While setting up this site, everything was working great until I started to test the server under high stress using “Siege”. After running the test with 50 requests/second, the server started to buckle and after 15 seconds, Apache became unavailable. I spent about 2 weeks trying to figure out what could cause this problem, but until today, I have been unsuccessful. I will first explain what I tried and how each change I made, either did nothing or caused different problems making them not a viable solution.

My first thought was to optimize Apache to handle more connections at one time. Apache’s HTTP Server website has a Performance Tuning section. After making these changes and restarting Apache, the Stress Test still caused the server to die.

Next, I thought it might have been the mysql server that was the issue. Even though, the mysql server wasn’t getting high load, I decided to fine-tune mysql as well. Since we have a dedicated mysql server, I used the configuration that was located in mysql-huge.cnf. This configuration is designed for servers that are just used for mysql. These changes seemed to help, but it wasn’t even close to what the site should be performing at.

I then thought it might be the amount of RAM on the server. I resized the cloud server to 4G of memory, but there was still no change. I resized it back down to 1G of memory which is what we thought it should be at.

After looking into more server configurations as the problem and getting nowhere, I decided that I would see if Joomla was causing the issues. You should know that this is all being done on a development server. I started by removing the Javascript files that were being included to display the client’s Ads. They have a total of 32 JavaScript calls and takes 10 seconds to just load the Ads. Removing them helped speed up the site, but the high load server failures were still happening and I added their Ads back in.

Now, the server is using Varnish for caching the content. It should be holding onto a static version of the site for 2 minutes (what it defaults to), but it wasn’t keeping the cache. Apache was still getting called every time you load the site. Varnish was still pulling the page through cache, but it was not keeping the cache. I have Varnish running on all of our servers including my personal server farm, however, I couldn’t figure out why this site was not keeping cache.

I tried removing some of the third-party modules that could have been incorrectly programmed and causing serious performance issues. After removing all of the modules on the homepage, the problems still existed. I got to the point where I didn’t think that it was anything to do with the server or how the site was pulling its content through Joomla, but I felt that there was something on the Joomla Core that was the problem.

I spent the next few hours researching what Joomla could be doing that was making the server die. After finding this blog article, I had an idea. His problem wasn’t my problem, but something that he wrote got me thinking. What if, the problem is with the Joomla Cookies. I did a few more Google searches and found that Joomla does not handle cookies very well it uses cookies for everything Joomla does.

*Please read the rest of this before trying the following as this configuration did not work even though it was performing the way I thought it should.

This site is on a dedicated server and no other traffic will be going to it. It is a 64-bit Quad Core Centos Server with 1G of ram. In Varnish, I added the following to the VLC file.

sub vcl_fetch {
   set beresp.ttl = 5m; # Time that the cache should be kept for.
   unset beresp.http.set-cookie; # Unset all cookies on the site
}

I “sieged” the server again at 50 requests/second and sure enough, Varnish was keeping the cache and serving it out of Varnish and not hitting apache at all. I then proceeded to stress the server at 500 requests/second and still the server was holding strong. Finally, I stressed it at 800 requests/second and it was still functioning properly. This is more than what the client would receive for traffic on an average day and I was confident that this had solved the problem….read on!

I then tried to log into Joomla on the front-end and on the administrative side. As it turns out, removing the cookies was a serious problem for the functionality of Joomla and would not let me login. I then removed the change that I made to the VLC, restarted Varnish and tried to login again. This time it worked.

I thought about how I could work around this issue, but nothing was coming to me. I did more research and came across this blog article. It is a little bit hard to read, but once you make the configuration readable, I found this code. *Note that I changed the obj.http.set-cookie to beresp.http.set-cookie to account for the new version of the Varnish 3.0 language.

sub vcl_fetch {
        set beresp.ttl = 5m;
        if( req.request != "POST" ) {
                unset beresp.http.set-cookie;
        }
}

Once I added this code to the VLC and restarted Varnish, not only could I login to Joomla on the front-end and administrative side, but the server was still holding strong at 800 requests/second.

Now, I can only stress the server to the point where I think it will hold its own in a real life scenario, but that doesn’t mean other steps may need to be implemented if the site gets picked up by Digg or Google (Google is what took down this clients server last month). Until that happens, we can’t account for the amount of traffic the site will receive. One additional step you can take is to add a Load Balancer into the mix and allow for the additional traffic and relive some of the stress on the sole server. This however, will be a separate blog entry as this one is already long enough.

