Cicadas emerge en masse; Christine explains it all

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Coming out of its shell

Cicadas have been appearing over the past couple of weeks around Dan and Julie's house in New Jersey, but Monday evening brought a sudden mass emergence from the backyard.

Dan, Julie, Christine, Andy and some friends were finishing a little Memorial Day cookout when Christine noticed that, where there had been handfuls of cicadas moving through the grass, there were now hundreds.

Still wearing their brown shells, the critters crawled to trees and fences and then started climbing upward. At some point each cicada would stop, wriggle out of its shell and then pause to dry off and unfurl its wings, completing its transition to the adult stage.

Taking their adult form

The process seemed to take a few hours for each bug, but with hundreds if not thousands of them swarming around the yard, it was easy to find examples of each stage. Here, Christine gives a quick lesson.



Earlier in the weekend, Christine captured these great photos of adult cicadas.

Rebecca's birthday greeting: You're hired!

On Friday, her birthday, Rebecca received and accepted a job offer from a firm called Filmetrics. She'll start June 3 at the company's office in Fairport, N.Y.



Fairport is just outside Rochester, where Rebecca has remained since graduating earlier this year from Rochester Institute of Technology with a bachelors degree in polymer chemistry.

Filmetrics, headquartered in San Diego, specializes in thin-film thickness measurement. What does that mean? As the company's web site explains, thin films are applied to many products in electronics, computers, optics and other fields - for example, an anti-glare film on eyeglasses.

Filmetrics produces equipment to measure such films - as thin as 1 nanometer - by analyzing how they reflect light.

Rebecca's job will involve thin-film measurements and sales of the company's products and services. Filmetrics' office and lab in Fairport is in a plaza just off Main Street alongside the Erie Canal.

Preakness Day is Party Day (Updated 5/23)

Doug and Lisa played host once again to the annual Preakness Party at the Riderwood homestead, site of so many gatherings over the years. Although schedule conflicts kept some of us from joining in (and we're sorry we missed out), plenty of family and friends turned out to enjoy the festivities - and incidentally, a horse race.

Dolores reports she and Hugh "arrived to find a mob under the tree by the Summer House." While she didn't get a head count, she counted 42 cars parked around the property at the height of the festivities. "Of course, we didn't know a quarter of them all!"

"There were games going on - a toss-thingee; crouquet, of course; and some other running stuff. There were a lot of little people this year, too."

The weather was chilly - 60 degrees - but the rain stayed away. "Whatever it did at Pimlico, it never did rain on our party!"

Liz, Rebecca and Lisa in their Preakness Day hats

"I caught Lisa, Beth and Becky in their hats, along with their juleps, and they posed for a photo. They all had a story about where they had acquired the hats. They all cost a lot less than the $300 that I heard that "Preakness hats" cost!"

"Of course, there was enough food to feed the county! The Oval Table was filled with food, and the new table that we just bought to use for some shows was full of desserts, as well as the card table next to it."

Gary Stevens aboard Oxbow wins the 138th running of the
Preakness Stakes at Pimlico race course. (USA Today photo)

As for the race - Liz bet on Oxbow and won the pot, for what Dolores said was "the 5th or 6th time! Next year, we all are going to follow her and see what she decides. She insists that she always loses when she goes elsewhere to gamble, like her trip to Atlantic City recently. However, Dad wants her to choose our next Power Ball numbers!"

Lizzie and friends attend senior prom

Lizzie and her friends made quite a glamorous group as they posed together before the Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School senior prom on Saturday.

Tish writes: "They are all such amazing kids. I cannot believe how they have all grown up!"

Below, Lizzie and her date, Jack, make their red-carpet entrance.

The invasion has begun! (Updated 5/18)

They're heeeeeeerrrrrreee!

The 17-year cicadas have begun to appear outside Birch Street Headquarters.These were spotted just outside the front door late Thursday night (5/16). The two above have emerged from their brown shells and begun to spread their wings. The one below is in the process of crawling out of its shell.

The critters are emerging in Virginia as well. Marie sent this picture on May 18.

More music: It's Spring Concert time

Fresh from their performance-and-fun trip to Disney World, the musical groups at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School are holding their spring concerts. Various instrumental ensembles performed Monday night. Above, Andy plays cymbals with the school's Symphonic Band.

Meanwhile, another year's marching band season is about to begin already! "Spring Training" starts this week and there will be numerous practice sessions during the summer, leading up to two weeks of intensive rehearsals in late August. This time around, Andy will be a senior(!) member of the tenor drum section.

Spring cleaning at the lake

 
Hugh writes: Early this month Dolores and I joined our neighbors at Arrowhead for spring clean-up. Here are some photos that Bob, the president of the residents association, sent.



The large pile of firewood is the result of storm damage to our trees last winter.



As Bob said, the bad news is that we cannot use it in our fireplaces, because the logs are pine and would gum up the chimney. The good news is that we can burn them in our outdoor fire pit at the picnic area. It looks like we have enough to last a long time.

Andy & his school band-mates take Disney World

Andy (center rear) getting ready to perform with the SPFHS
Symphonic Band at the Waterfront Stage in Downtown Disney

Andy was one of more than 300 student musicians from Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School who spent part of last week at Walt Disney World, performing at various locales and enjoying the park - in between rainstorms.

There were periods of drizzle and occasional downpours on Wednesday and Thursday, and the SPF Raiders Marching Band had a bit of a soggy parade down Main Street in the Magic Kingdom on Thursday night.

There was more sun on Friday, and Andy very much enjoyed spending that day at Epcot - his favorite of the Disney parks.

Goofing around with friends

Strolling with Shannon

Check back - We hope to get video of the march down Main Street.

