violetismycolor

A little genealogy rant...

I work almost daily on genealogy tasks. I (as I may have said) research both my family and my husband's. My primary platform is Ancestry, but I try to transfer all the information to FamilySearch, which is the collaborative family tree/genealogy website, run by the Church of the Latter Day Saints. 

I'm so passionate about genealogy that I put some pretty coin into using services like Ancestry, Findmypast, Newspapers.com, and Wiewaswie. I have the resources to do that and I like to share by putting useful information up on FamilySearch, where anyone can have an account for FREE. 

But because FamilySearch is a collaborative website, anyone can change the things that are put up there. I try to write a Life Sketch for each person I research, using historical documents as the basis. I transcribe carefully, all the information out of those records, onto the Life Sketch. I assume, wrongly apparently, that with that Life Sketch front and center, anyone who wants to change something vital, will read that first and see that the facts there are documented. Maybe they have the wrong person...an ancestor with the same name and similar dates, but not the right person they are searching for. No.

Lucky for me, FamilySearch lets you opt to 'watch' any person listed and see what changes are made to anyone you are watching. They send a weekly email listing changes to everyone on your watch list. 

Recently, I had an ancestor of my husband's that I had researched very thoroughly and I had documented my research there. Last week, someone changed his parents, gave him a child, born in a different country and ten years before he and his wife married, and merged him with another person...all without thinking how this could possibly be right and wiping out all my data, including the Life Sketch. I try to write very kind notes to folks like this but this one made me very angry. I have to admit that I wrote a note saying he had wiped out many hours of work, not only by me but by others who had contributed to this person and all of his descendants. Then I changed everything back. Thank goodness, there is a restore function.

I have not heard back.

FamilySearch can be a fun and interesting place to do genealogy. It can also be infuriating. How many times have I slapped my forehead in disbelief when someone assigns parents to someone when their marriage (or birth or death) record is attached, which clearly states the parents' names...and they are not the ones you think they are, dude!

I do transfer the Life Sketch information for anyone I have in my tree to my Ancestry page, so I will have it for the long run. But for others that share these genealogies, I want to make their life easier and not make us all hunt for the information we need. If it is out there and I have found it, I want to share it. I hope others feel the same and want to share information, too. 

Just please, think twice before you change the work of hardworking home genealogists like me. I always double check that I have facts or documents before changing someone's work, and I hope you do, too.

visitors from abroad...

August is here and we have some terrible (cold and wet) weather and some lovely visitors.

Katharina, who was our German foreign exchange student seven years ago and who visits us for a month every year, is here for her month. She arrived last Sunday and we immediately whisked her off, jet-lag and all, to a birthday dinner for Zerek. 

Zerek turned 40 and he had all-day celebrations, starting with breakfast at Rosswood. We sat outside and the waitress took some really lovely photos. Breakfast was great and it was a lovely warm morning with the Willamette river rolling by. Lots of folks had their dogs with them. We talked about what was in store for Zerek for the rest of the day, which was meeting at various places with various friends to enjoy celebrating his big day.       

When Katharina showed up, we headed to the NW 21st and met up with Bonnie and Zerek again, this time at North 45 where we again sat outside. It was a bit hot by that time but we had a lovely dinner and then got Katharina home to (finally) go to bed. There's been a bit of jet-lag for her all week.

Today, we pick Lisa up from the airport. She is English and there's a long story about how she is connected to the family, but let's just say she's family. She was here in March and we told her to come back and visit again when the weather was better...but is it better? Not really. August has been either too hot or too cold and rainy. Weird, climate change-y weather. She is coming for 2 weeks and we have a lot planned for her.

This will be an interesting month with Bonnie's birthday and a visit to John's brother in the Okanagan. Can't wait!

Obsessiveness

As I have said in an earlier post, I am a bit of an obsessive personality. This actually helps me to get things done, IF, in fact, I am obsessive about the particular task. I can say that this applies (currently) to genealogy and knitting. Apparently, I am not an obsessive about blogging. I have been a terrible blogger. 

My other issue is that I am a bit...scattered. Maybe a bit ADD. My attention is easily pulled away. Say I am investigating the Vermilyea family (my husband's side). Someone sends me an email via FamilySearch.org and I jump into action to investigate whatever ancestor that person asks me about and, voila, I am on to checking into the van Eeden's or whoever. Focus, Diane, focus!

