Christine & Jamie make a move to New Jersey

Christine and Jamie (and their cats) have moved into an apartment in Hamilton Square, N.J., for what's most likely to be a six-month stay.

A combination of circumstances led the couple to relocate to Christine's native state. In March 2020, they moved from a suburban Boston apartment to the home of Jamie's father, Paul, in Nashua, N.H., in order to save money toward eventually buying their own place. That move coincided with the onset of the pandemic, and Jamie has been working remotely ever since. Paul retired this spring, and decided to put his home on the market and move to Florida. Meanwhile, Jamie has scheduled surgery with a specialist near Trenton, N.J., during August, which will require a stay of several weeks in the area.

So, rather than find another apartment in New England, Jamie and Christine looked for a place in the Garden State - and landed in the same town where Christine's older siblings, Marie and Danny, grew up. They were fortunate to find a newly renovated apartment in a building in a nice neighborhood, across the street from a large county park. 

They took a six-month lease, expecting that around yearend, Jamie will return to working in the Boston-area offices of medical-app developer Visible Body - or perhaps will have found a new job in the game-development field.

Birch Street Web editor retires from 'day job'

Dan pays last visit to Hoboken office, June 29, 2021

After more than 45 years as a working journalist, Dan retired June 30 from his most recent employer, Green Street News.

His career began in local radio news at WSTC-Stamford and WOBM-Toms River. That was followed by 21 years at The Associated Press in New York, Washington and New Jersey, 12 years at The Star-Ledger newspaper in New Jersey, and nearly 11 years at the business-newsletter company known as Harrison Scott Publications until its 2020 acquisition by Green Street Advisors.

The past year and a half was quite eventful. Dan was promoted in January 2020 to lead editor for two of the company's four publications (Real Estate Alert and Commercial Mortgage Alert). The next month, the company was sold. The month after that, its office in Hoboken was closed due to the pandemic. From March 13, 2020 onward, Dan worked from a home office he set up in daughter Christine's former bedroom. From there he was able to manage the two newsletters' reporting teams, edit articles and train new editors.

The months of working from home allowed Dan to avoid long daily commutes, take daily walks with Julie - and, obviously, let his hair grow. It made the transition to retirement seem less jarring, with no change in his everyday surroundings. "And it seems that Julie can stand having me around the house all day - good practice for being together in retirement."

Among Dan's plans for his new-found free time is reviving The Birch Street Web, which has fallen behind in chronicling the doings of our extended family. He asks your help in filling in the blanks of the past year or so. Please submit your photos and tidbits of news to birchstreetradio@gmail.com