Unhappiness is Forgetting the Happiness Post AGAIN

~ Jenny

Sorry. My head is so firmly in this book that I actually thought yesterday was Saturday. God knows what day I thought today was. Apologies all around.

How were you happy this week?

70 thoughts on “Unhappiness is Forgetting the Happiness Post AGAIN”

  1. I was happy because Jenny & Bob are working on a new book. 🙂

    Also happy because I got another huge day of gardening done, adding seven more flowering things to the backyard to attract pollinators including my hummingbirds.

    And really happy because my aged parents are under contract for a house to move into (they tried once already this year but had to run away from the 81-page inspection report), they’re intending to make this the Last House instead of building, and since the odds favor me and DH moving into it eventually, super happy that it’s a house that should suit us very well. #SelfishBeyotch

    2. Good for you! My husband and I moved to my home town to be closer to family, and purchased a house in town that will suit my parents if they need to move off the farm. If that happens we will trade houses. As a bonus my mother-in-law is moving here as well. Good luck with the parents’ move!

  2. I’m still floating after a 12-day trip to France during which we ate incredible food; wandered throuh medieval villages, some of which cling to cliffsides or are built into caves; and, squeezed through caves to see animals and humans painted 20,000 years ago. Contrary to the weather forecast, temps were in the 70sF and the sun shone all but one day. Duolingo helped, but my terrible accent drove locals to beg me to speak English. Children in a B&B asked for permission to watch us; they were too young to remember Americans (from before covid). I saw Basilica Saint Sernin in Toulouse, checked out Vesunna (Gallo-Roman temple & mansion) in Perigueux, and walked out onto the site of Uxellorum (in the town of Puy d’Issolud where a huge Gallic oppidum once stood and, perhaps, the last war between the Gauls and the Romans was fought). Sitting in cafes, drinking wine or Aperol spritzes while soaking in the sun — and now that I have a new knee and my foot has been fully surgerized, I was able to walk everywhere and enjoy everything. So good, so good.

  3. The horrible terrible no-good client that I barely survived last year got nailed for some of the crap they did to us (and the rest of the nailing will be very likely, but it’ll take months if not a year)… and I just sat over here, eating popcorn, because I am not in hell anymore.

    I have woken up happy every day for over a month of being rid of them, and lessons learned, yada yada, it’s just really nice to be back with clients who are sane and appreciate us. WHEEEEEEEEEEEE.

      1. We had to turn in reports and all documentation (like emails) pertaining to the issues and the powers that be started reading through what the client had done and was appalled, especially because the several “smoking gun” emails came from them and they literally can’t say they didn’t send them (they responded to our responses), but it documents their gross mismanagement because they didn’t follow through on the absolutely most basic and necessary items to be done according to the contract documents.

        I used to be so trusting, and I was kinda lax in documenting every little thing said on a job site, but early on, I saw what they were up to, and we started documenting everything. Plus, I annoyed the crap out of them by asking a lot of questions, which forced them to answer in writing. Ha.

        Document document document. It was painful to do, but it literally saved our business and by extension, our home.

    2. I’m with you, horrible client I had to deal with annually who missed deadlines, ignored every communication we ever sent and then at the last second just before publishing would insist on having what she wanted, costing us money. When I no longer had to deal with her I sang the Ding Dong Song to myself, while processing her sane, nice, professional replacement’s work.

      1. When I looked up the Ding Dong Song using DuckDuckGo, all the top results were about dancing frogs. In context, I assumed you meant the song from the Wizard of Oz. “Ding Dong The Witch is Dead.” Or maybe that song from Glee.

        1. Wizard of Oz, I never call anyone that… but when someone ignores you completely, then blames you (grind teeth)

  4. It was my birthday weekend. I did a show the night before and it sold out and it did really well.

  5. Mother and her sister would have been 100 today, April 25. Many happy memories, and I had a message from the senior docent on the museum ship USS Hornet that they’d like an article about Mother and Aunt Ruth and their Navy service. Gone but not forgotten!

    Macron won handily!

