Happiness…What do we think makes us “happy”?

Here are a few things[in no particular order]~Beauty,Money,Education,Religion,Intelligence,Social Skills, Free Time, Narcissism, Youth and Being Older[both], Sense of Humour, Volunteering[source-Psychology Today, Mental Health] . It also says that only 10-15% of happiness is under our control.  All true, I believe.  We can joke about food making us happy especially chocolate and material things making us happy or that happiness is a choice each of us makes every day but on the whole it is  the little things~ the sound of sweet music, the laughter and smile of a child, the twinkle of an eye, the brilliance of a color, the feel of softness, the comfort of a hug.

BlissChick this is for you…Quotes of the day…”There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room,your garden, or even your bathtub!” ~Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.

“There’s no place like home.”            ~Frank Baum, from the film The Wonderful Wizard of OZ.

ARGHHH!!! [Yes, that is a scream of frustration,disgust, and anger]….Early this morning around 5 am, some *&^%$#@# decided to slash the tires of all the vehicles parked streetside and in drives in our neighbourhood.  If not for my trusty pup, Cricket, and her growling and barking- they would have done even more. It would appear they were going for some sort of record!  The EPD  were summoned and appeared forthwith. They searched the area but unfortunately too late for cars numbering in the double digits. Many irate people were changing tires this morning. These idiots should be apprehended and made to pay not only for the tires themselves but for the cost of changing each tire and compensate each and every person who was late for their jobs because of this vandalism.

Also, update on the Cricket and the pit bull confrontation that happened a little over a week ago.  I visited the vet to have her checked over. Luckily, no physical damage but psychologically she is changed.  She is shy to go for walks at first and not as playful as she was before the attack.  Many thanks to Animal Ark for their excellent compassionate care.  I still have not had a return call from the animal control officer for the city over this incident. All I would like him to do is visit these owners and make sure they take steps to further reinforce their fencing so this does not happen to another dog out walking or God Forbid to a child.

But Let’s Hear it for All the Dogs out There!  Thanks for protecting us, for getting us out of the house and into the beautiful world out there, for tolerating us humans at our best and our worst. 

A special side note to reassure you that all is not lost in this world…. over the weekend we attended a house sale and admired an old steamer trunk that was for sale. After purchasing some other items[bric-a-brac, some draperies, and a bar-b-que set], we couldn’t come to agreement on a price for the trunk so we left it to The Fates that someone else who would like it would get it. This morning, the lady appeared at my front door and offered the steamer trunk to me.  I am going over to pick it up this afternoon.  She is so sweet and generous and remembered our brief conversation about our owning an old home and she wants to make sure this item finds an appropriate home.  She related its history to me and I gave her a quick tour of our home. As it turns out we have a couple of aquaintances in common and I believe that Fate brought her to our home. There are many good people out there and sometimes it just takes a little time to rediscover them!!! update- not only did we get the steamer trunk that rumour has it belonged to a lady from the early 1900s and her oil baron husband but we now are the owners of five handsome mahogany chairs and two wool area rugs that look as if they have always belonged in our house.YEA!

What were you doing ten years ago… Hmmm, I was forty and undergoing neurological tests resulting from a seizure of undetermined origin. My son not only was graduating from high school but enlisting in the military and getting engaged! I was a not so enthusiastic supporter of his decisions but they were his to make and as it has turned out I was wrong to be worried as he has a beautiful,loving and supportive wife and two wonderful, handsome, intelligent little boys as a result of these choices. I was twenty pounds thinner[in no small part thanks to not having to take medication until the brain attack changed my life irrepairably. But as they say, All thing happen for a reason and the experience taught me patience, understanding and gave me a sense of peace and strength which I had not known previously.

Things on my to-do list:

finish reading Fareed Zakaria's Post American World and Tim Russert's Big Russ and Me.

do laundry.

trim the Cricket's nails.

weed the flower garden.

go pick sour cherries at Pangratz or Zeisenheim Farms in Girard,PA

organize and file a tote's full of receipts and papers.

journal.

email my son overseas and my grandchildren in Kansas.

call my sister in Texas.

Snacks I enjoy....

fruit of all manner. especially strawberries, blueberries, cantaloupe, watermelon, and kiwi.

grilled veggies

tortilla chips and salsa

a good vanilla ice cream

What would I do with a million dollars:

I would pay off Saint Andrew R.C. Church's debt, immediately put enough away for my grandsons' educational needs, donate some to Because You Care, and other animal welfare organizations, buy my hubby the biggest boat he could want, share some of it with my son and his family, get  a summer house in the country and travel across Canada by train.

