Clumps of a white substance, uncovered by excavations of the Martian surface by the Phoenix lander, have disappeared over the last few days. Observers are confident that these were chunks of water ice, which evaporated after being exposed by the digging.
Best reaction to date comes from a co-worker, who observed that they should probably open a Rita's up there. Mm, Martian Gelati.
Trying to hack out my first soda-free day went surprisingly well until the middle of the afternoon. I drank about 36 ounces of water, and only missed the sweet taste a little.
Okay, it was a lot. An awful lot, actually. No matter how many times you drink it, water doesn't taste good. It just tastes like wet. I think I drank so much because I kept hoping that the next sip would be sweeter. It wasn't.
Around 3 pm, things went rapidly south. I started to have trouble focusing on the screen in front of me. Blinking turned into several seconds of closing my eyes, and my head took on a definite downward trajectory.
I tried getting up and walking around, but it didn't really help. There's a limit to how vigorously one can exercise in an office suite shared with 20 other people. So, I gave up and shuffled over to the soda machine for a 12 ounce can of cola.
Even though I failed, I'm calling it a partial victory. I just about halved my average daily consumption, and didn't actually fall asleep for more than a few seconds. These are the only marks in my win column, people. Let me enjoy my pathetic accomplishments.
