The Little Bighorn

The drive from Alberta to Nebraska took us past another national monument site. If you take Interstate 90 southeast of Billings Montana, you'll drive right past the historic location of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In the 1870s, the US cavalry had declared war on several rogue Indian tribes who refused to abandon their culture and settle on the reservations. Foremost among them were Sioux tribes led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

In 1876, General Armstrong Custer led the US Seventh Cavalry along the Little Bighorn river in the hopes of ambushing the Sioux. He expected to find only a few hundred Sioux, and instead found an encampment of close to ten thousand. What followed was one of the most one-sided clashes in the history of the Indians wars. Armstrong and all his men perished in a battled celebrated among Native Americans to this day.



The visitor's center has displays on frontier life in the 1870s, weapons and dress of the Sioux Indians, and this display on the life of George Armstrong Custer.

Vistors to the Little Bighorn can take a walking or driving tour of the battlefield. This spot informs visitors about the skirmish between cavalry and Sioux on Calhoun's hill.

As you walk through the battlefield, there are small headstones that commemorate the place where cavalry were killed by Sioux warriors.

Uh...

Devils Tower

On the drive from Alberta to Nebraska we made a little detour to the northeast corner of Wyoming, where we stopped at Devils Tower national monument.

"Hey, Devil's Tower is no reason to take out my paci, okay?"

It looks just like all those models I built with my mashed potatoes.

Devil's Tower is a hotspot for rockclimbers. You can see the guide in the higher ledge, and then two people down below him.

There is a hiking path that goes all the way around the monument, but woe to anyone who gets closer than that.
Sturgis, SD hosts a motorcycle festival in the second week of August every year, and so there are thousands of bikers in the region. But they're not mean bikers. They're more like senior project managers who ride Harleys on the weekend.

Alberta: Waterton's Cameron Falls

Alberta: Hiking Chief Mountain

The goal.

The Rock Scramble.

McSweeney bogarts the beef jerky.

The agony of the screet.

Approaching the summit.

The Glory.

The long walk home.

Alberta: Red Rock Canyon

This year the parking lot is under construction, so we had to drop off the family a few hundred yards away and they hiked in. Then Spencer and I had to drive a mile down the road to park the car in a clearing, and walk back.
Hiking up the canyon towards the slide.
Jake and Nolan trying to climb just high enough to injure themselves when they fall.



Meg contemplates whether to go down the slide while Patrice stands in the glacial water and awaits the onset of hypothermia.

Alberta: The Gopher Slayer

Alberta: Chocolate and George

The kids riding horses at my parent's place in Magrath.

13.1 miles

For the past few months, Kaddi has been training for the Utah Valley half-marathon, which she ran two weeks ago. She finished the 13.1 miles in 2 hours and 25 minutes. We couldn't be more proud of her.

Wayne America

Last week I accepted a tenure track offer from Wayne State College in Nebraska. I'll be the non-western historian in a department of four historians, four political scientists, and two geographers.

A few weeks ago I traveled out to Wayne to interview. Here's a few pictures from the trip.


On the drive from Omaha to Wayne, a scenic spot overlooking the Missouri River Valley.

One of the red-brick streets near the college.
The social sciences building where my office would be located - I hope I have an office.
The administration building at the entrance to Wayne State College.

ESL

This morning I received the following email. It's from a foreign language student who's concerned about the material on the 'review sheet.' At least, that what I'm hoping he was trying to write.

Dear Professor,

Hey I am sorry to bother you. I lost my review shit and I do not remember how much of the new information and old information is coming in the test. If I am correct I need to study everything. Is that correct?

And once again I'm reminded of my experience in Thailand, wondering how many time I said similarly offensive things and people were too embarassed to point them out to me. When you're a cultural outsider you can get away with a lot.

Retro Photo

Today my dad emailed me a few photos from years gone past. Angela's hair might be even better than mine.

Jake on the boat at St. Mary's reservoir, Summer 1999.


Angela and I getting ready to climb Chief Mountain, 1988?


The Griswold family vacation at the Grand Canyon, summer 1986.

So Jake

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I love bell peppers

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Kaddi's Shoes

These are my shoes. They are my running shoes, at least that is how they were labeled at the runner's store. Yes, they have been running shoes, but they have also been walking shoes, jogging shoes, and tennis shoes. Sadly, none of these quite describe what they have been in the past several months: space shoes. This means that their only current purpose is to take up "space" in my closet. I have felt quite guilty about this for some time now, especially since I belong to a gym and our winter was not the only excuse for my laziness.

Although this guilt has been building and festering, it hasn't been enough to get me up and out of my bed at 5:30 am. Yes - 5:30 AM is the only time I can exercise. Last year when I joined the gym I did quite well at getting up this early. Mainly due to Shane's taunting if I didn't get up. If the alarm went off and I failed to rise he would make some comment like, "what happened, did the power go out and the alarm not go off?" To make the sarcasm cease I got up. (Unfortunatey this did not make Shane end his sacrasm in every other area of our lives, I'm still working on that one.) Once I stopped working out the sarcastic comments returned but they've had no affect on a sleeping Kaddi. I was as lazy as the days of summer. Yada, Yada, Yada fall came I got busy, Yada, Yada, Yada, here we are.

