Historic Maps or what looks like maps but could be something different

Amérique campagne.

CREATED/PUBLISHED

1782.

Camp a Huntz Tavern
These maps were drawn and used during the American Revolution.
They are quite detailed. Especially if you consider that they were drawn before GPS and GIS.
Is it me or does this map look sorta like internal organs?


Camp a Bullion's Tavern
"They come from the book The American Revolution and Its Era: Maps and Charts of North America and the West Indies, 1750-1789 represents an important historical record of the mapping of North America and the Caribbean." This is the quote from the website which is really the quote from the cataloger. Catalogers by nature don't seem to be a really creative bunch. I probably would have described this in a wholly and most likely inappropriate way.



Camp a Philadelphie [sic]
This book consists of about 2000 manuscript (manu = hand, script = written) maps from some of the most famous map makers of the time.
Notice that the map maker tells us which way the river flows. Every important info there. I imagine that it is easier to float your boat down river than up.



Peyton's Tavern

Yes, it does seem like they spent a lot of time at the tavern. I understand totally. The thing is that the tavern was more than a place to buy and drink liquor. Sure, they did that but taverns served as the hotel/diner/polling place/social networking place. Let's call them the Facebook of the 18th century.
Okay, more internal organs map.



Camp a Baltimore

Julie; my map librarian extraordinaire, what does Rade mean in historical map speak?

Want to see more? Want to see them in more detail? Want to zoom in and actually see the detail? Well, you'll need to head on over to the Library of Congress website because the big jerks turned off the right click feature. Making it harder for me to pilfer through their collection.
Check out The American Revolution and Its Era at the American Memory Project.

Have a great weekend everyone!
Love,
M

I'm Probably Going to Regret This

I may jinks it.
I probably shouldn't be putting this in print.
Oh, I'm so nervous.
I'm just going to go for it and let the chips fall where they may.
No, No I'm not going to put it in print.
Oh, who am I kidding.
I'm going for it because I'm a risk taker.

To the guys out there; you may want to look away for just a minute because things are about to get personal. Personal as in; womanly private. Personal as in; ooh I can't believe she said that. Personal as in; gawd, that was gross kind of way.

In less than one month I will be celebrating 2 very important events in a woman's life. One is my 27th wedding anniversary. Yes, JR has put up with me for 27 years. What can I say; the man has stamina. Or he's slow. Or he's lazy. Or he loves me. Whatever it is he has been through the ringer with the second event.

The other momentous event is that I will be technically and officially done with menopause. that's right ladies. Done. Kaput. Never more.

According to WebMD; Menopause is the point when it's been a year since a woman has her last menstrual period. At this stage, the ovaries have stopped releasing eggs and producing most of their estrogen. My eggs have stopped releasing. My ovaries have stopped producing estrogen. I have gone a full year without a visit from Aunt Flo. I have not waken up in the middle of the night with a messy disaster on my hands, so to speak. Because....gross. I have not been caught unawares by my period showing up without warning. No more bloating, no more period panties, and no more ban of wearing white during "that time".

I took a bold step the other day. I actually cleaned out my bathroom of all feminine hygiene products. I know, I'm tempting fate. I'm tempting the gods of period paraphernalia to strike me down. I'm trembling in fear.

I will now be post menopausal. Believe it or not I am soooo excited about this. Why? Because it means less and less hot flashes, night sweats and insomnia. And crazy, I should be less crazy. Gawd, I want to be less crazy. I want to stop crying over commercials. I want to stop the angst. I want a decent nights sleep. I could do without the slowed metabolism but, hey, we all have our crosses to bear.

With my luck, now that I've voiced my jubilee at these events and cleaned out the house and my office of all paraphernalia something will go wrong. Oh, I don't think JR will leave me. Seriously, he really likes me. It's the other thing that might go wrong. So everyone keep your fingers crossed (figuratively of course) for the next month.

Now, we'll return to our normal inane banter.

Love,
M

St. Mary's Cathedral, San Francisco, California

Built in 1891 and destroyed by arson in 1962.

The 1891 cathedral was replaced in 1971 with a very modern building and in my opinion not as pretty a one.

Love,
M

RTT-Wasting Time

Tuesday
Whew!
Oh wait, that means that there are 3 more days left in the week.
Crap!
Well, at least we will all be entertained with Random Tuesday Thoughts
Clicking the button above will magically whisk you away to more and most likely better random posts.

Just wait until you've read mine first and commented. I'm needy like that.
Then feel free to click the button.
Thanks.

