07.07.07
Posted by Kate on Tuesday, July 10, 2007A close-up of the flowers that we surprised Kim and Anne with for their wedding bouquets. Chris had the idea and funded the flowers, I cut and arranged them, Pat held them while my Mom wrapped the ribbon around them. A real group effort!
Chris and I trying to hide the flowers behind our skirts and attracting lots of attention.
Gram looking very stylish.
Dads walking the brides down the aisle.
The vows.
Showing off the rings.
Showing off the belly.
The happy parents.
The yummy cake. 
It was a great day. Both brides looked totally beautiful and everybody was so happy. Chris and Anne's dad made wonderful toasts. The weather was perfect and the food was decadent. We are a lucky family. Yay Massachusetts!
Labels: family, NewEngland
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Up North
Posted by Kate on Tuesday, July 10, 2007I had lots of fun up in New England last week. Here is a quick summary.
Tuesday after dinner I watched while Mom ground up quahogs for clam chowder. Doesn't get more lil rhody than that!
On the 4th we all went to Kim and Anne's to celebrate. Chris made the chowder and clam cakes.
Mom served the clamcakes. She likes to dress festively on the 4th... Of course in our family it is pretty much mandatory to wear some red, white, and blue.
Thursday and Friday we shopped, cleaned, ate at Jackie's Galaxy, and met Anne's brother and sister-in-law. Then 07.07.07 was the wedding. It couldn't have gone more perfectly. Great weather, great food, great people. I will add more photos from the day in another post. 
Here are Pat and his dad relaxing after the festivities.
Labels: family, NewEngland
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A Busy Week
Posted by Patrick on Saturday, May 12, 2007Yesterday was spent mostly napping, after landing safely early in the morning at Raleigh-Durham International. I just spent the last week in New England, wrapping up things at my old job. It was a really busy week, and I put many a mile on my rental car (which I'll review in a future post).
I arrived late on Sunday and spent much of the night detouring around Providence as they had closed a good chunk of Route 95 for repairs. I snuck into my parent's place and crashed. Monday morning it was off to (my now former) workplace. I was hoping for an easy going week of saying goodbye and wrapping up things. My supervisor instead kept me busy until just before 5pm on Friday.
After work on Monday I met up with the fam, including a special guest appearance from Kristen. It was good to see everyone again. I also had a quick visit with Bob to see progress on the under-renovation Firehouse Pizza.
Tuesday I worked all day, transferring my smarts to others who will need it in the future. I met up with my father and sister for a little workplace lunch action. One of the things I'll miss about that job is the sweet tasty food in the cafe in the building. After work I met up with Rudy and Matt to see their respective new places and for some food.
Wednesday involved working (yet again) and seeing my supervisor for the first time in months. She issued more work to me. No rest for the weary! :) After work I met up with Pete. and Tracy in Waltham for some new-apartment-seeing and food at the Bison Grill.
Thursday there was more work, and then I met up with college friends Bob, Scott, Pete, Eric, Shawn, Jeff, Giancarlo, and Berman, and Bob's girlfriend Jenny and Pete's girlfriend Tracy. We bbq'd for a while and then played some Wii. I am very bad at the Wii games, but they are fun none the less.
Friday was my last full day in the Southern New England area, and my last day of work. It was sad to say bye to people I've worked with, especially after seeing them every day for a week (after not seeing them for months) and sort of getting back into that vibe. I still worked most of the day, finally turning in my keycard and heading out.
That night I met up with my folks for some supper at Friendly's, and then I met up with Jay and Erin in Framingham at Daniela's Cantina. Good to see them! It was a short visit, since I had to leave at 3am the next morning.
It was a sleepy, uneventful flight home, and Kate was good enough to pick me up at the airport. I spent most of the day asleep, quite worn out from the prior week. Today I'm trying to get organized for tomorrow, my first day at my new gig. I'm mostly excited, and a little nervous. I'm happy to have had a good last week with my old job, seen lots of people, and quite happy to be back with Kate here at the new Rockland Ave.
Labels: family, Friends, NewEngland
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A Time of Change
Posted by Patrick on Wednesday, May 02, 2007Last Thursday I gave the old two weeks notice to my current employer. It was, after four and a half years, time for a change. It's also the last major step in our movin' south epic adventure (that step being get Pat a local job). While I have nothing but good things to say about my current job, I can only telecomute for so long. It's been seven months of working from home, and I've learned a lot, but it's time for me to work face-to-face with people again.
Which isn't to say that I wouldn't be open to telecomuting a few days a week in the future, because it sure is a sweet way to get a whole lot of work done without being interupted all the time... but I'm starting to feel a bit out of touch with my cubical compatriots. I also imagine it's not great for my career to never see anyone, although it has saved me close to a thousand bucks in gas since I shortened my commute to 3 yards.
