Prowling Sheep - folie à plusieurs since 2007 (part 2 of 2)

Like we said in the last post, we shattered our goal of 2,000 site hits for last year. Want to know by how much? In fact, we met our goal in February, 5 months early! Last year's total hits was 4,683 (Grand total over the years is 7,700). If you want to know what that looks like you only need to look below.

ClustrMaps' Big Dot Map for 2010 Prowling Sheep blog.
(a.k.a. a little more clustering leading to fewer, bigger dots.)

ClustrMaps' Big Dot Map for 2010 Prowling Sheep blog.
(a.k.a. a little less clustering leading to more, smaller dots.)

If dots' aren't your thing, than maybe numbers are. In 2009, our blog was viewed in 52 countries. Last year, our blog was viewed in 108 countries. The following are the countries coupled with the number of site hits for the year.

United States (US)	2,254
India (IN)	464
Canada (CA)	175
Brazil (BR)	174
United Kingdom (GB)	166
Spain (ES)	144
Indonesia (ID)	82
Germany (DE)	80
Malaysia (MY)	75
Italy (IT)	62
France (FR)	61
Mexico (MX)	53
Greece (GR)	42
Australia (AU)	41
Singapore (SG)	40
Argentina (AR)	36
Colombia (CO)	34
Austria (AT)	30
Netherlands (NL)	29
Turkey (TR)	27
Chile (CL)	26
Russian Federation (RU)	24
Thailand (TH)	23
Taiwan (TW)	22
Portugal (PT)	22
Poland (PL)	22
Romania (RO)	22
Philippines (PH)	21
Japan (JP)	21
Sweden (SE)	21
Finland (FI)	17
Saudi Arabia (SA)	15
Peru (PE)	14
Vietnam (VN)	13
Switzerland (CH)	12
Venezuela (VE)	12
Hungary (HU)	12
Slovakia (SK)	12
Hong Kong (HK)	12
Belgium (BE)	11
Ireland (IE)	10
Nigeria (NG)	10
New Zealand (NZ)	9
Israel (IL)	9
Korea, Republic of (KR)	9
Ukraine (UA)	9
Czech Republic (CZ)	8
Serbia (RS)	8
Egypt (EG)	8
Pakistan (PK)	7
Lithuania (LT)	7
Norway (NO)	7
South Africa (ZA)	7
Iran, Islamic Republic of (IR)	7
Kuwait (KW)	6
Estonia (EE)	6
Morocco (MA)	5
Guatemala (GT)	5
Bulgaria (BG)	5
Bangladesh (BD)	5
United Arab Emirates (AE)	5
Ghana (GH)	4
Latvia (LV)	4
Croatia (HR)	4
Costa Rica (CR)	4
Trinidad and Tobago (TT)	3
Malta (MT)	3
Dominican Republic (DO)	3
Tunisia (TN)	3
Denmark (DK)	3
Oman (OM)	3
Uruguay (UY)	2
Jamaica (JM)	2
Slovenia (SI)	2
Kenya (KE)	2
Iraq (IQ)	2
Guadeloupe (GP)	2
Algeria (DZ)	2
Nepal (NP)	2
El Salvador (SV)	2
Panama (PA)	2
Netherlands Antilles (AN)	2
Cambodia (KH)	2
Sri Lanka (LK)	2
Jordan (JO)	2
Luxembourg (LU)	1
Faroe Islands (FO)	1
Belarus (BY)	1
Bahrain (BH)	1
Brunei Darussalam (BN)	1
Suriname (SR)	1
Togo (TG)	1
Ecuador (EC)	1
Tanzania, United Republic of (TZ)	1
Zimbabwe (ZW)	1
Bolivia (BO)	1
Angola (AO)	1
Senegal (SN)	1
Sudan (SD)	1
Syrian Arab Republic (SY)	1
Azerbaijan (AZ)	1
Georgia (GE)	1
Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LY)	1
Qatar (QA)	1
Myanmar (MM)	1
Belize (BZ)	1
Puerto Rico (PR)	1
Moldova, Republic of (MD)	1

Okay, so that is where we are at. Now, where do we want to go? Well, as you may have noticed, the map located on the right side column has started over in dots and in counting. So we are basically back to square one. This year we figured we would go crazy and up the stakes again. Everything that was counted, that can be counted, will be counted. We set our goals high with the hopes of getting 125% more site hits, more counties viewed in, more followers, and of course 125% more posts.

What? Too easy? Well if it is too easy for you, than we're on board to go for 150% more! Let's see where that goal takes us.

Are you wondering why we set goals? I know a few people have told us they are. Well, we set goals to keep the sheep motivated to share and to hopefully entertain you. Are you entertained? We hope so, because we sure are.

