World's top five cemetery tours

Seriously... http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/oct/25/fivebest-cemetery-tours

North of the border

I was supposed to be spending today clawing my way up the side of a pyramid. But the gods and the elements had other ideas, and our hotel in Mexico City had a fire at the beginning of the week. No hotel ... no holiday. Everything was cancelled and here I sit, still in New York City, still haven't had a holiday yet this year.

Dad says we'll go to Oaxaca next year instead, so I still get a trip to Mexico and we don't have to dodge muggers, kidnappers and assasins. Ok, fair enough.

I still need a holiday though!

NEVER eat cookies for breakfast!

My boys

In ready supply

My roommate Libby called out to everyone in the apartment yesterday asking for some Bandaids for a cut finger. I rushed to her aid, reminding her that I always have a huge stash of Bandaids.

"It's one of the top three (not quite sure why I said that) things I always have!"

"What are the other two?" she asked. "Attitude and travel plans?!"

And she's right.

Another trip?

I would love to take Jonathan on a little trip next February, just the two of us. And I would like to do some family history research in Ireland. Jonathan has shown a lot of interest in family history (don't tell him yet, but I'm grooming him to be the next Bovee genealogist) so I thought a trip to Ireland might be the perfect thing. I had County Mayo in mind, but thought I should probably do a bit of research ahead of time to make sure we had a good enough reason to go!

My great-great grandmother Ellen Mulherin, later Ellen Ducie, (the lady on the right with the rather interesting hairdo)

came from Mayo and thanks to some records newly made available online, I was able to find her exact date (5 April 1867) and place (Coolcronan, North Mayo) of birth. I knew from her obituary that Ellen had a least one brother, and with a little further digging I discovered that in fact she had two brothers, Thomas and James, and three sisters, Anne, Elizabeth and Bridget (there's always a Bridget!).

We already knew the names of Ellen's parents, Ellen McDonnell and Patrick Mulherin. I found a record of their marriage, also in Coolcronan, which supplied me with the names of both Ellen's grandfathers, Martin McDonnell and Thady (short for something?) Mulherin, my fourth great grandfathers and Jonathan and Andrew's (can I just tell you how exciting it is to write Jonathan and Andrew) fifth great grandfathers. Most of my research now involves extended families, so it's quite a special moment when I discover the name of a direct ancestor.

So now Jonathan and I have somewhere to go. We don't come from wealthy families, so there's no ancestral pile to visit. There's probably no physical legacy of these chaps, but, as with my dead of winter expedition to Wisconsin last December, it's just nice to be somewhere where our family was. And of course we'll cruise around a bit and do some serious 9-year-old stuff as well. Does anyone know what 9-year-olds like to do? Auntie's a bit out of the loop I'm afraid.

"It's official... I'm a charmer!"

First look

Everyone, this is Andrew.

I'm an auntie!

Andrew Anthony King was born around 2pm England time. I don't yet have his weight, but I hear he is long-legged and destined to sprout spectacularly.

My little sister is now the mother of three sons!

I just bought my fourth international plane ticket in 10 days!

Travels

I'm going to Venice for Thanksgiving. Now that's something to be grateful for.

I'll be making a quick 2-day stop-over in England to meet my new baby (arrival imminent - watch this space) and then on to Venice for 3 days with Lauren. I'm not a first timer, I spent 5 hours in Venice some years ago, but there's so much more to explore. We went on a warm, sunny May Dad, having seen the city bathed in sunlight, I'm looking forward to seeing it in the fog. And I'm hoping for Aqua Alta so we can splash around in the Piazza San Marco.

But before I get to Venice, I shall be going to Mexico City for Halloween. Dad will be there for 10 days sharpening his Spanish and I'm dropping in for a four-day visit. We'll see a good part of the city and one day he's taking me to the ruins at Teotihuacan.

I would imagine many Americans think of Europe as exotic and far flung, and Mexico as just the neighbors, but for me this is really exotic. And it will be so much fun to finally visit Central America with Dad after growing up with stories of his time there.

Wide awake

We moved apartments last night/today. We had seventeen hours to do it: midnight to 5pm today. Got everything done, but that means I've been awake since 8am yesterday. The others had a nap around 6 am but I kept schlepping and painting.

That means I've been awake for almost 33 hours. Never studied all night at university. Never worked a night shift. So I'm going for a record. Wait a minute, I've set the record, ages ago. I'm just breaking my own record.

I heard once from Ronnie Wood that he and Keith Richards did six straight days once. I'm not going to break their record.

Big cheese

He said third Indiana Jones film was released in 1990. I said no, 1987, maybe 1989. He was adamant and wanted to make a bet with me. I'm careful with my money, but mighty competitive, so I said, "Alright, I'll bet you a LARGE cheese sandwich." He said, "You're on".

And I was right. 24 May 1989. I just won a cheese sandwich! I don't care if I even get it. I just love that I won the bet.

That's two in a row.

Longer days

Today was the first day I left the office and it was still light outside. That's usually something I announce in the springtime when the days are getting longer, but it's autumn. So what does this mean? It means I've been working late every night for the past two weeks. So what it really means is my life is a bit crap right now.

