You're IT!!

I’ve been cheerfully tagged by Sandy over at Curly’s Corner. She’s chosen my houseblog, The Sow’s Ear, as one of her ten favorites to receive an Excellent Blog Award. Thank you, Sandy. It’s marvellous to know I’m being read, and appreciated.

But of course, I mustn’t keep the love and joy to myself. So in fine memetic tradition, I give you the rubric. Recipients, consider yourselves on notice!

By accepting this Excellent Blog Award, you agree to award it to 10 more people whose blogs you find Excellent Award worthy. You can give it to as many people as you want but please award at least 10. You deserve this! Feel free to recognize blogs that have already received this award.

Here’s my list, in no particular order. I’ve decided to post it here on my flagship blog, because I don’t want Jeannie and Aaron, our Houseblogs.net moderators, to feel I’ve gone completely off-topic. I’ve been doing little but playing piano over at the Sow’s Ear lately, and they’re likely beginning to wonder.

You listed below, you, in the Clara Bow sense, are IT:

Mile High Pixie at Why Architects Drink. You can find plenty of blogs blathering on about the latest rarefied design theory or the intricacies of drawing technology. I know of no other blog that actually tells you what it’s like to be down and dirty in architectural practice. Besides, given my own sidetracked architectural career, it’s fun to be involved vicariously through Pixie’s adventures.

Miss Kitty at Educated and Poor. Supported by her sister Pixie, a squadron of adorable kittehs, and one self-possessed red hen, she lets you in on the ironies, frustrations, and triumphs of teaching at the university level students whose receptivity too often was arrested in grade school.

Gary at This Old Crackhouse. Read the thrilling adventures of one man’s fight against urban decay in Dayton, Ohio, facing down the forces of raccoon poop, bad plumbing, worse electrical wiring, blocked-up fireplaces, and the occasional tool thief. Riding high on his trusty steed Shellac, Gary has inspired many of us to follow in his trail. Even if no one has yet volunteered to come carry bricks for his latest chimney!

Waiter at Waiter Rant. How presumptuous is it to tender private kudos to a blog that came ever-so-close to taking the 2008 Bloggie Award and has gained its author a contract for a soon-to-be-published book? But when a blog is so educational as to let me know I should be tipping the server who prepares my take-out order, and so compellingly written that I’m now happy to do it, how can I leave it off my personal E for Excellent list?

Chris at Extreme Theology. Chris forthrightly upholds Jesus crucified and risen for our sins as he examines and confronts the popular assaults to the faith once delivered to the saints. Though I find his Lutheran views on Calvinism and on women in ministry to be uninformed and regrettable (we all have our blind spots), overall his writing encourages me to keep on preaching Law and Gospel, in that order. And when I need some balance, I turn to

Gifted for Leadership, a group blog by evangelical Christian women in leadership positions. These servants of God seek to stay rooted in biblical soil, and their reflections on their efforts to minister faithfully encourage me to keep my own eyes and focus on Christ and His will.

PeaceBang at Beauty Tips for Ministers. She’s on a mission to remind pastors of both sexes and all denominations that our parishioners and the general public have their eyes on us. Enough with the frumpy fake humility, already--how we dress and carry ourselves communicates more than we can imagine about the offices we hold and the God we serve. Reading her blog just before Easter, I knew I had to go get a haircut. Who’s going to listen to me in the pulpit if I look like a superannuated 12 year old?

Craig and Yvonne’s Our Victorian House. More a website than a blog, their illustrated saga of the renovation of their Eastlake frame house in New Jersey is breathtaking, inspiring, and educational. Click the blog link and post comments and questions about the ongoing work!

The anonymous owner of StuccoHouse. Though her house is stucco and mine is brick, though she's reclaiming her existing wood windows and I’m planning to replace my metal windows with new wood ones in the old style, I can always find something relevant and instructive. Yes, someday I hope to get rid of my crummy aluminum trim, too!

John at The Devil Queen. If you want house renovation angst-- presented with humor and irony-- John will give it to you in spades. Shovelfuls. Dumpster loads. And John's great paintings on his linked blog, The Failed Artist, almost incite me to get off my duff and pick up my artist’s brushes again. Until I look again at the title. Oh, well!