Good morning!! Happy Friday!!! Happy Best Day of the Week!!! I saw this posted on X and I decided that our dogs, Ralph, Josie and Trip will definitely want to send a snail mail Valentine card to these adorable children. I know that I have some fellow “snail mail” lovers who read the blog. Will you join me? Don’t our precious children need to know that “Love Makes the World Go Round“?
I got pretty deep on the blog this week, but on Fridays, I don’t go deep. On Fridays, I go fun. Maybe life is really just one big giant amusement park, right? There is so much good stuff out there to experience, enjoy, utilize . . . .So today’s “favorite thing” on Favorite Things Friday are these hilarious, over-the-top, “I really shouldn’t be laughing at this, but these are so damn funny, I’m almost peeing my pants” cocktail napkins. I stood in front of the DRINKS ON ME display in a local gift boutique, making a fool of myself cry-laughing at their snarky, colorful napkins, coasters and cards. If you want to start your weekend off with some belly laughs, go to their website, stat!
https://drinksonme.com/
Here is one of their tamer coasters:
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here is the question of the day from 3000 Questions About Me:
Happy New Year!! Happy 2024!! I have really good feelings about this upcoming year. It’s going to be a good one! (We even get an extra day – leap year!) May all of your dreams come true for this year. And remember to dream BIG!
I already have our lucky New Year’s Day meal simmering in the kitchen. Pork, kielbasa, brats, sauerkraut, collards, black-eyed peas. It smells good in here!
I’m going to add a new daily addition to the blog. One of our sons got me a book for Christmas, called 3000 Questions About Me. He thought that they would make great writing prompts. I think that I will share a question each day that might work as a good writing prompt to any of my readers who also like to write and/or like to keep journals. Keeping with the theme of luck, here is today’s question from the book:
704. What have you been very lucky at?
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Happy Friday!! I’ll get right to my Friday Favorite for today because Ralphie and Trip are modeling them for me. (Josie, our rough collie, has too much mane to don an original Daisy’s Dog Collar) Our boys are looking fancy with their new seashell collars that we recently purchased for them at a local beach fair. These cowrie shell, patent-pending woven collars are unique, attractive, waterproof, guaranteed for life and such a fun conversation starter with other dog lovers and enthusiasts. The owners of Daisy’s Dog Collars are recent empty nesters from New Jersey, who sold everything and now sell their collars at various venues all over the United States. They also give a portion of their profits to animal rescues all over the States, as well. Good product. Good cause. Good people. Good looks. Good dogs!
You can get your favorite canine a Daisy’s dog collar at their website:
https://daisysdogcollars.com/
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Here’s a good reminder from Dwayne Johnson (“The Rock”) to start the week out:
“When you focus on you, you grow. When you focus on sh*t, sh*t grows.”
Let that sh*t go! I was at a little arts and crafts festival over the weekend, and I purchased this little rock from one of the vendors:
I thought that it was a rock crystal carved into the shape of a little cone-shaped shell. I told the woman selling it that I didn’t know why, but this little piece seemed to be calling to me (in retrospect, I am sure that she got a giggle out of my statement). Upon closer inspection when I got home, I saw this:
My “shell” has a face. I didn’t buy a shell. I purchased a rock crystal poop emoji. I still love it though. I think that I am going to use this little guy as a visual reminder to “Let that sh*t go!!” Rocks know what they are talking about. They’ve been around a long time.
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Our dog, Ralphie, the yellow Labrador retriever has an enormous mouth with folds and folds of lips. We feed all three of our dogs, a mix of three different kinds of kibble that our veterinarian recommends. One of the brands of their food has three different sizes of kibble, just in its bag alone. Lately, we have figured out that “Ralph, the mouth”, who eats everything you can imagine (he loves bananas!), does not prefer one of the kibbles in that mix, which are little dark brown pieces smaller than the size of a pea. He picks them out and sort of hides them under his bowl. How he is able to quickly scarf down everything (we feed him with one of those slow feeder maze bowls, to help keep his weight down, by making him eat more slowly) and still pick out those tiny little pea-sized kibbles and hide them, using just his enormous, lippy mouth, is still a mystery to me. I’ve never met a dog like Ralphie before him. Like our son says, “Ralphie is always on a mission.”