In closing, I hope this article helps you to save weeks of performance testing, server changes and headaches.

Due to no record of what they fixed, I can’t call the billing department to get a partial refund for the past two years of service. Every time it rains, we lose internet and TV service for the majority of channels. When they setup our service, they told us there wasn’t a good connection to our apartment. Instead of looking into the problem, they said it was wiring in our apartment that was the problem. It turns out that there was a slice of wire missing from a line down the street which was causing the connection problems every time it rained. I would switch to Satellite, but to get “local channels” like NESN, it would cost me an extra $40 a month to go to the next level up.

Does anyone else have problems with Time Warner Cable?

If you have not yet setup Varnish or don’t understand the basics of Varnish, please read my post “Setup Pound, Varnish & Apache w/ Multiple IPs & BackEnds”. This article also assumes you understand the basics of a Firewall.

At work, I am setting up a new server environment for a client on our Cloud Servers from Rackspace. We have come up with our first approach to their needs, which is the following. One (1) Firewall Server using Varnish as a reverse proxy for web content to the other servers, Two (2) Production Web Servers running Varnish for Caching, One (1) Production Database Server, One (1) Development Web/Database Server.

Since I am still in the process of setting it up, I may not have it all figured out yet, but the basic concept is this. All DNS records for each site point to the IP Address of the Firewall Server. Next, set varnish to listen on that IP. You have two options for setting up the backend servers.

1. Use rsync to synchronize the two production web servers. Then use Varnish as a load balancer to send equal or weighted amount of traffic to different servers.
2. Use Varnish to proxy specific websites to different backend servers.

I am implementing option 2 into this environment. We have one website (high traffic) that will be on its own server and the client’s other sites will be on the second production server. On the backend server’s varnish configuration, you will change your listening IP to the IP address listed on the backend on the Firewall server. If you have a private IP address associated with each server, I would recommend using it as the IP addresses since those are faster and usually your hosting provider allows unlimited transfer between private IPs.

On the firewall server varnish vcl (Note: these aren’t the real private IP Addresses)

backend mydomain{
  .host = "192.168.1.2";
  .port = "80";
}

backend otherdomain{
  .host = "192.168.1.3";
  .port = "80";
}

sub vcl_recv {
        if (req.http.host ~ "mydomain.com") {
                set req.backend = mydomain;
        }elseif (req.http.host ~ "otherdomain.com") {
               set req.backend = otherdomain;
        }
}

On the backend server’s varnish configuration (/etc/sysconfig/varnish)

DAEMON_OPTS="-a 192.168.1.2:80 \
             -T localhost:6082 \
             -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
             -u varnish -g varnish \
             -s file,/var/lib/varnish/varnish_storage.bin,1G"

DAEMON_OPTS="-a 192.168.1.3:80 \
             -T localhost:6082 \
             -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
             -u varnish -g varnish \
             -s file,/var/lib/varnish/varnish_storage.bin,1G"

The rest of the configuration would be your standard vcl from Varnish.

There are other solutions to what I am trying to do that might be much easier for the organization as a whole, but we are already using Varnish for caching on the server.

This article assumes you have working knowledge of Linux and CentOS distribution in particular. This installation is based upon the “yum” paths for all instances. It also assumes you have apache setup already, serving content with multiple IP Addresses and your server’s external IP Address 1 = 2.3.4.5 & IP Address 2 = 6.7.8.9
———————————————————————————————————

Pound SSL Wrapper

Pound is a reverse proxy, load balancer and SSL wrapper that allows you to listen on a secure port (443), decrypts the SSL Certificate and then sends the decrypted data to a local non-ssl port (80) to be served by the Varnish. First, let’s setup the pound configuration.

yum install pound
edit /etc/pound.cfg

ListenHTTP
    Address 2.3.4.5
    Port    80
    Service
        Redirect "https://www.mydomain.com"
    End
End
ListenHTTPS
    Address 2.3.4.5
    Port    443
    Cert    "/var/certs/mydomain.com.pem"
    Service
       BackEnd
                Address 127.0.0.3
                Port 80
       End
    End
End

In this example, ListenHTTP, we want to make sure that the entire site is served securely and redirecting 80 traffic to 443. In ListenHTTPS, we pass it the path to the cert in .pem format. Not only is this required for ListenHTTPS, but it MUST be in .pem format.

