Hey Messy! Thanks for the tips! Athleta looks to be right up my alley - dresses you can bunch and smoosh! Whoot! And bra cup camis! I should buy 7 or so and leave the bras at home. Pain in the ass to wash and they never look the same again. My favorite shorts (which I don't dig in, they are too precious) are my NorthFace. Brilliant, just brilliant. Both in shades of grey to go with the brightly colored tops. I am about to purchase.

Tonto - the current boots are mostly cloth, sand colored, for desert action wear. You need the heavy toe protection. Speaking of protection, I don't think I'll wear the unisex thong, as delightful as it sounds, because it's got no pockets. No, my current underwear does not have pockets, but I could probably store something in them if I wanted to.

Enough about my underwear!

I keep buying whiskey flasks for other people and yet have never bought my own. What I'd like though is for someone to design a water bottle that has a whiskey flask clipped to it, or that attaches to it in some way so that you can have both beverages in the same easy to carry container, with a strap or that fits into the beverage/bottle holder on a back pack. It doesn't need to be that big. Refilling the water is no problem, as we have larger containers on site because we drink liters of water a day, but for the bottle that you have with you in the square... well, a little whiskey flask clipped to it wouldn't hurt. XD Don't drink and dig, kids!

A student tried to wear a camelback while digging last year. Couldn't get the full swing action while pick-axing. I can't figure out why you would want to try to drink and work at the same time. Stopping for a water break is the only excuse we have to stop moving dirt!

And we do move a lot of dirt. Unlike those paleontologists who are bent over fossils with dental picks, I'm out in the Near East moving meters of soil to get to the civilizations of the past. (And if I ever get my hands on the guy who buried them in the first place, why I otta...)

ArchaeologyChick:

Speaking of protection, I don't think I'll wear the unisex thong, as delightful as it sounds, because it's got no pockets. No, my current underwear does not have pockets, but I could probably store something in them if I wanted to.

Methinks we have a new market here...

I understand that all of those old civilizations are buried under tons of dirt. Otherwise they'd be sticking up so you could just put a building around one and open a museum.

Where does that dirt come from? Is the earth getting bigger, or does the earth somehow swallow them up in huge but slow-moving dirt waves?

Tonto. Sittin around pondering...dirt.

Beats navel gazin or watching the paint dry I guess.

Yes, but don't you ever wonder about that kind of thing? Are the relics (inanimate objects, not Mick Jagger) sinking or is the earth getting bigger? Where does all that extra dirt come from?

I'm just a layman on these things (I'm sure ArchaeologyChick will show up to clarify) but yeah it was my understanding that shifting sands bury things; Pompeii was covered by volcanic ash, etc. Ever watch someone's old shed break down? It just gets buried somehow.

Interestingly, it seems to work the reverse also. Cecille B. DeMille's first Ten Commandments (1923 or so) was filmed out in the CA desert and boasted a complete and accurate recreation of an Egyptian kingdom, including 35 ft tall pharoah statues and 100 ft tall columns, etc. After filming, Mr. DeMille ordered the site buried and employed much dynamite to accomplish this. It has now become an active archaeological dig, as the constantly blowing wind from the ocean is uncovering it.