Today was also good - resolved the backup issues and in the process of rolling it out to the (so far) un-backed-up machines. The solution involves three methods - level 0 ufsdump to tape from init 1 (no network, most things shut down), level 0 ufsdump to a remote server from normal login status, to get a benchmark, and the last is a monthly or weekly level 1 ufsdump to a remote server - which gets things that changed since the last level 0. Only this last one will be scheduled, and because the machines are very static, we shouldn't need to do another lvl 0 for a long time.
On the home front, my grandmother, mother, brother, and nephew are coming up to visit us over the Thanksgiving holidays! We are happy beyond words, as we haven't seen the Southern Kin for many moons. They get to experience shopping in the DC Metro area the day after Thanksgiving.