Humbled

I passed a milestone on my blog yesterday that I can't ignore.

This makes me SO GLAD I only had two children

One third of a million blog hits since my counter went up in October 2009 (so it's missing about 5 months of data). Now when I search my stats, I realize a lot of people come looking for strange things. The top search term at the moment is possum. (erm... must be the possum in our garage incident... Not THIS possum, thankfully, or we'd STILL be getting them out of there.). I'm a little disappointed my top term is no longer cabana boy, but whatever. I still am humbled by the number of people who have come through. I'm honored to be considered, and sometimes even read. In fact it makes me feel a little small to think how many people are out there. Still VERY excited.

*pops champagne *

My flag counter (due left) is another huge favorite. I've had visitors from 194 countries. My most recent new FLAG is Papua New Guinea, but I LOVE that I have more than a thousand visitors each from 16 countries. It says 58% of my visitors are from the US, which means 42% aren't. I love the international feel of that.

While the plain old hit counter climbs steadily and gives me a feel for traffic, this has always been my favorite one. I knew when I started that I had friends from all over, but I didn't know if I'd GROW from all over. And in fact I've done better than that—I really get a thrill to see a flag from a place I've never even heard of--that I have to search for on a map--and realize somehow somebody from THERE made it to my blog.


And finally, I've gotten a few new followers since starting the A to Z and it is WONDERFUL! Thank you so much to those of you who've joined. I try to follow back. I try to comment back. And if an exchange goes well for not that long, I try to make someone a part of my regular routine. I've had some trouble with my blog roll of late—when I try to add people, it freaks out and won't save. I think I may have too many blogs and it needs some cleaning... or maybe I need to add a second—If I classify them—writing blogs and others, maybe—then I can cheat and get all those I want up there. But if you've been HERE and I haven't been to see YOU, PLEASE poke me. I want to return the favor. I just sometimes get tangled in the wiring and people get lost in the intentions of it. I'm not nearly as organized as some of my friends around here, so I might need a shove.