And Now for Something Completely Different

... Shoveling gravel! :P Since I obviously don't get enough exercise during my normal Tuesday through Saturday week of biking across the river to Vancouver and doing archaeology all day, I volunteered to help lay the gravel foundation for the ADA-approved paths at the community garden this afternoon. They got a whole pile of gravel trucked in, and we were laying it down. Somebody from the landscaping department at PSU is going to come compact it this week, then next week we'll lay an inch of sand over it and then put the bricks on top. It's going to be nice. So anyway, I spent a good two hours shoveling gravel this afternoon. It was a perfect four-person job (which was good, since we had exactly four people) -- Paul and I shoveled gravel into one of two carts, Jeff ran and dumped one cart while we were filling the other, and Nara raked the gravel evenly to cover the pathway. We had the timing down so well that nobody was ever idle. It was very efficient, but also very tiring. :) It's going to look so good when it's done!

On a slightly less energetic note, I made granola this morning for the first time in forever. Hooray! And tomorrow I'm going to make pesto with fresh basil from the garden. Yum! I also checked out the fifth Harry Potter book from the library so I can skim it and review the latest events this week, in preparation for finally starting the latest next weekend. I'm not letting myself start it before then, because sleep is still an important commodity, at least for the last week of field school. Saturday is the last day, and there's a party afterward, so I probably won't start reading until Sunday (I'll want at least one good night's sleep and a good grocery shopping trip before I dive into it). And then people will finally be able to talk to me about it! :)

Bed time now. I woke up early this morning by accidentally kicking the cat off the bed, and didn't quite achieve the same sort of sleep after that. And, what with the shoveling this afternoon, I'm zonked. At least I have another weekend day. I'm going to fertilize the garden with compost tomorrow! I'm so excited! (Had to get that phrase in there somewhere. :)