Ben woke up ~10am and seemed to be feeling much better so we coordinated with Kerri to hookup at the Monorail entrance in Downtown Disney. By the time we got into the park he was like a new boy (we should have gone on the Pinocchio ride first!).

Lines were short so we got through a ton of rides in fairly short order. By 2-ish we decided to head back to the hotel and get some swim time in. There's a small water slide at the hotel (may 100 yards long?) and after a few minutes of play time in the regular pool I went for a quick run. Next we coaxed Ben into taking a stab at it. He was tentative at first but I saw him half way down and he was loving it. Being proper spoilers we "only" let him ride it a million billion times before we had to call it quits. We had just [almost] forced Abby to go on Pirates of the Caribbean, assuring her that she would like it (which she did not) so getting her to try this "new" thing just wasn't going to happen. Perhaps next year.

After a bit of dinner we made our way back to Disneyland and hit several other rides. None of us had ever been on the Peter Pan ride so we gave it a shot and boy that was fun. 30 years of going to DLand and never once on that ride? No idea why.

While we were in line to fly away with Peter the woman in front of us asked me if she could borrow my cell phone so she could call her daughter. A minute into her conversation led to a bit of a shriek... her daughter announced that she was pregnant. The grandma-to-be was so happy! And Abby remarked, "She's the happiest person I've ever seen!". Kinda weird for a 6 year old to say such a thing but really, that was one happy bird.

Ben was pretty-well spent by this time but we went for one more pass on Autopia, thinking that we'd catch the monorail from there. Turned out that it was too close to fireworks time so we ended up walking back to the hotel. And even better -- I apparently left my cell phone at the Autopia ride. When I got back to the hotel I realized it was missing so I kept calling it with Kerri's phone and finally one of the employees answered. Thank goodness they answered because I never would have guessed that it had been left inside the park. I'll get it back in the morning.

About ready to crash but looking forward to some early access to the parks before we call this weekend "done".

I'm sitting here in the Paradise Pier Hotel at Disneyland in SoCal for our Mother's Day weekend. We got down here Saturday evening so we could wake up fresh and head straight to the park this morning.

Last night we bummed around Downtown Disney for a while and ate dinner at the Rainforest Cafe followed by a trip to Haagen Dazs for ice cream before returning to the hotel. At 9:30-ish we jammed down to the pool area where you can see the fireworks from across the way at Disneyland proper. And then upstairs for bed. But not so fast...

Ben indicated that his "tummy" hurt but since he says that quite a bit when there's something he doesn't want to do I didn't pay too much attention. A few minutes later he, his special pillow and blanket and a good portion of the bed were filled with vomit. Woohoo! We cleaned him up and I called down to the front desk to get some new linens. I was a bit embarrassed when making the call but the girl at the front desk did not seem surprised at all so it must not be too uncommon.

I figured it was the excess junk food and his jumping around that had caused the episode so I didn't think much of it. He seemed to feel okay when we woke up but two minutes after a few small sips of water he was competing in the cookie toss again (not much left in him to come up). We tried it again a bit later with the same result.

No need for Kerri and Abby to hang around and watch him feel sick so they're off to the theme park. Kerri called to let me know that they got to sit with the driver of the Monorail into the park which sounds pretty cool.

I'm sure it'll still be a nice Mother's Day because while Kerri might want both kids with her, there is a separate kind of fun to be had with just Mom and her first born -- There's no boys to wreck things for her and no battles over what ride to queue up for next.

Ben is sleeping things off a bit and I've ordered an over-priced bagel to be delivered to our room. At least I've got my EVDO connection to help pass the time (there's only so much Disney Channel this overgrown kid can take). Sure they have in-room broadband but it's a bit of a hassle and requires everything to be proxied through them and they're restrictive on ports (or I'm an idiot and can't figure out SSH through their system).

[...Interruption for room service delivery...]

I should note that in addition to the bagel I ordered a couple of beers. I know it's morning time but I'm on the 10th floor and y'all know that Tom doesn't like being in tall buildings so I need to take the edge off. $10 per beer (Bud Light!), delivered. Apparently for another dollar they'll drink them for me too. Convenience has its price I suppose. But if I ever hear about a large group of irrational, height-challenged people visiting this place I'm gonna buy a crapload of Disney stock.

More updates later, assuming anything at all happens before we leave on Monday, aside from Ben sleeping and barfing..

Completely random brain dump but wanted to get this out before I forgot absolutely everything. Lake Piru, 2008.

Got there first this year and put my tent up in the same location as last year. It's very close to the lake and a place where the youngest kids tend to congregate (since I have a couple of them). They spent quite a long time jumping from air mattress to air mattress inside (because I don't sleep on the dirt anymore). Lots of crappy snacks and dirt in there but we;ll worth the trade-off since I always know where my kids are.

Brother Pat and neighbor Matt show up next and begin putting their stuff together. Then the troops start filing in. Dave Ely came up to get camp setup though he'd have to leave (but he'd re-arrive the next day without having the hassle of setting things up) and come back the next day with Jonathan. Folks began packing in and before too long there were tents all over the perimeter with a spacious, err, space in the middle.

The wind thought it could take Dave's tent before it was staked and it almost did but we're seasoned campers and we won the day!

Matt brought his backyard BBQ. The full propane, stainless, 6 burner BBQ. We're not slumming this year. 2KW generator too. But we're still camping because there's no cell coverage.

I stopped on the way to pickup wood from a local mass wood vendor and spent $20 on a crapload of long-seasoned, quality wood. Matt bought a bunch of similar and with others bringing theirs, we had to take some home for the first time that I can remember.

Kids had a great time running around the campground and down to the lake and since we had the "group campsite" we didn't have to worry about outside traffic. Cousins and friends all played together.

Ben and Lucas decided it would be a good idea to look down the barrel of Darin's pellet gun. No one is blind.

Megan skipped past some Stinging Nettle and it caught her ankle. She's always been a trooper and a bit of Benadryl cream set her straight. Pat walked her back to point out what had nailed her so she knows to avoid it in the future. My guess is, she will.

Dinner was not a big deal on the first night but everyone was able to use any one of four BBQs or stoves along with roasting over the fire. I had to get up at 6am so I could take Abby back to town for her last softball game of the season. Gone by 7:15am and back by noon.

Older kids want to do their own thing but are always careful of the little ones (I won't speak to the middle kids' fates). I was shocked (shocked!) and how respectful they were and how aware of the little ones when things wanted to get crazy. Bravo teenagers.

Kent's daughter Katie is nearly a master camper already (before me!?!). She's an asset to the crew and can be relied on to pull off any camp duty, without complaint. I'll watch Kent and Abby will need to watch Katie and we'll be golden soon.

No boats this year -- Or so we thought! Some weird fresh water mussel is spreading across the local lake and if your boat was wet, you could not get in and our main boat was wet (from rain but who would buy that story?). But Chris Johnson's boat was dry so he got in and saved the weekend (for boating).

Chris piloted the boat most of Saturday and Sunday so all kids got multiple rides. He F'in rocks and basically gave up his weekend for the rest of us. Makes me want to buy Epogen.

Abby went on the "pull toy" for the first time and got dumped at some point. I almost dove in after her but Chris tells me to hang on and let her float... he'd be there before I could swim to her. Abby did great but the water was 59 degrees so she chilled pretty quickly and preferred not to go in again. Big milestone for Abs.

Went on a "nature walk" with Jonathan Ely, looking for deer and toads. He "Pied Pipered" the little kids with his factoids. Plenty of toads but didn't run into any deer this year. No snakes either!

Couple of old pals from Camp Emerald Bay, Catalina came this year: Dave Sander and Dean Ellis. Haven't seen Dean in 20 years. Still good guys. Dave gave me a copy of his book which is on deck for this weekend as a read.

Pat gets hassled by everyone and their mother over his wins at the Emerald Bay Tri-athalon. Everyone thinks they can beat him but so far only Pat can pee without toilet paper.

Johnboy fed my kids most meals like the good uncle he is. Most of the food I brought went home with me while the kids leeched off uncle John. I've taught them well. Most of my food came from the master campers (Matt, Darin, Kent, Chris).

Was down to the last 4 adults on Sunday but had to leave because kids were finished by sun, softball and water. Last year I was the last family to go by an hour.

