Every few years Corey’s birthday falls on the same day as Thanksgiving. He is a turkey all year round, but it seems more obvious today! 🙂
ppp||ppp
HAPPY 24th, Corey!
Our little Turkey
Leave a reply
Category Archives: Family
Holiday Revels
We headed out to Townsend yesterday for the Lee family’s annual Labor Day Pool Party/Cook Out. The weather, surprising, turned out quite nicely. Warm sun, warmish pool, and cool air in the evening made for a very pleasant day. It was great to see people that we haven’t seen in several months or even since last year’s party! A special note…Congratulations to Zach and Andrea on thier upcoming nuptials!! The photos are ***online|http://gallery.prwdot.org/labor_day_04***, and you can also check out some of ***last year’s photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/labor_day_03?page=3***.
ppp| |ppp
(Those pics were carried over from Peter’s post, which has been deleted since it was pretty much the same thing Becky posted about – our first ever blogging collision!)
In addition to the fantastic company there was some very yummy food. Geoff and Deanna brought a dip made from peanut butter and fluff and I’m not sure what else. We dipped graham crackers and chocolate in it…YUMM! I’m going to have to get the recipe. I made cheese balls wiith Wheat Thins crackers. I thought they turned out pretty well. The recipe is as follows 🙂
qqq|Pineapple Cheese Balls
2 pkgs of Neufachatel Cream Cheese
1 8oz can of Crushed Pineapple (drained)
1/4 cup chopped Green Pepper
1/4 cup chopped onion
1 Teaspon of Seasoned Salt
2ish cups of Chopped nuts
Cream the Cream Cheese until soft and mix in the pineapple. Mix, mix, mix… and then add the peppers, onions, salt and 1 cup of the chopped nuts. Chill. Form the mixture in to two balls and roll in remaining nuts. Chill until serving (you may want to bring it to room temp before setting out)
Serve with crackers or sliced veggies. Enjoy!|qqq
Gracias, Thanks, Merci Beaucoup!
To Dad: Thank you for knowing so much about cars and for trying to teach me how they work. Yesterday there was a scary blinking light on my dashboard. Yikes! Because I was on my way past the mall, I turned into AutoZone and pulled out my car manual. Lo and behold the solution to my problem was right there! I popped the hood, checked the coolant level, and went inside to buy some more. After double checking with the friendly desk help I refilled my coolant tank up to the optimal level. Good bye blinking light! My auto problem skills are getting better!
To Auntie Susie: Thanks for recommending, ***Lucia, Lucia|http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1400060052/worldwidewood-20*** by Adriana Trigiani. This story of family, life, love and risks was very heartwarming. I couldn’t put it down…and occasionally I think of Lucia’s life story and it feels like I heard it from a real person. Trigiani’s descriptions of Greenwich Villiage in the 50’s and her details into the fashions of the time challenged my imagination. All in all it was a great summer read, not too intellectually straining, but not complete fluff either. It was lovely.
To Mom: Thanks for passing Lucia, Lucia on to me when you were finished!
A Wood Gathering
Last night we had a rare gathering of the Wood family – my parents are up in the area visiting, my cousin Kim was back in the states, and Scott took a bus up from NYC to visit. John and Joan were there, and Mark came along as well. All told there were eleven of us who gathered at ***Concord’s Colonial Inn|http://www.concordscolonialinn.com/*** for dinner. The food was great, but the company was better. We had a blast chatting with everyone and catching up.
The State of Ohio
Cedar Point was a lot of fun last night! The weather was quite hot and muggy, and there were a few brief rain showers that passed through, but otherwise it was very enjoyable. We went into the park after 5 p.m., so the rate was only $25.95 per person. The lines for most of the rides were pretty short, so we got to ride on almost everything we wanted to. Becky and I wanted to go on the newest ride, the ***Top Thrill Dragster|http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/ttd/index.cfm***. The ride launces a car instantly to a speed exceeding 100 miles per hour, and then shoots it straight up a track to a height of 405 feet!! Unfortunately, we didn’t end up getting there until close to the end of the day. At that point, the wait was 2.5 hours, and the ride had just shut down. It’s such a fast and tall ride that they only let it operate under the best conditions. Anyway, we decided to put it off until some other time. We did however get to ride on the ***Power Tower|http://www.cedarpoint.com/public/inside_park/rides/thrill/powertower/index.cfm***. This ride lets you choose whether you’d like to be shot at high speeds to a height of 240 feet, or instantly dropped from the same height. We choose the fast upward ascent, and were instantly whisked off of our feet to a height of 240 feet! It was amazing! Before you knew what was happening, you could see all of the park, Lake Erie, and Sandusky! It was great fun.
