Nina and I went to White Sands over the weekend. This was the first time that I've been there during the winter. The daytime temps were still in the 60s and 70s, but at night it got cold enough that ice formed all over my tent and I was generally uncomfortable. I have a hard time sleeping in cold air for some reason. This could present a problem for Denali... or perhaps I just need to get a warmer bag.

Nina liked White Sands a lot and has already expressed an interest in going back this summer. The Space History Museum in Alamogordo is always a blast for me, and it was good to see that they had installed some new displays. Most interesting to me was the fin can of a real V2 sitting out in the rocket park outside. Nina got a picture of me standing in front of a poster whose headline is "The Shame of Rocketry" [see my rocketry page to view it].

We made a breif road-side stop at the Valley of Fires malpais but didn't stay longer than it took to shoot a couple of pictures.

Last stop on the trip was the VLA, which Nina had never seen and was very excited about [being an astrologist and what-not...]. The array re-tasked while we were standing out by the dish on the walking tour. It was fun to watch.

All-in-all it was a great trip. The best part was that we did it all in 2 days, which means we could do similar stuff on a regular weekend whenever. This was a three-day weekend and we had originally planned to go snowboarding on Saturday, but that got cancelled due to exhorbitant rental fees and the realization that we were both broke and in debt.

The weather during the trip was awesome with warm temps and sunny skies. The only exception to this was the portion of the trip we spent in Los Alamos, where it was raining and crapulent constantly.

MIT finally sent me my reimbursement for my fall stipend. I can now pay off my bursar's bill and get get squared away there. This represents half of my current debt. Wh000t!