One full picnic table of crap (tshirts, fishing poles, oven mitts, tie-downs, tent covers, blah) that was left behind from others that we tried to sort out. I have stuff from several siblings (rookies!) that I have to return, just like last year. When will they ever learn? Of course, I'd be in the same spot if I had left earlier, but that's not the point.

Left the campsite cleaner than when we arrived. Everyone did their part and the last few did a final walk to get the itsty bits. Fruit Loops on the ground left for the birds... it's their natural food!

There was much more but that's all my brain can return atm.

I've not posted in a very long time, mostly because I've been too busy but also because I've not had that "fire" for a while. Today my daughter stoked the coals a bit by a simple (but still remarkable) gesture. She got her hair cut in order to donate to other kids who may have none (due to Chemotherapy, etc.). I was just so proud of her due to all of her courage, sense of giving and ability to adapt. I'm really proud of her and grateful that she sees that others are less fortunate than us.

Donated to: beautifullengths.com

Way to go Abs!

I forgot about a couple of simple yet cool things I noticed while in San Diego. Many parents may already know about these bits but they were new to me, so here goes:

1. There was a group of kids at Lego Land that were all part of a birthday party. They were all wearing custom yellow (read: easy to spot) shirts with the birthday info on them. One could easily get a head count and if one of the kids got lost, the park employees would know exactly which group they belonged to. Of course, "yellow" may become the favorite for parents and too many of them would defeat the purpose. But the custom info on the shirt was a really good idea. We write our cell phone numbers on our kids' arms or shoes so if they get lost an adult will know how to reach us. But we also dressed Ben in camouflage shorts so finding him might not be as easy. I've said it many times: I'm much more of a butter knife than a steak knife, if you know what I mean. If you don't know what I mean, you're a butter knife too.

You can go to CafePress.com and create your own shirts and have them delivered in mere days. And no, I do not get a cut of your purchase price... they're just easy. There are surely other services out there too but this one rolled off my tiny little brain.

2. Baggies: If you have a cell phone or a camera or some other electronic device, it might be smart to carry a little plastic baggie to protect those devices, *if* you plan on going on any of the water rides or sitting in the "soak zone" at Sea World. You WILL get wet so the only question is, to what degree. Be prepared (yes, I was a scout) and save yourself time and money by protecting your investment(s) with an inexpensive protective bag. I have a couple hundred in the house and would be happy to mail you one if needed (if you take me up on this offer, you're one cheap bastard!).

I'm sure I noticed other things but these two obvious bits stood out to me and might be useful to you. That'll be a nickel.

Our vacation this year was to be rather short and not too far from home. We traveled all the way from Thousand Oaks to Carlsbad (appx 2.5 hour drive) where our hotel was located and ventured as far as San Diego proper for one of our outings.

Our hotel accommodations were nice enough; A two bedroom unit with a kitchen and family room area. The staff were pleasant though not overly helpful. I really only have two complaints: 1) Check-in time was 5pm and check-out time was 10am. I'm not shittin you folks, that was the real deal... something I didn't know about in advance (my own fault, I'm sure). Please re-read the check-in/out times again. Insane, huh? And 2) Their marketing material was a bit misleading as to our access to Lego Land. It stated "Private Entrance to Lego Land". Being that the hotel was directly across the street from the Lego Land parking lot, I would have guessed a little overpass we could walk across and get right in or perhaps their shuttle would drop us at a location where our private, exclusive access could be utilized. Not so. The "private entrance" was the minivan's (their shuttle) ability to not have to go through the parking line to pay for, you know, parking. We got dropped off about as far away as one could be from the real entrance and then proceeded to get in line with all of the other ticket holders. I'm all for creative marketing but that was a bit more than one should bear. No big deal though... I'm a man of the people so it was fine mingling with every other waiting-to-be-disappointed family in the regular line.

Lego Land: This was a tough one because we had kids ranging in ages from 3 to 15 years old. My guess is, it would have been great if we had a few 6-8 year old kids. Ben was two inches too short to go on many of the rides and he didn't understand that very well. As far as he was concerned, I was punishing him by not letting him go on rides that his sister and the other kids could go on. It seemed a bit crazy in most circumstances -- He couldn't go on their equivalent of Disneyland's Tea Cups though he's been riding the DLand ones since before he was two. Whatever... I'm sure the policy has the child's best interest in mind, or their insurance carrier had influence or something like that.

I guess I was expecting a bit more based on commercials I had seen and their ticket pricing. They basically charged Disneyland prices for everything and operated more like a mobile carnival.

I'm sure y'all think that I'm a bitter little troll with nothing good to say about anything or someone who simply cannot be pleased but I'm just stating the facts (with a small twist of bitterness). But fear not because our second outing has nothing but good news and fun times to describe...

Sea World: I'll start with: Great! Fun. Exceeded expectations. I'm a native Southern California guy so you might be shocked to know that in my 36 years on this rock I had never been to Sea World. I was feeling a bit like Eeyore as we lined up to get our tickets, given the hotel and Lego Land experiences. But before we entered the park I was heartened to see a sign which indicated that all military and/or their direct families were welcome to enter Free Of Charge! Go Sea World Go! I see discounts for military families from time to time but these folks (owned by Anheuser-Busch) really stepped up to do their part for those who make us safe and risk EVERYTHING to do so. My spirits were beginning to lift and I was preparing myself for an exciting day, more like Pooh and less like Eeyore.

Our first adventure was to be a sit-in for the Shamu show. We ventured down to the "Soak Zone" where there was a high probability that we'd get wet. I wish I had gotten soaked because it was still early and I would have known better when sitting in on the Dolphin show later in the evening. More on that later. To begin the show the emcee once again addressed the military families. He spoke of our collective thanks for their service and asked them all to stand which resulted in cheers and clapping and "woohoo!'s" from nearly every attendee. He gave us all a bit of info on "killer whales" and focused squarely on the need for conservation and the trainers' love and respect for these animals. The last piece was truly self-evident.

Next Anna, Christopher and myself took to the rapids -- Shipwreck Rapids to be precise. It was hot out so a little [fake] river spray seemed to be in order. It wasn't until we were very close to the front of the line that we could see folks getting off the ride and they weren't "wet", they were drenched. I decided to put my electronic devices in my pocket, cover that pocket with my shirt and cover *that* area with my hat. It turned out that I'd need every bit of those preventative measures to keep from having to buy a new phone and camera. To say we got wet would be like indicating that the Colorado River has had a bit of an erosive effect on the earth. We were soaked to the bone, as if someone had a fire hose aimed at us for ten or fifteen minutes. Next time I'll buy one of those cool Sea World Ponchos.

The rest of the day went swimmingly. We saw great show after great show and one awe inspiring exhibit after another. Kerri and I both love animals and we want to be sure that our kids grow up with the same respect for them that we both share and this is a great way to reinforce such a notion.

Oh yeah, that dolphin show thingy... So we did NOT get wet at the Shamu Show even though we were in the "soak zone". When I saw others getting wet it just looked like "spray" so tis time we sat in the 6th or 7th row in hopes of getting a little action. Well, along with the dolphins there were a couple of small whales trained to fling water out into the crowd with their tails. These small (2,000 pounds) whales did their jobs well and much like the Shipwreck Rapids, we got soaked to the bone. I don't know how I underestimated the volume of water so badly when choosing our seats. Abby got it the worst but really, it was like comparing a bunch of people, all of whom had been tossed into a pool with their clothes on... it was hard to tell who got the wettest and it didn't really matter. The problem was, it had gotten to be nearly 5pm and it was starting to cool down a bit so there was no hope of drying out any time soon. I had some spare clothes in a backpack for the kids (just shirts) and while Ben was fine with his wet shorts, Abby needed to get out of her denim skirt and into a fresh pair of shorts which were available for sale at a nearby shop. Us older folks just toughed it out.

Finally, Kerri and Anna took to the one big coaster in the park -- The Atlantis, I believe. I hung out with the younger kids in a play area where they climbed ropes, crawled through tunnels and went down slides. Ben didn't slide too well because, well, wet denim shorts on plastic doesn't make for a slippery environment.

A couple of closing notes: I love the fact that they sell beer at Sea World. I didn't partake of the opportunity but it's nice to know that a cold one is available when the conditions are right. And me being a smoker, it was also nice that they had a dozen or so smoking areas. I don't mind being shoved out of the way and in fact, even if I were allowed to smoke throughout the park I'd still hide away in a corner out of respect for the non-smoking adults and the kids. At Lego Land you have to leave the park if you want to smoke... not one single hideaway which just seems silly to me (it *is* outside for goodness' sake). I respect their ability to make that rule but I also won't be sending any of my dollars their way in the future... I'm sure they respect that right as well.