To convert a crt to a pem, run the following command (replacing files with your own)
“cat mydomain.com.key mydomain.com.crt (mydomain.com.ca) > mydomain.com.pem”

Varnish Caching

Varnish is a Reverse Proxy (Caching, HTTP Accelerator) that allows for Load Balancing.

yum install varnish
edit /etc/sysconfig/varnish

I used Alternative 2 for the configuration. Set the IP(s) in the -a option. While the IPs are comma separated, make sure there isn’t a space between the IP addreses. It will fail. Pound is listening for the IP Address 2.3.4.5, so we don’t need to have Varnish listen for that IP. We need to have it listen on the port that pound specified as its backend. In this case, 127.0.0.3:80. Since pound is not serving secure content for IP Addresss 6.7.8.9, we can have varnish listen for that IP.

## Alternative 2, Configuration with VCL
DAEMON_OPTS="-a \"6.7.8.9:80,127.0.0.3:80\" \
             -T localhost:6082 \
             -f /etc/varnish/default.vcl \
             -u varnish -g varnish \
             -s file,/var/lib/varnish/varnish_storage.bin,1G"

Next, we need to edit the default vcl file for Varnish which is where all the settings will be added.
/etc/varnish/default.vcl

# For IP Address 6.7.8.9 and the rest of the domains on the server.
backend default {
  .host = "127.0.0.2";
  .port = "80";
}

# For IP Address 2.3.4.5 listening on Pound, proxied to varnish on 127.0.0.3. Setting Apache Backend to 127.0.0.4
backend mydomain{
        .host = "127.0.0.4";
        .port = "80";
}

sub vcl_fetch {
  # Add a unique header containing the cache servers IP address:
  remove obj.http.X-Varnish-IP;
  set    obj.http.X-Varnish-IP = server.ip;
}

sub vcl_recv {
        # choose a backend depending on domain
        if (req.http.host ~ "www.mydomain.com") {
                set req.backend = mydomain;
        }else{
                set req.backend = default;
        }
        # remove and reset the clients IP address
        remove req.http.X-Forwarded-For;
        set req.http.X-Forwarded-For=client.ip;
}

In the sub vcl_recv and sub vcl_fetch, I am doing two things. 1. Setting the backend server depending on which domain it is looking for. 2. Passing along the client’s IP Addresss to reflect in the apache log files.

SSL Conf

edit /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf
Pound is now listening on port 443, which means you can’t bind the ssl.conf to 443 as well. We need to comment out the listener.

# Listen 443

httpd.conf

/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
We need to set apache to listen and set the NameVirtualHost on the ports that we specified in /etc/varnish/default.vcl

Listen 127.0.0.2:80
Listen 127.0.0.4:80

NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.2:80
NameVirtualHost 127.0.0.4:80

Vhosts File

/etc/httpd/sites-available/mydomain.com.conf
Finally we need to change the virtualhost IP Address in the vhost.conf to listen to the same ports as above depending on domain.

<virtualhost 127.0.0.2:80>
...
</virtualhost>

or

<virtualhost 127.0.0.4:80>
...
</virtualhost>

If you need the client’s IP Address (I don’t know why you wouldn’t), you need to add the following into the virtualhost above. Replace with your log file paths

        LogFormat "%{X-Forwarded-For}i %l %u %t \"%r\" %>s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" varnishcombined
        CustomLog /www/mydomain.com/logs/access.log varnishcombined

Now that we have finished the setup, this will require a restart of all services for it to work. If it was setup properly, they should all say “ok”.
/etc/init.d/pound start (restart)
/etc/init.d/varnish start (restart)
/etc/init.d/httpd restart

Monitoring Varnish Stats, Logs and Histogram

Based on install paths, the following should work. From the prompt: varnishstat, varnishlog, varnishhist
Varnishstat and Varnishlog give detailed information on headers being passed and the status of the cache. Varnishhist is a histogram of the traffic coming to your site. The left side is cached content and the right side is server generated content.

Stress Testing New Setup

If you have very little traffic, you might need to use a stress test tool to find out how the server will handle your new setup. Siege is a tool that forces many concurrent connections. If you run this tool before implementing Varnish, it may but more likely will bring down your server. The load average will shoot up very quickly (to 80.00+) until the server can’t handle it and stops responding. After installing Varnish, you can run up to thousands of concurrent connections and the load average won’t go past 10.00 (depending on many factors).

