Solo week update

• Sunday: cleaned up house, worked on some financial stuff, did some blogging. Did a bit of photography around the house. Result: Study of an empty house.
• Monday night: watched Hitman. Actually pretty good. A few cheesy bits and some totally unnecessary nudity, but otherwise a fun action film. Also didn’t have to pay for it thanks to a Redbox promo code. Played around with some website ideas.
• Tuesday night: watched X-Men: The Last Stand. Terrible. Terrible. Magneto moving the Golden Gate Bridge to get to Alcatraz? Are you kidding me? At least I didn’t have to put Becky through watching it. Can’t believe it got 7/10 on IMDB.
• Tonight: Taking care of some paperwork and filing, exploring Muxtape, Twittering, surfing, possibly playing around with more website ideas.
• Tomorrow night: no plans as yet.
• Friday: Have the day scheduled off work. Plan was to take a photo excursion. However, I seem to have picked a day that is forecast for an 80% chance of rain. So we’ll see what happens.
• Saturday: The ladies get home. Hooray!

By Peter | 04.02.2008 | 06:25 PM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | No Comments

Collegial

I have many fond memories of college, but end-of-term cramming and projects were not two of them. Over the past few days, I’ve noticed a decidedly tense air around the internet, whether via Tweets on Twitter, Facebook status updates, AIM status messages, or various blogs and websites. It’s apparently that time on the academic calendar.

Best wishes to all of you students out there. Hopefully you can get everything out of the way and have at least a somewhat relaxing holiday!

By Peter | 12.11.2007 | 04:54 PM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | No Comments

Good Quotes

I received the latest issue of Good Magazine today, and it had some really great quotes that I thought I’d share:

Although human subtlety makes a variety of inventions by different means to the same end, it will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple, or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

Leonardo Da Vinci

Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons.

R. Buckminster Fuller

We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.

Albert Einstein

By Peter | 12.10.2007 | 06:05 PM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | No Comments

Happenings and News

This week I was back to work, after last week’s work-related trip to Portland, Oregon. I attended the O’Reilly Open Source Convention, where I took some classes and attended some sessions to try and gain some useful new information for my work in web development at CBD.

You can see some more pics from the conference and Portland here.

I had some free time after the convention had ended, so I took what I’m sure must have been the world’s shortest trip to Seattle, Washington. Having never been there, I figured I would rent a car and drive up for a quick visit, but what should have been just a three hour drive ended up being a bit over five hours due to a diesel spill that blocked all four lanes of I-5 North. So I ended up arriving around 6 p.m. and leaving just after 9 p.m. to head back to Portland. I got to see the Space Needle, ride the Seattle Center Monorail, visit the Science Fiction Museum / Experience Music Project, and that’s about it! I’ll just consider it a fact-finding mission for when our family has the opportunity to take a real trip to Seattle. It definitely appeared to be worth at least one nice long visit.

You can see some more pics from Seattle here.

In present news, we continue to work on the greenifying of our lifestyles, as Rebecca has written. We’re also continuing the work on renovating our condo; while both of us were away, we had a contractor come and renovate our deck. We now have a nice, safe, sturdy new deck, which should add to the value of our home and provide extensive enjoyment for our family. I’ll get some photos of it up once we have cleared away some of the supplies from various projects we’re working on. The next big things will be to turn our basement into usable living space, and to put in an inside staircase from the first floor to the basement.

My parents and sister and brother-in-law are going to be coming out to visit soon, and before we know it, August will be over and we’ll be moving on to the busy wedding season of September!

As for Catherine updates, I think I’m going to post some of those over on my sadly-neglected daddy blog, so stay tuned there for more details!

By Peter | 08.04.2007 | 11:19 AM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | No Comments

That I might catch you up

Last Thursday, we were in Jamaica Plain with Jenny and Griff for the Forest Hills Lantern Festival. We had only gone once before, a few years ago, and we told ourselves that the next time we had to bring some friends along. And so we did! It turned out to be a great night: walking amongst the crowds of friendly folk, listening to an eclectic selection of live music, and watching performances of Asian dance, music, and martial arts of various types. The culmination of the evening was the launching of the lanterns from the shores of Lake Hibiscus. Truly a beautiful evening.

