Kind of like archeology camp for adults. We learned about and helped to excavate a site behind the Masonic Temple on what was  known from the late 1700s as Shuter's Hill. 

The excavation has been going on for years, in part to serve as an educational site. Teams of two each had a "unit," about three feet by four feet, using trowels to scrape down level by level. 

My partner Sheila and I were 7 layers down, finding bits of pottery, animal bones & teeth, a few nails, remnants of brick dust and charcoal. 

We took the plunge, helped the economy, went green--we bought a new car. Already had decided on a Honda (fifth one over the years) and then a hybrid, although the price difference did make us think twice.

With focus and funding on HIV/AIDS, malaria, and reproductive health--all critical issues, for sure--it is sometimes startling to remember that women in developing countries can also die of breast or cervical cancer, men can die of prostate cancer, and other cancer cases occur every day.

Cancer is not just a disease in the developed West. Read more here.

Just finished reading this book by Nigel Hamilton. He describes the process of writing a biography as arduous yet do-able. He talks about ethical issues (your subject does something bad that you cannot ignore, but people's feelings are hurt), structure, and mechanics. 

He describes five elements of a biography: the life-line, plot (yes, in a biography), search for truth, selection, and story-telling--applied to biography, autobiography, and memoir.

Now who would I want to devote a few years of my life to studying and writing about?