DNA Cousin Meet-Up

I hereby dedicate this post to my DNA cousin, Sandy. 

We turned in our tests months apart. No real lead came in for her. Then-pop! Our results match up and I get a breakthrough on a name. My family had been spelling it Ruedda. But it was meant to be spelled Ruo Redda. Other pieces fell into place. Names that were pallbearers at her grandfather's funeral were indeed relatives and know we both knew how we were connected. Even if I never get another match, meeting Sandy made the $99 worth it. 

In mid-February she and her husband came to Maryland to visit some other friends. We met for lunch at the quaint Baldwin's Station near my home. It was good conversation (but I did talk too way much). Hope she forgives me!

Banana Split Dishes

I never got to meet Don's father, he passed away while I was in high school. Some days, though, I feel like I have met him because of how vivid Don's memories are of him. Don insists that his father would have loved me. He explains that our love of sci-fi, geeky programming, and even playing with wireless technologies would have been common ground to start the conversation but my quick wit (blush) and his father's dry humor would have kept it going. Don also says that his father, Bob, would have considered me worthy enough to debate. At any rate, one of Bob's pleasures was an old fashion banana split. Don remembers this fondly and proudly being served one of these bad-boys by his Dad. Of all the times I offered Don a banana split, he didn't want one, at first I assumed he had outgrown his sweet tooth. But he explained, that you can't have a decent banana split without the right dish.

Hunh? What the! How silly! It would taste just the same! I only said aloud, "Why does it matter?" Don smiled and said, "Trust me, it does."

Since that time and as I grew to know and understand Don better, and hear more about his father, I learned that it really did matter. So, I occasionally searched for the right banana split dishes. Oh, I found some right away, but they didn't speak to me. They didn't say these were the right ones. Years have gone by since that conversation -no hurry, no rush.

I was reminded to look again recently. There they were! Not like the ones Don grew up with but ones that we could call our own and create new memories. When all heavy 12 anchor hocking dishes arrived, we carefully washed them. Don saw them and smiled the sweetest smile at me. The next night he went to the store, to find ingredients worthy of *his* new dishes. His- because we knew that these were meant for Dad only to dish out the goods. He served every child and I with a huge smile and watched us eat every bite. He was too full with dinner to have more than a bite of Sean's dessert, but that didn't stop Don from grinning like a fool and looking at all us of dig in.

Anyway, now we are a family with the right banana split dishes that maybe company will get to use one day, but that will be up to Don.

Patent 4,565,050

So I mentioned that my Dad is a cool inventor. Well, it really goes beyond that, he is so creative with all of his endeavors. When he and my mother were visiting for the holidays, I was reminded how he would wrap our Christmas presents in crazy ways. He would take the empty Leggs eggs and tape two down to a large piece of cardboard in the shape of two breasts. Then he would cover the whole thing with wrapping paper. He once wrapped a gold necklace for my mom in a CD case and asked me to help him create a "Solid Gold" Motown-like cover.

Stumbled/searched for his patent today. I think technically he should have more but doesn't like to do the paperwork. I was surprised that it was two years between filing and granting the patent.