I feel just like Sally Field.

Can you tell I am blushing? How about my beaming? Is it contagious?

You see, I just got my first bloggy award thingee! Look up there. See that glimmering gem of an award? It's for me! Little ol' me. There I go blushing again.

Caroline at Morningside Mom awarded me with the coveted virtual trophy. Take that, Mac Daddy! Now I have a trophy for something other than band. Supposedly there's a way to display the award on my blog, but I don't know how to do that. Anyone, anyone? Hey, all I do is write, man.

The share the love thing stemmed from a great post by Kristen at Motherhood Uncensored. In essence, she's encouraging us all to take the time to check out other bloggers who pour themselves into their posts and enlighten, entertain, educate, and entrance us. Every little bit helps as folks like me try to take their blogs to higher havens.

So back to Caroline. I don't recall how we found each other, but we're bosom buddies now. Honestly, I would embrace her and stay gabbing over oodles and oodles of wine until the restaurant closed if I ever meet her. She is the mom of 2 boys and has lived most of her life in Africa. Caroline is a wonderful story teller and has such a lively voice to her writing. We're gonna raise some bloggy love ruckus at BlogHer next year because we are saving up our AdSense pennies to go!

So in turn I'd like to nominate seven blogs for the same prestigious award. The rules:

Put the logo on your blog (Then tell me how you did it.).
Add a link to the person who awarded you.
Nominate at least seven other blogs (see below).
Add links to those blogs on your blog (done in the nominations).
Leave a message for your nominee on his or her blog.

The Art of Over Thinking. Damn, she's a funny one. She can fire out a great story about prostitutes or plumber butt. You'll enjoy her sense of humor and wit. Trust me here. Not one to me missed. She even offered me a $100 airline voucher to help fund my way to BlogHer this year. Can you believe it?! We've never even met. Now that's what you call Minnesota Nice in the truest sense.

Chris. You gotta check him out at Wat da Wat? He's a father of five, teacher, and amazing soul. Chris is raising money and pouring his blood, sweat, and tears into building a school in his native Philippines. His posts are often poignant and sometimes simply wacky. Plus, he's a good Wisconsin grad who agrees that the best place on the planet to have a beer is at the Union.

Emancipation of a Drama Queen. The movie quote on her homepage sums it up: "You're the worst kind. You're high maintenance but think you're low maintenance." She is sarcastic in a funny, self deprecating way and has a way to make the mundane fun.

San Diego Momma is another one of those women who will close down the restaurant with me. She is an inventive writer, hot momma, midwestern girl at heart, and a totally fun read. With a gajillion blogs out there with some serious crap disguised as real writing, I assure you, this chica knows how to write.

My Life as a Hotfessional first caught my eye for the title alone. Ree's posts are random, quirky, fun. Even before the Blog the Recession, Ree's been handing out blog love in her monthly posts dedicated to her new commenters.

Mommy Pie is no stranger to blog awards, but I just couldn't resist. Despite her life in the tundra, we share a lot of randomness in common. Plus, she's saving up for a fat dowry for her daughter to marry Deal. Mommy Pie is Hi-Larious. She has a way with words and um, pictures.

Cheeky's Hideaway gets the distinction of being the first blog I ever read. Mainly because my dear friend Tony writes it. He is a dad, music fiend, movie buff, gamer geek, and overall funny dude. Tony and I go way back, and so far he's refrained from blogging about anything that would be keep me from running for office. Every time I read his posts I can hear him talking. His writing voice is well, his voice. You'll dig it.

Whew! There you go folks. Now go waste some more time on The Man's dollar.