It’s been another eventful week in the world, so join the open thread and let us know what’s happening with you. Here’s Hamster, who celebrated Hanukkah and mourned the passage of the great Stephen Sondheim, says sender-inner Tracy R.
Weekend Open Thread
Greetings, all, and I hope Hamster is recovering from his grief.
I’ll be having my Covid booster at 6.45 this evening, but unfortunately every taxi firm in York seems to be fully booked (probably by people going to the vaccination centre). I finally got a taxi for 5.15, so I’m looking forward to killing an exciting hour or so ambling round the supermarket next door…
Also, thanks to the marvel of genetic genealogy I’ve discovered that I have a German relative, the grandson of one of my great-uncles (one of two brothers, we’re not sure which one) who was stationed there shortly after the end of WW2.
Good morning Hamster and Cute peeps.
Alice…I’m intrigued by the “genetic genealogy”. How do you get all the way to an actual person with that information? 🤔
My relative and I both took the Genealogy.com DNA test, which revealed that we were quite close cousins on my father’s side of the family. From that we could narrow it down to a handful of men in the right age group, and when my relative’s mother took the test it narrowed the list down even more until only two men remained. It’s quite remarkable given that before the DNA analysis all my relative knew about his grandfather was that he was an English or Irish serviceman (it turns out that his mother’s family were Irish). Being a true crime aficionado I associate genetic genealogy with serial killers or unidentified murder victims, so it’s good to see it used in a positive way!
I see! Very interesting! I should have realized, obviously, that several people would have to submit samples in order to narrow it down.
I do think of crime shows as well as real life murder cases when DNA is mentioned. It has been interesting to see cold cases turned over on DNA evidence that we were previously unable to analyse.
Wowzer, Alice! That’s amazing stuff.
Good luck with your booster, and enjoy your amble.
Mission accomplished at a cost of £12.90 (taxi there) and £2.25 (bus back). The queue wasn’t as long as I expected, and on the whole it was less of an ordeal than the first two jabs.
woohoo!
Ditto!
Hamster is handsome as usual. He looks especially fetching in the candle light and the falling snow.
Yeah for you Alice getting the booster. I’m still trying to get an appointment for that and a flu shot. interesting about the German relative. I have one of them in my family tree as well. One of my uncles studied in Germany in the 50s?? and never knew he had a daughter until she contacted him.
The great migration has started at my house. The plan is to move some of the smaller stuff over and just let the movers take the furniture. Then need to paint, and rip out carpets. Good news, there are wood floors underneath!! One less thing to put in the renovation budget. Then later today hubby and me are off to celebrate a Stangs-giving potluck with the car club. My contribution is sweet and sour meetballs. And I think there’s a hockey game tonight but not sure if we’ll make it. After a weekend like this, I’ll be thrilled to go back to work for some relaxation, lol. Happy weekend everyone!
AJ, if you can get the renovations done before there’s any stuff in the house, everything will be easier (as I’m sure you know). The floors especially work out best when they can be sanded and stained at one time–when I redid floors in my Kansas house, I had awkward stain lines between each room. There was no way to fix that.
Good luck packing and moving! I don’t enjoy packing but love having movers move stuff and then really enjoy getting everything set up in the new place.
That is so the plan to paint and do floors before we get the movers in. Just figured out or at least narrowed down the paint options today. Probably will get the paint tomorrow or next weekend then hubby and his friend will paint sometime during Christmas week when hubby has taken vacation time.
Mike, a small point. Ever since the latest iPhone update, I don’t see the pictures on the emails I get from Cutetropolis. When I open the email on my browser (Safari) I see the pictures. Not a tragedy but weird.
Are you getting photos/images in other email on your phone? If not, this may be related to your iPhone settings. I’ve noticed that my settings choices are frequently overridden by IOS updates, so that I have go back to re-set them—time consuming, and especially frustrating when the settings for one app or another have to be accessed in a new and unexpected way.
Or I could be way off base. 😉
you are not off base at all! 🤗 i keep a list of re-set reminders. at the top of that list is continually resetting to the default browser of my choosing. the ios gremlins insist on reverting it to the browser of their choice. Ah well. 🤓
well, anyway, it keeps me alert, along with familiarizing me with the current settings pathways! 🤣🐾
No, and no problem when the “picture” is a video on this site. The last two posts have been video. Maybe the whole problem has just gone away, my favorite solution.
