I used to pick up Maui Gold pineapples at Trader Joe’s every winter. The pineapple display often had the Maui Golds placed amongst the ones from Thailand or elsewhere and I’d carefully check for the Hawaii tag. I was trying to reclaim the amazing flavor of the freshly sweet pineapple I had in Maui years ago. Sadly, Maui Land & Pineapple, Inc., who retailed as Maui Gold, shut down their pineapple production at the end of 2009. Maui Land & Pineapple was the largest grower of the fruit in Hawaii. Dole Food still has some pineapple acreage in Oahu, but has most of its production elsewhere. Del Monte harvested its last Hawaii pineapple crop in 2008. However, not all is lost as Haliimaile Pineapple Co. Ltd has stepped in and purchased or leased the Maui Pineapple assets and fields, including the Maui Gold pineapple and brand. They plan to export a small percentage to mainland retailers where Maui Gold can command a premium price (I’m thinking that might not be Trader Joe’s).

Those wanting to pop the question in an unusual fashion may consider a trip to Chicago’s Field Museum where, for a $350 fee, the staff will place your engagement ring inside a case in the Grainger Hall of Gems. The service is proving popular. The Field is currently hosting The Nature of Diamonds, an exhibit that explores the history and beauty of the popular gem. The 128.54 carat Tiffany Diamond and the 407.48 carat Incomparable Diamond are on display.

This weblog began as a means for me to write regularly and share interesting finds from the scattered pages of the World Wide Web. Something happened along the way that in hindsight seems obvious but was never a goal for me, never even a side thought.

The weblog community when I started in 1999 was small. Blogger.com had a “recently updated” list on the home page with weblogs separated by hours, then as months passed, minutes, and eventually the timestamps were irrelevant as the phenomenon boomed. Now every media outlet of any worth is on the Internet and weblogs are more common than personal home pages (remember those?). My source material for blog posts has changed. Back then, it was about fortuitously clicking into a guy’s website devoted to his personal tea bag collection. Now it’s also about finding an article in a local paper about a museum’s tea bag exhibit, searching to see who else wrote about tea bags, and also killing the idea if too many people have written about it and I have nothing to add. Behind all the visible growth and changes, there were people. People sharing and, more importantly, people connecting.

Along the way, readers sent me emails with interesting links and thoughts on my posts. I emailed other bloggers links and opinions. I sent several people to a new place called Metafilter that I visited often. Fast forward ten years and that circle of people is my online community, one that is as vital as the friends I see in person. And because of the convenience of the Internet, the people are actually more accessible and available than friends I need to plan to get together with or call or even email.

One vital member of the early weblog community was Brad L. Graham who passed away unexpectedly a few weeks ago. Brad brought many bloggers together in those early days and continued to do so. He knew from the beginning that it was about the people because that’s the kind of person he was. “Sense of community” was a key point in his “Why I Weblog” essay back in June of 1999. And, this being the Internet, “people together” didn’t have to mean people physically in one place (though his regular “Break Bread with Brad” events did that too). It meant online forums, sites like MetaFilter, comments on weblogs, email discussions. I touched base with Brad and several other friends regularly in one of these communities. His was an energizing and funny voice. We shared a love of Buffy and Broadway; I watched every video, visited every link he shared because I knew it would be funny or thought-provoking and it was usually both. Each day he’s been gone from our lives has made it all the more clear that even a virtual presence can create defining, bonding moments in people’s lives and friendships.

When I thought about how to approach my “ten year anniversary” post I knew I wanted to write about the community and I wanted to, as usual, thank the people who helped me along the way. I also knew I wanted to get off the daily posting treadmill. Getting that all into a form I felt worthy of capping off ten years was daunting enough that I delayed for weeks. Then Brad died, throwing me off balance entirely. And as I spent my time reconnecting with friends of Brad instead of writing, it became even clearer that while the point of this exercise may have been about the writing, it ended up being about the people.

I’m still here, not producing as much, but thinking about what to do next both with the weblog and my ever-present goal of writing. I have a backlog of post ideas that have accumulated, waiting for my usual research. Ten years of weblogging as a discipline has been valuable, but ten years of friendships and community altered my life. Thank you Brad, thank you to his friends, you all know who you are, thank you, and here’s to keeping the World Wide Web a welcoming place to visit.

Toni Keene, executive chef at Macy’s downtown Seattle store, has been dishing out Christmas treats for 20 years on the sixth floor (the Home department of course). She survived the Bon Marché transition to Macy’s and continues to give cooking demonstrations, hand out recipes, and advise shoppers on cookware purchases. On a recent Frango Friday (all recipes used the Macy’s signature Frango chocolates, which originated in Seattle in 1918) she baked over 800 cookies for shoppers, which they enjoyed with peppermint coffee.

A Day in the Life of NYTimes.com, video visualizations of traffic to NYTimes.com on June 25, 2009 (the day Michael Jackson died). There’s a map of the U.S. and map of the world. Mobile site users are identified with orange circles, the rest are yellow. There’s a huge glow at 5:20pm right after TMZ broke the news of Jackson’s death.

Elliott Bay Book Company is moving from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill. Owner Peter Aaron promises “a warm, comfortable and cozy environment” in the vintage 1918 building, which was the original Ford truck service center for Seattle. A creaky fir floor, high wood ceiling with wood beams and skylights will contribute to the charm, and the vibrant Cap Hill surroundings will hopefully contribute to the coffers.

Flight testing of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner begins this week. Test pilots will put the new plane through nine months of extreme conditions, from a cold start after an overnight at 55 degrees below zero to one-engine operation, in-flight stalls, and braking on the runway at top speed with brake pads ground down to maximum allowed wear. Chief project engineer Mike Delaney is hoping for several lightning strikes to quell concerns that the plastic airframe won’t dissipate lightning as well as aluminum. The outside of the 787 is composed of carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic. Boeing sent a 6×3 foot panel of the composite plastic to All Nippon Airways to convince their engineers that the material was durable and repairable. They banged on it with hammers, barely scratching it, and Boeing demonstrated how to repair the damage. Barring any additional slips in the schedule, ANA will receive the first 787 in late 2010.

Hook’s Cheese Company (in Wisconsin, of course) has had the patience to age a 15-year-old cheddar. They started in 1994 with 5,200 pounds of cheddar that they sold chunks of at 10 and 12 years. 1,200 pounds were kept for the 15 year mark as they found the flavor to be developing well. Limited quantities are still available — at the steep price of $50 per pound. But another batch is not far behind and will be ready in March 2010.

It’s so cold in the Seattle area that a Port Orchard family sent in a photo of their cat’s water bowl to a local news station. It had frozen overnight with a strange spike of ice sticking out of the top. Ice spikes are created when the surface of the water freezes first. The water underneath causes a crack to form in the top as it also freezes and expands. As that water dribbles out and freezes, an upwards spike is formed. Neat!

Lady Washington is a replica of an 18th century merchant sloop, also called Lady Washington. Built in Aberdeen, Washington, she’s appeared in “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl” and “Star Trek Generations.” Her crew is accustomed to wintering over in Sacramento, California’s sunny weather, but her diesel engine (yup, they don’t sail everywhere) no longer meets California’s emission standards. So they’re stuck in Washington’s cold, wet winter hoping to raise money for the $100,000 replacement engine. An anonymous benefactor has already provided 78% of the funds.