1040X

The form needed to file an amended tax return. This, if your income estimates were wrong the first time.

Fasching

Fasching: A carnival, a festival season which occurs immediately before Lent, which starts November 11, and whose main events occur in February and March. One dresses up in fun costumes.

Spring? Please?

Red Light...

Enstatite

Context: "Scarab, only one half preserved, cracks in the glaze on the back, side and base, burnt, partially linear, partially hollowed-out engraving, hatching, enstatite, white with yellow glaze and remains of dark green glaze in the engraving" (from object description of U6510, p. 286: Seals and Seal Impressions from Excavation Seasons 1984-2000. Eggler, herr, Root. Chapter 13 in MPP Vol. 5.)

Enstatite is the magnesium endmember of the pyroxene silicate mineral series enstatite (MgSiO3) - ferrosilite (FeSiO3). The magnesium rich members of the solid solution series are common rock-forming minerals found in igneous and metamorphic rocks. The intermediate composition, (Mg,Fe)SiO3, has historically been known as hypersthene, although this name has been formally abandoned and replaced by orthopyroxene. When determined petrographically or chemically the composition is given as relative proportions of enstatite (En) and ferrosilite (Fs) (e.g., En80Fs20). (Wikipedia, Enstatite)

I'm not sure what any of that means. I'm not a geologist. But Talea is. So for her viewing pleasure, I introduce, enstatite. Lots of scarabs from Tall al-'Umayri, at Jordan, were made of enstatite.

Sears Tower-Goodbye

Fo'cs'le

Seamanese for forecastle, or any structure located in the forward part of a vessel where weapons, stores--or sailors--are stored.

Context: CS Forester's characters make frequent forays to the fo'cs'le (see, for instance, Horatio Hornblower and the Hotspur).

A Gonzaga Steeple

Flower in Three Colors

Coprolite

See previous discussion of paleofeces.

A coprolite is fossilized animal dung. I had to find a photo for this one, since that seems to be the latest trend for word definitions. The below is a photograph of dinosaur coprolite stolen shamelessly from wikipedia. Somehow they even determined that the dinosaur was carnivorous.

La UAP

La Universidad Adventista del Plata, or la UAP, is an Adventist university, founded in Libertador San Martin (la Villa), Entre Rios, Argentina, in 1898. The school acquired university status in 1990. The UAP is a popular destination for ACA (Adventist Colleges Abroad) students, one of whom appears to have put the UAP on wikipedia.

Ok, all of that was really an excuse for posting this picture: a recently resurrected memory of Argentina at Christmas.

Sunrise