Race

Ok, the race is over and wityh some mixed feelings. Saturday went great...the dogs did really well on the big hill and no problems going down hill. Had some trouble with ropes getting wrapped around the runners. After the race the demonstrations were on, lots of people and they had a good time. Then I started to feel sick and pretty much spend the next 24 hours throwing up and running to the bathroom so I had to stay home from the sunday race. Melissa went there to help and apparently Wally, the guy who helped out with the DO cooking, had been left out at the field station until 2 am before he could get back. I had talked with Search & Rescue people to transport him back as soon as he wanted to, but apparently that didn't happen. I feel sorry for Wally!

Highly recommend ScreenTek

Wauw. Within 24 hours of ordering the LCD panel for my laptop it is now installed and up running. FedEx came with it a little before noon and 30 minutes later I had installed it. Now that is service. It was quite easy to install and my laptop now looks like nbew again :)

Fast response

Wow, I waited 3 weeks for Best Buy to get my computer send off and fixed and when it came back it was not even fixed. Well, as I wrote earlier, I decided to do it myself and found a the screen at Screentek. I faxed my order form off today from the student center and when I came back from faxing it off (10 minutes) there was an e-mail from Screentek that it was packed and ready to ship. 30 minutes later I received a tracking e-mail from UPS. That is FAST service!

Added pictures

At last I found a good software to post images on the web. Check out my new gallery with pictures from the MaCWAVE campaign and Genesis mission.

If you are not the lead dog the scenary never changes

I went mushing with all the dogs today...in their new harness's. They fit great! We ran about 5 miles today in app. 25 minutes...a pretty good time I would say. The puppies worked great and Skadi was really pulling. I think I will go further with them next time (if I get a chance to go before the race this up-cooming weekend). We did a little more hils today and there were no problems. Freja is a little slow down-hill compared to the other three but it is not a problem. Soren was very excited about the sled when I got back to the trail head...he was ready to go on his own.

Bore paper accepted

The bore paper (the first of them) have been accepted for publication. I don't know which issue it will be in yet, but it should be soon (Geophysical Research Letter).

harness and snug lines

I got the new harness's and snug lines today. I bought them from Adanac Sleds in Montana. Great!! Can't wait to get out there with the dogs again.

MaCWAVE paper

Finished the MaCWAVE paper today. Had to make a new blocking diagram based on actual wind data instead of HWM data. That was a good choice since the HWM data disagreed with the actual data quite a bit. I e-mailed Dave Fritts the paper and he will look through it and change one of our paragraphs. I really appreciate that since it is time for that paper to get out (it have been through review, but we got some more data to work with and incorporate into the paper).

Best Buy...hmmm

Well, they called from Best Buy today saying my laptop had arrived from the repair shop. GREAT!! I have been missing that for a long time. I went there and found out they had NOT repaired it. It said on the invoice that I had declined the etsimated cost. I talked personally with the shop people and asked them to repairt, in addition, why would it sit there for 3 weeks if it was not going to get repaired. So now they would have to send it back in...well, I don't have time for that anymore and will now try to get a screen and install it myself. I found the screen for $375, quite alot cheaper than the $700 best buy had to offer me. Hopefully I can have it up running by the weekend so I can start my candidacy exam preparation.

Airport problems

Well, Melissa was supposed to go and visit Jackie and the new baby and also bring Soren. Bonnie had been informed that Melissa could bring Soren on her lap. When we got to the airport they told us, that she would not be allowed to do so and was required to get a ticket for him. Well, the ticket would cost $450...no way. So now Melissa will leave next weekend instead and leave Soren with me.

Eigth below

We went to the movie and saw the new disney movie "Eight Below". Great movie about sled dogs and their mentality. Of course, they are all well-behaved Siberian Huskies. There are eight dogs in the movie and we joked that there weren't no more because they couldn't find more than eight well trained/behaved Huskies :)
The movie is beatiful if you like arctic/antarctic environment.
It was also Sorens first time in the movie theater and he enjoyed it alot. No problems there.

INS meeting

Almost a permanent resident :) I need to provide a few more documents and it will ne issued (according to the lady at the INS meeting). I needed to document that my co-sponsors are US citizens and a few more documents showing that Melissa and I live together. I should get my green card before I go to Tasmania, so no problem there.

Fall AGU Outstanding Student Paper Award

Got an e-mail that I have received the Fall'05 Oustanding Student Paper Award...guess I am now in the exclusive group of John Styers and Katariina :)

Bore paper

Just submitted the revised bore paper. There were very few comments/revisons to the paper, so I hope it will just go straight to press now.

Yukon Quest

The Quest is on its way and they have had some trouble weather near Eagle Summit. I have been there in the summer time and it was howling and snowing, so I can't imagine how it would be like in February...freaky! There were 4-5 mushers waiting out the storm near the summit, all rookies as far as I know, and it appeared they all scratched from the race after the storm. Fortunately no one was injured as far as the web site reports.

