I arrived home on Saturday, only to be told that I wasn't allowed in the living room. After some 10 minutes of patience in my bedroom, Jonathan emerged from the living room, having put the finishing touches on my welcome home present. It's a book, held together with two wonky little staples. It tells the story of my journey home.

The Shins

After bitter and crushing disappointment last year, I finally got tickets to see The Shins this summer. I hadn't been this excited about a show since Duff and I went to Interpol at Hammerstein. McCarren Pool in Williamsburg was the location. Are The Shins one of my favourite bands? I'd be ashamed to say no. What would that say about my musical tastes! The lads were in adorable matching outfits. James Mercer is the singer, but the short one is definitely the boss. He was a jolly little chap. There was a lot more bass and drums than on the records which gave the songs a bigger, exciting, arena-filling sound. I think they played them all. Oh and they completely fluffed Pink Bullets. We were all swaying in rapture, when Jimbo tripped over the words and it all came to a grinding halt. A few giggles from the boys and they picked it up, only to fluff it AGAIN. And we just loved them all the more! I was almost too happy to breath.

Then Mike proposed a little pizza for dinner...

And here are a couple pics of me for good measure...

I love these t-shirts

Hot off the press: Capitol Records has just signed Interpol. These guys are one of my top favourite bands. We'll release their third album next year. I'll get to work on that!! I'm so excited.

Lauren and I were (a little) obsessed with Interpol for a while there. She lived probably like two streets away from them and we even saw Paul Banks on 11th street. And that was the show where we saw David Bowie in the audience. Oh, this is almost too good to be true.

Auugghhh! I just got my paycheck and I'm paying nearly 29% income tax. That can't be right! For that sort of money, I want a free national health service and every homeless person in NYC put up in the Ritz Carlton for the night.

I think I got duped at my orientation because they suggested I claim only one exemption on my W-4. I sent in a new one the other day bumping that up to three, but I guess it hasn't taken effect yet. I need cash to move apartment. The government is only going to spend it on bombs. This is SOO unfair.

Jonathan just rang me to announce that he has lost his first tooth!! We have one ecstatic little boy on our hands. It wasn't easy to get a picture as he's been bouncing round the house all evening in fits of delight, but here he is, Mr. Gappy himself:

It took him a couple weeks to get it out. He's squeamish like me and he let it hang in there till it fell out rather than him pulling it. So tonight the tooth is going in a special tooth pillow (a bit of foresight on the part of Father Christmas this past year), hopefully to be exchanged for some bright shiny coinage he can spend on their daytrip to Brighton tomorrow. I hear the going rate for a tooth these days is about two quid. We asked what he wanted to spend it on and he replied, with accompanying sound effects, "the slide that goes round and round and round and round". He's referring to the helter skelter on Brighton Pier. I used to love going on that when I was a kid, despite the mild terror of being over the water as you wooshed around the far side of it. It's a REALLY long way down, but even that couldn't stop us hurtling back up the steps to have another go.

I told Jonathan he should have some fun with his gap, whistling and squirting water through it. Lucy says there's definitely a bit of a lisp going on there and Jonathan himself declared, "it's tricky to speak properly." He can't wait to show all his friends, and I suspect the people on the train tomorrow are going to hear all about it.

On a side note, Jonathan told my brother last week that he loves him very much, so much so, in fact, that he, and the rest of the family, are his third favourite thing. The running order: "trains, Chilli's, then family, and tunnels." I'd say we placed fairly well over all.

Uh oh

In case you haven't heard, there was a bit of a plot underway, involving the destruction of US airliners flying from London to major US destinations. New York, as usual, was top of the list. This one comes a little too close to home, seeing as I'm going to London in just over two weeks, coming back in early September. How soon they were planning to execute this is unclear, but it's quite possible I've just had my life spared. Thank you MI-5. I've been watching the third series of Spooks on DVD this week. Suddenly it's not just entertainment. These are the people who keep us in one piece. Good work, my friends.

I don't intend to change my travel plans, but I am a little rattled at the moment. I'll tell you one thing though. I'm flying on American Airlines this time (one of the airlines that was targeted), but in future I think I'm going to stick to Pakistan Airlines or Royal Jordanian. I figure I should get myself onto an airplane carrying as many Muslims as possible. I'm sorry if that sounds a bit naughty... but think about it!!! And here's another thought. If some fanatic punk decides to blow up the plane I'm on, guess what, it's me** that's going straight to heaven, not him. SO THERE!!!!

**In the interests of humility, I would like to say that I am by no means sure, merely hopeful that I wouldn't go straight to hell. I try. I have much to improve.

I emailed my family yesterday to complain about their lack of interest in my blog and the absence of comments on my posts. According to my site meter, Dad and someone in England, either Mum or Lucy, had a look later in the afternoon. Keep it up!

Then today I received the following message from my charming brother:

"GET STUFFED!!! Will continue to read at monthly intervals in order to leave outdated posts that no one except you will ever see."

I have one thing to say to that: "COBBBLERRRSS!" My brother is such a punk. I love it. He makes me laugh like mad. I was going to go back on my threat to embarass him, but, oh, go on then...

