HE'S BACK!

Been laying low blog-wise while I try to learn more "stuff". Did the Camtasia video training this spring,which I unfortunately let lapse and now need a refresher course. This summer we migrated to new software and e-mail, so I had to get training for those as well. We had a "regime change" as well with a new boss from Iowa. I started working in our Historical Collections Archive for a couple hours 3 days a week doing a variety of things. Started out slow with filing newsclippings , then some moving and storing before getting to the good stuff- they are teaching to use Photoshop software and an electronic scanner. I have already learned how to scan some old pictures (glass slides no less from the 1920s), and am currently scanning a manuscript page. I am on tap to help with the digitization of our historical articles collection-which is different from the Archive office- and they even want me to spend more time there. I am OK with some time but not half-time like they mentioned.
My Facebook account is finally paying off. In the last week I have been found by 2 of my old high-school buddies!
The Project continues apace. Still finding lots to dig up on Germans fighting for Poland and Poles fighting in Western Europe in the 1600s. A lot of Polish bigwigs and engineers and artillerists especially found themselves in the West fighting under the likes of the Great Conde and Turenne. The love affair between the Polish kings and the Habsburg Emperors (lots of intermarriages) began to die in the 1640s. The Poles had spent most of the 30 Year's War allowing the Habs to recruit troops, with the Polish Cossacks making an especially frightful reputation for themselves; from the days of taking the Transyklvanians besieging Vienna in the rear(1619) to the Palatinate (1620's), invading France (1630s) , and crushing rebellion in Catalonia(1640s). Then the Poles started cozying up to the French as part of a marriage as King Ladisals(Wladyslaw) around 1645, when he nailed Marie Louise Gonzaga de Nevers. In return he allowed recruiting of a couple of regiments which helped capture Dunkirk from the Spanish in 1646. When she arrived in Poland she found she had to switch her name around as the locals thought it was sacrilege to try to one-up the Mother of Jesus with the first name Mary. A sort of "EWW!" moment occurred a few years later(1648) when Hubby died and she ended up having to marry his brother when he took over. The French connection was kept up when the future King Jan Sobieski married one of the Queen's ladies-in-waiting, Marie d'Arquien "Marysienka" which was a scandal in its day.
Am still bravely slogging through Polish, Italian, Rumanian, and Hungarian sources fleshing out info. Nailing down details on people like Jan (Johann) Weiher, who led a regiment of German mercenaries for the Poles in Sweden (1593), then Hungary for the Emperor against the Turks(1594), andfor the Poles again in Moldavia (1595) and Sweden redux (1598).
Just last night doing some research on the Long War vs the Turks(1593-1606) I finally found out the back story of the Transylvanian Trabant(Drabant) regiments, mounted outfits which were color-coded for Hungarians, Szeklers, and Saxons(Germans); the 3 major recognized population groups( the Romanian or Vlach-speakers got no such love).
This summer I had to take extra time off because the bosses said I would lose vacation time otherwise. Go ahead, break my heart! For a while there I "had" to take Fridays off. I also got to go to the coast for a business conference with a co-worker. Got an expense-paid stay at Newport. Got one of my rare 2-week vacations the first half of August. Made sure to get out of the house at least once a day and roam around. Played Mall Rat a little bit. Some banger cranked off a few rounds a couple doors down from my place but didn't hit anybody thank goodness. That is the first bit of foolishness where I live in a long time.., Got to see the Red Bull Flugtag which was a blast. All the frat boys and engineering nerds got together to make "airplanes" which they would push up to a huge stage erected over the River, where they would do a chorus line dance for the crowd before pushing their contraptions off the stage to plummet to a watery doom. About 60,000 people were there! I liked the Conestoga wagon with "Oregon or Bust" on it best.