    Tanis, North Dakota, turns out to be a site of a major, major, fossil discovery — the day the dinosaurs died. A death scene from within an hour of the impact of a meteor 66 million years ago that ended the Cretaceous era. At the site there are “dinosaurs that suffered what appear to be grave, near instantaneously-inflicted injuries; there are fish and other aquatic animals mixed up with the land-dwellers, a fossilized pterosaur embryo, a sea turtle that has bizarrely been impaled by a wooden stake, and even what paleontologists believe to be a shard of the asteroid itself.”

    https://news.berkeley.edu/2019/03/29/66-million-year-old-deathbed-linked-to-dinosaur-killing-meteor/

      1. Thanks. I frequently find things I know this group would enjoy, but try to restrain myself to the best. Or at least most narrowly targeted!

  6. I have many happies, minor and major. Among the minor happies, I’m loving the SweetLeaf Liquid Stevia sweeteners in all there flavors. The fruity flavors and peppermint go in tea. Right now, I’m enjoying a cuppa coffee with chocolate, coconut and caramel stevia. I’ll usually stick with chocolate for coffee, but this is very interesting, once. 🙂

    Another minor happy is that several temperature devices have arrived, to be used to check the hydroponic water temperatures. Salad greens and herbs like cooler temps than tomatoes and peppers, so now I have analog meat thermometers, digital meat thermometers, and two different non-contact infrared thermometers. One of them is for people. The general purpose one has a laser guide. Fun and useful, and I can always check the temperature of meat, if I get bored. 🙂

    Another very minor happy is that I’ve figured out the camera functions on my cell, and video, and getting it all onto the computer via Google Photo. Useful for making videos. 🙂

    Which leads to the minor happy of learning better with the “Video Editor” ap on the computer. 🙂

    A major happy is the dotter’s birthday (Thursday). She will be taking an extended weekend vacation away from me and the kinder. All I have to do is wake her kids Friday morning, since her ex is untrustworthy. 🙂 🙂

    Then there is all the hydroponic gardening. Some is major happies, some is minor, and some just tickles me to giggles. I’m trying to trade the two QYO units for anothe iDOO unit. The victim of this trade is intended to be the dotter’s BF. He tried to grow tomatoes in the iDOO and they quickly grew beyond its capacity. I have tomatoes in the QYOs and they are NOT beyond their capacity. Also mini jalapenos, and he can get them as is, plants and all. 😉 😀

    Finally, there is the ultimate happy. Heve you ever seen one of thos workplace accident record signs? Picture this one:

    Gary
    has gone
    71 years, 2 months, and 5 days
    without dying

    HAPPY!

    1. 🙂 Some of the tomatoes on my Rosie Finch are turning red! 🙂
      O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
      He chortled in his joy.

      Can a BLT be far behind?

  7. Two of my dearest friends got new jobs that suit them beautifully. My loan reached settlement with no issues. And I’m more or less healthy again. Nothing but good times ahead.

  8. I am currently in Costa Rica with a friend. We have known each other for many years and have never travelled together. CR is beautiful and my friend is a great travel companion. We’ve hiked and seen gorgeous waterfalls, sloths, poisonous snakes and stunning trees and plants. Tomorrow we’re off to hang out at the beach for a few days.

  9. I’m happy that the reason for forgetting the happiness post is you being immersed in the book 😍

  10. We had a lovely Easter break at home, but doing various different day trips out. That said, I am also happy that school has started back this week (DS still really enjoys school, so that is a definite happy). And I need some (relative) rest and return to routine following all of the ricocheting around. Seeing DS walk into school, interested to see what the day brings, hand in hand with one of his friends definitely made my heart happy.

  11. I had two good ideas this week – the kind that seem completely obvious once they’ve dawned on me; this always makes me happy. One has sorted out a bit of the allotment where the layout didn’t work; and the other is to take a creative week/extended artist’s date to celebrate my retirement birthday next month. I was thinking about people here whose employer has marked their retirement, and since I’m my employer I thought I should do the thing right.

    Also still enjoying all the unseasonal sunshine, although the ground at the allotment’s getting more and more rock-like, so digging out the last patches of weeds is taking longer and longer. And I got so upset by renewing my car insurance yesterday (why do these firms always try to rip you off? I’m sure an honest approach that rewarded customer loyalty instead of penalising it would be a winner) that I jumped in the car (might as well use it after all that) and drove three miles into the hills for a good walk through woods up to a ridge where I sat in the sun for an hour or so, reading a book and enjoying the view west into the Welsh hills.

    1. PS. And my zinnias are already up! I only sowed my second/final batch of indoor seeds on Saturday afternoon. They’re Benary’s Giant – I’m hoping for a great display.

