Switching it up

Forgive me for falling off the face of the planet. It's taken me a while to adjust to a "normal" schedule. I was used to getting all my business taken care of before I went to work, so when I came home I could unwind and go to bed. That works when you go in at 2 and come home at 11. It doesn't work when you go in at 10 and go home at 6.

I was made all too aware of this when I conked out last night before Brad got home from work. When he got home he saw that I had done pretty much nothing but eat dinner and watch TV. Meanwhile he did a lot of chores around the house that I "forgot" to do. It's bittersweet.

I feel good because he sees that we really have to team up to get work done and that it sucks when it's one-sided.

I feel like crap because my poor Brad was having a hard time dealing with my lack of motivation. My poor husband didn't eat good dinners because he was so busy emptying the dishwasher and kitty poop.

It's a real mental shift. After being used to doing absolutely nothing after work, I now I have to shift into home-job mode. Let's not even start on how I'm asleep when Brad gets home and he's asleep when I'm up in the mornings. It's all in the name of progress and a kick-a** job.

A man for all seasons

Brad's story (and a link to my video) on Nick Stutts:

Click here

Have you seen my thumb?

I've used a mandolin slicer before, I swear.

It's just that every time I use one, I forget how close my thumb is getting to the blade. It happened when I was a short order cook slicing carrots and zucchinis, and it happened again this week as I sliced zucchini for lunch. (By the way, this is delicious: sliced zucchini with fresh ground pepper and fresh grated Parmesan cheese on top. Broil until the cheese bubbles. Add a tip of thumb for that added zing).

So I am missing a chunk of my thumb. It didn't hurt, just bled a lot. I actually reattached the chunk and most of it melded back into my finger. (Am I grossing you all out yet?). I just realized my blog readers probably aren't as fascinated with wounds as I am, so I'll stop.

Brad and I teamed up for our first multimedia project. He did a feature on Nick Stutts, a ridiculous athlete at North Iredell High School. I shot some video to go with it. The editor was impressed with Brad's willingness to embrace multimedia journalism (how can he not and still be married to me?). The editor was so impressed that he enrolled Brad in a multimedia training course in Richmond. Good job, Brad.

I'm glad spring weather is returning. Brad helped me clean the entire apartment this weekend (the Normans came to visit - so double that motivation). Something about a clean apartment puts me in a good mood. So that's about all I have. I'm sitting in a clean apartment, watching "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves" and typing away on a laptop with a bandaged thumb.

Family tree

Here is what I have found:

Brad's family:
NORMANS: I couldn't get far with the Normans or Majors, but what I did find is that the Normans have been in Charlotte since Brad's great-great-grandfather. That's as far as I could get.

MAJORS: Bumps' dad came to Charlotte from S.C. I traced them back to Greenville, S.C., in the early 1800s.

MCLAUGHLINS: I could only go as far as Mike's information, that Robert Patrick McLaughlin made the voyage across the Atlantic from Ireland. He was born in 1872.

NICHOLSONS: Nany's family was in Pennsylvania in the mid-1800s. They then moved to Ohio in the late 1800s, where they stayed.

My family:
HINES: I've got this tree back to Johann Jacob Hein, who was born in Dillenberg, Germany, in 1713 and moved to a Moravian settlement in Broad Bay, Maine. He ended up in Stokes County, N.C. (from stories as a child I remember that the Hines were a big part of the Wachovia settlement in what is now Old Salem). Around the turn of the 19th century, the Hines left Stokes County for Grayson County, Va., where they remained until my grandfather moved his family to Greensboro in the 1950s.

WRIGHT: The Wrights have been in the mountains of Elk Creek, Va., since at least the early 1700s. I've traced one leg of the tree to the Sages, who moved to Grayson County from England. There is a historical marker in Elk Creek with Caty Sage's story (she was kidnapped by natives as a child, never to be seen again). Another leg of the Wrights, the Delps, moved from Hessen, Germany, to Pennsylvania in the early 1700s. Hans Delp then moved to Grayson County, Va., where they remained. It gets a little sketchy in the late 1700s, when it seems first cousins married. Eeek.

ROBERTS: I can't go far on this tree, just to the mid-1800s. They stayed in Wilkesboro the entire time, until my grandfather married my grandmother and moved to Greensboro.

WYRICKS: This one only goes back to the 1880s. The Wyricks were in Greensboro since at least then.