Happenings at Chez Sluggy Lately

Let's see what's going on around here this week, other than hitting up Rite-Aid for almost freebies and going to the grocery store.
Boy, do I lead a dull, dull life.......

Here's the biggest news this week.

Going......

Going......

GONE!

Another vehicle bites the dust.

We'll save approx. another $800 a year on our car insurance having this van gone.
Yay!

From a high of about $2,800 a year for insurance to $1,340 a year now.
Sweet.
My van insurance was roughly the same I now pay for the Sonic(since it's new) but unloading the Hyundai Elantra and Dodge Minivan will save us $1,460 a year going forward.
Plus all the repairs, gas and taxes/fees.
Plus we'll get a small partial refund on the car insurance bill I paid last month.

#2 Son will either have to be happy to drive the purple car when he is home for breaks or he will get a lot of exercise walking places. lolz

In other news........

I didn't sleep well yesterday because I am stressing out over--

A.  The repairman coming back today to fix the a/c and heating units.  He left here 2 weeks back and couldn't tell me what was wrong with them.  He had to call for technical support to a guy in India...WTF?!?  I have little confidence that this will be fixed today.  At least we aren't paying for a service call or parts as we got an extended warranty on the thing.

B.  Someone bought a boatload of fabric from me on Etsy 2 days ago.  She didn't pay me enough so I am waiting on more shipping $ at Paypal to come through.  This stuff doesn't leave until I am FULLY paid.

The daughter paid us the first installment of the loan we floated her to buy her house.
Yay!
Only 119 more to go.
I hope I live long enough to get all this $ back. lolz


Not feeling so great this week, besides the not sleeping.  I have some naggy ailments happening, things that pop-up every so often.  Annoying and make me grouchy.

I also have to schedule a mammogram, a CT scan(for a final check on a scar on my lung to make sure it isn't a tumor)and I need to get to the eye doctor before the end of the year.  That "baby cataract" that wasn't even large enough to mention really last Fall is now causing me eyesight problems.  I dread having a surgery but I need to get this taken care of before I head off on any more driving trips.  I just don't feel confident driving long stretches with my vision as it is now.

Speaking of trips........

                         photo credit S Walker


Next Friday we head out for the Vassar/Baker Reunion down in VA.  This is a shot of last year's attendees taken by my 1st cousin's(once removed) wife.  I'll be more mobile this year since at last year's event I was still recovering from a blood clot in my ankle.

I hope people hang around longer this year and don't just eat and run like last year.  Between that and not getting around well I didn't get to talk to/get to know hardly anyone there. 

I also want to go visit a cemetery while we are down there and take some photos of my 2x Great Grand headstones.
Later on the evening of the Reunion we'll have dinner with my mother's cousin & her husband, from her father's side of the family.

I hope to stop at Berky's Restaurant outside of Lexington for early dinner or late lunch on the way down.  Never been, always wanted to go there.  The fried chicken is to DIE FOR!
I haven't had fried chicken in ages.......

What else--

*   I got an old ragged nightgown ripped up with the seam ripper so now I can use it as a pattern to make some more gowns.  I loved that gown and it hurt to have to let it go....sniff, sniff......

*  Paid bills.  It looks like we are going to end September with $2K+ for the Savings Challenge so we are on track for this month.  We are, however, behind for the year at this point in the game.
But never fear because October is our 3 paycheck month. 8-))

*  I mostly piddled around and didn't get much done besides canning the relish.  Now I have to find a place to put it all! 8-)

Not much else going on here.
How about you?
What are y'all up to?

Sluggy

 

Just Some Rite-Aid Chatter

I went out on Wednesday to Rite-Aid.  I figure since the deals look not-so-great for the next 2 weeks I'd better spend/roll some more +Ups.

I got this on my wellness card......

2 x Listerine on sale $3.99=$7.98
1 x Colgate toothpaste on sale=$2.99
1 x Candy bar on sale=.67¢   Mmmm, dark chocolate......
SubTotal....$11.64

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Listerine Naturals Catalina Qs=$2.00 *
1 x $2/1 Colgate Enamel Health item ManuQ(Sunday inserts)=$2.00
Coupon Total.....$4.00

$11.64-$4.00=$7.64 + .03¢tax=$7.67

I used $7 in +Up Rewards and paid .67¢ OOP.
I received back $6 in +Up Rewards (2 x $3 Listerine)

Then I bought this stuff......