While there were some unexpected disappointments the trip, on the whole, it was most excellent, if only because I got to spend four quality days with my family and away from work, something I rarely get to do.

Go to Sea World and get stoked!

Oh yeah, if you have a AAA card, you get a gnarly discount at Sea World; Adults for the price of a child and children at 50% off. This one outing saved us enough money to pay for the AAA card for a couple of years. Yeah baby!

I'm awfully late on this and because of it I'm sure I'll be missing some really good details due to memory failure.

Abby, Ben and myself were the first ones to arrive at Lake Piru (the first time we've held the annual event at this location) so I grabbed the keys to the group campsite gate and headed off to see what lay in front of us. It was a great location with the only downside being that the water was terribly low this year; We had to trek down a non-trail to get to the water for a steep but short 50 yards or so.

Pat showed up next with his kids and the two of us sorta hung out and chatted for a bit, trying to find a cool spot to construct our tents without taking the BEST sites since it seemed only fair that Matt and Darin get best picks for putting everything together (and supplying the boat!). We meandered along with our tent and camp setup, half waiting for others to arrive. It was actually quite a while before I realized that we had ZERO cell signal in the canyon so I was worried that some may have gotten lost or due to lack of communication, might have turned around. Thankfully there was an old-fashioned "pay phone" (pay phone!) which I used to hook up with a few people and assure that things were still a "go".

Once everyone was dialed in with their camp site crap (tents, sleeping bags, air mattresses for us older guys and all of the kid stuff), it was time to relax and play. We hiked around and went down to the water and cruised around the camp for a bit before settling down for a fire and some cooking. A group of kids ran into several deer while cruising but I didn't see any the very first night.

My Dad, brother Pat and myself tossed the football around for a bit with others coming in and out of play along the way. Boy, that sure reminded me of 30 years ago... it was great!

The kids ate minimal "real" food in anticipation of s'mores and boy did they love 'em. Ben kept putting marshmallows on his skewer, sticking it next to the fire for 20 seconds and then eating them. He'd supplement with chocolate once in a while but that was about it. Abigail preferred to cook but was not in to eating the things. I forget the deets of the other kids (because I've waited to long to post!) but I do recall being a little nervous with some of the younger campers running around with skewers or getting a bit too close to the fire. That's why they call me Nellie.

It was a fairly early night on Friday and I must admit, I had the best tent accommodations of the entire group. My daughter hopped into brother Joe's tent so it was just Ben and I in a tent designed to sleep 5 or more. Ahhhh... sweet, wonderful space.

I should mention that Dave's youngest son is a Boy Scout so he not only handled tent duty (for the most part) for Dave, he also took care of scary story telling for the other kids around the campfire. I forget if the stories happened on Friday or Saturday night. My daughter was terrified (thanks Dave!) and Ben was in awe.

Saturday didn't start too early as compared to previous years (at least for me). Darin and Matt launched the boat and anchored right off our campsite. The boat was running for most of the day because there were quite a few kids to "service". Thankfully we had enough drivers so that no single person had to spend the day behind the wheel. I think I pulled kids on two outings and took the younger ones out for a "softer" cruise. Still, Matt and Darin got roped in for most of the pilot duty. But I'm jumping ahead!...

One of the kids spied a gorgeous gopher snake cruising just below our campsite (she had to be 4.5 feet long and with beautiful colors) and while we tracked her a bit, she eventually darted into a hole to escape the snake version of "paparazzi" (that would be all of us bipeds). Then later, as the kids were down at the lake and a few were hanging out in the boat another one (presumably) swam right by brother Pat and eventually found the ladder to climb up INTO THE BOAT! Abby was in there, along with Caroline (Joe's oldest) and some other kids. I forget who jumped in and grabbed the snake but a few minutes later Matt's middle son (Ross) was handling it like a bloody snake charmer. Matt's whole family is well-trained in the art of "respect for wildlife" so he was gentle.

Those are really my only two snake stories but after two in just a small period of time, we made sure we looked where we stepped. And in fact, we went on a couple of snake expeditions, hoping to find even bigger and diverse species... no such luck this time.

That's kinda it for Saturday: We spent our time down at the lake and on the boat and yanking kids on this crazy flotation device which I hope to add pictures for later. Oh, we all saw plenty of deer on Saturday, something that absolutely blew me away given our proximity to civilization (we were pretty close). Well, my battery died in my camera on Saturday so I don't have too many pix but am hoping to get some from the other dads to make a more complete representation of things.

Chalking one up for the McDonald family (all four of us boys and our kids and our Dad attended), we had a little astronomy question come into play about what was "that bright thing in the Western sky?". Pat thought it was Venus but another chap figured it was Jupiter. Pat was pretty sure but being older and wiser than me, he left it open to the notion that he could be wrong. Of course, once he got home he checked things out and he was indeed correct. Venus was it and while Jupiter was also visible, it came up later from the East. I hope no one is noticing how I'm riding Pat's coattails on this one...

So after a long day in the sun, we all went down fairly early on Saturday and got up at a reasonable time on Sunday. Most of the time I start packing straight away when I have to leave on that day but I was determined to stay for as long as I could because the kids were having so much fun.

I packed at a leisurely rate, taking breaks to head down to the water and that sort of thing. Joe helped me roll up my tent (Thanks Joe!) which was the last one standing and I packed up most of the stuff in the truck, except for the ice chest, basic food supplies and clothing for my family.

We had some nice boating time and more time in the lake and then it was time to help get the boat trailered up. I went with Matt, along with my kids and we sputtered around for a bit while waiting for our turn at the small launch ramp. Ben got to drive for a few minutes which was nice. We loaded up with a small glitch here and there and then most everyone was off to home. I made my way back to the site with Matt and packed up the rest of our stuff and then hung out at the lake for at least another 90 minutes. Like I said, the kids were having a ball. The Ranger came down to check on us (since we were to be outta there by 2pm and it was now 4pm) but since no one else had reserved the site, he let us hang a bit longer. And so we did.

This was the best year (in my view) for several reasons: Both of my kids are at a manageable age (3 and 5), it was close to home (45 minutes), it was a small group of dads and kids and it was plain mellow. Sure, we were all exhausted by the time we got home but it was a good kind of tired. After 6 years of this group going, we're getting close to perfecting the family-friendly group camping experience.

Thanks again to Darin, Matt and Kent (all master campers) and to everyone else who attended -- Y'all helped make a very good time for me and my family.

Got back ~5:30pm, fed the kids and got the truck unloaded. I'm going through mail (since there was zero connectivity at the lake) and will crash before too long. I'll post more regarding the details tomorrow... there was so much good stuff and I'm sure you'll all be holding your breath in anticipation for my next update.

This was easily the best "Dads' Camping Weekend" to date (in my view). My next post will describe the deer and snakes as well as the fun boating and the fact that everyone left alive and in general good health; How (or whether) everyone got home could be completely different (I can only take responsibility for so much, you know).

To the shower and to the bed -- Thank you... Good night!

Ben has been making his way into our room several times per night lately and it seems like a dangerous proposition. When something startles me at 3am I don't just slowly lift my head to see what's going on; I sorta kick my legs and feet forward to thrust my torso into an upright position. But if Ben happens to be right where me feet are, well, you can imagine the potential consequence. It really scares the heck out of me, like one day he's gonna get an accidental smack in the nose with the bony feet of someone 5 times his size.

Every once in a while I hear a little noise right next to my face and when I open my eyes it is Ben with his beak right next to my cheek. Again, my instinct is to throw a punch at a figure staring me right in the face as I wake up without warning and the inability to focus on what/who that entity might be. What if it was a burglar or an alien trying to abduct me or a customer who really wants tech support at that very moment? Any of these would require a knuckle sandwich but not my Ben.

I think I need to design a Ben Detection System (BDS) which alerts me to his impending presence and awakens me as he passes through the door from his room. I could be awake enough to make the right decisions. And perhaps another, My Room Threshold Detector (MRTD) so I could perform an immediate If/then/else to determine if I should grab my gun or make space in my bed. Perhaps something like this:

sleep
while(nighttime) do
 if(MRTD)
   wakupandswing if(!BDS)
 end
end
wakeup

Obviously this is just a snippet of Ruby code (via Joe), I'd need to define certain variables and other routines but you get the idea. If only I could implant this into my brain directly. Perhaps I just need to change Ben's PJ's to consist of full Hockey Goalie gear.

