peregrinus236's Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ED!!!

General Update

• After fighting off a Rhino(virus) for a week, I have lost the battle!!
  
  Yeah, I'm SICK!! ...very sick!!
  
  I have: a runny nose, sore throat, bad cough, sinuses full to overflowing, and I generally feel like crap. A few days ago, when losing the battle seemed imminent, I made a trip to the supermarket and drug store, stocking up on food, tissues and various meds to lessen the discomfort. Mark has generally made himself scarce lately, fearing for his own health, but Adam has been a good little nursedog, giving me more than the usual attention: keeping me warm, giving me lots of doggy kisses, and stealing (and eating) any used tissues that are left within his reach. He's so helpful!!
  
  
• Yesterday morning I took a shower to wash off the germs and help clear out the sinuses. After breathing the warm steam for a while, I blew my nose, and it sent forth a gusher of blood all over the tub and walls. It looked strikingly like the shower scene from Psycho, ...only bloodier. The most horrifying thing was realizing that this was my blood!!! ...this was no movie. Eventually the bleeding stopped, ...thankfully, before I ran out of blood!
  
  
• Yesterday a newsletter came in the mail from the Linnell Family Association. They have done an amazing job tracking down many of the members of the Linnell family around the world. My Great Grandmother's maiden name was Linnell. According to information in the newsletter, which I checked against my own family tree research, I am a distant cousin of George Bush!
  
  Ugggh!
  
  Well, I suppose every family tree has a few rotten branches somewhere!
  
  On the bright side, I may also be related to Barak Obama (through his mother), but I have yet to confirm that connection.
  
  Of course, if one were able to take the time to trace all of one's ancestors back 10 generations, and then trace down all the descendants from all of those ancestors to the present, one would probably find 50 million cousins, or more.
  
  Which means that some of you on my flist are probably distant cousins of mine!!
  
  
• Being too sick to do much else, I have spent a lot of time with my stamp collection this week. I have laid out new album pages for some countries, and finally added some stamps that have sat in manila folders for a year or two. I collect all the stamps I can get my hands on, but particularly love the small, obscure or dead countries from before WWII.
  
  If you are interested we can play a little game here!! These seven stamps have all been added to my collection in the past year. See if you can guess where each of them is from!!
  
  I will provide the answers tomorrow evening.
  
  Good Luck!! ( Click to see the stamps, and play )