February Finds, Follow-up & FOOTBALL

Another sensational week has flown by -- I would have loved posting this from Roots-Tech, but maybe "next year" . . . a block and a half from our home is the "Rec Park" where we have attended many sporting events and graduation ceremonies. For the last couple of years the park has been worked on and renovated so that it is once more a beautiful complex. Even some of our own tree members worked on the renovation efforts. A recent walk (with Dino) allowed the opportunity to shoot a picture of the new logo signage:

 And in case you had not heard I've included a notice of the Super Bowl game scheduled to be played tomorrow. Our attendance will not be "in-person" for the game, but the guacamole and chips are being planned along with a generous dose of "dem ribs" to follow . . . it is amazing the amount of activity and purchases being made in preparation for this game -- not necessarily by us but by a huge amount of folks.

We'll root and cheer for the team that plays the best and deserves the win -- of course if the Niners had made it in then we would have rooted for them no-matter. I do believe that I have watched most of the previous 45 Super Bowls -- but I could not tell you who won two years ago -- I do remember the Packers winning last year but soon that will drift away as well. We will time shift the game a little but for the most part it is one game that we LIKE to watch the commercials. We have already seen some sneak previews and they look like fun to watch -- the $3.5million cost per 30 seconds is going to have to generate a lot of sales.


Other Events of the Week --


Believe it or not there are a lot of things going on right now even more than the Republican primaries and caucuses e.g. on Wednesday it was Ground Hog Day -- who could over look that these days. We loved the movie . . .

It looks like an inauguration or something with all the "top hats", but it was just Phil being Phil for the day.
It seems that we will have six more weeks of "winter" and that is a good thing. Colorado may not agree at the moment but it seems that we have had unusually pleasant winter days in most areas so-far.

So what else is going on in February? There are a lot of February birthdays from our tree -- some 150 of them -- but who from the tree was born this very day? From the reports section of www.danhiles.com
I can offer the following details:

I've posted the individuals born this day -- Happy Birthday to all of them. I have also included a birthday for someone NOT from the tree but connected in a way to several folks from the tree. It was a pleasant surprise to see the newspaper account of a birthday for someone that I grew up hearing on the radio stations that my Mother listened to most of the time AND in person at the church that we attended. George Beverly Shea had the deepest voice that you could imagine and sang regularly at our church and has numerous albums out. There was also a weekly radio show -- called -- "Songs in the Night" broadcast from our church in Western Springs, Illinois that GBS also attended.

It is amazing to me that someone who my folks respected and enjoyed so much and I remember from my early childhood is still with us, hopefully still singing "bass".


Whassup?


I could not resist the question -- Gail and I just saw a replay of the Super Bowl commercial that made that form of greeting so popular. And to answer that question one way is "Who Do You Think You Are?" has
returned for it's third season -- last night.  Since we "time-shift" almost all our TV viewing, we have not watched the first episode yet -- but will do so when we want to . . . last night's episode was all about Martin Sheen -- so that will be interesting I am sure.

You can see all the personalities that will be featured this season. There are a couple that I am particularly interested in . . . but no matter who is being featured I still enjoy the presentation. Last season there was someone featured (I won't mention who) that I normally would change channels immediately if they appeared, but found their story fascinating anyway.

I just wish they would open up a show where "regular" people got featured and their family history researched and displayed on TV -- now that would be a great addition. Take a peek at the show.


Dino's Week --


It is a HUGE amount of time spent with a dog, but so far it has been sooo rewarding in many ways. One way for certain is that no matter where we go with Dino, we meet people -- people that probably would never consider engaging in conversation with us and people who normally would "keep to themselves" now speak right up and talk to us and to Dino. It is truly amazing. A 15 minute trip to the grocery store turns into 45 minutes and so forth. Dogs are magical (puppies especially) when it comes to opening up folks. Try it.

In the above collage you can see Dino (along with Gail) in his weekly training session. And Dino doing one of his daily walks while "in service" this one to deliver important reading material to nearby family. And lastly Dino casually looking through the french windows at our "visiting" cat that comes by frequently. This day they both just sat opposite sides of the glass observing one another -- neither making a fuss, just calmly sitting there. Dino does all this at just four months and two weeks of age . . .


Senses -- Census


So what is the big-deal anyway. In 58 days the long awaited 1940 census will be released to the public. I am really looking forward to that happening. For a ton of reasons -- but one reason is that some key members of my tree will show up in that census -- namely two of my siblings, the much older ones of course  plus sooo many of family that I know and knew will be listed (hopefully). And that is why I always fill out census reports because of the future researchers that will be looking forward to the release of those wonderful documents.

Click on the above and you can see the numbers for yourself -- the 1940 census is rich with numbers of folks reported -- the most of any U.S. Federal census to date. And the information gleaned from these reports will be phenomenal. It is truly a shame that the 1890 census did not survive a fire and we lost so much  potentially illuminating material for families.

I will be utilizing Ancestry.com for the most part when the census is released -- it will of course take time to "index" the 132 million plus individuals listed. There will be numerous sites that will offer varying amounts of indexed material and I suspect I'll visit most of them. I think it is wonderful when someone makes it to see their own name in the census -- many are not that lucky -- some may make it but not be aware of it . . .

Breaking News --


While writing this post I received some great news -- the details of which will come at another time. But in the meantime I offer this clue:

And it is not even Valentine's Day yet . . .


So it is Saturday Night and if you have been reading this blog for awhile you know that we broke with tradition last week by having Stir-Fry Saturday Night. This week we break again to have Spaghetti Saturday Night along with garlic bread and a small salad -- will the wonders not cease.

That was a peek at our week, see you all in a few!