Please note the graphic in the side bar for the Jewish and Israeli Blog Awards, hosted by Israellycool and The Jerusalem Post.

After last year's debacle of being in the initial running in several categories and then getting blown out in the final round of voting, I had intended to declare myself above it all and stay away this year, however, some kind people have taken it upon themselves to nominate me in several of the categories and I feel it would be churlish of me not to express my gratitude and make an effort at at least a reasonable showing. So...thank you to those who nominated this blog (sorry, I didn't pay attention to the nomination threads to know who it was). It is nice to be recognized.

Voting doesn't begin until January 9th. In the mean-time, you can surf over to the nominations page and click around some of the blogs you may not already be familiar with.