I'd Like to Thank the Academy..

My warm welcome to the blogosphere continued today with an unexpected (and much appreciated!) surprise.  The lovely Mary Sullivan Frasier of Go Ahead...Take a Bite! has bestowed upon me The Versatile Blogger Award.  

How cool is that?  

(If you haven't read Mary's blog, go on over and check it out.  I'll wait.  You might want to start with the post about the chocolate chip cookie/brownie bars.)  (You're welcome.)

So once you receive the award, you need to do the following:

1. Add the award to your blog.  
2. Thank the blogger who gave it to you.
3. Mention seven random things about yourself. (see below)
4. List the rules.
5. Award to 15 bloggers.
6. Inform each of those 15 by leaving a comment on their blog.

Since I've already added the award and thanked Miss Mary (what the heck, Mary deserves to be thanked twice: Thanks, Mary!)  now I need to list my seven random things:

1. I'm almost ten years younger than my sister but only eleven months older than my brother.  That reminds me that I should do something nice for my mom...  like every day.  
2. My great-grandparents were swept away by a tsunami after a Mediterranean earthquake in 1908.  My great-grandmother survived because her floor-length hair got caught in a tree.  My great-great aunt was taken in by the Pope after that same earthquake.  She lived in Vatican City for six years.
3. I didn't drive on the freeway for several years after getting my license.  Merging seemed unnatural and wrong.  (Plus mighty dangerous.)  My brother finally got fed up and made me do it.  Thanks, Bro.
4. When my parents were married, they owned, collectively, something like 10,000 books.  They covered virtually every wall in the common living space. 
5. When I was young I hated my name.  Spencer Gifts never had stickers or tiny license plates or lunch bags with the name "Elena" on them.  I'm over that now.
6. Hot peppers give me the hiccups.  The reaction is immediate and makes an excellent party trick.  (This will not, however, stop me from making--and eating--the rockin' Guacamole recipe that Mary has on her site.)
7. I was Really Rosie in our fourth grade performance of "Really Rosie."  My life has all been downhill since then.

Okay, so that should about do it for my seven random facts.  Now for the fun (but difficult) part: bestowing the award on other bloggers.  Is it lame if I wait until my next post to do that?  It's the perfect excuse to spend my evening curled up with a bunch of good blogs...