New Web Host

Yes, I am at a new web host. The third one during the month. I am now with Network Solutions. I figured with all of the trouble I have been having, it made sense to pay a little extra and go with one of the Big companies. Everything there has been good, although this morning it seemed like all of thier servers were running really slow. It is all working OK right now. I am getting all of my email, I am able to get into their control panel, and I am able to FTP.

I have to go and reset everything on blogger.com again, so that it will publish my wife and my blogs. Let us see if this blog shows up!

Email blocking spam

So, the truth is that my new domain hosts, hostexcellence.com do have spam blocking at the server level. After talking on the phone to someone there, they said "OH you mean the blacklisting service? We have that, we just do not filter spam. We do have spam blocking." Apparently we were not speaking the same language.
They have not updated thier spam blacklist information for over two months, which means that legit people are having thier email blocked, and spammers are not.

I am looking for a new web host. Again. Bummer.

Moving Domains and hosts

I have recently moved my domain verystrange.com. I am now having troubles with my email. It seems that somewhere between when some people send me an email, and my email server, that some spam filter is killing their email. My domain host claims that they have no spam filter. The sending email host claims they have no spam filter. But somehow in between, all of the messages are getting kicked back.

Hmmm....

I understand how bad spam is, but if the spam filters are not allowing legit email through, what good are they? How does anyone justify filtering email without either the sending party or the intended recipient being asked?

Why is the strength of the north pole less now than it was 20 years ago? How does that effect my digital compass built into my watch?

Auctions at church

On Saturday, Feb 5th we went to a missions fundraiser at our church. It was SO much fun. My wife and I had received our state tax refund the day before. We originally planned on spending it on sushi and a night out for ourselves. We ended up spending it and a little more at the auction. I do not know about the value of the items that we received, but we had lots of fun. Knowing that the next mission to St. Lucia will be a little better funded brings us great joy. Both of our kids had a great time. We also got to eat. And eat. And eat.

At the end of the auction, when they were putting all of the desserts away, Ethan, my 6 year old, was taking two plates of desserts to the car. I thought that was a little funny and said OK, as I was sure that most of the left over desserts would end up getting thrown out. I did not realize that he did that several times. When we tried to get into the car, we had to move the 7 desserts that he had carried to the car. It was very funny. Apparently he overheard someone say to "Take some desserts home", and decided that he would comply.

I Love that boy!