Thanks to Stephany over at Soulful Sepulchre, I am the proud recipient of a shiny, brand new A Hoy Award.  Yippee and Yay!  I know, I know.  I should be modest, humble and proud to be included.  I am.  But I'm also super happy about the award.  Why?  Because it was conceived by bloggers that I respect, is named after a superlative athlete, has some very painterly artwork and encourages recipients to reach out beyond their own blogrolls when awarding the A Hoy to others.


Here are the guidelines set forth to an A Hoy Award recipient:


Rules for Making an Award

1. Pick five blogs that you consider deserve this award based upon any criteria - for example, the quality of the commentary, wit, humour, artwork, overall design, value to you of the information being provided, and so on.

2. The awarding blogger should choose at least two blogs not on his or her own blogroll, the purpose being to encourage variety of reading matter, and to have the person making the award think about what they like to see and read.

3. Your five choices must be published in a dedicated post on your own blog. This post must contain the name of the author (which may be their logon name), and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone. This post should contain brief details of what attracted you to the blog. Details may also be posted in the comments section of "What is a Hoy?"

4. In the same dedicated post, each winner has to show the award and acknowledge the blog that has given him or her the award.

5. Both those awarding and receiving A Hoy must show the link to A Hoy blog, so that everyone will know the origin of this award.

6. When publishing details of the blogs to which you have made your awards, these rules must be published for recipients to follow.


OKAY, I may upset some of my readers, because I didn't give them this award.  Trust me, there are many on my blogroll who more than deserve this award.  However, the fact that they remain on my blogroll signifies that I believe in them wholeheartedly.  Only one person, Eve Cleveland, is from my links.  The rest have been recently discovered, or not linked previously by me.  I hope you enjoy the "new blood"!

Eve Cleveland  

You may not know this, but my paternal Granny LOVED World Wide Wrestling.  She shrieked with joy at their antics, glowered at the Bad Guys and crowed for the Good Guys.  One more reason my father despised her; two more reasons for me to treasure her.  Granny would have adored Eve.  She'd have squinted through the smoke of her Rothman's, as she dealt cards for Poker and been impressed by the foam cooler keeping her beer can cold.



Rogue Medic

You have to love a medic.  That's just a fact of life.  But when they come with humour and insight, grins'n'giggles, well that's a whole other ballpark.  Please check out the Jenny! McCarthy post, to see what I'm talking about.  As many of you know, I'm on record for hating "smilies" and "emoticons".  So if I nominate a blogger with a big-arse yellow smiley face as his picture, you know I mean business! 

Mo 

I only just glommed onto his blog, which looks brilliant.  Unfortunately, as a Manic Depressive, he's not feeling like a full packet of tea.  You know, the holidays and such.  Pop on by and let this man know that his voice counts.  Not enough men are out there writing about this crappy yet wonderful illness.


Amanda

Blogger Buster has been an amazing tool for me, as I have learned computers on the fly.  In April 2008, I only knew how to email.  I didn't even know how to cut, copy and paste.  I owe most of my blog to Amanda, who writes Blogger Buster, including my Aspire Template and Archives widget. 
  
Vivienne

Vivienne has to be one of the most caring and compassionate women out there.  Although she is writing in English, her native tongues are far from it.  Her energy is infectious and her drive is a force to be reconned with.  Most recently she emailed me, concerned about some one on my blogroll.  She knew we lived near each other and wanted me to call and check up.  I'd already done that, but was touched by her concern.


Naturally, I'll be adding these fine people to my blog roll very soon.