Older Folks and Vaping Back Porch - Part Seven

[bigbells]

This was the fate of the last of the lamb shoulder that I cooked 10 days ago. Some salad from a store-bought bag, a single cooked and peeled chestnut (that I mashed with a fork), the lamb, some Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing, and 70 seconds in the microwave. It was quite good.

 

[3mg Meniere]

This was the fate of the last of the lamb shoulder that I cooked 10 days ago. Some salad from a store-bought bag, a single cooked and peeled chestnut (that I mashed with a fork), the lamb, some Ken's Lite Honey Mustard dressing, and 70 seconds in the microwave. It was quite good.

View attachment 726779

It may have been quite good, but it looks gross. Sorry, bells. I am nuking some chili from my freezer stash. Gonna have to go to go to the grocery store and go on a cooking binge to replenish soon.

 

[classwife]

agree...Eeeewww!


Here, this is a much better pic to wake up to

 

[pwmeek]

Excellent info! Thank you

My research would need to be done in Europe. My parents, brother and I emigrated from Greece in 1967. No other family in the states and from my research Europian ancestry research is quite expensive so I gave up.

I think you all might enjoy my main reason for wanting to pursue this. I grew up in Greece but my mother is French…from Paris. My father met her there during a trip. For years I kept asking my French grandmother for her maiden name so I could research the fsmily on my mother's side. She lived in France and always ignored my questions in her letters although we were very close. What I found out after she died in the 1980s from a cousin of my mother's was that Grams's parents were never married. Her mother and father were the classic Upstairs/Downstairs story…her mother was a lady's maid in a very rich household and she was seduced by the family son. When she got pregnant she was sent to this cousin's home in south France to have the baby who was then raised by that family as their own. Marriage was out of the question.

My poor Grams was ashamed of her background…we're talking late 1890s…totally different morals about unmarried sex and kids born out of wedlock.

I would love to find out who her father was. Who knows I may be related to a famous family!

By coincidence, I have something very similar in my ancestry. My mother's mother's father was born of such a union. The only clue I have to the father is a newspaper photo. The photo is captioned as by the famous celebrity photographer Count Jean de Streleki but no name of the subject is given, and since the text is missing, the article may have been about the photographer rather than my gg-grandfather. I can't even tell what newspaper the article is from, although it may be a New York newspaper. Someone has written "Gustav Rosell was his illegitimate son" on the edge of the photo and my mother or one of her brothers has written "Gustav Rosell's father; mother's grandfather."

If anyone recognizes this guy, I'd be happy to know who he is. I believe he might be German, but could be Swedish as were all the rest of my mother's family. Gustav was born in 1852, so this guy would have likely been 20-40 years older than that. (I have googled the text on the back of the photo, hoping to discover it in some newspaper archive, which would then let me recover the text of the article surrounding this photo, but no luck so far.)

At any rate, dna testing (autosomal, since in both our cases the line is mixed male and female) could possibly give us clues as to the general family connection of our mysterious (and libidinous, and likely wealthy) ancestors. It would take a LOT of luck to make the actual connections. This is especially true since Europe has much stricter privacy laws than the US. But if someone should show up in our suggested "4th to distant cousin" matches that would otherwise fit the description, it might just be worth checking out. Yours, at g-grandfather distance (as opposed to mine at gg-grandfather separation) would be a lot likelier discovery.

 

[Bea-FL]

@pwmeek I'm sure you thought about this but in case you didn't…if the photographer is so famous could there be an archive of his photos naming his subjects?

 

[pwmeek]

@pwmeek I'm sure you thought about this but in case you didn't…if the photographer is so famous could there be an archive of his photos naming his subjects?

Thank you; I've tried that in a few places, but he also did a lot of actresses and semi-erotic photography. Guess what shows up in collections?

EDIT: this discussion has given me a serious new direction of research. Gustav also had several sons. If I can dig out of my family tree some direct male descendants of Gustav, I might be able to convince one to do some serious yDNA testing which would trace directly back to my (our) mystery ancestor.

 

[bigbells]

I used an automatically adjusted version of the picture that seems to me to be the most accurate representation of what I created and consumed yesterday evening. Normally, I understand the criticism of food photos that I post, and I admit that in some cases I have deliberately taken photos for shock value. In this case, though, with the lamb salad, I just don't grok the revulsion expressed by a coupla few of you. Is it the honey mustard dressing, or what? At any rate, to me it was both physically attractive and tastefully delicious, and it looked very much like the photo that I posted.

 

[classwife]

I used an automatically adjusted version of the picture that seems to me to be the most accurate representation of what I created and consumed yesterday evening. Normally, I understand the criticism of food photos that I post, and I admit that in some cases I have deliberately taken photos for shock value. In this case, though, with the lamb salad, I just don't grok the revulsion expressed by a coupla few of you. Is it the honey mustard dressing, or what? At any rate, to me it was both physically attractive and tastefully delicious, and it looked very much like the photo that I posted.

Sorry Bells...that was just too much visual to wake up to ((hug))


...notice I didn't post chorizo con juevos for breakfast - eeewwwww to that too

 

[bigbells]

Sorry Bells...that was just too much visual to wake up to ((hug))

I posted the pic at 8:34 pm Eastern Time. Just sayin'.

