Aside from crafting the most vague Santa Letter ever, I’m not sure if my drawing helped or hindered Santa in his quest to meet my demands.

Mom found this letter to Santa while cleaning out some old boxes the other day. Evidently I wanted a Christmas tree, a donkey with rabbit ears, a floating piece of macaroni, a gingerbread man with elephantiasis, a gift wrapped by a blind man, and a… I actually don’t know what that thing on the far left was.

If you get bored over the weekend, be sure to check out the on Walker County High School Athletics: 1920-2000 by Pat Morrison on Google Books.

Page 49 is of particular interest. Me in football gear = chocolate rain.

Updated photo site. Completely forgotten about this photo until digging through files over the weekend.

I’ve been toying with the notion of letting my bangs grow out. This Christmas card would have been the best time to showcase said bangs. Thoughts?

It’s official. The 250,000th visitor to the blog walked through the door today.

Some blogs get that many hits in a day, though this blog isn’t my full-time job, and frankly… I don’t care about numbers. The biggest day at Juicee News I had 135,000 hits. Therefore, 250K isn’t so much a goal as it is a mile marker of how a blog can perform without a strong daily push of long, original, somewhat-inspiring content.

I’ve said it before so I’ll say it again: this blog simply serves as a place where I can type stuff with the chance that my musings amuse you. That’s all.

I hope it’s working.

[No idea who that child is.]

It’s been 4 years since I launched the blog. Honestly, I didn’t expect it to last more than a couple of years. But here we are, and though the daily posts are not as numerous, it’s more of a reflection of life happening than it is laziness. Increased responsibilities in both marriage and career will do that, though I continue to find the blog as a source of release and relaxation.

We’re on the verge of 250,000 hits, and recently passed 500,000 page views. I appreciate your viewership. I never really did the blog with a specific goal in mind. Simply chose to write whatever I found entertaining, with the hopes that you would as well.

Happy Birthday, blog. You’re 4. Go get a job.

You thought I was going to put up some self-promoting post on my 29th birthday? Please.

How’s about a self-deprecating photos from my teenage years courtesy of a one time use camera.

Guess whose indoor soccer team is playing in the championship game, Thursday? Do you hear the sound of my head expanding?

The soccer stats for the season are above. We’re ‘Micheal’s Team’. It was originally a place holder while we picked a team name, but then we won 2 games straight and kept it for good luck.

The stats are a little confusing if you don’t keep up with soccer, so I’ll simplify: we had the same record as another team, scored the same amount of goals, but we gave up less goals than they did.

Therefore, we’re in. Because we didn’t give up as many goals. I’m not going to remind you who our goalie is… but his name is me… me being L-dogg… Landon. (Sorry about that whole “L-dogg” thing).

Again. Head swelling.

PS – Chelsea took videos and photos last week, but the photos were blurry… and I got scored on almost every time she took a video. More to come…

If you’re in the Gulf Coast region during the next few weeks, Emerald Coast Magazine Bridal Issue.

[View Article PDF]

Make a visit to HowManyOfMe.com to find out the likelihood that you will bump into you.

Landon
There are 12,230 people in the U.S. with the first name Landon.
Statistically the 1684th most popular first name.
More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Landon are male.

Howell
There are 146,765 people in the U.S. with the last name Howell.
Statistically the 215th most popular last name.

Landon Howell
There are 6 people in the U.S. named Landon Howell.

Happy Birthday to me.

I proposed to Chelsea just 6 months ago — the big day is almost here.

Our wedding is this Saturday in Seaside, Florida, and neither of us could be more excited for this, one of the most important days of our lives.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you. Over the past few months you have sent your congratulations, your wishes, your advice, and your gifts… all of which we appreciate more than you’ll ever know.

Living in Seattle – 2,612 miles from home – has it’s perks. Not once have I regretted leaving home to embark on my journey of living in this city. However, being engaged has made it all the more difficult to be so far from friends and family. Chelsea and I look forward to this weekend, which we’ve limited to just that, friends and family. A weekend for us… ‘us’ being a group of people whom, if they lived in Seattle might prevent us from ever leaving.

For those who read the blog everyday, I know I say this from time to time in a joking manner… but you really don’t understand how much fun it is to blog, knowing you’re reading. I love it when you comment, submit links, start fights with other commenters… though I must admit that my favorite part is when you tell me that the blog is your source of entertainment, release, or cheer in a day that might otherwise be bland or boring. Over the last three years (the blog turns 3 in 4 weeks) this website has attracted almost 200,000 visitors… most of whom I’ve never before met, yet that didn’t keep you from sending a email congratulating us on our upcoming wedding.

That’s why I started the blog: to connect. I love writing and I quit my former news site in order to get back to writing about whatever I wanted to… whenever I wanted to.

That being said, I won’t be blogging any next over the next 13 days during the pre-wedding and honeymoon. The site will be devoid of political banter, sending you on a honeymoon of sorts… a vacation from NObama (or McCainPalinthebutt, if you are of the liberal persuasion).

Enjoy this time. We still have a few days of political commentary before the election, then we can look forward to four years over-analyzing President Obama and his failed attempts to run the country off of hope and hype.

But then again… I could return from my honeymoon to an ‘October surprise’ video of Obama kicking a puppy.

I will return to blogging Monday, October 27 with my wife Chelsea Howell. Hellsyeahthat’ssoundsawesome.

You need to watch this video… now.

[thanks Aunt Anne]

A story I submitted made the front page of digg today. Not as exciting as the story that I wrote that ended up on the front page… though exciting nonetheless.

We went on a day trip to Vancouver last Saturday.

There’s another one

.

Just 51 weeks after I asked Chelsea to move to Seattle, I took her to the Pacific Coast and asked her to spend the rest of her life with me. She said ‘yes‘. I’ll let Chelsea tell you about it in her own words. Feel free to read more on The Knot.

From Chelsea:

Rain, Sleet, Snow and Sunshine. Landon had planned a surprise day trip for us and we set out early in the morning. After wearing him thin from begging for more details of our adventure, he finally caved, telling me where heading to the coast. We took the 101 towards Ruby Beach and discovered the amazing beauty this location held. However, I was content in viewing all this from the car…remember, sleet. He encouraged otherwise, so we set out towards the water.

With my feet now soaked and my hands numb, Landon kept his cool while I continued to complain. Once he found ‘the’ location, he set up his camera for us to take a photo together. Freezing and not understanding why we needed this photo in this weather at this moment, I kept trying to persuade him to just take some photos so we could go back to the warm car.

Once the camera was ready, he came near…and then dropped to his knee. It could have been hailing golf balls and all I know is that at that moment I could have cared less. He talked about the ‘horrible’ weather we were having at the moment but how he didn’t care, he talked about wanting to bring me to this spot since I first moved to the Pacific and eventually took the 101 to get to him…(I can’t remember the rest, but it was all perfectly sweet!).

He presented me with our family bible that already had ‘The Howell Family’ engraved on the cover. It was incredibly sincere and we both soaked in the moment. Literally, we were soaked. After calling our parents, we continued down the coast and the sun began to shine.

Introducing Mobile Viewing for your cellphones and mobile devices. Now you can read the blog while you’re stuck in traffic, waiting in the doctor’s office, or sitting on the toilet.

Simply direct your browser to lh.wirenode.mobi for small, easy viewing of articles. To insure speedy load-time, videos and images won’t appear, though to view the blog in its full format, you can always just head to landonhowell.com, obviously.