Oh, yeah- also makes me smile every time: we got the coolest tea cosy ever at a craft sale on the weekend. It’s an alien/monster head with one eye and a snaggletooth. It’s really cute.
Stuff that makes me smile? There’s lots.
Waking up to The Boy and two kittehs curled up all around me.
Catching up with good friends over a pitcher or two of beer.
Anything to do with freshly baked bread.
Standing in the crowd at a live show, watching a great band do their thing.
Pulling off a really complicated recipe.
Sleeping in.
Finishing a really really good book.
{{mmmmmmmmm}} Feel better soon! Flu is no fun at all, and I hear swine flu is even less fun.
ETA: LiLi, pictures please? Not that I need a tea cozy, but that sounds awesome.
I think I have an answer to your problem. 
What makes me smile?
- Celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day by getting the roomies together to get completely smashed on half a dozen different kinds of adult beverages while listening to Epic Pirate Metal, then staying up til 6am sharing stories of all the stupid and assholish things we’ve done in the course of our lives, and capping it all off by sleeping all day Sunday.
- Actually studying for a quiz in my Technical Writing class, and getting a good grade as a result.
- Playing videogames with Alex at midnight even though we both have homework and studying we COULD be doing, and class the next morning.
- Half a dozen college students standing around stupidly while trying to figure out how to light a charcoal grill using only a sheet of paper and a Bic lighter, so that we could cook hotdogs and chicken wings for the Ravens game.
- Today being beautiful, clear, sunny, and comfortable.
I only got two hours of sleep last night cuz I spent most of Sunday dozing in a drunken stupor. Nevertheless, I feel pretty good today… Not particularly overwhelmed by my workload, not too exhausted, not hungry, not really burdened by anything right now. It’s good to be alive. Hopefully that attitude will survive this afternoon’s Stat and DiffEq lectures, though…
My brain has been running in overdrive lately. Or rather, my imagination has been in overdrive; the get-shit-done parts are still operating at normal speed. I keep spacing out and daydreaming, building all sorts of fantastic stories, characters, and worlds in my head. At this rate, I may have to take up writing as a hobby.
What made me smile this morning was laying down the verbal SMACKDOWN to the meddling biotch two offices down that thought she would lie about me being late to work this morning, in an apparent effort to start a coo at the office. What ended up happening is HR wrote her up for not only lying, misuse of electronic equipment (starting shit on the computer), and not meeting dress code.
We had two memorials on Saturday night for Faire folk. Strangely, they were both unlike and almost opposite their honorees - one was for a storyteller who could be contagiously funny, and his memorial was dark and somber, and the other was similarly somewhat out of character.
TD ain’t that truly enough to make ya grin like a cheshire cat all day long. Out of dress code? Did she show up in a muumuu, curlers and slippers? 
Soup and stew are done. They need to cool down a bit before bein’ put into containers to go into the freezer. Some of each will go into the fridge to be dindin for two nights this week.
Moonie you college kids! If you truly want to light a charcoal grill with only one piece of paper, you need a flamethrower.
BBBobbio I say you done good recognizin’ the OD thing. Reckon they’ve figured out by now that movin’ a drug addict somewhere just to cut off the supply means the addict will just have to find a new supply. They’re resourceful, like that. Hence the name addict. When I read the part about movin’ her to Mayberry to cut off the supply my first thought was :rolleyes:, yeah, that’ll work!
gotti sorry for the losses of your friends.
(((gotti)))
Muppet, I’m sticking pictures up on my blog.
I’m tired and wired, now. Must clean and tidy! and plan for housewarming on Saturday! (runs off).
LiLi if somebody insists on givin’ ya a housewarming gift, suggest they take Nat for a few hours. Sounds like you could use that about now.
I’s hongry! Since I have been told I am bein’ taken to dindin, I haven’t eaten anything but some peanut butter crackers all day. Ol’ y’all know who will be here about four-thirty to take me to get fed. We decided to go early just cause. Well, that and we can get a bellini at half price if’n we get there before six. That in itself is motivation to go early.
{{gotti}} Somehow, funerals are always harder when it’s someone who was so much the opposite of the somber traditional stuff. When I attended a friend’s memorial, the first thing that stood out to me is how much he’d have hated the sappy new age stuff the funeral home was playing, because he loved soca music so very much. He’d have been the first guy to jump up and change the CD to some “real music”, and then tell everyone to start dancing and wipe those sad faces away. 
In other news, I have a quandary.
Boss Guy is working from home today, and hasn’t sent any new work my way. Seeing as I wrapped up all the other stuff I was working on last week, the only work I’ve done all day is sending out a few reminder emails to folks who still owe me answers for stuff I asked last week. So, given that no one will notice if I leave early and there’s no one to give me a last-minute task… should I get the hell outta dodge? Or should I stick around for 45 minutes just to save face?
Hmmmmmm.
goes to look at LiLi’s blog, because that’ll kill another 5 minutes
You know you’re a geezer when you plan your meals around the Early Bird Special! 
**swampy **makes me smile, 'cause he’s such a cute old fart!
My critters make me smile - they’re so entertaining when they’re not horking on the carpet.