Today has been slightly less thrilling from an adrenaline sense, but no less enjoyable. I’ve been hanging out with Dad today. We had lunch with Mark and then drove around to see different people at ***Lakeholm|http://www.lakeholm.org/*** and ***MVNU|http://www.mvnu.edu/***. It’s great to catch up with people I haven’t seen in a while. Dad also caught me up on a lot of the new construction in the area – a new elementary school, new renovations and additions at MVNU, construction in the south end of town.
The ladies today are at an afternoon tea at the ***Longaberger|http://www.longaberger.org/*** company, so I’m at home relaxing and blogging.
Tah Tah!
O-H-I-O
Becky and I arrived safely in Ohio on Saturday evening. Our trip from Beverly to Mount Vernon took about 14 hours and about 22 gallons of gasoline (1.5 tanks – not bad!). Saturday night we played UNO Attack, which was interesting but not quite as good as the original UNO.
We went to Hope Community church on Sunday to hear Mark preach on “Bodybuilding 101”. Afterward we zipped down to Columbus to see Kirsten and Elizabeth compete in a tennis match. Everyone then went to Graeters for ice cream, where we all entered their contest to win a pint of ice cream every week for one year. 🙂 Sunday evening we watched Spider-Man 2 with Mark, Kirsten, and Dad… it was excellent. Becky and I ended the night by visiting ***Will|http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/*** at Taco Bell (oh, and eating some Taco Bell too).
Today Becky and I took an excursion to Newark to see the Moundbuilders park and the ***Longaberger|http://www.longaberger.com/*** Company home office, which just happens to be located inside a giant, seven-story-tall wicker basket. 🙂 Tonight we are headed up to ***Cedar Point|http://www.cedarpoint.com/*** to experience some roller coaster madness.
It’s been a fun and relaxing trip so far, and it’s great to be in Mount Vernon after more than a year. Becky has had the fun side benefit of being able to check out a lot of photos from my earlier years… 🙂
We’ve taken some good photos, but we probably won’t upload them until we get back to Beverly or have access to a high speed connection, whichever comes first. 🙂
MVY
Had a great, relaxing Fourth of July weekend on Martha’s Vineyard with Becky, Ken and Dianne. As always there was good food, fun, and sunshine. The weather was terrific, and the flowers in Dianne’s garden were in full bloom. I’ve got some photos, particularly heavy on the flowers this time, and you can see them ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/vineyard_20040704***.
The one notable incident of the weekend occurred Sunday afternoon as I was kayaking on Sengekontacket Pond. Admittedly, I am an inexperienced kayaker, this being only my third attempt at doing so. I do know about various kayaks including the best ones thanks to www.humbersport.net, but physically I do not have much experience on one. Nonetheless, I felt pretty confident that I wouldn’t have any problems since I had kayaked in the same pond a few weeks earlier. But after examining a small island in the pond, I paddled away, at which point the kayak flipped over and I was thrown into the water. I came up pretty quickly outside of the kayak, so I was not in any danger, but the kayak was filled with water and I did not have the muscle to turn it over to pour the water out.
Furthermore, when I plunged briefly under water, my eyeglasses, which I had been wearing at the time, were pulled off and lost. I didn’t realize they were lost until after I had started swimming back to shore with the kayak in tow. So for the rest of Sunday and most of Monday, I was without my glasses. I can’t drive without my glasses, so Becky drove us home on Monday. Luckily, LensCrafters at the North Shore Mall was open, so we went in with my latest prescription and had some new glasses made. The price was actually pretty reasonable with my AAA discount, and the new pair even came with matching clip-on sunglasses. I had lost my clip-ons a while ago, so this was actually a blessing in disguise. Those glasses were a couple of years old anyway, so it was probably about time for an update.
Here are some photos of me with my handsome new eyewear:
ppp|
The new glasses|ppp
ppp|
The new glasses with the sunglasses clipped on|ppp
News Bites
Wednesday, May 19: I gave a presentation to the ***MacWoburn|http://www.macwoburn.org/*** Macintosh User Group on “Blogging With The Mac.” The presentation went well, and the attendees had some good questions about blogging in general, as well as the Mac OS applications I had reviewed in the process of preparing for the meeting. For those who couldn’t attend, I have a complete website available which details the essence of the presentation. It includes reviews of six different Mac OS X blogging applications, and you can find it ***here|http://prwdot.org/blogging/***.
