Good things happened, side note and butterfly kind of week

- There are eight people coming for dinner tomorrow night and so, this morning at home, when I would normally be preparing my Friday blog post, I was tidying my condo for my friend Colin, who is also my house cleaner when needed.  It amuses him that I tidy so much for him.  :)  So just now (taking a quick break at work), I went to Google, typed in Good Things Happened and then Images.  I was looking for a photo to post today.

My blog header is the first image up on Google images.  There are a zillion images below it - lots of Good Things quotes, etc. but a few of my photos, including the first photo of the butterfly from my Tuesday post from this week.

Scrolling down, there was another butterfly photo of mine.  This one above, of a swallowtail - taken in the courtyard of my late mother's assisted living home in Thomasville, Georgia in 2011.  I loved that she had this for a view every time she left her suite. 

- As a side note - I'm just wondering if there is Google job in which someone looks at photos all day and decides which ones are worthy of Google images. 

- Anyway - it's been a butterfly kind of week.  My friend Whitney, who is a Presbyterian minister in Cameron, North Carolina, and is the very one who inspired this blog, posted a photo of a butterfly this week on facebook.  (Her blog Glimpses of Grace is on my blogroll.)  She added:

"This slightly-battered brown and blue butterfly is often seen flitting around my car when I arrive or leave my house. I always feel butterflies signify resurrection and new life, and have had the honor of being present when many faithful people have made that holy journey from this life to the next. I often wonder who is with me in the moment I see this butterfly. The lines between heaven and earth are much more delicate than we often think. As delicate as a butterfly, perhaps."

So her facebook message gave me a peaceful feeling when I read it.  And there it was again just now - a butterfly, in Google images, that my mom and I stood and looked at.   

A little rambling today.  :)  I hope your weekend is peaceful and good!

Happy desk lunch, in other lunch news... and I'm awake

- I mentioned Ruth Reichl's gazpacho a few days ago and finally made it last Sunday.  So good!  A coworker walked by my cubicle yesterday and said she smelled cucumbers.  Indeed - the air around my cubicle smelled so fresh because of it.  And it lingered for awhile.  Lovely.

- So glad the above pic would not qualify for the Sad Desk Lunch tumblr blog, in which the prevailing thought is "62% of American office workers usually eat their lunch in the same spot they work all day."  Click here to view if you need a giggle. 

- And so happy the man downstairs has already left for work as the salt shaker plummeted from a kitchen cabinet, striking a glass on the countertop and breaking it to smithereens.  I looked at the carnage around me and was relieved not to have awakened my hardworking neighbor, but now I'm wide awake. :)

So good, reminder of home and thinking of them

- I suppose food bloggers would put this in a bowl to photograph it, or at least wipe the sides of the soup pot.  :)  This delicious recipe came from the smitten kitchen blog and I loved making it.  Crushed tomatoes, lentils, carrots, celery, onion, Italian sausage, garlic, spices, greens.  So good!  Click the Smitten Kitchen link above to get the recipe.  It could easily be made vegetarian by omitting the sausage.  It's for lunch today - topped with some grated romano cheese.  Yum.

- Switching to Gain laundry detergent just because of this story:  my sister Jo and her husband own a small business and one of their employees was deployed to Afghanistan several months ago.  They keep in touch and he told Jo in an email that what he misses most is fresh sheets on the bed.  His always seem to feel sandy.  So she bought some sheets in the correct size, washed them with Gain and packed them in a zipped plastic bag and sent them off to him.  He told her that he hasn't wanted to put them on his cot - he just likes to unzip the bag and breathe in the smell of the detergent every now and then.  It reminds him of home.

- The delightful smell of that detergent when I walk by clothes that I hung to dry in the doorway.  They also make me think of my sister and the young man in a faraway land.

It's the weekend!  I am looking forward to my two days off and hope you are, too.  Have a great one!

