2011, over and out.

Tomorrow morning our vacation is officially over and we are heading back to Tucson.  I'll update with photos and stories from Hot Springs in the next few days.

Hard to believe it's a new year already.  2011 has seriously flown by.  I've spent more time over the last 5 months sleeping in hotel rooms than I have in my own bed, which I'm sure accounts for some of the reasons why I feel like my life has been one big busy blur as of late.  Not that big, busy blurs are bad- I quite like keeping busy- but I haven't felt particularly relaxed in quite some time.  Maybe I'll be able to work on that in the coming months.  But as years go, 2011 wasn't all that bad.  We took some pretty awesome trips, I got to do some pretty fantastic archaeology, and I made some new great friends.

I'm not sure what 2012 has in store for us yet, and although I've tried hard to avoid thinking about it, I think some big changes are on their way.  My mood swings in regards to this from one extreme to the other on a daily basis lately, but I'm going to try my damnedest to be optimistic about things as this new year begins.  You know, assuming that the Mayans were wrong about that whole calendar thing.  

Bring it on, 2012.  Let's see what you've got.

Happy New Year, folks.

Texas Holiday

We loaded up the car and the pups and headed out of Tucson early Tuesday morning for the 16-hour drive to Victoria.  We finally got in around 1:30am, but for the most part, the drive was easy.  Just incredibly boring.  And thanks for small miracles, both dogs did really wonderfully in the car (Sienna was a nervous and confused wreck, but otherwise pretty mellow- ha!).

We've mostly just hung around the house since arriving... we took a trip down to Corpus Christie to see the beach (what little of it was there) and eat some seafood, but otherwise we've been mostly sitting around and watching Christmas movies.  Tomorrow, we head to Arkansas to spend a few days with Josh's family and friends.  Here is a photographic run-down of the last few days:

Thanks to Dad for the awesome roof cargo box... now way we could have made the trip with both dogs without it!

Yes, I drove 16 hours with a lit Christmas tree on the dashboard.  No shame.

Wrapping presents with 'Bad Santa'.  I probably enjoy this task way more than a normal person should.

I baked!  Andes Mint chocolate chip cookies.  Best.cookies.EVER.

Walking the beasts at the park down the street.

Cooking, with a rapt audience.

Happy Christmas!!

Quick trip to the Bay

This past weekend Josh and I took a very quick trip up to the San Francisco Bay area.  Josh had an interview (more on this later), so we got to spend three days in the area for the cost of almost nothing.  I ate my fill of dungeness crab, sourdough bread, and sushi.  I miss fresh seafood so much!  We spent all day on Sunday driving the Pacific Coast Highway and checking out the beaches and parks along the way, and did a bit of driving through San Francisco too.  I've gotta say, living in or near a big city like SF has almost zero appeal to me, but in exchange for being so close to the beautiful coasts, I think I'd consider it.

Now, onto Texas!  We'll spend the first half of our trip with Mom in Victoria, then after Christmas we will head up to Hot Springs, AR to see Josh's mom.  It'll be our first long road trip with the dogs... fingers crossed.

Wah-choo-ka.

I've been battling a cold for the last week, which has been less than pleasant.  But, at least I wasn't up in Phoenix listening to fighter jets all day.

This past week, I was sent down to Fort Huachuca to help with some site reevaluations.  I'll be there for another week or two, and then will head back up to Phoenix.  Sierra Vista is a helluva lot prettier than Phoenix, but I'll be happy for the slightly warmer temps up north.  When we arrived in the field this past Tuesday morning, the truck thermometer read 19 degrees.  Nineteen degrees!  That's just wrong.  No wonder my cold isn't going away.

A few things of note from this past week:

1.  The Army is way more laid back than the Air Force.  That is my totally uninformed, outsider perspective on it.  

2.  UXO is quite possibly the scariest three-letter acronym I've learned in a very long time.  Especially on a base that's been around for almost 150 years.  We had a UXO Safety training class on our first day of work, in which they showed us many examples of the horrible, scary things we could possibly encounter while hiking around.  This particular base has bombs/mortars/rockets/mines/etc from every war from the 1870s on.  I mean, I knew that they used some f-ed up sorts of weapons during WWII and Korea, but damn.  Actually holding some of these things and hearing about how they work and why they were created made me feel slightly squeamish.  Weapons freak me out anyway, so this was especially unsettling.  We didn't find any UXO, although we walked over quite a bit of shrapnel in a couple of places.  Gives me the major heebie-jeebies.   [Disclaimer: Yes, this is a real danger while working in this area, but the chances of us finding anything dangerous are quite low.  I think I am hyper-sensitive about stuff like this, and nobody else, including the army range management, seemed to think we had anything to worry about.]

3.  There is a large tethered surveillance blimp that flies over Fort Huachuca every day.  It is apparently used by the military, the Drug Enforcement Agency, and our good buddies the Border Patrol.  Who knew?

4.  Because the Huachuca mountains (which are directly south of the fort) are on the national border, this is a popular spot for illegal border-crossers.  We found a leather wallet last week, which conatined a man's ID card from Honduras and a hand-written list of phone numbers.  We also came across a couple of discarded backpacks, which are a common find around border areas.  I feel bad for the people who decide to make a run across the border and find themselves attempting to cross an army base.

5.  While getting ourselves turned around on dirt roads, we passed by a scenario camp complete with razor wire, big green tents, and hum-vees.  Then we turned a corner, and saw approximately fifteen men in long white robes walking towards us.  So we quickly turned around and went the opposite direction.  Apparently there was some sort of middle eastern role-playing going on.  Talk about unexpected!

6.  A good base layer of long underwear is my best friend for the remainder of my time at higher elevations.  The desert has really made me pathetically weak to the cold.

Four-eyes.

Somebody got fancy new glasses!  Even though I only really need them for reading and night driving, I have a feeling I may be wearing them more often.  Just because.