Name some places you've called home:

 Summit Township,PA

Alpine Village, Millcreek, PA

A rented house with four other girls in SW City of Erie

downtown Erie,PA

What are some of your bad habits:

impatience, short temper, tendency to interrupt other's before they are finished with sharing their side of a conversation [really working on that one], low self esteem, eating after 6 pm, and not standing up for myself as often as I probably should.

What are some jobs you’ve held:

secretary for a Quality Control manager

Medical lab tech

board member and officer in youth sports organizations

landlady

billet to a baseball player and hockey players

mother

wife

caregiver

okey dokey then, that was a bit cathartic….now~TAG, You’re IT!

Holy Moly! Did ya know that not only can dogs sniff out illness and drugs but now they have trained them to sniff out cell phones???  From what I understand according to Dan Politi of www.Slate.com  they can detect cell phones hidden anywhere including inside televisions and jars of peanut butter! Just makes you go hmmmmmmmmmm,eh!

some fun quotes about dogs….

“When a man’s best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.” ~Edward Abbey.

“The reason a dog has so many friends is that he wags his tail instead of his tongue.” ~Anonymous.

“Dogs need to sniff the ground. It’s how they keep abreast of current events. The ground is a giant dog newspaper, containing alll kinds of late-breaking dog news items which, If they are especially urgent, are often continued in the next yard”. “Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.”   ~Dave Barry.

“A dog teaches a boy fidelity,perserverance, and to turn around three times before lying down!” ~Robert Benchley.

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” ~Josh Billings.

“In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.” ~Dereke Bruce.

“You enter into a certain amount of madness when you marry a person with pets.” ~Nora Ephron.

“Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.” ~Sigmund Freud.

“We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare.And in return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made.” ~M. Facklam.

“Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence taht you are wonderful.” ~Ann Landers.

“Outside of a dog, a book is probably man’s best friend; inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”~Groucho Marx.

“If there are no dogs in heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” ~Will Rogers.

“If you have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven and very,very few persons.”  ~ James Thurber.

“I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult?” ~Rita Rudner.

“My dog is worried about the economy because Alpo is up to $3.00 a can. That’s almost $21.00 in dog money!” ~Joe Weinstein.

“There is no psychiatrist is the world like a puppy licking your face.” ~Ben Williams.

“”If your dog is fat, you are not getting enough exercise.” ~Unknown.

“Money will buy you a pretty good dog,but it won’t buy the wag of his tail.” ~Unknown.

“Things that upset a terrier may pass virtually unnoticed by a Great Dane.” ~Unknown.

“Some days you’re the dog;some days you’re the hydrant.” ~Unknown.

for more dog quotes go to www.travelingdogs.com

If you cannot tell all ready, I am really enjoying being the owner[?] of a pound puppy named Cricket. If I could I would include a photo [one of oodles I have taken of her in her almost seven months on Earth]. She is companion, protector, sympathizer,detective,comedian, empathizer, and Love all rolled up in one furry auburn package!  She is struggling right now to contain her near-constant need to bark at every Tom,Dick, Harry, and Jane that dares to walk the same Earth with her, especially at 2 a.m. in the morning!!! But she is also showing flashes of brilliance in her manner and demeanor.  She is part Rottweiler, part German Shepherd.  She is wonderful, mahvelous, and she cares for me!*

*Apologies to all the cats out there. But, there’s nothing like a dog!

When you are suffering the insufferable agony of poison ivy on your foot,arm, and shins nothing beats ice cold calamine lotion slathered on until it drips down your appendages and you feel that ‘ahhhhhh’ of relief! How, you may ask, did I contract this dreaded affliction? Well, enter a known poison ivy garden [trying to retrieve some debris from a two plus inch downpour in a twenty minute span] wearing open sandals and shorts. Forget to wash exposed skin when you return to the house.  Snuggle your puppy who probably has oil from the ivy on her coat and from what I am told can carry that oil for days after exposure.  Scratch said skin thinking it is yet another bug bite.  Do not bother to look at the area you are vigorously scratching until after you have broken open said blistering so it will spread, no doubt, to other areas of the body. Repeat said stupidity. Thus, happiness is indeed cold calamine lotion.

After reading my last post over post-edit, I am taking myself and the world much too seriously. Hey, today Meredith Viera blogged about learning to fire a machine gun, If that is not insanity, I don’t know what is!!!

So I made a concerted effort to find some humour and wisdom in this crazy place and found these…

Youth~”The secret to staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.”

Self-knowledge~”I think knowing what you cannot  do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that’s good taste.”

Luck~ “Luck? I don’t know anything about luck. I’ve never banked on it, and I’m afraid of people who do. Luck to me is something else: hard work-and realizing what is opportunity and what isn’t.”

all from the great Lucille Ball, comedian extraordinaire, U.S. film and television actress. [1911-1989]