If you’re seeing this post, and believe me I hope you are, it means that I have successfully switched hosting providers. I’ll have a write-up soon on the problems that led me to the difficult decision to break my business relationship with my previous hosting company. For now though, let’s just enjoy the fact that my site loads much faster than previously.

If you have had issues viewing this site or commenting on this site, I’m terribly sorry (and pretty peeved right now) about it. I think I’ve got it all worked out now. I THINK I do. The problem, though, is that I’m not entirely sure if this was something at my end, or with my host (GoDaddy.com). I recently updated my core files, but the problem persisted even after I checked EVERYTHING. I emailed GoDaddy, and the problem went away, even though I never received a response from them (shame on you, if you read this, GoDaddy).

If you have any issues viewing or commenting, please let me know at joe@irrationaldad.com, and I’ll work my butt off to fix the problem. Thanks for letting me know, Tracy! And also, if you self host your site, let me know which host you use and how happy you are with them.

Today marks one year that I’ve been blogging. I started this blog while sitting on the couch, covered in poison ivy. I was a miserable, itching mess, but anxious with anticipation of labor starting for my six days overdue wife. I spent hours itching and coding, desperate to get all the shades of blue correct for my forthcoming adventures in blogging.

My first blog just talked about my itchiness and my desire to see what Sarah has been cooking for the last 40 weeks.

From my first post:

One year ago, I didn’t care at all whether I had kids or not. If I had kids, fine. If I didn’t have kids, fine. I think, in my entire life (30 years), I’ve only held a baby 3 times. That’s no joke… ask anyone who knows. And I’ve NEVER changed a diaper. I don’t really know how to talk or act when I’m with/near babies/children. They made me uncomfortable. I was scared that I would traumatize them or, worse, break them.

It shocks me to think back just one year, or even two (to get a real grasp on how I was regarding babies). I simply cannot imagine life without Tyler. It’s completely unfathomable to me. That little man inspires me every single day. To see Sarah love someone so completely, so unconditionally, is beautiful (I try to keep my jealousy at bay). Every single day, one of us is bound to ask the other, “How did we get such a beautiful baby?” I am almost offended at myself for thinking that I didn’t want to have a baby, but I’m sure that most of us have gone through that phase at some point of our lives. Truth be told, I’m glad (I know this is a bit contradictory to what I just said) that I felt that way previously, because I wouldn’t have wanted to have a baby with any of the women in my previous relationships. It took a perfect series of events and timing to bring precious little Tyler into my life (and the lives of all who love him). For all this, I am eternally grateful.

But we’re talking about my blog-birthday here, not Tyler. Why does he need to be the center of attention all. the. time?

I need to apologize to all the readers that take a few extra minutes to leave a comment on my blog. I truly appreciate the time you take to do so. Unfortunately, I had a misspelled piece of code on my commenting script. As a result, email addresses were never passed along. They were deleted as soon as you clicked “Submit”. So, if you clicked the little checkbox that says “Hey, email me if someone else leaves a comment, so that I can keep up with the discussion” (ok, it doesn’t say that, but that’s what it means), you never received those emails. Also, I understand that not everyone wants to always see every single comment show up in their email box and, therefore, they don’t subscribe to the comments. So, if I were to reply to the comments (which I have done sometimes), they wouldn’t know. Instead, I would send an email to each commenter, replying to what they said. I did this for two reasons. One, you took the time to say something, or ask something. The least I can do is write back with an answer or something witty. Two, it keeps discussion alive. It helps me learn more about you and vicey versey.

But, like I said, I misspelled a word, and that was never possible. Every reply I sent bounced back to me as undeliverable. I assumed that you didn’t leave your email address – I have it as being an optional field – and didn’t want me to reply. I feel like a putz, and I’m sorry. I found the offending code and fixed it. So, please, continue leaving comments. If you want to receive an email when someone else leaves a comment, check the box to do so. Otherwise, don’t check it and I’ll just email you personally to say “What’s up?” or something along those lines.

Thanks for reading, everyone.

Note: The photo above is Delilah having a blast running around the yard. She was running directly at me while I had the camera out. I’m still learning the auto focus settings (especially when you have a monster running directly towards you), so there’s a bit of a blur.

Extra Note: I know I’ve been slacking on the NonDad blog (i.e. one post). It’s mostly because when I do find time to blog, I’ve always got something I want to say about Tyler. Keep an eye out for a three part series of posts over the course of the next 6 days. They will give you a little insight into a bit of my past.