Joseph Peter Weiss is my great grandfather. He died in the 1960s, so I never met him. His wife was Frances Ryan. The Weisses are German, the Ryans Irish. When Anne Falconer sent me photos from Clara Weiss’ album a few months ago, a few of them were of Joseph and Frankie. Without ado, here they are:
Click on each photo to go to the page for each photo on my genealogy site where larger scans can be downloaded.
Joseph Weiss (early 1870s)
Most of the photos that Anne sent me were copies she had made. However, she sent me an original print of the photo above!
Joseph Weiss early 20sJoseph and Frances Weiss (about 1891)Frances Weiss holding a child
I don’t know for certain which child this is. It is likely either my great aunt Marie or my great uncle Joe Jr.
I might as well announce it to make it easier to explain why I won’t be attending your event in January.
After mom died in 2008, I wanted to relax and travel before getting back into the swing of life. But almost immediately afterward Gramps had a heart attack and so I put off any extensive travel so I could drive Gram & Gramps when they needed it, and then their health deteriorated. After that, I was doing some work and being the personal representative on their estate. I also had an increasingly aging and sick cat to care for.
All those will no longer be an issue come January. I am going to take some time and get out of Dodge.
Some time ago, Brittany (not her real name) planned a Caribbean Cruise for the 8th through the 15th of January, 2012. I had already booked my place on the cruise. Instead of flying to the departure point in Miami, I am going to drive.
Google Maps suggested route from my house to the Miami cruise terminal
I have only a loose plan at this point. I will fill in more details of the plan soonish, but most of the plan will remain undetermined until I get to wherever. I don’t know wherever is. I won’t know until I get there.
The loose plan: I think I will leave January 1st after I recover from New Years Eve debauchery. That will give me 7 days to drive to Miami. According to Google Maps, it’s about a 54 hour drive by their preferred route. That’s about 8 hours per day. On my own, I can usually go 10 to 12 hours each day. I might even have time to stop and see a thing or two.
From the 8th through the 15th, I will be reading books on a big fucking boat.
After the cruise, I will drive back to Seattle. On the itinerary are the following: Springfield, Illinois, a couple of places in Iowa, and Brule County, South Dakota. I want to research some family history in those places. I also want to also visit a few book bloggers (who, to my knowledge, do not live in those particular places) and buy them coffee and talk books. Other than that, I am giving myself the freedom to change my route because I see a sign saying This way to the world’s largest ball of twine! or National Mustard Museum, 100 miles ahead in Mount Horeb! Want me to visit along the way? Send me your details and if the whim strikes me, I will.
When will I be in those places? I don’t know. What other places will I go? I don’t know. How long will that return trip take? I don’t know. I will most certainly be back in time for the Sounders home opener in March. There’s a good chance I will be back in time for Losers Dinner on February. But I may skip that.
I will send post cards. If you want post cards, send me your mailing address. Either comment with it here, on Google+, on Facebook, or email it to me if you are squeamish about it being public. If you don’t have my email address, use spamforphil at kingrat.biz. (Note: I don’t check that email address very often, so put POSTCARD in the subject so I can pull the appropriate emails out easily.) I will also likely blog and Google+ a fair amount. Suggestions for things to see and do are welcome on any of the travel related posts.
This is the recipe I used for the Mushroom Pie at Pie Night yesterday. I’ve made it once before, in about 2006 or 2007. In the original mushroom pie recipe on AllRecipes.com, the mushroom mixture is the stuffing for a puff pastry. The exact same stuff made great filling for a traditional pie.
1 tablespoon olive oil
10 ounces sliced crimini mushrooms (I bought pre-sliced)
1 large onion
6 slices fakin’ bacon (or 4 of real bacon if not being fed to vegetarians)
¾ cup heavy cream
about 4 ounces Swiss cheese
about 1 teaspoon fresh dill
2 crusts for double-crust pie
Preheat the oven to 350°
Shred the cheese
Peel and chop the onion
Chop the fakin’ bacon into about half inch pieces
In a large skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat
Add the mushrooms, onion, and bacon
Cook and stir for about 5 minutes until vegetables are tender
Reduce heat to medium
Add the cream and dill
Cook and stir for about 10 minutes
Remove from heat
Stir in the cheese
Pour mushroom mixture into a pie crust
Cover with top pie crust and flute the edge to seal
Here’s the recipe for the Shrimp Pie I made for Pie Night last night. It comes from Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2006
. They took a reader submitted recipe and lightened it up. I kinda added some of the fat back. (As always, the recipe below is how I made it, not how it appears in the cookbook.)
