Fun and games at annual Preakness Party

Doug, Lisa, Liz and Rebecca continued the decades-long tradition of holding a party at the family homestead in Riderwood on the day of the running of the Preakness Stakes.

Doug and Lisa flew in from Las Vegas, where Doug's design-build highway project is well under way. Liz drove down from Troy where she's finishing up her junior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Rebecca, finishing freshman year at Rochester Institute of Technology, rode down with her aunt Susan and cousin Kathy, who's about to graduate from Ithaca College. They were joined by scores of other relatives and friends on a beautiful sunny-and-mild afternoon.

Along with plenty of food, drink and conversation, there were games of badminton, croquet and frisbee...

...and the crowd gathered around the TV to watch the race, won by Lookin' at Lucky, to the disappointment of those hoping Super Saver would contend for the Triple Crown.

Watch the watching of the race:

Paparazzi capture stars heading to junior prom

Here are Christine and Matt looking marvelous as they headed out to their high school Junior Prom on Friday evening (May 14). Notice how well they coordinated their attire. They had a fine time dining and dancing with their friends at a catering hall until close to midnight.

Christine in band concert

The spring concert season continues. Here's Christine on flute with one of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School bands at the school's spring concert.



Next week Andy's in another concert with the middle school band, and Christine will be singing in the high school chorus concert.

Any other family members in musical performances this spring? Please send along any news, photos or videos.

Previously this spring:
Andy on drums in school band show
Spring brings singing: Glee club performs

Stephanie sees Ohio capital's sites on field trip

Stephanie and her classmates took a field trip to Ohio's Statehouse and nearby courthouse in Columbus. They learned about court cases and legislation, saw the ornate legislative chambers - and saw former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn.

Read Stephanie's account and see her photos

Andy on drums in school band show

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District held its annual Jazz Festival on Monday night. The various high school jazz ensembles performed, as did the district's two middle school jazz bands. Andy is the "first chair" drummer with the Park Middle School jazz band. Here's their performance of a tune called "A Band's Gotta Do What a Band's Gotta Do." Check out Andy's drum solo at the end.

Vivien will head to L.A. for summer internship

Vivien has been selected for a summer internship with the prestigious Hillstone Restaurant Group, at one of the company's restaurants in Los Angeles.

Hillstone, headquartered in L.A., operates restaurants under various brands at locations across the country. The company describes itself as "presenting exceptional cuisine in the most inspired of settings."

Vivien will spend the summer learning all phases of management at a Houston's Restaurant in Los Angeles. Hillstone's internship program is highly selective, and often leads to management positions with the company. Vivien expects to graduate next year from the Cornell University School of Hotel Management.

Spectacular caverns in northern Arizona

Lisa called it "one of the prettiest places I've ever been." These amazing photos are from Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon, near Page, Arizona. The red rock is carved by both water and wind erosion.


For a much better look, double-click this slideshow to see the photos on Picasa.

Doug and Lisa explored the caves on the first week in May. It's one of many natural wonders they've visited in the mountains and deserts of Nevada and neighboring states in recent months. The couple is living in the Las Vegas area while Doug's engineering firm works on the widening of Interstate 15.

See more spectacular photos in earlier posts.

Patrick accepted to summer program at Cornell University

Patrick will be attending Cornell University Summer College this summer, taking a three-week program called "The Business World."

The program description says students will "discuss the basics of business and business management in today's fast-paced and fascinating business world," learning about topics including: business organization, leadership, human resources, strategic management, marketing and finance.

"Along with your classmates, you'll also discuss current business concerns such as technology and its impact on operations, globalization, ethics, quality, and entrepreneurship," says the program web site.

Patrick's sister Genevieve is a Cornell alumna, and his sister Vivien is finishing her junior year at the university's School of Hotel Administration.

Christine accepted to summer art program at Syracuse U.

Christine has been accepted to a two-week "Summer College" art program at Syracuse University. In late July she'll be "challenged with the same experience as that of an incoming freshman," as the program description puts it. After submitting a portfolio of artwork with her application for the course, she received word of her acceptance today. This of course made her mother and maternal grandmother, both Syracuse U. graduates, very proud!

More from the program description: "The 2-week Studio Art programs are specifically designed to inspire and challenge students to develop artistic skills under the guidance of university instructors and professional artists. Faculty from Syracuse University’s College of Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) will instruct students in Experimental Drawing, Painting, Figure Drawing, Ceramics, Sculpture and Wearable Art. Students will also work alongside peers of like mind and talent, working hands-on with art tools and materials. ..."

Christine will be taking the Figure Drawing class, plus workshops in other specialties and art history classes.

