What's making you happy today?

[Madman]

That you Sundae Girl? I'd say you were having a lot of fun feeding those ducks.

Good for you! There can never be enough happiness in the world.

[Sundae]

I admit I submitted the ducks pic because I was having a great time. Mum, neph & I all had our share of bread, but I eked it out most carefully, which meant I ended up with a demesne of mallards.

I passed the camera to Mum with a request for photos. Had I been less sparing with the bread, I'd have had pics of them instead.

I'm pleased with the result tho (chins notwithstanding). What really makes me laugh is the pic of the three of us where I am the only one obviously happy. I LOVE teh SNOW!

[skysidhe]

I don't have anything to do today and that makes me happy!

I slept 11 hours last night.

A strange thing to make someone happy but I get to go to my Ear Nose and Throat doctor tomorrow and make cash payments. lol

The people at the desk said,"no insurance'"no problem"

[Madman]

For the most part, I stay rather busy at work. When I get home I don't have a lot of personal time to get on the PC and socialize. I work in a rather large facility, I have a radio on my desk. For about four years I could only get one station - NPR Radio. It was okay for simple background noise and the news/weather every hour on the hour. During the "in-between" times I was stuck with what I call "elevator music" (classical going to sleep music).

Over the years I made hints to vasrious family members about the lack of reception my radio was receiving. Seems my wife, bless her heart, heard my pleaful request of a better radio because for Christmas she bought me a nice radio.

Now I can switch between my Soft Rock, Jazz and Talk Radio stations.

[classicman]

. . . I-pod

[Pico and ME]

Just decided that I am done for the day and that it is time to get into jammies and relax with a movie and a glass of wine.

...'cept now I need go to the mildly irritating thread and post about how this means I put off grocery shopping and will not have milk for my coffee tomorrow...

[Sundae]

Spent about 40 minutes on the phone to my Aunt in Australia.
My cousin has been accepted into her first choice university. I was surprised to find that the majority of Australian students live at home during their time at Uni - in this country the opposite is true. And if TV shows and movies are anything to go by, that is the case in America too - kids go away to study.

Anyway, it was a great chat, and I'm happy for my cousin. For those in Oz, she's going to the Catholic University in Brisbane (ACU) to study Social Science.

[Griff]

Two items. Going in to work late today! And yesterday my kid and I won another tournament but more importantly this time it was a three person event and we were able to pump up the confidence of an inexperienced girl from the club who had a rough go of it in her previous competitions. Lil' Pete may have a future in coaching, she gave the girl simple instructions about handling a very good fencer after I kept us even against a very athletic and unconventional guy. The girl fenced him even after getting pounded by him earlier in the day. She was magnificent! You could watch her understanding expand suddenly. I followed with the go ahead fencing their weakest guy and Lil Pete closed it out against the hyper-athlete. Our new girl was just glowing with pride.

[skysidhe]

Originally Posted by Pico and ME

Just decided that I am done for the day and that it is time to get into jammies and relax with a movie and a glass of wine.

...'cept now I need go to the mildly irritating thread and post about how this means I put off grocery shopping and will not have milk for my coffee tomorrow...

lol It hurts when one's out of creamer I know!

I love the comfort of jammies.

Originally Posted by Griff

Two items. Going in to work late today! And yesterday my kid and I won another tournament but more importantly this time it was a three person event and we were able to pump up the confidence of an inexperienced girl from the club who had a rough go of it in her previous competitions. Lil' Pete may have a future in coaching, she gave the girl simple instructions about handling a very good fencer after I kept us even against a very athletic and unconventional guy. The girl fenced him even after getting pounded by him earlier in the day. She was magnificent! You could watch her understanding expand suddenly. I followed with the go ahead fencing their weakest guy and Lil Pete closed it out against the hyper-athlete. Our new girl was just glowing with pride.

[Sundae]

Went with Mum & Dad to Leighton Buzzard today. It's a pretty market town about 15 miles away. Mum was going to pay a cheque into a funeral home (donation in the name of someone whose funeral she can't attend) and I went along for the ride.

