I'd like to thank the Academy...

I've been nominated!

I would like to thank the fabulous Ms. Kim at (Just) Trying is for Little Girls for nominating me for this bloggy award.  It's been awhile since I've gotten an award so I was very happy to be a recipient.  Even if I do think it's mostly out of revenge because I pointed out that she went to a crappy undergraduate institution that drools and is much too fond of sheep.  (But I like her a lot anyway.)

The rules of this nomination are:
I get to tell you seven random things about myself as well as pass on the award to seven other great bloggers.

Nominees, in order to accept this award you must:

-Thank and link back to the person who awarded you
-Write seven random things about yourself.
-Award seven other awesome and inspiring bloggers.

Without further ado then, here we go.

1.  My hair is naturally curly but when I was growing up straight hair was in and I hated it.  (Both my hair and that straight hair was in.)  I even got it permed once.  Bad stylist for letting me do that.  It turned out horribly.  I went back to blow drying my hair straight and then curling it with a curling iron.  What was I thinking?  I've had a fabulous stylist for years now and my hair takes about three minutes to fix.  I just blow it dry and it falls exactly into place. 

2.  I can't eat cream puffs due to a cream puff incident when I was a teenager.  Being a latchkey kid and thus home alone for several hours every afternoon, I taught myself how to cook.  First just food and then things like bread and so forth.  One day I decided to make cream puffs.  We had this Mexican vanilla that apparently was waaaaay stronger than normal vanilla.  As in something like four times stronger.  Which I didn't know.  So I used too much and between the tasting of the filing and then eating some of the cream puffs I got soooooo sick.  I've never had a cream puff since and just the idea of them turns my stomach.

3.  I also did not know there was a difference between sugar and powdered sugar.  Hey, I was about 12.  My stepdad very bravely had a piece of the cake and frosting I'd made from scratch.  He proclaimed it good, but crunchy.  We tossed the rest.

4.  I seem to be on a theme now.  I also made cornbread from scratch.  It was good but extremely dense.  Like you couldn't swallow the piece in your mouth dense.  It sat for a few days with only one piece gone and then we tossed the rest out of out to the dogs.  And by tossed I mean threw out the kitchen window onto the deck about five feet below and 12 feet over.  It bounced, with no pieces falling off.  Our dog Katie picked up the whole thing (from an 8x8 pan) and then carried it around the backyard for about a half an hour, criss crossing her path to hide her scent, before finally burying it to save for later.  We were in tears, we were laughing so hard.

5.  And last but definitely not least, I never could master making biscuits.  I think I kneeded the dough too much because no matter what I did they always turned out to be the consistency of hockey pucks.  Which is what my stepdad started calling them right away -- "Hey, you made hockey pucks!" -- as I tried for a couple of months to get them to come out right.  He would toss one down on the kitchen lineolum for the dog and she'd bat it back and forth across the floor until knocking it down the stairs, at which point she'd eat it.  The dogs always loved it when I cooked.

6.  Might as well stay with the food theme.  I refused to eat cheesecake for years just on general principle.  Is it cheese?  Is it cake?  Tell me!  I finally agreed to try some when visiting family in New Mexico when I was about 15 and now it's one of my favorite things.  My brother had the same objections and the same reaction when I talked him into trying some.

7.  I have a rule about birthday cake:  If it is your birthday, you must have cake.  I don't mean that literally.  I won't force you to eat cake or anything.  But I think you should have your favorite treat on your birthday.  If you want baby peas, have baby peas.  If you want chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and no filling unless it's chocolate, that's the kind of cake you should have.  Nothing is worse than someone getting you a crappy birthday cake.  So this should mean that as I head off to my office birthday lunch, there should be chocolate cake.  With chocolate frosting.  And no filling.  Unless it's chocolate.

Now to pass on the fun.  BUT since it was just my birthday and I am still of course the Empress I am changing it up a bit:  If nominated, you have to list seven silly things about yourself.  (Please note that if I've seen you do this already I won't nominate you again here, there were lots of folks that I find inspiring but that had already done this.  Though if you want to tell me seven silly things about yourself....)

Ready, Set, Go!

- Heather at Will Run for Coffee
- Julie at Running on Purpose
- Michelle at Runn Princess Runn
- Julie D. at The Finish Line Diaries
- Meredith at Therapeutic Runnings of a Mom
- One Crazy Penguin!
- and... Michel at Baby Weight My Fat Ass

Cheers,
the CilleyGirl