Pumpkin pies and older news

We moved into our new place in MN almost two months ago but I haven't really felt the need (and/or had the time to) blog until today. The place is quite spacious if a bit quirky in the way it's laid out. We still have yet to put anything on the walls, books on shelves, or gotten a shelving unit for the kitchen (to get things like the microwave and mixer off the counter top). But nearly all the other things are in their places (or at least in the correct rooms).

Before moving, I'd packed up almost all our books and made a list of which books were put in what box, then stuck QR codes on each box. Over 200 lbs. of books were shipped via USPS parcel post - sturdy items that we knew we didn't need right away meant less stuff to put in a vehicle.

We'd also donated a fairly large pile of items that were taken from our curb (handier than having to haul it to a thrift store ourselves). We'd then taken another large load to Goodwill.

The move was made in two trips. First was a week early with a 10 foot uhaul with mostly furniture and a fair bit of stuff. We took the Amtrak train back and felt quite accomplished, estimating that we'd taken care of half the stuff.

The second was a week later. There were trickier dynamics this time, including my parents who came to help, a rental truck mix-up which resulted in us getting a bigger truck than requested, and someone needing to go a day early to make sure our electricity got turned on before the long Labor Day weekend (otherwise, no hot water). And we packed and loaded, packed and loaded some more ... and kept packing and loading.

Turns out we wouldn't have made the rest of the move without the suburban and 21 foot truck - both completely full. This unexpectedly massive amount of stuff still has us mystified; it simply doesn't add up with what we moved into the house with, what we accumulated, and what we got rid of. On top of that, the air conditioner hadn't been able to keep up most of the summer and there was all the cleaning still to do. Colin left a day earlier while I and my parents wrapped up the loading and did the cleaning.

We got all moved in and managed to take a few hours to go to the Minnesota Arboretum not too far from here. My mom thoroughly enjoyed taking pictures in the flower gardens while the other three (Dad, me, and Colin) took a longer meandering hike through the larger parts of the arboretum. Colin and I have made it a point to try to return at least once a week for lunch and a short hike.

Since we've moved in, we've kept busy. I've been working on the genealogy program amidst all the usual daily things, such as taking walks, playing with the neighbor's dog, trying new recipes, and reading. I had a week of being sick with a cold and a bad headache. We've also gotten library cards, new health insurance, new license plates, and new driver's licenses.

And our frequent travels haven't stopped; the first weekend here was spent moving in, then the weekend after that we went to a wedding in southern Michigan (childhood friend of mine). It was like a family and high school reunion combined (his family and mine are very close), but quite fun.

The next weekend was the annual Alworth family reunion. We kind of skipped out on the reunion part, but did go to Duluth and see Nana then spent a night at the cabin. Then we finally had a few weekends closer to home, including day trips to Renaissance Festival, an apple orchard, and visiting my cousin who lives downtown Minneapolis. We even managed some lazy weekends around the house.

And on to newer news ...

Last weekend was our five-year reunion at K. We drove there (carpooling with Colin's parents from partway) on Friday and drove back on Monday. It was great to see so many friends and family members. Rachel did some Cirque du K performing on the quad, using the silks and making us all gasp when she (purposely) flopped from standing up straight to upside down.

A week and a half ago I was completely fed up with my hair. It was so long, heavy, and no matter how much I brushed it, it was always tangled. So I measured it many times, trying to figure out how much to cut. Finally, I decided to cut enough for donating - who cares how much or little is left? So that's what I did. Then I had to go in to Great Clips the next morning because I can't see the back of my head. It's an angled bob that I love with two cons: my neck gets cold and no one can see my hearing aids anymore (their visibility can be helpful when meeting new people).

Our internet is working again! It quit Wednesday afternoon and despite repeatedly calling the cable company and checking wires and connections, we couldn't figure out why it quit on us or how to start it up. Even went to rent a modem from the company to rule that cause out. It wasn't until someone came out - and realized someone else (from the company) had disconnected the wires at the top of a pole yesterday ... because our neighbor had canceled his cable a month ago. It was just under 24 hours without internet at home.

The first snow was spotted yesterday morning! It's not cold enough for it to stick though. The precipitation continued throughout the day, alternately snowing and raining. I finally found where I'd packed most of my wool socks yesterday.

