I got the 2005 posts tagged, categorized, and republished, and the 2006 posts will go up on Working Wednesday. That was not a small thing, although it is comparatively speaking. I picked up speed in later years. The blog is just packed.
I’m also making progress on hacking through the end of Nita Act 2. Planning on starting a Twelve Days of Nita’s Act Two tomorrow, inspired by the 2005 resurrection.
All of this makes me happy because it feels like competence porn. Look at the things I’ve done, not the fact that I’ve been working on Nita for five years. ARGH.
What made you happy this week?
My happy You Posted!!! 2005. I really like those posts!!
Beautiful weather and longer evenings made me happy. Getting caught up on a TV show I like made me happy. Letting myself wallow in my emotional feelings about various fictional characters made me happy. Time to go work on some more fanfic 😉
I have an extensive list.
Your blog entry about baking a wedding cake. Tonic.
I don’t have COVID, nor have I lost anyone to it.
Schools open tomorrow.
For now, I still have a job.
My 12 year old cooked dinner.
It’s feijoa season.
Dance classes will be back in person not zoom.
It’s less than five weeks until the winter solstice.
Did I mention that schools open tomorrow?
Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson (Finance Minister).
My 10 yr old son hasn’t had a haircut in 3 months, it’s reached New Romantics levels.
I read a report that said my favourite ‘everyday’ brand of chocolate is top ranked for ethical behaviour.
Elastic waisted trackies.
A photo of people at a cafe wearing pool noodle physical distance hats.
We finished my virtual marathon-in-ten-days (my daughter did the half!).
I had an almighty row with my partner this afternoon over really, nothing. It’s not typical for us, but ugh, fallout (I’m not a grudge holder, so I’m over it, can we make up now?) Also, the world is suffering. And I’m a little nervous about the economy. So ‘what made you happy’ is a well timed question. There’s always something.
oooh, which is your favourite brand of everyday chocolate? And does Countdown have it?
Absolutely they do – it’s Whittaker’s!
https://beslaveryfree.com/chocolate-guide
Sadly, Twix now comes with an extra dose of guilt for me. Sigh.
Good for Whittakers :-). I just scoffed a whole king-size block of their white chocolate in about 4 days. I really felt like comfort sugar. Nice to know it didn’t come with an extra dose of guilt.
I read all of 2005 before I went to bed last night, and am thrilled to find 2006 up this morning. These pre-date me finding your blog, so it’s very exciting.
I am reading something I got free from Amazon, and it’s not bad.
We got the cabinet with all the vitamins, herbal things, etc. (including stuff we haven’t touched in years) cleared out. Why do we keep things we know we are never going to swallow? Wait, don’t answer that.
My muffins last week were healthy but disappointing. Thinking of going for frivolous but delicious later today. We won’t talk about my waistline however.
It was another busy week at work and I was under the weather for most of it (cold/migraine), so when I read the title, I felt I hasn’t accomplished much. However, upon reflection, I revised my initial assessment – this was a week of small victories: walking the dog every morning before I sat down at my computer, no matter how I felt; teaching DS how to make pizza dough from scratch; seeing tulips and daffodils bloom in my garden; and binge reading a new-to me fantasy series. Having completed another week of work means I have a month or so left before I’m done.
I too am happy to have got things done – cleaned out the allotment shed this morning, photographed the plot on Tuesday (https://www.instagram.com/p/CAQTiUTH-SL/), which is just as well since the potatoes were caught by frost a couple of nights ago. Also, as reported on Thursday, very happy my friend’s out of hospital and hopefully on the mend.
I’m feeling pretty happy all round right now, which is great. I’ve got several short freelance jobs coming in the next couple of days, which mostly look interesting; plus I’ll be earning again. I’ve found a great birthday present for myself – I wasn’t going to get myself anything, and then Urban Writers’ Retreat offered a month unblock-yourself online course half price, which I’m planning to buy and start tomorrow. Feel really happy to be supporting myself in having another go at getting started. Plus an excuse to do some writing!
We’re due more warm sun this week, so I’m planning to do the big plant-out in the garden and allotment, and also sow direct to fill any gaps. Summer starts here!
I started my leftover yarn project and am so happy with it. Then, having denuded my leftover yarn stash, I went online and ordered some more lovely yarn. And yes, it made me happy.
