Tuesday, May 02, 2006

This Blog is Moving to New Quarters

I Have Moved!


I finally got switched over to Movable Type. Blogger is nice, and it's free, but MT gives me all kinds of new flexibility. Plus, I've had plenty of practice with it, since I've designed several blogs for work using Movable Type.

I'm also switching names. "Whatever" will now become "RandomPokes." That's the name of a column I did in the United Brethren magazine for 14 years. The column is kaput, but I'm still writing stuff. Might as well resurrect that name. (I'm also using that name for my commercial site where I sell Powerpoint slides for churches, but that site the .com version, whereas my blog uses the .org extension.)

So, please re-bookmark your browsers. My blog is now located at this address:

RandomPokes

That is: www.randompokes.org

Monday, May 01, 2006

The Bridal Shower Alternative

Yesterday afternoon, Pam and I went to Convoy, Ohio, for a wedding
shower. My niece, Paula, is getting married on June 24 to Tom, a guy
I wholeheartedly approve of. I, of course, was not invited to the
shower. Pam was, though. So I dropped her and Mom off at the Convoy
United Brethren Church, and then went over to the parsonage (where my
brother Stu lives), to hang out with my two brothers, Tom, and Stu's
sons Benjamin and Jonathan. There was, among us, no sense of being
"left out" of the festivities (i. e., silly little games) which are
allegedly common at bridal showers. We, instead, talked about
computers and dogs, and did some grunting.

Benjamin, who is 21, bought a house in Willshire, about 20 miles
away. It's a two-story house sitting on three lots, with a separate
brick building. This place is a true fixer-upper, but when you
realize he got the thing for just $10 grand, it's a steal.
Fortunately, Benjamin knows handyman-type stuff; Stu seems to have
hogged all of Dad's handyman genes, since me and Rick sure didn't get
any of them. Anyway, Benjamin took me (and my brother Rick) over to
his house. Yeah, the thing is torn to pieces, with stuff everywhere.
Benjamin sleeps on a couch in what will be the living room. But I
say--good for him! He's willing to put all the work into totally
renovating this house, and when he's done, it's gonna be worth a
whole lot more than he paid for it.

The shower ended, and I did get some leftover cake. Paula and Tom
hauled their loot upstairs. I guess they're looking for a house to
rent. Better hurry.

Back in Fort Wayne, Rick, Dorene, and their two kids stopped by our
house. We ordered the aforementioned Hungry Howie's pizza, which
they'd never had. Pizza, regardless of brand, always works at Dennie
gatherings. Rick and I were both bummed to learn that the Lakers had
taken a 3-1 lead over the Phoenix Suns. This just can't happen. Kobe
cannot be validated.