Beautiful Blogger Award

Kate over at A Year With Horses kindly bestowed this Beautiful Blogger Award to me and my blog. Kate makes blogging look easy. She is a talented writer and often conveys difficult ideas about horses with detail and well-thought out logic. I am very honored to receive this award from Kate. Thanks Kate!

The rules of this award are:

Link back to the person who gave you the award.

Tell 7 things about yourself.

Pass the award to 15 other bloggers.

Please don't feel you have to participate if I choose you. You may have already won this award a zillion times!

Here are my 7 things:

1. I gave up eating meat in January of 1979. I was 11 years old and in 6th grade. I have never had meat since. At that time, vegetarianism in Pennsylvania (Pennsyltucky) was a little difficult. I remember ordering a Single Cheese with Everything except the meat at our local Wendy's. They would charge me 50 cents and had a special "Miscellaneous" button for me. I wish I had given up sugar at the same time (the yin and yang). I spent too many years with too much sugar coursing through my veins and not enough protein to balance it all out. Luckily, I have it all sorted now.

2. I spent my college and graduate school summers, and 9 years after that riding in the truck with a large animal veterinarian. My adventures with "Doc" were amazing, hysterical, horrific, sad, and educational all rolled into one. We treated cows, pigs, horses, goats, sheep, cats, dogs, buffalo, birds...it shaped me more than anything else in my entire life. As a large animal assistant, I learned how to clear my mind and slow my breathing so that I could calm terrified horses. We didn't use tranquilizers as much as equine vets do today. Doc would often stay out of sight and send me into stalls to inoculate difficult horses. I draw on that experience daily.

3. I am married to a Renaissance Man. Brian painted tromp l'oeil paintings throughout our house. He plays the guitar, the piano, the sitar, the banjo, and the harmonica. If I hear a song that I like I will ask him to figure it out and he can just start playing it. He reads quantum mechanics books for fun. He listens to audio tapes of the writings of Proust. He is extremely intelligent, which I think is most evident by how humble he is. (For example, I just asked him what instruments he can play and he said, "none".) I am crazy in love with him and grateful to have found him.

4. I love fonts. I drool over the House Industries website. One of my favorite movies is Helvetica.

5. My mother always called me the "Absent-Minded Professor" when I was growing up. Now, I really am a professor and I don't think I am absent-minded in the least!

6. In the early 1990's, I had Room with a View and Howards End put on audio tape. I listened to those tapes so much that I still inadvertently use lines from the movies in everyday speech. Now, my Maizie and her friends have fell hard for A&E's Pride and Prejudice. They are running around quoting and imitating Mrs. Bennet or Mr. Collins!

7. I am bursting with exciting news about a new project that I will be launching sometime next week. I have been working (with the kind help of some fellow bloggers) on this idea since January. I am determined to have all the kinks sorted before I post about it...so stay tuned! It will combine my love of horses, and graphic design, and FONTS, and art. Oh...I just can't wait!

Thanks again, Kate, for choosing me for the Beautiful Blogger Award.

Here are the Beautiful Blogs I selected. All are lovely and worth a visit!

1. Noodles and Noodles - (This is a blog by my daughter, Maizie. At 11 years of age, she amazes us at every turn. She does this blog completely on her own!)

2. From the Horse's Back

3. Sweet Horse's Breath

4. A Horse Crazy American in Germany

5. Creative Time

6. Buttercupped

7. All Horse Stuff

8. Pony Girl Rides Again

9. Adventures of the Painted Creek Farm

10. All the Pretty Little Horses

11. Once Upon an Equine

11. Print and Pattern

12. Fancy Ink Press

13 make something happy

14. Civil Girl

15. Bay State Brumby - I know you already won this! I just had to include you!