Talking about family history, I am not sure whether I have told you folks this already. With the help of a guy from down-under, we were able to trace back the origin of our family all the way back into the 12th century. In the wake of the Knights of the German Order, moving eastward into Slavic country and bringing Christianity into this dark area, settlers claimed land in the easternmost part of Germany, which is now in Poland, close to the Russian border. One of those settlers squatted on land close to a peasant´s village called Jebrammen. Peasants spoke Polish in those days, so they appropriately named him the Master of Jebammen, or in Polish, Jebramki or Jebramski. Over the centuries, that name evolved into what is our last name now. In 1945, the move eastward was forcibly reversed, the surviving few of a once large family are now back in the west of Germany.
The family herald is this one:
If times had been slightly different, my name would be Ulrich von Jebrammen…
Folks, the following is not meant as a rant, just to shake your head and maybe chuckle:
Understanding Europe and the Eurozone
10 men – a Greek, an Italian, a French, a Portuguese, a Spanish, a Cypriot, a Finnish, an Austrian a Dutch and a German – meet regularly for Dinner. Last week´s bill amounted to € 500, why not, it was a good meal.
When it came to paying time, each paid according to their country´s contribution to the EU funds:
4 guests (the Greek, the Portuguese, the Spanish and the Italian) did not pay a Cent at all.
The man from Cyprus paid 1€.
The French paid 5€.
The Austrian paid 50€.
The bloke from Finland chipped in 80€.
The Dutch cashed out 100€.
And the last one, the German, picked up the rest of 264€.
They continued to meet for Dinner during the week, and everyone seemed to be happy with this arrangement.
Trouble arose, when the landlord decided to offer a 10 % rebate for the frequent guests, reducing the bill to 450€.
The group decided to stay with the arrangement, as they had grown accustomed to it. The first 4 would continue to eat for free, but how about the remaining 6 guests? How could those 50€ be distributed fair and square?A quick calculation revealed, that 50€ divided by 6 makes out 8,33€, but if that amount were to be deducted from the payment, guest number 5 and 6 would get paid to have a free dinner. That solution did not find an agreement, due to the veto of the first 4 guests.
I started a pretty good post this morning and hit the wrong button again! [banghead] I messed up yesterday and clicked on the wrong button on Fire Fox and now the browser look odd? This morning I was trying to open the home page on a new Fire Fox Browser and some how wiped out the post I was working on! [banghead]
Photo Bucket all so tried to change me to There New And Improved BS site! [soapbox] Luckily I was able to get back to the old site some how! [:D]
Lee I was trying to say congrats this morning when I hit the wrong button! [banghead] Getting married at sea? Will the captain mind you leaving with the Anchor? [:-^] Bong (from skillet) , Flo that [:'(] Hurt!
Foot Front Went to the foot Ulcer Clinic today. Last week they had my foot my X Ray and ran blood test to see if the bone was infected? Today I got the results, there is no sign of Bone Infection! [:D] After they craved off the callus again [:(] (wish it would stop coming back so quickly) they measured the wound. Last week it was 4 cm deep, this week it was 3 cm so the treatment is working. Wound is a little longer and wider, I was told it was because something called Slouff Tissue (have no idea how to spell that) is dying off because of the antibiotic packing I am using. From what little I understand the Slouff Tissue is in-between Callus and Real Tissue ad is of no value.
Got the Honey Do list done today and a few of my own. So today was a pretty good day for me.
ZIVA indeed. [^o)] Afternoon diners, a cup of hot coffee please Flo and keep it coming if you don’t mind. Thank you my dear lady.
Been a while since I last posted since I’ve been busier than I care to be doing all the things I don’t want to do but MOH seems to insist on these things. [:(] Go figure?
Lets see, the darned sun room I’ve been talking about is finished. As in totally. Finally got that Monkey off my back!
I have been having some networking issues with my Windows 7 network. Spent a ton of time trying to fix it but finally gave up in total frustration [:(!] I ran and maintained a far more complicated system my self for years but the Windows 7 which is supposed to be so much easier is a pain as far as I’m concerned. Anyway, in total frustration, I called up a small computer company locally owned and operated. The owner came over the day after I called, spent an hour tweaking this that and the other thing, got everything shared the way I wanted and charged me a whole $40.00 for his work. Now I happen to know that that kind of work generally runs between $75 and $100 per hour around my neck of the woods so there was no way I was going to pay him only $40 bucks. I said to him, Lad, you aren’t charging enough… and paid him $65. Nice kid by the way.
Went to a Model RR show on the weekend and bought half a dozen Walthers building kits at reasonable prices but no rolling stock. I’ve been holding off on buying rolling stock till the show but since I found no rolling stock I needed/wanted, I went to E-bay and bought a beautiful A-B set of EMD F units both with sound. I can hardly wait till they get here which will take a while since they have to clear customs etc. So much for “free trade”. That only works if you are a big company. [N]
My, what a busy day here…one meeting after another…did not get home until after 9pm tonight…sheesh
It seemed that everytime one meeting was finished I had to run to another one…:chuckgrudenface:
I’ve got to check my bloodsugar now to see what kind of merry myahem all that running round did…
Have a good evening!!
