Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

“Six-thirty-two in the morning on Thanksgiving Day…”

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Thursday – 25 November 2010
It’s Thanksgiving Day here in the States.

Yesterday wound up being relatively low-key. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. In the afternoon, I made stops at Dr. Volt’s and The Train Shoppe. On the trip between the two stores, I saw an accident happen, about 25 yards ahead of me: I was heading north along 7th East when a southbound car decided to turn left… in front of the car that I was behind. I don’t know exactly “how” it happened, but the result was that the south-to-eastbound car t-boned the northbound car. The northbound car spun 180 degrees and wound up sitting at the northeast corner; the south-to-eastbound car just kind of… stopped in the middle of the intersection. (Thirty minutes later, as I was heading home, both cars and drivers were still sitting at the intersection, waiting on the police, though the offender had moved her car to the southeast corner.)

After I got home, SaraRules! and I headed to The Garden of Sweden. We needed some additional chairs, as we’re having the SaraRules!’ family over for dinner today. We opted to have dinner out, stopping at Outback Steakhouse. Hello, Prime Rib… When we returned to the house, I started making a sweet potato pie for (one of) tonight’s desserts.

I woke up early this morning and discovered something that no home owner ever wants to find: Our pipes had frozen. It’s been about… 20 years… since I’ve dealt with that – and the last time, the pipes just burst – so my first reaction was more “inaction,” while trying to suss out what to do. (Hey, it was 6:15 AM. My brain was still on “Standby.”)  Fortunately, I married someone who not only has a high INT, but a pretty high WIS, too. She called the water department, to make sure that there wasn’t a problem with the main. (There wasn’t.) Next step: Heating the pipes. Carefully. SaraRules! started with a hair dryer at the main. A little while later, I remembered that we have a pipe in the ceiling of the family room that could have been part of the problem. Sure enough, that seemed like it might have been the culprit (or at least a co-conspirator).  After a little heat application, we had running water again. Amen. This gave us yet another thing for we could not only be thankful, but also it also offers us a great “Remember that first Thanksgiving in the house…?” story.)

Stray Toasters

And with that… it’s about time to start on the Cornish Hens.

Namaste.

“Twas the snowy day before Thanksgiving…”

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Wednesday – 24 November 2010
Today begins my 5-day weekend.
I celebrated by shoveling the driveway and sidewalks.

Yesterday, we were forecast to have a huge blizzard. We got a few inches of snow. That’s not too bad. The main concern, however, was that the today’s temperature is not supposed to get above freezing. With that in mind, The Council for Better Driving: Utah reminds all drivers to take care when venturing out on the roads today.

Last night, SaraRules! and I did something we haven’t done in a while: We watched NCIS and NCIS: Los Angeles. It’s kind of funny, considering that we have the shows set to record on the DVR. SaraRules! had also baked cookies and fixed hot chocolate.  Win-Win!

After watching TV, I went to work on the model railroad. More specifically, I reconfigured the layout. Again. This time, I’ve gone with a U-shaped layout, with a 4’x8′ table on either side of the room with two tracks running between them, along the base of the U:

This allows me to have a residential/commercial setting on the right table and a rail yard on the left table. (As you can see, the rail yard could use a little more track… but all things in good time.) I also have about three feet of clear space at the end of the right table that I could use to expand that side of the layout, If I’m feeling adventurous. Another thing that I like about this setup is that I’m literally in the middle of the action; yeah, it’s kind of geeky, but it makes me smile.

Something that I’d love to do – time, money, and space allowing for it – is to put a bridge (or two) over the span in the middle. I think that would just look neat. With that, I’m also trying to see if I could do a short run – or maybe just a passing line – under the bridge.  But, that will mostly depend on how much clearance the track has from the top of the board.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Don’t you carry nothin’ that might be a load… C’mon, ease on down, ease on down the road.”

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Thursday – 11 November 2010
Today is Veteran’s Day:

It is also my NBN Technical Friday.