    2. Jane, not sure how it works in GB but here in USA we can merge (bundle) our home owners and auto insurance for a discount barring any claims or accidents. Worth looking into.

      1. Oh, there are all kinds of things they want to sell you – but my home insurance, car insurance & breakdown cover all renew at different times of year. I’m going to try my friend’s broker next time.

        1. As a fellow Brit, I wouldn’t touch *any* broker with a barge-pole. Regardless of how well recommended. I came across them regularly in my profession, and… just *no*.

          I follow the steps on moneysavingexpert(dot)com for my various insurances – takes maybe 30 mins to an hour (per go) to sort. As long as you are sensible (and you seem to be!) then it’s pretty straightforward and you don’t get stung for broker’s commission.

  12. Yay! Glad you are well.

    I have a lot of happy left over from the weekend. My head cold is subsiding thankfully, and I stayed home and cleaned. I made a significant dent on my front porch, which is where I photograph and store all my vintage Etsy stuff, and when I ground to a halt on decision making there, I went outside and gardened. Lots of sun and progress. I carried that endorphin high with me into Monday but it is waning now.

    1. Enquiring minds want to know – what kind of vintage Etsy stuff is…vintage Etsy stuff?

      1. Oh, I sell on Etsy. I have two shops, one handmade and the other is old stuff that I find at yard sales and thrift stores. It’s kinda the one benefit to living in central PA. Lots of old stuff, pretty cheap. I mostly buy what I like, or what amuses me (velvet paintings, paint by numbers, kitschy cute stuff).

        And I use my enclosed front porch as a sorting/quarantine/photography area, but it has gotten seriously out of hand and I am planning on setting up the reception out there.

          1. Thank you! They did. I finally reached the Amish lady. She shares a phone line out on a pole in a field with three other families. She will make me a special order for the morning of and a friend who lives near her will do the pick up and delivery for me. I am also going to pick up a couple of pints of local ice cream to have in the freezer in case of emergency.

  13. I am happy because I’m in Florida for two back to back conferences. Conferences not the happy part although they’re great as conferences go, and I don’t love that there are NO masks here and people are shaking hands and slobbering all over me but hey…choices. What I love is that there is WARM weather. It’s incredibly shallow of me to be made happy by weather but I could whimper with happiness in the warmth and plan to spend the weekend curled up on a rock like a lizard in the sun. Occasionally flicking flies with my tongue.

    1. Well, that is Florida for you. And I am with you on the basking. We had two sunny days in a row! Snow flurries tomorrow though.

  14. I’m happy because it was my birthday last week and my daughter made me a big collage that featured, among other things, a photo of Nina Simone embellished with hydrangeas. Two of my favourite things put together by my best darling daughter. Made me a little verklempt.

    1. Both your and Ann’s links were interesting. Thanks for posting. My shelves are completely opposite of that book store’s though, as the majority of my books are romances.

  16. Happy that you are this into the writing! I look forward to someday getting back to that place as well.

    Happy that last week’s snow melted and it went up to 70 for 2 days in a row. Yesterday I got some early seeds into the garden (late for me, but see snow, above)–spinach, lettuce, kale, and peas, none of which will be bothered that it is supposed to get cold again in the next couple of days. Got 3 new bare-root lilacs and 2 elderberries into the ground with the help of my handyman.

    Happiness is getting ready to take a trip across the country to San Diego to finally see my parents (mom is 84 and dad is turning 88 next month, although he still plays tennis 5 days a week so he can literally run circles around me), younger sister, niece and nephew. Stepdaughter Jenn is flying in from San Jose for the first few days (I’m actually going for longer than usual, because I haven’t seen everyone in 3 years) with her guy, and one of my best friends/critique partners will be flying in from Sacramento in the middle for a few days that we’ll spend in a hotel a mile from the beach in Del Mar. We plan to hang out by the ocean, do a little magical work, and talk writing. It sounds like heaven. Now I just have to get there and back without incident. Flying, ugh.

    I was a little freaked out that I was going to be out of town next Tuesday, which is release day for the new cozy. Then I realized that everyone’s trips were overlapping that day, so I am going to be celebrating release day on the beach with many people I love, instead of drinking champagne with my cats. That made me REALLY happy.

    1. Deb, Goodreads just sent emailed me about Claws for Suspicion; I was happy to order it and get a Kindle copy of Doggone Deadly. Now I understand why those Goodreads emails about new books from your favorite authors are really useful.

