Happy belated birthday to us

We can't believe we missed this, but yesterday marked one full year of the Tao of Stieb.

And from such modest beginnings, we have grown from a time waster for one lonely Blue Jays fan to a full blown movement which helps to kill the productivity levels of hundreds of Blue Jays fans everyday. It's a modest achievement, but one that we're proud of.

We've got to admit that when we started the blog, we figured that we'd fart about with it for a few weeks and then get bored and move on to something else. But here we are, 367 days later, and we're still finding minutiae to kvetch about.

Mostly, we keep on keepin' on because you keep coming back to read our crayon scribblings every day, and for that, we thank you immensely.

Also, thanks and praise to all of you who have linked to our blog over the past year, and who have sent folks in our direction. There's a whole wide world of weblogs out there, but we are grateful to belong to a community of Blue Jays bloggers who bring their unique and distinct views and talents to help push the level of discourse on our beloved team upwards. We thank all of you for your contributions.

We'd especially like to thank Neate Sager at Out of Left Field, who was an early champion of our blog and who continues to grace us with links and his witty repartee in the comments section.

Praise and thanks also goes to all of the Drunk Jays Fans, who prove everyday that they are smarter, funnier, and way more drunk than we are. You gentlemen are the gold standard, and we strive everyday to keep pace with you.

Thanks also to Will at Deadspin for the link early on last year that helped put us on the map; to Art Martone of the Providence Journal's Sox Blog for sending members of the Red Sox Nation in our direction so that we can heap scorn upon them; to 'Duk of Yahoo's Big League Stew for the link and the opportunity to peddle our wares on his blog; to our co-conspirator Shortwaveboy, whose contributions to the blog are greater than the sum of his blog posts; to Blairsy, Globe Junior, Cathal, Bastian and Wilner for giving us something to chew on every day; and to the men who put on the uniform every day, because what you do is infinitely more challenging than any of us give you credit for.

And last but not least, to Mrs. Tao, for not only tolerating our blogging pursuits, but for encouraging us along the way.

God bless you all for your continued patronage.