Awards Show

Recently, Sweet Irene and Laurie bestowed me with the Excellent Blog award. Laurie also reminded me that she has indeed been very kind with the award largess, even though I've been not so kind with the acknowledgment.

Lately, I've been trying to live by the Tough Guy Army Rules - don't explain, don't complain. These are hard rules for me to keep and I'm going to skate on the edge by confessing that I am both lazy and not great at accepting compliments. A deadly combination, in this case.

But it's raining, I have the day off, and my dearly departed paternal grandmother will probably haunt me if I don't take proper responsibility to acknowledge and distribute these gracious awards. First, we'll dispense with the three accountants in suits and their methodology. There are no accountants. This is my blog and that maniacal laughter you hear is also mine. I've already mentioned that I'm lazy, so I'm not going to check to see if your award shelf is already stacked to bursting. For the one award where I know the rules, I'll play by the rules. The rest, I'm awarding to three people each and I'm going to avoid double-awarding. Clearly, I could give every award to every blog in my bloglines, but I'm trying not to be lazy.

In no particular order, we'll start with Excellent Blog Awards, which does exactly what it says on the tin and recognises excellence in blogging. Thanks to both Laurie and Irene for passing this on to me. According to The Rules, this goes out to ten lucky bloggers:

Sautering Soul
3 Little Monkeys
Carrie Sue
Babaloo
Alison
AOJ
Swampy
Sandy at Myanderings
Rose at La Vie en Rose
Ped Crossing


The rest of the awards are all courtesy of Laurie and I am embarrassed to admit that they were amassed in the last eight months. (In fact, I think the first one was even awarded on my birthday last July.)

I acknowledge the Creative Blogger award and would like to pass it on to
Irene for the beautiful images on her blog
Rotten Correspondent for her great stories and for illustrating them creatively
Gingerpixel for her fantastic photographs, especially the portrait project



Next up is the Roar for Powerful Words award, which is intended to recognise good writing. I'd send this right back to Laurie, but I'm trying to stick to one award per blogger. Her stories about her dogs and her entry into journalism have made me wish that I could tell a story like that. Anyone can string words together, I'm drawn to story-tellers, so the nice lion award goes out to
Amy for her honest and well-written posts about her life
Primal Sneeze for his funny stories about Irish life
Conortje for his wry observations


Last but not least is the Best Blogging Buddies, for those special pals who are always around to comment and offer support.
I'm sending this out to
fellow ex-pat Wake Up and Smell the Coffee
Kaycie, who is both lost and now incognito in the bible belt
the patient and cheerful Laurie