3 x Garnier Shampoo on sale BOGO50%=$10.77 **
2 x Cottonelle TP on sale $7.49=$14.98 ***
Subtotal.....$25.75

Coupons Used
2 x $1/1 Garnier IPQ=$2.00
1 x $2/1 Garnier IPQ=$2.00
1 x $1/1 Garnier Pure Clean VideoValuesQ=$1.00
1 x $2/1 Garnier Sleek and Shine R-A FacebookQ=$2.00
2 x $1/1 Cottonelle VideoValuesQ=$2.00
1 x $1/2 Cottonelle ManuQ(Sunday's inserts)=$1.00
Coupon Total.......$10.00

$25.75-$10.00=$15.75
I used $15 in +Up Rewards and paid .75¢ OOP.

I received back $5 in +Up Rewards(wyb $15 Garnier-I had $6.73 tracking on that deal coming into today).
I also got tracking of $14.98 on the Spend $20/Get $8 Kimberley/Clark Deal for buying the toilet paper.

*  I had 1 $1/1 Catalina Q that the machine spit out on Sunday when I bought this variety of Listerine and another $1/1 ManuQ tearpad Q from my dentist to use, but as soon as the Listerine got rang up ANOTHER $1/1 Listerin Naturals Q spit out of the catalina machine so I used that instead of the tearpad Q, as it was longer dated.
If you don't have a Listerine Q and you want to chance buying it and having a catalina Q spit out you can use, making it free after +Up Rewards received, be my guest.  Just make sure the cashier checks that the machine is turned on and working.
If it doesn't work out, you only spent .99¢ on a bottle of Listerine after +Up Rewards received so that's still a good deal.

**  With the Garnier since I bought 3 bottles and the deal was BOGO 50% off, 1 was reg. price, $4.49, 1 was half off at $2.24 and the third bottle got 10% discount is what this wellness card now has being at the Silver level.

***  I was going to buy a package of Scott TP as well to finish off this Kimberley/Clark Deal but the Qs for Scott I printed out didn't match up with the type of TP that was part of this deal.  I have a $1/1 Scott ManuQ from Sunday's inserts at HOME...ugh.....so I'll go back later today or Saturday to buy this and get my $8 in +Ups reward.

After I buy the package of Scott TP I'll have $27 in +Ups left and I won't have to roll/spend any again until 9/28 if I don't want to buy anything next week.
But I do already have a plan for next week's deals.

$1.42 more spent at Rite-Aid this week and $57.37 more in products brought home.
I am such a spendthrift. hehehe

Both my wellness card and son's card now have 850 points on them each.  Only 150 more to reach Gold and 20% off for the rest of this year and all of next year.(Except my card already gets 20% off from reaching 1000 pts. last year.)  I took son's card from 0 pts. to 850 in 6 transactions in 20 days, with under $3 in actual OOP spending.
Maybe for the rest of September I should put all spending on the BIL's card since it's only at 175 pts. for the year.  I need to sign this card up for triple points first however.
Going into the Holiday deals at Rite-Aid I know I can get another 150 points to Gold on both of the cards at this point.

I have to buy the Scott TP on son's card and then I'll switch to the BIL's card for the rest of September.
It would be crazy to have 3 cards in the family at Gold Level for next year. lolz

Sluggy

Your Irish Ancestry May in Fact be Spanish

When someone talks about ancestry they know 2 to 3 generations back the actual names/dates/places for their family and maybe a few stories their parents or grandparents told and the oral tradition that we are "fill in the blank heritage".

If someone or a family member has done a bit of genealogical work--traced a paper trail, documenting their family's history through legal documents and records, then you can either prove or disprove what information has been passed down through the family.

And if you are lucky and determined/patient/skilled that paper trail may extend back for many centuries and tell quite the tale itself and add another dimension to all those photographs and stories and legends in your family's past.

But even with all that, there is a step you can take that will add even more insight into your heritage, the genetic DNA tests.
And sometimes that information will be a game changer.