V is for The Varsity, Vintage and Verisimilitude

- Someone relatively new to Atlanta told me recently she had never been to The Varsity drive-in, which opened in 1928 near the Georgia Tech campus.  I told her about some of the lingo used at The Varsity - they call a hot dog a "dog" and it comes with chili on it.  If you don't want chili, they call it a "naked dog."  A naked dog with mustard to go is a "yellow dog walking."  And so on.  It's hard to be at a place like that and be in a bad mood.  :)

- According to Eliot Glazer, "Before the fanny packs and Andrea Bocelli concerts, your parents (and grandparents) were once free-wheeling, fashion-forward, and super awesome." I first heard of Eliot's blog "My Parents Were Awesome" in an NPR interview.  His blog shows vintage photo after vintage photo of parents before they were parents, back in the day, looking cool.

- Verisimilitude - isn't that a lovely word?  I couldn't think of any more "V" things, except "View" and I've done that plenty in the challenge and just called it other things.  Here are the particulars from A.Word.A.Day:

Pronounced:
 (ver-uh-si-MIL-i-tood, -tyood)

Meaning:
 noun:
1. The quality of appearing to be true or real.
2. Something that has the appearance of being true or real.

Used in a sentence:
"There are moments in the new musical The Burnt Part Boys that mirror recent events with haunting verisimilitude."
David Rooney; Fictional Mining Town; The New York Times; May 19, 2010. 

Day 22 of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge, featuring the letter "V".  Three things that give me pleasure.

B is for Books, book clubs and beautiful things

- Even though I am a strong advocate for borrowing books from the library, I still seem to own a lot of them.  There's nothing I love more than time to settle in with a good page turning book.  (I haven't succumbed to the Kindle and its cousins yet.)  My most favorite book in the shelves above is "Anne of Green Gables."  I never get tired of that one.

- Most of these are waiting to be read, and / or future book club reads.  Somehow I find myself in two book clubs now - I refer to them as suburban book club and urban book club.  Suburban book club is my favorite - close friends and lots of good reads.  Urban book club is edgier - more good friends, but they are just more edgy and we meet in coffee houses in midtown Atlanta. 

- I've been carrying this one around for a couple of weeks.  You guessed it - urban book club material.  The fact that the library had only one copy should have been my first clue.  I can't get into it (and curious if anyone out there has read it.)

- This one is calling my name and just begging to be carried around.  Someone passed it onto me and you can tell it's been well loved.  This might be the first non-bookclub book I've read in months.  :)

The origin of my blog came in a roundabout way.  An intern at my church mentioned once that she wrote a positivity blog every day and that the idea came from a blog called "Three Beautiful Things."  The writer of 3BT encourages others to do the same and that's really how I started blogging in 2007.  I still read Three Beautiful Things every day.  It's all about Clare's life in the UK and I've been there for her wedding and the birth of her son. You can view her blog here.

7 x 7 Link Award, memory lane and thank you

My friend Sara from a sharing connection gave me this award.  You are supposed to pick 7 posts that fit the following categories.  Wow - that was hard!  I have had 980 posts, so I had to utilize memory and stats to come up with good responses. 

And I am supposed to award this to 7 other bloggers.  It's just too hard to choose, so I say any of you should use this as good blog history material and do it.  Thanks Sara!  You are a peach.  And thank you to all who come here so faithfully.  Here goes:

