Dear Lent Madness Faithful,
Early this morning, at about 8:20 am EST, the Lent Madness website went down. You probably heard the collective weeping and 
gnashing of teeth that rang out all over the globe. Or you may have noticed the uptick in purple votive candle sales that impacted the international markets.
After a lot of hard work, we are pleased to announce that the saintly smackdown is back up and running. Scott and Celebrity Blogger David Sibley (hard core technophiles) were able to remedy the presenting issue. This was particularly impressive since Scott is currently in Rwanda on a pilgrimage with Episcopal Migration Ministries. Also, when it comes to technical fixes, Tim is useless.
Our (soon to be former) hosting company 1and1 shut the site down due to high volume without giving us any notice. The good news is that we are provisionally back up and running and you can now go vote in today’s matchup between Balthazar and Cecilia. . The bad news is that we will need to shut the site down again to switch servers (hopefully on Sunday so it won’t affect voting). We’ll keep you posted.
Update 11:13 PM EST: Because of the high server load, things continue to be quite slow and a bit dicey - but voting is open, and votes are being recorded. Our advice: keep trying to vote!
In order to give both Balthazar and Cecilia their due. We are extending the voting period until tomorrow (Saturday) at 2:00 pm EST. Then the polls will close and all will be right with the world. For the time being.
Now, to assign blame. That’s the Christian thing to do, right? We have several working theories:
1. Hildegard of Bingen, furious at losing such a close battle to Egeria, pulled the plug out of holy spite.
2. Cuthbert’s otters got loose and gnawed through the wires.
3. The Celebrity Bloggers failed in their coup attempt to unseat the SEC.
4. Feral cats, irate that there is no Official Cat of Lent Madness, scratched the server to death.
5. The collective price paid for those who have faltered in their Lenten disciplines.
6. Al Gore.
7. The Wrath of the Archbishops.
8. Those who skip Lent altogether and gorge themselves on Easter Peeps. On Good Friday.
9. The scapegoat from Leviticus 16:10.
10. Needless to say, Scott blames Tim and Tim blames Scott.
Thank you for your forbearance during this brief glimpse into a life devoid of Lent Madness. It was indeed a harrowing vision of Dante-esque proportions.
Tim & Scott
Supreme Executive Committee
118 comments on “We're baaaaaaaaaack...”
It might have been the curiae their not happy with the Holy Father , anger is so for some children,
Am I the only one who thinks that picture is an incredibly clever takeoff on Da Vinci's "Creation of Adam"?
Well if we can't vote for the saints we can at least vote on the cause of the crash. Lent Madness folks will vote no matter what you put up! I vote for the seals!
I agree that Hildegard was wrongly snubbed ... but unlikely she had anything to do with the glitCh - angry cats sound more likely
..
I'm thinking it's the 20,000+ comments, and a heathen hosting site!
Cats and otters and scapegoats! Oh, my! I'm so thankful it wasn't my computer (as I feared) though I'll never gain back the time I spent trying to troubleshoot. When I saw that one of my friends had already posted on Facebook that she had voted, I was quite certain that it was moi! So glad it wasn't and so happy I finally got to vote, since I've really looked forward to this matchup!
I too am glad your back. Thank you. I think it was #2, #4 or all the snow.
I feared that the server had given up Lent Madness for Lent. Glad to hear it was only seals. Or cats.
Doesn't Heidi Shott have a rabbit? And I don't see Heidi as a Celebrity Blogger this year. And I didn't see any Official Rabbit for Lent Madness, which would be totally appropriate given, you know: Easter. Hester did it!
How did the ferrets avoid the list??
This almost merits using the "A" word during Lent!
What a relief. Home with the flu and unable to do more than FB and wait for the site to get back up. I think Maple Anglicans had a role in this. Maybe the clairvoitron (? sp.) acted up.
I think it was the Archbishops, because it has to be ok to eat purple peeps on Good Friday.
I go with the feral cat theory so the only way out of that is to designate an Official Cat of Lent Magness. We had a cat who would qualify as a saint as she saved my husband from a copperhead snake. Husband was able to kill the snake not the cat, but her act was saintly nonetheless. Glad Lentmadness is back on the air. Premature withdrawal set in this morning.
I've been amazed pleasantly by how many people are participating in LM this year, and this is a light's out example of having the good problem of popularity.
Yesterday was a true match. Then this am so glad to have "Saintly Scorecard" at hand.
At least it wasn't My Dog Ate The Website!
I am pre-voting for Barbara because that's my name. I'm willing to take on any opponent.
Ravenous seals pushed over the edge of sanity by Margery's incessant sobbing and weeping.
I'm going with Cuthbert's otters....
Utter nonsense. They're too laid back. If Cuthbert could trust them with his exposed ankle veins, I'm quite sure we can cross them off the list.
And, yes, put those ferrets in their place.
That was a typo, right? You meant to say "otter nonsense"? ☺️
Of course he did. It's UTTER nonsense about the ferrets being responsible.
I clicked the 'Read More' link as soon as this morning's email hit my inbox. When I got the message that the site was down, I naturally assumed that hundreds of thousands of other Lent Madness junkies had done the same and brought the server to its knees. Or that maybe some North Korean hackers had recognized a much greater threat to their way of life than Sony pictures, and were staging a cyber attack. Either scenario could have happened. You never know...
Who chews wires? DUH!!! Rabbits...who - collectively as a species - are also miffed that Forward Movement refuses to publish an Episco-bun calendar. I could give you 12 adorable bunny photos JUST LIKE THAT. (All of the same rabbit, though.)
Thank you for all the hard work and energy put in to keeping this running as smoothly as it has so far.
Keep up the great work!!!
Tim,
I'm impressed that you could sit down (maybe you were standing) and write such a clever and amusing piece in the middle of this techno-crisis!
REVENGE OF THE ARCHBISHOPS!
I love you guys! You make me laugh out loud even when no one is listening!
Obama's fault, obviously.
Isn't everything?
I still can't vote! I am a lurker but I vote daily.
i think youre lying about Simon and the Andrews Sisters, but to your credit, carefully hidden lies to test whether we read every word. Good for you all/both, or whatever.
Perhaps the Pilgrim of Rwanda will be in next year's bracket for his selfless service in absentia to all of the lost LM voters. Could we initiate a calendar of Slightly Less than Lesser Saints to accommodate such devotion?
I am all in favor of Marcia I's idea. i give my proxy to her in all issues connected to this idea.
Um, really? Really?
To hear some tell it.
i was able to vote, but couldn't see the totals to that time.
Not to worry about today's contest--I'll bet Cecilia wins in a canter, but i thought you should know this.
Niel A. Renton
Egeria vs Hildegard sank the site with their outrageous struggle. Too many comments.