Thoughts from Alison that might at least entertain you!

Bloggiversary!

Well it's true that this past week has been a bit of whirlwind, and somehow my bloggiversary came and went - and nearly escaped my notice.  As of this past Monday, September 19th I have been officially blogging for 5 years.  And yep, after 5 years, I still seem to have plenty of random pointless things to yammer about.  I've shared 834 posts, seen a bit over 13,000 page views, and successfully written a handful of things I'm really proud of.  I've also posted countless silly pictures of our pets, lots of randomness about what I'm cooking, a good bit of gardening tidbits, and so on and so on.  Also, in case you wonder - yes - "Closet Curtains" remains the Google search that sends random people to my blog over and over and over.  I'm feeling quite certain at this point that I will have plenty to share in the coming year, so I think I'll stick with this thing. 

Thanks for reading, Friends.  Be Well out there in this random yammering world!

Happy Bloggiversary to me!

Yes, indeed - there have now been a full 4 years to date of my yammerings in this forum.  I could bore you with all kinds of statistics, but basically: I started blogging on this date in 2006.  I've offered a total of 736 posts in that time, with total views of my pages totaling 11,539!  And yes, I still believe overall the most number of random hits I get from web searches are from people doing image searches for "closet curtains." 

Completely separate, but marginally related since I often blog about food I create here at Prune Ridge, here is tonight's dinner:  

These are my first-ever homemade stuffed mushrooms (and a tomato-mozzarella salad with tomatoes from my garden)!  I worked off a recipe but changed nearly everything since I had certain ingredients I wanted to use.  Stuffing basically includes summer squash (from the garden), bacon, crushed crackers, sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, and some oregano.  Secret ingredient and biggest stretch from the recipe?  Cream cheese!  The recipe I was using called for ricotta that I don't have, but I decided cream cheese might be the way to go.  Score!  I now labor under the (most likely false) impression that I will be forever able to make up my own fabulous stuffed mushroom recipes with whatever I have on-hand.  To quote myself speaking to John after dinner:  "Name any ingredient.  I bet I can put it in a mushroom!!"

More Bowls

In case you're interested, and in case you haven't seen it because it's sort of "low" on this page, I added a new photo album with pictures of bowls from our home.  I like 'em!

Blogging, again - at least trying.

At the risk of annoying my readers and the even greater risk of annoying myself, for the time being I'm going to attempt to blog only in single paragraphs.  This is my latest attempt to overlook and overcome the shortcomings of the new "awesome" features being offered by my blog site.  I've learned (sort of) to control the formatting of what I type, but some issues remain.  Text can only be formatted after it is typed.  The text has to be highlighted, and then format choices can be selected.  The text also has to be re-highlighted for each change (for instance, once to change the font, again to change the size, and again to change the color).  AND, I can only format one paragraph at a time.  If I typed a 6-paragraph post, I would have to highlight and change things 18 times to make it look the same if I change all three things.  Grrrr.  So there you go.  Happy Weekend, All!

Happy Blogiversary!

Today is one year since my very first post on this here blog!  This has been quite an adventure so far - one that I am still thoroughly enjoying.  Some of you may recall that this started as an experiment with which to gauge my potential interest and/or dedication in building a website eventually to show some of my collage work.  I started with a fair amount of skepticism, not sure I would "have what it takes" to maintain a stream of thoughts or the focus to share them.  (Check that - I ALWAYS have a stream of thoughts, I just didn't know about the discipline to keep up a blog.)

So, in the spirit of reporting pointless things:  In the past year, my page has had 2,093 views with an average of 5.73 hits per day.  I have posted 154 times. (Holy crap!)  Did I mention that I love it?  Thank you to everyone who has stayed with me and keeps reading - I hope you enjoy it at least half as much as I do!

A small challenge for the coming year - make comments when you read something you want to speak to!  Also, for the record - I am leaning towards creating a collage site now too, but haven't the faintest idea where to start!

Separate but related:  I can't believe that I started this little adventure last year on September 19th, and failed to recognize that it was International Talk Like A Pirate Day!  Dante (my former boss at COSI) and I used to celebrate every year with only Pirate-speak in our office.  He emailed me today to say that there was a headline on Yahoo this morning about the holiday!

So, Mateys, with this 155th post - Happy Next Year of Blogging, and may you find great treasure on all your adventures!  Arrrrrr!

I've been linked!

Well here's a new first for my blogging adventures - I've been linked from somebody else's blog!  Granted, it's my husband's new blog:  John's report on the Tigers game.

For the record, the most recent dream I've had with my friend (Sean Casey, First Baseman for the Detroit Tigers) didn't have any bran muffins in it.  He was hangin' with us, in the stands at a Tigers game, watching the game, and we were all eating corn dogs!  (Mmmmm, corn dogs)

I'm thinking there might be a corn dog in my future at the Tigers game next week!  And maybe my friend will sit with us!?!  Good job, friend - that was a great triple!

Be Well All you Friends.  Eat corn dogs and bran muffins, and keep dreaming!

Check this one out:

My husband John has entered this crazy blogging world!  Check out the Freezer Guy's page OCMU,OCMA if you're curious!

Welcome to the "blogosphere", honey!

Here we go...

Well this is completely and utterly an experiment!  I've been possessed by something inexplicable, and I've suddenly decided it seems like a good idea to try creating a blog.  I have a couple of friends who have created these amazingly beautiful intelligent entertaining blogs...  where they manage to chronicle their whole lives, the lives of their children, etc.  I don't even have children, and I'm pretty sure if I did I wouldn't find the time to blog.  But hey - maybe I can find the time now without children?

(Side note - the previous statements about my friends and their children will prompt new questions from the rest of the world about our (John's & mine) plans/thoughts on the same subject.  The answer is we don't know!)

I suspect that when a person is inclined to start a blog, there are two schools of thought.  Some people might begin with a plan, and agenda, a fairly "fleshed-out" idea of the things they plan to muse on.  Other people probably begin with an idea that blogging might be neato, but not even a remote concept of what intriguing things they might yammer about.  Guess which one I am?

I am also toying with the idea at the moment of starting a website to show some of my collage efforts on, so a blog seems like a baby-step towards a bigger web commitment.  Baby steps!  Speaking of collage, I'll try adding a couple of pics here of some pieces.

For the record, the funnest (yes, it's a word) thing coming up in my life is our FIRST anniversary!  John and I will celebrate one year on October 16.  I am the luckiest person there ever has been, and that's the truth!  I'll offer more thoughts soon on my luck, my beautiful husband, and our beautiful marriage.

So there you go - and here I am.  Let's see where this goes, ok? 

(The geese are landing on the lake as I type.  They are practicing flying formations a lot lately.)

Peace, friends - Be Well and Be Taking Care.