Genevieve showered with baby gifts

Friends and relatives held a baby shower Saturday for expectant mom Genevieve.

Here, sister Vivien helps Genevieve open gifts.

It appears Genevieve and John's daughter will be well supplied!

Seeing friends, family & sights in Texas

Cathy, Christopher and Stephanie are back in (freezing) Ohio after visit to (balmy) Texas, where they visited friends and relatives, including Cathy's Uncle Alan and Aunt Norene.

Cathy writes: "We had a great time last weekend! We visited with Steph's friend, Kenzi, and her mom, who moved to Plano last summer. We toured some museums in Dallas on Friday and saw 'The Book of Mormon.'

Chris, Kenzi, Steph at arboretum

"On Saturday the weather was beautiful - nearly 80 degrees!!

"This was the perfect day to visit the Dallas Arboretum. There were plenty of people there having picnics and celebrating Valentine's Day.

"That evening we did a little shopping at the Galleria Mall.

Michael and Cathy

"On Sunday we caught up with my cousin Michael. He works at a restaurant in downtown Dallas. It is near the Continental Bridge and Trinity Skyline Trail, so we walked around there for a bit before heading to Comanche where my Aunt Norene, Uncle Alan and other cousins live. Along the way we stopped to have some delicious Texas BBQ for dinner.

"On Monday we took a day trip and drove to Waco with the intention of visiting the Dr. Pepper Museum. When we got there we discovered it was closed that day due to their limited winter hours. So instead, we toured the Texas Ranger Museum.

"That evening my cousins Susan and Lisa came over to Uncle Alan and Aunt Norene's house for dinner. Also attending was Lisa's husband, Jerry, and their kids, Kenan and Noah. The kids all got along tremendously since they're all around the same age and shared many laughs.

"Tuesday morning we headed back to Dallas to fly back to snowy Ohio, wishing we could have brought some of the warm temperatures back with us."

Here's an album with lots more photos of highlights of the trip.

Resting on a blanket of snow

Christine flops down on a blanket -- not warm and soft, more like cold and crusty -- of snow.

This was right after conquering the driveway at Birch Street Headquarters, clearing off a few inches of thick, icy, heavy snow. (Well okay, Dan and Julie helped.)

The temperature was warming up toward 40, but the forecast was calling for another deep freeze, dipping down to zero or below Monday night. How long 'til spring?

It may be cold, but at least it's photogenic

The novelty certainly has worn off but ...

Snow can still be beautiful.

Dan took these from his front and back doorways during a gentle snowfall Saturday afternoon.



Meanwhile, Hugh sends this update: The temperature did indeed go below 0 at Deep Creek Lake on Friday.

Scenes of frozen February

After another round of snow, temperatures were plunging this week across the Midwest and along the East Coast. The thermometer above is on the porch at Hugh & Dolores' condo at Deep Creek Lake in Western Maryland.

"The snow is not unusual but the temperature is," writes Hugh. "The forecast HIGH for today was -1 F.  This photo was taken at the heat of the day -- 1:00 pm -- so you can see we did better than the forecast."

 

Earlier in the week, more than six inches of snow fell in Fredericksburg, Va., resulting in the creation of this impressive snowman at Marie, Brian and Xander's house. The storm extended President's Day weekend, as schools, government offices and Virginia Railway Express, Brian's employer, all took a snow day.

 

The cold wave spread down to Florida, where Courtney said on Thursday, "I have my heat on! Lovin' 'winter' in Florida!"

Kathy goes sailing over Switzerland

Kathy spent a few days in Switzerland recently visiting with some friends, and was in the town of Chateau-d'Oex during its annual International Festival of Balloons.

Although snow storms canceled some of the festival's events, the weather cleared up in time for Kathy to take a balloon ride high above the hilly countryside and looking out at the Alps.

Although she expected to be nervous -- if not terrified -- Kathy says she felt surprisingly safe and relaxed.

"In a way it's like sailing, moving along with the air currents," Kathy said, adding that it was very quiet and peaceful aloft.

Here's an album of photos from Kathy's amazing ride.

Christopher back on stage in student show

Christopher and the other members of Hilliard-Darby High School's X-Theater troupe put on another ensemble production this week.

The student-driven group performed "Cut!" In this one-act show, a group of actors rehearsing a play-within-a-play get so caught-up in the script that "they can't seem to remember who they really are, as opposed to the people they are playing," according to the Darby Theater web site.

Liz's impromptu Midwest road trip

It started (naturally) with a curling competition.

After taking part in the Winter Carnival Bonspiel at the St. Paul Curling Club, Liz found that her flight back to Baltimore had been canceled due to the snowstorm making its way from the Midwest to the East Coast.

At the bonspiel

So -- Road Trip!

Liz rented a car and set off from Minnesota on a tour that took her to Iowa (even though she's not running for president, as far as we know), Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky and West Virginia on the way back to Maryland. The storm having passed, the weather was clear.

"The trip went very well, and it was exciting to get to a couple of new states and many new places," Liz writes. "But I'm happy to be home for a while."

Here's an album of some of Liz's photos from her journey, some annotated with her comments.

After the blizzard: Digging (and grilling) out

Austin, who hasn't seen snow since moving to Florida several years ago, is getting a really good look this week.

