Liz and friends enjoy Florida fantasy-lands

Liz and some of her friends took a February vacation to Orlando and visited the Disney and Universal theme parks.

"Busy being a princess," Liz wrote on Facebook.

She added, "Epcot's way more fun when you're an adult."

And of course, Liz and her friends also revisited the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. That train, in case you somehow don't recognize it, is the Hogwarts Express.

Great photo: Mom & daughter & cake

We just have to share this photo of Genevieve on her recent birthday, joined by daughter Bea to blow out the candle on her cake. Bea looks ready to steal a bite!

Nolan receives sacrament of Baptism

Nolan was baptized this week, and proud Grandpa Owen sent along these photos.

Above, Nolan poses with his parents, Gerrit and Angela, and grandparents Rick and Louise.

Here he is with his mom and his godmother, Aunt Lynn.


Owen writes, "He wasn't too pleased getting some water in his nose but basically all went well."

Below is a photo taken on Owen's birthday in January.

Rebecca in national curling competition this week

Rebecca writes: "We're in FLORIDA for CURLING!"

Strange but true, the USA Curling national championships are being held this week in Jacksonville, Fla. And Rebecca is there as a member of "Team Meechai," one of seven teams competing for this year's women's title.

You can follow their progress at USA Curling's website. And you can watch live coverage online on TESN - where the schedule includes Rebecca's team vs. a Minnesota team on Monday at noon.

Listen to Dan's musical mix on Birch Street Radio

Logo by Christine

Dan writes: Some of you might remember that, nearly three years ago, I started up an online radio station, Birch Street Radio, on a service called Live365. There's been a link to it in the right-hand sidebar of this blog ever since.

The station attracted a small but greater-than-zero number of listeners who apparently liked my peculiar assortment of old and new rock, folk-rock and other types of music.

Alas, Live365 shut down on Jan. 30, for reasons having to do with a new royalty rate structure for web-streaming of copyright performances. Having gotten a few weeks' warning of Live365's demise, I quickly latched onto another webcasting platform, called Radionomy, and rebuilt Birch Street Radio there. It's worked out pretty well so far - and again, has been getting small handfuls of listeners from out there on that world wide web.

There's a catch: As a commercial-supported operation, Radionomy requires its stations to reach a certain level of listenership within nine months to stay on their platform. So I faced a choice: Give up on my little radio hobby - or step it up and work to build an audience. Well, hey, I've always wanted to run a radio station, so I'm giving it a try. The station now has its own web site, its own Facebook page and a Twitter feed where I've managed to get it noticed by some small record labels and indie artists.

So I have two messages for readers of Birch Street Web:

• First - Please have a listen! Maybe you'll like it! It's a mix of new rock and rock-ish music, classic rock and folk-rock, bands and singer-songwriters from the 60s to now. You'll hear well-known and obscure songs from stars and unknowns. Once in a while you'll hear me say something pithy.
• Second - I called the station Birch Street Radio when I started it as a sort of spin-off of this blog -- but now I'm being careful to keep it completely separate, with no connection to this family-only site. So I'm not even posting a link to it here. You can find it easily just by Googling "Birch Street Radio" (but skip any old links to Live365). The Birch Street Radio web page gives you various ways to tune in and listen. 

Thanks for your support!

A delayed Julie's-birthday gathering in Maryland

Julie planned to visit her parents on her birthday weekend, but a little blizzard got in the way. So she and Dan and Andy made the trip a week later and spent this past weekend with Hugh and Dolores at the Oak Crest community in suburban Baltimore. They were joined for dinner in the community's "pub" by Doug, Lisa and Liz (Lisa took this photo).