1. Most Beautiful Post:  Darkness into light, good neighbor and anniversary.  You thought I would choose one of those mountain / river posts, didn't you?  I have to walk around the back of the building I work in most mornings to get in since the front door is locked until 8:30am and happened upon this beautiful sky one morning.  It fit well with the quote, too. 
2. Most Popular Post:  Shadows and light, a red one and just right.  This post has the second most page views of all time and I don't know why, but it has a gorgeous memory for me.  My mom couldn't wait to get home to model that red coat for my father.  She knew he would love it and he did. 
3. Most Controversial Post:  I stay away from controversy on this blog.  I mean - seriously, there's enough controversy in this world, so I just want you to leave my blog with a peaceful feeling or having had a chuckle.  But I'll say this one:  Tribute, accent and ridin' music since Mr C's got that quote a little bit wrong.  :)  See Riot Kitty's comment.
4. Most Helpful Post: How to live to be 100.  I like this advice so much that I've reposted it a few times. 
5. Most Surprisingly Successful Post:  Thomasville, downtown and brick paved streets from January 24, 2011. This one had a lot of page views.  I like it because it features my new adopted home town - Thomasville, Georgia.  I saw a framed cross stitched piece recently that said, "Home is where my Mom is."  And so, Thomasville is a little bit home to me.  I love that downtown area, the park adjacent to the rose garden and the lovely people.
6. Most Underrated Post:  Treat, games and lovely.  Underrated isn't quite the word because it was significant to me.  It didn't have a photo and there was only one comment, but it was the first comment I had from my darling friend Jannie Funster.  Jannie says she utilized that button at the top of the Blogger blogs that says "Next Blog" and happened upon this post. So Jannie was my first regular commenter and I know most of you because of her and seeing your comments on her blog and then others'.  Thanks Jannie Muffin!
7. Most Pride-worthy Post:  This Is Yours, family gathering and new message - I was delighted that a rock band asked me to help them with printed props for their video.  I sent the link to the video shown in this post to my nieces and nephew and one niece reported seeing it featured on Entertainment Tonight.  :)

Seizing the day, peanut butter pie and books

- The view from Carpe Diem Cafe, and a lovely Saturday brunch with friends Leisa and Kim L. The trains rumbling by the Ice House Lofts building add to the atmosphere. The Atlantic Star Ice & Coal Company originally constructed this structure in 1926 and operated it until the late 1960s, as one of Atlanta's largest producers of ice and coal. The structure has won awards for its Adaptive Reuse and is now home to apartments and this cafe.

- Seeing food bloggers come together to support a fellow blogger, Jennie from In Jennie's Kitchen, in the sudden and heartbreaking loss of her husband to a heart attack. Tami, from Running With Tweezers, participated in what seems like a remarkable event - she made a peanut butter pie. Jennie's response to all the bloggers who asked that they could do to help: make a peanut butter pie to give to someone you love (it was her husband's favorite.) The Food Network even devoted a blog to this, you can see the list of the bloggers who made the pie for Mikey here.

- My suburban book group gathered to discuss the memoir we read. It was "read the memoir of your choice." A favorite moment, when someone held up "West with the Night" by Beryl Markham, and Geneva gasped, "Oh to read that book for the first time. Those lovely words." It's now on my reading list, along with about 10 others now. A good thing.

Indoor pool, Go West and 25

- I admire this dog's perseverance and it's something we can all relate to - the HEAT was getting to him. :) Make sure you watch it to the end.

- Niece's husband TS (does that make him my nephew?) is posting all across America on his cross country motorcycle trip with friends. A comment from yesterday: "Today we ride into the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and winding green roads through rolling hills under blue skies. Theme song of the day is Go West (from Pet Shop Boys)." I like that theme song thing - we should all do that for our day.

- I was one of the winners of the Sunday Quiz over at Fireblossom's blog and got a poem! She asked that I send a topic, but I sent a couple of New York photos taken in May instead and look at the result. Thanks, FB! Check out "25" here.

Karin on the bus, feathers in hair and the walk

- Looking over in traffic during the commute yesterday and seeing my friend Karin Slaughter's face on the side of the MARTA bus. I met her about 12 years ago when she was running a sign shop and I purchased stadium banners from her for the corporation I worked for then. She soon left the sign biz behind and has just published her 12th book, "Fallen." If you like crime fiction, you'll love her books, beginning with the very first one, "Blindsighted."

- Feather extensions in hair must be a new trend and I'm just learning about it. Niece Rebecca had some feathers cascading from her hair when I saw her July 4 weekend. The director of my volunteer organization had a pink feather woven into her gloriously red and orange hair last week. And super blogger Heather Armstrong (@dooce) wrote about her daughter's feather extension here. I think it's cool, but I'm not doing that in case anyone wonders - it's just that it is suddenly a trend that appeared to me in threes.

