Category Archives: Friends

Becca’s Wedding

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Several months ago, my college friend Becca asked me if I’d play cello for her wedding. I gladly agreed, even though the last time I had played for a crowd was at [Jeremy and Angela](http://www.thebiggspicture.org/)’s wedding several years earlier. It gave me the opportunity to dig out the cello, bring my skills back up to snuff, and reacquaint myself with the joys of playing music.


Tools of the trade

Last weekend we traveled up to [Bennington, Vermont](http://www.bennington.com/) to attend her wedding. We left early on Friday, drove up through central Mass and southern Vermont, and arrived to check in at the [Knotty Pine Motel](http://www.knottypinemotel.com/). The Knotty Pine was small and comfortable, and even had a nice play area for Catherine to take advantage of. Friday evening was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, where we got a lesson in [English Country Dance](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_country_dance) (to be featured at the wedding reception). We made some new friends at dinner, and had a chance to catch up with our friend Amanda who was one of the bridesmaids.

Catherine and Tom
Catherine and her new friend Tom

On Saturday, we did some exploring of the Bennington area, including the [Bennington Battle Monument](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennington_Battle_Monument). Did you know that the Bennington Battle Monument is the tallest structure in Vermont, and the tallest War Memorial in the world?


Bennington Battle Monument

Becca’s wedding was in the afternoon. The prelude and processionals, which I played with Becca’s friend Lindsey on piano, went extremely well. The ceremony itself was beautiful – Becca sang a solo for Eric during the ceremony, and they recessed to “Sweet Caroline”, a tribute to their Red Sox fanaticism.

Becca and Eric

Becca and Eric Fiveland

At the reception, we did more English Country Dancing, talked with our friends Kate and Dave, and enjoyed some great food. We danced the night away and headed back to the Knotty Pine for some rest.

We had a great weekend up in Vermont. It’s a truly lovely place with some very friendly people. We wish Becca and Eric well in their new life together in upstate New York!

You can see all of the photos from our weekend [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2007/vermont_weekend/).

Wedding Mania!

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In the span of 15 days, Rebecca, Catherine and I will be attending four weddings!

This weekend, I’m heading down to Pennsylvania for my cousin Katybeth’s wedding, which is on Saturday. I’ll actually be doing some of the photography at her wedding, which should be fun as well as a learning experience. Meanwhile, Rebecca and Catherine, along with Dianne, are on a road trip out to Springfield, Ohio for her friend Heather’s wedding, which happens to be on the same day and at the same time as Katybeth’s wedding! We’ll all be reunited on Monday when the ladies get back from their road trip.

Then, the next weekend, we’ll be trekking up to Bennington, Vermont for my friend Becca’s wedding. I’ll be helping out at her wedding, too, except there I’ll be lending my musical talents as I play the cello part in some cello-piano duets for the prelude and processionals. The last time I played for a crowd was at [Jeremy and Angela](http://thebiggspicture.org/)’s wedding, so I’ve been practicing up a storm to get ready.

Finally, the weekend after that, we’ll be at Rebecca’s cousin Matthew’s wedding. No duties that I’m aware of for this wedding, just to be there and enjoy! Of course, I’m sure I’ll take a photo or two. 🙂

Anyone else got a wedding we should know about? 🙂 We’ll do our best to get photos and reports up on the blog for all of the wedding madness!

That I might catch you up

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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.

Lanterns on Lake Hibiscus

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.

Jess as the Donkified Nick Bottom

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!

Independence Day!

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We had a very nice, very low key Independence Day. Peter, Catherine and I were joined by Bethany in celebrating with a picnic at the park. We ate lunch, played at the playground, had some ice cream, tossed a frisbee, bounced a ball and waded in the water.

There were no concerts, no parades, no fireworks (well, just the illegal ones that the neighbors keep setting off!) and no crowds. It was just the kind of day we were hoping for. I hope you had the kind of day you were hoping for!

Here are the rest of the pictures from today!

the State House, Poison Ivy and a Play Date

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Per usual, it has been busy here in the Wood Household. Daily life plus anything extra leaves little time and energy for blogging. Many apologies.

Catherine and I spent most of Wednesday morning at the Massachusetts State House. I’m honestly not sure I had ever been in before. What an experience. We met up with 10-12 other moms and did our part to help protect the rights of Breastfeeding Moms here in the Bay State.

I’d never lobbied for anything before and was surprised by how low key the whole process was. I called and made appointments with my legislators last week. It was easier than making a doctor’s appointment! Yesterday we met up with the whole group for some orientation and then were sent out on our own to speak with the senators and reps. Everyone at the State House was hustling and bustling around but we were able to speak to a few people and get the word out.

