Relaunch

So here's what's happening with Echo. Yesterday was the half year mark- six months since our first service. Considering that the true church plant litmus test is, "are you still alive?" I would say that we're doing really well. We have about twenty committed core members, in addition to a slew of people who have checked us out. We've been able to reach out to a handful of people in the community and are planning on reaching out this spring and summer to our neighborhood. We knew it would be a slow process at first, but it's definitely been worth it.

Using the Walnut Hills Christian Church has gone well. They've been great landlords as we've maintained WHCC as our meeting place. There was the Sunday that the boiler just happened to go out . . . on the coldest day of the year. But we planned ahead and brought some portable heaters . . . which were useless as we blew some fuses. So we ended up huddled in the church parlor, all wearing our coats as one little heater tried to warm up the 44 degree room. But, as most resourceful church plants, we managed to make due.

Our people have been phenomenal. It's been a wonderful experience getting to know each other better. There have been quite a few instances so far when someone at Echo has had a rough time and really needed support and we've been able to provide it for each other. And they've been willing to step up and get the job done. It's a huge blessing to journey with people like this.

And we brought on a new staff member. Tye Von Allmen [the schlep who only reads this blog when he's mentioned] is our now our worship leader. Tye just returned last week from his honeymoon as he and his wife Andrea settle down here to get their music careers going. By the way, you really need to check out their stuff here and here. It's been awesome to have Tye, not only because he's a great guy, but his ministry has freed me from having to lead worship and focus on my teaching on Sundays.

So six months in, things have gone well. But now, it's on to what other things God needs us to be doing.

We desperately want to reach the neighborhood, but it's been difficult to get our name out there. In order to accomplish this, we're going to do an extensive marketing campaign at the end of the summer, declaring Sunday September 10th as the day we relaunch Echo.

A few things about how/why we're doing this:

1) I had hoped we would be able to grow more organically and not have to use marketing techniques. Unfortunately, that's not been happening as easily as I had hoped for. I'm sure we could wait for a few years and see it happen, but I don't think it's worth it. Our concern is for the people of the city and the sooner we're able to get our message out there the better. And it's impossible to get the message out there unless people know that we exist. So we need some marketing to get our name out.

2) I've never liked church marketing. Even the terminology makes me feel icky. We've lived in places around town where we received numerous postcards from churches trying to get people to attend their gatherings. However sick I was of their postcards out in the suburbs, we realized that no one is doing it down here. Six months living here and not one postcard has hit our door. Probably because few new churches are being started here. Somehow we need to let this community know that there's a new church in town. A postcard mailing is, most likely, the best and most cost efficient way to get that accomplished.

3) We have financing. If we had to use our own money to do it, I'm not sure it would be the best investment. A mailing is useless if you can't afford to pay the rent. But God has blessed us with the opportunity to do the mailing because of the support of the Christian Evangelizing Fellowship. This group has been planting churches in Cincinnati for over fifty years. They believe in us and our ministry and want to give us the best opportunity to get started on the right foot. Without their support, I doubt a mailing would be possible.

4) We're not ONLY counting on this mailing. This is just one aspect of what we want to do to get our name out there. I, for one, have been working hard to create community contacts to let people know about Echo. And we're going to use the summer as a chance to do a few outreach events for the more needy people in our neighborhood. And for months, we've been praying that God would give us fifty core members by this summer. We're not putting our faith in a mailing, but in God to bring us the people we need to be a more effective community.

I don't view our first six months as a failure. Quite the opposite, it was necessary for us to see that Echo was possible. Over a year ago, when Kelly and I decided we needed to move to the city and start a church, I had no idea how or if it would work. But God has used these past few months to reassure us that Echo is needed here. Our core group is getting stronger, our vision is getting clearer and we have survived.

There's a lot of work ahead of us, but we're looking forward to it. Of course, it won't be easy, but nothing worth it ever is. If you know people who might be interested in joining us on the journey, let me know. And if you know people who want to support us financially, we have yet to turn someone down. But most importantly, pray for us as we try to make a difference in this city for Jesus.

Kaelyn Is Mentioned In This Post

Just got back from watching the Reds at GAB. I think they might sweep the Marlins. That's what's great about baseball in April: we're all delusional enough to think that our team can keep it up and make the World Series. I still have a dream, friends. A boring, quick update post for tonight:

Kaelyn was up between 2 and 4am, so another night of little sleep. I'm ready to bribe the little girl into staying asleep.

