Matthew M: Erica, I want to congratulate you on having done so well in this prim--scrabble game.

Matthew M: We have both worked long and hard at winning the vot--points of each of the tiles, by playing them on the board.

Matthew M: I will graciously therefore accept your concession in this game, and look forward to joining forces with you against John McCain

Matthew M: You see, I have played more tiles this game, than any other candidate. I have the support of more letters of the alphabet than any other player in History!!!

Matthew M: It is UNFAIR to count letters like Z as 10, when no Democrat has won these tiles in the past 30 years, whereas I have played a majority of the "E"s that our party will depend on for victory in November

Matthew M: The point scoring system is inherently UNdemocratic, and I ask you to help me rectify this by dropping out.

Matthew M: You have run an awesome campa--game this time around, but I think you'll see that when we discount the words you played on triple word score spots (undemocratic again) and reapportion Zs and Ks to 1, that I have won

Matthew M: Thank you and GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!

I'm employed!

I got a job on my first try!  I'm working at Lindamood-Bell, right in town, helping struggling students learn to read, comprehend, and verbalize better.  Largely third-grade boys, I'm told.  Yesterday's screening went really well, and I think I'm going to like it.  I start Monday.  The biggest negatives are the rigid schedule and the dress code, but I guess the former is what we're getting paid for and the latter is to be expected.

I have to get my TB test and fingerprinting done tomorrow.  Whoot.

I still squee when I see archaeological cartoons show up in my regular comics.

Sappy post

I realized how great it is that I'm still in touch with my high school friends.  I'd like to give a shout out to my girls.

Jenny:  Our bond is unbreakable.  Tried, tested, and true.  And you taught me the most important lesson of all. Invincibilities.  We Are In.

Melissa:  Jenny said this first, not me, but it's so awesome how you love making friends with others who are different from you.  Who'd have ever thought that this blonde bombshell would be buds with an emo geek like me?  Rock on.

Alison: Every time I see you, it's like nothing's changed.  You're one of the most refreshingly alive people I know and a constant reminder of the importance of exploration.  

Kristin: You're like a big sister to me.  You continue to inspire and motivate me to this very day, just by being the amazing person you are.

~

Wherever my crazy travels take me, I take you with me.  I've never appreciated what I have more than I do now.  Better late than never.  So thanks.

How is 315-313 a draw?

Someday, someday I will beat my boyfriend in Scrabulous.  Every game I come closer, and watch in agony as victory is snatched from my fingers.

Apparently my tattoo figures prominently in the new Indy movie, which I still haven't seen.  I'm going with my family next weekend, if we can get Dad off his bum.  Gone are the days of "What is that supposed to be?"  From now on, people will say "Oh cool, an Indiana Jones tattoo!" and I will have to explain that, well, I actually got this before the movie came out, and I used to be a real archaeologist.  Mixed blessings, I suppose.

Why hello there.

There's not much point in apologizing to an invisible audience about my lack of blogging through April and May.  A lot happened during those weeks that I won't bother discussing here, and a few things that I will.  I like the idea of doing lots of little posts more often so that this process doesn't seem so daunting. 

The basic deal:  I'm in California, with my parents, looking for tutoring jobs.  Moving back to Cambridge in September, for more of the working life.  Got a nice little apartment with three of my pals and not so far from the rest of them (and my boyfriend).  It's nice to have a respite.

One of my favorite pastimes while not doing academic research has been pleasure reading.  Here is a list of all the books I have finished since March:

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

H.M.S. Surprise

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

I Am America (And So Can You)

The Female Brain

Girl, Interrupted

The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Plunder of the Sun

Water For Elephants

Look Homeward, Angel

Paint It Black

The Inheritance of Loss

I'm going to do a little 3-sentence review of each book, I think.  Later.

Where is spring?

My my, I am a lazy blogger.

Spring break came and went with little. I went to see The Honorary Title open for Mae last Friday, which was absolutely beautiful, but I'm too lazy to write a review. Also too lazy to write about politics, but I am very tired of them and I wish Hillary would throw in the towel already. She's kind of like this:



Also, I laughed at this until I realized it was not a joke.

10,000 B.S.

Folks, THIS is why archaeology is important. Unfortunately, it is also why archaeology will never make a difference. The public does not give a flying monkey about what actually happened in prehistory. The fact that this so-called film, 10,000 B.C., includes pyramids and (obligatorily evil) empires in the same temporal space as mammoths would not even be justifiable if the film itself weren't abysmal, but apparently it is. It is an even more egregious collapse of time than Mel Gibson's Apocalypto, which had Spanish ships poised to invade the Classic Maya civilization. By comparison, one might argu that this is so wrong it's not even trying to be right. It's fantasy. It's Lord of the Rings. Oh, EXCEPT SHITTY.

SIX PERCENT. Even the worst Star Wars prequels got 60%. SIX PERCENT. And ironically, my department got free passes to a special preview screening of this movie. Too bad it conflicted with our Wednesday night theory class. And by "too bad," I mean THANK GOD. Great ad for a movie: Not Quite As Good As Three Hours Of Arguing About Post-Processualism. Why do we even bother learning about the past if this is what people are going to do with it? Waste of time.

PHILIP! AAAAAAAHHHHHH!

WHOOT.

Saturday, my friends and I threw a surprise birthday party for Philip. In England, they have caterpillar cakes, and on pimpthatsnack.com, which transforms ordinary desserts into giant centerpieces, we found a giant caterpillar cake. This was obviously what we had to make for Philip. We also had to make it vegan, for Lindsey.

So Friday was an epic day of ingredients-acquisition, and Saturday was an epic day of baking, baking, and baking.






We made two test cakes with the vegan recipe. The first one came out too much like banana bread and nothing like cake. After asking Emma's kitchen wizard mom for advice, our second test cake was AMAZING. We knew we had hit the mark. (See photo, above: we ate it during the baking)

Lindsey approved:


Now we had to make ten of them.





The frosting was my ninja skills.

Once we had the ten cakes, it was time for the jelly filling:



And the stacking:


We cut a piece off to make a flat bottom and flipped the stack over:


Then we iced it. This is what we call the turd stage:


Then we added the features!



THE FINAL PRODUCT:


Unfortunately, since we had promised Philip we would also bake pizza that night (unrelated, he presumed, to his birthday), he came upstairs to find us in search of pizza, and saw the back end of the cake, whereupon Emma smacked him very, very hard and yelled him out of the room. Poor guy. I don't think he saw much, but he certainly knew something was up.

Then we got all piled into the kitchen to wait for Lindsey to bring Philip in. This was the result:








You can see me flitting around with the bright red and black armwarmers,going up to hug Philip after he hugged Emma. I look like the dork that I am. And that's Atanu behind the camera, with his great line about the knife.

Random blathering:







And then the cake cutting:







'Twas a grand time.