My crew smells of newly mown grass

To paraphrase Hugh Laurie and his acceptance speech...

I am a winner, so it seems! Our good friend Hot Lemon over at With a Twist of Lemon, has been gracious enough to bestow upon me and others an Arte. That is, the Arte y Pico award for blogs.


Didn't know there was such an award? Well you are not alone. I had no idea either, but I am still quite overwhelmed by the whole thing, somewhat ferklemped, talk amongst yourselves...

OK, I have composed myself. Here is the skinny on the award, stolen from Mr Lemon himself, since he writes so eloquently and I am a master at the cut and paste function:

The origin of the Arte y Pico Award: "This prize has arisen from the daily visits that I dedicate to many blogs which nourish me and enrich me with creativity. In them, I see dedication, creativity, care, comradeship, but mainly, ART, much art. I want to share this prize with all those bloggers that entertain me day to day and to share this prize with those who enrich me every day. Doubtlessly, there are many and it will be hard to pick just a few. The people I will name today deserve this prize, as do the very long serious list of bloggers I also enjoy to read. But I will name the first 10 and leave the rest of the work to all the bloggers that visit other's blogs and are nourished by them."

Here are the rules, if you decide to pass the award further to remarkable blogs in blogosphere worth to mention.

The rules:

1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award through creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogger community, no matter of language.

2. Each award should have the name of the author with a link to their blog.

3. Award winners have to post the award with the name and link to the blog of the person who gave them the award (done at the end of Paragraph 1).

4. Please include a link to the “Arte Y Pico” blog so that everyone will know where the award came from.

5. Show these rules.

Enough of the requirements, and on to the awarding of fellow bloggers! (Cue MGM music)

First up is Distributor Cap, because he is a master at research and digging up the skinny on his blog subjects. And, because he sent Skyler a cup, which makes him the best!

Next I choose fellow space enthusiast Johnny Yen, for terrific writing and for being a world class dad.

One of my first blogs I read belongs to Kirby, over at I make no promises. She has a wonderful sense of humor, and likes the outdoors. Top two qualities in a lady if you ask me, in an alternate universe I would be her stalker!

My own personnel award for creativity goes out to Sans at Sans Pantaloons. The master of graphics, he made a family crest for us that we proudly display as wall paper!

Finally, I nominate my former cube mate Kristi at Two Minutes in the Box. I live vicariously through Kristi's love of the mountains that I used to hang out in. Now I am a suburban dwelling dad, but still long to be on top of a peak like she does.

Th-Th-Thats it folks! Enjoy your nominations and pay it forward!