National Blog Posting Month, It's A Wrap!

Yay! I made it for the whole month penciling in some small bit of foolishness daily on two of my three blogs.  In my search for blog topics I have found all kinds of fun sites and interesting information.  I've only passed a fraction of it along to you but now I can just post tidbits wily nily, I don't have to save anything up.

I have a but more focus for this particular blog now, but it still is a repository for the many things that interest me and something now and then may interest you.  As always, thanks for stopping by.

Notable Children's Books of 2013

Boy am I slipping!  I've only read one of these: The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey.

Only two others are on my to-be-read list though:

The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson

The Cats of Tanglewood Forest by the always wonderful Charles de Lint

The New York Times Notable Children's Books of 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

May you travel safely today, find the time with your loved ones to be a gift, and eat your favorite foods with great happiness and pleasure.

Two more posts and the November 2013 National Blog Posting Month trophy (non-existent though it may be) is MINE.

Pie Day at DOA Central

If you thought I only aspired to be The Soup Queen you would be wrong.  I also want to be Pie Woman.  I could never make the heavenly pies my mother in law makes, but I'd like to make very good pies.

Today I made pumpkin pie (Libby's recipe).  I can make pumpkin pie no problem.

I'm branching out and my very first Apple Pie is baking as we speak.  I think the preparation went well. I don't mind peeling apples and slicing them thin, but that gnarly apple core, grrr.  I'm pretty sure there are apple coring tools...eek do I have one of those things that cores and slices in a drawer someplace? That would have saved time and minimized the core size.

I'm a lifelong Betty Crocker fan so I used the recipe in the 2011 edition.  I forgot to put the foil ring around the edge to prevent excess browning. :(.    I did put a pan underneath to catch wily juices that will likely escape.

I used the Pillsbury crusts but I haven 't made a pie before with a top crust sooo the whole crimping the edges thing was a bit off.

After I wrote this I was worried and went to look at the pie which I pictured to be a dark dank mess.  But noooo  I opened the door and said "Wow, that's beautiful!"

Pie mania running wild, we had pizza pie for supper.

What to do?

I sit in my easy chair in the morning, read the paper, drink my coffee, jot down a To Do list for the day in a handy notebook.

I happen to have a small blackboard, and some days I like to use that.

The flaw in using the blackboard, I found this morning, is the CAT who is attracted to all activity and all things decided to drop down from the back of the chair and lay down on my nice new list.  Ack!

Deathfire Ruins of Nevermore Kickstarter

You'll be happy to know that the Paddy O'Brien Kickstarter was a great success, making its goal with ease.  I am really excited for his successful campaign.

And now for something completely different:

Deathfire Ruins of Nevermore has a mere 11 days to go and I would love to see this game go forward.  It has the kind of depth I haven't seen for quite awhile.  Adventure and treasure around every corner.  Party based game play, meaning you get useful characters following you through the world and they've got your back. Usually.  Unless they get stuck in a wall. You know how that goes...

I'm joking, the folks behind this have a ton of experience and you and your brave companions are guaranteed hours of wondrous adventure.

Clicky clicky right here to support the magic.

Five Things I Did Not Do On My Last Working Day

I'm writing this on my iPod in my easy chair so I'll need to add pictures and the video once I'm at my PC.

We've all had those days where we have an awful day or deal with some pinhead and we mutter "on my last day I'm going to..."   Then you list the grievances of the day or the list of things you wish you could say.  I also had such a list.  I did none of these things, because I was just sad to be saying goodbye, after all, to my long library life.



I did not:

Go look for books customers couldn't find on our shelves in the back room ( forbidden behavior) ALL DAY LONG.  Ha ha I was not scheduled on the desk all day so needer had to cram it into a few hours.

I did not spend any time cleaning out my desk or computer files because I had done it early.  I did work on the dust bunny population. If there are new dust bunnies for the new person, enjoy.

I did not cry.  Call me smooth.

I did not tell anyone off, not even a little. Didn't even think it, I was all smooshy.  You can't be cranky when you're smooshy.

And finally, I always thought when I was done working I'd go for the chorus of "Take this job and shove it".  I just like the song and have certainly worked places that fit it (I'm looking at you, Hoover factory).

Old Library Tales

I'm really getting these posts in under the wire, aren't I?   Digging deep into my Pink Notebook, I have some factoids/tales of one of my old libraries for you.