Is he just cute as a button!

For a recap of my exciting Saturday morning, I refer you to the NYCBros.

Jonathan rang me this afternoon to ask a favour, which I duly granted. How could I possibly say no to my baby. Then I was looking at some pictures of my friends, and it got me thinking about what Jonathan will be like when he's all grown up. He'll have girlfriends and jobs and - hopefully - fashion sense. He's got his grandfather's genes so fashion sense is probably a given. I wonder where he'll live. Although Jonathan is concerned about it, I don't think he'll end up in prison, but he could be just about anywhere else. I hope he'll have wonderful friends and lots more crazy Bovee children. Can you imagine... one day I'll a great-auntie!

Blimey, it's hot! The "feels like" bit on the weather report says it's well over 100 degrees. Humidity is about 150,000%. And the air conditioning in my office isn't working properly. It's got to be at least 80 degrees in there, if not worse. The electricity company has been issuing warnings for six days now, telling us to conserve energy or there'll be power outages. Today, it was so bad on the east side, the police were patrolling the streets making announcements through their megaphones telling us to turn off lights and conserve power. We could hear them out on 23rd street. It was like something out of a disaster movie. "The end of the world is coming. Please don't use your blenders unless you absolutely have to!"

Oh, Canada?

I spent the weekend upstate. A gang of us (Byron, Kristian, Keila, Sara, Paul, David and Rebecca) went to Palmyra for the Hill Cumorah Pageant. The drive up there took us through leafy northern New Jersey, the infamous Scranton, PA (we're all rabid Office fans), Syracuse (a fairly attractive "Northern, industrial town") and along the nearly exit-free I-90, the New York Thruway. Despite torrential rain and a horrendous traffic jam, we still managed to arrive in Palmyra in plenty of time to tour the sights before the pageant.

We first stopped at the Palmyra temple. It's a fairly standard temple design, except for one very special feature. The window behind me looks out onto the Sacred Grove. I think we were all immediately struck by the thought that we were walking on turf once trodden not only by Joseph Smith, but also the prophet Moroni nearly two thousand years ago. I think it's no coincidence that this place was chosen for such an important work. Unlike so many areas once rural that have now been swallowed up by development and sprawling cities, little Palmyra remains nearly as sleepy as it was when the Smith family arrived two hundred years ago. Any more town and the hustle and bustle would disturb the tranquility of the place. Today, we can return and still feel the strong presence of the Spirit. Even with all the pageant tourists, it was peaceful and still. And look there's Moroni up top, still keeping watch over it all.

We also went to the Smith farm and the Sacred Grove, and then into town to see the Grandin press. It poured with rain as we ate our dinner, so we bought sweatshirts and bin bags to protect ourselves against the elements during the pageant. The rain let up just in time for the pageant which was wonderful. I tried to take pictures, but the light wasn't sufficient. This is the best I managed, the opening scene:

After overnighting in Rochester, we went on to Niagara Falls on Sunday morning. I had a feeling there would be trouble at the border. I shalln't go into the details here, but I hope that this was the first AND last time I'm interrogated by US border patrol.

Here's the bridge over the river to Canada. Won't be crossing that again anytime soon!!
So instead of viewing the falls from the Canadian side, we got to see the falls up close on the US side. We walked onto Goat Island (such a romantic name, no wonder this was a honeymoon mecca!) which is between the American Falls, pictured above, and the grander Horseshoe Falls, below:
There are more pictures on flickr. We tried to find the spot where Superman rescues the dopey boy in the film. It's a shame we didn't have time to do the boat ride or the Cave of the Winds, but we had an enjoyable time, despite Keila's hair reaching near record-breaking temperatures. This was all followed by a long drive home. I was navigating, and despite taking us the wrong at least twice, everyone made a point of saying what a great job I was doing. I must say that I have some really terrific friends!!

The afternoon temperature in New York:

The afternoon temperature in Luton:

What's going on?! Luton is on the same line of latitude as like way up in Hudson Bay. They're having crazy weather in England. I heard on BBC radio that temperatures in the London Underground had reached 47 degrees in some trains, that's 116 in Fahrenheit. Shame I'm missing out on that!

I've never been a huge fan of sweeties and candy, but I do love a nice creamy, fruity dessert now and again. Thanks to Drew and Joanne for a great barbeque on Saturday. The highlight was definitely Drew's baking. We had strawberry shortcake, fresh peach pie and a cake in the shape of a sandcastle. Delicious!

Congratulations to me

I have been accepted into graduate school, the masters in human rights programme at University College London.

I'm not going. Obviously. But I am quite chuffed with myself for having got in.

The letter came yesterday. I had expected them to write and offer me an interview, at which point I could say thank you, but I withdraw my application. I had been dreading the interview, so it would have been a relief to be able to back out of that. But instead, they looked over my application and decided to take me sight unseen. That's kinda cool.

London loves

A year ago my city experienced one of its best days and then immediately one of its worst.