Tuesday's blizzard brought more than two feet of snow to Cape Cod, where Austin is visiting his brother, Owen. Above, he surveys the scene outside Owen's house the day after the storm.

Official reports put the snow total at 27 inches in nearby Hyannis.

From these photos, it appears at least that much landed in Owen's yard.


Nearby at Gerrit and Angela's home, Gerrit said it took until Thursday to fully dig out. But in the meantime he didn't let the snow stop him from doing some grilling.


"I kept the shovel in my house and opened the slider door, dug over to the grill and fired it up," Gerrit said. Why? Simple reason. "I had a bunch of chicken I had to cook."

Blizzard veers east to Nanette, Owen - and Austin!

This was the Tuesday morning view from Nanette's front door (above) and across her back yard (at right) on Shelter Island.

The blizzard shifted course to the east Monday night, reducing its impact on the New York City area but focusing on Eastern Long Island and New England.

"We have about three feet and still snowing," Nanette said about 10 a.m. "But the power is on!" She said she'll send more photos later, but "I can't really get out the door yet."

The National Weather Service had reports this morning of 20 inches of snow in Noyac and 25 in Mattituck, with winds creating deeper drifts.

The storm was also lashing Cape Cod. Owen reports: "Lots of snow and wind. But we have had much worse. Gerrit and Angela never lost power and we were lucky as well."

Snowed in along with Owen is his brother, Austin -- who flew up from Florida for a visit, arriving Sunday just in time to settle in for the blizzard. He said he "wanted a break" from sunny Florida and thought he'd take a "reverse snowbird" vacation.

The snow continued throughout the day and into the evening on the Cape and up the New England coast.

Here at Birch Street HQ in New Jersey, the snow that began Monday continued Tuesday, but by late Tuesday morning had accumulated only about six inches.

Dan & Julie's side yard, 10 a.m.

It was never anything like a blizzard in New Jersey, but enough to disrupt travel, and Dan and Julie were working from home.

Likewise, the New York City area was spared the "historic" blizzard that had been forecast. Brien sent along this street scene from his Yonkers neighborhood.

 "It didn't amount to much at all, never very much snow," Brien reports. "It did stick quickly and made streets slippery, but didn't warrant 'all non-emergency vehicles off the road by 11 p.m.,' which was in effect last night!"

The coastal storm developed from one that came across the Midwest on Monday, leaving this scene in Cathy's neighborhood in Ohio. "We had about four inches, so of course schools were all closed," Cathy writes.

Meanwhile, Hugh and Dolores missed all the excitement.

"We are in Rehoboth Beach, where Dolores is teaching some art workshops for the Rehoboth Art League," Hugh writes. "As luck would have it, Rehoboth was just below the rain/snow line, and we have seen almost no snow. Here's a photo from here in the south to add to your collection of blizzard of 2015 pictures."

From NJ-MA, we're bracing for blizzard

Here's hoping everyone in the Blizzard Zone is safely hunkered down! Stay safe and warm -- and share your stories and photos!

Christopher takes stage with HS troupe

Christopher was one of the dozen cast member in a production of "Crazytown" at Hilliard Darby High School this weekend.

The comedy, by Jonathan Rand, consists of a series of sketches depicting life in "the most messed-up town in America." It was produced and performed by the school's X-Theatre, which presents shows that are produced, directed and performed by students.

"It was a small, student-directed production where everyone had multiple parts," writes Christopher's mom, Cathy.
Cathy adds: "We also had our band solo and ensemble event over the weekend. Both Christopher and Stephanie were in ensembles that earned a superior rating!"

Another happy couple in our extended family

Romantic news from Rochester: Kathy and Daniel are engaged!

(For those in other branches of the family: Kathy is the daughter of Susan and Dave; Susan is the sister of Lisa, who is married to Doug and mother of Liz and Rebecca.)

Kathy and Daniel -- what fine names! -- have been dating long enough to have made two appearances at Doug & Lisa's annual Thanksgiving Weekend gatherings.

Here they are with the group in 2013: At center rear is Daniel (his beard was shorter), seated next to Kathy and her parents:

2013 file photo

Winter gives it another try in Northeast

So far this winter hasn't brought anything like the snows of 2013-14 to the Northeast coast. But an early Saturday snowfall left close to six soggy inches on the ground around the Birch Street Web headquarters in New Jersey.

It won't last -- the snow turned to rain by midday -- but more may be coming early in the week. Happy winter!

Got snow? Share your winter scenes with Birch Street Web!

A quick visit to New Orleans for Doug & Lisa

Jackson Square, New Orleans

Doug and Lisa had the chance recently to spend a few days in New Orleans just after New Year's. Lisa summed up the trip as "walking tours, biking tour, lots of music, food and just a few drinks."

Here are a few photos Lisa posted on Facebook.

Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis, King of France

New Orleans Musical Legends Park

Freezing beauty: A January beach scene

A cold day in January isn't exactly what we think of as "beach weather," but at least the sun was out at Corporation Beach in Dennis, Mass., on Thursday. The result was this great icy scene captured by Gerrit.

"Doesn't feel a degree over 0," Gerrit said. In fact, with both the temperature and the wind speed in the teens, the wind-chill factor really was just about zero.