(Kiri describes the ski suit she has custom-made for each of the members of the ski team. Unfortunately, due to a heavy snowfall at the site of the races on Centauri Base, there was the possibility she was worried about the races having to be moved to Sirius. We hear Lyka is on Sirius training the biathlon team under the excuse of Arctic warfare training.) 

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Russ: so how goes it my dear?

Kiri: it goes good.

Russ: good. Getting ready for the trip?

Kiri: yeah, I’m all set and dialed. I’ve got my suit all done, team suits are all done.

Russ: are they?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: good job.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: did you put your little army of workers on it?

Kiri: yeah. It’s red, dark red, dark blue, black and white.

Russ: wow, colorful.

Kiri: uh-huh, legs are white.

Russ: a special Kiri designed team suit.

Kiri: uh-huh, well I did it last year for the first time.

Russ: people will want to keep that for a while.

Kiri: oh they've got them kept.

Russ: yep.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: there should be a line of those.

Kiri: nope, because each one is custom-made.

Russ: oh.

Kiri: skintight.

Russ: next week right?

Kiri: starts Sunday. Unfortunately, I won’t be here to see my niece have her baby.

Russ: bummer.

Kiri: my heats start on Monday.

Russ: nope you won't be.

Kiri: uh-huh. Finals are on Friday for the slalom, Lyka’s is…..her heats I think start on Wednesday and then the finals are on Sunday. Looking forward to it, I’m skiing great at the moment.

Russ: are you?

Kiri: uh-huh. Spent the afternoon on the hill….

Russ: hmm.

Kiri: working real…..

Russ: is your time coming down at all?

Kiri: uh-huh, managed to shave 2/10’s of a second off.

Russ: pretty good.

Kiri: uh-huh, I thought so too. Really burns my legs though getting in tight to those poles.

Russ: large parts are there.

Kiri: uh-huh, slalom?

Russ: uh-huh.

Kiri: short, powerful turns?

Russ: uh-huh.

Kiri: uh-huh. The only thing that I’m worried about is that we may have to move the whole entire thing…..

Russ: to Sirius?

Kiri: yeah, the latest reports I got is that they’ve got a unit and a half of snow. I think it’s like three feet of your measurement to a unit?

Russ: snow? I’ll take your word for it.

Kiri: so that would be four and a half feet.

Russ: damn, that’s a lot of snow.

Kiri: uh-huh, makes your El Niño look like a wimp.

Russ: well, what’s projected for the week’s projection?

Kiri: unsettled weather.

Russ: hmm, could be anything.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: it could clear up too.

Kiri: uh-huh, it could, I’m hoping it does but if it’s a howling gale so much the better for me.

Russ: why?

Kiri: that’s what I used to ski a lot of the time in back home.

Russ: hmm, it's not going to help your skis out though.

Kiri: they're regular skis, well I’m on regular skis anyway.

Russ: yeah but I mean your wax, you need a special wax for that.

Kiri: I formulated a special wax, when I was young I formulated a special wax for it.

Russ: well let’s pray for gales.

Kiri: you’ve got to remember, where was I born?

Russ: the highlands, I know.

Kiri: uh-huh, from the highlands.

Russ: yeah but you didn’t have ski lifts.

Kiri: no we used to hike up the hills.

Russ: really?

Kiri: mind you, admittedly it was in the backyard. Well, we called the backyard. You know that big meadow behind us that climbs up very steeply?

Russ: oh yeah, the one in the story.

Kiri: uh-huh yeah, that’s where we used to ski.

Russ: hmm.

Kiri: it was great growing up when mother was home. We’d hike up the hill and she’d hike up with us and we’d ski down. I think she would’ve been a great racer.

Russ: oh no doubt. Is Bunny going to Centauri?

Kiri: hmm I don’t know, I haven’t talked to her for a while. Leah talked to her a couple nights ago I believe.

Russ: well Lyka will be there, Leah will be there….

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: Bunny will be there, you’ll be there…..

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: all the elements you need to really....plus you have a nice winter scene….

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: I imagine a cabin with a fire.

Kiri: uh-huh. I’ve got some romance that I planned.

Russ: you do?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: taking Mark off to a snowdrift?

Kiri: well yeah, I’ll take Mark off to a snowdrift as well but there’s an old friend of mine that I went to school with showing up that…..

Russ: oh, your old professor.

Kiri: no.

Russ: no?

Kiri: no, it’s a love interest that we never consummated.

Russ: oh really?

Kiri: closest we ever got was making out.

Russ: what, have you contacted her lately?

Kiri: she contacted me actually, she’s on Centauri base full-time.

Russ: oh is she?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: oh really?

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: and she’s on the team or…..?

Kiri: no, she’s not competing or anything, she saw my name on the roster.

Russ: oh did she?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: all right.

Kiri: she contacted me that I was on the Hades Base team and contacted me and everything and asked if I was coming out and that I could stay at her cabin if I wanted.

Russ: ahh interesting.

