Yes, I’m still rolling in the ecstasy of finished books, but the icing on the e-mail was when Bob wrote “Book done yet?” and I could say, “YES! YES! YES!” It’s the little things, you know?
What little things (or big things made you happy this week?
57 thoughts on “Happiness is Not Hearing “Book Done Yet?””
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You know how Amazon tells you you could earn rebates and rewards if only you had the Amazon Credit Card from Chase? Well, they did and I do and I’ve earned hundreds of dollars in rebates and I just spent some.
I know I’ve said that my indoor hydroponic gardens are as big as they’ll ever get, because there isn’t a square inch of surface area unaccounted for in my garage apartment. Well, that turns out not to be the case. I managed to clear an entire shelf of the bookcase on which the Ranches sit. How? I Marie Condoed it. For example, there was a cardboard box of peppercorn chili oil that only had five bottles left. (I use a lot of chili oil.) Long story shorter, I bought a new hydroponic unit. I’ve named it (her) Lucy. After all, I already had a Fred and Ethel.
Food and gardening-wise, I just harvested the fourth romaine lettuce plant and ate a salad for breakfast. I’ve been planting Marvel of the 4 Seasons lettuce in their places. I’m all out of leftover chili and baked chicken, so I’ll have to cook today. Salads don’t count as cooking.
I’m also completely out of Atkins Chocolate. More is due tomorrow and the dotter has my car to visit my son in NC, so unless I walk a mile and a bit to the grocery store, I will be forced to eat Apple Spice Cake.
Strangely enough, all these things make me happy. 😀
Happiness is a good haircut. My preferred hair dresser shut down and moved away during covid and the three places I tried since just weren’t right. I hit the jackpot yesterday, let her whack off about 8 inches of hair and am so happy with it.
You are lucky, I have had maybe 4 really good haircuts in my life and for the last one my sister literally checked her after it was done and made her redo bits of it as it was uneven. (She just had hair done and was sitting next to me) I am not a picky person, but I was going to be a maid of honour for my best friend and later attend my brother’s wedding so I couldn’t just go home and get my mum to try and fix it as I normally do. (My sister said not at those hairdressing prices)
It’s definitely a struggle. I have a lot of hair and it likes to half curl or make waves in weird places. But this morning I woke up with bed head that still looks good, so I am happy. The real test will be later when I wash it and see how it dries and see what happens when it isn’t blow dried and curled. I don’t own a curling iron. Or a blow dryer.
I cut my hair this morning before thinking to hard about it. I call it a half assed bob with just enough length at the chin to use a curling iron to cover any flaws. I’ve let the bangs grow out so I can flip it behind my ears if necessary. The only problem is the back but I’ve left enough for the curling iron just in case.
Lupe, I’m astonished and envious that you don’t own a blow dryer nor a curling iron. My hair takes special shampoo, two products, hairspray, a diffuser and a straightening iron. And this is my new low maintenance, pandemic hair.
Tammy, I was raised by my father, who is bald and my grandmother, who cut her own hair (and ours) and styled it the same way from the time she was 17 onward. Have you slept in curlers? Anyway, I never learned anything better. Same with makeup.
I am however considering trying to learn, because it was so cute yesterday. Oh, and I switched to a coconut oil shampoo bar years ago and have never looked back, but that is because commercial scents make my psoriasis flare up something awful.
I am in awe of you, and people who put in the work every day.
I have naturally bad hair so I have no choice. And yes, I have indeed slept in curlers when I was a child. Hated them.
I am so happy for you! I went through that struggle when I moved. It took me 5 years to find a good hairdresser, and my hair actually looks better the day after the haircut. Congratulations! That takes one thing out of the arghs of life.
Thank you! It definitely makes all hair related decisions easier. Plus the little high of feeling like I look my best…
I hear you. I’m going through that process now. Lost the decades-long stylist. The next one just wasn’t ‘cutting’ it. Found a great one but she moved to Florida. At least I got the hair cut right for a bit. I’m going to try the person who bought her shop next. Fingers crossed.
My daughter did her hair and makeup rockabilly style “for fun”. I tried to figure out how to link the stunning, beautiful photo here but I couldn’t so I put it in a post of my blog. If you click on my name you will be taken to my blog and the picture is the first thing you’ll see.
Good looking kid. 🙂
After years of looking around once I moved to this area, I grew my very straight hair out so it’s very simple. Now I have a chin-length bob and I go to Supercuts, which does a pretty good job.
I cut my mom’s hair so she can get the Judy Dench-length pixie that other hesitate to do on her, but she knows what she wants!
A couple of phone chats with friends, then another friend for supper last night: we were meant to watch a film, but just talked in the end. And my garden’s still flowering, and the allotment’s producing salad leaves, cut flowers and a bowl of strawberries a week.
