I Found My Dead Grandma On The 1940 Census

The federal government has just released the 1940 census records for public consumption.

After 72 years the records are being made public because it seems that most featured in the census are no longer alive to protest any invasion of their privacy.

The records would provide a great look back into history, if you could search them by name, however, that functionality will take a while to implement. To search the records now, you will need the address/es of your loved ones in 1940 and can conduct a search by location.

Click here to see which dead loved ones you can dig up!

I'm lucky, I inherited a box with several old letters and postcards of many family members and have access to addresses galore. I was able to locate the records for one grandmother, long since deceased, but with the news of the records being released, the site is running excruciatingly slow and has timed out on me with every subsequent search.

I have a feeling the release of these records will fuel another wave of interest in genealogy as I have already noticed, while doing a simple search for an old uncle's address that there are several more ancestry tracing sites available.

The ability to search the census site by name will not be available for several months and while I have a definite advantage in having the great amount of information that I do, if the site can't handle the traffic, my searching will have to wait.

That's probably a good thing as I could see myself easily getting engrossed in the site and the information available.

Tears, Anguish, Mental Breakdowns – Just Another Day On The Celebrity Apprentice

Donald Trump, and his hair, remained unmoved during last night's double episode of “The Celebrity Apprentice” while celebrities almost came to blows, shed some tears and had mental breakdowns while performing tasks for charity.

The first task had the celerity teams producing and selling books highlighting New York City. Dee Snider was the project manager for the men while Teresa Giudice led the ladies. Lisa Lampanelli was once again tasked with most of the actual work and we watched as Lisa started letting the volcano of emotions erupt as the majority of her team used the task as a personal photo shoot, wasting many hours and taking hundreds of shots when only a couple were necessary. Between Teresa's lack of leadership and listening to former Miss Universe Dayana's incessant and often incoherent babbling, Lisa started to crumble.

The task itself would be judged on how much money the celebrity teams could raise selling the books with an additional $35K going to the team who produced the best book, as judged by Mr. New York, Regis Philbin himself.

As usual, Donald Trump, CEO of Sh*t-Stirring, forces both project managers to name their useless and weak members prior to revealing who won the task.

Thanks to Lisa's job on the book, the ladies win the $35K bonus and that should take them well over anything the men raised, but the men still managed to pull out a win, earning $14 more than the ladies, including their $35K bonus.

It should be noted that the men could have pulled in several thousand more dollars had not Penn Jillette enlisted the help of, and donation from iconic entertainers, Blue Man Group. When Blue Man Group appeared, it is apparently against their blue religion to simply hand over a check and instead they filled a giant balloon with $10 bills. They then proceeded to inflate the balloon until it popped, and like vultures to a fresh carcass, the crowd went wild and began stuffing the bills into every available bodily orifice. The men were yelling that the money was for charity and things got too physical for Clay Aiken when he got pushed while trying to grab cash out of the hands of the fans. Penn's justification for this debacle was that Blue Man Group was not making a donation, they were simply there so anything the guys managed to grab was just a bonus.

Don't be surprised if the coming weeks brings sexual harassment suits against several of the male celebrities who were grabbing money stuffed into onlookers' underwear and bras.

Teresa chooses to bring Debbie Gibson and everyone's favorite firing nominee, Dayana, to the board room. For whatever reason, she chose not to bring Aubrey, even though Aubrey brought in the least amount of money. I thought for certain Trump would oust the Italian table flipper, but he gave Debbie Gibson the ax. Odd choice for certain.

The second task involved promoting the “Walk With Walgreens” program, but before we do anything, Trump decides the little women obviously need some help since they have lost five of the seven challenges. He takes Aubrey and Teresa and moves them to work with Arsenio, Paul Tuttle and Clay. Lisa is left with her bestie Dayana and given Dee Snider, Penn and Lou Ferigno. She seemed hopeful, especially when Penn announced he had an engagement to deal with and would be leaving soon. Penn put his nose to the grindstone and came up with a concept and script for his team to present to the Walgreen's execs, and project manager Lou was thrilled to once again not have to come up with any of the words he would be uttering.

Once Penn left, all of the work once again fell on Lisa's shoulders, except for the design of the membership kit box Walgreens would be providing to participants in the program. For such a colorful guy normally, Dee's box couldn't have been more dull.

When presentations were made, task leader Arsenio presented a game show concept to the Walgreens execs. It is well-done, but TMI, getting really dull with the facts presented. Lou's team, with the return of Penn, who flew back immediately after his engagement and was running on an hour of sleep, was far more entertaining, especially when Penn, in his sleep-deprived state, referred to the program as “Walk with Walmart.” Whoopsie....major, huge, mega, ginormous WHOOPSIE. The crowd went silent and Penn did correct himself. The box produced by Aubrey, however, was a big hit and she made certain the Walgreens execs knew she was the force behind it when she shoved it in their faces.