I will try to change that, a bit. 

So, what is new with me? It's a gray July morning in Portland. I am at my usual coffee shop, spending a hour doing some genealogy. The place is full of people trying to grab some great coffee and maybe a delicious pastry or two. There are never enough seats and it is a little loud, but that doesn't seem to bother me. I block out all the noise around me.

I am trying to focus a little bit more on my genealogy tasks. I am working up my family tree and adding a Life Story for each of my direct (and sometimes indirect) ancestors up my family line. Well, and up John's family line, too. I attach these on FamilySearch, the collaborative family tree that is sponsored by the Mormon Church. It is a free website and a good way to try to find distant cousins who may be working on the same people I am. I also attach those Life Stories to these same ancestors on my Ancestry.com site. That way if someone on FamilySearch deletes the story, I still have it. Oh, yeah, people do delete things...like attached records...without a lot of thought.

Next up is my (obsessive) knitting. I am working on a cardigan that is a variation of the Sock Arms Sweater...same pattern, I am just making it into a cardigan instead of a pullover. I am using a wonderful gold merino by Swans Island Yarns. It is a fingering weight sweater (read: the yarn is very thin and you need a lot of stitches to knit my size). It will be wonderfully drapey and light for the fall and spring. I intend to make a DK or Worsted weight gold sweater for cold winter days.

The garden is amazing this summer. I put this down to the fact that my son-in-law-to-be, Zerek, spread two yards of compost over it for me this past spring...and the fact that we had a rainy spring and early summer that gave it lots of good water.  The weeds cannot do much to get up beyond the mulch and the spectacular growth of the perennials. I am doing far less weeding than I did last summer. 

The thing that is the most abundant this year are the blueberries. They have produced more than they ever have...and they KEEP producing. We can't keep up with them, to the delight of Bonnie and Ross, who are happily accepting "gifts" of blueberries whenever they come by.

We are having lunch with Dominic from Switzerland, who was an exchange student the same year as our own Katharina. He is visiting with his girlfriend. I am going to make a charcuterie board spread with good bread, spreadable cheeses, nuts, salami, olives, etc. with cherries and blueberries on the side. It's not too hard to do and it's delicious. We are planning to eat outside but I am not sure the weather is going to allow it...how is that possible in July?

Last year, the summer here was unusually hot (lots of temps in the 90's and 100's) and/or too smoky from the wildfires in both southern Oregon and British Columbia to spend time outside. This summer has decided to be cool and overcast more than warm and sunny. I have decided not to complain (too much) about this summer's weather because last summer was unbearable.

Anyway, that's a brief look at what's on with me lately. I will try to be better about blogging.

 

Snowfall and me

As my husband keeps pointing out, I was raised in southern California. I grew up as a very outdoorsy tomboy on a dairy farm in LA county. 

I was outside all the time

a) because I was one of the oldest of a VERY big Catholic family and we lived in a very small house

b) because going outside was one of the only ways to get any privacy

c) because the dairy was big (I think about 62 acres, shared with Mr. Schmidt's dairy next door) and there was so much to explore

I spent a lot of time watching the cows give birth in the dry cows' corral, making a "house" in the haystacks, playing in Coyote Creek and catching frogs there, climbing trees, playing cowboys and Indians with my sisters, brothers, and cousins next door. But it almost never rained...and it CERTAINLY never snowed. I had complete freedom to wander. As long as I was in by dinnertime, life was golden.

Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE Oregon. I LOVE Portland. It's best on sunny days but I don't really mind it in the rain. BUT being stuck in my house on snowy Portland days drives me to distraction. I NEED to be outside of my house for at least part of every day. NEED TO.

Luckily for me, those snowy days tend to pass pretty quickly but seriously! When I heard it might snow again next week, I about lost it. Come on, weather gods, give me a break!

 

Knitting, addiction

 

I have started knitting again, as I said in an earlier blog post. As with most things I do, I am a bit obsessive about it. I have three WIP's, as they say in the knitting world...Works In Process. One of those is the off-white Bailey cardigan (see photo at left) that I mentioned in an earlier post. I chose an off-white, organic, washable wool because I wanted something that I could wear with just about everything. I also wanted it to be soft and comfy.   