Prepare yourself for a meat-filled rant that is guaranteed to knock your socks off! Or maybe it's Tofu. Yeah yeah, if you're a Veggie, I made this from Tofu and if you're a carnivore, this is blood-red meat-filled goodness baby. Well, it's good stuff, okay? Alright!, it's marginal and it's rooted solely in baseless opinion.

My dad sent along one of those messages that contrasts what life is like in America today versus 50 years ago and coupled with my recent reading of the excellent "Can America be saved from Stupid People" by Dave Duffy, I thought I'd toss out a few observations while spewing opinions all over your screen.

Briefly from Dad's note (what 50 years can do):
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Scenario: Jack pulls into school parking lot with rifle in gun rack.

1956 - Vice Principal comes over, takes a look at Jack's rifle, goes to his car and gets his to show Jack.

2006 - School goes into lockdown, FBI called, Jack hauled off to jail and never sees his truck or gun again. Counselors called in for traumatized students and teachers.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Perhaps we're more "enlightened" now and realize that all gun owners are psychopaths or just plain toothless hillbilly wannabes. Or perhaps, just maybe, the very few with the loudest voices and plenty of cabbage have been successful in trying to disarm the people of this country; It's a crucial step to enslavement, you know. While Diane Feinstein "champions" stricter gun control she also has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, something I couldn't get unless I planned on changing jobs. In HER view, *I* don't need to carry a concealed weapon, but SHE does. Is her human life any more important than mine? SHE feels like she's in constant danger and needs a gun on her person. But she's certain that mine is not needed or that I couldn't possibly possess the skills to carry such a thing responsibly. And even if I could, there *might* be an accident with my gun -- Better to just keep that shit away from me, for everyone's sake.

How did this occur? How have we changed so much over the last 50 years? Certainly the pervasiveness of TV and 24 hour news channels has contributed. A 60 second spot highlighting an accidental shooting by a boy upon his friend horrifies people who immediately become ready to support legislation for tighter gun control. Even though more kids die of drowning in shallow buckets of water each year than do by accidental shootings, we see gun laws tightened while no action is taken against those perilous pales.

Thousands of laws have been passed now which restrict our freedom. I cannot legally walk across the street to my neighbor's place with a cracked-open beer to say hey and shoot the breeze; That would be drinking in public and a legitimate reason to be hassled by the cops. They rarely do such a thing but it actually happened to me. I wasn't walking around town with an open case of beer, I cracked my first beer of the day and was two houses away from my own place when a 20-something cop decided to hassle me and eventually have me pour out my beer in the street.

Perhaps the beer incident doesn't seem like much on the surface but the very real and terrifying implication is, the cop could sit there and interrogate me and worse because of a stupid law which was probably "sold" on the notion that if it didn't exist we'd see the streets flooded with drunks while beer bottles rolled in the street. We've just given the omnipotent (the government) the power to silence us.

What if I began taking an active dissenting view and the government didn't like what I was saying? Guess what... there are enough "laws" on the books to ensure that I'm breaking one of them at any given time. It is [virtually] impossible to exist in this country while in the pursuit of happiness without breaking *some* law, so you are *always* at risk.

"Don't be afraid of wire tapping because if you're not doing anything wrong you don't have anything to be worried about". We're ALL doing something wrong on most days, as far as the law is concerned. And so the oppression begins, because you have to stay "under the radar" or risk being hassled (interrupting your pursuit of happiness), fined, jailed or worse. Opining with dissent becomes an extremely risky business.

In China any dissenting voices found are jailed or otherwise "handled". They don't give the people the right to vote on things so they can get away with it. What we're doing now (and have been over the last 75 years) is actually *consenting* to allow the same things to occur to ourselves. "Nah!, you're overblowing it Tom", is what I hear sometimes. We have the highest incarceration rate of any "free" country in the world... why is that? Most (most!) of those in jail are not there for committing crimes which affect others, they're in there for having 'weed' (or some other drug) and are there because they broke the law, one that was put in place because, "if we let folks smoke weed, one of them MIGHT get behind the wheel of a bus and crash into a bunch of people". I say fuck that shit! Let them be and if someone does crash into a bunch of people, THEN jam their ass into a prison cell; Or a coffin for all I care. We're incarcerating people for doing things that MIGHT put them in a position to POSSIBLY do something wrong. Preventative jailing. Nice.

We've gotten soft, folks -- We've gotten stupid too. We need to fire the people on Capitol Hill and put reps in there who want to keep this the "Land of the Free". It's not because I want to smoke weed or carry a beer across the street; It's because I want to be able to tell the government that they suck when they do and not worry about being jailed because of it, due to some [very well planned] loophole in the legal system.

How has this happened? It seems very simple to me: Giveaways! Those who would enslave us (Asses and Elephants alike) would never be voted into office on the basis of pure restriction as a platform. They play to the largest group of people (those with less) and promise to GIVE them some of the stuff from the smallest group of people (those with more). It's a dizzying and irresistible pheromone to much of the population. Let's face it, work is HARD and the notion of getting something for "free" has quite an allure to it. Of course, it's not "free", it's bundled with freedom-removing action too. If you want those giveaways you're gonna have to deal with rights that they plan on removing from you. But those details are buried in small print while the "fun", "freebie" stuff is overstated, restated, stated again and yet again, just to be sure you got the message about the "free" stuff. If I didn't make it clear... "Vote for me for more FREE!".

We need to resist the sugar and vote for people who give two shits about us and our rights. I'm talking about rights for which thousands upon thousands have sacrificed. I'm talking about the serious "Give me Liberty or give me death!" cries from those who came before us from whom this land has been endowed. America was once GREAT; It had heart and people bled to keep it free. During WWII people wailed and agonized over the loss of their sons and daughters; They fell to their knees with inconsolable grief; They replayed the memories of their children in their heads and found solace ONLY in knowledge that what they had given up gave allowance to the rest of them; And all of us who would follow. Folks: We're pissing that away. It's shameful.

I'm not talking about web hosting (though maybe one day I'll discuss that too), I'm talking about a "host" as in having folks over to your house.

Parenting can be a really good start. Let's face it, you get lots of practice asking kids if they'd like something to eat or drink. You even ask them if they need to go potty. Okay, that may be more than you want to inquire with an adult guest. But the point is, kids can help keep your hosting skills sharp. Let me go further with this...

Even though you might feel the urge to yell when your child spills milk at the table (for the 57th time!), it rarely is a good idea. I think the practice of resisting the urge to yell at the table (or at any time) is good for having guests over too -- You'll never find yourself screaming at a guest who spills a bit of wine. Nice bonus, 'eh? Now let's go a bit further shall we?

My pals TQ and Les have three kids with their two youngest being twins and just a few months older than my daughter. The girl's name is a homonym to my daughter's nickname: Abbey. And her brother is Jake. Jake weighs a bit more because he's got an extra chromosome in each and every cell; It's called Down Syndrome, knucklehead. Unless I explained it wrong in which case I'm the knucklehead. I'll assume you're the knucklehead for now, just to keep things simple.

While I have to remember three meals per day for the kids, I don't have to remember to offer snacks between meals, because they will ask me. But Jake rarely does so when he's at my place I have to *remember* to ask him if he'd like something to eat. Otherwise he'd cruise along and never ask while his tummy plays the terrible tune of hunger. Abby and Abbey might ask me for some yogurt and Ben may ask for crackers (usually candy as his first request which is denied quickly most of the time) but Jake will be busy playing with a Dora game or some such. So I've got to put it in my head to ask him. See how the training comes into play? And it's free! The only cost is finding a cool person who is willing to share their Down-Syndrome-enabled child; It's not hard to find them and most of them would love a bit of time to themselves while you get your training. Go find someone today and be a better host tomorrow!

I found this article on CodingHorror and while the guts were interesting I felt it was missing an extremely important piece so I figured I'd remove some pie from the hole in my face to spew a few additional words.

The question itself assumes something that I hope is quite incorrect, that open source folks *desire* to be billionaires, or are overly motivated by money. My hope is the vast majority of people are in fact NOT motivated by huge sums of money but rather, by softening the screams in their head when faced with using crappy software and hopefully lowering that tone in the heads of others by contributing their work.

