You Better Belize it

Yeah, that pun wore out the first day, but I thought you'd all still enjoy it. I wanted to post some photos today, but I forgot my flash drive back at camp so that will have to wait until next week.

For those of you who know my love of squash, I found some when we were picking limes and oranges yesterday. I think squash was first domesticated in Mesoamerica so it's only right that I experience this delicious food down here. I wrapped the squash in big leaves picked by Santos, our lab helper, and put them on the tortilla gridle. Unfortunately, the leaves and sqaush just started burning and it smelled rotten. The whole thing reminded me of a Martha Stewart recipe I tried once that involved artichokes and lemons in a paper bag in the oven. That one did not turn out either. Oh well.

Work is going well. We had orientation and hiked around the site. Uxbenka, like other ancient Maya communities in this area, is like a small city with plazas, courts, other structures and homes on hill tops surrounding ceremonial centers. Keith helped me pick my settlement group to excavate. Last week we excavated a unit behind the building that might be a kitchen garden area. The guy I worked with is going to run some soil samples for his own research to look for evidence of what sort of plants were grown in the soil and he will let me know the results of the tests. Next week I am visiting a cave with a canoe in it. Curious. Then I will start excavating the main structure in the settlement group. It should yield some neat stuff.

Yesterday we had a day off and we went to Nimli Punit, a Maya site that has been turned into an interpretive park. Then we ate a traditional Maya meal with Keith's friend, Pedro. We had chicken soup (1/4 of a chicken in a broth) with corn tortillas and corn and beans wrapped in leaves and steamed. Pedro fed us freshly brewed cocoa drinks. The fresh organic chocolate beans tasted wonderful. We sat around, sweated a lot (a fact of life here, I am pretty much sweaty all the time, even when I sleep) and then went back to Big Falls (the town we are staying in) and swam in the river for a while before supper.

In Belize

Well, I'm here in Belize. Yesterday was a really long day of travel and the car I was in had an overheating problem. We had to stop about 7 times to fill it up with water and radiator fluid. I was sitting above the radiator so my seat got pretty hot every time it overheated. Crazy. Reminded me of a Taurus I used to drive.

It is really hot and humid, but considering it's a third world country and all, the accommodations are pretty good. I have a bed and we have running water and showers. The rainwater we have been drinking is delicious, but it tastes like smoke because of all the burning (accidental and agricultural). I am paying for this service and others are waiting so I'm going to let someone else get on.

It's Fishy

I bought some tilapia from the butcher/deli section of my local grocery store. The guy helping me asked me if I wanted some preperation tips. I said sure thinking he would give me some interesting tilapia-specific recipie ideas I could try. No, this is what he said: "I put it in an oiled pan and cook it. Sometimes I put salt or herbs on it. You could also grill it."
This is what I said: "Great idea, thanks."
This is what I thought: "Um, I know what how to use a pan to cook things. I am also familiar with the benefits of salt and herbs. Do you really get people in here who need that kind of information?"

Here is where I need some help from all who read my blog. I am purchasing a digital camera this week before I go to Belize and I would like suggestions. I am hoping to spend under $300, but if it's a little more and you really, really, really think it's the best thing out there, I might consider it. Also, remember, I am going to a hot, humid, dirty jungle, so spending a bunch of money on the fanciest digital SLR out there might be risky. Thanks!

Thank you Dora Wallace Hodgson

I applied for a $1000 Dora Wallace Hodgson Summer Research grant through the WSU graduate school and I just found out today that I was one of the recipients. How exciting! This means I don't have to get student loans for the summer. It also means there are people who think my research proposal is interesting enough to give me money so that feels reassuring.

I know I said this on my last post, but I can't believe I'm heading to Belize so soon. Crazy.

I also found out today that I have a job next year at school. My City Archaeologist position ends, so I was hoping I could find something on campus. My new job, to put it simply, will be coordinating and managing study session leaders for various courses on campus. I also have to generate/compile reports to prove that the program (called Supplemental Instruction) is worthwhile. Getting a graduate assistant job on campus is really beneficial to me because not only is it a meager paycheck, but it gets me cheap health insurance and in-state tuition. So basically, I'm having a really good day.

May 7, 2007

I went back to SoDak again this weekend for Jeremy's graduation. The PhD candidates were the first to be recognized. All of his hoopla was over early and then we sat on the butt-numbing bleachers for another hour and a half while the other 1000 graduates walked across the stage. I was looking at the other PhD candidates on the list and saw one of Sioux Falls' local TV weather guys, Jay Trobec, was graduating too. Unfortunately, I don't think he was at the ceremony. Maybe he had to be on TV - there was some really bad weather on Saturday.

