Big Brother Finn

Big brother Finn (he's 3) was desperate to hold the new baby. You can see how excited he is to hold Seamus, not sure that the baby is as excited. 

Aunt and Uncle Again!! and an assignment

SEAMUS BRENDAN THOMAS

We are an aunt and uncle again- yeah! CPR and SBR have a new baby at home - Seamus Brendan Thomas Rowan. Born March 18th the new baby, pictured here with big sister Regina and big brother Colman, was welcomed by his various siblings (4 brothers and 2 sisters), a tired mom and dad,  Rowan and Bohan grandparents and us. Yeah for Seamus!

In the midst of meeting Seamus we were given an assignment by our nephew Colman (age 7, grade two - see above). We received "Flat Stanley" in the mail and were asked to take him on an adventure, take some photos and then send him back to the Grade Two class in McLean VA. Yesterday we took Flat Stanley to visit the Mummy Meresamun - the new exhibit at the Oriental Institute http://oi.uchicago.edu/museum/special/meresamun

Flat Stanley hanging with Mummy Meresamun

It looks like Stanley is having fun doesn't it??

Settling in and keeping warm

Little niece F commented that Aunt Mogie should update her blog, so here ya go - here she is in her natural habitat, trying out her new sofa!

Seriously though, we wanted to give you an update of our neighborhood. Now that the President has moved to an even roomier house in DC, E. Hyde Park (E. 51st) is open to general traffice again. Our building is on the corner of that road, so its a relief that this is no longer closed off.

On our way to campus, we pass some very nice buildings. Probably the nicest is the Frank Lloyd Wright two doors down. Mo wants to move in.

Its a pleasant walk, even though it never seems to be above freezing (not in three weeks at least!). Many of the buildings look like the one below.

The snow is very pretty, even if a pain to walk in on a daily basis.

Our local little store, Hyde Park Produce, is in this strip mall, along with the liquor store, drugstore and a few small restaurants.

Below, you can see the caterpillar lady in her new, very warm coat! Thanks B!

The walk ends with another Frank Lloyd Wright house, this one the much better known Robie House (http://www.wrightplus.org/robiehouse/robiehouse.html), which is

right across the street from the University of Chicago's business school.

We will post more pictures soon!

Santa Claus is coming to town

Last month Mo went home to Ingersoll to attend the annual Santa Claus parade. In true Canadian style, rather than snow there was a lot of rain. Here are some of the members of our little group, umbrellas and chairs waiting for the "big man". 

FMK and LL sitting in the rain. Still smiling half an hour in. 

Mo, RMK and MRK also still smiling an hour in, of course the beer in RMK's hand might have a lot to do with the smiles . . . 

Finally the man in the red suit arrives

And even he has an umbrella. Ah the Canadian fall you can never second guess the weather.

On the Road Again

On another adventure in the Middle East, this time Israel. It's been 4 years since Mo was here and a mere two months since Yo's last visit.  We are here mapping a potential dig site (next summer). Here's the overview:

Yo and our friend surveyor extraordinaire JR setting up for mapping. 
The field that might be an amazing Chalcolithic site...
Rock pile - pile of rocks or interesting archaeological site??
If you look closely you can see a wall...

Mo is also here to check out the antiquities shops in the Old City. She and MSC are on the trail of Early Bronze Age pots from Jordan on sale in Israel. Here are a couple of potentials:

A pillar based figurine from the Iron II period. These figurines started the whole adventure in looted antiquities. 

Yo checking out a shop.

Pots for sale

The Stolen Past

A short article appears in the National Geographic December issue, quoting Mo, concerning the problem of rampant archaeological site looting in the West Bank. The article can be found at:
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/12/palestine-antiquities/lange-text

Tall and lean?

Mo and Yo hope to revive the blog soon, and apologies for the long hiatus! But those of you who subscribe to Archaeology, the semi-popular magazine published by the Archaeological Institute of America, may have noticed an article by Nina Burleigh in the Nov/Dec issue entitled "Collecting Pieces of God". For those of you haven't read it from cover to cover, or haven't received your issue yet, the article considers the problem of collectors who buy ancient artifacts looted from archaeological sites. As many of you know, this was the topic of Mo's dissertation and is an issue of concern to archaeologists, collectors, museum professionals, law enforcement, customs officials and local citizens in many parts of the world.

At any rate, Dr. Mo - "tall and lean" is interviewed and quoted rather extensively in the article, which is not available online. But you can see the picture of a major collector in the first page of the article above.

