BilikFamily.com

Not a lot of deep writing tonight, but I wanted to capture several items before I forgot about 'em.

• Claire made a new friend this weekend and spent a few hours at her house this afternoon. Unlike when I went to grade school, each year the kids have a complete rotation of classmates. Each year usually brings about one good friend, but this year had been void until now.
• Yesterday we took the kids to Chunky's for lunch and a viewing of Meet the Robinsons. It has several good themes, but most prominent is "always keep moving forward". They embrace mistakes in that you can learn a lot from them.
• I watched The Ten Commandments again this year. I remember watching it near the end of Lent last year and it's still just as powerful to me. "So it is written, so it shall be done!"
• The kids got to play along the banks of our brook this weekend. Sunshine, nice temps, flowing water. Just add children. (see also a refresher or two from last year...)
• Michelle, Claire, the boys and I ran errands this afternoon. We went to BestBuy, CircuitCity, and CompUSA today to look for a MacMini. Our family iMac dates back to late 2001 and we're discussing the use of the MacMini to replace it. Nothing purchased yet. We also briefly looked at modest sized wide screen LCD televisions and third party iPod boom boxes. Later on we did a brief visit to the Pheasant Lane Mall and ate at their food court.
• The LCD for my desk showed up last Friday. Mighty Timbo enjoyed helping me set it up. Thanks to the tube-based monitor I borrowed last week for testing, this much smaller, much lighter LCD monitor worked fine out of the box.
• The father-in-law of my good friend Ed (seen here at Ed and Jeanette's wedding) passed away this past week. Any and all prayers for the repose of his soul are appreciated.
• Ernesto and Kristen Burden proudly announce the birth of Isobel Grace Burden.
• I plan on taking Good Friday off. In addition to Good Friday services, I plan on taking the Jetta in for regular maintenance and taking Timothy for his periodic audiologist exam.
• The Nix's will join us for Easter Sunday for dinner and fellowship. Easter with the Nix's has become a tradition. I can't remember when we didn't have it with them.
• Late this week we ordered a shed from Post Woodworking, Inc. The model we ordered looks a bit like the second picture in their shed photo gallery except that the color scheme will match our house. It's 8x16 feet with a regular door on the left and a double door on the right (for storing the tractor, snowblower, etc). It's definitely New England when even your shed has shutters, eh?
• Saw the perfect bumper sticker for Christopher: “Yes, this is my truck. No, I won't help you move!”

Funniest thing I read today: Hooray for Frost Heaves by my favorite Granite State science writer, David Brooks, writing at Area603.com.

“It kills me the way towns spend oodles of money straightening and widening and smoothing roads so people can go faster, then spend oodles of money on a police force to stop them from going faster. Frost heaves solve that problem for free: No commuting doofus will hit 45 mph on my not-quite-two-lane road when the the freezing and melting of water has turned it into a miniature version of the South Dakota Badlands.”

Rarely do you find such a succinct example of Yankee thrift and pragmatism! David writes for the Nashua Telegraph. My favorites are his Science from the Sidelines weekly series. He also blogs at GraniteGeek.com, where at times I feel like the only reader to leave a passing comment.