September 10, 2002

Potpourri of minor news tidbits

Posted by Scott at 11:02 PM

Today is the primaries in NH. Michelle and I each went to the polls at Milford Elementary School. Luckily they usually let you register at the polls in most of NH. I didn't know where to go today but my boss had a good idea. “Drive around the Milford schools until you find one with a bunch of supporters standing outside.” I guess that's obvious when you think about it.

My mom flew back to Chicago late this afternoon. Claire was sad to have her go — as we all were. From Claire's perspective River Grove is like a library that let's us check her Grandma out once and a while.

This evening when I was putting Claire and Abby down to bed for the night, I let Claire read Green Eggs and Ham to me and Abby. She got through the whole thing without a hiccup. She's come a long way.

Tonight I did some Mac application downloads and updates for the home computer. iJournal, the software I use to post to BilikFamily.com when I'm on my home Apple was updated. Chimera, the Mozilla-based web browser that uses the native Mac GUI was also updated today. I had also read good things about a Web application called Watson, so I downloaded it and tried it out. Between Watson and NetNewsWire (a cool news aggregator), searching for news and information is faster with less junk. I also read that Bloxsom was significantly updated. I use Bloxsom at work to maintain a simple work weblog of what I'm working on, messages, and to-do's. I'll do an update of Bloxsom when I get into work tomorrow.

It's time to go over TiVo's recording schedule. Normally besides the kids' shows and the parents' favorites, I like to scan the TiVo guide for documentaries. You never know what PBS, the History Channel, etc have in store for the next two weeks. The last time I checked, the documentaries were chock full of commentary on the collapse of the World Trade Center. There's just so much I want to relive that experience. I don't need to watch an hour long documentary on it.

As I was wrapping this up, I heard a cry from the boys' room. I thought it was perhaps just one of the twins stirring for a moment. Once it lasted more than half a minute, it was time to check out what had happened. Somehow Michael had extended his left leg through the slats of his crib and it got stuck. While he was relieved to see me, it was a challenge figuring out how to get it back out. It reminded me of a couple of years ago when Claire stuck her head between the support posts of one of our stair handrails. At that time it was simpler to pull the rest of her body through than it was to get her head back out. Kids!

I've decided to hold off in my purchase of Mac OS X 10.2 and Adobe Photoshop Elements. In the OS case I don't have a compelling reason and most of my environment is stable. I'll also feel a bit more comfortable when Apple releases 10.2.1 in a month or two. You know it's gonna happen that way. In most every technology company I'm familiar with, the major release is buggy and it takes a *.*.1 release or 2 to get the issues ironed out. It also gives the software developers a little time to make sure that their stuff is 10.2 compatible. Regarding Photoshop, I've just decided to keep on using the GIMP a while longer. It's not pretty but it can do most anything Photoshop can. Photographix is doing such a good job with color and exposure correction that about the only thing I have to do these days is fix the occasional red-eye and remove the occasional background distraction in pictures. So for now I have an extra $200 in my pocket.

This weekend we celebrate Claire's 7th birthday. We have a little over half a dozen girl friends of Claire's coming to celebrate. For me Claire being 7 is all the more reason she should be able to get on the bus for school. (grin)

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