51 thoughts on “Happiness is Remembering It’s Sunday Before It’s Monday”

  1. I am happy that you are not sick or hospitalized!
    I, too, have lost track of days!
    Happiness included a walk with a friend and two lunches out with other friends, plus a meeting of book club and a Zoom conference about our memoirs with a friend who lives far away.

  2. I have finally started repairing the plaster wall in the entryway that was water damaged about 3 years ago. This means (hopefully) that in a few weeks this will no longer be an annoyance, which is almost as good as happy.

  3. Happiness is rooftop yoga as the sun is setting. Turns out my vaccinated roommate tested positive for COVID, so I’m working from home for the next 3-5 days, which is how long it would take to show up on a test if I’m going to catch it. I was feeling very stressed about it, so I went up to my rooftop and did some easy, calming yoga, and it helped put things in perspective. Going to be doing a lot of rooftop visits in the next 5 days.

      1. My roof has quite a steep slant, so the visual I’m getting doesn’t sound in the least safe.

        But slanted or flat, I hope it’s a calming view that helps with the stress!

        1. LOL, it’s flat! Maybe a one inch slant to the whole thing. Which might be why the skylight leaks. But excellent for roof sitting.

  4. The weather has been lovely and I have been able to put the top down on the convertible. It was wonderful.

    I went to a fabric store and helped my Mom pick out fabric for a quilt for my nephew’s baby that is due in March. Mom made the grandkids quilts but she can’t do it anymore and I have inherited the task. The woman at the quilt store thought my Mom was my Grandmother, which I will never share to anyone else.

    1. My Grandma made us quilts too, and all the grandkids treasure them. You’re carrying on a lovely tradition.

  5. This week’s happiness was finally making a batch of clotted cream that turned out right. Sixth time’s the charm, I guess.

    In unrelated news, I’ve been eating a lot of scones with clotted cream.

    2. I have read you need unpasteurized cream to make true clotted cream. Did you make it with unpasteurized cream? If you have a reasonable result using pasteurized cream, would you share the recipe for the benefit of my poor English husband? I haven’t found a source for unpasteurized.,,,

  6. My week started did not start off – lost a contact lens and since my eyes have changed, I need new glasses plus new contacts. Several bad migraines did not help my mood. But I spent a lovely Friday on the flower farm and my boss told me they would like to come back and work 2 days a week next season. DH and I went out to a fantastic restaurant for our 27th anniversary and my other boss had called ahead and ordered sparkling wine for us (she does the flowers for the restaurant). Today I had coffee with a friend who I haven’t seen in several weeks. The week ended with lots of happy.

  7. Happiness is suspenders. I have 15 or 20 sets. Some, I don’t wear, because they’re for fancier dress than you’ll catch me wearing. Others… I am between belts. My largest belt is too large to tighten sufficiently to hold things up. Weight loss, y’know. 🙂 I haven’t shrunk quite enough to use the skinny belts.

    This week, I have worn the international orange set, the red set, the rainbow set, the green flame set, the orange flame set, the navy blue set and the regular blue set. Next week, the khaki set, both camouflage sets, the green set and green flame set. There are others. I am not buying any more sets, even though I don’t own yellow or purple or red/white/blue.

  8. I am feeling smug because my Real ID renewed driver’s license finally arrived — I should have had it in July 2020, and had started the process in March 2020, but first it was difficult to make an appointment and, of course, by July the DMV just extended licenses for a year automatically. Finally got an in-person appointment in May 2021, provided a bunch of documents, and was presented with a temporary printout good until mid-August 2021. At the beginning of August I got a notice that they weren’t happy with my paperwork and I needed to resubmit [choice of documents] something. The choices were a passport on the one hand, and a collection of documents for non-citizen residents on the other, none of which I’ve ever had. It ended by my visiting Office Depot with my passport and a certified copy of my (weird) birth certificate and having them scan and fax everything, and that seems to have worked, though it’s a good thing I wasn’t pulled over between the time the temporary license expired and the day the new license FINALLY arrived.

  10. I’ve almost finished painting the front of the shed – I think the window needs a third coat – and it’s looking amazingly better than it did. I was rained off for most of the weekend, which was good since I needed to clean the house & rest. But there’s more fine weather forecast, so I’m going to take my time with the rest of it, so I don’t wipe myself out.

    My ginger lily and canna are flowering. They both look splendid, and I thought perhaps I should give up on my challenging midtone meadow scheme, since there’s not really room what with not taking the lawn up & big tropical plants. But made myself really happy by deciding instead to rehome my cannas & ginger lily at the end of the season, and having another go at my ‘meadow’ (not really a meadow; that’s just the springboard).

