Who's In Your Tree?





Ever since I signed up for Google Alerts for "Harry Potter" (yes, it is true I am caught up in all of it and enjoying it), I've been receiving interesting articles such as this one, from the LA Times.

A few years back Joseph started working on my family's tree. It turns out that we are mostly British and of course German (thanks Benz and Meyer). After all, we are from Cincinnati! If we were not German, something would be terrible wrong. It is kind of funny to see how and English family could marry into a German family - huh.

Joseph did get father interested in continuing the search for our relatives from yore. We did all of this through Ancestry.com - start your tree today! It is so much fun and something you can hand down to your children.

Here is the article:

ActressEm_JimS_57877206_600 Emma Watson, who plays Hermoine a talented young Muggle-born witch in the "Harry Potter" series, has a real witch hiding in her family tree.

According to Ancestry.com, English records show Watson’s distant relative was Joan Playle of Essex County, England, a 16th-century English woman convicted of witchcraft in 1592.

Details are sketchy -- naturally -- and Playle’s conviction remain a mystery. She was unmarried, which often led to witchcraft accusations. During the Elizabethan era, poor, homely, old, widowed single women were often declared to be witches.

But Playle was not executed and was instead excommunicated from the Church of England. She was one of only 270 known individuals accused of and tried for witchcraft in all of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I.

Research also revealed Playle was convicted in the parish of Great Waltham in Essex County, a town approximately 50 miles northeast of London and about 100 miles from Oxfordshire, where Watson grew up.

Life is so strange sometimes, isn't it?

Keep reading to find out more ancestry.com scoop for Harry, Ron Belatrix and JK Rowling herself.


Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) – Although Radcliffe isn’t related to princes or wizards, his family does hail from Ireland, which is magic enough in its own right. He descends from bakers and plumbers and grocers, respectable occupations the Dursleys would likely be proud to have in their family.

Rupert Grint (Ronald Weasley) – Grint’s family was employed in a truly “Muggle” brand of “defense against the dark arts,” with two of his 2nd great-grandfathers and one of his 3rd great-grandfathers working in the Royal Small Arms Factory in London as a “barrel turner,” “sight filer” and “gun smith” respectively.

Helena Bonham Carter (Belatrix Lestrange) – Bonham Carter is the cast’s true “half-blooded prince”, as she descends from a long line of nobility. Her great-grandfather Herbert Henry Asquith, 1st Earl of Oxford and Asquith, served as Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 through 1916, and her 3rd great-grandfather Sir John Carter III received the honor of knighthood from His Majesty King George III.

JK Rowling – Interestingly, the author’s own family tree lacks the charms and enchantments of her books. Her 2nd great-grandfather Henry John Holland worked for several years as a “car man.” And in 1841, her 4th great-grandfather John Robson was a “tea dealer.”

Watching Tudors






Portraits; The Wives of Henry 8
  1. Catherine of Aragon
  2. Anne Boleyn
  3. Jane Seymour
  4. Anne of Cleves
  5. Catherine Howard
  6. Catherine Parr
You can watch the preview for Season 3 of The Tudors and find other fun things HERE

Pink Loves University of Cincinnati




These I want...

Find your alma mater HERE!

My One Camping Trip this Summer













{pictures from Jon of our single camping trip this summer}
{photographed: Jamie, Cory, Jon, Joseph, me, Pixie, and mountain goats}


Joseph and I had amazing plans to go camping as much as we could. Look what happened: we went once! I don't know how this lack of camping happened, but it makes me a little sad.

However, this weekend we are going to the Pings' cabin in the mountains with the family! That is something to smile about. Now, what book to bring... hm...

NY Times; Harry Potter and the Pint of Liquid Courage


Published: July 27, 2009
Full Article HERE

Hermione is tipsy. Neville is serving drinks. Ron is sipping mead and Harry is partying with his professors.

Does Hogwarts have a drinking problem?