My kids are doing well in their respective quarantines.
Can anyone recommend a good German cookbook, preferably in English?
My niece just returned from a study abroad and wants to recreate some if the dishes she had there.
A Culinary Voyage Through Germany by Hannelore Kohl (1997-04-01) Hardcover . I have this one which is probably out of print but you can probably get it on line. I like it a lot but haven’t used it in some time.
Thank you!
So happy, I have finally sewed 99 squares together today. I’ll go eat ice cream to celebrate later. I have to crochet the border and sew in several hundred loose ends, but I am taking the win, It was my biggest UFO and now I don’t have to feel guilty about the plastic bags full of squares I’ve had to shuffle around to get to my yarn collection
The archived posts coming back with the comments section is a big happy. Because there are a few insightful replies of mine that I am quite proud of, mobile phone typos nothwithstanding.
I’m happy that I’ve finally started waking up early regularly. Going to bed at the same time has helped too.
I stayed off the whatsapp statuses since the 11th, I think. That’s making me feel good. For the last 4 days I checked Instagram once a day. Twitter not so good yet on reducing yet, but better.
Bad social media is bad, good one is great…Thanks to Jenny and Arghers.
I baked biscuits (shortbread cookies) two days ago, first try in years. Not awful, quite edible. Used a Nigella Lawson linked recipe from a Foodim poster. Those photos will go on Instagram on Wednesday.
Today I made butternut squash soup. Still improving the recipe. No Insta photos thereof. I replied in-thread on Working Wednesday to Aunt Snack, in this case twas not great, but not awful enough to say, “Here, see this fail, this is how I try to get better.”
There are things I’m not happy about, but I’m re-reading Marie Kondo and first reading Don Miguel Ruiz’s The Three Questions. That should help reorient my focus.
I appreciated your reply. When I got my computer, I asked my nephew-in-law if he thought I should go on Facebook or some other social media. He advised me not to do so because he knows how unedited I find a lot of the internet and how little patience I have with product placement, influencers and other strangers telling me what to do. So the idea of posting a fail where people who get off on making other people unhappy can savage my efforts made no sense to me at all.
What I had forgotten is that you can post on a more limited platform, such as this one, and people will share the benefit of their experience and help you figure out what to try next. That makes sense and I have certainly seen a lot of good suggestions go back and forth on this blog.
Happy Sunday! Happy Argh. Happy 2005 and 2006. Happy dinner and shopping day with dotter.
Gratitude. Being grateful for all that is good is always a happy place to be.
And yes, remaining productive is good, too. I’ve never been good at being idle. So while there are times it’s tough to feel creative, especially now, there are always small tasks that I can tick off my to-do list and feel like something got accomplished.
This past week or so, two more of my audiobooks have come out, which makes 3 out of 6 (I think). And since they’ve been in the works since last fall, it feels fab to finally have something to show for all the work!
At least it does, until I look at my launch to-do list for said audiobooks and realize getting them out into the world is only the beginning, le sigh. That’s when I remind myself of my happy place of gratitude and check in there and blissfully ignore my to-do list for a while:)
My happy today wasn’t about doing anything. It was scent. Roses, honeysuckle, peonies, and calycanthus are all in bloom and it’s just fabulous.
I cleared out the corner cabinet in the kitchen (when we remodeled, our kitchen designer talked us out of a turntable, saying that we’d have more room without it. Yeah, more room for stuff to get lost back in the corner!). Anyway, got rid of a crap-ton of stuff, to the charity pile, friends, and trash. What’s left takes up less than half as much space and is easily accessible, so win.
My eye surgeon’s office called to say that the surgery center has reopened, and did I want to re-schedule my postponed 2nd cataract surgery? Yes, please. So that’s this Tuesday, so I had to dash around on Friday for a Covid-19 test and doctor’s clearance to make it happen. Looking forward to being able to see out of both eyes once again.
And I received a package of 5 masks I’d purchased from Johnny Was. They’re made of leftover fabric from their collections (dead stock), and are really, really pretty. They make me smile when I wear them, although no one can see that, of course. 😉
We can see the movement at the corner of your eyes. It isn’t the emotional smack of seeing the full smile, but it sure beats getting no reaction at all.