Last night, was D&D Encounters night with Melody, Jack and company. My character nearly had his butt handed to him at the beginning of the encounter. Not good. Fortunately, my companions kept me from dying and we went on to beat the holy living shit out of our enemies. Amen.

After that, I headed over to Chris and Mary’s to help Chris install a new hard drive in his PS3. Might I just add the following note to Sony: If you’re going to make it so ludicrously easy to change the hard drive in the game unit, you might think about making a few things in your backup and restore instructions a tad more clear and/or intuitive. Thank you. After about an hour – including some time to surf a few web forums – we figured out what the problem was.

Instant Replay: Football

Baltimore Ravens at Atlanta Falcons
8:20 PM (EDT)
The Ravens and the Falcons meet up in the season’s first Thursday night football game.

Both teams are coming off very short weeks – they both played on Sunday – so it will be interesting to see how well they play with so little time between games. Atlanta has eight (8) players on their injury list, to Baltimore’s one: S Tom Zbikowski.

Stray Toasters

  • It’s another suit day. I changed it up a bit though: Olive suit, with a khaki knit mock turtleneck. Boo-yah!
    • Speaking of suits: Jos. A. Bank is having a sale on suitstoday only.  Guess who’s going suit shopping after work…
  • For SaraRules! and : 2010 Zombie Safehouse Competition
  • Karmaloop
  • Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia)

It’s the suburb of the week…
Arlington

Namaste.

“It’s a cold and it’s a broken Hallelujah…”

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Monday – 01 November 2010
Today is All Saints Day.

Yesterday was a relaxed and lazy day. I slept in a bit and then headed to the living room to watch a few things that have been on the DVR for far too long. Later, and I headed down to Lehi to check out a hobby shop… that was open on Sunday!  (You’d possibly have to live here to understand how bizarre it is to find a small town hobby store open on a Sunday afternoon.) When we got there, it was closed — the sign on the door said “Summer Hours: Closed Sundays.” This brought two things to mind:

  1. Wasn’t “summer” over an month and a half ago?
  2. Couldn’t they have listed something about being closed on their website?

On the way back, we experienced “Adventures in Road Rage” with some yutz in an SUV. Fun times.

After I got back home, I put in a little time playing LEGO Universe. From there, SaraRules and I headed to Home Depot, stopped off to help a friend with a computer problem and then went to the in-laws’ for dinner and football.

Post-game, we headed home and watched The Walking Dead. I liked it. There were a couple of parts that were reminiscent of 28 Days Later, where Cillian Murphy first awakens to discover the world (or at least England) has gone to Hell around him. I’m curious to see how the show progresses… and I should read the graphic novels, as we have them, to see how close the adaptation is.

Instant Replay: Football
The Ravens had their bye week. I hope they got in a good bit of rest because n
ext week is a VERY short week for them: Sunday, they play the Dolphins at home and Thursday they travel to the Georgia Dome to take on the Falcons.

Miami Dolphins at Cincinnati Bengals
22 – 14
The Dolphins headed up to Cincy to face the Bengals…

…and swam away with a win.
Sorry, [info]janietrain and [info]carefreespirit.

.

Seattle Seahawks at Oakland Raiders
3 – 33
The Raiders are on a roll, with their second big win in two weeks.

Congratulations, SaraRules! and [info]1silver_seraph.

.

Carolina Panthers at St. Louis Rams
10 – 20
The Panthers lost this one on the road… to the Rams. *sigh*

.

Pittsburgh Steelers at New Orleans Saints
10 – 20
The Steelers rolled into the Big Easy to face the Saints. I wasn’t sure how this one would turn out, but Drew Brees and company stood up to the challenge and came away with the win.

This is a double-plus for me as the Steelers’ loss puts the Ravens back atop the AFC North.

Stray Toasters

Things and stuff to do…

Namaste.

The day after…

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Wednesday – 27 October 2010
First day back in the office.
First day of snow in the valley.
Yay.

