It has been an amazing two weeks back to field work - same asst, new volunteer, tons and tons of sites to record. Loving the cool weather and lack of black flies so far - plz can we have more wind and a bit more damp for the next week? yes?

This week is 5 days in the back country with Red Rock Forest volunteer group. Should be cool! Recording sites and monitoring the status of others.

I just drove to Tucson and back to drop my kid off at a friend's house for 3 wks. She's going to GS camp and SHE picked the backpacking and fishing program. How cool is that!!!

I'm totally exhausted and must pack and get foods ready.

Hello y'all!

And it begins... finally!

Tomorrow is our first day in the field and we're actually going to go do fun stuff and romp through the wilderness and woohoo! Damn this took a long time.

Hey Josie - are you going to the Pecos Conference?

Penny - you alive? I missed you every single day last week.

Here are some cool pics that I've been posting on my Twitter lately - mostly archaeology:

Inside a 900 year old granary: http://twitpic.com/58c62

The oldest human made thing I've ever held: http://twitpic.com/561rq (note: that should be 10,000BC or 12,0000BP - I can't edit the tag)

An Ancestral Puebloan (Anasazi) site in the back country: http://twitpic.com/4sces

Pendants we found 2 years ago: http://twitpic.com/4o1up

Points we found 2 weeks ago in the La Sal Mountains: http://twitpic.com/49zi8

Another amazing site: http://twitpic.com/3yikw

Granary tucked away in Dark Canyon Wilderness: http://twitpic.com/3w9bt

A boulder granary pic that I messed around with: http://twitpic.com/3s23z

This is my office: http://twitpic.com/3iz9j

Feel free to wander around the album!

The body of Everett Reuss was finally found and identified after how many years? 70? 80? He made such an impact at such a young age.

"Music has been in my heart all the time, and poetry in my thoughts. Alone on the open desert, I have made up songs of wild, poignant rejoicing and transcendent melancholy. The world has seemed more beautiful to me than ever before. I have loved the red rocks, the twisted trees, the red sand blowing in the wind, the slow, sunny clouds crossing the sky, the shafts of moonlight on my bed at night. I have seemed to be at one with the world. I have rejoiced to set out, to be going somewhere, and I have felt a still sublimity, looking deep into the coals of my campfires, and seeing far beyond them. I have been happy in my work, and I have exulted in my play. I have really lived." --E.R.

Good info on his life and writings

Oddly disturbing link of the day: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5165121

And look at the prices! And look at the number of sales!

*passes out*

Well, today I'm finally, totally and actually supposed to be going into the field. We've had stops and starts and weather upsets and, well, stuff deterring us from jumping in. My asst Meghan still doesn't start for another month, but we've got a ton of little projects piling up that need dealing with. Soooooooooooooooooooooo, we (le bossman and I) shall go wander in the wilderness. I'm hoping that the wind we had yesterday does not whip up today as we're going into a burn area. The biologists want to plant tons of trees and we have to make sure they don't dig holes through ancient sites. Could be cool... could be massively dirty... wanna know where I'm going? Type Porcupine Rim into Google image. zomg gorgeous

I found this gem on the terrific website Not Always Right - Funny and Stupid Customer Quotes and had to share it:

(Many young couples with young children belong to my pool, and many of them ask a lot of questions. A man leads his 6-year-old son into our guard office.)

Pool patron: “Excuse me, ma’am?”

Me: “Yes sir? Can I help you?”

Pool patron: “I’m very scared my son is in trouble.”

Me: “Is he okay? Did he hurt himself in the pool? Are there any major injuries?”

Pool patron: “His skin is all wrinkled and soft. It feels strange. Is it going to fall off?”

Me: “Sir, that happens to everyone’s skin who has been in water for an extended period of time.”

Pool patron: “So his skin won’t fall off, right?”

Found this gem for y'all:

Veddy Bad English

But what does it meeeeeeeeeeeeeeean?

The spring wind storms have arrived and we're under a high wind warning for the fourth time in two weeks. The air is full of red dust and the windows whine under the gusts. My hair is stiff from walking in it for just a few minutes!

The bad thing? This wind leeches the moisture from the soil and our summer will be dry dry dry. Can we have some more snow please?

First day back to work... walk in, discover pile of computer stuff on my desk which has buried most of my belongings, no boss... wait 30 min, no boss... dig out calendar from under large pile on desk, realize boss is out for the entire week to training about 5 hours away. I dug out important things on the desk and ignored the rest of the pile.

Ahhh, everything is normal - onward! into the unknown!

Then I searched for what I was supposed to be working on and found that le boss had taken the entire set of project files with him. Ooooh, that's handy. So I made up things to do for the rest of the day and listened to my mp3 player! Woohoo! But I was making money - which is a hella good thing after so long being broke.

Tasty link roundup:

I use Bloglines to read all my favorites and today was the catch-up for the food blogs. I thought I'd share a few omg-delicious recipes with y'all.

Maple Syrup Scones - nearly licked the screen on this one

Red Curry Shrimp Supreme - fire and spice and everything um-nom-nom-nom

Hot and Fluffy Buttermilk Biscuits - as in breakfast bread product, of course, though I'm sure you could dip these in all manner of gooey sugary things and *snarflelickgorge*

While looking for a new water bottle on eBay today I found these interesting options:

The Home Grown Look

New Uses for Fun Fur


Note that both of these are from the same Seller... and if you click on the store link on the listing you can check out her crocheted dog outfits. whoa.

