As you can see, Will very much enjoys his baths. He's just as good natured in the water as out. It's best to keep his hands busy though, otherwise he'll splash up a storm.

Will is a heat-seeking missile when he's asleep. Nothing will keep him from finding a warm body and cuddling up as close as possible. Once contact is made he'll continue to periodically drive his feet like a football player pushing a practice sled. In the photo, Drew and Will started out parallel. But, Will sensed his target, turned 90 degrees and drove himself into his brother. Drew in his soccer shirt and rosy cheeks was simply too tired to protest.

I had a long meticulously researched post almost complete about the history of Memorial Day, comparing it to Veterans Day and Armed Forces Day along with a good dose of evidence condemning the liberal media. Then I saw this picture of 8 year-old Christian Golczynski receiving the flag from the coffin of his father, Marine Staff Sgt. Marcus "Marc" Golczynski who was killed in Iraq on March 27, 2007...my post can wait until next year.

Thank you to all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation...and to their families.

Drew has two phone talking modes: walking in circles and chilling out. Here he is showing off the latter. In the future, young ladies, don't be nervous talking to Drew on the phone, just imagine him holding Ted and Baby Bear.

After graduation yesterday and staying up all night at her senior retreat, Aunt Catherine continued her busy weekend with her last dance recital for Miss Shelly's School of Dance. She was in three recitals at 1:30, 5:00 and 8:00 p.m, and performed nine different dances in the final recital we saw including ballet, tap, jazz and modern dance.

Because the recital didn't start until bedtime, Drew was ready with Baby Bear...

...and Will was all decked out in his sleeper in the comforting arms of his Pa.

About a week ago Aunt Catherine received the Mother Teresa Award for "keeping the flame of her love alive through Christian service towards others" during her four years at Bishop Kelley High School.

Aunt Catherine had a pretty good senior year having been elected to Bishop Kelley's Homecoming Court and Maid of Honor, runner up to the Homecoming Queen. She was also recently selected as Student of the Month. Way to finish up strong. You did a great job closing out the Youngman legacy at Bishop Kelley.

Today, Aunt Catherine graduated Bishop Kelley High School and ceremonies were held at the Reynolds Center on the University of Tulsa campus where she will be attending this fall.

Here is the entire Youngman family. Ma and Pa, five children, three son-in-laws and four and one-half grandchildren. Ma and Pa put five kids through private high school, four though college with the fifth one on the way. I keep looking for the money tree in their backyard but haven't found it yet.

This Saturday, May 19, 2007, at 6:00/7:00 p.m., the History Channel is airing its one hour documentary Act of Honor about the hero Sgt. Rafael Peralta.

The History Channel's summary:

On November 15, 2004, Sgt. Rafael Peralta died while fighting to secure a key insurgent stronghold in Iraq. Peralta and fellow Marines were ambushed by guerillas who then lobbed a grenade at them. Already seriously wounded, Peralta shielded his companions by covering the explosive device with his body, saving their lives and sacrificing his own. Watch Peralta's extraordinary journey from Tijuana, Mexico to San Diego to the streets of Iraq. Included are interviews with his widowed mother and three siblings in San Diego.

I urge you to watch and learn about a true hero, a Marine, an American.

For more information see my posts which include many comments by Sgt. Rafael Peralta's family and friends:
Sgt. Rafael Peralta - New Photos
HERO: Sgt. Rafael Peralta

Happy Mothers' Day to...

Ma Danz...

Ma Youngman...

and Mama!

Speaking of huge companies with annoying websites. Have you ever tried to log out of Amazon? Seriously, It's impossible...at least without denying your own existence. Don't believe me...go ahead, surf over to Amazon and, if you're not already logged in, sign in and then try to sign out. I'll still be here when you return.

In order to learn how to sign out you could do what I did and do a Google site search of Amazon or you could navigate Amazon's site by going to "Your Account" then to "Learn how to use Your Account" and then to "Signing Out" where you will finally be rewarded with the following:

Signing Out

If you are using a public terminal, you will want to log off, or sign out, before you leave the computer. Here's how:

1. Click the link near the top of the home page that says "If you're not (your name), click here."
2. On the next page, leave the e-mail and password spaces blank and click the Amazon.com tab at the top of the page.
3. Close the browser to prevent your name or 1-Click settings from appearing on the public terminal.

Once you have done this, your name will be removed from the home page, and your 1-Click ordering settings will be inaccessible to anyone using the same computer after you.

