Weekend Assignment #227: Tell me something good

This week, Karen says:

It seems as though bad news is coming at us from all directions at the moment, including from this house and this blog. (She and her husband have just had to say goodbye to a beloved four-legged family member, but they are moving on.) Let's try to balance things about a bit:

Weekend Assignment #227: There must be something positive happening in your life right now (I hope!). Tell us the good news!

Extra Credit: Overall, are you optimistic, pessimistic or neither these days?

Extra credit first: I've batted around that optimist/pessimist thing before around here - for the most part, I like to think I'm a "hope for the best, prepare for the worst" realist. The glass is neither half-full nor half-empty, but to be determined depending on whether you're adding to or taking away from it. But having said that, I've been (mostly pleasantly) surprised to find that over the last few years to find that my general disposition seems to be shifting just a bit more toward the optimistic end of the scale. We'll see what happens with that - she said, pessimistically. While it's a real challenge to be optimistic about much given the state of the world today, as far as my own life goes, things are pretty much OK right now.

My good news is really nothing big, but it's something that made me smile - and I get to pay it forward, too!

The above award was bestowed on this blog by Just A Reading Fool, who is anything but a fool, if I may say so! Here's what he said in his nomination:

Florinda lives up to her mission statement. She reads, she writes about it and she’s random. ;) She also is hosting the next Bookworms Carnival. For more information on the Carnival, click here.

(He gets bonus points for the Carnival promo, too!) I would like to extend my thanks to Just A Reading Fool for considering me worthy of this award, and I will carry out its associated responsibilities faithfully, which are as follows:

1. Put the logo on your blog (it's in this post, and has been added to the sidebar).
   
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you (it's in this post - see above).
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs (see below).
4. Add links to those blogs on your blog (done in the nominations).
   
5. Leave a message for your nominee on his or her blog (to be done as soon as this post goes up, so I can leave the link too!).

I don't usually "tag," but I think this is worth making an exception. I've been seeing this award bestowed among members of the book-blogging community, and while I'm part of that group, I really feel like a citizen of the broader blogosphere, so I'll be including some nominees from my general blogroll too. The list is in alphabetical order, and I hope you'll introduce yourself to these great bloggers, if you don't know them already! I read all of them as often as they post, and find them all inspiring and enjoyable in various ways.

...and the pursuit of happiness: Sonia (a.k.a. Sunshine) blogs about whatever she feels like talking about - her kids, the weather, books, traveling, 1980's trivia - and that makes her fun to read, but she really stands out for her community-building. Here's a short list of the audience-participation activities she's organized: March Birthday/Unbirthday Month, Blog Prom, The Haiku Challenge, and most recently, the monthly Pity Party (use her comments section to vent about the stuff you don't want your family and friends to see on your own blog). Her parties are not to be missed.
Books on the Brain: Lisa does a lot of book reviewing, but she's quite the community-builder too, and her strength is as a booster for book clubs, both online and off-. Her 18-part (so far) guest-blogger series, "In Praise of Book Clubs," has introduced me to some good ideas for my own book club.
Everything Under the Sun: I met Mike through the Weekend Assignments, so it seems fitting to be using one to give him this award. Besides, he has one award in his sidebar and it's looked lonely, so now it will have company. The title of his blog describes what he talks about there, and he makes me laugh (or at least grin) nearly every day.
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'? I love the title of Trish's blog, and her book reviews and other posts are opinionated, honest, and frequently hilarious.
Here, There, and Everywhere: The tagline of Pam's blog is "life, love, and the occasional slice of idiocy," and that does sum up her blog content pretty well. I enjoy her honesty, humor, and just plain good writing as she talks about life in Baltimore with her boyfriend Lee, Sylvester the kitten, and their ferret, Vin Weasel.
It's All About Balance: April is notable for her openness in blogging about her life as the single mom of two young daughters here in Los Angeles, and their efforts to find that "balance" that it's all about.
Morningside Mom: Caroline is relatively new to my blogroll, but her thoughtful expressiveness has made a big impression on me, and I'm looking forward to reading more of what she has to say.
Musings of a Bookish Kitty: If I'm a "fan" of any book blogger, it's Wendy (a.k.a. Literary Feline), and I know I'm not the only one. The style and format of her book reviews have influenced my own, and even when the book she's reviewing isn't really my thing, I enjoy reading her thoughtful, informative take on it. She's also generous with her comments and responses, and I miss her when she isn't able to make regular visits here :-)!
Using My Words: Julie Pippert is a thinker and an activist at Moms Speak Up and MOMocrats, but this recognition is for her personal blog, where her reflections get a little closer to home, and her thinking out loud makes me think too, particularly with the questions she poses in the mostly-weekly "Hump Day Hmm."
Viva la Feminista: Veronica brings her perspective as feminist, wife, mom, and Latina (in no particular order) to her blogging about issues of importance to women, and also works in book reviews and the occasional baseball-related post (go Cubbies!) every now and then.

This is probably not exactly the kind of "good news" Karen had in mind for this assignment, but I hope that's OK - I don't really have anything else going on right now that I haven't mentioned somewhere else around here, and as the saying goes, "no news is good news," right?