It's Friday, which means 3 things: 1) a day off from site, 2) sleeping in, and 3) talking to Dan. I got up around 6:15 and took my computer outside to chat with Dan (well, I was outside for all of 15 minutes before my computer decided that even though it was 100% full of battery when I started my chat, it needed to be at 19% after 15 minutes... yeah, guess who is going to need a new computer for Christmas...). Side note, can I tell you how awesome my husband is? Sure, you read that I lost 30 pounds this summer, but he's down almost 75! In 7 months! And he's keeping it off, even with me being gone (we're not going to talk about what all the potatoes, carbs, french fries, and salt are doing to my waistline, but I don't really have a choice). He rocks. So anyway, after our chat, the girls and I made some breakfast, talked for a while over tea, then headed upstairs to tackle FileMaker.
I read the manual front to back and it's pretty much written for total idiots who have a degree in database design (I'm not saying those go together, I'm saying those were the criteria this manual assumed you fit). So it told me all about the fact that I could create tables and layouts and manage them and, oh! aren't you going to have so much fun relating fields? But it never told me the difference between tables and layouts, why I might want one over the other, or how to actually relate 2 fields. In other words, it taught me everything I already knew and nothing complex.
The only thing I got out of the whole thing was that I can relate fields. With that knowledge, I was able to at least answer one of my big issues: linking entries. So now I can have a sheet with all the basic data about an excavation layer, put all the pots I've numbered on that sheet, and when I click on a little button next to the number, it takes me to a whole new layout that will give me more detailed information about that specific pot. So that's cool. I'm sure there was an easier way to do it than sitting there and creating relations for all 30 fields and then creating link buttons, but whatever. It works, I know how to use it, and that's good enough for me.
There are still a few more things we need to figure out, like the silly portal thing (insert numerous Valve jokes here). I also need to figure out how to make certain fields auto-fill based on what I put into other fields. But for the most part, I have a working database. Granted, I thought that last time, too. The nice thing is that Tasha and Kat are building theirs right alongside me, so we can bounce ideas off of each other. We have a lot of the same issues, so it's nice to hear a cheer come from the other room because you know that means good things for everyone.
That's basically what I spent my day doing. Once I write this post, I've told myself I'm not allowed to look at the database again (7 hours is plenty for today). I'm going to read more of book #12 before dinner.
Tomorrow starts our last full week on site! There's a lot left to do and I'm frantically trying to help Tasha get more pots drawn for her dissertation. I'm just doing stats on my bread moulds this year- I'll actually start drawing my own stuff next year. Gotta be a team player first, especially since Tasha has been so great about teaching me all about pottery, giving me resources, letting me have access to all the bread moulds from her dissertation research, and getting me into the whole thing in the first place. So yeah, we'll work Saturday- Thursday, get Friday off, start packing up boxes of pottery on Saturday, then throw those boxes into the pylon and hit the road to Luxor to catch our flight to Cairo on Sunday. It feels so far away, but we're getting really close. Hurray!
That's all for now. Sorry if next week's posts are a little dull, but as you can see, it's kind of same-ol'-same-ol'. Once I get to Cairo, I'll have a LOT of fun things to talk about, promise! :)
