Sunday, November 08, 2009
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Poor Snowball. Didn't like going to get his shots. He will be even more unhappy on Friday when his little fuzzy balls go away.
Snowball!
The woman at the Humane Society told me he is a "Flame-point Siamese." And confirmed that he is cross-eyed.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Forrest and I went to Casa Vicente for Spanish food. We both had the gazpacho soup. It was delicious.
Forrest is excited about the parsley.
I had given a talk there the night before, and was somewhat distracted by the food while I talked about archaeology. So I suggested we go there. Forrest's throat is mostly healed from his tonsilectomy, and he can eat normal stuff now. No more pudding and milkshakes.
The friendly black tomcat came by our table and agreed to pose for pictures.
Don't tell Puff.
It was a nice time. And then last night I had supper with Kyle and Todd at Indian Oven. Perhaps I should eat some 'Merican food today.
As an aside, alright I admit to being a bit gleeful that Carrie Prejean got caught having a sex tape. I wonder what that piece-of-shit Maggie Gallagher, who hyped her as the most virtuous woman ever, is thinking right now.
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
On a day when hatred and bigotry once again soiled my spirit, I have decided to focus on a happy moment.
October 1986, after wearing braces to correct my horribly crooked teeth for a total of 361 days, they were removed and suddenly I had a beautiful smile, something I could not have imagined would ever happen.
Anne-Marie and me. And a jack-o-lantern with braces.
I am wearing my favorite sweater, one that Mummy made for me when I was going off to college in 1982. I brought Anne-Marie, my cute orthodontist student from Belgium, a bouquet of carnations to thank her. Having straight teeth changed my life- gave me self confidence and made me feel less like the poor farmboy that I had been.
So a happy moment, indeed.
October 1986, after wearing braces to correct my horribly crooked teeth for a total of 361 days, they were removed and suddenly I had a beautiful smile, something I could not have imagined would ever happen.
Anne-Marie and me. And a jack-o-lantern with braces.
I am wearing my favorite sweater, one that Mummy made for me when I was going off to college in 1982. I brought Anne-Marie, my cute orthodontist student from Belgium, a bouquet of carnations to thank her. Having straight teeth changed my life- gave me self confidence and made me feel less like the poor farmboy that I had been.
So a happy moment, indeed.
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
A tragedy took place moments after this picture was taken.
Puff, Henny-Penny, and Don.
Henny pooped on Don's leg. Luckily, most of it hit the chair instead. It was embarrassing, however, to have it happen moments after you tell someone that she wasn't going to poop.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
My new hat.
Grandpa F. used to wear a hat like this.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Ralph touched everything in these pictures. I told him I would write that. Coincidentally, Ralph lived in Stargard, Poland, a small town of 71,000 people which I visited in 1998 while traveling to see the tiny town nearby where my ancestors came from in 1862.
Above the poop layer (which is often very green), will usually be a layer of trash thrown out after the pit was no longer in use. You typically find a lot of stuff that can often be linked to a particular household or family, in this case the people who lived at the house next to the warehouse/ore sampling works.
So today was our last day of digging at my current project and Steve was stripping alongside an enigmatic stone foundation and found the corner of an adobe brick house, one that appears on the 1883 fire insurance map. I was wondering if I would find this house, we had already found the nearby adobe brick warehouse/ore sampling works that appears on the maps. The 1883 map also has a small building labeled "W.C." for Waste or Water Closet. This was an outhouse, privy, or latrine (people call them different things). Basically, before indoor plumbing, people went outside and sat on a seat over a pit and pooped.
The map doesn't have a scale, but a nearby street was labeled as being 80 feet wide and coincidentally the width of the street matched the distance from the corner of the house to the outhouse. So I measured it off and had Steve strip over the area with the backhoe and like a miracle, up popped a bottle and a bunch of ash. So we had found the outhouse pit on the map. Actually, as it turned out, we found two outhouse pits, an earlier one and another cutting into the earlier one.
Jim and Steve completing the excavation of the outhouses.
Archaeologists like to find outhouse pits because they tend to have two things. At the bottom will be a layer of poop and you can take a sample of it and throw it in water and seeds float to the top, which can then be identified. You can find out what people were eating from this, as well as any animal bones tossed in or food or beverage bottles.
Archaeologists like to find outhouse pits because they tend to have two things. At the bottom will be a layer of poop and you can take a sample of it and throw it in water and seeds float to the top, which can then be identified. You can find out what people were eating from this, as well as any animal bones tossed in or food or beverage bottles.
T. A. Slocum bottle, for consumption or lung disease.
Above the poop layer (which is often very green), will usually be a layer of trash thrown out after the pit was no longer in use. You typically find a lot of stuff that can often be linked to a particular household or family, in this case the people who lived at the house next to the warehouse/ore sampling works.
Botica de la Providencia, Pedro Guerroro, Acambaro, CTO (sorry it is blurry, Botica is "Pharmacy").
The items discarded can tell you a lot about the lives of residents. In the upper outhouse we found medicine for tuberculosis (consumption). We also found medicine bottles with Spanish writing on them in both outhouses, probably suggesting that a Mexican family lived in the house.
Chamber pot lid.
Lots of interesting stuff including dishes (mostly undecorated), lamp chimneys, two human teeth, many small tooth paste bottles, and clothing buttons.
Brass pocket watch.
In the weeks ahead I will be analyzing the artifacts to identifying when the outhouses were filled, what ethnicity the people were, and what their socio-economic status was. Science!
Large porcelain doll head.
The presence of doll heads and a marble indicate that a girl and possibly a boy formed part of the family.
Tiny Frozen Charlotte baby.
Brent asked what happens to the site after we are done. In this case it is the location planned for a new parking structure. So the remaining ruins will be destroyed during construction. Luckily, we will have documented most of the site with out maps, notes, and photographs and collected a fair amount of artifacts, which will go to the museum for storage after my report is prepared.
We journeyed across town to Sandy, Mark, and Zane's house for the Pumpkin Carving Fiesta. Earlier I had come home from the dig and frantically made a white cake with vanilla cream cheese frosting for Patrick's belated birthday. I taught Forrest how to make the tomato-basil-red onion-mozzarella salad that everyone really likes. He sliced the vegetables carefully.
Patrick's bday cake.
Once at the S/M/Z estate we had veggie lasagna, a leafy salad, and the before-mentioned salad before we began to carve pumpkins. Before that we had an intense discussion, do you call it frosting or icing?
Forrest, Sandy, and Mark.
I was completely, utterly tired from being outside all day and I will admit, my pumpkin carving skills suffered.
Patrick slicing.
In contrast, the other guys did much better.
Forrest carves the tiny pumpkin I picked for him.
Some people showed surprising skills, especially since they are from a country that (zounds!) does not have Halloween!
Mark s work of art.
I managed to stay awake long enough to see most people's pumpkins completed and have a slice of cake (came out pretty good I boast).
Mark, Patrick, Forrest, Homer, Sandy, and Forrest.
