BilikFamily.com

I haven't written in a while. I won't say I've been busy, but usually by the time I'd consider writing, I'd rather get some sleep. There also hadn't been a lot going on that seemed noteworthy. Yesterday, though, was a bit of a roller coaster day.

Timothy - Michelle called me at the office because Timothy's doctor had called. She had seen the x-rays from when Timothy was scanned for pneumonia. The doctor was concerned because one of the vertebrae in his spine didn't seem formed correctly. If you consider your vertebrae as shaped somewhat like individual rectangles, this one was more diamond shaped. Timothy has a followup appointment to verify that he's completely over his pneumonia next Tuesday. At that time they'll review the x-ray with Michelle. He now has another appointment with specialists up in Manchester in May.

Work - After that call I had a meeting at work to review where things stand with the Nashua office. While I can't say anything specific because we don't know anything for certain, things are looking promising -- at least much better than they did two months ago.

Grandpa - Michelle called again after the meeting to let me know that my 92 year old grandpa Bilik went into the emergency room on Sunday night because he wasn't feeling well. As of last night he was still there but we don't know the cause. I also felt a bit sad because we had just sent him a St. Patrick's day card that Claire had hand made with some recent kid photos included. It most likely arrived after he checked into the hospital.

Claire - Last Saturday I took Claire to her First Confession. I had been preparing her for it for the past few months. Our pastor had another pastor from a nearby parish give him a hand so that there wouldn't be one long line. Nevertheless the vast majority of the children wanted to go to our pastor because they felt more comfortable with someone they know. Boy! How that changes when you grow up! Claire compared the two lines and agreed. She went to the visiting priest. She also felt a bit more at ease with it being someone she didn't know. I went to confession with the visiting priest after there were no more kids waiting in his line. When I got out there were still at least half a dozen kids waiting on our pastor. Luckily the special liturgy they had arranged for this occasion was setup in such a way that the actual confession was at the very end. We didn't have to wait around for all the kids to finish. Claire is happy that she can now join Michelle and I when we go to monthly confession, but I suspect most of her interest was probably curiosity. Whenever there is something Claire can't do or see, it only serves to spike her interest.

Abigail - Abby is, well, Abby. There always seems to be a new project or craft she's working on. If ever I want a picture of Abby, all I need to do is sit her down and have her show off her latest masterpiece. She's also taken to playing Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga on the GameBoy. When I first got it, I soon realized that it was a bit over her head compared to the other Mario Brothers games. SuperStar Saga is more of a role playing game than the others and there's a bit of reading to do along the way. She started by watching me play and after a while I started her off on her own with my assistance. Now she's really getting the knack of it. Role playing games have that bit of a puzzle aspect to them that suits Abby well. At any given level, she has the patience to explore and find all the coins or mushrooms or whatever is needed to proceed to the next level. I'm the only other one who plays that game so whenever I get home she's always telling me about her progress.

Michelle - Michelle is happy because after several years of promises, the YMCA finally bought a dual CD player with pitch control. The dual CD is nice for making quick transitions between music on separate CDs. Less time is wasted than if you have a carousel CD player or if you manually change CDs. The most important thing, though, was pitch control. In step aerobics you want the beats per minute to be between 130 and 135. If you go much below 125 the routine is too slow and you don't feel challenged. If you go much above 140 everyone will be out of breathe. On the other hand, a lot of CDs for floor aerobics (not step) are between 140 and 150 beats per minute. With a pitch-able CD player, you can use those CDs and just slow down the music about 10% and get a good rhythm for leading a step class. In a similar way the floor aerobics instructors can now use step aerobics CDs by pitching them up by 10%. As PHB's like to say, "it's a win-win".

The Passion - I still haven't seen Mel's movie, but I caught the following priceless quote on the weblog of a media reviewer:

But the buzz about Mel’s movie came from the Hollywooden liberals in the big media who’ve spent the best part of a year warning that The Passion Of The Christ was going to be the biggest thing on the anti-semitic scene since The Protocols Of The Elders Of Zion. All those liberal columnists who champion the necessity of brave transgressive artists when it comes to giving us a horny Jesus (The Last Temptation Of Christ), a gay Jesus (the Broadway play Corpus Christi) or a Jesus floating in the artist’s urine ("Piss Christ") have finally discovered a Jesus it would be grossly irresponsible to show to the public.

But what’s really hilarious is Hollywood’s failure to get it as a business proposition. Until a month ago, the line from the studio execs was that Mel Gibson had blown well over 30 million bucks of his own money on a vanity project for him and and a few other Jesus freaks. Last week, it racked up the biggest mid-week opening – not just of any film in Aramaic but of any non-sequel movie ever; the only bigger opening gross was The Return Of The King. Now the new rap on Mel is that he claims to be a Christian but he’s making gazillions off his Saviour’s suffering. Well, one reason he’s making so much is because he doesn’t have to share it with any of the big Hollywood muscle who were convinced the fundamentalist weirdo was out of his tree. Unlike all that Miramax pseudo-art-house stuff, The Passion is a genuine independent film: the system wasn’t interested, so Mel bypassed it, and he’s cleaning up.

Congratulations, Mel.