We all need to make a living and I make a living developing software. That's not really true because it's the smart guys I work with who actually develop the software... I just take the credit. But I get much more satisfaction out of developing a great solution to a problem than I do cashing the check which allowed us to do the work in the first place. I get enormous satisfaction out of delivering something that I know married code excellence with time and money constraints and seeing it perform its job as expected or better.

So where are all of the open source billionaires? They're hacking code, they're getting rid of inefficiencies or vulnerabilities, they're taking feedback and working til the wee hours to push up a new build because the task itself is important and provides the satisfaction. And while money is needed, it is not the focus of all (or most?) who work in open source land. And since we've built our business on open source software; On the backs of those non-billionaires, I'd like to say, "Thanks folks!".

Side Note: If you're Warren Buffett and are thinking of ripping up a billion dollar check with my name on it, I retract all of the above and will step on anybody's head to prove it! Otherwise, I really really meant all of that stuff.

[re; Music Labels, Search Engines, software vendors, etc.]

Sure, that sounds like a radical statement or suggestion, especially coming from a jellyfish like me who would rather let the currents take me where they will. But as the straw mounts, things appear to have reached and unsustainable level; I'm sure they've been this way for quite some time but I'm still shaking the sand out of my ears so please forgive me.

There are hundreds (thousands?) of topics that I speak of here but one acted as the catalyst for this post and that is the craziness associated with pricing for net-based radio. I won't pretend to be an expert in this area but the hints are stained with the same blood type as Patents, Trademarks and many other special interest areas.

I'm all for patents and trademarks, copyright and other earned assurances for creators; I don't want you to go all crazy on me. But we (the general public) have been betrayed in the worst ways over recent years by our legislators and the judges who "interpret" the laws by patronizing the very groups who would bind our wrists, filling their war chests for battle against our own selves. Where laws ought to be written and interpreted in a narrow manner, in the interest of the general public, they are often provided quite a wide berth in the interest of those who would protect their "right" to force us all to carry a horse whip in our automobiles.

Let's look briefly at recent events in "online radio" as it relates to licensing and royalties. A very small group of entities who *claim* to represent artists have [seemingly] persuaded the department in charge of approving such things to dramatically increase fees. That specific topic is for a different time, and hopefully from a person who knows what the heck s/he is talking about. For now I'm discussing the last bastion we have in front of us, our dollars. They (the dollars) are very powerful but the lazy amongst us (myself dreadfully included) far outnumber those who would help keep us on the right bearing.

It's all so simple. If the RIAA/MPAA abuses their position in the world, stop buying music and visiting movie theaters. Do it in earnest; I know it's difficult but we need to show them that our 'finger' is much bigger than theirs.

I know what you're thinking: "If I protested every little thing that I found to be unfair I would have to go back to growing every bit of food I eat and creating every comfort I crave by my own two hands". I'm not suggesting such a thing because I don't think it is entirely necessary. I think if the big, overt offenders are addressed first you'll find that there are less areas to protest because others will fall inline.

An important piece is, we musn't focus on the things that "only affect us directly, right now", because a principle itself can be an extremely important thing. For example, letting the music industry get away with its atrocities may not affect you but the groundwork they're laying now may impact the television you watch some day. I know you Jerry Springer fans (you know, the ones who go to work on Wall St.) would be up in arms if the same sort of fees caused your station to go off the air. We need to combine our strengths and tell those fuckers that they'll not get a dime of ours if they make an egregious move. More...

If Microsoft would hijack our fat fingers in the browser for their own financial gain rather than give us what we're looking for, move to Firefox. And if the Mozilla Foundation colludes with Google for the same, send them the same message; Someone will fill in the gap. Keep 'em straight on a regular basis and we'll find that most will play straight in the future.

Sure, it might take a decade or two for fruit to peek out but in as much time we *will* find ourselves in tighter chains if we do not start the process now.

I'll leave my similar rant on our government "Representatives" for a later date, when I'm well informed. That means: Never.

** I only got the Title of this note written before I had to handle other things; Partially to keep myself busy and partially to do my part at work. I still want to memorialize the pre-knife stuff but I'll add the post-op info too. The point is, my emotions are all different now so much of the meat will be lost. Imagine the difference when interviewing a man who just escaped a burning building versus waiting a couple of days and trying to capture the real emotion... fugetaboutit.

I took Sunny in just around 8am and as per usual, he was terrified. As a matter of fact, he was terrified when we were a mile away from the clinic because he knows the route.

SIDE NOTE: Sunshine loves the car and going for a cruise but lately he's only ended up in the Vet's office so I'm not sure how many more times he'll willfully jump in.

He's a good boy but he gets so darn nervous, because nothing fun EVER happens for him there. It may be good for him but try telling that to a 2 year old when you're trying to put medicine in their eyes for Pink Eye; It may be good for them but if they don't know it, it might as well be purposeful torture.

Where was I? Okay... So we're hanging out in the little doggy room, waiting for the Doc to come in. It was kinda nice because this was more of a doggy *suite* than a room (Note to self: If I go to a doctor for a follow-up and I get the huge, nicely decorated room, get the "F" outta there!). His regular doc was not going to do the surgery so we both sat with baited breath (is that right?) as the door knob twisted. In walked a very nice, older man with a great disposition. Dr. Connelly. He inspired confidence immediately. He is the only doctor that has not asked to muzzle Sunshine (Sunny is not mean but he is 100 pounds and scared so... whatever). He let Sunshine "rush" him and we all settled down and he gave me the poop on what to expect. Sunny had been nervous and made a mess on the floor so I handed Dr. Connelly the poop too. :)

Sunshine got a little injection to calm him down before they took him away from me. I got to sit and read with him for 15 minutes or so while he calmed down and then he was gone. I was kinda sad but handling it well until I pulled up to my driveway. I still had his ball in my pocket and his leash on my lap and I just welled up in tears. There was no pooch to greet me at the gate and my brain began flipping through memories of what we've done together and the realization that we may never do any of those things again began to set in.

It's here I should note that I am NOT a psycho animal owner who let's his life revolve around his pet. But I'm also not one with ice running through the veins. He's my pal and has been for a long time and that means quite a lot to me. Remove the label please. Thank you.

The doctor called right before he made the cut so I could guesstimate how long it would be before I could expect that he'd be done. If all went well it should be ~1.5 hours but it could go to 3 hours if he ran into unexpected problems. After two hours I began to get nervous and at 2.5 hours I couldn't take it anymore so I called to get the skinny on things. It turned out that Sunshine had been out of surgery for 40 minutes but the doc wanted to wait until he came further out of the anesthesia effects before letting me know how things went. Things had gone good! There's got to be a word that means something between relief and elation and that's the word I would use right now (if only I had a broader vocabulary).

I needed to wait a couple more hours while he recovered and they observed him. I picked him up just about 6pm and the doctor filled me in on what had transpired and what to expect over the next weeks.

I had to take him to the Emergency Vet for overnight observation and while they were all very nice, Sunshine had just about reached his limit for me taking him to places other than HOME, only to have him irritated by temperature taking, blood draws, etc. "Sorry bud, this really for your own good". When I picked him up in the morning he was kinda glad to see me but I'm sure he had reservations about getting into the car with me again; Would I take him to some other sadistic, no tennis ball having group of people? I swear I heard the canine version of, "Cirkey!, him again?!?".

He's been home now for a couple of days and looks unbelievably good. It's a struggle to keep him settled down because he's all ready to play ball but I'm not allowed to even contemplate it for two weeks.

So that's it, my brief (hah!) story of where we are so far with Sunshine. When we finish his meds and get to toss the first ball, I'll pop back in with an update.

Okay, I admit this may be a bit of a stretch but perhaps there's a seed of an idea buried in my fantasy notion.

Buying a domain name in the retail market might cost you $10 - $20 with discriminating shoppers able to snatch them up at $7 or so. These are yearly fees so we'll need to keep that in mind.

There are plenty of people making a fair living buying and selling domain names and even more people (making more money!) buying and developing domains, monetizing through advertising networks like Google AdSense and Yahoo! Publisher Network (among others).

What if you bought a domain name for a homeless person? It could be something that simply increases in value as virtual real estate or it could be something that is ultimately developed into an ad-supported revenue stream. This assumes the homeless person has some means of retrieving postal mail (seems weird but I believe there are places to accommodate mailboxes for those without a home).