Had to get a new tire as the old one couldn't be patched. Had it bought and back on the car by the afternoon.

On this, a weekend-delayed Tax Day, I got my tax return back. And for the first time ever, we have something to spend it on. More on that in a few days.

Kaelyn had a doctor's appointment today. Had to get four shots, but Kel said she was a trooper and didn't really cry. She's developing well, way ahead for a premie. She's up to 9 pounds, 5 ounces.

And, finally, talking to people up at Mason yesterday, a lot of people commented that they check out the blog only to see if there's an update on Kaelyn. So I thought I'd please the masses and throw up a pic. Kelly took this one this evening. It's a winner.

In the words of Nick Burns, "And by the way: you're welcome!"

Wha-chu Ben Du-en?

Here's the weekend recap: Friday:

• Up WAY EARLY to pray the steps.
• Never took a nap to make up for lost sleep. Well, except when I was driving.
• Afternoon coffee with Tye [another shout-out to the ingrate]. We crossed the street from MoCa's in Walnut Hills to check out DeSales Catholic Church. It's amazing inside.
• Kelly needed to make some returns to Target and Kohls, so we packed up the little girl and headed to northern Kentucky.
• Rocked the Chipotle.
• Watched the Reds on TV as Aaron Harang had a career game, 1-0 victory over the Cards, Harang hits GWRBI.
• Watched the lightning go crazy across the sky.

Saturday

• Drove to Maysville to meet Kelly's parents and grandparents.
• Ate at Moyer's Vineyard along the Ohio River in Manchester, Ohio.
• They head up to West Union for a five-generation photo-shoot [pic to come soon] while I explore my mom's hometown in search of my grandparents farm.
• Able to locate the farm after nearly twenty years. See that they cut down trees and made additions.
• Took this artsy picture, reminding myself you can't live life in the rear-view mirror:
• Returned home with the classic summer drive, left arm sunburn.
• Spent the evening watching The Ten Commandments. "So let it be written, so let it be done." Charleton Heston is God. Well, at least his burning bush voice.

Sunday

• He arose! Not today, but on a day like today.
• He arose! But the Altima had a flat tire.
• We visited Christ's Church at Mason on Sunday for the first time since our exodus [little "e". Ten Commandments would be big "e"].
• Kaelyn got fussy during service [Kelly disagrees and says she was "cute and babbly", so I'm that dad hanging out in the lobby with my kid.
• Saw tons of people we missed. For some reason they only wanted to see the daughter.
• Had Easter lunch with my family. Chris gave me a Viagra pen. Ah, the blessing of a brother in the medical field. I guess I should note that the pen had no Viagra in it; it was just a pen with the Viagra logo on it. Just felt the need to clear that up.
• Came back to the condo and put the spare tire on the Altima.
• Had a great gathering at Echo tonight. Psalm 22 is an amazing bit of prophesy.
• Hung out at Don Pablos afterwards. We know some cool people.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Another Reason I Like Apple

They make little girls cry.

Praying The Steps

Tonight [or this morning, however you like it] we left the house at 12:30am to go walk up a bunch of steps. But they're not just any steps. These are part of a sacred tradition in the lives of thousands of Cincinnatians. They're so hallowed that they're even getting a million-dollar makeover sometime in the next few years, despite the fact that they only see major traffic one day a year.

The Good Friday tradition of "praying the steps" is one of the best known spiritual events in the city of Cincinnati. The ascent of the 85 stairs from St. Gregory Street to the Holy Cross-Immaculata Church in Mount Adams, is a tradition that dates back 150 years. The priest at the church explained the history in a recent Cin Weekly article:

"The whole story seems to be that in 1850 our Bishop Purcell (namesake of Purcell-Marian High School) was returning from a trip from Rome when his ship encountered a very terrible storm. People wanted to gather together and pray, and during that prayer he apparently promised God that if they were saved from the storm, he would erect a church at the highest point in Cincinnati.

"So, when he got back, he erected a cross at the top of the hill, marking the place for the church. From the beginning there weren't many streets up here, so people used to walk this mud path up the hill, especially on Good Friday to pray. Then the city built steps all over Mount Adams because it was a way for people to get up here.

"The church building was finished in 1859. The steps began as wood, then concrete - actually the city's supposed to redo them again." And it's been a Catholic tradition ever since.

