Word verification again (Sorry!)

Sorry guys, but I've had to put the word verification back on. I hate it too, but the spam has gotten out of hand. Just to give you an example, I've gotten 38 spam comments in the last 3 days, and an alarming number of those got through Blogger's filter and posted to the blog (I've since removed them). Every one of them had a link included, and while I'm sure you guys are smart enough not to click on them, I refuse to let them sit here on my blog. I hope it doesn't discourage anyone too much from commenting, because I love to hear from you, but I do understand if it does.