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Snow - A little snow storm started yesterday mid-afternoon and is still going on now until mid-morning. It's predicted we'll have half a foot before it's done. Claire is thrilled because Milford (along with most other schools in the state) has cancelled school today because of the timing of the storm. I'm happy because I get a chance to run the snowblower out of gas, hopefully for the season. [Update: 10:40 a.m. - I've cleared the snow and it wasn't that high -- maybe three inches or less. It was on the heavier side due to the warmer temps, but the snowblower cut right through it with ease.]

Daniel - Monday afternoon Daniel decided to follow in Michael's footsteps. When Michelle woke him up from his afternoon nap, he had thrown up in his bed. Michelle joked that suddenly having three kids in diapers doesn't seem that much a burden. At least diapers don't (usually) require require throwing bedding in the wash, bathes, Lysol, airing out the rooms, etc. It only takes a couple of minutes to change a diaper. It's not usually pleasant, but at least it doesn't usually require an orchestrated cleanup. We've still got our fingers crossed that Abigail and Timothy can avoid this stomach bug. We've had a lot of people out sick at the office this past week. I've been washing my hands like crazy to try to avoid picking any illness up and bringing it home.

Claire - Today is not only St. Patrick's day, it is also Claire's half birthday. Today she is 8 1/2! We all know how important that 'half' is when you're young. Tomorrow we have a one last meeting before Claire's First Reconciliation (aka Confession) which occurs on Saturday.

TV - Yesterday Michelle called BestBuy to try to find out what the heck has happened to our bedroom TV which was sent in for repair over a month ago. They claimed that the parts that they were waiting for arrived but that it didn't solve the problem. The repair house has sent the TV back to the manufacturer for resolution.

TiVo - In the meantime I took some time last night to install the new TiVo downstairs and bring the old one up to our bedroom. Since our bedroom TV is in repair limbo, I pilfered the tiny combo TV/VCR unit that was in the guest bedroom. It's funny to have a near worthless TV sitting on top of a TiVo. The two TiVo's are now more polarized in regards to their content. The downstairs one tends to have shows like Dora, Blues Clues, etc. where the upstairs one has the Tonight Show, Dennis Miller, Joan of Arcadia, Smallville, Doc, etc.

News - We also have the upstairs TiVo programmed to record the 5 a.m. local news. That way when she wakes up, she can fast forward to the weather forecast and other highlights of the day. The local WMUR news is heavy with commercials and loves to do repeated 'news teasers' -- "and coming up", "later in this hour", etc. I've seen times when the talking head spent more time hyping the upcoming story than the reporter actually spent telling the story. With WMUR news you can guarantee the that most interesting stories are at the end of the presentation. Being able to fast forward to the significant stories restores an ounce of sanity to watching the local news.

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong desire to live, taking the form of readiness to die.”
-- G.K. Chesterton