Allison's Symphonic Orchestra came on last and was very good. Although they only played three selections, there were multiple movements in two of the pieces which was interesting. Can't believe this is Allison's final high school concert -- hopefully she'll get a chance to play at Geneseo next year because I believe she really enjoys it.

Nothing much else happening. It's my sister's birthday as well as my niece. Tried getting the neice, Erica, on the phone this afternoon but she was out running around. It was too late to start calling people by the time we got back from the concerts, so I guess I'll call Sally and Erica tomorrow.

Not much going on at the moment. Work is crazy -- just finished two weeks of non-stop meetings giving a three-man team from North Plains their marching orders to build our ad agency's new digital asset management system (they market a product called Telescope which is far more robust that the print studio's Xinet system). I get stressed just thinking about this summer; the studio is upgrading its Xinet system (SGI to Sun), switching to a new workorder system, upgrading its software from InDesign CS to CS2, throwing out my homegrown Applescripts and using Triple Triangle's Mechanical Cubed software, and putting in a pilot Telescope setup by August. I don't think I'm going to be spending a lot of time lying around the beach this summer.

Got to go -- I only mowed the front lawn yesterday 'cause I really needed to do some trim work in the front (the neighbors on both sides of us use a lawn service so we were looking a little ragged compared to them). It's suppose to rain today and I need to at least hack the lawn down a bit before the sky opens up.

My wife Sheila just got back from a long weekend in Ohio where she hooked up with some family and friends and toured the Lady Di exhibit in Dayton. Apparently if you're a Lady Di fan it was wonderful (the wedding gown, some of the Spencer family jewelry, many of Diana's dresses). Our daughter, Allison, was up in Toronto at the same time attending a competition for her chamber orchestra (they won!). My son, Peter, and I enjoyed a bachelor weekend which was fun.

Another distant cousin, Michael Geldard, sent me an email expressing interest in the genealogy site. We're both descendents of the Poetess of the Forest of Dean, Catherine Drew. Big news on that front -- I want to reset her book of poetry as a keepsake and Marie Sims was nice enough to send me a Xerox of her copy of the book which, unfortunately, was missing two pages. Thanks to the Glouchestershire Library, I just received a copy of the missing two pages in the mail today so I can go ahead with my project (just need some time to set the type). Still deciding how to approach this -- half the book is a list of names of the sponsors who paid for the publication. Do I reset all that or just the poetry section? I suppose for historical purposes I should do the subscription section as well.

That's it for one night. Hopefully it won't be as long between posts.

Mets lost today, losing their first series of the year to the hated Atlanta Braves. We'll see how they do on their West Coast swing. They actually look like they might be competitive this season.

Picked up Allison at her Tri-M music honor society meeting and then took her over for a babysitting gig. Peter's presentation in his math class on Bayes' Theorem apparently went well. I thought his Powerpoint presentation was impressive — Bayes' Theorem is used to calculate conditional probabilities; not the easiest topic to discuss.

That's it for tonight.

On Thursday my son Peter and I spent the day with my parents while my daughter Allison went shopping with Sally and her cousin Erica (Sally wanted to buy Allison linens and a bedspread for college). At my parents we played bridge for about three hours — Peter and my father bid and made a small slam against mom and I which was depressing. But we had a good time. It's been a while that I've gotten to spend any real time with the parental units.

Friday I took my two kids and Sally's two boys (Charles and Frankie) putt-putt golfing. We hooked up with my Dad and had a good time. Then Dad left and we connected with Sally's husband, Richie, and took the kids to go see Scary Movie 4 which was pretty lame. Pizza night at the Nastasis completed the day and we headed home to Long Island on Saturday. Sheila and the dogs seemed please to see us I think.

Anyway, to recap the last week. Hit the Mt. Calvary Cemetery in Bridgeport. Beautiful place with a lake. Unfortunately, the Bill family I was searching for were cremated and no markers left. So we drove onto Westfield to look for more Drew relatives. Once again, the couple who run Pine Hills are very nice but nothing is computerized and its difficult to look anything up. After giving up in the office, we started driving through the rows and my son Peter spotted a Bill headstone that turned out Eliza Drew Bill and her husband, Charles Bill. Next to them was a small marker for their twin sons Arthur and Luther who died either at birth or shortly thereafter.

And right next to them was a marker for my great grand-aunt, Lota Hodges, who died at age 23 shortly after receiving her degree in nursing. I had a feeling the graves would be near each other — I'm pretty sure Lota and her sister Lillian stayed with their aunt, Eliza, when they first came over from England. I'll post the headstones in the website's graveyard section later this week. Got an email from Eliza's great granddaughter Drucine Bill Onze which had two great shots of Eliza. Haven't quite figured out how to put images into this blog yet, so I'll post them in the Drew section on the website.

More about our travels tomorrow.

We'll see how we do in tomorrow's post.

Got some interesting email — two stepsisters wrote me after one discovered their names on the website. Margaret Cote and Drucine Onze are the great grand-daughters of Charles Bill and Eliza Drew. Eliza was the sister of Sarah Drew, my great-great grandmother (the difference in generations is because Sarah was 14 years older than Eliza). Enjoyed hearing from them — Eliza Drew Bill was a major figure in my great-grandfather Vernon Hodges' life as well as his brother and sisters. Eliza (known as Auntie B) took into her home at least a couple of her sister's children after they were sent to America following the death of their parents. In the journal of Vernon's sister, Violette Hodges Curtiss, Auntie B is a frequent visitor and surrogate grandmother to Violette's children.

In searching for some common experiences, Drucine mentioned how she too remembered visiting Alice Drew Lockwood, a niece of Eliza Drew Bill, who lived in Norwalk, CT in a lovely home overlooking a golf course. Like Drucine, who is about my own age, I remember going to Alice's home and having her mark my height on the doorjam to the kitchen pantry. We'd also occasionally take her out to Skipper's Restaurant down in the harbor. One time, we met her there when we sailed across Long Island Sound from Northport. A fun trip.

Anyway, it was great hearing from some relatives I've never met and a special thank-you to Margaret for giving me an update on her family's information for the website.

My name is Jonathan Hodges and I turned 48 three days ago. The reason I'm starting the blog is that I've been recently reading my great-grandfather Vernon Hodges' journal -- he began it in 1926 and faithfully maintained it until shortly before his death in 1943. Vernon started writing at age 50, so I thought it would be interesting to see the difference in the thoughts and comments to two men of approximately the same age separated by eighty years. Chances are it will only be interesting to me.

Anyway, I'm still deciding the best way to display Vernon's journal -- as monthly files on my website; as daily musings in the entended entry section of this blog; or making a completely separate blog for him.

Guess this is enough for my first post -- more tomorrow.