The Howerter Blog

Maybe some of you have noticed that my mail server is down. This weekend, the hard drive died and I haven’t received the replacements yet. I have ordered two new hard drives and a RAID card. That way if it happens again the server will still run. I am a little lost without my email.

Katherine passed her LCSW exam today! She is now a licensed clinical social worker (that is what it stands for). Congrats to Katherine. Those many hours of study did pay off.

I know it is a day early, but I would like to thank all those who have given their lives protecting our freedom. I would also like to honor those currently serving in the US military. No matter what our president says, this is one American who supports you!

This is our first spring in our new house and I was not prepared for all the yardword that was going to be required. Almost every night I am out in the yard mowing or tending to the pool. Now that the pool and sprinklers are ready for the summer it should slow down a little. I am glad that our yard is big, I just wish it would grow a little slower.

After “deciding” to use Asterisk yesterday, I was talking to a friend and he pointed me to Trixbox. Trixbox is based on Asterisk but has a lot of cool things and installs in appliance mode. Basically, it looks like you install the product and it installs Linux, PHP, MySQL, etc. Can’t wait to try it.

I have started reading about Asterisk the open source PBX. I am installing it at my house. Since I have Vonage I can use Asterisk to connect directly via a SIP trunk. This way I will not have to use the Vonage adapter. Katherine doesn’t see the purpose of this project. I think I just feel ashamed to be a VOIP guy and not have a IP-PBX at my house.

The Vineyard softball team had it first game last night. It was really enjoyable. It rained halfway through, but we finished the game and lost by 1 run. Everyone did very well. I will take my camera next time and get some action shots.

I frequently read Failblog and I came across this beauty. If you don’t read Failblog, you should start today.

I am glad that a Miss USA contestant had the courage to stand by her beliefs. I would imagine it is why she didn’t win, but I think the greater victory is holding true to your core values.

This weekend we said goodbye to Katherine’s grandfather, Elmer Suttles. It was kind of sudden and it took quite a toll on the family. The wake and funeral were this weekend. He had a good life and was the cornerstone of a great family. We will miss you Elmer. We will see you when we get to heaven.