It would be helpful to have a centralized system to automatically get a domain name started with content, ads, etc. (I like Frank's experiment with wiki technology). Of course, unless the guy buying the domain is also going to get things started off, the homeless person would need some sort of free access to the internet. Does such a thing exist in urban areas?

The point is, buying a domain name could be like starting someone off with a bank account which delivers extremely high returns, perhaps allowing for basic existence (a daily meal?) fueled solely by the interest.

This might seem too difficult given some of the barriers. But think of the TV commercials we see where donating "just pennies a day" can sponsor a child. What if some of those organizations had a method in place for folks to sponsor by purchasing a domain on someone's behalf? Could that not provide the money needed to assist properly? At least in the aggregate?

Perhaps it's a pipe dream but maybe, just maybe, there's something valuable to extract from the basic principle.

My pal Sunshine has been looking a little odd recently. His tummy has been swelling out a little bit and while I thought he was just turning into a fat old pooch, Kerri felt that there might be something wrong. I burned several days waffling over the issue but today I took him in to see the Vet. Glad I did because he's quite sick.

Poor old Sunny has got the big "C", the worst fucking word ever devised by mankind... he's got cancer. Hopefully it is something that can be removed by surgery but I won't know for sure until they open him up next Friday.

For animals things seem a bit less fair. The doctor is "pretty sure" that it is in his spleen and that he can remove it (the tumorous spleen). But this is all based on x-rays. There's a small chance that it is actually one of the lobes of his liver and a smaller chance that it is part of his intestinal tract. Can't tell just yet. I'm sure there are high-end facilities to make a more definitive diagnosis but give the size of the tumor and time, it seems to make more sense to get in and go to work. Funnily, that's how we do problem diagnosis sometimes at VPOP.

I appreciated the Vet's sensitivity to the financial commitment but it was hard to not also feel irritated because he was talking about mine and Kerri's "first child". He was warning me about the cost associated with saving my best pal, the one who virtually never leaves my side; The one who has chased and returned more than 250,000 tennis ball throws. Given my emotional state at the time, I'm sure I would have been just as irritated if he had not given me a ballpark figure. I don't suppose the doc could have provided an acceptable remark at all.

As an aside, I really like this doctor and couldn't think of a bad thing to say about him for the last 6 years we've been taking Sunny to see him.

I'll know more tomorrow when some blood tests come back. Sunshine is tentatively scheduled for surgery on Friday, unless more bad news comes back from the tests.

Kerri added some welcome levity to the situation tonight when she suggested that we rename Sunshine to something like, "Remodel" or "Bathroom" or "Redo"... referencing our bathroom remodel fund we've been stashing away which will be tapped to pay for all of this. It's not with any level of regret that I say this... it's just a funny thing to hear at a crappy time. Actually, no pun was intended but that makes it even funnier, huh?

I'm sure most of you know this already... I've known it for a long time myself; But for some reason tonight I feel like dumping a few comments on the brutally poor quality of the "news" we get from the typical outlets.

Although I believe that often we are fed reports with deliberate skewing meant to manipulate the masses, I also believe that we have eager [pseudo professional] writers who just don't know what they're doing. It's kinda like me on virtually every topic, but I don't publish things in the New York Times.

I was reading a story from the NYT which covered the potential purchase of DoubleClick by Google. There were some ironic anti-trust comments from Microsoft and AT&T but I suppose those are expected. The part that really went over the edge was the following snippet:

"Ad-serving networks like DoubleClick place tiny programs on computers, called cookies, that monitor what sites users visit."

"[C]ookies" are real and used by ad networks but last time I checked, they were not "programs" and they could not monitor what web sites users visit. It's a little deeper than that because if you have enough reach on web sites, you can build a profile of a user by having info sent across the wire for web sites that have your 'code' included on their page(s). But that does not equate to monitoring which sites users visit and a text file (the cookie) is not known as a "program" in any circle I've run in. I could be wrong, I might need new circles, or a brain transplant with a field mouse to improve my cranial capacity.

So was it a malicious attempt to thwart Google's purchase? Was it purely lack of understanding or poor wording in an attempt simplify things for readers? Not sure.

Again, I make mistakes all the time so I'm not trying to throw stones. I'm really writing this for myself to remind that the "mainstream" media is at least corrupt, probably inept and mostly likely a deadly combination of the two. So while it's a good idea to monitor them, it is an even better idea to be skeptical of each and every word they print. It's not just semantics, despite what they might say in defense of this example.

I have two in my home. I (me personally) am the first one. The conversations are frequent and usually start out by someone asking Kerri how an intelligent, great looking, hard working woman like herself could find her same self married to a goofy, loudmouth jerk like "him" (Me!). That kind of chatter could go on for days if I didn't start dragging people out of my house.

The second piece is a life size cardboard cut-out of our current President, Gee Dubya. As goofy, loudmouth-ish and jerky as I might be, I fall far behind the misunderestimated one in terms of feeding fires -- I don't agree with all of his policies or decisions and I can in fact think for myself -- So I love the ensuing conversations. I should note that while I *can* think for myself, I often don't. Surprise!

Sure, I'm fairly conservative (from a fiscal perspective) and I voted with pleasure for the man both times; But I'm not a capital "C" 'Conservative', towing the party line and all that jazz. It's fascinating to experience the reactions I get from both sides when folks walk in to The Garage and see him (G.W.B.) hanging on the wall. I get high-five attempts from Republicans and sneers from Democrats. The nice thing is, it gets us talking and in a minute or two folks realize that while I do have strong convictions, I'm not a card-carrying Elephant. So we get to actually "talk" without me having to bring up any specific subject.

Last night my better half (Kerri) put on a "going away" party for one of her co-workers and a bunch of her team showed up, including her old boss, Carol. I happen to really like Carol (likely the only boss my wife will ever have that I won't think is an idiot) but being an administrator in the health care field provides lots of opportunities to dash towards the Liberal side when fiscal matters arise. Carol saw that 2-D statue and made a real quick remark; I'm sure that she's known about my conservative tendencies from Kerri but aside from that, this was a fairly pure assumption route that I was all for whatever Georgie-boy recommends. Funny.

We got to talk for a few minutes and she was closer to many of my views than she could have imagined... vice versa for me. We got to talk without having the baggage of assumptions because from the get-go we both realized that we had made quick judgments about the other and when faced with that kind realization (that our first, for-sure thought was wrong), we were willing to listen, at least to save ourselves from being woefully wrong yet again. I didn't put that picture up for this purpose but the more I run into these situations, the more I'm thankful that my Mom bought and gave it to me.

I sincerely wish that every conversation I'll have with folks can be as PRODUCTIVE as those I've had when faced with folks who walk in and see my cut-out, whether they love or hate the man. It gets the dialog going and that's what we really need in this world. Or at least in The Garage.

Oh, and check this shit out: I have a chess board/table right next to the "conversation piece"... what better way to set your brain to work than to talk politics while playing chess? That picture and game board may be the path to solving the world's problems. Perhaps they should place that setup in the U.N.? That's a royalty-free observation. Go to work!

When you impose rules which limit users' ability to do what they need for their business, you open the door for someone else to come in and service your customer instead, removing that customer from your income stream. That's my opinion anyways.

Let's say I was a Registrar and I indicated that no domains could be registered through my service if they were "vulgar" in nature. As soon as one of my clients wanted to register such a name and found that they could not through my service, they're off to another service and will likely register all future domains with the new service. That may be a bad example because some folks don't care to have certain names in their database and the lost money means nothing to them. Fine, let's try another example:

Shell access used to be a staple in the hosting environment but many companies have turned off that feature for security purposes or some misunderstanding of how things can work. So if you don't offer shell access and someone needs to SSH into their machine, they'll simply leave and find a service which provides what they need. If other companies did not provide the service you can bet that someone would jump in and fill that gap pretty quickly.

Now let's look at the large ad networks out there; Google and Yahoo!. They've become fairly hostile towards individuals with a plain 'ol parked page. Sure, it can be done if you're large enough or if you go through an aggregator but for the folks with just a handful of domains, they're making it tough. I wonder what is going to happen? I wonder what monster of an advertising facilitator is going to fill the gap? What do GOOG and Y! have to lose? Well, the little guy may very well turn into a big guy, but he's already been chased away. And, this new monster company may woo other huge advertisers away form the two staples. It's opening the door and I think the two biggies are going to be left with tremendous feelings of regret for having pissed on the [for now] little guys. I could be wrong but my guess is that AdBrite or some other soon to be monster stands to gain quite a bit from the policies imposed by the biggies.

