Family Connections

Something interesting happened to me this afternoon. Since things at work were a bit slow, I spent a few minutes cruising the Internet for photos of Venice and Rome; this was homework for the trip Dave and I will be taking in April. Then, I decided to look for some photos of Sicily. From there, I did a search for information about my grandfather Camuti and came across some information about a California cousin - Tim Camuti - whom I've never met. I introduced myself to him in an email and, lo and behold, he responded positively!

Tim has a website on which he is compiling genealogical information about the Camuti family. I've registered for the site (My Heritage) and have asked Tim to add me as a family member with access to his site. Once that happens, I'll be able to see what information he has, then share anything I know with him. I don't know anything about the west coast branch of the family and he apparently has little information about the east coast branch. Between the two of us, we may be able to put together some interesting information and get a fuller picture of the Camuti clan.

Dotti - I'll email you with Tim's contact information, as I'm sure you'll be interested in connecting with him.

Sharon - I may be contacting you soon for information about the Olley family. I know you've been compiling that information for years. Dave and I started putting together Sears and Camuti information years ago, but haven't done anything with it for awhile. This new contact may give us an opportunity to fill out the Sears-Camuti-Olley family trees some more.

So - what began as a mundane day became interesting in a hurry. What a cool way to end an old year.

Lost in Space

I'm a sucker for deep space photos. The editors at the Telegraph surely had me in mind when they posted their gallery of the best Hubble Telescope photos of 2009. Help yourself to a few appetizers here before following the link to feast on the entire gallery.

A Bit Of Christmas Dinner

You may be wondering why in the world I'm writing two posts in one day. The fact is, the pressure is on. Dave issued a challenge several months ago that resulted in me setting a goal to reach a total of 450 blog posts by the end of the year. This post will be # 447, which means that I'll only have to write 3 more posts within the next 5 days to reach my goal. To that end, I've decided to share a potato recipe that's probably familiar to my Canadian readers, but may not be known to the Americans (except for Mom; she's made these potatoes at least once in my presence). It's a great recipe from Jean Pare's wonderful cookbook series, Company's Coming. What I love about Pare's recipes is that they are easy to execute, but taste like really fancy dishes. The centerpiece of today's dinner was turkey, of course. The main side dish (aside from stuffing, to which I added about one cup of cranberries for a delicious twist - try it sometime), in lieu of ordinary mashed potatoes, was Potatoes Extraordinaire.

Here is the recipe:
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Ingredients 5 lbs potatoes 8 oz cream cheese 1 c sour cream 1/4 c butter or margarine 1 Tbsp onion salt 1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Butter and paprika for garnish

Instructions

Peel and cook potatoes in salted water until tender. Drain. Mash well. Add cream cheese in pieces. Add next 5 ingredients. Beat until smooth and fluffy. Scrape into 2 quart casserole. Place dabs of butter here and there over top of potatoes. Sprinkle with paprika. Cover and heat in 350º F oven until heated through. Makes about 12 servings.

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Unless you're feeding an army, you'll likely have some potatoes left over. That's not a problem, because these potatoes reheat beautifully in the microwave. But, if you really don't like leftovers, you can halve this recipe without any dire consequences. If you've never tried this recipe before, try it soon. You won't be disappointed.

Holiday Cheer!

holiday

Pathetic Protest

A Kansas woman who disapproves of health care reform protested the Senate's passage of such a bill in a way that made sense to her, if no one else: she took down her Christmas decorations. All of them. The tree. The wreath. The lights. She did so because the Senate "absolutely ruined Christmas" by voting in favor of ensuring that more Americans get access to decent medical care. 



Oh, well. At least she didn't organize another Tea Party.

Bowl Challenge Choices

Dave posted a challenge recently to pick winners from at least 20 bowls. I've already missed a couple of bowls, so I'd better get this done now. Following Dave's format, my picks are indicated in red. Departing from Dave's format, I'm picking the teams that I want to win, not just the teams that may be more likely to win.

BCS Five


BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2...... Alabama vs. Texas
Rose Bowl (1st).... Oregon vs. Ohio State
Allstate Sugar (1st)...... Florida vs. Cincinnati
Tostitos Fiesta (4th)..... TCU vs. Boise State
FedEx Orange (5th) .....Georgia Tech vs. Iowa


My Other 15 Selections


Meineke Car Care (26th)..... Pittsburgh vs. North Carolina
Emerald (26th)...... USC vs Boston College
AdvoCare Independence (28th)..... Texas A&M vs. Georgia
Champs Sports (29th)..... Miami (FL) vs. Wisconsin
Pacific Life Holiday (30th) ......Nebraska vs. Arizona
Insight (31st)..... Iowa State vs. Minnesota
Chick-fil-A (31st)..... Tennessee vs. Virginia Tech
Outback (1st) ..... Northwestern vs. Auburn
Konica Gator (1st) ..... Florida State vs West Virginia
Capital One (1st) .... Penn State vs. LSU
Valero Alamo (2nd) ...... Texas Tech vs. Michigan State
PapaJohns.com (2nd) ..... Connecticut vs. South Carolina
AutoZone Liberty (2nd) ..... Arkansas vs East Carolina State
Brut Sun (31st) ..... Oklahoma vs. Stanford
Texas .... Navy vs. Missouri

The Known Universe

Here's a really cool video I found this morning. Enjoy.

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

Sounds of the Season

Ally Update

It's been awhile since I've posted any photos of Ally, so I'm going to post one I took just a few minutes ago. Ally is visiting us this weekend while Jonathan and Maggie are out of town. She's been great, but I think she misses them (I just can't imagine why, though). Dave did some begging and bribing to get her to pose in front of the Christmas tree, but we finally got her just about where we wanted her to be. Here she is, looking, as Jonathan says, very "regal."

NB: Ally turned 1 year old on November 15. They grow up so quickly.

Late Thanksgiving Post

I know Thanksgiving was last week, but I finally uploaded my photos today and I couldn't possibly write about a holiday without posting photos. I'll spare the family members who gathered in central Pennsylvania much embarrassment by not posting individual photos of them. I apologize for not getting any photos of Taylor (Dennis, Erma and Tracy's 12-year-old yellow lab - and probably the most photogenic family member at the gathering): she was too busy waiting under the table for scraps to pose for me. I don't understand her priorities at all! After we consumed a delicious Thanksgiving dinner (I'm afraid Taylor didn't find many scraps - we were very careful about getting our fully loaded forks to our mouths intact), courtesy of Erma's fine cooking, we traveled to Moravian Manor to have pumpkin pie and beverages with Paul. After dessert, we got some photos.

First, we have Mom and Paul. After marveling at how perky they look (as you'll see in the next photo, they look much better than the rest of the gang), take a moment to notice the beautiful roses that Paul gave to Mom.

Then we have the full group photo, minus Dave, who kindly took this photo of the rest of us. It seems that all the turkey we consumed slowed down the circulation to our brains and rendered every last one of us incapable of remembering to bring a tripod (that's my story and I'm sticking to it).

Do you see that smirk on Dennis' face? That's the only time in three photos that he didn't frown! He's incorrigible! The rest of us may have forgotten our tripods, but at least we remembered to bring our smiles (of course, smiles are much easier to carry than tripods; they're also easier to carry than frowns, Dennis!).

I'll close by thanking Mom for hosting us, Paul for putting up with us, Erma for feeding us, Dennis, Tracy and Taylor for bringing the cook all the way from Maine, and Dave for driving the rest of us back and forth from Virginia. A wonderful time was had by all.