concluding the year when y’all wasted your lives reading this

Good Friday, dear readers (by which I mean it’s a good Friday, not Good Friday.  Duh),

It’s been a busified week of settling back in to life, just before preparing to jet off to New York to go sight seeing, eat delicious food, and see some cool shows hole up in the archives for a week.  There are several pre- and post-holiday posts in the works, but they just haven’t made it out yet.

That’s okay, though, because today is the eve of Dumb in the District’s one-year blogoversary, or whatever you call the anniversary of a blog.  Yay!

WordPress gave me a convenient chart showing my blog progress and stats.  They speak my language and even contextualized the chart by comparing the number of hits Dumb in the District has received to the number of people who climbed Mount Everest this year, just to make it a bit easier to understand.  Here’s the point where I should list which posts have earned the greatest number of hits in order for you to be reminded of how fantastic everything is and how much you love reading all of the profundity here, but there’s a problem.  The post that received the greatest number of hits this year was “Alicia’s Dream,” which was a guest post written by my youngest sister and not by me.  So I’m certainly not going to tell you about all of that and shame myself on my own blog.  That would be lame.

Instead I’ll thank those of you who are engaged with this blog and comment on it, beginning with those who have left the greatest number of comments.  First place congratulations go to me, the record holder for most trolls on my own blog.  Second place goes to my favorite Frogmartian, and Maria won third and fifth prize with her two different blogs.  Katherine played fourth-place Benjamin Harrison to Ea’s Grover Cleveland, and in sixth place we had an exciting three-way tie between Chloe, Susan, and Allie.  Cleo rounded out the best-of-the-best list.  Many congratulations to myself and all of the other wonderful winners!  Some of you trolls need to work harder . . .

Andi asked the other day what weird search terms led people to this blog and then threatened to find it using some of them, so for anybody wondering how to stumble upon Dumb in the District, here are some of the craziest queries that have directed people here (organized by number of searches and cross-referenced by strangeness):

catcake

costco williamsburg crossing

top 10 natural disasters on the dmv

snow in africa this year

meaning of presidents day

gymnastics oops

olympic feet

president park in williamsburg va (so much Williamsburg!  WHYYYYYY?!)

handstand college

kill rabbit for dinner

overalls tommy 2012

how should an engagement ring fit

ryan lochte dumb

is ryan lochte dumb as a post

three animals in one house

arkansas delta

how many people can fit in the metro center dc earthquake

famous people wore overalls

am i too stupid to be a diplomat

honey badger don’t pay no bag tax arlington va

do you ever die of cuteness

what do tsongololos eat

what happened with kony 2012 kerri strugg 1996

cab you still get into the giant president heads in williamsburg

do olympic gymnasts eat mcdonalds

reply for comments like mom and daughters look sisters what reply should be given

how to get michael phelps to notice me

And, finally, my favorite:

dc parking ticket excuses

I don’t remember ever writing about overalls, but whatevs.  I’m glad people are reading this and finding it using the world’s most appropriate search terms, which brings me to the final point.  Semi seriously, thank y’all for reading along this year and being supportive (or holding your tongues!).  It’s been a fun year of connecting and re-connecting with some of you, and it’s only taken one full year to begin the research that was supposed to inspire so many of these stories.  Hopefully this will be another great year, even with research trips.

Happy weekend, all, and here’s a photo to finish your Friday: