Kicking the habit.

You guys.  I think I may have actually done it.  For real this time.

I haven't had a Diet Coke in 16 days.  That's more than two weeks.  That's more than half of a month!  I have no idea when the last time was that I went so long without cracking open a shiny, silver and red can of aspartame.  I've half-heartedly tried to quit before, but this time it's for real.  I spent a full week dealing with headaches and honest-to-god withdrawls.  I'm over the hump now- there's no turning back.

http://www.nataliedee.com/index.php?date=050610

I've read plenty of articles and studies about how addictive diet soda can be.  I've always heard that it's bad for you.  I recently read this article, which states that "Women who drank up to 500 milliliters (about 12 ounces) of artificially sweetened beverages per week were 33 percent more likely to develop diabetes, and women who drank about 600 milliliters (about 20 ounces) per week had a 66 percent increase in risk."  The sad thing is, for the last decade or more, I've been drinking (quite a bit) more than 20 ounces of Diet Coke per day.  Great odds, right?

I finally reached a point where I decided to start caring.  So I finished off the last diet soda in the fridge and I forbade Josh from buying any more.  I think I may actually try to calculate how much money I'm going to save this year by not buying soda- surely it's got to be a sadly huge number.  My recycling bin is going to be a lot less full as well... so not only am I saving my future health and saving money, but I'm saving the environment too!  I guess that makes up for the daily lack-of-caffeine headaches I'm still adjusting to.

Valentiniversary 2013

I am firmly against first dates happening on Valentine's Day.  I think it is an awkwardly horrible idea.  Due to this fact, the first date I went on with Josh happened to be February 17th.  So for the last few years we've combined Valentine's Day and the anniversary of our first date into one.

We had originally planned to go camping somewhere pretty this year for our Anniversintine, but the weather made that a very un-enticing prospect.  Instead, we decided to head north.  (And conveniently, Monday was president's day so we had a long weekend to take advantage of.)  Josh had never been up to the Taos area, and neither of us had ever visited the famous Ojo Caliente hot springs, so we decided to check a couple of places off of our New Mexico bucket list.

We drove up to Taos Saturday morning.  Had there been more snow, we probably would have skiied or snowshoed, but since the weather was sunny and we were in full-fledged relax mode, we spent the day wandering around town being tourists.  We checked out the local shops, I drooled over rugs that I couldn't afford, we visited a wine tasting room for a local winery, we drove out to stand over the Rio Grande Gorge, and we topped the night off with a fantastic dinner on the plaza.  Unfortunately, Taos Pueblo is closed during the month of February so we couldn't tour the pueblo on this trip.

Sunday morning we left Taos and drove down to Ojo Caliente.  Ojo Caliente is a pretty well-known resort and spa that is tucked back in pretty much the middle of nowhere, New Mexico.  I have always heard about this place since I first moved to NM for college, but I'd never been there or really known what it was about.  The hot springs there have been used as long as people have lived in the area, and the first 'bathhouse' was built there almost 150 years ago.  That fact alone makes it pretty awesome.  Today they have a hotel and restaurant and things are pretty modernized... but all of the pools are fed by the natural springs and the surrounding landscape is totally natural and wild.

Josh scored us a sweet deal at the spa that included full access to all of the public pools, hour-long massages for us both, an hour in a private pool at sunset, and a night's stay in the resort.  It. was. amazing.  The massage was the best I've ever had, the private pool included a kiva fireplace and a bottle of wine, and the seafood curry soup at the restaurant was to die for.  This is definitely the kind of place I can justify dropping a few hundred bucks on for a weekend of doing absolutely nothing.  Doing nothing never felt so fantastic.

Of course, no trip would be complete without a little bit of archaeology.  Monday morning we took a nice little hike from the resort up to a pretty amazing ancestral Tewa archaeological site that sits on top of the mesa right above the hot springs.

'Twas a pretty spectacular weekend.  Four years down!

It's cold outside, I've got free time... looks like I'm going thrifting!