OMG!
I have fallen in love with this artist's work.
Deep and totally unrequited love.
From what I can find the galleries that sell his stuff are in British Columbia.
Uh...Captain?

Actually, I won't be able to afford his stuff.
Maybe a lithograph or a poster or a postcard.
Can I have a moment here.....I'm just dreaming.
Thanks, let's go on.

Find fun and interesting facts about the day and year you were born.
Born 24th September 1959

* You were born on a Thursday. I guess that is as good a day as any. I didn't mess up my mom's weekend.
* Your star sign is Libra. Whatever.
* Your birthstone is Sapphire. Probably why I've had a thing for them.
* The season was Autumn. Well, duh.
* You were born in the Chinese year of the Pig. Yeah, this explains some things.
* The US President was Dwight D. Eisenhower (Republican). One of the least offensive of his ilk.
* The UK Prime Minister was Harold Macmillan (Conservative). I know nothing of British politics except that I am of the opinion that Tony Blair spent a lot of his time blowing George W. Bush.
* Thursday's child has far to go. What does this mean? And, do I really want to know?
* You are 50 years 4 months 26 days old. Need you remind me?
* It is 216 days until your next birthday. They will speed by fast enough so just shut up why don't you.
* In dog years you are 350 years old. Uh...F*&K you.
* You are 18,412 days old. Ditto above.
* You are approximately 441,903 hours old. See statement above.
* You are approximately 1,590,851,510 seconds old. You wretched person, must you go on?






That does it for me. I'm in Waco, Texas today desperately trying to find a Coke at Baylor University. Did you know that Dr. Pepper was invented/developed/slapped together like a bad recipe in Waco? No? Well, it was and the university has some sort of deal with them that pretty much means that getting a diet coke is not going to happen. I will be going through withdrawals. The only consolation is that I will be staying at my favorite hotel, the Hilton. I've stay at this Hilton so often the desk employees know my name and give me a room with a view of the river. Bless their hearts.

Have a wonderful day.
Love,
M

PS: turns out I didn't have to go to Waco. The training session I was scheduled attend was canceled due to snow.

Roasted Eggplant Brushetta Pizza

Is it just me or do other people crave big gooey slices of pizza? I had one of those cravings last week. After determining that I didn't have any yeast in the house I made an emergency phone call to JR.

Me: Hi, stop by the store and pick up yeast.
JR: Why?
Me: Pizza night
JR: You want me to pick up pizza?
Me: No, I want to you pick up yeast so I can make pizza
JR: Too late.
Me: Huh?
JR: I've already driven by the store.

Cue, the next day. Yeast was procured by JR.
I had ingredients. I had the will. I turned on the oven.


Roasted Eggplant Brushetta Pizza
1 medium eggplant, drained and chopped
3 roma tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
3 tablespoons fresh basil or 1 tablespoon dried, chopped
3 tablespoons olive oil
Pizza dough
mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese
Pesto sauce


Here's the instruction portion of our show.

Slice the eggplant into about 1/2 inch slices.

Salt both sides.

Layer into a colander. Place over a bowl or something to catch the drippings. Otherwise you'll have eggplant piddle all over your counter top. There is very little worse than eggplant piddle.

After about 30 minutes rinse the salt off.
Chop into pieces. Try to get these about the same size.
Put a little olive oil on the pan.

Place under the broiler. Not too close. Say, about 6 to 8 inches away.
Cook for 10 minutes. Give them a flip.
Cook for another 10 minutes.

Mix up tomatoes, garlic and basil. Coat with a little olive oil.
Add to the pan with the eggplant.
Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes.
You want to caramelize the sugars in the tomatoes.
I just happened to have a container of brushetta topping.
So I skipped the tomato mixture in favor of using this.

It comes out as a sloppy yummy mess.
Put it off to the side.

While you are cooking your eggplant make the dough.
I didn't have any corn meal handy so I used corn bread mix.
Tasty!

I had some pre-made pesto that I spread over the top. You could leave this out but really why would you want to? If you have it use it. That's my motto. Or, it would be if my real motto wasn't play well with others.

Use up the last of your mozzarella cheese.
Now, you could stop here but let's take it right over the top.

Evenly distribute the eggplant mixture over the top.

Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.
Bake in a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and the cheese is all melty.

Oh Yeah!

Sorry, this is not diet food. The best you could say is that it is a test of your power of moderation. Can you limit yourself to just one piece? Me = fail. I had two. There were exactly 3 pieces left for lunch the next day. After a little wrangling JR got 2 and I got 1. Didn't seem fair to me but his whining; "I'm a foot taller and weigh 60 pounds more than you so I should get more", was grating on my nerves.

