It's been a bit of a busy week. Monday night I had to leave after dinner to go to an Opus Dei meeting. [Note to the DaVinci Code readers - remember, it's a work of fiction. Opus Dei is not a secret arm of the Vatican. Official response here.] Tuesday night Michelle went to a YMCA volunteers appreciation dinner. Tonight I'll be home late because of Abby's gymnastics. And Thursday night Claire's class has a little informal musical performance that Michelle or I will go to.
Movies - Since Michelle was out last night, the kids and I watched Disney's new DVD release of The Haunted Mansion. I give it a marginal thumbs up. Being a Disney movie, it's aimed more at kids with a typical campfire-esque ghost story about unrequited love bringing about a curse upon the mansion. There was a scene at the graveyard where the dead come out of their tombs that I wasn't sure if the girls were ready for. They hadn't seen anything that creepy yet. Hopefully they slept well. I enjoyed the brief performance by Wallace Shawn who plays a servant in the mansion. He's the actor who plays Vizzini in the Princess Bride. I kept waiting for him to say "Inconceivable!" (his trademark from the Princess Bride). Thursday we're supposed to get Master and Commander, which got excellent reviews. I'm hoping Michelle and I will get a chance to watch it this weekend.
Baby names - I was doing some random google-whacking and punched in the term Bilik Milford. The top hit is the town's birth and marriage list for 2003 (Adobe pdf format - Acrobat required - html alternative available). I smiled when reading it because of the abundance of trendy names: Gabriella, Morgan Alexandra, Jordyn, Allison, Kaitlyn, Mackenzie, Taylor Lynn, Madison, Ariana Crystal, Mason Riley, Alexa Riley, Mikayla, Paige, Kylie, Avery, Peyton, Brittney, Ryann, Aspyn, Tristen, and Kirsten. And that's just the girls. Among the boys it's not quite as bad but you have: Bryce, Justin, Aidan, Cameron, Caleb, Hunter, Dylan, Ethan, Paxton, Gavin, and Logan. Poor lil' Timbo, such a plain name: Timothy James. ;-)
GREETINGS FROM THE DUDE WITH THE NEW DELL! MOM AND I BOTH ENJOYED ALL THE NEW PICTURES - SHE WANTS TO MAKE A TRIP OUT THERE EVERYTIME SHE SEE NEW PICTURES.
AS FOR THE NEW NAMES, WE LIKE THE NAME TIM, TIMBO, OR TIMOTHY. ALSO, KYLE, WILLIAM, ANDY AND TJ ARE ALSO FAVORITES OF OURS ALONG WITH DANIEL AND MICHAEL. HAVE A GREAT DAY!
Posted by: DAD at April 21, 2004 10:48 AMYou'd better return that new Dell. It doesn't seem to have any lower case letters! *smirk* Seriously, though, glad to see you back online from the comfort of home.
Glad you liked the pictures. I'm hoping to get them printed very soon. Perhaps after that I can send a few to grandpa.
My favorite pics from this recent album are the 'Air Claire' picture and the picture of Abby and Daniel in their 'fort' under the kitchen table.
Now that the Tarpeys have a new Kodak digital camera, I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures from River Grove.
Posted by: Scott at April 21, 2004 02:07 PMWhen I first read that, I was thinking you meant the Holy Grail of trendy names. Something like "Alexandra Brianna Paige Smith". ;-)
I think that the Holy Grail is located in hanger 19 at Wright-Patterson AFB. It's guarded by a Cardinal who is really the host of an alien lifeform. It's been covered up by the USAF and the Vatican. After all, who would look for the Grail in hanger 19?
Actually the real reason I put up the disclaimer is due to:
a) search engines
b) people who believe the DaVinci Code is real
Combine the two and you get viewers who think "That naive Scott, doesn't he know what the DaVinci Code says about Opus Dei?"
You never know what search terms will land on your webpage. To see the ones from the past week, go to:
bilikfamily.com/HitAnalysis.html
It's auto-generated every morning. Sometimes I get the weirdest hits. Every week I get about a hundred from image searches for nemo at altavista.com (the big search engine before google). It got to the point that I had to block those hits referred from altavista.
Posted by: Scott at April 22, 2004 06:27 AM