The parameters being passed to siege below, -c350 (350 is the number of concurrent connections, default is 15), -t1M (1M is the total time that siege will run for, 1 minute)

From command prompt, type:

siege -c350 -t1M  www.mydomain.com

* It helps to have multiple shells up and watch “top”, “varnishstat” and “varnishhist”.

Log Files

tail -f /var/log/messages and /var/log/varnish/varnish.log

I had a question for Rackspace support regarding their Cloud Setup environment. The point of the chat with Rackspace was to find out where I can change the email address for the contact who receives notifications when new servers are created.

Their solution was to put a filter on Outlook that forwards the emails to the email address I would like, but they don’t have an option for it. If my boss is on vacation and we spin up 4 new servers, we need to wait until he gets back and turns on his computer for us to receive the passwords for the new server. I understand the security reasons for only sending it to the primary email account, but it seems like a silly workaround.

Here is the conversation that I had with Matthew. His name and some information has been omitted. #FAIL

I switched from Dreamhost (Shared hosting) which was great for my “own” server, but it was very restricting. I didn’t have root access and I couldn’t expand my sites performance. I moved to Linode.com and it was a great decision. If you have the skills, having full control of your server is awesome, but you need to beware of the following. If you break your server/websites/email (if app) somehow, you need to fix it. No support to call or email. Trust me on that one! Since I moved all my sites to this server, I learned very quickly about aspects of server administration that I wasn’t familiar with.

I have a configuration running CentOS, nginx and php 5.3.2 that includes svn (version control), varnish (caching), siege (stress testing), urchin (Traffic Analytics), nagios (resource monitoring) and more.

I am running all of my domains and a few of my friends websites and it works awesome. I am so excited to learn more server administration as I go so that I can be a more knowledgeable employee at my job. My work recently moved to RackSpace Cloud Servers from RackSpace Managed Hosting. I (+1) currently maintain 8 servers at work and we are adding another 8 servers over the next few months. The more I can learn on my own for selfish reasons (resume), the more I can bring to work and help them as well, which in turn will help me. Over the past 6 months,

I have learned so many exciting linux commands and processes that I feel very comfortable in command line. I know I still have A LOT to learn and ways to improve on already existing knowledge, but I am more confident now than I ever was. I added another set of skills that will greatly help my career. I am now not just a Web Developer, but a Server Admin as well.

I will still be paying close attention to Boston sports though. I am living down the street from the Hadlock Field where the Portland Sea Dogs play. Sea Dogs are the Double-A associate of the Boston Red Sox.

The answer by one student was so “profound” that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :

Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?

Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.

One student, however, wrote the following:

First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.

Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.

This gives two possibilities:

1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

So which is it?

If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, “It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,” and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore, extinct……leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting “Oh my God.”

THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.

In case you were unaware what stem cell research is, I will give a short explanation based on my knowledge of it. I would recommend that those reading this should look up more info about it. Stem Cells are blank cells that can become any type of cell from muscle to nerve cells. There is controversy over the use of embryonic stem cells, but embryonic cells are not the only way to pull stem cells, however they are the most usable. Adult stem cells can come from Umbilical Cords, Placentas and Amniotic Fluid. They can also be pulled from adults including the patient for which it is being used on from their bone marrow, liver, epidermis, retina, skeletal muscle, intestine, brain, dental pulp, even fat from liposuction and others. They can also be available from people who have passed away up to 20 hours after. Some say it is unethical to kill a embryo and I agree, however, how many people who have already been born have to die because we are unwilling to make a couple of sacrifices.

Last year, it is estimated that 750,000 Americans traveled outside of the country to receive medical treatment. I thought America had the best hospitals in the world and I was right, however the lack of stem cell research makes it impossible for Americans to get the care that they deserve. Now that Obama reversed the ban, I hope that more people will see all that stem cell research can accomplish once it is made available. I am not going to sit here and try to be non-objective about this subject. I fully support stem cell research because I have been affected by illnesses of both my parents.

My father was diagnosed with a malignant (cancerous) brain tumor in March 1997. I was only 13 years old at that point. He fought cancer on and off for 11 years. Five brain tumors and colon cancer became too much for him and he passed away on July 6, 2008. The American Cancer Society estimates that in 2008 there was just under 1.5 million new cases and just over 550,000 deaths from cancer. Isn’t that enough of an impact for stem cell research to be an important policy for the country. Over 1/2 million people died from cancer who could have had a chance if we funded stem cell research. Cancer must have touched almost every American at some point in their life.

