week 28 in review

We were away last weekend, celebrating Jude's first birthday in Augusta so I was unable to post my regular week in review. Not that any of us missed much. Except for the birthday weekend festivities--loaded with photo ops--only one accomplishment during the past couple of weeks save the time-frame from being utterly unremarkable. But here goes!

On the home front the remarkable achievement is the installation of a doggie door! This means that we can now be completely sedentary in our lifestyle at home since we no longer have to get up out of our chairs to open the door for the dogs. This also means I can finally get a full night's sleep on a regular basis since McKinlee can let herself out at 1:30 in the morning when she needs some relief. I am happy to report that except for one minor infraction of indoor pooping we have been accidentless indoors now for two weeks! Actually it's been longer than that--since the fence was finished the house has been much "fresher."

Family. As noted earlier, it was all about Jude last weekend. Ashley outdid herself with a Dr. Seuss theme, and the kids reveled in nonstop play on an inflatable in the back yard. The birthday boy was suitably cute and irresistible for the occasion, especially when he did several face-plants into the cake to save himself the tediousness of using his hands to consume portions of the chocolate goodness. Alas, this meant that none of the rest of us got to enjoy any cake. Such is life in the world of a one-year old!

At work it's been slow. We're still packing for the move, there is still no word about my fate, and most of my time is directed toward fall programming. Blah, blah, blah!

On a personal note I've been doing a lot of genealogy research. There are grandchildren now, after all! I've been working on Ken's branch for a little while but have now added Travis' into the mix. There are lots of limbs that need to be pursued and mysteries to be solved!  I am finding it particularly annoying when others who post their research don't use a bit of discernment when recording information. The number of children born to a couple who aren't yet married (and I'm talking by several years), or to a mother who is deceased or eight-years old is astounding. Ach! The availability of census data is an amazing boon to researchers, but far too many assumptions are made about how people are related to one another. Caution is increasingly the word of the day as I plod along. I will also confess that I am guilty at times of including data that appears suspect. I have adopted the practice of adding comments as I go to disclaim any suggestion of certainty and point to how I have arrived at a conclusion. All in all it's still fun, in spite of the potential for error and disappointment. 

Bonus round! We went to see "Brave" yesterday. Set in Scotland I was, of course, in full tilt glory. Some parts of the story dragged, but it was otherwise amusing and wise.  The music was wonderful, but I have to say that the accents  were all over the place, especially for the leads! The pronunciation of the word "you" was most authentic, but the inflections were an inconsistent blend of Irish, Scottish and American. It was distracting at first, but I got over it in time to enjoy the story and be teary at the end. This was also a notable event in that Ken does not go to see animated films! He is convinced that animation deprives actors of employment (true story!) and refuses to go on those principled grounds. If he paid attention to the credits he would learn quickly that animation provides lots of employment to a whole lot of people, including actors, but such is his perspective. Still, I count it as a small victory that he 1) was willing to go and 2) enjoyed it!

See ya next week, if not before!