Category Archives: Life Near Boston

Holiday Weekend

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fff|ppp|Becky and Catherine|ppp|fff

I was tempted to name this album “Catherine’s First Trip to Boston”. It didn’t take me long to remember, however, that it was her second visit to the city. This time was just her first time outside!

Peter and I decided to take in some of the Holiday festivities in Boston on Saturday. The city holds Harborfest every Fourth of July weekend. There are all sorts of events ranging from concerts, tours, harbor cruises, and such going on. We didn’t really want to spend money, so we stuck to strolling City Hall Plaza (and watching the Military Band playing there) and people watching on the Common.

We also treated ourselves to some yummy ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. This particular ice cream shop is two buildings over from the Otis House and for the whole time I worked there had an “OPENING SOON” sign in the window. They finally opened the week I stopped commuting! So, two and a half years after seeing that it was opening we finally got our tastebuds on some ice cream… and it was worth the wait!

[more pics from the day here]

Sunday was a bit less exciting. The three of us did a little shopping at Babies R Us, Joann Fabrics, Bob’s Store, and Market Basket. Some was for fun and some was for necessity, but we had a pretty good time.

Peter doesn’t have today off, so he’s headed to work. Catherine and I are taking a little road trip to Worcester to visit my Grammy. We’re not sure what the actual holiday holds for us tomorrow. Maybe we’ll do something exciting. Maybe we’ll catch up on our sleep. Stay tuned!

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/).

Beautiful day for a bridge walk

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Yesterday we had some gorgeous weather here in our city by the sea. Becky and I took the opportunity to go out for a walk over to the Beverly-Salem Bridge with Catherine.

ppp|Becky and Catherine on the bridge|ppp

You can see all o’ the pics [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/bridge_walk/). Incidentally, you may notice that I have filed this album under ‘Events’ rather than ‘Baby’. I figure that most of the photos we take in the forseeable future are going to have something to do, at least tangentially, with Catherine, so I’m going to start placing them into the appropriate albums, either ‘Events’ or ‘Travels’, depending on the content and context.

Also, for those of you who have just started reading our blog since hearing the news of Catherine, you should know that we normally write posts about topics other than our baby. While Catherine’s birth has certainly been the main event of the past three weeks, and thus has had an overwhelming number of posts dedicated to it, don’t be surprised if you see a few posts here and there related to something other than Catherine. 😉 If, however, you are only interested in reading about Catherine, you can simply bookmark the ‘Baby’ blog archives. You can find this by looking at the left hand side of our site, clicking on ‘Blog Archives,’ and then clicking on ‘Baby’.

Boston the Photogenic

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As I [mentioned](http://prwdot.org/2006/05/06/sahm/), today was Becky’s last day of work. Hooray! I drove her in to the city, then took off on my own for a day of photographing Boston.

I ended up with [one hundred and forty-four keepers](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/) for the day. You can look at [all of them](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/) if you want to, but I’ll highlight some of my favorites below.

* [Closed-gate view of the State House](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080847.JPG.html)
* [Sleeping on a bench in the Common](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080852.JPG.html)
* [Lemonade cart worker in the break room](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080853.JPG.html)
* [Plethora of Port-a-Potties](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080866.JPG.html)
* [Sidewalk Sam](http://www.sidewalksam.com/about_swsstory.htm) [supervises the painting of a shark at an entrance to the Common](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080872.JPG.html)
* [A nap on the grass](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080881.JPG.html)
* [Many beautifully colored flora](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080901.JPG.html)
* [Can you take a photo of us?](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080903.JPG.html)
* [Hail to the flag](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080917.JPG.html)
* [The proposed location for the Back Bay Apple Store](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080922.JPG.html), currently facing [objections](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2006/03/09/apple-outlines-boston-store-plans-to-commissioners/) from the Back Bay Architectural Association. Right across from the Prudential Center, it would be an excellent location.
* If that one doesn’t pan out, [there are rumors](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2006/04/30/iconic-space-available-in-boston/) that Apple could take over the space being vacated by the Virgin Megastore, which I [also photographed today](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080941.JPG.html).
* I walked across the Mass Ave bridge, against the flow of [walkers from the Walk For Hunger](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080946.JPG.html).
* The skyscrapers of the Back Bay were looking [particularly photogenic](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080952.JPG.html) from across the Charles River.
* I love [this photo of a sailboat and the John Hancock building](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080960.JPG.html).
* More [sailbots up on the dock](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080966.JPG.html).
* [A pair of differing dories](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080973.JPG.html).
* [Memorial Drive sweeps around the bend, with the Back Bay in the distance](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080982.JPG.html).
* The new Charles/MGH T stop is starting to [take shape](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080992.JPG.html).
* [Samuel Adams](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090008.JPG.html) – patriot, statesman, governor… [brewer](http://www.samueladams.com/)?. Do you prefer him with the [brick red background](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090009.JPG.html), or the [sky blue background](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090011.JPG.html)?