Movin' on up

Or so we thought. After all, for Yo and Mo, a single long-term residence, with our stuff unpacked, would be a step up. For the first time in five years, all of our stuff was pulled out from the damp enormous garage that our long-suffering and generous in-laws (Mo's sister and husband) have allowed us to store. Dispensing with some of the worst stuff, we piled the rest of our moldy and smelly books onto our large moving truck and away we went. With Yo steering the monster truck and Mo following behind in the 'hippie car' (as the SIL refers to our Subaru), the drive, border crossing and arrival in Chicago all went without a hitch.

On the way down the so-called "landlady" (she later admitted this was her first rental arrangement) called Mo and said that the granite counter top guy had stood her up and "would we mind if the kitchen wasn't finished for a few days?" From that Mo took it that everything else was done all that was missing were the granite counters. Okay, we are easy going and we were both heading off (Mo back to TO and Yo to Greece/Israel) a few days later so there was a little grace period.  

Our landlady met us at the appointed hour, and we were led to our newly rehabbed apartment, for which we had paid the equivalent of THREE months rent. Imagine our dismay when we discovered that it wasn't quite ready! Indeed, the back door approach looked like this:

The picture was no better after crawling over the piles of rubbish and equipment. The back door enters the kitchen, where there was no running water (or counters, or cupboards):

The kitchen, however, at least had a finished floor. Below, under the piles of materials, tools and unconnected radiators, you can make out how the dining room still has an unfinished floor.

The front rooms were a bit better, although the bathroom too had a gaping hole where the mirror should be, broken tiles and missing grout, etc. This room, the living room with a sun room, was better. 

And of course random stuff crammed in closets....

We had to decide whether we would stick it out with this apartment, or demand all of our money refunded and begin looking for a new place. Although there were plenty of places with "To Rent" signs, this was Labor Day, and our movers would be arriving later that day. So we had to decide what to, and ultimately decide to meet our moving helpers and pile all of our moldy stuff in two rooms.

Yo went to open the back of the moving truck to discover a Canadian stowaway, known back on the farm as Black Handsome. Apparently BH decided to have a nap and became captive in the back of the truck for about 24 hours. As nothing heavy fell on him during the drive, BH merely seemed thirsty but otherwise perky and curious. Luckily BH is a pretty easy going, farm guy, so he was placed in the room that actually had a door, fed him some food donated by very friendly neighbors, and some kitty litter was purchased. (He seemed to know what to do with kitty litter, so perhaps he's not a 'real' barn cat, but merely an abandoned cat?)

While our housing situation was less than ideal, we did like Chicago and we had one of the best experiences at the DMV getting new license plates for the car (our Indiana plates were expired). When we arrived at the DMV there were probably 200 people and Yo (Mr. Doom and Gloom) said we'd be there for hours. Less than 1/2 hour later we were out with new plates, which Dan at Uncle Bubba's shop helped Mo put on the car. 

On Wednesday we are both meeting up in Chicago for "take two". Yo is flying in from Greece and Mo is driving the hippie car (sans cat) back to Chicago. Our landlady "assures" us that it will be good to go, but this is the same woman who thought that we could move in last time... Stay tuned for the adventures on Wednesday.

The Dark Side??

Today Mo bought a MAC, need we say more . . .

In the coming days we will posting about our adventures in moving - which involve an unfinished apartment and a stowaway Canadian cat. Stay tuned.

My Kind of Town

Chicago is . . .

We are moving to Chicago (well Yo is moving first and then Mo will join him when her fellowship at Toronto finishes). The other day Yo officially accepted a position with the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago - YEAH!!! "The Oriental Institute is a research organization and museum devoted to the study of the ancient Near East. Founded in 1919 by James Henry Breasted, the Institute, a part of the University of Chicago, is an internationally recognized pioneer in the archaeology, philology, and history of early Near Eastern civilizations."

The hallowed halls of the University of Chicago

The OI

The library at the OI

His new position will be as Research Associate in the Archaeology of the Southern Levant, which just happens to be exactly what he does. This is the link to the OI website http://oi.uchicago.edu/ for further information on their programs etc... And here's a map so you can all come and visit.

At the moment Yo is still in Jerusalem, but he'll be back stateside in late August. We will be heading to Chicago to find a place. If anyone has any suggestions or advice on neighborhoods, or Chicago in general send them along. July was a good month for Yo - new book, new job!!