What's the Score Blogfest Winners

Thanks so much for everyone who came out to celebrate my blogiversary with me on Wednesday. I love blogfests, I love writing, and I love music, so what better way to celebrate? It was great fun learning about how people consider the music for the WIP, and what music people deem worthy of representing their work.

So much fun!

If you missed it, I put the Linky List at the bottom again, just in case :)

Now, as promised, there are PRIZES!

 

Based on the number of entries per person, I plugged the numbers into Random.org. Out of a total of 50 entries, Random.org picked numbers 2, 23, and 9, in that order. So...

The winner of a chapter or query critique is: 

Charity Bradford!

The winner of the $20 Amazon Gift Card is:  

Trisha from WORD+STUFF!

And the winner of the book of her choice from Amazon is: 

Alexis Fittinger!

I will get in touch with you in the next few days to make arrangements for you to get your prizes.

Thanks again to everyone for celebrating with me! I'll be back to regular posting on Wednesday.

A Preface to the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge and an Award

Tomorrow begins the A-to-Z Blogging Challenge. I'm looking forward to it, and I'm also a tad frightened by it. I means posting six times per week, and hopefully being able to respond to comments, while in the throes of exams and final projects, deep house cleaning and preparing for visitors for May's impending graduation (not mine, but my awesome husband's).

But, heck, here's hoping.

I've been planning my end of the event, wanting to have as many posts relate to writing as possible. But, because I want to make this interesting, I'm mixing it up a tad. Here's my plan.

I'm going to be asking for random words beginning with certain letters on my Twitter and Facebook accounts. I will compose a list of all the suggestions, and then choose based on a random number generator. Whichever word comes up, I will (somehow) relate to writing.

Stop by tomorrow when the fun shall commence!

PS--Today I'm taking suggestions for the letter C. Have any?

*insert poor segue here*

About a week ago, I received a beautiful comment from Deirdra at A Storybook World, notifying me of an award.

Thank you so much, Deirdra!

And the Winner Is...

Thanks again to everyone who participated and voted in the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest. It was a huge success. I enjoyed reading all the stories and getting to know some of our fellow bloggers' writing styles. Thanks so much.

And, now, without further ado, the winner by popular demand of the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest is...

(*drumroll*)

MARGO KELLY

author of "Never Hit a Woman"

Congratulations, Margo. Be sure to email Charity (charity.bradford@gmail.com) regarding your prize.

An Award Post-Script

The love has been FLYING this week. Last night I got a note from Zan Marie at In the Shade of the Cherry Tree, saying she had also given me the Stylish Blogger award and the One Lovely Blog award. Thanks so much, Zan Marie!

Well, I had already passed these one, but I recently discovered another blog that I think deserves some recognition, so I want to do a little more passing.

SJ Hanson at My Journey in Running, Writing, and Life

Be sure to stop by and see SJ. She's new to blogging and Twitter, so hop over and help spread the cyber love.

Have a great Thursday, folks!

An Award :)

First, if you haven't heard yet or you're still on the fence, please join me and Charity for the HONE YOUR SKILLS Blogfest on March 16th. It's a chance to try your hand at a short story, get feedback from fellow writer-bloggers, and encouragement to try and publish it. We'd love to have you, so just click the link above or on the sidebar to join.
_____________________________________

Last week, I was given an award from Allan Russell at Publish or Perish AND from Michelle at Perfecting the Craft...

UPDATE: I also just received this award from Kristina at KayKay's Corner. Man, am I feeling the love or WHAT?

Kristina also gave me this award:

Thank you so much, Al, Michelle, and Kristina!

For those of you who don't know Al, he is the author of Veiled in Shadows, the beautiful cover of which is staring at me from the top of my to-read pile. Then again, maybe I'm just a sucker for the big blue eye :)

(On a side note, stop by on Monday for a guest post by Al.)

According to the rules of the award, I should tell you seven things about myself and then pass it on. Here's a random assortment of things you may not yet know about me. I'll limit myself to non-writing things this time. For other random Rosie facts, you can check out these other posts: from here, here (the the truth behind it), here, and one more.

