MBELDOG BLOG

We interrupt Wedding-palooza for the following exciting announcement. But first, a little walk down memory lane...

We started this blog in July 2006 because we fell in love with Project Runway contestant Laura Bennett from afar, and we didn't have anyone to talk to about her since we were both running a business from home and slowly, maddeningly, learning intimately the cadence to each other's breathing patterns. Ask any couple who does it: working from home all day with your spouse is a challenge. We needed a distraction and Project Runway inspired us enough to finally do it.

This is one of those blogger things to say, but we think it's true of most of us who take this silly hobby on: we never expected much of an audience at all. People have asked us for advice over the years on how to build an audience online and we semi-jokingly tell them "Figure out the exact moment a relatively obscure pop culture item is about to achieve its zenith in popularity and press exposure, and launch a blog about it before the rest of the media figure out that they should blog about it too." In other words, in a lot of ways, we lucked into an initial, modest audience from the very first day simply because Project Runway was gaining in popularity but had far fewer people writing about at the time.

Unsurprisingly, blogging to a receptive audience was a lot more fun than trying to run a business and we found ourselves torn. There was only so much time we could devote to a hobby while we had a business to run. The smart thing to do would have been to simply stick to talking about Project Runway, which would have afforded us the opportunity to take it easy in the off-season, but as any blogger who gains one will tell you, an audience is addictive. We just couldn't stay away and wound up expanding the topic roster outward; first by adding more Bravo reality shows to the lineup, and then, much later on, by expanding even further outward to red carpet and runway commentary, as well as TV blogging, when the mood struck us. And the audience grew bigger and bigger. And our addiction grew stronger and stronger.

Eventually, it became obvious to us that there was really only one home-based business we wanted to continue to pursue and we took the leap from amateur bloggers to two people making a living as bloggers. It was enormously liberating and one of the first items of business on the agenda was to figure out how to say goodbye to Project RunGay.

Well. That's just what we're about to do.

When you come here on Monday, you won't actually be coming "here." You'll be redirected to the brand spanking new TomAndLorenzo.com (we're getting verklempt just typing it!), the result of a LOT of behind-the-scenes work. We've streamlined and updated the design and added a bunch of new features which organize the posts into easy-to-navigate categories and labels, as well as a much, much better search function than the one you're subjected to here on Blogger. Everything is just so, so pretty, minions, and we can't wait for you to see it. And don't worry; every post you see here on Blogger is sitting pretty over there on the new site. We haven't lost any of the material in the migration.

We're telling you this now because, well for one, we're sentimental sorts and wanted to tip our hats to the old homestead before we pack up and head off to the big city, but also because we know from experience that every time we make even the tiniest format changes (and what's coming is gigantic in comparison), there's a lot of sturm and drang, and rending of garments. It's the way of the internet. We figured it's best to give you time to get used to the idea, especially since there will be a change in our commenting system.

We'll be going from the blogger commenting system to the much-better Disqus system, which you might have used on a host of other blogs. It's like this: we can produce content for our readers or we can spend the day moderating the comments of our readers. We choose the former. The audience has gotten large enough that keeping out the riff-raff is a full-time job. Disqus will allow us a greater amount of control in keeping things like trolls, spammers, and publicists (you have NO IDEA, kittens) out of the comments section. With Disqus, you can comment through your Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Yahoo! profiles, or you can make a Disqus profile of your own, or sign in as a guest. There will be an adjustment period for those of you who aren't used to the Disqus system but we know our bitter kittens are brave, strong, and smart. You bitches will figure it out.

In the meantime - and this is what we really wanted to warn you about - the existent comments have not been migrated over to the new site. Yet. That means we have 5 years of material, all effectively migrated over, and not one of the posts has a comment on them. We're working on that one. Promise.

We have at least one more Royal Wedding post today and we'll continue to post through the weekend on our normal schedule, so there won't be any interruption there. It's just that on Monday, you'll be in our brand new luxury digs. Be careful not to scratch the floors and don't put your wine glass down on any marble surfaces. That's all we ask. We're so excited for this next stage on this wacky journey and we're so awed and grateful to our readers for coming back day after day, even if it's just to tell us to put down the crack pipe.

Oh, and the cats? Well, we're feeling just sentimental enough to pull back the curtain and introduce you to the original Bitter Kittens (and our editorial assistants). From the top: Miss Aoife, Miss Amalita, and Miss MiuMiu Prada. They're total fashion bitches. Say meow, girls.

[Picture credit: TLo Family Archives]

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