As Harry Potter fans crowd movie theaters to catch the latest installment in the blockbuster series, parents may be surprised by the starring role given to alcohol. In scene after scene, the young wizards and their adult professors are seen sipping, gulping and pouring various forms of alcohol to calm their nerves, fortify their courage or comfort their sorrows.

The movie, based on J. K. Rowling’s sixth book of the series, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” is as much about coming of age as it is about the wizarding world. Love potions and adolescent yearnings are central to the evolving story line, and Harry, Ron and Hermione enjoy new freedoms as 16-year-old students at the mythical boarding school Hogwarts, including unchaperoned trips to a pub in the nearby town of Hogsmeade.

But recreated on the big screen, the images of teenage drinking are jarring. Previous Harry Potter movies have shown drinking, but this one takes it to a new level.

In one scene, Harry, Ron and Hermione order butterbeers at the pub, and Hermione ends up with a frothy mustache. While it’s never been entirely clear whether butterbeer is alcoholic, it seems to have an effect on the normally uptight Hermione, who acts tipsy walking home as she throws her arms around the boys.

As the mother of a 10-year-old Harry Potter fan, I was taken aback by the reaction of the young people in the theater. They snickered at Hermione’s goofy grin and, later, guffawed when an inebriated Hagrid passed out. While I don’t think my daughter fully understood what was going on, I wondered how other parents, educators and addiction experts would react.

Liz Perle, a mother of two teenage boys and the editor in chief of Common Sense Media, which reviews books, movies and Web content aimed at children, said she was bothered by so many scenes showing alcohol as a coping mechanism.

“Hermione is such a tightly wound young lady, but she’s liberated by some butterbeer,” she said. “The message is that it gives you liquid courage to put your arms around the guy you really like but are afraid to.”

Other parents were less concerned. Daniel Isaacs, a New York advertising copywriter, said his 9-year-old daughter didn’t notice the drinking scenes. “The Harry Potter universe is not our own,” he said. “Trying to put 2009 American norms into play seems kind of silly.

“Plus, in a world where dark wizards are kidnapping or killing people on a regular basis, a little under-age drinking is the least of their problems.”

Overseas audiences may respond differently to the drinking scenes. In England, the legal drinking age is 18, but 16-year-olds can order alcohol if they’re eating a meal. (Even by those standards, the teenagers in the movie were flouting the law: during the pub scene, no food was served.)

Alcohol educators say that they don’t want to ruin the fun, but that parents should be aware of alcohol’s role in the Harry Potter series, the books as well as the movies. Several studies suggest that movies influence teenagers’ behavior when it comes to drinking, drugs and tobacco. An Institute of Medicine committee on under-age drinking has said there is “a strong possibility” that youth exposure to alcohol through movies contributes to early initiation of alcohol use.

A 2007 study of nearly 5,600 German teenagers looked at the relationship between drinking activity and exposure to American movies. Even accounting for variables like friends’ drinking habits, the researchers found that children with high exposure to alcohol in movies were nearly three times as likely to binge-drink as those with the lowest exposure.

Similarly, a study of 3,000 adolescents found that those who were most often exposed to smoking in movies were nearly three times as likely as others to try smoking. In a striking finding, the study concluded that in more than half the times that a child in the study tried a cigarette, the decision was linked to having seen smoking in a movie.

Alcohol experts say this does not mean that children shouldn’t see the new Harry Potter movie. It actually presents an opportunity for parents to talk to their children about alcohol, says Dr. Christopher Welsh, a University of Maryland psychiatrist and addiction specialist.

“I hope parents can talk to their kids and tell them even though Harry Potter made that seem fun, that it isn’t O.K.,” said Dr. Welsh, the author of a 2007 article about alcohol use in the Harry Potter series, published in The Journal of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse.

Warner Brothers, which released the movie, said the drinking scenes were “open to different interpretations.”