The library was across the street from the jail.  Sometimes when you went out the front doors to go downtown for lunch prisoners would holler things at you.  There were a lot of people in at the library looking up local legal codes, let me tell you.

We were just up the street from the bus depot.  A lot of interesting people came through the library.

A customer who used to come in all the time researching really old comedians murdered his psychiatrist. 

One of our clerks was obsessed with the Kennedys  and he eventually went berserk and had to be led away.

The security guard was very much like Don Knotts in the Ghost and Mr. Chicken.  He saw the ghost of Zane Grey in the basement frequently.

One man started wearing very short cutoff rayon or some slinky material as soon as it was warm.  We all dreaded what we might see peeking out, you know?  He was listed now and then in the local paper for "public urination"  a big problem apparently as it was regularly listed on the crime sheet.

Of course my other favorite local crime was the person who was caught slinking out with a bunch of Hostess Twinkies under their jacket at the small grocer's nearby.  Bad dog.

The original bookmobile driver was a sweetheart but periodically he just disappeared on a binge.

One of my coworkers taught me how to crochet.  Patient sweetie.

A guy we called ET with dark glasses and pink permanent hair curlers was a real disruption for awhile.  Lots of complaints about his bathing and putting those curlers in in our restrooms.  One day my boss had to talk to him about something else and ol' ET slammed his walking staff down hard on the floor in front of the boss and the boss jumped back three feet.  It shouldn't have been funny, but it was.

Running out of time, turning into a punkin' who didn't get in their post at midnight! Pleasant dreams!

The Hunger Games Catching Fire

If I wondered that a new director might not work out so well for the second Hunger Games tale, I need wonder no more.  Francis Lawrence and his remarkable cast absolutely nails it.

The second book spent more time letting you get to know these children and adults who were being sent to die more than the first.  They didn't really give everyone that depth in the film version, but with 24 tributes it would be difficult.

The points at which Katniss sees that people are helping her, trying to make sure she lives are just so powerful. 

All of the small and large ways the tributes and increasingly the people in the districts begin to rebel, to just quietly raise their hands in salute, I have no words for their bravery.  

I felt sorry for Katniss in the books because she was a symbol for the masses and hope for everyone who saw her bravery, especially Prim.  She wanted only to take care of her family, not the world.

I left thinking I need to read Mockingjay again to refresh my memory, because I felt so bad for Peeta being captured and I don't recall what happens next.  The movie creates the same urgency to know that as the books did, quite an accomplishment.

Coming out of the theater the woman behind me told her companion conspiratorially "We can't tell anyone about this".     Obviously they don't want to spoil it for anyone, but it was funny they thought they could keep what happens a secret from everyone.


I have to mention the costumes for Jennifer Lawrence, that wedding dress, the transformation into a Mockingjay, the other flaming dress on the chariot....wow.

http://mockingjay.net/

Jingle Balls!

I just saw this Kmart ad while watching Elementary.  Eye popping!






And via Mashable J.C. Penney tweaks Kmart a bit for the ad on Twitter


Remember that 70s song Ring My Bell by Anita Ward?

Homemade Christmas Cards Again This Year, Ho, Ho, Ho!

Last year my creations met with mixed reviews, but far be it from me to be discouraged.  I haven't started them yet, noooo, not with all this time I have these days, noooo.   I like a nice deadline, ya know?  I give myself deadlines all the time to keep myself moving.

So, we have a snowman stamp with three snowmen (clearly a mom, dad and their wee snowball of a son).  I always stamp that on the inside and we all sign our name under the appropriate snowperson. 

Last year I used some incredibly thin paper that my mom had from who knows when, thinking it was nice to pass it on that way. The stamp ink didn't dry very nicely on this paper so there were a few smears when you went to sign your name.  Tsk.  This year I'll just cut cardstock.

  

I like to have this part pre-made before the cards themselves because our wee snowball lives a hundred miles away.  I can get him to sign in his spot at Thanksgiving then just glue the signed liners in.  that part worked last year.

One thing I learned last year is that those gemlike stickers that are raised up and some other spiky things I loved putting on the cards get ripped by the Post Office in transit.  Bumpy mail is not a good thing.  So in order to feed my glittery inner beastie, I'll hand cards to people as I see them this season, and make sure those I mail are boringly flat.

