both my great and my great-great grandmothers claimed to be widows on the census, but their husbands were "boarders" in another woman's house

That happened in my family, also, though it was great-great-grandma listed at a widow and great-great-greandpa listed a as widower in the same town. Ten years before they had both been listed as divorced.

Last class for the summer was tonight, and after we did our teacher evals and the last batch of pathfinder presentations, we were cut loose. Four of us stayed late, some to work on other class projects, and the rest of us to chat. Nancy ended up talking with Pat, who is the school librarian for a private school in the West Loop, and she might end up looking into the school for her not-yet-two-year-old daughter when it comes time, especially since there are a large number of scholarship students there. Pat's friends with the admissions person, and is willing to give Nancy an in!

I also mentioned a certain book being published on Halloween to Pat, since she's the librarian for the preK-3rd grade school, and she was fascinated by it!! Allyson, if you read this and your publisher is sending you on a publicity tour to Chicago, I could get you lots of school and public libraries for events through my school and classmates. Pat was wondering if you'd be in town promoting it.

ETA: The second grade does a whole section on bats, so they'd love Sam, I'm sure!!

It sounds like you have a good handle on what the problems and potential pitfalls are sara. Good luck with dealing with them.

Kathy, that's neat!

-t, I'm good on reading the office politics, all those years on the helpdesk taught me a lot in dealing with difficult people and translating to their language. Plus, I know the incestuality of the field, plus the personalities that inhabit it (though luckily, don't work with the worst.) Now I just need to follow through.

I listen. I watch. It fascinates me. But I hate being a player in it. Or sub to it.

Cash, Amy et al-- It is addictive. Also, once you get far enough back, if the trail isn't dead, it is easier to research. My great grandfather was also named "John Taylor" so there is a lot of them to sort through. I think I might have messed up 2 different people, or someone did on the records.

Unfortuneately, the period that interests me the most (1940's) doesn't have census records on-line until 2012. And women are much harder to trace because of the maiden name things (although there are a lot of shared names in the family).

It is really fascinating, especially since my family was very secretive, and everyone who knows anything, even about my grandparents, has died. I was hoping I could get in touch somehow with my Great Aunt Babe's kids and grandkids, but they don't give out the names of the living.

Need to consider a rainbarrell.

This may not be such an issue in non-desert areas, but one of the big car dealerships wanted to put in a rain reclamation system on their new building, and the state told them they were stealing the water that belonged to the government. Turns out the water rights to rain falling on private property do not automatically go to the property owners, under very old laws of Utah. Everyone with rain barrels was technically committing a felony. Not sure how/if that has been resolved.

There is a *slight* argument that if everyone collected the rain that fell on their roofs that it would reduce the amount of water going downstream, but even the environmentalists were of the opinion that what fell on streets and parking lots was sufficient for that purpose, and that it would all flow downstream eventually, especially the rain barrel water that was going to used for watering lawns and gardens.

and the state told them they were stealing the water that belonged to the government. Turns out the water rights to rain falling on private property do not automatically go to the property owners, under very old laws of Utah.

True in, at least some places, California too. Water is srs bsns in deserts.

Dole markets an orange-peach-mango juice that eases a lot of the OJ acid for me

I find mango is a very good buffer, but much with the sweet. Def needs dilution.

Oy, with the politicking sara. I hope to avoid a lot of that at my place. The structure seems very simple. Or I could be being wilfully naive.

I just stopped working.

Not because I was done, but because the database I was using decided it was done for the day.

That's too late to be working, Perkins.