Monthly Archives: February 2004

Of Skating and Tearing Down Highways

I suggested to Becky that Saturday might be a good day for her to try and teach me how to ice skate. There are numerous skating rinks in the North Shore area, but we decided it might be fun to drive in to Boston and skate at the ***Frog Pond|http://www.cityofboston.gov/parks/frogpond_winter.asp***. We drove in, and after a few orbits around the Common, we found an incredibly nice parking space on Beacon Street, just above the intersection with Charles Street, and free to boot.

The Frog Pond was just a short walk away, so we headed over there, paid our admission, and rented skates. Apparently, the only thing they had in my size was hockey skates, so I was stuck with a big clunky pair of those while Becky got figure skates.

Now I have attempted to learn how to skate in the past, with disappointing results. But I tried to do my best. Really, I did. And Becky was a great and patient teacher. We spent maybe half an hour out on the ice, Becky calmly holding my hands as I slipped and slided. She gave me all of the advice and pointers that she could, and I did my best to follow them. And I know that she would have spent as long as was necessary, had I but the will to continue. I was simply too frustrated, however, so I gave up and sat out for a while as Becky had a few more turns around the ice.

Am I a quitter? Well, on Saturday I sure was. Maybe some day I will give it another go, but for now I will just leave it on the list of activities I’m content not to do.

The day wasn’t a total loss for me, however. After skating, we walked over to the ***Faneuil Hall|http://www.faneuilhallmarketplace.com/*** area, where we had earlier spotted what might be a good photographic opportunity. I did indeed take ***that photo|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_228/IMG_3105***, as well as several others. We then had the brilliant idea that there might be good views from the top of the parking garage at Dock Square. We took the elevator up to the 7th level, and wham! There were some spectacular views to be had! And it was free! I took a bunch of photos up there from that fantastic viewpoint, including this nifty ***panoramic photo|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_228/boston_panoramic_smaller***. If for some reason that doesn’t load, you can try viewing the full sized image ***here|http://prwdot.org/img/boston_panoramic_smaller.jpg***. (Note – it’s large, so if you’re on a dial-up modem be prepared to wait a minute). There are also some cool shots of Boston’s old Central Artery being torn down. You can see the full photo gallery from the day ***here|http://gallery.prwdot.org/boston_228***.

Happy Leap Day!

Any Ideas?

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Howdy, Loyal Readers!

Peter and I have been toying with the idea of redesigning this here website. It’s not that we think there’s anything wrong with how it is now, it just feels like it might be time for a change.

We are looking to you for suggestions. What do you like about World Wide Wood? What don’t you like? Is there anything that you’d like to find here? Do you visit any of our links? Would you like us to add different links? Do you like the red?

Okay, I think you get the idea. Drop us an email or leave a comment and let us know what you think. And be standing by for the new and improved World Wide Wood.

Settled

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I received a check in the mail last night for thirteen dollars and eighty-six cents, courtesy of the ***Compact Disc Minimum Advertised Price Antitrust Litigation Settlement|http://www.musiccdsettlement.com/english/default.htm***. The deadline to file as a member of the class action was March 3, 2003. I had filled out a form back then, stating that I had purchased a compact disc between January 1, 1995 and December 22, 2000.

The original lawsuit accused a group of recording companies of conspiring to raise the prices of music CDs across the board, including BMG, EMI, Sony, Universal, Warner, as well as some retail chains including Tower Records.

The settlement provided for $67,375,000 in cash refunds for consumers across the country, plus $75,000,000 worth of music cds to be distributed to non-profit organizations. In Massachusetts, these CDs will be distributed to public libraries.

Thanks go to ***Mass. Attorney General Tom Reilly|http://www.ago.state.ma.us/*** for fighting for the citizens of Massachusetts, and for getting these checks sent to approximately 68,000 Massachusetts residents. Check out here at tjryanlaw.com the Top Personal Injury Attorneys for more information.

Dear Corey,

Just Smile and Nod!

Birthday Tradition

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January the 10th has been my birthday for 25 years. It is a special day for me. I share my birthday with my Uncle Dave, Rod Stewart and George Foreman. Growing up there have always been some birthday traditions and memories that are important ot me. An angel food cake, an old, metallic, “Happy Birthday Rebecca” sign from Judy Mingus (which has not aged as well as I), being serenaded at breakfast by Dad singing, Sixteen Candles, and being wisked off to Portland, ME for my 24th by Peter. Good times, good times.

“But why?” you may ask, “are you bringing this up now, on the 19th of February?” That is a great question. And I have a great answer.

In addition to those mentioned earlier, I also share a birthday with Charlie Clough. He sits behind my parents in church, tells jokes before the service, taught my pre-school sunday school class AND for the past 13 years or so, has taken me out to dinner on our birthday.

The 58 years that separate us have never been a problem. I talk about school (middle, high, college and grad) and he tells stories from his rebellious teenage years (those poor teachers!) and from his time in the South Pacific fighting in World War Two.

Every year we eat at the “Riverside Resturaunt” in Brookline, New Hampshire. All the waitresses know Charlie and they recognize me…and the place has been the same for years and years. If you go there on your birthday they’ll put a sparkler in your dessert, get you to wear a funny crown and take your picture. I have a collection of Polaroids commemorating each year.

