Blue chair, sparkling and cherry ginger explosion

- Rediscovering my blue reading chair that's in a corner of my bedroom. My two cats had sort of taken it over (one liked to crawl underneath, too), but both are beloved memories now. After a year, and after being vacuumed about 50 times, it called my name on Sunday for a couple of hours of reading and napping.

- My sister is coming to visit and it has sparked a little extra cleaning that I normally put off. I love opening the refrigerator door and seeing it sparkling and emptied out inside.

- Finishing the last cookie from a Saturday stop with friend Leisa at The Cookie Studio on Saturday. Cherry Ginger Explosion cookie - totally worthy of diet blowing. The Atlanta Journal rated this one of the top cookie places in Atlanta and says that "This Decatur shop donates a portion of its proceeds to the Atlanta Day Shelter for Women and Children." So there you go, it was my duty.

Moving with the sun, glistening and good recipe

- Sophie starts out with a kitchen floor full of sun around 10am and moves with the sunshine toward the window until it moves out around lunchtime. A rare morning at home for me. I admire how she can sleep so deeply.

- A late afternoon thunderstorm that leaves plants glistening when it is over.

- Making Miso-orange marmalade salmon. For two pieces of salmon, mix together 1/4 cup of Miso, 1/4 cup of orange marmalade (preferably English) and 1/8 cup of lemon juice. Slather it on the salmon fillets and pop them in the oven (or toaster oven) to broil 10-12 minutes, or until you see a little char. So good!

Great home, glad it is over and birthday chat

- These horses munching grass in what truly must be a wonderful place in which to be a horse.

- My cat Sophie helpfully sleeping in her crate when I arrive home to take her to her vet appointment. Her initial outraged meow as I shut the door turns to "Woe to me!" meowing all the way there. She turns extremely quiet for her examination, until the shot pinches a little too much and she whirls her head and hisses at the vet. "That's my girl!" I think. :)

- The veterinarian is my good friend and I wish him a belated happy birthday. He smiles and points to his very hip assistant and says, "His birthday is February 14." J. rolls his eyes and nods his head, he has been ribbed about that all his life. I tell him that birth date could work to his advantage in so many ways.

Surveyor, napping spot and thankful

- A rare morning working from home in which I get to see the sun on the kitchen floor at 10am. My companion surveys the world outside before...

...finding a patch of sun to nap in.

- And thankful for good friends checking in on me since I was a bit under the weather for a couple of days. Friend Leisa's care package of bananas, apples, crackers and ginger ale was just the ticket for recovery.

Decisions, flexibility and step in time

- The food is easy - same specials every day - and whatever current sporting event is going on is featured. Mr C's devoted clientele must have a good support system inside.

- The flexibility of my cat Sophie while a bit of remodeling is going on in the kitchen during the day. Her food and water had to be re-routed to other rooms. She seems particularly pleased to discover her water bowl in the bathroom and keeps going back to visit it, as if water is especially more of a treat when it is somewhere else.

- Mulling over the wording for tomorrow's post brings up the phrase, "over the rooftops" and instantly recalls the memory of the chimney sweep song and dance sequence in the film version of "Mary Poppins." And happily singing "Step in Time" to myself on the way to work. I especially like it when the sweeps dance like The Rockettes. :)

Ireland forever, bit of green and special glimpse

- Sophie resisted posing in her sleeping spot with an Erin Go Bragh button, reacting with great suspicion, and resolving only to pat it.

- The button was purchased on the street at the Saint Patrick's Day celebration in Savannah, Georgia a few years ago. A good, albeit somewhat raucous, time. They are expecting 400,000 people there today. I will just dig out a bit of green to wear today in honor and leave this rather cumbersome button at home. :)

- For an special Irish treat today, you might visit my friend Whitney's blog, "Glimpses of Grace" - a recent post features a breathtaking visit to the village of Castlerock, in Northern Ireland.

Companion, sharing and unexpected

- I love this photo of Sophie wrapped up in a throw that had fallen on the floor. It reminds me somehow of when Bugs Bunny used to wrap a scarf around his head to disguise himself as a woman. Sophie is a good and faithful companion and her only fault is making me get up early to get her food as usual on my day off.