Still, I always take some comfort in knowing it could be much worse. Like for this chap I heard about in a BBC new story who got himself arrested for having 86 wives. The Shariah court is all up in arms because under Islamic law he's allowed only four. But he doesn't believe Allah is unhappy with him. What evidence does he offer for this? He says, "Any man that did not have help from Allah in keeping 86 wives would surely drop dead!" I'm inclined to agree with him.

And I really like his hat.

Wish I could live in Kentucky

I've been working on a project that involved transcribing what felt like about a million addresses of mine workers in northeast Kentucky. Tedious job, but the street names were kinda fun:

Silk Stocking Road
Middle Greasy Creek
Big Ugly Road
Burning Tree Lane
Pigeon Roost Road
Fox Hunters Ridge
Bob & Joann Lane
Stumbo Hollow
Triple S Road
Raccoon Road
Little Lick Fork
Upper Blackberry
Pansy Lane
Sulfur Springs Road
Left Jockey Hollow

and my favourite...
Fex Creek

I know it's puerile but that one makes me laugh out loud every time.

I think Dad has a list of towns in Texas with silly names. If anyone can think of other such lists, let me know, we Bovees love this kind of thing.

C.E.R.N.tainly it'll be fine

So our physicist friends in Switzerland are pretty confident there won't be some kind of planet terminating event over there tomorrow when they switch on their giant bicycle pump. Still, I'm going out for a really good dinner tonight and enjoying a bit of my favourite telly. I don't want to have spent my last evening in this dimension eating cold pot noodle and doing the wash!

The long night is over

The ink on our new lease is dry and the ordeal is finally over. We have a place to live (for another year at least) and we don't have to worry about moving as it's just downstairs in our current building. My new address will be 45 Wall St #301.

It's a gorgeous little apartment with two large bedrooms, a living room nearly as big as the one we have now, and a large alcove where we can keep our sewing stuff and work on other projects. We have high ceilings - 11 ft - so an illusion of even more space. There will just be the four of us, so not quite as hectic as the last two years.

I can't tell you how relieved we all are! Things have worked out well.

BFI on youtube

I discovered that the British Film Institute, which has the largest film archive in the world, has a youtube channel. I couldn't sleep this morning so I've been watching clips from their collections.
There are wonderful historical films of Edwardian Britain, clips from a filmed tour of Britain in 1924, and several films of old London. They have "educational" films from the forties and fifties, including one called "Growing Girls" that's not for the faint-hearted. I loved the old football matches, the men in their suits, steam trains and omnibuses, and suffragettes on the march. Here's one that Mum will love Holidaying in 1957. There's the Mystery of Marriage and courtship explained. How to make the perfect Valentine. Hints on how young ladies can fight off thieves. And Rush hour in 1896 (a little quieter on the bridge than when I used to cross it).

Janice Lurine Bovee

One evening when Dad was visiting New York, we dined out in style at a Greek restaurant, Molyvos, and between courses I quizzed him about his family. We talked about his father's many brothers and sisters, most of them Dad never met, and I realised that though we assumed all had long since passed away, his youngest sister Janice, born in 1926, may still be living. I decided to make it my mission to find her for him and get us together if possible.

Well thanks to my friend Charles who is a professional genealogist, we located her this week. Charles found an obituary in a Wisconsin newspaper and I nearly fell off my chair when I noted the date. She died just six weeks ago on July 29th... the day we had dined at Molyvos.

She was the last of her generation on both sides of Dad's family and it's ever so disappointing to think if we'd looked just a few months ago we might have been able to meet her. Though sadly the irony is without her obituary we probably wouldn't have found her. However, all is not lost. As you will read below, she had eight children (eight cousins for my Dad!), grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and I shall track them down and make friends with them.


Janice Lurine Lawton, Orfordville (1926 - 2008)
February 15, 1926 - July 29, 2008Janice Lurine Lawton, 82, passed away Tuesday, July 29, 2008, in Collinwood Elder Care, Orfordville. She was born on Feb. 15, 1926, in Medford, WI, daughter of George and Lillian (Brown) Bovee. She married Leonard Revels on June 20, 1944. Leonard was the father of her children. She married Floyd Johnson in 1957; he passed away on July 20, 1980. She married Bernard Lawton on Feb. 9, 1985; he passed away on July 21, 2000. Janice was a nurse and caregiver. As a resident at the Garden Court Apartments, she was very active setting up activities and music for all residents. She enjoyed crocheting, reading, talking on the phone, playing cards and other games, and spending time with her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.She is survived by her sons: Paul "Bud" (Caroline) Revels of Footville, Ronald (Christine) Revels of Twin Falls, ID, Larry (Darlene) Revels of Mauston, and Jim (Penny) Nielsen of Sioux City, SD; daughters: Roberta (Mike) Kemper of Beaverton, OR, Cynthia (Roger) Williams of Byram, MS, Barb Augustin of La Place, LA, and Sandy (Fred) McKillips of lola, WI; grandchildren; great-grandchildren; and great-great-grandchildren.She was preceded in death by her parents; husbands; and a grandson, Ryan McKillips.

Silbo Gomero

Anyone ever heard or heard of Silbo Gomero, the whistling language of the Canary Islands? I thought I knew a thing or two about obscure languages but was fascinated to discover this on a BBC radio programme. Apparently a shouting voice doesn't carry across the valleys of the volcanic island of La Gomera, but whistling travels over 2 miles. So to avoid schlepping up and down the mountains to get a message to their neighbours, the Gomeros just whistled. Have a listen.