Everyone’s a Wii-ner

Tonight we had dinner with Corey, Vicky, and Vicky’s roommate Jasmine in Vicky’s apartment in Somerville. After dinner, we played some games on their Nintendo Wii! This was our first time playing a Wii, and we had a lot of fun. We played tennis, boxing, and bowling in Wii Sports, and we also played a few rounds of Smooth Moves. Catherine had fun watching her Momma and Papa gesticulate wildly in front of the TV. Good times were had by all, and Catherine was definitely sad when we headed home.

See some more pictures from the evening.

By Peter | 02.17.2008 | 10:26 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Friends | No Comments

Photographs, recently

My photography workflow goes something like this:

1. Take photo with digital camera
2. Delete photo on camera if it’s obviously bad
3. When all photos are taken, connect camera to computer
4. Download all photos into iPhoto
5. Delete any photos that are bad upon closer inspection
6. Make corrections to the remaining photos: crop for composition or extraneous elements, correct color and exposure, sharpen, remove noise, enhance saturation
7. Export photos from iPhoto to Gallery
8. Write up a blog entry to let people know about new photos

Steps 5-8 are typically where I get hung up, as they are the most time-consuming. I’m particularly bad with #8 - sometimes there’s really not a whole lot to say about a particular batch of photos, and I don’t feel like just saying “Hey, here are some photos.” But I know that friends and family want to see the photos, so I’d rather let them know about them sooner.

So with that being said, here are some assorted photos that I have taken recently.

I shot a bunch of photos of Catherine in the living room, on an afternoon where there was some decent light coming in. I really like this one, where she’s just seen a dog walk past the house:

See more of Catherine

That same day, Rebecca, Catherine and I met up with my cousin Mark and went to Taco Bell for dinner. Here’s Mark with one of Taco Bell’s new dinner plates:

See more from our trip to Taco Bell

By Peter | 02.16.2008 | 06:22 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Photography | 1 Comment

29 years of BecTasticism

Happy birthday to the best wife a man could hope for, and the best momma a girl could want. Here’s to the woman who keeps the house running smoothly, keeps the kid happy, and keeps us lean, mean and green.

And let’s not forget, the one who did a killer job polyurethaning (is that a verb?) our stairs! I love you!

By Peter | 01.10.2008 | 07:00 AM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Married Life, Occasions | 8 Comments

Big Christmas Wrap-Up!

December 21-30 was a whirlwind of a Christmas vacation for the Wood family. We had a great time visiting with friends and family. I took lots of photos, so we’ll give you the brief rundown here with links to images from our trip.

• December 20: We had a sort of “Pre-Christmas” at home after I got out of work. We exchanged our gifts so that we didn’t have to bring the stuff for just each other all the way out to Ohio. The rest of our evening was spent packing for our trip!
• December 21: We left after I got out of work and drove to a Knight’s Inn in Liverpool, NY. That helped break the trip up a bit.
• December 22: We left Syracuse early in the morning, and, after a stop in Madison, Ohio to visit with Melanie, we drove to Mount Vernon. Pics from the drive, Pics from visiting Melanie, Pics from the first evening in Mount Vernon
• December 23: We went to church at Lakeholm in Mount Vernon, then headed down to Columbus to visit with Becky’s friend Heather and her husband Jeff. Then it was back to Mount Vernon for the infamous “Reindeer Hat Party.” Pics from visiting Heather and Jeff, Pics from the Reindeer Hat Party
• December 24: We attended the Christmas Eve service at Lakeholm, then had Christmas Eve dinner at home. Pics from Christmas Eve
• December 25: We spent Christmas Day at home with my family! Pics from Christmas Day
• December 26: On Wednesday, we went up to Mark and Kirsten’s place in Mansfield for a nice Birthday brunch for Mom! After that, we drove back to Mount Vernon to attend a Game Day that Amy Walton was hosting at her parents’ house. Later in the evening, we had a birthday cake and another little party for Mom. Pics from Mom’s birthday brunch and that evening, Pics from the game day
• December 27: On Thursday, we had some outings sans Catherine. Rebecca and I went out to breakfast at the Southside Diner while Mom and Dad watched Catherine. Then, Rebecca, Dad and I went out to lunch while Mom watched Catherine. Later that evening, Mom and Dad watched Catherine again while we went out to dinner and a movie with Mark and Kirsten. We ended the evening with a family photo shoot. Pics from the Southside Diner, Pics from Thursday afternoon, Pics from dinner with Mark and Kirsten, Pics from the photo shoot
• December 28: On Friday morning, we left Mount Vernon and drove back to the Knight’s Inn in Liverpool, NY. The hotel clerk recommended dinner at a delicious local restaurant, Mother’s, and gave us a free voucher to see the local “Lights on the Lake” holiday light display. It was a nice evening with just the three of us! Pics from the drive, Pics from Friday evening
• December 29: On Saturday, we left Liverpool and drove to Townsend to spend the rest of the weekend with Becky’s family.
• December 30: On Sunday, we had lunch in Townsend with Becky’s parents, then they drove back to Danvers with us to help cart back our additional haul of gifts and see our new staircase. Pics from the “After-Christmas Christmas” in Townsend

See all of the Christmas pics here.

