Meet-up at the art show

Marie, Brian and Xander made their annual visit to the Art All Night festival in Trenton on June 15-16. That gave Dan a chance to spend some time with his elder daughter, son-in-law and grandson on Father's Day weekend. Xander and Brian again entered pieces in the show. Xander's was an anime-style drawing of a character of his own design, and Brian's was a cubist version of one of his Electric Catnip felines.

Julie reps Rotary in Memorial Day parade

Julie drove her decked-out car as part of the Fanwood-Scotch Plains Rotary Club contingent in the local Memorial Day parade on May 27. Julie has had some involvement with the parade every year for something like 20 years, since Christine and Andy started marching with Scout groups groups and later with the high school marching band.

Julie returns to Friends School for reunion

Friends School of Baltimore held its annual alumni weekend in early May, and Julie joined in a reunion of her Class of 1974. Julie attended the school from first through 12th grade, so she has known some of her classmates since early childhood. Dan joined Julie at the on-campus reception and the class party that followed at one alumnus' home.

Celebrating Easter with family get-togethers

Hugh and Dolores had an Easter get-together with their daughter Cathy and her children, Christopher and Stephanie.

Cathy has moved back to Maryland, where Stephanie is now finishing her first year at Towson University. Christopher lives not far away in Delaware and works in the technology services department of the Cecil County, Maryland schools.


Earlier, Dan and Julie traveled to Massachusetts a few days before Easter to visit with Christine and Jamie. They went over plans for the couple's wedding in September, and spent part of a day strolling in a local park. They also had an amusing time bowling - mostly badly, although Jamie had a decent score.

On Saturday, Dan and Julie were back in New Jersey, and Andy and Shannon drove down from Albany for a quick visit. The four went out for dinner at a favorite restaurant. Andy and Shannon then spent Sunday visiting Shannon's parents, now living on Long Island.

Azaleas and cherry blossoms at Birch Street HQ

We hope everyone in our extended family enjoyed a happy Easter!

Andy & Shannon feeling at home in Upstate NY

Dan & Julie paid a weekend visit to Andy & Shannon in their new home in the Albany area. As previously reported, Andy is now working at Conduent in downtown Albany. The two have a spacious apartment in Guilderland, a suburb just west of the city, and are settling in nicely - although with very little furniture, as they await delivery of items like sofas and a dining set.

Since moving in a month ago, they've already explored some of the attractions of the surrounding area, including John Boyd Thacher State Park. On Saturday, they brought Dan & Julie there to take in the view from atop the Helderberg Escarpment, a steep rock-faced ridge that rises above the Hudson Valley.

Sunday was a somewhat rainy day, but D&J and A&S were able to visit the indoor Discovery Center at the Albany Pine Bush Preserve, just a couple of miles from their apartment. The preserve is an area of sandy soil, pitch pine and scrub oak that's home to the endangered Karner blue butterfly and more than 45 other rare plant and animal species.

Rebecca a silver medalist in curling Mixed Nationals

A little more than a month after taking part in USA Curling's Women's National Championship tournament, Rebecca was on the ice again in the Mixed National Championship competition, held March 24-30 in Denver.

Rebecca played second position on a Rochester-based team that took the silver medal. It was one of two teams from the Grand National Curling Club, an association of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic clubs, that qualified for the tournament. The other was based at Rebecca's former home club in Potomac, Md.

The two teams finished the round-robin with 7-2 records, won their semi-final games and met in the final, where the Maryland-based team took the gold.

At 2 days old, Lucy heads home

Shanna and Rick took their baby daughter home on Thursday, two days after she joined the family.

New grandpa Kevin writes: "Lucy Jean surprised us all when she decided March 26th was the day to arrive into the world, a little more than two weeks before her expected day -- but we couldn't have been more thrilled to welcome her."

"Named after Rick's Grandma Lucille and Shanna's Grandma Jean, she is doing well," Kevin wrote shortly before Lucy headed home with her Mom and Dad. "We are all so thrilled that she is now part of our family."

Shanna and Rick have a baby daughter!

Rick and Shanna welcomed their daughter into the world on Tuesday morning, March 26.

Lucy Jean arrived at 7:22 a.m. at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, weighing 6 pounds 1 ounce. "Everyone is doing well," reports grandfather Kevin.

More details as they become available!

Owen and Ellen are engaged!

Owen and Ellen are engaged to be married. The couple broke the news to family members at Brien's St. Patrick's Parade Party last weekend (see related article). They plan a quiet wedding October followed by a trip to Europe.

7th annual St. Pat's Parade party at Brien's

Brien hosted his 7th annual St. Patrick's Parade Watch party on March 23, bringing family and friends to his apartment overlooking the McLean Avenue route of the Yonkers parade.

Long-distance travelers to the event included Owen and Ellen from Cape Cod (see related article) and Mary and Roger from Saratoga. Also in the house: Dan and Julie, Kathy and Robert, Genevieve with Bea, Patrick and Kelsey, Kevin and Kathy and their friends Bob and Adele.

