I think I'm going to take some time tomorrow to get everything dusted, in particular taking everyting off of the bookshelves and dusting instead of just dusting around the books.

Another thing I found out about was that my dad's paternal great-uncle Gus, who had come to America from Sweden at the same time as my grandpa Bror (he was only a few years older than Bror and had lived with my grandpa's family since he was in his early teens, so they were practically brothers and not uncle/nephew), had lived in Fairbanks, Alaska, for a good portion of the late '40s and early-to-mid '50s (he worked on military bases building barracks and doing other carpentry) before coming back to Chicago, and then relocating to Minneapolis. I always thought he'd been in Minnesota and had no idea about the decade in Fairbanks (he met his second wife, Agnes, there; his first wife had died of cancer in the mid-40s).

Gus was a neat guy--I remember the trip we took to Minnesota when I was around 7. We stayed with Gus and Agnes for a few days, and Gus cracked me up! He was this small-statured old man who had more energy than us kids did, stayed up to all hours of the night playing pinochle, and loved to watch pro wrestling on Sunday mornings.

Speaking of stature, one of the photos I found in my box was one of my favorites, a great photo of my grandpa, his brother, and my aunt Dorothy (who was also my grandma's sister--two sisters married two brothers, which is pretty neat!) on a beach on the South Side of Chicago in 1932. Grandpa and my uncle are in the tank one-piece men's swimsuits of the time, and my aunt is in a gorgeously flowy chiffon dress, cradled sitting on their clasped hands. Grandma is apparently the one taking the pic, which is too bad because I would have loved to see her in a similar dress, which I just know she was.

Well, every time I see that pic, I'm constantly amazed at how much of a hunk my grandpa was as a young man! I mentioned that to Dad today, and he said that he remembered how Grandpa, who had a barrel chest, also had a real six-pack for abs, and had those until he was in his 50s. Also, he had dark hair until he was 43, when all of the sudden, it went white practically overnight for no particular reason.

Ok hivemind, anyone know anything about the nutrition thinking of high fat, low grain, low dairy, high meat protein?

I knew my dad's maternal grandfather, Jesse,

So, Jesse is your great grandfather?!?

Seriously, that is a very interesting story, I love family history.

I'm a lot of people's great-grandfathers.

You are not mine. He is Edgar. Or John. Or 2 unknown Italian guys, but I doubt they are named Jesse!

It's all that time traveling Jesse does. Very complicated.

I so miss that smell!

I know I talk about it, like, every single time it rains, but I can't help it! It is so awesome.

Okay, I cleared out the living room except of the studio detritus that came home with us when the studio closed. Did I talk about that yet here? The music store that is our secondary income...the building they were in was foreclosed on, so they had to move over the summer. Their new location is super great, lots more visibility, better parking, better access, better walking traffic. But it's also smaller, so they are using the next door store for lessons/coffee, but that won't be completed for another month or longer. And even when that's done, no recording studio. So we have no secondary income at all for a few months here. Which is worrying. And also we had to bring home a bunch of gear. Which is now in my living room.

I don't know the names of my other great-grandparents! I really should ask my parents that. I did meet my grandpa's brother Hjelmer when he came over for my grandparents' 50th anniversary when I was 16. He brought his daughter Urta and grandson Michael with him. He didn't speak English at all, Urta spoke it but with a pretty thick accent, but Michael, who was a year younger than me, had better English than I did.

One of the trips I want to take eventually is to Sweden to visit both Stockholm and my grandpa's hometown of Lulea, which is at the very top of the peninsula, near the Finnish border and only about 200 miles south of the Arctic Circle. (Guess that's one of the reasons Gus liked Alaska so much--reminded him of home!) (When the Amazing Race was in that part of Scandinavia in the most recent season, I looked it up, and they were only a few hours north of Lulea.) If/when I get over there, I'm going to try and look Michael up and see what he's doing now.

I know I talk about it, like, every single time it rains

I am envious of it, like, every single time too.

Really.

Ok hivemind, anyone know anything about the nutrition thinking of high fat, low grain, low dairy, high meat protein?

Sounds like the Paleo diet. Check out Mark's Daily Apple. He's unabashedly biased, but there's a lot of good info on his pages. From my personal experience with a high-protein, high-fat, low grain, low dairy diet, when I eat like that, I lose weight easily and feel awesome. (Ask me why I'm not doing it. No, don't, I feel stupid.) I'm sure that's not true of everyone, but if it does work, it works great.

My great-grandfathers were Emmanuel, Sigismund, Harry, and Louis. Well, those are the names they went by as adults. Sigismund is the only one of them who was born with that name. The other three were originally Manele, Hirsch, and Leib.