Birch Street Web: Five Years of Keeping in Touch

The Birch Street Web made its debut on March 18, 2007, with the news that Brian, Marie and Xander were moving from Nevada back to California.

Since then, more than 600 family news items have appeared on this site, along with hundreds of photos and videos. In effect, this web site has become a living history of our extended family, and I hope to continue adding to the record for years to come.

Please take some time to browse through the archives and remember moments from the past five years. And please keep sharing your moments - big and little, important and trivial, serious and fun.

Thank you for adding your patches to this big ol' quilt I've been assembling over the past five years. Please keep it growing. Please keep in touch!

All's well after security scare at RIT

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle photo

There were nervous moments Friday morning at Rochester Institute of Technology when a mistaken report of someone with a gun near the dorms prompted a campus lockdown.

Christine was in her dorm room and Rebecca was at her off-campus apartment when the RIT Alert system sent out text messages and phone calls advising everyone to "shelter in place."

As it turned out, a campus bus driver had seen a student with an umbrella that's made to look like a samauri sword in a sheath, and thought it looked like a long gun in a bag. Police determined it was a mistake, and the all-clear was issued about an hour after the initial alarm. (Story from Channel 13 WHAM here.)

Christine writes: "Thank you RIT for responding to reports of someone with a gun in an appropriate manner. ... I'm glad they're watching out for us."

Getting together in Texas

Alan and Norene with Dolores

Dolores and Hugh visited last week with Norene and Alan, Dolores' sister and brother-in-law, at their home in Comanche, Texas.

"On Tuesday night, Norene and Alan's daughters Lisa and Susan came to dinner with us," Hugh writes. "Susan's husband Michael was working out of town, but Lisa brought her husband Michael and their two sons, Kenan and Noah. Both boys have grown a lot since we saw them last year. Both have just finished the basketball season on their school teams."

Lisa teaches 4th grade at the consolidated school where the boys are in middle and high school.

Lisa, Kenan, Noah, Michael

Before their Texas visit, Hugh and Dolores were in Colorado Springs for the annual assembly of the National Academy of Needlearts. "Before we left, their Board announced that next year at the Exemplary needlework exhibit, they will award a special ribbon named after Dolores," Hugh reports. It will be awarded for "Best Use of the Principles of Color and Design."

Season alert - update: Winter ain't done yet!

Holy iceberg, Batman!

Even as crocuses are blooming as far north as Cape Cod (as Tish reports), winter isn't quite ready to yield to spring.

This was the scene Monday in Fredericksburg, Va., where Marie says the weather has been most peculiar for the past few weeks. There have been temperatures in the 70s and in the 20s, along with thunderstorms and high winds as warm and cold fronts pass through.

As for today's snow, Batman suspects the work of Mr. Freeze.

Brennan and family to settle in North Carolina

Brennan has finished his training at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach and has been assigned to North Carolina for an expected three- to four-year stretch. That will allow Brennan, Shauna-Rae and their baby daughter, Brooklyn Rae, to settle in together. They are looking to rent a house near the base.

Season alert: Signs of Spring spotted!

The first crocuses have made their appearance on the grounds of Birch Street Headquarters in New Jersey. Brien reports the crocuses are emerging at the homestead in Yonkers as well.

We Northerners, of course, are a bit behind places like Charleston, S.C., where Tish took this photo of a camelia - in late February.

Hugh and Dolores on a Western swing

Dolores and Hugh are in Colorado Springs, Colo., where Dolores is participating in the annual Assembly of the National Academy of Needlearts. The photo above is the mountain view from their hotel room at the Broadmoor, which is hosting the event.

On Friday Dolores completed teaching a two-day workshop called "Beyond Line and Shape." It's a course on the elements of design for needleworkers who create original designs.

On Monday, the couple will be traveling to Texas to visit with Dolores' sister, Norene, and her husband, Alan, at their home in Comanche.

Vivien moving up at Brookdale

After about seven months with Brookdale Senior Living's dining services division, Vivien has been promoted to a position at corporate headquarters in Chicago.

Vivien joined Brookdale as a dining-services specialist who would travel to the company's residential properties around the country, resolving management problems and improving service. Her second assignment, at Brookdale's Hallmark Battery Park City property in Manhattan, turned into an extended run as its dining manager.

Now Vivien's been assigned to supervise 20 other dining-service specialists in that traveling-troubleshooter role. In addition, she will

coordinate Brookdale's "Culinary Road Show," a series of seminars for employees to learn best practices and new techniques.

As travel will still be part of her job, Vivien will not relocate full-time to Chicago, and will continue to come home to New York frequently.

Get well soon, Aunt Pat

We're pleased to report that Pat is recovering well, after surgery this week at St. Peter's Hospital in Albany.