1. As a recovering linguist, I'm a language junkie. I'm not fluent in any language (I sometimes contend that I'm not even fluent in English), though my husband likes to argue this point with me. Anyway, over the few decades of my life, I've studied (in no particular order) Spanish, French, German, Russian, Polish, Macedonian, and Welsh officially. If I have a dictionary, I can usually read Czech, Slovak, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Bulgarian, and Ukrainian well enough. I also know lots of random syntax facts about Icelandic, Mandarin Chinese, Korean, and Dogon (my friend is currently working on a Dogon grammar).
2. I'm a graduate student in my last semester of coursework. There exists about a 2% chance that I will write a dissertation (with a 3% margin of error).
3. If I were ever to write a dissertation, I would write it on Polish syntax and the reflexive particle się. (I promise, it's a little more interesting than Wikipedia makes it out to be.) Last summer I got to meet Norbert Hornstein, whose most recent syntactic framework is called MOVE! (yes, with the exclamation point), and talk to him about my ideas using his framework. We argued a lot. We disagreed even more. It was fun and discouraging.
4. My graduate employment consisted of teaching Russian for only one year. I have never worked so hard. I taught in the 2007–2008 school year. Many of my former students were freshmen that year, and so are seniors now. I occasionally run into them on campus, and sometimes they even invite me out for a drink to catch up. :)
5. My current GA employment is working as the Managing Editor of the for Journal of Slavic Linguistics for Slavica Publishers. I prepare journals and books for publication. In addition to the journal, which I have worked on since 2006, I am currently preparing a book on Macedonian. It should be finish in the next month and be published by summer.
6. I have never published anything regarding linguistics. I've only edited other people's work. This doesn't bother me, though my colleagues think it should.
7. I had no intention of this turning into a Rosie's-grad-school-life post. Just to mix it up, I'll tell you that I got new glasses last week. They've got the Transitions lenses, too. I can't begin to tell you how excited they make me :)

Okay, now for passing on the love.

Carol at ArtziCarol Ramblings
Jan at Crazy Jane
Sallee at The Highly Educated Housewife
Medeia at Sharif Writes
Charity at My Writing Journey
Dezmond at Hollywood Spy

Thanks again to Al, Michelle, and Kristina for the award. :) Have a great Wednesday!

Awards and Wins!

DON'T FORGET! There's still time to enter my 100 Followers #Contest.  Even if you're new to the blog, feel free!  I'm glad you're here :)

Also, stop back in at the end of the week for a wrap up of Monday's forum question.
__________________________
Man, the writing praise keeps pouring in!  I'm not gonna be able to fit into my hat by the end of the week. :)

First, I found out earlier in the week that I was the Grand Prize winner of Rebecca's half of the Super Sister Celebration at Sonshine Thoughts.  Here's a link to my story, if you're interested.  Honestly, it's hard to lose with a prompt like "Be happy that... your new neighbors aren't cannibals."

Thank you, Rebecca!



Okay, and some awards! 

First, from Jessica at Smile, Feel Good, Pass It On sent me two awards.  Thank you, Jessica!

I've received both of these already, which does nothing to diminish the awesomeness of getting them again.  If you'd like to read seven things about me, check here and here.  I'm also going to defer on passing these on for now.  I reserve the right to do so in the future :)

And Jules at Trying to Get Over the Rainbow also passed this on to me :)  Thanks, Jules!!

The strings with this award (as Jules put it :) ) are that I have to list ten things that I like (not love) and pass it on to ten people.  Well, let's see.

I like... blogging and meeting awesome people online.

I like... walking through the woods on campus every morning on my way to class/work.

I like... Snapea Crisps.  You must eat these!  They're flipping addictive.

I like... wearing flip flops and sandals.  A lot!  Mainly because I kinda hate things that cover my toes and feet.  Yup, I'm weird like that.

I like... almost every vegetable I've ever encountered, including Brussel sprouts and okra.  Maybe I'll think of one I don't like, but I can't right now.

I like... picking ripe cherry tomatoes from our plants and eating them like candy.  Yum! :)

I like... summer.  While I complain about the stifling heat periodically, I will take it over snow any day.

I like... knitting, even if I don't do it enough.

I like... vampires.  Yup, I admit it.  And I liked them well before the current hype, and I will continue to like them later.

I like... fairy tales.  No, not like Disney, watered-down versions, but the ones with teeth and nails and grit that don't have happy endings.  And I really like giving these a modern spin.


And for passing it on...

Summer at My Inner Fairy
Rebecca at Sonshine Thoughts
Mia at My Literary Jam and Toast
Vatche at The Student Writer's Mind
Lynda at .W.I.P. It
Tara at Aléatoire
Jan at Crazy Jane
Sangu at Echoes of a Wayward Mind
Jemi at Just Jemi
Erica at Elevator Musings

Do You Consider Me Lovely?