If you get a boringly flat card from me this year, my apologies.

Pinetree Garden Seeds

Pinetree Garden Seeds and Accessories "The Year Round Resource for Home Gardeners since 1979"

Pinetree Garden Seeds offers seeds in packet sizes that make sense for the small home garden.  There may be anywhere from 20-150 seeds per packet depending (I think) on seed size and typical germination rates.  If you ever feel guilty getting a packet with more seeds than you could plant in a lifetime, this is the place to go.

Offerings:

Vegetable seeds
Mushrooms, sprouts, microgreens, grains
Flower seeds
Books
Soapmaking
Garden products (such as seed starting supplies, floating row covers, etc)
Spring bulbs, tubers & plants

The writing style is informative and conversational.  Cultural information for each plant type is presented at the beginning of each section, with additional tips for use in individual descriptions.  Heirloom varieties are clearly indicated.  Each plant has a small picture by its description.

As far as I can see they do not have any of their own introductions, nor do they feature new varieties at the beginning of the catalog as many companies do.   Actually they do have an introductory page which mentions one particular variety, but it is really more of an index.

I love the huge variety of vegetable and herb seeds available.  If you're like me and are in the mood to try a wide variety of new plants this year, start here.  Their catalog comes out nice and early so you can get your order in.  You don't want to wait till January and have all the good stuff be gone, right?

Their catalog is free at www.superseeds.com

Note:  As you can see I found my copy of Onward and Upward in the Garden.   This is nothing like Katherine White's work.   I did get the idea from her, and perhaps someday if I keep going through dreamy garden catalogs, looking at them a bit differently and critically I might get better.  I'm already planning to put my seed list for the year in an Excel Spreadsheet, and it occurred to me tonight it would be fun to pick one variety from each catalog that all carry and compare the description.  High gardener humor, I know.

Seed Catalog Reviews

I'm suddenly interested in Heirloom Seeds this year so I have requested catalogs from several new companies.  Since I have numerous days of NaBloPoMo left, I thought I would do some catalog reviews.

If you've been gardening as long as I have and you read garden writers with great pleasure, you may be familiar with Katherine S. White.  She was married to E. B. White but her personal claim to fame was writing about gardens and plants and garden catalogs for the New Yorker. These were compiled into Onward and Upward in the Garden, a lovely book.

I can't match her writing of course, but I have always wanted to review garden catalogs.  They are so distinctly written.  Some have beautiful prose and make such a gorgeous picture in your mind (this in addition to the photographs).   The most wondrously described plants and seeds are for vegetables, I feel, because they make your mouth water with those descriptions.  Sometimes.

I'm looking for:

Good writing

Detailed cultural information

When to harvest

How to use

Botanical names as well as common names

New and unusual cultivars

Specialties of the nursery

Garden tools, seed starting supplies

Advice advice advice.

I think I'll do them as they come in which means I'll start tomorrow with Pinetree Garden Seeds catalog.

The Paddy O'Brien Tune Collection Kickstarter

I love KickStarter.  You are probably familiar with it, but if not, someone puts up a project that they would like help funding.  There are tiers of support for any given project, from $1.00 on up.   I believe you can use Paypal, but mine uses my Amazon account to it is really easy to just click on the level of support you would like.

If the project meets its funding goals by a certain date, the amount you pledged is taken from your account.  If the project does not make its goal by the set date, it is not funded and you do not contribute anything.

It is very exciting to watch the number of supporters and funding numbers go up. Sometimes the goals are funded and surpassed really quickly, sometimes they are all of a sudden funded at the last, sometimes there is a steady rise.

The projects are always creative ones, and I see it as an excellent way to support the Arts, and recognize excellence in a very personal way.

You have the opportunity to fund the Kickstarter for Paddy O'Brien's Tune Collection.   This is the third collection of 500 tunes! from a remarkable "walking encyclopedia of Irish music" as he is called on his page  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paddyobrien/paddy-obrien-tune-collection-volume-three

I love Irish music and cannot imagine how one person keeps so many tunes in his head.  Hearing him play in person is a beautiful experience and I encourage you to see him if you live in our area.

He is very near his Kickstarter goal, and I encourage you to hop over and try out Kickstarter
 by funding this wonderful project.

