Back from the Beach...

We have returned from one last vacation before the summer ends. (Yeah, I know it's after Labor Day, but summer doesn't officially end til the 23rd.)

We had a fun time at the beach, lots of sun and sand, some fun fishing and just one day of rain. Here's some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

This was Amelia's first time at the beach, and her first encounter with sand. She loved it... maybe a little too much as she kept eating it.

This was the second trip to the beach for Maria, and she's a sand expert. She spent loads of time digging and making castles in the sand.

Maria enjoyed the waves... until one knocked her over, then she was much more cautious and would run away from the waves.

Amelia liked the water, and laughed at the waves. But it was a little cold so she could only "swim" for short amounts of time before wanting to head back to the towels.

We rented a pontoon boat to go fishing in the bay.

The first catch of the night, a sea bass. Too small to keep though, so he had to go back in.

Pop surprised everyone with this catch, a sand shark. Little did we know that this would be the first of many sharks caught that night.

Amelia mostly enjoyed the night, though she did get a little tired of "hanging" around in the carrier, and being passed from person to person when we switched who was fishing and who was watching.

Here's Captain Victor with the only keepable thing that was caught (way to go Jim), a kingfish. They filleted it for us and we ate it that night. It was pretty good, even if there wasn't that much of it.

The funniest catch of the night goes to David, who "caught" this clam which had latched onto his sinker.

Another Way to Contact ProLife Search?

I was sent this link earlier tonight. It is a blog set up by none other than Jack Manhire, for his son's Scout Troop. It has an email address and a cell phone number listed for Jack. I may have to send Jack an email, as we're nearing the end of the second week without the promised refund.

Thanks to the person who let me know about the site.

A Well Licked Treat.

Maria throughly enjoyed her ice cream dessert tonight. And she made sure to get every last drop.

Not blood, just chocolate syrup.

Deer neighbors...

We spotted these big bucks in our yard again this weekend, and I managed to sneak out the back door and get some pictures. Not clear enough to count the points, but enough to see that these racks would look good on the wall.

This one was the smaller of the two, at least an eight point.

This one was probably a ten, maybe a twelve, note the nice spread.

Labor day, at the pool.

Here are some pics of the girls at the pool. This was Amelia's first time in a wadding pool. I think that she enjoyed her little boat very much. And I know Maria enjoyed pulling her around in it. Thanks, Mom-mom for inviting us.

For the Birds...

At the beginning of this summer, we discovered a hole out soffit at the back of our house. We wanted to fix it right away, until we realized that some birds had made their nest there.
Well, now it's nearing the end of summer, and the birds have gone so Jim took some time this weekend to fix up the hole and readjust the gutter that was mis-hung and caused the hole in the first place. Here's a few pictures of most of the nest material that Jim pulled out of the hole when he removed the plywood.
There were two unhatched eggs left in the nest. And as Jim will tell you, lots and lots of droppings and feathers, but I didn't take pictures of that.
It was really quite a job, as it required us to rent scaffolding, and a truck to bring the scaffolding home and to return it.
It was a lot of work, but now thanks to Jim and Dad V., the hole is all fixed and the gutter has been adjusted and partially re-hung to prevent water damage in the future.

A busy weekend....

You know that it's been a busy weekend when you find your 10 month old slumped over, fast asleep in her high chair at 9 in the morning.

Sweet anticipation.

As I was lying on the couch with a cold pack on my head, Jim brought me my requested migraine medicine. Seeing the pills, Maria inquired, "Mommy, what did daddy bring you?"

"My headache medicine, my head hurts so I have to take these to help it feel better."

To which Maria answered, "Mommy, I think that the beach would make your head feel better."

Then she squinted at me and pulled at her eyes and said, "My eyes are itchy. I think that the beach will make them feel better. We need to pack up for the beach. The beach will make my eyes feel better."

Yep, someone is ready to go to the shore this weekend.

Thoughts on the Apology from PLS

Sorry it took me so long to post this. First, I wanted to make sure that I had permission to pass this info along to everyone. Then, the weekend happened and I got involved in furious cleaning and other projects.

I spoke with Patte, the former secretary for ProLife Search, on Thursday night. She gave me her permission to post parts of an email that she sent me detailing some of the inconsistencies in the apology email sent out by Joe Hanley. These were things that she told me before Joe's email came out and I asked her to clarify after I saw what was written in the email.

Here is the content of the email that Patte sent to me:

Yes, I do see problems with the email.

-I don't know what they are talking about with "web developers". No passwords were changed. I accessed the PLS website daily up to and including the day it went suddently offline forever.

-The only other person that I am aware of that had access to the website was their tech guy who worked for them in other capacities. He hadn't been involved with the PLS website for months. There was no need. He was not aware of the site being down until I pointed it out to him by phone. He logged into the account and said "They just didn't pay their bill and so it was canceled." According to him, all they need do even now, is to pay $250, they'll be given a new set of numbers and it would be up and running with no hitch whatsoever.

-Our userbase is not in the PLS website. It is in the aWeber program that sends out the mass emails.

-Therefore...how can they account for being able to SPAM you all these last months?

-Therefore....how is it that now they are able to send this email out that they did just yesterday if the website is gone and the "web developers" blocked them from the website?

-Why couldn't they access the contact information for the book purchasers? That all went through Paypal and Authorize.net. Every single purchaser is in there (except those who paid by check of course). There is no purchaser information in that website.

-To my knowledge, no charity received any money from the book sales in '07. They did however earn $6000 from book sales and that entire amount was given out at Christmas. Joe and Jack were so happy to do that.

-Though the printing of the books may have been taking place overseas, I was told that the Chinese printer himself is in southern California. Why can't he be sued?

I'm concerned about the ones who didn't get this email from them because they got sick of the SPAM and unsubscribed.

I think that Patte covers my concerns pretty well in her email.

The only thing that I can think to add is this post from the administrator of the Cure, Beach of Stone Website. (thanks to filiamariae for posting this new info in my combox)

For those of you who are wanting an explaination in regards to the domain prolifesearch.com... please read:

I do apologize you are being re-directed to this website. However, this is NOT my fault. I have NOT bought the domain, as lots of you have inquired of me. The people to blame for this problem is the host. My domain and prolifesearch.com are hosted by the same company, liquidweb. When I switched hosts recently, they put my site on the SAME IP address as prolifesearch.com. THAT is why you're being redirected to my site. I have since spoken to techs to try to fix this issue, and it should be rectified within 24-48 hours. Sorry for your inconvenience.

__________________
Graphics Web Designer and Editor of Beachofstone.com
lane@beachofstone.com

This was posted on their forum on August 29. Any links to Prolife Search still take you to their site, so the host hasn't changed the numbers yet. I'll keep watching it to see if anything changes, but liquidweb may not do anything, since, according to the former PLS web guy, the account is past due.

I still plan to contact Dr. Rice again and pass on the information that Patte sent to me, that I have posted here. I still have not received my refund.

Thanks to all of you out there trying to investigate this. If you find anything that I don't have email me and I'll post it here so we have everything in one place.

One final note: The address that is listed for ProLife Search is a private residence, but it does not belong to Jack or Joe. It belongs to a relative of one of the men, so if you live in the Chicago area, don't go charging out to the house. Feel free to send letters though, as Joe himself listed the address in his email as a way to contact him.