Whoops, I've had a couple people ask me what my e-mail signature means: "Quaternary Studies - Where Death Is Just the Beginning". First of all, I don't mean to add it to my Carpenter list serve e-mails, I keep forgetting to "uncheck" it before I send. So if anyone is disturbed or offended, sorry! But be assured it isn't a cult or anything :) Quaternary Studies is a master's program I am in at Northern Arizona University. The Quaternary is a period of time in the earth's history - the last 1.8 million years or so. In our program we study a variety of things such as paleontology (the bones and history of dead, sometimes extinct, animals like mammoths, etc.), paleoecology/paleoenvironments ("Paleo" means "old". Here we study past ecology and changes in it and changes in climate or environments through time), fire studies in forests, pollen, archaeology, etc. Basically we look at the past to interpret what the plants, animals, and environments were like in a certain period of time within the Quaternary. We use our findings, such as extinctions, to interpret changes through time. So for our research, death truly is the beginning of our work and interests. It's just a saying we came up with to stand apart and also to sell T-shirts! :)) I realize not everyone believes in such a distant past or in evolution, so I do not mean to start a discussion between evolution and creationism. I just wanted to explain this to people. I'll try to remembert to leave the signature off in the future. Happy genealogy! Mary __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Bid and sell for free at http://auctions.yahoo.com