Aubrey also insisted on taking credit for everything in the boardroom. Arsenio had reached his breaking point and called Aubrey out for lying and for being a difficult personality that he constantly had to tame. Tears started welling up in Aubrey's eyes and when Arsenio's team was announced the winner of the task, Arsenio was bawling because he was so happy to help out his charity and Aubrey was crying because Arsenio didn't magically implode or get abducted by aliens. When they left the boardroom, Arsenio, Paul, Clay and Teresa headed for the war room suite while Aubrey went straight for the “I got fired” elevator, refusing to talk to anyone on her team.

Lou needed to choose who he would be taking to the boardroom with him. Since it has become tradition, he chose Dayana and even I was surprised by that because she definitely lived up intelligence level and creative abilities for the presentation. She put on a swimsuit and looked pretty.

Lou's other choice was Dee, whose responsibility was the design of the membership box. Dee argued that Lou was in on the design and approved everything and even though Dayana also chimed in on how ineffective Lou was as a leader and that he should go, Trump fired Dee Snider. What the heck is going on?

Previews for next week show more mental anguish and turmoil and it looks like Lisa Lampanelli may be the next to completely lose it. Aubrey is not seen in the previews, but I'm sure we haven't seen the last of her, even if she is only forced to come in and tell The Donald that she is quitting, giving him yet another opportunity to drag the “I hate quitters” speech out of his gold-plated file cabinet.

Country Music Awards Ruined My Night

And I didn't even watch the show.

The CMA's however, were broadcast on CBS last night which meant that my normal Sunday night staple, “The Amazing Race,” was not shown.

I knew it was coming last week when the last “Amazing Race” concluded and they noted that the previews were for the show coming up in two weeks. I thought for certain the darn basketball tournament was responsible, but no, it was just the annual gathering of country music's finest. Not that I really know who those people are because I am just not a fan of the genre.

Typically CBS's coverage of the basketball tournament would interrupt “Survivor” and that was enough to make me hate them and boycott the network until Sunday nights when I had to see “The Amazing Race.”

I find that every Sunday, however, I am getting more and more hostile towards CBS as they notoriously broadcast sporting events that typically run well-past their scheduled time slot and then move every other program after them to start much later than normal.

My question to CBS: If you broadcast a golf tournament, football game or NASCAR race and it ALWAYS goes past the time period allotted for it, why not adjust the schedule accordingly?

And please, why insist on showing “60 Minutes” in its entirety when the last seven minutes of the show at least, is nothing but a giant plug for CBS shows. “60 Minutes” clearly ends, heads into commercials and stays on commercials for upcoming CBS shows for the next seven to ten minutes and then goes back to “60 Minutes” to show another couple of minutes worth of credits. Did Andy Rooney make a special request, or stipulate in his will, that no one take up those last few minutes ever with something other than commercials? 

If not for "The Amazing Race" and "Survivor," CBS would get very little of my viewing time.

If Forced, I Would Choose Blake Shelton As A Country Music Favorite

Not being the biggest fan of country music, I know very few of the artists and even fewer of the songs that made them famous. If I were forced to pick a favorite country music artist, my vote would go to Blake Shelton. I don't know a single one of the songs that has made him famous, but I have seen plenty of him on NBC's “The Voice,” to know I like him.

Not only is Blake extremely tall and a real hottie, he also seems to have a heart of gold. I know that last season on “The Voice” he helped many of the artists on his team further their careers after they had been eliminated from the competition.

Dia Frampton is a prime example. Dia made it through to the end of last season's “The Voice” competition, but did not win the final crown. Blake, so impressed with Dia's talent, managed to get her a recording deal and took her on his tour.

This season, Blake was often the only judge to turn around to claim a contestant to his team. He went well out of his country comfort zone and chose artists from many different genres. He didn't pull any of the antics that fellow judge Christina Aguilera did by overly favoring any of his team members over the others and gave everyone an equal chance to shine. It hurt Blake terribly to have to choose one contestant over another for his final team, but not a single negative word was uttered by any of the ousted contestants, all said how incredibly grateful they were to Blake, his wife Miranda Lambert and all of the help they provided.

So without uttering or singing one word, Blake Shelton wins my personal American Country Music award.

Aubrey O Day Walks Off The Celebrity Apprentice After Shedding Tears In Trump's Boardroom

Aubrey O'Day, who looked like a major frontrunner in the race to win the title of Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice, may have cut her chances of winning to zero after leaving a particularly confrontational boardroom meeting in tears.

