34 thoughts on “Happiness Monday”

  1. We had a beautiful, not too hot or humid weekend. I spent some time on the hammock with a good book. I’m playing with new fancy cookie cutters and shortbread recipes and Bon Maman preserves. The family went to the zoo for the first time since March. (I’m no big fan of the zoo, but it was nice to go somewhere different and see new faces).

      2. Update – no appreciable impact from Isaias. Basically, I just don’t have to water for a day or two.

  3. For the second Monday in a row, I’ve come across a comic that made me chuckle. It showed an office setting, with one woman at a desk in the middle of the room, and a number of men at various places around – a desk, the water cooler, the copier, etc. The caption “Carol was beginning to dread Man-kini Mondays”. (If you google that, you can get the full illustration.)

    For this past week, I got a good report from the doctor, so yay me. I was happy to snuggle with kitties, and not have a lot of demands on my time. It was a fairly relaxed kind of week, for working a lot.

  4. I managed to get tickets for our public swimming pools, for the one nearby on Wednesday and for one with Isar water on Friday – absolutely lovely.
    And on Saturday, hubby and I cycled along the small river running through the western part of Munich and spent the afternoon at a peaceful place near the river, dangling our feet in the cool water. Totally lovely! On the way back we caught sight of some lovely dogs enjoying themselves in the river, too. Very peaceful and just the right thing to do on a stiflingly hot day.
    Yesterday it started to rain, I got caught in quite a downfall and got drenched. But the rain (it’s still greyish and cool) cooled down the flat and this is lovely, too 🙂

    1. I loved Munich. We had such lovely holiday. Great city to walk around and explore. Now that we shouldn’t travel I’m thinking of all the cities I would like to explore again.

      1. It’s a strange feeling for August – when so many of us are still in the city yet only few tourists. You have to get tickets for the public pools in advance – sold out very easily. But when you get lucky it’s great because in contrast to any other hot summer, you can really enjoy the spaces and not feel like a sardine 🙂

        We also got outdoor dining spaces for many of the smaller restaurants – to make it easier for them to survive the restrictions of distancing. The city already thinks about sticking to those (more often than not) nicely decorated terraces instead of parking spaces.

        But yes, when you can’t go to places, the longing sets in. We are allowed to travel again in spite of the rising numbers of infected people. We’ll be off for the coast up in the North of Germany soon. But with a good number of masks for each of the 4 of us…

    2. You have reminded me of a Munich holiday where we trailed our feet in the very cold Eisbach. Such a simple pleasure on a very hot day.

  5. I got a surprise visit from some of my favorite people (friends who are family)–Robin, hubby George, and my goddess-children Nate and Sophie. We sat outside at my social distancing set-up, and wore masks (which I don’t usually bother with outside, but the kids are 12 and 13 and very nervous about Covid…and then Sophie got sick the next day, so it is just as well, although hopefully it is just a cold). Robin had stopped by once, but I hadn’t seen the rest of the family since Yule, so it was the most heart-filling treat.

    1. Added: Sophie’s Covid test came back negative, so now I’ve got that to be happy about to! (Although I hate that kids are having to be afraid of this.)

  6. Went inside the library got actual books. Made a wild blueberry/raspberry/1 peach pie. Made a ripe tomato sandwich. Downloaded the Rivers of London short story book. Had a visit from my brother and sister in law. Just so nice to talk face to face.

    Found a stash of postcards I’ve collected for years. What the heck, am I going to leave them to my heirs? So the resolution is to send them out, even the Tintin ones!

    1. Mailing out my stash every week has been helping me and the people who receive them a great deal. You won’t regret sharing them!

  7. The grocery store gave me an entire watermelon by mistake (I ordered and received some cut-up watermelon). So I sent a text to my roommates saying we should get together for watermelon. Our house manager then sent a text “watermelon and cheap champagne by the pool at 6 pm.) So, we stuck our feet in the pool, which is finally clean and ready to be used, and ate watermelon and drank cheap champagne and I discovered that some of my roommates were wild women in their pasts and our house manager still is. It was great! Yesterday we had pizza by the pool and I discovered that sitting on the edge of the pool with my legs in the water has a very relaxing effect on me. I’m such a waterbaby! I really do need to live closer to water. I’m still dreaming of the beach. One thing about living with all women (which is still weird to me) is that you don’t care if your legs are hairy or that your nipples show through your tee shirt and you aren’t beautiful in the shorts and shirt that you wear into the pool. Or pj bottoms. PJ bottoms make great weekend pants.

  8. My sister came over, and we watched Hamilton on TV; excellent! We both enjoyed my new A/C set at 66 degrees, such a relief! And ate beef jerky and gummy bears. (Yes, it was delish, and so far off my usual diet, it was a treat.)

    It looks like I am finally going to finish my refi process, so I’ll start saving about $500/month on my condo mortgage; yay!

  10. I was able to have a socially-distant visit with my son this weekend, which always makes me happy. Plus, there was apple pecan crumble. Yum!

    My other burst of happy was watching the videos from this weekend’s Australian Romance Readers virtual event that included chats with Jenny, Krissie, and a number of other authors.