Book Launch A Death in Lionel's Woods at Buffalo Books and Coffee

I first met Christine Husom at a library event I hosted in 2011.  She drew a nice crowd and they loved her and she loved them, so it seemed. She definitely had that gift of back and forth with the audience.  A former policewoman, she seemed exactly like her heroine Corinne Aleckson to me though she said no, she didn't see that she was her character.

I hadn't seen her since then but wanted to be at the launch of this next book in the Winnebago County mysteries: A Death in Lionel's Woods.  Off I went on a rainy November day to Buffalo Minnesota.  What a nice little town, full of fun shops. 

The bookstore was hopping, Christine was right up front beaming away and signing books.  I think I looked familiar to her but she couldn't place me until I asked her to sign the book to Librariandoa, then she recognized me.  :)    The bookstore was too busy to really chat, but it was nice to see her and I boldly asked if I could have my picture with her.

A Death in Lionel's Woods starts with a woman's body being found in a woods by a hunter.  She is wearing an unusual homespun dress and beneath her body is a garden trowel which looks to have been used to bury stacks of money before the woman died.  (I am assuming!)  The Winnebago County Mysteries used to be based somewhat on real life cases, as I recall, and I wonder if this one is as well.

Visit Christine Husom's web site for more information and the other titles in this series.

NaBloPoMo Day 15 Halfway There!

I actually intended to do the National Blogging Month on my other blog since I wasn't giving it enough attention.  Then I ended up tossing this one into the NaBloPoMo pot.  I have not missed a day so far on either.  Doesn't matter how big or small the post, right?  Sing it! We're halfway there, la la la.

Bury Them Deep: Funeral Potatoes

I've been having fun making up menus for each day of the week, something I've never had time to do consistently in the past.  It is a challenge because both Mr. DOA and I are are picky picky picky.  

One thing I thought would always be an instant win would be any variation on potatoes.  We both love them.

Today's menu was simple: Ham, Cheesy Potatoes and Corn.  I didn't realize till too late in the day the recipe I had for Cheesy Potatoes was meant for a nice 8 hours in the Crock Pot.  I began combing the web for a quicker alternative and came across the term "Funeral Potatoes".   Apparently next time you're being served from a funeral food line, you should keep a sharp eye out for these crowd pleasers.

I looked at a few recipes, checked my ingredients and went for this recipe  from Our Best Bites.

Mine looked just like theirs  (this is theirs, mine is in the trash):

Mr. DOA ate two helpings but he requested that it never appear again.  I liked them somewhat but the sour cream oddly enough seemed overpowering as a flavor in the center of the potatoes.  Onward we go.  I only have one other recipe in this week's plan which Mr. DOA could reject (there were two last week ::sob::), he has had the rest.

The DOA Scrapbook: Ask Yourself the Questions You Wish You Could Ask

I had a conversation with a colleague one day who is a really avid family history researcher about making sure we let our children know some of the things about us that we wish we knew about our parents or grandparents. 

I've been thinking it can be easy enough to sketch in a life of someone else using facts, figures and mementos because we're just providing an overview. 

We assume somehow that our children know us well and that they won't have any questions about us they wish they could ask when we're gone.  Of course they will.  They don't ask for the same reason we never asked.  Because our parents were going to live forever and we could always talk to them any old time.  If only.

For your children's sake, make a list of questions you wish you could ask a parent, grandparent, or other ancestor no longer with you.  Just basic stuff that makes them a real knowable person.  Write down your own answers to those questions, and tuck them in a nice pocket page or on a journaling page in your family scrapbook.

That is why I like scrapbooks, they present a nice visual summary of people and events.  Each page can be a discovery or a fond memory.  You can see a whole person from photographs, memories, letters, notes.  Write your own page, because who knows you better than you?

Ready, Set, Germinate!

Renee's Garden Seeds has been posting tantalizing pictures from their seed catalog selections for a couple of months now.  I'm at the point all of a sudden where I want to order everything they have.

It really is a bit early in the season to be feeling Seed Lust, but I'm only human and am looking ahead to my first spring and summer EVER since I began gardening in the 80s where I will be able to pamper my seedlings and water and feed my plants as much as I want to, need to.  Incomprehensibly glorious. 

This picture from Burpee Gardens of a three pound!!! "Steakhouse Tomato" just snapped something.

