Andy's UNH marching band season wraps up

Dan and Julie day-tripped to University of New Haven on Saturday, Nov. 8, to watch Andy perform with the UNH Chargers marching band at its last home-game halftime show of the season.

Here's a bit of video of the band's Superman-themed show, taken by Dan from the grandstand and capturing some of the drum highlights.



Bracketing the band's performance was a football game between UNH and St. Anselm. The home team led through the first half, fell behind in the second half, took the lead again on a great touchdown pass with 20 seconds left -- and then lost when the visitors ran a few quick plays and scored as the clock ran out!

November Sunset, Shelter Island

Nanette took this beautiful photo from a Shelter Island beach of the sun going down over the bays between Long Island's twin forks. Nanette shared it with Courtney, Courtney shared it on Facebook, and we thought our readers would enjoy the peaceful view.

In memory of Tish (Updated with arrangements)

The family is saddened by the passing of Tish, beloved wife of Owen and mother of Gerrit and Lizzie.

Tish died on Friday evening, Nov. 7, at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. Owen, Lizzie, Gerrit and his wife Angela had been visiting with her throughout the day. Owen said Tish maintained the cheerfulness she had shown throughout her illness, and passed away very peacefully.

Gerrit writes that his mother "fought ovarian cancer with tremendous courage and determination. She will be greatly missed and the world lost an amazing woman today."

Lizzie adds that her mom "is truly an inspiration to us all. I am blessed to call her my mother and so thankful for all of our wonderful memories. Heaven gained a beautiful person tonight."



Update: Arrangements are through the Doane, Beal & Ames Funeral Home. Calling hours are 4:30 to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 21, at the funeral home, 729 Route 134 in Dennis. A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 22, at Saint Pius X, 5 Barbara Street in South Yarmouth.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to: Gynecologic Oncology Program, Dana Farber Institute, 450 Brookline Ave., YC 1420, Boston, MA 02215-5450, ATTN: Susan Berlin, D.O.

Please visit our page dedicated to Tish. It has been updated with the obituary published in the Cape Cod Times on Nov. 13.

Mary directs Head Start program in Troy

Mary started a new job Nov. 3 as director of Stepping Stones 1 Head Start in the Lansingburgh section of Troy, N.Y. Mary previously was director and head teacher at Head Start of Stillwater, N.Y.

"I miss my Stillwater crew, but love the new place," Mary writes, adding that she "received an amazing welcome from (the) staff."

Here's Mary in a recent photo with her daughter Shannon -- driving! Shannon is a junior at Catholic Central High School, also in Troy.

Competition season ends for 'Superior' Darby Band

--Updated 11/3 with more photos--

The Hilliard Darby Marching Band, featuring senior Christopher on sax and freshman Stephanie on clarinet, was awarded a "superior" rating Saturday at the Ohio Music Education Association State Marching Band Finals held at neighboring Hilliard Bradley High School.

The Darby Panthers band consistently picked up "superior" ratings at OMEA events this year, and "grand champion" honors at some events.

Congratulations to Chris, Steph, Cathy and the whole organization on a great season.

See if you can pick out Chris and/or Steph in each of these photos! (Hint: dark glasses)



This photo of Cathy and her band kids was taken by a friend on Oct. 24, "Senior Day" at Darby HS.

Halloween fun with costumes, props & pumpkins

-- Updated Nov.2 --  

The Birch Street Web sends its spiders through the Internet and finds these images of the family's Halloween activities...

This picture of off-the-charts cuteness shows us how much Brooklyn and Brennan Alexander have grown! The daughter and son of Brennan and Shauna-Rae are now going-on-three-years old and just-three-months old.

Meanwhile, Papa Brennan's mother and sisters posed for this photo.


Yes, that's Mary in the middle, flanked by daughters Brienna (left above, right below) and Shannon as a black cat and Minnie Mouse.

 

Picking up the black-cat motif, Christine dressed to greet trick-or-treaters and also painted a pumpkin.

Speaking of pumpkins...

Xander commissioned Brian to create this elaborate carving of Stampy, a Minecraft-playing cat. (Editor's note: Don't ask for further explanation.)

Meanwhile, Marie, Brian and Xander went all-in on the Ghostbusters theme for Halloween, recreating the classic scene below.

Despite being blasted by the Ghostbusters' proton packs, Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man turned up again later that night in Baltimore, seemingly none the worse for wear and in a partying mood, as he greeted Liz and friends. Meanwhile, Stephanie (with vampire teeth) joined some friends at a spooky castle in their Ohio neighborhood.

