At some point between the hours of about 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., my blog reached 1,000,000 page views. By the time I went to bed, it was only about 50 hits away. I was sorely tempted to log out and visit my blog a few dozen times to push things along so I could witness the roll-over before going to sleep, but that just didn’t seem right. While there might have been a time in my life when I would have stayed up to watch it happen organically, this is not that time of my life. I went to bed. I awoke to the sound of the thumping of small children running around the house around quarter to 8. I reached for my iPad, and saw that the count was above a million. The roll-over was over. So I rolled over myself, and went back to sleep for a bit more. So much for fanfare. (Before 8 in the morning, I will invariably choose sleep over fanfare.)
I don’t remember the exact count at 7:45 this morning, but I think it was something around 1,000,016. So the roll-over probably happened around 6:30 or 7 in the morning, on Sunday, September 16th. So, Maria, your guess of the dieciseis was closest! (A few hours early, but it was around 16:00 somewhere in the world.) So, what fine prize will you choose?
A screenshot taken some time before I went to bed.
A screenshot taken some time after I got out of bed (and fed the kids breakfast and whatnot¹).
—
¹ I regularly feed the kids whatnot.
collecting tokens 
Wow!
Thanks, Mom!
holy cow. i can only dream about those kinds of numbers. congrats!
Sarah, it’s not as exciting as it sounds. I wish I could dream of your number of appreciative readers! (And if only I were as good a writer as you!) I think a good 80% of my hits are people looking for something, usually a picture, and moving on. Most of what I post is seen or read by only a precious few. (And by “few,” I’m guessing I have around 100 people who visit my blog, either regularly or periodically. And by “precious,” I mean that I really appreciate those who actually do come back far more than the faceless thousands who come across my blog but don’t find it worth a return visit.)
oh, but don’t sell it short. i think it’s terrific! your photos are phenomenal.
Congratulations! :) I noticed it was getting close yesterday, rather earlier in the day.
Thanks, Sally! And thanks for all your encouragement along the way.
Well deserved. And a real landmark.
Thanks, Mary! I’m not sure how well it’s deserved, but it does feel like some sort of achievement.
Well, holy crap on a cracker! This is the most exciting thing that I’ve read all morning. Congrats.
Thanks, Ally Bean! And thanks for making me giggle with your colorful metaphorical language! I may well have to use that one. (If I may borrow it from you.)
Feel free to say it whenever it seems appropriate. I’ve found it to be a most useful turn of phrase when I don’t really quite know what to say! Fits many circumstances and seems to convey just the right amount of emotion.
Wooohooooooooo! Yay and yay! Or rather AYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYYYY!
Also, this:
Congratulations, Maria! And can I just say that this is the first time I have, to my knowledge, found mariachi music in my comments? So, woohoo!
But.. Who was the millionth hit??
Sadly, I have no idea, and as far as I know, no way of ever finding out. I can only assume it was some dude in Saudi Arabia looking for a picture of a pink egg or some woman in Nepal looking to learn about Puerto Rican fruit. Or maybe just some insomniac from Nebraska looking to find an “etymological spider drawing.” (I’m not even sure what that would look like, but I don’t think they had any luck finding one here.)
Fabulous. You deserve a million more!
Thanks! Maybe in another 6-ish years I’ll get there!