But, it’s Comics and Sushi Wednesday… so that helps to make it considerably better.

Yesterday was an amazing day. That’s really the only way to sum it up. Although I’ve known for a few weeks that I had a “birthday surprise” on tap from SaraRules!, I had no idea what it was until 0830 yesterday morning:

Yep… she got me the Ford Racing High Performance Driving School Mustang Experience package at the Miller Motorsports Park. And it was fantastic!

Granted, first thing in the morning, I wasn’t quite as gung-ho about it. In fact, I would describe it more as “ho-hum.” But, when I got out there and discovered exactly what I was in for, my attitude changed. A lot. Over the course of the day we:

  • …took a tour of The Larry H. Miller Total Performance Auto Museum, which houses part of the LHM auto collection,
  • …got 30 minutes of class instruction on high performance driving,
  • …went out on the track and got to drive race-tuned Mustang GTs for ten (10) laps, in a lead-follow behind a professional driver,
  • …rode for two (2) laps with a pro driver — we got to see how the course is supposed to be run,
  • …toured the entire MMP facility, and
  • …got to ride on the go-kart track.

After the whole thing was over, I went back to the museum and took pictures of the car collection. A lot of pictures. Jason, who did our earlier tour of the museum and grounds, was around to talk about each car and the stories behind them; he was very informative. I was expecting to be gone for two (maybe three) hours; all told, it was there for nearly five-and-a-half hours! And it was chock full of awesome!

On the way back home, I stopped at SaraRules! office to thank her (profusely) for such a fun birthday present. From there, I went to The Train Shoppe — I needed some rails to make a couple of siding spurs. Then… home.

We went out for dinner to Rodizio Grill.  Can you say “Meat o’clock,” boys and girls?  I knew you could! Yeah, it was totally “game on” with meats on a stick. And grilled pineapple. And caiphirinas. And their Chocolate Cake Sundae. Want to talk about a couple of VERY full people…?  We were stuffed to the proverbial gills.

We ended the evening with Buckaroo Banzai: Across the 8th Dimension.  Somehow, I had never seen this movie before, although it was apparently a staple of SaraRules! and her sibs’ childhood. It was silly. And campy. And terribly fun.

All-in-all, it was a wonderful day to turn 40.

Stray Toasters

Yeah, that’s good for now.

Namaste.

“It’s not how fast you can go, the force goes into the flow…”

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Thursday – 21 October 2010
Another NBN begins here in the valley.
And it’s a slightly chilly one.  (At least it is to me.)

Last night was D&D (4.0) night, with m3l and Jack. We had a good encounter (read: “No one in our group died.”) I also managed to more-or-less finish my repaint of the latest Wolverine HeroClix. I did him up in his current, non-X-Force costume… but haven’t decided if I’m going to do the striping on the side. We’ll see. And maybe I’ll try to get some pictures of it, as well.

After gaming, SaraRules! and I hit the gym. Last night was a cardio night. Rather than get on the elliptical, I got on the treadmill. We walked for a half-hour; I covered 1.70 miles. Hopefully, my schedule will allow me to get back in there with some regularity in the next week or so.

Stray Toasters

…right on to the friction of the day.

Namaste.

“After the rain has fallen…”

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Tuesday – 05 October 2010
Work week: Day 2
Rain clouds have moved out of the valley and the sun is trying to peek through…

I just caught an email that informs me of a training session that I had forgotten about. That’s on top of another meeting, later in the day, which I did know about/remember.  Two hours that I kind of need to work on other things… gone. C’est la vie.

Last night, and Josh came over to watch the football game beat down that the Patriots handed the Dolphins. More on that in a minute. In typical Monday Night Football fashion, there was pizza and beer. SaraRules even baked cookies. It was a good evening.

