And the snow just keeps on coming

From Birch Street Sharing: 2010-02-25-snow

The scene on Birch Street Friday morning. About 8-9 inches of snow at that point. More fell throughout the day Friday but it did not pile up much higher.

From Birch Street Sharing: 2010-02-25-snow

Show us your snow! E-mail photos or post them yourself.

Snow. Again. How nice. Not.

Shanna sent along these shots from her street in Yonkers as yet another snowstorm hit the Northeast today.

The wet, sloppy snow is expected to turn into fluffier, wind-driven snow overnight, so Friday promises to be another wintry day.

The slushy scene at Birch Street this evening. Blecch.

Oh well - Only 23 days 'til Spring!

Show us your snow! E-mail photos or post them yourself.

Travel report: A museum weekend in Cleveland

Cathy writes:
Recently the kids and I traveled to Cleveland, Ohio for a weekend mini-vacation. We were able to squeeze it in between snowstorms. The temperatures were cold and they also had snow on the ground, however we still enjoyed our visit. We explored the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Great Lakes Science Center.

Click here to read Cathy's full account of the trip and see more photos

The winter that won't quit

There wasn't much accumulation but it was another snowy day in the Northeast - as seen here from the patio of Dan and Lorraine's house on Midland Avenue.

Meanwhile in Maryland, this was the scene around the family homestead in Riderwood as of Feb. 15 -- six days after the last snowfall.


It took a day of digging to create a path from the house to Dolores' studio in the back of the property.

"Maybe it will melt in time for the Preakness party," says Hugh.

Comings and goings, coast to coast and overseas

Keeping up with our mobile family:

- Patrick is in Madrid on a Fordham Prep trip. He'll spend eight days in Spain visiting Seville, Cordoba and other points. His mom, Kathy, says Patrick doesn't study Spanish (he takes Italian and ancient Greek) but "signed on to the trip for cultural immersion and global awareness (or maybe for fun!) School is closed next week for spring break."

- Meanwhile Kathy is out in California visiting daughter Genevieve, whose birthday is this week. And Genevieve's husband John finally made it home from Ithaca after his flight schedule was disrupted by the weather.

- Marie and Xander are back home in New Jersey, having missed two snowstorms during their winter sojourn in California. Here's Xander ready for takeoff on Saturday evening.

February Blizzard 2: Piling it On (Updated 10pm EST)

First 6 inches shoveled, more falling

Let's hope everyone stays safe and warm as a second blizzard sweeps along the East Coast. Tonight it seems to be tapering off in the New Jersey-New York area after snowfall in the 10-15 inch range.

Here at Birch Street, Christine and Andy had a snow day off school and Dan and Julie worked from home. After shoveling a half-foot of snow off the driveway in the morning we watched another half-foot fall by late afternoon. Dan took a picture-taking walk in the mid-afternoon; Christine went over to Matt's house for a while, where they and Matt's sister made a snowman. Tonight we got word that school is canceled for tomorrow, too.

Andy measures 12 3/4 inches at 4:25 p.m.

Andy measured 12 3/4 inches as of 4:25 p.m. See more photos, including some by Barbara of the snowy scene in Hamilton, in the slideshow above (double-click on it to go to the Picasa album and see larger views).

Shanna reports from Yonkers that 9 1/2 inches of snow had fallen by 5:20 p.m. Here are photos taken by Shanna's dad, Kevin, around their house.


John and Genevieve visited Cornell in Ithaca this week, where John did some recruiting for Facebook and the they got to visit with Vivien. Genevieve flew back to California on Tuesday and John was supposed to fly Wednesday but his flight was delayed, even though only a few inches of snow fell in Ithaca.

Check the current conditions in our family's various hometowns on our Weather Station page.

We look forward to hearing more from our East Coast correspondents! As always you can e-mail dispatches to Birch Street HQ; or post your photos at Picasa and send an e-mail to let us know.

Snowed in, quite literally, at Deep Creek Lake

Close to 3 feet of snow fell in western Maryland in the Feb. 5-6 blizzard, and the wind pushed it into drifts like these on the back porch of Hugh and Dolores' condo on Deep Creek Lake.

Hugh writes:
We came to our place at Deep Creek Lake in Garrett County, Maryland on Feb. 4, a Thursday. Long before, we had planned a weekend with our friends from Rehoboth, Nancy and Jerry and their daughter Kristina. They had spent a weekend here with us last winter and had great fun tubing on the ski slopes at Wisp. Kristina is 8 years old, and this year they wanted to get her on skis for the first time.

