Sometimes Things Come Together

Well, outside of the weather, looks like things are looking up around here.

Wednesday evening, despite the computer turmoil, I managed to make a delicious dinner of roasted red potatoes and grilled chicken.

Thursday, finally was able to purchase the pine straw we wanted for our landscaping. DH thought I was nuts when I told him a 14" x 14" x 28" bale would cover a 50 square foot area. So we bought 3 bales, keeping in mind that about one-third of our landscaping project was tree trunk. We ended up using two bales out front which left the third bale around the deck. I still have some left.

Today - actually starting around 4 am, we started getting some much needed rain. Someone can now turn off the spigot please. It's keeping the birdbaths full and I am enjoying my bird station out front from my office. Now I just have to find a book on Tennessee birds!

Also today - DH picked up his repaired recliner before the storms hit. It is STILL raining here and I fear the feet will develop webs again. Sigh.

One of Those Days*

It turns out yesterday - Wednesday for those of us in different time zones - turned out to be the day from HE!!

First, problems with Charter internet connection. I fixed after many tries.

Second, DH's recliner broke a spring related to the reclining mechanism and no, the LA-Z-Boy retailer does not make house calls. So we had to load that in my CR-V and haul it to the store. First repair guy calls and says it will be Thursday (which will be yesterday by the time you read this) before it is fixed, then calls and says Friday, because he needs a part.

Third, daughter is over working on a project for school in a cat-free zone. We know have seating for 3 in the living room. Sigh.

Fourth, and this is the one that really gets me, DH says to me, did you turn my computer off? Why would I turn off his computer - and without telling him? Turns out it was his UPS system battery that died - and we just happen to have a spare. So after contorting ourselves into weird positions - we finally get the old one unplugged, a temporary surge protector on and everything turned back on. The hard part is not getting the old battery out of the UPS system, but getting it back in, which I did. Oh did I ever tell you I am the household computer guru. I must have inherited some of this handy stuff from my dad. So at this point when I am trying to stuff 5 lb battery back into case, DH says, Shouldn't we try it first to make sure it works. I hand him directions which say "Charge for 4-8 hours before using."

DH redeemed himself, however, with a power back rub and some canoodling afterwards!

*I must have been tired still when I composed the title, because the original title was "Pme pf tjpse daus."

Yes, I am Pro-Choice!

For months we had no problems with Charter, and if we did have problems with our connections, they were easily resolved. Lately, several back to back connection problems. With frustrating results.

And isn't it funny that Charter Communications filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

Crap.

The city is trying to get out of their long term contract with Charter and brink in another company. What they really need to do is bring in more than one company and let the public have a choice.

Famous People Can be Hard to Find

As most of my followers know, I have had a lifetime obsession with my family history. My children make disparaging remarks about vacations that also involved a trip to a local cemetery. In July. Or August. In 95 degrees plus weather. Or maybe that June trip to Missouri when it was 104 degrees in the shade. And we parked right in front of the graves and didn't know it until the next day when we came back with the section number.

In a way, this post is about cemeteries. It concerns Find A Grave which is probably the largest virtual cemetery. I was browsing it last night and found Hugh Robert Wilson buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, Illinois. Unfortunately, it was not Hugh Robert Wilson who married Alice Tousey, but their son. Or maybe that is fortunately, because it was their son, Hugh. One thing I did not know was that Hugh, Jr. was a United States Ambassador. This can be a good thing and a bad thing. Ambassadors spend most of their time abroad. It's their job. So it's possible unless they are doing either a spectacular job or an abysmal job, it might be difficult to locate them in records of the day.

I was lucky enough to find Hugh and wife Katherine and son Hugh Robert living in Switzerland in 1930 where he was the U.S. Minister. I also find him in 1920 back in Washington, D. C. where his much traveled toddler who was born in Switzerland also resides. Unfortunately, Hugh is nowhere to be found in 1910.

At this point, I moved to Passenger lists. Hugh, being in the diplomatic corp, traveled to and from Europe a lot. I have it from his obituary that he studied Political Science in Paris. In 1907, I have him returning from France via third class. In 1930, he is returning as the Hon. Hugh R. Wilson. In 1938, he is returning to the US after being recalled from his ambassadorship to Nazi Germany, the Hon. Hugh R. Wilson. In March of 1945, again returning home, this time via the Queen Mary . I can't even imagine the thought of cross the Atlantic during wartime. To me the most interesting cross was in 1944 when he flew in a military transport from Scotland to Newfoundland to New York.

So you never know who or what you will find in your family tree and if census fails you, look to other sources.

Do You Wanna Rain Dance ..

In between shopping for birdbaths, plants, and dirt and digging up a 10 x 15 area of the yard around two trees, we made time Saturday to attend the first annual Rain Barrel Festival at Dogwood Park in beautiful downtown Cookeville. The dogwoods are still in bloom, the red buds are gorgeous and the magnolias are not quite spent yet.

The festival wasn't much, but was a fund raiser via silent auction of the hand painted rain barrels. This silent auction runs a little different than others I have seen, as you know what the previous bids are. I thought I'd share some pictures I took.

Summer Anyone?

Ok, summer it seems is starting early this year! Whew. And of course we picked this weekend to start our landscaping project in front of the house. We took a small area between two trees and planted a birdbath, bird feeder, some hostas and a couple of azalea bushes out there. We haven't mulched yet, as I am hoping to put down pine straw. DH is a bit iffy on it, but I feel pretty safe saying I will probably get my way.

Anyway, this is what it looks like now.

Some of the hostas are from Michigan and made the trip down last June when the Wild Ones visited!

I'm sure DH wants everyone to know how hard we worked - and we did. Digging up sod around trees is hard. Finding a place to transplant it was my job. It doesn't look that big but it was a 10 x 15 area. The birdbath is in the shape of a flower and stem. The birds are happy with it!

Let them eat cake!

Older daughter had her just-this-side-of-thirty birthday party on the 17th. I am slow in posting this - too much other stuff going on - but this is her teeny tiny little birthday cake. As you can see, once the candles went in it became the devil cake. It might have been devil's food at that - family's predilection for chocolate being what it is.