 

[Bea-FL]

So our butterfly raising season has started. I watched a giant swallowtail lay eggs on one of my citrus trees so I went collecting. 13 eggs and 3 1st instar caterpillars. (Instar is what butterfly caterpillars are called and they go through 5 stages.)​

Many butterfly growers remove the eggs to a safe place to hatch to protect them from predators. Butterflies lay many eggs because only few will survive to adulthood. In my yard anoles would devour them in no time…butterflies, even those that are not classified as endangered need help.

This little guy is actually about 1/4" long!

Monarch butterfly and zebra swallowtail butterfly raising seasons are right around the corner . Good thing we built a good size butterfly cage!

 

[yiddleboge6]

Good morning BP....

Keeping my promise to update you on my adventure into a new TV... Who would have thought it was going to be so much work... Moving furniture....steam cleaning carpet before placing furniture in new location...exchanging analog cable box for an HD box...struggling to figure out how to open the remote for the TV...finally getting everything in place and hooked up, and....no signal from the cable... Called Comcast and a tech was here early the next morning... I have a working 4k Smart TV now, programmed for NetFlix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube...

The picture on the TV is beautiful....this pic isn't... due to a crappy camera....

ETA: shoot....ECF is acting up with my posting a pic...

 

[r77r7r]

Good morning BP....

Keeping my promise to update you on my adventure into a new TV... Who would have thought it was going to be so much work... Moving furniture....steam cleaning carpet before placing furniture in new location...exchanging analog cable box for an HD box...struggling to figure out how to open the remote for the TV...finally getting everything in place and hooked up, and....no signal from the cable... Called Comcast and a tech was here early the next morning... I have a working 4k Smart TV now, programmed for NetFlix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube...

The picture on the TV is beautiful....this pic isn't... due to a crappy camera....

ETA: shoot....ECF is acting up with my posting a pic...

I get a kick out of waking the TV up by casting a YouTube video from my phone.

 

[MikeE3]

Good morning BP....

Keeping my promise to update you on my adventure into a new TV... Who would have thought it was going to be so much work... Moving furniture....steam cleaning carpet before placing furniture in new location...exchanging analog cable box for an HD box...struggling to figure out how to open the remote for the TV...finally getting everything in place and hooked up, and....no signal from the cable... Called Comcast and a tech was here early the next morning... I have a working 4k Smart TV now, programmed for NetFlix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube...

The picture on the TV is beautiful....this pic isn't... due to a crappy camera....

ETA: shoot....ECF is acting up with my posting a pic...

 

[DancingHeretik]

I have a working 4k Smart TV now, programmed for NetFlix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube...

The picture on the TV is beautiful....this pic isn't... due to a crappy camera....

Beautiful! Finally! I bet it's a great pleasure and relief.

I've seen the majority of those shows. Yesterday I stumbled upon a new one, The Almighty Johnsons. I'm loving it so far.

 

[yiddleboge6]

Beautiful! Finally! I bet it's a great pleasure and relief.

I've seen the majority of those shows. Yesterday I stumbled upon a new one, The Almighty Johnsons. I'm loving it so far.

I'm so enjoying it... Now I just need to save up for a nice recliner to sit in while I watch it... I'll check out 'The Almighty Johnsons'....Thank you...

 

[bigbells]

 

[yiddleboge6]

They need to bring back the gecko...

 

[bigbells]

They need to bring back the gecko...

The gecko hasn't gone anywhere. Geico has been running three different sets of ads for years... two of the sets keep changing but the gecko keeps hanging around. This is really picky, but I don't like the current voice of the gecko as much as I liked the original.

On another subject, just some good music:

 

[Semiretired]

Geico has been running three different sets of ads for years.

I guess keeping people guessing what ad they will come out with next is what keeps GEICO in the minds of people - still don't see how it helps them sell insurance. I used them for years, but finally got away from them because of the continuous errors they made. And while in the past they were touted to be one of the most affordable insurances around - that isn't true anymore - at least not in this part of the country...

 

[Bea-FL]

Good morning BP....

Keeping my promise to update you on my adventure into a new TV... Who would have thought it was going to be so much work... Moving furniture....steam cleaning carpet before placing furniture in new location...exchanging analog cable box for an HD box...struggling to figure out how to open the remote for the TV...finally getting everything in place and hooked up, and....no signal from the cable... Called Comcast and a tech was here early the next morning... I have a working 4k Smart TV now, programmed for NetFlix, Amazon Prime video, and YouTube...

The picture on the TV is beautiful....this pic isn't... due to a crappy camera....

ETA: shoot....ECF is acting up with my posting a pic...

I like our income tax situation. The wife and I are retired, and we have enough income to live comfortably. We pay no taxes on our income, and at the end of the year we pay nothing, and get nothing. Our tax preparation is done for free at the local place for seniors. Win, Win.

That's us too. No state tax in Florida and our SS isn't taxed either.

When we researched the southernmost states to choose in which to retire Florida was the best taxation wise, and gas, food, and home prices in our level were comporable to back home.