Let us know what you think. Please, feel free to comment. We don't bite...hard (except D.J.) Or email us at sheep.4225sc@gmail.com. We're always looking for more friends, new ideas/suggestions, and good stories. Here's to a new year with hopes of many great adventures to share with many wonderful friends. Now go make that map look sick with chicken pox!

Prowling Sheep - folie à plusieurs since 2007 (part 1 of 2)

Happy, Happy birthday to Prowling Sheep! Yes, another year older and wiseerrr...well another year older at least. For those new to the blog who may not know, July 23, 2007 was the official start of the blog. And although this is not a traditional sheep post, we still like to break away around this time and reflect on the previous year. To remember all our good fortune. And with that in mind, we look towards the future with high hopes.

This last year was a wonderful year for the blog. We started out with the goal of collecting 2,000 site hits. Which would have been 150% more hits than the year before. Seemed ambitious, but than again we never have been known for our realistic thinking.

We started our year off with some of our good friends Marty and Jeremy. Whom hold a special place on our blogs (upper right corner to be exact). They have been with us from the beginning or at least very early on. And we appreciate their support.

This year turned into the year of friends. We made so many new ones. It started with Baby from Singapore. And then continued on with some other very NICI friends. Raquel, one of our most prized commenters, brought us a new language (not that we were doing so hot with English). It is still good to know that some sheep can manage a healthy multilingual therapy career.

Raquel was one of the first of many friends from around the world that would that would support us despite a language difference. With the help of Google Translator (and other sheep being smarter than us) we have been able to enjoy the tales of other sheep's lives like Herdenleben, Mähmet's Blök - Alles, was Schaf macht, and Schmusibus-Welt.

At the beginning of this year we had no followers :-(, but now we have 21! Ya! Many of whom have their own blog that we encourage you to check out (see Followers in right side column) and many other blogs that link to our site. Thank you all. We're sure that your support has allowed us to shatter our goal of 2,000 site hits for last year.

Dirty Laundry

With all the new house guests, we have to up the chores around the house. Ewww, I know. But there are so many in the house now and they all have been in the attic for so long. You can't believe how dirty these toys got just laying around. So Erin's mom showed up to help us out.

We had piles and piles of laundry, and the washer and dryer were just not going to get to it all. Erin's mom showed us how we could speed up the process. And I think Erin figured out how to use the record button on her camera just so she could have proof that we sheep do know how to clean.

Remember this moment people, because it is not going to happen again for a very, very, VERY long time.

Henry Ford would be proud.

Well, we got all the clothes cleaned and dried. And more important, we found a use for Erin's salad spinner. Poor thing never gets used; like Erin would ever make a salad.

Toy Story

The other day Erin insisted on going to a horror movie. I mean a really really horrific movie. You know the one I'm talking about. The scariest movie ever made...Toy Story 3. O the horror of it all, leaving toys in attics and at day care while their human goes off to college and...and...and...make it stop! Ok, it did have a happy ending, big woop.

It did get me to thinking about all the toys Erin had before she moved to college and got us. I mean I always envisioned Erin as an "adult." You know what I mean? I mean I never thought of the fact that Erin probably had toys and even stuffed therapy animals before us sheep. I guess I just never thought of it. What kind of childhood and toys would create such a human as Erin? *shutter* Little did I know that I was about to find out.

Well, was I in for a surprise when Erin opened the door one day to see boxes and boxes of her old childhood toys sitting on our step. Apparently, they found out somehow that Erin had bought a house and is starting to settle down. And when children grow up and get a house of their own, their toys leave the attic of their human parents and move back in with their human.

Anyway, Erin had a lot of stuff. At first, it didn't look so bad. I mean just a few boxes, right? how bad could that be? We do have a big house.

What do you think is in all these boxes? Presents for me?!?!?!

D.J. always thinks there are presents. But I told the others that the boxes were full of Erin's childhood. To which they both cringed but I told them it probably wasn't all that bad. I mean only a few boxes. But then things started to crawl out of them.

Run for your lives!

There was chaos everywhere! Barbies started crawling out of boxes, music boxes started playing warped princess melodies, baseball cards smashed up against the side of the clear boxes just staring at us, and then a flood of stuffed animals came. There were so many... I knew Erin was damaged but I had no idea she had a whole team of plush therapy buddies trying to fix her for years. And apparently there were even more that hadn't made it.

Remember when Erin's 1st sheep showed up a few months ago? And Chris was so upset that there was a sheep in Erin's life before us? Well...that little 1st was on a scouting missing. Checking up on Erin and seeing if her new home was suitable for the rest. And now that everyone else is here, the 1st was in charge of negotiations.

