand these kinds of clothes, and I didn't want to spend thousands of kroner on clothes that I would only wear a few times. (A good jacket alone can set you back minimum $400.) I did an exploratory trip and half heartedly bought some hiking boots (my old skool Timberlands just wouldn't cut it, I've had them since Kurt Cobain was still alive) and some Helly Hansen weatherproof pants, but if you've read my blog AT ALL you will know I am not exactly the sporting clothes type. My idea of dressing down is jeans with a velvet top and coordinating shoes...I NEVER wear sweats or sports clothes in public. How on earth do I dress hard core Arctic Circle for 5 days???????

And then....Kristin to the rescue! Kristin is my friend who spent 6 months working on Jan Mayen Island this winter. She somehow manages to be sporty, rugged and yet feminine at the same time and she said she'd lend me whatever I needed to make this Svalbard wardrobe thing work. And boy, did she.

That girl has kitted my ass OUT. She's got everything one would need, and it is all the highest quality and perfect for the conditions, Luckily, she and I wear similar sizes, and she is about as tall as me. I've got everything I need for the trip, and somehow, miraculously, it all fits great and looks almost, dare I say it, a bit sexy? I mean, as sexy as one can be clad in nylon, wool underwear, a weatherproof jacket and hiking boots. It's all in red and black and it's kind of comfortable and even gives me curves and meets my rather high expectations of style. I'm amazed! I didn't realize how worried I was about what to wear (Norwegians take sports wear VERY seriously) until I didn't have to worry about it! I'm so grateful to her!

So, yeah, next Thursday I am off to an adventure of a lifetime. I'll take plenty of pictures, I promise.

Friday night

Friday night, originally uploaded by karlakp.

After 21 years you'd think something would change

Here's a video (it's about 10 minutes) of my friend Lee's pretty fricking awesome birthday party. It's a brilliant idea, which led to 12 hours of serious pub crawling. I've known a bunch of these people since college, and i can tell you that we all act pretty much exactly the same now as we did then, except now we have less (or greyer) hair, can afford better beer, and we have noisier joints.

God, watching this video was like being in Austin (sans the sweat and the funk that comes from said sweat). I mean, there's Lee with his East Texas accent (I love his accent) and Margaret trying to be the voice of reason, yet looking cute as a button in her authoritarian drunkenness. Bobnoxious forgets how many pubs they have hit, and Mick gets cut off at the bar when she tries to buy birthday boy Lee a drink.

The Austin buses run at their own, mysterious rhythm (they always have) and the pub crawl goes to all my favorite bars, all very near my house in Austin.

Sigh. What a great time. Wish I had been there. (But thanks for the video guys!)

I have some special birthday plans too. I can't quite announce them yet, but as special as Lee's 4oth was in a Texas way, mine will be special in a Norwegian way. I'm still kind of freaking out about it and have alot of stuff to do in preparation.

Sunday blather

Is anyone getting tired of my random bullet point posts? I sort of love them, but I know they are not for those who like things that are linearly thought out, have a logical progression and/or thinks grammar is important. However, my brain is so NOT linear, and these bullet posts?They mirror my brain, people. Yes, it's a mess in there.

I will try to refrain from bulleting today.

Hmm, let's see. Ok, first of all? I tried canceling August (substituting another month so that no one would miss out on vacations, etc.) but it didn't work. I figured, if I canceled August, I would skip over my 40th birthday. Thus I could still be 39. Not that 39 is so woo woo a year, but 40? 4o could possibly be grown up territory and I just ain't ready for that sort of commitment. Like, when reading magazines, like Vogue's Age Issue? The sections on fashions for 30's are all about "be funky! express yourself! experiment!". Then you get to 40's. "Classic is the key! It's all about quality! Skirts to the knee!" I don't WANT classic! (Well I do but not all the time!) I want FUNK and I want to EXPERIMENT and I don't want to be put out to the fashion pasture just because there is a 4 at the beginning of my age! I'm NOT READY for the perfect skirt suit!

Hmmph.

I might, however, have some exciting news regarding where I will be for my birthday. I can't announce it yet for fear of jinxing it and there are some logistical issues to be thought out, but if it works out? This could be one HELLUVA 40th birthday experience. 'S'all I'm sayin'. I should know more next week.

And, here is where the linear progression part fails. Friday night. (Smooth transition? I think not.) Friday night at the pub, drinking, watching an Irish friend who just turned 29 get wasted. (Ha! 29! She has her whole 30's in front of her to experiment with funky fashions and the colorful hosiery options that are verboten at the crack of the 40's!) The dj starts spinning his TRULY AWFUL MUSIC. Laughably awful, horrendously awful, like, give me your fucking dj stand and I will plug in my iPod and it will be a million times better, awful. We started dancing to the one or two songs that were danceable, and after a few comments on my awesome sense of rhythm (this is true, I do gots the beat, baby) I think I finally have managed to crystallize my dancing style into a verbal form.

Ready?

Pole dancer + hip hop sista + Molly Ringwald in "Breakfast Club" = Karla's dance style.

Masticate that in your mental imagery systems.

Sun during eclipse...and a brief moment of 'duh'

Sun during eclipse, originally uploaded by karlakp.

I pointed my phone camera at the sun during the eclipse and got this. You can see the moon take a bite out of it!

While we were sitting outside, one of my regular lunch buddies had these special glasses you can use to look directly at the sun and see the eclipse. We took turns looking, and you really could see the eclipse perfectly, though everything else was completely black. Of course everyone outside had to have a turn as well. A girl who is working in the office as a temp asked if she could use the glasses to see the eclipse, to which we said yes, then she asked, looking DOWN...... "Where is it?"

Where is it? You mean the sun? Oh, it's here, under the table.

?????
I think one of my lunch mates did actually say, "Uh, it's that big shiny thing up in the sky?" To which we all started cackling like 6th graders. The giggling continued long thereafter.

Duh, much? Poor girl had NO idea what we were laughing about.

time for a random post

I feel random today.   Here is a prime, if very extreme, reason why I don't like traveling on busses. Can you imagine? I'm wearing all white today. And drinking coffee. Disaster in the wings, just waiting to get me. I've also discovered that my top is a bit see through and hello bra! Eh, who cares. Half the world has tits, mine being semi-visible ain't no big thang. Hehe, it's actually TWO big thangs! The solar eclipse will be visible from Oslo today at 11:43. We are going to eat lunch outside today so that we can see it. I made a pinhole camera so I don't burn my eyeballs out. Me? Nerd? Nah. The weather is still warm, though they say it will cool off substantially this weekend. And rain, dammit. But we have had a good couple weeks of insanely good weather. Just long enough to forget how depressing and dreary winter can be. These summer days do feel like they would last forever. I AM GOING TO THE GYM TODAY. Or at least going for a walk. Have to keep the momentum going. I am a bit bummed that July is almost over. Oslo is so nice with everyone gone! Also, August means that I can't escape my 40th birthday. It's coming whether I want it or not. Unless I die, of course. Which I have not got any plans to do, it's not in my Outlook at work or anything. Which is good. Can you imagine, checking your schedule and seeing 'death' marked on your calendar at 2pm for Thursday? Would that be a one hour meeting or an all day event, and would it be marked private or public? Sorry, I am getting into wierd territory here. Just checked my Outlook, just in case. No death, just a business meeting and a doctor's appt coming up. Whew!