What made you smile today?

I peek into Google+ occasionally and flickr and go over some of your work from time to time. But I have never gotten in the swing with those sites. I hope you will stick around here and participate in a few threads.

You can cook a complete hot meal out on your patio without ever lighting a fire.

Brilliant to see you Cobalt. I hope you, your boys and grandkids are well.

A cool breeze! The heatwave continues here, but just for an hour or so - oh so good!

The scraggy juvenile magpie arrived this morning with what looks like a new coat. Now strutting about as if he owned the place.

I AM A SWAN!

Andrew? I heard that the Empire State Building was swallowed up by a giant rattlesnake in that photo while the Chrysler Building was knocked over by a giant jackalope.

Buying a stone labrador puppy for the garden - reminds me of my beloved Harvey!

Pleased to learn why I haven't slept so well the past couple of nights. Seems it the moon's fault; the full moon, that is. According to researchers (a group from Peeping Toms Anonymous, I should think) during a full moon, people on average take five minutes longer to fall asleep, they sleep less deeply and they wake up 20 minutes earlier than during a new moon.

So that's good news, as I can now check my monthly calendar to schedule my sleep cycles in advance. I had always assumed my restless nights occurred when the moon is in the 7th house and Jupiter is aligned with Mars; when police raid cathouses and dogs in the hood yap eight to the bar.

Nah!

Bad sleep = guilty conscience, Mr. D!

What HAVE you been up to???

There was a 151 point swing in the DOW today, and it ended 3 points above yesterday's close.

That's an example how fickle the stock market is, and people shouldn't react to short-term swings in the market.

Nah to that, too, Margo. No doubt I'm guilty, but this may be the first time I've been accused of having a conscience.

What I have got is a horde of neighbourhood kids making all sorts of racket every night until the wee hours. Still a month to go before school takes up again and they'll have to bed down early in order to be up by six o'clock. At present they reckon to sleep in til noon so they'll be in good form for screaming and shouting and letting off fireworks as soon as I've hit the sack.

But what the little blighters didn't reckon on was me. As soon as I see their folks head off to work, I go around and lean on their doorbells until I can tell I've roused them. It's especially gratifying when they've got dogs in the house.

You are a blast..

Good luck waking my bloody daughter up. Legions of postmen, meter readers, Mormons and Jehovah's witnesses have failed to rise to the challenge.

camera and two phones are charged

we're supposed to meet Gracie in about 20 hours

My laptop working! It's been going wrong for the past 48 hours - driving me crazy - so it was great to log on this morning and visit A2K. Not sure how long it will last, but .......... smiling right now!

Good Vonny - keep it up! Also look into starting a thread (perhaps) re what went wrong. Lots of us here (not me) know computers, and lots of us are dumber than dirt, and many are in between on all of it.


On smiles, I'm exhilarated for a change. I heard from Nori. He must have gotten either the linkedin invite (which I'm still cringing about except that I'm glad to hear from these people) or the spammy hacky invite to buy some damn raspberry jam, very much not sent by me.

He's the guy who taught me and the rest of us "elements of design". Changed my way of looking, basically, and I already was a painter. I was 40 when I started those classes. As years went by (I graduated and all that) we worked together, sometimes as reviewers of student design work, once on a book he wanted to write, later on a couple of projects of his. I almost got to landscape the botanic garden tea house, another story. He has retired, moved with his family.

It's one of those full circle things - so glad to hear from him.
I'm not expressing this well - it's that he's got this great mind, but also heart and wisdom and humor.

You're expressing it very well, as usual.

This type of experience is lost on the young, but it's a major perk of growing older. Enjoy the reconnection. And try to stay in touch with him. Old friends are the best.

Wait a sec! You also had an oversized invisible rabbit too?!

~~~~~

http://thedoghousediaries.com/5263

Seeing this photo!

I spent the day with my sister's husband. We talked about her and that made me smile.