Instant Replay: Football

New England Patriots at Miami Dolphins
41 – 14
The Patriots traveled to Sun Life Stadium to take on the Dolphins in the month’s first Monday night game.Early on, the Pats didn’t look too impressive, only scoring a pair of field goals in the second quarter. That was NOT the case, however, in the second half. They put up three touchdowns in the third quarter and two more in the fourth. It was almost as if they scored at will. The Pats’ special teams corps really put in a performance, including a 103-yard kickoff return for a TD to start off the third quarter.

The Dolphins, on the other hand… well… I don’t know what happened after a decent start to the game, but they just fell apart. The vaunted “Wildcat” formation did nothing for the offense. Receivers dropped balls that were thrown right to them. Chris Henne threw three (3) interceptions. They put up TDs in the first and third quarters, but that was it.

In a bitof a historic note, the Patriots scored in all but two possible ways last night:

  • Field Goal
  • Rushing TD
  • Passing TD
  • Kickoff return for TD
  • Blocked punt return for TD and
  • Interception return for TD.

The only other ways to have scored were: Safety and punt return for TD. If I remember the stat/graphic correctly, the Patriots are the only team in NFL history to pull off this feat.

It was a helluva good game… unless you happen to be a Dolphins fan.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Love and darkness and my sidearm…”

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Tuesday – 28 September 2010
Work Week Day 2.

Here’s a little something to get your morning moving:

Tom Brown: Funkin’ for Jamaica

Moby (ft. Gwen Stefani): Southside

Instant Replay: Football
Last night, I had a few of the guys over to watch Monday Night Football…

Green Bay Packers at Chicago Bears
17 – 24
The Green Bay Packers traveled to Chicago to take on the Bears at Soldier Field.It was a sloppy game for the Packers. Early on, it looked like they came to play, but their zeal seemed to wane a bit as the game went on.  On the other hand, Chicago looked kind of lax early on, but dialed up the effort in the second half… just enough to come away with a late game-winning field goal.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Friday free-for-all

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Friday – 10 September 2010
Good morning, Baltimore… um… “Salt Lake City!”

It’s my 9/80 “on” Friday.

Today is also the first day of Eid.
And… it is also Purple Friday.

Here’s a little DJ Kool to get your day moving (thanks to my man, Beckley, for the idea):

Last night marked the opening of the 2010 NFL Season. *genuflect*
The opening game featured the Minnesota Vikings taking on the New Orleans Saints:

Minnesota Vikings at New Orleans Saints
9 – 14
This was a game for which I had great expectations…

…and was ultimately let down. It wasn’t the game I expected, nor was it a really memorable game. And that’s kind of sad, given that this game was, effectively, a rematch of last season’s NFC title game.

The Saints, after a great opening drive, sputtered their way through the next couple of quarters, but managed to get more things “right” than the Vikings. Drew Brees threw for over 230 yards, but there wasn’t really much of a run game until Pierre Thomas found some holes in the defense in the second quarter.

Speaking of the Vikings, they just couldn’t seem to pull it together. The offense’s timing was off. WAY off in some cases. QB Brett Favre couldn’t synch up with his receivers in the way you’d expect. The running game, while not completely stopped, was definitely stunted. This wasn’t the team that I expected to see taking the field.

And the refs didn’t seem to help the Vikings’ cause at all; Minnesota couldn’t buy a good call. My boss messaged me after the game:

How did you like the four-hour long NFL tribute to the Saints? Refs and all.

And I can’t really say that his assessment was off.

It will be interesting to see how both teams fare as the season progresses.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Things from a Wednesday morning…

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Wednesday – 18 August 2010
Midweek. And that means Comics (and Sushi) Wednesday!

Yesterday afternoon, I called a local sporting goods store to see if they’d be able to do a quick turnaround on tuning up my bike. Yeah, the one that I haven’t ridden in about two years. They said that as long as I could have it there by 1000 this morning, that I could get it back this evening. It was in their store a little after 1800 yesterday. The clerk also told me that, aside from new tubes, it looked like it only needed a minor tune-up. Win!

SaraRules’ sister, Meliko, got into town last night. SaraRules and I stopped by the in-laws’ to visit with her  – and the in-laws – for a while.

