Sudoku, Shuttle & Seventeenth Cousins . . .

This week has been consistently warm -- mostly in the 90s. We might complain if it were not for the a/c. We never had a/c growing up but we did have the heat (and humidity) in the Midwest. The weather is interesting and we have to wonder what the weather is like in the ISS -- International Space Station -- which is in the news very much this week because of the final space shuttle mission blasting off yesterday.

Above are some photos representing the final launch and other aspects of the thirty year mission. They come from a variety of sources mostly found on StumbleUpon and NASA. For many of us the space missions have dominated our adult lives -- for others they have been present for their entire lives. It will be interesting to see what is coming in the future. The talk is manned trips to Mars. It is like how we felt in the 50s and 60s about a man-on-the-moon -- hardly possible -- we'll see.

Back down-to-earth, talking about hobbies -- mine it is hard to guess, genealogy a little photography and some cooking while Gail has needle-pointing, Sudoku, some cooking and others. But this week we can show a combination of two of Gail's:

If you know Sudoku then you can see the patterns within this needle point that are consistent with solving Sudoku puzzles. Her daily puzzle workings (initiated via a gift several years ago) have been a constant source of enjoyment. She then chose to express that in needle work, the above is the result and is very attractive -- she may even decide to make it a keeper to join a few other framed works on our walls.

At the same time that she completed the above -- the doorbell rang with a "thank-you" floral arrangement for a recent needle point gift that she had given.

While all this was going on our Auggie the doggie took it all in while relaxing in a new-found position . . .

I guess when you are a twelve year old you have to find that comfortable place to rest a bit . . .

Cousin Connection

This week I have been communicating with several cousins about various branches of the tree. The cousin relationship can get confusing really fast in terms of just how are they related and how do we describe that relationship. First cousins are easy to describe -- they usually share the same grandparents. It gets fuzzy as the distance changes. And then there are the "shirt-tail" cousins that usually are a result of a marriage relationship. I won't even get into the "removed" aspect -- which really only refers to being in a different generation, either before or after  . . . so often it is just easier to refer to one's "Cousin" and let it go at that.

This week though I was notified that I had a cousin identified on Geni (our family has a big tree on that site) who was now following me . . .

 

If you click the photo you'll hopefully be able to read it -- but basically it says I am related to Linda and it shows me, my father, 34 other relatives and then ultimately Linda. Wow! She is identified as my 17th cousin twice removed (two generations different than me, so probably younger . . .)

I can't imagine the many relatives in between us so here are those people -- it is fascinating to follow the link:

So the bottom line is that for many of the readers of this blog -- you are related to Linda as well . . .

Recently Found Genealogy Website

I found this site just the other day and it is a completely free site -- it has many features including a great genealogy search engine. When you have a chance you might check it out:

And lastly while wandering around on my iPad on the site StumbleUpon I came across this interesting picture of the evolution of the Coca-Cola bottle -- I wish the bottle was in existence today -- it is rare to find Coke in anything but an aluminum can nowadays:

And so goes my week -- normally I would say that we are looking forward to Slider Saturday Night, but on this occasion I have to say that we are looking forward to Slider Sunday Night -- the Sliders have been moved one day to accommodate a birthday celebration for a young girl who will be in France on her birthday so the family here is celebrating tonight . . . we look forward to both!

See you all in a few . . .