1. It has been gray and rainy ever since we got back from the US. That means it’s been rainy for 2 weeks. We have seen only a couple of hours of sunshine during that time. It’s also cold…as in it’s in the upper 40s and low 50s. This is May! Gah! Our poor plants are really suffering, and my body misses the sun too.
2. I have been doing a lot of genealogy research lately, and if I can just confirm one connection, I will (probably) be able to tie in about 6 more generations. That’s really exciting. Even more thrilling to me than that, however, is the fact that this branch of the family appears to come from Upper Brittany in France. I was really hoping I had some French in me!
3. The accountant my company hired to do my taxes still hasn’t completed them, but I just got notification that I should be able to see something about them next week. Normally, I submit my taxes at the end of January or early February at the latest, so this is really bugging me. She just wrote me an email with jargon I didn’t understand. I’m slightly frustrated.
4. We gave Béni a new Kong toy. It’s a rubber bone with a hole at end of the two knobby ends, where we can stuff treats. He is obsessed. Every time we let him out of his kennel and every morning when we come out of the bedroom, that’s the first thing he goes and gets. I’m glad it’s a hit! I do wish, however, that the PX and nearby pet stores had a larger selection of Kong products to choose from. Since Béni is such a strong chewer, they really are the best toys for him, but we are stuck with only 3 different toy choices here. The new toy was a result of a trip to Petsmart while on our trip to Texas.
5. In two weeks, we will be on our anniversary trip to Burgundy, France. The weather is not forecast to be much warmer than it is here right now. Please pray for some good weather for us. We’re really looking forward to this trip.
6. I want to start making a quilt, but I am a little nervous about starting such a big project when I don’t really know what I’m doing. The last time I went to the craft store on post and started picking out fabric, the store clerk exuded such a sense of superiority that I ended up leaving without buying anything. She acted as though I had no business making a quilt. It was such a downer.
7. We have been watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and I cannot believe some of the things I’ve seen on the show: elementary school kids not recognizing their vegetables, not knowing how to use forks and knives, etc. To top it all off, the push back in the community at the beginning of his work in Huntingdon was unbelievable to me. Texas has a number of the fattest cities in the United States, and I can’t imagine people reacting so negatively if he were to have started his revolution in San Antonio. By the way, the CDC reports that 28% of San Antonians are obese and in the Huntingdon, WV, area, 45.5% of residents over the age of 20 are obese. Has anyone else watched this series on ABC?
YES! I am OBSESSED with Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution! I think the season finished here, I really hope he does more – what he’s doing is so needed and so wonderful! I didn’t understand the kick-back on it at all…I thought at first that maybe it’s because he’ was being viewed as some random foreigner coming in telling people how to live their lives? I don’t know…it just makes no sense to me. I cried a couple of times at the change he made in some people though – so great.
He did a few Food Revolution projects in England too – I wish I could have watched them, it would be interesting to see the differences/similarities between the countries.
We finally saw the last episode — things air later here than in the States, so usually we see episode one on our TV and then hunt down the show on Hulu. Technically, we shouldn’t have access to Hulu because we’re overseas, but somehow there’s a fluke and we have access. I’m not complaining!!
I’m interested in doing some ancestry research for my family- how are you going about doing it? Using one of of the websites or books?
I started off just using Ancestry.com because they had a 14-day free trial. Two months later, we’re now shelling out the monthly fees and they’er not pretty. I just can’t bring myself to pay for a year’s membership up front.
Anyway, I did research on there and then when we were home in April, I compared to what my great-grandmother had for our family tree. She was really into genealogy. I still haven’t really used her sources, so I’d say most all of my research is from Ancestry. If there’s any way I can help you with getting started, let me know. I’ve really taken an interest in this stuff, and would love to share what I’ve learned.
great list!!
i don’t know how easy it is to find american books over there, but there’s a quilting for dummies book out there. i think you can do it. start small, google some info. you’ll be fine! and if you finish your quilt, you could hang on to it until you get home and you can probably find someone to put it together/quilt it for you.
oh, and i tagged you on another list today… play along if you’d like!
my dog has a kong (she’s a little wiener dog who loves toys) and she never leaves it alone!
Thanks for the tip about the book. I probably couldn’t find it in English in a sore, but I could always order it from Amazon! I do want to quilt it myself, and I do have a little experience with that, but not much. I’m thinking I should just try and if I fail….oh well! 🙂
Kongs — Beni already tore the new one! Gah! He’s such a hard chewer!!
Thanks for the tag. I will probably just play along via the comments if that’s ok. Heading there now…