ASOR 2014

7:17am
If you can read this, it means I'm in the hotel lobby where the conference is being held! A short time ago, Dr. Ortiz (whom I met yesterday at NEAS) introduced me to Dr. Sam Wolff of the Israel Antiquities Authority! It was wonderful to be able to thank him for all that he & his organization does archeologically! But the BIG news is that shortly later, I FINALLY met one of my long-time LMLK heroes & ASOR Executive Director: DR. ANDREW G. VAUGHN! Wow! After the big disappoint of not being able to get together with him 7 years ago, what a relief! He not only graciously autographed his dissertation & RAELv4 chapter for me, but ... even allowed me to camcord it while paying me some not-necessarily-deserved flattering remarks. I'm ecstatic! Even if nothing else exciting happens today, I feel this was a very rewarding & successful day! Will post updates as possible, but my Internet access won't work upstairs in the conference rooms, & the hotel might only allow 30 minutes total, so we'll see how that works out.
7:24am

7:29am
Just welcomed Dr. Yosef Garfinkel back to San Diego!
7:30am

7:58am
Just chatted with A.D. Riddle & another LMLK friend, Dr. Jeff Hudon. Dr. William Dever just walked by. Gotta close laptop & get to the room. Later!
7:59am

1:10pm
Incredibly fun morning! Won't have time to share all the details now, but ... (sorry, Hershel Shanks just walked past w/ Jim Eisenbraun) ... the highlights were getting to meet/chat w/ Hoo-Goo Kang about the Depressions, Jeff Zorn about stuff remaining for future excavations at Nasbeh, Aren Maeir about a misleading statement he made during his lecture mentioning the ivory dish, Liora Freud about the "continuation" of Rosettes into Yehuds (first time I ever asked an official audience question). Also said hello to Mr. Shanks, Bill Dever, Oded Borowski (who ... [sorry, just chatted for a few minutes again with Brian Janeway passing by] ... reminded me about 2 LMLKs from Halif published in 2009, & also Avraham Faust. Let's see ... what else ... oh yeah, I also met some guys ... what were their names again ... oh yeah, now I remember! Dr. Oded Lipschits, Omer Sergi, & Ido Koch!!! Dr. Lipschits graciously autographed his Yehud Stamps tome, & even allowed me to camcord it, & explained to my YouTube audience some publication plans for his Ramat Rahel material. WOO HOO!!! I sat next to Omer Sergi while listening to Ido Koch lecture on Azekah scarabs, & afterwards asked Prof. (?) Koch about the colors on one of his slideshow maps. Although I'd really, really like to spend the rest of the afternoon here, unfortunately I really need to head back to Redondo so I can take care of home-work & get a decent night's rest before going back to "my day job" tomorrow. This weekend I'll begin sharing as many details as possible from this fantastic occasion, but might not be able to get much of it online till the long Thanksgiving weekend coming up, which will include the annual Heritage Singers concert. Oh, & ... (just waved to Prof. Koch as he walked by) ... Yosef Garfinkel said the other TWO ostraca were submitted for publication to BASOR back in May, should appear in print very soon, & he won't say another word about them till then! Oh ... my slow brain kicking into gear again ... chatted cordially & humorously with "another enemy of mine" (quote from my lecture yesterday), Dr. Robert Cargill, about his Sergi video. I've really gotta go now.
1:39pm

G.M. Grena