Gladstone-Whipple Family Picture Page
December 1999

OK, first let's come clean, I'm post-dating - it's not December 1999 right now, it's March 2000.  I was so busy getting VB HyperDocs out that really important things like the GWFPP got neglected.  Once VBHD was out, I realized that WhippleWare's main product (VB Compress Pro) was starting to look a little long in the tooth, and immediately began work on the next version.    It's not done yet, but enough's enough.  I can't sleep nights while depriving the world wide web of family pictures just because I need to make a living.  So here comes GWFPP for late November 1999 through February 2000.

The Gladstone-Whipple family (GWF) ended the last millenium and began the new one with a lot of celebrations, from Thanksgiving to the 3 Guys party to Liz's birthday to Christmas to Channukah to Nan's birthday. (For those of you tempted to point out that the millenium doesn't really end until next year, thank you in advance for keeping your calendar correctness to yourself). For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Cohasset, Mass, where my folks still live in the big old house where I grew up. Carol helped Grandma Jackie (that's  my mom, Jacqueline Conant Whipple) cook in the kitchen

StoneAndJackieCook.JPG (33253 bytes)

but also found time to look sultry and help Grandpa Dave drink wine in the dining room.

DaveAndStone.JPG (27194 bytes)

In fact, Dad seems to be pretty good at getting his daughters-in-law to relax - here he is with Nancy Whipple, my brother ("Chainsaw Roger")'s wife:

DaveAndNancyW.JPG (32619 bytes)

And here's my sister Nancy Grinnell with her oldest daughter Lucy

NancyGAndLucy.JPG (15226 bytes)

Lucy is just about to graduate from Sarah Lawrence and spends  a lot of her time fighting for social justice in Nicaragua, but found time over the holidays to join her siblings Geoffrey and Lydia and throw beanbags (historical note: their target is a clown that yours truly aimed at circa 1960)

LucyBeanBag.JPG (7720 bytes)GeoffBeanBag.JPG (6291 bytes)LydiaBeanBag.JPG (9507 bytes)

Before moving on to Channukah (that's "honica" for those of you not familiar with Jewish holidays), time for the obligatory home improvements.  I pretty much stopped working on outdoor house projects when the temp dropped into the 20's, but one day wild man Gary showed up with our chimney caps:

ChimneyCap1.JPG (13930 bytes)ChimneyCap2.JPG (9221 bytes)ChimneyCap3.JPG (26480 bytes)

Why "wild man?" Well, first, the wind-chill was about 15 degrees below zero when I took these pics of him running around on the roof with no gloves, hat or coat (just a sweatshirt).  Second, while I was contemplating how he was ever going to get these big 50 lb awkward hunks of metal up our very steep roof, he grabbed them and sprinted up the slate.  A truly amazing performance.  If you live near Boston and need chimney work, by all means call Gary at American Chimney Pros.  Hey Gary, when are you going to come back and clean the smoke shelf?

Time for more holidays and finally pictures of the kids.  Here's Liz with her first Channukah present (Liz likes markers!)

LizChannukah2.JPG (9828 bytes)LizChannukah1.JPG (24556 bytes)LizChannukah3.JPG (9895 bytes)

And speaking of Liz, here's her impression of the Flying Nun

liztowel.jpg (6006 bytes)

With Liz's 4th birthday coming, Carol started thinking about party activities.   She decided to experiment with having kids bake and then decorate cookies. Here Carol, Mimi, and Liz do a test run

Cookies1_1.JPG (21698 bytes)Cookies1_2.JPG (23733 bytes)Cookies1_4.JPG (24234 bytes)

By the way, did you happen to read about the "heating oil crisis in the Northeast"?  We're living in our first oil-heated house (with no insulation and lots of rotten windows), and I certainly noticed when the price of heating oil went from 75 cents/gallon to $1.12 to $1.49 to $1.75 to $2.10! I mention this just in case you're wondering why Carol is wearing a scarf in the kitchen.  "Get away from the thermostat!" I screamed.  "Of course you're cold -- you're only wearing one coat!"

Anyway, making cookies (and cleaning up) became a favorite activity

Cookies2_1.JPG (21994 bytes)Cookies2_2.JPG (19042 bytes)Cookies2_3.JPG (8261 bytes)

Liz turned 4 on Dec 20.  At the "Pretty Pink Princess" party, the kids had to walk the plank

plank1.jpg (9963 bytes)plank2.jpg (7583 bytes)plank3.jpg (9983 bytes)plank4.jpg (7983 bytes)

before they could eat the cake

cake1.jpg (25279 bytes)cake2.jpg (23754 bytes)

or wack the pink flamingo pinăta

pinata1.jpg (9489 bytes)pinata2.jpg (8497 bytes)pinata3.jpg (9047 bytes)

This is Liz's friend Anna Lin, one of my favorite little girls in the whole world.   I think she's going to be president some day.

annalin1.jpg (9018 bytes)annalin2.jpg (6055 bytes)annalin3.jpg (9193 bytes)

For Christmas we went back to Cohasset, where David got some cool spy binoculars

Xmax_DaveAndDave.JPG (11177 bytes)Xmax_JackieAndDave.JPG (10534 bytes)Xmax_Dave.JPG (12209 bytes)

David woke up one December morning and announced that it was time to unpack the "red pipey stuff" and build a new tower.  Red pipey stuff is a very neat construction system from Germany called Quadro.   It probably costs a gazillion $, but Carol spotted a ton of it in the basement of a friend with grown children, and asked if they were done with it.  They were, and we've had endless fun with it ever since.  David and Joseph and I built the new tower, then Mimi and Liz helped check it out.

tower1.jpg (16177 bytes)tower2.jpg (18430 bytes)

Another December day I heard chain saws and looked out my office window to see a crew taking down a magnificent birch tree in a neighbor's yard.  I made a note to go down and ask what they were going to do with the wood (we have those newly capped chimneys, after all!).  A few minutes later I got my answer when I heard an enormous roar and looked out again to see them feeding 12" diameter branches into the biggest chipper I've ever seen.  I went running down and hollered that they should just throw it all over the hedge into the yard.  I was too late for everything except the very large bole, which shook the ground when they dropped it with their crane.  I asked my brother Roger a) did he have a chainsaw, and b) could I borrow it.  Yes he did, and No I couldn't, he said (I'm sure he remembers just how much of his stuff I ruined as his little brother), but he remarked further that cutting up trees was one of his favorite things to do, and he made house calls.  So he did:

logsaw1.jpg (22982 bytes)logsaw3.jpg (23406 bytes)

leaving the yard full of 20-30" diameter logs in need of splitting.  As an ex-carpenter, I take great pride in David's developing skills with a hammer

LogSplit1.JPG (15783 bytes)LogSplit2.JPG (8639 bytes)LogSplit3.JPG (10887 bytes)

though once in a while he seems to forget a trick or two (Ouch!)

HammerHead.JPG (9406 bytes)

I'd better stop adding pictures to this already-too-large page.  Happy New Year!

HappyNewYear.JPG (24482 bytes)

 

Last Month

Next Month (coming soon)