Hey There, Sunshine!!

   In a totally surprising and somewhat shocking development, I discovered today that I have been nominated for a Sunshine Award!!






This is the little sucker...

   







   Suzan at Welcome to the Nuthouse (bless her heart) nominated me for this award and, at the same time, placed me in some awesome company! "Nuthouse" is such a feel-good kind of blog (lots of heartwarming zaniness) and I stalk visit it every day. Going to be a pretty high standard to maintain!
   So here's how this award works.
   There are nine other nominees and Suzan has given us ten questions to answer. Once we're done expounding on these questions, we then make up ten of our own questions and nominate ten of our blogging friends, who then get to choose if they'd like to participate.

   Here are Suzan's questions and my responses:

1.How long have you been blogging?
   I've only been doing "Strides" since last October, so less than a year. My other blog, "Neanderings", has been around since December of 2010 and is pretty well a mish-mash of "random thoughts on random subjects". This was fine and still is but after I started running last August I found I wanted to write about it so much that it only made sense to start a new blog!

2. What's the one movie you just can't turn off if you catch it on television?
   "Field of Dreams" does it to me pretty well every time. The whole father/son thing resonates and every time Ray Kinsella asks his ghost-dad for a game of catch in the final scene, it's tissue time for this viewer.

3. Coffee or tea?
   Coffee, every time. Tea, in a pinch. Take it double-double but am trying to work down from that.

4. Do you have any pets?
   Cats, four of them. All different ages, sizes and temperaments. One of them's sound asleep, curled up beside me on the couch as I write this. Never wanted pets but now I'm a cream-puff cat man, to somewhat paraphrase my wife.

5. Favourite phone app?
   Somewhat self-revealingly, I just had to check my phone to see what apps were on it. Mainly Facebook and the camera, pretty boring, I know!

6. Random fact about you.
   Hmmm...well, I'm actually a published poet. Managed to publish a handful of poems in respected places back in the late 80's. Then I stopped...

7. Favourite ice cream flavour, or if you're like me, favourite three ice cream flavours?
   (I'm Canadian, so I added a "u" to "flavor" and "favorite"--please don't take it out on Suzan)
   Chocolate, plain old chocolate. Which is weird because if I ask for a milkshake I ask for vanilla and if I want a sundae I ask for strawberry.

8. What was your dream job when you were a kid?
   Very early on, I wanted to be an Anglican minister (if you can imagine--but don't try) and then after that, a doctor. After that, high school happened and life got real in a hurry!

9. What was the last book you read?
   Currently, I have two or three books "on the go" but the last one I actually finished was either "Mortality" by Chris Hitchens or "Room" by Emma Donoghue. The subject matter is pretty dark in both of them, Hitchens wrote the book as he was dying and Donoghue wrote a fictional piece about a young woman who was kidnapped, impregnated by her captor, and raised her son all in one room. Highly reminiscent of recent unfortunate events.

10. If you won the lotto tomorrow, what is the first thing you would do and why?
   Well, isn't that the sixty-four thousand dollar question?! Basically, it kind of depends on the amount, I guess. Hundreds of thousands and I pay off the mortgage and bills. Millions and I become a philanthropist. Because I'm awesome!

   Whew, that was harder than I thought!

   Okay, once I develop my tech skills, here are the ten blogs I am nominating for the Sunshine Award, in no particular order. I also need to add that it was extremely hard to narrow it down to ten, there are just so many excellent blogs out there!

Mike, Rhoda, & Michelle @ 3 Cheap Runners

Victoria @ My Bright Pink Runners

Kristy @ Pittsburgh Runner

Brittany @ Britt's Running Style

Angela @ S F Road Warrior

Kathy @ RUNin' My Life

Erica @ Wornout Soles

Robin @ Me and Mo

Rachel @ truenorthrunner

Erin @ Running Tall

   So there you go and congrats to you all. Lots of Canadians here because I'm a Canadian! And the weird part is, I wasn't planning on being apologetic about it!

   If you'd like to participate, here's what you need to do:

1. Post the award logo in a post.
2. Link back to the person that nominated you.
3. Answer my ten questions on your blog post.
4. Nominate ten blogger friends, let them know, and post links to them.

   Easy-peasy, right?!

   Okay, now here are MY ten questions:

1. What is your dream run, location-wise?
2. Does your significant other share your running passion and, if not, is this an issue?
3. Do you ever see yourself not running? Why?
4. Has running prevented more "injuries" than it's caused?
5. Running preference---rain or snow?
6. Favourite sports team or individual
7. T.V. shows---week-to-week or "binge" watching?
8. Do you have other blogs? Which gets the most time?
9. Hoop.la or Google+?
10. Do you want to run? Or do you have to?

   There you are, hope you have a great time, and thanks for providing us with awesome blogging! (and forcing me to learn some new tech skills along the way...)

Brian @ Strides