Rambling and Musing

I have not been able to string two coherent thoughts together for over 2 weeks now.  Maybe it is this virus from hell that has attached itself to my body?  I am so tired of the headache, the chest wheezing and the infernal cough, cough, cough, cough, run to the bathroom so I don't pee on myself, and then cough some more.  Things need to be getting done, and I am not doing them.  It sucks being sick is what it does.

So my brain has had all sorts of random thoughts and I thought I might share some of them with you.

1. It is a tradition in my family to put out a jigsaw puzzle during the Christmas holidays and leisurely work on it with Christmas carols playing in the background while nibbling on cookies and such.  This year we have left the big round folding table up that houses the puzzle and have done one after the other after the next.  I think we are on the 7th one since the holidays.  We are some jigsaw puzzling fools!

If you have a puzzle that needs putting together, send it on down.  We will do it and then take a picture of it for you.

2. I have been researching on ancestry.com since I have been sick.  It's a new hobby and it is a good change of pace from the usual things you do when you don't feel good.  I work on one branch for a while and then switch over to another.  It has been really interesting looking at the old census pages and seeing what all you can find out from reading them.  And reading between the lines, too.  For example, in looking at a census of one family branch I noticed that a different branch of my family was listed on that same page. This means that they were neighbors.

Some of the censuses, censi, whatever the hell the plural of census is, ask questions like
A. What color is this person?
B. How many children have you given birth to?  How many still living?
C. Where was your father from?
D. Highest level of school attended?
E. Rent or own home?
F. Employment?
G. When did you come to this country?

In every case, the man is listed as head of household, unless he is dead and the widow is working the farm with the help of a bunch of the living kids.  When she gets older, the son or son-in-law is then listed as head of household and she is listed as retired, even though they never moved!

In the early 1800's the census also asked for an accounting of how many free white people and how many slaves.  Where did the indentured white people go on that list?  There only seemed to be the two categories.

3. Spring is springing up all over!  It is so beautiful.  If we could get a good long misting, sprinkling rain I think it would be just what we need to push all the wildflowers into bloom.

4. Showtime's new series to fill the void left after The Tudors finished, The Borgias is due to start on Sunday, April 3rd.  And if this isn't the best thing on t.v. (since the Tudors) I will eat my hat.  Go, run over to Showtime and scope it out.  Read up on those e-vil Borgias and get ready.

5. Over at Bye Bye Pie in the comments the last couple of days, we have been discussing our favorite soups.  Now, this is NOT what June posted about, but somehow the comments over there take on a life of their own and there we go.  Anyhoo, we were all discussing our favorite soups.  So I am curious, what are your favorite soups?  Homemade?  Restaurant? Cream based? Brothy?  Do you have one in each category?

Soup, it's good food!

Time for me to go make some more hot tea and get a cough drop.

Get your corned beefs ready!  Get your Irish soda bread made!  Bake up some gingerbread!  Get your Guinness or Harps beer on ice. And think about ole St. Paddy.  Driving the snakes out of Ireland.  Makes you wonder what happened next, doesn't it?  I have a book on all the saints, so I will look it up and give you a full report on St. Patrick tomorrow.