The eggplant topping can be used with pasta, eggs, and baked potato just to name a few. It is worth making just on it's own.

Go! Make pizza! Be happy! Be melty gooey cheese happy!

Love,
M

Streetwalking Lawyers of Aurora Avenue

Back in the early 90s there was a show on in Seattle that did skits. This is one of my favorites.



Check out Bill Nye. This is the show that gave him is start in TV.

And as much as I love that one I love this one even more.



Don't parallel park by sight...Do it by sound. Hahahahaha!



Love,
M

Threat levels around the World

• The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have used the "A Bit Cross" level since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588 when threatened by the Spanish Armada.

• The Scots raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front lines of the British army for the last 300 years.

• The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability.

• It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert: Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Engage in Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

• The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress up in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose".

• Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels.

• The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

• Americans meanwhile, and as usual, are carrying out pre-emptive strikes on all of their allies 'just in case'.

• Canada has alert levels, but no one can remember where they put the list.

• New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA". Due to continuing defense cutbacks (the airforce being a squadron of teenagers flying paper aeroplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "I hope Australia will come and rescue us".

• Australia, meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be aw'right, mate". Three more escalation levels remain: "Crikey!"; "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend", and "The barbie is cancelled". So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

JR was sent these by his brother. We thought they were cute.

As an American of Scots ancestry my threat level would be a preemptive "Let's get the Bastards".

What would your threat level be?

Love,

M

RTT - A nerd yes but I try.

It's Tuesday.
It's random.
It's my time to spew silliness.
It's all good.
Click on the button to go to Keely's place to find more.
Over and out!

As you all probably know by now I'm big on digital preservation. Weird as it sounds for a librarian but that is my job. I preserve and make available digital content. It's a public service and a patriotic duty (snicker). Sure that may seem all lofty and academic and technobabblish but we have a fun side also. I give you proof....



I thought this was terribly funny then The Boy called me a nerd. *sigh*




Tom Brokaw did a show that will air on CNBC called Boomers.
I said to JR: "they didn't come to talk to us".
JR said, "he didn't want to get depressed".



We spent Monday evening watching the Westminster Dog Show. We wait all year to watch this show. Some of the time we taunt our own dogs with the fact that they will never be Best in Show. Or that they are Best in Show. Or we feel embarrassed for the poodles.

Seriously, how can you not feel bad for the Poodles. Look at that hair cut. It's just sad.
Or we talk about what great looking dogs are out there. How we would like to own one of each. With the exception of a few, such as any of the toy breeds or German Shepards Not that those aren't lovely dogs; we just like our dogs a bit sturdier.

Our favorites are the herding group. We've own 2 dogs from the herding group. A Pembroke Walsh Corgie and our beloved Border Collie.
Some things that are said about dogs in the herding group and what they really mean:

• They are also independent thinkers - what they really meant: if you don't give them a job they will find one for themselves.
• They are high energy - what they really meant: they will run you ragged.
• They need a job - what they really meant: you will find your furniture herded into the middle of your living room.
• They need a strong owner - what they really meant: if you aren't the boss the dog will be.

Mostly, we (truly it's me) cries over the Pedigree commercials. Damn menopause.

Do you have a favorite type of dog or like me do you love them all?

Love,
M

PS: go visit Keely and all the other randomizers.

5 Reasons to use cloth napkins

Paper Napkins vs Cloth Napkins?

Which is the most economical?
Which is the most ecological?


Back in the early-nineties, I was looking to save money on everything. We were living on a small piece of acreage in western Washington, growing all our own vegetables, raising our own chickens for eggs, raising the boys, and living off a single income of less than $25,000 gross. After taxes, insurance and savings our disposable income was around $1,200 per month. Our house payment was $500, our utilities were another $250, gas & vehicle maintenance was about $100, clothing & miscellaneous was another $100. That left about $250 for food, canning supplies, garden supplies and seed, paper products and sundries.



We knew that we had to cut our expenses to a bare minimum. A quick way to do that was to cut out a lot of the paper products that we were using. Paper towels and napkins had to go. TP stayed, of course. With some careful management our grocery bill, all inclusive was $187 per month. We actually were able to save $50 a month for birthdays, Christmas, and school clothes.

We started using cloth towels to clean with and cloth napkins at meals and never went back. Let's go over some of the reasons why switching to cloth napkins is a good idea.



