My tea drawer. In my kitchen I have a drawer full of different types of tea. It makes me very happy.

My pantry. Seriously. Bought a nice storage unit for the kitchen and having it all loaded up with my extra spices, influsions, and sacks of beans stimulates a deep animal contentment in my brain.

also, a few quick rounds of Strange Adventures In Infinite Space.

I'll second The Whelk's pantry-pleasure: having shelves lined with glass jars of dried beans or pasta, tins of flours, and plenty of dried fruit gives me a deeply satisfying feeling of security against want.

What else gives me the happy?

A new stack of books from the library.

A freshly printed final draft of an essay or article. I like when it's still warm from the printer.

My great-great-somebody's silverware, passed down from my mother's cellar.

Hosting a party, now that I've learned to be a relaxed, shoes-off kinda hostess. I especially like stocking up on the little treats that specific guests like, and the surprise and pleasure they get from that.

I have all of my nailpolishes arranged on top of my bookshelf in threww rows (yes, I have a lot) by color, and it is a pretty rainbow I walk by everytime I enter or leave my apartment.

I also like that one of the light switches in my place controls a whole outlet so I can turn the lights and stereo etc off all at once.

that should say "three"

Hearing about (or witnessing) bizarre things happening in the store, like this one from our kids department, posted to today's staff e-mail:

Sunday at 3pm saw a little girl in a detailed Geisha/asian outfit laying belly down on the floor, dragging herself across the floor by her elbows...totally creepy

Talking with my moderator friends on skype.

taskbar shuffle is a godsend if you multitask . one of the best things in Windows & is that it lets you shuffle tabs

I loveeeee taskbar shuffle like no other.

Other little things that make me happy:

- a neatly alphabetized bookshelf
- pretty chopsticks to eat yummy noodles with
- my new Piccadilly notebook (which is like a Moleskine but way cheaper)
- this really cheesy little box on my desk which has ceramic flowers and a pastel-colored little fairy figurine with sparkly wings on top. I put safety pins in it, and it cracks me up every time I look at it.
- the weirdo Will Turner (from Pirates of the Caribbean) action figure that my friend gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. It looks nothing like Orlando Bloom. If you press a button, he tries to swashbuckle and ends up dropping his sword instead. It's awesome.

A freshly printed final draft of an essay or article. I like when it's still warm from the printer.

Oooh, yes. Love that feeling of being done.

As an Aspy boy, no program that does so little has given me so much gratification as Taskbar Shuffle. A close second is Rapidshare Auto Downloader.

In meatspace, it would be re-seasoning my cast iron skillet after use by using a paper towel to smear the inside surface with vegetable oil and then heating the empty pan over high heat. Even after the skillet has cooled enough to be put away, I'll leave it on the stovetop for a while so I can have the pleasure of looking at it.

Programs? For Windows, I love the APOD wallpaper program and the super-simple file manager Servant Salamander 1.52.

Other stuff? I like well-designed tools, strong flavors, organized systems, patterns in nature, art in everyday life, all kinds of things.

And lately, I've been consumed with Akro Agate Depression-era slag glass flower pots (here are some pictures, not mine, which will give an idea). They're little, but they bring me a lot of joy.

A lot of my work consists of typing TeX documents, so I care a lot about editing text files. Practically every day I say a little hymn of thanks to Bill Joy. Imagine writing an editor perfectly tailor-made to the way my brain works when said brain little more than barely-sparking gray mush at the time.

Google calendar. Specifically, the reminder feature.

Also: mason jars, really good rice cookers, and bicycle lights attached to bicycle helmets (speaking of which, they're only good for 5 years and mine is due to be replaced).

A couple of gifts that I have received recently - this and this. Each of them, in their own way, makes me happy when I use them.