I'll never outgrow Halloween.

I love dressing up like a fool.  So sue me.

Sometimes, I drag Josh into the foolishness with me.

I don't quite know if this can top the Hippo from last year, but I was pretty amused with the way that our costumes turned out this weekend.  And with only a few hours before the party!  Success.  Winning, even.

Unfortunately, I'll be in the field tomorrow night and won't get to see any of the trick-or-treaters at our house.  Josh is stocked up on candy and we have a couple of pumpkins on the porch, so hopefully our neighborhood will see lots of little people dressed as goblins, fairies, and inappropriately-clad pop artists... or whatever the kids are dressing as these days.

Happy Halloween!!

Bicycle Neglect

Poor Gustavo.  Look how sad he is.

My work schedule over the last few months has made it incredibly difficult for me to keep up any sort of regular training schedule, and as a result I have spent embarrassingly small amounts of time on my bicycle.  This makes me unhappy.  I have had every intention of racing El Tour de Tucson again this year, but have finally had to concede that it simply can't happen right now.  I could probably finish the race, yes, but it would be miserable.  After enjoying El Tour so much last year, I just can't bear to think about doing it all by myself this year, not being trained for it, and getting a much slower time.  111 miles is a long way to be in pain.

I've gone out for a few decent bike rides over the last couple of weekends, and I plan to get in at least a couple of rides every weekend from here on out.  I finally have every weekend available again, which will help a lot.  I'm not planning on any other bike races in the near future, but I will definitely be trying to set some mileage goals for myself so that I can keep up my consistency.  I miss my bike.

Steel-toed Sally

Yes!

Is it weird that I'm super excited about the new women's steel-toed boots by Keen?  I spent quite a bit of time a few months ago trying to find some decent women's work boots, and was pretty sad to find very few decent options.  (A decent option, in my opinion, does not weigh 20 pounds, does not reach more than an inch or two above the ankle, is not a military boot, and looks as much as possible like a non-industrial boot.)  Then today, after finding out that I now am actually required to wear steel-toes for work, I find these!  Perfect.  And basically the same shoe that I already wear... just sturdier.

Man.  I really am hopelessly casual, aren't I?  I think I'd probably die if anybody ever asked me to come up with a "business" outfit.  I don't even think I know what that means.

One little, two little, three little postholes...

Last week some of us placed a friendly bet.  The large Basketmaker pithouse that we excavated had a gorgeous bench along three walls, and it became quickly obvious that the entire thing was lined with small postholes.  (For reference, here is a good example of a typical Basketmaker pithouse.  The layout of our structure was identical to this, only larger.)  So, we took wagers as to how many postholes were on the bench.  Guesses from the whole crew ranged from 60 to 100, and I put my money down on 78.  The actual number?  79!  I walked away from work with fifteen whole bucks.  

Sadly, the amazing archaeology on Highway 491 has been postponed for at least the next few months.  We had budget issues come up that prevented us from continuing until more funding comes through, and since it's starting to get pretty cold up there, we're not likely to start any work back up until sometime next spring.  I'm sad to leave just as things were getting really exciting, but I have to say that I'm happy to no longer be working 8 ten-hour days at a time.

I'm currently working on the air force base in Phoenix, with a new schedule of 4 days on, 3 days off.  Even though the archaeology is way less interesting (more on that later), this schedule is much more agreeable.  It's definitely going to be great to have all of my weekends available for a while, and maybe, just maybe, I can start riding my bike regularly again!  In the meantime, I'm adjusting to the roar of fighter jets overhead.  Damn those things are loud.

Kivalicious!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my job?  Well, I'm going to say it again.  I have the coolest job ever.  It's dirty, and it's exhausting, and it definitely doesn't pay the big bucks... but it makes me super damn happy.

I mean, seriously.  Look what I helped to dig up last week:

This is a keyhole-shaped kiva.  It probably dates to somewhere around A.D. 1000.  (A kiva is a subterranean ceremonial structure- they are still used in modern day Pueblos and exist for more than a thousand years into the archaeological record in this area.)  This is has a 50cm-tall deflector stone still standing in front of the hearth, a completely intact venilator shaft with nice stone-lined walls, and stone pilasters that would have helped to hold up the roof (which was removed when the structure was no longer in use).  Half of a whole pot sat on the floor, along with some metates and a few other small artifacts.  If you're not one of us, then you might not know that this is something that most southwestern archaeologists would love to excavate.  It was beautiful.

Then there was this beauty, which was found while we excavated a late Basketmaker III pithouse:

(It's a huge pipe... or, as I argued, maybe a prehistoric netti pot.)

