Visitor # 1000 Checks In

It wasn't exactly a contest, but the last couple of days I've been watching the SiteMeter to see if Home Stories would log its 1000th visitor since April 21 this week. Lo and behold, we have a winner, and it's the visitor from Garden City, Kansas! Although I think they might have been aiming for that distinction since they logged on three times today. Either that, or they are in need of something new to read. Congratulations, Don and Kay, and thanks for reading.

Visitor 999 was niece Debbie in Hutchinson, another frequent reader. Debbie, I have a present for you: some of the original fabric from my wedding dress--I saved the scraps. Would they come in handy for some of your altered art projects? Let me know.

I added the counter in April after attending a presentation about them at the Missouri College Media conference. Although Home Stories has been in the blogosphere (thanks for that new word, Doug) for two years, readers seldom leave comments and I was wondering if anyone besides me ever read it. Now I know. There are the people who stumble in via a Google search, from Delaware and Tel Aviv and New Zealand and France, but there are also regular visitors I think I know: Greg and Monique in the Netherlands, Doug in Florida, Maxine in MIneral Wells, Carol in Irving, Debi and Mike in Tulsa, Jan in Colby, Carla in North Platte, Jacque in St. Louis and Sandy in St. Louis; former student Josh from the Post-Dispatch (although he's reading it at work and it registers as coming from Lee Enterprises in Davenport Iowa, go figure), and Carrie in St. Charles (although I think she has moved.) There are some mysteries: Broomfield, Colo., Monument, Kans. and a couple of others. (ISP providers aren't always listed as being in the town the reader is from, and the ISP is all I see, not your e-mail address.) It's great to know that family and friends, those for whom the blog was started, are looking at it and I hope finding something a few times a week to inform or entertain. So--who wants to be visitor # 2000? Can we reach that goal before the end of 2008? I'll try to give you a reason to come back and we'll see.