After graduation the Javers family and Sue and I went to Royal River Casino in Flandreau to celebrate. I lost $23 in the slot machines, but I bet Hard Spun would get second in the Kentucky Derby and won $14.50.

School is defnitely winding down for the semester. I finished my final Geographic Information Systems mapping project last week. Today I had my Advanced Cultural Anthropology final test. Now I just have a Biological Anthropology take home final to work on and I'm done. Yipee. Now I have to start thinking about / planning for Belize. I can't believe I leave in two weeks!

States I have visited

I found this interactive map online. It brought back lots of road trip / vacation memories.



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day ...

Last night I went to a Pink Floyd cover band concert. Usually, I don't mind cover bands at restaurant/bars and fairs and festivals, but this was at Century II concert hall. I admit I was skeptical, but it was pretty entertaining.

There have been a lot of deadlines at school in the last couple weeks so I've been extremely stressed and busy. At this point I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. This week I finished a hefty survey report and two papers - one of them was a 35-page bastard about intentional cultural cranial and dental modification. That doesn't sound very exciting, does it? The last writing I have left to do is my annual report for the City Archaeologist job. That shouldn't be too bad because it doesn't require a lot of deep analysis and theoretical synthesis. It's just, on this day I did this and then I did this and here are some projects I worked on and so on.

Easter 2007

Chums in Denver:

And this is for my parents who would otherwise ask "and which one is so and so...?" From left to right - me, Sarah, Erin, Kristine, Emily. And now they will reply with "yes and she lives by Kansas City and teaches math and..."

I don't want to think of a stupid title

Two weekends ago I went to Schmeckfest. There was an empty ICM (company Javers works for) plane near Yankton on Monday so the pilot said we could fly back to Wichita with him. Here's a picture of me starting the propeller.

Just kidding. The plane wasn't that old school.

Here's a picture of Cori, myself and Dave (anthro. students) standing amongst snow in April in Kansas.

And here's a link to a story in the Wichita Eagle. A reporter called me last week to get my opinion on a story he was doing about the possible discovery of Jesus' family tomb. I was nervous about how he would quote me, but I think it turned out okay.

Momma Cat

Thanks to Erin and Brian, I have a new cat. That is, if she sticks around. I sense that she is quite volatile right now so I need to make sure she knows I am an easy food source and an excellent head petter.

Erin and Brian brought her last night. They have been calling her Momma Cat (she's got some buns in the oven) and I kind of like it. At first she was really freaked out by the new surroundings, but then she seemed to relax a little and let me touch her a lot. We went to the gas stating in Kechi to pick up some kitty litter so she could spend the night in our enclosed entrance. Momma Cat is not house trained and I wondered if she would understand the whole kittly litter thing. She did ... sort of. When I checked on her this morning there was a little mess on the doormat and the kitty litter box was tipped over, but it looked like she had used the litter that fell out of the box appropriately. Hey, you take what cooperation you can get.

I didn't want to leave Momma Cat in the entry all day so I let her out this morning and put some food on the porch. I really hope she hangs around.

Alright, so Schmeckfest this weekend. Good times. I missed last year so I'm due for a dose. Shorthill, I know you like the Schmeckfest, you want me to bring a care package for you to Easter? What do you want?

untitled

Now I'm older. When I was at the gym on my birthday, the elliptical machine asked me how long I wanted to exercise, my weight, and my age. I found gratifying to punch in 26 instead of 25. Then I began to wonder if the machine would change my stats based on the new age (i.e. target heart rate, calorie burning rate, etc.). How funny that one day might cause such a change.

It's kind of dreary and moist here today. Acutally, most of the week has been like this. It sort of makes me want to sit in an English pub drinking beer and eating a tuna salad jacket potato. Too bad I'm not in Enland.

Wine

Yipee, spring break is here!!! Remember my spring break last year? Blanco Canyon, TX. Ah yes, it's all coming back - camping in below freezing weather during snow and wind storms. Good times. Actually, now that a year has passed I can look back on it and get a little nostaligic. The canyon beautiful and since we were not doing much archaeology, we went on some wonderful hikes. I even considered going back this year (I checked the weather and it's a lot warmer and dryer), but I decided to stay home to work on reasearching for a paper and some City Archaeologist stuff. If it's nice enough outside I might even go surveying here in Wichita. For those unfamiliar with the term, surveying means to walk around - maybe dig a couple holes - looking for artifacts. There are some areas of Wichita being developed that I should probably check for archaeological sites.

