This is growing in a bed at the house where I’m cat sitting. Unfortunately, there’s also poison ivy growing there, too. As far as I can tell, it’s not anywhere else on the property aside from that one flower bed. Yikes!
Category: Photography
Inverted Lens Macro
Wild Columbine Seed Pod
This was my first try, and it’s a little breezy outside, so it’s not as sharp as it could be. All you do is invert the lens. The only hard part is manually holding it in place. Because it’s an older lens, it’s heavy, and my hands got a little tired and unsteady after awhile.
This was a few shots later, and I think it turned out better. Both were taken with a Tamron SP 28-80mm 1:3.5-4.2 lens.
Ivy Roots on Brick Wall
Day Lily
I didn’t think I’d get any flowers this year from the plants I got from Ms. Lea, since they were moved so late in the season. This one has a few bud clusters on it, though.
Little Things
It’s nice to have crazillions of databases searchable from one interface (Ancestry.com). It’s easy to forget that not everything tha\’s available online is accessible through Ancestry, though, even when the state/county in question has opened their databases to Ancestry. Things slip through the cracks.
I looked and looked and looked and could find no marriage records for Henry Meineke and Mary Shoemaker. I found birth records for their children, which listed Mary’s maiden name, but no marriage record. It occurred to me, though, to see if Illinois had their vital records online. And they do. And look at what I found!
MEINECKE, HEINRICH–SHUMAKER, MARIA ANNA–1894-08-23 00K/0070 00010815 MC LEAN
I don’t know why they were married in McLean County[1], but that’s definitely my grandfather’s paternal grandparents. And interestingly, though the Minnesota birth index lists her as Mary Shoemaker, grandpa spelled her name Shumaker, which seems to be the way she spelled it at the time of her marriage. Also, I now have a middle name and a known variant spelling of her first name. Since I have not been able to trace her parentage, this could be helpful. Or not, as it’s a common name. But it’s a new clue, and those are always exciting.
It also narrows down her possible emigration date, as she supposedly came over not long before marrying. Another clue.
And, because I have nothing topical to illustrate this post with, I shall include some random Harriet cuteness.
She is of German extraction, at least!
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1. Actually, this is clue number 3. There’s a gap between the 1870 census (the first one that Henry shows up in, as his family arrived in the US in 1869), which puts them in Tazewell County IL, and the 1900 census, which puts them in Wright County IA. The 1890 census is useless, as most of it was destroyed in a fire. But what about 1880? I can’t find Henry, his parents, or any of his siblings in the 1880 census.
Now I can at least look for him in McLean County IL. And, I’ve got reason to believe that not all of them stayed in Tazewell County. Maybe even none of them. There are several possible candidates in the Illinois Death Index. I also need to take anther look at the Illinois voter records, because I may have enough information to start weeding down those “possibles,” too.
Unfortunately, it’s possible that the whole family was somehow missed during 1880 census. It happens.
Instant Review: Firefox 3.0
A) So far, so good. My only complaint is that the text size increase/decrease (ctrl + mouse scroll wheel up/down) is backwards. That will take some getting used to. I really like the basic skin that comes with it, and I love the enhanced browsing history. It’s also supposedly much more memory efficient, so hopefully it won’t be as slow to wake up or quite so crashy.
B) The chairs I mentioned yesterday? The ones that sat upstairs, in the public area, for months and months? The ones that I was sure would sit in the SLIS hallway for more months and months? Gone. I’m glad I got a photo when I did, even if it was a crappy one.
C) Genealogy update:
I don’t know what got into me, but I started looking at my younger brothers’ father’s family. They’re no relation to me, but my brothers are, and they might be interested. Anyway, the Saxons? Apparently they were one of the first white families to settle in what later became Connorsville, Fayette County. Alexander Saxon arrived there in 1811, just a year or two after John Connor (brother of William Connor), the town’s namesake.
The family stayed in Fayette County until Herbert Saxon moved to Rush County. I haven’t yet figured out when that was. He was still there in 1920, according to the census.
And now I’m curious to go back and look at some of the old family photos that my brothers’ dad left at my mom’s. I may be able to put some of them into context, now.
And speaking of which! I found this photo a genealogy board. A woman had bought it from an eBay vendor who’d gotten it from an estate sale in Gulf Shores, Alabama. It has the names Robert and Joseph Saxon on the back. The guy on the left bears a scary resemblance to Herb. Actually to both Herbs II and III.
Chairs on the Move
They were last seen on the third floor, west tower, lined up near the elevators. There they’ve sat since December, biding their time. Over the past week, they’ve been slowly migrating to the ground floor, outside SLIS. Is this the final step in their plot for world domination? y0u hAV3 b33n wArN3d!11!!!!
I, for one, welcome our new Chair Overlords.
BREAKING NEWS
I just took some trash out to the dumpster. While I was doing so, Mr. Upstairs carried a couple of boxes down to his car, and then, a microwave. I’m almost afraid to hope, but it seems like he might just possibly be moving.
I really think it might be true, though. The past week, he’s been extra noisy, with serious cleaning and furniture shifting.
Yay!
And if it’s not true, it’s an awfully dirty trick to be playing on me, and he ought to be ashamed of himself.
In other news, I went to the grocery store and the gas station this morning. My cupboards and my car were on empty. Despite everything at the grocery store having gone up in price since the last time I went (for example, the cheap-assed unbleached flour went up 25¢, and don’t even get me started on the subject of rice), it cost more to fill my gas tank–$59.26–than to buy two week’s worth of groceries.
But! I got some very cute little asparagus spears (tiny and tender), vidalia onions, green tomatoes (they’ll be fried, so I thought they were worth the risk), some very nice looking portabella mushrooms, limes, and some gorgeous green peppers (I eat them raw, like some folks eat carrot sticks).
Also, chives, but not as nice as the ones in my mom’s garden.
Morning Clouds
I spent last night cleaning up alternate names in my genealogy database. If I’d RTFM, I’d’ve input them correctly the first time, but I didn’t. So now the alternate names are properly cross-indexed, and that you can look up someone by any of their names (assuming I added alternate names to that record).
This becomes important when you’re looking for people like my great grandfather, who was named Cecil but went by John. Both names now show up properly in the index.
Next, to fix the census fields so that they display properly. Aieee! That is going to be a nightmare. Along with that, occupations also need to be moved so that they no longer display as dates.
RTFM, folks!
Sunrise
Sometimes it pays to be late for work. If I’d been on time, I’d have missed a beautiful sunrise.
Coral Bells and Crankypantsing
These silly things are blooming furiously. They seem to like the shady spot they’re in.
And now for a new installment of Mr. Upstairs Theater! I don’t know what the hell’s gotten into him lately. He was pretty good (for him) over the last few months. Yesterday, I didn’t hear a peep out him until I was getting ready for bed, when he turned on some right-wing talking heads and watched TV for a couple of hours. Then he started vacuuming. At 11:30pm. Then he stomped around for awhile. I’m not passing judgment on his fashion sense, but I swear, he wears high heels when he cleans. The clomping noise is distinctive of heels and is very different from his normal thudding. At about midnight, he turned on the dishwasher. A few minutes later, he started playing the same damned song he’s been playing for the past two years on the keyboard. Or maybe it’s a harpsichord. At this point, nothing would surprise me. I finally fell asleep, only to wake up at about 2am to him playing really crappy classic rock and galloping on the treadmill.
And right now, he’s stomping around in the room above my computer room. I think someone would have to really work at walking that heavily. I mean, he’s a little chubby, but he’s not a big guy, so how the hell does he manage to make that much noise when he walks?
red paper boat 