I liked Aubrey until tonight's episode of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Tonight she appeared more abrasive, more pushy and more selfish than when she was paired with the women. Once Trump mixed up the two teams, purposely telling Aubrey and Lisa Lampanelli that he was separating the buddies while allowing the men to stay with their friends, I knew she would be in trouble.

Not that she didn't bring it on herself. Arsenio Hall was the project manager, but Aubrey couldn't help but ingratiate herself with the Walgreen's executives and Eric Trump when he came to check on the team. Arsenio had been more than diplomatic in dealing with her, continually trying to steer her in a direction that would make his entire team happy, but Aubrey spent more of her time asking for compliments than actually contributing to the harmony of the team.

Funny enough, Arsenio's team won, but as Donald Trump is known to do, he insisted on stirring the pot, even on the winning teams, before revealing which team was safe from a firing. When Aubrey attempted to take full credit for much of Arensio's work, Arsenio had had enough and called her out on at least one lie she told, claiming credit for coming up with quotes for the entire team that were needed for a display package. Arsenio corrected Aubrey saying he had done his own and then pointed out that Aubrey had little consideration for her team and only cared about herself.

Aubrey began tearing up and after Donald revealed that Arsenio had won and they were exiting the boardroom, she pushed away her only ally on the team, Teresa Giudice, and made her way to the infamous exit only elevator, commenting that she was not cut out for this and how she couldn't believe how mean everyone was to her. Aubrey conveniently forgot a comment she made about Arsenio, basically saying he walked away from show business, far from the truth, but she knew the negative impact and implications her comment would have.

We never saw Aubrey actually leave, but she also didn't seem to be present in previews shown for next week's show. Trump hates quitters, but Aubrey never officially said she quit. If she comes back, I hope it is with a big bag of humility.

Made It Through April Fools Day 2012 Without Incident

It took me all day and most of the night to realize that my husband's evil plan for me this April Fool's Day was no plan at all!

He carefully maneuvered himself away from me when I would open a kitchen cabinet or drawer and stared at me intently at lunch and dinner. I kept waiting for springy snakes to jump out at me or my mouth to be set on fire with a good dose of hot sauce slipped into my food. When he jumped to bring me a piece of pie for dessert, I thought for certain I was about to be fooled and stabbed my pie like a maniac looking for a hidden object stuffed amongst the apples and crumb crust.

Around four in the afternoon, I was begging him to just get it over with, by seven I was out of mind looking for mousetraps about to bite my fingers hidden in drawers, and now that my husband is asleep, I am still not entirely convinced something isn't about to happen that will be captured on video and played at every occasion possible.

It hit me a few minutes ago that my husband got exactly what he wanted...a crazed wife who spent the day just waiting for something awful to happen. I know I heard him chuckle as I used a tongs and wooden spoon to root through my clothing, sure that there would be something hiding beneath the fabric and foolishly, I wasted an entire beautiful Sunday anxiously waiting for something to happen.

With only a couple of minutes left in the day, I am almost sure I am safe for another year, but I know I will need to be doubly on guard next year and not be lured into a false sense of security. I also need to start planning now for how I will get my husband next year for the horrible non-prank he pulled on me today!

Amityville Horror House – Good Real Estate Deal?

If given the opportunity, would you have made the same decision as George and Kathy Lutz and purchased the home that the 1979 film and subsequent remakes, sequels and prequels were centered around?

If you could get it for a great deal, would you taken the chance? The Lutzes where given full disclosure of what had happened in the home just a year prior when a very troubled 28-year-old shot his family to death in it. Undisclosed at the time, however, was the supposed fact that the home was built on a tribal burial ground and also had supposedly been inhabited by a devil worshiper at one point.

How much of a discount would you expect to get, based on the full family slaughter that occurred just the year before?

The Lutzes were happy buying the home for $80K when it was valued at $120 at the time. I'd need more of discount.

Once you moved in, how many odd incidents would it take to drive you out? If this had happened in the middle of the housing stimulus deal, the Lutzes would have been stuck with the house for three years before they could sell it, but thankfully they weren't, and moved from the home about a month after moving in, claiming demonic possession of the home.

Demonic possession or real estate regret? Movers were sent to the home the day after the Lutzes left to pack up their possessions and reported no paranormal activity. Buyers of the home, just a month and a half later said the damage claims made by the Lutzes simply did not exist.

George Lutz maintains that the events portrayed in the book were “mostly true” and both he and Kathy passed a lie detector test in 1979.

So what was the deal? Every claim made by the Lutzes has basically been successfully refuted. On the other hand, while one of the Lutzes may have been able to fool the lie detector test successfully, it would be extremely odd that both could have accomplished that feat.

Was the house haunted or were the Lutzes a victim of some pretty strong suggestions of demonic possession that then had the whole family manifesting the horrors in their minds?