Shortest Day of the Year

Although the official winter solstice will occur at 5:30 am on December 22 (http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/december-solstice.html), today December 21 is the shortest day of the year here in Juneau.  Tomorrow will be one second longer - haha.

Rising and setting times for the Sun

			Length of day		Solar noon
Date	Sunrise	Sunset	This day	Difference	Time	Altitude	Distance
							(106 km)
Dec 20, 2011	8:44 AM	3:07 PM	6h 22m 37s	− 17s	11:55 AM	8.4°	147.179
Dec 21, 2011	8:45 AM	3:07 PM	6h 22m 28s	− 08s	11:56 AM	8.4°	147.169
Dec 22, 2011	8:45 AM	3:08 PM	6h 22m 30s	+ 01s	11:56 AM	8.4°	147.160
Dec 23, 2011	8:45 AM	3:08 PM	6h 22m 41s	+ 11s	11:57 AM	8.4°	147.151
Dec 24, 2011	8:46 AM	3:09 PM	6h 23m 02s	+ 20s	11:57 AM	8.4°	147.143
Dec 25, 2011	8:46 AM	3:10 PM	6h 23m 32s	+ 30s	11:58 AM	8.4°	147.136
Dec 26, 2011	8:46 AM	3:10 PM	6h 24m 13s	+ 40s	11:58 AM	8.4°	147.129

To celebrate the coming of longer days we are had, again, a pot luck lunch today. This must be our 4th pot luck in a month and a half?

I made tamales again, this time with chicken, cilantro, goat cheese, tomatillo sauce, and some kind of dried mexican pepper I rehydrated that really doesn't have a lot of flavor.  But the tamales tasted great!  Other dishes included a wonderful cucumber salad, tortilla pinwheels with cream cheese and ham, fruit salad, green bean casserole, and edamame.  Peppermint bark and banana split ice cream with nuts, chocolate sauce and whipped cream for dessert. 

Almost time to start that diet...almost.