Now to the title. One of the main reasons I decided to stay home this spring break is because I am trying to conserve $ for Belize this summer. I'm doing pretty good, except last Friday I stepped into Jacob's Liquor on my way to Barnes and Noble. About a month ago I had a really good Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia-Crest Reserve 2002) at a restaurant. I kept the cork and decided to see how much it would cost in a liquor store. My trip to Jacob's was just supposed to be an exploratory campaign, but the salesman started talking to me and once we found the wine we were both so excited our efforts paid off that I decided to buy it. It cost $35 (but it's really good, tee hee). At that moment I past the $10 point I didn't care anymore. On my way to the cash register I picked up two more bottles that looked worth a try. $60 later I was on my way to Barnes and Noble to study. Sigh... So much for trying to save money. On the bright side of things I am enjoying a glass of an Argentinian wine I bought that day and I must say it's delightful. I guess everyone has to splurge once in a while.

p.s. I'm having a birthday party next Tuesday (3/20) so if you are around give me a call and I give out the details. I'm getting old and I love it!

Dead Sea Scrolls

I went to see an exhibit about the Dead Sea Scrolls in Kansas City, yesterday. It was a quick trip with a lot of time spent driving, but I am glad I went. The exhibit had a few pieces, what I would imagine were some of the best preserved scrolls. They had them in special environmentally controlled cases with lights that came on every 15 seconds or so and stayed on for about 5 seconds. Actually seing the scroll segments was neat, but they were in a different language and it is just writing (in languages I cannot understand) on parchment. For me, the most interesting parts of the exhibit were the historical and cultural explanations of the time during which the scrolls were written and the research that has been done since they were rediscovered in the 1940s. The information on the gradual cannonization process of Jewish and Christian scriptures was also very enlightening.

Now for some exciting news concerning Jeremy: He defended his dissertation at SDSU last Thursday. He has some minor reformatting issues to take care of (i.e. making sure the table of contents meets all specifications), but other than that he is finished. Yippy! Not having it hanging over his head is a great relief for him. I was all ready to go out and celebrate when he got back on Friday ... but when I got home from school he was passed out on the couch catching up on sleep instead. Understandable.

I'm Boring

Usually, I like to blog about interesting or funny stuff that has happened to me, but lately I have a lack of exciting stories.


Some little things have happened:
-The weather is getting more spring-like down here in KS and I am realizing as I "age" that warmer weather and more sun brightens my day. It probably has to do with not being stuck inside buildings all day.
-I found out I recieved a $300 grant for my summer thesis research from the graduate school. I had to submit a proposal and application and apparently only 3 or 4 people received the grant. Other people think my research project is a worthwhile endeavor, so that's reassuring. $300 is not much, but it will pay for a radio-carbon date.
-Sue and Linda Graber came to visit this last weekend. I did not get as much school work done as I had planned, but it was wonderful to see them (and Nick, Dan, and Lacey). I am not sure I was much of a hostess, but it was great to have them stay with me. Anyone who wants to come visit is more than welcome to stay with me.

Okay, enough dicking around. I really don't have enough time for this blog thing!

Tired of the News

I'm really getting tired of watching CNN at the fitness center. Why can't they have the TV on the channel that shows Jeopardy! or the Simpsons or something? CNN and all those other news programs and stations (can't just judge CNN) run the "news" into the ground. I am so done listening about what is going on in Iraq or Iran, the Mexican-US border, and where Anna Nicole is going to be buried. Maybe being too knowledgeable about what is going on in the world is not good for me. I start to overanalyze it all and develop strong opinions based on information that has been filtered through the media. Are my developed opinions really worth keeping or do they just cause me unwanted internal and external conflict? See what this does to me? Yuck. Spring weather should get here as soon as possible so I can start running and biking outside again where there is no CNN.

Sick Again!

Exactly one month ago, I was ill for a week. I got over it and I thought I had paid my cold season dues. Jeremy got very sick starting Saturday night. I tried really hard to be healthy by eating well, getting enough sleep and washing my hands, but it didn't work. I woke up feeling quite under the weather this morning. I was going to rush to town to get some Airborne. Then, while watching a segment on the Today show this morning I learned that this one reporter found Airborne has no conclusive studies behind it and it has way too much "harmful" Vitamin A. Ahhhh ... what to do? All these opinions, studies and lack-of-studies out there with such different objectives and sometimes contradictory information! Well, I think I will stay home for now and eat oranges, consume liquids and rest. When I have to go in later today for some school business maybe I will drive by the pharmacy and make my cold remedy decision then.

