What made you smile today?

Nimh...hi. An interesting post from Rotterdam. I've never been there. Your contrasting of the look and attitudes of the native Dutch person and the immigrants (is that the right word?) is fascinating.
And, oh yes, "bosoms like horizons" is a real hooter. -rjb-

first post...

I'm happy to have married the girl of my life, as of the 7th of Jan...
and to have the opportunity to fight in iraq in 'operation iraqi freedom 2' with my fellow marines from Bridge Co. Bravo... Folsom,PA., being deployed late Feb.

and our baby is due august 19th.... I am blessed

Hey, US Marine. Welcome to A2K. Do you know the United States Marine song? Do you know it's origins? That would make me smile. That's the teacher in me, buddy. If you feel happy, that makes us happy for you.

Being in New York !!! Wahey !!!

Gautam, I'm green with envy! I'm so jealous!

All of that makes me smile.....

And of course, the more shallow version of me owes someone an "I told ya so!" for the Superbowl.

Letty--How is it you always get me thinking of things I learned in grammar school? I'm going to have that song in my head for a month!

Almost got hit by a car this morning, in the dark and the rain, while in a crosswalk. Though I wasn't smiling at the time...

Today??
ALOT of things have me a-smilin' today!!!
Ain't that too freakin' cool?
Aw......hmmmm. my cheeks are sure feelin' it!!!
Ohhhhhh, it hurts sooooooo good!
Don't get me wrong..... I smile every single day
Just for some reason today is JUST a wee bit better..
Do ya think it could be the LACK of the Effexor?
Hmmmmmmm....intarrrrestingtk...
.............hahahahahahaha...........

Hey, Terry. I had a brother in WWII, (never got to know him) and I learned to sing all those military songs at a young and tender age.

From memory:

From the halls of Montezuma,
To the shored of Tripoli.
We will fight our country's battles
On the land and on the sea.
First to fight for right and freedom,
And to keep our honor clean.
You will find the streets are guarded by
The United States Marines.

Hey, I'm smiling.....(might have missed a few words there)

D'art. You better start wearing something white on the dark streets, and a smile can NOT be your umbrella.

Corrected lyrics"

If the army and the navy,
Ever look on heaven's scene,
They will find the streets are guarded,
By United States marines.

Shut up, Letty, and go eat.

Ok....can I remember all the words as I learned them oh so many years ago?

From the halls of Montezuma
To the shores of Tripoli
We will fight our country's battles
On the Land and air and sea
First to fight for right and freedom
And to keep our honor clean
We are proud to bear the title
The United States Marines

That was the first verse. I can't remember the last two. Only slightly different from yours.

<Smiling at some of the random stuff that's locked up in my head.>

patiodog's posts about Madison on the "We're freezing over here!" thread. I'm unreasonably happy that he likes it, like when you introduce two friends and they really hit it off. (Though I was hardly responsible for the introduction in this case.)

Can't think of a thing that made me smile today ... except!!! ... a phone call from BigDice tonight:)

talking at cross purposes always makes me smile.

You all know I seldom bring up faith or religion, but the following made me smile so big that I needed to share it:

Kinchen needed faith on Super Sunday
5 Feb 04 / by Howard Balzer, USA Today Sports Weekly

HOUSTON -- Forgive Brian Kinchen if he had thoughts during the Super Bowl of being back in Baton Rouge, La., doing what he had done every day until December, which was teach Bible seventh-grade students at Parkview Baptist School. That sure beat the pressure of snapping a football in an NFL game.

He had been out of football since being cut by the Carolina Panthers in March, 2001, and playing again was the furthest thing from his mind since submitting his retirement papers last April.

There were some tryouts in 2002, but nothing panned out, so the 38-year-old long snapper got on with his life's work.

"I was happy," Kinchen said. "I have been a man of God since I was 14 years old and this seemed to be what He had in store for me."

At least until the call that came to the school on Dec. 15. The Patriots had just lost their second long snapper of the season to injury (Sean McDermott, who had replaced Lonie Paxton), and the person on the other end of the line was Scott Pioli, New England's vice president of player personnel, inviting Kinchen to Foxborough for a tryout. Kinchen, whose 13-year career had included stops in Miami, Cleveland, Baltimore and Carolina, had played for coach Bill Belichick with the Browns.

"I didn't leave (the Panthers) on good terms," he said, "and I wasn't sure I wanted to do it again. I didn't want to leave my four sons. I called home and discussed it with my wife. I hadn't even followed the NFL and she was the one who told me the Patriots were 12-2. I even discussed it with my class. To them it was like, 'What are you waiting for?'

