Wow, 4 years!!! I'm hardly ever that consistent with anything!! Must be all these nice people I've met over the years now while blogging - both other bloggers and newly discovered cousins!
And so, on to what I most enjoy about my blogiversary - let's take a look at some of the oddest search terms from the past year that somehow sent people to my blog:
1. Nose
Ok, I admit, I've talked about my nose in the past...but who just types in "nose" for a search?
2. skin falling off
Ok, again, I admit, I had an episode a couple years ago where I described a skin peel that, hmm, how shall I say....it didn't go well. Maybe I exaggerated a bit when describing it. Whoever you are, I sympathize.
3. undressed yoga
Now this one I am NOT taking credit for. I have never discussed this (although now I have I guess) - plus....um...EW! The only way this should be searched for is "solitary no one else watching ever in locked house undressed yoga".
4. absalom caterpillar tattoo
Got me. I have no idea.
5. cat math physics
If this is true, the human race is doomed.
6. eating lamprey
Dude, don't do it!!! Especially not a surfeit of them...at least that's what Englands Henry I would say...
7. i fell outside
I'm sorry about that. I fall inside all the time. I have a problem with stairs. Safe stair navigation has eluded me both during my childhood and adult life. :-)
8. is urban dictionary accurate?
Yes. Glad I could help.
Finally, a big THANK YOU to every one who stops by! :-)
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Sunday, March 25, 2012
A Tale of Two Rivers - Part I: The Thames
So a long while back in 2010 I had a posting of cool things I'd been lucky enough to do in my life (Already in the Bucket). I thought often of that posting in the last few weeks of traveling that I had to do for work.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend 2 meetings in Europe for work - one in London at the beginning of March, and one in Basel, Switzerland last week.
First off, before you think I'm cool or anything, I have to admit that traveling like that - spending a couple days overseas, flying home, having our stupid early time change here in the US, then flying out to Switzerland, staying for a couple days and coming home.......HOLY COW it did me in. Last Wednesday coming home from the airport, I just about made it home I was so freaking tired. How do people travel all the time? Am I just a huge wimp? Wow. I might have shaved a few years off my lifespan these past few weeks. But don't worry, I have a trip to Jamaica later this year where I'll add them back on. :-)
Anywho!
So while in London for the London meeting, I was able to spend a
few hours sightseeing and was truly fortunate to be staying in a hotel right across the Thames from Big Ben. And when I say, right across, I mean, RIGHT ACROSS. Here's the view from my hotel's front door.
So I got to walk across the bridge and over the Thames river like Jessie and LeStat at the end of the Queen of the Damned movie (yes, sorry, I do enjoy that horrible horrible movie and how could I not think of it while crossing that bridge) and marched myself right over to Westminster Abbey with the Kidneythieves song from the movie ending playing in my head.
I'd been to Westminster Abbey once before while actually on vacation and had really enjoyed it, so I thought it would be wonderfully decadent not only to go again, but to listen to every single word of the tour and really just wallow in it. And I did! I spent a good 2 1/2 hours there just really soaking in it in, reading every plaque and listening to every option on the walking audio tour. They don't allow pictures inside, but I took many in the cloisters and outside areas.
One funny note, at least it was funny to me, is
that they had Jeremy Irons doing the spoken audio tour. Now, I really like Jeremy Irons as an actor, but the last thing I'd seen him in is the Borgias series where he plays the not-so-holy Borgia Pope.
So hearing him speak so nicely about the Abbey and inviting me to stay for a service if I liked felt kind of ironic, but in a fun way. :-)
The sheer volume of famous people buried at Westminster is a bit hard to grasp. And when I say "famous", it's not just plain old famous, but more like legendary, at least to a student of English history like I am.
Below are a few of the pics I took where I was allowed to take pictures. I actually bought a big fat hard-back coffee table book as a treat to myself that has all the inside pictures (but much better of course) that I would have taken.
I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the National Portrait Gallery where I spent time mainly in the wing for 12th-15th centuries, and a visit over to the Temple Church (famously shown in the Da Vinci Code movie).
At the National Portrait gallery I bought my second huge coffee table book to lug back to the states - a big old book on ossuaries (places where the bones of the dead are stored). I can't help it, I just love really old churches/cathedrals and cemeteries/crypts!!!
And yes, I realize I could have gotten both these books on amazon or wherever, but it's much better to look at my bookcase and say, there's the book I lugged back from London, and over there's the book I bought while traveling through in the Trossachs and then of course there was that one time I was sailing past Majorca (just kidding on that last one... who gets the reference?)
So anyway, here are a few pics of the Temple Church and Trafalgar Square outside the National Portrait Gallery.
I'm so glad I had a few hours to walk around London on this trip!!! I feel very fortunate.
In Part 2, I'll talk about the trip to Switzerland!
I was fortunate enough to be asked to attend 2 meetings in Europe for work - one in London at the beginning of March, and one in Basel, Switzerland last week.
