Daily Archives: June 25, 2008

Geneology

Posted on by Unsigned Podcast
Reply

I’ve always counted on my younger sister to keep track of the family members. She keeps a list of everyone’s address, their birthdays, anniversaries and handles all the general family duties. She has even started researching out family tree and has been compiling names and contact information for lots of great aunts and great uncles and cousins removed and all that.

One side of our family includes the Scottish clan MacKenzie, and sis has been collecting information about the design of the tartan and other interesting tidbits of our geneology. She even came across a very old prayer evidently from hundreds of years ago that gives you pause to reflect on how life was back in the day:

The MacKenzie Clan Prayer

Bless a’ the MacKenzies an’ a’ the Mackenzie childer; their sons
an’ son’s childer and their dochiter’s for a thousan’ years to come.

Be Ye gracious an’ send doon mountains o’ snuff,
an rivers of whiskey.

An’ oh lord send doon swords an’ pistels an’ daggers
as monie as the sands on the seashore
to kill the MacDonalds, the Clan Ranalds, and the Campbells.

An oh Lord, bless the wee coo, an’ make it a big coo.

An oh Lord bless the sucklin’ and make it a grand board.

An oh Lord, bless the wee bairns, yon Angus,
Alex an’ Bessie an’ Maggie an’ Florrie.

An oh Lord, build up a great wall between us an’ the Irish,
an’ put broken bottles on the top, so they cannae come over.

An’ oh lord, if ye hae anything gude to gie, dunna gie it to the Irish,
but gie it to your chosen people, the Scots,
especially to the Clan MacKenzie an’ a’ their friends.

Glorious ye are for ever more.

Home Decor Includes Clocks

Posted on by Unsigned Podcast
Reply

The wife says we should be getting our “economic stimulus” check from Uncle Sam just about any day and has been day dreaming about what we should spend it on. Last night we surfed a few web sites and did a little shopping to make up a wish list and budget our anticipated money.

One site that I particularly liked was 1-800-4clocks which is all about clocks, especially grandfather clocks. I never realized there were so many different kinds of grandfather clocks and so many different things to consider before purchasing one.

First of all, there is the clock maker to consider. The long established and top brand names include Howard Miller, Hermle, Seth Thomas and Bulova. Of course there are others, but those are the ones that I recognized right off and the ones that I focused on shopping.

Then you have to choose the clock cabinet style and type of wood finish or metal color. Then there is the clock face to consider and you also choose the chimes. On the 1-800-4clocks website they have a little button that lets you listen to samples of the different chimes. That is a nice feature, because I wouldn’t otherwise know the difference between the different ones, although once you hear them you think, “Oh! Of Course!” because you do recognize them after hearing them.

The website even has a blog that is a collection of short articles relevant to grandfather clocks. I read the post titled, “Grandfather Clocks Help Define Decor” and knew right away that we should go ahead and make buying our new grandfather clock a priority, and it appears the wife agrees!