I’m glad to have had the chance to speak up for women’s rights as they pertain to nursing in public. I wish with my whole heart, however, that this wasn’t even an issue. There are so many other bigger, badder fish to fry-it is a shame we’re spending our time on this.

Bandaged!

In other news, I have contracted my yearly round of poison ivy. I swear, all I have to do is think the words “poison ivy” and I break out into a rash. This year seems particularly bad. I’ll save you the gory details but I am having trouble bending my left elbow.

Girls

Last, but not least, Catherine and I took advantage of the beautiful weather we’ve been having and took a jaunt up to Gloucester. We met up with some friends-Roselle and Maggie- and walked the boulevard. After some playtime on the slides and swings we picnicked on the beach at Stage Fort Park before heading home.

Catherine and Maggie were cute together; curious as to each other’s existence, but not too interested in playing with each other 🙂

Fluff Momma

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fff|ppp|Catherine and Jennifer|ppp|fff

Who knew that a visit to Building 19 would be so wild and woolly? Last week Jennifer came to visit and between trips to the beach and Johnny Rocket’s we came across these “Fluff Momma” Ugg boots. I have a hard time believing that people actually wear these…never mind shelling out the $300 for them!

We had a lovely time with Jenn. I only wish the visit could have been longer. Check out her site for a much better tale of her trip!

Pictures (mostly of Catherine, big surprise!) are here

Real Life-Virtual Friendships?

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Does having a blog strengthen or weaken one’s friendships?

I was talking to a friend of mine (Jill from theholtsite.com) recently. Although we hadn’t spoken in a while Jill commented that she felt like she knew what I’d been up to. This blog had done a pretty good job of keeping her up to date. She also said that another friend of hers had likewise made a similar comment about her blog while they visited at a wedding.

“Did you hear that Dan got married?” Jill asked. “Yes,” I quickly responded, “I read about it on your blog.”

After laughing about these comments our conversation suddenly became quiet. We were already caught up on each other’s lives! What more could we talk about?

This got me thinking about the purpose of blogging. I often tell people that we blog in order to keep our far flung family and friends up to date on our comings and goings. For those that we don’t talk to frequently it works well. When we do get to talk with them we can skip past the daily stuff and go onto more personal matters.

But, what about people we see frequently? I’ve brought up topics with family members who look at me and say, “yeah. I read that on your blog…” and I’m stopped in my tracks. Quickly, I try to find a new topic of conversation. It isn’t so much that it is difficult to find a new topic, just that I’m still surprised when others already know the story I’ve thought to share with them.

Have you found this happening in your relationships? Are you able to balance your online relationship with your real life relationship with your friends and family?

Mr. Biggs

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Happy Birthday to [Mr. Biggs](http://thebiggspicture.org/):

ppp|Jeremy|ppp

Good luck with [the mystery](http://thebiggspicture.org/2006/12/07/the-mystery-will-be-revealed/)! I hope that all works out for you.

A weekend with friends

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Becky, Catherine and I drove out to Lee, Massachusetts this weekend to spend some time with friends. Bob and Leah came up from New Jersey with their son Lucas, and [Jeremy](http://thebiggspicture.org/) came down from New Hampshire. We picked the location because it happened to be roughly equidistant from all three of our homes…. about two and a half hours for each of us.

We stayed at the [Black Swan Inn](http://book.bestwestern.com/bestwestern/productInfo.do?propertyCode=22036#null), did some shopping at the [Prime Outlets](http://www.primeoutlets.com/cntrdefault.asp?cntrid=1031) in Lee, visited the [Norman Rockwell Museum](http://www.nrm.org/) and walked the picturesque main street in Stockbridge, had some delicious pizza at Four Brothers Pizza Inn of Great Barrington, and just generally had a good time hanging out and catching up. The seven of us squeezed into Jeremy’s hotel room to watch [The Pink Panther](http://imdb.com/title/tt0383216/) on our laptop, which worked surprisingly well considering the 14 inch screen. 🙂

We had a great time getting to see our friends and take in a small slice of the Berkshires. If you’d like to see some photos of our weekend, head over [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/stockbridge/)!

Have a nice trip, see you next fall!

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Well, hopefully sooner if possible. 🙂

It has become sort of a tradition (since last year, anyway) for us to take a trip out to the Midwest every fall. We do it in October because of a number of events: my birthday on the 6th, Dad’s birthday on the 15th, and our anniversary on the 26th. Also, the weather is not too hot, and tourist destinations are less crowded.

As you may have guessed from [Recent Diaper Changes](http://prwdot.org/2006/10/22/recent-diaper-changes/), we recently took this fall trip, from Friday, October 13 to Saturday, October 21. Here’s the low-down:

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