I'm a little late to post this, but if you haven't heard, iLoveSoulard.com was picked as a Finalist in the "Best Neighborhood Blog" category as part of the
2012 RFT St. Louis Web Awards sponsored by the
Riverfront Times. The winner will be announced tonight, January 24, at the Awards Ceremony. iLoveSoulard is one of five finalists for the award. Even if this site doesn't win, I am still pretty excited people too the time to nominate me. Clearly, the money, chocolate, cars, PS2 games and old EA Sports games had nothing to do with them nominating me.
Excited and proud barely begins to describe how I feel about this. Thankful is another word that comes to mind. I started this blog on Aug 16, 2010 with posts about pizza, happy hours and Monday night specials. I can't even think back to where I was in life in August of 2010. If I wasn't so opposed to that Facebook timeline thing, I may go back at look at that....or maybe not. Thank you to all the people who have helped and supported me along the way with this site. Those of you who have helped with posts or columns, been in pictures or videos, or just clicked on the site know who you are. Thank you.
Thanks to the crew from
The John and Drew Show, who are the minds behind those awesome
videos you see with me in them and allow me to hang out on their show every once in awhile and mumble my way through things.
Thanks to the couples that got engaged at
Oktoberfest and
Carson's. Part of me wanted to puke from your cuteness, but those are some memories I won't soon forget.
Thank you to the 155 people who
'like' iLoveSoulard.com on Facebook.
According to Google Analytics, iLoveSoulard has been viewed by 6,416 unique visitors since its inception. Total pageviews clock in at 31,047. I don't know who you are, but thank you to whoever viewed my page 11 times in Russia. Almost 8% of the people who find me through Google search are typing in "i love soulard". Thank you to the bajillion people who found my site while searching for something about the riding of bicycles in the nude. I owe you
UrbanReviewStl and
EverythingILikeCausesCancer for sending folks my way. And to end this love letter to the millions of fans of iLoveSoulard.com, here are the Top 3 posts of all time here:
- St. Louis Bar Cycle
- Rotten Apple To Open in Old Verlin's <<<----Well, that didn't happen
- Happy Hours in Soulard<<<---One of the original posts that has been updated
Coming on strong towards the top 3 is
"Hide Behind The Boobie Pops", which was more than likely the craziest thing I have ever gone through, aside from the brain tumor.
Well, the 24th of January turned out pretty cool. I went to the 2012 Riverfront Times St. Louis Web Awards party at the Old Rock House not expecting to win for Best Neighborhood Blog at all. I was really excited for the free beer from 4 Hands Brewing Company. I met Chad Garrison, the new RFT Managing Editor, upon entering and a group of other great people I knew of, but had never met in person before the awards were announced. Much to my surprise, the first award went to me for Best Neighborhood Blog. I won this sweet trophy and got a write up in this week's RFT. Just being recognized is more than enough for me. My post about getting the nomination pretty much says what I would say as a thanks for winning, so I won't rehash that.