The second project I have is a hat, which I have just started. I am hacking about 3 different patterns to make something unique and am using the yarns on the right, the black Zara DK yarn and the red Grinasco Top Print. These yarns have been in my stash for longer than you might think. Many, many years ago, I owned a yarn shop here in Portland. It was called Spindleshanks Yarnworks, Ltd. (a mouthful, right?) and was filled with gorgeous yarns. When I closed the store in 1996, I took home some lovely things. The yarns that I am using for my hat were from my store. I am part of a Ravelry group called the Stranded Podcast Group. They are having a KAL (which I have learned means a Knit A Long) using commercially dyed yarns. This is why I put this project on the needles.

My third (and so far, last) project is a Noro scarf. This is using two different colorways of Noro and alternating them every two rows. This gives a beautiful striped scarf. I will post a picture of that some other time. It is a fun project that requires very little thought; it's just pretty zen. I take that project along to my morning coffee group and I can knit it and talk at the same time. 

Anyway, my white sweater project requires real concentration right now since I am making the sleeve caps, and I am watching the Olympics and not really able to concentrate on knitting anything complicated. Soooo...the white sweater just has to wait for right now.

Better get back to knitting....

 

Have I talked about my Instant Pot addiction?

Last October, I read an article in the New York Times about a new Instant Pot cookbook. It seems that the author of that cookbook, Melissa Clark,  a reviewer for the Times, fell in love with the Instant Pot after being asked to review it. She loved it so much, she spent a ton of time re-writing all her favorite recipes so that she could use it.  I was so excited by the article that I immediately ordered an Instant Pot and her cookbook on Amazon. Am I ever glad that I did!

I now cook with my Instant Pot at least twice a week, probably more. I can make so many things in just a fraction of the time that it would normally take without sacrificing any flavor. This is especially true for things like pot roast or pork carnitas. But it is equally true for things like sweet potatoes (love! sigh!) and soups/stews. In fact, as I sit here writing this entry, I am eating the slightly spicy (chipolte pepper) sweet potatoes that I made last night. I rewarmed it and topped it with some cottage cheese and it is amazing!

I have become such an advocate of this product that I have inspired at least a dozen people to buy one. I gave one to each of my sons, and now they are big fans.  I am now getting rid of my crockpot, because my Instant Pot can be used as one of those. I can also make yogurt in it. Last week, I made homemade Indian paneer, out of my other favorite Instant Pot cookbook, Urvashi Pitre's Indian Instant Pot Cookbook.

I am not being paid to spout all this Instant Pot love; I just can't help myself!

 

Family History Organization

I have been working on family history (or genealogy) for the past few years. I have become quite good at being able to find records and am piecing together the lives of many of my (and my husband's) ancestors.  This is all good.  My big problem is Organization. 

I have been collecting records and "trying" to put them in their proper places, so that I can find them again. However, some of the time I am working on my desktop and some of the time on my laptop. Only at my desktop do I have a big, secondary hard drive where I have a file for each generation and each family in that generation. When I am working on my laptop, usually at night, while watching TV, I do download the files and label them appropriately. But I don't often find the time to MOVE them from my laptop to their proper filing folder on my desktop. I would much rather be hunting down new material.

The other thing that I am trying to do is to write a story about each family group. I collect the birth, marriage, and death files. I find newspaper articles and census records,  property records and wills. I look at my ancestor's siblings and their families and I try to get a sense about what these family groups were going through while they lived. This is much harder than it sounds. But it IS my ultimate goal, to leave a record of these families that my husband and I come from and to tell their stories for future generations. But there are SO MANY OF THEM!

For any interested party, the filing system that I use is this. I create a file for each direct ancestral couple. I use the first 4 letters of their last names in this system, in order to keep the file names an appropriate size. My husband and I are Gen 1, our parents are Gen 2, etc. So a file for our grandparents would look like this:

03_SMIT John_JONE Mary

That would be the file that would start with their marriage and go on with each child having their own sub-folder in their birth order: 1_Thomas, 2_Joan, 3_Clara  etc. In those files I would put all their BMD records and information on their children, censuses they are in, etc. When my own direct ancestor marries, they get thier own couple file. This works pretty well for me. My ancestors had lots and lots of kids. My husband's family, less so.

