Bits and PIeces February 2, 2016

I finally don't have a migraine and have a few minutes to blog. But, all the things that churn around in my head when I have a migraine are still all twirled and twisted like noodles in my brain. I'll untangle them a bit later. Tonight, a fun post about life here in Chez Martin!

Yes, I've been having migraines. What more is there to say about that?

School was canceled today for a huge snowstorm, but it appears that most of the snow went north of here. Nonetheless, the four or so inches that we did get made a mess of the roads today, so I'm glad nobody was out unnecessarily. We just sat around and played on our electronics all day.

Well, except me. I folded clothes that were washed about a week and a half ago. Because I'm on top of things that way. Truly, though, laundry is my nemesis. PWM tries to help out, so he did a load of colored clothes and started a load of white clothes that I promise (pinky swear!) to fold and put away tomorrow. Unless I have a migraine, in which case all pinky swears are null and void.

Food is becoming an item of interest in our house. Ashley and I went to an Asian grocery store in Appleton last week. We bought some taro root and bok choy, items I've never eaten or seen in a regular grocery store. Ashley made homemade noodles, fried potatoes, taro dipped in sugar, and stir-fried bok choy with garlic. It was all yummy, although the taro and bok choy have been the least favorite Asian foods that I've tried so far. The taro doesn't have much taste, so dipping it in sugar is a good thing. The bok choy tastes fine, but the texture isn't my favorite.

I tried some pork curry tonight. It had three ingredients: pork, coconut milk, and green curry paste (also from the Asian grocery story). I served it over white rice. It was delicious!! So, I might be becoming a bit more of an adventurous eater! At age 48! Who'd have thunk it?

For Rosie Girl's high school graduation three years ago (has it really been that long?), I made her a scrapbook that I was going to have printed and give to her. Sadly, I never finished it and forgot about it. I remembered it because I am making a scrapbook of my parents' 50th wedding anniversary party and another for Wild Man's graduation, and another (small) one for Ashley. I got the newest edition of the software and proceeded to look for Rosie Girl's album - and couldn't find it.

We have a back-up drive for our computers that we haven't hooked up to our current computers but that was functioning when I made Rosie Girl's album. I couldn't figure out how to get onto the drive. One evening last week, PWM tried a few things and was about to give up when suddenly, the folder popped up!! I hadn't lost the album!! He gave me a thumb drive with the files on it! Talk about a hero!! I'm working feverishly on finishing Rosie Girl's album so I can work on the rest of them.

I updated my Goodreads account - go check it out! While I was there, it asked if I wanted to set a reading goal for this year. I declined. I read 54 books in 2015. I think I'm just fine in the reading department. I'll probably read fewer books this year because I discovered podcasting. Yes, I realize that podcasting has been around for quite a while. I used to listen to some podcasts about 8 or 10 years ago, but I just listened on the computer. This time, I found Stitcher, an app that will manage my podcast subscriptions without having to deal with itunes, which is nice since I use an Android phone. My guilty pleasure is true crime books and, now, podcasts. But, I also like history, and I found a couple of podcasts about history and historical oddities.

Something else fun that I can write about now!! PWM and I had our DNA tested at Ancestry.com last fall. It was completely and utterly unsurprising. Mine came out all British, Scandinavian, and Western European, just like all the old family stories say. Well, actually, there has been a story that there was Native American blood on my grandmother's side, but it was never proven. I also found out last year that some ancestor's on my mom's side were actually slave owners (which was shocking because my mom's side as far as I knew were economically disadvantaged whites) which meant that there was a possibility of African blood, but the DNA says not.

PWM's DNA said that he's about half Mediterranean which is his mother's Italian side. His other half is Western Europe which would correlate very well with his father's Cajun (French) roots. So, like I said, not many surprises. But, it was fun to have it done. And, I couldn't tell anyone because having it done was a Christmas gift for PWM's mom who loves genealogy.

I'm still reading the book of Mark - very slowly because I read with the Barclay commentary. I'm also reading Beginnings by Steve Wiens, which I'll write more about later because I really enjoy it.

That's all that's going on around here. More later when I get the tangle in my brain a little sorted out. What's up in your neck of the woods?