- A sweet friend calls to say she wants to share some soup with me that she has just made. It is carrot soup - something that Bugs and Blue Bunny might like. :)

- An unexpected package comes in the mail - my sister has my favorite little shop in Milledgeville, The Red Door, send me two bottles of the wonderful local lotion they sell made of Goat's milk. Owner Susan says she can hardly keep the lotion, made by Milledgeville Soap Works, in - it is so popular. I love supporting hometown businesses. I buy a bottle of it every time I go in and end up giving it to someone as a little present every time. Jo got my last bottle in her stocking at Christmas - so this was a thoughtful replacement and certainly made for Happy Mail.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend full of unexpected surprises. See you Monday!

Content, traveling flowers and dreaming

Traveling flowers

- Taking a few moments to sit beside my kitty on the futon that she camps out on in my home office. I have not been home enough this week. Her contented purr fills the room. While we sit, the screen saver slide show on my computer displays the photo above.

- It was taken with my camera phone a couple of years ago of flowers friend Ginny picked from her garden for me on the day I was leaving for a trip. I put them in a vase and they traveled in my car's cup holder to my sister's mountain house in western North Carolina.

- Dreaming of the day when I can go back there and sit beside the river. It is calling my name.

Camping, legacy phrase and gleaming

- Seeing the new year in while I am a little under the weather, my companion and I camped out respectively on sofa, and chair-I-have-lost-control-of. :)

- My sister reports from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, that "it is colder than Billy Blue!" Yes - I asked. She doesn't know who Billy Blue was, only that her late mother-in-law used to say that.

- Working as a team to "take down the greens" after church service on Sunday. The Advent decorations and tree have been packed away once again. I like seeing the bare church with only its gleaming wood.

Smarter, eternal optimism and 55 please

- Wondering if that worked for the trivia players. This photo was taken the morning after what they are now calling a "500-year flood" in Atlanta. It warms my heart that Mr C's was so "ish" about the time on the evening of an epic storm of Biblical proportions. AND there was meatloaf for dinner.

- The eternal optimism of my little cat Sophie, who has never had anything but cat food, as she watches every bite of oatmeal I put in my mouth. I tell her that all things considered, oatmeal would not be as much of a treat as she thinks even if I do eat it every morning.

- Flashing my car's headlights to invite a signaling driver into my lane, he comes over and settles in at 50 mph. "Go at least 55, please," I plead from behind even if he will not hear. My voice is a pacifist replacement for the car's horn, and what is the hurry anyway? It is Friday! *

* A Friday "good things" 55! Bonus - all three are 55 words today. :)

Abblasen, run through the rain and coast is clear

- A decidedly un-sunny Sunday in which the afternoon was spent in slothful sofa-time, catching up on DVRd CBS Sunday Morning shows, with the wonderful opening theme music, "Abblasen" played by Wynton Marsalis.

- An exhilarating run through the rain with friend Ginny, both umbrella-less, and laughing as we reach our cars soaked.

- Putting away Sophie's nemesis, the vacuum cleaner. She emerges from behind the futon meowing her discontent and "is the coast clear?" I tell her I don't like it much either.

Wishing and hoping, sleeping and reading

- Getting a kick out of being bossed around by Sophie, who likes to hang out in the kitchen, eternally wishing and hoping for more food.

- But sleeping in the sunshine is not a bad way to spend a weekend morning.

- Unless it's reading on the back porch.

Other, multi-tasking and sitting in the sunshine

- Inspired by a request at work to estimate time spent on various functions, here is the same for Sophie based on a 24/7 week: 151 hours Sleeping, 7 hours Eating, 6 hours Staring at Lynn, 4 hours Other.

- A young man walking down Collier Road at 7am, listening to his MP3 player and reading a hardback book. That's what I call multi-tasking.

