BilikFamily.com

Good morning! Busy day today. I have to get Michelle to the airport so that she can fly to Los Angeles. And although it's supposed to be in the mid-90's, today is also the day scheduled for installing our new A/C unit. I, of course, will be working from home today to help coordinate all of this. 6:42am

Boxee Responds to Apple TV: "We're Taking a Different Path" 7:34am

WMUR says it's our last day of high heat. Of course! 'Cause today our new A/C goes in. 7:40am

Today is Beverly Hills Day: 90210. Now back to work... 9:08am

Supposedly Sprint's 4G has rolled out in Boston this week. I'll have to see whether it reaches out as far as Boxborough when I'm in the office tomorrow. 9:21am

It's so calm, clear, and hot up here in New England. Hard to believe "Earl" is east of Florida and headin' up our way soon. 9:28am

The Fastest Helicopter on Earth Sikorsky aims to break the helicopter speed record. Why is this an IEEE article?? 9:49am

Just saw the new condenser replacing our ~10 SEER York w/a 16 SEER Carrier A/C. Man, it seems huge! >2x the size 11:36am

Ah, the smell of brazing is wafting through the house. (gack!) At first I was concerned something was overheating. 12:07am

Back from dropping Michelle off at the Manchester airport. In theory she should be taking off about now... It was almost cute how concerned she was about how the house and kids would do without her disciplined oversight. 2:37pm

FREE CHILI! in the Manchester and Souhegan Valley area! At one of my favorite local diners. 3:14pm

And behold, cool air poureth forth from the vents once again. And it was good! Esp. since it's 98°F outside. 3:30pm

I've lightened our checking account and the HVAC guys "have left the building." 5:13pm

Got the boys down to bed. We're a little concerned in that we can't seem to find Jingle tonight. Hopefully he comes around tomorrow morning. I got a brief call from Michelle at her Phoenix layover. Sounds like travel is going well so far. 8:54pm

Michelle just called from Los Angeles. She's met her father and they're driving back to the house. I can sleep knowing she's safely home. Good night all! 9:56pm

Snapshots I took today:
   

Good morning! Michelle and I didn't sleep particularly well -- too much anxiety about today's 1st day of school and Michelle's upcoming trip to L.A. Today my "baby" starts high school and my youngest joins his older brothers at Heron Pond Elementary. 6:16am

Pretty smooth drive down to Boxborough. Finished CD 2 of 5 of "The Brothers Karamazov". I'll need to burn disc 3 soon. Listened to Gus Lloyd on XM 117 the rest of the way in. 8:49am

GPS Errors and Pilgrimage to Lourde -- Too funny. If you're going on a pilgrimage to Lourdes, FR be sure you punch in that final "s" or your GPS will happily take you to a town that has nothing to do with Our Lady and Bernadette Soubirous. Thanks Craig! 8:59am

Did a "Report a problem" with Google Maps. It insists on driving around the covered bridge in Pepperell, MA because it was closed for years, but it's recently re-opened. 9:12am

The thing I hate about being three hours ahead of San Diego (the home office) is that I come into the office first thing in the morning and have 50 emails waiting to be reviewed. We're wrapping up our day and they are hitting their stride, communication-wise. 9:14am

Afghanistan's dirty little secret - I feel dirty just reading it. 9:24am

<Carpenters>"There's a kind of hush.. all over the house.. today. You can hear the sound... of kids in school!"</Carpenters> 10:28am

Suddenly the intertubes are saturated!! Is there some big event? The second coming? Oh, it's a SteveNote. (Steve Jobs giving the Apple Keynote address)1:08pm

Isn't HDR photography usually done with a series of photos at different exposures on a tripod mounted camera? What will the iP** do? 1:21pm

Oh sure! NOW the iPod Touch gets a front & rear facing camera. After I gave up waiting and bought an EVO. 1:36pm

11.7 billion songs -- Is Steve Jobs channeling a bit of Carl Sagan? ;-P 1:40pm

So this will be "the iTunes that goes 'Ping!' " ? [Admittedly stretching on that one!] 1:52pm

I'm going to guess that the new Apple TV is powered by the A4 chip, just re-purposed for just doing WiFi streaming/decoding of video. 2:19pm

Slowly but surely the Apple iOS devices approach the capabilities of the Pomegranate Phone. 2:34pm

Smirking a bit: Breitbart challenges James Cameron "to stop eco-unfriendly Hollywood film & television production". (related link) 4:49pm

Smooth drive home amidst temps still ~90°F. Caught up my my newly iPhone-sportin' dad for most of the commute and listened to a little of The Catholic Guy the rest of the way. Michelle has already processed the myriad of "1st day of school" forms and paperwork. 7:19pm

Now that it's all charged up, going to take a look at Michelle's new Kindle. 8:16pm

Been getting the Kindle set up. I must say that I really like the screen. 8:50pm

Snapshots I took today:
         

Good morning! Warm drive into Boxborough today. Already ~80F at 8am and expected to reach 97F later today. I offered a Luminous Rosary for my wife & mom and an extra decade for vocations. I listened to more of The Brothers Karamazov the rest of the way. 8:56am

Michelle is about to teach her 20/20/20 class at Golds and later will take the kids to Greenfield State Park/Otter Lake for one last outing before school starts tomorrow. As I drove in this morning, I saw that it was the 1st day of school for Townsend and Lunenburg, MA. Lots of the typical 'mom taking pictures of their kids' along my drive. 8:59am

Review: Apple iPad vs. Amazon Kindle. Obviously the iPad is more than an eBook reader, but this review compares them only in that respect. 11:04am

Two atoms are sitting at a bar. Atom #1: "I think I've lost an electron." Atom #2: "Are you sure?" Atom #1: "I'm positive!" 11:14am

Breastfeeding done right thanks to the "boobie beanie". This brought a smile to my face. Wish I'd seen them a dozen years or so ago when Michelle was always feeding one of the babies. 2:39pm

I always find it amusing at the office that my "targeted ads" assume I live in Raleigh, NC when I'm firmly in Yankee territory. 4:31pm

Via @WSJPersonalTech: Amazon Working on TV, Movie Service (related link) 4:52pm

Netflix, Google, Apple, Amazon ... the video on demand battle is going to get bloody in the next few years. 4:56pm

Humorous take on how some folks rant about the non-free phone apps. "99 cents! Fahgetaboutit!" 3:37pm

Had a smooth drive home listening to "The Brothers Karamazov". Michelle's Kindle 3 arrived this afternoon. (pictures follow) The girls are watching an ol' Doctor Quinn. I'm going to do a few backups before going to bed. Good night all! 8:25pm

Snapshots I took today:
   

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