- Going for my first walk in a week and running into a friend on the path, a little girl selling lemonade in a stand (mother watching close by) and listening to tunes on the iPod. Life is good.

Confetti car, honest mistake and gold star morning

- Someone parked under the last of the blooming dogwood trees making this car look festive. Must be lots of lol-ing going on in that car. :)

- I read recently on a blog or in an article that someone thought until recently that lol meant "lots of love." She had no idea that the little sign off that she was giving on all of her correspondence meant "laughing out loud." She had been putting it on everything, including sympathy cards. Now she worries what the recipients thought of her.

- Earning another star sticker on my calendar for exercising this morning, from 5:20am to 6:00am, on the stationary bike. More on the exercise plan in a future post.

First effort, Triskele and traveling top

- A call came in to the printing company a few months ago with the question, "Do you print hardbound books?" Yes we do and this is my first book with a dust jacket, delivered to the client yesterday. And it has a good message for children, I think (although I might have targeted it toward both, or either, parents.) :)

- The mate to this earring is lying somewhere on the sidewalks of New York - probably Times Square. I lost it on a trek from the theater to my niece's apartment last December. It is a Triskele - a symbol used to symbolize the Druidic Threefold Sister Goddess: Fotla/Eiru/Banba. I emailed this photo around to vendors specializing in Celtic jewelry with no luck and then found another pair on (of all places) ebay. An almost perfect match. So I hope someone found that lost earring, has had it made into a necklace or something and that it brings them good fortune.

- Jannie Funster sent my prize winning package last week, containing CDs, lollipops and this cute top. The top immediately put me in mind of friend Whitney and I impulsively mailed it to her (with Jannie's blessing). She blogs about it here and I have dubbed this top that came from Texas, to Atlanta and is now back in Texas, The Sisterhood of the Traveling Top.

I hope the weekend brings good things to you, my friends. And I hope it is happy.

Three fun things that came in the mail

- My good friend makes gifts for the holidays to send to friends and family and uses the money she would have normally spent on gifts to donate to various non-profit organizations that are dedicated to helping others. A lovely idea and I am tickled pink with my hand-painted stationery.

- Over at Funsterment, Inc., there was a contest to win CDs with the song stylings of the most fun blogger in the blogosphere. I don't remember what it was I did to win it, but it sure was fun to get this package in the mail with CDs, lollipops and a hand-written note from Jannie's sidekick, Blue Bunny, who tells me I am "Awsim." You are awesome, too, BB.

- And my sister spotted this ceramic business card holder with a dragonfly on it and sent it to me, because she knows I like dragonflies. I like that it is holding all the things that come in the mail dedicated to the tax man.

The scent of oranges, visit and words to live by

- Bringing a bushel of Florida oranges in to the crew at work and loving the smell of them throughout the building. And as you can see, a few were snagged for home.

- My co-worker Bobby is usually the first person I see on work mornings. Hard at work in the bindery, he always has a good morning smile for me and a comment about the weather or temperature. On this morning he is bursting to tell me that in the midst of the freak snowstorm in Atlanta, a hummingbird visited his feeder.

- Elise at Simply Recipes tells of the new patio that is going in at her home and not being able to resist writing something in the hardening concrete. Four words:

Love

Joy

Peace

Beauty

The stone mason scratches his head when he sees it and reminds her that the words will be covered by flagstones. Not to worry, she says, she likes knowing the words will be there for her family and friends to walk over. Even if they will be covered.

Dinner, tastespotting and taste of France

- A summertime treat: Caprese salad. Juicy fresh tomatoes from friend Bobby's garden, fresh mozzarella cheese, ground sea salt and black pepper, basil from neighbor Marion and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Dinner. Yummmm.