Crust
1¼ cups all-purpose flou
¼ cup semolina flour
2 teaspoons sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
¼ cup ice water
½ teaspoon cider vinegar
cooking spray
Preheat oven to 375°
Chill butter, then cut into small pieces
Combine all-purpose flour, semolina flour, sugar, and salt in food processor
Add butter and vegetable shortening
Process until the mixture is a course meal
Combine ice water and vinegar
Add vinegar-water mixture to flour
Mix with a fork until well combined
Coat a deep dish pie plate with cooking spray
Press mixture into pie plate and up the sides
Bake for about 5 minutes
Cool on a wire rack
Filling and Pie
1 tablespoon olive oil
12 ounces uncooked, deveined shrimp
¼ cup cream cheese
½ cup egg substitute
2 teaspoons all purpose flour
1 cup evaporated milk
2 ounces Havarti cheese
fresh dill
1/8 teaspoon salt
Chop shrimp into bite sized pieces
Heat olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat
Add shrimp and cook until you’re sure it’s cooked
Combine cream cheese and ¼ cup of egg substitute in a mixing bowl
Beat with a mixer at medium speed until well blended
Add flour and beat one minute minute
Add remaining egg substitute and milk and beat until mixed
I got Guinevere from a shelter in June 1997; they estimated she was 5 to 7 years old. I needed a mouser when I had a built-in-1905 farmhouse in Deary, Idaho. She did great at that, and when I moved to apartment living to chase jobs in Boise, Bremerton, Redmond, and Seattle, she adjusted well to a new life. She liked people, but hated other animals in her old age. Mostly, she just snuggled in beside me when I was working on the laptop or reading a book. Not a bad gig if you can get it.
She’s been sick. Hyperthyroid and when that was treated it revealed her kidneys were in severe decline. She had been getting somewhat better, and I was hoping she was in a state of the illness that was manageable. Not to be though, as she got a lot worse this weekend and it was clear I would be cruel to keep her alive. I made the appointment and took her in today. The vet put her in my lap and I got to hold hold her and pet her as the vet put her to sleep. It took about 30 seconds. She just laid her head down.
Kim babysat me this morning. This is the photo she took of me and Guinevere, waiting for the time to leave.
I don’t know quite what to do with myself (time to post to the Internets!) and I miss her.
For Port of Seattle Commissioner, Gael Tarleton is an incumbent and Richard Pope is a perennial gadfly candidate. I’m kind of torn on this race. Richard Pope is a little bit off, and he’s a one issue candidate. However, his issue is getting rid of the $73 million property tax levy the Port of Seattle gets from property owners. He’s totally right that there’s no reason for the Port to tax us rather than extract its fees from port traffic. Gael Tarleton is an intelligent candidate, and somewhat of a reformer. But most of her reforms are tinkering on the edges.
I’ll probably vote for Gael Tarleton, because I suspect Richard Pope will be an outlier on the commission and won’t be effective.
Sherril Huff has been running the King County Elections department since before it was an elected position, and has been doing a good job. Her opponent, Mark Greene, is running for the position because he holds a grudge over having lost the Republican primary for the 9th district to Paul Lord. In his mind, King County Elections stole (or allowed someone to steal) the election from him, and then destroyed the evidence.
There’s a slim chance he might be right, but I’m going with Occam’s razor here. If Mark Greene was really about elections reform, he’d make sure to oppose computer balloting without a verifiable paper trail. He doesn’t. He’s just a crank.
SJR 8206 – A constitutional amendment on the budget stabilization account maintained by the state treasury.
This amendment would require the legislature to transfer additional moneys to the budget stabilization account in each fiscal biennium in which the state has received extraordinary revenue growth, as defined, with certain limitations.
