Opening of the third session. Middle of the third session. Practically the end of the third session

I am turning into a lab person, I fear. Yesterday (it would have been Tuesday the 26th) I had the option of staying at the lab for another two and a half hours and doing stuff, or going the half hour's drive to the dig and possibly finding stuff. Perhaps it was the heat, or the fact that I had forgotten to bring suitable footwear, but I stayed in the lab and organized. Obsessive counting through consecutively numbered bags, with consecutively numbered cross-references.

let's see: that Monday, I met Heather (a repeat offender from the last several years) and Cos (who has been around a couple of times since 1999) at SNHU, along with Seth, who was coming back, and Nancy. Doug and Sarah gave moral support while I waited, and then the next day we had orientation one last time. That was when I stayed at lab rather than drive to Manchester for perhaps an hour's worth of digging, and did cataloguing instead.

They have been doing some shovel test pits (STPs) in the woods to the far south, on a really steep slope, and the these little doomed bits of land produced impressive numbers of flakes and pottery crumbs (I think these people ate a great deal of pottery but not many animals, which might explain why we have so little bone... or it might be the acid soil, I suppose). We have not been doing terribly well on getting the impressive artifacts. But I am getting faster at telling rhyolite from hornfels and the rare and sexy bit of chert. Every piece of information I get about the look of cord-marked vs. fabric-impressed pottery makes me hope more that they will be getting a real pottery expert in to look at things When All This Is Over.

There have been a number of interesting developments offsite: The head of the Sargent Museum has resigned, which is hard on all of the Sargent Museum people. I think that was probably Wednesday a week ago.

I think it was Thursday before last that my housemate Sarah told me she would be moving to Canterbury Shaker Village in a couple of weeks. I can't blame her for wanting to lose the 45-minute commute each way from here to her work.

The heat finally broke maybe last Sunday or Monday, not a bit too soon, and even though it's no longer in the 90's the 80's are quite impressive enough.

SNHU's housing facilities closed down and Cos and Nancy spent Friday night here, and then Nancy went off to find a campsite closer to the dig and Cos stayed through Tuesday and cut my lawn. Monday night I acquired Heather at a deal with her parents in the Mexican restaurant. Unfortunately I don't get to get keep her more than a week. She makes a good set with my equally entering-sophomore daughter and they stay up late watching Pride and Prejudice.

The Internet-enabled computer at the lab has come down with a bunch of virus that makes me glad I am a Mac user. It is very wrong of me to hope they will have to throw it away and at least get one that can run Windows XP.

And the party will be here Friday night. Tonight Dick is feasting me and Jen, tomorrow is my son's 21st, celebrated in lovely Saugus, MA, and I hope if I give people enough beer they won't notice how the house looks.


More archaeology soon, I promise.