How did you get here?

I have a hit counter on this site that also logs 'track-backs'. A track-back simply records what URL someone was at before they came to your site. I have always found this quite interesting as I can usually get the exact search phrase someone used to get to this site. In the past I have found some pretty funny ones. Lately most of the searches have been variations on the phrase 'reasons to become a freemason' I am now the #1 hit on Google for that particular phrase and I am pretty high up on a number of variations. I still recall how bizarre I thought it was when I saw someone arrived at this site by typing the phrase 'freemason pink tutu'. First I was surprised this was a hit for my site at all and, second, I was freaked out by why someone would have searched on such a phrase. Since then I remain the #1 hit for that particular phrase. "Freemason Pink Tutu" that has gotta be right up there with "Snakes on a Plane".

However, for the past few weeks there has been a big change. Almost all of the traffic to this site has been coming from Google image searches. And, here is the thing. The trackback tells me what image they were looking at before they came here. Which can be quite curious indeed. However, I have no idea what they typed as a search request to get that image. In fact it is almost maddening.

If you came to this site by performing an image search request, please email me the phrase you used to find it. My email address is right here.

I took a lengthy vacation a few years ago and, afterwards, I uploaded hundreds of photographs to my blog. Most of the images that people are viewing before they come here are from that vacation. I can only assume people are using a search phrase with the term 'vacation' in it. However, when I try to find my own pictures on Google I can't get them to show up at all!

I did finally solve one mystery. The image at the top of this post is the number one draw to this website. Over the course of a few years I have had hundreds of hits because people were looking at this photograph. This image is correctly labelled as 'disco ball' and is even the number one return on some search engines for that phrase. It is a photograph of a disco ball I bought at a garage sale and hung from my pontoon boat. We had a lovely sunset that evening and the reflection in the disco ball is quite lovely.

I am still catching up from the mass of photographs I took this past week. On Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon we were able to spend time with our friends Diane and Lenny Brown. It is going to be so great to have them back in Lake Saint Louis again.

On Sunday evening I took my father to see Pete Sampras play the Saint Louis Aces. It was a beautiful evening and a great match. Pete can still serve but our JP Fruttero beat him 5 games to zero. My wife and my son John also came but we didn't sit together. I brought my wife's nice camera and took a lot of shots.

My father an I

JP Fruttero getting ready to serve to Sampras

Showing off our zoom lens, you can pick out Terry and John right out of the crowd.

Pete Sampras preparing to serve

Pete Sampras

A gentle respite from the crazy weather earlier in the week. The Grand Architect of the Universe treated us to this lovely sunset.

Two lovely ladies who passed me at the tennis match. It just so happened I had been taking photographis with the action mode enabled, which allows the camera to shoot 2.5 pictures per second. As a joke, when these young ladies passed, I turned the camera at them and fired off 4 rapid fire shots as if they had suddenly stumbled into a fashion shoot. They were quite surprised. When they returned I stopped and had a nice chat with them and they let me take this proper photo. Sadly, it is not well framed but they look great nontheless.