When I had my DNA tested(mitochondrial and autosomal tests)I wasn't too surprised to see that my admixture(my ethnic makeup) was 100% European(mostly Northern, Western and Central).
My father's lines came from Ireland and my mother's lines came from England/Scotland/Wales/Ireland at least in the last 10 generations or so.

My admixture currently reads--

100% European which breaks down into--

90% Britich Isles
9% Central and Western Europe
1% Finland and Northern Siberia

When I saw the names of the people who matched me genetically who have also tested at the website, I read names like Magnessønn, Sköld and Fagerström located in Sweden, Finland and Norway.
Clearly Scandinavian surnames all, and after reading up on the history of this area and the trade routes and how civilizations moved about and blended, those ethnic surnames and my 1% of genes helped to explained this piece of the puzzle.

But then I didn't know what to do with finding genetic matches with people named Vicente, de Marchena and Ferreira Lopes located in places like Spain, Portugal and Brazil(someone's family that migrated from the Iberian Peninsula).
The furthest South in Europe my admixture shows is France.

These ethnic groups were not on my radar.

Then when my brother's admixture came back it read thusly....

99% European
1% Middle Eastern

Middle Eastern?!?

The break down of the 99% European being--
92% British Isles
6% Finland and Northern Siberia
1% Southern Europe

And the other 1% Middle Eastern of his ethnic makeup?
The break down of this was 1% North African.

Now even though we are siblings there are variations in where our DNA is located on our chromosome chains.  And DNA testing only takes samples from certain parts of your chain.  This means that 2 people with the same DNA(like full siblings except if only one is male, then the Y DNA won't match as the female does not carry Y chromosomes)will show differences in their results, as the places on their chains that are tested don't always hold the same genetic material. 

This explains why I come up as 100% European and my brother comes up as 99% European/1% Middle Eastern.

So this means I have a minute amount of genetic material found in people who originated in the Middle East even though my test results didn't unearth it.

My Haplogroup J(which comes from my mitochondrial DNA), is said to have originated about 45,000 years ago in the Near East or the Caucasus.
This would go a long way to explain this Middle Eastern gene finding(since my brother and I share the same mitochondrial genes)but if the Middle Eastern gene is in fact specific to Northern Africa this explains nothing.

The fact that a number of people from modern day Spain and Portugal were exact genetic matches to me has been a head scratcher for me. 
Under the assumption that their ancestry is Spanish and/or Portuguese, how could we be such a close match if I possess so little Middle Eastern/North African material?

And also, where did this 1% Middle Eastern genetic material come from?  In all the paper trail research I've undertaken I have never found any ancestor that led me back to this part of the world.

And then I found an article that blew my mind and turned my thinking around.

If you go back in history.....back before the Celts.....back before the English conquest of Ireland, Ireland was invaded and ruled by stone age settlers who migrated from Spain.

There was a Kingdom called Dál Riata (or Dalriada).  Shown in the drawing in green.

People from the Iberian Peninsula invaded into Ireland and Scotland between 400-800 AD.  This kingdom ruled over by stone age settles from Northern Spain extended from modern day Spain across the sea into western Ireland and into Scotland.  During this time the Picts ruled the eastern part of Scotland(shown in yellow), but not the western region, as well as the northeastern chunk of Ireland.

To quote the article....."The latest research into Irish DNA has confirmed that the early inhabitants of Ireland were not directly descended from the Keltoi of central Europe. In fact the closest genetic relatives of the Irish in Europe are to be found in the north of Spain in the region known as the Basque Country."

You can read the article yourself HERE.

DNA testing in Ireland and Scotland has confirmed this long held mythology of an dark invading race during the Stone Age and has gone a long way to explain the physical and cultural similarities in people from those two countries.  Genetic propensity for freckles with fair skin and red hair are both quite prominent in Irish and Scottish peoples.

Here's a Youtube video that goes into some of this.



So if your family tree takes you back to Ireland or Scotland, you most certainly have a little Spanish in your genes too.

And if you get your DNA tested be prepared to find a small bit of Spanish in your ethnic makeup, or people with Spanish surnames genetically matching you.

