Commander's Report

February 23, 2008

Randall Shelaga



Day 6 of Boot Camp started with us waking up to a beautiful sunny day.
We were go for EVA! Breakfast consisted of a hearty serving of
freeze-dried eggs and bacon, accompanied by copious amounts of Tabasco
for some crew members.

The morning EVA Crew of "Biobabe", "Googly" and "Fam" were quickly
downstairs to the Prep Area, as they had a long Pedestrian EVA to
Skyline Rim to collect samples for the Microbial Viability Study.

While the EVA was out, "Lox" continued his maintenance activities
throughout the Station, and "Kim" prepared the waypoints for the
afternoon EVA. Meanwhile, the Commander, spent time working on some
MDRS maintenance planning tasks that he has neglected for the first
few days of the rotation. "Blondie" spent his day speaking in weird
languages to his RFID container, in the hopes that all the kinks will
soon be ironed out.

Upon the return of the morning EVA Crew, we sat down to a satisfying
meal of beef stroganoff...the consensus was that it was good! Lunch
was quickly over and the afternoon EVA Crew headed down to the Prep
Area. Suit-up went relatively well and the crew was soon out the
airlock for an afternoon walk. "Kim" led the way as "Lox" and "Whisky"
followed setting the waypoints for the GPS Precision Study Treasure
Hunt...or is that Ares-caching.

The crew agrees that it feels good to be out and exploring the
area...two days and we were all starting to succumb to Station Fever
the MDRS version of cabin fever.

The reports are in and the crew are picking our photos for today...I
wonder which beautiful shots they will post. When they are done, we
will once again sit around the table and enjoy our next meal, this time
it is freeze dried macaroni and cheese, accompanied by a loaf of fresh
baked bread. Tonight, Phillip "Blondie" will tell us all about the
work he is doing with RFID Logistics Containers, and why he is hoarding
our "Astronaut Freeze Dried Ice Cream" in that strange box of his. I
might have to check this out soon, as I am becoming suspicious.

Until tomorrow!

Ut Mars per erudio!