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.

Winter's in full force - Stay warm, everyone!

As the "polar vortex" sends temperatures plummeting, here are a couple of photos Cathy took after recent snowfalls at her home in Ohio. About six inches fell the weekend of the 12th-13th, and then another six a week later.

"I wanted to go out and take pictures, since it's pretty and sunny," Cathy wrote, "but it's also only 10 degrees out! Brrr!!! So here are a few pictures looking out from the inside."

Andy sharing his web-coding knowledge

After completing a web-coding "bootcamp" through Rutgers University, Andy has now returned to the program - this time as a teaching assistant.

The six-month program trained Andy in "full stack" web development, encompassing a wide range of programming languages and tools. In addition to mastering the course materials, achieving a final grade of A+, he impressed his instructors with his ability to assist fellow students. Upon completing the course in October, he was offered a teaching-assistant job. He started in his new role in mid-January.

In between class sessions, Andy is interviewing for web-developer positions and working on independent projects to further build his portfolio (viewable here).

Rebecca heads to 2019 national curling tournament

Rebecca continues her curling career as a member of Team Senneker - which is headed for the 2019 USA Curling National Championships.

The team qualified for Nationals based on points accumulated in matches this fall. Three other women's teams and five men's teams likewise qualified on points. The top-ranked teams are those headed by John Shuster, skip of the 2018 Olympic Men's Gold Medal team, and by Nina Roth, skip of the U.S. 2018 Olympic Women's team.

Another four men's and three women's berths at Nationals will be determined this month in USA Curling's Challenge Rounds in Minnesota. A junior men's and a junior women's team will be selected to bring the field to 10 men's and 8 women's teams.

The 2019 National Championships will be held Feb. 9-16 in Kalamazoo, Mich. We'll try to keep you updated on Team Senneker's progress!

Rebecca has played in multiple national tournaments. Last year, she was on a team that finished fourth in the Women's Nationals, as well as a team that made it to the final round of the Mixed Nationals. You can find stories from past years by checking our Sports archives.

The Yonkers Christmastime Party, 2018 Edition

The Yonkers branch of the family held its annual holiday gathering Dec. 29. Kathy hosted this year's party at her home. Above, everyone posed for a group portrait, another long-standing tradition.

The crowd included the newest family member, Charlie, the almost-four-month-old son of Vivien and CJ, seen sitting with mom as dad stands behind them. To their left, Beatrice also sits with her mom, Genevieve, with her dad, John, standing behind.

The rest of the roll call: Left to right in the front, Andy and Shannon, Kathy and Robert; seated, Rick and Shanna; standing, Dan, Kevin and Kathy, Christine and Jamie, Kevin, Brien, Roger and Mary, Julie. Absent this year was Kathy's son Patrick, who was on a trip to Ireland with his girlfriend, Kelsey.

Here's just a handful of more-candid photos taken by Dan (click on them for larger views).

A Roundup of Holiday Pictures

We hope everyone in our extended family is having a wonderful holiday season.

In this post we're rounding up photos from social media and any others that come our way.

Please send along any pictures, clips or stories you'd like to share!

At Birch Street Headquarters in New Jersey, Christine & Jamie visited for a few days with Dan & Julie and Andy & Shannon.

Gifts were exchanged with A&S on Christmas Eve before they went to Long Island to spend Christmas morning and afternoon with Shannon's family.

D&J and C&J exchanged more gifts on Christmas morning, and everyone was back together by evening.

Genevieve, John and Beatrice spent the holiday with John's family in Delaware. Here's Bea posing with two of her cousins.

Back in New Jersey, Vivien and CJ celebrated their first Christmas with Charlie, who turned three months old earlier in December.

It was also "baby's first Christmas" on Cape Cod, where Gerrit, Angela and big brother Nolan celebrated with five-month-old Josie.

Also on Cape Cod, on the weekend before Christmas Day, Christine and Jamie joined a gathering of relatives at Jamie's mom's home.

Backing up to Thanksgiving weekend - Doug and Lisa returned from their temporary residence in Denver to host their annual "black Friday" gathering at their house in Maryland.

Dan, Julie, Christine and Jamie joined that get-together after celebrating Thanksgiving Day with Andy and Shannon in New Jersey. As Dan and Julie were temporarily without a dining room table amid redecorating, they dined out for a change, enjoying a fine buffet at a local restaurant.

Also at Thanksgiving time, Kathy had the chance to take a couple of photos of both of her grandchildren, Bea and Charlie...

...as well as Leo, who joined them for this Christmas-PJs pose.

Merry Christmas to all!

In memory of Patricia

The family is saddened by the passing of Patricia, beloved mother of Mary, grandmother of Brienna, Brennan and Shannon and great-grandmother of Cash, Brooklyn Rae and Brennan.

Patricia died peacefully Wednesday, Nov. 21, at Glens Falls Hospital, with her family by her side. She was 84.

The sister of Lorraine, she was loved as Aunt Pat by Dan, Kathy, Brien and Kevin, and by her grand-nieces and nephews.

Born in Yonkers on March 4, 1934, Patricia married John in 1960 and moved with him to Glens Falls and then Saratoga Springs, where they raised their daughter, Mary. After John passed away in December 1982, Patricia and her daughter remained in the greater Saratoga area, and Mary raised her son and daughters there.

Most recently, Patricia moved this fall to an apartment at Brookdale at Queensbury, a senior-living community about 20 miles north of Saratoga Springs, where she quickly made friends and enjoyed the community’s social activities.

Family and friends are invited to call Monday, Nov. 26 from 5-7 p.m. at the Burke funeral home, 628 North Broadway in Saratoga Springs. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated Tuesday, Nov. 27 at 10 a.m. at St. Peter's Church, 241 Broadway in Saratoga Springs, with burial to follow in St. Peter's Cemetery on West Avenue.

Read published obituary here

Towson U Marching Band in NYC Vet's Day Parade

--- Updated 11/13 with more photos ---

Stephanie took part in the New York City Veterans Day Parade on Sunday 11/11, marching and performing with the Towson University Marching Band.



Proud mom Cathy, along with Aunt Julie and Uncle Dan, were on hand to see the band parade up Fifth Avenue. In the video above, taken on Dan's phone, you'll see Stephanie 2nd from the right just behind the tubas and saxophones.

Here are a couple of photos taken by Cathy as Stephanie marched by:

And a couple more, taken by another band parent at a different point on the route:

There's also a brief glimpse of Stephanie in a clip from the WPIX-TV live telecast of the parade that's now posted on the TUMB Facebook page.

The previous day, the band performed twice in exhibition during a high school band competition at Hershey Park in Pennsylvania. Cathy was in the stands for the daytime show. "It was cold and VERY windy," Cathy said. "TUMB was still great!" (Cathy flew from Ohio to New Jersey and stayed with Julie & Dan for the weekend to be able to get to both of the weekend's events.)