Oh, and I got the battery replaced in my iPhone 5s, at a tenth the price of replacing it. I’m hopeful it’ll last me another four years – providing the apps I use (mainly Ordnance Survey maps) continue to work on it. I was upset at the idea of having to replace it, so this made me really happy.
Jane, I’m impressed that you can still use your iPhone 5s. I had to get rid of mine some years back because I could no longer do what I needed to on it.
Well, it’s a gamble. But I don’t use it much, since I live & work alone. I’d want WhatsApp to keep working, plus Google Maps; but the app I really want to run is the Ordnance Survey mapping for the whole of Great Britain. I can download the relevant area if I go walking in the hills, where there’ll probably be no signal, and locate myself on the map via GPS. This is incredibly helpful when the path isn’t clear on the ground, and I’m on a moor surrounded by bog.
“…when the path isn’t clear on the ground, and I’m on a moor surrounded by bog.” This ought to be the tagline to _something_.
agreed – what a great line
Even the idea of such a predicament scares me to death. There is no Ordnance Survey anywhere that would persuade me to attempt a walk like that. 🙁 Jane is very brave indeed.
It made me think of the Brontes.
Brings me back to when I read Gothic novels and someone would vanish in a bog. That kind of bog?
There’s only one kind of bog, as far as I know. And I would describe myself as foolish more than brave. Of course, I never intend to end up in the middle of a bog with no clear way forward – the map will have made it look as if there’s a clear, easy way through. I have got more cautious, but I do love exploring.
Should say: ‘bog’ means there’s an unknown amount of water and mud beneath – there are usually tussocks of vegetation that you can try and jump between, but you’re likely to slip and plunge into the water/mud. I’m not talking about quicksand, although it can be difficult to get yourself out of a deep bog. The worst that’s happened to me is muddy legs, and having to pick my way back down off the hills at dusk, after detouring round the worst bits.
I’m happy because I don’t have to replace the dryer after all. I cleaned out the lint, including cutting the aluminum foil piping open in the garage, and the heat worked again. I’m going to leave the piping open for the winter; warming the garage isn’t a bad thing.
I’m also happy because a leaf-peeping drive turned into a fairly strenuous hike to see the remains of a dam which failed spectacularly in 1874. Later in the afternoon, a friend invited me to walk through her meadow with her. I’m so glad to get the exercise. And, while on the hike our forester phoned and will be ready to start our forest management plan next week. Yay!
I don’t like to be negative, but I would recommend getting some new vent piping for your dryer and installing it. You can do it yourself, although it can be a pain. It’s easier if the aluminum piping is a little longer than you need. Dryer lint in the air can be harmful if you breathe it in, and can also be a fire hazard. It is very flammable. No one wants you to come to harm!
I must agree. Failing that, an old pair of nylons stretched over the exhaust will at least strain much of the dust and lint and can be tossed when it looks full or clogged.
I agree too. Our drier vent needed to be cleaned out. We have an exterior vent access. My husband left the access panel off for about 2 months while he was trying various techniques to clean out the vent piping (It was a long run from the laundry room). During that period everything on the back porch was covered with bits of lint. It was into everything. And really ugly bits of grey fluff.
Thank you all for your replies. I didn’t think about the flammability of the dryer lint.
We have the same setup that Jessie describes: a long run along the garage wall from the laundry room to the vent to the outdoors. We’ve replaced the piping ourselves, but the garage door mechanism requires the piping to drop and rise at angles that let lint accummulate inside. Not sure what to do next, but we’ll figure something out.
Plastic pipe. Septic system pipe with angled access ports for cleaning clogs. Periodically, unscrew a plug and run a wire coat hanger through to grab blockages. Then mix the lint with paraffin to make fire starters. Boy Scouts used to do that all the time.
My happiness is that all the Opossums that I recognize finally returned to my yard, after I had been gone and had not left any food for 5 days. One at a time, they came back, and even some I hadn’t seen for a long time showed up. It might have been the cold weather, too. They are so cute, and so polite, with some exceptions. One big one was not interested in sharing their pile of birdseed.
There was a beautiful sunrise this morning, and I got a good photo of the pretty pink alto cumulus clouds! It smelled like rain, too. We are definitely getting some tomorrow.
Yesterday, I planted the bulbs that came while I was away. That’s a relief.
And this post arrived early this morning, like usual!
I went through my paper crafting supplies and gave a huge bag to my young neighbours. They’re very crafty and seemed excited to get new-to-them supplies. My remaining supplies are neatly organized so much easier to find a specific ribbon, button or embellishment.
One of my cousins was in town on business and we had an enjoyable lunch together. I haven’t seen her in 3+ years. She’s very observant about our shared family dynamics and I enjoyed spending time with her.