How do you spell Puxatawny?

Alright, so it's February. It actually feels like winter here in KS this year. There is snow on the ground (snow snow and not ice snow) and it's cold. I find I use my snow boots a lot more here than I ever did in SoDak. Up north, when it snows or the weatherman even hints at snow, every business and the transportation department of every city and county takes precautionary de-icing methods. Then once it snows, the trucks and plows come out - even if it's 3 am - and do their thing. By the time I need to walk outside to do something the roads, sidewalks and parking lots are cleared. That is not the case in Kansas. Eventually it gets cleared away, but the snow can remain in parking lots and on sidewalks for a few days. They probably just don't have the manpower (as a conscientious anthropologist I should say humanpower) or the budget to get it done right away, but in the end I think more accidents are caused by poorly maintained roads and parking lots.

Another thing I noticed about when it snows in Kansas is that people get excited. This is not a bad thing, but it can cause traffic problems. They want to leave their homes and drive around in their usually unnecessary SUVs and trucks or their snow fearing Ford Festivas. I think I see way more traffic on the highway that runs by our house when it snows than any other time I drive it. The Kansans' "snow excitment" rubbed off on us so one of the days it snowed Javers and I put the new flashy red truck into 4 wheel drive and took it into town to run some errands. Jeremy ended up stopping to push/pull two different cars out of the snow.

I like the snow, though. It makes everything brighter. Some psychology organization should do a study on seasonal depression and see if people affected by it get happier when there is snow on the ground.

What else is going on? Not much. Same ol' same ol'. Last year at this time I had just moved to another state AND moved in with Jeremy AND started a graduate program so I was freaking out. This year I am far less exciting. I'm okay with that.

Oh Malibu

I got my student loan money a week ago and I went on a spending spree. My VISA bill from over Christmas, tuition and books were some of the most costly expenses. I also decided to pay off the rest of my car in one fell swoop since I only had a few months of payments left. Yesterday, I received in the mail the loan papers the bank had and a copy of the title they were holding. Wow, it felt so final and so exciting. Now all I want to do is get a new car. However, while I am still living off student loans and my lover I should probably just keep the Malibu, which, in all honesty, has been surprisingly reliable.

Holy shit, I'm going to miss the Golden Globes tonight! Whatever will I do!?

I have been on bit of a blog hiatus - the excitement of posting temporarily gone with my health. I'm not sure if it was a cold or some other kind of infection, but I have been doing a lot of sitting around and eating hot soup, oatmeal, clementines and cough drops. Today, I think I feel better, which is a good thing because classes start tomorrow.

I was working on my thesis proposal last week until I got sick on Thursday so I will have to finish that in the next couple weeks in order to apply for some grant money. The preliminary reading I am doing to write the proposal has been very interesting and enlightening. It is really getting me excited about going to Belize this summer.

In other news, Javers finally replaced the Taurus. He got a flashy red, but not unecessarily large and obnoxious, Ford F-150. It will actually be nice to have something that can haul bigger items so we don't have to borrow Chris' truck every time we need to go to the hardware store or get some furniture. Last week we actually ran into another friend, Brent, at Home Depot who offered to haul our dog house wood in exchange for some free beer and pizza. The poor Taurus had a slough of problems and it was really time to stop putting money into it. Jeremy told me he was going to trade it in at the dealership, but when he went to clean it out he got all sentimental and couldn't part with it. I think it will end up with someone from his family back in SoDak. Hmmm ... that kind of gift reminds of the problematic Taurus my parents gave me for my college graduation. We all know how quickly that relationship ended (with the Taurus, not my parents).

Tonight, Javers, Chris, Chris' friend and myself are going to our first WSU men's basketball game. Because they were so good last year going to a game is pretty popular now. When I picked up the tickets last week the guy at the counter said we should get there two hours before the game starts or it might be hard to find four seats together that are not way up by the ceiling.

The Last Day My Post Will Be Dated 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone! Or, here's the best greeting spelled out in lights I saw this year: Happy Holidays Jesus!! Nope, not Happy Birthday Jesus or just Happy Holidays, but Happy Holidays Jesus. It's the sacred/profane combo meal. Great.

Time to go shopping to get stuff for Belize. It just snowed here in SoDak. last night so thinking about the rainforest might warm me up a bit.