You can find more photos here.

Last night, we took up Christine’s invitation to see the Rebel Shakespeare Company put on “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” The performance was originally scheduled for Thursday night, but was rained out. Yesterday, the weather was perfect, and Christine’s daughter Jess was terrific as Nick Bottom. The performance was the culmination of an intensive month-long workshop, in which Jess had participated. We also enjoyed the opportunity to hang out with Christine. It was Rebecca and Catherine’s first opportunity to meet her, and only my second opportunity after a brief and unexpected meeting at CBD.

I have an extensive selection of additional photos from the evening here.

This weekend, Rebecca, Catherine and I are parting ways. R and C left this morning to head down to Martha’s Vineyard for a week with Nonni. I will be leaving on Sunday afternoon for Portland, Oregon for the O’Reilly Open Source Convention. CBD sends a few of us out every year to take some tutorials and learn cool new stuff. Hopefully it will prove to be a useful and fun trip. If I have time, I’ll blog a bit while I’m out there.

Adios!

By Peter | 07.21.2007 | 11:05 AM | Permalink | Categories: Friends, Randomness | No Comments

March Madness

I know, March is over, but I wanted to highlight some of the craziness from the month:

• March 2-8: Tried to figure out how to satisfy the master insurance requirements to close on our condo, since we couldn’t get in touch with the other unit owner to find the actual master insurance policy. Ended up taking our our own provisional master insurance policy until we are able to obtain the info on the policy our condo fee is paying for.
• March 6: Becky’s camera, a Canon PowerShot A530, stopped holding its battery charge. We sent it in to Canon for in-warranty repair.
• March 7: I had a dentist appointment to fill three cavities.
• March 9: We closed on our condo. The one hour we spent at the closing procedure was probably the easiest part of the whole deal.
• March 10: First day of work on the condo.
• March 11-30: Many days (for Becky and Catherine) and evenings (for the three of us) of work on the condo and trips to Home Depot, IKEA, etc.
• March 11: Over at the condo, I dropped my Panasonic DMC-FZ20 * digital camera on the floor and the lens ceased to function. Unfortunately, it is out of warranty, and in any case, the warranty wouldn’t cover accidental damage. Luckily, it is scheduled under our homeowner’s insurance policy, which does cover accidental damage, so I sent it off for a repair estimate. Becky’s camera hadn’t arrived back yet, so we were without a digital camera for a few days.
• March 13: Consultation with oral surgeon regarding one of my wisdom teeth that had erupted. Scheduled an appointment to extract said wisdom tooth.
• March 14: Becky’s camera was returned and was functioning normally once again.
• March 20-23: My dad flew out from Ohio for a few days to help us out with the condo.
• March 21: I had another dentist appointment to fill two more cavities.
• March 22: I had my wisdom tooth extraction. They only had to remove one tooth, and it had already erupted from the gum, so it was pretty much a five-minute deal under local anesthetic. Grab the tooth, yank it out, done. Still, the anxiety before the appointment was more than enough.
• March 24: Went to Jenny’s Pseudo-St. Patrick’s Day Party.
• March 26: Catherine turned 10 months old!
• March 26-30: Last week for cleaning up and packing up in the old apartment.
• March 31: Ken, Dianne, Corey, Becky, and Peter did a blitz to move everything from the old apartment to the new condo. Catherine mostly slept or watched. It took two trips in a 12-foot Penske truck, plus a few carloads, to get everything over. By the end of the day, Catherine’s room was all set for her to sleep in, we had our toiletries out, and we had a bed made to sleep in. The real tasks of unpacking would begin the following day(s)…

Of course, I haven’t even mentioned the all kinds of busy I was at work during the month. With all of that, it certainly made for a mad March. Now we’re starting to settle in, finish unpacking, and relax a bit before the next phase of our project, finishing off the basement. Hopefully we’ll be able to blog some more, and share more about the house, life, and everyone’s favorite ten-month-old, Catherine.

