You've Been Chopped.

In my life before this one, I ate a lot of terrible food.

It was fried. It was coated in Ranch. It came out of a box. The first meal Mr. Ex made for me included both cream-of-something soup and Velveeta. A sweet gesture. Also somewhat life threatening. We ate like college students who could afford the calories....but not much else. Granted, this was not always the case. But for at least 4 of the 5 years of our marriage, Hamburger Helper made a regular appearance at the dinner table.

Please don't judge me.

The loss of 20ish pounds during the first year of my divorce may have had something to do with a total lack of trans fat and salt. Also, it is not easy to cook like a professional chef for just one person. And as you are aware, Singletons eat a lot of cereal.

Enter ArchyG, and I am suddenly channeling Martha. And Nigella. (Have I told you about these Chocolate Hot Pots? Because you should probably go make them now.)

A couple of weeks ago, I broke down and joined the 6 million Americans who need to vegetate at the end of the day.

 

Have you seen this thing? Have you seen how many amazing shows about cooking there are on this thing? Marth and Nigella have their own shows! You can watch them, salivate, and NOT GAIN ANY WEIGHT!

Except that Archy G and I get a little inspired...particularly with the cooking challenges!

Ok. Archy G gets a lot inspired...

and I find myself becoming a sous chef, dish washer and official grocery shopper. Thanks to Chopped and Iron Chef, my days of menu  making seem to be a thing of the past.

Pretty much I come up with some general ideas for meals based on my arguably unruly collection of cooking magazines and books and my newest obsession of collecting MORE recipes on Pinterest...get some ingredients for those meals...and then we make something completely different. Pasta from the box with a jar of spaghetti sauce? Nope. Let's make Bolognese sauce with the ingredients for Saturday's chili. And maybe you could just whip up some noodles with the stuff you need to make that apple pie for Sunday.

Lucky for you, between washing dishes and providing supervision (I am a Virgo, after all...do you really think I would let him totally take over??!!), I take pictures. Obnoxiously.  And not at all artistically.

We even tested out these cooking skills on some friends a few weeks ago. Yep, we have so much fun, we hosted a dinner party! Remember all those fish? Did you know it takes like chicken??!!

 Which became brunch the next day...

I wish you could scratch and sniff these pictures. And maybe take a little taste. But not too much. Archy G made that for me.

As far as those post divorce pounds...well, I would like to say they have stayed off.

We're trying.

But all this cooking takes so much time.

In Which We...

See that?

Can you guess what I've been up to?

I'll give you another hint.

And just to make your head spin, here's the kicker.

Yep. We went fishing. Me. Archy G. ArchaeologyDad. In my hometown. Yep. You read that right. We went. Together.

And what a success it was... Though there were a few assess...(but not that handsome guy...)

And a heck of a lot of fish. Like 13 on the first day...

And then on the second day...

We spent two hours cleaning all 61 of those fishies. I say "We" loosely...because eewwww. Fish guts are gross.

 Also so are worms. But that is neither here nor there when the two dudes you like the most are in the boat with you.

After a big day of fishing, Mom fed us my favorite meal of alllllll time. Ever. And she made enough for leftovers for the rest of the week. Because she is the best Mom ever...

It was a really fantastic weekend. And yes, it was the first time all of these people have been in the same place together. The first big meeting that I've had like this in 6 years.

 So yeah. It was kind of a big deal.

Happy Easter!

Ok, so I am a week late with this, but I just wanted to say "Happy Easter!"


I made a mess of Carrot Cake Cupcakes...

 We dyed some eggs....

 Mr. ArchyG made us a delicious breakfast...

 And we all had too many jelly beans and chocolates...

How was yours?

Ohhhh S&^%!!!!

OMG!!!! THERE IS A DINOSAUR IN MY HOUSE!!!

 

And now I can't find him! 

I know what is going to happen next! I saw it in a movie  

THREE DIFFERENT TIMES!

I guess I know how Chase the Fish feels now.

Twenty-five years in the making...

In true ArchaeologyAsh fashion, I have gone yet another full month without writing a blog. I know that I promised you more blogs in March...and I failed.

With good reason though!
First....I made a quick trip to Phoenix to see Erica and meet her new Little Man, Drew Cooper.

I had my camera charged up, ready to take 40 dozen photos of the trip. Except that it somehow managed to turn on. And turn off. And turn on. And turn off. About 40 dozen times in its case. In my purse. When I pulled out the camera for baby-razzi, it was completely dead. And I didn't have the charger. I stole this from Erica's Facebook page....isn't he a cutie? I may or may not have made the blanket. There is no other photographic evidence to confirm this.

After a crazzzzzy whirlwind three weeks that included relearning how to ride a bike...

I made my way to San Diego for a Society of Nerdy People Who Live in California and Like Old Things Meeting. I have to go to that meeting every year, just to make sure I am up to date on all the newest information about old things. And dirt. Every year I think to myself: "Self, you should spend less time at the talks and more time exploring the destination and pretend to be on vacation." Then every year I spend too much time listening and talking and shopping for new books about old things and totally miss out on the exploration part and come home too exhausted to do anything but read my new books about old things and wonder why I am so tired from just listening and talking.