Each record gets labeled like this:  SMITH JOHN 1896 BIRTH   or   SMITH JOHN JONES MARY 1913 MARRIAGE

Doing this also makes it easy to find a record, as I can spot the year I am looking for, and what person or persons are involved in the record.

Okay, enough explaining. Time to do some record sorting....

 

 

Blog, reinstated

I went to my book group this morning. I have been a part of this group for at least 15 years! Unbelievable! One of the things that being a part of this group does for me is that it stretches me, in terms of what I read and how I think. So many of the books that we have read would not even have been on my radar. The group is made up of such smart, interesting women. I get to share so much of their lives because, besides discussing the books (which we really do), we also share our stories.

This month's book was Michael Chabon's latest, Moonglow. The book is a cross between memoir and novel. Chabon's prose is always so rich and full of truly masterful metaphors. It is (ostensibly) the tale of his grandfather, a member of Operation Paperclip in WW2, husband of a mentally-ill European refugee, step-father to that woman's daugther, electrical engineer, rocket enthusiast, model builder, anger-management challenged ex-con, and more. The narrative is built by that grandfather telling stories of his life, not in a straight line but meanderingly, as he is dying and under the influence of serious pain-meds.

The way memories are kept and dispensed, the same way I try to eat Christmas treats, slowly and with true savor, was the key to this story. I read it in about 5 days and, when I put it down, I couldn't wait to dive back in. I haven't loved a Chabon book this much since Kavalier and Clay.

 

 

 

Other projects worked on this week include my A-line off-white cardigan, which I am knitting in Swan Island Yarn's Organic DK Washable Wool (color Natural). The yarn is a dream to work with. It is soft and has a lovely hand, and it knits up into a wonderful fabric. I have finished the fronts and the back and am currently knitting the two sleeves (at the same time, with 2 balls of yarn). This way the sleeves will match exactly, with the increases in the same places and the number of rows just the same. I hope to get down with that in the next week and then I will throw another project onto the needles. Stay tuned.

I am just starting a button-front, sleeveless shirt. I have sized the pattern to fit me and cut out the fabric. I will work on fitting adjustments this week and perfect the pattern. I intend to use this for a series of tops for the summer.

 

Ross turned 30 this week. We went out to Masu Sushi, which is owned by a friend of mine. It was our first time there, and all I can say is WOW! The food was amazing. Bonnie and Zerek, John and I, and Ross all just gorged on the delicious sushi and tempura. Ross celebrated with a drink called My Little Kitty, which was a berry puree based cocktail. Delicious! He let me try a sip and I agreed. Ross's favorite cake is Red Velvet, and though he is dieting, he made an exception for a Red Velvet birthday cupcake. We had loads of fun! Too bad Adam and Priya weren't with us!

We also went out to a Blazer game. Our bank treated us to great seats at the Moda Center. Bonnie and Zerek joined John and I and it was a blast. The Blazers were absolutely hot! The Chicago Bulls were terrible. The Bulls couldn't seem to land a basket of any sort in the first quarter and the Blazers couldn't miss one. They earned 50 points in the first quarter and it was a first for ANY franchise. We won, of course. A fun night out was had by all.

 

Designing new elements: Sewing

I drafted this pattern from an existing shirt that I own.  It is so simple:  no darts, no zippers or other closures, looks great with jeans.  What's not to love?  

It's hard to tell from these photos, but this is actually a Navy gingham, which I bought at one of our several WONDERFUL, LOCAL fabric stores: Modern Domestic.  I love Navy and I love gingham.  When I saw the fabric, I knew I had to have it.  

I have made many versions of this shirt but I tried something different here.  I added bias inserts at the sides and one at the center back.  I love the way it makes the shirt not-quite-boring and certainly one that no one else will be wearing.  

The back insert is the way I put some 'interest' into the back but it also is to make it fit more properly over my backside, without weird folds and things.  I did this with one of my other shirts and loved the look.  

What is your favorite way to change things up with patterns?

