As the distinguished philosopher, Stan Lee, has taught us, "With great power comes great responsibility."

Much like the bookish science geek, Peter Parker, whose chance encounter with an irradiated spider transformed him into an unlikely superhero, swinging high above the city from one strand of web to the next, proving that even nerdy kids can wear their undies on the outside, we have been bitten by the irradiated spider of the blogosphere and transformed from mild-mannered middle-aged rural lesbian bloggers of small but loyal readership into minor superheroines, leaping across the vast expanse of cyberspace from one strand of our cobwebby brains to another, with our undies on the outside. And who do we have to thank for this? Why, it's our own faithful reader and fellow blogger, XUP, who bestowed upon us this lovely award!

Isn't it pretty!? It's the Arte y Pico Award (which translates roughly as "over the top"), and it's true value is that it can only be bestowed "blogger a blogger." You can't buy one of these, beotch!

Receiving such an accolade from a peer is both a joyous and a humbling experience. Joyous because we've given you some pleasure (or at least made you grateful to be you) and humbling because ... jeez ... now we probably have to blog less sporadically, huh?

Here's how the Pico y Arte works:

"This award was created to be given to bloggers who inspire others with their creativity and their talents, and for contributing to the blogging world in whatever medium. When you receive this award it is considered a “special honor”. Once you have received this award, you are to pass it on to 5 others. What a wonderful way to show some love and appreciation to your fellow bloggers!
The rules for passing this honor on are:

Pick 5 blogs that you would like to award this honor to.

Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog to be visited by everyone.

Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award itself.

Award-winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of “Arte y Pico” blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award from Arte Y Pico."

This award should not be confused with Pico de Gallo, which is also a very nice thing to share with friends. It's tasty with tortilla chips and a cold beer or a frozen margarita, but, unlike a Pico y Arte, it tends to fall off the chip and land on your shirt, leaving a nasty tomato-based stain ... and it can sometimes tend to be a bit heavy on the cilantro.

Sorry. I got distracted.

Thank you, XUP, for the Pico y Arte! We've put our pointy heads together and decided bestow this award to the following bloggers:

1. Are We There Yet? - because someday we want to know how to build a log cabin and be organic farmers with goats and greenhouses and little baby lambs (but maybe not bees).

2. cake-n-cookies - because we love her and she cooks pretty.

3. Ms. Sassy Pants - and her awesome adventures in heterosexuality.

4. Thumbscre.ws - because haven't we all, at one time or another, or might we not, but not as wittily as Jul?

5. Angry Black Bitch - for smartness and bitchitude above and beyond the call of duty. The bitch was even on NPR today.

We'd totally throw back some ice-cold beverages and a bowl of pico de gallo with any and all of the above.