The weather gurus were all predicting a major winter snowstorm. We knew from experience that the storms that come from the Gulf and ride up the East Coast into a cold front mean bad news. They were expecting 2 feet or more along the coast of Delaware - but only about 15 inches here inland. When Jerry called Thursday night, we both thought that if they got away from Rehoboth by noon on Friday, they would be ahead of the worst of the storm and could enjoy our mere 15 inches on the Wisp slopes.

We were concerned when it began to snow here eight o’clock Friday morning. Nancy called an hour later to say they just did not think it wise to make the trip in the storm. They made a good decision. Thirty-six hours later when the snow stopped falling here, the accumulation was more than twice the predicted 15 inches. As our pictures show, this snowfall made the previous one at New Year's look like a dusting.



Our biggest problem was getting out the front door. The storm door opens out, and snow can block it. We cleared it Friday night before going to bed, but by Saturday morning, the falling and wind-driven snow had piled a 3-foot drift in front of the door. The only way to clear it was to remove the glass panels from the storm door and shovel the snow away through the closed door until we had removed enough to allow the door to open.

On Monday morning, we made the decision to travel back home to Baltimore while there was a window of good weather before the next predicted snowstorm. We hear that the next one will hit New Jersey and the New York area also. It is about time you all up there experienced a little winter too.

Andy and Christine level-up in skiing

On a cold but sunny day, Christine and Andy hit the slopes at Jack Frost in the Poconos and had a great time building their skiing skills.


The occasion was an annual group ski outing sponsored by Andy's Boy Scout troop - and for the past two years organized by Andy's mom, Julie. Over 130 people including Scouts, family members and friends took part this year.


This time Dan, Christine and Andy took an advanced lesson; the teens excelled and Dad, well, made it downhill in one piece. After that, Andy and Christine were able to enjoy the more challenging slopes.

A blizzard for some, a dusting for others (Updated 9:30 p.m. EST)

The Weather Channel is calling it a "historic snowstorm" that dropped anywhere from a foot to nearly three feet of snow across mid-Atlantic states. The highest totals were recorded from northern Virginia through southern New Jersey.

Among members of our extended family, Hugh and Dolores probably saw the most snow. They were at Deep Creek Lake in western Maryland; the National Weather Service reported two feet fell at nearby McHenry.

A bit farther west, Cathy says about a foot of snow fell in her neighborhood in Ohio. Here are some photos she sent Saturday morning. (Double-click to go to the Picasa album and see larger images.) UPDATE: More photos added 2/9



"We made a snowman today," Cathy writes. Did the snow cause her any problems? "No real troubles but the kids were sad that the library is closed."

Return trip delayed

The storm changed Marie and Xander's plan to return to Hamilton, NJ, on Saturday. Their flight to Philadelphia was canceled, so their winter visit to California has been extended for another week. Philadelphia airport recorded a whopping 28.5 inches of snow, making this the city's second-greatest snowstorm.

Here's a picture of Saturday morning's wintry scene in Hamilton, courtesy of Brian's mom, Barbara.

The snow continued through most of Saturday. "Fifteen inches of snow in Hamilton as of 3 P.M., according to AP," Barbara writes. "It seems like a lot more. I guess it must be drifting. Tomorrow we dig out!"

Elsewhere - What storm?

Just an hour's drive northeast from Hamilton, the blizzard barely touched us here in Fanwood.

At left is the view out our back window this morning.

Andy took our official measurement on the backyard table - a mere 2 1/2 inches.

Up in Yonkers, Shanna says she's "wondering where all that snow is, because it's definitely not at my house!"

You can upload your own photos to our Picasa site (find out how) or send them by e-mail. Let us know how much snow fell and how you're coping with and/or enjoying it!

Upcoming Olympics bring attention to curling club

The Plainfield Curling Club, well known to the curling enthusiasts in our family, has been getting some media attention in recent days as the Winter Olympics approach.

The Star-Ledger ran a feature article Feb. 2:

"Whenever the Winter Olympics roll around — as they will starting next Friday in Vancouver — newspaper reporters and TV film crews stop by the lodge-like building tucked in an industrial park off Route 287 in South Plainfield."

(We've saved a copy of the article here)

This video accompanied the article on the Star-Ledger's web site, nj.com.


The Plainfield Curling Club also was featured on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report," as part of a series on faux news-host Stephen Colbert's attempt to get on the U.S. Olympic team. That goofy 6-minute video can be seen here.

