Ice spike!

I normally don't drink iced coffee unless in something close to a heat wave.  We've had a lot of those lately.  Nathan's four little ice cube trays have seen more use in the last month than they ever have before.  In that time I have found an average of one ice spike per week.  It's such a random phenomenon that I get really excited about it.  I saw the first ice spike in summer of 2006, perhaps one or two since then.  So to have this many popping up in a row is totally awesome.  I had another one this morning:

Conversely, in winter I get super excited to show off the ice on my literally frozen ponytail after coming in from a run.  Nathan has learned respond to each situation with "That's cool" and a pat on the head.  He used to respond with "Okay...?" only to get my wide-eyed-speed-talk "Butit'ssoCOOLit'slikeanEXPLOSIONinyourfreezerbutcontainedtoanICECUBE!" 

Nerd.  Yes.  Proudly so.  Don't even need to carry a card because its so evident.  Put me in a social situation like a party and I clam up like you wouldn't believe.  Give me ice spikes in my freezer and I'm bouncing off the walls in excitement. 

I always hopied it was a more ballistic occurrence, where the still-liquid but expanding inner portion of the ice breaks through the frozen surface like a rocket.  Turns out its a much calmer process.  The surface ice forms from the perimeter towards the center.  The inner, still-liquid portion gets forced through a small remaining hole, though slowly.  Instead of running down the sides of the ice cube it freezes on the perimeter of the hole and produces a tube.  It continues to grow until the tube freezes over. 

Apparently this mostly works with distilled water, since usually the particulate present in tap water is enough to sustain the surface shape and disallow the expansion of a tube.  But lo!  For whatever reason, our tap water and freezer temperature and ice cube tray size is perfect to grow a little stalagmite once a week.  Hazzah!

For those of you who are not blatant nerds but do like silly cats, here are the worms as they tolerate the heat:

Merus, whose nickname has recently progressed to Ru Bear.  (This is always followed with a ba-dum-dum in my head, as a pun for rubor (latin for redness, used as a descriptor for inflammation.  Yes, I am easily entertained.)

Sadie.

For the record, the drawer was pushed back about 4 inches and Merus went in on her own.

 

On a side note, this is how Nathan usually sleeps.  "Why does my neck hurt?"  Hmmm...

Merus could teach Olympic divers a thing or two about their tuck.