Phew! Since then, we’e been unpacking our stuff and trying to get readjusted to a life back at home. We hope that you have all had great holidays with your family or friends, and that you have a happy new year!

By Peter | 12.31.2007 | 10:40 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Friends, Travel | 1 Comment

The Perfect Storm

1. Today was the starting day for work on the staircase from our living room down into our basement! This is a major hurdle and will enable us to more easily start on our next project - finishing the basement! You can see some before pics and some during pics to see what it looks like. Quarters are quite cramped, but we’re excited that we’ll soon have a way to get down into the basement that doesn’t involve going outside of the house!
2. Today was the first big snowstorm of the season in our area. I’m not sure how many inches fell, but it seems to have been quite a bit. Luckily it was fairly powdery, so I was able to brush it off of my car pretty easily. It took me about an hour to get home, which is a lot considering that it’s normally less than 15 minutes. However, it doesn’t hold a candle to a few years ago when it took almost four hours for me to get home (to downtown Beverly, which is only two miles further than I drive now). Here’s some photos from the evening.
3. As a side note, tonight was the first time I had driven Rebecca’s new Subaru Legacy Wagon in truly bad conditions, and I must say that it was AWESOME! The all-wheel drive and anti-lock brakes were a godsend. It easily backed up our slick, snow-covered driveway, handled all of the twists and turns with no problem at all. Seriously, it’s like the car doesn’t even care that there’s snow. “Hmm, got some driving to do. What’s this white stuff? Oh, nevermind. Just keep drivin’, just keep drivin’…”
4. Corey’s Mini broke down on the way home from work (Peabody to Somerville), and so the three of us packed into the car to drive down and pick him up in Woburn. He’s staying here for the night - hopefully we’ll find a place to squeeze him in!

I hope everyone else affected by the storm is doing okay. Feel free to leave your stories in the comments, or else link to any posts that you’ve written!

By Peter | 12.13.2007 | 10:19 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, House, Life Near Boston | 1 Comment

Headin’ out Ohio-way!

In only two weeks and two days, we’ll be packin’ up the wagon and headin’ out to Ohio!

As you can see, we’re dividing the drive up into two manageable pieces with a strategic hotel stay in Syracuse, NY.

We’ll be spending the week of Christmas with my family in Mount Vernon. We’re looking forward to spending some quality time with Grandma and Grandpa, Mark and Kirsten, and the rest of the Mount Vernon crew.

We’d love to visit with any of our readers who are in the greater Mount Vernon area. Drop us a line and let us know if you’re going to be around at any point December 23 through 27!

By Peter | 12.05.2007 | 09:34 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family, Occasions, Travel | 2 Comments

MKJEPRC

Today we met up with my cousins Mark and Kim, Aunt Joan and Uncle Errol in Cambridge. Kim is back in the States for vacation, so we wanted to get together before the holidays got too crazy!

The crew back at Mark’s place

We went out for lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen and then headed over to Mark’s place to hang out for a while. It was nice to see everyone, and to see Mark’s apartment again now that he has actual furniture.

More pics from the day here.

By Peter | 11.24.2007 | 08:58 PM | Permalink | Categories: Family | 2 Comments

Rebecca’s Book

You know how scientists, thinkers, and inventors of old (and probably of new) had those notebooks where they would write all of their ideas, plans, formulas, etc? Well, my wife has a book just like that. I think it’s pretty cool, so I wanted to share some photos of it:

Instead of drawings of water screws or flying machines, Rebecca’s book contains drawings of craft and interior decorating ideas, lists and plans for parties, and other random musings. Lovingly hand-inscribed with pencil, Rebecca’s notebook is an inspiration to me. To be more thoughtful, plan better, and get all of my ideas down somewhere.

You can see more pictures of the book.

By Peter | 11.14.2007 | 11:06 PM | Permalink | Categories: Craftiness, Family | 1 Comment