Simple Pleasures

by Joanie



Lately, I've been feeling really bummed about all the angst and bad news floating out in the world today. It can really get to be too much and I've gotten to the point where I don't even watch the news much. I think I've sprained my cringe muscle!



I was contemplating this during Mass a couple of weeks ago when I saw something that, brief as it was, lifted me up. A simple pleasure, something that is positive, evocative of the good things in life, something that buoyed me up. And so this blog was born. Here are some Simple Pleasures I enjoyed this past week.



First, of course was the one at church. It was a young father bringing his two year old daughter BY HIMSELF to services. She was a cutie patootie and he had the diaper bag thing going and he was so capable and self assured. Suffice to say, being a Daddy's girl, I've always had a soft spot in my heart for watching guys with their little ones.



Next stop, the Humane Society kitten display. I know, I know ya'll are probably sick to death of me taking about my baby cats but this one little thing made me feel good. It was a tiny little black kitten who reached its paw out from the cage, caught the tip of my finger. My heart tripped and it took everything to walk away.







The Waltons. Ok, so this is kind of odd but Hallmark Channel has been showing reruns of this series set in simple times. Drastic times, yes with the depression and all, but the setting of the rural mountains, the bits of wisdom from Mama and Daddy and especially Grandpa (Will Geer perfect for that role) reminds me of the base values many of us were raised with and reassures me the world will survive tumult. Even if Mary Ellen gets on my nerves.



Last, but not least a trip to the grocery store capped my week of simple pleasures. As I approached the entry there was a Little League cheerleading group holding a bake sale. Four 10 year old girls standing in line cheering "C. A. TS Cats Woooooo". Their enthusiasm was contangious and I found myself joining in on the woooooo (Silently of course). It also got them a $5 donation sans cupcakes.



So what simple pleasures have you enjoyed this week? B. A. NDITAS, BANDITAS...WOOOOO!


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It’s My Party…..

…and I'll blog if I want to, blog if I want to….you would blog too if it were you!!!!





Not surprisingly, today's post is a bit self-serving because you see….TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!!


Now, we're not gonna get into a lot of nit picky details such as age but I thought I'd chat a bit about memories of party's gone by.


Alas, I grew up in…ahem…an age when most kids did not have a birthday party every , single year. Don't get me wrong, I love attending my little underage friends party with balloons, cake, ice cream, high pitched squealing and the occasional ice cream smeared kiss but "back in the day" (Gulp, I'm starting more and more sentences like that) you usually only had them on special birthdays. I had two.


The first was for my 6^th birthday. I wore a fancy party dress and had a special birthday girl tiara made, appropriately, from foil (Yes…we HAD foil "back in the day"). I got to invite all my class buddies. We had balloons, cake and Mom got "special" Neopolitan ice cream bricks from the bakery. We have photos of all the fun we had including my harried Mom directing pin the tail on the donkey. What's that you ask? It's a game….a game we played "back in the day." Oh, yes we had a time including the mean girl who snuck upstairs and went into my bedroom and kidnapped my Raggedy Ann doll!! Ahem, that's a story for another day.


I have a photo of me in my tiara but because (grits teeth) "back in the day" our parents thought it a great idea to put the pics between acetate in an album where, the course of time, has MELTED them making them impossible to remove with out destroying the historical treasuresm I can't share it.


My second foray into birthday celebratory antics was for my 13^th when I got to have my first ever sleep over. We talked about boys way into the night, ate, listened to records and conked out on pallets. Fun all around and I had hidden my Raggedy Ann doll.


Those were the parties. There are lots of other memories. Like the year my birthday landed on Easter. Mom had carved and put together a birthday cake in the shape of a bunny. My gift came wrapped in a Leggs egg. I got to pick out my favorite dinner (roasted chicken and Mom's dressing). Good times my whole life.


My birthday took on a different aspect after my Mom passed. No more birthday cakes I was sure. But then a bunch of friends from the hospital took me out to lunch and brought a homemade cake. I cried. That same special gift was repeated a while back when not only did Bandita Donna remember my dearth of birthday baked goods but remembered I like chocolate cake with chocolate icing and brought me one!


Sniff, sniff…


Anyway, me and the kitties will celebrate together. My brother is taking me out to the movies and hopefully adoring me. I have wonderful wishes, from wonderful friends and will try not to count the number of Motrin I have to take.


So today is my day to celebrate and I want to celebrate it with you. What are you bringing to the party???


(Candid photo of my baby cats contemplating the existence of balloons...POP!)
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That Which Does Not Kill Me, Will Make My Head Explode

by Joanie

Which sounds like an oxymoron since, being a medical professional, I can attest that a blown up head will kill you.

