The Top Ten Hit Upon in 2011

As I look at the yearly summary, I found that only four of the most hit upon posts out of the top ten were actually posted in 2011.  I am not sure what this means except there are a lot of searches for disco balls, burnt almond torte, furry convention and city rooftops at night.

1.    Wordpress sent out a report on my 2011 year in Blogging and my top post of the year was the one I posted for my son’s birthday.  He’s a grown up man, married with four children of his own(see Zoo Lights post if you didn’t already)  but when he was a little boy he had a wish that remained unfilled until last May.  I can tell by his expression how surprised and delighted he was when he opened his gift.  Sometimes parents can’t realize how important certain things are to a child and I certainly felt bad when I would hear occasionally how he ALWAYS wanted this Millennium Falcon but didn’t get it, usually when he and his brother were together and they reminisced about growing up.

If you want to read the rest of the story click here                       

Thanks to Phil, who owns Where The Toys Are  Canonsburg PA!  

2.  The second most viewed post this year is those furries that show up every year for a big furry convention in Pittsburgh. I just happened to stumble upon them when I was going to a gallery in a downtown hotel.  This post was first posted in 2010 and yet it gets hits every week.

3.  And the disco ball image. Go figure.  Almost EVERY day someone hits on this disco ball/mirror ball reflection. I shot it at wedding (the couple now has a darling baby girl) and it looks retro but is not.  Here is that image.  Should I be concerned that some of my top hits are from different years than 2011?  This is from 2009!   Why do people search for disco ball“?

4. And the next most popular every week is New York City Rooftops at Night.

This was posted in 2009 as well.

5.  The Pug Guard Dog in a Shadyside store got linked and hit from Tina (Pug owner/lover) at Carrots ‘N’ Cake blog

6.  Copy Cat Recipe for BurntAlmond Torte gets weekly hits and adds up to the 6th  most hit upon for the year

7.  The Bookshelf (most controversial on reddit.com) single most hit upon in one day over 18,000 hits!!!

8.  And the Tenth Street Bridge lit up at night for the Tom Cruise Movie

9.  The ninth most hit upon post in 2011 is a tribute to my cousin Lori Lynn Baur Meli. She touched a lot of lives as her name still comes up in searches. She fought a valiant battle with breast cancer.  Her husband Fredi just became an American citizen recently.

10.   The tenth most hit upon post from this year was

Open Letter to Shiny Buick Man

My new project for 2012 is Cardboard Me Travels.  Hope you will consider checking it out and subscribing to see where Flat Ruthie travels this year.  Read the about page to see how Flat Ruthie can come and visit YOU.

A Tribute to Lori Lynn Baur Meli- 7/21/69 – 2/19/11

Lori and Fredi at Ritter's Diner, Pittsburgh, last May.

A valiant fight! A wife, a daughter, a sister, an aunt, a cousin, a granddaughter, a niece, an animal lover, a friend to many.

Her grandfather, Robert E. Van Sickle,  was my mother’s brother.

As  Aunt Nancy VS put it so well, ” a sad day for our family.”

When you hear the term”battle” in reference to cancer,  Lori Lynn Baur Meli exemplified the definition.   Despite metastaticbreast cancer, Lori planned each day of her life to the fullest.   She sent us recordings of her singing a hymn or a Christmas song, always creative and musical.  She and her husband Fredi went on her dream trip to Hawaii returning just Feb 7th.

They came through Pittsburgh last May and here’s the photo I took of them in Ritter’s Diner that night.  It was right before she got to be honorary bat girl for the Yankees so it’s nice you can see the print on her shirt.  She loved the Yankees.   Especially Jeter.   She called and asked if a newspaper could use the photo for a story about her and another one of the pictures from that night was in a show in the 1650 Gallery in Los Angeles last summer. Lori was pleased with the images so I felt pleased, too. And she made sure I got the photo credits in the paper and sent the hard copies to me in an envelope.  Despite her diagnosis she was determined to live as long as possible, which is exactly what she did!     She had a plan. Always.    I will remember her first time in the batting cages in Connecticut a few years ago.   She touched a lot of people.   Here is an excerpt from her online journal–   “Love really is everything. There IS nothing else.       We have to let go off the other crap to begin to live in love and light, every day of our lives.” Her friend Jennifer pulled this clip- youtube video of Lori telling her own story.

A Bright Life Well Lived

Lori Lynn Baur Meli
A tribute.
She made the most
of the time she was given.