Genevieve showered with baby gifts

Friends and relatives held a baby shower Saturday for expectant mom Genevieve.

Here, sister Vivien helps Genevieve open gifts.

It appears Genevieve and John's daughter will be well supplied!

Seeing friends, family & sights in Texas

Cathy, Christopher and Stephanie are back in (freezing) Ohio after visit to (balmy) Texas, where they visited friends and relatives, including Cathy's Uncle Alan and Aunt Norene.

Cathy writes: "We had a great time last weekend! We visited with Steph's friend, Kenzi, and her mom, who moved to Plano last summer. We toured some museums in Dallas on Friday and saw 'The Book of Mormon.'

Chris, Kenzi, Steph at arboretum

"On Saturday the weather was beautiful - nearly 80 degrees!!

"This was the perfect day to visit the Dallas Arboretum. There were plenty of people there having picnics and celebrating Valentine's Day.

"That evening we did a little shopping at the Galleria Mall.

Michael and Cathy

"On Sunday we caught up with my cousin Michael. He works at a restaurant in downtown Dallas. It is near the Continental Bridge and Trinity Skyline Trail, so we walked around there for a bit before heading to Comanche where my Aunt Norene, Uncle Alan and other cousins live. Along the way we stopped to have some delicious Texas BBQ for dinner.

"On Monday we took a day trip and drove to Waco with the intention of visiting the Dr. Pepper Museum. When we got there we discovered it was closed that day due to their limited winter hours. So instead, we toured the Texas Ranger Museum.

"That evening my cousins Susan and Lisa came over to Uncle Alan and Aunt Norene's house for dinner. Also attending was Lisa's husband, Jerry, and their kids, Kenan and Noah. The kids all got along tremendously since they're all around the same age and shared many laughs.

"Tuesday morning we headed back to Dallas to fly back to snowy Ohio, wishing we could have brought some of the warm temperatures back with us."

Here's an album with lots more photos of highlights of the trip.

Resting on a blanket of snow

Christine flops down on a blanket -- not warm and soft, more like cold and crusty -- of snow.

This was right after conquering the driveway at Birch Street Headquarters, clearing off a few inches of thick, icy, heavy snow. (Well okay, Dan and Julie helped.)

The temperature was warming up toward 40, but the forecast was calling for another deep freeze, dipping down to zero or below Monday night. How long 'til spring?

It may be cold, but at least it's photogenic

The novelty certainly has worn off but ...

Snow can still be beautiful.

Dan took these from his front and back doorways during a gentle snowfall Saturday afternoon.



Meanwhile, Hugh sends this update: The temperature did indeed go below 0 at Deep Creek Lake on Friday.

Scenes of frozen February

After another round of snow, temperatures were plunging this week across the Midwest and along the East Coast. The thermometer above is on the porch at Hugh & Dolores' condo at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland.

"The snow is not unusual but the temperature is," writes Hugh. "The forecast HIGH for today was -1 F.  This photo was taken at the heat of the day -- 1:00 pm -- so you can see we did better than the forecast."

 

Earlier in the week, more than six inches of snow fell in Fredericksburg, Va., resulting in the creation of this impressive snowman at Marie, Brian and Xander's house. The storm extended President's Day weekend, as schools, government offices and Virginia Railway Express, Brian's employer, all took a snow day.

 

The cold wave spread down to Florida, where Courtney said on Thursday, "I have my heat on! Lovin' 'winter' in Florida!"

Kathy goes sailing over Switzerland

Kathy spent a few days in Switzerland recently visiting with some friends, and was in the town of Chateau-d'Oex during its annual International Festival of Balloons.

Although snow storms canceled some of the festival's events, the weather cleared up in time for Kathy to take a balloon ride high above the hilly countryside and looking out at the Alps.

Although she expected to be nervous -- if not terrified -- Kathy says she felt surprisingly safe and relaxed.

"In a way it's like sailing, moving along with the air currents," Kathy said, adding that it was very quiet and peaceful aloft.

Here's an album of photos from Kathy's amazing ride.

Christopher back on stage in student show

Christopher and the other members of Hilliard-Darby High School's X-Theater troupe put on another ensemble production this week.

The student-driven group performed "Cut!" In this one-act show, a group of actors rehearsing a play-within-a-play get so caught-up in the script that "they can't seem to remember who they really are, as opposed to the people they are playing," according to the Darby Theater web site.