My Thanksgiving break was supposed to be less stressful and more relaxing this year because Terry and I decided to 1) not travel to Texas and 2) not host relatives for dinner. While my Thanksgiving day cooking was somewhat less stressful and not on any kind of set schedule (see last week’s blog post), my feet and back hurt quite a bit before we finished dinner and enjoyed pumpkin pie for dessert. My only consolation was I didn’t do eight hours of driving AND cook for eight.
Category: Family
Happy Birthday Aunt Jan and C.S. Lewis!
“Happy Birthday” to my Aunt Jan in Ohio. She’s shown between her two older brothers in the photo below taken a couple of years ago at my dad’s 70th birthday bash:
Incidentally, all of the above are born in the same month — November — as is my husband and my daughter-in-law. I’ve blogged about this before. Here’s a photo from their early days (circa 1953):
I have many fond memories of my Aunt Jan. I remembering spending a summer or part of a summer with my grandparents (her mother and father) in St. Paul, Minnesota, when I was about six (circa 1970) and Jan was still in college (she was probably about 20).
Continue reading “Happy Birthday Aunt Jan and C.S. Lewis!”
A Somewhat Relaxed Thanksgiving
For the first time in years, Terry and I were not hosting Thanksgiving nor were we dashing 500 plus miles south to North Texas to join our children for the holiday. Our daughter has moved to the northwest and is no longer within easy driving distance. Our son and daughter-in-law had hoped to drive up north from Texas to join us, but the weather was uncertain so they spent yesterday with close friends near them. I phoned my dad on Wednesday night and told him Terry and I were going to take it easy on Thanksgiving day and not have any set schedule. I did promise him one of the two pumpkin pies I planned to make (the recipe makes two pies and Terry and I will not need to eat both of them). The sticky buns, on the other hand, would not survive to be shared. I urged him to spend Thanksgiving with his step-daughter’s family.
Dear Abby: Traditional Thanksgiving Prayer
DEAR READERS: Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and no Thanksgiving would be complete without my sharing the traditional prayer penned by my dear mother:
Oh, Heavenly Father,
We thank Thee for food and remember the hungry.
We thank Thee for health and remember the sick.
We thank Thee for friends and remember the friendless.
We thank Thee for freedom and remember the enslaved.
May these remembrances stir us to service,
That Thy gifts to us may be used for others.
Amen.
Have a safe and happy celebration, everyone! — Love, ABBY
Posted today on Dear Abby’s blog.
Thank You Veterans
My sincerest thanks to all veterans for your service, dedication and courage.
Freedom is never free and I am forever grateful for the freedoms I enjoy that your sacrifice secures.
Farewell Apollo and Godspeed
Cakes Inspired by Literature
Hint hint: the Don’t Panic cake might be appropriate for my upcoming milestone birthday.
Countdown: three weeks from this Thursday
Update from the Eastern Front
My grandmother, Doris, often wished she could reconnect with her mother’s relatives in Europe in her latter years. But the ravages of two World Wars followed by the dropping of the Iron Curtain across most of eastern Europe made genealogical research nigh impossible.
I was reminded of this frustration this morning while I listened to The Guns of August on my commute to work. I’m reading this Pulitzer winning non-fiction book as part of the Kansas City Public Library and the National Word War I Museum‘s Great War | Great Read program to commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I.
I’d reached the fifteenth chapter, which began a shift of focus from the Western Front in August 1914 to the Eastern Front with the appropriate title ‘The Cossacks are Coming!’ About halfway through my commute, I recognized the name of my great-grandmother’s home town, formerly known as Stallupönen, but since reclaimed and renamed multiple times over the last century.
Continue reading “Update from the Eastern Front”
Did You Know There Are Tests For Sarcasm Detection?
io9: “Did You Know There Are Tests of Sarcasm Detection?”
“… the way of most sarcasm tests. They’re meant to not just discover an inability to detect sarcasm, but sound out exactly what is wrong with someone’s understanding of the non-literal.”
— Esther Inglis-Arkell
“Next sarcastic comment in 3 … 2 … 1 …”
— Text on t shirt I recently purchased for my husband.
I’ve never had a problem with sarcasm or irony. According to my hubby, I have a problem with humor (as in lacking a sense of one). [Shrugs]
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon
Article: What happens to your online accounts when you die?
What happens to your online accounts when you die?
I need to read my Terms of Service more closely. I had planned on passing on my password archive to my descendants but that may actually be prevented according to the ToS.
Posted from WordPress for Android via my Samsung smartphone. Please excuse any misspellings. Ciao, Jon