Yez, Dahling. Sank you for reminding me zat I forgot to sank zoz nice bloggers. I've ad so much on my mind. Ow long as it been since I quvit smokink?

Only I would begin an acceptance speech with an apology, but since I have Terminal Apologitis, I’m sorry, I can’t help it. Perhaps I should clarify.

A while back, Sayali of Sayali611 and Gayle of Bodirose both nominated me for the Versatile Blogger Award. I was thrilled. I was also embroiled in writing my life story and never got back to accepting the award and passing it on. Shame all over my face. Just this week, Derek of Word Salad fame named me for the very same award. And then I remembered that I was remiss in responding to my other nominations.

While the Award Angels were waving their wands, Teri of the Narcissist’s Blog (which isn’t nearly as self-indulgent as it sounds) bestowed on me the Liebster Award. I have much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving! Thank you so much to each of my blogging friends who recognized me as someone they wanted to recognize. (I recognize there were two “recognizes” in the prior sentence and this one, too. I may need a thesaurus or lunch.)

This post combines my acceptance of the two (4) awards into one Thanksgiving extravaganza. Rather than multiplying the number of recipients (15 X 3 + 5 = come on people! Too many links, so little time), I decided to break with tradition and highlight 10 of the 80+ bloggers who I follow faithfully, enjoy reading, and think you might enjoy, too. After all, that is the spirit of both awards, right? I picked blogs that don’t have a huge a following, but really deserve more attention for reasons I’ll describe.

To the bloggers I’m about to name, If you’ve already received one of the awards, accept the other. If you’ve received neither, accept both. If you’ve received both, well, join the club. I’ll link to the rules of each so you know what to do as a winner (and so I don’t have to repeat both sets of rules here).

Versatile Blogger Award: http://derekberry.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/blogging-versatility-and-7-random-facts/

Liebster Award: http://narcissistsblog.wordpress.com/2011/11/20/liebster-blog-award/

Now for the “winners.” Drum roll please… (in no particular order):

John Zhao’s Blog. He lives in China and every post is an act of courage as he posts pictures and stories of life under strict censorship where even WordPress is disallowed. He will open your eyes to a China you will never see in mainstream media.

The Huffing Tongue Post. Think The Daily Show meets The Colbert Report meets The Onion meets WordPress. It’s political satire at its best.

Awkward List. Short. Funny. Spot-on. Great graphics.

Magnet For Foolishness. A delightful and funny perspective on the 30-something life (remember those days?)

Too Creative For This Life. Always poignant, to-the-heart, funny, and real.

Not Quite Old. Take any day-to-day experience and turn it on its head to make you nod your head and grin from ear to ear.

Word Salad. Tosses his words together so they make perfect sense in a senseless world.

Cleaning Up A Town’s Blog. I’ve learned more about life and humanity from this blog about what she finds doing her job as a cleaner. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it…

Mightier Than the Pen. Master at graphics that say it all.

The Cvillean. Weaver of enchanting, heartfelt stories and hilarious pictures, plus just a great guy.

Just give me a minute, already, will ya? I'm thinkin'.

Since this is the 3rd time I’ve done this, 7 random facts has now become 21 random facts about me. I’m really not all that random. But I’ll try.

  1. I never had wisdom teeth, so anything wise I might say comes from some orifice other than my mouth.
  2. I’ve “won” the Versatile Blogger Award 5 times and the Liebster Award 2 times.
  3. I not good at multi-tasking. Heck, sometimes I have a hard time tasking.
  4. If you receive a gift from me, it will most likely be in a gift bag. I’m not one of those fancy-wrap gals.
  5. I don’t sweat. I internally combust when I exert myself, but never break a sweat. No doctor seems to care and some envy me. I try not to worry that something is horribly wrong with both glandular system and my doctors.
  6. I don’t have any hair on my legs or arms, but could rival most teen boys with my ability to grow sparse and random facial hair.
  7. While a deeply appreciate being recognized by my blogging buddies, I feel like I’m being a piglet with all these awards. So this is the last acceptance post I will write.Send out these awards to the many other bloggers out there who haven’t yet been honored but so richly deserve the recognition (yes, that makes 5 times I’ve used the “R” word in this post).

    Golly Gee. I'm going to have to start using these as door stops or something.

Again thanks for all the encouragement and support. Go forth and spread the love!