Another 100 year old album

I am on my 3rd or 4th 100+ year old photo album. 

These are the ones with heavy black construction paper like pages.  The albums are absolutely crumbling and not at all archival safe. 

The photos in this one are are fading fast even though they have not been exposed to light. 

The first 2-3 albums, I carefully disassembled. I was able to save all the photos. 

This album, someone was very heavy handed with the glue. I cannot remove all the photos safely. 

This album belonged to my husband’s maternal grandfather. He was in the navy, aboard The Wyoming, WWI.

We have scanned every photo worth saving. My husband emailed copies to his three brothers. All of the photos will go on my genealogy blog for that family line. 

The album and all the photos are eventually headed to my local library, but I did not have enough family information to write a thorough bio sheet. 

We had a meeting with a genealogist yesterday morning and she was able to help. This is a (free) service available through my local library.

She made me feel very good. I had written down everything I had found carefully. But I was quite stuck. She found enough to get me over the hump, so I can continue researching that line myself. But she made a point of telling me it was hard going. When I got stuck, it was for good reason. 

Project Runway

While we had the peacock TV steaming system (one month, to watch the Olympics, no commercials), I watched season 19 of Project Runway. 

I enjoyed it more than any other season, and I have watched (and loved) them all. 

If you do not know, Heidi and Tim moved to Amazon Prime with a different version three years ago. 

The regular Project Runway continued with different host and Christian Siriano in the Tim Gunn role, Christian is most excellent.

There was no “Heidi” person on season 19, new host had just had a baby and was home, she stopped by for one episode only. 

Christian Soriano continued with the Tim Gunn role, really really well. The three judges took care of that section of the show and it was actually much better that way. They have my permission to continue that way and save themselves the cost of the female host. 

The challenges (season 19) were more creative and appropriate than ever before and many themes supported small businesses and minorities. 

There was one major blow up early on that did not bother me, it was actually interesting to see it play out as neither side understood the other’s point of view. 

Yes, Swatch is still at Mood, but now very old.

I still have Peacock, the free version with commercials. 

Pantry!

I think a pantry, any pantry,  needs a top to bottom re-examination and scrub once a year. 

At my house, with very high shelves, this means my husband on a ladder, handing things down to me, scrubbing/drying the shelves, and then putting the keepers away. 

As I was handing the keeper stuff to my husband to put away, I had to urge him to spread things out. I finally said - like a magazine is coming to shoot tomorrow for an article. 

I was very aggressive this year. Everything I questioned, my husband was perfectly willing to let go, he was not attached to anything. He did not care how long we had it, who gave it to us, how much it cost. Progress! 

We sorted based on whether or not we use it regularly, whether or not we use it with a houseful, whether or not we even like it. 

We got rid of things we have had for almost 40 years. We got rid of family things that are older than I am (61). We got rid of things we used to use, but have not used in years. We got rid of things we have never used. 

So yes, ALL THAT pictured above, plus what the girls took, came out of my pantry. 

No, I do not have a before photo for you. Yes, I wish I did. But it was a spontaneous project. We were well underway  before I thought of a picture. 

The pantry now feels like it has room to breathe. 

Bottom left 

Top left

Normally I avoid Shondaland

 I have learned to steer clear of Shondaland shows. 

Shondaland, before I started avoiding ABC -

I loved Grays Anatomy for the first couple seasons, then it turned soap opera-ish for me. Ditto Private Practice. 

I could not stand the flashback style of How to Get Way with Murder. 

I loved Scandal in the beginning, I thought the writing was strong and it was very well cast, then it got a little too off course for me. 

So I learned I was not a Shondaland fan. 

It got easy because I learned to avoid anything on ABC. They/ABC have a very clear type of show business plan that does not appeal to me. The only way I can describe it is I think they write down to what they think is their audience instead of writing up. 

Back to my point - now that Shondaland has moved to Netflix, I run into her. 

Shondaland on Netflix -

I could not sit through even one full episode of Bridgeton, way too soap opera-ish for me. And at that time I did not realize it was Shondaland. Middle was watching, I sat, I tried, I left. 

Inventing Anna on Netflix -

So, when the girls wanted to watch Inventing Anna, I started gathering my things because I was sure I was not going to like it, simply because it was Shondaland. (I realize that is opposite of the general opinion.)

And while I did not love Inventing Anna, I did enjoy it. 

I was familiar with a bit of the true story, I saw a news story (on 2020 S43/E35).

Shondaland story is told with a lot of flashback, normally a negative, but somehow that did not bother me. I am not sure how else they could have done it. 

I got used to the (annoying) accent after a while, I give credit to the actress, because we looked up clips of the real Anna, and it is very correct. 

Each episode is an hour and while we liked the show, each hour seemed l-o-n-g. The ten episodes seemed like a lot. I did not want them to eliminate any of the characters or story, I just think it needed tighter writing and editing. Like 50 minute episodes would have made a big, positive difference. 

LOVED the reporter character, well written, perfectly cast. She 100% made the show. I found this great article - 

https://www.vulture.com/article/inventing-anna-fact-check-jessica-pressler.html