Okay, okay, not me.  My blog.

Well, JC Martin (a.k.a. The Fighter Writer) thinks my blog is lovely.  Thank you, JC!

The rules for this award states that I need to pass it along:
1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered.
3. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Okay, this might be tough.  August has been a super, award-filled month.  I'm not sure who I haven't awarded something recently.  Well, how about this.  Here are a few I really enjoy.

Tara at Aléatoire
Summer at My Inner Fairy
RaShelle at A No. 2 Pencil Stat!
Steph at maybe genius

:)

The Liar Unveiled

A couple of days ago I offered 7 possible lies/truths for you.  It was up to you to decide which were which.  You've been waiting in anxious anticipation for the big reveal.  Wait no more, my friends!

Even the false statements have elements of truth to them, which I explain below.  Enjoy!

1.  When I was fifteen, I was fortunate enough to go on a vacation... ehem, "student ambassador" program to Europe.  While in London, we took a cruise down the Thames with the British prime minister.  And I fell asleep.  Oops!

False.  The guy on the boat wasn't the prime minister, but someone else from parliament.  I did fall asleep, though.

2.  While studying abroad in Russia in 1999, I twice went on camping trips in the Caucasian mountains with a non-violent Chechan guide.  My parents were none to happy, since this was less than a month after the Chechan war had started (again...).

False.  One of the students on our program who went camping and hiking with us decided to grow out his beard while in Russia, and was frequently mistaken for a Chechan, but was just a fun-loving guy from the Midwest.

3.  Also during my semester in Russia, I had to sort out some banking troubles I was having.  Unfortunately my Russian was *cough* downright atrocious, but I hadn't asked anyone to accompany me.  I spent much too much time trying to convey to the woman at the bank what the problem was, and she treated me like an idiot with the mental capacity of a four-year-old due to my poooooooor Russian.  A woman behind me in line became so incensed by how long it was taking, she began hitting me with her oversized purse, screaming something to the effect of "If this were still the Soviet Union, I wouldn't have to wait behind a..."  You can fill in the rest.  I ran away and returned a few days later with an interpreter.

False.  It was in a post office when the lady started beating me up (yeah, that part's true).  The postal clerk had decided, due to my knotted Slavic tongue, I must be a complete moron, and insisted on putting the stamps on each of my 20 postcards instead of giving the stamps to me.  When the woman started hitting me with her purse, I threw my money at the clerk and blotted.  Two of the postcards made it to their destinations.

4.  Pacifist that I am, I've been kangaroo hunting in New South Wales.  After someone shot a kangaroo that would become our dinner the next night, the kangaroo was tossed into the back of the pick-up with my friend and me, only to discover it wasn't actually dead yet...  It more or less had a seizure while my friend and I screamed.  The man driving got out of the truck and bashed the kangaroo's poor little head until it stopped again.

True.  My twelve-year-old homestay sister shot it.  She had wanted to show off for me and the other US teenage girl staying with them (aka, the other woman in the bed of the truck... who got kicked by the seizing kangaroo).  She had never used a shotgun by herself, and her father thought she had done a pretty decent job until we started screaming a couple of minutes later. 

I was 14 and a staunch vegetarian to boot.

5.  I am a seasoned world traveler (or so I like to tell myself), and at least half of my travel abroad occurred before I turned 18, but the only country I was taken to by my parents was Canada.

False.  My parents have never taken me abroad, even to Canada when it was so close to our Detroit relatives.  By the time I was 18, I had visited New Zealand, Australia, England, Denmark, Germany, France, and, yes, Canada, but with my best friend's family.

6.  When I was a kid, I love wearing my roller skates.  I wore them everywhere (though my mom drew the line at church, but I tried).  While I was outside one day hanging out with the boys down the block, they dared me to climb the tree in one boy's front yard.  Of course I accepted the challenge since I didn't want to look like a wussy girl.  With my roller skates still strapped on tight, I got most of the way up before I fell and broke my arm.  I didn't get to keep my roller skates after that :(

False.  My best friend from high school did this when she was a kid... though I changed a couple of details to account for my own clumsiness.  She never broke anything, and climbed trees in roller skates with her brothers all the time.

