Friday, June 7, 2013

May I Introduce to You.....

Someone unknown to me until now, a distant cousin on my Baker family tree, sent me an email last evening through Ancestry.  In it, he provided some information that provides confirmation on my Baker line of ancestors via DNA testing.   This news means I can now introduce you to one of my long, long, long ago ancestors.
She was not a Baker but the Bakers of my Great Grandmother's family links her to my generation.
At least that is how it appears at the moment.  There are still unresolved questions about the blood line.

I proudly introduce to you who appears to be my 10 x Great Grandmother, Sarah Isgar.....

 
 
Daughter of William Isgar and Elizabeth Sainsbury Isgar
Born abt. 1625 in West Lavington, Wiltshire, England
Died 17 Sep 1677 in Groombridge Estate, Speldhurst, Kent, England

Nice looking gal, huh?


And here is her husband Phillip Packer, my 10 x Great Grandfather......



Born 24 Jun 1618 Speldhurst, Kent, England
Died 24 Dec 1686 Groombridge Estate, Speldhurst, Kent, England

And here is their son, Philip Packer, my 9 x Great Grandfather.....


Born abt. 1656 in London, England.
Died 1739 in Burlington county, New Jersey, USA


There's a story behind all of this of course.
A story involving love, bastardy, climbing the social ladder despite the English caste system, intrigue, exile, the fight for Irish rule of Ireland, the reign of Stuart King, Charles II of England, being a  victim of primogeniture, Quakers, Mormons and gunsmiths.
And William Penn kinda figures into it as well.

Some day I'll get around to rambling on about it.

Sluggy

 

Thursday, June 6, 2013

Gentlemen, Start Your Engines!


This post is a quick one, to show you a picture I snapped  coming home from the cemetery the other day.  I pulled into the Wendy's parking lot and this is what was in front of me.....


A trucker pulling a #43 Richard Petty Motorsports car trailer. 
I keep forgetting that we are just down the road from Pocono Raceway and the Pocono 400 is this weekend.
Like the Petty blue" color?
If you look closely it says, "Fueled by Bacon".

My reply is.....Who isn't?  8-)

P.S.
If you are reading this Judy, remember Sunday is race day so watch out for the traffic!

Sluggy

This Week On the Dining Table

I'm late as usual with the meal plan stuff......ugh....



Here's what was planned last week--

 Sunday--Cookout...burgers, dogs, homemade potato salad and baked beans and new pickles(all low sodium except for the nitrite-free bacon in the beans)
Monday--Bob Evans cooked us dinner(used a coupon for a BOGO deal)...I had potato crusted flounder.
Tuesday--Chicken & Dumplings-using leftover roasted chicken-not sure how much of this I can let myself have yet
Wednesday--Catfish fry, leftover baked beans, carrots and potato salad
Thursday--leftover Garlic Chicken w/Broccoli and coconut rice
Friday--Ravioli in Sauce w/leftover meatballs, green salad
Saturday--Whatever is still leftover
The Ravioli didn't happen on Friday or any other day.
Friday I served leftovers as well as on Saturday.

I spent $78.86 at the grocery store last week when I only wanted to spend $40-$50, putting me .35¢ over $500 in food spending for May. 
Those "ICE" drinks put me over, all 38 of them.  But I am set for the summer now with those.  No more beverage spending until Fall, except for the adult beverages.... ;-)

Leftovers at the moment consist of 1 piece of catfish(will use for a fish sandwich).  I had the 1 serving of chicken and dumpling this morning for breakfast.  Chicken & Dumplings aka Southern Penicillin...... 8-)

Here's this week's meal plan--
Sunday--Hot Dogs, leftover beans, corn and 'new pickles'
Monday--Fend for Yourself night as Hubs was late from an out-of-town meeting
Tuesday--Chicken Fajitas
Wednesday--Chicken Parm, Sumer Squash Casserole
Thursday--Tacos
Friday--Fajitas Redux
Saturday--WTHK--->Who The Heck Knows!

