The World Cup 2006 starts in just ten days! I know most footballers are spoiled peacocks, but playing for your country is a bit more inspiring than playing for your accountant, so I always enjoy following international competition. I've decided to support England this year. It's Sven's swansong, David Beckham's hair is weirder than ever, how could I resist.

Just in case England crash out early on, I need a backup team to follow - hopefully - to the finals. It all depends on how the tournament goes, but I am considereding Sweden, Spain and the Netherlands as alternatives, but I favour Italy because they have the best outfits!

Finally a post with pictures!

Saturday, my friend Michael and I ventured up to the north end of Central Park. I've never been up there before so it was a genuine adventure. First, we had to make our way through five blocks of Spanish Harlem (the gentrification hasn't made it quite that far up yet!). We entered the park through the Conservatory Garden (unimpressive) and then wandered round the Harlem Meer. We were in search of ducks, as Michael is a fan of fowl. These are New York birds, aggressive, lots of attitude. You can't tell from the picture, but I promise, they were being pushy.

Saturday in the park is all about couples out for a stroll.

It was a beautiful day. We walked down through the park, past the Loch and North Fields to the reservoir.

Genevieve contemplates the beauty of the city.

Michael contemplates ducks.

We were tired after ten blocks of park (I don't want to hear it!), so we caught the bus down the west side to 72nd street to see the Dakota Building and Strawberry Fields. The Imagine mosaic attracts a sizable crowd, equal parts tourists and weirdos. And then we were done with the park and proceeded downtown to Gold Street for some lasagna and Arrested Development.

Attention weather fans! It is monsoon season in New York. It's been raining since Sunday night, and this morning it was chucking it down. There's no wind this morning so it hits the ground straight on and bounces up about three inches. The streets corners are like little inland seas. And clever Genevieve had left her wellies at work. So I swam this morning, picked a fight with some brainless girl who wouldn't let a chap with a cane past first on a narrow stretch of pavement, and just hoped my poor old brown boots wouldn't disintegrate before I reached Park Ave. Sorry I'm not decorating this post with pictures of dark, swirling waters. If it keeps up til tomorrow, I promise to get it all on pixels.

Bruce's clone

Lucy has just found Jonathan reading the yahoo weather reports for Salt Lake City and Dallas. Guess who he's been hanging around!

I want to go on this!

Jonathan is definitely a Bovee

He annouced to Lucy today: "I want to try lots of new things!"

He was hungry for toast when they got home from school today so Lucy decided to show Jonathan how to use the toaster. Excited about his new skill, he decided to go whole hog and made himself a cheese sandwich, slicing/butchering the cheese with one of his little kiddie knives. "Isn't this a nice sandwich?!", he declared, and promptly gobbled it all up.

Oh and Jonathan has adopted three ducks. He made the mistake of feeding them some bread a week ago, and now they hang out in front of the flat. If they're elsewhere on the block and Lucy and Jonathan appear, they come hustling over to see them.

Things are getting a little tense at work. Our Director is on maternity leave, so my boss Aileen has taken on a lot of her work. It's causing her to get quite stressed and because Aileen and I work pretty closely it's starting to rub off on me as well. I'm picking fights with publishers and sending emails that couldn't possibly be mistaken for being polite. The rest of my life is going very well, I've been having heaps of success with my family history research, I've had two terrific weekends in a row, I've been reading the Book of Alma which has been spiritually uplifting, and yet, I'm feeling anxious and aggressive here at work. I'm happy and fun loving at home and about town, but as soon as I get to the office I tense up and start looking for trouble. And as those who really know and love me (well, you'd have to) know, when I go looking for trouble, I always find it.

I found this on an ancestry.com message board. It's from a book of biographies of Beaverhead County, Montana pioneers. Martin Barrett is the uncle mentioned in Ellen Mulherin Ducie's obituary, and the reason she went to Montana.

"Martin Barrett, Bannack, b. 2 Feb 1840 in Mayo Co., Ireland[I have his death certificate]. At the age of 8 he went to Canada with his parents. In the fall of 1859 to St. Joseph, MO. In 1860 to Salt Lake City and back, driving an ox team in a train. In 1861 to CO. While in Canada he learned the trade of tanner and currier, and attended common school. Arrived MT Spring 1863 and with Joseph Shineberger located his present ranch. He remained on the ranch whle Shineberger went to mining. They disolved their partnership after 8 yrs. Mr. Shineberger going to Red Rock and establishing his stock business. Mr. Barrett had mined in CO for two years - on 6 Aug 1867 he married Miss Alice E. Cook [I have her death certificate as well], at Sims Este's place, Red Rock. In 1879, he was elected councilman, served one term and was re-elected in 1884. He has 1,160 acres of hay land, mostly, from which he cut 500 tons; as near as he can estimate has from 1000 to 1500 head on his ranch and range. He is one of the oldest and most successful stock men on Horse Prairie." (1885)

Alice and Martin had no children of their own, but adopted a son, Robert, about 1900.

I've been thinking a lot about the origins of the Bovees and also about our connection to the Church. Cornelius Bovee came from New York and settled in Jackson County, Wisconsin sometime between 1850 (when he's in Lewis, Pinkney County, NY census) and 1859 when his youngest brother Silas N Bovee is born in Wisconsin. He came with his parents Nicholas Jonas and Orinda Bovee and five other siblings, his grandparents Nicholas and Mercy Bovee, and his two uncles Zebulon Bovee and Silas Lewis Bovee and their families. So the whole clan upped sticks and went to farm western Wisconsin. Today I discovered that Jackson County was also settled a few years before by a large group of Mormons. I don't think our Bovees went to Jackson County because they were Mormons, but they must have had contact with these early Saints, possibly even married into their families. I don't know why, but all this intrigues me. As we know, Cornelius' children weren't the nicest bunch, and yet three of his grandchildren and their spouses found their way into the Church. It just seems like we Bovees are supposed to be Mormons. I don't think it's an accident.