“One of our main objectives in bringing the Harry Potter films to the screen has been to remain as faithful to their original source material as created by J. K Rowling,” the company wrote in an e-mail message, adding that the wizarding world “should not be held to the same standards as the real world.”

A spokesman for Ms. Rowling said she was not available to comment.

Alison Turner, a British expatriate who owns Signature Bites, an Internet brownie business based in Florida, said that while watching the movie with her 14-year-old stepdaughter, she did find herself briefly musing about the alcoholic properties of butterbeer. But she said their post-movie conversation focused on broken hearts and unrequited love.

“I think the alcohol angle washed over me because of the magical context of the film — this isn’t a real school, real teachers or real students — so it’s almost like the drinking isn’t real,” she said. “I wonder how many kids even know what mead is.”

*Personally - I thought it was great!

Night Out with ID Girls

{Karen, Brian, Mary, Emily, Melissa, me, and Kris}

{Emily, Kris, Mary, Karen, Me}



{You don't understand. I have a relationship with my phone, we have a chemistry together, I can't explain it.}

After our dance class on Thursday night, the girls and I headed out for some drinks to send Mary on her way to Pittsburgh. She has moved there with her boyfriend, Brian, who also dances and is an excellent teacher! We are all going to miss Mary, as friend and teacher! Good luck Mary!

Two By Two






Platform 9 3/4




Etsy Finds, Platform 9 3/4 Key Ring and Print

Pizza and Movie Sunday Night


Joseph is making Jamie Oliver's amazing pizza dough so we can have some yummy pizza WITH LaRosa's pizza sauce, might I add! Here is the recipe and don't forget to heat up your pizza stone in the over beforehand, put in a movie {Harry Potter on a rainy night}, and have a beer!

Tried and True; IU



Okay, so the only reason why this Ohio girl likes the Indiana, Our Indiana fight song is due to Breaking Away. It is sung during the last scene of the movie and it just seems to never leave my head! It is kind of cute and kitsch so I hope you enjoy, even if you are not from Indiana.

The Proper, Yet Unruly Wisp of Hair


{France Luxe}
I'm thinking a little back-to-school fall season + Blair Waldorf


Hmm...


Thoughts on my professional career... is it too late to run away from certain aspects of adult life?

Firsts; Tennis Anyone?



Today in firsts in Stacey's life, I played a game of tennis. Singles and Doubles! And we won! Our team name is Jeeves & Wooster, because let's be honest, Joseph {Jeeves} does everything for me...

We played for quite a while, which gave me a chance to learn how to hit the ball over the net, until Jaren and Patrick met up to join us. I'm still having some trouble with the whole aiming thing, but I'm sure that will come with time!

The End; Harry Potter


We finally finished Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows... *sigh*

I'm a little upset we finally reached the conclusion of the last book in the series, but at least we have the movies to look forward to! I wish we had caught on a little earlier to the whole craze, but better late than never! I even added the Harry Potter app to my iPhone... loads of images and games to play with while waiting in line at the bank!

Right now Joseph and I are going backwards and watching the older movies to see all those clues we missed in years past. Today is a perfect stormy day to finish The Order of the Phoenix!

J.K. Rowling fanatics can get a fresh peek at Dumbledore, Hermoine and the rest of the Hogwarts gang with Thursday’s release of previously unseen footage from Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Not that moviegoers’ appetites need whetting: Advance sales for the schoolboys ‘n’ sorcerers sequel are hogging up 65 percent of advance ticket sales on Fandango.com, outpacing even Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen as the year’s hottest ticket.

The new podcast, “Being Me Has Its Privileges,” follows Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe), Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) and Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) as they explore a cave with plans to destroy Voldemort’s Horcruxes. Get the free download from the iTunes Store.

Also available Thursday in Apple’s App Store: a free, interactive iPhone app that re-creates Dumbledore’s Pensieve device, enabling users to unlock “memory vials” containing videos, posters and character info from the new movie.


via Wired

How to Get Your Picture on the Satorialist