This is the time of year that we make a list of all the things we would like to do to our house and to our yard. I know that we can’t be the only ones who do this.

For example, when I was painting the fence for Madison’s First Communion (that was May 5th), I realized how bad our fence is. When we first moved here, we put a fence in that March (2006). We bought the cheapest thing we could find at Menards and installed that. I can’t complain too much since the fence has lasted this log. However, while painting, I realized that we have definite sections that are rotting. Badly. To be honest, I will be surprised if the fence lasts the rest of this summer. That being said, we have started looking at our fencing options. We’ve seen some fencing that you put a pipe into the ground instead of having to dig holes for the posts. That sounds heaven sent!

We had Bill’s cousin check out our air conditioner too. Last summer, it did not work at all. However, this summer, so far, it seems to be working. He checked all of our PVC Duct work. I’m hoping if anything needs to be fixed, its something as easy as Lasco fittings or any other CIS pieces. However, it is like 90 degrees out right now, and I am cool. That’s all I ask for. However, the air didn’t go out until July last summer, so keep your fingers crossed that we don’t have a repeat performance!

At some point, we will be cleaning out our junk room in the basement too. I’m hoping to reorganize that so you can get in there and the attic needs some major reorganization.

What home improvements are you thinking about doing this summer?

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Tonight’s Deadliest Catch show is the one I’ve dreaded all season.  We weren’t home tonight, and I was literally sick to my stomach about whether I should watch it tonight or not.  We all knew this was the show Phil Harris dies.  There was no more hoping he pulls through.  If you have  not seen the show yet, just know as soon as they start playing Johnny Cash, you need to get the tissues out.  The most heart wrenching part?  When Josh had to call Jake (who had went off to rehab since he dad seemed to be doing better) and tell him that their dad didn’t make it.  (My heart is breaking again just typing that).

I just have to say that Discovery handled this with class.  Honestly, they couldn’t have done it any better.  After The Catch was funny stories about Phil.  He wouldn’t have wanted an hour show about him with us crying the whole time (though when Sig got a little teary eyed at the end there I almost lost it again).

Josh and Jake — I hope you find a way to buy the rest of the boat.  Having met you last week (Josh), you are a class act and you boys only deserve the best that comes your way (and try not to beat the crap out of Jake next season).

I can only believe that Phil is looking down from Heaven in amazement with all the lives he’s touched.  I’m sure he never knew what an impact he’s made.

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Ok, if you have this TIVOd or missed watching it, quit reading right now!  If you don’t watch the show, well none of this will make sense.  I have to say that this was one of the best premieres ever!  Seriously, Nick steps back into the mess we like to call the Darling family.  Jeremy is after Nick’s wife who succombs to his kiss when he gets her drunk (though I can’t figure out why it was okay for him to kiss Karen but heaven forbid his wife does the same thing!).  Karen turns down Nick (who saw that coming?) for a kiss or more.  Now, I can’t tell for sure if Karen really fell for Simon or if they are still playing the game.  I also would love to know who he called after Karen left.  That I haven’t figure out yet.  I really don’t get why Patrick didn’t call the police after his wife hit her head?  He didn’t do it, so I don’t know why he had to cover it up.  The end of the show was the biggest surprise ever!  We all thought that they were coming for Patrick.  Instead, they arrested Letitia for Nick’s dad’s murder! Personally, I think she’s being set up.  I think this is a loose thread that the series will always have as a back story.

This is going to be a great season of Dirty Sexy Money!

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This video angers me. If you know somebody with autism, it will anger you too!

I cannot believe that he equates loudmouth kids to those who have autism. My cousin is a special education teacher too. They don’t give the answers to anybody. Obviously, he has never dealt with children with disabilities before be it a learning disorder or autism. Heaven forbid, they need an extra hand. I guess if you’re not normal according to what the textbooks say, society should just throw you away or you’re destined for only getting an education online so no one has to deal with you.

I understand that the prevalence of these disorders are going up. Could it be that we have better intervention techniques now so that we can catch these kids early and get them the help they need?

Let me know your thoughts on this!

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I know I have talked about how much I love Entrecard.  They are a great way to drive traffic to your blog and have a great community.  Today, some cool changes took place and some not so cool changes too.

First, the cool changes.  Now, you can see how many times a person has dropped their Entrecard on you.  It also lists your last 5 posts that you have done on your blog.  Both are very cool changes that I think are great.

Now, onto the not so good changes.  The change that I absolutely hate that happened today (without any warning) is that you can only drop 600 cards per ip.  Now, if you have one blog this is no big deal.  However, if you have more than 2 blogs in the system (I have 3), this royally screws you.  How?  Normally, you can drop 300 cards per account you have.  Since I have 3 accounts, I was dropping up to 900 cards a day.  Yes, I actually do read the majority of those blogs I was dropping my cards on (not everybody updates daily or weekly).  It would take me several hours a day to do.  However, the traffic that I received from that made it well worth me doing.  By looking at my entrecard stats, I can definitely see the difference in my traffic depending on the number of cards I dropped.  More cards = more traffic.

Now, this not only effects me.  This effects every person who has more than 2 blogs in the system.  If I drop evenly between my blogs, I will drop only 200 cards per blog.  I am losing out on potentially 100 more drops (if everyone reciprocates).  If this is the case, this blog will never make the top three spots nor will my other two blogs since I won’t be able to reciprocate everyone who drops on me.  I am also going to assume that the top three blogs are people who only have a single blog in the system.  If that is the case, they will be dropping 300 cards to my 200 on a daily basis.  Tell me how I ever catch up to the lost traffic.  The top spots got there by dropping 300 cards daily.

This change effects anyone who uses a shared computer and/or ip to do their drops.  Husbands and wives won’t be able to both have accounts and not effect each others ability to drop.  People won’t be able to drop (or be limited) from work if anybody else in the building does Entrecard.  And heaven forbid, if you have to use an internet cafe or library to drop.  Who knows if somebody already used up the 600 drops off those ips?

What’s the reason for this change?  Well, according to Phirate (one of the head guys of Entrecard):

It’s not a penalty, it’s just our only real rational response to people creating multiple “spam blogs” and going nuts dropping a thousand + per day. Unfortunately, some legitimate users will get caught in the cross-fire.

Well, go after the spam blogs.  Set up a system where the blogs have to be 30-60 days old and have 10 posts or so.  That should weed out a bunch of them right off the bat.  I would think they would rather be able to say that they have 7,000 good blogs in the system instead of 6,000 good and 1,000 not so good.

Another issue with this is that it is pretty easy to change your IP.  If you use AT&T like I do, it is simple (just a pain in the butt to have to do everyday).  I won’t go into how you do it, but if I know how to do it, the spammers definitely do to.  Also, another way around this is to use a proxy.  Again, if I figured this out, so can the spammers.

Entrecard, I love your system.  It does exactly what it is suppose to — it drives traffic to my blogs.  However, you are hurting the very people who make the system great.  I would think that you would want your best users to be able to put more of their quality blogs into the system.

If you agree, please let them know.  From the few people I have talked to like Jenn, I am not the only one who doesn’t agree with this change.  Entrecard has made tons of changes based on what the users want.  I am hoping that the users can bring about change again.

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