We’re having a return to early summer, weather-wise. I spent several hours in my local community garden, preparing for a new pollinator garden and getting the compost bins ready for winter. Later in the afternoon, I went for a walk along the river. We’ve passed peak fall colour but still lots of colour to enjoy. I’m going to spend as much time outdoors today too.
My biggest happy of the week is about to happen in 2 hours. Every time I come out to the suburbs for a cat sitting gig I try to get together with some friends who live out here. And every time my friend Carol asks me if my sister wants to join us. I was supposed to hang out with my sister yesterday, but she was too tired because she had been up at 3:30 that morning to pick up her daughter from the Emergency Room. After my sister called to cancel, I called Carol to ask if my sister could join us. She was delighted and in a little over 2 hours the 3 of us will go out for coffee.
Edited to add: We had a great time! And the weather is divine!
I have spent some time quilting again. I didn’t have time for it for many years and it is good to be back.
My parents have lived with me for the last 7 years and they now need someone there 24/7. They are a high risk for falls. We are in the process of helping them move into a retirement community. There has been lots of stress and some tears, but I hope that this will be good for all of us.
Phred, That’s a tough transition but once it’s made all of you will feel better because you won’t be constantly worrying about falls (and their consequences).
When my parents moved into a senior building, they reconnected with some friends they hadn’t seen in years. I hope your parents are similarly blessed. And they were able to socialize without a lot of effort.
Checking off the items of my to-do list before I leave for World Fantasy Con Halloween week. I’m especially happy that the nonfiction book I have to blurb proved better than feared. (The elevator pitch was awful. The book, happily, proved to be very good.)
I have all the ingredients to make monster cookies later today for Halloween. Well, a half recipe – I am no longer crazy enough to do a full one, which required the corn pot to combine the 3 pounds of peanut butter, 12 eggs and 18 cups of oats, etc. Haven’t made these for a long time, so pretty fired up about it.
Wearing lots of Halloween shirts this month. I wear them because it entertains me, but am always pleased when it entertains others – and then they have to have the full experience of “see the cat earrings transition to the cat and pumpkin shirt and then to pumpkin socks” (or the alternative of pumpkin earrings/shirt/cat socks, because, you know, I have a LOT of Halloween earrings and socks). As of yesterday, I am now carrying monster wrapped Hershey’s kisses to hand out as rewards to anyone who comments on my garb. Reverse trick or treating, we call it in my household.
Reverse trick-or-treating sounds like a delightful idea.
My husband bought the large bag of four different kinds of M+Ms. I just had to try M+M brownie and peanut butter variety along with the peanut. Oh, and I put a few packages of the regular M+Ms in the freezer for cookies.
Happiness is getting all our pre-work done for creating a financial plan for (eventual) retirement. My modus operandi has been to randomly save money and hope everything works out. It’s quite possible this is a poor plan. My BFF (author/owner of Moolala so he should know) encouraged me to engage a true financial planner – not someone who works for a bank or some other financial institution and is wed to their products and incented by selling you said products – instead, a planner to whom you pay a flat fee to look at all your inputs and outputs and then model them all out in various scenarios so that you can decide what you’re most committed to and then start working toward that. Very excited that my HR Consultant is being kicked to the ground and my new inner practical Financial Goddess is emerging.
As a former finance person this makes me very happy. It’s so important, and so often neglected. Well done you!
Congrats! That sounds like something that will be a source of relief and satisfaction. Competent professionals are wonderful.
Strawberries picked fresh from my deck planters in late October, with more that are likely to ripen in the coming week or so — imagine fresh-picked strawberries on Halloween in new England! Everything else in my life is annoying (which I’m showing great restraint in not enumerating here!), so the late harvest was a nice surprise this morning.
Today is The Perfect Autumn Day where I live. We tend to get just one and this year it comes on a Sunday, when I’m not working.
Yesterday’s happy was running four errands (the errands themselves didn’t make me happy but getting those things checked off the list did), then spending several hours doing essential prep for fixing the disaster that is the backyard. Next phase requires the husband (sometimes one must start these projects in order to get the partnership moving) and will not be today because he is doing continuing-ed requirements for which the deadline is Tuesday.
Today’s happy has been doing absolutely nothing, not even breakfast, until I finished a chapter of the WIP. I like where this book is going. Now I shall feed myself, and then I’ll work on some minor revisions to backlist titles that will be getting new covers. Eventually.
Lots to do in the coming week but there’s only one appointment or meeting each day . And nothing to do with election drop boxes!!! (It’s the hill we all have decided to die on here in Luzerne County.)
Having a relaxing weekend. I don’t have much to do beyond walking the dog.
Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History, and Billy Bragg doing free concerts at Starbucks union protests, and knowing that not everyone in the world sucks. I have a cold, I’ve spent lots of time in the last two days listening to podcasts and watching videos. So, er, I’m happy I’m sick on a long weekend?
PS the three episodes in Season one starting with Carlos Doesn’t Remember are excellent, but my favourite so far, if you like podcasts or want to try one, is Outliers, Revisited. I want to give spoilers, but that would by definition by spoilery. Go listen! It’s only half an hour.
Yesterday at work something popped in my left foot, but I think it was actually a good thing. I’ve had a small lump in the top of my foot for a couple of weeks like a bone had shifted out of its proper place, and now the lump is mostly gone, so I think that whatever it was has snapped back to where it is actually supposed to be. So now I don’t have to go see the doctor. That’s a definite happy.
Fourteen new linear feet of bamboo roots excavated from the field that was the War of Weeds. Much bindweed root sheltering under that bamboo, which is a plus. All my muscles are aching, but it’s a satisfied kind of ache.
Happies for the week:
I got my chapbook out the door and off to 2 Sylvias Press – Wilder series contest. (If you are a woman over 50 and you have 50 to 80 pages of poetry they are accepting submissions until December.)
Currently I am sitting in the Florida room with the lights on. It’s dark outside and the light is attracting bugs to the sliding glass door. There are 2 lizards 🦎 hunting the bugs.
It is entertaining. Adding to the entertainment is the question – how long until my dog senses the lizards and starts barking maniacally.
I made it safely home from a sibling reunion in KY a couple of hours ago. It’s been a few years since we have all gotten together at the same time and we had a great time visiting, eating lots of food, and catching up with one another. The drive was long (718 miles) and I drove each direction in one day. Today’s drive was longer because as I was leaving KY, all 4 lanes of the interstate northbound were stopped due (as I found out later) to a fatal accident; someone driving the wrong way on the interstate hit another vehicle head on. I finally managed to get to the next exit after a long wait and took a detour around it. Thank goodness for the gps in my car; I’d never have managed to find it on my own! 12 hours later, I was home safe and sound. And my cats were very happy to see me.
Bought a new coat. This is exciting because it’s been about two weeks since the first day I had to admit my Australian warm clothes weren’t enough for the weather I was in.
It’s warm and knee length and not black. Yay. More money than I’d like but my size was hard to find at all.
Recommend Chesca for plus size in the UK in case anyone else is looking
My partner and I spent the long weekend on the West Coast (of NZ), which is one of the most beautiful places on the entire planet. My health wasn’t up to long walks but we did 11 short walks, which added up to enough walking to feel pleased with. We saw blowholes and dolphins and glow worms and a lot of beautiful beaches, forest and rivers. And we slept a lot, and relaxed in a spa at one place we stayed in. It was magical.
I’ve put a couple of photos on instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/CkF4PMwyrCE
I got the 70 Daffodil bulbs planted in various groups. I plant them where you can see them as you come in the house. I have a plan for a wild flower meadow out where there are also thousands of blue lupins in June. I’ve collected all the rudbeckia seeds, as well as daisies, sunflowers, some milkweed pods. I weakened and ordered a pound of wild flower seeds from a seed company. I thought I would rototill right about now and sew the seeds, but from my reading it looks like March would be better, or possibly April, this being Maine.
I finally was able to give a box of about 30 musical scores away to a professor at a state university, to donate to the music library. I don’t need to haul them around, I never read them when I listen and I’m certainly not singing from them. I kept my art song books, it was mostly opera scores. It was good to pass them on and lighten up. Also, I now have room in my trunk!
This was a mixed bag of a week. We crossed lots more projects off the list and managed to have a bit of an excursion. On Friday Paul went to a football game with a buddy and I went to a play with Lisa and Trina. It was really good but quite unexpected. It was more of a satire on obscene wealth (like billionaire type wealth) and colonialism than the comedy it started out looking like it would be. I know there are some Edmonton Cherries out there so if you are looking for an interesting evening it’s The Wrong People Have Money at the Shadow Theater on 83rd just across from the Old Strathcona Farmer’s Market and the Walterdale Theatre.
We also found out that someone we used to know, the ex-wife of Paul’s BFF, died of a drug overdose earlier this month. She had been estranged from her family and friends for a long while and really spiraled downward. Paul is really not sure how to feel about it other than to be sad that her life went so wrong (some of that was her choice but not all of it).
On a more pleasant note, we took almost all of Sunday off. It was a much needed rest. We dried some more apple slices and tomatoes and I pulled my dahlias. The most important and enjoyable thing I did was finish the new Time Police book. Fire truck but you can pack a lot into a day when you time travel. Also, I love how every one in the TP says Fire truck now.