I know what some of you are already thinking. Steve: you're not Catholic. That is correct, but after much thought, I don't give a rip. Nobody forced me to pray to Mary, so all was well. And the whole climb took over an hour, so an hour of prayer never hurt anyone, especially me.

I always wanted to pray the steps, and when we moved to edge of Mount Adams I was certain we'd make it there. With Kaelyn coming early, I thought this might be a family tradition that we could start this year. The weather was perfect for it, and Kelly suggested a nighttime trip as opposed to daytime. So we packed up the sleeping baby in the car, parked a block away from the church, loaded Kaelyn into our handy-dandy baby backpack, and headed on up.

There was a good crowd there already; we saw quite a few young people who were joking right up until they reached the foot of the stairs and then got silent. Once you hit the stairs, there was a calmness that came over the observers. I swear, the trek was about as moving as some of the experiences we had in Israel. Standing on each step, holding my wife's hand with my daughter snuggled on my chest, offering prayers of praise to God was wonderful. It was a great night.

Three observations:

1) What a way to start off Good Friday! I rarely have stopped to observe the day that Christ was crucified. We Protestants tend to jump right past the day and get Jesus out of the grave ASAP. I'm forever grateful for an empty tomb, but I hope I can always take the time to be somber because of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. His brutal death is my reason for hope. That's why the day is Good, but it first had to be horrific for it to end up Good.

2) Not being Catholic was a distinct disadvantage when it came to the journey: no Hail Mary's or Our Father's to throw out. It's a little intimidating, thinking that you have to come up with something for each of the 85 steps, but once I started praying I almost wanted to slow it down a bit. There's been too much to be thankful for this year.

3) Kaelyn did really well. About two-thirds of the way up she started getting antsy. Kelly had brought an emergency bottle, with only a small amount of milk, which the little girl downed in no time. She then proceeded to fall back asleep. I'll brag: everyone was looking at her because she was so cute. Who knows: she might be the youngest person to ascend the steps this year [I'll take the assist].

I'll wrap this up with a beautiful photo of Kelly and Kaelyn with the church in the background:

What a wonderful night!

The City Is Crazy

We've reached the five year point since the Cincinnati "riot." I put "riot" in quotes because it shouldn't have been classified as a riot. The killing of an unarmed Timothy Thomas at the hands of a Cincinnati police officer was an excuse for this extended thuggery; it was an unseasonably warm week, Spring Break for Cincinnati Public Schools, and people used this as an excuse to go crazy. I'm not saying that there aren't still racial issues that are city needs to solve, but "the riot" was more about vandalism than racism. It put an unnecessary black eye on the city that has yet to fully heal. So with the shooting today of Kabaka Oba, a local activist from Over-The-Rhine [where the "riot" took place], people were shocked. Even more worrisome was the fact that it happened just outside City Hall, minutes after he had spoken to City Council. Conspiracy theories were easy to find [read this article with some absurd quotes], with some people assuming it was an organized hit. The reality: Oba was shot by someone he knew who had a personal gripe against him.

This actually happens all around America every day: a victim being familiar with person who assaulted him. But when it happens in the city, it always has to be about something more, some societal ill we haven't resolved. And all we're left with is that the city is crazy. Too crazy.

This is how it works here in Cincy: the local television stations lead with the story at 5:30, 6:00, & 11:00 [10:00 on WXIX], each claiming to have exclusive info and breaking developments on the story. Reporters interview anyone who had anything to do with the crime, but especially people who have nothing to do with it [see: politicians and activists]. They pander to suburbia's worst fears. They reaffirm to the people who left town that they made the right decision, that they're much safer living farther out. And our cities are left to fend for themselves.

I'm starting to believe that our town might be oversaturated with media coverage. With so many entities trying to outdo each other, fanaticism is bound to happen.

Hence, "the riot."

I'm just ticked that many people's only perception of the city is drawn from the interpretation of a few local news producers. The truth is, things are bad. But they've always been bad. And they always will be bad. But I'm just not convinced it's as bad as we're led to believe. No one lives in utopia.

There are many positive things happening in this city, but we're never allowed a second to enjoy them because we're waiting for the next bit of drama to unfold. Personally, I've had enough drama. I'm about ready to swear off local news.

The city might be crazy, but so am I.