*I did eventually get the camera back on April 9. Repairs cost $400 (a new camera would cost $600) which will be fully covered by our homeowner’s insurance. If you have any cameras or computer equipment that are even moderately expensive, scheduling them under your homeowner’s insurance is a very good idea. It’s incredibly cheap (less than $20 per year for our ‘big’ camera, camcorder, and all of our computer equipment) and by scheduling it, you don’t pay a deductible if you have a claim.

By Peter | 04.13.2007 | 08:37 PM | Permalink | Categories: House, Randomness | No Comments

Oh, what a year!

January

In January, Becky was in her fifth month of her very boring pregnancy. She was mostly over the nausea and was just enjoying the anticipation. Becky turned 27, and we had a fun bowling birthday party for her, and I helped organize a get together of Gordon College computer science alums.

February

In February, we could feel “the baby” kicking for the first time! Becky threw an Olympics party for the winter Olympics in Torino. We got our first camcorder. And we visited Montreal.

March

In March, we went to a Pseudo-St. Pat’s Party at Jenny’s, and we got our new Mac mini.

April

Becky had her baby shower. My family’s dog, Beaux, died. We said goodbye to Becky’s Papa.

May

In May, Becky worked her last day at the Otis House and became a SAHM! We did a lot of reorganizing and purging. We watched “the baby”’s due date pass by. Finally, on Memorial Day weekend, Catherine Elinor Wood made her dramatic arrival into this world.

June

In June, Catherine was finally able to come home from the hospital. She had spent two weeks as the guest of Brigham and Women’s hospital in Boston and Beverly Hospital here in our home town. Shortly thereafter, we took her on her first trip to Taco Bell. Catherine had a lot of visitors this month - Grandma and Grandpa Wood, the Farnhams and the Woods. By the end of the month, Catherine had grown by two pounds and one inch since birth!

July

In July, we carted Catherine down to Boston for Harborfest, up to York, Maine for dinner with the Rainvilles, down for her first trip to Martha’s Vineyard, out to Pennsylvania for Johanna’s wedding.

August

In August, we did Beverly Homecoming. We also took another trip down to the Vineyard, this time with the Rainvilles. Catherine and I got to see our first Grand Illumination. We took trips to Long Hill and the USS Friendship, and had dinner at Lynch Park.

September

In September, we went to David Lee’s wedding. We got to see some cool ships at the Gloucester Schooner Festival. We took Catherine on her first trip to the Museum of Science. We attended Beverly Hospital’s special care nursery birthday party and Art and Leanne’s wedding. Becky and I finally jumped on the bandwagon and purchased an Xbox so that we could play Dance Dance Revolution at home. At four months old, Catherine was 16 pounds nine ounces and 26 inches long!

October

In October, Becky had her first experience with general anesthesia in a successful operation to remove three cysts from one of her ovaries. We went to see the Topsfield Fair Parade and to Gordon College Homecoming. We changed Catherine’s diaper in many interesting locations on our trip out to Ohio and Toronto. On that trip, we finally got to meet Michelle! Becky and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Catherine also celebrated her first Halloween, and joined us for several Halloween parties.

November

In November, we slept through the Danvers chemical plant explosion, even though we were just two miles away. We also celebrated our first Thanksgiving with Catherine!

December

In December, we spent the first weekend on a trip to western Mass with Bob, Leah, Lucas, and Jeremy. We visited Boston’s new ICA with Mark. The month was fairly busy with preparations for Christmas, which culminated in our week-long Christmas event!

It was indeed a good year, and of course it will surely go down as one of the most memorable with Catherine’s arrival.

And now, we wish you a happy 2007!

By Peter | 01.01.2007 | 03:31 PM | Permalink | Categories: Randomness | 2 Comments