RELATED STORIES:
Chris performs, Cathy chaperones on Disney band trip
Christine and her band-mates perform at Festival Disney in 2009

Hawaiian adventure: The photo albums

Doug, Lisa and Liz are back from their travels in Hawaii. All three spent a week on the Big Island, after which Liz flew home but Doug and Lisa spent another week on Kauai.

Highlights included para-sailing, zip-lining, snorkeling with manta rays, visiting Volcano National Park, boating out to see lava flowing into the sea, a helicopter tour of Kauai and hikes to beaches and waterfalls.

Here are two albums of photos posted by Lisa. The first is from the Big Island (some of these were posted previously).



The second album is from Kauai.

A beautiful day for a fun run

Lining up at the start

Marie writes: On April 22, Xander's school had a "Bunny Hop" race for kindergarteners. It was two laps around the parking lot. The weather was beautiful and Xander had a great time. He placed around 6th in the boy's race out of a group of about 13 - 15 boys.

Coming down the home stretch

Hawaiian exploration, part 2

A quick update from Doug, Lisa and Liz's adventures in Hawaii.


"We went to the most southern point in the U.S.," Lisa wrote Sunday. Later that day, Liz began her journey home, while Doug and Lisa will spend a week on Kauai.

Earlier, the trio drove across the northern part of the big island, checking out waterfalls along the way; visited Volcano National Park; and took a "lava boat tour."

"Seeing the lava flowing into the ocean was spectacular," Lisa reports. Less fun was the "extremely choppy 40-minute ride there and the twice-as-bad hour ride back. Liz compared it to riding a mechanical bull and getting a bucket of salt water routinely splashed in your face."

We look forward to more photos to come!

April at the beach

Dan made another quick trip to Eastern Long Island on April 6 and brought back some more photos of the back beach in Noyac, downtown Sag Harbor and the ocean at Bridgehampton.

This time the tide was low on the bay but higher at the ocean. The wooden pilings that had become exposed at the Bridgehampton beach have been partly re-covered by sand, indicating that the beach is recovering from the pounding of Sandy and other winter storms.


Click below for more photos.

Busy having fun in Hawaii: Part one

Doug, Lisa and Liz are on a vacation in Hawaii. They arrived Sunday afternoon in Kona on the big island.

On Monday, Lisa and Liz explored Kona and took a para-sailing ride, as seen above. Doug, meanwhile, had set out early in the morning to hike up Mauna Kea, a volcanic mountain. The summit is Hawaii's highest point, and Doug, who had hiked to the high points of 15 other states, set out to make this #16. He hiked five hours to the summit, at 13,796 feet. The hike back down took a mere three hours.


On Tuesday, Liz and Lisa went on a "zip and dip tour" -- a zipline adventure in the morning and a hike to waterfalls in the afternoon. "Liz won the race on the final zipline -- a side-by-side 1,200-foot zip," Lisa writes. "Doug spent the day exploring the north coast of the island.


"Back together for the evening's adventure -- snorkeling with the manta rays. A 40-minute boat ride out to a site where divers submerge large lights to attract plankton on which the manta rays feed. We were in the water for about 45 minutes and five different rays were sighted. Very cool trip!"

Here are more photos Lisa sent along:



After another day in Kona, the trio will head to Volcano Village next to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for two nights. Liz will fly back on the weekend but Doug and Lisa are staying for a second week on one of the smaller islands, Kauai.

Check back for further reports and photos.

Shanna, Kathy bask on beach in Barbados (Updated with photo album)

Kathy and Shanna recently returned from a spring vacation to sunny Barbados.



Shanna writes: My mom and I decided to get away for a few days and have a mother/daughter vacation. It was my first time out of the country and I loved every second of the experience.

We stayed at the Hilton hotel in Saint Michael Parish for five days.



We relaxed at the beach and pool, checked out an old fort on the hotel's property and explored the local area.



The beaches were amazing and I have never seen water that blue.

The trip was a great mix of relaxing and getting to explore the local places to eat -- especially a placed called Cuz's fish shack, which was literally a shack that served awesome fish sandwiches!

Although this was the first time there for both of us, it certainly will not be our last!

Here's an album of photos from the trip.

Marie, Brian and Xander check out their new home

Realtor's photo of the house Marie and Brian purchased today.

Marie and Brian have become homeowners!

They closed today on a house in suburban Fredericksburg, Va., about six miles from the apartment where they've lived for almost three years.

After signing all the papers, they took son Xander on a tour of their new digs.

Xander's very much looking forward to filling his big new bedroom with all his stuff.

He was nearly as impressed with the roll-out trash cabinet in the kitchen!

Originally built in 1977, the house was just completely renovated inside and out. Below is a look at the kitchen and some of its all-new appliances.

The family will move in gradually between now and June, while Xander finishes Kindergarten at the school a short walk from their current apartment.

Introducing: Birch Street Radio

This is a test. For the next couple of months, Birch Street Media will conduct a test of internet radio via Live365.com.

Please join in the experiment! Tune in to Birch Street Radio and then let us know what you think!

Here's how it works: DJ Dan lines up a playlist of tunes, adding some comments here and there, and it plays continuously on Live365. Anyone can listen at any time just by going to the Birch Street Radio web page and clicking the play button. Live365 drops in commercials a few times an hour - about a minute's worth at a time.

Dan says: On Birch Street Radio you'll find a lot of familiar tunes, but also some you rarely hear on the radio. Some are put together in sets of two or three songs that I think go together well - musically, lyrically or thematically. Others are just floating in the mix by themselves.

There's nearly 18 hours worth of music on the station right now, and I hope to keep it fresh by changing the selection frequently. Please let me know what you think - and send me ideas of what you'd like to hear added to the mix. (Also please alert me if you have any problems making the site work!)

Birch Street Radio -- Listen and enjoy!

Remembered on his birthday