Blogger Award – Leonberger Life

Sunshine Blogger Award from A Jeanne in the Kitchen

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Jeanne, from the website Jeanne in the Kitchen. Thank you for the nomination, Jeanne! It was a nice surprise.

The picture says Sunshine Blogger Award, and, in the background, there are a lot of sun flowers. — Sunshine Blogger Award

Check out her blog for lots of great posts which feature recipes, food experiences, travel and awesome nature photography.

As I understand, these are the rules for participating in the Sunshine Award

Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
Thank the person who nominated you.
Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
Answer your nominators’ questions.
Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
Ask your nominees 11 questions.
Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Eleven Questions for Me

Below are my answers to Jeanne’s eleven questions.

Question 1 : What’s a hobby you picked up as an adult that you wish you’d started earlier?

Learning French. It is not easy to learn a second language, and it is not easier when you are older. I started learning French when I was almost 60 and a few years later, I am still working on it. I should say English is also a second language for me (Swedish is my native language). However, it is a lot easier to become fluent when you are embedded among native speakers.

Question 2 : If you could invite three fictional characters to dinner, who gets a seat?

I think that would be Asterix, Obelix, and their little dog Idéfix, or as he is called in English Dogmatix. For those who don’t know, they are characters from one of the most successful French Bande Dessinée in history. The comic takes place during the Roman occupation of Gaul, what was then France. When I was a kid, I loved this comic strip and had pretty much all the albums.

Question 3 : What’s the most ridiculous thing you believed as a kid that you maybe… held onto a little too long?

When I was a kid, I and other kids in the neighborhood believed that there lived a witch in the forest next to our neighborhood. The witch was dangerous and ate children. We used to throw stones and scream into the forest to scare the witch. Another ridiculous thing was that I believed that planet Earth was 6,000 years old and that evolution was a hoax. I held that belief until I was almost 20.

Question 4 : What’s a movie or show you can quote without trying?

Interstellar and Annihilation. For example, the quote from interstellar “When you become a parent, one thing becomes abundantly clear. And that’s that you want to make sure your children feel safe”. “Once you’re a parent, you’re the ghost of your children’s future”.

Question 5 : Describe a habit you’re proud of building over the past year?

This year I am taking exercise more seriously and I am going to the gym several times per week.

Question 6 : What’s a small daily ritual that genuinely makes your life better?

I drink coffee and I floss every day, and I think those two daily rituals make my life better.

Question 7 : Share a memory that still makes you laugh, even years later.

We used to tell our kids “Why did the ….” jokes like “Why did the scarecrow win an award? Because he was outstanding in his field!” One day our 3 year old son had a “Why did the ….” Joke” too, so I listened. He said, “why did the elephant go to the store?” and I said “no why”, and he said, “to buy a moped”. The joke didn’t really work but it was so unexpected and silly that I started laughing and he thought that he had made a really great joke. It’s a funny memory.

Question 8 : If you could have a blog post, go viral, which one would you want it to be?

It is hard to pick but maybe one of my super facts: “Two events may be simultaneous for some but not for others” because it is mind blowing, or “Quasar TON 618” because it is fascinating, or “Global Warming is Happening and is Caused by us” because so many still doubt this despite the fact that we’ve known this to be true for several decades. It is a challenging fact to many. I think most reasonable people would agree if only they knew something about the evidence.

Question 9 : Is there a meal you can cook from memory without a recipe. You can just walk into the kitchen and create something.

Pancakes, waffles, ham and cheese sandwiches, grilling hot dogs and put ketchup and mustard on them. OK I guess that is not very challenging. However, I can brew IPAs without following a recipe as long as I have the ingredients and I know which hops are used for flavoring and which are used for aroma.

Question 10 : Tell us about something you’re looking forward to in the next few months.

At the end of May, we will visit our grandson Jack again. He is our first grandson, and he lives with his parents (my son and his wife) in Baltimore. We have decided that we are going to go fishing.

My son Jacob is holding a fishing rod, and Jack is sitting in a baby carrier hanging on Jacob’s front. — My son fishing with his son Jack.

Question 11 : You’re invited to my house for dinner. What should I cook?

What ever you like, but Swedish meatballs would work.

Here are my questions for my nominees:

For my nominees I am going to do the same as Jeanne, answer the same questions from above, but you can also pick an alternative from the questions below. So, basically you can pick one of two alternatives for each question.

Question 1 : What’s your favorite movie(s)?

Question 2 : What is something you’ve done or experienced that is unusual?

Question 3 : What’s one thing you’ve always wanted to try but haven’t yet?

Question 4 : What’s something you’re really passionate about?

Question 5 : If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Question 6 : What’s your favorite way to spend a weekend or a day off?

Question 7 : What’s something you wish more people understood about you?

Question 8 : What’s your go-to comfort food or favorite meal?

Question 9 : If you could have dinner with any three people (dead or alive), who would they be?

Question 10 : What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

Question 11 : What kind of music are you into?

Ten New Victims

Below are my nominees. Naturally, whether you participate or not is entirely up to you. I do not have any particular expectations, and I fully understand if you are not up to it.

