Category Archives: Friends

SAHM

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Tomorrow is Becky’s last official day of work at the [Otis House](http://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/homes/otis.htm), which also makes it her last day of work outside of the home, at least for the forseeable future. Our plan is for Becky to stay home and be the mom she wants to be, and for me to continue working at [CBD](http://www.christianbook.com/) and be the best dad I can be. We’re both very excited about this, because it’s something we’ve been planning for a while, and it’s what Becky has wanted to do for the longest time. We both know there will be challenges, but I know that we will overcome them, with the help of God, each other, our family and friends. Thanks to everyone out there who has been in touch with us in the past few months. We are looking forward to sharing our joy with you!

Daddy Shower

On Saturday, [Jeremy](http://thebiggspicture.org/) came down to Beverly to throw me what I’ll call a “Daddy Shower”. It was just me and Jeremy, but we had a good time. We went out for breakfast at Michelle’s Place, a restaurant a few blocks away from our apartment. I’d never been there before, but it’s a place that I’ve heard about from [Art](http://kizoku.blogspot.com/) and [James](http://drjames.blogspot.com/), who live fairly close to the restaurant. The breakfast was pretty good… not as good as [Parker’s Maple Barn](http://www.parkersmaplebarn.com/) or the [Red Cottage](http://www.redcottagerestaurant.com/), but still very good. (Incidentally, James happened to be there when we arrived. :-))

In addition to breakfast, Jeremy gave me a gift bag with some stuff for the baby from him and Angela, but geared towards Daddy, in the spirit of the [Geeky Onesies](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/craftiness/geeky_onesies/). There was a bib hand-stitched by Angela with “Live Long and Feed Me” in the classic Star Trek font, a bunch of diapers custom labeled with funny sayings, a book of fun games to play with the baby, and a “Baby Geek” picture frame. Fun stuff. 🙂

Biggsaversary

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fff|ppp|Jeremy and Angela

Jeremy and Angela

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Happy second anniversary to [Jeremy and Angela](http://www.thebiggspicture.org/)! We are very proud to have been there for the beginning, and we’re glad that we’ve been able to stay in touch and get together with them every now and then. I’m also glad that Jeremy is getting back into posting: he even wrote up a glowing [anniversary post](http://thebiggspicture.org/2006/03/06/milestones-and-miracles/)!

Cheers!

Pseudo St. Pat’s

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Last night, [Jenny](http://raingirl3179.livejournal.com/) hosted a ‘Pseudo St. Patrick’s Day Party’ at her apartment. It was the first time we had been up there since she got some real furniture, and I must say it was quite a cozy place! [Jeremy and Angela](http://www.thebiggspicture.org/) and [Chris, Naomi and Carl](http://members.verizon.net/mocasonline/) were also there. We had plenty of good food, including Irish soda bread and some type of cheesy vegetable soup brought in by Mrs. Rainville. We also watched [Darby O’Gill and the Little People](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0052722/), a funny little Walt Disney film from 1959 featuring none other than Sean Connery!

I had decided to just bring the camcorder, so I shot a bit of video and took a few photos. You can find the photos [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/pseudo_st_pats/). Alas, the camcorder’s built-in camera is just not that great at taking photos indoors in low light. Next time I’ll bring the real camera!

Birthday. Birthday.

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Today is a day of Birthdays. Well, two birthdays. I was going to post them in ‘date’ order, but then I realized that both ladies were not only born on the same day…but the same year! So I’ll post in the order in which we met.

ppp|Melanie and Rebecca in Chicago|ppp

Happy Birthday to Melanie! We hope your first birthday BACK in Mentor is just as memorable as your FIRST birthday in Mentor. Did that make sense? 🙂

ppp|Jenny's Glamour Shot|ppp

and Happy Birthday to Jenny… Living it up and celebrating during school vacation week!

She speaks!

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Yeah, yeah. It’s been a while. I know!  Here’s a post that catches you up on what I’ve had on my mind lately.

My very, very dear friend Jennifer is engaged!  WooHoo! Mosey on over to her site and wish her well!

Don’t you think the Olympics are awesome?  I’ve been watching as much as my little eyes can handle. Personal favorites at the moment include Curling and the new Snowboard-cross event. I wish that NBC would do more coverage of some of the ‘lesser known’ American athletes as well as features on athletes from other countries. For me the Olympics are as much a learning experience as they are sporting events.

BabyWood is doing quite well. I had a check-up this past Monday and the doctor is happy with our progress.  Monday was also the day of the famous ‘Glucose Tolerance Test’; wherin you drink an orange soda-y drink and then they test your blood.  We passed with flying colors, which means that I’m not in danger of gestational diabetes. phew!  This morning I was treated to a large and painful needle administering the first of two rhogam shots. Thank you very much RH- blood!  I know it is for a good cause, though, so it is easier to bear.

I’ve been doing some good reading lately.  I don’t think I’ll do big reviews for you, but let me know what you thought (if you’ve read them)!  Empire Falls by Richard Russo, The World According to Garp by John Irving and Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss.  As always, feel free to pass on any recommendations. I’m always on the lookout for something good to read!

Passion Lives Here

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fff|ppp|Italian Flag Pizza

Italian Flag Pizza

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Yes, the Wood household is passionate about the Olympics. We have thrown several parties for the Opening Ceremonies of various games, most recently for the [Athens 2004](http://prwdot.org/2004/08/14/a-holiday/) summer games. On Friday night, we threw a party for the Opening Ceremonies of the [Torino 2006](http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/home/index.html) winter games. (Warning: that site has up-to-the-minute scores, so if you’re waiting to watch a taped broadcast, don’t look!)
Continue reading →

Computer Science!