On July 6 we won the bid to host the 2012 Olympics. It was a euphoric day. I put up a giant poster over my desk on which I'd drawn the London logo. When I broke the news to Jonathan he shouted for joy at the thought that one day he would be 12, and he was pretty chuffed about the olympics (or 'lympics as they're known in our house) taking place right on his doorstep as well. He immediately wanted to go out and start training to run in the 100-metre dash. Lucy informed him he would be going to bed instead. Nice try, Jonathan!

The next day the bombs came and there really wasn't much to smile about for a long time. The poster came down and I just felt sick for days. But you know what, no one gets to spoil our city and no one gets to spoil our lives. Lucy and Jonathan went into central London just two weeks after July 7. She didn't want him to be afraid. London is so much part of our lives and he needed to know that it was safe. The longer they waited, the more he would worry. They rode the Thameslink from Luton station(just as the bombers had done), got off at Kings Cross and onto the underground. They spent a few tense minutes sitting on the train which for some reason was being held in the station. Worried looks were exchanged between the passengers, but finally the doors closed and the train pulled out of the station. Jonathan declared, "It's alright. There aren't any bombs anymore." Everyone relaxed visibly and smiled at a little boy's innocence.

I have a good life here in New York, but London will always be my home. Some days I'm really homesick. I just want to be in England and talk to people who now what "lubbly jubbly" means and know that they make bogs in Stoke-on-Trent. BBC radio via the internet is my lifeline. But I think how lucky am I to get to experience both these wonderful places. There's more for me to do here in New York. I have wonderful friends in this city that I don't want to be without. And thankfully, I worked out a deal with EMI when I took my new job so that I get to go home for more than a week at the end of August. I'll be with my family, breath English air, ride the underground and watch Jonathan train for the 'lympics.

So ends my first week of permanent employment at EMI Music North America. It's been a short, but hectic week. I'm trying to get my head round all my new duties as well as keep the lid on projects I am carrying over from my old position. It hasn't been quiet for even one moment! Suddenly people are sending me emails not asking me if I could look into things, but telling me I will resolve problems and handle pressing issues. I am responsible for stuff! It's a little scary, but it's all good experience. I'm enjoying the challenge of it.

All this has come at a cost, however, and I will miss my friend Joanne very much. Joanne got a terrific job offer as a Director of licensing at a music company near her home in New Jersey. No more commute into the city for her! I certainly know how nice that is. I don't miss riding hot sticky trains into London every day. We had a nice lunch at Pipa last Thursday to say cheerio.
Joanne has been a terrific friend to me over the last two years. We will of course stay in touch and already have plans for adventures together, include one seriously fancy birthday lunch. As a side note, Joanne became an auntie for the first time on Thursday evening when her best friend Kristen gave birth to a beautiful little boy named Aidan. I look forward to meeting the little fella.

"... their faith in their prayers was that this gospel should be made known also, if it were possible that other nations should possess this land; And thus they did leave a blessing upon this land in their prayers, that whosoever should believe in this gospel in this land might have eternal life;
Yea, that it might be free unto all of whatsoever nation, kindred, tongue, or people they may be." (D & C 10:49-51)

Michael's birthday weekend

The weekend's excitement began on Friday when Michael and I trekked over to Prospect Park in Brooklyn for a free (although we had to "donate" $3) concert. Matt Pond PA, one of my favourite bands, was playing on the bill. We plunked ourselves down on the muddy grass with no view other than of people's behinds. I entertained myself between sets with taking pictures of the soon to be birthday boy.
Our enjoyment of the music was slightly tempered by the rapid approach of dark, ominous clouds from all directions. Huge gusts of wind blew leaves and little branches down from the trees and everyone sat there just waiting for the clouds to burst and drench us all in seconds. Thankfully, the rain didn't start until the moment we headed down the steps into the subway on our way home. It was close!

Safely back in Manhattan, I left Michael at Rector Street to join Jill, Kim and Crystal to go see The Devil Wears Prada at Battery Park. We all enjoyed the movie, especially Meryl Streep as the formidable Miranda Priestly, but left the cinema feeling hopelessly underdressed and in desparate need of new shoes and handbags.

Saturday was one of the busiest and one of the most enjoyable days I've had in the city. Here's a rundown of the days events:

11.00 Kelly and I go to brunch at Spanish restaurant Pipa to celebrate my new job (more on that to come).
12.00 We stop by Banana Republic. Kelly comes away with some extremely flattering denim shorts.
13.00 We return home so I can commence work on Michael's birthday cake (white cake with double cream frosting and raspberries) and we watch the sad, but inevitable defeat of England on penalties.
15.30 Kelly and I join Michael and his brothers Stephen and Jeff at 42nd street to see Superman Returns. We all enjoy it so much we're about to burst with joy! I think it was everything we all hoped it would be. There is action and excitement, actors enjoying every moment of their roles, and to my surprise, powerful messages about the relationship between humankind and our real Father and Saviour respectively.
19.00 We temporarily part company, with Kelly heading to the temple, me to the apartment to collect the various parts of Michael's cake and the lads head down to Lombardi's pizza on Spring Street, where they join our friend Gretchen from 2 Gold. I show up with a bag full of cake pieces and we enjoy pizza at the first restaurant I dined at in New York. It was in January 1998, and Cathy Brown and I were straight off the train from Washington DC.
20.30 We all head downtown to the Mulcock brothers' apartment on Gold St for cake and the opening of presents. Michael's brothers are very excited about his first birthday with them in NY and they shower him with gifts. He is also delighted to receive an iPod nano from his Mum. It is the size of a mere speck of dust! Then, we gorge ourselves on cake.
22.30 It's off to The Culture Club for a night of eighties music and unbridled eighties dancing. Michael has been dreaming of going to Culture Club since the day he arrived in New York. Sadly, age has barred him from enjoying this, one of his most beloved past times, but today he is 21 and he presents his ID with pride. We all go mad with delight, dancing and singing, playing air guitar and posing for photos of ridiculous amounts of enjoyment.