On the 14th of this month I'll start a new job at a major technology company in the Triangle. As part of the Rockland-Ave.com Code of Secrecy* I won't say where, but you've heard of them. I promise.
The new job will, hopefully, be a good step for me. It'll be all web and graphic design all the time, which is what I've wanted to do since getting out of school (and have only been able to partially achieve). My first out-of-school job involved working with design elements (website localization) but nothing creative. My current gig only allows a small amount of my time to be involved in design work, and that has been recently replaced with a lot of teleconferences and business-requirement writing. The new job will be all Photoshop all the time.
I'm genuinely excited about this, despite the fact that it means shaving more then once a week and having to drive.
And... I'm squeezing one last Massachusetts plane ticket out of my current job (for a good old fashion brain dump), so I'll be up north the whole week of May 6th. If you around, let's get together!
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* Of course there is no formal code of secrecy, but Kate and I try to avoid mentioning the places we work or our last name on the internets. Privacy isn't dead yet.
Labels: Employement, Nerdery, NewEngland
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Pets In The Weather This Monday
Posted by Kate on Monday, February 26, 2007
It is super nice outside today. I took off my jacket because it was too warm for it. Zoe had fun exploring the yard until a neighbor came outside. When of course she ran for the back door. But she definitely is getting braver. Yesterday it rained and she totally didn't understand it. Just kind of acted like I might be responsible for it and would I please knock it off so she could go out and explore?
To see Hershey in RI weather today check my Mom's blog.
And if you take a pic of your pet in the weather today, put a link in the comments so we can check it out!
Labels: Cats, family, NewEngland, Outdoors, Weather
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I'm Back
Posted by Kate on Monday, January 08, 2007I had a nice trip home. On Thursday I got my hair cut and colored, which I desperately needed. For those of you that don't know, back in Sept. or Oct. I dyed my hair black for fun with permanent dye. This was a very foolish thing to do. I wanted a change, but permanent black dye is never ever a good idea for someone who does not have black hair in the first place (unless you are a teen into goth, in which case go for it. It will look nuts when it grows out, but you are into goth so you don't care what people think anyway.) I had tried to fix my roots myself with another permanent dye that was supposed to be a black with red highlights. Turns out there wasn't any black in that dye and suddenly my roots were very red and the rest very black. Pretty scary. So I was pretty much looking like a crazy person and my hairdresser was very nice in that she didn't yell or ridicule me, which I know she had to want to do, badly.
Friday my Mom, Chris, Kim, and I spent the day baking desserts for a party the next day. We made lemon squares, chocolate chip cookie bars, raspberry cheesecake bars, carrot cake cupcakes, and molasses crinkle bars. That night my sisters and I met up with our Dad and Nancy at Jackies Galaxy in Cumberland. The best chicken pad thai as always. I haven't even bothered trying to get it anywhere else in awhile. Very nice dinner.
Saturday I hit my two top secret parties! First I went to a friend's baby shower. She is having twins in March and she looks great. Unfortunately I had to leave there pretty quickly after just one trivia game to get to my next party.
My great uncle Walt turned 90 on Saturday. He is still moving at top speed and recently even had a line in the Underdog movie that they filmed in Providence. We got to watch a sort of picture/video narrated documentary about his life that his sons made. It was so cool to get to see him in his younger days. In one movie, his Dad actually plays the part of his Dad, so I got to see a video clip of my great-grandfather. It was neat to see all the history of it too, the evolution of TV and movies. 
The party was a success. Uncle Walt was surprised. There were about 90 people there. And there was tons of food leftover. My Mom got a copy of the documentary, so I am hoping I get to watch it again.
Sunday my family all just hung out at my Mom's and she made us roast beef, mashed potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, broccoli, and carrots. It was so good. Guess I should have paid more attention while she was cooking it...
On my flight home everyone was sick. I wanted to just hold my breathe for the entire flight. The woman next to me had a very bad cold and no tissues. As soon as I had a chance I got out my carry-on and gave her a travel pack of tissues. She used them all before we even landed. Needless to say I am drinking a lot of orange juice today...
Labels: family, NewEngland
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3 Days in the (Blackstone) Valley
Posted by Patrick on Friday, December 22, 2006Sunday I hopped on a plane and flew north, courtesy of my work. It was quite a change from my working-at-home lifestyle. I had to put on moderately nice clothes, get up early, and drive to my workplace. It was time well spent though, as it was mostly just time spent seeing former office-mates and socializing. 3 months is a long time to go without speaking to your work peers face-to-face. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy working from home very much, but it's just weird not seeing co-workers up close.