First off, there are no instructions for non-public or home computers. They just assume you'll never sign out and that it's just fine for anyone using your computer, a friend or visiting family member, to hop on to your Amazon account and do whatever they want.

Second, even on a public terminal, there is no way to log out without clicking on "If you're not (your name), click here." Why would I ever click on that? How stupid is it that you have to pretend you are not you just to sign out? So why is Amazon being so ridiculous? The next two sentences reveal Amazon's motives:

We recommend that you sign out only when you feel that you must. If we can't identify you, it will be difficult for us to identify items that might be of interest to you.

The reason Amazon makes it so difficult for people to log out is that they want to track everything you do on your site. I don't have a problem with this, but only if you allow me an easy way to log out. It just seems common sense that, if you have a system where you log in to you should have a easy, readily apparent, method for logging out. I don't know another major website that makes it as difficult as Amazon.

Finally, Amazon's statement that, "We recommend that you sign out only when you feel that you must" really bugs me. It's under the "public terminal" section. Accordingly, if you are using a public terminal and think you should sign out but don't think you "must" sign out, then you shouldn't. How incredibly irresponsible is this? Come on Amazon, get your act together, don't be evil.

I'm working on archiving photos to Flickr (now a part of Yahoo). I've previously had a Flickr Pro account but I let it lapse since I haven't recently needed it. So, I needed to upgrade again to a Pro account.

On the fist screen in the upgrade process, two payment options were provided; PayPal or credit card. I'm not a fan of PayPal. I have an account and use it occasionally, but they've been involved in a number of incidents and, as a result, I don't normally use it when I don't have to. So, I selected payment by credit card and started to enter my information and when I was almost done, the screen refreshed all by itself causing me to lose everything I had entered. That's nice, I thought. So, I navigated back to the first screen and chose the PayPal option.

And, that's when I was reminded why PayPal Sucks. The first thing the PayPal screen says at the top of the page is "Add Credit Card (Recommended)." To anyone familiar with the English language "recommended" means "optional" as in, you don't have to do it. However, there is no way to get past this page without entering your credit card information. At the bottom of the page, there are two buttons, "Add Card" and "Cancel." Hardly consistent with the concept of a recommendation. Further, if I had wanted to enter my credit card information I might have, oh I don't know...selected payment by credit card?!?!

The yellow box on the same screen says: "To complete this secure payment, add a credit card to your PayPal account and click 'Continue.'" I already have credit card information associated with my PayPal account, so I started to think I somehow got hijacked by a phishing site, except the URL was a legit PayPal address. Above, where I'm supposed to put in my credit card information is says: "Number of cards active on your account: 1." So, what the heck! I have an "active" credit card on the account, so there should be no reason to enter any credit card information again.

I closed down my browser, restarted and went to my PayPal account. It turns out I had not updated my credit card information with PayPal since when it expired. Like I said, I don't use PayPal unless I have to. Accordingly, the credit card on my PayPal account was not active. I updated my account with the new expiration date and went back to the Flickr upgrade page, selected PayPal and I was no longer given the "Recommended" add credit card page.

What I want to know is, how can companies as large and sophisticated as PayPal and Yahoo screw up something so simple? Do they not know the definitions of "recommended" and "active." Do people at these companies use their own products? Arrrgh!

P.S., I sequentially number the names of all the pictures I put in posts. Prior to this post, I had used a total of 664 images since June of 2004. By sheer coincidence, the PayPal Add Credit Card (Recommended) screen's number is 666. Well, at least, that makes sense!

Will and Joey in a serious stare down. Two equally pitted rivals. Joey commands unparalleled speed and agility but deep down under lurks a fraidy cat. Will is fearless and has no comprehension of boundaries (or ability to read labels). A battle of the ages...who will assert control of the food dish.

This is the calm during the storm.

Prior to and after the picture, Drew played conductor of his motorized Thomas the Tank Engine and Percy, while Will played Godzilla. At first Drew wasn't all too pleased when Will would pick up a passing engine or tear apart some track, until I explained that he was just playing Godzilla. After that, it was pretty fun. When Will would make a move for something, Drew would exclaim, "Oh no, Godzilla!"

Will excitedly waiting for Daddy to come home.

Our back yard is a regular Mutual of Omaha Wild Kingdom.

Recently a hawk came to perch on our fence which I wouldn't have thought much about except for the fact that our backyard is also the home of the annual baby bunny brigade.

This little guy is only about five inches long and has one or two siblings. Hard to tell for sure...they're a little shy.