BilikFamily.com

Weekend - It's been a nice autumn weekend. Saturday I got in a good workout at our local Golds Gym. We celebrated Claire's birthday with five of her good friends with a barbecue, playing in the yard, taking them bowling, and the usual opening of gifts. Today we went to Mass and breakfast. Later I spent a couple of hours working in the yard by aerating the lawn while Michelle overseeded thinning areas with a blend of grass and Dutch white clover seed. In the later afternoon we took the kids to "breakfast for dinner" at Gary's Harvest restaurant. I also finished reading "Ask Click and Clack" and look forward to lending it to dad when he and mom visit next week.

Photos - When we returned from Gary's, I pulled the pictures out of Abby's camera and mine. Abby is starting to like watching as I work her pictures in Photoshop Elements trying to compensate for her newly budding picture taking skills. Abby uses our old Canon digital ELPH from 7 1/2 years ago. My photos are still with my 5 year old Nikon Coolpix. I hope one of these days to get something like a Nikon D60 or similar.

So in the end we had 36 "keepers" between us. You can see the results here or by clicking on the thumbnail above. A few of the pictures are out of chronological order because the clock in Abby's camera apparently reset somewhere along the way. Most are of the day we spent at the coast, Claire's birthday party, or pictures of our cats (this is Abby, after all...).

Video - I also had three movies of the boys at the coast. They had no memories of being at the coast before so seeing and playing at waves like that was a new experience for them. At first they were a little nervous but soon enjoyed it. You can see the movies here, here, and here.

Rinnai - Tomorrow we have our existing propane fired hot water tank removed and a Rinnai tankless model will replace it. We've already replaced most of the lighting in the house, have an efficient front loading washer and dryer, have two wood pellet burning stoves, and I drive an efficient car. The next two big items to review were heating the hot water and insulation leaks. Since our water tank was over a dozen years old and we have a finished basement (including Claire's bedroom), we thought we'd go with replacing the water tank. I only know a few people who've done this, but they've been reasonably happy with the results. We'll see how it goes.

Homecoming - Lastly, a big gianormous congratulations to my nephew TJ and his girlfriend Elise who were king and queen of the Guerin Prep homecoming. TJ, I don't know if Alyssa told you, but at my senior homecoming, I merely stood at the door taking admission tickets for the homecoming dance. I got roped into it for being on student council... *sigh* Regardless TJ, I look forward to seeing more of your pictures on Facebook in the days ahead.