Jodi and the kids had a great time at Disney...Sarai and I had a great time NOT being at Disney!

The unthinkable (for those of us with sleep apnea) happened today. My trusty Puritan Bennett GoodKnight 420E took the long sleep after over fives years of service. What this type of unexpected loss would normally mean is three or four days of no sleep while my insurance company decided to give me the green light for a new machine. Fortunately, Janice from Memorial Home Services in Lincoln Illinois got on the phone and wouldn't take no for an answer. Tonight I sleep with my new Respironics REMstar Auto M Series With A-Flex. Even more exciting is that for the first time in five years my insurance gave the go ahead for a heated humidifier. As if that weren't enough the M Series comes with a travel case. For those of us that depend on these devices if we are to get any sleep you can understand what a nice addition a dedicated carrying case can be. I won't go into details, but the 420E has been giving my troubles of all kinds for the last couple of years. I'm very excited to have a new machine. Fortunately, our insurance will pay the majority of the $2,000 price tag for my new rig!

I found an excelent resource for anyone looking for a template to create a logo for a website, blog, software, or whatever. LogoTemplater.com provides dozens of free  logo templates that you can modify and use in any way you wish. Did I mention they are free? When you download a set of  logo templates you get several different versions of the file from .pdf to .eps. If you use one of their images be sure to provide a link on your website somewhere that will give everyone else an opportunity to use the images. The link isn't required, but it's certainly cheaper than paying someone to create a custom logo for you.

My results from the "World's Smallest Political Quiz".

Your PERSONAL issues Score is 90%. Your ECONOMIC issues Score is 80%.

LIBERTARIANS support maximum liberty in both personal and economic matters. They advocate a much smaller government; one that is limited to protecting individuals from coercion and violence. Libertarians tend to embrace individual responsibility, oppose government bureaucracy and taxes, promote private charity, tolerate diverse lifestyles, support the free market, and defend civil liberties.

[youtube= You can read updates on this story on the family's website...you can also make a donation to help cover legal and medical costs.

Something I've always thought was missing from Mac OS X is a hex code color picker built-in to the operating system. Yesterday I found a solution to this oversight in Hex Color Picker by waffle software. Just drop the file into your /Library/ColorPickers directory and, "Instantly see the hex color code for any color, and edit it just the same with a number of shorthands. Problem solved." Hex Color Picker is freeware, but you can make a donation (yes I made one too) to show your thanks!

I have mentioned from the pulpit on more than one occasion the huge discrepancy there is between the resources American theologians, teachers, preachers, and evangelists have as opposed to the resources those same people have on the mission field.  This is not to say it is wrong to have the resources we need, but if you do have something on the shelf you aren't using, or even something you can live without, think about sharing with someone that has nothing. The people at Christian Resources International are providing a simple way to get started with their Bare Your Bookshelf initiative. Sign up with CRI and they will send you the packing materials you need to ship 4lbs of resources to anywhere in the world. Pack up your extra Bibles, take them to the post office, pay the $12 in shipping, and help spread the Gospel by helping others spread the Gospel.

I have had some irritations with iChat since day one. Several of those were addressed by the quite powerful plug-in application Chax. Still, iChat just isn't a very satisfying chat client from where I'm chatting so a few days ago I started looking for a replacement and found Adium. Simply put, Adium is the #1 chat client if you are using a Mac. What makes Adium so great? First, if you can't connect to your protocol of choice with Adium, then your protocol doesn't exist. Second, Adium handles all your accounts seamlessly and with zero effort. Third, Adium is completely customizable in just about every way you can imagine. Fourth, Adium is open source and free! If you only have one chat account, download Chax, fire up iChat, and chat yourself silly. If you chat using more than one client, and your on a Mac you should be using the Duck!