Closing Out March

Last week we visited Jeff's sister in North Carolina. We drove down on Monday, and were glad we got to spend more time with her than expected. We also visited with Jeff's other sister, our brother-in-law, and niece. We even met our three-year-old great niece. 

The visit was intense and tiring. The return trip was horrible, taking about two hours longer than normal. We picked up Jace from our friends' Thursday evening. It had been our first trip without him. It was nice knowing that Jace was happy to to stay with our friends. 

Traveling without a dog made things much easier. For one thing, we stayed in a hotel that wasn't pet friendly. It was just okay, but was in a great location. Every place we needed to visit was within a mile. 

Once home, I vegged for most of the weekend after I stocked up on food and wine. Laundry was also involved. I discovered that TCM's Star of the Month was George Brent. More on that later. 

A Time-Tracking Mishap

 I was glad to be nearing the end of my week time-tracking last night. As I made my entries, I realized I had an extra column. I was actually entering my Sunday information in the Saturday column. Somehow, I had erased the real Saturday information that I had previously entered. D'oh. I was bummed. I didn't want to try to recreate my Saturday. I just closed the file. 

I still have good information for most of the week. I'll take a look at that and decide if I should track another week. 

Book 6: How Long 'Til Black Future Month by N.K. Jemisin

The last of my books from the Essex Library. I had heard of N.K. Jemisin, but wasn't familiar with her work. This is a collection of short stories. I especially liked "The City Born Great," "Red Dirt Witch," and "Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints in the City Beneath the Still Waters."

Jemisin had been advised to write short stories by workshop writers. Their reasoning: "Learning to write short fiction would improve my longer fiction." For one thing, short stories gave Jemisin the chance to experiment with unusual plots and forms.

Maybe I should approach Merwinsville as a collection of short stories. I need to think about this.

Spring is Here!

Today is the March (or Spring or Vernal) Equinox--very welcome after a cold and snowy winter. It didn't feel springlike when Jace and went for a walk this morning with temperatures in the 30s. As we approach the official start of spring at 10:46 AM, it's warming up. It's now 50 degrees. 

I've been looking forward to this spring--our first in Maryland. We'll have more time and opportunities to explore all that the area offers. 

Cleaning, Packing, Unpacking, and Still Time-tracking

That sums up my day.

Cleaning because I've neglected it lately and Jeff's sister is coming to visit. 

Packing because we are driving to North Carolina on Monday to visit Jeff's other sister.

Unpacking because I'm re-arranging a few things as I dust and wanted to put out a Thai Buddha on a living room table. 

Time-Tracking because I want to complete the week. I am tracking on a spreadsheet on my laptop. It would be easier to manually record the information, but much harder to review. On the pc, I can highlight different colors to get a better picture of how I spend my time. It's going pretty well. I had to backtrack for a few hours on  Monday, but otherwise, I'm doing a decent job keeping up. 

Happy Saint Patrick's and Half-Way Day

 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day! A friend recently said I was proud of being Irish. But, it's not so much that I feel proud, but that I feel part of a larger group. My father was more aware of his Irish roots than others; he and my sister even researched our family in Donegal. 

Dad always loved to sing. I can hear him singing, "If You're Irish (Come into the Parlour." It's a welcoming song with lyrics like, "whoever you are, you are one of us" and "this is the place for you." 

Two years ago, I wrote about my DNA results from Ancestry. My results indicated 50% Scottish and only 19% Irish. I felt adrift, as if what I thought I knew about myself wasn't true at all. 

But that wasn't the final analysis. Ancestry added additional records. 

The July 2024 update listed 25% Scottish and 24% Irish (followed by Germanic Europe, England and Northwestern Europe, Wales, Spain, and Iceland.)

When I logged into Ancestry over the weekend, the analysis didn't break out the Scottish from the Irish. 

Current results:

Celtic and Gaelic

31% Central Scotland and Northern Ireland

22% Donegal, Ireland

7% Southern Wales

4% Connacht, Ireland

England

20% Southeastern England & Northwestern Europe

15% North East England

Southeastern Europe 

1% Slovenia

So, Gaelic and Celtic it is with 64%. 

 

Today is also Jeff's and my half-way-day: we've been married 37.5 years. Happy anniversary Jeff.

Time-Tracking

Last weekend I was droopy and annoyed about the time change and the hour I lost. I thought it would be a good idea to track my time. But I forgot about it. 

This week, I remembered. I'm tracking my time in 15-minute increments. Today the condo scheduled a dryer vent cleaning, Jeff had physical therapy, and I went food shopping and did chores. That about sums it up.

All I can say so far is that tracking my time helps me realize how much time I am using for particular tasks. It helps me focus a little better.