Thanks, Comrade

I don't play video games anymore. I had a Nintendo in junior high [who didn't?] and a Sega Genesis in college [too much free time] but I gave away all those entertainment systems before we got married. I briefly flirted with World Cup 1998 and Tiger Woods Golf, but since then I've gone without.

I don't play video games because I could easily become an addict. I know guys my age who spend hours each day playing PS2 and X-Box. I refuse to become another statistic. I have too many time wasters in my life to succumb to another one. But now:

"Father, forgive me, for I have sinned . . . "

I found Kelly's old Game Boy the other day; yes, a sixteen year-old, LCD, handheld Nintendo Game Boy. For some reason, she's held onto it for all these years. It was packed away in one of our moving boxes [um, from two moves ago]. There's only one game for it: Tetris. But that one game is enough. I've been on a Tetris kick, picking it up during any lull in my day. I can't get enough of it, and it's starting to mess with my mind. I'm seeing shapes in my head and have this innate desire to stack things together really tightly. Plus I've been scouring iTunes for Russian-sounding music.

I might need a twelve-step program to get off this thing.

Coffee Anyone?

Here's an article the Enquirer did on MoCA, the new coffee shop that moved into Walnut Hills. They have great coffee and free Wi-Fi. I'm hoping to go up there tomorrow morning and get some work done.

Meaningless Blog Stat

I know nobody cares about this junk, but this is my 500th post at Beit Carr. I've been compiling my blog posts into one Word document so, hopefully, I can get it made into a book for me. Over the past year and a half I've typed about 160,000 words here, enough to fill 360 pages. I always complained about how much I hated to type papers in school. I guess I was just unmotivated.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Catherine Zeta Jones needs to come up with a cell phone plan for this guy. Man gets $218 trillion phone bill.

Just who did they call?

And the phone company demanded payment in ten days. I think the US government could spot him the cash.

You Make The Rocking World Go Round

I can honestly say that I've never felt bummed as a result of missing American Idol until tonight. To not witness the show when they do all Queen songs depresses me. I had to get the recap from Kelly who informed me that no one did Bicycle. It's probably good as I had no desire to see Elliot sing Somebody To Love. I haven't really watched Idol since the first season but for some reason I've been staying up to snuff with this season.

But if they don't get rid of Bucky soon, I might have to stop watching altogether.

Another Baby

Congrats to Brian and Carrie Furnish on the birth of William Blake this afternoon. Hope to go see the little guy tomorrow.

Let's Have Words

My apologies to you who have emailed me about my blog's comments not working. I have no idea why it stopped working, but Blogger is free so I find it hard to complain. I've been wondering why nobody has been commenting lately. I thought it was my deodorant. I solved the problem [I think] by signing up with HaloScan, so you should be able to leave comments freely. Try it on for size and see if it works.

Thanks for your patience.

Happy Birth-date Kaelyn!

Today was the day that our daughter was supposed to be born. Yeah, she was overly excited about experiencing the world so she came two months early. Despite all the craziness, and a health care system that exploits the masses [for a later post], I'm so grateful for this bonus time. Last night was probably one of the best nights she's slept so far, waking up only once. I fed her a few hours ago, put her back to bed and headed out to a coffee shop to get some work done [no, she's not by herself; Kelly's there].

As I sat there feeding her, with the morning sun illuminating the city around us, I thought about who she'd become. Yesterday we went for a walk in Eden Park and Kelly and I were talking about Kaelyn; how I hope she's smart and that she loves music as much as we do. There's so much I want for her. And so much I want to do with her: teach her, inspire her, start her off on the right path to become a well balanced human being.

So I tell her deep thoughts . . . and she spits up. So I sing to her . . . and she messes her diaper. So I play the guitar for her . . . and she ignore me.

Right now she'd listen to me say or sing anything as long as I'm holding a bottle to her mouth.

She's cool like that.

A few days ago a good friend of mine asked what kind of parenting style we were using. I had no idea I was even supposed to be using a style, so I'm tempted to feel as if I'm screwing up. But looking at her this morning, I thought it doesn't really matter. Right now I'm just loving loving her. I might hold her too much, or not enough, depending on who you ask. Maybe I shouldn't let her fall asleep on me as much as I do, but I don't care.

Everyone and their grandmother keeps telling me that she's only this age/size once so savor every minute of it. People tell me that the only thing that matters at this stage is that we love her. I can so do that.

And I will. Happy birth-date, Kaelyn.

Went To A Boxing Match . . .

