back from Sacramento

I had a wonderful SAAs. I am inspired, and reminded of why I love this field in the first place. (Hint: it's not the huge pile of grading on my desk!)

The zooarchaeological highlights of the meeting were the sessions in honor of John Speth, who is retiring (mostly to avoid his own pile of grading), and Lee Lyman, who was honored with the Fryxell award. Not all of the Spethtacular papers were on fauna, but it was impressive to see the range of research that he had affected. I believe that fauna can speak to any aspect of society, and Speth's career, to some extent, shows that to be true.

On a personal note: remember the colleague in a related discipline whose class I'm covering while she's on maternity leave? Due to complications, she's not going to be back next week as planned, so I'm keeping on with the higher load. I am not complaining. I'd much rather be in my shoes than hers, even if I have to finish the semester with this class. I do worry about the students, who wanted a specialist in the other field, and are stuck with an anthropologist.