Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide Bloggers, Greg and Katherine invited me to take part in the the Seven Links Challenge. I love the invitation and go and check out their stunning photographs of beautiful food and drink. Thanks for the challenge.
1. Most Beautiful Post My daughter Laura is to be married in November to James, and his mother Sharon Weaver painted a portrait of Laura and gave it to me as a Christmas gift. Unexpected Gift Late Christmas Eve post is my choice for this one.
A beautiful daughter, a beautiful painting 
2. Most Popular Post (s) There are two posts that are hit on every week. Here is one of them. Memories Sparked by Disco Ball Reflections? Why someone searches for a photo of a disco ball I’m not sure. But they do. My friend V suggested I add the tag “mirror ball” when Dancing with the Stars was on. This shot was taken from a happy wedding a couple of Septembers ago. (They have a baby girl now! )
and here is the other most popular post. These two posts trade positions of two and three but are hit upon EVERY week. This shot was taken from E’s mother’s apartment window when I was in New York City visiting my sister Mary.
3. Most Controversial Post is also the one hit on the most- almost 20,000 times! My Bookshelf And the amazing part is that on one day last May it went crazy and was hit on 18, 274 times on 5/31/10. My friend S was visiting and we watched the stats every hour. I had linked it to reddit.com and made the title No E-Reader Can Have This Image and people responded with caustic comments like you wouldn’t believe. I recently created a postcard with the photo of the bookshelf and a poem I wrote in response to all the people who went off about the post. Who would have thought a bookshelf could cause such a stir? If you would like to receive one of the snail mail postcards that commemorates this bright spot in my blogging experience leave me a note in a comment and we’ll email the info privately. Many of my friends and subscribers have received one already and probably wondered why. I have added the poem to the post. There are not that many comments on wordpress considering all the hits but it is the number one spot always.
4. The Most Helpful Post I have to go with the Copycat recipe for the Burnt Almond Torte, a local favorite cake bought at Prantl’s Bakery in Shadyside. Although I’ve never baked one there are a ton of people searching for the recipe and they find the link on this blog post.
5. Surprisingly Successful Post The Beaver Banquet.
6. Post That Didn’t Get the Attention it Deserved
Only 13 people viewed this post in the blog’s early days. One comment. It’s one of my favorites. You’ve seen Michael and Murphy in other posts. Murphy Waits for Michael in Time Out.
and to be fair to Michael who is going to be six next week I am adding one of my all time favorites of him
7. Most Proud of Post What Steve Put on the Mantel in Front of Still Life. I will always remember seeing this. And that the wonderful artist Deborah McLaren enjoyed it and granted me permission to post it on the blog….it just makes me happy to look at it and think about Steve setting it up. So unexpected! I love that it made people laugh out loud.
I am to pass the challenge on to other bloggers that I follow
What Did You Have For Dinner Last Night?
Craig Photography by John This is the photographer whose class I took at Silver Eye- PURPOSEFUL BLOGGING. It was after that evening I realized I did not haves a clear purpose for blogging. But I began and found one!
He got me started and here I am more than two years later, still blogging a daily photo. Thanks John. Check out his Indian Weddings shots!
Did you have a post you remember that I didn’t include?