Well, hell, it only took a year

I have finally gotten around to posting some photos from my field season in Egypt last year November to December.
Ironically, I found out mid-way through my posting of photos that the field season for this year has been cancelled. Not unexpected, but still irritating and a very long story.
A few notes on the pictures:
- I've labeled them as fully as possible
- There are no photos of our actual excavations as I didn't want to risk breaking SCA regulations.
- There are few people shots, just because I didn't really think to take any and I feel weird taking pictures of people.
- This is only a very small fraction of the photos I took - most were of interest only to me or other Egyptologists, so I posted the ones that I thought might appeal to a broader audience. Or that I thought were especially cool.
- I have photos taken by other people, but unless I have their permission, I'm not posting them. Some friends may well post some in the future though, and if there are any that are particularly entertaining, I'll let you know.

Just Got Home to Chicago

We just got back. I'm tired and crabby - will post details later.

Another update

Susan has returned to Long Beach. Her house is indeed intact. There are some trees down and her insurance will not cover the removal of said trees as they did not land on the house. Therefore, Tom and I (and Oreo) are probably going to head down next weekend to help clear the trees.
If you're wondering at the delay it's because a) Susan has said that there is no hurry; b) we feel that the supply situation, especially regarding gasoline, may improve over the next week; and c) we wanted to give some warning to our employer before heading down. Fortunatley, Tom has vacation time accrued and even if he didn't no one here would begrudge him the few days off to go down and help out in a small way.
The trees did take out the shed in the back yard and the fence between her and her neighbor's property - which Brownie and Blue are enjoying immensely as, so far as they're concerned, they just got an extra yard in which to frolic and torment possums, squirrels, turtles, etc...
There are also trees that just fell on the ground. Crews are supposed to be picking up debris placed on the curbside sometime in the next few weeks, so unless someone has a pressing need for wet firewood and a truck in which to haul it off, that's where the trees are going.
As of the last attempt phone calls in to her land-line were not working. The line rings and rings and goes to her voicemail, but apparently does not ring in the house. Calls to her cell phone also do not work, but she is able to call out. Text messages will reach her, but are often delayed by a few hours or more.

For those who are wondering, Susan has evacuated from her home in Long Beach and is staying with friends in Tallahassee - she just arrived there about an hour ago.
I don't know how much computer access she will have over the next few days, etc., so I guess I'll be the updater until further notice.
Anyone else who wants to post news here is more than welcome and I hope everyone is safe.

Oh yeah, for those who were wondering I am still in the land of the living. I have a follow-up appointment with a doctor on Thursday so they can be sure I'm still alive and repeat their assertion that they have no idea what's wrong with me but "it might have been mono." I am feeling better and I took a lighter course load than usual this past quarter so I could catch up on everything from last quarter and in case I didn't wind up feeling any better. So today was my last exam all my papers are finished and I have a few months of sweet, sweet freedom before the next field season in Egypt during which I should:
- work on objects in the OI collection that involve my potential disseratation topic
- study for comps
- learn more colloquial Egyptian Arabic
- organize all my old course notes, articles and other assorted crap
- start planning for the course I might be teaching next year
- learn how to do kite photography (courtesy of MAKE)
Instead the summer is likely to be spent:
- sleeping
- reading anything and everything that has nothing to do with what I actually do for a living
- swearing at the television
- swearing at the dog
- more sleeping
- calling Fenway at work because I'm bored
- going to visit Fenway at work because I'm bored
- trying to explain to the Chicago PD at the Point that I am not in fact a "Homeland Security risk" for taking kite photographs, but going to jail anyway because apparently it's illegal to fly kites in the city limits, even though Mayor Daley sponsors a kid's kite flying schindig every year in Grant Park.
All this should culminate with a mad dash to get all my shit together to spend another 2 months in the desert, an attempt to actually figure out how the hell I'm going to do the kite photography, a frantic photocopying session to get all the sources together for ceramic analysis I'm theoretically supposed to be doing in the field, and a last minute effort at a syllabus that I'll email to interested parties from the airport on my way to London. And I suspect that I'll get by on the 10 word vocabulary and associated hand gestures that got me by in Egypt last year.

If you plan ahead for it, is it still procrastination?

Tut returns! (Sort of.)

Brought to you by the same marketing giants that brought you Celine Dion A New Day…Presented By Chrysler, the Eagles, Usher, Fleetwood Mac, Justin Timberlake and Christina Aguilera, Dixie Chicks, American Idol and Rod Stewart a few random pieces from Tutankhamun’s tomb equipment and a few other roughly contemporary funerary pieces... Probably worth a look if it’s convenient. Obviously if they can market the sad, sad list above they can make a several-thousand-year-old short, inbred dead guy interesting.

See website for locales and tickets. Supposedly this will bring in a whole mess of money. Maybe this means they’ll get the non-royal mummies out of “storage” in the stairwells in the Egyptian Museum. And maybe get climate control. Or at least an air conditioner. Or a few more placards in Arabic so the Egyptians can actually learn about their own stuff.

Here's the health update:
No malaria - or any other abnormalities that would easily explain my symptoms. However, on consultation with a specialist in infectious diseases I have been deemed "interesting" so I have to go see them next week. And have an echocardiogram the week after. Until then I'm supposed to rest.
The doctors are obsessed with the idea that this is linked to my field season - I think they might need to get over that, but hey, what the hell do I know?

It's been a while since I posted. I've been very busy. And lately I've also been very sick. Sick enough to finally drag myself over to see a doctor. And based on my symptoms and recent travel they think I have malaria. (Stop laughing.) Seriously - I freaked out the residents and the attending physician over at the hospital. They think I'm very "interesting" - this is never a good sign. I was in a room with a sliding glass door and as the resident who did the primary exam came in and out of the room asking me questions, he left the curtain open a little. A few seconds later about 8 residents sitting at a work station across from my room all suddenly turned to stare at me. I refrained from slapping myself against the glass and going "ooogha-boogha." So, the upshot is lots and lots of blood tests over the course of several days - I think I'm running out of blood (and other, less pleasant tests). I should find out Wednesday if science has a cure for what ails me. Never mind that the travel clinic and every official and unofficial source I consulted before and after my trip said that malaria preventatives (or prophylactics, if you prefer, but I'm not sure how to fit a condom on a mosquito) were unnecessary for travel to Egypt for the areas I was going and season I was there. My advisor has every so reassuringly suggested that it might be "some other tropical disease" - thanks, I needed that extra anxiety, I'm not tired enough.
In addition, I've been sick enough to get seriously behind on my work, which has led me to have to go to my varous professors and ask for extensions because I have a disease that hasn't been common in the US since, oh, the early 19th Century. Maybe I should just tell them I have the vapours.
By the way, feel free to laugh hysterically at the irony of my illness (if it is in fact malaria). I think it's pretty damn funny - almost a weird archaeological badge of honor. Of course, this is before an official diagnosis or treatment. I may not be laughing on Wednesday.