I've been spending some time of late setting up a new server to host the site. Please be patient with me.

What an incredible weekend! Family reunions, sleepy egg hunting, family breakfasts, easter dresses, bike rides, water balloon fights. Check out the highlights.

Diminimus is a blogless wanker. /rude

Bubble wrap You know who you are.

What would Bush look like as a girl?

Looks like this might be a pretty decent year for wildflower blooms in Death Valley. I'm thinking April 3-4 might be a good time to head out and check them out. Let me know what you think. Death Valley Wildflower Report

This weekend we celebrated Berlynn's Birthday! I have higher resolution copies of these pictures. Send me an e-mail if you want a copy.

Steve e-mailed me this pic of the Conman yesterday. I like it.

Lars sent me this excellent picture of Rainbow Basin from a good altitude. The road is Fort Irwin Road. Rainbow basin

Um...ok

Home .Born of us ........your father and I .we know that ......it is time ......you are finally ..................home . .You are home .........earth, clay .home ......in wood, milled and shaped ..................for you . ......lengthened and measured . crafted and born ......we are ..................finally ........bringing you home

We've got lions and tigers...only in Kenyaaaaaa

Conrad and I had the good fortune to spend the afternoon wishing Kaili a happy birthday! ...and many more kiddo... (my sincerest apologies for initially spelling young Kaili's name incorrectly. I am sadly human...)

I got a good chuckle out of this cartoon as I pounded away on my keyboard today.Denial of Service (DoS) Attack Resource Page

A few of us have started up a writing circle. You can find the forum here. Some of these people are very good writers and in all honesty, much better than myself. I'll take solace in being the person running the board.

EntropyHed:: <---green with envy Astenar:: offers him an olive branch EntropyHed:: coos like a dove at the sweet offering Astenar:: eh? (can't see the forest for the trees) EntropyHed:: nope hills are to greece-y Astenar:: hehe...I'm doing colors, you're doing geography. Pun madness EntropyHed:: wish i could have posted that part-anon Astenar:: you could publish a column EntropyHed:: nah i want to urn it Urda:: Don't be a doric EntropyHed:: lol Urda:: EntropyHed:: bust-ed!!! Urda:: I've lost my marble EntropyHed:: so if i was a flower removed from a vase in athens, could you say i was "ode to a grecian urn"? Urda:: oy...my aching temple Astenar:: gads...the humor in here is pretty spartan Urda:: it's practically ionic EntropyHed:: *watches flea grab her persius and leave, disgusted* Astenar:: and what of Dirk? Though puns have always been his Achilles heal Urda:: he's hunting his golden fleece Astenar:: off on some odyssey? EntropyHed:: hey dirk! what's up homer! Urda:: Hey E...did you ever clear up that electra-cal issue? Urda:: I understand it was a clash of the titans EntropyHed:: yeah it was the car-man (obscure off topic pun) Urda:: you better get a kraken EntropyHed:: oooooo Urda:: (studied ancient greek mythos in college.../snicker) Astenar:: wow, you sure are roman all over the spectrum of puns Urda:: it's all greek to me Astenar:: chews on a mars bar Urda:: Troy that one on for size Astenar:: moves on to a caesar salad Urda:: et tu steve? Astenar:: tries to make a Plato scultpture, but ends up eating all the blue Urda:: Astenar:: rolls down a trojan Urda:: :P Urda:: take it to the arena EntropyHed:: about those lions, I'm pretty gladiator, she was not useful anyway Astenar:: they should send those damn lions back to their respective zeus Urda:: I hear they have a rare species of aquaduck there Astenar:: Hera-sy! Urda:: punning is often hit or myth

hey. yeah you. come here. underneath my clothes... i'm completely NEKKID!!. think about it.

there now stands a youthful citadel in my backyard, and there was much rejoicing. today as i sit here thinking back over the weekend it strikes me as a qualified statement of hope. (for those of you i didn't recruit to help build it, a little background may be useful. conrad received one of the wooden playsets that have become fairly common. it has 3 swings monkey bars, a climbing wall, and a bumpy slide, not to mention the wooden roof, a hundred thousand lag bolts and millions of wood screws. and now it stands shading the setting sun. ) hope. hope for the future is a complicated emotion for me now after losing connor. for 5 years now, the future is something that i have avoided, well, almost pathologically. why? when i imagine the future with my family it's always tagged by the words "if they don't die". those of you that haven't walked down this particular path may find that an odd feeling to have resonating like a tone in the background of your life. but it will sound familiar to some of you. like i said, it's sort of complicated. now, i have this structure in the back half of my yard. wooden, tall, splintery, still unsanded and un-waterproofed, brand new. with no real memories, but future ones. friday play days with his play group, bare feet and summer heat, perhaps broken arms, or legs, the inevitable structural modification, dirt clod and orange wars - a future filled with the stuff of life. hopefully. bleh. complicated. and here i am, standing in my head looking at it and thinking it's not built with wood and metal, but emotions. and not just this plaything but everything. all things colored through "me-colored glasses". painted with hope, love...and fear. painted by my past. is there another way to see it? not that I've found. inside the house there is another wooden thing that i built with my hands. smooth and cool, painted from a palette of rage, confusion, sadness and love. but i'm not ready to talk about that one yet. maybe tomorrow. maybe never. e.

Many, many thanks to everyone who came over last weekend to help build Conrad's playset. He absolutely loves it and I couldn't have done it without y'all. I've posted some pics. If anyone else has any they'd like to see, e-mail me and I'll link 'em. Love you guys. *sniff* Playset creation