Holiday Mishmash and an Award

Good morning. I have to report, Christmas shopping went exceedingly well. There was no traffic, I was in and out of the stores well within the half hour each I had allotted myself. I spent less than I anticipated, and got everything on my list. I was on time for the holiday festivities at Monster Baby's school, and the day went relatively well. I even bought a Christmas tree. I know, that's big for me. Three feet tall and fake, it sits on the dining room table with MB's hand-made-from-school ornaments. It's beautiful.

I must say, the research is going well. Really well, as a matter of fact. I found the plot line for the last of my 'men' for the Regency series. Well, the inkling of a plotline -- spy, natch. I have a sailor, a horseman, and a politician. Now I have a spy. Who I might even put in America. Right before the war. Intrigue, gotta love it.

I received an award last week, both from Donna and Rula. Thank you ladies. It means a lot. If you don't know either of these Fair Dinkum women, stroll through their blogs, you won't be disappointed.



Now, Fair Dinkum was an award created by L'Aussie, Denise, who lives down under. She posed the question on her blog, "What does Fair Dinkum mean to you" and was met with all kinds of answers. I've personally always thought that phrase, geared specifically more to men, than women. But as always, mine is a subjective opinion. (Kind of like in French, le and la, masculine and feminine.)

Anyhoo -- the term fair dinkum is a compliment. A high one. Which got me thinking about the highest compliment I've ever received.

When my friend Mary Rose needed to enclose her porch, we had to hang sheetrock. We needed a man. I could do most of the work but we needed some brawn. She called her friend John, who drove over 300 miles to help. He was a big, bad, bear of a man, who barely spoke to me as we worked. "Hold this, nail that, get out of the way," kind of thing. We worked all day, John and I, hanging sheetrock, finally finishing with the ceiling. (Which the board gave way and hit me on top of the head while I was standing on the ladder. I saw stars.)

After John left, Mary Rose told me that John had been very impressed with my effort. "She works like a man," he said. And I thought that was pretty cool. (If you knew John, you would think this high praise indeed.)

So my Fair Dinkum Award is passed on to the men who I think are Fair Dinkum enough to hang sheetrock with...

DL Hammonds @ Cruising Altitude.
Roland Yeomans @ Writing in the Crosshairs
Matthew Rush @ The QQQE
Terry Towery @ A Writer of Wrongs
Stephen Tremp @ Breakthrough Blogs
R. Mac Wheeler
Ted Cross
Alex Cavanaugh
Butch Edgerton>
Elliot Grace
Al Russell


Happy Wednesday everyone, I hope you have a Fair Dinkum day!