Mormon money

Dad found the niftiest thing on eBay yesterday. It's a $3 bill printed by The Kirtland Safety Society and signed by a Mr J. Smith Jr and a Mr S. Rigdon. Now why do those names sound familiar?! Oh, and it was selling for a bit over $8,000.

Joanne has been trying over the last year or so to persuade me of the importance of commencing an engagement with a weighty piece of high grade carbon, ie a diamond. I don't particularly care for the look of diamond engagement rings. Mum never had one and I thought them clunky and frankly rather unsightly when I first noticed them on womens' fingers. Joanne promised that when I got a look at the REAL thing my feelings on the matter would change and we decided we would do a field trip to Tiffany's one lunchtime to see what it really means to sparkle. We almost didn't make it as Joanne is leaving EMI at the end of this week, but we managed to squeeze it in a little adventure yesterday.

I will freely admit to being dazzled. Engagement rings and wedding bands have their own floor and we toured around all the display cabinets, Joanne describing to me all the different cuts and settings. They all danced with light and colour, and even despite some shapes and settings that weren't all that appealing, the diamonds themselves were beautiful. My favourite cut was definitely the emerald cut:

Now, I haven't been completely seduced. As much as I fell in love with these gorgeous little rectangles, I still don't particularly want to one. Not as an engagement ring anyway. If for no other reason, I wouldn't want to feel obligated to have to wear the thing. And the cost is so frightening. I think I would still be more than happy with a pretty little ring from the antique jewelry stalls at the Portobello Road. But if my future husband ever did happen to find himself with a spare $7,000 sloshing around in his bank account, then an emerald diamond for his stunning wife might be just the ticket.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!

I forgot to ring my Dad on his birthday yesterday (I have no excuse) so to make amends I'm going to gush about him.
This is Dad in his younger days. It's sort of how I remember him as a child, with a bit less hair perhaps. The advent of the eighties brought his hair above his ears, but thankfully, the moustache remained pretty much intact! It did disappear for a few years when I was a teen, but it's back for good now!

Dad is definitely the grooviest guy I know, in fact, he's the complete package. He really does know EVERYTHING. He used to tell us that when we were little and we didn't believe it for a second, but now I'm convinced it's true. He's smarter than me even, so that ought to tell you something. He's curious about everything and will never tire of learning new things. I know that doesn't jive with what I just said in the previous sentences, but if you knew my Dad, you'd get it.

He's loving and kind. He's very generous, and a shopaholic, and I've done very nicely out of that. He's very open and friendly and likes to get to know new people. No one moves into our ward in Saudi Arabia without being be-friended by my Dad. He can get along with just about anyone. He sees potential in people and helps them to develop it. He thinks he's really funny. And he is.

He's a bit of a chatterbox (and he likes to call himself that) so thank goodness for internet phone service. He's never jealous of us kids or my Mum and will gladly send us off on a whirlwind trip to some city he himself would love to visit while he sits at home in Saudi Arabia. He's just happy that we've been able to do something he knows we'll enjoy. And best of all, he was clever enough to pick the grooviest girl in the world to be his misses.

Did I mention he's devilishly handsome?!

World Refugee Day + 3

In honour of World Refugee Day this past Tuesday I wanted to tell you about something really cool I heard about in a podcast from Wisconsin Public Radio.

They're called Lifeline Radios. The radios have been developped specifically for use by children in developping nations; they are easy to use and virtually indestructible. In Africa, the radios are primarily distributed to communities of children, most of them Aids orphans. The programming gives them vital information on health care and Aids prevention, as well as instruction on farming techniques and animal husbandry. So many of these children are the head of their household with no parent or guardian to instruct them in how to care for themselves and their siblings. For many of these children the radio serves as a comforting, parental voice that reassures them and even helps them get to sleep at night. The radios are shared among a community so it brings people together to listen and work together as a community.

As I was listening to this programme, I was reminded yet again how much Heavenly Father loves and wants to care for ALL his children, not just those of us lucky enough to live in relative luxury in the developped world. He has found ways to help them by inspiring people to develop technologies and set up programmes that help people to support and care for themselves. With all the turmoil and suffering in the world, it is comforting to know that He isn't ever giving up.

