Gone Too Soon

I wanted to post something about it being Nell Carter's Birthday.
I'm a bit late though since her birthday was Sept. 13th and it's now after midnight.lol

Anyway, she was an amazingly talented singer/actress.
Most people know her from popular culture and her tv sitcom called Gimme A Break in the 1980's.

I know her from her work on the stage mostly.
She was wonderful in "Ain't Misbehavin' ", on Broadway, on the cast recording and on the tv special.
She won a Tony Award for that show but did others.  I know her mostly from her Broadway days since she was at the top of the heap there when I was in my college "theater" years.   I had looked to her as a professional role model during that time.
She was also in the film version of "Hair" around this time.
Don't go to this link HERE if you are easily offended.  This is "Hair" we are talking about.... ;-)

She was born in Alabama, coming from a humble background and as they say, "made something of herself" in spite of her beginnings.
She gave birth once as a result of being raped at 16, was raised with her siblings by her grandmother as they were unwanted by their mother, lost her father in a tragic freak accident, had two failed marriages and her younger brother, whom she was very close with, died in 1989 from an AIDS related cancer.  Bernard was a lawyer, musician and dean of a college.  He was 42.

She got swallowed up into that Hollywood lifestyle of the late '80s and ended up addicted to cocaine like many others of the time.  She kicked the habit eventually but had many other struggles in her personal life. 
Nell survived two brain aneurysms surgeries and numerous miscarriages & infertility. She adopted 2 more children and had other adoptions fall through.  Her kids were her life from all I have read.

Nell Carter died over 9 years ago this year.  She was 54.
She's entertaining the angels above now.

I found this strange clip from her Gimme A Break series.
Seems Andy Gibb made a guest appearance on an episode back in1983.
5 years later he died of myocarditis after struggling with a drug habit and depression.  He was 30.

All taken too young.

It's not a blockbuster performance but this clip is a sweet small duet of Nell and Andy from that episode of the series he guested on.




Sluggy

Almost Runway Time!

Rather late post today.....I've been out most of the day.
That means I got my car back...yay!

Had some Rite-Aid and some Weis shopping to do to catch up for the week.
And because I was such a good and productive gal today, I get to watch me some tv tonight!

Project Runway is coming up within the hour.
Of all the 'reality' type shows, this one is the one I don't get tired of and enjoy watching.
Because it's not just a group of weirdos fighting it out for a big cash prize like all the other 'reality' tv shows.
It's a group of weirdos with an actual skill.....and some even have talent. ;-)

Plus I get to watch Tim Gunn.  If you ever get the chance, pick up the book he wrote last year(or was it the year before?)in which he talks about his rules for life AND his own personal life.

And along with the fashion, the designers and Tim I get to see if Michael Kors comes up with another awesome Kors-ism.
He's had some funny stuff come out of his mouth over the years.

And it's easy to make up your own MK-ism.
Just think of 2 incongruent things......for example--An Amish girl and a $2 Venezuelan hooker, and then describe one of the designer's works using these things in a metaphor......"That evening gown looked like an Amish girl who had just gone off duty as a $2 Hooker on a Venezuelan street corner."

And then there are the simpler MK-isms like "that skirt looks like a baboons ass exploded on her".

Oh Micheal, you never fail to make me laugh!


Do you watch Project Runway?
Who do you like this season?

Sluggy

Midweek Rantness.......The Word of the Day

And yes, I do believe RANTNESS should be a word......
No matter what the "red squiggly lines" under it in my spellcheck program say.
It's a darn good word and appropriate for this post.

* I am still grounded at home.  The part STILL has not come in from the car company.  I have my suspicions....ever the conspiracy theorist here!.....that since I am having the repair done at a NON-CAR DEALER shop that the CAR COMPANY is in no freaking hurry to ship the part out.  Had an authorized "this brand of car" shop ordered the part?
Yah, that baby would have been hand delivered and installed last week already.
So because I refuse to put more money into the hands of "BIG CARMA" (aka big car manufacturers)by having them overcharge me for repair labor, I still sit at home.

