be grateful daily

1) Rain

2) Homemade chicken stock

3) The season’s last heirloom tomatoes

4) Revlon’s new glitter nail polish colors

5) Smart friends

1) I am so very, very grateful that my elderly parents were spared the flooding they feared from Irene. Water came into the yard, but not the house. I cannot express how relieved we all are that they do not have to deal with the aftermath that so many others are.

Everything else seems trivial compared to #1, but…

2) Candace Pert, an inspirational scientist

3) The “Letters of Note” blog – so interesting and amusing

4) My husband is not a picky eater

5) Benadryl topical gel, for helping relieve the itch from the zillion bug bites I got last night

1) Red thai chicken curry, made by me!

2) A new moisturizer which seems to have solved the flaky skin issue that has been plaguing me for several months

3) My wonderful supportive husband

4) The weather cooling down a bit

5) A working dishwasher

I am having a rough time right now – perhaps being more conscientious about this goal will improve matters.

1) My cats. Okay, I know, this is basic, but I really felt grateful today that we all adopted each other – they’re so wonderful, and they get me out of my head when I see them just being themselves.

2) Internet. Yes, our DSL cuts out intermittently, and sometimes too much information is a bad thing, but… I am old enough to remember looking things up in books! And hearing news only once or twice a day! So… you know. Internet = amazing.

3) Air conditioning.

4) Salmon for dinner.

5) The Percy Jackson series, which – horror of horrors! – I think is better than Harry Potter, in some important ways.

Wait, how did I miss Monday? sigh

1) Shooting range excursion – SO FUN!

2) Straightened out some uneasiness with a friend

3) Gareth David-Lloyd, and his lovely portrayal of Ianto, who really moves me

4) Rain last night

5) My iPod Nano, so I can listen to podcasts on long drives

It’s been a week! Ack.

1) Awesome Meetup today!

2) Ripe peaches

3) Heirloom cherry tomatoes

4) My reliable ancient (4 years old) dumbphone (crap, am I jinxing myself?)

5) Figuring out – I think – one of the factors that affects whether or not boy kitteh wants to eat his dinner

1) Being able to recover my husband’s laptop from its descent into madness. (Although I’m still working on it after 16 hours, so… no fun.)

2) Duck fat.

3) My sister, whom I love and like, both.

4) Swiffer WetJet – I would marry it if I could.

5) Steven Spielberg.

Having a rough day, but I’ll do my best, here…

1) Pandora’s comedy icons station

2) People willing to call Richard Dawkins on his privilege

3) My sunglasses, which are just the right level of dark

4) Successful paleo salmon patties

5) The part of me that knows things will get better

1) A free movie pass from the manager who sympathized with my issues with the noisy toddler in the theatre

2) My stepmother seems to be responding to the antibiotics – I’m hopeful she’ll finally kick this recurring sinus infection

3) A husband I can talk to about anything

4) Cory Maye’s release

5) Radley Balko’s activism

1) Living in the US of A. It ain’t perfect, but it’s an amazing place, with freedoms afforded few in the world.

2) Rain to cancel the fireworks, which I dislike and which disturb the cats (sorry to be a party pooper, folks)

3) The way girl kitteh uses her long legs as a pillow when she sleeps curled up

4) The love boy kitteh has developed for a particular large cardboard box, where he can drop his ball and hear it ricochet around – he’s quite innovative :)

5) Night Of The Comet, from 1984, which had some capable female protagonists the likes of which I wish we saw more of today, honestly