BilikFamily.com

Alyssa was transferred yesterday from her nearby hospital to a hospital closer to downtown Chicago, one with better equipment and more expertise in analyzing and monitoring high risk prenatal situations. Their prognosis was better. While things are looking better, all risk is not gone. She may be going home today but will likely be on bed rest until delivery. Please keep praying for their health and safety.

Since mom and dad are leaving this morning, they urged Michelle and I to go out to dinner last night -- just the two of us. It has been a rare occurance these past few months. We decided to finally try the Pasta Loft on the downtown Milford Oval. It was excellent! I compare it favorably to having an Italian dinner at Ya Mama's in Merrimack. It has a nice atmosphere, pleasant restaurant staff, and great food on comparable prices. I'm just a bit sad that mom and dad didn't get to try it out during their visit.

Timothy was up and down a lot last night. To add insult to injury Claire and Abby got up a little after 5AM. Being that this will be Michelle's first day caring for the five by herself, the deck is already not stacked particularly well.

Independent estimate of the impending war with Iraq (from the WSJ via John Robb)

• Conflict: $20-80 billion
• Peacekeeping: $25-105 billion (five years)
• Humanitarian assistance: $1-10 billion
• Cost of governance: (civil servants and police force) $5-12 bil.
• Reconstruction including oil fields: $10-105 bil.
• Aid to allies: $6-10 bil. (Note: this looks really low considering the deal with Turkey alone is ~$25b)
• Debt claims and reparations: $62-361 bil.

Meanwhile Robert Reich (hardly unbiased based on his background) claims that the markets aren't jittery because they are concerned about the possibility of going to war. His claim is that the jitters are due to "the size of the bet" with such high risk stakes. Listen via RealAudio format here.