The parade itself grows longer every year, this time lasting over an hour under sunny skies with a brisk wind.

The elementary school that Dan, Kathy, Brien, Kevin, Kevin and Shanna attended.

Lorraine attended Sacred Heart High School

After the parade was game time: Mary has often told of how much she enjoyed visiting her cousins in Yonkers as kids, and playing a game called Beat the Clock. Kevin found and bought a vintage-1969 edition of the game so we could re-live the experience. Hilarity ensued!

Andy moving to Albany with new job

Andy will soon be starting a new job in Albany, N.Y.

After completing a "coding bootcamp" at Rutgers University and then serving as a teaching assistant for the program, Andy has been hired as a junior software engineer at Conduent.

The company, which spun off from Xerox in 2017, provides various services to business and government clients. Based in New Jersey, it has offices around the country, and Andy's job is at its downtown Albany location. He starts March 4.

This past weekend, Andy and Shannon picked out an apartment in Guilderland, just outside Albany, and will be moving there over the next two weeks. Shannon will continue with her online studies in web coding and design.

Rebecca's team places 4th in curling nationals

Rebecca in action on Tuesday

Team Senneker battled to the last rock once again on Friday in the tiebreaker round of the USA Curling National Championships, but Team Christensen took the 9-8 win to move on to the next round of the playoffs.

"We had one heck of a week at 2019 USA Curling National Championships in Kalamazoo," Team Senneker posted on its Facebook page. "We took 4th place and had a 5-3 record overall. That is awesome for a first-year team."

"What a team, what a week," Rebecca posted. "Disappointed with the outcome of our final game but still really, really proud of how far we've come this season."

Big win keeps Rebecca's team in contention

UPDATED 2/14: Team Senneker won another squeaker on Thursday, defeating Team Rhyme 6-5 in an extra end to advance to a tiebreaker against Team Christensen, to be played Friday at 1 p.m. The winner will advance to the semi-final.

Back-to-back wins Tuesday night and Wednesday gave Rebecca and Team Senneker a 4-2 record and a tie for third place going into the last day of round-robin competition at the USA Curling National Championships.

Tuesday's game against Team Dubberstein was featured on the live webcast on the 12th End Sports Network. Viewers were treated to a match that came down to the final rock. After falling behind 6-3 after seven ends, Team Senneker came back with one in the eighth, stole two in the ninth to tie and stole another two in the final end for the win.

On Wednesday, Rebecca and her teammates faced off against Team Sinclair - which had gone undefeated in its first five matches. The line score tells the tale of a see-saw battle, with another strong finish by Team Senneker.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Final
Sinclair	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	4
Senneker	0	0	1	0	1	0	1	0	2	1	6

On Thursday, Team Senneker will be playing for the chance to be one of the three teams that advance to the finals. Its 11 a.m. game against Team Rhyme is slated to be featured on the webcast. If Team Senneker wins, and the other third-place team wins as well, those two will meet in a tiebreaker.

Footnote: A few hours after Wednesday's game, Rebecca joined Joe, a fellow Rochester Curling Club member, in the 12th End Sports Network's broadcast booth to provide commentary on the evening's featured game in the men's competition.

Rebecca's team off to a 2-1 start at Nationals

In this screen-grab from video, Rebecca (No. 8, left foreground) and her teammates celebrate as the final rock thrown by their skip settles right on the button to give them a 1-point victory in their third match at the USA Curling National Championships.

That put Team Senneker in a four-way tie for second after three of the seven rounds in the round-robin portion of the tournament. They lost the first game to Team Roth (which represented the USA in the 2018 Olympics) before winning the next two.

You can keep up with the scores and standings on USA Curling's website. And you can follow Team Senneker on Facebook. On Tuesday evening (Feb. 12), their match against Team Dubberstein is slated to be the featured game on the tournament's live webcast.

Charlie receives sacrament of Baptism

Charles Joseph, son of Vivien and CJ, was baptised on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Our Lake of the Lake in Verona, N.J. A large gathering of relatives and friends attended the ceremony.

The celebrant invited children in the congregation to "help" him bless the water in the baptismal font.

Here's Charlie with his parents just after his encounter with the water of baptism, as his godparents - C.J.'s sister Sara May and Vivien's brother, Patrick, look on.

After the ceremony, the gathering moved to Palazzo Restaurant in Montclair for a wonderful reception. Five-month-old Charlie seemed to thoroughly enjoy meeting so many friends and family members!

Rebecca & teammates compete for national title

The USA Curling National Championships are getting under way in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Rebecca will be competing with her team, led by skip Stephanie Senneker. Their first match is Sunday at noon.

Certain games will be live-streamed on the web, including Team Senneker's match on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 7 p.m. Find the webstream here.

For more info, see our previous article or head to the tournament's website.