This year we diverged from tradition. Anyone who may have been in the Massachusetts area the first couple weeks of January will remember that it was bitterly, bone chillingly cold. Way to cold to bundle up and go to dinner even further north in NH. So we postponed until this afternoon and went for lunch instead.

We had a little scare having just heard that the Riverside had just been sold. Would they still be open? Yes! Phew! We walked in and were in for a bit of a shock. What had once been a cute country resturaunt chock-a-block full of antiques and knick knacks was now stripped down to the bare bones. We could actually see the walls and ceiling! {All, or most, will be sold at auction on March 6th at the Brookline Auction House aka. the Tin Can}

As fortune would have it, the food was just the same and we were treated to the yearly sparkler and photo. Here’s to 2005!

We Welcome Walton

Bless me father…

1 Reply

…for I have not blogged. It has been five days since my last blog entry.

The following incidents have kept me away from the house of blog:

On Friday, it was the Valentine’s Day party at work. Lots of food, a bagful of kiddie Valentine cards, the usual.

On Saturday, Valentine’s Day, Becky and I had a nice lazy day at home. We watched TV and hung out and in the afternoon we went to the ***CambridgeSide Galleria|http://www.cambridgesidegalleria.com/*** for dinner at ***The Cheesecake Factory|http://www.thecheesecakefactory.com/***. It was delicious. I had a spicy chicken sandwich and a slice of chocolate peanut butter cookie dough cheesecake. Becky had a tropical fish sandwich. Yum. ( Helpful Hint: If you go to the Galleria on a weekend, and eat at one of the three major restaurants, parking is only 99 cents for up to three hours. Even if you don’t eat, parking at the Galleria is still just $3 for up to 10 hours, and it’s just a short walk from the Science Park or Lechmere T stops, for easy access to the T system. )

On Sunday we were in South Boston for the twins’ birthday party. There were lots of presents and people, and two duck-shaped birthday cakes (which the twins did not get to eat, of course). ***Jenn|http://junefourteenth.blogspot.com/*** also arrived on Sunday and came to the party with us.

Monday was President’s Day, but of course I did not have a holiday, so I was back at ***work|http://www.christianbook.com/*** while Becky and Jenn hung out.

That brings us to today… I’m at work again and Becky and Jenn are babysitting in Southie.

On the techie front, I’ve been playing around with the ***Firefox|http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/*** browser, and I’ve come to like it better than any other browser (including Safari) on both my Mac and PC systems. Firefox is based on the Gecko rendering engine, which is also used in Mozilla, Netscape, Camino, and numerous other applications. It’s fast, renders accurately, and looks nearly the same on every platform on which it runs.

Yesterday I bought another ***CF card|http://www.sandisk.com/retail_compactflash.html*** for the ***A70|http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/a70-60/index.html***. I took some photos at the party on Sunday, and I had to delete a lot in order to get them to fit on my 128 meg card. With a 256 meg card and a 128 meg card, I now have three times the previous amount of space to store photos while on the go.

Speaking of the A70… as usual, something newer has just come out: the ***A75|http://www.powershot.com/powershot2/a75/index.html***. Same price as the A70, more features, better design, bigger LCD…. oh well. In any case, I highly recommend the PowerShot line if you’re looking for an excellent digital camera for any budget. Canon is reported to be releasing a huge amount of new equipment this year, and thus far they have released ***eleven new products|http://www.dpreview.com/articles/pma2004/Canon/*** at the Photo Marketing Association trade show in Las Vegas, including the A75. Learn more on the official statement – WebDesign499 specializing in website design, search engine optimization, e-commerce and advanced web development.

Finally, please notice a few changes to our site nav bar on the right. Some inactive pages have been removed, and Kathleen’s new blog has been added – we’re happy to have her back on the list. 🙂

Another Sunset

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Just as I was pulling in to the gym parking lot, I spotted the spectacular sunset stretching over the area of the ***Cummings Center|http://www.cummings.com/ccpage.html***. So I spent a few minutes ***taking some photos|http://gallery.prwdot.org/cummings_sunset*** before I went in.

It’s good to keep a camera handy.

Instant Message (Osama/Saddam) Virus Game!

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To anyone who has received a strange Instant Message from either of us in the past few days, asking you to click on a link to play a cool game or something along those lines:

If you are using Windows, and you clicked on the link, and installed and ran the game, then your computer is probably now infested with a virus-like adware. It doesn’t destroy any data on your computer, but what it does do is use your Instant Messaging application to send a link to the game out to everyone on your buddy list. This happens behind the scenes and without any warning to you – in fact, you won’t know it’s happening unless someone responds to the IM asking you what it is.

For more information on the viral game, and what to do about it, check out ***this entry on Bob Golding’s blog|http://bobgolding.blogspot.com/2004_02_08_bobgolding_archive.html#107656376248324548***.

If you are running Windows and didn’t click on the link, you’re probably ok.

If you are running something other than Windows, like Mac OS X, then you are definitely ok.