If You're Having Difficulty Logging Into Your Blog

The last couple days I have had difficulty logging into Blogger.

It just hangs and hangs. I eventually get in, but not after minutes of waiting for the page to load.

It looks like the main problem is with the site "ssl.google-analytics.com". Blogger is attempting to reach that server and you're stuck waiting until it establishes contact and retrieves the files it needs to. It's sort of silly that this analytics site is the source of the problem, as it, along with Blogger, is owned by Google.

I got tired of this long wait and did a little trick to prevent the browser from going to the site. I threw the following line into my Windows hosts file:

127.0.0.1 ssl.google-analytics.com

More info here if you like. Be warned that there is a fair amount of paranoia in the post and its comments. If you're not aware, Google Analytics is used for tracking visitors, similar to the popular blogger widget, SiteMeter.

I can try to answer questions you might have, but the link I provided is relatively thorough.

UPDATE
Of course, I check it just now and everything is working perfectly. DAMN YOU GOOGLE!