If you want to know more about the Lifeline Radios, go to the Freeplay Foundation website. It costs $55 to sponsor a radio. This includes the purchase of the radio and it's delivery to the community with training and instruction on how to use it.

My first broadway show

Michael and I went to the theatre last night, along with his brother Stephen and a friend. It might have been a double date. I'm not sure. It would be cool though, as that would be another first for me. The show wasn't outstanding, but it was entertaining enough and the seats were pretty comfortable. We had a laugh and for $5 you can't really top it.

I haven't thought much about going to the theatre since I've been here. Strange, as theatre is such a part of the city. I've had a couple offers to join Stephen and company (he gets heavily discounted tickets through some sort of theatre organisation he's a member of) but have always had to decline for one reason or another - he always seems to call when I'm in Jersey with Joanne. Anyway, now I've been once, it's peaked my interest. I'd really like to see Alan Bennett's play The History Boys but that just won a Tony so no doubt the tickets will be hard to come by.

Continuing our occassional series on Bovees holding other people's babies, here I am with Joanne's friend Neil's little son Jonas. Jonas is nine months old and we have been following his adventures via his own blog since the very day he was born. I have been pestering Joanne for months to fix up a lunch date so we could meet the little fella in person and yesterday we were finally granted an audience. As we walked into the restaurant and caught our first glance of Jonas, live and in person, we gasped in delight. It was like meeting Mick Jagger or the Queen, only like way better.

Jonas has just started walking, and was desperate to get down on the floor and show off his new trick. Just one problem, he's hidden all his shoes. He likes to play with them and has stashed them somewhere in his apartment where his Mum can't find them,, so he came into town from Brooklyn shoeless. No worries, I took him for a little walk around our table with him walking on my feet. It didn't work so well, but he did find the activity mildly amusing and it produced a photo-worthy grin.

Stephen had asked me to send him any pictures I had of Mum as a baby, but I think everyone needs to see these.

She really hasn't changed much.

Somebody is broody

Jonathan is desperate to be a big brother. He'd even settle for becoming a cousin. There's no immediate hope on either front, unfortunately, so he's having to make do with fussing over other people's babies. Here he is on Saturday holding our Luton friend Aleysha Freeman's son Jayden, born just that morning. Jonathan has always been good with babies, holding them very carefully and dispensing gentle kisses. He's a natural.

I've finally come face to face with the real life gangs of New York...

Yeah ok, not really. This is just my gang of friends playing a game called "Family Business". It's a mobster card game where you put out contracts on people and have mob wars and try to rub out everyone else. It could get rather vicious, but we're all just too nice for that.

This is Kristian and Jill politely murdering each other's mobsters. Now, don't get me wrong, we definitely play to win and there is plenty of rivalry. There's also lots of good-humoured ganging up on people and obliterating them.

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.

And some other things:
I discovered yesterday that you can do a free search of the index of deaths in Minnesota from the last century and order the certificates (only $8) right there online from the Minnesota Historical Society. I requested certificates for uncle Alton Bovee and Herman Narr. And they come in less than two weeks.

I also found in the California death index one Agnes Chadwick Parramore (daughter of Elizabeth Ducie Chadwick who went to San Fransisco). Mum will remember an ill-fated attempt to find her birth certificate in England. The online index shows her mother's maiden name as Ducie.

It's been a good weekend for genealogy!!

Wisconsin trip

Madison is an attractive and relaxed little city. I had enough time to stroll around the downtown and tour the beautiful Capitol Building. I sat by the lake on the university campus and tried not to be my usual frenzied self for just a little while. The weather was perfect, with blue skies and light breezes.

As for research, the trip was definitely worthwhile. Here are the main things I uncovered:
-Death certificate - Sarah Ann Baldwin Patterson
-Obituary - Sarah Ann Baldwin Patterson (Davis is a red herring, her maiden name was Baldwin, I now have her place of birth in Ashtabula, OH and discovered that Charles Patterson's family lived in WI - if you look at daughter Samantha's wedding certificate a Samuel Patterson was a witness)
-Obituary - Samantha Luellen Patterson Brown
-Birth Annoucement - Lillian Adelia Narr
-Muster Roll - Charles H. Patterson and brother Lysander A. Patterson
-Compiled Service Record - Charles and Lysander Patterson
-Land Platt Book records, Jackson County - Cornelius and other related Bovees
-Birth certificate - Helen Grace Bovee
-Birth certificate - Fred Lawrence Brown (Lillian's youngest brother)
-Marriage certificate - Silas R. Brown and Hannah Dolph (his third wife)
-Fairchild, Eau Claire Co. cemetery transcription Details of graves LeonardBovee (brother of George Bovee) wife Jeanette Bovee and 3 children, also Edward Bovee nephew of Cornelius and cousin of George

I also have transcribed birth records for more of Lillian Brown's siblings and loads births/deaths/marriages for Bovees, mostly siblings, nephews and cousins of George and Cornelius Bovee. I now have a long list of follow up tasks, including writing to a number of cemeteries and institutions. So not only have I come away with various bits of new information, but this trip has also opened up several new avenues of investigation.