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Last night, Becky and I got together with some other [Gordon](http://www.gordon.edu/) computer science folks for dinner at [Acapulcos](http://www.acapulcos.net/). I had planned this little shindig with my friend and fellow computer science grad Lesley Anderson. Since she is in the area for a week, we thought it would be fun to get together with some folks in the area who we hadn’t seen for a while.

I had reserved Acapulcos’ private room, so we were able to eat and chat for three solid hours. In attendance were Lesley, Becky and I, Chuck and Hannah Bartholomew, Lucas and Christi Berger, Derek and Becky Day, and Professor Levy and his wife Kathy. We had a great time catching up with each other on life since Gordon, as well as chatting about topics from computers to stalking Sheryl Crow.

After the get-together, a few of us headed over to Sarah Joy (Ameden) Salagala’s home to throw a surprise birthday party for Lesley. Lesley received a call just as she was leaving the restaurant, asking her to run “an errand”, which allowed the rest of us to get over to the party before she arrived. It was pretty funny to see her reaction, after having just come from having dinner with us, to seeing us again at her surprise party.

Altogether, those two events made for one of the latest nights Becky and I had experienced in quite some time. But the friends we got to see and the fun we had was well worth the late hour.

We also have some photos from the [CompSci Get-Together](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/compsci_get_together/) and the [Surprise Party](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/lesleys_surprise_party/). Enjoy!

The Even Biggser Picture

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On Saturday morning, I drove up to [Claremont, NH](http://www.claremontnh.com/) to visit [Jeremy and Angela](http://thebiggspicture.org/). Part of the reason for the trip was to watch the first few episodes of this season of [The Shield](http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/the_shield/) with Jeremy. We have carried on our tradition of watching the show since the first season… and it’s hard to believe that it is now in its fifth season! It’s certainly not a show for everybody… its “TV MA LSV” rating is certainly well-deserved. But the continuing intrigue of the plot and the development of the characters keeps us watching.

The other reason for my visit was to help them out with some of their website woes. They’d been having a lot of trouble with [Blogger](http://www.blogger.com/), so I moved their blog over to [WordPress](http://wordpress.org/). I’ve been working on prepping for the transition for the past week or so, and it’s been quite an enjoyable experience. I created a WordPress theme for the Biggses that replicates the overall look and feel of their old website, with a few XHTML and CSS improvements here and there, and some extra additions that come with the WordPress package.

WordPress is a really wonderful blogging system, and this is the first time I’ve really spent a considerable amount of time digging in to it and learning about how it works. I even rewrote one of my Movable Type plugins as a WordPress plugin, just as an exercise. It was actually pretty easy. Will you see World Wide Wood switch over to WordPress soon? I can’t say for sure, but I wouldn’t rule it out.

Anyway, I got them switched over to WordPress, and I also installed a Windows plugin that should make it very easy for them to upload photos to their gallery. I didn’t quite get through all of the items I wanted to cover, but I think I took care of the most important stuff. Overall, they seem to be very happy with the results. You can read Jeremy’s take on it in [his latest post](http://thebiggspicture.org/2006/01/21/new-holiday-peters-the-man-day/).

Here’s to the return of frequent posting on The Biggs Picture!

**Update**
Corrected the link to Jeremy’s post.

Gordon Reunions

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Becky and I have had reunions with various folks from Gordon in the past several days.

Early on Saturday, we had a virtual reunion of sorts with fellow Gordon College alum James Berry, via a comment on Becky’s [post about Pete Holmes](http://prwdot.org/archives/2005/10/calling_all_sweaty_toothed_mad.html). James is living out in Idaho and working on his master’s degree.

Saturday was also Homecoming at [Gordon College](http://www.gordon.edu/). Even though the weather was lousy, that didn’t stop a lot of people from coming out in support of their alma mater. Throughout the day, we had reunions with various Gordon folk: [Jeremy and Angela](http://www.thebiggspicture.org/), Dr. Askew, [Heather Cole](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050098), Stephanie Trombley, Dr. and Mrs. Wick, Erin Simmons, Jeff Barraclough, Owen Webb, Brian Hall, Dr. Senning, Prof. Bjork, Prof. Levy, Culley Parris, Emily (Winchell) Card, and Doug and Shannen Rhoda. It was great to get to see all of these folks and catch up with them. It was also fun to walk around Gordon, eat at the cafeteria, and visit our old dorms and classrooms. Lots of good memories.

Saturday afternoon, we got together with Jeremy and Angela, as well as Bob and Leah, who had travelled up from New Jersey with their new baby [Lucas](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050113). We all went out to dinner at [Uno’s](http://www.unos.com/), and then came back to our place for dessert – a strawberry cake that we have [previously enjoyed](http://prwdot.org/archives/2004/05/strawberry_heav.html). We had a great time that evening, talking about the good old days and the good new days. Bob, Jeremy and I welcomed Lucas into [our club](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050111). We also tried to teach him a [traditional Vulcan greeting](http://gallery.prwdot.org/homecoming_weekend_2005/P1050107), with little immediate success (though he does have a promising future).

Finally, on Sunday we saw Gordon Alum Matt Fitzpatrick at [church](http://www.danestchurch.org/). He just got a job at [Electric Insurance](http://www.electricinsurance.com/), and is living in downtown Beverly with Rob Dokes, another Gordon alum. Matt and Rob were both friends of mine while I was at Gordon, and it’s been over three years since I’ve talked to or seen either one of them. It was good to reconnect.

Finally: For any Gordon folks who are reading this, make sure you head over to our [Gordonexus](http://prwdot.org/gordonexus.html). There you will find a listing of websites belonging to Gordon students, former students, and alumni. Check out the websites and see how many people you can connect with! If you have a site you would like to add to the list, just drop me a line.