Carol's random babble

I said a long, long time ago, that if cats had thumbs, they would rule the world. This theme has been expanded upon by Bertrum Thumbcat , whose ponderings and plots can be followed on Facebook . I have often accused our cat Booboo of trying to kill me, especially by tripping me, sometimes at the top of the basement stairs. Although this is simply proof that Booboo is not entirely there, or possibly not thinking things through, as I buy the cat food. So that is obviously not in his best interests. I may have proof, finally, of catty plotting. Yesterday I was trying to watch a video online. It was slow loading - watch a minute or two, then pause it to let it load. It took 3 1/2 hours to watch 36 minutes last night and I finally went to bed, leaving the screen up so the video could keep loading (which it did, just fine). But this morning, the image on the monitor was completely upside-down. The cursor worked completely backward, in line with the upside-down image. I was able to Go...

But not quite a grownup. Amanda's birthday was today. She and I went out to Fazoli's for a late lunch, stopped by my mom's and did a (very) little shopping for Amanda. She and I were both tired, so we went home. I took a nap before taking Cayla to church, but Amanda wouldn't go. We also stopped at Kent's before we went shopping. His dad had stopped by and took him out to eat, and gave him an older laptop he had that he didn't need any more. Unfortunately, he can't remember the password, so Kent won't be using it right away. And Kent said his dad told him to tell Amanda happy birthday from him. I did some research on the Carr family and Thomas Nicholson, the Gowrie town marshal who was shot to death on July 11, 1908, by Wilbur Carr. Wilbur's dad was Ira, the younger brother of Lydia Carr Caylor Burrell Baxter, my great-great-grandmother, which makes Wilbur my first cousin three times removed, I think. I think I discovered an error in the 1900...

Kent was called into jury selection today, so he needed a ride to town. His friend Chad needed to go grocery shopping, as well, so I combined those trips. Dropped Kent off just after 9 a.m., put gas in the car ($3.57/gal at Walmart, but 10 cents off/gallon because I used a Walmart gift card), took Chad to Fareway, did a little shopping and went out to the car to wait for Chad. While I was waiting for Chad, I wrote some research questions in a notebook about a relative who is a big black sheep in our family. Wilbur Carr, 23, shot the Gowrie, Iowa, town marshal to death in July 1908. Wilbur's father was Ira S. Carr Sr., and Ira's sister was Lydia Carr Caylor Burrell Baxter, my great-great-grandmother. Which makes Wilbur my first cousin three times removed, if I have figured it correctly. So, one of my questions is what is Wilbur's actual name? I think that in census records he's listed as Wilbur. But most of The Messenger articles about the crime and the aftermath ref...

First a video: Poor kitty. No nap for you! Now to our kitties. We have a bookcase (media tower?) that is about 2 feet wide and about 7 feet tall. I firmly believe that bookcases should be packed with books. The books should be stacked on top of each other, and I've been known to have two rows of books on one shelf, along with the stacked books on top of each row. However. I'm still not organized from when we moved in (September 2008), so many of my books are still in boxes. This bookcase/media tower has a few books, assorted stuff and software cases. But on the top shelf right now is a rock bookend and a cat. Chicken, to be precise - Amanda's cat. Chicken is taking a nap on the top shelf. She likes it up there. She can jump from the computer monitor (the desk is in front and slight to the left of the bookcase). Booboo can jump all the way to the top of the bookcase, and he likes to hang out there. Chicken likes the freestanding pantry we have, but she can't j...

Ancestry.com is allowing free searches of Sons of the American Revolution applications through July 4. This database contains applications for membership in the National Society of the Sons of the American Revolution approved between 1889 and 31 December 1970.  The applications are  arranged in packets. It may be helpful to scroll through the images to  find all information relating to the applicant. The DAR has a database that allows searches of patriots and descendants. I discovered that an ancestor of mine did serve in the Revolutionary War and several people have achieved membership in the DAR through one of his children. I am descended from another child, but it shouldn't be too difficult to prove.

I decided to stop drinking Dr Pepper after my last one Friday night. So, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, with headaches on and off. At church yesterday, I locked my keys (both sets) in the car, necessitating a call to ask my niece Jessica to take Cayla home to get her key. We went home after that. Our power went out just before midnight last night due to a bad storm and didn't come back on until 11:12 this morning (one minute after I made an 11:11 wish that the power would come back on). Booboo woke me up at 5 a.m. puking on the foot of my bed. I threw him on the floor and he immediately jumped back up to finish puking on the head of my bed. I woke up at 8 a.m. (had my alarm set for this purpose) and called the phone company to tell them I would bring the money in today that I was supposed to bring yesterday, and the customer service representative assured me that my service would continue today. Two hours later I woke up again and tried the phone, but it was disconn...

I often have what I call "weird dreams." Because they are. Some make me feel like I wasn't actually asleep, so I wake up nearly as tired as when I went to bed. Today's was a doozy. I can only remember a little bit, so I'll give the Cliff Notes version. It involved the crew of Serenity. Somehow there was a thieving team or mafia upset with them. It may have had something to do with a possible client of Inara's, or a similar situation to "The Train Job" when Mal returned what was stolen and angered Niska. At any rate, there was a scene (yeah, well, it seemed like a movie) where the bad guys were shooting and the crew decided to try to talk their way out of it. Mal told them the crew would come up and he started up a really long ladder. On the way, he picked up a pan that had been shot, so it had bullets in it. He dumped the bullets into a pan that already had lead, saying something about not wasting it. (My dad used to make bullets for his muzz...