Part of a river is named after our family. The Bovees settled Hixton and surrounding areas of Jackson County, Wisconin.

I'm still in Madison, but I have some time on my hands so I'll tell you all about something I found today. Compiled Civil War Service record for Charles H. Patterson (my great, great, great grandfather) shows he joined up in August 1862 along with his brother Lysander (didn't know he existed!). There's a description: Charles was rather tall at 6'1, with brown hair and blue eyes and a fair complexion. He lasted just over a year and a half in the infantry and in late 1863 he and his brother deserted. Guess he got fed up and decided to leg it! The brother got clean away, but Charles was later arrested and spent the next year under lock and key at the attractively titled Fort Swelling in Minnesota until he was dishonorably discharged. I did giggle. Anyway, he may not have been much of a soldier, but at least he was good looking.

Today was my first real sick day. I've never spent a whole day away from work because of illness. I've gone home sick, and I've started the morning with a migraine and then later in day (why? I'm not sure) still gone into work. But today was an exception. I was taken ill last night and decided to be kind to myself and spend the entire day at home resting. I spent nearly the whole day sleeping or drinking gatorade. It's now 11 at night and having slept most of the day, I'm quite alert. It will be a little while before I go to bed, but I think be able to sleep the night through alright. I ate baby food this evening, thinly sliced banana and cream of rice, but dined vicariously by watching a show on PBS called Daisy Cooks. She roasted yellow peppers on her stove burners, slow cooked potatoes in a tomato sauce in a frying pan and poached clams, scallops and shrimp in white wine, garlic and parsley sauce. Ah, I intend to eat well when I get my stomach back!

The Snuggly is nice, but this is how you cart a baby around when you've got crap to get done.

J's Holidays

J, ever the pint-sized techno pioneer, has a blog, J's Holidays. I don't think many of the other little six-year-olds at St. Matthews Infants School can boast such an accomplishment. It's actually Mummy writing the copy, but J has full editorial control. So now we can all read reports on his exciting holidays at Bruce and Kathryn's house and view progress on the ever expanding earthworks that once passed for our back garden.

I pyewed you

I played X-box for the first time last night. The gameboy thing keeps me out of trouble on a Sunday night, but I thought I'd see what all the fuss is about with these big fancy toys. I was mildly rubbish at Crazy Taxi, but I'm sure I wasn't the first New York cab to drive on the pavement. I was at 33 Gold st visiting John Tarbet, so I had to play Halo 2. I used to look down my nose at shooting games, but once I got the hang of it (well, not really, I still spent a lot of time looking at the ground or spinning around) it was wicked fun. I even finished with more kills than little NYC Bro on the second game!

Uh-oh, now when I come home this summer I'll be begging to go to Demetri's as well.

New toy

Commercial radio is unmitigated crap. They torture me with it at work (although it's not been so bad of late). Seriously though, if I worked at the post office, they'd all be dead by now. So I've been listening to internet radio for a while. BBC 6 is pretty good, but I really like radio stations you can play with. Pandora let's you set up different radio stations based on an artist or music style and then plays songs it thinks have similar "genetic" characteristics. You can skip through a lot of songs, and if they play a song you don't like, you can tell it to banish the song forever. Today I had to kill a Death from Above 1979 cover of Bloc Party's "Little Thoughts". It was just getting on my nerves.

Irish origins

O'Brien: "This family derives its name and descent from Brian Boru, King of Ireland, who was slain at Clontarf, in the year 1014. By his victories over the Danish invaders and their Irish allies, Brian raised his clan, the Ui Tordealbhaigh [probably pronounced "Davis" or perhaps "Johnson"], to a position of pre-eminence among the Dalcassians, and laid the foundation of the greatness of his posterity, who became not only the ruling family in Thomond, but one of the most powerful in Ireland. Some of them were kings of Munster, and some of all Ireland. Their possessions included the whole of Co. Clare and large portions of the counties Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford. They divided into several branches, the principle of which were: the O'Briens of Ara, in the north of Co. Tipperary, whose chief was known as Mac i Bhriain Ara; of Coonagh in the east of Co. Limerick; of Podelbrien, now the barony of that name in Co. Limerick, whose chief stronghold was Carrigogonnell, on the Shannon; and of Cumaragh, in Co. Waterford, who had extensive possessions along the Cummeragh mountains comprising the valley between Dungarvan and the Suir. O'Brien is now one of the most common surnames in Ireland. "
from Woulfe, Patrick. Irish Names and Surnames. Dublin: M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd., 1923, p442-3.

Mulherin: "des. of Maolciarian (servant of St. Ciarin), the name of an ecclestiastical family who were erenachs of Eaglais beg, at Clonmacnoise, and of Ardcarne, in Co. Roscommon. A branch of family seems to have settled in Donegal sometime before the end of the 16th century. The name at that period was most frequent in Westmeath, Roscommon and Donegal". p 597-8.
I guess some of them then wandered into Co. Mayo.