Seeing friends and fam was nice. I even got in a little Christmas shopping.
Our department got lunch at Vinny-T's on Tuesday, and that was very tasty. Everyone pitched in and got Kate and I a nice gift card to Lowes, which is sweet because I think we'll always need something from there. It's still a little weird to me, thinking that we'd need to purchase home stuff. For a home. That's ours. Pretty cool though.
Wednesday it was time to fly home to NC. Flying Southwest is always an adventure... the craziness that it creates at the gate blows my mind. Instead of assigned seating, they group you into a category, either "A," "B," or "C,", and board you alphabetically based on what group you're in. I'm not sure what criteria they use to assign you, but I was usually in group "C" and sat in some highly prized rear-of-the-craft-middle-seats. It's like steerage class on a plane. The other passengers just stare at you, "Oh, here comes group "C". Wish they would just hurry up and sit down so we can take off. You know, if they just left C at the gate, we could have taken off 10 minutes ago."
I arrived safely and mostly on-time, so it could have been worse. Anyone out there know about the mysteries of Southwest seating?
Labels: NewEngland
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Legal
Posted by Kate on Thursday, December 21, 2006Today Pat and I are super-officially North Carolinians! We passed the test and are now card-carrying southerners. We made an appointment for 9am and went to the driver's license office. The office opens at 8 and we arrived at 8:45. We were the ONLY patrons there! There were three women waiting to help us. And they were nice and there was Christmas music and decorations. A few people came while we were applying and received their licenses and left. Pat and I being out-of-staters had to take the vision, sign recognition, and written test before we could get our licenses. I got a 92 on my written test. Apparently outside of city limits where the speed limit is not posted it is 55mph... got that one wrong. 55 seemed pretty high to me.
What a relief to have that over with and to not have been chosen to take the "skills" test. I still remember how nervous I got when I had to take my first driver's test. The examiner was not very nice.
Now we don't have to renew till we are 35 years old and I am pretty sure we never have to take the written test again. Yay!
Labels: Automotive, NewEngland
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Headin' Home
Posted by Kate on Monday, December 11, 2006This year we won't be headed home for Christmas. Instead my sister, Chris and my grandmother are coming to visit this weekend. Should be fun times. We will decorate the tree, do some baking, and other general Christmasy goodness.
Then Sunday Pat will be headed up to MA to spend a few days in the office and a few nights with family and friends.
We were invited to a dessert party by my new craftser/etsy friend, Kat, sometime around the 21st.
We have also been invited to our new friends' Carol and Kevin's for Christmas Eve and/or Christmas Day, so I am sure we will do some celebrating with them.
The day after Christmas, my Mom and Bill will be headed our way. They will stay for one night and then continue on to visit some of Bill's family and then a few days later they will be back for another night.
Then I will be headed to RI for a visit, January 4th through 7th.
So I am predicting multiple Christmas celebrations all very different from previous years. New traditions to start all around.
Labels: NewEngland
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Review
Posted by Kate on Tuesday, November 28, 2006Things have been crazy the past six days. We got up at 2am on Thanksgiving morning to get to the airport for 3:30, for our flight at 5:30. Turns out two hours early was overkill as the airport was not crowded at all. We followed the storm up the coast and had to deplane during our stopover in Philly because there were problems with our engine. We ended up being an hour and a half late, not as bad as it could have been, though it did cut into our Gram visit, which was too short in the first place.
Thanksgiving was great, lots of delicious food and so good to see everybody. Friday, my Mom and Bill made us waffles, we closed our bank accounts and stopped in to Firehouse Pizza to say hello to Bob and pick up some great subs. We then continued on to Pat's parents house to load the truck. Extreme extra super special thanks to Grace, Michael, Kristen, Josh, Mom, and Bill for helping us load the truck with our possessions.
That night Pat went to visit our friends and I went to spend some quality time with my Mom and sisters. We just didn't have enough time to do all we wanted. I really wish I could have spent some time with our friends too. Too bad it wasn't a Disney movie so I could split myself and then join back up later.
Saturday we spent the whole day driving home (yes I do use "home" to describe two places 750 miles apart... humor me.) We got lost trying to find Ikea, so we ended up on the road much longer than planned. At Ikea we got Pat a desk and me a bookshelf. In a strange twist of fate we arrived home at 2am.
Sunday our new best friend Andy came over and helped us unload the truck. Monday I woke up with a horrible migraine and didn't get as much done as I wanted too, luckily the Zomig kicked in by the time we had to bring to truck back. Bringing the truck back turned out to be a total fiasco and I have made the decision to have my cellphone permanently attached to my flesh with super glue.
And that brings you up to date!
Labels: NewEngland
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