I have been planning since early April to switch hosting providers, redesign my website in valid xhtml goodness, and migrate over to using movable type. Well over the last few days, those plans have started to come to fruition.

I've got a new host with all the features I need with room to grow. I've got a fresh new site design that I can't wait to show off, and which I hope will be swappable in the future. And now, I have the domain transferred and name servers in place so I will soon be able to get movable type configured.

My old hosting account doesn't expire till November, so worst case scenario, I will drag out the rollover till then as I get my design tweaked and mySQL database squeaky clean. On the bright side though, I think it will only take a few weeks. Stay tuned for updates.

Or should that be fat of sugary goodness? As far as Ames and I are from the typical roles of domestic housewife and working husband, she is a culinary juggernaut (thanks Robby). With a chef for a mother, it's easy to see where she gets it from, but she's always trying to out-do herself. Usually she tries to come up with mostly healthy meals for us. Whenever we get together with our young married friends for a potluck however, her main goal is to get Suz Upp to say that it's "Killer".

Tonight's theme is finger foods and we're putting together an amazing fruit kabob tray with dip and a pot of bacon wrapped, brown sugar marinated, lil' smokeys. I just transfered them from the oven to the warming pot this morning so they can continue to simmer while we're working today and...well...they're going to be GOOD!

After several days of windy, rainy, tropical storm conditions, it's finally sunny outside. Yes, Frances has slowly meandered it's way out of the state that it has been trudging through for so long. Amy and I really wanted to drive down to Vero Beach where we both grew up and where both sets of our parents weathered the worst conditions of this massive hurricane. Fortunately everyone we've talked to down there is healthy and optimistic despite some house damage and an uncertain amount of time until power is restored. If we weren't worried about getting stuck down there, we proabably would have driven down on Sunday, but now it's looking like next weekend may be the best time to head down and help with repairs.

By the time she got to Gainesville, Frances was moving through a bit faster and was downgraded to a tropical storm, but still packed enough punch to tear out trees like this and knock out power to most Gainesville residents. I can hardly imagine what Vero Beach is looking like these days. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those who were affected by this storm.

Update: I saw a lot of people getting 404s when being referred by Authentic Boredom so I set up this page so you all could find it instead of a search for: archive-ind.php?id=95

Couldn't help working on this. Cameron Moll asked if there was an easy way to create a star that tapers in instead of out in Illustrator like the one on the right. Here's an easy to follow 7 step tutorial. -Enjoy

1. Create a Star with the Star Tool.
   
2. Create a Circle with a diameter just smaller than the outer points of your star.
3. Select both the circle and the star and Use the
   "Vertical Align Center"
   and "Horizontal Align Center" buttons in the align toolbar to...align them.
4. Use the
   "Intersect Shape Areas" button on the Pathfinder toolbar to cut off the points (and give you more than one point on the tips of your star.
   
5. Goto: Object->Expand Appearence
6. Moving around the star, with the "Direct Selection Tool" (the white arrow) hold down shift and choose each clockwise-most point on the corner of each star tip.
   
7. Using the Rotate Tool, move those points more clockwise to create a star that tapers in. It's fun, it's different than all other prefab star shapes, and it looks like something from "That 70's Show". The rest of the gradients and style funnery are up to you once you have the shape.