• O.K. So what's with the last name? "JOE" - "HEN" - "GIN" (the card game or the liquor). I also tell people that
    it rhymes with "engine" - Johengen. It's German, probably a poor "Americanization" of Gehändchen or the
    like. In one branch of the family there were ten different spellings within the same generation! Folks have
    had trouble spelling and saying it ever since.
  • I'm a native of Collins Center, New York, a little town 30 miles due south of Buffalo.
  • I was born on August 16, 1962, and was adopted as a baby. In June 2011 I was able to reconnect with
    members of my biological family; my brother Rick McKinnon lives in Olympia WA. He has been helping me
    fill in many of the details of my birth heritage. My mother, Kathleen Ann Jordan, died in 1996; my father,
    Richard Carl McKinnon, died in 2008.
  • I have lived in Bath, NY since 2005, where my husband, the Rev. J. Brad Benson, is the rector of St.
    Thomas Episcopal Church, Bath, and the vicar of Good Shepherd Church, Savona.
  • Brad and I have been together since June 1990, and were married in Sheffield MA on May 28, 2010.
  • To see some "family pictures" click here. To see some pictures of our gorgeous chow chow Autumn, click
    here, and of Taggart, our champion puppy, click here.
  • I have lots of hobbies and interests, including:
  • Crocheting - below and at right are some pictures of some of my projects, or check out my "Flickr"
    site.
  • Crafting, especially working with polymer clay - check out  pictures of some of my polymer clay
    projects
  • Paper arts, especially rubber stamping - check out pictures of my stamping projects
  • Watching figure skating - I'm a big fan and follow most of the major competitions. My favorite skaters
    are Johnny Weir, Yu Na Kim, the retired Chinese pair Xue Shen and Hongbo Zhao, Alissa Czisny.
  • Antiques (especially Roseville Pottery)
  • Gothic cathedral and Victorian architecture
  • Playing cards and doing crossword and sudoku puzzles, as well as games in general
  • Reading and writing poetry - among my favorites are Billy Collins, Carl Dennis, Howard Moss, Robert
    Frost, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Langston Hughes, Emily Dickinson, A. E. Housman, Thomas Hardy...
    almost too many to mention.
  • One of my on-going "projects" is research into Francesco Borosini, Italian tenor (c.1688-c.1750). Visit my
    Francesco Borosini Homepage.