The problem with blog-stalking.

I stalk blogs.

Like, all the time.

I love reading blogs and stalking them. Doesn't matter whose blog. Friend, family, acquaintance, celebrity of some type, complete stranger.

I'm usually pretty comfortable with this status. I don't really feel guilty for stalking blogs.

But every now and then it causes problems.

No, not with people who stalk my blog. I don't put anything on here that I'm not willing to let other people read. Stalk away (and leave a comment, you know, if that's what your heart tells you to do. Because contrary to what you may have heard, I don't hate comments).

No, the problem is that sometimes I find a blog that I love. That I enjoy reading. That brings me amusement and fun. And so I will continue to stalk that blog. I'll add it to my list. I'll get in the habit of checking it. I'll fret when a long time goes by without an update. It becomes part of my internet routine.

And then. Yes, then.

The blog author decides to make their blog private.

Sometimes this isn't really a problem, because it'll be someone I know and they'll know I've been reading the blog and I'll get an invite and everything will be fine.

But more often it turns out to be the blog of someone who I vaguely know but they have no idea I've been reading their blog for, oh, a couple of years, and at this point it's just too awkward to ask for an invite.

Because, you know, you don't want them to THINK you're some weird blog stalking-type person. There's a certain window of time where it's okay to let them know you're reading and enjoying their blog, and if you miss it, you can't really tell them without it being awkward. ("So yeah, I was wondering if you could let me continue looking in on the part of your life you post online even though we don't really talk that much in real life and the reason you made your blog private is probably to prevent exactly this sort of situation where someone is reading about you without your knowing them very well? Because losing access to your blog is kind of messing up my standard blog-reading routine.")

It's even worse than when someone just stops posting on their blog for good. Because in that case at least I know that everyone else is missing out, too.

But here, I KNOW they're still posting things and I just can't read them (and asking them to let me read would just be WEIRD)!

It's maddening. MADDENING, I TELL YOU!

Yeah. The Blog-Stalker's Dilemma.

It's rough.




"Seriously, you won't even know I'm there! I know, because you didn't notice me doing it before."

How can you not love it?; or, The ruler of the waves.

So today we took the newborn divider out of the baby tub so there was more room for the Little Guy to splash around. Seriously, I don't know why it took us so long to do it, because a funnier sight than the Little Guy reveling in the expanded size of his new watery kingdom I have rarely seen.

His first item of business was to turn around so he was facing the reclining wall of the tub, which gave him maximum splashage space. The next priority was to grab the little crab-shaped sprinkler cup that came with the tub.

And then, oh, then, he splashed.

He splashed with glee and reckless abandon and giggled and squealed and splashed and wriggled and shrieked.

And eventually he would splash enough to fill up the little cup. And then the next time he raised his hand to begin another splash, he would inadvertently hurl the contents of said cup directly into his face.

Then he would gasp and cough and splutter and blink.

Pause.

Grin.

Resume splashing/squealing/giggling/refilling the cup.

Rinse and repeat.

Poseidon had best watch himself; there's a new ruler of the waves in town.



Yeah, I love that Little Guy. And at least now I know that his nose has definitely been rinsed clean both inside and out.