1AND1.com SUX

This is nice. Looks like my host www.1and1.com LOST ALL MY DOMAIN !!!!!!! Every picture, every genealogy page, every blog, my front-page, all my index.htm pages, EVERYTHING !!!!!

And they've sent me an email saying "Our Administrators

already provided us an update about it and we apologize because they
cannot get any back up and there is nothing to restore for it."

That's just great.

Vinnie with Grandpa and Grandma

Trying to get out of a non-publishing funk. Here's a quick vid of Vinnie munching out with Grandma and Grandpa while in Peoria - nothing too interesting - just a captured moment in time.

Pitching Washers

In keeping with our "stuck-in-the-middle white trash poser" theme, Adena and I have recently started playing WASHERS. A niftly little game requiring only heavy washers, some scrap PVC pipe and beer-drinking time.

This is a picture of Adena pitching a washer. In this actual pitch she made a "ringer" - the washer went into the hole - actually I think this is called a "cupper" - I'm still working on the nomenclature.

I went down to our local hardware store to buy the washers. I already had scap PVC pipe laying around for the holes. Come to find out, they had a little kit already made up in the sports section of the hardware store. The washers were the right weight and already painted and everything for only $10. Super cool. I called my South Illinois relatives and asked what the rules and distance of the holes should be, popped open a Busch beer and started playing immediately. Oh what fun.

For a simple test to determine if you live in a cool community or not, go down to your local hardware store and try and buy a pre-made "Washers" game. If they have it, then you know where you live is cool.

You can also always come to Wimberley and play at my new washer pit next to the garden. I since have put up a little mister system in the trees over-hanging for those 105 degree days.

All the aluminum cans go into this nice wire circle I made also. You know I'm a "greenie" white trash kinda guy. (smile)


Oh, for added decorations, you can always steal a road sign and place it nearby, giving your washer pit a sense of location. I stole this from ..... well, ... it's kind of obvious. (grin)

You say Narcissistic, I say .... Just Plain Amazing!

Hope I'm not being self-absorbed here..... but,... damn... I am cute.

Life Can Be Beautiful

Blessings Are Hard to Come By

Goodness, gracious ... who is that beautiful bride with the gorgeous smile about to be married off to that handsome young groom? These two people sure do love each other and I've never been to a wedding where two people seemed happier. I was highly honored to be there and to indeed even perform the ceremony. Thank you Josh and Erin for the honor.

I love this man and his newly wedded wife. He deserves happiness in his life. And Lord knows, that's hard to come by.

Blessings .... Blessings .... and more Blessings to all who seek such happiness. And triple Blessings to those who are able to snatch on to it tightly "forsaking all others" when they do find it. Hang on to it with all your might.

Blessings really are hard to come by.

The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth

Valerie Tarico wrote the book THE DARK SIDE which I'd like to read but probably won't because I can imagine most of what she says here. There seems to be a whole rash of these kind of books and blogs coming out. I have to wonder if there is possibly an exodus movement away from Christianity.

Product Description
Most Evangelical Christians earnestly strive to worship the God of Love and Truth. But a belief that the Bible is literally perfect puts them in the odd position of defending falsehood, bigotry and even violence. What do Evangelicals teach? How are these teachings distorted? How do they contradict humanity's shared moral core, including the highest values of Christianity itself? Psychologist Valerie Tarico is an ex-fundamentalist and a graduate of Wheaton College, bastion of Evangelical education. As a young adult, secure in the confidence that "all truth is God's truth," Dr. Tarico committed to follow her questions wherever they might lead. Ultimately they led her out of Evangelicalism. Tarico's book, The Dark Side, examines the moral and rational contradictions that caused her to abandon those beliefs that once structured her life. In their place it offers perspectives that are compatible with love, logic, and the quest for truth.