Dan and Eyvonne see family, friends and sights on East Coast tour

Dan and Eyvonne took an East Coast trip that included lots of get-togethers with family and friends plus some New York City tourism.

The gatherings included a birthday party for Dan and Marie's grandmother Joan in South Jersey that brought together all of her children and grandchildren. Marie and Brian and Xander were there as well, and it was the first chance for Xander to meet some of his uncles, aunts and cousins.


On Sunday night, Dan and Julie and Christine and Andy joined Dan, Eyvonne, Marie, Brian and Xander for dinner at Mastori's, a well-known diner/restaurant in central Jersey. It was a great time, and Xander was on his best behavior.

Hi Hopes as high art

During a Father's Day gathering at the Midland Avenue homestead, Kathy and Ted gave Daniel a beautiful painting of Hi Hopes, the family's long-serving motor boat, at its Mill Creek mooring.



"Kathy spotted it at the artist's studio at the Noyac Marina (now called Hidden Cove Marina)," Daniel writes. "The artist, who didn't know whose boat it was, said that many visitors to his studio had admired the painting. It looks almost like a photograph."

Daniel and Lorraine are hoping to head out to Noyac for the season very soon.

Happy summer!

For most of the students in our family, school's out for the summer. Shanna is an exception, taking two summer classes at Mercy College toward her master's degree.

What are your summer plans? Traveling, or working, or just relaxing? Please share your stories, thoughts and ideas with the rest of the extended family. Keep in touch!

Stitching, pitching and catching up

Dolores and Hugh were in Columbus, Ohio, in mid-June for a meeting of the International Council of Needleart Associates and related activities, which included an evening at a Columbus Clippers baseball game, joined by daughter Cathy.



From June 13-15, the National NeedleArts Association sponsored "The NeedleArts Market" in Columbus. TNNA is a trade organization representing shop owners who market supplies to needle workers—knitters, quilters, embroiderers, and needlepointers, for example. The NeedleArts Market brings more than one thousand purveyors of yarn, needlework kits, painted canvas designs, accessories, and other needleworker gadgets to display and sell their wares to the shop owners.

At the same time TNNA hosted a meeting of the International Council of Needleart Associates (ICNA), an umbrella group of representatives of needlework organizations all over the world. The National Academy of Needlearts (NAN) is one of those organizations, and as it happens, Dolores is the NAN representative to ICNA. That brought Dolores and Hugh to Columbus, where Cathy and her family now live.

TNNA has developed a promotion to interest people in the needle arts called Stitch N’ Pitch where stitchers are encouraged to take their work to a baseball game and stitch as they watch the game. And so they did, at the Clippers game on Saturday night, June 13. Dolores, Hugh and Cathy joined the crowd in the Stitch N’ Pitch reserved left field section.



The Clippers are a Triple A farm team of the Cleveland Indians, and their opponents on the Stitch N’ Pitch night were the Louisville Bats. Since the Bats are the farm team of the Cincinnati Reds, it was an all-Ohio game. The Clippers play in Huntington Park, a brand new ballpark that very much resembles a smaller version of Camden Yards!

It was a well played game. Unfortunately for the home team, the Bats won 7-2 with strong pitching and timely hitting.

The local Columbus NBC TV affiliate sent a camera man to cover the Stitch N’ Pitch event. The eleven o’clock news featured an interview with one of the people from TNNA, and they showed pictures of several people stitching while they watched the game. To our surprise, one of the stitchers on TV was Dolores!

Read Hugh's more complete account of the event

Ted's 'On the Road' chronicles

Ted writes...
Between 4/16/09 & 5/13/09, I took a ride on my motorcycle around the USA. Crazy, I know.

I rode over 10,000 miles through 28 states. Kathy met me in Sedona and then again in Chicago. ... Every three days or so, I would send back little stories, or letters from the road...

Ted has shared his dispatches and photos with us.
So come along for the ride.
Read Ted's On the Road Chronicles.

Soccer season nearing an end

Patrick has had two shut-outs this season as goalkeeper for the Mount Vernon team in the Westchester Youth Soccer League high-school-age boys division.

His team, called the Mount Vernon Buick Storm, holds a 4-2-2 record with one game left to play.

Meanwhile Christine's Scotch Plains-Fanwood team will play its final game next weekend. Her team finished the regular season with a 4-1 won-loss record. The same team that gave them their only regular-season defeat also beat them in the first playoff round, so they'll be playing for third place.

New school is 'old school' for Shanna

Shanna has found herself in familiar surroundings as she begins working on a masters degree.

"I have decided to go to Mercy College for my Masters in Childhood Education," Shanna writes.

"Although I was originally planning to start school in the fall, I was given the opportunity to get a head start on the program and take a few classes this summer, so I am enrolled in two courses.

"The classes will be intense since they are so condensed for summer, but I am excited about them."

"The funny thing about it is the classes are actually being given in my old high school, which shares a campus with Mercy. Who knew that nearly 10 years after I started high school, I would be right back in the same building starting graduate school!"

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