- Angus Stone’s The Wolf and the Butler – This song is kind of Frog and Toad are Friends, The Fantastic Mr. Fox , druggy weirdness, but it really is a lovely love song.
- Making Dan’s Birthday dinner – This is Dan’s birthday fest weekend. On Friday I made him a special dinner which consisted of a version of Pasta Amatriciana and a wedge salad with homemade blue cheese dressing. The sauce that I used as the base for the Amatriciana was the Andrew Carmellini’s basic tomato sauce that Sam asserts is better than the Frankie’s sauce, of which I am quite fond. After a request for clarification, I got a sweet email from Sam talking me through some of the details of the recipe along with other life updates that made me really happy for him. The sauce was delicious.
- The Happiness Advantage – A couple weeks ago I came across a TED talk given by Shawn Achor. Achor is an expert in positive psychology. His talk really hit on many of the things that I believe. His thesis is that being happy; being positive, yields success. I got Shawn’s book, The Happiness Advantage and read it this week. I am more inspired than ever to bring this message with me in all areas of my life. One of his principals is something that I have been doing lately – writing down three good things every day. Just as writing this weekly blog post does, the three things a day puts me on a constant lookout for the good. It is a nice life practice. http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html
- Fresh flowers – I am pretty sure that when I was growing up, getting fresh flowers meant going to a florist or growing them in your yard, There were not the flower sections in grocery stores that are pretty much a given nowadays. What an awesome thing that for $3 you can buy something that will brighten your windowsill, your dinner table; your desk. This week I bought some flowers that made made my world prettier.
- Funny bits in newspapers – One of the things that I really love about newspapers is that you often find little articles that not only fill a space, but which are hysterical. One of my favorite ones was an article about a cow that crashed through the ceiling of a coffee shop in Iran. It never ceased to crack me up to think about a couple of guys sitting chatting over a cup of coffee when all of a sudden here comes a cow raining down on them. Comedy gold. This week I found a new addition to my collection:
- And another bonus happy this week. Last night, Dan went plaid in a big way.