I am happy that I got to see my sister In Person yesterday. We (along with out husbands and my son) went to do a final clear out of my uncle’s condo. The last things we had to deal with was a few odd pieces and his massive library. He actually had things very organized and did not have a lot of _stuff_ but he did love his print media. We now have it stored and I can access it, and I now have some time to sell, donate and figure out the rest. (I can no longer drive because of my vision, so trips to his place always required another person and 2 hours of travel time along with whatever time I needed to take care of _things_, and with the recent isolation, I wasn’t able to really move forward with any of that.) So I feel much more settled and will be able to progress through that much more easily.
Also, I went on a bicycle ride with the husband and son. I was able to ride between them and they pointed out a few hazards. It was a quick trip, but it thrilled me.
I’m also happy for in-person work for the last week of school (collecting materials from seniors), for having planted tomatoes, and for the return/redesign of Argh Ink!
What a lovely meander down memory lane. Thanks do much.
Well, you do do much, but that was so much. Or meant to be.
Yesterday was a very good day. We left home fairly early and made the triangle from home to the 2 bigger towns, stopping at various greenhouses along the way. One place the woman had a sale advertised on her website for the weekend but when I asked about prices, they weren’t what she said so I left. That lead to a cross-country jaunt where we saw a sign for another greenhouse, stopped there, and I bought some plants from a very nice lady. We also had lunch in a restaurant for the first time – everything was very hygienic – did some more shopping and came home. We had a really nice drive through some pretty country and enjoyed some good weather.
Today we cleaned out our greenhouse, emptied the raised beds of dirt, gave them new weed barrier, filled them again and now I’m waiting on Paul to bring back lunch. Last year, the best caterer in town took over the golf course kitchen and was so popular she started doing takeout and delivery!
I had a good storytelling workshop this weekend. I got a few more Baby Yodas done. I slept in. I’m watching shows and writing up proposals of things. Did a read-through with my theater company. Did online auditions. I finished the Arne and Carlos knitalong project and am pretty close to finishing another vest.
As for the crush: I did see him at the read-through, it had been over a month since we’d had any contact. I debate contacting him every day and then think if he just won’t respond or won’t respond much and I’m just going to get mad about it, what is the point. His store is moving locations for the next two weeks (I assume with just him and his mother and/or dad being the only ones available to physically move shit) so I might as well leave him alone anyway if he’s exhausted.
If it’s meant to be, maybe it’ll happen after the pandemic, if there ever is an “after the pandemic.” But I rack my brains trying to figure out how to make it work with his shyness and whatnot when we weren’t doing a lot of online contact before and I just have no inspiration as to what to do and what the hell to talk about. I can certainly go on and on and have things to talk about, but maybe he has nothing to say these days (he works all day, has no Internet). I just don’t know how to make it work without in-person being in the mood. Sigh.
Garden happy: the nice multi-stemmed crape myrtle I planted last year is going to bloom. Also I made another tiny increment of progress in the tidying-up category out there. It goes slowly; any given 2.5 to 3 hours fills up the green waste bin, and then my hands, knees, and hip are shot for a couple of days, at the end of which it is my workweek again.
Writing happy: massive progress made on the rewrite of a novel that was allegedly finished last summer but has been re-envisioned as a consequence of a cover too good for the original book.
Personal happy: I have finally gotten around to watching some things on Broadway HD, which I subscribed to at the beginning of shelter-at-home. Also, got takeout yesterday from a favorite restaurant that has managed to survive, and there are leftovers for tonight. I plan to open a bottle of wine to go with that.
Job happy: I not only still have a job, I got a good review. After last year’s six-month unemployment, this is fairly major.
Congratulations!
It’s the last week of school! Youngest turned two yesterday! I baked bagels! (I haven’t eaten one yet but I snuck a taste and preliminary results were DELICIOUS!
I didn’t make it to the third round of the short story competition I had entered, but it would’ve been very inconvenient timing so I’m living vicariously by editing for a friend who did.
My husband is a delight, my family are all healthy, my kids played happily together for 40 minutes this morning (an all-time record) and I’ve finally figured out how to make a tasty loaf of bread.
