Back to Blogging and Genealogy

Since I'm off this week I though I'd dig my heels in and work on my genealogy brick walls. That meant putting in another phone call to a distant cousin who has, of late, been my best source for family information. After getting the scoop on the Sicilian clans from back east we started in on the families that came over, on the boats, in the early 1900's to San Francisco. Perusing the ancestry.com files for eight hours I came up with six people who all went to my great grandmothers home address during that time. And what does that mean? Well, probably that I'm related to most of them, ah, you see back in the old days, mostly the 1800's, Sicilians married first cousins so....back three or four generations I have double cousins, aunts and uncles. I did have one set of cousins that married from San Francisco even though the families frowned upon it from what I was told.

The communes in Sicily were small and villagers, afraid of outsiders, inter married. No, no one so far has any dreaded deformities or diseases. In fact, most of my family live into their 90's. I have a great aunt who lived to 100. My family, on my Dads maternal side, have blue eyes and blond hair, guessing only from the influence of the Normans around 1061. Where as I have brown hair and brown eyes, like my dad, this may be from some Phoenician influence around 700 BC. These are all wild guesses as I still have to get my Dad to test his DNA, he's agreed but the cost is about 600.00 for testing the mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome. It will just have to wait till after Christmas. From what I've read it seems most people in Sicily do not judge anyone for their dark curly hair or their blue eyes due to the diversity on the island, this stemming from the invasions of many societies.

Now I do realize that being half Portuguese and the fact that my Mother's family came from the Azores, they had the same influence of invasion in the islands history. She has green eyes and dark curly hair as does my sister. In fact, my sister has enough hair for three people. I have skinny hair, straight, thin and does not hold a curl unless I use hairspray with super extra hold, of course after ratting it all up and combing it over so I don't look like Amy Winehouse.

Getting off that subject, I just received a call from my oldest boy back east. That really made my day, you see I was able to talk to all my boys today and that is what makes me happy. The little things in life are the best!

Baptized Legal Bread and the Mafia?

Bakers in Napes, Italy are protesting paying "tribute" to the Camorra's (Mafia) by handing out free baptized bread... While I didn't realize any bread was baptized I guess it's the norm there? This same protest also happened in Sicily. I thought the Mafia was on its way out in Italy and Sicily. Just watching this video makes me wonder why the Vatican hasn't put the kabash on this atrocity, its BAPTIZED for Pete's sake, unless....ah! And yes, sometimes I'm too embarrassed to admit I was born and raised Catholic. Really, how much can a bread maker profit when paying taxes to the state and paying off the Mafia?

Flirting Siciliano and Italian Style

I was on my early morning perusal of the news online and came across this report from the UK, "An amorous offer you can't refuse". Of course, the words "can't refuse" got my attention. I found the video to go along with the article somewhat amusing and feeling a bit like the the British reporter lady when it comes to flirting. Since American's rarely flirt in this manner (maybe I'm just not in the right circles) I'd be quite stand offish and in another sense find it highly amusing. I do know that this guy does not float my boat in the looks department but I've long gotten over the "looks" being a priority when it comes to attraction. I know, I know, it sounds contradictory but it's my fickle side showing.

I can't wait to hear a response from blogger Welshcakes Limoncello at Sicily Scene as she lives in Ragusa, Sicily.

Smokin in Idaho

This is a pic at the top of our mountain looking down on
Cocolalla Lake. The smoke is from one of our burn piles.
















On my last trip up to Cocolalla we had to start some burn piles. What are burn piles? It's all the downed trees or left over timber that the loggers leave,about the only way to dispose of it is to burn it. We do cut some for fire wood but during the dry season you don't want a chain saw sparking a fire in the forest! We spent over two hours just gathering wood from a ten to twenty foot radius around the piles. If you think that doesn't sound like much just imagine 28 acres worth! Our logger, four years ago, left our place a mess. Of course after he was paid by the lumber company he found excuse after excuse not to come back and finish out his contract of cleaning up the mess. The contract says he's responsible for any fires that start on our property as a result of his "neglect", but it only covers 250K. That would barely cover the cost of my cabin let alone any neighbors homes or barns. So now we bear the task of clean up when ever the weather allows. Even though we have one year left on our contract we found early on "our" logger wouldn't even return our calls. We could always go to small claims court.....