Neverlusen: The soccer team that wouldn't lose

Patrick and a group of his friends are basking in the glow of victory after the soccer team they put together won the championship of the Eastern Indoor Soccer League.

The merry band calling themselves "Bayern Neverlusen" just... never... lost. (The team name was a joke based on a German team called Bayern Leverkusen.)

"All the teams we played were sponsored club or travel teams, and had coaches," said Patrick (front left in the photo above). "We just paid the money and made our own team and jerseys and stuff. ... One of my friends who's hurt and can't play was technically like our coach.

"And we went undefeated and won the league."

Neverlusen won the league's tournament final 7-4, defeating a travel team headed by the assistant coach of Pat's Fordham Prep team.

Mmmm, cupcake!

Marie and Xander are enjoying their extended winter visit to California. Here's a fun photo courtesy of Eyvonne.

Birch Street Web reaches a milestone (sort of)

The Birch Street Web today passed the 5,000 visitor mark. Hooray!

So what does that mean exactly? Well... not much, but it's a cool number anyway.

Back on Nov. 23, 2008, we started using a service called Site Meter to measure usage of this web site. It counts each visit to the site and records certain information like how many pages the visitors look at and what links they follow. It shows where they logged in from (or, really, where the internet address they're using is registered, which is not always their actual location).

In the 14 months since the count began, members of our extended family have stopped by the Birch Street Web more than 5,000 times. (We have no idea how many visits there were in the 20 months before that.) Some check in several times a day, others only occasionally, but each visit is greatly appreciated.

Here's a Site Meter chart of visits in the past year. It's great to see participation is generally increasing.


Our 5,000th visit was recorded at 7:02 p.m. EST/4:02 PST today (Jan. 23, 2010) from an internet connection registered to Comcast in Belmont, Calif. Maybe you know who you are. If so, please let us know by leaving a comment on this post. You'll win... um... the honor of knowing you pushed us to a nice big round number!

Thanks for visiting - and remember to keep in touch!

Remember Haiti ribbons to be worn at SAG awards

Marie writes: Regal Ribbons are going to be at the Screen Actor's Guild awards on Saturday.

We sent them our "Haiti will not be forsaken" ribbon in royal blue with red imprint.

The awards will be televised on both TNT and TBS.

Just thought the Birch Street gang would like to know ;)

Previous stories:
Our California family members create 3,500 Haiti-awareness ribbons for Golden Globes

Remember Haiti ribbons appear at Golden Globes

Visit to Vegas and Valley

Liz is heading back to school at RPI in Troy after visiting her parents in Las Vegas, where she toured both man-made sights and natural wonders.

Below (snagged from Liz's Facebook page) are a couple of views of Death Valley, a few hours' drive from Vegas in California.

Christopher & Stephanie watch NHL action, get player autograph

Cathy writes:
Last weekend the kids and I went to a Columbus Blue Jackets hockey game since it was Scout Day. The Blue Jackets played the Chicago Blackhawks.


Chicago Blackhawks' Cristobal Huet, right, makes a save in front of Columbus Blue Jackets' R.J. Umberger during the third period of their Jan. 16 game at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus. (AP Photo - more here)

The Blackhawks took the lead in the first period and Columbus came from behind during the second period. Unfortunately for the home team it wasn't enough. The division-leading Blackhawks ended up the winners with a score of 6-5.



After the game we were among a small group of lucky fans that got to meet one of the players. We were escorted to the press room where we waited for about a half hour. Then forward R.J. Umberger (seen in the action photo at top) came to greet us and sign autographs.

That was a nice treat after a tough loss.

Turtle update: 500 helped by LMC

Nanette updates us on the sea turtle "cold stun" emergency:

"It's been turtles, turtles and more turtle here. The statewide count for cold-stunned turtles reached over 4,500! The LMC (Loggerhead Marinelife Center) released about 500 and have about 23 remaining patients. Things are beginning to return to a normalcy after 7 straight days of 14-17 hour days."

See previous story:
Loggerhead Marinelife Center cares for 'cold-stunned' turtles

Florida update: Courtney busy with studies and work

Courtney is a full-time student at Florida Atlantic University, and now also has a full-time job as a legal secretary with the Palm Beach County Police Benevolent Association.

Her mom, Nanette, says it's "a tough schedule but she's thrilled. This is the job she wanted."

This photo of Courtney appears on the PBCPBA's web site's staff page.