A walk in the woods to celebrate fall & a birthday

During a visit to the Delaware Water Gap last weekend, Dan, Julie and Christine hiked a short stretch of the Appalachian Trail along Dunnfield Creek, in Worthington State Forest on the New Jersey side.

It was Dan's choice of an activity to celebrate his birthday, which was the following day. "My wish was for a crisp fall day to get outdoors and enjoy the autumn colors, and Sunday turned out to be just that," says Dan.

"I remember being very impressed by Gap during a trip with my parents and siblings, circa 1970, and always enjoy going back there," Dan said. "If memory serves, I took a black-and-white photo of this same view with my little Instamatic camera back then."

A little coding, a little ghost-busting

Xander was a busy guy this past weekend. On Saturday he tried his hand at computer programming at an event organized by FredXCoders, a computer-education organization in Fredericksburg.

"He learned how to use the Scratch programming language," Marie writes. "It's a visual programming language that's designed for kids to build games with. It's kind of like Lego bricks of code. He had a lot of fun with it."

On Sunday, Xander was on call for ghost-busting duty in Washington, at the National Zoo's Halloween fest, "Boo at the Zoo."

"He got a lot of compliments on his home-made proton pack," Marie says. "Xander and Brian have been working on it off and on since right after Christmas."

Dr. Spengler would be proud!

Meet Christine's new animal friends

Christine is getting to know two furry little friends.

These two youngsters are "fancy rats," domesticated brown rats.

Fancy rats have a reputation as intelligent and affectionate pets. They're also quite social, and are best kept in pairs or groups so they don't get lonely.

Christine has named these girls Yukiko and Chie (yoo'-kee-koh and chee'-ay) after a pair of best friends in a video-game saga. They're starting to get over their initial shyness and enjoy clambering around on their new friend.

Chie finds a comfy spot

Yukiko explores

Christine has joined the ranks of enthusiastic rat fans -- including, of course, her cousin Rebecca, who has owned rats for several years and currently has six.

Chris & classmates honored on Senior Night

Friday was Senior Night at the Hilliard Darby High School football team's last home game of the season. Along with the senior athletes, senior members of the Marching Band were honored, including Chris, our favorite sax player. It was a good night for the Darby Panthers, as the football team won its game to clinch an Ohio Capital Conference title. As for the marching band, it's headed to the Ohio Music Education Association state finals next Saturday.

It's been a great season for the Panthers band, and for proud mom Cathy watching both Chris and Stephanie perform. Here's a batch of photos Cathy took at Friday night's event.



Having become a connoisseur of marching bands, Cathy has posted a few videos of other bands that she's seen this season. "They are just for fun for any other marching band geeks besides us that might be interested," Cathy writes. "They include the Ohio State School for the Blind Marching Band, which performed at our Hilliard Invitational last month; the OSU Drumline, which visited and played with our band during a recent home game (some of our current band members have older siblings/Darby grads in the OSU band); and the Grove City HS Band, another Columbus area school with one of the state's best and largest bands." Click here to see the videos.

Rebecca's new friend: A dog named Murphy

Meet Murphy, a young German shepherd/Doberman mix who's joined Rebecca's household in Rochester.

"First puppy selfie"

Murphy with Cameron

"We adopted him because his owner lived in an apartment and so had no yard for him to play in all day," Rebecca writes.

"He turned one in July. So he's pretty much full sized (65 lbs) but he still thinks he's a puppy."

"He's almost too friendly, and wants to play all the time. He'll look out the window and bark or whine excitedly any time someone walks, runs, bikes by the house.

"We're extremely excited to have him around!!"

Rebecca is also the proud owner of six fancy rats. Here are just a couple of them, looking cute.

Fall festival time at Virginia farm

It's pumpkin season, and Marie, Brian and Xander paid a visit Sunday to Belvedere Plantation, a farm near Fredericksburg, Va., that offers pumpkin picking and various other activities on its Fall Harvest Festival weekends.

For example, this rope swing in a big barn. Looks like fun!

"This was the first year Xander was tall enough to ride the 'big kid' tractors," Marie writes.

And there's big kid Brian riding along behind him!

Another big win for family team at Walk

Our family team "walked to win" again Sunday at the annual NYC Walk to End Alzheimer's, along with some 4,000 other participants.

Team captain Shanna was joined by her parents, Kevin and Kathy; brother Kevin; Uncles Dan and Brien and Aunt Kathy; cousin Vivien and her fiance, C.J.

They walked in memory of Lorraine as well as to honor all others affected by the disease and to raise money for Alzheimer's care and research.

This year, our team raised $1,440, its highest total ever. Special thanks to extended-family members who contributed to the team's total, including Hugh & Dolores and Barbara & Steve.

It's not too late to contribute and add to our team's total. Click here to visit the team page.