Okay, it's true.  I've been neglecting the blog.  Not necessarily because I wanted to.  I've just been bombarded with life as of late.  Not bad things, necessarily, just busy things.  For one thing, I've started running.  I'm not a good runner so even running for 3 minutes straight is pretty difficult for me right now, but I really want to do it, so I'm going to keep trying.  Another thing that I've started, which is easier for me but still a challenge, is I've decided to get back into writing again.  To help with this, I joined a writing critique group.  Sometimes we do challenges that are assigned and sometimes we just bring in whatever we want.  The other people in the group are a bit older than me but that's good in a way because they have more experience and insight into how to get published.  And that is what I want, eventually.  I'm working on a fantasy-ish sort of novel that could potentially be awesome or could potentially be horrible.  Some horrible books do get published, but I don't want mine to be one of those.  I'm reading a really awesome book right now called "The Soul of the Ghost Moth" about an entomologist's journey to "enlightenment," I suppose you would call it.  It has to do with radio wave receivers and the collective mentality of moths and other things.  I'm not doing a very good job of describing it but it is cool.

In other news, we now have two dogs.  Not really by choice and I'm sort of frustrated by the whole situation, but Girl Dog, which is what I call her, is really sweet despite being a rottweiler and it's not her fault that her previous owners were irresponsible.  So for now she is ours and that is that.

Presently, I'm taking a break from work, and from Albuquerque, to kill off my remaining annual leave and spend the holidays with my family in Michigan.  I would have liked Matt to come with me, but the expense and the issue of what to do with the dogs kept him in Albuquerque.  I just hope he is not too lonely on Christmas, because I would be.

Anyway, I'm going to try to reach back into the archives of my mind and make some posts about the rest of field season and some other things that went on.  But it may be a while, so don't hold your breath.