Mine will probably come out the size of a cherry tomato, but, ah, isn't a large portion of the garden a dream of lovely, lovely perfect plants and a tomato the size of your head?  Yes, yes IT IS!

I have catalogs from last year I saved, but I'd like to grow more herbs (and use them fresh).  Several different lettuces, check.  A regular cucumber and one to try pickling.  I have never eaten a turnip, but reading perhaps a few too many food blogs makes me want to try one.  I want to try Kale for the health benefits (though Mr. DOA tried some and said it was awful.  Bitter tasting, perhaps?)  I'd like to try celery once more, that did well for me.  Gourds.  Pumpkins.  More potatoes, those were really excellent in my grow bag.

Pamper my three blueberry bushes.  Grow rhubarb.  Maybe get one of those three tier strawberry planters from Jung's.

Must make a list of seed catalogs I'd like and write for them now so I'm ready to sow my seeds in January.

Mugshot! Death in the Time of Ice

See this lovely mug? (Ignore the cat).  I won it by commenting on a blog post by mystery author Kaye George.  I have secured the book itself on my iPod so that I can sip my tea out of this wondrous mug while I read it.

Kaye has three mystery series with a fourth (set in lovely Minneapolis) due out in September of next year.  Stealing descriptions from her home page, they are:

People of the Wind Novels - this series follows the Hamapa tribe as an Ice Age approaches.

Cressa Carraway Series - a mystery series featuring a musician and conductor.

Imogene Duckworthy Mysteries - these take place in modern day Texas, set in a fictionalized version of the Wichita Falls area.

Fat Cat At Large, first in the FAT CAT series, set in Minneapolis, coming in September 2014 from Berkley Prime Crime . Series features Quincy, pudgy and adorable cat who is always hungry on his diet. He gets into a lot of trouble, serving as a catalyst for murder and mayhem.

Her blog is called Travels With Kaye

Kaye's Home Page

Bridge Tip: Try the Churchill Convention

You will recall we went to the Churchill Arms Pub in London and met my spouse's online bridge partner.  Inspired by the great bridge play that evening, they have invented a new Bridge Convention called "The Churchill Convention".  

It seems to be evolving as they continue to play online each week, but the basic gameplay rule is now both partners MUST bid in every hand.  In a well played Churchill hand, apparently, both partners get some kind of bid, and a low bid, in early in the hand to satisfy the convention, but not cause them to get trounced.   I hear varying reports from Mr. DOA on how it is working, but it seems to have added a delightful dimension to the play of the hand for them, if not for the sometimes confused opposing team.

In honor of my own fond memory of playing Bridge with Snoopy cards in a London Pub with superb companions, I present the Churchill Convention Founders, suitably commemorated, I think.

Note; Mr. DOA approves of this post but he says the Churchill is a SYSTEM not a CONVENTION.  I have no clue what he is talking about, which is not a surprise since I carry Snoopy playing cards around with me in my purse.

Saturday Rebus: 5 Things To Love About Being A Librarian

It is rebus day, yay! Always popular here at DOA Central.  I put a comma after each one in the generator box hoping to separate them but it didn't really work. Ignore the comma at the end of each rebus.


                                                                        ONE!

 

 

 

 

TWO!

THREE!

 

 

FOUR!

 

 

 

 

FIVE!

 

The Generator Blog comes through again!

If you can imagine I almost went to bed with out posting, and we're only on day 8!!!! Agh! What hope is there for me?

Never fear, all I need to do is head on over to the Generator Blog to find something useful or ridiculous, it doesn't matter which.

Remember this is all an exercise in getting our poor NaBloPomo-ist to write on a regular basis.  Practice practice practice.

I present to you PetSwitch which allows you to put your eyes and mouth on a picture of your pet.  Why would you wish to do this?  Well, take a peek below and say no more:

My eyes, my mouth, my beagle.  Could be in my Christmas cards this year....

Two Sentence Horror Stories

This idea popped up on Facebook just before Halloween.  Apparently it originated on news sharing site Reddit.   It spread all over as expected.  Buzzfeed's 12 Absolutely Terrifying Two Sentence Horror stories for example.

I wanted to wait till I could think up one myself, combining two things I find scary: spiders and dreams before posting here.  I'm certain my aversion to spiders has more than just their scary legs, drops from the ceiling, and the likelihood that they walk across my eyelids at night to blame.  Nope I saw the film The Incredible Shrinking Man when I was very young on a large screen and sheet that spider was nightmarish.

