Shawna’s Whimsical Weblog

So spammers finally found Tim’s and my blogs.

Now while my readers and I may have been interesting in what the authors “people having sex” or “kelly sex” had to offer. (Kelly sex?? Who is this kelly they are talking about?) But “dog sex”? Pleeeeease, at least know your audience before you go barking your advertisements up the wrong tree. Unless of course, Spare… have you been letting Sheena and Spike browse to our site?
Anyhow, I’ve tried to figure out how their spamming script works. I just don’t understand why some entries are left alone while some others get 5 of the same message. And the newer entries haven’t been touched in this most recent bout. (There have been about 3 bouts so far). My only guess is their script can’t enumerate entries.

So to reduce the hassle of clean-up, I have closed down comments on my older entries. I also decided to ban the IP addresses the spammers had used. Now, now I know you’re thinking to yourself, “They’re just spoofing IP addresses, there’s no point in banning any.” To which I say, “You’re bloody well right, but I’m crazy enough to keep banning IP addresses well beyond most normal people’s patience threshhold.” Yes, in fact I don’t make much sense. So if you are someone I truly would love to hear from and you find yourself banned from leaving a comment, please let me know.

And to the future software architects who work on anti-spam for weblogs, perhaps you could have not an IP ban section but an “html” ban section, because all the ones that have spammed us are advertising the same handful of websites. Alternatively you could just pay me to advertise your smut… but I draw the line at “puppy love”.

Everyone has been asking how the honeymoon went. And everyone is taken aback when I pause and say, “it was ok.” OK?! They then look at me as if some freaky voodoo island curse had been laid upon me making me crazy. How could I possibly not think that my honeymoon was the best thing ever??

Don’t get me wrong, the Golden Princess was a beautiful boat, that was staffed with the most attentive crew. Too attentive actually, both Tim and I don’t like being waited on to such a high degree. All of the islands were nice, except for Aruba which seemed WAY too touristy.

I just don’t think the “cruise” setting is the ideal one for me. When I visit a new location I like to see it all. If it had been up to me, I would have been the first off the boat, and the last back on. However, for our ports that would have been for as short as 4 hours or as long as 7 hours. Not really enough to get a feel for a place. Not even an inkling really. So you sit on the boat, and you eat. And eat. And eat.

We did see a couple of shows. I spent 10 minutes in the casino winning $90 (you’ve got to know when to walk away…o/~) I lost $20 playing Bingo. I had no desire to sit by the pool getting drunk. I could do that at home.

Not to say I’ve given up on cruises alltogether. I’ll have to look into cruises in which you get to stay longer in port. Perhaps ones that stay in port overnight. That way you could explore on your own and not feel the need to book the excursions provided by the cruise, lest you not make it back to the ship on time.

Now I just have to work on getting over the cold I caught on the plane ride home.

Today with Tim pretty much feels like yesterday with Tim and the day before with Tim. In other words, married life pretty much feels like pre-married life around here. It’s wonderful.

I had the most perfect wedding day. Perfect perfect perfect. Any mishaps we had (broken dress straps, coke spillage, mic problems, no video taken of our first dance etc) lend themselves to the perfectness, as they shed light on how how minor the problems really were. I guess I’m still on the wedding high (it zipped by so fast!). I can’t wait to see the professional pictures. I really liked our photographers, Stan & Jeannette; they were fun and professional. I think they did an excellent job. Sadly, we have to wait 2 weeks before they’ll have our pictures ready.

I hope everyone had a great time at the wedding and reception. I know Tim and I did Thousands of thank yous to everyone who came out to make our day so special. I’m amazed at the amount of laughter and tears that were shed.

I dropped Michelle and Angela off at the airport this afternoon, so I guess reality will be sinking in shortly *sniff*. I can’t be more thrilled with how the Honeymoon plans are panning out with a few days of “work” (as if I’ll be able to concentrate) before we head out for more fun and games.

“Really, I mean that. Sorry, if it sounded sarcastic.” -H. Simpson

3 days to go.

I’m a little sad, for I know the day will come and go so quickly and the year+ of planning will probably not live up to expectations. How can it? You only get married once (hopefully), and there are so many options. I keep thinking to myself, “perhaps you’re wedding won’t be good enough.” I can’t figure out whom I’m trying to please… myself? everyone coming? Probably everyone (which includes me). After we became engaged, everyone said to me, “get married as soon as possible.” I can see why. I’ve never have had to wait so long to see a project come to pass. Angela keeps telling me “this is going to be the best wedding ever!”. She’s such a sweetheart. I’m very happy that she and Michelle came in last weekend and I get to have them around all week.

So 95% of the planning has been put to bed. We have our last meeting with the Catering Manager at Park Manor today where we get to pay off what we believe our bill will be. I plan on finalizing my vows tonight with the help of Michelle and Angela. Tim has decided that he wants the ceremony to be a suprise for me, so they are our go-betweens to make sure our vows aren’t totally asynchronous. Tim and I need to practice our dance a little more, but we have all the choreography done.

So what to do now? I do love planning so…