Knitting for Baby Girl H.

 

I have decided to start documenting my adventures in Knitting/Sewing/Designing, so here goes!

My Niece-in-Law, Adri, lived with us in the year before she married my nephew.  So, naturally, we are totally in love with her.   She married in January 2016 and is pregnant and due at the end of March 2017.  Of course, some very special gifts are in order for the precious girl that is going to enter our lives.  

I've always loved the look of Debbie Bliss's Ribbon-Edged Cardigan and that was my first choice.  Now...a new baby may or may not get much use out of a cardigan, so I decided to make the 6-9 month size.  Little Baby H should be headed into Fall when she ready to wear this and the sweater should get a lot more use.  May as well be practical, right?  I chose some Rowan Baby Silk Merino.  I love the slightly heather-purple shade.  It's washable (so not such a total pain to take care of) and it knits up beautifully.  

We have been stuck inside with Portland's 5th snowstorm of the past 2 months, unheard of here.  This particular storm dropped 13 inches on us and we may not get out till next Monday or Tuesday, so I have LOTS of time.  Here's where I am:  Back done, One Sleeve done, half of Second Sleeve done.  I plan on a matching outfit (sewn) to go with it.  Stay tuned.

 

It's in the eyes....

I am always interested in seeing traits repeated in families.  In this case, I am referring to physical traits.  I came across these pictures the other day and, BAM!  It smacked me right in the face.  My husband, JOHN CALHOUN, has the same eyes as his great-aunt, KATHLEEN CALHOUN.  John was about 39 years old when this photo was taken, but I am not sure exactly how old Kathleen was.  But those eyes...they are the same.  

Family history is so interesting, and I will tell Kathleen's story in this blog...wait, wait, I will get to it and it is worth the wait.

 I am not sure I see those same eyes in any of my kids, but I will look for them in photos from now on.  In the meantime, John was born in 1944 and Kathleen was born in 1886.  Fifty-eight years may separate their births, but those genes are strong.  I am not sure if they came down the Calhoun or Parke side, but again, I will keep looking at the old photos I have to see if I can trace them.  

This is a fun new avenue of research for me to go down.   Yippee!

On to family research

I have decided to change this blog into a family history and genealogy blog.  I hope to track my progress through the wacky, maze-y world that is all-things-genealogy.  I have found how much I LOVE doing research...I actually think I already knew that; why else would I have been such a history bug?  

I have a lot of history of my own side of the family, the Smoorenburgs, so I have been digging into my husband's side, the Calhouns.  This has proved fascinating.  I hope to tell the stories here in the blog.  Hopefully, other genealogy freaks like me, who may be researching some of the same folks that I am, can join in.  We can help each other.  

So, here we go!

Okay, so I have been HORRIBLE about blogging for almost 3 years! Seriously!

Updates: Adam and Priya, married, happy, graduated and moved on. Bonnie, graduated law school, clerking for a judge in Anchorage, has an amazing boyfriend. Ross is finishing up grad school, works for the US Forest Service making data maps, lives in town, and is happy. John is still working, though for a new company. I am volunteering at the high school and have started doing some serious genealogy.

I am trying to decide if I do my genealogy things here, in this blog, or start a new one...questions, questions.

As for the here and now. Bonnie's boyfriend wanted to get her a new kitten for Christmas. Enter little orange kitten (girl) that I spent an entire day picking out. She is adorable! And a lot of work. She is social and cuddly but also playful. She and Chai had a bit of trouble connecting for about 5 days: Chai wouldn't eat, would hiss at her, was angry at us. But now they play the chase game. Cookie was desperate to be her friend, but she was all mean-girl to Cookie. It is all sorts of high school drama here!

We go to Ann Marie (my sis) for a pizza party for the family today. Looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up. I saw Ann and Brian at my cousin, Ted's funeral. Also, my brother Ted did the funeral mass and he was so good! Gave a great speech about their time growing up together (fig fights in the hay alley, catching pigeons in the grain barn, barn owls vs boys...), along with a good spiritual message. I was so touched and so was Ted van der Mortel's family.

Moving on...

Looking for a good blog name for the whole genealogy thing: 1nce Upon an Ancestor? 1 more Family story? A mix of Scotch and Dutch? Nah... I will keep thinking.

back in the saddle...

