Blog Awards!

Two very nice bloggers have bestowed 3 awards on me!  Many thanks to Alayne at The Crowded Leaf for the Blog Monster award and to Bookwordlover from Booklover Book Reviews for the Beautiful Blogger and Honest Scrap award.  It's nice to be appreciated by other book bloggers.

The Blog Monster Award was created by Eleni at La Femme Readers:

It signifies all the bloggers out there who constantly work hard to keep an updated and insightful website. They aren’t afraid to take a bite with their honest reviews and enjoyable content. You amaze me, you inspire me so I call you a blog monster.

The Beautiful Blogger and Honest Scrap Awards require that I post 10 things about myself so here goes:

1. I love to read.
2. I live in the Bay Area (in the East Bay), but I grew up in the South and was born in Memphis.
3. I am working on my MBA in Health Care Management.
4. My cat, hereinafter referred to as The Master, is in charge at my house.
5. I work for Kaiser Permanente and I love my job.
6. I love to cook, love to eat, and have to have my food porn (R.I.P. Gourmet magazine).
7. I have a son, Evan, who turned 18 this year and is headed off to college in the fall.
8. I've lived all over the US - Memphis, Austin, Dallas, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Seattle, Stockton (CA), and now San Leandro.

9. I loathe Brussels sprouts because I am a supertaster.  We tested for this in my anthropology lab in college as a part of learning about genetic traits.  This is a genetic trait that causes you to experience taste with more intensity.  One of the markers for this is that you can taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) as extremely bitter.  PTC is a chemical that is prominent in Brussels sprouts and that's why I hate 'em (also grapefruit - blechy).  This trait probably helped individuals live longer as they were more able to taste chemicals that might be toxic.
10. I am a gamer and currently playing Warhammer Online where I can be found exploding people with glee.  @whee!

I hereby gift these awards to the following bloggers who continually amuse me, amaze me, and fill up my TBR list:

• E.L. Fay from This Book and I Could be Friends
• Rose City Reader
• Constance Reader at Constance Reader's Guide to Throwing Books with Great Force
• Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea
• Vivienne at Serendipity

Thanks to everyone out there who reads and blogs about what they read.  The book blogging community enriches my life and has turned me on to so many incredible books I might not have read otherwise and that's a good thing(tm).