Author: Melanie

Candy is dandy, but liquor is quicker.
— Ogden Nash

It’s Halloween, and the stuff is all over the place (including in my hot little hands), so I want to know:

One day, an army of gray-haired women may quietly take over the earth.
— Gloria Steinem

Behold, my new favorite blog, co-written by two women (though mostly by one of them) in their 80s who have been friends for 60+ years: Margaret and Helen.  As a warning, many of the posts are political, and heavily left-leaning, but oh my gosh, do these ladies have a way with words – I just started reading today, and they are cracking me up.  Hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event.
— Oscar Wilde

One year ago today, Hear Me in the Harmony was born.  It seems both longer and more recent than that, but WordPress says it’s true.  In honor of the day, I thought I’d share some HMITH trivia with you.

• I started over at Blogger and moved to WP on 12/15/07.

• Total number of posts: 132, including this one (that’s not so many; I wish I’d written more.  Maybe this year.)

• Most viewed post: Seven Minutes in Heaven (which has more than twice the views of the next closest post, This Year’s Love)

• Total number of comments: 538

• Post with the most comments: Run For Your Life (followed closely by Who Are You, and Where Did You Come From?, one that’s very special to me)

• Most clicked link in my Blogroll: Things My Boyfriend Says (though that site hasn’t been updated in well over a year; maybe she broke up with her boyfriend?)

• The only post that doesn’t begin with a quote: Hey, It Doesn’t Hurt to Ask, Right?

• Most common search term used to reach HMITH: “white tiger,” with “white tigers” in second (Really?  I mean, that’s weird, isn’t it?  I have one picture of a white tiger, here, from my trip to Houston, but you know, not really being a blog about white tigers, I find this oddly troubling.)

• Funniest search term used to reach HMITH: I think it’s a tie between “ways to almost die,” “I have a crush on my dentist,” and “Michael Keaton saves woobie.”

• Best search term used to reach HMITH: This one’s easy – “Brian McCann”

• My favorite post: This one was tough, and I couldn’t choose just one – my favorites are Brothers and Sisters and Memory Lane of Men, Part 1.

The best part of blogging, though, has been getting to know so many of you through the comments and through your own blogs (because I’m always reading, even if I’m not writing).  I love being part of your lives this way, and I’m so glad you’ve allowed me to share myself with you.

Don’t worry about polls, but if you do, don’t admit it!
— Rosalynn Carter

So WordPress added a new feature recently that I’ve been dying to try – Polls!  I kept waiting for you other WP types to use it, because I am supremely uncreative at thinking of questions, but none of you have, so now you’re stuck with me.

In between commercials of Game 5 of the World Series, I’m watching the Indianapolis Colts play the Tennessee Titans.  Peyton Manning is my perennial Fantasy quarterback (among fantasy, um, other things, but that is neither here nor there), and until this season, he’d been a sure thing.  I don’t know if it’s the pre-season knee surgeries, age, or something else, but he’s been off his game so far this season.  I picked up Jason Campbell as a backup a few weeks ago when Indy had its bye week, and I played him two weeks ago because Manning had been faltering.  Of course, that week Manning had a stellar game against Baltimore, connecting with Marvin Harrison for two touchdowns.  I also have Harrison, and benched him that week, too, because he’d been sucking.  My luck in Fantasy Football is not what you’d call great.  In the 5+ years I’ve been playing in Nate’s league, I don’t think I’ve ever even made the playoffs, despite usually having teams that look great on paper.  So far this season, I’m 3-4.

I played Campbell this week, since the Redskins played the winless Lions, but hedged my bets by playing Harrison, in case he and Manning had a repeat of the Ravens game.  Campbell did well, but as of halftime of tonight’s game, Harrison has 1 catch for 12 yards.  This is not good.  I need him to have a great game tonight to beat my opponent, and I can feel that it’s just not happening.

All of this is a roundabout way of introducing my first poll:

There is no happiness; there are only moments of happiness.
— Spanish proverb

I love anomalies.  Like once, I got soup at a restaurant that had a packet of Saltines on the side, only it only had one Saltine in it, even though it should have had two.  Tuesday, I filled the candy bowl at work with caramel candy corn.  Yesterday, I spooned several into my hand and found a single chocolate candy corn!  Then last night, I was pulling red grapes off the stems and putting them in a colander to wash them and saw this:

It’s a single, tiny, GREEN grape on the bunch of big red grapes!  I know it’s silly, but things like this make me smile.