Roche: "in Irish Roiste, Norman 'de la Roche', Latin 'de Rupe', i.e. of the rock, from residence beside some proiminent rock; an old Norman surname. Families of this name settled in different parts of Ireland, but the best known were those of Cork, Limerick and Wexford. In the first named county, the Roches obtained by marriage the district about Fermoy known as [something in Irish I couldn't transliterate], or Roche's Country; the head of this family was Viscount Fermoy. The Roches of Limerick were a wealthy and respectable merchant family."
p 274-5.

Costello: there are too many appearances of Costello in the book to pinpoint the origin, but there is a Barony of Costello in Co. Mayo, which is where I'm hoping to place Mary Costello.

Tales from the olden days

Jonathan enjoys stories from the past, or the "olden days" as he calls it. He and Lucy recently discussed one of the most famous episodes from English history.

J: Mummy, did Henry the Eighth have four mummys?
L: No, he had six wives.
J: What happened to them?
L: I think he divorced two, one died having a baby, one survived. The other two died.
J: How did they die?
L: Are you sure you want to know? It’s not very nice. Well, he had their heads chopped off.
J: Ewww, gross. That’s not very nice, is it? Hmm. And what about Ann? Did they break up?

He's in the book

I found some directories for the city of New Bedford on Ancestry.com and I found over fifteen entries for Frank Paul and various family members. I knew great-great-great grandfather Frank had owned a grocery business, which I'd hoped to locate, and I knew he lived for several years at 128 Acushnet Avenue, near the waterfront, but I've found some exciting new information in these directories. This is the first one, from 1869. Frank owned two shops and it gives the addresses.

In 1873, Frank had focused his business interests and had just the one shop. And he'd moved. Look at the bottom, Joseph Paul, a confectioner was occupying the other shop and lived with Frank. I don't know who this is, perhaps a brother.

In later years, the directory also includes Frank's children Charles, Emma and Florence. Florence started out as a proofreader and by 1908 had worked her way up to editorial assistant for the Standard (the local rag I assume). I guess proofreading is in the blood!

And the final entry for Frank, in 1917.

As I said, I have about fifteen of these. They're like a little travelogue of Frank's life, showing all the places he lived and worked.

Dad talked me out of Ohio

I wasn't actually there yet, he talked me out of going in the first place. So I might go to Madison, Wisconsin instead. I have to figure out if it's worth the cost of the trip.

Costello ain't no Italian name

For those who know little of the thrills of family history research (ye poor, wretched beings), I am sure you will be delighted to learn that although certain branches of a family can yield little or no information at a given time, often they appear to be a complete deadend, sometimes they suddenly explode and you start to uncover one thing after another.

The Costello clan (John Ducie's mother's family) are like that. We didn't know for the longest time what Mary Costello's nationality was for sure, and once I knew she was born in Ireland, I figured that was probably all I would ever know about her and her family. Not true. The Costellos are suddenly all crawling out of the woodwork. I tried again yesterday to find the main Ducie family's passage to the US from England in 1862. And again, I couldn't find anything. John's eldest sister Mary, however, hadn't come with them, she had gone to Ohio in 1857. So I looked just for her, and her I found, on a ship called the Jacob A Westervelt which sailed from Liverpool arriving in New York on 19 Oct 1857. That's the year she listed as her date of immigration on the 1900 census. The age matches as well, and the name on the passenger list above her is Patrick Costello. I know it's her, because three years later on the 1860 census for Chippewa, Ohio, Mary and her new husband John Schoenberger (of the Mary Ducie obituary) have a lodger named none other than Patrick Costello. Why did they pick Wayne County, Ohio? Two families above Mary, John and Patrick is the William Costello family. It looks like Patrick and Mary Ducie followed her family to Ohio.

And there's something more. I was looking at the 1861 census in England to see if any of Mary's Costello relatives had been living near them in Staffordshire in England. I found a Winifred Costello aged 70 living as a lodger in Rowley Regis, in the village of Bakersfold. I thought hang on, that's familiar, and so when I went to the page before, it was the Ducies. They had a lodger with the rather florid name of Malachy Gilleroy living with them, the last name on that page, and so I hadn't thought to look for more family over on the next page. Is that Mary's mother? Possibly. The point is, I now have all these Costellos to look into and if one of them had the foresight to record exactly where in Ireland they came from, then I have the place where the Ducies originated as well.

It snowed...

here.

The 'lympics

On the telephone this morning...

Auntie Genevieve: "Jonathan, do you know what's happening today?"
Jonathan: "err... it's the winter 'lympics starting today" (in that tone that says why are you asking, i can't believe you don't know, oh good grief)
Auntie Genevieve: "So are you going to be watching skiing all day tomorrow?"
Jonathan: "My head will be next to the tv all day and all night and all day! I'll turn into a zombie." (hmm, where did he hear thatI wonder?!)
Auntie Genevieve: "well, it's only 1 hour and 5 minutes till it starts"

And then after spinning the phone on the table, "are you feeling dizzy and sick?", he ran off to get the kitchen timer so Lucy could set it for 1 hour and 5 minutes. Apparently that's his new thing, setting the timer for absolutely everything. Lucy says it's become obsessional. Oh good, my little boy is a crazy man!

