Dissertation data collection....DONE

Well, probably. I just got back from a two week trip back east analyzing sandal collections at the Peabody Museum, the National Museum of Natural History, the National Museum of the American Indian, and the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology at Penn. It was quite the trip, with many an exciting moment. Well, exciting is a pretty strong word, since all I was doing was measuring and photographing sandals all day. All of the curators that I worked with at the museums were very nice, although some museums allowed for much more, both in terms of scientific testing and handling, than others. I stayed at Cady and Jeff’s apartment for a week and got to catch up with Cady and hang out with their little boy Jarrit (sp?) (Sorry Cady, I have no idea how to spell names). I also got a chance to just peruse the PVAP collections that the National Museum of Natural History have. I know Cady has already talked about them, but holy artifacts batman, they’ve got some cool stuff. While in D.C. I also had two days to check out all the museums and monuments which was pretty cool, as I haven’t been back there since I was a teenager.

Although there are probably a few more sandals out there, I’ve got over 200 in my database right now so will probably start data cleanup, analysis, and crunching numbers soon. Leaving tonight for North Creek and will be there for the next 6 weeks. Oh, and the 2006 issue of Utah Archaeology (edited by yours truly, Chris Watkins, and Scott Ure as Technical editor) should be coming out in about a month (if all goes as planned). So renew your UPAC dues if you haven’t done so; everyone is going to want one of these newly formatted sweet sweet Ure creations