I don't know about you, but my dreams can be pretty scary and thank heavens I usually wake up mid- scarefest.  Good Lord, where does that stuff come from?   The obvious answer is you dream scary things when creatures walk across your face while you sleep.  Pleasant dreams!


DOA's Two Sentence Horror Story   (A complete tale in two sentences)

Dreaming, dreaming, softly weaving, in a cocoon of infinitely silky fibers, safe, safe.
Awakened, forsaken, spun into the web of a dire spidery beast, pincers moving my way.

Chicken with Rice Soup from Two Peas & Their Pod

Ah the cool weather makes you want a nice bowl of soup, doesn't it?  I have a desire to become a really good soup maker. 

I started with Chicken with Rice Soup because it seemed simple and tasty and just a good place to start.

I found this recipe that looked just as I wanted my soup to look:

Easy Chicken and Rice Soup Recipe

by Two Peas on February 19, 2010

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 medium carrots, cut diagonally into 1/2-inch-thick slices

2 celery ribs, halved lengthwise, and cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices

4 fresh thyme sprigs

1 bay leaf

2 quarts chicken stock or broth (we use low sodium)

1 cup of water

1 cup long grain white rice

1 1/2 cups shredded cooked chicken breasts

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place a soup pot over medium heat and add the olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery, thyme and bay leaf. Cook and stir for about 6 minutes, until the vegetables are softened but not browned. Pour in the chicken broth and water- bring the liquid to a boil. Add in the rice and chicken; season with salt and pepper. Cook on medium-low until the rice is tender-about 30 minutes. Serve hot.
*Note-for the shredded chicken I used 2 large chicken breasts. I boiled a pot of water on the stove and added in the chicken-which I cut into large pieces. Boil the chicken until it is cooked all the way through and there is no pink left. This will take about 7 minutes or so. Drain the water and shred the chicken once it is cooled. I use 2 forks to shred the chicken. *


My Notes:

I had many of the ingredients.  I liked that I didn't have to pre-cook the rice ahead of time.

I find cloves of garlic to be too strong and the taste to be acrid so I peeled one and snipped a few tiny slices slices off of the end of a clove. Plenty! 

I used powdered thyme, had no bay leaf (but now I have some :) and I used ground pepper, not the freshly ground stuff.

I cooked the chicken breasts for about half an hour and poked them with a fork to make sure they were cooked.  Removing the skin wasn't too bad of a job.  I used the single fork method to removed the meat from the bones/breast.   I poured in about three cups of the broth made by cooking the chicken in place of some of the broth.  I didn't get my chicken pieces quite as small and tidy as I might have.

Next time I make it I would reduce the uncooked rice to 1/2 cup because I'd like it a little more soupy, if you know what I mean.

The soup was the best soup I've ever eaten.  Wonderful flavor, just the best.

I see below my spouse wants all the rice, so we'll stick with one cup.

Person of Interest: The Perfect Mark

A perfect episode!  Finch and Reese featured and joined by Carter, Shaw and Fusco to help solve a real mystery. 

We have a hypnotist who is bilking wealthy clients out of their money by stealing password information while they're under.  This guy is able to turn on the charm and even when he is totally being a eel, you want to like him.

Unfortunately for him, he is stealing money from an antiques dealer who is laundering money for HR.  Also, he has a girl he loves and he won't make his planned escape without her.

Carter, with Lasky's help, is closing in on the head of HR.  The disillusioned rookie gets help from Carter and Finch faking deaths ordered by HR, but it all comes tumbling down in the end, with detective Terney coming upon Lasky and Carter, he shoots Laskey as ordered by Simmons.  Carter shoots him and extracts at the last an indication of who heads HR.  Terney puts a bloody fingerprint on Quinn's picture to show her who he is.

Meanwhile, the hypnotist's sappy girlfriend turns out to have been playing him, as she grabs a four million dollar baseball and walks away with it.

Which Peanuts Character Are You?

http://www.brainfall.com/quizzes/which-peanuts-character-are-you/    There are ten questions.  Answer honestly!  I know how it is sometimes with these quizzes. You think you see a pattern that doesn't flatter you or you have some odd desire to answer dishonestly.  Tsk.  Be bold!

