We interrupt the important and momentous events usually happening on this blog because… well, Courtney has tagged me. (See rules above)

 7 random/wierd things about Ted:

(please note that I am currently running a fever, judgement compromised, and cannot be held accountable for anything I may say.  Feel free to blame Courtney.) 

1. For a brief period of time I was considered an expert on Elvis by my hometown newspaper.  (In reality I know surprisingly little about him)

2.  I knew that I would marry my bride the first moment I saw her.  This led to much awkward and uncomfortable silence between us since she was only 14.  (I’m a very mature 9 months older)

3.  I owned my dream car, a 1967 Mustang, that I had professionally restored.  I loved it a good bit more than I should have and God took it away, actually via a rather large explosion originating in the gas tank, but that’s a whole other story.  God used this experience to teach me that the material is fleeting.  I do still get a little misty when a pretty Mustang rolls by, though.

4. I once auditioned for the Broadway cast of RENT.  (I have still never even heard the music from RENT, but a number of people have informed me it’s probably for the best I didn’t make it.)

5. My senior year of high school, my nick name was “Paris Silk” and I was known by this even at rival high schools by people I had never met before.  Jeff still calls me this, occasionally.

 6. I am the only one of three brothers not to have red hair.  In fact, my brother, Tim, used to tell me I was adopted as a child, because even our Irish Setter had red hair, but I did not.  Strangely, I was terribly concerned about this, despite the fact that neither of my parents have red hair.

 7. Somehow, at dinner parties, or when meeting new people I often wind up having to diagnose their computer problems.  I used to think this was because I worked on computers for a living.  Somehow, though, even now, this continues to happen to me.

 Ahhh.  Now to inflict this on some other people, like …

1. Trace at Adventures in DiCoccoville (hop over and read about their amazing adventures in South Africa)

2. Durand at CreativeWorks (Durand is also with GEM doing media work, but in Ireland)

3. John at  johnandheather.com (They do really great work ministering to kids in Peru)

4. Bennie at The Gonzales Family (They are in Ecuador planting a church)

5. Emory, who’s web site is parked, but who seems to know virtually everyone on facebook, so hopefully he’ll respond there.

6. The Holabecks, who rock the house in Cambodia.

 7. Janet in Zambia who is apparently quite the rule breaker. 

At this point, the site works with Internet Explorer but might not work perfectly with other browsers. DonateLinq is aware of the problem and is working to make it equally usable on all major browsers (FireFox, IE, Safari, AOL, Netscape, etc.).

After all my recent browser compatibility woes, I feel their pain. For the time being, if you have any trouble, please let us know.

For my geekier readers (Courtney, Jeff, Bill – this is for you):

The site is now hosted on a CentOS 5 machine connected to a T1. It has it’s own static IP, a dual core Intel Pentium D 950, 4gb of ram, and a nice pretty RAID array. My inner geek is doing a little happy dance.

Thanks!

UPDATE: 5:18PM EST – I think everything is working. The page doesn’t look right in IE6 and loads kinda slow (also in IE6). I’m not sure what to do about that as it looks great in IE7, Firefox and Safari. If you see any errors, etc, please let me know. Meanwhile, back to trying to find a solution for IE6…

I believe I have the problem resolved now, and thanks to the miraculous advance of technology, have been able to eliminate several layers of complexity in the way the system functions. Thus reducing the potential for future problems.

Anyhow, sorry for the trouble. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!

Here are some quick links to get you started:

Why the new format?
What’s going on with our family?
What can we be praying for?
What’s going on in Europe right now?

There is also a calendar, archives by month, and a link to make a faith promise to our mission if that is where God is leading you. We hope that you enjoy our site and will take a few minutes to leave a comment or two before you go. God Bless!