Now Mum asked me to go, because she wanted to buy me something from a small, independent clothes shop they have there. It's a shop for women of a certain size... In fact the sizes the clothes go up to, I'm be amazed if the women were still alive! I'm at the bottom of their range, but nevertheless I like the choice.

She said she wanted to buy me a jacket, because we had some run-ins over the snowy period about my lack of suitable outdoor wear. I wear my cape when the temperature drops below 10 (50) degrees, but I couldn't wear it in the snow, because the bottom got all wet. What Mum didn't know was that I had ordered myself a jacket off eBay. Lovely item, arrived this morning, Mum delighted, it's now in her wardrobe until at least next year

So anyway, when we got to LB, the shop has a sale on. Mum advised me to pick whatever I wanted and take it into the changing room then we could decide what I would have instead of a jacket. When I came out she sent me off to Boots next door (it's a chemist - my burn is in the weeping state) and bought the lot for me. £81 of clothes!

I was tearful.
This is of course the first spend of Aunty Alice's money, but it's so wonderful because I can wear my new clothes to Cardiff this weekend.

I got a pair of jeans, a pair of black trousers, a hoodie, a double layered t shirt (GORGEOUS!) a black evening top, a pale pink dressy blouse, and a hot pink bra. I'm so happy.

AND - if that wasn't enough - they're part-funding my trip to Amsterdam. Plan is to go there in March for five nights (Mon-Fri). This includes paying for my passport and the hotel. So me whining on Saturday that I was all wan and weary and left out was just self pity (I did know that, to be fair). Mum had a little chat with me about how proud she was that I put the family first by deciding not to go on holiday with them and the fact I have saved for Cardiff and haven't expected her to pay anything towards it (yet!). She thinks I'm doing really well.

And yes, I think that means more than any money.

Oh and just a teeny tiny thing when set against that, but I've printed out vouchers for 4 separate restaurants for the weekend including Pizza Express and Yo Sushi! (40% off, wow!) It's only a semblance of being frugal, but it appeals to the bargain hunter buried deeply inside the profligate spender.

[Shawnee123]

Don't new clothes make you feel grand?

Wonderful, SG. Good on your mum!

[Pico and ME]

Awww, SG...that sounds great.

[jujuwwhite]

I'm so very proud for you, SG! I bet you feel great in your new clothes!

[monster]

Exhausting but happy day at the hockey rink. No school today because of MLK day,so there was a sticks and pucks clinic with the Whalers (local NHL feeder team). We've done two of these with Thor this year, but this time was special because both Thor and Hector were doing it.

When we went skating at Christmas, Hector -aged nearly 11- suddenly decided he wanted to learn to play hockey. Now it's really hard to start at that age and this is a kid who always rejects the opportunity to try new sports in case he's crap at them, but he was determined and said he didn't mind if he ended up in a class with kids way younger than him... so we signed him up. He's had two classes so far (the Whaler's players help with the coaching) he's worked really hard and was so excited to be attending the clinic today, so that made us all happy.

Usually the whole Whalers team attends the clinic, but they had a game this afternoon so there were only the half a dozen who were not rostered to play. but it was still a good clinic, Hectore wearing the full hockey gear for only the third time in his life and playing his first ever scrimage.... followed by a pizza party. and then the game. and because there weren't many whalers at the clinic and pizza party (where they normally do an autograph sessions), the kids were given the opportunity to play during the first intemission and then go to the locker room at the end of the game for autographs.

Fucking Awesome Game, Whalers (currenly placed 2nd in their division) won over the Windsor Spitfires (leading the division). Lots of fights, lots of goals. And then after the game the Whalers came back on the ice to skate will all the kids for about 45 minutes -Thor and Hector got their helmets autographed.

I'm bloody knackered now, though. Our seats were about as far as they could be from the locker room the kids were using, so I spent half the time belting up and down stairs and along corridors under the stand to get them in and out of kit in record time I'm calling that my exercise for today.

[glatt]

We taught the kids how to play Euchre this weekend. They are really good at it. I'm quite impressed that they picked it up so easily. I guess it's not as difficult as I thought. But they love it, and we've been having a great time playing it off and on all weekend..