I have been away from this blog for more than a year, I think.  And life has changed, a lot.

The most significant change has been that I have some sort of heart problem, and with the consent of my cardiologist (I have a cardiologist?), I am totally changing the way I eat.  That means going on an almost totally vegan diet...that's right, V-E-G-A-N!

This is really hard.  Not because I am having trouble giving up white flour, sugar, meat...but because I have to learn a whole new way to cook.  I have to learn about all kinds of new foods (what does one do with Kamut, anyway?).  

This is going to be great for my health, including allowing me to lose some of the weight that I have been dragging around with me since I had babies.  The goal is to get to your high school weight.  I have already lost a bunch of weight over the past few years, so it's not that much of a stretch.  

I was pretty scared about it at first.  After all, I have a husband who has to take a leap along with me...though he can have a chicken breast or a piece of fish or whatever, in addition to the veggie things he is getting to eat with me.  But he is coping well and I am just starting to learn about things like dry carmelizing onions, and it's not too bad.

 

 

India and traffic...

The only way I was able to stay sane in the intense Indian traffic was to look away...staring ahead and seeing that there were multiple vehicles headed straight for us was so scary, I just chose to read my Kindle books on my iPad or look out the side window and watch the masses go by. India is filled with so many people...1.3 billion in a space smaller than the U.S....that I felt as though I was in a hive. Everywhere, everywhere there were tons and tons of people, whether in the city or in the countryside. And those people have to get around, and they do...on bikes and scooters and in cars and in trucks. And there is not enough road for all these vehicles, going various speeds, to fit. So, you are constantly passing someone and there is oncoming traffic and there are blind curves, but this does not deter your driver from marching right ahead.

The good news is that drivers in India are not Americans.  The honking going on there is for courtesy, to say, "excuse me, I am about to pass you, okay?"  with an answering honk for "okay!" .  Traffic moves over to give the driver more room to pass.  Oncoming traffic slows down and moves over so that you don't crash headlong into each other.  People drive cooperatively.  What an idea?  

We Americans are in-your-face!-drivers.  We are agressive and competitive.  Indian drivers are not.  They are polite and work together to make the roads work.  This was a big eye-opener.  

Whole families of 5 or 6 people all sit on one scooter, helmetless, and zoom by.  Women in sarees sit sidesaddle behind their husbands, nursing babies on SCOOTERS!  It is scary to watch.  Thank goodness we didn't witness any accidents, though we did see the aftermath of a couple.  

I think we could learn some patience from these people, though I don't wish the driving conditions on anyone.

 

 

 

thoughts on India...part one...

This is one of my favorite India photos, mostly because there were hordes of Indian school children on field trips in many of the places we visited AND they seemed to just love us. 

This picture was taken in Kanyakumari, at the very tip of the Indian peninsula.  It is where the waters of the Indian Ocean, the Bay of Bengal, and the Arabian Sea all meet.  We ferried over a pair of small islands, one with a giant statue of the Indian poet-saint Thiruvalluvar.  On our ferry were these wonderful young schoolgirls, in their blue gingham blouses and navy blue skirts.  They waved at us and wanted to shake our hands.  This was not the first time this had happened to us.  We must have seemed to be very exotic; there were almost no other Caucasians around for most of our trip.

The girls were beautiful and friendly.  When we finally got back to the mainland, the entire group called out a loud "good-bye" to us as we disembarked from our ferry.  

Here are the schoolgirls that mobbed me in Mysore, further north.  We were visiting a temple and these girls all wanted to shake my hand and know my name.  They were really happy when John suggested I take a photo with them.  

All the people we met in India were so nice to us and interested in us.  Some of the time, it was hard to understand their English (their accents gave us trouble) but it was always worth the effort.

third day of the New Year...

Ah, 2012...how I have waited for you.  

And what have you brought me?  Stress.

Why, you ask?  Too many things to do, personal panic, messy house...

First of all, Adam left this morning to go back to school and Priya.  I loved having him at home so much.  We got him to the airport on time, after a brief errand to get visa pictures done (for the big wedding trip to India).  Five minutes after leaving the airport, we get a call from Adam...he has forgotten his laptop, at home.  

