May 19, 2026

Spoiler alert - Arsenal fans

Arsenal are the EPL league champs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have followed the Gunners for at least 25 years, as it is the favorite team of both our sons, now in their mid 30s, who are still playing in men's leagues.

It was a long 6 minutes of stoppage time.

April 25, 2026

I'm officially 3/4 of a century old!

The card from my husband contained the following message -

"A milestone birthday requires a milestone gift. Love you with all my heart." And a link to a site that plans tours all across the globe, with instructions to "Pick one."

So, sometime in the next year, we will be going to Ireland, which I have long wanted to do. He said he was pretty sure that was what I would pick. We both have Irish heritage in our family trees, and I'm going to see if I can discover any distant relatives who might be living there.

We've traveled a fair bit, both together and before we met, but neither of us have been to Ireland. We met in Japan, when we were both in the Air Force, me as a nurse practitioner, him as a pilot.

April 23, 2026

RFK Jr - The "F" in should stand for Fucking-Nuts. Robert Fucking-Nuts Kennedy.

I just watched the segment on Lawrence's show where Senator Angela Alsobrooks was taking him to task about his statement on reparenting black children at work farms.

Of course, he is trying to deny saying it. "I'd have to see the transcript."

That could easily be arranged, you jackass.

April 20, 2026

I went to roll the lower dishwasher rack back into the dishwasher...

...and it wouldn't budge. ??????????????

I looked inside for whatever might be causing the problem, and found our green-eyed female tuxie, Chessie, staring back at me.

She views any closed door as an insult to her queen-of-the-castle self image, and is delighted by any opportunity to go into any space that is usually not accessible to her. Open closets, kitchen cupboards, and the clothes dryer are all met with enthusiasm.

Her special favorite is my husband's model building workshop in the basement. We have been in our house for 32 years, and the workshop was created not too long after we moved in, so in 30+ years she has been in there truly thousands of times, yet each time is greeted with delight as if it were a brand new opportunity for something exciting.

Edited to correct my sleep-deprived math. Chessie is about to be 14. Say she went in 300 times a year, that would still be a lot - 3000+.

March 28, 2026

Best sign I saw at the protest in my village of about 31, 000...

...in McHenry County IL, which is the only one of the Chicago area collar counties that votes red was this:

No King
No Jester
No Child Molester

It would make a good chant, as it has a steady 4 beat rhythm to it.

A Channel 7 ABC news helicopter flew over.

February 24, 2026

Another Canadian ancestry/citizenship question.

Relatively recently, I have learned, via Ancestry.com, that almost all of my father's family comes from Canada, primarily Ontario. My dad was born and raised in Chicago, IL. My paternal grandmother shows up in US census records as being born in Michigan, but everyone else in her immediate family, and at least 2 generations back, were born in Canada. Her mother, her father, and both her siblings, grand parents and great-grandparents. In the 1901 Canadian census, she is listed as being born in Northumberland, Ontario.

When I inquired about this from someone else in the family tree (whom I've never met), the speculation, seeing as her father's occupation was listed as farmer, was that the family may have traveled around picking crops during various harvesting seasons, and happened to be in the US when my grandmother was born. She was the oldest of her parents' 3 children.

If born to Canadian parents while they happened to be on the road in the US, would my grandmother have had dual citizenship?

It pleases me greatly to have Canadian ancestry.

February 16, 2026

Goodbye, hearts - with a nod to Ricky Nelson

I always miss the hearts once the fundraiser is over, so here is a musical farewell.

February 15, 2026

Follow up to the August grandbaby post from earlier in the week - it's a boy.

And no extra chromosomes, so I can breathe a bit easier.

Our DIL’s brother and his wife have 2 sons, just turned 3 and not yet a year. They live in the area, so I foresee some lively cousin get togethers in a few years.

They are keeping name ideas to themselves, as we did. We told people what we were having, but not who we were having.

February 13, 2026

I miss the hearts when the fundraiser ends. They look so cheerful.

For the past several years, I have taken a cell phone picture of mine so I can go back and look at them in those moments when I might need a little pick-me-up.

February 13, 2026

Looking for "heartless" DUers. I have 7 left...

...and would very much like to give them to anyone who has escaped notice.

Let me know here or in DU mail.