I answered honestly, I really did.  I thought about it beforehand and expected to be Charlie Brown because of my fumbling goofiness or Snoopy because of my devil may care silliness and that beagle trait Snoopy doesn't really embody stubbornness.  I have stubbornness hardwired into my being.  I'm ok with it.

I got the Charlie Brown part in my results and am happy enough, but I don't see myself as being like Schroeder at all.  I do tackle tasks with extreme focus, which is why when people creep up on me (you know who you are) I am so surprised and I jump and scream and maybe exclaim a bad word or two.

HCL's History Fair

One of my goals has been working on our family history, just going back a few generations, but really making those folks come alive.

I attended the 4th annual Hennepin County Library Family History Fair a week or so ago, hoping to get back in the groove, so to speak.  I learned some new things and it put me in the mood to start organizing and putting it all together.  Here are some highlights.

Using Religious Records in Genealogical Research with Trudi Campbell gave me ideas for looking at religious documents and records as a way to flesh a person out a bit.  Some of the ideas:

These records can substitute for Civil Records when you have gaps in information.  Perhaps someone wasn't a citizen right away but they got married or baptized a child. 

These records can be considered as primary sources of information and may have names of other family members you've been missing.  Think of birth and baptism, faith confirmation, marriage, death, church activities, vocations and ministries.

Check family Bibles for information, church bulletins, newsletters and membership directories.


Your ancestor may have lived in a rural area and they attended a church that was nearby, perhaps not of their chosen denomination.  Look at maps and directories of churches where you know or think they may have lived to locate their records.

Going Beyond Online Databases with Alice Eichholz

Get a map of the area where your ancestors lived.

Learn about the background and history of the area to get a feel for what life was like.

Write down everything you find and its source.

Gather official and original vital records for the whole family.

Get Census records for the whole family across as many years as possible.

Look at land, probate, court, church, cemetery, military, immigration records.

Do not rely on indexes or transcribed versions of documents, find the original.

Avoid skipping generations.

Make a chronology of the time and place.

Where did they live? Who else was in the neighborhood?

When you get stuck on a direct line of ancestry, look to collateral and allied families--aunts, uncles etc--usually someone is a chronicler of family history.

Look at histories/experiences of what immigrants would have gone through in their time.  What was the cost of a journey to America?  How long would the trip have taken?  What would the shipboard experience be like?  Could they read or write?  Note most were listed with the occupation of "laborer".

These were the sessions where I took the most notes.  I'm sure I'll go back next year. 

Grimm: PTZD

No idea what PTZD stands for.  The Scooby gang gets to Nick just as he is trying to rip apart a small family.  They get his attention and he chases them out of the house to a barn where they're able to trap him.  They hit him with Rosalee's meds just as a bunch of patrol cars arrive and get him out of there.

He responds to the medication but remembers nothing.  As it turns out, one of the customers from the previous episode's bar fight dies of his injuries.  The Scoobies (I'll only call them that for this episode) decide to keep this from Nick and they agree on stories for the cops.

Nick is right there at home when Juliette is questioned, and learns that a man died.  This is supposed to be a big trauma but Nick has killed plenty of folks and buried or had Monroe bury their bodies.  He has made his peace with this side show of murder that comes with being a Grimm, so I thought.  Is it different because the man he killed was a human not a wesen?  That hardly seems fair.

Nick is determined to turn himself in and he jeopardizes everyone who is trying to protect him, but at the last moment he does not talks to the cops on the case.

Nick's other lasting effect from his Zombification is, he is sleeping and turns blue with cold and has a very slow heartbeat.  He wakes up and is fine as Juliette is calling 911.  No problems he says.

I'm hoping they move on with things and don't have Nick all angst ridden all season.

Renard

Renard's cohorts in Europe killed his half brother the Nick snatcher on his way home from the airport.  Slick.  He even got a congratulatory call from HIS MOMMA thanking him!!!!  It didn't sound like a warm fuzzy mom son relationship from their tones.  She sounded ancient and creepy.  He looked tentative.

Adalind

She's still pawing and sawing away at the body of the fallen hexenbiest in a quest to get her own powers back.  She gamely sews up the witches body cavity then uses her teeth to cut off the blood clot covered thread.  Gross.  I'm sure there is plenty more to come.