I’m sorta disappointed to learn that Jim wasn’t born in Raton – I’m sure I would have found some fodder for some mild ribbing if he had actually been born in NM. Let’s see, the average work-week in NM is only about 20 hours a week - no wonder Jim became a pilot!  It could have been fun!

I had been surprised to see both Ed’s and Jim’s birthplaces – the folklore on my side of the family had been that Emil had gone from college to Fort Collins with only one other brief stop. By the way – how is Eleanor? I hope she is doing great. Is she living home alone or does she live with Dee Dee?

I guess if Jim’s grandsons surpass the number required for basketball there is always baseball – Jim had better buy a good book - I don’t recall, was that one of his sports? You’re right, it is amazing how the family seems to spew out boys predominately - I’ll forgo any quality control or testosterone jokes but we do seem to be a “Y” dominate bunch.

Yes, I had noticed the two Heidi’s, in fact I struggled a little to figure out which birthday went with which Heidi until I realized the birthdays should be close in years to the husbands – that solved the mystery (thanks to several years). Not only do we have two people named Eric but their birthdays are only two days apart too. I had always remembered Eleanor and mom as being pregnant almost at the same time with Dee Dee and Rick – but in fact they are more than a year apart. I am embarrassed to admit that until this project got underway I only remembered Dee Dee by her nick-name.

As I recall, dad said the Eric vs. Rick debate raged on for a while and finally the name/nickname compromise was reached. I think mom favored Eric but I can’t be sure. Every once and a while a youthful Rick would refuse to answer you unless you called him Eric – now he only uses the name for legal purposes – but I think the “Ricky” version can still occasionally earn one a withering glare.

It was fun to hear that John and Dee Dee (et al) travel together. Wow, eleven weeks in Europe!!! I think that is great. I don’t get a chance to do things with my brothers much – there are too many years and too many miles between us. But Byron, Margo and Sharon and I still try to get together every once in a while – they came up to help me at a gem and mineral show in Quartzsite this year. We are hoping to get to California to see B and Rick as well as their families for a weekend before the house closes at the end of the month.

Sharon’s brother Mike and his wife Susan travel a lot – in fact their whole family does. They camp and dirt-bike or climb 14’ners all summer long when they are not going to school or traveling to Hawaii, South America, Japan or Europe. We join-in occasionally but it can be difficult. Sue and I love each other but we can get on each other’s nerves rather quickly – we both have to work hard not to let WWIII break out on any of our trips. When we were in Spain I made her so mad that I thought she was going to pack-up and return to Madrid ahead of the rest of us – she didn’t and we had a good time. It’s really too bad because she is such a neat person.

I took up golf in my twenties but never played well – no short game! Now with all my other projects I don’t have time for the game and so I haven’t touched a club in about 2 1/2 years. Before that I had tried to build my own clubs – it was a fun, expensive disaster! At this point I probably would have to take lessons just to remember how to even hold a club. Still, I envy John having the time to play. PS - the only time I came close to a hole-in-one was at Collindale - about a century ago – hit the cup, spun out and hit the flag - rolled to the edge of the green – 3-putts later – oh well.

How did Kent and Brenda come to adopt Max – and when? I hope things work out for him and the family – it must be difficult.

On to the family tree – I got an email from Judy the other day – she has a broken arm – no explanation. I gather that she has done all she intends to do on her family tree. In the meantime I got an email from Margaret loaded with information about grandmother’s side of the family - she says she has letters and journals from some of grandmother’s nieces. – now that could be a treasure trove!!! But the stuff is in storage and it will be March of '04 before she can get to it. Hope I live that long!

OK, OK – I promise to leave you alone for a while. It will take me a little while to get all of Ed’s and his sibling’s family units together anyway – then maybe you can do one last proof reading for me. By the way, I am still hoping to get pictures of Kent and Kris to go with the great picture of you and Ed. Then I’ll start bugging Jim – it will be a merciless campaign. Still no response yet from John or Dee Dee – maybe I have to atone for being such a hermit all these years. I’ll gently approach them later.

Say “Hi” to everyone, and thanks for all the help - it has been great!

Rog and Sharon