Longitude: 104°W

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone will score lots of candy tonight and will be consuming way too much sugar during the days to come. I've never been a big fan of Halloween, not even as a kid really. I could never get into the whole dressing-up thing. I only started enjoying Halloween a couple of years ago watching my two little cousins, who are like my own kids, get dressed up for the big festivities. So I'm very depressed today because I am missing Halloween. Andy, one of the scientists on board, is also a little down about missing Halloween with his two little girls. Sophia and Charlotte, my kids, are dressing up as princesses and I'm sure they will look beautiful and charm their way into truckloads of candy. I can't wait to see pictures when I return home.

The dive today was less than successful. One of the pieces of equipment that went down on the dive wasn't really working all too well. It's called an AMS (Autonomous Microbial Sampler). I'm sure you've heard about it before in Hepsi's logs. (Make sure you read her detailed log from her dive the other day.) Anyway, since that wasn't working and it was causing some other problems, the sub came up early and came up without any samples. Yup, that's right, not a single thing. Tony, the pilot, was very upset since he tried hard to make things work. We all know he tried his best though. Since there weren't any samples, we had most of the night to have an actual Halloween party rather than just go to dinner dressed in costumes. That was the original plan, to dress up for dinner and then head back to work. I think it was good in a way; lots of folks on the ship needed a break from work. It was a blast!

To come up with Halloween costumes on a ship, you have to be resourceful to say the least — and a bit creative. A bunch of us, still stuck on the toilet paper parade with the pirate ship, decided to dress up as just that. We had six pirates and the two "rescuers" (Special K and Ken who were the ones who took the toilet paper and beans to the fishing boat and brought back the fish). We went all out — made patches, drew on fake tattoos with sharpies, found swords. Other costumes included Alvin, Sponge Bob, Brittney Spears, Foosball Man (side note: it was a sad day yesterday when PJ, the 2nd Mate, broke one of the foosball men — he now looks like a giant mummy made out of duct tape and isn't working all that well, giving the team on that side of the table a bit more of a challenge. It should make the tournament a little more interesting! Speaking of tournaments, I was ousted from the ping-pong tournament in the second round by Amir. He's good. BUT, is he good enough to beat Jerry, the ping-pong guru?). OK, sorry about that large digression. Other costumes included a witch, a rabbit, the devil, a clown, and a book. We are sending lots of fun pictures for you to see. Brittney was definitely the hit of the night! And you'll see why when you look at the pictures! Enjoy.

Happy Halloween Sophia and Charlotte — I miss you!