Category Archives: Friends

Gordon College Homecoming 2006

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fff|ppp|A.J. Gordon Memorial Chapel

A.J. Gordon Memorial Chapel

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This past weekend was Homecoming at [Gordon College](http://www.gordon.edu/). Not only that, but it was our class’s 5th year reunion. So we were awash in a sea of events and people!

On Friday night, we met some other Gordon CompSci majors and professors for dinner at [Acapulcos](http://www.acapulcos.net/). It was nice to have a chance to sit down and catch up with some folks I hadn’t seen in a while. I took a few photos there, which you can see in the [photo gallery](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/october_compsci/).

Several of our friends made special trips up for Homecoming: [Joanna](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/gordon_college_homecoming/P1130023.JPG.html) and Shawn came up from Florida, and [Leah](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/gordon_college_homecoming/P1130052.JPG.html) , [Bob and Baby Lucas](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/gordon_college_homecoming/P1130053.JPG.html) came up from New Jersey. [Jenn](http://www.misspresident.net/) and Matt came up from New Jersey, too, and stayed at our place for the weekend! (They also “rang” [the bell](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/gordon_college_homecoming/P1130050.JPG.html)… ) We made room for them in our apartment… we had to move Catherine back into our room temporarily, but everything went smoothly. 🙂

On Saturday, we headed over to Gordon for various homecoming activities: a reunion luncheon, class photo, and meetups with our respective department faculty. We got to reunite with quite a few people who we hadn’t seen much, if at all, in the past few years. After all of the activity, Becky and I hosted an open house at our apartment. It gave us some more time to visit with the folks we had seen briefly at homecoming. We had a very nice spread of food, a number of babies to admire, and plenty of [DDR](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution) for anyone who wanted it. Good times were had by all! All of the photos from the day can be found [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/gordon_college_homecoming/).

Most of the festivities had died down by Sunday, but we did have breakfast with Jenn and Matt, and lunch with Bob and Leah.

It was great to see everyone over the weekend, and we wish that we had more opportunities to see all of our old friends from Gordon! Hopefully we’ll get to see you all again soon!

Tooting her horn

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Do you know my friend Bethany? She’s a pretty cool gal. So cool, in fact, that she wrote the front page story of the Eagle Tribune today. It’s the one about the local Grocery store closing. She normally writes for a smaller subsidiary of the Tribune (Town Crossings), but had an opportunity to step up. Hooray for her! Go read her story!

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Beth, Becky and Catherine

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I have known Beth for nine years now! (wow!) She was a guest of mine in Shepherd 314 during my freshman year at Gordon. She and her sister Abby were up from Texas to visit Gordon as prospective students. Little did we know that 2 nights of watching Ilia Kulik would lead to years of friendship!

Here’s a funny story: When Beth came with us to visit Catherine at the hospital (see picture) she and Peter were sitting with the baby while I had stepped out of the nursery for a minute. While I was gone a doctor (whom I had only met once) stopped in to give us an update. He was talking to Peter and Beth and it wasn’t until he asked Beth how she was feeling that they realized that the doctor thought that Beth was me! I ran into him on my way back in and he said “oh, there you are!” I had no idea what he meant. Peter and Beth filled me in.

I can’t blame him, though. Check out the picture for yourself. We do look pretty similar!

Nice job on the article, Bethany! Keep up the good work!

A Busy Weekend

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It’s Sunday night, and Becky and I are finally settling in to watch the season premiere of [The Amazing Race](http://www.cbs.com/primetime/amazing_race10/). Hooray! But here’s a summary of the rest of the weekend:

Friday

Friday night, I sent Becky and Catherine out of the house for the evening. They went to have dinner with Nonni, and I spent the evening cleaning the apartment. Floors, carpets, bathroom, kitchen, the whole works. It needed to be done.

Saturday

[Beverly Hospital](http://www.beverlyhospital.org/) hosted a birthday party for babies who spent time in its Special Care nursery. There were some activities for the older kids, as well as photos of all of the babies born in the past year or so. We saw a few of the nurses and doctors who worked with us while Catherine was in the nursery, and we recognized a couple from our childbirth class, as well as another couple who had twins in the nursery while we were there.