And the day wouldn’t be complete without a shot of [Becky at the reception desk at her last day of work](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080999.JPG.html).

I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

Sunny Inside Saturday

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It’s a sunny, warm Saturday, so we’re spending it outside, right? Not today.

Today, we spent some time organizing and decluttering in the apartment. Since our ‘office’ has been converted to a nursery, there is a lot of stuff that has made its way out into our living room, and some other stuff that still needs to be taken out of the nursery. There is also a lot of extra junk in our apartment in general, and we’ve been in the process of getting rid of it for the past few months. Today we got rid of some extra books by donating them to the library. I cleaned out the drawers in my computer desk. I also fixed the drawer underneath our crib so that it slides in and out nicely, and Becky put away some more baby gear in said drawer.

One glaring issue with the furniture that we moved into our living room was that the “Manager’s Chair” I used for my computer desk was much too bulky for the tight walkway the computer desk is now located in. So today we went to [IKEA](http://www.ikea.com/) and bought a [STEFANO](http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15600&catalogId=10103&storeId=12&productId=48222&langId=-1&parentCats=15600*15877*15879) swivel chair. It’s much less cushy than the big leather manager’s chair, but it is still quite comfortable, and most importantly it can easily slide under the desk to allow easy access past the desk:

ppp|With the big chair

With the big chair

|ppp

ppp|With the little chair

With the little chair

|ppp

Much nicer, eh? It was even worse when I was actually sitting in the big chair… Becky could barely get past! By the way, here’s what my computer desk layout looks like now:

ppp|Computer Desk Layout|ppp

It’s a bit crowded, but still very usable, and, most importantly, ergonomically correct.

The Carbon Monoxide Elves

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Becky and I arrived home today to find that the Carbon Monoxide Elves had visited us while we were away:

ppp|CO Detector

CO Detector

|ppp

As part of a [new Massachusetts law](http://www.mass.gov/dfs/osfm/pubed/firesafetytopics/carbon_monoxide_safety.html):

For buildings with fossil-fuel burning equipment or enclosed parking areas, the new regulations require carbon monoxide detectors on every level of the home and within ten feet of each sleeping area and in habitable portions of basements and attics.

At least we didn’t have to pay for it!

Hometown 6 Edition 3

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fff|ppp|First Baptist Churc

First Baptist Church

|ppp|fff

Thanks to the fantastic weather yesterday (65 degrees and sunny) we had a perfect opportunity to get out and take some pictures for Michelle’s [March Hometown Six](http://mikao.blogspot.com/2006/03/march-hometown-six-challenge.html).

This month’s challenge theme was “places of worship” and it just so happens that we have exactly 6 churches in walking distance from our house. What luck!

The six chosen photos are found [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/hometown_six/march/).

All the rest of the pics from our walk are [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/springlike_sunday/).

February Hometown Six

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fff|ppp|City Hall

Beverly City Hall

|ppp|fff

We’ve *mostly* completed Michelle’s [February Hometown Six](http://mikao.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_mikao_archive.html#113926251616343914), so [here are the photos](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/hometown_six/february/)! We do still need to get a photo of the ‘shopping complex’, but since we don’t really have one within a short walk of our apartment, and I don’t regularly drive past one (in our hometown), we’ll have to make a special trip to catch it. 🙂 So in the meantime, we’ve ‘cheated’ and posted a Google satellite photo of one of our shopping centers.

You can see all of our photos [here](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/hometown_six/february/). Click on the thumbnails to view the full-size photos with some extra informative notes!

Finally, some snow

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fff|ppp|Out the front window

Out the front window

|ppp|fff

So we’re having a bit of a snow storm today. It’s not going to compare with any of the really huge storms we’ve had in the past few years, but it’s certainly more than we’ve had this season so far. We might take a step outside later today, but for now, we just have a few shots from inside the apartment. 🙂

Update @ 6:38 p.m.
We did venture out a bit this afternoon for a walk down Cabot Street. We took some photos for [Michelle](http://mikao.blogspot.com/)’s [Hometown Six](http://mikao.blogspot.com/2006_02_01_mikao_archive.html#113926251616343914) project, and we also shot some video using our [new camcorder](http://prwdot.org/2006/02/12/video-killed-the-photography-star/). The streets were pretty quiet, though we did greet a few adventurous walkers and snowplow drivers. Dunkin Donuts was open, and quite busy. Bell Market and Family Dollar were open as well.

I added a photo of Cabot Street to today’s [photo album](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/snowstorm_february_12/), but the video will have to wait – we had to order a FireWire cable so that we could transfer digital video from the camcorder to our Mac. It should be arriving in the next day or so, and we’ll upload the video as soon as we have a chance. We did play back the video on our television, and although I can’t say much for my videography skills, the audio and video produced by the camcorder were quite good.