1. It's cheap. You can get started using cloth napkins for about the same price as a roll of paper towels. I buy napkins on the clearance rack. Usually for about $.99 cents per napkin. A roll of Bounty costs $1.91 at Costco. More often than not with a coupon I'll get cloth napkins for about .50 cents. A package (or about a months worth) of 500 count 7th Generation Recycled luncheon napkins will set you back $7.60. 10 Cloth napkins will cost about the same amount but you'll only be buying them once, not every month.

2. It's more sophisticated. (cuz, you know I'm all about sophistication, hahahaha!) Using cloth napkins just feels a little fancier. I have built up an impressive collection of cloth napkins so I never buy them any more. I can come up with enough for a very large dinner party of mix and match ones.

3. Cloth napkins are reusable. The U.S. population generates millions of tons a paper waste per year. By using our napkins over and over again we feel like we are doing our part to reduce this amount.

4. Save the environment. Millions of trees could be saved if American households would switch to cloth napkins. Not to mention cleaning the air of all of the chlorine that is used to make those paper ones white and pretty. Factor in transportation costs on the environment and the energy it takes to generate the paper ones makes cloth a no brainer.

5. Throw them in with your regular wash. Some people don't wash their cloth napkins after every meal though I tend to. Why? Because I'm a pretty messy eater. I can't seem to walk away from the dinner table without wearing part of my dinner. At the end of dinner we just toss our napkins on top of the washer. When we go to put a load of clothes in we just throw the napkins in with. Easy peasy.



We switched to cloth almost 20 years ago and have never looked back. We have so many that only a third of them sit out in the basket waiting for use.

Do you use cloth napkins? Have you thought about using them?

Love,
M

Happy Valentines Day

Some of the things I love

JR

Wine

My Boys

Chocolate

My Daughter in law

Old stuff

My Mom

History

JR's goatee

Tripper

Painting

Nessa

Earrings

Hats

Soup

JR

My blog friends

Cooking

Eating

Wishing you all a very happy Valentines day.
Love,
M


PS: I think this counts towards the Spin Cycle over at Sprite's Keeper. I'm heading over there to see if Jen will link me you. I'm usually too lame to do a spin and I'm notoriously late.

Child with wagon - history

We don't know very much about this photograph. It is one of 764 photographs that we will be posting on our digital library soon. All the photos were taken by a name named Harry Walker and were in a bunch that were given to us by a gentleman named Keeland. The photographs span from 1900 to 1940 and capture a moment in time in the Houston, Texas area.

In honor of Black history month I've culled out some of the photos that feature Black Americans during that time. Grandparents and parents of these children would have been slaves. When these photos were taken in the early 20th century they would have been share croppers, laborers, and house servants.

Slices of life during Jim Crow.

Just like many areas in the southern United States the history of Black Americans is sad and violent. Knowing a little bit about the history makes these photos very meaningful. Racism knew no age limits.

What do you think these photos tell us about the lives of these children's families?
Isn't he a cutie pie? Wearing his little suit and saluting. I've totally fallen in love with him.

Of the over 700 photos in the collection there are only about a dozen that feature African Americans. Which is really not surprising since most of the photos are family photos from a prominent white family.
And these two. Couldn't you just eat them up?

I've just titled the next set of photographs. Like I said we know virtually nothing about them.

Couple watching child.




Woman in field.




The picnic.
People had great hats back then. I want their hats. I'm a bit of a hat whore.





Men siting.
More great hats.

Have a happy Valentines day.
Love
M

Child in a wagon

I love this photo.
M

You can join the others for Wordless Wednesday.

RTT - I've renewed my love of Stumble Upon.

Keely = random
Now, figure out the algebraic equation.
Go!

I've added Stumble Upon back to Firefox browser and have become hopelessly addicted AGAIN! I have no will power. I can't seem to resist spending copious amounts of time stumbling. I need to take up a healthier habit. Like drinking. Oh wait! I already do that.

I added Stumble Upon and my computer power adapter died. Do you think there is a connection? (a connection. Get it? Ha! sometimes I crack myself up)

I stumbled upon this.

It made me chuckle.
Why?

Because there is this whole group of people that think that their pets prefer to eat vegetarian. Sure, I limit my puppy to a mostly vegetarian diet but only because she'll scratch herself to death if I don't. That being said, I know that if I were to die in my house and no one found me for a few days. My pets would snack on my rotting corpse before they would head out to the vegetable garden. My looking at them wouldn't stop them.

If you look around hard enough you'll find grant funding for just about everything.

Gift from Hugh M. Hefner Foundation to Preserve Historical Stag Films

"Thanks to a generous gift of $30,000 from the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, The Kinsey Institute is beginning the task of restoring and converting selections of the unique historical Stag Films Collection to digital mode."