We also ran into Dan Cederholm, author of [Web Standards Solutions](http://www.simplebits.com/solutions/) and [Bulletproof Web Design](http://www.simplebits.com/publications/bulletproof/), and proprietor of [SimpleBits](http://www.simplebits.com/), at the party. I wasn’t expecting to see him there, but as we were walking around, I spotted a guy with a computer-ish shirt, then saw his name tag… aha! I don’t think I would have recognized him without the name tag. His baby, [Jack](http://www.simplebits.com/notebook/2005/12/20/jack.html), spent some time at the Beverly special care nursery. We struck up a conversation with Dan and his wife Kerry. They’re quite nice folks, and Jack is as [cute as can be](http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplebitsdan/sets/1621982/). Check out his [great hair](http://www.flickr.com/photos/simplebitsdan/243819470/in/set-1621982/)! We ended up meeting them for lunch at [Panera](http://www.panera.com/), since we were all under the (mistaken) impression that lunch would be served at the birthday party. 🙂 We had a nice time chatting about life as new parents.

[Here’s a few photos of Catherine from the party.](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/special_care_birthday_party/)

After lunch, we headed home to get ready for [Art](http://kizoku.blogspot.com/) and [Leanne](http://leannennael.blogspot.com/)’s wedding. Our friend Beth was all too delighted to come and watch Catherine while we were at the wedding, so after we gave her the low-down on Catherine’s relatively simple needs, we headed down to Braintree for the wedding, and then to Boston for the reception. It was a very classy affair. We had a good time sitting at the “[CBD](http://www.christianbook.com/) Table” at the reception… 🙂

You can see the wedding photos [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/art_leanne_wedding/).

Sunday

After church, we drove out to Worcester to have Sunday dinner at Grammy’s. Catherine got to meet a few new Quitadamo relatives, we had some delicious meatballs and pasta, and helped Grammy out with a few housekeeping tasks. Those of you with Family access can see some [photos from today](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/sunday_dinner/).

Phew! Thankfully, we don’t have anything planned for next weekend. If we’re lucky, we’ll get to relax a bit. 🙂

Wedding Pics

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For those of you who are interested, the pics we took at David Lee’s wedding this weekend are [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/david_and_christine/). Sorry, since Catherine wasn’t invited there are very few photos of her! My cousin John and his family were kind enough to look after her while we were enjoying the event. 🙂

Interview

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Our Canadian friend and fellow blogger, Michelle, has taken on the third edition of her wildly popular “Random Interview Project.”

My interview was posted today, here.

To read interviews with some of her other readers, make sure to check out her blog Mikao’s World daily.

A Workend Post

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fff|ppp|Peter, Becky, and Catherine

The Woods

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I’m posting from the middle of a workend. 🙂

This past weekend, Becky, Catherine and I went to Martha’s Vineyard with [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) and her parents. We enjoyed seafood and [sunset](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110146.JPG.html) in [Menemsha](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110107.JPG.html), lots of relaxing around the cottage, some [beach time](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110106.JPG.html), some [napping](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110042.JPG.html), and [fun with Catherine](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/P1110131.JPG.html). As always, a restful and relaxing weekend. I came back on Sunday night while Becky and Catherine stayed down in Oak Bluffs. I was at work today and I’ll be going in tomorrow, and then Wednesday morning I’m headed back down to spend the rest of the week and next weekend on the Vineyard. This will be my first time experiencing [Grand Illumination](http://www.mvcma.org/grand.htm), and I’m very excited. 🙂

You can see all of the photos from this past weekend [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/travels/2006/vineyard_20060812/).

Dinner With The Rainvilles

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On Wednesday evening of last week, Becky, Catherine, and I drove up to York, Maine to have dinner with [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) and her parents. They were staying at a condo which they rent for a week every summer. The Rainvilles treated us to a delicious dinner at a local Chinese/Japanese restaurant, as well as lots of good conversation. I did take some [photos](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/dinner_with_the_rainvilles/), but alas, none of them prominently featured Jenny or her family. I really must get better at remembering to take photos of *everyone* when we go places.

Grandma and Grandpa Wood

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It’s been a busy week here in the Wood household!

My parents arrived here on Wednesday evening, so we have spent quite a bit of time with them, giving them plenty of opportunities to hold Catherine and get to know her. I’ve put up an album with [photos of Grandma and Grandpa Wood](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/grandma_grandpa_wood/), as well as an album with photos of a trip we took yesterday to [look at furniture](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/furniture_trip/) – rocking chairs in particular. They’re here through Sunday morning, and the three of us will miss having them around… but we will get to see them again in July for my cousin Johanna’s wedding.