- The website Tastespotting is kind of an obsession with me lately - I can't stop looking at it and admiring the beautiful displays of food. Readers submit their recipes with appropriate photos they took of them. I am fine with my amateur attempts though. :)

- I always admire the food photography on the "Running with Tweezers" blog. Tami is a food stylist and I always enjoy her posts mixed with recipes and stories accompanied by her beautiful displays of food. The post I've linked to includes a lovely recipe involving tomatoes that might be served in Provence. I'll be making that next.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend, friends!

Day is done, blush and bashful and little gift

- Leaving a book signing and seeing this vision of the sky and setting sun over the city of Decatur, Georgia.

- Reading dooce's blog yesterday in which she had a guest blogger, her friend Sarah, and laughing out loud at the title of it: Blush and bashful. It's all about her impending nuptials, but it made me think of how my sisters and I love the movie "Steel Magnolias" (we get a kick out of the fake southern accents.) :) That line in the movie was spoken by Shelby who announced her wedding colors are "blush and bashful" and her mother piped up and said, "her colors are pink and pink." Anyway - I digress - the post is a hoot.

- Having a chat with the volunteer coordinator at my favorite non-profit, the Georgia Radio Reading Service (for the blind and print-disabled.) I record the New York Times Book Review that airs on Sunday evenings. She asks if I am OK with sticking with that program and I tell her how opening the book review every week to choose the reviews I will read always feels like a little gift. And hopefully the listeners feel that way, too.

Another gift: the weekend! I hope you have a great one!

Parcels, success and try to remember

- This is the only time I order new books, when friend Karin Slaughter's latest book is out. It is such fun to receive a parcel in the mail though and I had almost forgotten about the pre-order.

- Karin used to manage a small sign shop around the corner from my office and I was always interested in what she was reading, so we would do business and then have book chat. I remember the day she told me that she was moving on because she had gotten a three book deal with William Morrow publishing house. Her first book signing in 2001 at Barnes & Noble was attended by me, her father, a couple of other relatives and three sign shop employees. It's been exciting to see her success. The one tomorrow evening will be me and a hundred or more people in an auditorium.

- Another book I had almost forgotten about came on the same day. I won a book just for commenting on Jewel's "Pink Ink" blog, Iris Gomez's book "Try to Remember." Jewel is a journalist who also writes fiction. Thanks Jewel - my summer reading is set!

Medusa in the city, nice stuff and violation

Photograph by Vernon M.

- A view of midtown Atlanta seen from the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. The glass Medusa-like sculpture is by Dale Chihuly. This was taken during one of those cocktails in the garden tours where the fresh spring air was as lovely as the view.

- Riot Kitty's blog post about Nice Stuff that happened to her lately, leaving me with a decided warm and sunny feeling.

- Having dinner and a catch-up with friend Leisa and the blue cheese slathered burger I have been wanting. And then realizing later I violated my Meatless Monday pledge. So I'll do it today - the meatless thing - and actually do that most days anyway. Cheers!

Waking up, back together and editing

- Saying in a comment last month that dogwood trees only have white blossoms and Kim in Florida (where are you, Kim?) sent a link showing that there pink ones out there. And this week discovering a pink dogwood tree in the driveway to my condominiums. I just hadn't noticed it before. Thanks Kim!

- Slowly putting my kitchen back together after the cabinets were refinished and the new floor was put in. The wood laminate floor feels cool and smooth under my bare feet.

- Editing all the stuff that had collected on the refrigerator and held up by magnets has been a challenge. But finally deciding to leave the side of the fridge at the entrance to the kitchen bare, and the front of it loaded with family photos and collected magnets.

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.

Parcel, transition and orange goodness

- So much fun when a forgotten ordered book comes in a parcel. This one must be good since the line at the library is so long for it. My book group is reading it for our March selection.

- Watching the transition from winter clothes to spring. Suddenly I am seeing lighter blouses and jackets. Yesterday spotting a light blue green blouse on someone who looks so much more comfortable now.

- Two posts here and here about carrots last evening, read back-to-back, inspired me to steam up some carrots to go in my warm vegetable salad. A blast of orange goodness. Yum - and I wouldn't have thought of it otherwise.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!