7.  My family frequently drove to Lake Catherine in Arkansas when we lived in northern Louisiana.  When I was four, I had a life jacket that said "Little Fishy" on the back.  Strapped into my Little Fishy life jacket, my dad's friend convinced my parents to let me go water skiing on the tyke-sized skis he had for his own kids.  After much enthusiasm on my part, they couldn't possibly say no.  And, might I add, it was AWESOME!  I love water skiing.

False.  I've never been water skiing, even though we had the boat when I was a kid, frequenting both Lake Catherine and later the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.  I believe that if I had ever learned to water ski, I might not have found snow skiing so terrifying.


Do you have any wild, unbelievable stories?  I would LOVE to hear them!

Awards Abound!

First, I would like to thank Medeia again for passing an award along to me.  I passed it on earlier in my EPL post.

I also received another award recently from Cruella Collett, and boy did it make me giggle!  Thank you, Cruella.

The Rules:

The Bold Face Liar Creative Writer Award requires you to:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award and link to them.

2. Add the award to your blog.

3. Tell six outrageous lies about yourself and one truth. (Another variant: Tell six truths and one outrageous lie. YOU get to guess which variant I chose – and which statements are true, as well as which are lies.)

4. Nominate six creative liars –I mean writers– and post links to them.

5. Let your nominees know that they have been nominated.
 

Six + One
You decide if the six are true or false, and which one doesn't fit.  I'm not telling! :)

1.  When I was fifteen, I was fortunate enough to go on a vacation... ehem, "student ambassador" program to Europe.  While in London, we took a cruise down the Thames with the British prime minister.  And I fell asleep.  Oops!

2.  While studying abroad in Russia in 1999, I twice went on camping trips in the Caucasian mountains with a non-violent Chechan guide.  My parents were none to happy, since this was less than a month after the Chechan war had started (again...).

3.  Also during my semester in Russia, I had to sort out some banking troubles I was having.  Unfortunately my Russian was *cough* downright atrocious, but I hadn't asked anyone to accompany me.  I spent much too much time trying to convey to the woman at the bank what the problem was, and she treated me like an idiot with the mental capacity of a four-year-old due to my poooooooor Russian.  A woman behind me in line became so incensed by how long it was taking, she began hitting me with her oversized purse, screaming something to the effect of "If this were still the Soviet Union, I wouldn't have to wait behind..."  You can fill in the rest.  I ran away and returned a few days later with an interpreter.

4.  Pacifist that I am, I've been kangaroo hunting in New South Wales.  After someone shot a kangaroo that would become our dinner the next night, the kangaroo was tossed into the back of the pick-up with my friend and me, only to discover it wasn't actually dead yet...  It more or less had a seizure while my friend and I screamed.  The man driving got out of the truck and bashed the kangaroo's poor little head until it stopped again.

5.  I am a seasoned world traveler (or so I like to tell myself), and at least half of my travel abroad occurred before I turned 18, but the only country I was taken to by my parents was Canada.

6.  When I was a kid, I love wearing my roller skates.  I wore them everywhere (though my mom drew the line at church, but I tried).  While I was outside one day hanging out with the boys down the block, they dared me to climb the tree in one boy's front yard.  Of course I accepted the challenge since I didn't want to look like a wussy girl.  With my roller skates still strapped on tight, I got most of the way up before I fell and broke my arm.  I didn't get to keep my roller skates after that :(

7.  My family frequently drove to Lake Catherine in Arkansas when we lived in northern Louisiana.  When I was four, I had a life jacket that said "Little Fishy" on the back.  Strapped into my Little Fishy life jacket, my dad's friend convinced my parents to let me go water skiing on the tyke-sized skis he had for his own kids.  After much enthusiasm on my part, they couldn't possibly say no.  And, might I add, it was AWESOME!  I love water skiing.


Stop back on Friday for the big reveal as to what's true and what's not.

So, now I have to pass this on, huh?  Hmm...  I'm going to pass this on to a couple of new and awesome blogs I've founds recently that you should definitely check out.

Mel O. Dramatic at Whimsical Melgasms
Rafi at Escape from Apathy
Vatche at The Student Writer's Mind
Heidi at Drops of Ink
Tara at Tara Maya's Tales
Roland at Writing in the Crosshairs

Delinquent Me: Eat Pray Love - Love +

A week late is better than not at all, right?

Finish Indonesia and discuss general feelings on the book. How did it affect you? I read this book at a time in my life when I was really struggling and it had a profound effect on me so I am curious to see what others thought of something so deeply personal. 

Will you go see the movie? Will you read Committed which is Gilbert’s follow up to Eat Pray Love?