Saturday, May 22: Becky and I went down to Hyannis to visit Jeremy and Angela. We had a delicious dinner and then went out to get some ice cream at the opening night of ***Four Seas Ice Cream|http://www.fourseasicecream.com/*** in Centerville. I had peanut butter chocolate chip, while Becky had a pink-colored mint chip. Yum!
I brought along a couple video tapes so that Jeremy and I could continue our regular viewing of ***The Shield|http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/the_shield/***. We’ve been getting together to watch it since its debut in March of 2002 on FX. It’s admittedly quite an intense show (“too intense for network television”), but we’re strangely fascinated with it, along with millions of other viewers. If you haven’t been following the series, it’s probably a bit too late to tune in now, unless you buy the DVD’s and try to catch up.
Upcoming: We’re going to be out of town for the next three weekends, which should be fun. Two of them involve ***Martha’s Vineyard|http://www.mvy.com/***, and one involves ***New Jersey|http://www.state.nj.us/***. We are also planning a road trip to ***Ohio|http://www.ohiotourism.com/home.asp***, later this summer, to see my family, with a side trip to “***camp out|http://www.niagarakoa.net/***” at ***Niagara Falls|http://www.infoniagara.com/***. (Note the quotes around camp out… though we may be sleeping in a tent, it’s far from roughing it.)
In the meantime, it’s ***business|http://www.christianbook.com/*** as usual for me, and for Becky her new job with ***SPNEA|http://www.spnea.org/*** will be starting soon! If you haven’t already, stop by her entry a couple of posts down from this one and leave her a note! 🙂
Congratulations Tom!
We would like to congratulate Thomas Lowe for his completion of the ***Boston Marathon|http://www.bostonmarathon.org/*** today! His net time was 4 hours, 8 minutes, 43 seconds, which was excellent considering the humidity, temperatures in the mid-80’s, and the grueling terrain of the 26.2 mile course.
Becky and I had a great time spectating. We got off at the end of the Green Line’s B branch, at the Boston College stop. From there we walked up Commonwealth Ave., to the top of Heartbreak Hill, and then part of the way down the hill. We walked back up to the top of the hill and hung around the “Top of the Hill” line, where all of the news media were parked. It was great fun to cheer on everyone as they reached the top of the last major hill on the course. One guy near us I dubbed “Mister Top-of-the-Hill,” after the creative cheers he came up with for most every runner who went past. For example, to the man with his jersey unzipped all the way down to the waist he called “Come on, Plunging Neckline!” Another runner had an “FBI” t-shirt on, and MTOTH called out “Come on, FBI! Al-Qaeda is just ahead of you!”
We did manage to make visual contact with Tom, after walking back closer to the BC T stop. We saw him just down the hill from the 21 mile marker, gave him some cheers, and got a reaction. Hopefully it helped to motivate him for the five miles he had left to go.
Due to the laboriously slow, error-ridden Green Line (the train we were on was actually “rebooted” once while we were waiting, and before they finally decided to take it out of service), we weren’t able to make it down to the Finish line before Tom arrived. But all in all, it was a very enjoyable experience, and I definitely think it would be fun to attend even if we didn’t know anyone participating.
Just for fun, there is an athlete result search form ***here|http://www.bostonmarathon.org/cfm_Public/2004/pg_RaceAdvanced2004.cfm***. You can type in a city and state, for example, to see if anyone from your home town was participating in the race, and see what their results were. Or you can search by name, age, citizenship, or even their exact ‘Bib Number’ if you have it. Nobody from Mount Vernon, Ohio was participating, but there were two participants from Townsend, Massachusetts. For Jenn, there was one runner from River Vale, NJ. For Michelle, there were 17 runners from Saskatchewan (one from Moose Jaw, which I think is near your seminary). Play along at home – see if you can find a long-lost friend who ran in the marathon!
One last thing – as I have previously mentioned, the digital camera is out of service at the moment. I’ll be sending it in to Canon for repairs, but today we used Becky’s standard 35mm camera to take photos. I hope to have those developed this week, and I should be able to have the photo lab digitize them for me so that they can go up in our online gallery.
Twenty-Three
Everyone wish a happy 23rd birthday to …..
Kirsten!