Liebster Award!

I was tagged for the Liebster Award!  Both Badass Romance and Emma Barry were kind enough to nominate this little blog.  The Liebster Award is a way to pay it forward for smaller blogs.  But I have to do some work to earn this award.  I must:

1. List 11 random facts about myself.
2. Answer 11 questions posed by the blogger who nominated me.
3. Nominate 11 other blogs for the award and link to them.
4. Notify the bloggers that they are awesome and have won a shiny pink blogging logo.
5. Pose 11 new questions for my Liebster nominees.
6. Thank the blogger who nominated me and link back to their blog.

If you’re nominated, but don’t feel like doing all the tasks, no worries!

So here goes.

Random Facts About Me:

1. My “how we met” story involves frogs’ eggs and funnel cake.  And carrion flies.
2. I have a seriously embarrassing crush on George Orwell.  If he came back from the dead, I would probably leave my husband for him. I wouldn’t even mind the tuberculosis.
3. My TV signal comes in from the rabbit ears on top of the TV and I don’t have high speed internet, so no streaming video either.  If it wasn’t on PBS Kids, I’m probably unaware of it.
4. I loathe avocados.  In California, this makes you very, very weird.
5. I have a fear of chickens, since I was attacked by a rooster when I was three.  I also desperately want to keep chickens.  I’m not sure how I’m going to reconcile the two.
6. The hummingbirds in my backyard are engaged in a territorial war over the feeder.  They’ve even dive bombed me a few times.
7. I believe that the modern Great American Novel isn’t a novel at all.  It’s a TV show called The Wire.
8. The purest expression of joy I have ever seen is my spaniel leaping through the brush.
9. My daughter thinks that “Dude” is a naughty word, since I use it so much when I’m driving.
10. I also want to raise goats some day, even though I don’t believe in keeping animals that are smarter than myself.
11. It can take me an hour to write a five line email, since I get interrupted so often.  I got interrupted three times while just writing this sentence, and one of the kids is napping.

The Questions

1. What is your favorite actual trophy or other award you can put on a shelf or hang on a wall? It’s not really an award, and it’s not on a wall, but I’m pretty proud of my PhD.
2. Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights? Jane, no contest.
3. What book is the most recent addition to your DIK shelf? Sweeter Than Wine, by Michaela August, set at a Northern California winery just after WWI.  Lots of interesting details about the winemaking process.
4. What book is at the top of your TBR stack? The Fragmented Metropolis–a history of LA.
5. What book keeps getting remaindered at the bottom of your TBR pile, and do you think you’ll ever get around to reading it? The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  I need to read it for a character I’m writing, and yes, it will get done.
6. What language do you wish you were fluent in? Latin.  Latin will always be the one that got away.
7. Medieval castle or Mediterranean villa? Mediterranean villa.  I don’t really deal well with the cold.  Or lack of sanitation.
8. What did you eat for breakfast? Homemade yogurt and panda bear puffs.
9. How do you feel about time travel plots? I used to love them.  Now, not so much.
10. What is your favorite carnival ride? I don’t do carnival rides.  My brother takes the kids on those things.
11. What blog did you find this week that you love? Not So Distant Past

And now for Emma’s questions:

1. Your favorite post from your blog’s archives? That’s like picking my favorite kid. 🙂
2. Jacob or Edward? Jacob
3. Least-deserved television cancellation in recent memory? Uh, Arrested Development?
4. Favorite “I don’t feel like cooking tonight” supper? Bread, cheese, and fruit. Also my favorite hot day dinner.
5. Least-favorite Beatle? Paul
6. Favorite “bad” movie? Tombstone.  So much cheesy goodness there.
7. The last song to which you listened? I can’t remember
8. Aaron Sorkin, brilliant or smug? Unbearably smug. (Sorry, Emma!)
9. The drink you’d want if you were to be stranded on a desert island? Water
10. The historical period in which more books should be set? Turn of the century California, of course! 😉
11. The come-back of white jeans: discuss.  Wait, what?!  No, just no.

The blogs I’d like to nominate: (Not all of these blogs are small, but they are all blogs I really enjoy.)

1. Piper Huguley
2. Shaunta Grimes
3. Be Still, My Heart
4. Peanut Butter on the Keyboard
5. Long Ago Love
6. Wonk-o-mance
7. Girls Guide to Butter (my homesteading girl crush)
8. The Broken Plow (another fun homesteading blog)
9. Fosterhood in NYC
10. Go Kaleo
11. The Wannabe Athlete

OK, and now my children need my attention, and I still haven’t written out my questions.  Well, this is the *lazy* homesteader….