My sweetie makes me smile - he’s a heck of a story-teller. Very entertaining.
And knowing that I can retire in January makes me smile. Not saying that I will retire, but knowing will make all the crap easier to take.
I’ll probably be dining alone today. **FCD **is helping our daughter get one of her aquariums set up today. He called and said he wants to take her out to dinner, so I’m on my own. I ate the leftover tuna casserole for lunch, so I’m not sure what to do for supper. Mac-n-cheese maybe? I dunno…
Happy Monday, all!
I’m glad you think the cozy is pure awesome, Muppet.
Hmm. Planning food for the party. Very big pot of chili, parmesan focaccia, gingerbread (gingerbread is so Fall-ish), cider? Any other good easy cheap nibblies to have around that would go well?
LiLi I say stuff to throw in the chili like shredded cheese, onions, corn chips cause that’s always good. If you need a nibble, I say cheese and crackers. Who doesn’t like cheese and crackers. Or a big bowl of circus peanuts. This will cause people to look at you weird which is always entertainin’.
MOOOOOOM if one plans ones drinks around happy hour prices, does that make one an old geezer drunk?
We had meatballs and pasta sauce over angelhair pasta. It was teh num! We’s both stuffded.
Thus endeth my weekstart. Back to the grind tomorrow.
LiLi, it all sounds yummy. Now I wish I could go… especially since I’ve now got a serious gingerbread craving.
The only thing I would suggest (besides swampus’ awesome chili topper idea) is pita bread/crostini/veggies/chips and a dip or two of your choice. We usually do a plethora of dips and dip-ables for our parties, because they’re a) easy to make in advance, b) easy to nibble on while standing up, and c) give the vegetarians/vegans something to eat (assuming you have some of those… we’ve acquired several, for some odd reason).
And on that note… goes to check cupboards for gingerbread-making supplies
Attacks Husband is reading a kid’s book to Nat in a heavy German accent right now. It’s great.
I was thinking about chili toppers, and I’ll probably make hummus or a black bean dip. I might make salsa, too, although that does drip. I could combine it with queso. It’ll be less drippy that way.
ETA: now he’s doing Swedish Chef.
My aunt’s silly dogs make me smile, especially Ruthie and the way she wiggles when she’s excited.
Also lovely cool fall mornings. It was just below freezing when I left for work this morning. Brrrrrrr! I love it.
I figured out today why I’ve been so damn hungry for the past couple of weeks. I think my body has twigged to fall and winter coming and wants me to stock on on body fat to see me through. I must convince it that I have plenty of food, shelter, and heat and don’t need any extra insulation.
That made me smile.
Other things that make me go 
(though not necessarily in this order):
Smokey
Singing
Winning at board games (which I did yesterday, by a landslide)
Coffee - lots and lots of coffee
sleep
What makes me smile:
Watching a geriatric beagle chase a giant Jack Russell around the apartment.
HOCKEY SEASON!!!
Tailgating for hockey season
Beerverages
Online and Meatspace friends(and those who are both)
rosie, coffee is good, too.
{{{{gotti}}}}
LiLI, Nelly would love to babysit Nat for you.
TD, I love it when HR does something right.
Good job, VBob!
Nava, everybody exports their worst stuff. I’m surprised y’all don’t get the Beast over there.
Hmmm, things that make me smile. Where to start?
[ul]
[li]Niece, nephew, godchildren and little cousins; there’s always something from that group that will cheer me right up; Saturday, it was the littlest of the group unable to stop laughing when 1) we were swinging in the hammock, and 2) when we were sitting together in the comfy chair and I kept looking her directly in the eye, from about an inch away. She thought both were the funniest thing ever.[/li]
[li]Friends and colleagues being silly.[/li]
[li]Pretty stuff in my (or any, really) garden.[/li]
[li]Getting to spend significant amounts of time with my best friend TWICE in one year. Woot![/li]
[li]Designing something to knit and having it turn out close to how I’d envisioned.[/li]
[li]Favorite books and poems.[/li]
[li]Feeling like I have lots of friends all over the world because of the MMP.[/li]
[li]There’s more, I’m sure, but that’s enough for now, right?[/li][/ul]
Did you ever think that you’d actually live with more than one of the husbands, LiLi? 
I imagine it’s nice to have an emergency back-up parent right there. You really ought to videotape the story reading. That tea cozy is really cool. And a little scarey. Kinda looks like a refugee from Monsters, Inc. :eek:
Sorry about your friends, gotti.
::Passes aspirin to Moonie::
So, did you leave early, Muppet?
You probably need to go to the right kind of pub to get away from the Bass Ale, etc, BooFae. I’m sure they have some in New York that brew their own (I can think of 3 off the top of my head…make that 4, although the 4th is part of a chain - Gordon Biersch - right here in Columbus; can’t imagine that NY wouldn’t have a bunch more).
There was more, but I forgot.
Oh…how could I forget: the Pioneer Woman Cooks makes me smile. Today, there’s bacon-wrapped pineapple chunks.
Gotta get a few things done…
Hugs.
GT
I just spent over an hour using physics and materials science in conjunction with my friend Ed in order to determine whether a spring-powered .50-cal pistol would work.
We’re reasonably certain it would.