People 60 to 70 will finally get booster shots here but until January 😡
I did the DNA test with Ancestry and they say I’m 99% southern France with 1% Basque that’s as exotic I get LOL!
But if you do DNA testing you have to be ready for some truths to come out, my older sister was adopted and my mother told me when I was 15 that she agreed to adopt her because her biological mother who was a friend of hers said she had an affair with my father before they were married and the baby was his. I thought my sister knew about it but she only found out as an adult after my father died and she reconnected with her biological mother. Well it seems it was all a lie because we share no DNA at all, it was a bit of a blow to her and my nephew not that it changes the way I feel about them.
I think quite a few people may have been unpleasantly surprised by their DNA results – there are circumstances in which it’s probably better not to know the truth!
Changing the subject somewhat, in one of my books I included a review of a 1902 film entitled “Mary Jane’s Mishap, or Don’t Fool With the Paraffin”. Earlier today, and purely by chance, I found a colourized version of it on YouTube. It’s amazing that it has survived for 119 years…
How interesting about the film. Did you see the story in the NY Times about an amateur film from Ireland in the 1920’s that was lost for almost a century? It’s fascinating.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/11/world/europe/silent-film-ireland-discovery.html
My Mom’s sister married a racist jackass, and they had 4 kids together. My cousin did the DNA test with Ancestry.com, as did my Mom and I. WELL, it turns out that raging racist Uncle Jessie is part Ashkenazi Jew and SubSaharan African, ie., Black. My cousin hates him, so I really hope that if they ever start talking again one day she lets him know he’s not really a member of the master race after all. Merry Christmas, Uncle Jessie!
And Happy Hanukkah and Kwanzaa!
HAHAHAHAHA! XD!! I just spit toothpaste all over my keyboard. You are delightfully evil, Alice Shortcake.
I aims to please!
I had a biology professor friend who used to teach advanced genetics. He told me once that every semester, students would come up and tell him about stuff in their families that didn’t line up with the principles he taught them. He knew (but didn’t say) that there was obviously some family secrets that had never been revealed. And he mentioned to me that even in cultures that had death penalties for any kind of sexual transgression, about 10% of the population had these kinds of secrets in their families.
The secrets families can keep tend to be the most damaging. I’m so grateful that my parents were up front with my brother and me about our adoptions.
I’ve done the 23 and Me test and most of it was what I expected. I do keep getting the you have new relatives emails with 4th and 5th cousins, and I’m like ok but have no desire to communicate with them. Part of it is that my maternal grandfather and his mom were probably illegitimate so there’s a lot of unknowns on that side of the tree. Plus the big scandal was that same grandfather supposedly had an affair with his wife’s sister and my mom’s cousin was actually her half sister. 😲 Then my dad’s side is harder to even research since Greece was under Ottoman rule for so long then several wars have destroyed any records, and add in a differnt alphabet. Sometimes it’s better to just let things be.
That reminds me of another surprise in my family tree – my great-great-grandfather’s second wife was the sister of his first wife, which was illegal in England at the time. Both marriages took place in the same city but at different churches, so evidently the registrar didn’t notice, but it could hardly have been kept a secret from other relatives and the neighbours.
Happy Hanukkah, Hamster!
Not much going on here. It’s gray and wet and windy. I got my Pfizer booster on Wednesday at 1:00. (I was having no luck with actual appointments, so I took my chances on a walk-in event at the hospital over lunch…I was the first one there.) My arm was sore the next day but I felt fine, otherwise, then on Friday the fatigue hit. I was just sort of drained all day (but not enough to stay home from work) and slept really late this morning. It was one of those days where you’re sort of awake but you just can’t get fully there. I was honestly surprised it was only 11:something and not two in the afternoon when I got up. Gotta do some laundry and such. Lots of other things, too, but my priorities for the weekend are that, making blueberry sauce to mix into yogurt, and the salad ingredients in my fridge.
Some life advice:
That’s actually really wise advice. And hilarious.
Congrats on the booster.
I originally saw it on facebook, accompanied by this picture:
I’ve seen that picture before and will always love it. As Piglet would say, it’s hard to be brave when you’re very small.
I’ve seen it before, too. I don’t know if the peegie loves it but he’s very cute.
I believe the ape referred to is a human servant so the screaming about wilty lettuce is a sign of intelligence, not courage.
Fair point.