I have important places to go and people to see dang it!.....like the grocery store and Rite-Aid.
This makes me figgity as a bubble dancer with a slow leak!

Yes, I subscribe to the Foghorn Leghorn school of insults......




* I have decided that being Grumpy is good for my bottom line.
And here is why.
I go to a particular gas station when my vehicle needs refilling.  It's one of 2 in my town in close proximity to the other and it's easiest to access, as it is at a traffic light.
The problem I have with this gas station is that they never EVER refill the pumps with receipt paper so that even if you push "YES" when the screen asks you if you want a receipt to print, at the end of the transaction, a receipt never prints out.....because......there is no paper in the machine!
Every.
Single.
Time.

So back a couple of weeks ago, before I lost the use of my car, I was at said gas station, filling up my tank.
As always I pushed YES for the print receipt? question, and yet again, no receipt printed out when I hung up the nozzle.
I got back into my car and instead of driving off straightaway, I sat and fumed and fussed at no one in particular.  I was just so exasperated by it all I had to sit and vent.
And while I was ranting, I was looking around out the windshield and I saw this laying on the ground about 10 feet away from my car........

HELLO ANDY JACKSON!

Nobody around to see if they lost this, so I picked old Andy up and tucked him into my pocket. 8-)

I had a thought initially to turn Andy into the clerk inside the minimart in case someone called about losing some money.
But then I thought that even if someone called looking for lost money, the clerk would probably just say no, keep the money and not turn it over the the manager or the owner.....and if he did, they would keep the money.

So now I have this problem....what to do with the 20 bucks.
I could give it to charity.
I could spend it on my family's needs.
I could spend it on myself.

So if you were me, what would you do?

And be honest.....if you would spend it on yourself don't be afraid to say so.
This is the anonymous internet so everyone who thinks they are morally superior to you can think you are a jerk but you don't have to care. ;-)
We all aren't cut out to be Mother Teresa, are we?
Some of us have to be Foghorn Leghorn.

Sluggy

Stuck in the Past

I've always thought I had a good dose of OCD in my genetic makeup.
Why?  Because I can't become mildly interested in anything.
If I take up with an interest or a hobby or a job, I am ALL IN!
It's all I want to do and if left to my own devices, it IS all I do.
All day.
Every day.
24/7.....well except for that sleeping, eating, bathing stuff too. ;-)

Do you obsess over something or things?
I bet you do.

The thing that has me held captive lately is "armchair genealogy".
Not that I am searching for the history of armchairs but rather searching online records for family genealogy.  Having the internet and so many records being online, I can lose days sitting here just poking around in the past.....and I have!

Records that use to take genealogists months and years to search out via mail and on site location searches can be had in hours or mere minutes within a day now.
Of course you can't get everything online but for casual researchers like me and for digging into the top layers of history, the internet is 'da bomb!

Not that I am good at it yet, but I am getting better at putting 2 and 2 together.
It's like a giant time jigsaw puzzle.  And along the way I get history lessons too.  A win-win proposition in my book!

I work on one line and just keep going back until I hit those inevitable brick walls.
Then I go work on another branch.
And when I get bored with my family, I go work on the family of someone else.

I am so possessed that I've done a few people's trees and I don't even know them!
Someone posted a long gone family member on their blog and I went and built a family tree.  I'd love to share it with her but I'm scared to tell her......she might think I am creepy, ya know?
Someone else wrote a book about their great aunt's teenage journal and I traced her family tree back.

My daughter brought home a boyfriend and I started working on HIS family tree.....yah, but he was jazzed about it and WANTED to know.  It's too bad my daughter no longer dates him now.  But I did had a genealogy buddy for a short time......

I've just started Hub's oldest brother's wife's families and my brother's wife's families, though both of those have been difficult to get very far with.  Both have lines in North Carolina and for some reason, NC has some bad or non-existent records.

I have added every person who was ever connected to my family that I can find.....except for the family of the Sis-IL's ex hubby....and her new boyfriend....ooo!.....2 more families I can work on....yay!!