For me, it isn’t just about cancer. My mother was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1990 when I was 6 years old and has been living with it since. It has greatly impacted my life and the lives of everyone who knows us. The National MS Society believes that with proper research using stem cells, there is great hope that they will be able to find a cure for MS. I blogged about Accelerated Cure which is a Non-Profit Organization that is dedicated to finding a cure for the disease. In less than a month I will be participating in the MS Walk to help raise money for a cure.

Can this executive order be the beginning of the end for diseases that affect millions of Americans around the country. Besides cancer and MS, stem cell research can make way for other illnesses like spinal cord injuries, brain damage, heart damage, ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) and many others. Can we finally focus on our futures rid the world of these illnesses? If we can, we will be on our way to be the most respected country in the world for medical treatment.

Alex Rodriguez has been looked upon as one of the players who will most definitely go into the baseball hall of fame….until now. No matter what people think about him, he will never be voted into the hall after his admission of steroid use. No matter who the player is, no matter what team they play for, I will lose respect for them. If we come to find out years down the road that Curt Schilling or Jason Varitek used steroids, every bit of respect for them would be lost. What are they teaching the youth around the country about sports? Especially in professional sports, it is important that they remember that they are role models and not just someone playing a game trying to win.

I heard some people call him courageous to admit to it, but that is not courage. Courage is going across the world to fight for your country and possibly die for your country. Courage is the single mother/father who are working their way through life on a pay check by pay check basis and still manage to better themselves by going back to school. Courage is not taking steroids to be a better baseball player and receive a 10-year-$252 million contract and then a 10-year-$275 million contract. If he wanted to be the best baseball player in history, he should have worked at it like everyone else.

A-Rod (A-Roid as people are calling him) went on “60 minutes” and lied to Katie Curic. If no one ever asked him and he chose not to speak up, not AS many people would be as mad/disappointed. If you knowingly went on TV and lied about not taking steroids, that is wrong.

In April 2008, Serzh Sargsyan took office as the newly elected President of Armenia. In September 2008, Abdullah Gül (President of Turkey) created a serious debate in Turkey because he visited the new President of Armenia during a World Cup qualifying match between the two countries. He was the first Turkish leader to visit bordering Armenia and hoped that it could be the beginning diplomatic normalization. The Turkish border has been closed from Armenia since 1993 and now with the ever changing world, we might see that border open soon.

In October 2007, George Bush (current US President) vetoed the bill that would have recognized the Armenian genocide in the United States because he wanted the Turkish airspace for the Iraq war. Now that Barack Obama is our 44th President, he has openly stated that he will be the President that will recognize the Armenian Genocide.

I believe that many Turkish intellectuals are now realizing that if the US recognizes it on the federal level, there is nothing stopping other countries from following. The Turkish people would deny it as long as the US doesn’t recognize the genocide, but since everything in the world will be changing, they will have to adapt.

Finally, the 1.5 million Armenian-Americans can receive recognition for their family member who were murdered by the Ottoman “Young” Turks in 1915. In my family tree, there are 17 family members who were killed by the Turks in 1915 and only 5 of the survived which included both my great-grandparents.

In my opinion, the only way that the Sox will have a chance at winning the division and the World Series is with Mark Teixeira in the lineup. I know the Sox can do it without him, but I think it will be so much easier with him.

Tommy Davidson, from “In Living Color”, was the host for the night. He not only made the crowd including Kristin and I laugh, but he made himself laugh a couple of times. He kept interrupting the stage manager when he was trying to countdown to taping and each time it was even funnier.

Iliza Shlesinger was one of the comedians that performed last night and she was awesome. In case you were wondering, she was the “Last Comic Standing” winner of season 6. She has two major qualities, she’s extremely hot and VERY funny.

The live taping of the show was really interesting. In one night, they taped three shows and made it seem like they were actually three different nights. Tommy Davidson was wearing different shirts and they closed out every third comic with saying goodnight and then they introduced him again two minutes later. There is one section of the show where they play something that is pre-recorded and they asked us not to clap after Tommy introduced it.

Overall the night was great and we had a lot of fun. Watch for season 2 of “NESN’s Comedy All Stars” which airs I believe Friday nights after Red Sox games (next season obviously).

