I've gotten a couple of questions about my site's current banner. Here's the story: Earlier this month, I was down home visiting my parents in Louisiana. They live about 45 minutes from beautiful Avery Island, home of the famous McIlheny Company's Tabasco Pepper Sauce (that's where they've made it since 1868).

In addition to Tabasco manufacturing plant, which you can tour for free, Avery Island is home to a large botanical garden and bird sanctuary established by the McIlheny's. The alligator sign is affixed to an observation deck that allows you to walk onto a platform over a huge lagoon near a part of the island called "Bird City."

What you can't see in the banner picture is that there really is a small gator in the water about 5 yards from where we're standing.

I was honored to discover that Liz Strauss at Successful Blog has chosen Genuine Curiosity as a "Successful and Outstanding Blog" and I'm now able to display (proudly) my badge as an official SOB. 

I've been a fan of Liz's work and insights for quite some time and am happy to be part of the club.

I'm especially fond of Liz's series of posts on "Bad Boys of Business" and "Customer Think."  Check it out and I'm sure you'll add Successful Blog to your favorites - if you're new to it, start with the "Popular Posts" list - nicely arranged by category.

Thank you, Liz!

As of today, I've switched to FeedBlitz as my main provider for sending out email updates of this site.  Your older, RSSFwd-based subscriptions will continue to work, but I've swapped to FeedBlitz going forward (no pun intended).

Check out the link in the left navigation bar if you want to get my posts in your inbox.

Ahh, the joys of broadband!

Someone needs to start a service where I can write my blog posts in a letter, mail it to a dropbox, and have it post on my blog. That would've been faster than the 22.6kbps dial-up I used to post my July 4th post. Of course, there were some advantages - I didn't doo much email at all, and got to relax in balmy south Louisiana.

Stay tuned - while I didn't get any writing done, I did get some reading done and I have some great books to review for you!

I double dog dare you to click this: 

<And thank you if you find yourself up to the challenge!>