Last Week’s Good Things

1. 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.  
2. 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.
3. 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
4. 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.
5. 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:
6. And another bonus happy this week. Last night, Dan went plaid in a big way.