So, what made you smile today?

We took the dogs out on the pontoon over the weekend. Loki, our oldest dog, remembered “the boat” and got excited when asked if she wanted to go on the boat. Kizzy & Simi had never been on a boat.

It was funny. Simi took awhile to get her sea legs. She was staggering fore and aft. My gf noticed that we both had big smiles on our faces all day.

Here’s a weird little something that happened at the checkout of our local superstore today. Along with some other groceries, I had bought a bottle of whisky. As I was watching stuff being placed on the conveyor, I noticed that the lady on the checkout was taking not one but two anti-theft devices off the neck of the whisky bottle. Which led to this exchange:

Me: They put two of those things on now?

She: Yes. It seems to work - we get less theft now. They just steal condoms, pregnancy tests and nicotine gum instead.

Me: That’s quite the Friday night.

A healthier lifestyle, I suppose.

j

My gf’s ad agency is very socially active. A few times a year they shut down the office so that employees can “give back” to the community. This year she volunteered with a group to help clean up vegetation at a park. She spent the day as a goat herder!

I smiled.

ETA: she smelled like a goat. I noticed, so did the dogs.

How fun!!!

So much fun she volunteered for today to finish the project. She really values weekends, so she must have really enjoyed it.

Looks like there might be some goats in your future…

A few years ago our very old horse Mac died. That left Jake all by himself. Horses in general are social animals and Jake really liked his herd mate. We had someone interested in taking Jake. Instead, we ended up with a new mate, Gracie (aka Grapeseed).

If we had zero horses, she was going to get goats just to keep our pastures from over growing.

My idea was to use the bar for pontoon storage.

Today I was visiting my local Goodwill. All the Halloween decorations and costumes are starting to go on display. Why did that make me smile? Right next to the front door inside, a table had been set up to register voters. In the next few weeks, the store will be packed with high school and college students looking for cheap costumes who can register to vote whole they’re waiting in line.

I had a good chat at the farmers’ market today with someone who grows Aronia berries. Interesting fruit. Interesting growing method.

I was in the library after farmers’ market yesterday. They had an entire table covered with voter registration materials and information.

They also had another entire table covered with banned books, with encouragement to take them out and read them. I took a Ta-Nehisi Coates which I hadn’t read, and made a point of praising them for the display.

Hmmm. Looks like they’d grow around here. What was the interesting growing method? A fast google makes it look like they’d be grown like other shrubs.


Kizzy and Simi exploring the Allegheny’s bank along Ross Island, a favorite pontoon stop.

Makes me smile like a half-wit.

ETA: Simi’s harness has skull & crossbones on it. They glow in the dark. :skull_and_crossbones:

Gorgeous!
Also - love those river rocks as well lol!

We occasionally bring home a handful. Also any perfect heart shaped stones; they are then placed in with potted plants, of which we have many.

One time a friend was looking at plants in our sunroom and noticed that there were many heart shaped stones in the pots. Immediately after saying that, she smacked herself in the head.

My gf seems to find heart shaped stones everywhere we go.

OMG so do I! Heart stones seem to be prolific. I have a bunch myself as well as heart shaped sea shells.

I have quite the rock collection that I have to get rid of one of these days lol!

Like releasing them back into the wild.

His custom fertilization method and soil types.

Ah. I’ve probably got different soil types and so probably need different fertilizer.

My kid was doodling on a notepad today and I walked by and for fun, told him to write me a message.

He hands me the pad a few minutes later. It reads:

“Never gonna give you up”.

Definitely made me smile.

Also, I’m going to stick the same note into his lunchbox tomorrow.

I was watching Tom Petty’s SNL performance of “Honey Bee” from the Running Down A Dream documentary. When Dave Grohl comes in (like a madman), the look on Mike’s face is priceless. Cracks me up every time.

Your kid rickrolled you?