You should see my massive family tree now!   If I had to print this all out, I'd kill a rainforest in Central America.
Seriously.
My tree has 3572 peeps in it. 
I obviously come from some fertile clans....

My hub's tree has 312 peeps.
Hey, he's not interested in any of this stuff so I don't feel as motivated to do his side.....plus his father's side didn't come here until around 1900 and I don't read Italian or have access to records in Sicily which cuts into what I can do for free online.

And I have just started my oldest's longtime girlfriend's families.  Her grandmother seemed interested and gave oldest some basic info(name and birthdate) and I had this within minutes and sent this to oldest.

It's girlfriend's grandmother's  high school Senior photo.  So styling in those cat's eye glasses.....
Of course I can't get much more than this since she was born after the 1940 census year and I don't have her parents info yet.


So, does anybody out there want me rooting around in their family's past?
Want to know who you are named for or why you live where you do or how you got here and where your people came from?
If you have family info. for people born BEFORE 1940, email me and I'll see what I can find for you.
And I promise not to post your grandmother's high school yearbook photo on my blog.....unless you want me to. 8-)

Yes, I have a Ancestry dotcom membership and I know how to use it! ;-)

Sluggy

Food Spending September Week 1 & Meal Planning Week 2

 

*****************************

And here is the "meal plan" that actually happened last week.....

Sunday--Burgers, Dogs, Potato Salad, COC

Monday--Lime Chicken Fajitas

Tuesday--Stuffed Green Peppers with Rice

Wednesday--Roast Chicken, Stuffing, Cranberry Glop, Green Beans

Thursday--Alfredo Primavera, Caesar Salad

Friday--Leftovers

Saturday--Chinese take-out

 

The weekly food spending was $79.90. Actually $36.01 of that was receipts/trips from the previous week I forgot, which just means I spend even MORE($121 more) over my August budget on food.lol  $43.89 is still quite a bit for this past week, considering I didn't have a car to use until Saturday.  $15.12 of this is from Hubs picking up a couple things on his way home from work...aka "not getting the best price".  I did $28.77 worth of damage on Saturday....but I did get some clearanced "we ain't stocking this anymore" corned beef hash for 50% off for #2 Son.

Going into this week I have a largish portion of roasted chicken, some carrots, Fajita filling, Potato Salad and rice from the stuffed peppers.

Hubs has eaten the rest of the leftover stuffed peppers and the alfredo primavera over the weekend.

I think I get Bonus Points because I used a double leftover Sunday night.  The Fajita filling had used leftover chicken in it and I used it as a base for making Chicken Enchiladas last night.  Now we have 1 enchilada left and Daughter will be scarfing that leftover down tonight after work. ;-)

Tonight is Steak tips in gravy over rice, which uses the leftover rice, plus I'll add the leftover carrots into the sauce.

I'm having the P. salad with my lunch, so all that is left now is the chicken.  If I don't make chicken salad for lunch or find a way to work it into this week's menu, I'll freeze it for later use.

***********************

This week's menu.....

Sunday--Chicken Enchiladas, Caesar Salad

Monday--Steak Tips in Gravy over Brown Rice, Green Beans

Tuesday--Fish(not sure which kind yet/in freezer), Sweet Potato French Fries, Beets

Wednesday--Tacos

Thursday--Stuffed Shells(homemade in freezer), Tossed Salad or more Green Beans

Friday--Steak, Grilled Asparagus

Saturday--French Onion Soup w/Cheese, Caesar or Spinach Salad

We still have some zucchini bread left but I might also make some cookies this week.....lemon oatmeal and m&m types.

 

What I need to buy this week to serve this menu?.....Tortillas, Salad Greens/Romaine/Spinach, Asparagus.  Also need milk, fruit, lunchmeat for Hubs, little everyday stuff like condiments, sour cream, eggs, flour, etc. this week and I'm stocking up on tomato sauce this week.  I'm figuring $50 or less this week.

So what are you cooking at your house this week?

Sluggy