We'll give you the upstairs closet and poke holes in the boxes so you can breath. And you can come out every other Tuesday of the months that have a blue moon.

We're still working on the living arrangements, but Erin told us that everyone was staying so we better learn to get along. She also said, that each of us sheep could have one of her childhood toys to play with. So we forgot about the old therapist and ran off to find our toy!

D.J. jumped right in without ever looking around. A cool blue Rainbow Brite car was exactly what that little sheep doesn't need. But then I didn't get to pick out D.J.'s toy. That sheep didn't even care that the car came with a passenger.

Buckle up hot stuff. Let's see what this baby can do!

Chris wasn't as open minded as D.J. but was still very popular with the ladies.

Hehe...ok ladies...your both pretty but I think there might have been a little misunderstanding.

Poor Chris spent most of the day hiding from the girls that have been locked in a attic for 10 years. I tried to tell Chris that the ladies just needed a little attention and then all would be good. Sheepy should have taken my lead.

More tea, ladies?

See? I made some new friends and then found my toy. Erin's trumpet. Oooo...I just know I was going to be great. Watch out Louie, here comes Jesse. I did my own rendition of "Hello, Dolly!" and waited for the tip jar to fill up.

Hello, Dolly! This is Jesse, Dolly.

My tip jar did fill up...unfortunately it was filled with a trumpet mute. Ok maybe I need a little bit of work before I can compete with Louis Armstrong but I didn't think I was THAT bad.

So I went upstairs to practice some more and I found Chris, who had found the prefect toy. Chris had picked Erin's bats. Said something about being able to defend against all the hostile women that were out there. O Sheepy...

Sorry ladies...I'm off limits.

In the end I think we were all pretty happy. We all got "new" toys to play with, the toys got to be played with, and some of us even made new friends.

O but wait...I almost forgot about the 1st. You see the 1st was missing someone very special to him for the last few months. That's right, the 1st was reunited with Little Bo Peep. Bo Peep had been looking all over for her sheep. She was the one that lead all the other toys to Erin's house. She crossed the boring planes, climbed mountains, and after 1,820 miles of tracking, found herself on our doorstep. Along with all the other toys who followed her.

I told you I would always find you and love you.

It's nice to see that Erin had good role models in her life. Hopefully she was paying attention and will always find and love us like Little Bo Peep.

Sterilizing Your Inners Since 2008

We were playing Trivia Pursuit the other night with Erin's house guest and it remind me of when Scout came to visit a few years ago. (O and Jamie, too.) We got so busy with the holidays that we never got the pictures uploaded. Scout is from Hawaii and is kind of a germaphobe. You might recognize Scout from last year's Costumes on Parade. Scout went as Monk.

So I'm a bubble sheep. What about it?

It took a lot of talking...and a crowbar but we finally got Scout out of the bag.

Look at all those blue eyes.

Of course it didn't take long before Scout wanted to crawl back into a sterile clear bag. But we had a better idea. Which was this: if we get Scout wasted than Scout wouldn't care about the germs. So we told Scout that it was important to sterilize the your insides as well as your outsides and the best way to do that was to drink larges amounts of alcohol. So when we were all in agreement we went off to Leavenworth, a "German" town, for Oktoberfest.

WHAT! No sheep?

We were met by Woody Goomsba, the Leavenworth Ambassador. We were kind of thinking that he would be a sheep but instead he was a nutcracker. A little disappointing, but hey, not everyone can be as cool as us sheep. I mean, look at Erin.

By time we got to Leavenworth, we were starving. And no nutcracker was going to crack enough nuts to fill us up. So Erin and Jamie took us to eat at a quaint place that served waffles. Scout took a really long time to eat. Apparently, eating at a place that serves lots of sticky syrup is not a great idea when dining with the OCD. The world really only has so many wet-naps. But never the less Scout finished eating way before Erin and Jamie. Those too girls sure did a lot of talking when they are supposed to be eating. This normally would bother us but us sheep got to sit at the window and people watch. There were a lot of weird people but no sheep.

There's a sheep! O no that's just a guy with a silly wool hat.

After Erin and Jamie FINALLY finished and pay, we were off to do lots of inner sterilization. But before we did that we wanted to take a fast sweep of the area to make sure we weren't missing any cool sheep taverns. Alas, it seemed we were the only sheep in the festival. We all decided that meant that we needed to drink for all the sheep that were not there. A sheep must represent for the herd you know.

Is this picture fuzzy or is it just me?...hiccup.