Went up to Glendale tonight to watch Dale from church play hockey. You wouldn't imagine Dale to be the hockey type, but he definitely gets into it on the ice. His team won and I think he got an assist. This is the first time I've seen hockey played live in a long time [and I was the only spectator tonight], so let me throw out some observations for you. 1) Hockey has got to be one of the most difficult sports to play. I can't even skate, so the thought of wielding a stick and skating at the same time takes a certain level of coordination that I just don't have.

2) Hockey has to be seen live to fully enjoy it. Even at this amateur level, it's so impressive in person. I think that's why NHL television rating still struggle. That and canceling last season really didn't help. And the rules can be confusing. And it's tough to see the puck on TV. And this is America and not Canada. But beyond that, I can't think of any reasons why hockey ratings are poor.

3) In every pick-up league, regardless what the sport, there's that one guy who's freaking awesome. This guy on Dale's team was all over the place, playing like it was a NHL try-out. With 20 seconds left in the game he took it down the ice, was tripped up by a defender and still managed to get a shot off while lying on the ice. And he scored. And I said, "Holy crap!"

4) Wearing shorts to watch the game was a bad idea. For some reason I didn't think that it might be cold at the rink. I had to go get some coffee to avoid freezing.

4) The goalie in the next game was sporting a jersey with number 69. The whole wearing "69" thing is really played out. Did anyone really wear that number before Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure? That was so last decade.

5) To close out, one confession: the whole time I was sitting there, I desperately wanted to call out, "Flying V!"

That's all about that. Rangers back in the playoffs. Long live Messier!

What's Going On

A few things to note as we're rocking through this weekend: 1) Last night I got back to playing soccer again. I thought a two-year absence from playing wouldn't be such a big deal in a co-ed over 30 league, but I was way wrong. I was grossly out of shape and sorta embarrassed myself. Great motivation for me to get back in shape, though. By the end of this session, I might get back in the swing of things. I hate to suck.

2) I'm now signed up with a website for engaged couples who need a pastor to officiate their wedding. A lot ministers refuse to do weddings of couples if they're not church attenders, but I figure that if the couple is going to get married anyway, better a minister to help them through the process than a justice of the peace. The website www.weddingpastorsusa.com. We'll see if anything comes from it.

3) Happy Birthday to my nephew Kasey. One day I'll explain to you that you share your birthday with Muhammad. Kaelyn's still a little too young to hang around a bunch of germ infested kids, so we just made a brief appearance at Chuck E. Cheese for the party [I wonder if me and Chuck E. have the same middle name. Also, I wonder if the franchise was the inspiration for the Public Enemy rapper]. It was the same Chuck E. Cheese where I had my eighth birthday party. Looked like fun but, I swear, the band was fake.

4) Masters Weekend is here. The best sporting event ever, as I discussed last year. Plus, I have more than a passing interest in who wins. I check out Lance McAllister's website daily and was able to get a trio of PGA golfers for the chance at a golf gift certificate. One of my three: Chad Campbell, who is currently in the lead. So my interest in this year's Masters is enhanced now that I have something to gain from it.

That'll do for now.

Judas Priest!

I was going to do a hack's analysis of the joke that is the Gospel of Judas, but why bother when Dr Weatherly gives a thorough analysis of it on his blog? Don't mess with Bible scholar greatness.

Explaining the Stages

Kaelyn turns two months old on Sunday. Even though she's a little bit away from huge developmental stages, she's gaining weight and size everyday. But besides those changes, she's clockwork- as predictable as death and taxes. ***quick note here: I thought for five minutes for another phrase to finish "as predictable as" and came up zeros. I wished to avoid it seeing as my taxes are never predictable- especially now that I live in the city limits- and there are people in the Bible that didn't die. Just thought I'd let you know.

Anyway, Kaelyn goes through four different stages in three hours time. Here's what it looks like:

1) Going Crazy This is when I claim that Kaelyn takes after her mother. Out of nowhere, the baby emerges from her slumber with flailing arms and legs, as if she's trying to escape her skin. This is the stage that produces the most crying, because she is desperately hungry. It's interesting that Kaelyn goes from serene to loco in thirty seconds in stage one. By far the shortest of the stages, if we're talking on the phone when it happens, you'll want to end the conversation.

