Post 101

So yesterday was a pivotal moment for me as a blogger: I reached 100 posts. But I was too busy talking about applesauce to notice. So today I will acknowledge the accomplishment by celebrating an even higher number -- 101.

101 is a pretty important number. Here are some things associated with the number 101:

1. Dalmations;
2. Those special "plus 1 centurions" who were born in 1899 and lived to see the year 2000;
3. Verb dictionaries;
4. Beginning college courses;
5. Scenic state roads;
6. And that's all I can think of...can you think of any more?

I think, too, that the number 101 is significant on a symbollic level as well (so bear with me for a few sentences). In a way it demonstrates the fact that my blog posts will still continue to be written -- they won't stop at the grandiose number 100, but will continue on to 101, 102, 103... And in a larger sense, it demonstrates that the world continues to turn and that life continues to roll forward. And maybe I'm stretching things here, but on a day like today -- September 11, 2006 -- this symbol of continuing on seems especially fitting and appropriate. Today our nation celebrates 5 years of continuously moving beyond and rising above an event that rocked us all. If September 11, 2001 was, in a symbollic sense, the number 100, then by now we've surely reached a number much higher.

Anyway, thanks to all of you who have been closely following my adventures -- you give me the motivation to keep writing. And thanks, too, to those of you who have just popped in by accident -- international visitors make things exciting. And thanks especially to those of you who have left comments -- you make me feel loved.

I'd like to give something back to my readers, and more specifically to my commenters. I've decided that since you've given much to me by reading, I should give something back to you by publicly acknowledging your comments. And so I will from here on out do my best to respond to all those of you who comment. (Goodness, I'm feeling generous for a cloudy-impending stormy-sleepy Monday!)

*This post brought to you by the number 101 and the good people who read this blog. Cheers!