Kiri: yep. Her children will be there, not at the cabin but they’re coming up.

Russ: uh-huh.

Kiri: and her bond mate is going to be there and not be there.

Russ: what do you mean he’s not going to be there?

Kiri: well he’s going to be up there but he’s going to be making the commute every day.

Russ: hmm, well interesting.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: I look forward to this.

Kiri: yes, I’m looking forward to it too.

Russ: I’ll have to add that to the new News.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: post the results like I did last year.

Kiri: yeah, Mark will have the results and everything. But last time I talked to Lyka, she is very, very hot.

Russ: really, she’s cooking huh?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: so she’s practicing on Sirius?

Kiri: uh-huh and she’s doing, she's got…..

Russ: so she’s using Sirius’ course.

Kiri: uh-huh. She’s got her company up there on exercise which means that the……

Russ: the biathlon team.

Kiri: biathlon team is working out and it’s hard to say who’s on the biathlon team.

Russ: why?

Kiri: because they’re doing winter exercises.

Russ: oh, so the whole squad's doing…

Kiri: the whole company.

Russ: the whole company is doing biathlon training.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: geez.

Kiri: uh-huh. And in their free time they're allowed to do skiing and of course as she’s the only one that is from Hades Base there, right?

Russ: right.

Kiri: it’s hard for them to figure out what’s going on. She’s got I think the biathlon team she took with her this time.

Russ: right.

Kiri: under the auspices of doing Arctic warfare training.

Russ: well that’s pretty good though.

Kiri: uh-huh so she’s up on the slopes doing Arctic warfare training as well as in her free time skiing and so is the biathlon team and of course the biathlon team is all under assumed names.

Russ: oh geez.

Kiri: and guess who they're skiing with?

Russ: who? The Sirians.

Kiri: biathlon team.

Russ: yeah.

Kiri: and they don’t know. Actually I wonder if that would be considered cheating?

Russ: scouting out the other side?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: done all the time.

Kiri: yes but actually using your team to scout out the other team to train with the other team.

Russ: doesn’t matter. I don’t know if you saw the Olympics or not but the figure skating?

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: they had the warm-up rink or the training rink…

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: and they had the regular rink for the show.

Kiri: yeah.

Russ: but in the training rink, all the competitors from all around the world would be taking turns and all the coaches….

Kiri: would be sitting waiting for their....and watching and......

Russ: right.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: sure, it’s perfectly allowed. At least our Olympic style.

Kiri: well this isn’t an Olympic thing, it’s a yearly thing and it’s just the Tri-Base races.

Russ: this is as close to the Olympics as you guys are going to get for a while.

Kiri: uh-huh. I don’t like that idea of Mark’s.

Russ: why?

Kiri: I think it’s too much strain and work on him.

Russ: I think it’s too much strain of work on everybody.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: I mean it’s not…..

Kiri: you’d have to go to every two years at that rate.

Russ: yeah.

Kiri: because it would take two years to get it all organized and straightened up instead of nine months.

Russ: uh-huh. I think you should have balloon races, Tri-Base balloon races.

Kiri: (chuckles) where we going to hold it on here?

Russ: well right there at Dolphin Lake.

Kiri: oh yeah right, the unpredictable nature of those winds in there?

Russ: I think it’s perfect.

Kiri: you’ve only got at the top maybe 40 feet.

Russ: well yeah, imagine if you’ve got all these other balloon teams from the other bases and you have to meet at Hades Base.

Kiri: you’re a sick puppy.

Russ: you guys have got a home-field advantage. 

(Russ is laughing pretty hard at this point)

Russ: just a thought dear.

Kiri: yes just a thought indeed. Okay…..

Russ: all right.

Kiri: as we don’t have very much time left on the recording device.

Russ: we got Tia still to come on.

Kiri: yeah, we’ve got a few minutes.

Russ: good.

Kiri: where do you come up with these ideas? Not from my sister I know that.

Russ: I know, she’s not really into that one. It’s just a thought.

Kiri: the fact that we’ve have......out of the three teams we have the worst medal count.

Russ: true.

Kiri: last year we came in third, the year before we came in third.

Russ: right.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: well at least you’re consistent.

Kiri: yes, consistently in last place.

Russ: yeah but I mean you’ve had a lot of…..some of the medals you did get were big medals.

Kiri: uh-huh.

Russ: that’s what counts.

Kiri: yes, downhill.

Russ: and remember the races up on Sirius?

Kiri: uh-huh, guess who picked up the bronze?

Russ: yeah, see?

Kiri: uh-huh. I’m hoping to do better than that and of course, the defending champion in the downhill for what’s it? Four years in a row or no, two years in a row.

Russ: uh-huh.

Kiri: and I think that she’ll do an awesome job. She’ll defend her title for a third year in a row, I think she's going to come off with the gold.

Russ: well I don’t but we’ll see.

Kiri: well she’s pushing hard now, she’s back to how she used to be.

Russ: okay.

Kiri: I think Leah helped tremendously on that.