E.C.Reetz

a man is holding a large rock over his head while crawling out of a hole in the dirt . Alt: An animated gif of a man in a green shirt and floppy hat holding a pile of leaves over his head while lowering himself into a hole in the dirt to hide and be camouflaged.

Me, trying to hammer out my two-hour public archaeology workshop for #PACMAC2025 on Friday, but the Lego robotics emails and calls just keep coming. #helpme

To anyone visiting Iowa City this week for #PACMAC2025, I highly recommend taking a quick break from the conference to go visit some kittens! $5 15-min visits on Thursday when you book with code "treats" www.facebook.com/events/85705... 🏺

I hear my cats stress eating their kibbles, because how dare I have a plumber invade their space to install a hot water heater and force them to hide in fear in the bedroom for four hours?

I only have mash 🥴

A black and white poodle looking at the camera with puppy eyes

I told him that he can't maul the plumber (with love)

This is fantastic! Will definitely incorporate this into the Public Archaeology practicum I'm teaching at the Midwest Archaeological Conference in a couple weeks. I'll be focusing on goals, audiences, and assessment & there will be more spots opening www.midwestarchaeology.org/annual-meeti...

A black and white poodle fast asleep on a pile of blankets

It's hard work chasing raccoons at 4am and making mom drag me inside in her jammies and then pulling curtain rods out of the wall while I go crazy barking at people on the street 🐩

A professional milestone! 🎉 I just achieved certification as a Certified Interpretive Planner (CIP) through the National Association for Interpretation! And I'm currently the ONLY CIP in Iowa! If you're interested in interp planning for public archaeology programs & historic sites, get in touch! 😁🏺

OOF, an hour into the morning, and I just now finished responding to all the weekend and morning emails from robotics teams.

If you're also struggling to keep up to requests, point them towards this Wednesday webinar! Plenty of registration slots left! 🏺#FIRSTLEGOLeague #FLLUnearthed #LEGOrobotics

Visual text graphic promoting a conference. It says, "Join us at PAC & MAC - Oct 29-Nov 1, 2025 - IAS Fall Meeting, Saturday Nov 1 - Iowa City, Iowa, Graduate Hotel & Conference Center - iowaarcheologicalsociety.org. There are two logos - an Iowa Archeological Society logo showing a spearpoint and ancient pot, and the conference logo of an Indigenous lodge home.

Now's a good time to join the #Iowa Archeological Society! Non-professional members get a discounted early bird registration rate for PAC & MAC of only $30! New IAS members, get a membership now & it's good thru all of 2026! iowaarcheologicalsociety.org/2025-fall-me... 🏺

There are over 300 registration slots still available for this webinar on 10/1! If you can't accommodate a Zoom or meet-up with a team, let them know about this opportunity!

#FIRSTLEGOLeague #FLLUnearthed #Unearthed #LEGOrobotics #FIRSTChamp 🏺

Since May!!

Although it's overwhelming, the FIRST LEGO challenge is essentially leading ~700k kids globally straight to us to learn about REAL #archaeology. If you're concerned about the closing of Anthro/arch depts, CRM labor shortage, pseudo-sci or advocacy, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE to inspire future involvement!

Incredibly sorry for your loss 💔

Had to. giphy.com/gifs/archaeo...

Please don't tell me GIFs are dead! Because I've been visualizing one about all the FLL requests I'm throwing at my Iowa colleagues 😆 Anyways, I blasted a few big FB professional archaeologist FB groups with your call for more sign-ups!

It's not frowned upon at all! And their research projects will likely be quite different. Some teams are just looking for that initial Q&A to learn about challenges in archaeology. Some might want more feedback as they progress.

SIGN UP! SIGN UP! SIGN UP! And Iowa archaeologists, I'm fielding about 5 requests a day and making matches between my program, coworkers & too few volunteers. Help us out!

It'd be great to see you! This will be a good one because it's essentially two conferences in one! And because I know you like good beer, I recommend the Big Grove reception > Reunion. You can't really go wrong with either, but BG for brews, food & ambiance all the way!

Who's coming to Iowa City?! I'll be doing a public outreach skills-building practicum (more on that soon) & presenting my needs assessment research for revisions to the Iowa Archaeological Certification Program for avocationals. Maybe I'll bring my dog to the office too 🐩 #Iowa #Archaeology

CVS gave me a big bag of popcorn and a $10 coupon afterwards. And it was quick and easy!

Exploring Archaeological Challenges: A Webinar for FIRST® LEGO® League and Robotics Teams

We're participating in this upcoming Robotics webinar hosted by the SAA on 10/1, 4pmCT/5pmET! Registration required t attend live, but the video will be on YouTube afterwards. tinyurl.com/2cu7nefy #FIRSTLEGOLeague #FLLUnearthed #Unearthed #LEGOrobotics #FIRSTChamp 🏺

As a pubarch program director at a commercially funded dept in a Uni, I feel this big time. There's an expectation to do free public outreach & interp but the funding model makes it impossible. If/when we do things for free, it devalues our for-cost services. Grants are scarce. Burn out is real

If students or anyone else is interested, I have a slide deck & resources you can adapt! I've been starting with a quick foundation of what archaeology is/isn't before getting too deep into problems & challenges. Other web resources are popping up too. archaeology.uiowa.edu/iowa-archaeo...

Archaeologists, many of us are at or beyond capacity with FIRST LEGO requests. The kids will soon move from general Q&A to needing specific feedback on their team projects, and they'll want some one on one time for that. If you can do ONE zoom, it makes a huge difference! #pubarch 🏺

Another busy year - it's all a blur tbh 😵🥴 but still a dream job! 🏺

Now to make the archival screen-reader accessible PDF version (Acrobat probably will at some point cause me to chuck a laptop out a window)

I'm starting to run out of local archaeologists who are Not Afraid of Kids™ to volunteer to meet w/ robotics teams. Help out your state if you can! I promise, these are super sharp kids who are tapped in and ask great questions. Sign up for Skype a Scientist or let your state archy know you're game!

I was getting them bad for months! My doctor recommended Co-Q10 and 400mg riboflavin, along with the magnesium l-threonate I was already taking. It worked for me, thankfully.

Anyone else having a myriad of stupid tech problems lately and in general just very very cranky and coffee and naps and pet snuggles aren't fixing it?

Boss be like this and still want we say thank you … as feedback is a gift! Yeah, thank you for your support! #officelife #workmemes #officehumor #9to5life #officememes #workhumor #corporatehumor #rela... TikTok video by theworkmemehub

Some PIs to archaeologists who build public communication & interpretive science skills instead of focusing on other CRM or academic skills that contractors will pay for (yeah, I said it!) www.tiktok.com/@theworkmeme...