Today I spent another glorious day in the mud.

Not just any mud, mind you, but slippery, smelly Monitor mud. I've been allowed out back to help screen the buckets of silt and muck that the archaeologists are bringing up out of the turret. Since I have to go all over creation lecturing about this in the next several months, I feel that it's only right that I actually do what I'm talking about. It adds an element of excitement to the presentation.

I don't want to talk about anything that they've been finding until they OK it, so you'll just have to wait a bit on that - but it probably won't hurt to crow that

I FOUND A BUTTON!!!!

It popped out of an incrustation into my hand - a tiny little white button with four holes. Feeling like the queen of the universe, I displayed it for all to see (of course, they had all found infinitely cooler stuff, but let me have my moment of glory - it doesn't take much)and then ceremoniously placed it in its little ziplock bag where it will be whisked away for conservation.

It was the perfect way to end a week that has been incredibly stressful. I highly recommend covering one's self with coal dust-infused mud that's been sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic ocean for 140 years. It's truly the pause that refreshes.