First off, before you think I'm cool or anything, I have to admit that traveling like that - spending a couple days overseas, flying home, having our stupid early time change here in the US, then flying out to Switzerland, staying for a couple days and coming home.......HOLY COW it did me in. Last Wednesday coming home from the airport, I just about made it home I was so freaking tired. How do people travel all the time? Am I just a huge wimp? Wow. I might have shaved a few years off my lifespan these past few weeks. But don't worry, I have a trip to Jamaica later this year where I'll add them back on. :-)
Anywho!
So while in London for the London meeting, I was able to spend a
few hours sightseeing and was truly fortunate to be staying in a hotel right across the Thames from Big Ben. And when I say, right across, I mean, RIGHT ACROSS. Here's the view from my hotel's front door. 
So I got to walk across the bridge and over the Thames river like Jessie and LeStat at the end of the Queen of the Damned movie (yes, sorry, I do enjoy that horrible horrible movie and how could I not think of it while crossing that bridge) and marched myself right over to Westminster Abbey with the Kidneythieves song from the movie ending playing in my head.I'd been to Westminster Abbey once before while actually on vacation and had really enjoyed it, so I thought it would be wonderfully decadent not only to go again, but to listen to every single word of the tour and really just wallow in it. And I did! I spent a good 2 1/2 hours there just really soaking in it in, reading every plaque and listening to every option on the walking audio tour. They don't allow pictures inside, but I took many in the cloisters and outside areas.
One funny note, at least it was funny to me, is
that they had Jeremy Irons doing the spoken audio tour. Now, I really like Jeremy Irons as an actor, but the last thing I'd seen him in is the Borgias series where he plays the not-so-holy Borgia Pope.So hearing him speak so nicely about the Abbey and inviting me to stay for a service if I liked felt kind of ironic, but in a fun way. :-)
The sheer volume of famous people buried at Westminster is a bit hard to grasp. And when I say "famous", it's not just plain old famous, but more like legendary, at least to a student of English history like I am.
Below are a few of the pics I took where I was allowed to take pictures. I actually bought a big fat hard-back coffee table book as a treat to myself that has all the inside pictures (but much better of course) that I would have taken.
I also managed to squeeze in a visit to the National Portrait Gallery where I spent time mainly in the wing for 12th-15th centuries, and a visit over to the Temple Church (famously shown in the Da Vinci Code movie).
At the National Portrait gallery I bought my second huge coffee table book to lug back to the states - a big old book on ossuaries (places where the bones of the dead are stored). I can't help it, I just love really old churches/cathedrals and cemeteries/crypts!!!
And yes, I realize I could have gotten both these books on amazon or wherever, but it's much better to look at my bookcase and say, there's the book I lugged back from London, and over there's the book I bought while traveling through in the Trossachs and then of course there was that one time I was sailing past Majorca (just kidding on that last one... who gets the reference?)
So anyway, here are a few pics of the Temple Church and Trafalgar Square outside the National Portrait Gallery.
I'm so glad I had a few hours to walk around London on this trip!!! I feel very fortunate.
In Part 2, I'll talk about the trip to Switzerland!
Saturday, March 10, 2012
The Will of Kinsey Harrison
Kinsey HARRISON, born in Maryland in 1758, is my paternal 4th great-grandfather. He served in the Revolutionary War as a Private in the Maryland Line from 1776 to 1779 in Thomas Beall's Company, in Moses Rawlings' Regiment. It is his information that I submitted to DAR in my application for membership.
While I was researching him, I requested the microfilm that contained his will to be sent to my local Family History Center library. I was able to get my own scan of the will there at the library.
Below is a transcript of the will, found in the Anne Arundel County, Maryland Will Book 40, page 224. I've added some paragraphs of my own, just to make it more readable. The original is just one big long paragraph. I left spelling variations intact.
I think probably the coolest thing is to now have a visual of Kinsey's mark:
Will of Kinsey HARRISON:
In the name of God Amen, I Kinsey Harrison of Anne Arundel County in the State of Maryland being weak in boddy but of sound and dispossing mind memory and understanding considering the certainty of death and uncertainty of the time thereof and being desireous to settle my worldly affairs and thereby be the better prepared to leave this world when it shall please God to call me hence do therefore make and publish this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following that is to say,
First and principally I commit my soul into the hands of Almighty God and my boddy to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executrix hereinafter named and after my debts and funeral Expences are paid I devise and bequeath as follows,
Item I give and bequeath all personal Estate to my beloved Wife Sarah Harrison.
Item I give and devise all my real Estate to my beloved wife whereon I now reside containing twenty three acres of land more or less.
Item I give and bequeath to my son Grove Harrison one dollar.
Item I give and bequeath to my son Kinsey Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my son Wesley Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my son Nimrod Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Polly Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Cordelia Clarey one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Amelia Shunk one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Matilda Ritchie one dollar, all of the aforesaid bequests to be paid by my Executrix out of my personal Estate.
