With many people suggesting that they’re beginning their holiday weekend early, I just wanted to take a moment and say a few words.

Of course, You’d think I’d be remiss to not also take a moment and publicly thank all of you who’ve made it possible to be a finalist in The Birmingham News‘ Birmingham’s Best Readers Poll best website category for the third year in a row. But I didn’t.

I could also mention that we’ll post specific times and locations for the contributors interest meetings that I’m hoping to hold beginning January 5. Nope, didn’t do that either.

Perhaps I could’ve even mentioned the beginning of minor changes made to the front page of the site and (hopefully by this evening) the archives. Well, I do kind of tease about those…

In the end, all I wanted to do was deliver a simple message before everyone got on the road or busy with whatever it is that we do.