Off to UPS to send the laptop, and in a separate box, all of Adam's Christmas presents.  Check.

Next up, filling out the forms for the travel immunizations clinic, printing them out, signing them...and off to the clinic for the shots.  ONLY 3 shots needed, thank goodness.  I got shots in both arms but only the left arm hurts.

Home again and filling out the visa forms for India, getting a money order to send with them, then on to Fedex to send them on.  Done.

What to eat for dinner?  Something easy!  Chili dogs...off to the grocery store to pick up the necessary parts.  

Home again to do filing, clean up, etc.  The house is disastrous and I am too tired to do anything about it today.  

Tomorrow, we go off to settle with our friend, Dominik, who is helping with Bonnie's needs once she heads off to Geneva...money exchange, housing, cell phones, and more.  We are so fortunate that his parents are going to settle Bonnie in.

Then, changing all the beds, cleaning, etc are NECESSARY!  Also, putting away the stragglers in the Christmas decoration department.

And Bonnie takes off on Thursday morning, Ross gets sent home to his own digs, and life returns somewhat to normal.  

Welcome, 2012!

Stories...

I love stories.  They give me insights into other lives, lives that I will never experience in any other way.  It's the reason that I have been a TV-addict since early childhood.  

My parents fed my story addiction by taking me to drive-in movies, mostly of the Disney variety.  My first sit-down-in-a-movie-theater movie was The Sound of Music, which was a story of grand scale:  Nazis, singing siblings, the beauty of Austria, romance.  Next up was Help! with the Beatles.  Come on, Paul McCartney and the hilarity of a true chase film.  What's not to love?

I discovered history books in the library at my Catholic grade school.  I became addicted to history, too.   These were stories set in a period when men and women wore beautiful clothes and rode on horses and carried knives and swords.  What's not to like?  

In high school, I found the novel, Gone With the Wind...history, belles in ballgowns, Rhett Butler and a great love story...I read it at least a dozen times.   

Now, I read at least 4 books at any given time, belong to a book club, consistently have a book on CD in my car, have a dozen TV shows programmed into my DVR, and go to the movies when I can.  Story, my favorite thing.  

nibs and nubs...

I went for my annual dermatological exam yesterday and came home with a sore spot and a bandage.  I had a little hard cyst on my abdomen.  The doctor removed and and added a couple of stitches...it hurt like heck all night and today was bothering me, too.  Getting old truly sucks!

We are getting ready for the visit from Priya's parents.  We met them in September, when we flew to San Francisco for a few days.  Mallika, the mom, made us a wonderful dinner...making sure to keep in mind that I was gluten and dairy free.  Everything was delicious and we had a nice conversation.  

Now that we have settled the date for the Portland wedding for April 28, 2012...we have even more to talk about.  Adam and Priya will have the big Indian wedding in March sometime.  We are hoping that we hear what the firm date for that event will be, this weekend.  And we have many other wedding details to work out.  It's exhausting, just thinking about it.

Portland problems...

The Occupy Portland movement is reaching a critical juncture.  The two occupied squares are having increasing problems, with crime and drugs and stench.  Someone described it as moving from the 99% to the 1%, the 1% of the population that is homeless, or mentally ill, or criminal.  There are probably more than 1% of the population that are homeless/mentally ill/criminal, but I get their point.  

The Occupy Movement has been instrumental in getting the country to wake up to the income inequality and corporate/banking malfeasance that has torn at our country's foundations.  It has changed the conversation and I think that that is a blessing.  Maybe even the saving grace for our country.  

But...

A movement without an organization that can move forward, with a structure and leadership, to get ONE or TWO specific issues moving towards resolution and change, cannot succeed.  

Now, our mayor, Sam Adams, has given the Portland Occupy Movement a deadline of clearing out by midnight Sunday.  How will the movement handle it?  Will there be violence, like there was in Berkeley, California?  Will the movement shift and regroup?  Die out?  

And if movements like this die out or take a break for the winter months, will the conversation shift again to less important topics?  I hope not.  I think we need change and it is going to take hard work and sacrifice from all of us.  I hope we can all pitch in and make this a better country before it gets worse.