Sluggy



 

Living My Life with Relish

This past weekend we went down to Burger's farm stand.
It's a nice drive on country roads and the weather was wonderful.
We put the top down on Sonic the Hedgehog and rode off.

Other than being full of out-of-state tourists(our bad for going on a weekend!)it was a nice visit.

Beans, mums and fall squash.

 Lots of onions.

Sweet Italian peppers by the load!

Hubs even let me stop on the way home at the cemetery to snap some more photos to put on Find A Grave(aka F.A.G.).


Here's what I brought home from the farm stand.....

A couple of zukes, a red cabbage and acorn squash for $3 total.

25 lbs. of sweet onions for $10.....

And a bushel of peppers for $15. 
I got 37 peppers in this bushel so they cost me less than .50¢ each and they were HUGE!

Some of those peppers are destined for Stuffed Peppers and some are getting cut into strips and frozen for Fajitas this Winter.

As for the rest, add a few more ingredients and 2 days of cutting, chopping, stirring and processing and I now have this.....

14+ quarts of my Family Secret Recipe Pepper Relish.

My sister in-law is Jones-ing for some but she needs to return all my jars first!
Every year I give her some and she NEVER returns the jars.

This may be my last year making the relish however.
Even with getting the veggies cheap-ish it's expensive to make!
Having to pay for new jars each year is just one part of the expense but it's just not that.
It just takes so much out of me now physically to make this.
Two entire days of work alone.
If I had someone to help make it I would continue.

But it does look pretty and I have a feeling of accomplishment for now. 8-)

Now I need to find a place to put all this!

And then turn my attention to these.....

The tomatoes we picked this past weekend.

And these too that I found later because they were hiding under my Morning Glory vines. lol

I probably won't can the tomatoes as there isn't enough to make it worth the while.  I'll just cook em down into sauce and put it all in the fridge.
I had hoped Burgers had bushels of seconds for cheap that I could process and can but no such luck.

Tonight's dinner will be stuffed peppers with some of the peppers I didn't use in the relish.  I'll make a double batch for planned leftovers.  I'll also make a few more for the freezer.

Plus I need to cut the other leftover peppers into strips for the freezer.....if I can find room in there for them.

And I got a big order on Etsy this morning so I need to take a box up to the PO to get it weighed since my scale only handles up to 10 lbs.  The box weighs about 40 lbs. so I hope I can carry it!

Then it's off to grocery shop for the week.
Busy, busy day here.

Catch y'all later,

Sluggy

Sluggy's Solo Road Trip......Part 4....The Wilds of WI

So Day 7 began my adventures in Wisconsin with my friend, Blanche.

After a healthy breakfast and some surfing and chatting we set out for the day around noon.
First stop was Applebee's, Blanche's favorite place to eat, where I treated us to lunch.

That's Blanche being silly......

Afterwards I tried to take a selfie......

Still trying to get the hang of this stuff......

That's better but no sign.....lol

Then Blanche drove me around town in her Volkswagen.  Blanche has Danish DNA coursing through her being and is very connected to her heritage so it was no surprise when she played Danish music on her car's stereo system.....Danish music every single time we were riding in her car.
Let me tell you how disconcerting it is to hear "Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree" sung in Danish.  It was like being in a parallel universe or something!

So while riding around town we hit up the local Dollar General for something I wanted(they didn't have it)but I found something else to buy there--sox for #2 Son.   The child goes through sox like nothing I've ever seen before!

Then she took me somewhere special......
We drove to the end of a road past some derelict buildings.....and onto a gravel road with not a soul in sight.
Right before I started fearing for my life, thinking Blanche had joined one of those horribly violent Wisconsin Danish gangs you hear about, we turned onto this street......

And then into a massive parking lot......and in my mind flashed a scene from The Sopranos, only I replaced "Leave the gun, take the cannolis" with "Leave the gun, take the lutefisk" in the
Scandinavian version in my head.......

But Blanche didn't bring me here to "off" me, just to show me the new Wausau Curling Center.

Outside the building are two huge replicas of curling stones.

Man! I've never seen such big ROCKS before!

Of course, it being the middle of Summer nobody was curling.  Not a soul around but us.

