The good life continues here in Gloucester for me.  James stays in Harpursville during the week to take care of his obligations but I get to stay here.  It's a little lonely some of the time, but I have been working on family history so much that names and dates float through my head throughout the nights. 

James was here last weekend to celebrate his birthday.  A trip to Boston University to see one of his former field hockey players who now plays for UCONN.  It was a barn-burner but the "good guys" won in a shootout after a double overtime game.  He looks happy, doesn't he?

The trip worked out well as a trial run for my own trip to the Boston Public Library tomorrow by train and subway.  At least that's the plan for now. 

As I've been working on the family tree (all Ryan all the time), it's interesting to note that those little shaky green leaves that the Ancestry.com commercials talk about came to life this week--for the Italians!  Bentivoglio, Maistrelli, Manzelli, Dalpiaz and Odorizzi.........all these hints and I can't easily follow up on them until I get back to my records at home.  Stay tuned and we'll see what happens.

James got a nice phone call from Thomas for his birthday.  They had a nice chat reminiscing about street football games in the neighborhood.  Coincidentally, last night there was an episode of The Middle during which the mom tried to get the kids to get along better.  They ended up playing parents vs kids in street football--and it worked to bring the kids together!  The problem for the parents was that grew tired of these games much faster than the kids did.  I'm quite certain that wasn't a problem for James and Thomas during their games.....I'm right, aren't I?  :)  Anyhow, that show made me think about how nice it is that you siblings all found ways to get along and stay in touch.  I understand that's hard work but very much worth the effort.

On that note, we are expecting a visit from Robert and Bobbie this weekend.  We hope they enjoy Gloucester but, in any case, we are looking forward to time together continuing those efforts to share experiences and spend time together.  A report will be forthcoming.