No, I'm talking of a slower demise....modern technology.

Seriously, the tech world has painted a big target on my back these past two months and I've about had it! First my DVR on my cable screwed up. couldn't record vital shows like DWTS for corn's sake!

Then decided I needed to upgrade my perfectly functioning 8 year old computer. Studied different ones, listened intently to the knowledgeable young man and bought one with lots of bells and whistles. And that's where things took a drastic turn.

First, the arranged tech guy who was supposed to come hook everything "wirelessly" up was a no show. In an effort to satisfy me, the customer, the store got a special ok for a tech manager to come do it. Great except he never hooked up the printer to PRINT, only to fax.

That's when I first met my new love. The Geek Squad Agent. In two seconds he had me connected and running. No problems. Even hooked up my cute little Acer to the printer. Woohoo! I was cooking with gigabytes.

Then the cat ran over the keyboard.

What do my precious little babies have to do with technology? Well, ends up they are psychic. When Grayson danced across the keys while I was reading email, it disappeared. Could not find it no matter where I looked including under the desk, in the closet, out the window...it wasn't there.

Oh, honey....I need you. Agent Bob answered online. His remote analysis (which made my head spin as I watched on my screen) revealed bad news. My hard drive is on the verge of failure with corrupted files that he states cannot be fixed. My new 2 mo. old computer!

Lovely.

Now I have another new computer that my guy is coming to hook up tomorrow (Hmmm...will it be Ted, Bob, or ummm...Roberto>) even as I wade once again through the features, the monitor, the wireless capability I recognize that I am hooked ENOUGH on it to feel out of kilter when I'm not connected.

What about you? How dependent are you on technology. What could you NOT live with out? What would you like to see invented? (Me? I'd like an automatic cat nail trimmer).

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I Have to Cut the Grass!!!!

I have a new addiction. No, it’s not chocolate….that’s an OLD one. Not Diet Coke, that’s just necessary for life. And NO…it’s not cats either. I have WAY too many friends on “cat watch” to be sure I don’t turn into crazy cat lady. (But I do confess to visiting the orphans at the pet store and browsing the Humane Society website. Really. Who could resist a kitty named Brenda? Who can resist that face??)

But I digress. My new addiction is the HGTV show “House Hunters”. It’s a fairly recent addiction. My friend Lisa had it on in the hotel room last weekend at Moonlight and Magnolias. She conked out and I was left to find out if the picky divorcee would pick the house with curb appeal, the fixer upper or the one with only 4 and ½ baths.

4 ½ baths?!!

So it has become apparent to me, that the majority of these folks looking for their dream home are well heeled, so to speak. Now I also realize that it has been 20 years since I shopped for a house and the prices are higher than the used to be. But man, these places are GORGEOUS!!!

I’m completely entranced by the descriptions of the hardwood vs. tile floors. The “flow” of the house. The immense kitchens. The professional landscaping, the paint and then…and then…one of the buyers looks out on an acre of land and whines. “But there’s a lot of mowing to do.”

Ok, seriously? You’re getting ready to plunk down $500,000 for a beautiful 4,000 square foot home with 8 fireplaces and you’re worried about mowing? Seriously, my little 3 bedroom ranch with the kitty habitat is nothing in comparison and I can pay somebody to do it for me. Bet you could too.

This of course has put me in a yearning for house shopping. Won’t happen for a lot of reasons: money and the fact that I come from a “put your roots down” family background but man, I wish I could have a master bath with a “jetted” bathtub and a kitchen with more cabinets then Costco has food.

I like lots of house plans. My wish list would include laundry on first level, finished basement, nice big kitchen with a pantry the aforementioned tub. A skylight would be nice and a huge wraparound porch. And the yard? Ohhhhh Vince….bring your mower on by.

What about you? Have you moved in recent years? What were some of your experiences? (One couple found out their paradise move to Hawaii required tsunami insurance) What features are on your wish list?
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One Word Says It All

Joanie
So, I was sitting here on a rainy Saturday cleaning up some tasks before revising a synopsis I’ve written. A synopsis made up of words.

Words?

Hmmmmm…..

So I latched onto my trusty Google (I do NOT like their new process for searching.) and looked up word games. Word association! What a fun challenge for our Lair, both writers AND readers!!!

So we’re going to do a little experiment. I’m going to start by posting the first word. The winner of the GR will take that word, put it in a sentence then post the next word. Yes, ya’ll will have to find the last comment to get your word and …there will be some overlap but how fun to see how different people think!!!

(I was going to do ink blots…put that scared me :-0 )

The poster with the most original sentence wins a ten dollar gift card from Borders. So gang…let’s go. The first word is BALLOON….
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