I'm pretty sure that Indiana Jones went to professional conferences. And when he did, I think he looked like this:

Because everyone knows that professional conferences are the place where you go to meet colleagues, make contacts, and if you are lucky...get a job in this incredibly competitive field of old things! Its kind of like a job interview, so dressing like you give a Damn (which the title of this blog suggests I do) is sort of part of the unspoken rules of behavior for these events.  So what is with the kids these days wearing this?

I realize that at the rip old age of 30, and a career that lets me wear Carhartts and boots 70% of the time, I should not judge...but seriously. This is the one time of the year the grungiest of the grungy get to wear their suits and dress pants and the spring line from Banana Republic. My own Mr. Wranglers and Camo Hat wore a Suit Jacket and Fancy Pants. I wore heels! Needless to say, I was insulted by the undergrads in Cut-off Daisy Dukes that showed off what I can only assume is the Business they are really in. Ladies, even if Jessica Simpson and Vogue say "This is the Modern Woman's Look," trust me...it is not appropriate Conference attire. Ever. Its not even considered "Business Casual"and it is never okay to wear shorts to a meeting with clients or, in our field, a tribal consultation meeting! "Yes, I hear that you are unhappy with the proposed project and potential impacts to this site, please let me distract you with my naked thighs and polka dot thong." I know, I know...not exposing our ankles is a thing of the Victorian Era...but the 2010s doesn't mean we need to expose our WooHoos just because we want to be fashionable. Fashion is fleeting, after all and a first impression can last a really long time.  Clearly I am having a hard time getting over it...but do you see my point?

After being scandalized by the young'ens, Mr. Wranglers - I might just start calling him that from now on -  and I took a trip to the coast for a little romantic dinner by the beach. Or close to the beach. We drove by the beach to get there. We went to the Fish Market. Yes. Fish. Market.

If you are a member of my family, or any of my close friends, you know that I have a strong...STRONG...aversion to seafood. This stems from a particularly memorable experience as a five year old in Padre Island with the whole maternal side of  the ArchaeologyAsh Family. There was shrimp. And there was a crab. And there were crab guts. And there was puking. At the dinner table. In stereo since Twin Sister and I did a lot of things the same. Consequently, there has not been hardly a taste of seafood since. For nearly 25 years.

I succumbed to tasting some clams last year in Point Reyes. They were washed down immediately with beer and a vegetarian sandwich. Earlier this Fall I had barbequed oysters at the neighbors' house. They were good, but I haven't rush out to have them again.

But Mr. Wranglers convinced me to just give it one more try...my taste buds have surely matured. He decided we should go big or go to In 'n' Out. So we did.

First we had the Duckett's Bucket.

I ate the little ones. Like a lot of them. Like all the ones that are facing the camera. I did not like the big ones, but only because...well, have you  actually seen the inside of a mussel?

Next, I let Mr. W order my dinner. Trusting, yes?

Was he correct in his assessment of what I might like? Yes. That was Alaskan Halibut. Are those lick marks on the plate? Why, yes...yes, they are...

We decided to take an after-dinner walk at Swamis in Encinitas. See? Isn't it lovely?

 

 We didn't get back to the coast until the day we had to drive home. Nerdy People require a lot of attention, and since Mr. W also gave a talk about Old Things, we stuck around the Conference Center on our last free evening so he could work on his talk. Which was phenomenal. I recognize I am biased, but I wish I had recorded it just so I could prove myself right to you all. Maybe I should call him Mr. Archaeology? Mr. ArchyG?

Baby, You Can Drive My Car...Beep Beep Honk Honk

Birds! And sand dollars!

So, ArchaeologyAsh Family...Mr. W/Archaeology/ArchyG has succeeded in expanding my diet breadth. I am not going to start adding fish to my cart at the super market in downtown Lone Pine anytime soon... and I am honestly never, ever, going back to shrimp. But I bet if we went back to Padre Island, or even if you all came out here and we went to the beach...I'd order us a bucket of shellfishies and perhaps some other sea creature. I guess all those scars left behind by seafood intake and upchuck may be nearly gone. It just took a little time. Like a quarter of a century.

Now if only I could get over my apparent prudishness about other people's clothes...

Did you see that?!!???

I think I blinked too long and February ended. Did you see it happen?

My dad sent me a text message, followed by a phone call, followed by an email...and then another text message asking if I had any broken bones that prevented me from dialing. I guess that was his way of saying "Where the helck are you?!"

So I thought I should take a second to reflect on the last 27 days because for the life of me...I can't figure out where it all went either.
Work? Play? Work? Work? Work. Definitely Work.

There was some of this...

 A little bit of that...

 Quite a lot of those ....

A few of these.... 

And a whole lot of that.

Maybe we should just blame it on the short month and the strange weather. Maybe March will bring more blogs...Maybe.