  11. My happy is that I have a new job. Same company, same boss, but a very different set of accountabilities and team. I’ve spent the last 18 months learning a lot, but ultimately hating my job, so the shift back to a space that I know (product management rather than software engineering) has made me very happy.

    It’s not without it’s problems. 3 new direct reports that used to be peers, with one saying “no disrespect intended, but I don’t know why you got this role”. My unstated response was “if you can’t see the reason why, then that’s why you didn’t get it”, along with wry amusement on how “no disrespect” actually means “disrespect intended”.

    I see these types of issues as more of a challenge to be handled than a real problem, so it hasn’t impacted my “yay, new job, such a relief” happies.

    We’re still in stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne and are going to be that way for a while, but it’s not as hard as it was last year for some reason, even better is that our days are getting longer as we head into spring. Always nice, apart from the hayfever!

    1. First congratulations on the new position (I mean this)

      However rule 101 of office politics if one of your peers is promoted above you it is the polite and diplomatic thing to say.

      What your colleague said given that he now reports to you… just means he’s an idiot.

  12. I walked round our botanical gardens yesterday and watched ducklings swimming like crazy and magnolia trees smothered in flowers. It’s spring and I strongly approve.

    1. And my best friend is trying to rescue a stray cat. The cat’s hanging round outside and eating, but it’s very skinny and doesn’t look well. It isn’t tame enough to coax inside yet so a vet trip is a while away. Yesterday I worked out how to get worm meds into it – that made me happy.

      1. Oh, good luck. Rescuing Emily was the best thing I ever did, even though she wasn’t appreciative at the time. Now she sleeps curled up next to me. It took months, but it’s so worth it.

  13. I was accidentally exposed to the virus at the quarantine centre and am now waiting out my own quarantine period. The first test came back negative, and I expect the second will as well. Happies are no flatmates, great friends who drop off food for me, and five days off to catch up on some sleep. Trying to do both jobs at once turned out to be a lot, but I’ll be stood down from my “real” job again starting Wednesday so will be back to just one. And since that one is both extremely busy and largely outdoors, that will be happy too.

  14. The weather has been glorious, with cool mornings, warm afternoons and low humidity. I don’t know how we got that two weekends in a row, but I’ll take it! I should have been out in the garden working, but instead I sat on the front steps with my cat in a harness, watching the world go by. It was very peaceful.

  16. There is a covid testing place a few blocks from my home and I was peering through the window the other day trying to figure out when and how to get tested prior to my departure when a man asked if I needed help. The guy who runs the place was outside taking a cigarette break and helped me figure out when I needed to take my pre-departure test. I still have no idea whether I will be able to get into Scotland or what the combination is for the lock on my new suitcase, but it felt good to get at least one piece of the information I need.

    1. I was just invited to dinner at a friend’s house before the start of Yom Kippur and was told that the daughter of the house had just returned from Scotland and can help me sort out the confusion I have regarding what is open to Americans at the present time. This makes me very happy because I was getting confused by what I was reading online.

  17. Happiness is relaxing with Pratchett’s “Guards! Guards!”

    Trying to stay away from news because it’s all just too infuriating. Sticking to the non-competitive cooking shows.

    Pixie came ‘this close’ to catcing a squirrel yesterday. She was so excited.

  18. My happy yesterday was treating myself to a nice lunch out when I remembered that the restaurant I was thinking about has a patio area. And initially I was the only person out there, so when an old friend called before my food came I felt comfortable taking the call. Then a trip to a local farm market, and a
    Zoom with pals afterwards (the CBs say hello) really capped the day off nicely.

    Today we go back to summer temperatures, but I spent part of the morning on my covered patio. And now lunch, which is leftovers from two nights tossed together and it’s better than either of them were alone.

  19. Happy is 25 jars of peach salsa all canned and pinged and ready to be shelved so they can mature a bit. Tonight I’m making peach raspberry jam and maybe peach blueberry jam, not sure on that though, I could just eat all the blueberries. Okay, there’s over 4 pounds of blueberries, if I eat all of them I might just turn into one.

    I also have a massage in an hour, that makes me happy.

    I listened to a really good cozy mystery on my very long drive and then salsa-making marathon over the weekend. I liked the main character and the plot was solid.

  20. I bought Krispy Kreme donuts… I haven’t had them since the start of lockdown, but my mother needed a key ingredient from a faraway shop desperately. They were on the way.

