Go Away, Greitens.

Junk mail from Missouri First Action, top clipped to remove my address.

The "establishment thugs in the D.C. swamp" attack former Missouri Governor Eric Greitens for his "America First" values? Ew. Let's see... he cheated on his wife, left office in shame and even got indicted by a grand jury. If you're feeling brave, google "50 Shades of Greitens" sometime and see what this guy got up to. Ages ago I thought he was just not conservative enough... no... now I know it's way more than that.

The Robinson Family Photos

My great-grandmother Ruth Ida Robinson (1889-1970) is tending a cow on her farm in Weedsport, Cayuga County, New York. Here are a few pictures from her photo album.

Here's her son! I knew him as Granddaddy, but his name was Ross Robinson Monroe.  He was born in Cayuga County but grew up in Toronto, Canada. 

This is Ruth's brother/ Granddaddy's uncle, George Gates Robinson. During this time, it was almost mandatory to give the oldest son the mother's maiden name as a middle name.

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What a fun bunch of people! I would not have ever thought any Robinsons to have been informal, having met some of the older folks myself, but the album had a few surprises...

A picnic!

 

When going out on the town, hats and gloves are a must!

Granddaddy with his aunt Jo and dog, Sport.

Granddaddy again in the same outfit riding a horse.  He may actually be quite young in the photos because he was just under 6ft 5 as an adult.

Only in Kansas

 

Dear Family Genealogists, 

As you know, the only way to do things properly is to do them yourself.  What makes the state of Kansas unique is that it allows you to order your own death certificate a bit early.  This way, you can walk to the courthouse yourself and file probate and save your oldest boy the trouble.

This is SERIOUSLY NOT A SNARK POST.  This is REALLY a real and true copy of part of the application for a copy of a Kansas death certificate. It is absolutely unaltered except for the oval I put around "self". What I will clarify, however, is that if the dates you put down on your application don't exactly match what the state has on file, the bureaucrats get to pocket the money and give you a slip of paper that says "no record" and laugh at you.

I sort of like the idea walking into probate court early and cashing out toward the end of things though. 

True Story: My Mother, the Ex-KGB Agent

Unrelated photo of a "car phone" at the gas station about a mile from my house.

My mother's cover has been blown and my parents have since moved, so the story can be told now...

Al had a new Cadillac. Every now and then, he'd hobble into his garage to find the trunk of his car had been popped open and the interior lights on. Sometimes the garage door would be wide open! This occurred regularly, and he knew why.

What would happen was that my mom would use her KGB spy brainwaves to do this, rather like a remote control. This is just what Russian operatives do. I think it is their primary mission, actually.  Popping elderly Americans' trunks open, as well as leaving interior lights on and garage doors open, are huge priorities under the Putin administration. Every Russian espionage specialist knows that it leaves the victims vulnerable to theft and/or dead car batteries. 

I'm not sure how Al acquired this special knowledge, but he saw right through this whole scheme and what's more, he had had enough! He courageously shuffled over to my parents' house, armed with his broom. Al shouted several statements about how he knew what was going on, and shattered a brand new window.

Admitting that my mother was a spy at this point would be the rational course of action. But my parents called the police! Al made a daring but feeble grab for an officer's weapon, vowing to "take care" of my mom and her spying ways. But the police were younger, way faster, and in on the whole spy ring themselves.  They even turned Al's family against him! His adult son showed up and arrangements were made to take the old fella away for an involuntary evaluation. This nefarious way of dealing with people who see truths others don't is called "The Baker Act" in Florida.

Years later, Al died and all of his estate went up for auction. There, amongst the bric-a-brac of his life up for sale, was his broom.

Kittinger Buffalo Spanish Renaissance Table Makeover!

Isn't it gorgeous?? It's even better than the picture.  So soft, so pretty... and there are nuances in the stain and the woodgrain you don't see here.  It's a good sturdy size too.

A detail to show you how intricate it is.

But when I got it?  I paid $20 and felt I might be overspending a bit, but I was inspired by this YouTube channel to go ahead and give refinishing a go.  Someone decided they were going to make this their arts and crafts project and went absolutely nuts with the paint.  That's not brown stain... that's PAINT.  And it's painted over with garish red and silver and...

Some crazy Christmas pointsettia design.  Nope, nope nope nope.  

I used Citristrip and some Saran wrap.  After it settled in a bit, I'd wipe off the paint with cloth I never would use again, wipe again with mineral spirits, use a bit of 0000 steel wool and some more Citristrip... repeat repeat repeat.

Lots of work and bunches of sanding later, the walnut table looks like this.

The final thing to do before wiping the table down and applying an "espresso" stain is to get tiny bits of sanding paper and a seam ripper and really get in those grooves to remove junk and clean the table up.  I'm very happy with the result, although it was a LOT more work than I thought it would be.  If you want a pretty much identical table of your own, they're actually for sale here with the original stain.

 

Bathroom Freshen-Up

I worked on my bathroom and freshened it up.  This is the "before" picture featuring the mirror with that globby water stain in the corner.  Old 1980s wooden towel rack.  Plastic toilet paper dispenser.  Chipped off-cream cabinet that has yellowed a bit....

 

Soooo much sanding.to get the old paint off and rough up the cabinets.  Soooo much sanding.  Many days of work wearing a respirator, sweeping, more sweeping and then just taking a bath in the bathroom.  No one could really use the bathroom for about four weeks because I couldn't possibly get it all done in a weekend.

After:  Here's a view looking toward the door.  The walls are no longer beige and I hung about a million of those Dutch Royal Copenhagen plates old ladies like to collect in the bathroom because... I like them.

The mirror doesn't look so crummy now!  This is sticky tile from Amazon.  It's sort of like a textured Contact paper, but much more sticky and much better for this project.

I used cabinet paint and added new knobs!  I also cleaned the floor after I took the picture... oops.  Sometimes you get so involved in a project and there are so many steps you miss little things.  It's all finished now and I'm enjoying the results very much - it's a much more updated look.

National Roller Dance Competition!

Woodjie went to nationals in Cedar Rapids this year. If you're interested in seeing some of the outfits and various events in the competition, you'll see Woodjie roll into the camera view at about the 4 hour 51 minute mark at this link.  The USARS event went on for several days.  Many skaters were actually well above 55 and some in their 70s and 80s, all sparkly and still dancing.