Movin' On

I'm throwing in the towel.  I've spent way too much time trying to find certain facts in my family tree. I have  found little odds and ends I didn't have before, buy I still haven't been able to find the details I wanted on Jane Downs, my g. grandmother on my dad's side.  I'd like to know her middle name, place of birth,  her mother's name; her dad's middle name; her sibling's names, and how she relocated from Delaware to Illinois. Would also like to know if she gave birth to a son named Charlie.  I'd also like to know when her folks died and where.

That's a whole lot of stuff I should be able to locate but  I keep hitting that dang ole brick wall!  I collected all my paperwork and notes (from the last six weeks) and filed them away.  I feel like I've been set free.  But..... I am going to start fresh on Blankenships again.  I can't just go cold turkey.  I've got a lot of files on the Blankenships but need to get them in better order and to fill in some gaps.  I think it's going to be a whole lot more productive than those Delaware relatives were.

I have a vague idea on some of Jane's details but nothing I can prove yet. I'm fairly certain she was born in Kent Co, DE in December of 1840.  I also think her name might be Mary Jane Downs instead of Jane M. Downs.  She also may have had an older brother name Jonathan, and I think she traveled to Illinois with a neighbor or relative name Zadock Clark.  At any rate, I'm going to put the Downs on the back burner and return to Blankenships and other relatives.  Maybe the Holts and my mother's biological family.  Hard to get interested in those family limbs you've never really got to know in person, though.

I pulled out half a dozen cookbooks this morning and intend to study some of them for new things to eat.  My menus have been SOOOOOO BORING.    It's hard to cook for one.  Doesn't help when you don't feel like cooking in the first place.  Tonight, for example, will probably be my ole pal, Marie Callendar again.  We have two grocery stores here in Port Angeles.  Safeway and Albertsons. Although it's not Albertsons as of this week as they changed the sign and I assume some of the inside stuff. I'm going to go up there tomorrow and look around.

Hope the weather stay nice as Hunter planned on coming over tomorrow to clean my gutters.  I may end up moving my laptop back to the kitchen table again.  It's hard to spread out my paper work if I'm into genealogy but more than that, it's hard to stay comfortable in here.  I turn on the heat and before long, it's so hot, I have to turn it off again.  I just can't find a happy medium.  Course if I was up and moving around, I wouldn't have this problem.  I keep thinking I need to start spending my hours sewing again. At least I would be a little more mobile as you have to get up to measure, cut, and press.

I've been watching '24' with Keifer Sutherland on Amazon Prime and am halfway through season 1. Hard to believe that was 14 years ago.  Am looking forward to the Oscars on Sunday night. As usual, I've seen few of the shows up for awards.  I did catch Boyhood on RedBox rentals and it was good.
I want to see American Sniper, Still Alice, Birdman, Whiplash, and The Imitation Game.  And believe it or not, I'm even thinking the Spongebob SquarePants movie might be a fun thing to see.

Interesting to hear the news about the dock workers causing havoc.  I remember (several years back)  being told by truck drivers coming into the mill that dealing with the longshoreman in Seattle and Tacoma was really hard as they did everything they could to make getting in and out of the shipyards a struggle.  Because they could.

And the story about hospitals not cleaning their instruments and passing on germs....that was one of the things that stuck with me when I took medical assistant classes at the college. Our teacher (a former nurse) said it was very common to find remnants of body skin and such after sterilizing because the people didn't use brushes on the serrated instruments and the sterilizer didn't get it off.
Isn't that a sweet thing to know when you have a surgery planned?!

I also thought it was ironic that we are now being told that eggs are good for you.  Dr. Atkins was saying that all along but he was chastised for it.  And all of a sudden, five cups of coffee is fine?  Oh brother, the things we're expected to buy in on these days.  It never ends from month to month. I try not to listen to any of them.

Noticed Justin Bieber is trying to make his comeback.  And there are plenty of stupid people out there to help him do it!  I was hoping we wouldn't have to see his pretty boy face anymore!  Jerk.

Two cooking tips for today:

Trouble separating the bacon strips out of the package? Just roll it into a tight cylinder shape before opening it. Easy Separation from that point on

Roll your sausage patties in flour before frying them up. They won't crack open during cooking.  Hmmmm. do they mean sausage links or patties?  Oh well, I'll just buy my usual links anyhow.

Am I the only one who is sick to death of hearing about the looney tunes killer of the American Sniper trial?  The media, as usual, is running it over and over and over.  Also the Las Vegas shooting. How many times do we have to hear the same details? Move on!

Sure am happy happy I don't live in the east.  Those poor people dealing with the cold.

Just looked through my stash and grabbed any ole picture for today. Here's the gym as it looked in 2011 when my class took a tour of the high school.