  17. Happy that mulch was on sale for <$2 a bag and I had borrowed my friend's pickup and could load it up. Gas for a big truck is outrageous, but I am having fun driving it around – way up off the ground.

    I'll return it tonight with some regret.

    Happy one of my hives made it through the winter. And the other hive is restocked with bees. Also the hive that made it through the winter seems less angry this year. That's a big happy.

    Happy that no one got stung when working with bees this weekend. I hate getting stung. It hurts and then I swell up and itch. So no stings is a blessing.

    Happy that I bought myself a new carry on suitcase that takes plastic from the ocean and has a built in closet/clothing squasher. I'm going to try it out on my trip to England this summer.

    Lots to be hapy about.

  18. Happiness is:

    The baseboards are going up a treat and we are about half done after 2 days work. Paul is going away for the weekend so I will be listening to audio books and doing the touch ups with painter’s caulk and drywall compound then painting so we should be done before we go away for the weekend in May.

    Fred the dog’s nasty cough isn’t kennel cough or anything bad but most likely an allergy. He’s responding to antihistamines and feeling better. He had a quick trip to the vet yesterday for a check up and a chat with Dr. Ed who listened to his heart and lungs and said they sounded good. He is enjoying the cheese slices his pills come wrapped in.

    Hannah the rotten, chewing-on-everything puppy is at least 1 tooth closer to being done second teething (Fred says Yay!), though she was chewing on my vintage sewing machine cabinet this morning. She also spent the afternoon at home with Paul yesterday and was a good girl.

    Biggest happy: I came home yesterday from the vet and Paul had cleaned up a whole bunch of the poop (and snow mould) in the back yard. He’s the best guy.

  19. Happy to have visited some very special people last week that I hadn’t seen since before Covid. My heart is full.

    Happy that a reader who bought book 1 at a signing a few months ago came to this weekend’s signing, looking to buy books 2 and 3 because she loved the first one!! That was so cool and fun!

    Happy to be doing another book signing at Rockaway Townsquare Mall this coming Saturday. Crossing fingers it goes well. 🙂

  20. Supplemental happy: our forecast today is ‘partly cloudy and high in the mid 70s,’ vs ‘blazingly sunny convection oven.’ Doors are already open for breeze and birdsong, aaahh.

  21. I am happy because I went to Bristol to vote for the French presidential elections with my daughter and my son. It was my daughter first time voting and my son’s first time voting as a French citizen. They really enjoyed the whole experience.

    Not living in France, I tend not to vote but this time, I felt I really needed to do my civic duty. Like many French citizens, I wasn’t so much voting for Macron but against Frexit and narrowmindedness.

      1. The tools and techniques for spreading propaganda are endless, these days. And the science of “public relations” is boiling down to “how do we reach people’s subconscious more effectively on behalf of, well, anybody who pays us money!”

        This video interview with a social psychologist adds to that the impact of social media, which can turn the voices you hear into the voices you always and only hear:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKRuvKtFvqo

  22. So glad you’re happy and enjoying writing enough to forget the blog. Always a good sign.
    We have gorgeous weather. Put a float in the pool yesterday and got a nice tan. Now I must remember to do the flip side.
    I made a quiche for my daughter’s supper, plus a field greens salad, and the quiche is almost ready. The aroma is killing me. I’m sure one slice would be the entire calorie intake for the day, but once in a while you have to not give a care.

  23. I’m happy because Vince is killing many zombies in this book and the aliens just entered the solar system.
    Strangely, though, Liz Danger seems more concerned about what’s going on in town and not so much about the zombies.

    1. Somebody has to protect us from what people can do to each other because all the more mainstream fictional heroes have been busy fighting zombies for years.

  24. Happy that Pixie did not kill the ground hog she cornered today, just barked hysterically.

    She’s been having all kinds of adventures. The other day the neighbor’s dog jumped the fence and really wanted to play with her. Not being very social, she just ran away while turning her head to snap at him. Being clueless, he just chased her. I got her into the house, the neighbor retrieved her dog, and all was well.

    Tomorrow is another day.

  25. I’ve spent the last 3 months trying to get a plumber to do a few hours of work. Bloody covid kept messing with their schedules. But 3rd plumber lucky, and the job’s being done now! That makes me very, very happy.

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