2) Feed Me, Seymour At the beginning of this stage, Kaelyn assaults the bottle with fury; she's on a mission, knowing exactly what she wants. Her eyes are huge, rarely blinking. She eats at a consistent pace: suck, suck, squeak. It's during this stage that we'll stop the feeding for a moment to change her diaper because she's come down from stage 1. We try to give her a good burp which sometimes yields a spit up. The worst is when it comes out her nose. Not because she dislikes, but you can't predict it coming. Last week a milk projectile from her nose ended up in my mouth. Not good.

3) Mellow Yellow I'm not suggesting that my daughter will ever experiment with marijuana but, if she does, this is what she'll look like. During this stage I plug in our lava lamp, turn on some Jim Morrison and light some incense. Kaelyn makes some more squeaking sounds while freely moving her appendages as if looking for a pinata. It's pretty crazy; not as crazy as stage one, but still crazy nonetheless.

4) Enter Sandman Usually, within a half hour of eating, she's ready to dose off. She loves sleeping on her stomach [more on that in another post], so we try to let her fall asleep on us, making the transition to the bassinet. She'll babble for a few minutes and, next thing you know, she's gone. And then you breathe, knowing that she'll be back to stage one in a few more hours.

I know she'll grow out of this soon, but at least, for now, we know what to expect.

One Year

You ever wonder why a year's time is so significant? Looking back on my blog, I have a lot of entries commemorating various anniversaries and birthdays- time periods measured in year increments. Why is it that there's no sense in observing three hundred days time, but add another sixty-five days and then you have something?

But a year is an ideal amount of time. It's not too long, but not too short; it takes time to get there, but it happens quickly. It allows you time for reflection, time to move on.

I'm thinking about this because it was a year ago this week that my aunt took her own life. I remember that day vividly. I was supposed to go to Reds Opening Day. Awakened at 5:30 in the morning with a phone call from my dad, hearing the horrible news. Heading across town to be with my parents, and the heading over to see my uncle. Talking to my siblings on the phone, struggling to deal with it, and then having to be to tell my grandmother. It seems like so long ago, but I still feel that sick feeling in my stomach.

Our family still has a rough time dealing with it all. I think we don't talk about it because we're still not sure how to adjust to life without her. We had our family holiday get-togethers like we always do, but it was awkward. There was an elephant in the room that we ignored. Barbara was a huge part of us. Even a year later, we haven't figured out how to deal with it, but I pray that the coming year helps us to open up a little more.

One thing's for sure: I sure do miss her. I really wanted to fit Barb into Kaelyn's name, but it wasn't happening; just couldn't make it work. But I'll have great fun in the years to come telling my daughter about her great-aunt Barbara.

Sometimes a year is a long time. Sometimes it's not quite long enough. I guess it depends on what you're talking about.

Here's a link to the memorial I wrote about Barb last year.

Bloggin' Ain't Easy

After wrapping up this post I noticed that it's a geeky web conversation, so you might not be interested. I've had a rather productive week, so I indulged myself with a side project.

I've enjoyed the past year and a half of blogging so much that I wanted to make sure I could get a printed copy of my blog; I mean, I enjoy that y'all faithfully check this out, but I really do it for me. Someone tipped me off to a service called BlogBinders that makes a book out of your blog. After toying with the idea for a few months, I decided to go for it.

BlogBinders works with many different varieties of blogs, but Blogger is a horse of a different color. I had to mess with the html in my template and change almost all of the settings on my blog. The result was supposed to put all my 400+ posts on the front page of my blog which I could save in an html file and send to the BlogBinders people who would make it into a book I could save.

Long story short: I tried multiple times but the BlogBinders site would not accept my blogs. Not only that, but it seriously screwed with my blog, so all my previous posts were barely readable and all the comments were eliminated. And the Blogger system saw how I was messing with my blog and decided I was some sort of p0rn/spam website. Now I have to put in a verification code just to make a post.

To remedy my situation, I had to save my html code, briefly switch over to a generic Blogger template, and then reinstall my old code. I know this is a bunch of geek talk, but after hours of working with this I ended up with no book, a screwy blog, and a bad attitude.

But I'm not giving up. After some more research, I discovered that BlogBinders uses a service called Cafepress- a publish-it-yourself book site. So I'm going to save all my posts [including images, which BlogBinders wouldn't let you do] in a PDF and try doing it this way. I'll keep you updated on the process.

So if you're looking to publish your blog, you might want to try BlogBinders. But if you have Blogger, steer clear; it's definitely not worth it.