Hi there, guys.

How have you been? I've noticed it's been a little -- um -- sparse lately. We've had some great coverage of the NASCAR races from our sports department, and the photo folks have posted a shot or two.

We're three years old! Okay, so we're three years and a few months old. But I think it's time to reflect a bit on where we came from and where we're going.

In May 2006, we began BlogsNH. The site began when Mark Travis (formerly the director of product development at the Monitor, now the publisher of the Valley News) asked me to help start a community blogging site. I'd blogged on my own since 2002, so I was excited to bring that knowledge to the paper.

Head over to FamilyFunNH.com for suggestions on ways to spend time with your loved ones. The site, put together by the Monitor print and web staff, has a calendar, bulletin board and editor's picks. Your comments and suggestions are always welcome and can be sent to familyfunnh.com/form/feedback.

I should have mentioned that I recently wrote a story for the Monitor's Friday page about Twitter. You can read it, too.

Want up-to-the minute updates from the Monitor? Check out our Twitter feed at twitter.com/ConMonitorNews. We post breaking news updates, links to most-read and most-commented stories, and Twitter exclusives.

In this week's Off the Page podcast, we talk to news columnist Ray Duckler. He visited towns slammed by the tornado one year ago. He tells us about the destruction and hope he found.

The podcast can be found at concordmonitor.com/podcasts.

I understand the temptation to rip one another to bits in the comments section. Yet you don't have to. We can have civil discussions at BlogsNH. We can disagree without being disagreeable.

Really. And if you don't believe me, I'll throw more cliches at you.

Over the past three years, we've worked at highlighting the contributions of our bloggers in various ways. We have feeds at concordmonitor.com, showing the latest posts. We've run excerpts in print from blog posts. But we're not through yet.

And now for something completely different (from blogs, that is).

Check out my latest full-page comic at the Monitor. It's right here. If you ever wondered what town meeting was like 200 years ago, this will give you an idea.

If you signed up for a blogsNH commenting account more than a year ago and have never signed in, your account will be removed. If you have signed in, even once, it will be left alone.

I am going through our user database and weeding out the fakes -- some of those accounts could be used to leave spam on others' posts. So if you signed up for an account more than a year ago but never signed in, you will need to create a new account.