And Lastly I do hereby Constitute and appoint my dear wife Sarah Harrison to be my Sole Executrix of this my last Will and testament revoking all others by me made heretofore ratifying and confirming this and none other to be my last Will and testament. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this Twenty first day of February in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and thirty three.
his mark
Signed Sealed published and declared by
Kinsey Harrison the before named Testator
as and for his last Will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as Witnesses thereto
George W. Wolfe
Warfield Todd
Henry Bussard
Anne Arundel County ??? The 18th day of July 1835. Then came George W. Wolfe and Henry Bussard two of the subscribing witnesses to the foregoing last Will and Testament of Kinsey Harrison late of Anne Arundel County, deceased, and made Oath on the Holy Evangely of Almighty God that they did see the Testator therein named sign and seal this Will and that they heard him publish, pronounce and declare the same to be his last Will and testament, that at the time of his so doing he was to the best of their apprehensions of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding and that they together with Warfield Todd the other subscribing Witness respectively subscribed their names as Witnesses to this Will in the presence and at the request of the testator and all in the presence of each other.
Saml. Brown Jun. Reg. Wills, A. A. County
Anne Arundel County Sc??
The 18th day of July 1835
Then came Sarah Harrison and made Oath in the Holy Evangely of Almighty God, that the aforegoing Instrument of writing is the true, whole and last Will and Testament of Kinsey Harrison late of Anne Arundel County, deceased, that hath come to her hands and possession and that she doth not know of any other.
Saml. Brown Jun. Reg. Wills, A. A. County
While I was researching him, I requested the microfilm that contained his will to be sent to my local Family History Center library. I was able to get my own scan of the will there at the library.
Below is a transcript of the will, found in the Anne Arundel County, Maryland Will Book 40, page 224. I've added some paragraphs of my own, just to make it more readable. The original is just one big long paragraph. I left spelling variations intact.
I think probably the coolest thing is to now have a visual of Kinsey's mark:
Will of Kinsey HARRISON:
In the name of God Amen, I Kinsey Harrison of Anne Arundel County in the State of Maryland being weak in boddy but of sound and dispossing mind memory and understanding considering the certainty of death and uncertainty of the time thereof and being desireous to settle my worldly affairs and thereby be the better prepared to leave this world when it shall please God to call me hence do therefore make and publish this my last Will and Testament in manner and form following that is to say,
First and principally I commit my soul into the hands of Almighty God and my boddy to the Earth to be decently buried at the discretion of my Executrix hereinafter named and after my debts and funeral Expences are paid I devise and bequeath as follows,
Item I give and bequeath all personal Estate to my beloved Wife Sarah Harrison.
Item I give and devise all my real Estate to my beloved wife whereon I now reside containing twenty three acres of land more or less.
Item I give and bequeath to my son Grove Harrison one dollar.
Item I give and bequeath to my son Kinsey Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my son Wesley Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my son Nimrod Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Polly Harrison one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Cordelia Clarey one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Amelia Shunk one dollar.
It. I give and bequeath to my daughter Matilda Ritchie one dollar, all of the aforesaid bequests to be paid by my Executrix out of my personal Estate.
And Lastly I do hereby Constitute and appoint my dear wife Sarah Harrison to be my Sole Executrix of this my last Will and testament revoking all others by me made heretofore ratifying and confirming this and none other to be my last Will and testament. In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and affixed my seal this Twenty first day of February in the year of our Lord Eighteen hundred and thirty three.
his mark
Signed Sealed published and declared by
Kinsey Harrison the before named Testator
as and for his last Will and testament in the presence of us who at his request in his presence and in the presence of each other have subscribed our names as Witnesses thereto
George W. Wolfe
Warfield Todd
Henry Bussard
Anne Arundel County ??? The 18th day of July 1835. Then came George W. Wolfe and Henry Bussard two of the subscribing witnesses to the foregoing last Will and Testament of Kinsey Harrison late of Anne Arundel County, deceased, and made Oath on the Holy Evangely of Almighty God that they did see the Testator therein named sign and seal this Will and that they heard him publish, pronounce and declare the same to be his last Will and testament, that at the time of his so doing he was to the best of their apprehensions of sound and disposing mind, memory and understanding and that they together with Warfield Todd the other subscribing Witness respectively subscribed their names as Witnesses to this Will in the presence and at the request of the testator and all in the presence of each other.
Saml. Brown Jun. Reg. Wills, A. A. County
Anne Arundel County Sc??
The 18th day of July 1835
Then came Sarah Harrison and made Oath in the Holy Evangely of Almighty God, that the aforegoing Instrument of writing is the true, whole and last Will and Testament of Kinsey Harrison late of Anne Arundel County, deceased, that hath come to her hands and possession and that she doth not know of any other.
Saml. Brown Jun. Reg. Wills, A. A. County
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