And this:

And THIS!!:

I have seen uglier sandals than this one in museums displays.

This is not typical, and none of these are probably things that I will encounter on a regular basis in my career.  Then again, I said the same thing back earlier this summer when I was digging up whole pots and burned corn by the bucketful.  Awesome stuff seems to simply be falling out from under my trowel lately.

(Full disclosure here:  I helped to excavate the keyhole-shaped kiva in the first photo, but I was not actually the person who found either the axehead nor the giant ceramic pipe in the second and third photos.  I did, however, excavate the amazing sandal in the fourth photo, and also personally found a couple of smashed pots on the floor of a pithouse and some broken basket fragments.)

They're dropping like flies.

Congrats to Liz and Justin!

This past weekend, my good buddy and partner-in-adventuring Liz got hitched.  The wedding was held at Lost Dutchman State Park, with an amazing view of the Superstition Mountains.  Not too shabby, huh?

We arrived to the festivities on Friday night to party with the happy couple and other friends, went for a great hike up to the top of Flatiron Saturday morning, and celebrated the nuptials late into that night before finally crashing in our tent.  I must say, having your wedding guests camp at the reception site is a pretty fabulous idea.  The reception was a ton of fun, and I got to hang out with just about all of my favorite Tucson people (many of whom I don't get to see nearly enough).  This guy, for instance:

And these crazies:

And lots of other folks that I didn't get photos of!  And then there's this guy.  He's alright.

So another one bites the dust, but I'm super happy for Liz and Justin.  They're basically the same person, which seems to strangely work out pretty well for them, and their wedding was a perfect testament to their fun and outdoorsy-ness.  Well done, Mrs. and Mr. Cutright-Smith-Mapula, well done.

Havasu Falls (aka Definitely The Most Beautiful Place in Arizona)

This past weekend, for what was a very-belated-30th-birthday-present, Josh and I backpacked down to Havasu Falls.  (I gave him the permits for his birthday in June, but reservations for these permits have to be placed a few months ahead of time.  And the weather in October is way better than in June anyway.)

We had a fabulous time on the trip, and I can say that this is by far one of the most beautiful places that I've ever seen.  And so unexpected, right in the middle of the desert!  A true desert oasis.  I can't recommend this place enough for those who are looking for a fun and beautiful trip.  The hike is 10 miles each way, and with the exception of the first (and, therefore, last) 1.5 miles, it's really not all that bad.  Josh has already written about our trip and posted some photos on his blog, so I won't write much here.  But I will post some of the photos I took on my camera.

(click on any of the pics for a bigger view)

And, of course, Red Wine in A Nalgene!

Carrot Cake-off!

I absolutely love carrot cake.  Carrot cake is my favorite cake.  I first experimented with baking a carrot cake last spring for a potluck event, and found a great and simple recipe that turned out beautifully- complete with cream cheese frosting.  I perfected my own version of this recipe a couple of months later when I baked a carrot cake for Mom's birthday, and it turned out even more delicious than the first attempt.  I have faith in my carrot cake.  Therefore, when the idea of a carrot cake bake-off was hatched over beers late this past summer, I was immediately on board.  Megan and I talked about such an event for quite a while, building up the smack-talk and hype and recruiting other chefs with whom to compete, and the long-awaited Carrot Cake-Off finally came to fruition last Tuesday.

With approximately 20 people in attendance, we had more than enough "judges" to sample the six different carrot cake creations.  We came up with a scorecard that included six different categories, where each person chose their favorite cake for each category.  I would have preferred a more complicated scoring system that included a 1-to-5 ranking for each cake in every category, but this seemed a bit overwhelming to the mass of people who really just wanted to stuff their faces with cake.  So, we ate a lot of cake and then we chose our favorites.

(My cake is #4, the one on the red dish.)

I am very proud to say that my cake won the award for "Best Classic Carrot Cake-ness", which in my opinion is the second-most superior award next to overall best.  I'm a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to my carrot cake, and I think mine is pretty damn good in a traditional sense.  [Biased and/or overly-proud?  Nah...]  Lots of cinnamon, walnuts, carrots, cream cheese frosting... and NO DAMN RAISINS.  Raisins do not belong in carrot cake, people.  Anyway.  I also tied with Megan (appropriately, we decided) for the "Best Overall" award.  Hand-made, crayon-drawn awards were presented, and then everybody ate some more cake.

... and it is times like this that make me realize just how much of a crazy, competitive person I am.  Sigh.