Hubs loves to watch curling when they show it during the Olympics.
Me?  I think they freaking YELL too much!!! so I can't get into it.


Hubs had intermittently thought about finding a Curling Club and taking up the sport for fun but of course, we live in PA so he's never found a club.

If we moved up to WI or MN or someplace like that I am sure he could find one to join.
Of course, he hates cold weather though so there is that.

 

Next we went to the movies on the other side of town.....

And saw a thought provoking documentary by Dinesh D'Souza called "America: Imagine The World Without Her".
It examines the shaming of the US through revisionist history, lies and omissions by educational institutions, political organizations and progressives, with an eye toward destroying America as we know it.
I didn't agree with the whole thing but there were parts that made me go, "Hmmmm".

Next up we took a ride back toward Blanche's neighborhood.
She wanted to show me a tiny little house that someone had made out of a garage.

This little house once was a 1 car garage.  Blanche thought another friend of ours, Anne, would enjoy seeing this one, as she is into that Tiny House Movement.

We passed by some old Victorian era homes too......

But silly me I had my window up so I got my lovely tropical caftan in these shots too.

Then Blanche drove me by a nice big old cemetery......

And she didn't let me stop and take photos of all those great headstones!
Oh well, by this point I was worn out for the day so we headed home for dinner, some tv, some photo scrapbook looking from her trips to Denmark, some surfing, and into bed.

On Day 2 in Wausau we decided to check out the local Historical Society and Museum for Marathon County.

The Historical Society had a newly renovated/restored Mansion so we shelled out some moolah to take a tour inside.

This house behind me is the Cyrus & Alice Yawkey House.  Not quite big enough to be a mansion but had they had more children(they only had one)and expanded I am sure we'd be touring a much larger home. 

At one time back during the Gilded Age in our history there were more millionaires located in Wausau Wisconsin than in any other city in our country.   Exploiting natural resources such as wood and fur which were abundant in this area initially brought about the fortunes of these wealthy men.
Called "The Wausau Group" this band of captains of the logging industry diversified and invested into many companies: among them pulp paper mills(you've heard of the Marathon Paper Company?), lumber finishing and insurance, to keep the economy going in this area.  They also expanded their holdings into the South to take advantage of the lumber resources down there and then into the Pacific Northwest.

If you like history you should watch this video HERE about the Wausau Group.

The barons of such industries were chums and they wanted to live near each other.  This is what brought Cyrus Yawkey to Wausau and spurred him on to build this house in 1901.

The house was built in the then popular Classical Revival architectural style and was the most expensive house built in this area, to that time, costing $35,000 to erect.

Blanche outside the Yawkey House.

There is a slide show of the architecture located HERE if you are an uber-fan of architecture.

 

Then in 1907 the family moved out for 1 year while the house was completely remodeled inside on the main floor and a second floor addition and a sun porch were added to the structure in the Arts and Crafts style, which Mr. Yawkey preferred over Classical Revival.  They did nNOT redo Mrs. Yawkey's parlor into Arts and Crafts as that was her wish to keep the original style of the home.

The woodwork and stained glass wall in Mr. Yawkey's study.

Can you imagine though.......having this brand new grand home and then, 6 years later your husband wants you to move out for a year and then totally guts the inside and redoes it?  If I was Mrs. Yawkey I might have left his wealthy ass.
Ok....maybe not.

Cyrus Carpenter Yawkey had nothing on these HGTV addicts! lolz

Their only daughter, Leigh, went on to marry Aytchmonde Woodson(who worked for her father)and her parents had a house built for the couple right across the street from them in the Prairie School Style.  This home is now the headquarters of the Marathon County Historical Society and Museum and houses some exhibits.
In 1974 the Yawkey House was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
After Alice Yawkey's death in 1953, Leigh Woodson and the grandchildren gave the house to the Historical Society.
Completed in 2008, the home was restored to it's former glory at a cost of 3 Million Dollars.
No wonder they need to charge $7 a pop to tour it!

 Here are photos of the formal gardens outside the house.

These were added in 1910 in anticipation of their daughter, Leigh, getting married in 1911so the house needed a bit of "spiffying up" in time for the reception.