After the trial, he was hated by most Americans and lost “a lot” of his money. Let’s jump forward about 10 years. Let’s recap! OJ Simpson gets away with 2 counts of murder and then he thinks everything will be fine when he and a group of men rob someone at gun point over some sports memorabilia. Really OJ? You didn’t think to yourself that you might get caught.

Today he was sentenced to 33 years in prison with eligibility for parole in 9 years. First of all, he should not be allowed parole and be in jail for the rest of his life. I was talking to a friend of mine and I told him: “All his life, he was told don’t drop the football. Now it’s going to be don’t drop the soap.”

Have fun OJ!!!

First of all, he said “items” and I was only talking about one thing. Second, if his only way to pay you is a certified check, there is something wrong. I may be mean to telemarketers and scammers, but it is fun sometimes. This is my exact response to his reply.

My response

I wanted to setup SVN so that when I commit to the server, it automatically updates the site with the newest content. Normally you have to manually go in and update the site to the latest revision. After reading through the Dreamhost Wiki, I found out how to accomplish this in only about 5-6 quick steps. I say quick in the fact that if you do it right it is quick. I had a few issues based on false information in the wiki, but I finally got it working and they updated the article.

Read the article here.

Once I got it working, I tested it out and it worked wonders. It made my life a lot easier because not only was it one less step, but I didn’t have to go into command line after every save and commit. If you are using SVN, I would highly recommend establishing a post-commit hook so that you can save time and energy.

Thank you to everyone who reads this blog!

I wonder if Facebook even realizes the mistake or if it is just my account. Oh well, funny anyways.

I looked up Lite-Brite to see if it still exists and not only does it still exist, but look at all of the lite-brite products they have now.

I also found that you can Create Your Own Lite-Brite online which was awesome. This is what I created in 5 minutes. The top one is the Armenian Flag and the bottom should be the American Flag, but you can only do so much in a short amount of time.

Enjoy!

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning).

Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about:

• Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
• Ann Taylor- 117 stores nationwide closing
• Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug ,and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
• Eddie Bauer to close stores 27 stores and more after January
• Cache will close all stores
• Talbots closing down specialty stores
• J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
• Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
• GAP closing 85 stores
• Footlocker closing 140 stores more to close after January
• Wickes Furniture closing down
• Levitz closing down remaining stores
• Bombay closing remaining stores
• Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
• Whitehall closing all stores
• Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
• Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January.
• Home Depot closing 15 stores 1 in NJ ( New Brunswick )
• Macys to close 9 stores after January
• Linens and Things closing all stores
• Movie Galley Closing all stores
• Pep Boys Closing 33 stores
• Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
• JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
• Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores.
• Wilson Leather closing down all stores
• Sharper Image closing down all stores
• K B Toys closing 356 stores
• Loews to close down some stores
• Dillard’s to close some stores

I know that Thanksgiving is all about giving thanks and there are plenty of things to be thankful for. There are some people who don’t have food to eat or a place to live. Don’t get me wrong, I have food to eat and a place to live, but it still doesn’t change the fact about how much it hurts to not spend time with my dad. Some point I will be able to be thankful during the holidays, but it won’t be for a little bit.

To all those who have the chance to spend time with their loved ones, I hope you enjoyed it and make sure to remember the time you get to spend with them.

Not a major mistake, but just really funny.

“I’ve had no doubts that our guys will do it. But in any case I feel greatly relieved that it’s over now and we can celebrate our success,” said one fan after learning the news.

Meanwhile, Armenia’s women finished outside the top six, but scored a number of memorable victories during the tournament, among them the demolition of the Azerbaijani team 4-0.

Congratulations to the Armenian chess team.

“It’s like having a really bad dinner and then having the best dessert ever.” – Eric

In addition, the Boston BBWAA announced it has named second baseman Dustin Pedroia as its 2008 Red Sox Most Valuable Player. Left-handed pitcher Jon Lester was chosen as the Chapter’s 2008 Red Sox Pitcher of the Year.

Other award recipients at the Boston Baseball Dinner are: Jacoby Ellsbury – Red Sox Rookie of the Year; Jonathan Papelbon – Red Sox Fireman of the Year; Sean Casey – Good Guy Award; Jeff Bailey – Red Sox Minor League Award. Other award winners will be announced in the future.

Tickets for the dinner are priced at $150.00 each. Tickets can be purchased by making checks payable to Boston Chapter BBWAA and mailing to: Boston Chapter BBWAA, P.O. Box 7346, Nashua, NH, 03060. Proceeds from the event will help the Chapter to continue supporting charitable causes.