A quiet night, a stack of books, a tuna melt on rye

We are finally on another phase III excavation (the kind that people think of as archaeology with the square holes and everything) which of course is pretty fun.  This is really what the entire company is waiting for at all times.  I'm on the smaller of the two sites that are open, so there are only eight of us there digging four units, which is rather nice.  The more people there are around, the more hectic it gets and nothing ever gets done.  Our site also has brand new buckets (despite the fact that mine seems to have a piece of gum stuck in it) so we have plenty of opportunity for naming them.  Anyone have any suggestions?

phoenix_silaqui and I had fun hotel times today.  At the  beginning of this ten day a couple of us were told that there weren't any double rooms (what we would usually stay in) available in the hotel until Wednesday, and that we would be in single smoking rooms until then.  I wasn't thrilled, since I don't smoke, and don't relish smelling like smoke, but what can you do.  We never heard anything more about how or when to move, and sort of forgot about it.  This morning two other girls were late to the site because they had been told at the last minute that they had to pack all their stuff, so the hotel staff could more it to their new room during the day.  We had already left and therefore could not be told to pack.  Instead, we came back at the end of the day to find all of our stuffed moved, and since we had been unable to pack it is all jumbled up in various bags and what not.  Grrr.  Apparently getting permission from my boss counts as getting permission from me, a precedent I'm not real wild about. 

You know what is not fun? Walking through a swamp all day only to come back to the hotel to find that they turned all the water off in order to install faucets in the rooms they are remodeling.  I've been sitting here for the last two hours dirty with twigs stuck in my hair and smelling like swamp waiting for the water to come back.  All I can say is it better be back with enough time for me to shower before I have to go to bed. 

Last night we had a Christmas party in our hotel, because that is what you do when you are an archaeologist and live in hotels. I provided the tree and the mulled cider (which turned out surprisingly well considering that Kat just handed me a bunch of stuff saying "I think these are all the ingredients" and I just guessed at proportions as I threw stuff in the crock-pot). I brought a can opener for my white elephant gift, which may just be my best white elephant gift ever - Bizarre as hell, but actually very useful. It even got stolen once, so I felt justified in my choice.

In other news, this year I went from never signing up for a fandom, holiday gift exchange to signing up for two - and one of them you make a present for everyone instead of getting assigned a person. I may now be in over my head. I did get me to make my very first wallpaper, which was kinda fun, so really a good experience so far.

Finally, I only have seven hundred some songs left to rate in my iTunes, a project I've been working on since the start of the year. That means I can finish by the end of the year if I rate thirty songs a day between now and then. I really want to make it so that I can officially declare 2009 the year of iTunes rating.

I don't even know what else could go wrong with work this week. Last night I spent at the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana trying to get the rental car whose battery died exchanged for one that worked. That only took two hours. Today, the other crew got locked in a property by the land owner and I had to go rescue them. Monday, it was the ferry that only ran twice a day. Wednesday was when we found out that our hotel only had internet in the lobby or the four rooms that asked for the modems they keep behind the front desk first. Really, I'm typing this sitting right outside the lobby -- and it is rather chilly.

I have some pictures.  First off, fair warning, I am not really a picture taker.  I'm always that person who packs a camera and then never takes it out of the bag because it doesn't occur to me to take a picture.  Ever. 

First off we have ( Jack O'Lanterns. )

See, the thing about living primarily in hotels is that you do everything in the hotel.  During December I carry around a mini tree with mini ornaments and re-decorate it every ten-day. Kat wanted to decorate pumpkins for halloween, so ten of us sat out on the balcony and carved pumpkins.  Mine was a little rotten, so it ended up with cancer of the jaw.  Then the air vent dried it out so it developed old man jaw.  It's the sad looking one third from the left. 

Then I have ( socks! )


They're the first ones I've ever made in proper sock weight yarn.  I've been working on them on and off since March or so.  The yarn was self-striping but I don't like the pattern particularly.  I didn't realized the stripes would be so varied in size although I probably should have guessed it.  I think I'll be going with solid colored or variegated yarn in the future and rely on knitted patterns to provide interest.