There once was a lake......Diary of a Bad Blogger......And other cool stuff!

There once was a lake....Tempe Town Lake to be exact.  Tempe Town lake is a reservoir that occupies a portion of a currently dry riverbed of the Salt River as it passes through Tempe, Arizona.  The plan for this lake started in 1989, but it wasn't until November 7, 1999 that the actual lake was open to the public.  It took just over a month for it to fill.  It was filled by the Central Arizona Project which is fed by the Colorado River.  This picture is a view from my office building.....at least that was the view before July 20th....today it looks like this:

On the 20th, a bladder that is part of the damn holding in all that water, burst....and all that water....well, it's gone....it is now drying up on the desert floor, along with a bunch of fish.  It's truly a sad thing, especially living in a desert where I understand how precious our water is.  They say that it will be November before the damn is fixed and the lake refilled.  Thought I would share this with you, since it's right in my back yard.

Diary of a Bad Blogger:
Dear Diary, I have been a very bad, very neglectful blogger.  I was awarded two awards recently and have not even had the courtesy to thank my fellow bloggers publicly yet!  I'm ashamed, but I'm about to rectify that right now:

A HUGE thanks goes out to Michelle at All Home Cooking. All Year Long. AND Amy at A Foodie Fairytale for giving me this award!  I am always honored when fellow bloggers recognize me.  It honestly means more to me then I can really articulate.  I've said it a million times, I started out really thinking that not one person other then family and close friends would ever follow me...and look.. I'm almost at 60 followers and trust me, a lot of them may not have started out as friends, but I consider them that now!!

Amy also passed on the sunshine award to me...and once again...very honored, Amy...thank you thank you thank you!

Anyway, there of course, are rules to winning both these awards...

Here are the Sweet Blog Award rules:

1. Give this award to 10 sweet bloggers.

2. Make a post about the award including the picture and mention the person who gave it to you.

3. Put the award on your blog.

4. Let your nominated 10 know you’ve awarded them by leaving a comment.

Here are the Sunshine award rules:

1. Post the logo on blog.
2. Pass the award on to 12 fellow bloggers.
3. Link the nominees
4. Let nominees know they have won this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person you received this award from.

Now here is what I'm going to do...cause I'm a rule breaker, that's why!  I'm going to give both these awards to new blogs that I have just recently stumbled upon.  I love that there are so many amazing home cooks out there!  Keep on cookin' my friends....I am loving all your sites!

1. Jennifurla of Indigo's Sugar Spectrum - I'm looking forward to trying her BLT Macaroni Salad!
2. Megan of What Megan's Making - I'll be trying her lemon orzo salad one night as a side, I don't care if Chris dislikes orzo, I love it!!
3. Judy of Cranberry Morning - Her raspberry freezer dessert is on my list of things to make while it's still nice and warm in the desert!
4. SnoWhite of Finding Joy in My Kitchen - The blueberry cinnamon rolls....enough said!
5. Betty Ray of Betty Ray Blogs - Garlic shrimp pizza with roasted red pepper sauce...uhm, yea, that will be the next people I make!!

Keep up the great blogging ladies...I'm so glad I found you ....or you found me...either way.. Thanks for all the yummy recipes!

And other cool stuff....FINALLY :)

So I promised other good stuff too and I'm about to deliver.  I found a few cool things that other bloggers were doing and I wanted to share them with you.

First, Amy at A Foodie Fairytale is asking for other bloggers help by sending her a recipe or two or three to be part of a cook book that she is planning on selling.  All profits will go to the March of Dimes.  Read Amy's story here and help her out if you can.  Hey, not only do you get to help a good cause, but she'll enter you into a giveaway contest too, so see, it's a win win situation!

Second, Alex aka Ma of Ma What's for Dinner has a cookbook that she is selling too.  15% of all profits go to the Fight SMA non-profit organization which promotes awareness and research of Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA), the number one genetic cause of infant death. All donations are made in the name of Billy Therriault, a 5 year old boy who is currently fighting SMA.  The cookbook is all about "getting your kids to eat what you cook".  I say even if you have picky adult eaters in your house... :) .....you might want to pick this one up!

And third, but CERTAINLY not least, Michelle of All Home Cooking. All Year Long. is having a really cool giveaway and YOU..yes, that's right...YOU...can enter to win this prize.  Have you ever heard of SodaStream before?  Yea, me either.  BUT.. if you check out Michelle's site here you can find out all about it.  It's a do it yourself soda machine... go on... I'm done here, you can go check it out!

Happy Cooking!

Jenn