- The kind people at the commercial hardware business next door to the printing company, allow a man to live in the back. He is attired in bucket hat, shorts, t-shirt and rumpled old suit jacket, no matter what the weather is, 10 degrees or 95 degrees like yesterday. We call him Slow Walker and I would love to know his story, but am told not to ask. (But I always wave when I pass him walking slowly up the street, deep in thought.) Spotting him yesterday afternoon, sitting in the sunshine on the corner of nearby Howell Mill Road and Chattahoochee Avenue, he smiles and nods at me as I drive past.

Food photography, time well spent and pleased

- Practicing for the day I post something on Tastespotting. Still work to do.

- Smile. A friend's analogy of attending a performance event her husband coaxed her to: "It was sorta like the last waterfall hike that I took with (photographer husband.) He told me there were two falls, just 1/2 mile hike. About 3 hours later without taking enough water or food, he had managed to get in several more falls. Yesterday was supposed to be to just go for a few songs and leave--stayed for all 2 hours." She is a fellow enjoyer of Sunday afternoon reading and naps, but says the music was fabulous and she was glad she went.

- My kitty looking thoroughly pleased with herself for capturing a bug behind the bathroom door and eating it. Hopefully it was just one of those pesky ants. Whatever it was got a paw smack-down.

Comic relief, old friend and sunrise

- This photo of Sophie is a favorite, taken with my camera phone on a day when I needed comic relief. I do think that animals have an instinct for knowing when their people need comfort.

- A couple of cold beers with an old friend.

- The sunrise in my rear view mirror also mirrored in the glass buildings in the looming skyline of Atlanta.

Happy Friday, y'all!

Madly reading, angel and with all her might

- Realizing I am not the only one behind on things when I go to my county library site and find that the book my book group is reading for Sunday, "Rabbit, Run" by John Updike, has 12 requests. Scrolling to the bottom, I find that there is a large-print version not yet requested. I can deal with that and be madly reading until then.

- Receiving an anonymous gift. The email announcing it says, "How about that, you have an angel! No, it wasn't me."

- My kitty, who has been standoffish since our vet visit last week, purring with all her might when I pick her up this morning.

Wide awake, grace and shine

- Wide awake at 2am, wandering into the home office to get on the computer, my kitty is excited that I am up and optimistically starts toward the kitchen looking back. Heck - she does her job, so she deserves it. She gets her food early.

- Reading Whitney's blog Glimpses of Grace and finding that she has posted 500 times. Her life is full of grace indeed.

- Having friends in bloggerland is so wonderful. This week G from Cedar's Mountain gives a shout-out to me and Jannie for our exchange about music several days ago. I enjoyed that exchange very much, but even more the fact that it made his day shine. Same here!

Memory, welcome and rose white

- A man who carries the faint scent of pipe tobacco brings back a memory. When I share this with him, he apologizes profusely for being a smoker. No, no, I say, you remind me of the scent of my father when I was a little girl. He used to smoke a pipe back then.

- Readying my home for a rare visit from my sister and since she will arrive there before I do this afternoon, making it welcoming for her by leaving the living room lamp on, plantation shutters open to let in sunlight, a book about the theater we will go to tonight, fizzy water in the refrigerator and a kitty who loves her Aunt Jo.

- Here is what I learned this week about wall paint: You cannot assume that it will stay liquid forever. The man at Sears got a kick out of my paint that had turned solid, but happily for me, they still have Rose White.

Watching, admiring and appreciating

- Watching how my kitty handles a fresh bowl of water that has been set in its proper place. She slides it a bit with her paw so the water moves like gentle waves and then drinks.

- Admiring my neighbor for her intent in loading a trail bike in her car in 27 degree weather at 6:30am. Me: Are you going to ride that today? Her: I was, but can't fit it in!

- Appreciating an enthusiastic Friday welcome by pressman Eddie.

Contented, traveling flowers and the river

Traveling flowers

- Taking a few moments to sit beside my kitty on the futon that she camps out on in my home office because I have not been home much this week. Her contented purr fills the room. The screen saver slide show on my computer displays the photo above.

- It was taken a couple of years ago of flowers friend Ginny picked from her garden for me on the day I was leaving for a trip. I put them in a vase and they traveled in my car's cup holder to my sister's mountain house.

- Dreaming of the day when I can go back there and sit beside the river. It is calling my name.