On Tuesday, [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) came down to visit Catherine, and also brought dinner for us. We had pasta with a meat sauce recipe Jenny got from the Food Network… yum. 🙂 I also took a few [photos of her and Catherine](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/baby/jenny_visit/).

On Monday, we drove out to Townsend to see Becky’s parents, and meet up with her aunt and uncle Kevin and Susie and their boys Hugo and Elliott. The boys did some frog hunting out at the pond… I think they ended up catching (and releasing) in the neighborhood of 3-5 frogs. Nice work, guys! They also got to meet their new cousin (first cousin once removed, that is). We took some [photos of the day](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/frog_hunting/), but that album requires a family login to view. If you need a family login, just register for an account in [our gallery](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/), and I will add you to the family group.

Today, we’re meeting up with [Amy](http://waltondammerung.prwdot.org/) and [Will](http://pulchersentio.prwdot.org/)’s parents for lunch. They had plans to be out in the northeast for a trip, and asked if they could stop by to visit Catherine. Of course! In the meantime, my parents are making the rounds, visiting my dad’s siblings in the area. We’ll be meeting up with them later this afternoon for ice cream.

Tomorrow is my last day before going back to work – alas! It has been a wonderful two weeks off. Some people might not consider it a vacation, but I definitely enjoyed getting to spend every minute of it with my family and friends. It will be hard to leave my girls at home and go back to work, but I think it will be good for everyone to get back into a routine.

First Father’s Day

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I write this as two of the lovely women in my life are fast asleep. Becky is on the couch, Catherine is in her car carrier on the floor in our apartment, both enjoying the darkened room and air conditioning. We just got back from a trip to the [Old North Bridge](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_North_Bridge%2C_Concord%2C_Massachusetts) for a father’s day picnic with Ken, Dianne, and Corey. We ate in the picnic area at the North Bridge parking lot and then went for a walk across the bridge. The weather was very nice, although it was a bit hotter than I would have liked. After our walk, we got back in our cars and headed over to the [Kimball Farm](http://www.kimballfarm.com/) in Westford for some ice cream. Yum. Now we’re at home getting in some R&R. You can see our father’s day pics [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/fathers_day/).

Yesterday, [Jenn](http://www.misspresident.net/) and Matt came up to visit. We went to the [Atomic Cafe](http://www.atomicafe.com/) for lunch, and then drove up to [Gordon](http://www.gordon.edu/) to show Matt around (it was his first visit to the North Shore). It just happened to be the day that they were having the groundbreaking, *finally*, for the new science center. At my commencement in 2001, all of the science majors presented President Judd with bricks symbolizing our desire for a new science building to be built. Since I started at Gordon in 1997, I’ve seen three new dorms, a new cafeteria addition, a new music building, new arts building, new parking lot… Finally, almost 10 years after I started at Gordon, they’re getting started on a new science building. Sheesh. Anyway, after we finished our tour of Gordon, we went to [Lynch Park](http://www.bevrec.com/lynchpark.html) and had some ice cream at Dick and June’s, and then Jenn and Matt were on their way. You can see our pics from the day [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/jenn_matt_visit/).

Date with Da Vinci

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Becky and I met [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) today to see [The Da Vinci Code](http://www.sodarktheconofman.com/).

ppp|Becky and Jenny

Becky and Jenny

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We had lunch at [Panera](http://www.panera.com/) and then went over to Loews AMC to see the movie. All three of us had already read the book, and enjoyed it. For me, the movie was a bit of a yawner. The action was pretty sparse, the suspense was muted, and there were a lot of eye-rolling scenes. It was a decent bit of Saturday afternoon entertainment (we saw it matinee, so we saved a few bucks), but definitely not as good as the book. I’m not sure what I would have thought of it had I not read the book… it might have been a bit more interesting and surprising.

In any case, we had fun hanging out with Jenny. 🙂 It is kind of bizarre to me that tomorrow is Becky’s due date, and we’re just having a fairly normal weekend. Other than a bit of tiredness, Becky is feeling just fine and there are no overt signs that the baby will be coming within the next few days. So we might as well enjoy ourselves, huh? 🙂

Here are a [few more photos](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/da_vinci_code/) from the afternoon.