Yesterday

Yesterday was this blog's ninth birthday.

When I started posting here, my son was three. He's twelve now, and enough of a person that he asks me not to blog about his life - or conversely and much more rarely TO BLOG about his life. He emails his grandparents, he has his own phone.

When I started posting here, I was only involved in politics extremely peripherally. Since then I've earned the title of Doorbell Queen, been a candidate's spouse, and a candidate myself. I'm on the board of NARAL Pro-choice Virginia Foundation, and tweet politics daily.

When I first started posting here, I posted nearly every day. Well, that's turned into tweeting daily instead. Which isn't quite so nice for the blog, but it certainly fits into my schedule better.

I've written over 1500 posts, had over 60,000 visitors, talked about everything under the sun.

I don't know what will happen next, but I know that I love this blog even if I haven't maintained it well the last couple of years. I love the friends I've made here, some of whom I've met in real life. I love reading everyone else's blogs, too.

What I'm saying is, thank you for nine years. I hope to still be writing here, even if only on occasion, for the next nine.

Housekeeping

Some of the links in my blogroll will vanish. This is not because I don't read them, I do, but they are more appropriate to Doorbell Queen, so that's where they will reside.

Links to blogs that haven't updated in over 6 months will move to the "Gone Quiet" section.

If you've got a blog that I don't link to here or at DBQ, let me know!

Admin stuff

I've redone my blog roll and divided it in two: people who are still posting (up at the top); and folks who have gone silent (on their blogs, though they may still be active elsewhere). If I've moved you mistakenly, please let me know!

My criteria was longer than 3 months without a posting.

Also, links on my other blog are no longer duplicated at this one. Some more links may shift over there soon.

Profgrrrrl, I couldn't get your blog to link in the blogroll. I'll work on it and make sure you're in there!

I would say something if I had something to say...

Will catch up here later this week. Sorry for the silence here, but I'm noisy at my other blog and on Twitter.

Welcome

I'm pleased to have new visitors to this blog. I've been blogging here for quite a while. I do have some guidelines for commenters (over there on the sidebar). Feel free to make yourself at home and take a look around.

I write mostly about knitting, and mystery books, and politics, and tell the occasional story about life at home or at work.

If you'd like, leave a comment and let me know you've visited!

On Earning the Title

Folks, my daily average is about to go way down because my walking schedule's about to get wonky.

Here's my new walking schedule:
Sunday: 12-6 (babysitter)
Monday: 5-8 (babysitter)
Tuesday: 5-8 (babysitter)
Wednesday (most weeks): 5-6 (between work and MM pickup)
Thursday (most weeks): 5-6 (between work and MM pickup)
Friday: 5-6 (between work and MM pickup)
Saturday: The occasional shift if MM has a b-day party or playdate, or when he feels like coming with me.

So, 3 days a week I'll do 70 - 100 or more doors and 3 days a week I'll be doing 25-35 doors.

That's 15 hours of walk time, over 400 doors a week. I guess I'll track my weekly average too!

I Added Some More Folks to the Blog Roll -->

And you'll notice that they have the little asterisk indicating I've met them in real life. They are high school friends who also took McCourt's class and who write much better than I do.

(ETA: also added a political blog. It's asterisked, but it's a cocktail party meet, not a high school friend! Also added Rev. Songbird who I was missing for some unknown reason.)

I need to clean up the rest of the roll pretty soon. Several out-of-date links.
(ETA: Done, for the most part.)

Also, if you link here and you'd like me to link back to you, send me an email! My email is liz AT (mylastname)household DOT com. I don't promise reciprocal linking (f'rinstance, I tend not to link to blogs that are purely about selling things, or to ones with really mean commenters and no comment policy in place to control them), but I love broadening my blog community.

Question about stats

You may have noticed that I'm keeping track of days and doors there on the right -->

I have it broken down by days, doors, and average doors per day. But the truth is, I don't do the same number of hours per day. So...to keep the stats more honest, should I break it down by doors per hour instead of doors per day?

F'rinstance, on weekend days that MM has a playdate or a babysitter, I can do six to eight hours of steady door-knocking. Most weeks I do three to four hours per night on Mondays and Tuesdays (I have a sitter take MM home from daycamp.)

I do tend to do about thirty doors an hour, except of course for last night, when I only did twenty, but to be fair, I did have general anesthesia the day before.

Tell me, friends in the interwebs, which way best satisfies the stat geek in you?

Comments policies and why I like 'em.

There's a local politics blog 'round these parts that I've stopped reading the comments on because the commenters have gotten so nasty and - while the blogger steps in once in a while to shut them down - on the whole, the nastiness continues unfettered.

It's like school yard bullying. And it's one reason why this blog is semi-anonymous. I don't want those commenters coming here. But IF they come here, I will delete any and all nastiness they might care to spew.

I'm taking this opportunity to call attention to my comments policy which I posted awhile back in the side bar over there --->

It reads:

Rules for commenters
Here at Mystery Mommy, I'd like to welcome all commenters. Here are a few rules:

Anonymity: I allow anonymous commenting because I have friends in the interwebs who'd rather not be tracked from site to site. If you want to comment anonymously, that is fine with the following limitations: be kind; be respectful; no spam; and, when possible, shoot me a private e-mail letting me know who you are. Thanks.

Spam: I don't allow it. Spam gets deleted. If I want to sell something, I will sell it. If you want to sell something, get your own blog.

Mean-spiritedness / bullying / disrespect: Deleted. That is all.

So, welcome! I hope that you will come often and comment freely within these simple rules. Thanks so much.

I can't believe I missed it

April 6, 2005 was my first blog post. I missed my blogiversary.