I don't really remember much after this picture was taken...um...there was some beer...I think Scout was on a table dancing...D.J. was doing a handstand on a big metal drum...and I...we'll I remember a funnel and...well...no I don't...um...really can't say what happened after this picture was taken. O...I DO remember some flashing red and blue lights and Erin pulling the car over about half way home. And some guy in a weird hat and outfit sticking his head in the window asking a lot of strange questions. Erin didn't look very happy. The guy gave her a piece of paper and Erin smiled and thanked him. Although when the guy took off she didn't seem so happy. There were a few choice words, a sign, some muttering about at least she hadn't drinking, and we were back on our way...but a little bit slower.

When we finally got home, (man I had to pee) we cracked open a game of Trivia Pursuit. And that was why last night's game of Trivia Pursuit remind me of out Sterilization Campaign. Unfortunately, after Scout sobbered up, the OCD sheep crawled back in the bag and well pretty sure hasn't come out since.

No, D.J., for the 142nd time, the answer is NOT Charlie Mopps!

Meeting Franklin

A few months ago, Erin went to Dave's place and let us come along. We found out that Dave didn't live alone, he had a roommate. His roommate was a cat named Franklin. You know, like the Franklin the dog that is supposed to be watching us sheep but we scared off so us sheep can really do whatever we want. And in fact we do.

Anyway, Franklin the cat is rather interesting. At first I don't think he liked us. But then ew

Hey, that tickles.

He licked my back. And then he licked my eye ball!

Hey, those are not contacts!

And then it just got worse...

Ew..

EWWW!

EEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Ok, that was too much. I don't like baths. Not in a tub, not in a washer, and defiantly not from the tongue of a cat. So we had to rethink this meeting Franklin approach.

Bring it.

And a good time was had by all.

Roll Over

Every since we moved into the new house Erin has been getting a lot more junk mail. And a different kind of junk mail. When we rented, Erin would get tons of applications for credit cards. She used to take everything out of the envelope, write in black sharpie "Please take me off your mailing list. Thanks, Erin" on the order form, then she shoved everything (including the original envelop) into the prepaid return envelop and dropped it in the mail. Thus, Erin was able to support the Post Office and get her name off the mailing list. Pretty simple, effective, and costly to the junk mailers.

Now Erin is getting a higher class of junk mail. But I would say the most disturbing junk mail that is coming in is all the applications for life insurance. Who knew owning a home was so dangerous? Well, ok I can see why. Higher class junk mail isn't the only new phenomenon of home ownership. I mean, Erin is actually using the fireplace. And if you seen Erin use a fireplace you would know why she is getting so many life insurance applications. (Shhh...don't tell her we are requesting more information to be mailed.)

Anyway, let's get to the point...if there is any. Erin is not sending the junk mail back. Instead she is hoarding all her newspapers and junk mail to use for kindling for her fireplace for next winter. Which means we are starting to get closets full of junk mail.

So to help out with the clutter, I decided to make Erin some newspaper (and junk mail) logs. First I went to the internet to investigate how you should go about making a newspaper log. And I found all these "log rollers" which were super expensive. Not to mention super worthless (or so the reviews said). And then I came across a nice simple instruction video on how to make CHEAP paper logs. And as a extra added bonus, to relieve some stress. So I gathered the supplies and the troops and we were off.

I put Chris in charge of organizing and wetting the papers. I figured with Chris being the oldest should have some good organizational skills that could be put to work. Unfortunately, Chris wanted to read all the junk mail before passing it into the tub.

Ooo..half off toilet paper and pizza!

Once the papers were all wet I got to beat them with a hammer and then roll them on a pipe. I got this job because I have all the muscles of the group. And because I don't trust D.J. with a hammer nor a metal pipe.

Squishy

Once I removed the the log from the pipe I moved it to the drying rack with D.J. (Don't tell Erin I used her cookie drying racks for this.) D.J.'s job was to make sure the logs stayed on the rack to dry. Basically, D.J. kept trying to crawl into the water tub and splash around. So I was hoping I could keep the little sheep on the rack to dry off so that I didn't get yelled at by Erin for bring a wet sheep into the house.

Stay...Stay!

Overall, I think we had a pretty good assemble line going on. Henry Ford would be proud.

Look, no bottle neck!

And when it was all said and done we had 10 logs.

Burn, baby Burn!

Ok, Erin did comment that it took us all day and that it might not have been as efficient as originally hoped. We did only produce one log every hour. But when you consider all the union breaks we had to work in, I thought we did a good job. And we still were able to sleep, watch movies, play on the net, and all the other fun stuff we do on a Saturday at home. I even think Erin washed the dishes.

Now all we have to do is wait for the logs to dry and Winter to come to try it out. Stay tune!