Greetings and salutations...

Well, here is it.  The blog to end all blogs.  I know, I know, it sounds like an awful lot to promise, but I am just that good.  :-)  Anyways, I figure that I should probably throw a mission statement up here before the antics get into full swing.  So, here goes:

I've created this blog to keep in contact with a bunch of people that I've met through my life.  Seems that a bunch of my friends are quite distributed throughout the country, and I reckon that this will be a good (ish) way to keep in contact with everyone.  This is an open blog, which means that anyone can see its contents.  So, no nasty stories, unless you are going to be comfortable having your mom read it.  (And yes, I have forwarded this on to your mom.  We are pretty close.  Yes, I did just use a your mom joke in my first blog post.  *MY* mom would be so proud!)

With that, lemme throw out our starting crew of crack bloggers (this list is meant to be open - so if you get the blogging bug, send me an email and I can get you in):

Phil - Me, your humble webmaster.
Joy - My wife, and all around fantastic blogger.  She has had several wildly successful blogs, which she brags about to no end.  So, we've got high hopes for her entries!
Ben - My former college and post-college roommate.  Also a successful blogger.  His wit has covered me on the rare occasions where I ran into writer's block.  Also, he doesn't want this to turn into a "Mom-blog", so he's gonna be bringing in both the funk *and* the noise.
Thomas - He's the cheeky one.
Skoot - And old Penn State buddy.  I'm not entirely certain that he's literate, but he tries and that's gotta be worth something.  (irony tag - I initially misspelled "literate" in the previous sentence.   So, that's bodes well, I think...)
Marie - Skoot's better half.  Plus, I think that she'll be bringing in a hell of a lot of outside readership (that is, her mom has been known to lurk in fora where I have been the primary poster.)
Melanie - Blogger be thine name.  Little known fact:  Melanie's been blessed with three (count 'em) three extra fingers.  So, she's able to type like 33% faster than the rest of us.  She was born to do this.
Kookie - OK I didn't get a chance to invite him, but I'm sure that he'll be on-board.  I mean, he wouldn't embarrass himself by *not* posting entries, would he?

And that's about it.  As for the name of the blog, "Diamond Shaft", well, that's a story for another time....