brick wall down!!

i finally broke through a brick wall in my family tree. my uncle's parent's were from Germany and Scotland. and i finally broke through on his mother's family in Scotland. spent several hours putting all the census info into a spreadsheet so i can make sure i not only have all the family members but that none are duplicated - like being elizabeth on one census and lizzie on another one. i know this is my extended family but it still excites me. i will probably spend a good portion of my weekend working on this line. oh and i offered to do some research for a friend too. need to get her an email form out so she can fill it out and get it back to me. she will be up visiting next week and would like to have some stuff to give/show her. anyway, story time -- when i was little, i wanted a pet. we were not allowed to have pets where we lived, so it was a hamster here and a guinea pig there. but i wanted a cat or dog. but to fill the void i would bring home wild animals and claim they were "pets". i grew frog eggs into tadpoles and frogs, i brought home garter snakes, tried to rescue the tent caterpillers from the death spray one year. but i think the best was the time i decided i wanted a baby raccoon. our apartments were surrounded by woods back then so we saw quite a bit of wildlife. and being spring most everything had babies. well this one mama raccoon had four babies, and i felt that she would not miss one if i could catch it, and being a baby i could tame it and have it as a pet. so i watched quietly as mama and her family went into the dumpster to forrage, quietly put down a trail of sugar cubes - i loved them so raccoons should too right?? i then went up to the middle porch and waited. well yeah, the babies followed that sugar trail right into my apartment, but before i could get back in and shut the door to pick my new pet, the mama flew into the apartment and hit the door just right so that it slammed shut. and it was locked. and i didnt have a key. and my mom was down at her friends house way in the nest enterance of the apartments. so i run down to get the key, have to explain why i need it, run back and open the door to this horrible screeching, and white powder flying everywhere. so, as my mom catches up with me, the raccoons all run out covered in white powder. she looks around at the collateral damage and very quietly says "i will be home at 5. my house will be clean. my baking supplies will be re-stocked. and you will be waiting for me" i knew i was in soooo much trouble. so i called my best friend and partner in crime, explained what happened, and she took my babysitting money and ran to the store to buy flour, sugar, brown sugar, powdered sugar and bring them back for me. and i cleaned like the devil was riding my back to take me to hell if it was not clean. when she got back from the store she helped me clean. and it was done and everything put away and me sitting at the dinner table waiting when my mom came home at 5. yes, i was grounded. yes, it sucked. but i never tried to catch a baby raccoon again!! :)

hope you all have a great weekend,

peace and luv,

laura