happiness, day 30 . . .

lunch with old family friends.  so good to see them both.

also, these make me happy:

well, they would make me happier if blogger wasn't having a personal hissy fit and not letting me share the photos.  Grrrrrr.

EDIT:  thanks for the reprieve blogger.

happiness day 29 . . .

kidlet and i went to our favorite asian restaurant earlier this week and my fortune cookie read:

"So live that you wouldn't be ashamed to sell the family parrot to the town gossip."

at first i snorted.  i couldn't help it, it just made me laugh.  and then, i started thinking. would i be ashamed.

the answer is no.  i haven't always made the right choices.  i haven't always walked the right path.  i haven't alway said the right words, or thought the right thoughts.  i haven't always been kind and loving when i should have been but after 66 years, i do know that i have meant well, loved hard, followed my own lead, found great happiness, spread great happiness, and the sum of my parts is a good person.

if you know me, you might not agree but i am happy being me.  eccentric, off base and a tad off.
namaste.

happiness is, day 28 . . .

after our walk this morning, i hauled out the ladder and started in on the gutters.  happily, the one over the garage was clean.  it turned out to just be a ruse to get me over in front of the house where the earthworms were plentiful and the cockroaches came in clans.  don't you just love your playtex living gloves wrist deep in oozy slime and fermenting oak leaves????  a far cry from the woman in the commercial with her hands soaking in clean suds and her apron pressed and starched.  my knees and shoulders were dotted with a mixture of roof poo and floral rot.  the back of the house was not much better.  i'm not sure if it was the heat, the muck or the ladder but i was suddenly woozy and scrabbled back down the ladder.  kidlet to the rescue, ventured up to finish off the chore.  why am i so happy?  because clean gutters scare off hurricanes like clean cars bring rain.  she has moved west.

into a warm soaking tub and all is wonderful.  i can now look out my bedroom window to sparkling clean gutters.

the tomato, basil, garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper mixture is marinating for tonight's bruschetta.  i downed some left over chicken corn chowder, took a nap and am getting ready to do battle with the bed frame.  the screws holding the frame to the headboard have long since worked their way out and now the bed wanders around the bedroom.  i rather like my beds tethered.  i'll report back.

last night i leafed through my zentangle books and started to play:

he's not finished but then again, i never know when they are.

so do you see, there is a silver lining in most things.  you just have to peel the lid back on some of the suckers to find it.

more happiness . . .

i missed yoga this morning but not lunch with my hens.  how about a nice greek salad:

 with joanie and lee

three stories up, overlooking the beach:

pre erika.

that salad was beyond delicious.  slurp.  love my hens.

happiness is . . .

more playing in my beloved photoshop:

on top of this, our camera club meeting tonight spotlighted post production photoshop.  right up my happy little alley.

and  . . .  the wait at the county offices for tag renewal was less than 15 minutes.  that might just be a new world record!!!!!

tippy tap. tippy tap.

oh happy, happy . . .

the last of the goodies from barberville.  it needed some help to fit in but it is perfecto and really, really, makes me happy:

 a little tape work and red paint:

a little dry time:

and here we go:

my kitchen is happy too.

happiness is . . .

the makings for chicken with wild mushrooms in a wine and sherry sauce.  slurp.

oh and garlic mashed potatoes.  that wine on the far right?  that's for me, not the dinner.  but you knew that.

today was a little hectic but good.  kidlet's FIT needed to go in the shop for a scheduled oil change and my little red miata had a hitch in it's clutch.  we jockeyed the cars back and forth until everyone was happy.  two fixed cars for under a $100.  sweet.

oh and lunch with nancy.  and a walk with joanie.  life is most certainly good.

happiness is . . .

cleaning up these little critters.  meet baby goat:

don't give me that, you knew i couldn't go to barberville and come home empty handed.  perfect match for the momma goat joanie gave me.  how could i not?  and they had more.  lots more.  enough for  a herd.  hum . . .

and archie.  in the flesh, er tin:

is he not adorable? for the time being, archie is living on the front porch.  they had all been playing in the mud for so long in barberville, they needed thorough cleansing . . . archie being dirties of all.

but that's not the end.  i have another something, something that came home but it needs a little elbow grease and a can of paint before it can be presented.

and for an extra dose of happiness, nancy brought these over last night for tasting.  oh boy did they pass the test.  slurp!!!

pastry dough, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, nuts, coconut, butterscotch ice cream syrup.  and it was still WARM OUT OF THE OVEN.  just let me faint now.

happiness is . . .

a trip to barberville.  kidlet and i have been trying to get over that way for a while.  today was the day.  through the thunder storms, the sun came out and a wandering we went:

 love me a ratty:

and a rooster:

yes, i roosted in this chair.  not a good idea in the florida sun:

a lizzard patch:

 why yes, i can be a horse's ass.  here's the proof!!!

and an alcoholic rooster:

nuff said:

good stuff:

good thing i have restraint:

spread those wings and fly.

and all that made us happy. happy.  happy.

happiness day, 21, is . . .

sleeping in late.  yes, i bailed on my early morning walk with joanie . . .  something about being up until 4: a.m. finishing a book.

but then things perked up and i headed for the kitchen:

and tonight we will feast on lasagna and hot out of the oven garlic bread.   slurp.

