Things: they are a changing

Hello and welcome to the first post of 2010, from me anyway. I don't know if this year will be good or bad, but one thing I do know is that it will be different. For starters the work office has shrunk from 6 to 4 people (including me). The boss-man and our business admin have moved the "business" part of the office to what I assume to be the boss-man's place of retirement. Yet I don't believe he will retire in the next few years. So when I go back to work Monday morning, I am assuming that I will get to move my desk and all my stuff out of the dungeon (the lab) away from the dust, dirt, bones, and everything else you can think of to an actual office with... wait for it... a real window! It looks out to the lovely asphalt parking lot, but a real window with blinds and it *gasp* opens! Wow.

My sister, whom I live with, will be getting married in October... in Hawaii. So I will finally be able to visit Hawaii, Maui to be exact. And then we will be adding yet another boy to the household. heh heh. He's 40 something, but in reality he is an adolescent boy trapped in a man's body.

I will try to only work a 40 hour work week. While in the office anyway. When I'm in the field running a project it is near impossible. I'm lucky if I can keep it down to a 10-11 hour day while out and about. Perhaps this 40 hour a week thing will help in my lack of enthusiasm about the job. Don't get me wrong, I love archaeology and I like digging holes and walking around looking at stuff. I just don't like the, how should I say, the bureaucracy and how we are treated.

In other news: On my birthday while you all were either nursing a hangover or lounging on the couch stuffing your face with junk food watching college bowl games, I was lounging on the couch eating junk food watching a Dr. Who marathon on BBC America. Then went to Home Depot and bought some pine boards and cut them and fixed my bed so that the mattress will not fall down through the frame. Then I watched more Dr. Who. Ate more food, watched Dr. Who. You get the idea. So I guess this birthday was better than the last one. I didn't want a party or anything. And so I got to sit on my ass. Perfect.


My sis bought me a tree for my birthday. We went and picked him out today. We found him at Home Depot. The nursery was closed, sucks for them. We picked out a young magnolia. I think he will do great. His name is Brisco. We planted Brisco in our infamous tree killer spot. We first planted Bruce the spruce there last spring. We got Bruce in the mail with our Wall-E DVD. Bruce died soon after. We then planted Sam the walnut. Sam we found in our backyard. A squirrel left a nut and it sprouted. So we thought, why not? Sam died soon after. And so Brisco here is our third try. Brisco is young but not so little. I think he will survive. And if you get the link with the names, you are perhaps an even bigger dork than me, and I salute you!

By only working 40 hours a week, I hope to gain more actual home time. I want to explore and see my town and the surrounding parks, trails, and whatnot. I hate running and so to get in shape I want to hike. Sounds like a good idea to me.

I did a bit of research on NZ archaeology. The country and the environment/cultural laws are younger than any U.S. ones. Yet they seem to be much better off. And it looks like they pay better too. But it also is a very competitive market to get into. There just aren't very many jobs. One can hope, I suppose.

So here's to 2010. It will definitely be different than last year. And I'm hoping better.