You are Sitemeter visitor number…

With the year winding down, this seems a very good time to thank you all – readers, tipsters, guest bloggers, and sponsors – for helping make SDA the success it has become!
Update! And here’s our visitor number 20,000,000.

Note: I use the Sitemeter count to mark SDA traffic milestones because it’s the public counter displayed on the blog. However, it’s not as accurate as the internal logs. For example, while Sitemeter shows 4,302,538 visits to the site since January 1st, internal logs indicates 4,596,908 “viewed traffic” (omitting robots, etc.). This evening there were as many as 8 visits per second coming into the blog.

Kathy Shaidle;

As most of you know by now, conservative blogger, podcaster and activist Andrew Lawton is seriously ill.
His family says flowers aren’t permitted in the ICU, but they welcome your cards!
Here’s the information:
Andrew Lawton, Patient
Victoria Hospital, Critical Care Unit
800 Commissioners Road East
London, Ontario
Canada N6A 5W9

Sick day. Back tomorrow.

Home, home on the range. Where the deer and the antelope mock my inability to hit the broad side of a barn.
I got off a single shot at a very nice buck – and missed. Then, with the weather turning from bad to worse, it was time for Plan B – the dog show in Brandon, Manitoba. And while we may not have tagged a buck, me and Venus bagged a Best In Show ribbon!
Normal blogging will resume – at least until the weekend when the cold is expected to lift. Thanks once again to all our intrepid guest bloggers!

It’s whitetail season again, so posting will be slow here over the next several days.
For those who find it disturbing to think that I might take the life of an innocent animal in the name of sport, let me assure you right here and now that this year I’ll be hunting with a video camera.
I’ll just have to put it down to take a shot.

The Blogging Tories website is back up and has been given the all clear.

Final update – Looks like we’re all clear. Thanks everyone for your patience!
(Sticky – new posts appear below.)
As of last evening a number of readers are getting “This Is An Attack Page” etc. warnings when trying to access this site and others. The problem seems to have originated with something on the Blogging Tories blogroll, resulting in a blacklisting by Google, which triggered the security warning.
Click here for the current site status.
Thanks for all the emails – we’re working on the problem. I’ll update as I find out more.
Update: The tech support at the hosting company can find nothing amiss in the code here. The Blogging Tories blogroll has been pulled down, as it seems to be the source of the initial warning. I’ve asked for a review by Google, but it may take a day or two for a response, according to their website.

Greetings from beautiful downtown Monroe, Michigan. Yes, it’s our last, biggest dog show trek of the season, which culminates a week from Sunday at the Montgomery Co. Kennel Club. As you’ll likely have noticed, our intrepid guest bloggers are already in to pick up the slack. I’ll be on line only occasionally, so direct your best finds to the Reader Tips thread.
Today was muchly successful, Can.Ch.Minuteman Venus Flytrap taking a 4 point major at the Miniature Schnauzer Club of Michigan specialty, my travel companion’s Scottie finished her American championship title with a 4 point win, and our Soft Coated Wheaten client’s dog also picked up a major score. Of course, this information means nothing to 99% of you, but I don’t care. All Saskatchewan dogs, all now greatly feared and admired.
If I can get photos off this camera without my laptop cacking, I’ll post some later.
Well, the ones at ringside didn’t turn out well enough to use, but here’s one of Venus taken in August.

At Pundit Press. Lots of other stuff on the main page, too.

Another road trip nearly behind me, as I wait for my flight here in Charlotte, NC.
It’s been hell month here, with dog show commitments in Calgary, Winnipeg and Greensboro, along with considerable personal and work demands. I still have plenty of work waiting for me in the coming week, but blogging should be somewhat back to normal in the next day or so. The next 5 weeks keeps me (relatively) close to home.
As regular SDA readers know, I do quite a few of these road trips through the US to dog shows, and have for many years. This trip, however, I kept noticing something that I’ve never seen happen before at a dog show – peopole were talking politics.
And Obama is not popular here. At all.
Not even among my hard core Democrat friends.
Thanks, as always to Cjunk, Lance, EBD and the rest of you who help hold down the fort. Your contributions here are greatly appreciated!

I have an extremely heavy work/travel schedule in the coming month, so blogging here at SDA will be a little slower than usual (starting today). The guest bloggers are, as always, invited to stop by if the mood strikes.
Until my lottery ticket investments pay off, the bills must get paid. Thanks for your patience, and have a safe and happy long weekend.

Don’t bring a plow to a zero-till fight.
Friday, July 2, 2010:

And already it’s evident that blogs, set on a bi-directional platform, bring an unprecedented dynamic in the way media consumers can interact with content creators, which in of itself, extends the range of octaves available to the original creator.

72+ hours later…

For the past couple of weeks, the SDA comment filters have been under constant bombardment from spammers.
While I usually try to pull the legitimate comments out of the mess and approve them, at other times I’ve just sent everything to the big spam folder in the sky.
So if you posted a comment that was never “approved” – that’s what happened. My apologies. The best way to avoid the filters in the first place is to refrain from profanity, multiple links, and the use of the letter “k” in triplicate at the beginning of my name.
Thanks, and have a great Dominion Day “weekend”.

Greetings from Loveland, CO. Once again, my ugly habit called “making a living” is getting in the way of blogging – much of this month is going to be taken up with travelling to shows and giving seminars. As you can see, the guest bloggers have already stepped up. I should be online fairly frequently, but until this extended road trip is over, they’ll be running the place. Thanks for your patience!

Canadian Political Blogs: Online Opinion Leaders or Opinionated Followers? (pdf)
h/t Alberta Aardvark

I’m up to my ears in travel and work until Monday – posting will be slow as a result. Get over to the blogroll and expand your blogging horizons. (Or get off the computer and expand your horizons – even better!)

And I’m live again here – finally had enough of the former isp’s relaxed attitude towards trouble calls. When the service rep sniffed that nothing could be done about their dead modem until Monday, it was time to pull the plug, both literally and figuratively.
To be honest, I was able to put the time to good use. It’s amazing how much work gets done around here when the interweb’s turned off.
Blogging should resume as usual later this evening. Thanks everyone for your patience!

Kate’s Internet connection is dead and is likely to stay dead for a day or two while she does an unplanned change of Internet suppliers.
Guest bloggers, please take this as an invitation to keep the place lively.
Cheers,
lance

I’m back – with a long list of stuff to catch up on, not the least of which is the “news”. Following current events via CCTV in China is an interesting experience. To put it in the words of my hosts – “America news – bad, China news – good!”
(Checking Drudge however, I see the world is still coming to an end.)
I didn’t do any tourist spots this time, but I have a few photos to share. (Click to enlarge)

Beijing, very typical street shots.

Some trucks are so heavily laden, the tires travel flattened on the bottom. This one wasn’t too bad. With 1,200 new cars hitting the roads every day, the traffic was much more congested than when I was last there 2 years ago.

I didn’t see as many building cranes as during my last vist. While there’s still lots of construction going on, in the area near the Beijing International Equestrian Club where the dog show was held, there are several unfinished and abandoned commercial projects visible from the freeway.

Beijing airport. Air quality the last couple of days I was there was poor.

Not that there was much to look forward to getting home – this was the scene at Edmonton airport. Ugh.

Thanks once again to the guest bloggers who stepped up while I was gone. Things should be pretty much back to normal by this evening.