The Taleff O’Caseys are heading to Mexico for the new year. As of this post’s going live we’re mid-flight, zooming high above the Gulf of Mexico. We got stuck on the runway this morning in Bozeman, some delay deicing de-plane’s wings it seems. Fortunately though, the Cancun flight was just as late leaving Minneapolis.
As you can tell from the last bit of video we may need a little polish on our Spanish elocution, but we are a fearless crew. Also, Chris seems to know what he’s saying.
Here’s a little Christmas card from Kenny who’s been stationed in Afghanistan since around August. There is Kenny, bating Santa with cookies and beer.
Christmas cards and stocking hung on the wall. Announcements board and lots of food that people get sent to them and don’t want so they leave out for others to scavenge from at their leisure.
Also Kenny was promoted to Sergent a few days ago. When I asked if that was like an orange belt in karate, Kenny set me straight, “it is the lowest level leadership position on the enlisted side.”
Expedition 26 Commander Scott Kelly of NASA and Flight Engineers Cady Coleman of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency offered Christmas and New Year’s greetings to all people on Earth from the orbital outpost on Dec. 21 as they flew 224 statute miles above. Kelly, Coleman and Nespoli are part of the six-person crew that includes Russian cosmonauts Dmitry Kondratyev, Alexander Kaleri and Oleg Skripochka.
Listen to these astronauts send some heartfelt and nerdy holiday greetings to all of us earthlings. Amazing.
One summer my sister and I visited our family in Chicago all by ourselves. The trouble started in the airport. Big block letters, UM, printed on our boarding passes designated us as unaccompanied minors, which meant we were corralled in a terrible little corner of the airport with a bunch of little kids. Sara and I were 10 and 7, and were sure that there had been a mistake. We were worldly kids after all and didn’t need to be chaperoned through the airport. (I have since changed my tune after spending this past weekend with a 10 and a 7 year old. I now agree with those dusty airport people.)
The point is that we had to entertain each other for that long layover because the other kids were super boring. Pretty much each of us tried to get the other to crack up and we were pretty good at it. This mutual sibling entertainment continued after we arrived in Chicago. We memorized an old Empire Carpet commercial (Can’t find it on-line yet, searching.)
I know you will enjoy:
ANYWAY, long build up, ridiculous payoff. My sister and I are in the process of memorizing this dance as an homage to that time. You will be able to catch us performing this in restaurants, grocery store aisles, and at Christmas parties just as soon as we get up to speed.