What are some of your favorite quotes from the book?

 
I really enjoyed the book, and the Pray section impacted me the most.  In fact, I would go so far as to say my deep love of her time in India got me hyped up enough that her time in Indonesia was a real let-down.  That's not to say it was bad, but it wasn't amazing in the way I'd anticipated.  That being said, I loved our medicine man and his Bali meditation:  have every part of your body smile, even your liver.  I need to work on that.  I'm not sure my liver is accustomed to smiling.


Will I see the movie?  Probably not in the theater.  Netflix will send it to me in six to eight months, and by then I will have enough distance from my reading that one will not affect the other.  

Will I read Committed?  Again, probably not, mostly due to my disappointment in the last section, and assuming Committed is based on her time with Filipe.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm thrilled that Liz found true love and could move on with her life a healed woman, but the healing was more interesting to me than the love she allowed herself in the end.


Most of my favorite quotes can be found in my last post on Pray.



Award!

Thank you, Medeia!

I've decided to follow a theme in passing on this award.  I'd like to share this with the EPL book club, since I have so enjoyed reading the book along with other people.  It was a fantastic idea, and I am especially grateful to The Book Vixen for organizing it.

Jamie at Three Cheers for Literacy
Nicole at Home Grown Me
Charlie at Life Happens
Lily of Darkness at Lilium's Realm
Erika at Kiss My Book
Jamie at The Book Junkie's Bookshelf
The Book Vixen


Thank you for sharing your thoughts on the book.  It's been delightful reading along with you.

Versatility

First, to all of you in the bloghop, I'm not ignoring you.  I'm coming over as soon as I'm feeling better, I promise.

Yesterday morning I had the pleasant surprise of visiting Helen at Straight from Hel to discover she had bestowed upon me the Versatile Blogger Award.  Thank you, Helen!

This award comes with the following rules:

1. Thank the person who loved me enough to bestow this gift.
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Bestow this honor onto 15 newly discovered or followed bloggers – in no particular order – who are fantastic in some way.
4. Drop by and let my fifteen friends know I love them.

Seven Things

I had originally planned to share 7 odd or embarrassing things about myself in keeping with the inadvertent theme of this week, but I've been under the weather the past 24 hours with little brain function.  So I've decided to share 7 reading/writing-related matters with you (if you're interested in a more serious list, go here).

1. The first story I remember writing was in the 2nd or 3rd grade.  We had to write a fable about how a rabbit (or a cat; I can't remember) got its whiskers.  Everyone else's story was on the front of one of those huge-lined pieces of notebook paper (the ones with the dotted lines down the center).  Mine was three pages and the teacher had to photocopy page 2 because she hung them on the bulletin board so others could read them.  The other kids made fun of me for spending too much time on it, but I didn't care.
2. My first writing attempt of 50,000+ words came in junior high, and was heavily influenced by my concurrent obsession with Goosebumps, Christopher Pike, and Stephen King—a.k.a. pretty bloody/gory.
3. In high school, I had two stories running at once—one about a lone Chinese girl in her high school (with parents trying to only have boys these days), and the other in which King Arthur-type lore meets high science fiction.  Neither of them went very far, but I'm sure I still have them on a 3.5in floppy at my mom's house.
4. In high school I became slightly obsessed with Russian lit.  I'm not sure how many times I read Anna Karenina, but I knew the story quite well.  Of course, it wasn't until years later when I started studying Russian that I could keep all the nicknames straight :)
5. I started college as a creative writing major at a small liberal arts school.  I was pressured into studying something more "practical", and unfortunately left writing behind for a while.
6. I started writing again a little over a year and a half ago.  It was my way of taking control of some horrible nightmares I was having in the months after my dad died.  I took my dream and wedged into something fan-fiction based because I didn't have the energy at the time to create my own universe.  Unfortunately, it became epic to the point where War and Peace looked like a picture book.  It resides in my computer, completely outlined, over 150,000 words hanging out in numerous word documents.
7. My current WiP-collection was inspired by a dream I had the night before my parents' first wedding anniversary after my dad died.  Maybe it was another coping mechanism?  I don't know.  It's not anymore, and I love my characters, and I love the story.  I have sooooo much work to do on it still, and sometimes it's a struggle, but I love every minute.
8. When I first picked them up my sister-in-law's recommendation, I ended up reading all four Twilight novels twice in 2 weeks.

7+1 to grow on, right?

Passing the Versatile Love
So, now it's my turn to pass this on.  In no particular order...

