A few blog highlights from 2007:

• The number of visitors increased four-fold in the past 12 months (and no, we didn’t start with a single-digit base). That’s pretty impressive, given that we stumbled in the dark for so much of the year.

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• The most-read posts were the obvious ones: the mayoral elections, the Trinity referendum, and the Lakewood Whole Foods. But three Casa Linda items were in the top 10, including the opening of the Casa Linda cafeteria, the renovation of the Casa Linda shopping center, and the Casa Linda overlay. Also in the top 10 were Liz Simmons’ Christmas lights, the Albertson’s parking lot shooting, and Hamm’s tire store.

• Yes, that’s only nine, but that’s because the 10th deserves a paragraph of its own. On May 29, Rick Casner posted an item about coyotes attacking pets in the Carruth Terrace area near Mockingbird, Skillman and Abrams. Since then, it has been a steady draw, and is still attracting comments — including one on Saturday from a fellow who took a photo of a coyote near Buxhill Drive just north of White Rock Lake. (Dan, email the photo, and we’ll put it up.)

• We have had visitors from Pakistan, India, Finland, France and Great Britain. Reading the coyote item, perhaps? We have also had visitors from the U.S. military and the state and federal governments.

• My favorite visitors? The people from Brinker, who checked out the item about the company’s decision to close its original store on Greenville Avenue. Hopefully, they learned a thing or two, though I wouldn’t bet on it. In addition, 2 percent of our traffic was generated by visitors from belo.com, the sixth highest total for a domain name and just below aol.com. I will let you draw your own conclusions (as well as make your own witticisms) about that.

Thanks for stopping by. Most of the changes we have promised — and that you have asked for — should be in place by the end of February. (The Advocate web site will be new and improved as well.) That means the the blog will be more fun to read, more fun to visit, and even more in tune with what’s going on around here. That is, after all, the Advocate’s reason for being.