Lull? What lull?

I knew I made a mistake by titling my last blog posting "The January Lull"...

That weekend, we (mostly Hope) ended up watching 7 kids (our three, plus four others) on Saturday night while their parents went to our church's International Dinner. We usually go to this dinner as well, but since Stephen doesn't handle sitters well (young kids are not allowed at the dinner), we decided to stay home instead. During this period, I was coming down with another cold, which I am still trying to completely shake.

I had also gone to the dentist earlier in that week, in part for a regular cleaning, but also to get a tooth looked at that had been particularly temperature sensitive since we had returned from Christmas. Much to my dismay, the diagnosis was that a root canal was probably in my immediate future. I scheduled an appointment with a specialist in El Dorado, who confirmed the diagnosis, so last Monday I got my root canal. It actually wasn't as bad as I feared--there was no decay problem to deal with, so I probably had this tooth injured by some trauma that gradually caused the nerve to die. The worst thing about this procedure was the heavy amount of Novocaine used to numb my tooth, my sore jaw after 30+ minutes of dental work, and, of course, the bill that followed.

I returned to work that afternoon, and we went to Kenny's Pinewood Derby that evening. We initially feared we wouldn't make this big race, as we didn't know how I'd be affected by the root canal and because Kenny had gotten sick the night before and we had kept him home that day. Must have only been a 24 hour bug, because he was his usual energetic self the next day. Here's Kenny posing with his car:

I cut, carved, and sanded the car into shape, and Kenny and Hope painted it. I had never done well in the Pinewood Derby as a Cub Scout, so I hoped that Kenny's car would make at least a respectable showing. In their double elimination format, Kenny was able to win a couple races, lost a couple, but hopefully learned more about good sportsmanship. Here's Kenny's race car, set up for the next race:

Stephen (and Beth) were underwhelmed with the process:

Fortunately, we had taken two vehicles, so I could take them home while Hope and Kenny finished their races and the meeting.

This week, northern Arkansas also experienced a very severe ice storm that has knocked out power and other utilities to hundreds of thousands of residents. Fortunately for us here in southern Arkansas, we got little but rain. Others to the north of us are having to face days or weeks without power in houses that are often poorly insulated and that lack a back up means to keep themselves warm.

Yesterday (Saturday) was beautiful, so Kenny and I joined some other members of our local archeology chapter and a class of UAM students to tour a number of mound sites in northern Louisiana and southeastern Arkansas. The first one we visited was in a new, upscale development just north of Monroe, Louisiana:

Yes, that is a half-million dollar (or so) house located adjacent to the mound looming above Kenny on the right side of the picture. We spent about an hour talking with the local university archeology professor. We had lunch, then drove to another mound in Louisiana before returning to Arkansas. On our way back to Monticello, we visited several more mounds, including the small mound below:

This mound is significant because of its age--it is about 3,000 years old (plus or minus), making it the earliest known man-made mound in Arkansas (most others are from 1000-1500 years ago or younger). This dates the site back to the Poverty Point culture, who flourished not too far away in northern Louisiana at about the same time. Another tie to this particular culture are balls of baked silty soil called "Poverty Point Objects" that were probably used in place of rocks when cooking food. In this part of the Mississippi River Valley, real rocks are hard to find, so the Indians improvised by making their own "rocks". They are extremely abundant and come in a number of shapes, which is believed to help them regulate their temperature. Here, Dr. Marvin Jeter of the Arkansas Archeological Survey holds one of these silty objects as he explains their purpose:

Kenny had a hard time staying focused on the tour stops, but he was pretty well behaved.

Today we are scrambling to clean and prep our house for the Super Bowl party we are hosting. We'll probably get a dozen or two people here to eat brats, burgers, dogs, and side dishes, watch a little of the game (and a lot of the commercials). I better go help Hope get the kids lunch and start with the prep work needed to host a bunch of people. No more lulling around the blog!!