Category: Entertainment

I’ve had a pretty busy few weeks. If all goes smoothly, I will have a Surname Saturday post this weekend. I found something useful among some of my old papers that I wanted to share. To set the scene, I was trying to decide if I should mention a hypothesis I have about a generation of the Menzies family. I remembered that I had a list of 18th and 19th century English naming patterns. I decided to consult the list and if the names from the family matched the patterns, I’d go ahead and mention it. I’m sorry to inform you, you’ll just have to wait to see if it matched. Until Saturday, you can have fun with these helpful naming schemes. I’m unsure of the exact source. I’m pretty sure one of us printed it off in our beginning days.

No Surname Saturday post this week! Sorry, I was just so busy I didn’t have the concentration to write it up. It’ll definitely go up next week! Instead I’m participating in Saturday Night Genealogy Fun, a weekly series from Randy Seaver over at Genea-Musings.

1) Find something that you have written that you are really proud of – the best of your work. Do an Edit > Copy of it.

2) Go to the website http://iwl.me/ and Paste your text into the waiting box.

3) Tell us which famous author you write like. Write it up in your own blog post, in a comment to this blog, or post it on Facebook. Insert the “badge of honor” in your blog if you can.

So here’s mine, I used my Found You Alfred! post about finally partially breaking down my brick wall with Alfred Love.

I write like
H. P. Lovecraft

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

That’s interesting, I’ve never read anything by H.P. Lovecraft, but Wikipedia says he wrote “weird fiction”. ^.^ I’ll take that as a compliment I guess! I do find it funny that a post dealing with the Love family turned up an author named Lovercraft. Especially since I believe nothing is a coincidence!

I’ve got my Aunts from Ohio here, so I’ve been having a real good time this weekend. I thought I’d pop on real quick this morning and share my most patriotic pictures with you. These are from my Washington DC day trip back in April.

Last month we entertained family from Ohio. For the first time in many years we finally went into D.C. and enjoyed the sites/sights, both words work. 🙂

L. Lincoln Memorial being built in 1916.  R. Lincoln Memorial as it stands today, 2010.

The image on the left is from the National Archives. There are no known restrictions on the photo, so I went ahead and posted it. If I’m violating something, just let me know. The image on the right is my own. As are the ones I’m posting down below.

Sometimes when I end up spending a big chunk of my time doing stuff on the computer, I don’t always get things done. It’s like I’ve wasted all that time. I’ve finally chased the cause of this very annoying side effect.

I made a disastrous mistake in putting my computer desk near my window. I don’t know what I was thinking. On any given day I am interrupted by birds, squirrels, stray cats, and even crazy weather. With so much going on outside my window I’m surprised I get anything done. Who can resist squirrels hanging upside down from a canopy trying to eat the bird seed? Certainly not me.

If anyone knows of a cure for this crazy disease, don’t give it to me! The world outside my window is so wonderful. In fact we even bought a table set for our deck so I can enjoy it outside too. Hmm… Genealogy blogging from the deck? Who’s in? 🙂

I promise my blog will get interesting again someday. Remember when I wrote stories about cook books and that Irishman who is going to sweep me off my feet? Those were the days. haha.

We’ve had the pleasure of entertaining my cousin and her two energetic little girls this week. They left this morning and the house is eerily silent. I’ve done laundry (not finished), I played with the pictures in Photo Shop. I finally finished that book I was reading. Now I’m going to catch up on here! Sorry for the little absence but I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Yesterday, we took the girls on a day trip to Washington, DC. It’s about 2 hours from our house and yesterday was a very pretty day. We didn’t get to tour the museums. That sounds bad but we ended up walking a total of 5 miles yesterday, so I don’t know where we would have fit museums in! The youngest, she wanted to see the Lincoln Memorial really bad because he’s her favorite coin. Everyone else just enjoyed seeing the sites.

I may or may not have spent my last two evenings lost in Google Earth and Panoramio. I don’t mean to be distracted by these things but I can seem to help it. I’ve realized over the last couple of weeks that I haven’t done much traveling at all. Back and forth to family reunions doesn’t count as traveling. Especially since they are usually quick weekend trips. I long to travel. I don’t know how well I’d hold up, because I’m kind of a homebody, but I’d like a chance to try.

In these contemplations, I also realized I have a great obsession with medieval castles. I have certain obsessions with certain time periods and the medieval time period seems to be another one. I can’t help it. I don’t romanticize it, I promise! I know it was a brutal and bloody time. It’s the architecture and families and that fascinate me. Family dynamics are so complex and unpredictable. Maybe that’s why I love genealogy so much too.

I’m big on full disclosure, as you all know, so I have to be upfront about my recent distraction. It wasn’t just castles I was caught up in. I was caught up in Scottish Clan histories and matching up castles with clans. I brought up a list on Wikipedia of all the castles in Scotland and I started trying to plot them in Google Earth so I could come back to them anytime I wanted. It was wonderful.

The photography on Panoramio is just gorgeous. I’ve got to read the Terms of Service and stuff before I post any pictures from there. I might have to contact the original photographers. It might be months before I build up an awesome Castle post, but boy do I want to. I get so inspired when I see the great things other people do. I even played with my camera yesterday. Found settings I never knew existed. Someday I’ll have a new camera, until then mine will work to get the logistics down.

I better go get the laundry in before I get distracted again! Sorry for no pretty pictures this time, I’ll just have to leave you with one of Castle Menzies from one of my Google Earth Adventures!