Sunday, July 20, 2008

Finished

Posted on/at 2:51 PM by The Goddess

Well, the bare bones are done. With Conner's dedicated help, I got the furniture and most of our belongings swapped between bedrooms. I'm now in the master bedroom, which for the past eight years has served first as a computer room and later a nursery. Zam's stuff has been moved into her new bedroom. I'm afraid, however, the poor girl is forever doomed to lend closet space to Mom.

The main benefit of having the master bedroom, besides the fact that it's bigger and located on the cooler side of the house (no more southern exposure!!) is that I now have my Own Bathroom. Technically, it's only a half bath, but it's mine, and I don't have to share it with anyone, ever. Unfortunately, after sitting unused for nearly five years, none of the plumbing is working, so I've spent the last two hours doing plumberly things; crawling under the sink, working on the toilet, tearing apart the faucet. Decided to just buy a new faucet on eBay.

My son is such a good kid. He's a very hard worker. Now I know why his grandma pays him sop well when he works for her in the summer. And now he's rubbing my sore feet. He pestered to do it until I gave in.

Toothache Drops 1879

Posted on/at 2:45 AM by The Goddess


From my copy of "Housekeeping in Old Virginia Containing Contributions from Two Hundred and Fifty of Virginia's Noted Housewives, Distinguished for Their Skill in the Culinary Art and Other Branches of Domestic Economy" published in 1879.
This stuff no doubt cured toothaches, but any other damn thing that ailed you! Morphine and laudanum. Good stuff. Bet it worked a lot better than the stuff you get at the drugstore these days, which generally leave out all the ingredients except the clove oil.

Friday, July 18, 2008

I'm Giddy with Excitement.

Posted on/at 4:11 PM by The Goddess



My fabulous Aunt Joan sent me this. What is it?

Here's the back.








Give up? Huh? Huh?


I'm so tickled I can't stop grinning. It's the military discharge papers my great great great grandfather George Maxwell Wilkinson received in Dumfries, Scotland. He was released from the 2nd Battalion of the Rifle Brigade after being wounded and no longer being fit for service. According to this paper, he served in Malta and the Ionian Islands, enlisting when he was nineteen and discharged eight years later. On the back, it specifies that he is to receive eight shillings "marching money" for marching three miles from Leith to Dumfries. Most of that information is not in the official published Wilkinson history. I'm feeling gleeful and smug.

I'm still trying to dig up info about his battalion.

Catte's Kansas Catfish

Posted on/at 6:18 AM by The Goddess



Kansas newspaper from 1922


Recently a peculiar thing was found at the Catte Fish Hatcheries near Langdon when a
large bass was found dead, having choked to death while trying to devour a goldfish
nearly as large as himself. The bass are cannibals in their diet and method of feeding and it
is very hard to raise any other fish with bass in the pond.

The female bass lays her eggs and from that time on the male bass takes charge of
matters, setting on the nest and watching over the hatch. The female bass will destroy her
own young if the male did not protect the little ones.

The Catte Hatchery at Langdon is one of the sight-seeing places in western Kansas and
each summer thousands of sight-seers visit the hatchery. The Catte Hatchery is a branch of
the United States Hatchery at Neosho, Missouri, and is the only federal project in the state
of Kansas.

Bass and crappie are the two fish raised at this hatchery and many farmers in the
Langdon community find it profitable to construct farms and raise fish to sell to the
government. The hatcheries are under the Department of Commerce and each spring and
fall government fish cars spend about six weeks working in and out of Langdon
distributing game fish to the entire southwest part of the country, including Kansas,
Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas.

Eugene Catte, owner of the place and manager of the hatchery, is known all over the
country as one of the leading fish culturists in the United States. A son, Harold Catte,
recently moved to Meade, Kansas, where he is superintendent of the new state hatchery
being established there.

On an adjoining farm to the Catte place, Mr. Catte raises many kinds and breeds of
goldfish, having one of the few goldfish hatcheries in the United States. Goldfish are
shipped by express from Langdon to all parts of the country.

The Catte farm has another diversion and that is handling of water lilies and bulbs. This
particular line of work is looked after by Miss Mildred Catte, who ships the beautiful
water lilies all over the southwest. At Decoration time thousands of the lilies are shipped
by her and it is at Decoration time that they are fullest with bloom.

The Cattes are all very pleasant folks and are always ready to take a little time to show
visitors over the place and tell them of some of the unusual things that go with the
operation of a fish hatchery.---

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

What!?

Posted on/at 4:39 AM by The Goddess

This boggles my mind beyond anything I've ever heard. Italy has laws against "driving while gay"? Just when I think I've heard the most stupid thing possible, there's this;

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian court has ruled the government must pay 100,000 euros ($157,700) in damages to a man who was told to retake a driving test because he was homosexual.

When 26 year-old Danilo Giuffrida told doctors he was gay at his medical examination for military service, they passed the information to the transport ministry, who told him he must repeat his driving test or have his license withdrawn due to his "sexual identity disturbance."

Giuffrida agreed to re-take his test, passed it for a second time, but the ministry renewed his license for just one year rather than the usual 10 years because of his homosexuality.

The judge ruling on the case in Catania, on the southern island of Sicily, said the actions of the defense and transport ministries showed "evident sexual discrimination" against Giuffrida and ran counter to his constitutional rights.

The behavior of the ministries led Giuffrida to have "a grave sense of mistrust towards the state," added the judge, who ordered them to pay him 100,000 euros of damages in his verdict issued on Saturday.

Giuffrida's lawyer said the case marked the first time the state had been punished for sexual discrimination, and he hoped Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi would "summon Giuffrida and apologize to him on behalf of the state and all Italians."

Giuffrida said the sentence was "a step forwards for civil rights because from now on what happened to me can't happen again."

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Scanning Malfunction

Posted on/at 7:06 AM by The Goddess

My mom appears to be having a "bad face day". Time to rescan this one. She was beautiful, honest!






See? No "funny face". Though I may have to keep the funny one for posterity.

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