Anneli from wordsfromanneli

Di from pensitivity101

Pete Springer from petespringerauthor

John Howell from johnwhowell.com

Luisa Zambrotta from words music and stories

JoAnna from Anything is Possible

Lynette d’Arty-Cross from lynettedartycross

Beth from I didn’t have my glasses on

Cindy Georgakas from Unique Times with Cindy

The Mindful Migraine

I have been nominated once before, and these were my answers back then.

Sunshine Blogger Award

I’ve been nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award by Laura, from Black Moon Lilith Thank you for the nomination, Laura! It was a nice birthday gift.

Check out her blog for lots of great posts which feature poetry, short stories, very cool pictures, and other interesting things!

Without further ado, here are the rules which I’ve copied from Lauras’s blog:

Display the award’s official logo somewhere on your blog.
Thank the person who nominated you.
Provide a link to your nominator’s blog.
Answer your nominators’ questions.
Nominate up to 11 bloggers.
Ask your nominees 11 questions.
Notify your nominees by commenting on at least one of their blog posts.

Eleven Questions for Me

Below are my answers to Lauras’s eleven questions. I have not yet learned how to create the kind of pictures that Laura creates. That’s for another time.

Question 1 : What’s your favorite brand of coffee? If you don’t drink coffee, what do you like to drink? (Tea, etc)

I drink Green Mountain Nantucked the most, but I really like Gevalia the best.

Question 2 : What’s the most creative lie you’ve ever told?

I never lie. Well, that’s my most creative lie.

Question 3 : What’s the last dream you had (that you feel comfortable sharing)? If you’re in the “don’t dream” camp, what would you like to dream about?

I dream about traveling a lot. My last very memorable dream was about traveling on a big boat. On the boat I met several people from my youth in Sweden. Then I needed to go to the bathroom, but I could not find it. Every boat should have well-advertised good bathrooms but the boat in my dream didn’t.

Question 4 : What was the most favorite job you’ve held in your lifetime?

I think that was when I was a robotics research assistant at Sandia National Laboratory the summer of 1993. I was new to the United States, I had just received a green card, and I was working at a well-regarded national laboratory located inside a major US Airforce base. Everything was secret. The lab next to us received a Soviet satellite carrying a small nuclear power reactor that summer. The US did not know how to build a mini nuclear reactor at the time so reverse engineering this reactor was a big deal. I would like to point out that I was not part of that. I only heard about it. Another fun job was when I designed the portion of the electronics for a Swedish fighter jet called JAS Gripen.

Humanoid robots and several orange industrial robots. MLP Mechanized industry robot and robotic arms for assembly in factory production. Concept of artificial intelligence for industrial revolution and automation manufacturing process. — Mechanized industry robot and robotic arms for assembly in factory production. Shutterstock Asset id: 2459375613 by Summit Art Creations.

Question 5 : What motivated you to start blogging?

I wanted to start a blog to advertise my upcoming dog book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. I asked my friend Alex Diaz-Granados for advice, and he helped me get started on WordPress.com. Later on, I continued blogging mostly because it became a hobby and I started a second blog superfactful, which has nothing to do with my book. The goal of this blog is to create a long list of facts that are important, not trivia, and that are known to be true yet are either disputed by large segments of the public or highly surprising or misunderstood by many.

The gold and beige book cover features the face of our Leonberger Bronco and the text "The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle. Stories and Tips from Thirteen Years with a Leonberger." — This is the front cover of the book “The Life and Times of Le Bronco von der Löwenhöhle”. Click here or on the image to go to the United States Amazon location for the paperback version of the book.

Question 6 : What are you grateful for?

I am grateful for my wife and kids, my whole family, my dog(s) current and past, and what they gave me. I am grateful that I am alive and that I can experience our beautiful nature, the night sky, and everything there is to know and understand.

Question 7 : What’s something nice you did for yourself recently?

We went on a great ski trip to Breckenridge, Colorado. I skied the Imperial Bowl, which is served by the highest ski lift in the western hemisphere. The Imperial Bowl is big and wide and mostly empty and there was a lot of powder snow. We had a very good time together as a family.

Question 8 : If you could partake in any new endeavor, experience, or hobby, regardless of time constraints or money, what would it be?

I would like to get a degree in Astro Physics as a retirement project, but not for a future career. That would be a huge time commitment and probably expensive and maybe weird too, considering my goal is not a career in the field. However, I like to know things about how the world works and I like to know things about the Universe.

Question 9 : What do you like to do to keep your brain active?

When I was still working as a software engineer / robotics engineer I kept my brain active because of my work. Since I took my early retirement, I need to keep my brain busy in other ways. I read a lot of books, I wrote a book, I blog, I am learning French, I am a volunteer for an organization called Citizens Climate Lobby, which focuses a lot on specific legislation that I need to study, I brew beer, and well OK drinking beer may not be keeping my brain active but it is a hobby as well.

Question 10 : What do you like to do to keep your body active?

I jog and I like to swim in my in-law’s pool. My wife and I used to go bicycling a lot. We have not done that for a while, but I think we’ll soon pick that back up again.

Question 11 : What is your favorite thing about spending time out in nature?

I love a lot of things about nature. I cannot pick one specific thing. I love the forest. The quiet, the solitude, the tranquility, the berries, the birds singing, the beautiful trees and the vegetation, the smell, the hills, the scenery, and seeing some animals too. I just don’t like to encounter a bear.