First the Snugs - she is perfect beyond all belief and she's been hanging out at her Gammie and Grumpas so I've gotten to see a lot of her, despite being busy - I am going to miss that little one, but I have lots of pictures of her with me. She is walking around like a pro and is growing in leaps and bounds.
Next, the turtle cake! Uncle John hosted a little dinner at his house on Sunday and Rita and George surprised me with a cake - in the shape of a turtle, complete with realistic colors and all the details! They put in a lot of effort to making it as realistic as possible and it looked (and tasted) AMAZING. They even put little tags around the outside (since I am going to be TAGGING turtles) for everyone to sign and wish me good luck. The tags are tucked safely in my luggage so I can read them when I am gone. Uncle John also had a little present for me - recipes from some 1950's cookbook on how to cook turtles - thanks Uncle John....
I talked to Cory last night for the last time until I see him in New Zealand in December. His Antarctic work is going well but the set up for penguin work has taken them close to a month and he's anxious to actually get going - he has yet to see a penguin. In fact, the only living thing he's seen since he arrived (besides humans) is a Weddell seal - there are no trees, bugs, birds, nothing. Strange thought, huh? Its just too cold - minus 30 degrees! We realized that between Florida and where he is, there is a 110 degree difference in temperature!! He is doing well though and seems to be enjoying McMurdo Station, which actually has about 1200 people living there. He's gone through all kinds of survival training, snowmobile training etc. 
We really couldn't be going to more opposite extremes - he's almost at the South Pole and I'll be on the equator. McMurdo sounds like a really cool place - here's a link if you're interested: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McMurdo_StationOnce the turtles are tagged and start transmitting a signal, you can watch where they go online at this website (thank you Michael!): http://www.seaturtle.org/tracking/?project_id=253. With any luck, the site should be live and turtles starting to be tagged in a week or so!
Okay folks well I am off - time to go convince TSA Security to let me take my satellite tags (which look like bombs - see the picture except mine are brown, not yellow) onto the plane. Since I will have sporatic access to internet while I am gone, I will try and email everyone when the blog has been updated. Also, if you want to email me while I am gone, please use the address: Smergefc@aol.com. My school account gets too much spam and is slow - this will make it easier to sort through email.A couple of quick shoutouts before I go...One to the Caskey clan: Rita and George for the great cake, Karen and Jake for eloping - whoo hoo!!! and Brenda and Scott just for being awesome! :) Thanks to Michael for all of your help, and to Drea just for being so darn cute. Thanks Mom and Jim for everything this week. :)