Spring brings singing: Glee club performs

Daniel and his friends in the Male Glee Club of Yonkers put on their annual Spring Concert on May 2. They performed before a good-sized crowd at Saunders High School. Lorraine was on hand along with daughter Kathy, sons Dan, Brien and Kevin and Kevin's wife, Kathy.

Here are some excerpts from the club's performance of a medley of songs from Phantom of the Opera.

Previous Glee Club articles & videos:
Christmas 2009
Christmas 2008
Spring 2008

A portfolio of recent artwork by Christine

Over the winter Christine took a class at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey that focused on developing a portfolio for applications to art schools and colleges. Here are photos of some of her most recent paintings and drawings that are now in her portfolio. (Double-click the slideshow window to see larger versions at our Picasa site.)

Earlier works are in our archive pages:
Christine's Gallery Pages One and Two.

Riding the coasters at Great Adventure on Scout Day

Andy's troop joined many other Boy Scout troops from in and around New Jersey for a weekend at Six Flags Great Adventure.

The amusement park has an adjacent campground where the Scouts pitched their tents on Friday evening. They had great weather all day Saturday as they took to the rides.

As you can see, Andy and his friends enjoyed striking odd poses as they passed the automatic cameras that take souvenir photos on the roller coasters. Here Andy's taking detailed notes while plummeting down a drop on El Toro.

There were thousands of other Scouts at the park, including Girl Scout troops that arrived for the day. But Andy said the lines and wait times were still far shorter than during the summer season.

Good music, good times on school band trip

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School's enormous array of bands and choruses traveled to the Virginia Beach area last week to take part in a music festival and competition.

The choirs performed Friday morning (April 16) at a church in Newport News, the bands played that afternoon at a high school in Virginia Beach and the color guard performed Saturday morning at the high school.

Then the 200-some students spent the rest of Saturday at Busch Gardens, enjoying the roller coasters and other attractions. An awards ceremony was held at Bush Garden's Royal Palace Theater late Saturday afternoon. Among the awards for SPF were first-place showings for the Concert Band, in which Christine plays flute, and the school's top-notch jazz group, the Moonglowers.

That night the crowd took over a bowling alley for a bowling/pizza/DJ-music party where the kids wore wacky outfits and had a great time. Even the long bus rides down and back weren't bad, Christine said - the buses were not the standard yellow school vehicles, but big coaches with comfortable seats and TV sets.

A sign of spring: Glee club concert coming up

It's getting to be that time again...

All are welcome to see Dan and his fellow singers in the Male Glee Club of Yonkers' annual spring show. Click on the invitation above for more details.

See our report on the Christmas show

Natural sculptures in the Nevada desert

Doug and Lisa continue to explore the natural beauty of the desert landscapes in and around Nevada. They took these photos on a trip along the Gold Buttes Back Country Byway.

Spectacular shapes

"The Griffin"

Doug photographing arches

As Lisa describes it: "God's natural art sculpture."

Update from Saratoga

While visiting with Aunt Pat recently, we picked up the latest information about other members of the Saratoga-area strand of our family web:

• Mary will graduate this June with a bachelor's degree from Empire State College. She has been interning at a Salvation Army after-school program, in addition to working for Head Start as a counselor for young mothers. In addition she continues to coach the swim team at the YMCA.
• Brianna is also taking courses at Empire State.
• Brennan will graduate in June from Saratoga Springs High School. He's planning to attend Hudson Valley Community College.
• Shannon is finishing 6th grade and competing on the Y swim team.

Book reviews by Hugh: 'The Scarecrow' and 'Roadside Crosses'

Hugh writes:
For recreational reading, I am attracted to various authors with crime solving main characters. Among others, I like Stuart Wood’s characters Stone Barrington and Holly Barker, Harlen Coben’s Myron Bolitar and his irrepressible sidekick Win, Michael Connelly’s detective Harry Bosh, John Standford’s Lucas Devenport, James Patterson’s Alex Cross, and of course Robert B. Parker’s Spenser, Jesse Stone, and Sunny Randall.

I have just read two recent books of the genre with plots relating to computers and the internet: "The Scarecrow" and "Roadside Crosses."

Click the "Continue reading..." link below to see Hugh's reviews.

Easter Sunday in the park with Xander

We hope everyone in our extended family had a great Easter 2010.

Here at Birch Street HQ, Marie, Brian and Xander visited with Dan, Julie, Christine and Andy.

We introduced Xander to the local park where Christine and Andy spent a lot of time when they were around his age (exactly three-and-a-half as of Sunday).




Then it was back to Grandpa's House for an Easter feast.

Please fill us in on your Easter doings. Add your comments to this post or send along your story. Keep in touch!