Amateur Meterologist?

Apparently Jennifer Scriven (another anthro. student) is an amateur meterologist. That is what she told me. Is there some sort of association or organization for these people? Anyway, she just came running into my office to tell me that there is going to be an ice storm tomorrow afternoon and Thursday. She went into details about layers of the atmosphere and suggested I stock up on groceries because it could be a whole day before I get to a store. I hope I can go 24 hours without a trip to the grocery store. What if I run out of sqaush!!!!

But seriously, Jennifer if you ever read this, I'm glad you have passion for the weather. You never know, your warning might have just saved my life or at least made planning my week easier. Thanks.

Thanksgiving

How was everyone's Thanksgiving? Mine was eventful, but relaxing. We took Emma, our new dog, home because Jeremy wanted to take her hunting and show her off to his family. I'm not even going to lie, I was annoyed that we had to take the smelly puppy in the car with us and I might have said some mean things to her and Javers about it. I usually think it's silly when people take their pets on road trips. But it ended up working out fine. The ride made her sleepy so she just laid around almost the whole time. I fed her too many treats toward the end of the ride on the way up and five minutes before we got to Reed and Sue's she barfed. Then she ate the barf. Yum. Actually, it was kind of nice because we didn't really need to clean it up.

It was good to see some of those folks I don't run into very often. This is going to sound cliche, but Polly's son, Sam, is getting so big. He was running around pounding on things and throwing puzzle pieces on the ground. I thought it was cute, but I got to leave after a couple hours. I'm sure I would be slightly less amused if I lived with him 24/7. I have a recent picture of him on my fridge. If you visit me you can check it out.

While I was eating and chatting with relatives and friends over the week and weekend I realized I should put some pictures of the house on the ol' blog. When the semester and stress wanes I'm going to do that.

qwerty

Last week, I was at the Plains Anthropology Conference in Topeka. Most of the sessions I went to were really interesting and I got to hook up with some archaeologists from SoDak. so that was exciting. I also presented a paper at the conference about an archaeological site in the Texas Panhandle with an extraordinary amount of skeletal material all in one 6m x 6m room including a mysterious pile of ten skulls near the hearth. Sounds like something from an Indiana Jones movie, eh? While the biological anthro. students analyzed the skeletal material, Ingrid and I presented on the archaeological background of the site. One of the guys we cited extensively, Christopher Lintz, was in the audience. Afterword, I was introduced to him and he told me of some other sources we could investigate that might aid our research. It was really neat to meet Lintz.

Last night I went to an Alice in Chains concert here in Wichita. Good times and no one in my party lost clothing, got mauled, beat up or arrested and that's always nice.

You probably heard - Thanksgiving is coming up next week. I am so ready for a break. (Ha, I'm always ready for a break.) I am so ready for turkey and pumpkin pie too. Speaking of pumpkin pie, make sure y'all head to your local DQ for a delicious pumpkin pie Blizzard.

p.s. Thanks John and Sara for the pear salt shaker and pepper grinder. It is my first pepper grinder and it makes me feel like I have really stepped up in the world of cooking now that I have one. I'm currently trying to convince Jeremy we need to take a short vacation to Tampa this winter.

Protein Packed

Jeremy woke up before me yesterday morning and offered to make me breakfast. It was such a nice gesture, but I had to laugh becuase I was trying to sleep and he kept waking me up to ask questions like "do you want coffee?" and "do you want eggs?" and "how do you want your eggs done?" Then he woke me up one final time to tell me my plate was on the kitchen counter wrapped in aluminum foil. When I finally got up and pulled off the aluminum foil I saw that he had made me two eggs over-easy and a huge pork chop. It was like supper for breakfast. Ha, I think I got my supply of protein for the day in that meal. It was really good, though. The man knows how to work a coffee pot and use an iron skillet.

My Life as a List

I have lapsed in my postings. Ah, such is the life of someone who is too busy to have a life. I don't even take time to feed the cat that came with the new property, but he/she is not friendly at all. I figure I'll start feeding it when I can get something out of the relationship too. Now, I know that is not how one works with animals, but I frankly, I don't give a damn.

So, what's new? (I'm resorting to list format to save time)

-The temperature has remained relatively normal in my office so that's pretty exciting.
-Jeremy's brother and two of his friends spent two weeks with us shingling the roof and putting in tile flooring in the kitchen and a bathroom. It looks good. Y'all should come out and visit us and look at it. Remember, I have a really plush towel you can use when you shower.
-I spoke to a group of 8th graders and their parents about archaeology. It was a tough crowd because I had to be interesting to youngsters and older adults. After my presentation the kids showed me what they were working on in the archaeology unit at school. It was really cool, they made up "cultures" then constructed "sites" in Rubbermaid tubs and had to excavate and interpret what they dug up. What a great idea.
-Jeremy bought a dog. Emma is a red lab approx. 13 weeks old. She is pheasant hunting with him today, but I doubt she is being very helpful. When I was gone last week he said he sometimes accidentally called the dog "Amber." Uh, that's freaky.
-I went to a museum conference in Hays, KS last week for a couple days. It was very informative - I wish I could have gone to these conferences when I actually worked at a museum.
-This coming week I have another conference. This one is the Plains Anthropological Conference in Topeka, KS. I am actually presenting a paper which will be a good experience and look wonderful on my resume but preparing for it is kicking my ass. I can't wait until I get paid to do this kind of stuff. I hope I get paid to do this someday!
-Thanksgiving is coming up and I'm pretty pumped for a break. Hopefully, I can get all my work done ahead of schedule (don't laugh!) so I can actually appreciate a break from work and school.
-Speaking of lists, I really need to go grocery shopping. We don't have much selection of food at home right now. I found a can of Cream of Mushroom condensed soup in a cupboard and made some for supper last night. Yuck, that stuff is better in caseroles than by itself. I decided to have cereal instead. Maybe I'll have popcorn and canned black beans for lunch.