Here comes the point of my tale. Everyday I pick Jake up from elementary and take him to the Middle School for math and on my way for the past two weeks I see this banner. It's for the Utah Valley Marathon/half marathon. For those of you who do not know I have wanted to run a marathon for some time now and have yet to even come close. So, I've decided to split the difference and run a half marathon. Maybe if I can finish it then I can move on to the "real thing". So, I registered for the 13.1 miles of pain. I can't wait.

The purpose of this post is to hopefully give me the jump start I need to train. I figured that if I put my goal out there, into the cosmos where family and friends know then maybe I will feel more of an urgency to train, even if it has to be at the crack of dawn. If I fail and lay in bed day after day hitting the snooze button it can only be due to the lack of support and encouragement from those I care about. Seriously, I reasoned that if others knew my goal then that would give me the incentive I needed to train and finish my goal.

If there are any friends or family out there who will be in provo June 12th, run with me. It's "Pain YOU ENJOY."

One Weekend

We had quite a weekend here.


The YM leaders in our ward have been encouraging the boys to memorize the duties of Aaronic Priesthood holders. Every week someone brings a cake as a reward to the person who can recite the entire mantra. A few weeks ago, it was Jake who successfully completed the task. Consumate showman that he is, he did it while drinking a glass of water and riding a unicycle.

Kaddi and Meg spent their Saturday building an igloo using small bucket sized snow-bricks. As you can see, their project was only half completed before the zoning commission came by and shut us down because we didn't have the right permits for an eskimo-dwelling on the property. I think someone in the local homeowner's association ratted us out.

And what was I doing during all of this? I really can't remember...

Timber Lakes

This Thanksgiving we spent time with friends from California up in a cabin west of Heber City. There was much fun to be had.

Luke and Madison


Kaddi and an unidentified woman in a puffy coat.


Jake tears up the mud.


Brownies


Meggie and her snowman.

The Lecture

Here's the internet feed for the International Studies Center lecture that I gave yesterday.

The Trauma of Lost Territory

After watching it I realized that the lights were set for someone shorter, casting a shadow on my face that makes me look like Nosferatu.

After the lecture was over, a kindly old lady came up and told me she really liked my sweater.

On the market

The Ph.D. is finished, but in many ways it was a hollow victory. The real prize is the tenure-track job that would allow me to begin paying back all the money I've borrowed to get this far.

Last year I sent out six applications, and had one interview. With my degree complete, the total for this year is now twenty-six applications and counting. On Wednesday I had a videoconference interview with Zayed University, which went well despite the technical difficulties.

Below is a list of the universities where I've applied already (and a nifty map). Here's hoping the job market is kinder this year.




1) Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia.

2) Empire State College in Saratoga Springs, New York.

3) Crichton College in Memphis, Tennessee.

4) Wayneburg State University in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania.

5) Zayed University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

6) Salem State College in Salem, Massachusetts.

7) University of Cincinnati in Cincinnati, Ohio.

8) Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts.

9) University of Wisconsin-Lacross in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.

10) Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas

11) West Virginia State University in Institute, West Virginia.

12) Monash University in Clayton, Australia.

13) University of Alaska-Fairbanks in Fairbanks, Alaska.

14) University of South Carolina-Salkehatchie in Allendale, South Carolina.

15) Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.

16) Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska.

17) St. Bonaventure University in St. Bonaventure, New York.

18) Berkeley College in New York City, New York.

19) Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

20) California State University at Long Beach in Long Beach, California.


Applications to be sent:

21) University of Delaware in Newark, Delaware.

22) Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah

23) Carleton University in Ottawa, Ontario.

24) University of Wisconsin-Stout in Menominee, Wisconsin.

25) Rice University in Houston, Texas (post-doc).

26) Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana (post-doc).

Scene and Heard

A few days ago the following conversation took place at our home:


Kaddi: Jake's Scoutmaster just called. They need to meet at the church on Friday at 4 PM because they're going on an overnight campout.

ME: Super!

Kaddi: He's supposed to take a 'tin-foil dinner' with him. So, I need you to get on the internet and found out what that is.

ME: I don't need to get on the internet. I already know what's in a tin-foil dinner.

Kaddi: What's in it?

ME: It's just hamburger meat and potatoes and carrots wrapped up in tinfoil. Sometimes people put in onions for flavor. You stick it on the coals and let it cook.

Kaddi: That doesn't sound right. Will you just look it up, please?

ME: Kaddi, I've been on lots of these campouts. I've eaten plenty of tin-foil dinners. That's exactly what it is.

Kaddi: Well, he doesn't like any of those things. So use the internet to find a different kind of tin-foil dinner.



ME: (after checking several websites) Look, here's several recipes for tin-foil dinners and they are all some variation of the formula I already told you.



Kaddi: Why would anyone want to eat that? That doesn't make any sense. He's already going to be sleeping on the ground. It's going to be cold out there. And then he has to eat tin-foil hamburger? That's not any fun.



ME: (Knowing I should just keep silent but foolishly deciding to speak) No, it's not fun. It's camping.



Post-script: Jake did go to the campout with a tin foil package containing sirloin steak and some carrots. He did eat it. He did sleep on the ground in the cold. And he did have fun.

What is Jake supposed to be?