Here is a pic of about 1/8th acre of timber down.
















And one small burn pile.

Happy Turkey Day....

well, maybe not for the turkey. I'm just off my work rotation of six nights, whew! I'm so tired when I am charge RN and have two patients. One on a ventilator and a new admit on a bipap machine. My only saving grace was that they weren't too needy and not on any drips. Tuesday night was my last night and that means I get off at 7:30 am Wednesday.

BUT ! Tuesday we ended up taking my Mom to the hospital ER. She wasn't feeling well and looked like crap, ah yes, "crap" a very professional technical term there. I made a MD appt for the next day but my gut feeling said to take her to the ER since she is a diabetic and sometimes have different symptoms for an MI than most...she had no chest pain for one. She had a CXR, EKG and all the other interventions they do to CYA. She ended up with a positive troponin (a cardiac marker)a small lung infiltrate (probably starting of infection or edema)and dehydration. They admitted her to med surg unit, not the ICU where I'm at-which surprised me since most people with pos. troponin are, at the least, observed there. I tend to think she had a non Q mi as nothing showed up on the EKG or she had it a few days earlier and because her troponin levels weren't that high and were already starting to drop. So on my breaks at work I would go over and check on her..(mostly snoring,lol). Today they are "supposed" to release her...any boy does she want to come home!

Guess who's cooking all day! Between me and my nephew, Paul, I think we can handle it. Paul's Mom, my sis, is off to Seattle to visit her daughter, Stephanie, who is house mates with my son.

Len says it should be a beautiful day in Cocolalla, Idaho. No snow for now which is so unlike last year and not good for the ski people up there. I heard Schweitzer Mtn. is making snow as they haven't reached the two foot mark in order to open. That's all for now, gotta get cookin!

North Idaho....burrrr

The cold winter is approaching but so far no snow. Today was dreary, windy and rainey. I wanted to go out and take a picture but it was too depressing so I just sat inside and looked for ancestors on ancestry.com and ellisisland.org. Man, I can spend hours on those sites. I did recently find my Dads aunt in Rochester, NY so that made it worthwhile. Well, that's all for now...

Knitting and Knots

Well, I finally finished my knitting project. I used to crochet and knit years ago but with kids and the follies of general life that went by the wayside. I think my last project was 25 years ago, crocheting my Dad a burnt orange afghan. My co workers have been on a knitting and crocheting frenzy this last year and it's rubbed off. While I prefer crocheting, because it's one less tool for my aging uncooperative fingers, I did manage to knit using these huge needles below.







Looking on is one of my three Eclectus parrots , Koki, I'm invading her space.
I chose that frizzy yarn because that's what everyone's been using and it's forgiving when you unknowingly add or lose a stitch. I used the most basic stitch.
I have to add that my son's girlfriend, Sonia, gave me one of these scarfs last Christmas which helped inspire me.

Mafia...another one bites the dirt....

Here's a link to todays news on the latest Mafia news. Normally, this wouldn't interest me but after reading the last few books on Sicily I've come to realize these gangsters helped ruin a beautiful island and the people who inhabited it. The Mafioso is like an artichoke, the "Pith" boss is surrounded by all his men (the leaves) and the choke becomes a strong hold for all the riches they have stolen from the poor farmers and God fearing citizens.

I have no idea if any of my ancestors were in the Mafia or needed their protection to stay alive but many of the families I have read about were so afraid. They would take your farm animals, poison your wells, burn your house if you didn't see thing their way. What a horrible existence. No wonder my ancestors left way back as early as 1880.

I never thought I'd be interested in this Mafia stuff because as a child my friends would ask if my Dad was in the Mafia and I just let them think so. Purely for self entertainment. NOW, my opinion has taken a 180 degree turn because, unfortunately ,one relative reminds me of the macho Mafia by extorting his own siblings and choking them out of their own family inheritance (family dirt) ...thankfully he's dead now but he ruined five families after my Grandparents died.

Well, maybe I'll write more on this later but for now I need to get ready for work.
Ciao