I'm really curious as to how many sales she's had...

I have been so busy lately doing multitudes of stuff that I haven't posted - go figure.

-Working on artsy things: http://www.redbubble.com/people/cahotage

-Being sucked into the great void of Facebook. It's like being in a sorority or something.

-Working on work stuff while waiting to go back to work. What does this meeeeean?

Spring has come to the mesa and I'm so happy to see all the things the dogs have been chewing on all winter have melted out of the snow. Our front yard looks like a debris field. The youngest, she's about 6 mos old, shredded the pillow from her doghouse and there's a trail of stuffing that stretches for about 100 ft into the driveway. Very classy looking. The mesa top is starting to green, fields of winter wheat are sprouting and the tulips in the side yard are poking their heads up for the dogs to lay on.

I'm ready for the field season to start, though I know I can't get out into the Forest for another two months. The roads are goo at this time of year and I'm sure we couldn't get across the creek beds either. I'll just stand at the office and smell the wind coming down from the pines.

( Music meme of dreadfulness )

Strangest, oddest, saddest thing I've seen of late...

We were just driving home across the snowy mesa top and then dipped down into a canyon and my daughter says 'There, mom, there on the pole!'. I stopped the car to stare. A bobcat had climbed the electrical pole to get something, a bird maybe, and had touched both wires - electrocuted itself - and was hanging on the bottom wire. So sad and so beautiful hanging there... It makes me so mad when human things hurt wild animals, even unintentionally. We cause enough hurt as it is.

Recently I've been bothered by the necessity of the American public to use completely nonsensical sayings. I mean, I suppose they meant something at one time, but they are currently 100% horrid.

Example:

Like I give a care.

What does this meeeeeeeeeeeeeeean? Do you give a damn? Do you care? Do we care? I don't know!


Example 2:

Well that don't make no never mind.

Wut? I repeat... Wut?


hahahahahahaha - the smoke detector just fell off the ceiling as my kid stomped her way down the hall and scared her to death. Bwahaha - the new remote bludgeoning mechanism worked!

Thursday of a loooong week.
Thusly:
-no snow
-a visit to the doctor for two bags of IV fluid for Todd after a bout of flu, whoa
-more work and maps and maps and maps
-a full day of budgeting - work and home - yick
-my truck is broken and needs a $500 part - wtf!
-found the part at a junkyard for $20 - yeah baby.
-scheduled out work through November - I like it when my life is all charted in highlighters... no
-pondered the social relevance of Facebook yet again as someone I barely knew a lonnnnng time ago friended me - for why?
-listened to west African music all day yesterday at work - drums and funky instruments and dancing!
-realized the floor under the shower is going to collapse into the basement at anytime - that'd be a bit breezy
-had an amazing revelation re the overall plot in my current work-in-progress and had to write it down 5 places so I'd remember - totally cool
-ordered a pair of Gramicci's for field pants
-ate choc chip cookies for breakfast (nom nom nom)
-wondered where Penny went and if her move went okay - helllllllllloooooooooooooo

huzzah!

My boss and I sat and watched in inauguration for an hour and a half at work today. We figured as Fed employees it was our duty, or so we rationalized. It was incredible. Period.

Hello brain, whatcha knowin'? Not much, eh.

Read:

The View from the Folding Chairs by Michala Miller
Scenes from a Life by Judi Dench


Quote:

When I have a terrible need of - shall I say the word - religion. Then I go out and paint the stars.
--Vincent van Gogh

Music:

Ricky Lee Jones - On Saturday Afternoons in 1963

Back to work for two weeks tomorrow to finish a humongous report that we didn't get done. Maps maps and more maps! Plus = omgcoffee at the coffee house!

Looking back over the past year I must say it has been absolutely amazing... and busy. I scrolled back through my journal and realized how little I actual write down, but I've always been that way. Unless it's fiction writing I don't put much down on paper. I've never kept a journal, never blathered on about what goes on in my head - probably some deep seated psychosis there.

So, a 2008 retrospect in no particular order:

1. Got a promotion at work to Field Director
2. Drove to Tucson and back in one weekend - 8-10 hrs each way
3. Did not win the Nano
4. Planted my truck in the ditch very hard due to ice sheets
5. Got to hold a complete Clovis point (spear head) in my hands - mega archy squee
6. Was forced to see Twilight in the theatre.... experienced brain rot
7. Got a new mp3 player (Creative Vision:M) and can put 30gb on it - how the heck can I ever fill that?!?!
8. Walked over, under and around the majority of the La Sal mountains in search of archaeology - found gobs (those are the mountains above Moab, Utah)
9. Found a brand spankin' new rock art site from around 2500bc
10. Did NOT go to my high school reunion (thank all that's holy)
11. Pondered the relevance of FaceBook and wondered why everyone thinks it's so cool
12. Participated in a POTC RPG on IJ and watched it choke and die a slow, agonizing death
13. Added a ton of digital art to my RedBubble account
14. Wondered about age and its relevance as the umpteenth person said 'You're how old? Well, you don't look it!' Although that's a complement, I suppose, it goes without saying that age equals cred in this world. Perhaps that's the basis for my lack thereof?

And I look at this list and realize that I've left out piles and piles of stuff cuz my brain just doesn't classify them as relevant. Isn't that odd?

Okay - go here and see the most awesome dreadlock picks I've ever seen omg.