The evening finished up with ice cream and an episode of Mad Men… which really isn’t a bad way to wind up a day.

There was just a major accident on the freeway outside of our building; I got a few pictures of the aftermath.  The Council for Better Driving would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone to please be careful when on the roadways.

Workout
Tuesday’s step count: 5, 546

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

O Canada…!

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Thursday – 01 July 2010
It’s kind of nice – and refreshing – to have the start of a brand-new month be an NBN Thursday. It puts a nice spin on things, I think.

It is also Canada Day.

What…?!
Alpha Flight is a team Canadian super-heroes.
(There’s even a maple leaf on Guardian’s costume!)
To me, that’s a “Win-Win.”

Last night, SaraRules fired up the grill and cooked up some mighty tasty burgers. (Have I mentioned: “Coolest Wife Ever,” lately?) After dinner, we headed up to her parents’ place for a bit — We spent some time with the grand’rents and I helped her dad troubleshoot a new wireless router he’d picked up.

Back at home, we wound down the evening with Top Gear and comic books (me) and ice cream (again, me). I tried to make it through the first two segments of The Late Late Show… and failed miserably. So, off to bed.

Workout
Yesterday’s step count: 3,937

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Mother Nature has a cruel sense of humor

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Thursday – 01 April 2010
It’s April Fools’ Day.

I intend to abuse your kind, trusting nature for the sake of my own moderate, short-lived amusement

In her inimitable charming manner, Mother Nature sent March out a little less lamb-like than many cared for. We were graced with new snow. Seeing the humor in making it an April Fool’s Day prank, she allowed the snow to continue to fall this morning. The Council for Better Driving: Utah reminds drivers to use caution when commuting today.

Today is also NBN “Technical Friday.”   Win.

Last night, SaraRules and I rented kids for the evening. I guess that it would be more accurate to say that we watched the kids while Kate and Perry took a belated anniversary night out. As usual, the kids were fine. And, for the first time in many, many years, I got to change a loaded diaper. (I’m sorely out of practice with those, it seems…)

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“Kick ’em when they’re up… Kick ’em when they’re down… “

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Friday – 19 February 2010
9/80 Friday off. Selah.

Of course, the big thing at this point is to decide what I want to do with my day…

Last night, Sararules and I watched The Hangover. I never really had an inclination to see it when it was in theatres, but SaraRules rented it, as Logan was supposed to come over and watch it. He didn’t; we did. It wasn’t as bad as I had feared and it was pretty funny.

sdfs

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
SaraRules brings us today’s profile of William Grant Still:

William Grant Still (May 11, 1895 – December 3, 1978) was an African-American classical composer. He was the first African-American to conduct a major American symphony orchestra, the first to have a symphony of his own (his first symphony) performed by a leading orchestra, the first to have an opera performed by a major opera company, and the first to have an opera performed on national television. He is often referred to as “the dean” of African-American composers.

William Grant Still was born in Woodville, Mississippi. His father, William Grant Still Sr., died when William was 3 months old and his mother, Carrie Lena Fambro Still, took him to Little Rock, Arkansas where she married Charles B. Shepperson and taught high school English for 33 years. Shepperson, his stepfather, nurtured his musical interests by taking him to operettas and buying Red Seal recordings of classical music which the boy greatly enjoyed. The two attended a number of performances by musicians on tour. William Still grew up in Little Rock, and there started violin lessons at age 14. He also taught himself how to play the clarinet, saxophone, oboe, double bass, cello and viola, and showed a great interest in music. His maternal grandmother introduced him to African American spirituals by singing them to him.

His mother wanted him to go to medical school, so Still pursued a Bachelor of Science degree program at Wilberforce University, founded as an African-American school, in Ohio. He conducted the university band, learned to play various instruments and started to compose and to do orchestrations. He also studied with Friedrich Lehmann at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music on scholarship. He later studied with George Whitefield Chadwick at the New England Conservatory again on scholarship, and then with the ultra-modern composer, Edgard Varèse.

