A Little Bit is Better Than Nada

Ah man! I just wrote a very funny post, if I do say so myself, and poof: it vanished. I was highlighting the whole thing to do a spell check and away it went. No, I didn't cut the text by mistake. I don't know where it went. A quick recap: I am recovering from hernia surgery, which is my very plausible excuse for not blogging more frequently. Okay, the three year old is insistently, yet pleasantly, asking for some toast. Yes, it's evening, odd but I am grateful he isn't asking for something sugary.

Friday Shuffle...Shuffle On Through Unadulterated Honesty

Yesterday Mrs. Pheasant and I had the opportunity to experience unadulterated honesty only in the way that can be provided by a preschooler. I had just gotten home...

(Back story - a few months ago, our son had been playing rough with the other kids and climbing the fence in the play yard. We've set up consequences with him since then. First Offense equals a warning. Second Offense in the same week equals no puzzles for the weekend. We've only had to be puzzle-less for one weekend)

Wife: Sweety, were you a good boy today?
Our Three Year Old: Mommy, I don't want to tell you.
Wife: What happened?
***Silence***
Me: Baby, did you push today?
Our Three Year Old: No, daddy.
Me: Did you hit today?
Our Three Year Old: No, daddy.
Me: Did you scratch today?
Our Three Year Old: No, daddy.
Me: Did you climb the fence today?
Our Three Year Old: Yes.

At which point, my wife and I thanked him for telling us and issued his warning. Life is good. Man, what will we do when our boys are teenagers?

Have a great weekend everyone! Take it away, Fred!

Dancing Queen by ABBA - a good song to start the weekend with. Fun.

Flower by Liz Phair - another good song to start the weekend with, if the wife & I had the energy and the opportunity for this kind of fun.
Note: if curiosity makes you look up the lyrics to this song, you will most likely want to make sure the kiddies aren't reading over your shoulder.

Blossom by James Taylor - a bit of a weaker song, but James could sing the phone book and it would still be palatable.

This Train by The Indigo Girls - a revision that was done very nicely.

Save a Prayer by Duran Duran - a nice throw back to the 80's.

Sending The Old Man Home by Jimmy Buffet - I think I'll request this song to be played at my funeral.

Every Woman In The World by Air Supply. Okay, who else was just taken back to a memory of their high school dance with all the boys standing against a wall and the girls against the other with no one dancing?

Show Me The Way by Styx. A great road song...particular when one is lost.

The Call of The Ktulu by Metalica - Ouch. To think that I once listened to this without the aide of Ibuprofen.

The Ocean by Led Zeppelin - rock on! Where is that damn Aleve?

Back With a Roar!

So Hilda over at The Mind Wobbles has honored me with a blogging award...my first, by the way. You're noticing those pretty words that are neatly underlined, aren't ya? Another first for the Poultry Boy. That's right; I finally figured out to have links in my postings - thanks to Hilda and TraceyMichelle - who you're not suppose to refer to as Ray, by the way.

So it is about here in this posting that you'd see the image for the award. Except I can't seem to paste it into the post. So, I reckon y'all could go over here to see it. Neat, huh - hence the reference to the roar.

[It's Hilda here, I'm going to insert the graphic for Troy, 'cause I'm nice that way]

As posted on Hilda's Blog, here's the scoop:

Those people given this award to are encouraged to post it on their own blogs; list three things they believe are necessary for good, powerful writing; and then pass the award on to the five blogs they want to honor, who in turn pass it on to five others, etc., etc. Let's send a roar through the blogsphere! The image at the top right can be [apparently] copied and pasted onto other blogs. Also, a small size of the award for sidebars can be found over at the writing circle site.

So, what three things do I think are necessary for good, powerful writing?

1) Sincerity. I know an unpublished author who is trying to get me to read his book and I just can't do it. The words on the paper don't ring true to me. I can't get into it. Gosh, I hope my dad doesn't read my blog.

2) Be succinct and to the point. Life is too short to read words that don't have meaning.

3) Know what you're talking about either from personal experience or by doing research.

Now the difficult part...picking five Bloggers to receive this award.

1) Matt at The Scribbler's Nook - a very close friend and fellow blogger.

2) TraceyMichelle at Tracy Michelle Unplugged - what this woman can do with a box of rice and a chicken thigh. Frugal, full of faith and funny. Now there's a combination.

3) Purple Passion at Gimme Patience - A fellow foodie and a friend of a friend who is fastly becoming a friend of a Troy - no middle friend needed, but we'll keep her in the loop none the less.

4) Sari at The Geek Inside - a very funny gal who gets freaked out by the rain. For that alone, she deserves an award, or a sedative.

5) UmmFarouq at Southern Muslimah. A fellow blogger who came across my blog several months ago and she shares my love for Chik-Fil-A. She's definitely a keeper!

I hope you enjoy these blogs as much as I do! Thanks Miss Hilda!