This post is brought to you by the number seven. Here are the "Original Seven" Mercury astronauts. From left: Scott Carpenter, Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Gus Grissom, Wally Schirra, Alan Shepard, and Deke Slayton. Photo credit: NASA. Click for larger image.

Disclaimer: This post is made to satisfy statutory requirements under the Blogger Legal Obligations With Meritorious Excellence, Sub Chapter 1, Section 7734, Article 42.666.

On Feb. 21, 2010, I received two awards from the most excellent Teri’s Blip in the Universe blog.

As a recipient of the Kreativ Blogger Award I’m bound by the following rules:

1. Thank the person who awarded me the award, and link that person’s blog on my blog.

2. Identify seven things about myself.

3. Award seven bloggers with the “Kreativ Blogger Award,” post links to their blogs, and leave a comment on each of their blogs, to let them know of the honor.

As a recipient of the Sunshine Award I am required to “pass it on to a bunch of other bloggers.” For the sake of simplicity I’m going to assume this means seven, too.

On a side note, I also explored the concept of exponentially passing along awards to seven people, who then do the same thing to seven more blogs each, and so on and so on. Based on my calculations I discovered that the awards are actually a plot to increase the mass of planet Earth to the point that it collapses in on itself and creates a new black hole in our solar system. I estimate this event will happen in about 60 days. Now that will be fun to watch!

Yeah, I know I’m late on this but as you can see I had so many excellent blog ideas that had to be fleshed out first. Ha! Good one. I crack myself up.

Seriously, though, I am quite honored to receive these awards from such a great person and I will gladly pass on these awards.

Responsibility #1 was done immediately on my awards page, the layout of which was ruined by receiving an actual award. The page had been carefully laid out with feng shui in mind with absolutely no thought given to receiving an award which was previously considered impossible. 🙂 Sadly the receiving of an award shattered the carefully sought after balance of the page.

Responsibility #2 is clearly a recipe for disaster, but I seemingly have no choice. Seven things about myself? Hmm. I was going to say stuff like “I’ve never been in outer space” and “I’ve never earned a gold medal in the Olympics” and “I’ve never won a Nobel peace prize,” but somehow that felt like cheating and going against the spirit of the awards. Believe me when I say I’m just as uncomfortable with this rule as you are! So here goes:

1. My first kiss happened at church camp with a person who went by the name of Tex. Yep, pardner. You heard that right. We literally never saw Tex without a cowboy hat made of straw, which I imagine is where the nickname came from. Young people are clever that way. Tex and I were like peas and carrots and one day Tex just grabbed me, pulled me into the bushes and planted one right on the kisser. It’s hard to imagine a better first kiss. And, oh yeah, almost forgot – Tex was a girl. 🙂
2. I’m a certified open-water scuba driver. Did you know scuba stands for Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus? Anyway, my dad was a very active scuba diver and I had my own 10-minute air tank from the time I was a wee child. I would scuba in nearby lakes and rivers when I was a kid. I’ve also dived in oceans off two different countries.
3. Once I passed out on the dance floor of Hussong’s Cantina in Ensenada, Mexico, after drinking too many off their powerful margaritas. It is still unknown if I survived that night or not.
4. In seventh grade I opted for “Home Economics” rather than “shop.” I was making and eating chocolate chip cookies in a class where I was the only male while all of the rest of the seventh grade males made electric lamps out of wood blocks. Being the only boy in a class full of girls is the only way to go. I guess I did have some smarts when I was a lad.
5. I played trombone in elementary school and went on to concert band, stage band and marching band in high school. A month before a statewide solo competition I broke my hand and quickly had to learn the baritone (which is a valve instrument much like a small tuba). I went on to the statewide competition on my new instrument and received the highest possible score (superior) for the performance of my solo with piano accompaniment.
6. In high school I aced the final exam in “elementary radioactivity.” The teacher said I was the first student in the history of the school to ace the exam and then accused me of cheating.
7. The books I’ve reread the most are, by far, “The Hunt for Red October” by Tom Clancy and “Dune” by Frank Herbert.

To break up the enormity of this task, the outgoing awards will be issued in the weeks ahead in separate posts as time permits. Be on your best behavior or I may pick you. Mwuhahaha!