meanwhile waiting for the sauce to cook, i got lost in photoshop and here is archie in his full glory:

sweet day in paradise.

happiness abounds . . .

i love fridays.  start off the day with some yummy yin, followed by lunch with my hens.  this time we hit the waterfront again.

or rather the intercoastal.  had i remembered in time . . . note this is a reoccurring theme . . . you would have seen a shot of my black and blue  chicken salad chased with an ice cold brew.  so good.  but alas my stomach beat my hands.  i even missed a shot of the swinging table we were sitting at and the river.  so here is a shot of the docks along the canal on the way out.

this was our greeting party:

i was thinking turtle soup.  he was offended.  i named him jerome.

and when we got home, joanie gifted me some fresh basil off her basil bush.

i have some freezing in the bottom drawer.  i have some rinsed and cut to size in the fridge. some went in with tonight's sautéed mushrooms which hovered over the marinated flank steak and baked taters.  i have this love affair with fresh basil.  thank you joanie.

namaste.

happiness is . . .

a snuggling cat.

yes, this is how bear sleeps.  snuggled in my arm pit while i type and if my hand is not busy, he nudges it until he can bury his face in my palm.

not to be outdone, pippin snuggles on the other side.

yes, that's me sandwiched in between, working on my laptop.  i could change and use my desk top but then pippin and bear joust for prime position . . . on the keyboard.  everyone needs a little fur in their life.

happiness is . . .

wednesday night restorative yin.  nothing feels better than a good hour and a half stretching session.  yummo.

and apparently i lied.  look what i found under 'restore' on my phone:

the amazing return of archie.  isn't he cute????
just look at the little face.

armadillos for all.

happiness is . . .

my baby girls.  as long as kidlet holds her in the car and at the vet's, ninja is a reasonably happy camper.  no crate required.  but she will bury her snoot in kidlet's elbow.  she has lost almost three pounds.  five more and it should help her arthritis.

on the way home, we decided to see if she would like the dashboard, so with kidlet at the ready, she rode most of the way home scoping out the great outdoors.

gotta love my two girls.

happiness is . . .

a text conversation with kidlet.  she's gray, i'm blue:

yep, we have conversations like this all the time.  in the battle of nature vs. nuture, kidlet lost out in the nurture department big time.  snort.

happiness is . . .

a rainy afternoon that gives me time to play in photoshop.

we've had a very, very wet summer.

100 days of happiness, day 14 . . .

a friend shared a recipe for chipolte chicken corn chowder last week, so i just had to try it . . . she who loves most things mexican.

look at those green peppers, chipotle and poblano peppers, onions and garlic simmering away in some adobo sauce

add some more goodies and you get this:

definitely not dietetic but so so good.  and since i was making chicken broth, i have extra for the ever expanding mother lode in the freezer.  good stuff.  happiness in a bowl.

happiness is . . .

a freezer full.

it was time to take inventory of that drawer under the fridge.  you know, the one that houses the ice cubes, has meals to go, home to out-of-date chicken parts and dead containers of limeade, left over christmas gravy,  packages of shredded cheese, bacon and ice packs.  yeah, that one.

i went hunting the other day for marinara for kidlet's chicken parmesan.  no marinara.  i made do with the last of the holiday gravy rife with pork and bits of meatballs made of pork, beef and lamb.  while the freezer was packed full, i suspected most of it deserved to meet its maker and the rest restocked.  i was right.  mystery meat, unlabeled chinese soup containers of lord knows what, frosty the snowman,  items from the 9TS's era . . . out. out. out.

now instead, are rows of freshly made marinara, sausage and bean soup and chili, all labeled and dated.  tomorrow i will add mexican chicken corn chowder. if i couldn't readily remember when the food went in, it went out instead.  the bacon of course stayed put.  i am a bacon hound of huge proportions, it was all fresh.  there is no such thing as old bacon in this house.

and speaking of food, here is today's lunch.  a half pound of spicy steamed shrimpers:

and here is the view:

color me a spoiled woman.  slurp!

happiness is . . .

a morning sun rising in the east.

all right, truthfully i am waiting for the days to shorten a little so i can sleep a bit longer to enjoy the sight but look at the light under the clouds. yummy.
                                                                 *     *     *     *     *     *     *     *

i had to back up a bit and then check facebook because it seems i forgot to share this little kernel of happiness when it happened . . .  and since it brought so much unfettered glee to my heart, it is worth repeating here on my blog.

girls, we rock!!!! last year after the 9TS's monster grill died, i bought a small, previous season's, weber grill from my friendly ace hardware. color us happy. kidlet became our grill master.  she makes a wicked filet mignon, chicken or flank steak. she's a natural.  


however earlier this summer, the gas flow died to almost nothing. kaput. i don't know anything about gas grills and had no idea who to call so we just didn't grill. i finally  got irked enough to go on YouTube in search of the holy grail of grill fixer uppers.  after three vids that shook my confidence and sent me screaming to the heavens, i hit the mother lode. this good ol' boy  had a 1 minute and 11 second video that seemed to fit the bill. i wrote down the instructions, tried it out and BINGO!!!!! we have fire in the hole!!!!!!!


there is nothing . . . ok, almost nothing . . . like the satisfaction of getting the job done especially when you have not one clue as to what the heck you're doing.  i sat there watching the flames flicker, tickled pink.  yes, i did.