I just made my first pies yesterday! They are little bitty pumpkin ones that I made in a muffin tin. I used canned pumpkin and pre-made refrigerated pie dough but I definitely will be making more pies, closer and closer to "from scratch." They make the house smell amazing. I am including a conclusion photo of them below from when they were fresh out of the oven (the tops sank a little after that). Recipe was clobbered together from the pumpkin puree can recipe and http://www.makeandtakes.com/muffin-tin-pumpkin-pies

72 years later

Back in January, I remember being startled to see that I hadn't written in my blog since early last November. November and December had been such crazy months that I guess it simply escaped me. So I started to dread writing another post, having to recognize that I'd lapsed yet again. Then we entered the more absurdly longer period of time since the last post. And here it is, in April, and it has pretty much come out the other end and the time since the last post seems so ridiculously long that it doesn't matter anymore. At least, not to me.

There was also the whole "What the heck do I write about?" Because I would occasionally think "Ooo, I want to share this on my blog!" but then remember that there was so much catching up that for some reason I felt like I should do and I'd feel overwhelmed/guilty/embarrassed/etc. So some more time would pass.

So why today, you might ask? Um, why not? True, I've been reading more blog posts at random places which helps get me into a blogging mode/mood, whether I read them with that purpose or not. Admittedly, I have a topic on my mind that I just couldn't let previous reasons to not post stop me from writing this.

I thought I'd let you know about something that I'm quite excited about: the 1940 US Census. So far, however, it's been mostly testing my patience. The Census became available this Monday - for everyone to view for free! With an official government website and everything! Probably because I do genealogical research on a regular basis, for months I have been spotting ads and announcements stating things like "X days before release!"

So, needless to say, I went to the website on Monday. It took me some time to get my bearings on how things were set up and how to get to what I wanted. I was impressed with some bits, notably the ability to find the records of the same physical area by inserting the 1930 ED number. Yet when it came to viewing the actual pages, the only thing I can think of that would be worse is to not have them available (after all those teasing, promising ads).

It is quite possible that they will have the problem fixed by this weekend. It is quite possible that there really are way, way more people than ever anticipated trying to use the site. But I don't see these as acceptable excuses. When you tell people "It's coming out! It's coming out!" and then don't prepare properly for the masses, those masses are going to be frustrated. Access to the 1940 US Census is not like buying the latest iPhones.

Now, I could just wait. I mean, genealogy is a hobby requiring patience and time, after all. My agony might just be the tantalizing, teasing taunt of "It's heeeere," and still not being able to utilize it. But I'm used to my resourcefulness helping me find alternative ways to figure things out and find what I want. There simply isn't anything else I can do to get at the information I'm looking for.

From the news I've read, it sounded like they weren't expecting anywhere near the number of visitors that showed up on Monday. "In a tweet posted after 5 p.m. Monday on its Twitter account, the archives said the website had gotten 37 million hits since the information was released at 9 a.m." 37 million might seem like a lot, but it's just under 12% of the current US population. Is it really that unimaginable? I could be overly optimistic about how many people are interested in their family's past, but I have to wonder if Ancestry.com doesn't realize that those who don't have active subscriptions with them would possibly want to leap into the Census on the first day of its release.

To give you some idea what it's like if you haven't tried it yourself:
There is a drop-down menu for downloading all the pages for one census at the same time, but it doesn't work. Yesterday, I actually found it faster to download each page and scroll down the page before going back and downloading the next page. Today, the downloading is quite a bit slower. The inset viewing option is very slow and the window is very limited (probably more my computer's tiny screen's fault). I have to click 23 times, waiting an average of 2 seconds between clicks, before I am done scrolling down the page and checking all the last names.

I have started playing a kind of "game" - I found while the page is still loading, the clicks to get down the page are faster than they are after the page is done loading. So I'll try to go through as much of the page while still catching the names before the page is done loading. Still, it's slow-going, especially since I take numerous breaks and I went through a whole ED before checking my records to find it's the wrong one (always double check what it says on the actual image whenever possible, don't just go by what the transcription says). So no finds yet, unless you count when I found someone named Moriarty who was a 48 year-old maid.