This may be old news to many of you but the official date is news to me... I received the following email a short while ago from Verisign:

VeriSign, Inc. and it's wholly owned subsidiaries ("VNDS") is hereby
notifying all registrars of a fee change for .com and/or .net domain names
effective October 15, 2007. In accordance with our contract, ICANN has
already been notified. Details as follows:

1. VNDS' fee for each annual increment of a new and renewal .com domain name
registration and for each transfer of a .com domain name registration from
one ICANN-accredited registrar to another will be US $6.42, exclusive of any
ICANN Variable Registry-Level Fee (as defined in the .com Registry
Agreement) or any other ICANN fee; and

2. VNDS' fee for each annual increment of a new and renewal .net domain name
registration and for each transfer of a .net domain name registration from
one ICANN-accredited registrar to another will be US $3.85, exclusive of any
ICANN Variable Registry-Level Fee (as defined in the .net Registry
Agreement) or any other ICANN fee.

Except for the above-described fee changes, all other terms of the relevant
agreements (.com and .net Registry Agreements and Registry-Registrar
Agreements) remain unchanged.

Time to renew your domains now, possibly for a couple of years as I would expect they'll use every ounce of their ICANN-allotted power to increase their fees 7% every year.

I was just recalling the events of yesterday with my neighbor Matt and realized that I completely forgot to tell all three of you readers about an important piece of the story. It's not funny or remotely interesting but I need to note it for when I've gotten [more] forgetful.

As I walked home from Darin's place I removed the jersey from my back and snuck it into my bathroom, jamming it into a drawer. Then I grabbed a shower and called Ben in to help me shave (because he loves putting a razor blade to my neck). Then, being the clever little turd that I am, I got dressed with the Favre jersey on top and jammed a bunch of socks in the shoulder area so I could look more like a football player, or at least an adult male, and walked out to see Kerri.

You should know that Kerri has a crush on Mr. Favre so I was hoping to capitalize on that notion, something that wasn't as difficult as it could have been, given her quality of eyesight, but also something that even pure blindness would not have pulled off. Darnit!

So that's the story: I came out nice and clean and pretended to be Bret Favre with socks in my shoulder area, wearing a #4 GB Packers jersey. Fascinating, huh?

Oh yeah, I was wearing other clothes too... it wasn't *solely* the Packers jersey... I wouldn't treat your brain that way.

Somehow I came across a stethoscope in my house which is either my original one from when I first started working at a dialysis unit or one of Johnny's that was left behind after a visit. Either way, I have one for the moment.

Ben has been sick for a couple of days now and his condition seems to be degrading; He's running a fairly high fever (103+) and is chalk full of joint pain (at least, that's what I've gathered from the best description a 3 year old can provide). I figured I'd play with my old work gear and have a listen to his heart and lungs. It's amazing how quickly I recalled the distinct sounds and how those sounds yanked out memories from 15 years ago. For me the sounds are more powerful than pictures, much like people describe with smells (I can't smell anything but I'm told that "smell" has powerful recollection properties).

I remember the first time I heard a patient's lungs being full of fluid. I didn't know what the sound was so I asked my boss to have a listen and she clued me in as to what those "whispy" noises were, and how I could get a reasonable feel for how "full" the lungs were based on where I started hearing the sounds. And my first irregular heartbeat. And murmur. Shit, I knew as much as the doctors and nurses after a couple of years. Of course, I didn't, but for a time I *thought* I did. I refer to that time as my "Tom was a pompous, blowhard ass" period.

Ben's lungs sound "gunky", shitty, but they're not full of fluid. His heart is actually beating too fast (140bpm) for me to hear any detail though I'm sure an M.D. could get past that and figure if anything weird was going on. If Ben weren't so sick, this would actually be fun.

Abigail asked if I was playing "doctor" and I thought to myself, "no way!, I'm playing dialysis tech". I want to let her play with the stethoscope too but I'm afraid it might lead to her actually playing "doctor", in the real scary sense for a Dad of a pretty little girl. I can just imagine her hooking up with Matthew (the 4 year old across the street) and... ahhh crappity crap... I need to stop imagining before I make myself sick. Maybe I'll throw this thing in the trash or bury it in a drawer.

Last week I got wind of some "deals" happening on the GB Packers store so I investigated a bit. I ended up buying 6 items that were of the "clearance" nature; Two of the items were genuine jerseys in child sizes. I've wanted a #4 Favre Jersey for a long time but it's like $190 or some such thing so I've never done it. Getting a couple for the kids, on sale, seemed uber cool so I grabbed them and then some tee-shirts for myself and Kerri. In the end, I was looking at a $130 bill for 6 items, as opposed to $190 for a single (SELFISH!) jersey.

All my GB crap arrived today and it is pure sweetness! As I handed out the authentic jerseys to my kids, I was totally stoked for them but part of me was thinking, "wouldn't it be cool if Kerri and I had matching gear?". I really wanted it but I just couldn't justify that kind of cabbage for what amounts to a "shirt". So that was it. Or was it...?

I ended up at Darin's place today (another Packer fan) and told him about our Packer booty and he told me about this poor jersey that he bought two years ago but was a bit too small. He brought it downstairs and it was (Get this shit baby!), a #4 Favre that was too small for him and just a bit big for me. And (*really* get this shit baby!), he GAVE IT TO ME. So on a single day, myself and my two kids are donning GB jerseys. Kerri is also hanging in there with a GB visor and Tee. So we're looking good.

I probably shouldn't be so stoked on such a material item but this simple thing put a wide smile on my skull cover. And Darin just made it happen with a wave of his hand. Very cool. I feel like I'm living that old Coca-Cola commercial where that pro football player gets a Coke from a kid and tosses the kid his jersey. I'm feeling very lucky... again.

[UPDATE] If you want to see me in person, you should do it soon because I'm gonna wear this jersey every day, for the rest of my life (so I might be stinky). This is like being Marcia Brady and having the lead of The Monkeys kiss my cheek... "I'll never wash it again!" Or, I'll take it off tomorrow and wash it -- I'm not sure.

First I'll need to start off with some keywords so if I search this blog in a year I'll be able to find what I'm looking for (that means using proper spellings and the incorrect spellings which is what I'll probably start with): croup, croupe, kroop, "that damn cough that scared the hell out of me last night" (I quoted that because it's a phrase), Ben.

As you might have guessed, I'm noting the local weather patterns like any good scientist would do when Ben gets croup. Unlike Ben's previous bouts with croup, it came on awfully fast this time. I started hearing hints of it in the evening but in just a few hours things escalated, or more accurately, degenerated to the point where we nearly to him to the E.R.

I consider myself fairly well prepared and knowledgeable in the ways of this croup monster so I wasn't terribly worried when things first started going south. But then it happened: That croup shit tossed some new shit in the mix and scared the shit out of me (and that's no shit!).

At 11pm or so Ben started hacking pretty badly but his body was inclined to inhale a large amount of air in order to get a final hack out. The problem was, he couldn't get half a breath in before a cough would be forced out so his body would immediately try again. In fairly short order he was gasping for air but unable to get much before his violent exhale in the form of a cough. This vicious circle last for 20 minutes or so, long enough for us to wake the doctor on call and get ready to take him to the E.R. As I watched his neck muscles flex furiously with each attempt for breath my heart began to race -- It's close to what I always imagined an Asthma attack would look like.

When I was 7 years old my pal Aaron, who I used to see every day, disappeared for nearly a week. When he returned I found that he had had an asthma attack in the middle of the night and ended up in the hospital. That information has been seared into my memory and I'm sure is something I'll perpetually worry about (because, you know, I don't worry enough about crazy things).

Back to the weather: It has been foggy for the past few days but this morning things rapidly switched to dry and windy. In the past we've seen Ben have problems when it went from dry to foggy in a rapid manner. I wonder if it's just the "switch" in humidity levels that causes this monster to appear? Or if it is all just pure coincidence.

Sorta. What do you do when you've had a rough day at work and then switch to a rough evening with the kids? Break out the clippers baby! The kids went from bickering over who is sitting on who's side of the couch to nicely taking turns with the clippers on Dad's head. And I saved myself $12 by not having to get groomed at a barber shop. Of course, it's a little chilly upstairs right now but I've got my handy-dandy Green Bay Packers beanie to keep things under control. No pics... I'm generally ugly but a raw view on my skull puts new meaning to the word.

