Awesome Blog Award!

Handsome Jack, a chocolate Lab guide dog for L^2 (her blog is Dog's Eye View), nominated my blog, plays with puppies, for an "Awesome Blog" award!  This is my very first blog award and I am honored.

Thank you Jack (and L^2)!

In accepting this award I must do three things:

1. Link to the person who gave me the award (Guide Dog Jack and his girl, L^2, at Dog's Eye View).
2. Share seven things about myself.
3. Pass the award on to 15 other blogs.

Okay, here's the link to Dog's Eye View:
http://l-squared.blogspot.com/.


Here are seven things about me that heretofore I have not blogged about:

1. My first dog was a big, black Lab mix (maybe Irish Setter?) female named Aero.  I got her when I was 25 years old.
2. Not only did I bicycle across the United States in 1976, I rode across again in 1987.  The trip in '76 was with Bikecentennial (now called the Adventure Cycling Association) and it took 84 days.  In '87 I rode PacTour on a tandem with my friend Lou and it took us 17 days!
3. I've broken my nose twice.  Once at age 11 by a softball; again at age 50-something by the hard head of an energetic young Weimaraner.
4. I once ran away to work (briefly) for the Norfolk Southern railroad.
5. My second dog was a small, yellow Lab mix (maybe Beagle?) female named Stoker.  She made all our customers (we owned a bicycle store at the time) feel like they were her best friends.
6. I am the middle kid of seven.
7. A big golden retriever mix male named King befriended me when I was a 10th-grader in Clare, Michigan.  Every day he met me in front of his house as I walked by on my way to school and accompanied me to the door; he was at the door again when school let out and he walked me back.  One day he stopped me from crossing Main Street when I didn't see a semi-truck roar by!

Finding 15 "Awesome" blogs is a challenge for me because I am so new to the blogging world!  Here are nine (I also didn't want to repeat any from Jack's list), in alphabetical order:

1. Cura's Corner:  The blog of a service dog user and her service dog, Cura Aebon.
2. In the Center of the Roof:  Follow Ro and her Guide Dog, Jayden.  Ro loves to write and often posts her stories.
3. Outdoor Wood Furnaces:  The official blog of Hawken Energy, a Shelby, Michigan company that builds the BEST outdoor wood furnaces ever!  (We have one!)
4. Lake Superior Spirit:  Kathy lives in the U.P. (Upper Peninsula) of Michigan.  Take a breather and visit her blog.
5. Richard Brehler's Photography:  Okay, so he's my brother...but, he is also a very talented photographer.  Check him out!
6. Rock Paper Lizard:  A quirky blog by a Canadian naturalist (so I assume).  Great photos of wildlife, and an interesting, funny series of short stories he calls "The Interpreter Stories."
7. Rududu's Semitropical Adventures:  This blog about "knitting, birding and eating in Costa Rica and Wisconsin and other interesting places" is by a woman I met on that cross-country bicycle trip back in 1976--she rode across too!  Thanks to FaceBook, we've recently reconnected.
8. Safe & Sound blog:  Beth Finke is an award-winning author, teaches a memoir writing class in Chicago, and works with her Seeing Eye dog, Harper, a yellow lab.
9. Wilma & Friends:  Wilma is a retired breed mom (Golden Retriever).  Most of her 22 puppies went on to train as assistance dogs.  Laura is now raising the adorable Future Leader Dog puppy, "Charlie," a Golden Retriever!

Thanks again, Jack and L^2.  And I hope everyone enjoys checking out these blogs! 

My first two pups, Aero and Stoker.