  11. Did some more brainstorming for my fiction project, which was fun (it involved playing with tarot cards). Got cabin fever, so drove to Lake Vyrnwy for a 2 hour walk with a camera: which reminded me I need to slow down and do more photography. I’ve just gone for a wander on the hillfort, and photographed bracken fronds, which has calmed me down at the end of the day.

    Also had a friend round for a garden chat, which was great; and hopefully another friend is actually coming to stay for a couple of nights this weekend, which will be wonderful,

  12. The dotter and I did not sup or shop together this weekend. Instead, I spent a Goodly Sum at the local Food Lion by myself. I bought frozen dinners and fresh vegetables, mainly, and some canned goods and snacks. Might last a couple weeks, if the power doesn’t get knocked out. 🙂

    The rest of my suspenders and twenty suspender hangers were delivered, so I organized a bit. It turns out I misestimated my holdings – all twenty hangers are in use. Twenty sets of suspenders. I will be wearing them with all my pants, even the ones that don’t need the help, because. The rainbow set is bee-yu-tee-ful. 🙂

    The dotter borrowed the car to take the grandkinder to the beach. She noticed that I had not attached the new expiration stickers to the license plates (they were still stapled to the updated registration) and handled that for me. I’m good until June 2023. 🙂

    Isaias is predicted to blow through the Carolinas and then Virginia on its way north. By the time it hits me in Virginia, it will likely be a major tropical depression. The Carolinas will absorb the brunt of the hurricane/tropical storm. But I’ll still have to drive in it, to and from work, before it’s gone. At least the car will get washed. 🙂

    Be well, Arghonians!

  13. I think this weekend, those of us who’ll be affected by Isaias are going to be Arghonauts. Darn it anyway.

  14. Saw my niece over the weekend. We are planning some touristy weekend trips to east coast history spots. (She’s from the west.) We might even–gasp–overnight somewhere!

    The peaches I got at the farmers market last weekend have been incredible. It’s the fruit you dream of when summer begins.

  15. Last weekend my family had an outdoor, socially distanced birthday party for my 3-year-old great-nephew in well over 90 degree temps and the “humisery” of a typical Virginia summer day. It was so good to see everyone even though we all agreed that while it felt weird, nope, not going to hug.
    Even with that, I wondered whether this was the right thing to do. Nine days later, everyone is A-OK. Whew.

  16. Happiness is my family visiting and my brother and sister had both made chocolate cake 🙂

    Chocolate with blowtorched marshmellow fluff topping

    Flourless Walnut chocolate cake with coffee mousse

  17. Since they’ve been predicting bad weather, we took a Sunday ride to a state park nearby I haven’t been to yet. It was a pleasant country side drive with blue skies and big fluffy clouds. The park has a beach on a lake so we were looking forward to a shore walk. as we pulled up we could see fast moving clouds with a visible downpour Rapidly crossing the lake and the beach was clearing out and folks started leaving. So we parked and watched it storm and within a half hour everything cleared up and we had the place more to ourselves. We enjoyed just sitting on the bench watching the sun dance across the waves. So all in all, a great Sunday afternoon. Today, it’s been raining and rumbling all day. It’s a good day to read so all is well.

  18. Just saw the weather report for tomorrow and it looks like the tropical storm/hurricane will go through the center of Massachusetts. While I’m on the coast I’ll be preparing to move lawn furniture and plants to a safe location. Wind gusts will probably take pieces of the roof. This is a fast moving storm by Wednesday it should be up in Canada.

    1. I just read a comment from someone in our town’s Facebook page asking what time does the power go out tomorrow – asking for a friend.

  19. I left a zipper case with almost all of my meds in it on Saturday. I have most of one of my allergy meds at home, but I am missing 2 nasal inhalers, 2 asthma inhalers, 2 stomach meds and my blood pressure pills. I spent until 4 pm calling every bus line and train garage and store I visited to see if they had my case in their lost and found. At Target they played 5 minutes of Covid-19 recordings (in English and Spanish) before you could transfer to customer service. And then nobody answered that phone. At Walmart I finally was transferred to a “team member” who said they would check. After 18 minutes of dead air, I finally hung up. I can refill my prescriptions, but my insurance won’t pay for anything except the rescue inhaler for 30 days. By the time I quit for the day, I was in tears.

    But then I heard the mail carrier and went down to check my mailbox, where I found a postcard from one of the people I have been writing only occasionally. I haven’t seen Ronda or Bob since they had to close their store and go online only with their used bookstore a year or 2 ago. So hearing from her was an especially wonderful treat. It brought back fond memories of when I lived less than a 10 minute walk from their store.

    The other highlight of my week has been the nightly emails from my friend, Harriet. Around 10pm she will email me a recipe or an article with a question attached. I’ll reply and she will respond and we’ll go back and forth for as much as an hour. When it started, I was part of a chain of 5 or 6 people she would send these things to, but lately it is just the 2 of us, pontificating or being silly. I have dubbed her the Empress of Email and I can’t tell you how much the regular contact helps. I used to tease her about the fact that she has been known to send a Thank You note for a Thank You note. I don’t laugh at it anymore because I now recognize it for the sign of love that it is.

  20. Looking at the weather in NJ. Hope you are well and the storm has bypassed you. Stay safe.

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