Still initially composed in the modernist style, but later merged musical aspects of his African-American heritage with traditional European classical forms to form a unique style. In 1931 his Symphony No. 1 was performed by the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Howard Hanson, making him the first African-American composer to receive such attention. In 1936, Still conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and became the first African-American to conduct a major American orchestra.

William Grant Still received two Guggenheim Fellowships. He also was awarded honorary doctorates from Oberlin College, Wilberforce University, Howard University, Bates College, the University of Arkansas, Pepperdine University, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and the University of Southern California.

Still married Verna Arvey, a journalist and concert pianist, in 1939. They remained together until he died of heart failure in Los Angeles, California, in 1978.

Here is an excerpt from his most famous work, his Afro-American Symphony, written in 1935.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3JnMapsJMo

Stray Toasters

Time to figure out what I’m doing today…

Namaste.

“Bismillah!”

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Thursday – 11 February 2010
It’s snowing outside.

That’s not as radical a statement as “It’s snowing inside,” but considering that we were sunny and relatively clear-skied yesterday, it is a decided change. It’s cold enough that the snow is sticking to the ground, but warm enough that it’s not sticking to the roadways. Thus, the morning commute – and the commutes of those passing below our office windows – was relatively easy. Even so, the Council for Better Driving: Utah would like to remind drivers to be careful on the roads today.

Last night, SaraRules and I went to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. I was having a craving for their oh-so-tasty-yet-so-very-bad-for-you Aussie Cheese Fries. After dinner – a very filling, very satisfied dinner – we headed home for couch time: Human Target, Fringe and 24. When I’d had my fill of things going all ‘splodey, I called it a night.

Chew on This: Food for Thought – Black History Month
Today, there will not be a “Famous Person of the Day.” Instead, there will be two (2) of them:

Maulana Karenga
Ron Karenga (born Ronald McKinley Everett and also known as Maulana Karenga) is an African American author, political activist, and college professor best known as the creator of Kwanzaa.

Karenga was born on a poultry farm in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the fourteenth child of a Baptist minister. He moved to California in the late 1950s to attend Los Angeles City College, where he became the first African-American president of the student body. He was admitted to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) as part of a federal program for students who had dropped out of high school, and received his master’s degree in political science and African studies.

At the beginning of the 1960s, Karenga met Malcolm X and began to embrace black nationalism. Following the Watts riots in 1965, he interrupted his doctoral studies at UCLA and joined the Black Power movement. During this time, he took on the title “maulana”, an Arabic word literally meaning “our lord” or “our master” and has been borrowed into the Swahili language, where it is used also as a title of respect for revered members of a community, religious or secular, roughly equivalent to the English “Sir”. “Karenga” meant “nationalist.” Earlier, he had called himself Ron Ndabezitha Everett-Karenga; Ndabezitha being Zulu for “your majesty.” He formed the US Organization, an outspoken Black nationalist group.

He was awarded his first Ph.D. in 1976 from United States International University (now known as Alliant International University) for a 170-page dissertation entitled Afro-American Nationalism: Social Strategy and Struggle for Community. Later in his career, in 1994, he was awarded a second PhD, in social ethics, from the University of Southern California (USC), for an 803-page dissertation entitled “Maat, the moral ideal in ancient Egypt: A study in classical African ethics.”

Karenga is the former Chairman of the Black Studies Department at California State University, Long Beach, a position he held from 1989 to 2002. He is the director of the Kawaida Institute for Pan African Studies and the author of several books, including his Introduction to Black Studies, a comprehensive black/African studies textbook now in its third edition.

Karenga founded the Organization Us, a Cultural Black Nationalist group, in 1965. He is also known for having co-hosted, in 1984, a conference that gave rise to the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations, and in 1995, he sat on the organizing committee and authored the mission statement of the Million Man March.

