HAPPY 56th BIRTHDAY TO SEAMAN KNIGHT!!
"Thanks for the birthday wishes. I don't think the ship's server had managed email for 2 or 3 days, so it suddenly burped about about 6 emails from you this morning, including your most recent from Friday night.
"Nothing eventful. But apparently I'll have to wait for my birthday dessert. The ship's baker is a Sri Lankan lady that everyone on the ship, faculty and students both, call Mom. I don't even recall her real name. Mom churns out desserts like they're going out of style. I'll tell you more about Mom later. Mom also seems to have a list of the birthdays of all faculty and staff, she has a mind like a steel trap for remembering everyone's favorite dessert, and she tends to make special desserts on people's birthday and put a little card beside it on the dessert table in the wardroom.
"Although I say Hello to Mom when I see her, I've only ever really chatted with her once, and that was going to shore in the launch all the way back in Mexico. It was noisy, there were several people talking, but she casually asked me what my favorite dessert was. Not having time to give it much thought, the first thing that came to mind was 'chocolate mousse.' We all got off the launch and went our way. I'm not even sure Mom knew what my name was.
"Well, there we are having lunch today when the ship's nurse comes over and asks, 'Is today your birthday?' After acknowledging it to be so, she says 'I've sent Mom to bed, she wasn't feeling well. She said to tell you that she hasn't finished your chocolate mousse, but that she'll have it done as soon as she's feeling better.'
"Wow!
"Hopes for good birthday-night star viewing a little later. We haven't seen stars, other than tiny little patches through the clouds, since leaving Chile. But tonight is a near-perfect conjunction of Mars and Saturn (i.e., they'll be so perfectly lined up as to almost seem one planet), so that will be a nice birthday treat.
"I had a 'breakthrough' yesterday on an issue I'd been struggling with for several days, and have spent every free moment today writing it up. I want to circulate this document to a few people for comment as soon as I get back, and I'll then polish it up and publish it if they don't entirely shoot my idea down. Not to mention using the idea in the second edition.
"Tomorrow is another BBQ day on the fantail. Should be sunny and hot. Tomorrow is also the 'Sinbad Games,' but I'll write more about them after seeing them. Contests of brute-force nautical skills among teams of students. I think.
"Off to dinner and then astronomy."
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