Ulrich: That is the thing of it. My mother, being born in Dresden, had, by the way she told the story, had some kind of connection with some higher ups, as it were. We actually did not go to Ellis Is…but to Montreal QC…on one of the last Cunard Lines ships…I still have the original ticket…1st class yet…
Just stopping in to see what is going on. Guess not much. I see Ken is watching a movie about Brittany getting in a fight, I guess…??? Glad to hear your toe is finally healing up!
My sweet kittie cat Manét is losing a tooth. Right bottom Fang… The vet is closed on Tuesday afternoon, so if it is still in his mouth tomorrow afternoon I will give the Vet a call to see if she can remove it for him. This is a tooth she thought was getting loose last August, but it still seemed solid when she has two people hold him down so she could get a look at it without getting a finger taken off by him. He is 20 lbs. of pure muscle!
I have a meeting with the new Superintendent of Schools tomorrow morning to acquaint her with the working of the MLK committee in the community. With me will be a former secretary over at the local college, and the president of the college’s wife who is a volunteer at the schools “after school” help program. Nothing like bringing out the “Big Guns” for the cause. The Asst. Superintendent for Curriculum should also be there. His sister received one of our scholarships several years back and was our featured speaker at the Scholarship Dinner last year. She is now a lawyer in Rochester, NY.
After that I may actually get some train work in depending on the cat situation. I’m kind of hoping he will lose the tooth by himself… They will heal usually without any problems so I just want him not to be in pain… His brother has already lost a tooth, and I didn’t even know about it until the vet found it.
Just got back from the local MR club. A fellow modeler sold me an Intermountain SBD 50’ modernized PS1 for $10 and he said he would trade me another accurail autorack for my athearn Ps2 covered hopper. So that brings my open autorack total up to 8. I think I can load them all too.
I also speedmatched 4 engines to run with 2 I had already matched. So I ran them together for a bit. I had a GP30, 2 GP38-2s, 2 GP38Xs, and a GP15-1. I set them so their top speed isn’t lionel fast, perfect for taking to a show. Reason being if a kid wants to run my train, he can’t go too fast.
Jeff … Take care of yourself first. We’ll pray for your Mom. … A guy started a thread on swapping shells, and I thought of your Sundown Shops and your creations.
Talk about Europeans, my wife has German ancestors. I have English (50%) , Scotch (25%), and Dutch (25%).
Ken … I hope that foot keeps improving.
I got back on my DCC learning curve today, and figured out some of the remapping stuff for lights. It did this for my F7 ABA.
Still dark outside. The sun will rise in about an hour´s time. To tell the truth, I am not particularly fond of the “dark” season. We have a little less than 8 hours of daylight now, going down by more than an hour until Dec. 21st. I wonder how those people living even further up north cope with that - liquid sunshine in a bottle?
Talking of bottles, Garry - oh boy, a share of 25% Scotch in your blood requires an awful lot of [D] to get to that level [<:o)]
Flo, strong coffee in my SKB mug, please - make it the eye opening kind, will you, darling?
I have pretty much depleted my MRRing budget for this year with the purchase of those tools. Bought both at a price of 60% MSRP, which seems to be a pretty good deal, but now I don´t have any funds left to buy the material I need to continue on those structures [:'(]. Well, maybe there is a chance around the holidays…
Often, because we “play with trains” some think us “Mad as a Hatter”, SO:
Meaning:
Completely mad. This is now commonly understood to mean crazy, although the original meaning is unclear and may have meant annoyed…
ORIGIN:
Mercury used to be used in the making of hats. This was known to have affected the nervous systems of hatters, causing them to tremble and appear insane. A neurotoxicologist correspondent informs us that “Mercury exposure can cause aggressiveness, mood swings, and anti-social behaviour.”, so that derivation is certainly plausible - although there’s only that circumstantial evidence to support it.
The use of mercury compounds in 19th century hat making and the resulting effects are well-established - mercury poisoning is still known today as ‘Mad Hatter’s disease’. That could be enough to convince us that this is the source of the phrase. The circumstantial evidence is rather against the millinery origin though and, beyond the fact that hatters often suffered trembling fits, there’s little to link hat making to the coining of ‘as mad as a hatter’.
We are going to see some more sun today…high of 37F is expected…right now we are sitting at…oh…24F…
Going to be a bit quieter in the runnin’ ‘roun’ doin’ stuff department…which is a good thing. All I got on the agenda today is a few household gotta dos and some traintime…heeheehee…
Good morning, Diners. I will have a quick coffee to go, Chloe.
Ulrich, Nice start.
I climb tonight so tomorrow will be my first chance to start painting my car shop. I used Aileen’s glue to attach my battins. I am holding my breath that the paint won’t make it come apart. Since it is a NP car shop, I intend to paint it to match the depot.
Good morning. It’s 41° with 95% humidity. It’ll be mostly sunny with a high of 62°.
It;s on the cool side here with a northeast wind coming off the lake. I may work on the layout a bit today. There are no projects I want to work on right now. The grain elevator still isn’t complete but I just don’t feel like tackling that right now. There are other smaller things I can work on but I just don’t want to get wrapped up in any one thing at this time.