I sat in a meeting yesterday that was all about applying for grant funding for a digital history of health and racism. We were trying to come up with all the places we could find funding. Maybe we should change the title to health, racism, and wild monkey sex. It sure would open a whole new pool of funding.

Magazines and newspapers are slowly but surely falling victim to this new thing called the internet. So why is it that I still get two WSU alumni and AARP magazines every month? They seem to find me as fast as I move to a new address. So, you would think that their crack team of researchers would figure out that JR and I have the same last name, graduated from the same school and are both over 50. Not to mention live at the same address. Save a tree guys!

Okay, I've got to get my 50 year old carcass to the gym so my dogs don't think I'm dead. I'd rather they wait to start gnawing on me.

Head over to The Un-Mom for more random.

Love,

M

What I'm calling "Eggs Italiano"

Every Sunday morning I make a big breakfast. A big breakfast that consists of eggs of some sort. Omlettes, huevos rancheros, scrambles, over-easy, hard boiled, baked, you name a way to make eggs and I've done it. Why? Because eggs are an excellent source of protein. Because eggs are so versatile. Because, even with the whole cholesterol thing eggs are still good for you. Because, I love eggs. No, seriously, almost as much as cheese and that's saying something.

My love of all things egg leaves me sometimes baffled on how to fix them. I don't like to make them the same way in the same month. Call me fickle or ADD but fried over-easy with toast every single Sunday gets old.

One of my favorite ways to eat eggs is Eggs Benedict but since I don't eat meat the Benedict part is a little difficult. So I do my own version with veggies but it did start me thinking. What is the essentials of Eggs Benedict? What makes the quintessential Eggs Benedict? Bread, meat, poached eggs and sauce. Swapping out the meat with veggies makes for a veggie version.

Poaching eggs is a bitch so I don't always do it. Instead I steam them more than poach them. This recipe calls for them to be steamed. I'm just trying to make them easier for ya'll. I truly want you to believe that I steam them to make it easier on all of you. I deeply want you to believe this because if I had to admit how lazy I am it would be embarrassing.

Enough of this tomfoolery. Let's just get to the how-to portion of the post. There isn't really a strict recipe for this meal. It is more of a clean out the icebox and add a theme.

Here is our cast of characters.
It is mostly a batch of stuff I had hanging out contentedly in my icebox.
Little did they know that I would be making them into our breakfast.
I mean, this group had to know that they were to become something for us to eat.
They just may not have thought they'd be an egg dish.
If they had any kind of conscience thought that is.

Chop up the onion, mushrooms, and garlic.
I used about a 1/4 of a medium onion, a half a cup of sliced mushrooms and 1 clove of garlic.

Over medium heat warm up some olive oil.
When the oil is hot toss in the onion and mushroom.
When they are cooked soft toss in the chopped garlic.
I'm using my all time favorite pan.
My 10 inch cast iron fry pan.
Nothing ever sticks to it.
A well seasoned cast iron pan is a thing of beauty.
I buy mine from Goodwill or re-sale junk shops.
People are always screwing them up by washing them with soap and water. *horror!!!*
A piece of steel wool, a little vegetable shortening, a couple of hours in the oven and the pans are better than new.
Sorry, that's another how-to for another time.

Next comes the spinach.
Or you can use a mixture of spinach and basil or arugula.
I had about a cup of spinach that was one step away from turning into a slime fest.
Wilt it down just a little bit.
Pop a couple of slices of bread into the toaster.

Pour about 3/4 of the can of diced tomatoes into the spinach mixture.
Or the whole can if you have more to feed than just two.
I had just bought a 14.5 ounce can of diced tomatoes with oregano, basil and garlic at Kroger for .45 cents. Score!
When the juice is hot make wells into the mixture to crack the eggs into.

Like this.
Push the mixture around to make as many wells as you need.

Crack the eggs into each well.
2 for JR and 1 for me.
Put a lid on the pan.
Turn the heat down to medium low.

Butter up the toast with some pesto if you have it.
Butter with a sprinkle of dried basil or Italian seasoning will work also.
Toss a slice or two of mozzarella cheese on top of the pesto.

Steam the eggs to your preferred done-ness.
I like mine a bit runy.
JR...not so much.
So his go into the pan first and come out last.

Plate it up.
Put a little more pesto on top.
Maybe another slice of mozzarella or two.
You can never go wrong with cheese.
Serve with a bit of cafe au lait, perfection!
And, Sunday breakfast becomes an event.

This would make a great meatless Monday dinner also.

Love,
M