Friday Afternoon Musings

Here it is: Friday already!  Did I accomplish anything this week?

1) I partook in a second week of Line Dancing.  I have discerned that Line Dancing is not my cup of tea.  I don't like country music (who knew line dancing was synonymous with country music?!  Apparently everyone but me.)  If the dancing was set to music and at a normal tempo, then I was good to go.  Otherwise, my mind began to wander, and I was found Grapevining to the left when I should have been Rocking Forward and Back.  Was I this unfocused as a child?  (I even got sent into the middle of the dancers, because our teacher thought I was relying on watching everyone's movements.)

2) I planted and transplanted a whole lot of plants outdoors.  Late Spring, I was gearing up for Drought Season #3, which, blessedly, did not happen.  But the plants I thoughtfully placed in semi-shade, thinking that otherwise they'd burn to a crisp, are now seen to be leaning ever-so-earnestly out towards any sunlight they can find.  Years ago, that Spouse o' Mine commented (in a not-so-patient manner, I might add), that "...plants aren't furniture, you know..."  But I continue my plant and transplant ways to this day.

3) I got out my old family lineage book, The Van Valkenburg Family in America, and sent three kids, a son-in-law, and many nieces and nephews an email detailing their past 12 generations from Valkenburg and New Amsterdam, to Pryor Creek, Oklahoma.  

4) That Spouse o' Mine and I discussed the geneology this evening.  I think it would be so interesting to be able to visit with ol' Lambert and his Dutch kith & kin.  What must it have been like to set sail in 1642?  I think they might have been short folk.  That Spouse o' Mine kind of poo-pooed that notion.  How long did it take them?  What did they bring with them?  This is immensely interesting to me, because I married into a family who put up their South Dakota farm and ranch in the 70s, and set sail (yes - with farm implements and china and all sorts of interesting items on the boat) for Australia.  The boat they took, which sailed for three weeks, was one of the British warships which sailed in the Falkland Islands:  The SS Canberra:

I think I am accurate in saying that the SS Canberra was hauled into Pakistan (or somewhere...) this past year and taken apart.  It seems like there were some articles written regarding the use of extremely poor laborers from some country, who would dismantle ships like the Canberra, and how the poor laborers worked with toxic chemicals, etc.  It is not a happy story.

5) That Spouse o' Mine and I were planning two back-to-back trips the next two weeks, to Colorado, and to Cape Cod.  Well, push came to shove, and at the 11th hour, we opted to postpone Colorado for next month.  The logistics were unpleasant, trying to coordinate business and pleasure.  So, pleasure takes a back seat to business in August.  That's OK.  The biz seems to be paying the bills.

6)  Here's a fun #6:  College Boy Graham and an hours-old duckling:

 And finally,
7) A quote from a neurology study I was reading:
"... For example, studies have found that mice fed (-) epicatechin had better spatial memory and formed more new blood vessels than mice that weren't given the compound. And research in snails has found the slimy crawlers were able to remember a trained task for at least a day when given the flavanol, compared to less than three hours without it..."

This totally begs the question:
Snail training?!!

So now,
Off to the weekend!