Everything’s coming up… Well, not roses, I’m allergic to those, but things are awfully good. 😊
My send a postcard campaign has been getting some responses! This week I actually got a card from my New York sister. I sent her(and her family) one of my last Uncle Fun postcards and it made her so nostalgic that she actually wrote back. One time while I was dog sitting for my friend Ted (aka Uncle Fun) she spent the night with me and Ted’s ancient dog. So when I sent her one of my last cards featuring Ted at his old store, she decided to to write back. The only thing I can’t figure out is when she asked if I was still in touch with Ted. He’s one of my closest friends and she thinks I wouldn’t keep in touch with him just because he moved away? As a toy collector who opened a toy store because his collection outgrew his house, he is the inspiration behind this stay at home postcard barrage. Ted thinks you should ALWAYS stay at home and play with your toys, not just now and said he was honored to have his name invoked in this cause. And over half my stash of postcards came from his store.
Wait. Weren’t you just pregnant? It’s been TWO YEARS??
You should see him on Instagram now.
Nita-has it been five years? Time flies and it’s been fun.
My lilacs are blooming! I’m allergic so can’t have them in the house but I can inhale their scent when walking past. It’s wonderful.
I’m going to buy some tomato, pepper and basil tmorrow aand try a new bread recipe (Japanese milk bread).
I spent time on my front porch drinking coffee and reading the papers this morning. Fun!
My happiness this weekend came from sunshine, birds, creeks running high with spring melt, and new green leaves twirling in the breeze.
And in other people, in all our messy, despairing beauty.
Sunny days in autumn. It’s far and away the best time of year in Tasmania – I keep getting the sense that winter should be coming, but instead we get another sunny day. Just beautiful.
Plus our lockdown has eased a little and we are allowed to visit national parks within a 30 km radius, so I designated one of my friends as a national park and visited her yesterday. (This is also allowed.) Such a treat to sit and chat (at an appropriate distance from each other).
We introduced the neighbour’s cat to a pingpong ball in a paper bag. Hours of laughter. And boy, can that cat move fast!
Our lockdown eased off enough that we can go see friends. And hug them. That was great.
I’m still motivating myself to go for a walk or a dance class almost every day. Being fitter makes me happy, and so does building a good new habit.
A little late to the party (it’s Monday), but happy nonetheless. We had a family zoom meeting yesterday, and it was good to see folks I hadn’t laid eyes on in over a year. Even my dad participated. When I talked to him Saturday, he said he hadn’t gotten much out of the last test meeting – too many people talking at once, etc. I told him that what I got out of it was getting to see him.
I also found a wonderful gluten free pizza crust, and made pizza two nights in a row. It was very tasty.
We did a lot of cleanup work outside, some for just being spring, and others in anticipation of painters arriving in a week. It makes me happy that it is done.
I got some work done on the outline to cozy book two and did some things in the yard and garden. Very happy about that.
Also discovered I have a leak in the roof (this is number two) that is coming in over the guest bed. That has my long-term house guest sleeping in it. (Happy we discovered it before she went to bed, anyway.) Might need a new roof even though the old one is less than nine years old. This does NOT make me happy.
Gardening made me happy.
I nearly finished planting my vegetable garden. Everything is in (tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, yellow squash, green beans, radishes, basil, and peppers) except for zucchini. The garden center didn’t have any. I need to go to another garden center to find it. I’ll be upset if I don’t have zucchini this year. How will I make zucchini bread! lol.
I spent Happiness Sunday with my boys (and girls plus ex and girlfriend) watching virtual college graduation and taking pictures on campus. I was shocked by how many people were maskless in Burlington, but they were keeping their distance so that’s good.
It was a lovely day, and my boys graduated college despite COVID-19. It’s all good.
I watched a YouTube video and learned to fold newspaper into seedling pots. This made me feel crafty and thrifty, if a bit late on the gardening front.
We had a fairly major disruption at work late Friday night that threw me into a bit of a tailspin, but other than that…
– baked two really good loaves of rosemary sourdough bread
– it’s asparagus and rhubarb and strawberry season at the market
– a bunch of young people in my life graduated high school and college
– planted tomatoes and peppers in the allotment. (We don’t call it that, but it’s much quicker to type than “community garden plot” so I’m going to embrace it.)
That’s all I’ve got. Still in a tailspin.
I like it. Feel influential.