There are two ways to smooth out revenue fluctuations from year to year. One of them is to borrow from the future, which is what the federal government does. However, the state constitution requires a balanced budget and getting that changed isn’t politically doable. The other way is to put money away, to be drawn down when times are bad. That’s how Washington State currently does it. (Some states don’t do it at all.)
The rainy day fund is currently about $300 million. The revenue shortfall is about $2 billion. In other words, the rainy day fund turned out to not be large enough. Not even close.
This amendment requires that, if the state has growth that is more than 33% above the 10 year growth rate, the amount above that be put into the rainy day fund. In other words, don’t spend as much money when times are really flush and story it away. We currently save 1% of our revenues, and this won’t change that. It only adds additional saving for flush times.
The no argument is that we should spend that money on needed services instead. And while that is an attractive argument, we’d have to cut off those programs a few years later during the next recession. I’d rather us have sustainable programs.
And it’s much preferable to save the money than rebate taxes. That doesn’t prepare us at all for the next recession.
SJR 8205 – removes Article VI, Section 1A of the Washington Constitution.
This amendment would remove an inoperative provision from the state constitution regarding the length of time a voter must reside in Washington to vote for president and vice-president.
This one is pretty much a no-brainer. But before I explain why, here’s the provision which will be removed if this passes:
SECTION 1A VOTER QUALIFICATIONS FOR PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. In consideration of those citizens of the United States who become residents of the state of Washington during the year of a presidential election with the intention of making this state their permanent residence, this section is for the purpose of authorizing such persons who can meet all qualifications for voting as set forth in section 1 of this article, except for residence, to vote for presidential electors or for the office of President and Vice-President of the United States, as the case may be, but no other: Provided, That such persons have resided in the state at least sixty days immediately preceding the presidential election concerned.
The legislature shall establish the time, manner and place for such persons to cast such presidential ballots.
Basically the deal is that at the time, the 60 day requirement was much more lenient than the normal residency requirement for voting in Washington. However, the Supreme Court invalidated all laws that establish a residency requirement that’s greater than 30 days for presidential elections. And now we just have a 30 day requirement anyway. So why not clean this provision up?
I’ll be voting for it. Even if it wasn’t inoperative, I’m in favor of making voting easier.
This measure would close state liquor stores and sell their assets; license private parties to sell and distribute spirits; set license fees based on sales; regulate licensees; and change regulation of wine distribution.
For the last few years, Costco has sponsored initiatives to privatize liquors sales and distribution. I’m generally in favor of the idea, but have opposed the specific measures in the past, and I oppose I-1183 as well. But it won’t break my heart if it passes either.
State Liquor Store, 1971
Right now beer and wine can be sold in private retail stores in Washington. Hard liquor is sold only from restaurants, bars, and retail stores run by the Washington State Liquor Control Board. I believe the hard liquor monopoly is a remnant of prohibition. I-1183 directs the state to sell any assets related to liquor sales or distribution. In practice this will mean that the stores will be closed, because another item in the measure limits sales to stores with 10,000 square feet. In other words, grocery stores and big box discount stores.
The measure does not eliminate the three tier system for distribution though; we’ll still have producers, distributors, and retailers. But some companies will be allowed to be their own distributors, bypassing the middle man. That means places like Costco can sell liquor more cheaply. Which is something I’d be fine with, but it will probably freeze out small producers from the largest sales channel in the state. Right now they have a better opening into the distribution system. I don’t know where I come down on that. I’d like small producers to survive, but I don’t agree with doing it by monopoly power and price fixing.
I-1183 will raise revenues for the state, from $5 million to $8 million in 2012, and $35 million to $42 million in 2017, depending on assumptions. Local government revenues increase as well. These are the numbers the state came up with. The No On 1183 campaign likes to portray this as a tax increase and therefore bad. People don’t have to buy hard liquor, so it doesn’t bother me much.
Where my opposition comes though is that liquor will more or less only be sold in grocery stores. My ideal privatization measure would sell off the stores to be operated privately. Or allow private companies to open competing liquor stores. But spreading liquor sales into groceries worries me.