Anna Kingsley
Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley (c. 1793 – April or May 1870) was a West African slave turned slaveholder and plantation owner in early 19th century Florida.

Anna Kingsley was born Anta Majigeen Ndiaye in 1793, in a portion of West Africa that was going through a tumultuous war between the majority Wolof people and the minority Fula. Slave raids were frequent occurrences among incessant violence that left many small villages deserted as people were either abducted for the purpose of selling into slavery or they fled in fear for their lives. Following an intensifying of the crisis in 1790, Anta was captured in 1806 when she was about 13 years old; she was  sent to Cuba where she was purchased by and married to Zephaniah Kingsley, a slave trader and plantation owner.

Kingsley freed Anna in 1811 and put her in charge of his plantations in East Florida. For 25 years, Kingsley’s unique family lived on Fort George Island in modern-day Jacksonville, where Anna managed a large and successful planting operation, owning slaves of her own.

After Spain handed control of Florida over to the U.S. in 1822, the new government progressively enacted stricter ordinances separating the races. The mixed-race Kingsley family was directly and negatively affected by these “illiberal and inequitable laws”, as Kingsley stated in his will. Kingsley transferred all their holdings to the three older children and moved to Haiti in 1835. Anna and their youngest son followed in 1838. In all, 60 slaves, family members, and freed employees moved with Kingsley to Haiti to start a plantation called Mayorasgo de Koka; Zephaniah Kingsley died soon after.

Anna returned to Florida in 1846 to participate in the Kingsley estate defense, despite the increasingly tense racial climate in Duval County. The court, however, upheld a previous treaty signed between the U.S. and Spain stipulating that all free blacks born before 1822 in Florida enjoyed the same legal privileges as they had when Spain controlled East Florida. Anna furthermore asked for and was granted the transfer of ownership of slaves who had been sent to the San Jose plantation when the family had moved to Haiti, but her request to rent her slaves to other plantations to maximize her profits was rejected by the courts.

The National Park Service protects Kingsley Plantation, where Anna and Kingsley lived on Fort George Island, as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

“I’ve been workin’ on the railroad, all the live-long day…”

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Tuesday – 19 January 2010
There’s snow in parts of the valley this morning. The northbound leg of I-215 (the freeway outside my office window) is backed up for a couple of miles, according to CommuterLink.  It was just raining when I left home, but I thought I saw a few flakes about the time I got to the office. We’ll see how the weather holds up for the rest of the afternoon. And, the Council for Better Driving: Utah reminds motorists to be careful when commuting today.

Once again this year, I neglected to set up a service project before yesterday. So, in an effort to at least a little something, I took a few unneeded and extraneous things to The Salvation Army. Hopefully, someone will be able to get some use out of the things I dropped off.

After that, I picked up from work and dropped her off at home. Next stop: The Train Shoppe. I’ve lived in Salt Lake City for over 11 years now… and this was my first time going there. And, it was well pretty cool. They carry N, HO, O and G scales. I’m interested in getting into O Scale (mainly because it’s roughly the same scale as HeroClix, meaning that if I get really intrepid/industrious, I can integrate my WWG buildings into a RR layout… and use some train accessories in ‘Clix games. Win-Win!). Unfortunately, I live in the wrong part of the country for easy/quick access to the ‘roads I’m interesting in: B&O/C&O/CSX, Norfolk & Western, Norfolk Southern and Pennsylvania, but, according to Jeff and Todd, they could order items for me, if I wanted them. Yep… there might have to be some “mad money reallocation” in my entertainment budget later this year.

Back at the homestead, I cooked dinner: Chicken breasts (stuffed with broccoli and cheese), rice (cooked in cream of mushroom soup), salad, dinner rolls and… homemade maple butter.

After dinner (and a little TV time), SaraRules and I headed to the gym. We did cardio(!) – 30 minutes on the elliptical. Once again, I made it through… despite going at a faster overall pace than I had planned on. I went a little over 2.5 miles and burned 300-ish calories.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.