BilikFamily.com

I know this is of little matter to the rest of you, but the little iMac that hosts BilikFamily.com now knows that he is BilikFamily.com. Through the wonders of network routers, the iMac didn't know he was the machine that BilikFamily.com resolves to. This made maintenance of the web page software and even reading comments and archives and internal links really difficult inside the house. All those links would say "http://www.bilikfamily.com/blah/blah/blah" and the computer would figuratively say "who is that?". Any tweaks to the web page layout in the past were usually done in the odd minute at work. Now that I can tweak the software from home, I should be "more dangerous". Thanks to my friend Jeff, a weblogging neighbor at scrollbar.com in Wilton, NH, for sending me a reference link a couple of months ago that pointed out the way. The technical solution for the laptop gets a bit more complicated because he is daily roaming between being at home (where laptop didn't resolve the name either) to at my office where everything would function fine. It all depended on what side of the router the machine was on.

OK, OK, enough nerd talk.

Tonight the Milford Elementary School PTO had a function that Michelle took Claire and Abby to attend. There was food and a dance instructor teaching different dances to the parents and their kids. Afterward Michelle took the girls to Blakes for some ice cream.

Overall, like Suzy's week (see Ash Wednesday below), it's been very boring here. Michelle realized that this afternoon was the first time she got out of the house since last Sunday. The weather just hasn't been very cooperative. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice though -- sunny and mid to upper 40's. Considering it was 2° this morning when I woke up, the better weather will be most welcome.

Yesterday I spoke with an ARC partner who was a surprising advocate of full size 12 and 15 passenger vans. I had always been wary of them because they drive like, well, vans, not car-like as minivans do. He encouraged me to look into them down the line and gave me a few pointers. After helping Michelle load the kids into the van this afternoon, it looks more and more tempting. Man! What a tight squeeze! The Odyssey, nice as it is, is nonetheless at capacity.

Abby is a funny girl. She is the biggest Gameboy Advance spectator I've ever seen. She knows the levels of Super Mario 2 that Claire and I have been playing like the back of her hand. Yet, she's afraid to actually play. All the computer games she's played to date on the iMac don't require a lot of timely hand-eye coordination, just some thought. That's the nature of a lot of the edutainment software she uses. In Super Mario she knows that if you just sit there, the monsters will get you. You have to run, jump, defend, etc and she doesn't trust her reflexes to do that. So she just watches over your shoulder. It would be fine if it weren't for the the fact that Gameboy screens are so small!

In other Abby news today after lunch I stopped by Nashua's MacEdge store to pick up a spare power supply for my Apple iBook. That way I can keep one at home and at work. While I was there I checked to see if they had a current copy of KidPix for Abby and they did. It's had great reviews/ratings for many years now and I think Abby is probably the right age for it now. Alyssa, perhaps your kids would be interested in it. I'll let you know what Abby thinks of it. It's between 20 and 30 dollars.

This morning was a picture of family teamwork. I helped Michelle with baths for Michael, Daniel, and Abby. Meanwhile Claire was in the hallway holding Timothy, keeping him content. Claire may argue with Abby once in a while but overall I'd say she's been a huge help.

Michelle stopped by the office late this afternoon with all the kids. For nearly everyone at my office, it was the first time seeing the new addition (Timothy) and also a chance to see just how big the twins are getting.

Suzy, I hope you have a nice weekend with your friends. Enjoy your time with mom and dad, too. Hopefully it'll be the break you need before you delve back into schoolwork. You only have a little more than two months left! Who-hoo! "Before I couldn't spell Psychology Major, now I are one!"