I've been told that in the field or archaeology, eventually you'll know, or know of, most other people in the field. Today was a good example of just how true that apparently is.

Now, me, I'm just a student. Nobody noteworthy in the overall scheme of things. But within the space of one minute, I was recognized once by face and once by name. I sat in on a medieval archaeology grad-level class today, which was awesome in its own right. During our break, one of the guys in the class and myself recognized each other; we were in a class at UCLA together, and the same professor from UCLA, who used to work at UCL, wrote us letters of recommendation.

Moments after that, the professor, after hearing my first name, checked the name I wrote on his sign-in sheet, and said, "I know you. You applied for a grant through the Society for Medieval Archaeology." Apparently, he's on the committee that decided who would win the grant of the applicants, and was rather surprised when the check came back undeliverable (for those of you who missed that entry of mine, I applied for, and won, a travel grant of 500 pounds sterling to do research in Iceland back in around 2004, but was never notified of it. I found out I won the grant several years later while I was doing some internet research, and was quite surprised to see my name show up having won a grant.)

All in all, it was a rather interesting class.

One thing I love about Florida is the wildlife and nature. Even in the subdivisions, there's wildlife. I was at my parents' new house today doing some gardening, and there were thirteen tree frogs of various species hanging around the front door, plus countless anoles. I've also seen two more snakes, a red rat snake and another of a species I wasn't able to identify, this last week. There is also a pair of sandhill cranes that hangs out in the neighbour's lawn.

On the way back to this house, we saw a Florida panther, which was pretty exciting, seeing as how there aren't very many of them left (about 50 - 70, judging from some websites). Plus, this was considerably further north than they're supposed to live. I saw this one within the Orlando metro area, and the main population of panthers is supposed to be down at the southern tip of the peninsula. Unfortunately, by the time we turned the car around and I got the camera out, it had disappeared.

So endeth the around 45 days of temperatures over 90f. Autumn is arriving, or so the locals tell me. Of course, I'm about to move from Florida in summer to England in autumn, so this change of seasons is going to hit me with SAD like a pimp smackin' a ho' holding out. I've become pretty happily addicted to warm weather and palm trees. At least London has palm trees (outdoors, even!) if you know where to look. The last time I was there, the snow-dusted leaves of Trachycarpus palms amused me for the few moments I could stand being in the cold long enough to be amused by them.

And that reminds me... I need to find my warm clothing. It's... somewhere.

Found a nice e-mail in my box today.

"Your application has been approved and the visa has been issued.

It will be delivered by Federal Express Their reference number is (weaselpants)."

Time to book a flight!