"They said I'd regret it if the Patriots got to the Super Bowl and I had turned down the chance to play. I put my trust in the Lord, because he's in control."

But Kinchen's faith had been severely tested.
"I was doing things I've never done in my life," he said.
There was a high snap in the playoff game against Tennessee, and more struggles during practice last week.

"I was playing mind games with myself," he said. "I was scaring Bill half to death. I just couldn't compose myself."
Then, just hours before the game against Carolina Sunday, Kinchen sliced his finger while cutting a piece of bread. The deep wound was on the inside of the finger next to his right thumb, just the finger necessary to grip and control the ball on snaps.

He said, "I prayed consistently. I kept saying, though, 'Father, why are you doing this to me.'"
But the struggles continued. He bounced a snap that punter Ken Walter scooped off the ground. There were two extra-point snaps that skidded to Walter, the holder for kicker Adam Vinatieri.

Scott O'Brien, Carolina's special teams coach, was Kinchen's coach in Cleveland.

"He wasn't going to make it easy for me," Kinchen said. "He put me through the ringer. My old special teams coach made sure they tried to beat me up. I was knocked loopy and cross-eyed after one extra point.

"To say the least, it was a rough day. I was struggling mentally. Bill just told me to get tougher, to get it done. And I was never tentative."

So it was that Vinatieri, Walter and Kinchen came on the field with 9 seconds showing on the clock with a chance to make history. The Panthers called time out, and Kinchen acknowledged, "It may have been just as much to ice me as it was for Adam. I can tell you, God was never out of my thoughts."

He couldn't afford to have thoughts of long snapper Trey Junkin, who came out of retirement last year and cost the Giants a playoff game against San Francisco. Or the Colts' Justin Snow, who snapped one over punter Hunter Smith's head in the AFC Championship Game.

Heck, Kinchen had some encouraging words for Snow after the Patriots' victory.

"After all," Kinchen said, "in this league, at this position, you can never be a hero. You could always be a goat. All of us are brothers."

But he was alone with his thoughts Sunday. This was the Super Bowl, and the game was on the line. Being a goat was not part of his thinking.

"I just focused on doing what I always do," he said and saved his best for last.

Said Walter, "You're only as good as your last kick, or your last snap and that last snap was absolutely perfect. The laces were out, and the ball was right where my hands were. Perfect. Now he can walk off into the sunset."
It was a relieved Kinchen that asked this columnist to snap a picture with him and his four sons (Austin, 14; Hunter 11; Logan 8 and McKane 4) in front of his locker.
"It's a tough deal, coming out of retirement when there is so much pressure," he said. "Tougher than I thought it would be."

Any thoughts of playing again dissipated quickly.
"I'm done," he said. "Put that in stone, especially after everything I went through this week."

He'll savor the victory, and go back to teach again as a champion, just as his father Gus was in 1958 at LSU, the last time until last month they were national champions.
When he arrived in New England seven weeks ago, Kinchen thought, "I could see right away there was something special here."

Back in the real world, the kids of Parkview Baptist, which include his sons, know they have something special, too.

Howard Balzer is a columnist for USA Today Sports Weekly.

I still want a Build-a-Bear workshop store here, too ...

One of my key employees called in at 10 am this morning: "Dad needs my help with a situation on the farm. I'll be in later." He made it in about 2 pm.
The rest of us, pretty much urban-dwellers, stood around waiting, knowing that, in due course he would tell us a story. And he did, and it was nothing to smile about. A story about a cow and a calf and a birthing gone terribly wrong.
I reckon the only way we could muster up smiles was out of gratitude that we weren't there having to deal with that. Sorry for a downer of a post; I tried to put a positive spin on it but...
We ate veggie lunches today. -rjb-

<GASP> I forgot Monday's smile!
My executive trainee moved on to bigger and better things this week. I was on vacation and returned Monday morning. Her last day was Saturday. She left me a Build-A-Bear. It's brought smiles all week.

This one's for NIMH:
www.buildabear.com

Waking up with a crystal-clear, note-perfect rendition of "When the Heart Rules The Mind" by gtr going through my head this morning. I laughed at that kind of soaring, confectionary 80's pop at the time, but I don't have access to melody much anymore, and it's fun. (Also smiling at the fact that with only one phrase for certain, typed it into Google and found the rest, which brought the rest of the melody.)