The characters below are speaking about a friend who has died.
"We never toasted Gabby," Beth said ( Read more... )

Too many people, too little time, nowhere near enough sleep. Fitting things into my schedule so tightly they are crammed into corners. Praying for fortune and luck and happenstance to allow for fortuitous scheduling. Fighting my own limitations and physical needs, and being forced to accept them, anyway ( Read more... )

I recently finished reading Stumbling on Happiness, by Daniel Gilbert. It's an excellent, fascinating book. Gilbert explains how we explain and justify our own actions to ourselves, how we remember experiences and use those memories to predict the future, and how all this combines to increase or decrease our sense of happiness. And he does this ( Read more... )

Now and then it's good to pause in our pursuit
of happiness, and just be happy.

~Guillaume Apollinaire

The majority of us lead quiet, unheralded lives as we pass through this world. There will most likely be no ticker-tape parades for us, no monuments created in our honor. But that does not lessen our possible impact, for there are scores of people waiting for someone just like us to come along; people who will appreciate our compassion, our unique ( Read more... )

I had fun planting today. I normally do perennial beds that will have interest year-round (perennials are plants that live for more than one season), but we need bright blooming color by Sunday. That made today an easier and more frivolous exercise than I'd usually tackle. Okay, so I know what will grow well in this season & climate, grow well ( Read more... )

Name ten small things for which you're grateful for today.

1. A reasonable amount of sleep.
2. NPR
3. Having an intelligent and competent realtor.
4. Garden shops with good selections.
5. Osteospermum 'Orange Symphony' (the photo doesn't show the purple centers that really set off the salmon-orange petals - I swear my tastes in plants are ( Read more... )

I really truly was going to attempt the remarkable and go to bed by midnight, a bizarre attempt to fall asleep earlier than I've managed lately. But then I was browsing the websites of some of my favorite authors, looking for things I might want to check out tomorrow when I'm at my favorite library, and I discovered that several of these authors ( Read more... )

Well, my Friday night date fell through, so I'm consoling myself with make-over shows on television. Would someone please nominate me for TLC's What Not to Wear? I'd hate being on camera, but I'd love to have $5000 for a new wardrobe, a trip to New York would be a blast, and I'd gladly throw out my existing wardrobe in favor of clothes that fit ( Read more... )

Thursday was ... well, I think the realtor was here. Or was that Wednesday? I know the electrician was back finishing up his work. The cleaners came in the afternoon, to finish cleaning the other half of the house. I'm not impressed with their work, but I was raised by a woman who made me clean the molding around the bathroom floor with a ( Read more... )