What made you smile today?

That's cool, Walter..

My daughter sweetly and innocently saying "I'm sorry" as I dropped her off at school this morning. After being an absolute monster all morning where I wanted to smack her upside the head.

They do that so we won't kill 'em.

They are smart and manipulative little creatures aren't they?

joe from chicago...

http://able2know.org/topic/169108-1#post-4536128

A PM from of friend who's had a hard time with illness. He's feeling better and actually sounds optimistic (whatever that is).

Over the past several months, the bosses have increased our workload most dramatically. The toughest job is spending three days per week replacing the beveled cedar siding with Hardyplank. There have been three regulars, with a temp coming on siding days. I am 68 years old and work half days. A next man is sixty and his back is not that good. The temps often are nearly useless. The lead man was fired yesterday. And, while it was sad to see that, I had a great smile after the manager said that the lead man would not be replaced. I can see me and my partner doing make readies, replacing the siding and painting it, as well as doing maintenance requests, without getting behind. Said as much to the manager. She said, "I know." That's when my smile broadened to a grin.

Yesterday I saw Mrs. Hicks, a woman I used to see all the time when I had my cafe in the village because she'd come in for bacon and chips. I hadn't seen her in a year. She's ninety-five years old, about 4'11 and 80 pounds and she walks MILES every day - to do her shopping, to go to the post office, and to play the lotto.
She always has a smile and kind word for everyone. She is just one of those gentle souls who's a credit to human-kind.
It was so lovely to see her still so healthy and active - and buying her scratch card; we spontaneously embraced - I literally was happy and relieved to see her just the same as a year ago - that made me smile.

This morning, I called my friend Jack, who's 89 to confirm that I would meet him at church as planned, though I might be a tad late...I wanted him to know I wasn't standing him up.
I said, 'I'll just slip in quietly and sit next to you,' to which he replied, 'Well, just so's you know, mind, if you sit next to me you'll be sitting next to a chap who is not really all there.'
I was a little confused - I thought he was trying to tell me that he was losing it - and I felt sad - I mean he'd made it to 89 still sharp as a tack.
But he continued on and said, 'Yeah, this bloke is a little strange. His name is Trevor...you've probably seen him around the village.'

Jack cracks me up.

Wakening to the sound of the early morning symphony outside my bedroom window...

I recently went to visit hamburger. Stayed with my bff and family. In the gang are 5 cats and 2 dogs.

Here are the two youngest members of the gang



they made me smile all weekend




(after I took my medicine)

big slice cost me a whopping .30¢ ...

R(had me a $3 off Q-pon)P

It was something Setanta wrote earlier which started by making me grimace and grit my teeth which quickly turned into tittering and now I can just smile about it. Sometimes anyway.

story time...
I Have A Brand New Neighbor. Should I Invite Him Over For A Few Brews?

There was a foreclosure auction today in Albemarle County, VA. 900 acres of land within sight of Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello. Bidding lasted almost 3 hours, and the winning bidder on 780 acres was Donald Trump. He paid a mere $6.2M with the remainder going to someone else for $1.1M. That works out to just $8K an acre, which is really, really low. Much of the land is under preservation easements, though, meaning there can be minimal development.
John Kluge was one of the richest people in the world. He died of extreme old age a few months ago. At one time he had something like 4000 acres east of Cville. He donated a lot of the land to UVA.
His much younger ex-wife (Patricia) was in charge of spending his money. She dumped a bunch of it into a winery which has been quite successful in all respects except financially.
So she had a mortgage on the property of $35M. At an earlier auction, the bank bought it for $19M and it was sold today for $7.3M in all.

I read the comments on the local news articles about her. Most exalt over her troubles. But unnoticed are the contributions that John Kluge, Patricia Kluge and her new husband have made to our community.
Johnboy was invited to a reception at her house. I had to borrow appropriate clothing, of course. It turns out that she and I are involved in a project to get jail inmates into a creative arts program. A pretty small project, I guess. The thing at her house was an exhibition of art work. And the artists were there.

Cool beans, RJB, about the Kluge folks, I mean.

Another story to get you into the weekend:
There is a website that allows people to post requests for financial contributions to fund something.
The person soliciting money has to, in essence, write a grant request. How much do they need, when, and for what purpose. The web managers decide whether the request is "worthy."
People contribute. If the goal is met, the website gets 5%. If the goal is not met, the money contributed is returned.
Some of you know Andy. He works for me and is the singer in a goth/industrial band called Bella Morte. He also hangs out on some of our A2K sports threads.
He got involved in this, asking for $5,000.
Bella Morte got to, perhaps, the 2nd tier in their genre. They realized that they were not going to the top, so they all got married, bought houses and had kids.
But, every summer, they tour.
From the NE through the south, heading west to the coast and then heading back.
So he asked for $5,000 to fund the tour, promising to keep ticket prices low despite the increase in gas prices for their big van.
Andy got some $5,500 through Wednesday, mostly $25 at a time. And then yesterday came a $1,000 donation. A name was attached but it was nobody he knew. He did a search on Facebook and found about 8 people with the same name.
Andy's band has been around for about 10 years. My theory is that someone, now in their mid-20's with a good job and a family, remembers fondly being a goth, dressed in all black and prone to sigh a lot.

That's for sheepish grinning rjb. This thread's for smiling. Low key stuff.

It was, Spendi, the 1st post here in almost a fortnight. I do at least try to keep threads alive.

listening to this poem being read on the radio tonight made me smile

April is poetry month



http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/241012



April Snow


By Matthew Zapruder


Today in El Paso all the planes are asleep on the runway. The world
is in a delay. All the political consultants drinking whiskey keep
their heads down, lifting them only to look at the beautiful scarred
waitress who wears typewriter keys as a necklace. They jingle
when she brings them drinks. Outside the giant plate glass windows
the planes are completely covered in snow, it piles up on the wings.
I feel like a mountain of cell phone chargers. Each of the various
faiths of our various fathers keeps us only partly protected. I don’t
want to talk on the phone to an angel. At night before I go to sleep
I am already dreaming. Of coffee, of ancient generals, of the faces
of statues each of which has the eternal expression of one of my feelings.
I examine my feelings without feeling anything. I ride my blue bike on the
edge of the desert. I am president of this glass of water.

Good for Andy!