BilikFamily.com

Addicted to Mario Kart - How many husbands get a phone call like this in the middle of the afternoon? Michelle calls up and says "Guess what?". With five children you almost dread hearing those words on the phone. “Abby and I teamed up and finished in first place in the Star Cup at the 100cc level!! We've now unlocked the Special Cup courses including Wario Colosseum, Dino Dino Jungle, Bowser's Castle, and Rainbow Road!!” I have to admit that Michelle and I have been trying to win the Star Cup at 100cc's for about a week now. It's just the last thing I expected in a mid-afternoon phone call from my wife.

Medical exam - This morning I went for a general physical for the first time in about ten years. I'm happy to report that everything is still good. I hope it stays that way but I think that at this point I'll try to make it a point to have annual followups. Cholesterol was a bit high in total but it was mitigated somewhat by excellent HDL numbers.

Bitter cold - Today was cold all day but tonight it's supposed to be bitter -- around minus 18°F with 20-30 mph winds! It's cold enough that several area schools (including Milford) have already announced a delayed start for tomorrow morning based purely on temperatures alone (not snowfall). After tomorrow things are supposed to finally return to normal for a while.

Mars landing - I'm sure that by now you've all heard that we've had a NASA craft land on mars. It now rolling around on the surface, taking pictures, and beaming them back. Have you seen the pictures it's been sending back?

"Where's the ka-boom? There was supposed to be
an EARTH-shattering KA-BOOM !!
Oh, dear, now I will have to destroy you
with my Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator"

Democrat who likes Bush's economic policies - With New Hampshire primaries about a week away, a lot of local media and news is saturated with Bush-bashing. I was reading today's Wall Street Journal when I came across a Democrat who, while likely not pro-Bush on a number of fronts, had to give him credit on the economy. It was refreshing not to see yet another routine sound byte attack. James Cramer of CNBC's "Kudlow & Cramer" show had the following to say in today's WSJ:

Wait a second. I'm a Democrat... But I'm also an objective financial commentator. With stocks at two-year highs and interest rates, as represented by the 10-year treasury, hovering near all-time lows, I can't help reach a different conclusion from Mr. Bush's critics: The economic policies pursued by this president have been a stunning empirical success.
If you'd told me two years ago, in the wake of 9/11 and the collapse of the stock bubble, that we could have 8% GDP growth, I'd have laughed. Most commentators, even the optimistic ones, were worried about the U.S. repeating Japan's post-bubble, incredible-shrinking-GDP, depression-experience. If you'd told me we could have 8% GDP growth and long-term rates at 4%, I'd have said that such a combination was impossibly Pollyannaish, a proverbial smooth concoction of oil and water. And if you'd told me that we could have a robust stock market, with a broad array of 52-week highs in dozens of sectors, I'd have told you that you were dreaming. Not after the battering this country's equities had taken. Yet that's exactly what we have right now.
Of course, we don't yet have job growth. However, economic recoveries don't traditionally produce job growth until one year after interest rates bottom.

I'm hoping he's right on that last bit. People will feel a lot better once they start seeing "Help Wanted" signs again. The return of the pay raise might also be a nice morale booster.