Now that I'm home and actually have time to do things like a normal person again, I can get back to working on fun furniture projects!  This is pretty exciting.  Also exciting is that at some point in the near (hopefully) future, I will have a new house to decorate and fill with pretty things.  It is taking every ounce of my will power to avoid running out and buying a million rugs and flower pots and awesome things for our new place, but I'm being good.  Once I've signed the closing papers though, the floodgates are flying open.

I made some pretty good Craig's List and flea market finds over the last couple of weeks.  New Mexico is seriously one of the best places to find really cool old stuff for cheap.  Good thing I like the look of rough, old stuff!

I picked up this rug from a guy on Craig's List.  It went a little over the limit I had set for myself to spend on Craig's List items (I always set my CL searches to under $100), but I just couldn't say no.  I love it.  Should look pretty great over a nicely refinished wood floor, eh?

Mom and I came across this chair at the indoor flea market.  It was heavily stripped and the wood was dry and the slats were a little wobbly, but it was only $20.  So I bought it.  I'm currently working on fixing it up and making it look pretty, and Mom is going to help me make a cushioned seat for it.  Pretty excited about this one.  I'll post photos when it's finished.

For some reason I've been a bit obsessed with textiles lately.  I'm constantly searching for cool rugs, blankets, and other assorted woven things.  One of these days, I'm just sure that I'm going to hit the jackpot and find some kind of amazing vintage Pendleton blanket at a thrift store for five dollars.  One day...   Anyway, I found this little guy at the indoor flea market too.  Originally I had planned to use it as upholstery for the seat of my new chair, but then decided that I kind of like just having it hang on the wall.  Not sure what it will end up being used for, but it was worth it for a few bucks.



And finally, the most... interesting... thing I've found at a thrift store, possibly ever, is this piece of art:

I've seen my fair share of really bad and really tacky artwork involving Pueblo pottery designs.  But this takes the cake.  Does somebody want to deconstruct this for me?  I am confused by this on so many levels.  Where is that blue light inside the pot coming from?  What is the white animal supposed to be- a jackrabbit, an antelope?  What the hell is going on here?  What does it mean?  This was too bizarre to pass up, so I bought it.  I gifted it to my friend Sam (a fellow southwestern ceramics person) to hang in his university lab, and then he scanned the image so that others of our ceramicist friends could also enjoy being able to see this wonderful art every day on their office walls.  I'm contemplating the option of having it printed on canvas and hanging it across from my desk at work.  You know, to class up the place.

Non-Vegas, Nevada

Have you ever been to Nevada?  I mean, the non-Vegas parts of Nevada?  No, I figured not.  I don't think most people have.  Since the beginning of December I have spent the equivalent of a full month in Overton, Nevada for work.  It's only a little over an hour away, but Overton is about as different from Vegas as you could imagine.  We're talking old Mormon mission schools, painted ponies, and vast stretches of muddy hills and rocky outcrops spanning every horizon.  It's a pretty place, with lots of history and interesting archaeology... although I can't honestly say that I'm sad to be finished with the project.

We got the truck stuck in a wash, we got rained on, we chatted with shotgun-wielding locals, and we visited local casinos... and in the middle we surveyed 4,500 very rough acres and recorded about 40 archaeological sites.  I had to pull a few cholla out of my shins and I even got to see my very first Joshua Tree up close and personal.  Prior to this I'd never done any work in Nevada, and it's been a fun experience.  We managed to find time to tour through Valley of Fire State Park and the check out the north end of Lake Mead (which, to be honest, doesn't have much going on anymore), and we got to know all three of the restaurants in Overton pretty well over the course of our stays.  It's amazing how much of a place you can get to know when there just isn't much to do.

This project in Overton marks the first time that I've been assigned the role of Project Director.  I was entirely in charge of all fieldwork, and now that I'm back in the office, I am responsible for most of the report write-up as well.  Being in charge is kind of exciting.  I'm feeling pretty good about where I'm at with work right now.  In the last week, I've gotten both my own company credit card and business cards!  I feel so professional.  Now that I've put in more than my share of fieldwork over the last 1.5 years, I am pretty excited about being able to spend the remainder of 2013 (!) working out of the office and having a predictable schedule.  This also means that I can finally replace the dead potted plants in my office- and have a real chance at keeping the new ones alive!