I've already spent $43 and change at the grocery store.  We went to the restaurant supply store on Sunday as they had a $5 off $50 coupon.  We got lots of produce, some eggs, crabmeat and Doritos for #2 Son plus bought a plastic tray for bringing food out to the patio set to dine al fresco this Summer.  Will make the transporting much easier I think!
It came to $46 after coupon but they overcharged me on the crabmeat so I got a $3 credit on the c/c, making it $43 and change.
I need to pick up more turkey meat and milk still this week.  All the proteins this week are from the freezer(have to empty it some before they bring the new one TODAY!!!--can you tell I am excited?lol), and I'm not stocking up on anything, making this a cheaper shopping week.

So that's where the food money stands now and what's appearing on the kitchen table this week here at Chez Sluggy.
What's getting fixed and served at your house this week?

Sluggy

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Hump Day Helper

I know I could use a little help to get through the rest of Hump Day, how about you?

I think a little cool jazz is just the thing.

Enjoy one of my favorites.....

 




Sluggy

Me & My Shadow


If you remember, I posted about a trip to a cemetery the day before yesterday to take some photos to post on Find A Grave, in which I also believe I saw an "apparition".

Yesterday I went and posted about 60 photos on F.A.G.--either had to post a memorial on the site since the person had none or added my photos to existing memorials of individuals if there was no photo or if my photo some how enhanced the memorial.  Sometimes the photos on the memorials are not very good(fuzzy, too far away to read the inscription or otherwise not very helpful)so if I get a good shot off, I'll hand it over to a memorial someone else created or maintains.

Another thing I do, especially if I am creating a memorial on F.A.G. on which to place the headstone photo on, since I have no clue who the person is/was, I'll go on Ancestry dotcom and research them briefly to see who is family to them and then search out that person on F.A.G. and find the member who is maintaining their memorial and let them know of the family connection so they can link their person to mine.  The more information on the person's memorial, the better able someone looking for their ancestors can locate them if my belief.

Well, sit down, because if you thought I was seeing things before, because it's getting a whole lot WEIRDER!

Two of the pictures I had snapped were of a headstone for "Santee", Joshua and his wife Elizabeth.  A really big, pretty rose colored chunk of granite with both their names on it.  I took a close-up of the inscription and a distance shot that took in the whole "rock" too. 
I went on F.A.G. and found that both Joshua and Elizabeth had memorials already put up by the same member, but neither one of them had a close-up of the wording on the stone, so I put my photo up on both of their memorials.

The other member did not however have their memorials linked, so I wrote to her and mentioned that if she gets some time, it would be nice to have them linked.  Just a suggestions as sometimes, if you are trying to get many people online for the site, you overlook some details like that.

Some people get very offended if you write and suggest things like this so I am always very careful to be none threatening.....though goodness knows, how or why anyone would feel threatened by ME escapes my reasoning! lol

I got a nice reply from the member and she did link this couple in her memorials.  She also let me know that she had put an interesting newspaper article from 1894 up on Joshua's memorial.
Please go read it HERE.

It's said that ghosts or apparitions or spirits whom make they presence known on Earth after their passing are still here because of unresolved issues, or a traumatic death.  Their energy refuses to leave
the physical world because of this.

After I read that newspaper article about Mr. Santee, I went and looked at my photograph of the burial map for the cemetery.  When I thought I "saw" that apparition of a man dressed in pants & a coat  from the 1850's(early Victorian era), I was standing in the vicinity of Joshua's headstone.  Mr. Santee would have been in his prime of adulthood during that time period, which matches the rough age & style of clothing of the figure I "saw".

When that sunk into my brain, I started freaking out all over again!

I told Hubs all this last night when he got home.  He rolled his eyes at me and said I needed a life. ;-)
I figured he'd react like that.....

A couple of things happened that evening, little things, like the sprayer on the kitchen faucet started spraying for no reason when we turned on the faucet(and it's not broken), and my printed was acting up.  We started joking that it was Joshua.....he got in the car and followed me home the other day.

Hey, now that I've made a new "friend" maybe I'll get out more.  It's sad when the long dead have a better social life than you.....

Sluggy