My happy is that I got an iPhone yesterday and am so excited.

Ha! Mine is somehow related to yours, Ardiril. Tomorrow morning my 11 year old daughter goes on an out-of-town school field trip, with her class, to the countryside. The wife and I have made our reservation for dinner tomorrow night, just the two of us, at our favorite French restaurant: a quiet, relaxed little place with excellent food, nicely private tables, perfectly low lighting, etc. It's our spot, our place, that we go to only very occasionally, and always just the two of us. We love having a child, but we love our childless nights at Rue de Varennes.

Last night, I had a load of laundry finish washing late, and went out on the deck to hang it out to dry. (By the time I get home from work today, it'll be baked crispy by the heat.) I didn't turn on the outside light because I didn't want to attract bugs.

Standing out there in the dark, there was just enough light in the sky (from the city lights nearby) for me to see bats coming out of the big oak tree in front of our house and flapping back and forth across our roof, chasing their dinner. Some of them were just four or five feet over my head. Behind the house, the woods were full of fireflies, and the whole neighborhood echoed with the sound of cicadas. When I finished hanging the wet clothes, I stayed out there for another half hour, just watching and listening to the evening, and it was the best moment of my whole day.

Yeah, I've met a pretty awesome potential new ladyfriend who can talk science and music and loves dogs* and goddamn she's cute and I'm alternating between walking around like a doe-eyed, twitterpated idiot and attempting to keep a cool head. We'll see where (if anywhere) it goes, but I'm enjoying the ride. It's been a while.

*In fact, I'm meeting her two lab-mixes for the first time tonight. Big step!

We just got back from the best vacation ever. So the happy is mixed with sadness at being back in our daily grind, but wonderful memories all around.

Thanks so much everyone for sharing their happy moments. I love this shit.

Yesterday I brought my dog to this place. Testing demonstrated that she is sweet, gullible and trusting. She will trust someone who fails her over and over and over again (really, they repeat the trials endlessly), and still go back to that person in the expectation that maybe this time will be different.
My heart swelled and exploded with love for the awesomeness that is my dog, and all dogs everywhere.

The mister's cataract surgery (second eye, left this time) went well per the follow-up this morning, yay!

A couple of weeks ago I got a blender so that I can make smoothies. I go outside in the hottest part of the FL day to hose the ponies down; I generally get a little wet myself, but I still come in panting and sweating. It's so disgustingly miserable out there. Ooooooh it's nice to have a cold slushy drink when I'm that hot. This one little thing is making all my days SO much better.

I finished my first day of processor training yesterday and the woman teaching me helped me finish a collection earlier today.

My wedding dress arrived, and not only does it fit so perfectly as to not need more than hemming (a miracle, considering my Huge Tracts of Land), I will probably be fine without a shrug, which will also cut down the price. And the color doesn't suck.

(It's a bridesmaid's dress that I had to buy sight unseen -- the color is nothing like that.)

My happy was a big, fat plate of praise from the boss today for running our school's final exams "flawlessly". And now I'm making hummus! DOUBLE HAPPY.

Me and my partner are looking after kittens. They are three weeks old and very curious and cute. And they are kiTTenS111!!!1

My happy is that despite missing last week's running group due to jetlag, and despite shaking off a chest infection, I managed to do all the running exercises at the group tonight. I am so glad I started this.

And when we were leaving the park a man arrived with four HUGE French Mastiffs, and one TINY Yorkshire Terrier who probably weighed no more than 3lbs and he was totally bossing the Mastiffs, forcing them to play his games not theirs, and as the man walked past we saw that in his messenger bag he was carrying a French Mastiff puppy which was so fat and cute, like a little furry Michelin Man puppy with little rolls of chub all along his tummy and forelegs. (I almost said 'arms'. I must confess I do call cats' and dogs' forelegs 'arms'.)

[begin derail]
You're not the only one to call them arms, Senyar! Also, in the States the French Mastiff is called the Dogue de Bordeaux which always gives me a giggle.
[end derail]

memebake, one of the strict rules around here is that if you mention your kittie(s) at all in a thread, you must post a picture!!!

My happy is that I was FINALLY able to roll over my 401K from my old job to the new job. The old job people, not wanting to give up their money, were incredibly unhelpful, and to make matters worse the new job people weren't that great either (they probably couldn't be bothered with such a small amount as mine). But I have my money now, yay!

I had a wonderful time at the IA writers' workshop 75th...and a lovely indie bookstore is now open in Des Moines!

We are two days away from a new toilet. One of those dual-flush smart toilets.

Of course now, we have none. There is some pretty extensive floor tile work going on in concert with this.