Happy Hanukkah to both Hamster and Tracey.
It’s a cold, wet, windy day here in Duckieville, and I am apparently in disgrace, based on the expression on Duckie’s beak when I uncovered her cage this morning. Don’t know why. It looks like it might be a white Christmas here, and I will probably get in trouble from Duckie for that, too. Again, don’t know why.
This past week did NOT happen, so I won’t mention it.
Next week crazy busy, with medical and seasonal events.
Have a peaceful weekend, everyone.
Poor Duckie that Little Duckie is in a mood. Just remember sometimes you’re the dog and sometimes you’re the hydrant. It sounds like a hydrant kind of day.
A Hamster in the window, with candlelight and snow. There’s nothing better or more beautiful. Cats do sit on people’s foreheads as a sign of respect! A belated Happy Hanukkah to everybody celebrating.
I’m relieved to be done with the past week. Still processing the deaths of my beautiful Josephine and my dad, so it was pretty emotional. My new fave show Grace & Frankie helped me with wisdom and hilarity–if you haven’t seen it and are of a certain age, you’ll appreciate the focus on people in the 70s. Lily Tomlin absolutely shines.
Today I’ve run errands and almost burst out laughing in the grocery store when I thought of yesterday’s veggie-laden beaver. I’m also trying to warm up. Yesterday’s company holiday party–which was really fun–was held in our unheated barn on a cold day, and my house is freezing after a cold night. I think I’m talking myself into an early nap with the cats on the heated mattress pad! Too bad my new T-rex sweatshirt isn’t here yet (thanks, Allein).
Hugs to you all.
Sorry you had a rough week DebG. The first holidays without loved ones is always the hardest. My mom passed in Oct and I barely made it through. That was the year I couldn’t even manage to put up Christmas decorations. Sometimes I think they had it right in older times. You were in mourning for at least 3 months and no one expected you to celebrate. Now you’re supposed just get on with things. It does get easier so be gentle with yourself this year. And the nap with kitties on a heated mattress pad sounds wonderful. I used to have one and it was the best thing ever in cold climes.
I’m so sorry, Debg. Maszat and Mitsi are sending incredibly loud purrs to you!
Thanks, AJ and Ems. I couldn’t survive without that heated mattress pad!
Ems, how are the kitties?
Some cheery music…
And some warm drink ideas…’tis the season, after all. (And I’m listening to the wind outside as I’m typing this, though it’s actually 60 degrees.) I want to make the peppermint mocha (I’m not a coffee drinker but one serving only calls for half a teaspoon of instant coffee powder, which is less than I sometimes add to my hot chocolate). Need to add a few things to my grocery list. They’re vegan, unless you use regular milk. Might try it with the barista oat milk, though. (Recipes are linked in the video description; you can change the number of servings you want to make and it will adjust the measurements.)
Some of them look really interesting but are a little time consuming to put together, When I want my hot drink, I want it NOW. My favorite is put about a tblsp of Trader Joe’s 100% cacoa nibs in a glass mason jar, along with 1/3 cup Pascha vegan chocolate chips, a couple shakes of cinnamon, and 6 oz of plant based milk. Zap in the microwave for about a minute until everything is hot and melted, then put the lid on the jar and shake til its well mixed. So yummy!
I’m going to make a one or two serving-size batch of the peppermint mocha (I have to get the chocolate and the peppermint candy); if I like it I’ll scale it up and make a jar of the mix to have on hand. Not a weekday-morning kind of drink, even with the ingredients already mixed though.
Sometimes I make hot chocolate with real cocoa and sugar (two tablespoons of each, but sometimes I add a little extra sugar); I heat it in the microwave (in a two-cup glass measuring cup) with 1/4 cup water, stir it well to make a cocoa sauce, and then add 1 to 1 1/2 cup of milk and heat again for two minutes. Add a few drops of vanilla extract, stir, pour into mug. (It’s essentially a knock-off Starbucks hot chocolate recipe that I found years ago, but it doesn’t taste the same as Starbucks.) I usually do that either when I’m off or working from home, since it takes a little longer than just zapping some milk and mixing in some powder (I like Target brand’s double chocolate mix).
I like Pascha but I’ve only ever found it in bars here; Wegmans usually has 72% or 85% (and recently I saw 100%, which feels like it should be in the baking aisle, not the candy aisle)…usually I use a square or two in oatmeal with dried cherries and cocoa nibs.