Kind of a clever headline from sissy Molly. She has been running two blogs for a while; One for the original work she does (screeniac.com) and one highlighting screencasts she finds on the web. Today she is putting all of her eggs in the DemoGirl basket so she only has to focus on one "brand" and has a single place for management of her junk.

Go have a look... she posted a screencast of the basics of using GMail today.

Not for this web site -- I don't have one -- I'd sell your information to the boogeyman if I thought I'd make a nickel. I'm talking about the privacy policy in my house.

Like many parents, I lost all sense of modesty once we had kids. In the shower? "Dropping kids off at the pool" (that's a potty reference)? Anything previously "private" or potentially embarrassing is now shared with the rest of the family. The last time someone did *not* enter the bathroom while I was, ummm, "busy", was at a hotel in Santa Clara and it's only because I left my kids at home.

This morning was no exception; I'm in the bathroom doing a bathroom-like thing and in walks Ben. He wants to know all about what's going on. He wants to know the "whys" and "what's that for" and everything else. And he doesn't want to leave when things get ugly... at the time you *really* want your privacy. So from now on, enter at your own risk; I'm keeping a squirt gun and an air horn next to the toilet!

Got a new entertainment unit yesterday, unpacked the TV and, Voila!, I'm all about LCD baby! Of course, the TV did not include an HDMI cable so I ordered one last night, hoping to improve the picture quality even further.

I suppose there's a reason why LCD TVs don't get as large as Projection or Plasma units -- It looks great form a little distance but it's not so crisp when you're inside of 8'. I'd go so far as to say that my crappy old 27" tube had better quality. Perhaps I just need to tune things a bit or perhaps I'm hosed permanently. Don't get me wrong, I still love it, but I want more... MORE! Anyone know if the HDMI cable is going to solve my close-up problem? Or any other magic device/setting?

Warning: Do not buy your cables from Best Buy (Hah!) or Circuit City unless you also light cigars with flaming $100 bills. Get them online at Monoprice.com and save yourself 80% or more. I got two 15' HDMI cables, shipped with the next day option, including tax, for $22.

I've been eying LCD TVs for a while now but the price has just been too high for me. I finally saw a reasonable deal on a 46" flat panel LCD and decided to order it. I figured, the "big" TV in my house is 12 years old and 27" and with all of the HD mumbo jumbo, it was time for a change (of course, I won't be able to afford to rent any movies for the next 5 years).

This puppy looks nice -- I went and saw it in the store and then ordered online for $200 less. It arrived at my place last week and has been sitting in its box since then, completely unopened. Think about that! 5.5 years ago I would have yanked it out within 30 seconds and it would have been spitting out useless drama in 5 minutes. But the problem now is, I don't have an "official" place to put it yet. If I unbox this sucker it will act on its primary mission, to be a kid magnet. I had visions of Ben jamming a screwdriver through the front in an attempt to see who is living in there. I just need to get a new entertainment unit in place and I'll be cool. But for now, it is *killing* me.

Family update: Ben stands up to pee now. Though he's trying to snag the Willpower title from me by waiting until the last second every darn time. Crikey!

Okay, so he wasn't "lost", but with our busy lives and 900 miles separating us, we all let far too much time pass without hooking up.

Cousin Bryan was our version of "Fun Bob" when we were growing up. Although he is 7 years older than me, he and Joe are only a year apart; Those two were wreaking some serious havoc 25 years ago and they've got the stories (and scars?) to prove it.

There's so much stuff to tell about the weekend and so little energy in my fingers so I'll hit the hot points.

We spent the entire time in The Garage. The end.

Okay, that's not entirely true. We went to a Bowl-A-Thon on Saturday night for a charity sponsored by the Optimist Club (My Dad is the local chapter president this year). It was great fun because several of my siblings were there and all of the kids, mine bowling for the first time. My pal Kirk and his wife Karen showed up too. It was an all around good time. But back to The Garage...

We spent most of our time just hanging out, playing pool and telling war stories. We got caught up on each other's family lives and again, I got to hear some of the untold stories from Bryan and Joe's youth. Sometimes they seemed like survival stories, especially to a youngster like myself.

Moving backwards... my Mom and sisters (and their families) all cruised over to my place to get some "Bryan time", along with Joe's family and a neighbor or two. We could have talked forever but heavy round balls and a chance to win prizes caused a break-up of the party.

Further backwards... Matt came over Saturday morning to say "hey" and had an idea to cook up some Crab Benedict. He is an excellent chef and very meticulous about his craft. He ended up buying all of the goods, bringing his own cookware over and made us all an insane breakfast. Then he cleaned up his stuff and made his way back home. Who has neighbors like this? It was so crazy cool of him I can't find the words to describe it.

I don't suppose I treated my liver very well during Bryan's visit but that's okay; Kerri would surely donate part of hers to me if mine ends up in a Kaput! state. This is likely because we're different blood types and it would be a neat (as in clean) way to get me out of her hair and into the morgue.

Sunday morning came way too soon and we had to pop into hurry-up mode to get out of the house on time to get Bryan to the airport. Saying goodbye is always tough but it was especially painful this time because it seemed that our catch-up time was just getting started. We all promised to not let so much time pass before we hook up again, gave some hugs (Yes, I can hug another man -- I do it all the time. Wait, I, ummm...) and wished each other well. That was it, the end of a mini-era. Looking forward to seeing Bryan again before the year is out.

For those of you who don't know yet, Molly is running two blogs for VPOP. The first is Screeniac.com, a blog where she produces screencasts to introduce Web 2.0-ish companies. The second is DemoGirl.com, a separate blog that highlights screencasts or demos that have been produced by others.

If you're still reading this post, you've missed the point of it; Go check out Molly's work and get stoked!

Verisign announced that it will be increasing the price for dotCOM and dotNET domains this year. You know, because hardware has gotten less efficient and more expensive while bandwidth has become scarce and pricey.

I'm shocked that I'm not more shocked that Verisign was able to get away with ripping off the general public in such a blatant manner. I wonder if cynicalbastard.com is still available?

Thanks for the pointer Frank.

As most of you know I'm constantly tapping veteran parents for tips about anything I might encounter with my own kids. I ran into a friend of mine last week who is coaching a baseball team for his kids and I listened closely as he described how much he enjoys the "task". It turns out that he put up a web site (prayforrain.us) which provides tips for parents of potential players and even potential coaches.

I especially liked the tip about using a Rag Ball to get started learning how to throw and catch. I imagine it can be used just as well to learn how to hit. The main points are that you won't end up hurting anyone with a real ball and you get to actually spend more time tossing the thing around than chasing it down the street.

If you're a parent with kids who will play baseball or if you plan on coaching, check out the site. I think you'll find it very useful. Thanks Bret!

For Superbowl this year we headed out to my pal Jaime's place for his first of what should be an annual party in his new house. I don't know for sure but my guess is that he had 100 or more people over. It was great!

Since Green Bay had a terrible year, I didn't have a huge stake in the victor but I do like Peyton Manning so I pulled for the Colts. It turned out to be a tough position because it seemed that 90 of the other attendees were pulling for Da Bears. I don't have to tell you the type of grilling I endured after the opening kick-off. But I also don't have to tell you who had the last laugh (as I ran as fast as I could away from the angry mob).

Like most trips to the Osbrink place, I got to cruise the property with Ben in the golf cart. It must be a "male" thang but he just can't get enough of driving that thing around. The girls tend to gravitate towards the horses -- It all seems very natural. But speaking of horses...

One of the girls got thrown from her horse and didn't just fall the five feet from horse back to earth, she fell into a hole that was a few feet deep. When I got "on scene" she looked like she was lying in a grave. I think she broke her wrist but I'm not sure how it turned out at the hospital. She sure was tough though... I'd have been crying like... a little girl? Hmmm. Need a new phrase for that stuff.

I came so close to winning the third quarter pool but I needed the Colts to nail that field goal in the closing seconds. They pushed it left, IIRC. One nice bonus was, I had given each of three teenagers a $5 square in the pool since they had been so helpful in getting things setup. One of them snagged the first *and* second quarter booty. To top it off, she offered to give it to me since I had paid for her square. That was uber cool but