Pat expects to move to a rehabilitation center next week and will be there several days.

Well-wishers can reach her on her cell phone. (If you'd like the number, e-mail us.)

Liz begins her career in engineering

Liz will soon be starting her new job as an assistant engineer with Parsons Brinckerhoff, a global infrastructure design and consulting company.

Liz graduated last year from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a bachelor's degree in civil engineering. She will be working in Parsons' Baltimore office on Traffic Engineering.

We expect highway traffic in the greater Baltimore-Washington area to improve rapidly as a result.

Liz's dad, Doug, joined Parsons Brinckerhoff last year as a

design-build manager, after a long tenure with Jacobs Engineering.

Nanette to lead Shelter Island Historical Society

Nanette has been named executive director of the Shelter Island Historical Society, and plans to make the island her home base.

Her new position starts March 1. "I'll continue to work on my Florida projects, but will be headed up to Shelter Island in April," Nanette writes. "I'm excited about reconnecting with Shelter Island, and hope this means I will see family more frequently."

Nanette will continue to work on planning, marketing, communication and development projects for businesses and non-profits in Florida through Charlotte Pelton & Associates of Palm Beach Gardens.

At the Shelter Island Historical Society, Nanette's primary mission will be raising money for the non-profit organization. She said it's not yet clear how much she'll be traveling back and forth. "I think it's going to be a bit challenging to figure out."

Nanette's daughter, Courtney, is remaining in Florida, working as a legal assistant. She'd also be interested in opportunities in the New York area, her mom says.

Here's a report on Nanette's new position from the Staten Island Reporter.

Kevin joins global IT systems company

Kevin recently started his new job with IPSoft, a worldwide information technology company.

He started Feb. 8 at the company's New York office, near Battery Park. After a few weeks of training, Kevin will be working as a Unix systems administrator.

"He'll be part of an international team monitoring and administering a worldwide network of client servers," his dad reports.

IPSoft provides information-technology infrastructure and application management, system monitoring and automation for clients that include the NFL, Comcast and Mastercard.

Founded in 1998 by former NYU professor Chetan Dube, IPsoft now has ten offices in seven countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Singapore and India. The company says one in 20 of Fortune-1000 companies is an IPSoft client.

A doubly special day in our family

Today we wish Happy Birthday to both Genevieve and Angela.

The two became second-cousins-in-law (or something like that) last year when Angela married Gerrit. Coincidentally, they share the same birthday.

In fact, the same birth date. Unless our sources are mistaken, they were born on the very same day. Obviously a very important day in our family history!

Here's wishing both a wonderful day!

Genevieve returns to the museum world

Genevieve has decided to take an internship at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, while continuing to work for educational publisher Cengage on a free-lance basis.

Genevieve will be working as a grant writer, applying to cultural foundations and other organizations for funding for the museum's exhibitions and educational programs.

"It will be nice to be back in a museum," Genevieve writes. "It's good experience for anyone in the non-profit world, and it's something I haven't ever done. Hopefully my editorial background will be useful, too."

San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Photo via M. Goodwin Associates

A brilliant trip to the wizarding world

Lisa and Liz are back from a trip to Hogwarts.

The two went on a mother-daughter holiday to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando. Lisa writes: "Liz has wanted to since it opened - she's a big fan!"

"The weather was excellent and Liz and I went non-stop," Lisa reports.

"Disney Quest, Animal Kingdom, dinner with my cousin Dawn and her husband Dave and then lunch with my aunt Shirley, were all bonus add-ons once we decided to make the trip to HP World."

Rebecca & team end a great run in Nationals

File photo

Team Ely finished the U.S. Curling Junior National Championships in fourth place, after entering the tournament as the 8th seed in a field of 10 teams.

The team of Hannah, Rebecca, Abigail and Rebecca made it to the playoff round, where it lost to Team Solem from Minnesota - which then went on to upset the top seed in the semi-finals.

The team played a great tournament, finishing with a 6-4 overall record. Congratulations!

(Scroll down to see previous coverage.)

Team Ely: Hannah, Rebecca, Abigail and Rebecca.

Team Ely advances to playoff round

Rebecca and her teammates have made it to the playoff round of the 2012 USA Curling Junior National Championships in Madison, Wisc.

Team Ely, based at the Rochester Curling Club, finished the round-robin portion of the tournament with a record of 6-3, earning one of four playoff berths. On Friday afternoon they face Team Solem from Minnesota, which also finished 6-3, and the winner will advance to the semifinals.

Curling update: Ups and downs for Team Ely

After seven matches, Team Ely has a record of 4 wins and 3 losses in the Junior Nationals curling tournament (see previous stories below). That puts Rebecca and her team in a tie for third place. One team from Wisconsin holds a dominant lead with a 7-0 record.