For the past month or two something strange has been happening with links to my blog on Facebook.  At times when I (and others) would click on a link on my profile expecting to be taken to a blog entry on my website, the link would instead go to some malware like website.  At the time I was contributing this to some error on Facebook’s part, since when I would visit the same link from my twitter postings it would work without problem.  Then yesterday I realized that links to my blog from google were having the same kind of behavior.  It was at this time that I realized that something must truly be wrong on my website.

I first googled the URL’s that my links were being redirected to and realized that this has happened to others before and that hackers are exploiting vulnerabilities in both PHP and WordPress (my blogging engine).  My search results gave me some code to search for in the files of my website, and I did find one occurrence of the hack in my wp-config.php file.  Even after I cleaned that up I realized that the redirecting was still happening.  I spend the next couple of hours trying to figure out where the code was malicious code was being hidden.  After verifying that my theme wasn’t the problem, I concluded that it must be one of the plugins that I am using.

So I went through each plugin, one at a time, disabling it and seeing if the redirects went away.  Finally I found the plugin that had been corrupted and it was the awesome WP Super Cache.  To fix the issue I simply deleted the plugin and all of its files from my site and then re-added it.  Once this was complete, links to my site from search engines and from Facebook are working once again!  I’ve changed my site passwords just in case that was somehow used.  I hope that is the end of this vicious attack on my site.

Our upcoming move is really in motion now. Our current home in Denver is under contract and if everything else goes smoothly, we will close the sale on May 2nd. If you were waiting to put your bid in, well you waited too long. We also spent this past weekend in Cincinnati on a house hunting trip. We’ve been paying close attention to the market and available properties in our chosen neighborhood of Hyde Park over the past couple of months, so we had a small list of seven homes to go through with our Realtor. Of the seven properties we visited on Saturday, we clearly had 2 favorites, and they were actually both on the same street. Our Realtor is actually the listing agent for our top choice. We told him the highest we were willing to go on the house, and after he talked with the owners they have accepted this verbal offer. We are now working to get all the paperwork in order, but again things are looking very good on the purchase of a new house.

The location, lineup, and more for the second stop of the Dave Matthews Band Caravan was announced today and as I suspected it will be held in Chicago. Furthermore O.A.R. is in the lineup, which makes this nearly a must hit festival for me. My only reservation is the location that they settled on in the south-side of the city, which according to my friends in Chicago is a rougher area of town. Kim and I had talked about taking Trey along to the festival and hoped that we could have a nearby hotel to retreat to if necessary. However commuting the nine miles between the festival and downtown Chicago could prove to be a little difficult. I’m not backing out from going, I’m just realizing that it will take a lot more planning to make this work.

I finally made it to my first Avalanche game of the season on Sunday. With Kim being pregnant most of the season, and the Avs doing so poorly, I found it difficult to shell out the money. Sunday was different though, as I had a friend in town who was heading to the game and he invited me to come along. We thought that we already had some tickets lined up, but when that fell through, I used a discount email that I get nearly weekly to secure some seats. We opted for the $20 tickets in the upper level, but that didn’t stop us from watching the entire game in the lower level. It is pretty easy to do as you please when the crowd isn’t very large.

For this game the Avalanche were taking on the Calgary Flames. We arrived a little late for the start and watched as the first period ended in a scoreless tie. The Flames managed to get a goal in the second, while the Avs were routinely stopped by Flame goaltender Miikka Kiprusoff. About half way through the third period, the Flames managed another goal to go up by two. Finally the Avs scored with just five minutes left, and though they had some opportunities toward the end of the game, that is how the score ended. With three games left in the season, my Avalanche spectating days are over and their season nearly is as well.

Over the weekend I played in an adult hockey tournament called the Dawg Bowl put on by the Dawg Nation Hockey Foundation. I actually have played on one of the Dawg Nation teams for a few games in a tournament a year or two ago. Anyway, my team from the last few seasons entered the tournament in the second highest division. Many of our normal players weren’t able to play, so we teamed up with half of another team in our league to form a new Santoro’s team. Though we didn’t win the tournament, we did finish 2-1 and barely missed the championship game. It was also cool to take a couple of shifts with recent University of Denver alumni Chris Nutini, who joined us for our last game of the tournament. Plus we were able to have some fun in the sun between games, all in the name of charity.

Friday night was spent at the India House Restaurant in downtown Denver. My wife had called ahead for reservations as recommended, though it didn’t seem all that busy upon our arrival. The restaurant doesn’t appear to be that large, but they have a surprisingly big second floor as well. We were seated quickly at a booth table, which proved a little tricky with our infant’s car seat. We were given water immediately, but it took some time for any orders to be placed. When the server was ready to take our order we had decided on drinks, dinner, and to skip an appetizer. The drinks came in a respectable amount of time, and as per usual with India restaurants, the food arrived rather quickly too.

Chicken Vindaloo

I ordered the Chicken Vindaloo, while my wife went with the Chicken Tikka Masala. Overall the food was just okay. I wasn’t much a fan of the Vindaloo, it wasn’t as spicy as I typically like it to be and it was actually pretty bland.  The Tikka Masala was better, but still not up to par with other Indian restaurants around town. Having visited a handful of these Indian restaurants around Denver and the neighboring suburbs, I would put India House toward the bottom of the list. Not only wasn’t it not very good, but the price was high, and the servings were not all that large. I have another free $20 to spend at the restaurant, but I’m not sure we will be back. Dinner quickly went $60 for just two meals and one large beer split between the two of us.

Last night my wife, son, and I met up with some friends for dinner and drinks at Govnr’s Park. This was definitely not my first time here, in fact I believe it was one of the first places I visited on my first visit to Denver back in 2003.  Every time I enter the bar/restaurant I recall that first visit, and a couple of others in following years, that eventually convinced my wife and I to move to Denver.

Buffalo Chicken Sandwich

We started out on the patio with two for one happy hour drinks.  It is really hard to beat two pints of good beer for $5 total, or the even better deal of two 22 ouncers for just a dollar more.  Once the sun had set and the temperatures quickly dropped, we all headed inside for some dinner.  I ordered the buffalo chicken sandwich, “the sandwich that originated here in 1989, often duplicated, never as good.”  Or at least that is what the menu claims.  Honestly, I have to disagree with their claim.  It was a good buffalo chicken, but I’ve had better.  The real standout out the meal for me were the side of fries, which were really thick cut potatoes coated in some delicious seasoning.  My wife had the surfin’ turkey, which she seemed to enjoy.  A friend of our had the ultimate grilled cheese, which was served on the thickest texas toast I have ever seen. All in all, it was a good dining experience.