I don't think most people think you're bragging.  
EVERYONE gets happy when their site hits 1,000.  
It means that people are actually going there, 
and all the time you put into programming and 
updating isn't for nothing.  Lots of people 
have '____hits!' banners on their 'sites.  

I mean, I regularly check the amount of visitors 
that go to my site, and if I see the rate is 
increasing, I'm happy because it means more 
people like my site.  If it's decreasing, I think 
maybe I need to do more updates or maybe try to 
get myself registered on more search engines or 
work on my heading code to get a better search 
engine placement.  Hit counters are the closest 
thing you get to website 'ratings' because it's 
not like everyone who visits lets you know what 
works and what doesn't.