  21. Happiness is surviving in good spirit a drive down a twisty, steep mountain road during a rainstorm, rocks falling and “flash flood warning” blaring and pulsating on the phone. Made it to the desert floor unscathed and the rain soon went away and the world dried. Now we have a week in a casita with patio spa tub and puppers allowed. A rancho resort in perfect 1950s amber, well-maintained, with good food and fine service. Brought plenty of books to read, newspapers available on the laptop, an Olympic-size pool a few steps away. Best: the weekend crowd has vanished. When we return home, our house floors will be refurbished for the first time in 36 years. Getting to that point – temporary removal of all furniture – was a feat, as will be the moving back in. Silver lining is I now know what I wish to rid the house from. I’m hoping the floor finishers know enough to bring into the house the late-delivered hoisin sauce now moldering behind the front gate.

    1. I want to be where you are.
      I ended up spending a weekend at a desert spa (the publisher sent me, I forget why) and it was amazingly beautiful, like being at the ocean. Pat Gaffney was there, too (her publisher sent her) and we had the best time. Your comment reminded me of that. Thanks for the memories (g).

  23. I took a ride with my husband to the hardware mega store today because they have a garden shop and it gives me something to do while he tries to find what he wants. No luck for him they were out of stock for his item. I did write mega store. But I made two trips to the car with my loot. I can’t really plant any more, so I just place the plants wherever around the garden and house. It came in handy last week when the roofers were here. I didn’t have to worry about crushed plants.

    Saturday our oldest granddaughter and granddog came for a visit and I noticed her hair was in a scrunchy pony tail and shorter than usual, I thought it was in one of those bun things. Nope, she told us she had her almost waist length hair cut and donated the braids to Kids Who Care. I think that is the name. Proud grandma here.

    2. Oh, good for her!

      When I had chemo and lost my hair, I was in my fifties, but told my boss that if anyone came to her and said that my bald state made them uncomfortable, would she let me know and I’d do something about a wig — but the guy who cuts my hair had told me not to bother since it would be growing back in a few weeks (and I was to come in on the regular schedule, because even if I had only a dozen hairs, he would see to it that they were SHAPED!). My boss said that if anyone came to her fussed about my hair, she’d tell them to grow up and get over it!

      In the end, I had nothing but friendly accounts of how everyone’s wife, sister, or sister-in-law had gone through the experience with a positive outcome, not only from the guys I’d worked with for thirty years, but also from guys who were just visiting the office and had never met me before.

      However, I had a great work environment, as you can tell, and that isn’t necessarily the case with schoolkids, so your granddaughter’s contribution is sure to give someone going through a worrying patch a good positive boost.

    3. What a great child!

      They should change the St Baldrick’s head shaving to something where you get pledges for growing your hair out to a certain length and donating the long hair. It would be like having the cake and eating it too.

  24. Happy for long weekend, cooler nights, getting the October title ready to launch, and (today) knocking out another long-overdue health maintenance to-do. My optometrist tells me I haven’t had a new prescription since 2016. So, it’s no wonder two new pairs of glasses are in the works.

  25. When I bought my house almost 20 years ago, the mudroom was bare studs (the wooden kind, alas) and not much else. One wall still showed the siding of the outside wall they’d put it against. I redid it at the same time as the kitchen not long after I moved in, and made it into the entry/laundry room/storage. But after all this time, it still had the original single pane, non-opening windows, with the same taped-together cracked piece in the corner.
    This year the extreme heat, which threatened to overwhelm the upright freezer out there, finally moved the issue to the top of the “Things That Must Be Fixed or Replaced This Year” list. I helped my handyman put two new vinyl windows THAT OPEN AND CLOSE in this last weekend. It pretty much ate both days, and he still has to come back and to trim on the inside and outside, but I have new windows (to go with the new door at the entrance to the mudroom–this was its year). I keep going out and looking at them, because they make me so happy. I’m going to have him put up some brackets with wood across them to make plant shelves, so I can have herbs in there in the off season, too.

  27. We celebrated our 39th (!) anniversary with a quiet weekend trip, including Friday night at Wisconsin’s dark sky park. We used red-filtered flashlights to follow a trail to the beach, where there were just enough people that we didn’t worry about serial killers. We set up our chairs yards from Lake Michigan, listened to the waves and stargazed–even saw a few shooting stars. For more than an hour, our worries fell away.

  28. Happiness is Jenny’s friendly, open approach where you can say “Jenny, this part of your draft didn’t work for me because xyz” without her responding with a virulent attack against you. I witnessed a vicious response from a very famous, very successful author to a poster earlier this week and was appalled.

    Jenny, you have fostered a wonderfully warm and caring community which does not lash out at the first sign of disagreement. You should be marvelously proud of yourself for that. It is very rare and very wonderful.

    1. If you yell at your beta readers they (a) stop telling you the truth and (b) stop reading. This is dumb because (c) generally they’re right and (d) even when they aren’t, you need to know what they tripped over.
      But thank you for the compliment (g).

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