Got time on your hands?

If you're looking to warm up your brains and your funny bones, here are some links to my favourite radio programmes on the Beeb.

The Now Show This is a weekly news/satirical show in the vein of Bremner, Bird and Fortune. The stand-up spots are hilarious, but the songs by Mitch Benn are the best bit. You might have trouble following some of it if you're not up on British news, but you can always catch up here.

In Our Time The history of ideas. There are at least a hundred programmes in their archive. I've learned about everything from the Babylonian alphabet to artificial intelligence.

Excess Baggage Indulge your wanderlust. You can listen to all fifty tales of adventure and exploration in the archive listed on the right side of the page. My favourites are Lost Languages and Michael Palin.

Mark Kermode My film review fellow. Sometimes he gets really worked up about things and goes off on one. I love it.

Eco Istvan

Aspersions have been cast - you know who you are - on my veracity, or perhaps sanity. A figment of the imagination never mucked up our laptop - you know who you are - or left such a huge indentation in the sofa. So here's the proof, this is he, my enormous little brother.

Jonathan discovers google earth

So after Joanne and I had hours and hours of fun playing with Google Earth (strictly on our lunch break of course), I installed it on the laptop in Luton so we could play with it there. Last Thursday, Lucy and Jonathan discovered it. They looked up Luton, my address in New York and Granny and Grandpa's house in Saudi Arabia, and more importanly, the Surf House and the water slip and slide thingy on the RT beach. Jonathan went mad for it, and when they'd done with familiar places he announces "now, let's look up Australia". He knows about Australia?! So they checked our Sydney, Melbourne, and all points intriguing on the Antipodean isle.

I suggested their next "trip" should be to Rome, they have beautiful, clear pictures of all the best sites - you can see the hole in the Pantheon and the columns in St. Peter's Square. Any recommendations for other closely-photographed destinations?

I have a new calling

As of yesterday, I'm no longer a Gospel Principles teacher, I'm now our ward's Family History Committee Chairperson. Yep, I'm the bosslady in charge of family history. I think it's a good fit. We have a new ward goal (one name cleared per member - not too hard), and our new Elders Quorum president Jeff Mulcock is keen to work with me to get his lads properly involved in family history. We have some newly baptised members who need to get started and plenty of others who I plan to recruit, if for no other reason I'm curious to learn about their family background. The previous chairperson was my roommate Kelly, so it'll be an easy handover!!

The Pattersons

My Charles Patterson death certificate yielded some extremely useful clues. It gives his place of burial as Hancock, Wisconsin. There is only one cemetery in Hancock and a complete transcription is available on the internet. Charles is buried in plot B89 along with his wife Sarah Ann and two young children. I already had a date of death for the children from great-grandmother Lillian, but had no idea when Sarah Ann Davis had died. It's 1914, so I can request a death certificate from the state and hopefully find out who her people were. I was also able to match Charles to one of two possible 1850 census records I'd found some time ago. The return is from a county in Ohio, listed on the certificate as his birthplace, the age matches the certificate, and it lists the father's birthplace as Connecticut which also matches the certificate. You have copies of this census image - it's in the folder Brown-Patterson and it's called 1850 Census Charles Patterson possible, but I can't remember if it's 1 or 2. The cemetery record noted that Charles was veteran of the Civil War. There are only two Charles Pattersons who served in the Wisconsin regiments [go to this site and enter Patterson, Charles, Wisconsin in the search fields]and one of them is a Charles H. Patterson!!

Great expectations

Jonathan has declared his ambitions for the future. He wants to be a footballer and then a king, so he can "be in a pyramid". [The other night we watched a television programme about the building of Kufu's great pyramid tomb in Egypt.]

I am resolved

to do the following in this New Year:

- get meself proper educated
- stop discussing LDS dating: it is a tired and worn out subject to which I humbly admit I can contribute nothing that hasn't already been said
- decide once and for all whether or not to let my hair grow out, again
- do eastern Ohio
- spend less money at restaurants and more time reading

Pretend the date above is 25 December

We had a happy Bovee Christmas here in Luton! Jonathan didn't wake up til 8 o'clock (did Lucy drug him?). I got TWO stockings this year. Mum found a lovely bag in Past Times and just couldn't resist filling it up with goodies along with my usual angel stocking. We spent much of the day opening presents: we don't like to rush, else you miss seeing what everyone else has got. That's my favourite thing about Christmas is seeing what the rest of my family have come up with as gifts for each other. Often they're very clever, and with all of us travelling to different places there's usually some exotic and beautiful presents from distant lands. This year it was Germany, Lativa, Lapland, Hungary and Hawaii. Before presents we watched The Nativity, after all, a bit of religion at Christmas never hurt anyone. I am so happy to be able to spend a whole month with my family. We had a few squabbles the first few days, which is only natural, but by today (and even better by the real today!) we've adjusted to crowded quarters and remember why we've all come so far to be together. Oh, and on Boxing Day Jonathan and I used all his new Brio to build the greatest railway ever imagined.

Happy Christmas to you all!