Tonight we attended the Tulsa County Bar Auxiliary's Barristers' Ball at the Southern Hills Country Club. The advertisements for the event said that it would be held outdoors under a tent. While I'm sure the enclosure may technically fall under the definition of a "tent," one doesn't often expect a hermetically sealed air-conditioned environment with chandeliers, plush carpet and no hint of anything resembling tent poles.

Themed "Have Your Cake and Eat it Too," the event included cake-decorating demonstrations and a silent auction of handcrafted artisan desserts and baking and cooking related items. There was also a putting green, great music and delectable food and drinks.

Everyone had a great time and it all went to support several worthy charities: Lakeside Home, a residential treatment facility; Wright Elementary for Partners In Education; and the Tulsa County Bar Auxiliary Memorial Scholarship Fund.

You know you're jaded when you're walking through the courthouse and you hear a young woman breakdown uncontrollably crying, barely able to articulate long drawn out "no" in between the sobs...and you have no instinct or desire to turn your head because you've seen it so many times before. A lifetime of poor choices catching up to someone all at once.

Unfortunately, I had to make a return trip and saw the all too familiar inappropriately dressed white trash who was still coming to grips with the fact that her just convicted significant other was going to be going away for a while.

I wonder how many people would grab scalding hot containers right out of the oven with their bare hands if they knew they wouldn't feel the pain until years down the road. I'll bet a frightening percentage wouldn't bother to reach for the potholders.

Every few months I get an email from someone named Danz who wants to know if we are related. Two weeks ago, I received an email from a cousin, Louis "Dan" Danz, with who I had not previously corresponded. He mentioned that the cousins probably don't keep in touch as well as they/we should. That's when the idea of a Danz Family forum came to mind.

After two weeks of work installing the generic forums and modifications, tweaking the code (including my first experiences with php and mysql), testing and adding some content to get the ball rolling...I am very pleased to announce the opening of the Danz Family forums.

Unfortunately for most of you reading this and particularly disappointing to my stalker (inside joke), the forums are only for persons with the last name Danz and their immediate relatives. However, anyone can click on over and check out the layout if nothing else. If you are a Danz and want an invitation code, which is needed to join, just send an email to:

...and tell me a little about yourself and I'll send you an invitation code. If you are a Danz, I hope to see you on the inside and that you'll enjoy getting to know and keeping in touch with other Danz family members.

Mary and I are expecting our second child in July. Here is little brother or sister (we won't know until s/he arrives) looking at the camera and in profile giving the thumbs up!

Whoops!, sorry Firefox users. Looks like the YouTube video I posted of Jason McElwain causes problems with Firefox. While little glitches like that bug me to no end, I just don't have time to fix it right now as I'm working on too many other projects. I'll try and fix it in the next day or two. One of the projects which is competing for my time should be ready to go live this coming weekend.

[Update] The problem with Firefox and YouTube is fixed. I had an extra unnecessary snippet of code that was causing the problem.

I make a lousy Simpsons character.

Perhaps you can make a better one yourself.








[Update] Va va va voom! Mary created her own self-portrait!

I must say, her character looks more like her than mine does me.

Mary and Drew were busy this past week making a surprise birthday cake for yesterday's festivities.

Drew watched carefully over the mixing of the ingredients and taste tested the results.

Mary reduced our standard sheet size numbers so that two would fit on one sheet.

Since it was a surprise, I wasn't around for the icing, but I'm told that Drew was quite the helper.

With fire extinguisher nearby and with the assistance of a grill lighter set on maximum, the candles were lit. The big candle on the zero is a tombstone with the inscription, "Here Lies My Youth."

Interstate 40...I-40...I am 40...get it?

Here's a hint from a year ago.

I came home tonight and, as usual, Drew was all excited. Here's how the conversation went:

          DREW: Daddy's home!
          ME: Hi Drew.
          DREW: Cake.
          DREW: Card.
          MOM: Drew!

There's no keeping secrets around here.

Just thought you might want to know who's running this website. Here's Drew, mocking a liberal troll's attempt to state a coherent argument.

I was wondering if I could possibly care less about the Academy Awards. Hmmm...nope, not possible.

Hollywoods' utter failure to mention at last year's Oscars, or ever since, the murder of Dutch film director, Theo van Gogh, by an Islamic radical because he made a film that dealt with violence against women in Islamic societies has forever solidified the entertainment industry's utter irrelevance to anything but superficial self-aggrandizement.

I could go on and on about the worthlessness, hypocrisy and outright damage to society that Hollywood does, but I'll have to leave that for another day.