Now here is a glut of photos of the inside of the house.  Some of them came out dark as they didn't allow anyone to use a flash inside the house.

 The staircase stained glass feature.  According to the docent, a young cousin lived with the Yawkeys for a time after his parents died and he and the neighborhood boys used to throw pebbles at the stained glass for fun.  Eek!

 A sitting room in the main parlor.

 The lighting fixture in the main hall/foyer.

 A light sculpture on the newel post of the staircase.

 A telephone in the servant's room.

 An Art Glass lamp.

 Mrs. Yawkey's desk

 What a high tech bathroom looked like in 1901.

 In the daughter's bathroom the entirety was tiled, even the ceiling.

 The daughter's parlor attached to her bedroom and bathroom.

 Detailing on the glass enclosed bookcase in the daughter's parlor.

 The daughter's bed with period dresses.

The upstairs and downstairs hallways seen from the landing.

 A lighting fixture in Mr. Yawkey's Arts and Crafts styled study.  The doors to this room disappeared into the woodworked walls when closed.  The rafter beams gave it the look of being in a ship's cabin.

 The servant's call bell in the pantry.  Mrs. Yawkey had a buzzer hidden under the dining table with which she could silently buzz for the next course of the meal.

 A period stove in the kitchen.  Where are the legs?

My shot of the dining room.  It was SO dark in here, I could only get details when I shot toward the window.  Again, I wasn't allowed to use any flash on the camera.

 

Here is a shot of the dining room from the Historical Society's Website slide show.

Here is the interior of the horse barn/carriage house.

When they had the house built horses were still the main mode of transportation so they had an adjoining stable built.  The interior of the stable was just as nicely finished as the woodwork inside of the house.  Nice horse digs!

After the house remodel, cars began to take over as the mode of transportation so part of  the carriage house also was fitted for the family vehicles.

Also in the carriage house the Historical Society keeps a 1910 Lamont Steamer Fire Engine.

See that long brown thing, that looks like a hose on the engine?
Well it's not.
The docent took it down and held it.
Looks like a long wooden pole, doesn't it?

 

With a quick twist at just the right place, it opened up to reveal it's a ladder!

This is a unique totally handmade ladder.  I thought it was pretty cool.....

The Woodson Home. located across the street, was purchased in 1995 by the Historical Society and turned into offices, archives and exhibit space.

 The Woodson House exterior.  Designed by George W. Maher it was built in 1914 in the Prairie School style.

 The walnut staircase in the Woodson House.

 Stained Glass on the staircase landing.  Notice the acorn accents on the bannister.

Blanche had to take this picture of a fainting couch upstairs.

They had a couple of rooms downstairs with exhibits of Wausau history.

 An early amusement park from the area.

 This portable embalming machine was invented by someone in Wausau.

 

 The history of ginseng harvesting.

The history of fox farms for fur coats in the area.

Blanche said, "Why would you give your herring the name O.K.?  Why wouldn't you give it a better name?"  She's right.
How's the herring?  Oh, it's ok.......lolz

And lots of immigrants from Germany meant many saloons and beers were developed in the area.

Mmmmmm......beer.

 

And yes, for all you sports fans who are wondering, the Yawkeys of Wisconsin were cousins of Bill Yawkey the owner of the Detroit Tigers and his nephew(later the adopted son as well)Tom Yawkey who owned the Boston Red Sox.

We were getting pretty hungry so off we went to find something for lunch.

 We ended up at Culver's.  Another first for me. 

Though we didn't get any "concrete" today.  The fish & chips platter was enough for us both!

We gassed up my purple car in anticipation of my long ride the next day, then we went out looking for "curds".
Cheese curds to be exact.
And FRESH ones if we could find them.

Alas, only prepackaged curds were to be found.

So we made do with those.....

And then I found a special flavor of Mike's hard lemonade I've never seen before, so I just had to buy me a 6 pack......

I just love the neck label too....lol...

Then it was back to Blanche's for some more visiting, dinner, a little tv and then to bed early as I needed my rest for what lay ahead in the morning.
And thankfully no more Danish "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Old Oak Tree".
Though it does grow on you..... ;-)

Sluggy