Friday Morning Meanderings

What an interesting week I've had.

I got a hearing aid. Just the one. Still getting used to it and next week will be the true test. This week it's still quiet in the office, but when Fall Semester starts next week and all the students and faculty come back - many of whom will find themselves in front of my desk for any number of reasons, then we'll see how it goes. This week has given me, my ear, and my brain an opportunity to adjust to this little contraption, and all in all I'd have to say it's going pretty well. Said contraption sits behind my ear, with a little wire that dangles over my ear with a little speaker that goes inside my ear. Wish me luck with all this. Conversations at home were getting a little strange . . .

any of you have hearing loss/hearing aid experiences you care to share? I'm in brand new territory here.

AND - Fun News!!!

Meanderings and Muses has received five award nominations from BBAW. wow. BBAW is Book Blogger Appreciation Week. Here's what it their homepage says about them -

"Book Blogger Appreciation was started by Amy Riley of My Friend Amy in an effort to recognize the hard work and contribution of book bloggers to the promotion and preservation of a literate culture actively engaged in discussing books, authors, and a lifestyle of reading.

The first Book Blogger Appreciation was observed in the fall of 2008 and occurs every September. The week spotlights and celebrates the work of active book bloggers through guest posts, awards, giveaways, and community activities. Book Bloggers are encouraged to register their participation for inclusion in a database of book bloggers."

The categories we've been nominated for are:

Best New Blog
Best Writing
Most Eclectic
Most Chatty
Best Reviews

Since I don't really do reviews, I asked them to remove my name from that category. When I come here and squeal loudly about a particular book, it's not really the same as reviewing it, after all. That whole reviewing thing is tough - it's an art and done professionally and fairly by a number of people I have a great deal of respect for. Unfortunately, there are also a few people out there who will just slap the title "reviewer" next to their name, but fail, in my opinion, to do the title fair justice. JUST my opinion.

I'm tickled and honored to have had Meanderings and Muses noticed and nominated. What happens next is a group of panelists review nominated blogs based on 5 submissions from nominees. I sent the same 5 submissions for each category -

Bouchercon 2008 - My First B'con

Small Town Girl

Smoking and Not Smoking

Needing a Little Red in My Life

Is There a Favorite Writer You Patiently (Or Impatiently) Await?
(at least one submission was expected to be a book review/recommendation or spotlight post. I chose the piece I wrote spotlighting my favorite author - Pat Conroy & his new book - South of Broad).

What do you think? Did I choose well? Or not? It was a hard thing to do! Now looking back, I'm thinking I could have done better - - - maybe the "Let's Chat About Hats" piece, or the "Father's Day" piece. OR how 'bout that fun piece about Sissyfriss Sockmonkey and Lou Lou Skiptoo . . . . But you know - can't change it now, so we'll just see what happens. The world of blogging is chock full of great blogs and for Meanderings and Muses to have even gotten this far and receive even one nomination is pretty awesome.

Next the panelists will review all the nominations and submit scores based on Quality of Writing, Originality and Diversity of Content, Audience Engagement, and Visual Aesthetic and Functionality. whew. this is going to be a very tough job.

Next. On September 7, the short lists (based on the above) in each category will be announced and voting begins. Voting closes on September 12, and then . . . ta DA! Winners Announced! It'll be fun to see who they are, and will add, I'm sure - names to all of our existing blog rolls.

And here's another little bit of pretty exciting news! Remember Archie and Jughead and Betty and Veronica?

I'm so sorry to admit this, but I am a very pop culturally challenged person. I don't know what I thought might have happened to Archie and the gang, but I truly had no idea they were still around.

Until I saw this - - -

Now don't you just know this will be one heck of a wedding!

Anyone out there still following Archie? or any of our other childhood comic book friends? Anyone still have any of those old comics? Oh, how I wish!!!!!

So.

That about sums up my week.

The week also brought my summer to a close.

As I mentioned, Fall Semester starts at ASU next week . . .