Abstracts for SCAR

We got the abstracts for the SCAR meeting submitteed yesterday. Mike will give a talk on the AIM mission and the bore, while I will give talks on the climatology of short-period gravity waves and another talk involving their nature of propagation. The last talk is my dissertation work so this will motivate me to get done by summer (the meeting is in July).

mushing again

I also went mushing today. This is the day we have been expected, but not wanted to happen. As I hooked Freja up and got ready to go, I realized the snug-line and the hook-line was tangled and wrapped around one of the runners. As I tried to untangle it, Skadi freaked out and got all tangled up, while Ydun crawled out of her harness and ran off. Melissa worked on Skadi while I held the sled and Soren (which was suppose to be in the car, but Ally had brought him out). As all this was going on, Freja chewed her tug line over (fortunately she was also on a neck line). Result, I had to leave Soren and the sled and take Freja back to the trailer. I then unhooked Skadi and brought her back. Then it was time to find Ydun. Fortunately she just ran around and explored the surroundings and I could easily get her to me by giving her some food. Finally, we hooked Freja and Ydun back up and ran off. As soon as they were running they did great. They pulled and ran. Freja worked hard and Odin (Bert) was so good (and the only dog not causing trouble). Ydun got some good miles on her today as she ran at least twice as far as the other dogs. We went close to 4 miles and they are doing really well on the trail. Enjoy the pics from the trail.

Work

Well, my sunday started out with going to work around 9 am. I re-did some plots for the MaCWAVE paper. On the way home I found the alarm clock we have been looking for. It projects the time on any flat surface like the ceiling. It is great, now we can both see what time it is.

Trapped Horse

hehe...I left the dog run/kennels open when we went mushing. When we got back Balin had sneaked into the run and entered Freja and Skadi's kennel. Unfortunately for him, the door closed after him. But he remained calm until we got back and could let him out.

Mushing

We went mushing today again. Melissa had her first driving session and she made them work hard for their food. She took them all four miles without running with them one single time. I usually run with them on and off. They did great and should be in ok shape for the race in two weeks. We have travel boxes set up in the horse trailer and that actually works just great. Here are a couple of pics of the set-up and todays training.

For the grand parents

OK...this page will be a temporary page for pictures as I can't have too many pictures on my USU account. I took this one of Soren the other day with his underwear on his head. He thought that was very funny.

Work

Re-did the bore m-square profile. It looked very promising. There appear to exist a Doppler Duct which vanish as times go by and an evanescent region develops near the oxygen emission. That fits very well with the image data, so I am very pleased about this.

Also checked up on the travel grant for the SCAR meeting in Hobart. Yes, it looks like I am going to Tasmanian in July...pretty cool. The plan is that Mike gives two talks and I give two talks. If Mike can't make it I will give 4 talks...it could be a pretty busy meeting.

I also contacted my committee members regarding my candidacy exam. I would like to do it the second-last week of April. Subject will be Noctilucent Clouds. Enjoy the picture I took last August in Alaska.

Canon Rebel XT

Oh, my new little toy, the Canon Rebel XT, is so much fun to play around with. It has great resolution and will work really well for NLC studies the next two summers (and beyond) as a ground-based support for AIM. I captured my alligator trying to eat my mouse.

Laptop Screen

I talked with Best Buy today. I had them send the laptop off for repair (new screen) and they promsied to call back when they had an estimate...but they didn't, so I called and they informed me it would be ~$670. Not too bad...it could have been $800. So I should have my laptop back within a week (if they have a screen at the repair place). Comment: the new high-speed connection is amazing....really fast.

High speed DSL...finally

Yahoo...finally got high speed internet access here at home. That is so nice. The modem worked just fine and it was cheap using it through Utah State...but it is quite slow. Melissa is going to be happy :)

Team Handball

I have always wondered why team handball is not a big sport in the US. It is fast paced with high scoring (much like baseball). It is a very physical sport (see picture from danish newspaper) and it is played by both men and women. Maybe one day it will get here.

Mushing

I went mushing today again up near Hardware Ranch. Great day for that. I installed the dog boxes in out horse trailer and that worked out great. Freja ran today as well. It was her first time and she didn't know eaxtly how to run in harness. After half a mile or so, the team go from sprint into a trot for longer distance. However, Freja doesn't do that. Skadi have a little of the same problem, so it might just be an adjustment issue. Ydun did awesome again. I am so impressed by her. Odin (Bert) is main leader and he knows come around, but does not enforce it over for Ydun. So I hope Ydun can learn that soon. It will make it somewhat easier out on the trail. But all in all a good day and the puppies had fun and did great. To make it better; UAF hockey beat another national #1 team yesterday (Miami).

Shopping spree

wauw...how to use $XXXX in 1 hour. Well, we got some new school clothes for the kids, a booster seat for Soren since he have decided he is too big for the high chair, a new stroller...a jeep, way cool, and a whole lot nicer than the old stroller where a family of mice had lived over the winter (last year). Maybe we can hook a dog up to it :)
We also got a new camera. This is both for private use and research. It is a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XT...nice little piece of equipment. We used a couple of those last summer for NLC studies and found them very useful. I just received the developers software from Canon, so I will go ahead and do some C programming to control the camera exactly the way I want it to. We also ended up with an Ipod. It is a nice little addition for the gym/travel/etc...

AIM meeting

Scott Bailey informed that it will be OK for me to join the AIM meeting in Boulder this month. I am not sure if I will give a talk, but I will bring one just in case. It will be great to meet the people behind the AIM mission and hopefully show what we can do for ground-based support.

GRL first bore paper

This morning I got the editors decision on our first bore paper. We submitted it to GRL and have had a hard time nailing it down to the limited 25,600 characters. My inital reaction was mixed since the editor wrote: "...and some serious issues have been raised." Wow, I thought, but then I read the reviews and they were great! The paper is pretty much ready to go into press as it is, just some minor modifications was suggested. Both reviewers listed it as science category 1 and presentation category 1, so I am happy about that. The editor wants it the manuscript back by February 14 and ready to go to press...that's rather quick. But we will get it done.