I didn't post anything 3 years ago today, but I did post something 3 years ago tomorrow.

I didn't post anything 2 years ago today, but I did post something 2 years ago yesterday. Two days after I posted my original 20 sentences.

I didn't post anything 1 year ago today, either. But I did post something a year ago tomorrow.

In fact, this is the first year I posted something on 04/22. But every year I've posted something on 04/21 and 04/23.

Thank you all for being here. For being my friends. For being the loving, funny, delicious people you are. I love visiting with you and having you come here to visit with me. I love getting to know you. I miss you when you are gone.

Madeleine asks...

"You aren't serious about identifying the kids in that picture are you?"

Why, yes! Yes I am! MM was the only one in a striped blue and black shirt. LovesHighSchoolMusical was the only one with a ponytail. That is definitely CanYouBelieveShe'sOnlySix's chin. The only one that's iffy is MomBakesBrownies. It might actually be SwamWithUsLastSummer. Hmmm. Okay, I'll concede that bottom left is SwamWithUsLastSummer, but I stand by the rest.

The best thing about the picture, actually, is that it captures perfectly the light and movement and general other-worldly-ness that is Laser Tag.

"Is it just me, or is the funky lighting completely disorienting?"

Again, yes. Yes it totally is. Actually, it made me kind of nauseated. But the kids just loved it.

Gah!!! I'm getting comment spam again!

I've had to set comments to no anonymous comments. Sorry.

Gah!!! I'm getting comment spam again!

Sorry guys, I'm putting comment verification back on.

I upgraded to the new template and lost my blogroll EDITED

Somehow Blogger used the one I had when it upgraded the whole thing. VERY STRANGE. Fortunately, I'd saved the old one. Please be patient while I work on this issue.

In the meantime, please tell me if you like the new color scheme or if I should go back to the old one.

Blogroll is finished, but I'm going to make it easier to read soon.

Heads up

Hey y'all! In dribs and drabs I'm sending out e-mails to pretty much everybody I know here in blogland about that unbloggable thing going on at Chez Mystere. If one doesn't find its way into your inbox and you'd like to know what's up, please let me know!

Also, school starts up again on Monday. Three 4-credit lab courses: Anatomy; Cell Structure and Function; and Sensation, Perception, and Information Processing.

Despite the sadness of the last few weeks, I really enjoyed the break. I only wish I'd gotten more done housework-wise.

Butter

There's an album...quite a good album...by The Four Bitchin' Babes. On that album is a song...quite a good song...called "Butter".

"Butter" (by Megon McDonough) is a country-western love-song style ode to all things we're told not to eat. Those luscious, delectable, sinful, gloriously seductive treats we'd rather not share with anyone else thankyouverymuch. She sings lovingly of butter, of pasta, of coffee ice cream from Haagen Daz, and of chocolate - sweet, sweet chocolate.

And that, my dear Magpie, is why all my chocolate posts are labelled Butter.

Her version on the Four Bitchin' Babes album is better than the one on her solo album, IMO.

Darn! I missed it!

Yesterday was my two-year blogiversary and I missed it.

But I have a good excuse!

We went to the circus! With tigers! And elephants! And house cats! And dogs! And a high-wire artist! And clowns! And Acrobats! And jugglers! And acrobats who juggle other acrobats!

And then we walked around Nearby University's campus and played tag. And I introduced MM and MS to my Abnormal Psychology prof. ("What is she, twelve?") who gets embarrassed by my calling her Professor since she's at least 1o years younger than me and knows it.

And then we came home and I crashed into bed and woke up for dinner and found out I had a fever and crashed again and now I'm all better and there you go.

Thank you all for being here for me and for letting me ramble on at you.

Mwah!!

Clean up, clean up, everybody do your share

I've done some redecorating over in the links--->

I've added quite a few folks and want to give them all a shout out.

I've also removed some folks and put them into my favorites folder on my computer. The folks I removed haven't posted in over a month or let their sites go defunct. I miss you all. Let me know if I've removed you in error.

GAHHHHHH!!!! BLOGGER ATE HALF MY LAST POST!!!

And shoved one paragraph up with another so I didn't notice. GAH!!!

I will now edit the offending post and make it read like I wanted it to.

GAH!

Look over there -->

I've added a few new faces, updated some links, and rearranged things a bit. There are a few bloggers over there with more than one blog that I read regularly and I've linked to each of them on one line (Hi Chris! Moxie! Moreena!!)

Andrea asked a few months ago what the demographics of our blogrolls look like and whether they are primarily mirrors of ourselves.

For the most part, I'd say that my blogroll looks alot like me. White North American Married Women who have at least one child. I do have a few men on the list (Hi Corndog! Scrivener! Overread! Laid-off Dad!) and more that I will be adding. I have a few single folks, a few who are not parents, and a few who have a whole heck of a lot more kids than me. There are some professors, and I'm a student. There are some folks who are having health issues in their families, and (knock wood) my family is currently pretty healthy -- though I am constantly aware of how quickly that could change. I am, after all, 37. My dad had a heart attack when he was a year younger than me, and though he's currently healthy, his father died when he was nine. There are folks who are living about as far away from me geographically as you can get, and here I am. There are a few home-schoolers, and my son's been in daycare forever. There are some people who are far more certain of God's hand in their lives than I and some who are far more certain that there isn't any God.

Each and every person on the list is someone I identify with and am interested in. Even if their lives are very different from mine, I feel a connection. Perhaps it's not reciprocated, but that doesn't matter to me. The blogs I list are ones that touch me, make me laugh, or cry, or both. In any case, there they are. If you haven't had a chance to read some of them, go on and pay a visit.