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*Tonight is Passover. doomsey and I are going to his parents' house for the passover seder this evening. Because they invite so many people over--more than twenty, including kids-- the whole thing is usually very chaotic. Too bad there's not a snowball's chance in hell of them doing this version of the Haggadah. (Link swiped from tx_cronopio

* Two female bombers blow themselves up in a Moscow subway station -- Thankfully, a former classmate of mine-- who is living in Moscow for a semester-- left a message not long after I read this saying he was okay and that he didn't get caught up in any of the insanity. And if you haven't read it already, you should go read ginmar's post on living in Moscow. It's very well written. (Link swiped from ginmar)

* Awwwww (Blame sheilagh)

* BBC Wildlife Photo Masterclasses -- I'm definitely going to have to download and read some of these guys since I particularly like doing nature photography and wildlife photography. And speaking of photography, I'm thinking about making a zoo trip sometime this week. I haven't been there in a few months...and I need to renew my membership.

* A story told in pictures -- Adorable! (Swiped from haikujaguar)

* North Koreans Use Cellphones to Bare Secrets (Link swiped from rm)

* And...More clips from the new Doctor Who have been posted! I can't wait to watch the new episodes! (Link swiped from popfiend)

* I have much coolness to share with you. I'll have to do it tomorrow though because it's getting late, I'm tired, and my eye is pissed off for whatever reason so I can't see so well right now. I also haven't slept well for the past two night and OMG! I need to sleep.

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* Two nights of bad sleep + One night of almost no sleep thanks to my dear friend, insomnia + A phone call from my mom this morning saying that one of my nieces is in the hospital with pneumonia = a very unhappy nekosensei. Tomorrow, I might have to baby-sit my other niece. I made sure my mom understood that I have a midterm in one of my classes and that I absolutely can not miss it because the instructor is very strict about make-ups. I did tell my parents that I would be more than happy to baby-sit after the class though.

* While I love the good weather in the spring, one thing I've been noticing over the years is that I struggle a lot with insomnia once the weather starts turning nicer. I'm thinking that that has something to do with the length of the days: the more light we get, the less I sleep. On the other hand, I have absolutely no trouble with insomnia in the winter when the days are shorter. And I don't think it's seasonal affective disorder per se because I don't get depressed; I just sleep more. I'd like the winter better, but the problem is that it's fucking cold here in the winter. I hate it. Hate hate hate hate hate.

* I hope my niece is okay. :( I think I'm going to call my parents for an update before I leave for work.

* And now, onto the good news I was going to share last night, but didn't get around to because it was past my bedtime. My friend almeda got me hooked on ancestry.com. I managed to trace three branches of my family tree back to Germany and Luxembourg. Of course, it certainly didn't hurt that some distant and some not so distant relatives of mine must also be into genealogy because my family tree bumped into two other family trees: one on my mother's side and one on my father's. I know the people on my mother's side, but I have no idea who we ran into on my father's side. And I'm having a hard time remembering their last name now. I'll have to ask almeda if she remembers or if there's a way we can look it up. (And she found it! I asked my dad if he recognized the name, and he said that he didn't). Last night, I did some more digging and found what I think are more relatives on my paternal grandfather's side. Then, before I went to bed, I printed up what I had so I can show it to my parents the next time I see them. They can tell me whether what I have is right or not and fill in some information that I don't know. (Already asked about the research I did last night. I was right!)

Oh...another cool thing is that I found an application for a passport from someone on my mother's side. Looks like both he and his wife were planning a trip to Belgium to visit his mother. I have no idea if she moved from Luxembourg to Belgium, if that side of the family is actually Belgian, or if the borders of the country changed and the town they lived in went from being on the Luxembourg side to the Belgian side. I also found a picture (!!!) and I found out that he came to the US by way of Antwerp in the 1880s or 1890s (!!!). How cool is that!

I think, after all is said and done, I'm going to end up asking doomsey if I can purchase a world account so that I can track down other descendants that lived in Germany and Luxembourg. I think I might have a lot of the luck with the German side because a) I suspect I know enough German to read census forms and b) I know where to start looking because I know that one branch comes from Berlin and the other comes from Munich.

So yeah...genealogy is fascinating stuff, isn't it? And I didn't realize until yesterday how easy the ancestry.com website makes it.

* Now I think the migraines might be triggered by both my lack of sleep and problems with my neck muscles. I was trying to lay down earlier, and felt tingling in my right hand. The last time that happened was around the time I was diagnosed with a neck sprain. Great. Just great.

* Called my dad. My niece has improved slightly. They're still going to hang onto her for a few days so they can keep an eye on her. Poor kiddo!