Cruella Collett at The Giraffability of Digressions
Brigid Kemmerer
The Book Vixen
Lily of Darkness at Lilium's Realm
Jamie at Three Cheers for Literacy!
Chary at Bronx Tales and Inner Musings
Talli Roland
Tiffany Neal
Charity at My Writing Journey
Jemi at Just Jemi
Lynda at .W.I.P. It
Summer at ...and this time concentrate
Hart at Confessions of a Watery Tart
Creepy Query Girl
Tawna at Don't pet me, I'm writing

There are loads of blogs worthy for this, of course, and it's hard to choose.  Definitely check out these blogs!  They're worth your time.

Okay, back to bed with me.  Talk to you later!

An Award +7 Mystery Items

Jan, you made me a little weepy when you passed this on to me.  I hardly think of myself as versatile in my short blogging life.  Of course, I made my last post right about the same time Jan bestowed this upon me, and Cruella Collett ended up visiting me.  Her comment may not indicate my versatility, but it's nice to know that we can touch people without even trying.

I want to say for the record (CC, if you're listening), that I know all about deadlines and Masters theses and other academic bureaucracy that makes you want to pull your hair out in tufty little patches.  Good luck with your break.

All that being said, I want to thank Jan for passing this on to me.  And the green is rather fitting, no? :)

Okay, so, I don't simply get to bask in the glory of my award.  It comes with a price.  No, I'm not selling my soul to anything/one, nor am I writing oaths to be someone's servant forever.  It's much simpler than that.

1.  Thank those who loved me enough to bestow this gift.  

Jan, let me know if you need more praise.  I could continue, for example, by thanking you for your Friday challenges...

2.  Share seven things about myself.
Oh, boy.  Welp, let's see...

• I've lived in seven US states and two European countries (three, if only a month counts as more than vacation).  I've also visited the majority of the continental 48, a province or two, and two more continents.  Yeah, I like to travel :)
• I finished my first novella (horrible as it was!) when I was thirteen.
• I began legal adulthood and my college education as a creative writing major.  Due to not-so-peer pressure, I changed my major to something more practical (international studies), and have even since fumbled around looking for my soul's true home: politics, anthropology, religious philosophy, ESL, linguistics.  I have now come full circle, and want to kick myself for not taking greater advantage of those writing workshops.  Of course, I don't think I was ready for them then.  Can I go back and try again?
• It took me nearly eighteen months to muster the nerve to start this blog.
• I have a strong propensity to pick up the accents of the people I'm around.  It's usually temporary, and completely unconscious.  But I do still have a few things that stick with me (like saying "Wisconsin" as if I were from there, thanks to my first college roommate X+ years ago).
• In my Dr. Jekyll life (which makes my writing persona Ms. Hyde?), I am a PhD student in Slavic Linguistics.  This entails me studying tiny, semantically empty word-like things in Polish called clitics.  I promise, it's not at all sexual!  (At a New Year's party a few years ago, I said, "I study clitics" before explaining what they were, and the woman I was talking to became instantly disturbed and uncomfortable and walked away.  So, now, I explain it before giving it a proper euphemism... *cough* er, name.)
• My husband and I have two loving and adorable cats, one of whom we adopted in Poland, and the other from the local animal shelter.  In fact, they are so loving that they are standing at the door, crying for my husband to take them outside with him because they don't want him to be out there alone.  Aren't they sweet?

3.  Bestow this award upon others whose blogs you believe are versatile and worthy of acknowledgment.  

Jan, by her own confession, isn't good at following the rules.  So, I have no idea what the original ideal number is, but it doesn't really matter.  Here is a short list of blogs that regularly impact me and my life, writing-related or otherwise.

Jan at Crazy Jane (I don't feel bad passing this back, since my award came from Jan's other blog)
Rory at RAWR
Lindsey at Lindsey Leavitt
Jennifer at writerjenn
Charity at My Writing Journey
Dawn at Officially Twisted
Laa and Dio at Goat Spice

and two newbies, who will soon become versatile:
Heather at Heather's Krafty Korner
Maria at cards and crafts by maria (particularly note the Squirl Power card.... :)

There are loads of other blogs out there that I could pass this on to, but I wouldn't be able to stop.  Oh, and for some I'm one of their 4928 followers, and they don't know me from any other random groupie.  Just because I didn't list them doesn't mean they're not awesome.

4.  Drop by and let my friends know I love them.

You don't have to tell me twice!