What makes me happy part 3

A dog that is always happy to see me, even after being locked up for 12 hours.

Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.
~ Dalai Lama

What makes me happy part 2



Having a loving dog and patient friends.

 Oh, and padded bike shorts.

Keep your face always toward the sunshine and the shadow will fall behind you.
~ Walt Whitman

What makes me happy part 1

Local festivals, homemade blackberry chip ice cream...

...and old men wearing tie-dye dancing to live bands.

Don't ask what the world needs.  Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it.  Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
~ Howard Thurman

Farm fresh goodness

Struck gold at the farmers market today:

Isn't it beautiful?

From my CSA:  green onions, yellow zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, some sort of squash I forget the name of, parsley, elephant garlic, radishes, cabbage, eggs, and a lemon cucumber. 

From elsewhere in the market: carrots, dill (why have I not planted dill yet?  It has the best smell ever!), peaches, and plumots.  I think thats how you spell it - its a cross between a plum and an apricot. 

I'm actually excited to cook.  Add the above to my cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and nectarines I bought yesterday, I have a wonderful bounty for the next week or so. 

Oh yeah, and I had to cut a bunch of mint because it was growing out of hand. 

Wonderful!

The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.
~ Henry Ward Beecher

Photos of a well-packed vacation

PENNSYLVANIA

Landed to pouring rain in Philly.

A night with the Amish.

Oh, small-town Pennsylvania.

One of my favorite places to shop - market.

Enough to inspire one to cook.

Or to use soap.

A summer-must.

Homemade applesauce.

The only non-face kid photo I have.  Celebrated birthdays with home-made gifts.

Drank my mom's smoothies.

Voted for my niece's art.

Played Scrabble.

One of the funniest things ever.  First day of school - notice the placement of the fathers and mothers.

 MASSACHUSETTS

Local bar - Capones.

Mini road-trip

A cute little touristy town.

Where we walked around and enjoyed the atmosphere.

We drank beers in Maine.

What I had.  Partly because the name made me laugh.

Visited Boston with an old college friend.

The first church of Christian Science.

The oldest firestation in Boston.

Haha...the only thing that would make him look more like a tourist would be a map in hand.

I really enjoyed Boston Public Library.  It inspires.

We're cuter in this one.

Watched a cliff-diving competition.  Amazing.

My brother, the preacher.

We went to our own cliff-jumping the next day. 

My brother.  Typical.

More local beer.

Boston Museum of Fine Arts.  Mummified dog & cat.  I found the ancient Egypt art the most fascinating.

A breakdown of the coffins of Nesmutaatneru - in the foreground is the mummy, then the Cartonnage coffin ( made of wood), the inner coffin (also made of wood), then the outermost coffin.  Awesome.

Beautiful cartonnage case containing the mummy of Tabes.

A suspension hook used by the people of Papua New Guinea. 

Finally got my luggage back at 1:15 this morning.  Its a long story of plane delays and general incompetence. 

I just noticed the Jehovah's witnesses are back in the neighborhood.  I should probably move away from the window now....

Live,
travel,
adventure,
bless,
and don't be sorry.
~ Jack Kerouac

Back

After 14 hours of travel, I finally arrived back home about 2am this morning.  Minus luggage, but still happy to be back.

I haven't been forced to run in the airport for so long, I think my 10 minute layover barefoot sprint with subsequent pleading with the flight attendants to open the door keeps me on my toes. 

I have a lot to do - highest priority, pick up Atticus, buy coffee creamer and mow the front yard, which contains weeds almost as high as my knees.

Will share more pictures tomorrow.

Excerpt from a prohibition map at Boston Public Library's map room. 

Nothing can dim the light which shines from within.
~ Maya Angelou

Super duper vacation

I'm getting the hang of this vacation thing.  I'd love to NEVER go back to work at this point.

I leave in 7 hours for the airport.  Haven't packed yet, but I'm pretty much on target for my plans for the day. 

Just got waylaid by a bunch of female Jehovah's witnesses.  They're sneaky...didn't even see it coming. 

Finished baking a batch of biscuits for Atticus to take to the kennel.  Getting sad I need to drop him off soon...we've been like peas and carrots this past week.  Its been nice to just chill at home with him.  I can't pack my suitcase with him here though, he gets really anxious and clingy.  He already started to whine a little when I packed up his food for the kennel.  He knows what dog food in sandwich bags means by now.

My birthday was actually pretty awesome.  I shouldn't have doubted it.  Finished the Birthday Project - 33 random acts of kindness.  They included making cards for the Selflessness Project, bringing ice cream to my coworkers, giving the mailman a giftcard, taking clothes to Goodwill, volunteering at the foodbank (Jayme and I bagged 100 bags of food in an hour!), and handing out flowers to people outside of Target, to name a few things.  It was actually pretty neat, and Jayme was excited about it as well.  She wants to do the Birthday Project for her birthday in September.  I already volunteered to help. :)

Man, I'm still annoyed by the Jehovah's witnesses.  Well, not them, they were fine.  Just by the fact that I didn't realize who they were right away and got sucked into a conversation. 

Here's some new and old pictures....

My contribution to the Selflessness Project.

Friends treated me to dinner and dessert last night.  MMM...Snakebites. 

Jayme got Atticus a new toy.  He loves it. 

Investigating a brand new bag of dog food. 

An exciting goodwill find.

Got stuck at a drawbridge opening the other day.  I still find it odd to get out of your car in the middle of the highway, even though traffic is stopped and can't get through. 

You can't see it, but there's a bear in there.  Sometimes the wildlife agents will bring by animals for us to see or hold.  No, this was not a bear to hold. 

The fallen officers memorial at the Academy.  Tony's name is on the right, left column, very bottom. 

I volunteered at the Trooper Tony memorial run at the Academy.  Kinda fun. 

Not something you see every day at work.  They were fixing and replacing satellites on the radio tower. 

This guy makes me laugh every time I see him.  A goodwill find, I think the succulent I planted makes it look like he has hair. 

If it scares you, it might be a good thing to try.
~ Seth Godin