Liz heading to NY for work & study

Liz will be making a move this fall.

Starting in September, she'll be living in New York and studying for her master's degree at New York University while continuing to work for WSP|Parsons Brinckerhoff.

Liz, who has a bachelors degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, currently works for Parsons at its Baltimore office. She's been part of the traffic-engineering team there since early 2012.

At NYU, she'll be studying part-time toward a Masters in Transportation Engineering and Planning. Meanwhile, she's transferring to Parson's Manhattan office, where she'll work full-time.

"Not sure where I'll be living yet, but most likely Brooklyn," Liz writes.

The robin family of Birch Street

A pair of robins built a nest atop the front-door light fixture at Birch Street Radio headquarters. Three chicks were born there, and in a little over a week, left the nest for adventures in the wilds of suburbia.

Sometime in mid-May we first noticed a bunch of twigs and scraps of paper and such piled on top of the light fixture. Dan cleared it away, but the next day there was another pile. After three rounds of this, a very well-formed nest appeared and we decided to let it be.

After seeing mama bird perched there off and on for a week or so, we discovered on May 21 that there were three chicks snoozing in the nest (first photo). Less than a week later, they were flexing their muscles and getting ready to leave (second photo, May 27).

That evening, Dan saw one of the chicks hopping across the lawn with one of its parents. By the next morning, all three were gone!

On a rainy Preakness day, race & party go on

Lisa serves the mint juleps

If you watched the Preakness Stakes on Saturday, you know it was raining in the Baltimore area that day. But the race went on, and so did the annual Preakness Party at Doug & Lisa's house.

For the 31st time(!), family and friends gathered for food, drink and conversation - and a short pause to watch a horse race on TV. Dolores writes: "We couldn't believe how many people showed up on such a gross day!"

With the rain keeping guests from spreading out over the yard, Lisa and Doug made use of the garage as well as the screened-in "summer house" to accommodate the guests. Come race time, most moved to the living room to crowd around the TV.

Exaggerator's victory ended not only Nyquist's bid for a Triple Crown, but Elizabeth's 10-year streak of winning picks in the party's betting pool!

A big birthday celebration for Kathy

-- Updated 5/24 with more photos --

Some three dozen family members and friends gathered in New York on Saturday to help celebrate a significant birthday.

Kathy's children, Genevieve, Vivien and Patrick, arranged the evening of fine food, drink and conversation at the downtown Valbella restaurant.

Kathy's crew

Here's an album of photos by Dan, Brien and Robert that captures some of the highlights of the evening.

Stephanie ends school year with concert, awards

As the school year wrapped up, Stephanie received awards for both her academic standing and her participation in the music program at Hilliard Darby High School.


At the school's Academic Awards presentation, Stephanie was among those recognized for having GPAs of 3.75 or higher for the year.


And following the end-of-year band concert, Stephanie received an award for "Outstanding Sophomore."

Moms & daughters on Mother's Day

We're catching up with a couple of nice photos from Mother's Day last week.

Here's Bea with her Mom (Genevieve), Grandma (Kathy) and Godmother (Vivien).

Visiting Columbus for Stephanie's confirmation, Dolores was treated to Mothers Day brunch by her daughters, Julie and Cathy.

Stephanie receives confirmation

Stephanie was confirmed on Saturday (May 7) at St. Patrick's Episcopal Church in Dublin, Ohio.

Confirmands from several Columbus-area parishes received the sacrament from Rt. Rev. Thomas Breidenthal, bishop of the Diocese of Southern Ohio.


Stephanie's godmother, Aunt Julie, and grandparents Hugh and Dolores joined proud mom Cathy at the service.


A reception followed in the parish hall, and the family members later went out for a celebratory lunch and visited together for the rest of the day.