Part IA, Part UP

UP: Finally saw the hip specialist about the joint pain I've had since last summer.

IA: Got a tentative diagnosis, but will have to wait a month for a CT scan to confirm.

IA: Diagnosis will involve hip arthroscopic surgery on both hips.

UP: At least once that's all over my hips shouldn't hurt anymore?

IA:  The washing machine is making horrible LOUD metal-on-metal scraping and screeching noises.  It's earsplittingly loud and I'm sure the neighbours can hear it and are annoyed.  Such a long cycle too... and we're less than halfway through it!

UP:  I hope it means the washing machine is on it's last legs so we can get a new one with shorter, more energy efficient cycles!  (the machine belongs to the landlord, so I can't change it until he says so.)

UP: Ancestry.com is really addictive.

IA: I should really be spending my time applying for jobs, not searching my 40th time great grandparents back to the Norman Conquest.

UP: I discovered that my paternal grandparents are third cousins! I guess that's a bit of an IA but it's funny.

IA: I'm going to be tempted to extend my membership after my free trial.

UP: Ancestry.com is really addictive.

I agree! We have the library edition at work -- but not sure I'll be able to access it once I retire  And I still haven't tracked down my grandfather's birthplace!

IA: My gym closed down with absolutely NO notice to it's members! (But the reason was later announced in the local news)...So imagine my face when I drive up to go to my Zumba class and the place looks like a lonely construction zone with a closed fence! 

UP: Signed up for a new gym (Council ran) and for only 50p more than what I was paying for just my old gym membership I was able to sign myself AND my husband up! (He wasn't going at all before!) Yay!!

UP: Ancestry.com is really addictive.

It really is! I have been doing this too since my mom got a subscription. Can't.stop.clicking.

To continue with the ancestry.com theme...

UP: Found out that parts on both sides of my family have been in the US (before it was the US, of course) since the 17th century. One guy came over from England in 1635! Not only that, but they've been in the NY/NJ area pretty much the entire time. Kind of hilarious. We just never left!  One guy even fought in the Battle of Short Hills. I'm a Daughter of the American Revolution! Hahaha.

IA: Just confirms that there's no way I could ever claim citizenship to any European country. Even the newer arrivals have been here too dang long. Whomp Whomp. 

To continue with the ancestry.com theme...

UP: Found out that parts on both sides of my family have been in the US (before it was the US, of course) since the 17th century. One guy came over from England in 1635! Not only that, but they've been in the NY/NJ area pretty much the entire time. Kind of hilarious. We just never left!  One guy even fought in the Battle of Short Hills. I'm a Daughter of the American Revolution! Hahaha.

IA: Just confirms that there's no way I could ever claim citizenship to any European country. Even the newer arrivals have been here too dang long. Whomp Whomp. 

UP: I BET WE'RE RELATED!!!!

No, seriously. All of my ancestors have been in NJ since then as well! I'm also a Daughter of the American Revolution, via more than one person. Also, I discovered that one of my ancestors, who fought in the revolution, is my 6th time great grandfather twice and my 5th time great grandfather once. Do you have any Lambertsons, Ervins or Ellisons in your tree? 

IA: I have also confirmed there's no way to claim European citizenship. I mostly already knew that but discovered that my Irish ancestor is one generation even further back than I thought, that all my German ancestors naturalized before their kids were born and that the Polish ancestor emigrated before Poland was even a country.

IA: Planned to go to Macy's at lunch to look for shoes and got off at the wrong metro stop. Decided to walk rather than keep going on the metro.

UP: Passed a Zara, so popped in and found a pair of cute shoes for $35

IA: They were a size to big, so I asked if they had my size.

UP: They did and the tag on the shoes (that were still in the bag) was $10 less than the pair on the floor.

IA: She rang them up at $35 and I pointed out that the tag said $25.

UP: Because this is America, she had to give them to me at the advertised price with no hassle! In Ireland she would have said, oh, the tag is wrong and that would have been the the end of it.

Score!

UP: I BET WE'RE RELATED!!!!

No, seriously. All of my ancestors have been in NJ since then as well! I'm also a Daughter of the American Revolution, via more than one person. Also, I discovered that one of my ancestors, who fought in the revolution, is my 6th time great grandfather twice and my 5th time great grandfather once. Do you have any Lambertsons, Ervins or Ellisons in your tree? 

  I don't have any of those as of yet, but the main ones for me are the Dolbiers and the Terrys. I am sure they must overlap at some point, but there's so many dang kids amongst them all that it's difficult to sort everyone out! 

And CCG, I love it when that happens and I love Macys! Years ago I was there and tried on a pair of jeans that were on the 70% off clearance rack. They were perfect. I brought them up to the register and they scanned at $100. I told the saleswoman what happened and she said "Oh, we just got these in, but if they were on that rack we'll just give you the discount." She didn't even care. 

I don't have any of those as of yet, but the main ones for me are the Dolbiers and the Terrys. I am sure they must overlap at some point, but there's so many dang kids amongst them all that it's difficult to sort everyone out! 

And CCG, I love it when that happens and I love Macys! Years ago I was there and tried on a pair of jeans that were on the 70% off clearance rack. They were perfect. I brought them up to the register and they scanned at $100. I told the saleswoman what happened and she said "Oh, we just got these in, but if they were on that rack we'll just give you the discount." She didn't even care. 

Don't have any Dolbiers or Terrys, I don't think.

 Also, I discovered that one of my ancestors, who fought in the revolution, is my 6th time great grandfather twice and my 5th time great grandfather once.

Huh? How did he manage that? Cousins marrying cousins?

My father's family also dates back to the 1630's and my parents had already pretty much covered that side of the family.  It's the Irish side I want to find out more about.

Huh? How did he manage that? Cousins marrying cousins?

My father's family also dates back to the 1630's and my parents had already pretty much covered that side of the family.  It's the Irish side I want to find out more about.

Yup, my grandmother's grandparents were second cousins once removed and my grandparents themselves are third cousins.

I'm hard time finding any new information about the Johnny-come-lately German sides of my father's family (only been in NJ since the mid to late 1800s!), about my grandmother's Irish great-grandfather (I had been previously secretly mad at her for not registering as Irish before my dad was born because I thought she had an Irish born grandmother but it turns out it was great-grandmother so it would've been futile anyway ) and about any parts of my mom's family (German and Polish/Ukrainian/Russian--it's hard to know exactly what given very frequent border shifting).

IA: We're switching to my husband's health insurance an I think I screwed up by not getting us prescription coverage. I've never had to actually elect for that before. It always came with the medical coverage.

UP: If I did screw up (he needs to talk to his HR person tomorrow), open enrolment for his company starts on the 17th, so we'll be able to fix it!

Health insurance is a pain indeed

UP: DS's employer has finally deemed him eligible for full benefits 

IA: He has to maintain an average of 30 hours worked per week (he would work more than that if they scheduled him)

IA: It isn't really health "insurance" but a reimbursement deal