Changing the subject, I read a cute story about Paul Newman yesterday. A woman happened to be on vacation in the same beach town as Paul Newman and his family. Early one afternoon she went into a little sweets shop and she saw Paul sitting at a corner table eating a donut. She didn’t want to appear flustered and starstruck, so she ordered an ice cream cone and then quickly left the shop. After the woman walked a few steps, she realized that she had been flustered and starstruck and had left her ice cream cone in the shop. As she turned around, Paul Newman was right behind her. He gave her a flash of his gorgeous blue eyes and a big smile and he said, “It’s in your purse.”
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Our Labrador retriever, Ralphie, spent a lot of time with us in the pool this weekend. He’s now an interesting shade of yellow-green. Ralphie is definitely “that blonde kid on the swim team.” You can’t miss the fact that he loves to swim.
There are two quotes that stood out for me, from my weekend reading. They are by the same author, Ehime Ora:
“Today will be an easy day if you let it be. Try not to spiral in your thoughts. Not everything that you think is true.”
“You deserve peace in your life, not just low stress. There’s a difference.”
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
Years ago, I got a lot of giggles from a little cartoon called “Making Fiends.” The show featured two little elementary school girls who couldn’t be more opposite in their inherent natures. Charlotte was an overly bubbly, perfectly happy, “Pollyanna” type who was absolutely oblivious to any negativity, and Vendetta was an evil, cranky, manipulative, angry little witch who created havoc wherever she went. For some reason this show just tickled me. I think that this is because on any given day, I could relate to either one of them, at some level. Today when I was looking up memes for my Monday blog post I found one that Charlotte would have posted:
And then I found one that Vendetta would have posted:
If you need a little goofiness in your day, here’s a little “Making Fiends” short to enjoy:
See you tomorrow, fiends (I mean, friends)!
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
The artist Titsay put this artwork up on Twitter and calls it “A Collection of Things That Bring Joy.” I love this picture. I so relate to it. If you would see my desk or my closet, you would say, “Oy!” and yet I call it “joy.” Every little knick knack which I own holds some kind of meaning to me. That being said, I am fully aware that I need to reduce my clutter. It has been on my to-do list, to do so, since January. I keep looking for that wide, clear space on my calendar, in order to start my decluttering process, that wide space that just doesn’t ever seem to appear. Note to self:
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
What I find most frustrating in today’s world is everything seems to be taken to the extremes. It seems like every example that we are shown of anyone, and of anything, is the rare, scary, worst case scenario, and this “worst case” extreme is being held up, as a typical example of the whole (“the whole” being any particular race, gender affiliation, generation, political party, job/industry, religion, area one lives in, etc.). I don’t honestly relate to the extreme members of any group, whether the group be political, social, religious, etc., even those groups that I technically “belong to” and associate with. I’ve never been “educated” by an extremist or a fundamentalist in any area, because I have already shut down in fear, and in disgust to anything that they have to say.
As seen above, if I had never experienced an ordinary house cat before, and this picture is how I first encountered a cat, I might falsely assume that all domesticated cats are warmongers. In reality, this is actually the first time that I have ever even witnessed a housecat in military regalia. (and this is likely a doctored picture. I don’t assume that “Morris” realizes that he is sitting on an army tank).
I don’t believe that any extremist and fundamentalist is representative of “the whole” of anything. I do believe that hardcore extremists and fundamentalists are more rare than we are led to believe. Yet in my experience lately, our news media, and our social media would have us believing that almost everyone is an extremist about every single one of their own individual beliefs. Can you imagine how exhausting it would be to be that extreme and unyielding about every aspect of your life?! Extremists do not represent my family, nor my friends, nor my community. Do they yours? It takes a lot of energy, (and usually angry, hate-filled, one-minded, intolerant energy) to be an extremist. I prefer being around people who move from their deepest, most soulful energy when they are going about life. These people live their beliefs. Their energy seems to manifest itself in kind, curious, intuitive, loving, open-minded, healthy, thoughtful, and considerate ways. Their energy seems to do a better job of going about their lives mindfully, and confidently “being” the way, versus trying to control and shame and “cancel” and dominate and scare and bully others, into following “a certain prescribed way.” It is much better to be an example of a life well lived, than to try to force, and to indoctrinate your beliefs and your way of life on to anyone else. What say you, Morris?
(Fun Fact: The original Morris, the cat, was a humane society rescue who starred in 58 commercials from 1969-1978, until he died at the age of 17.)
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
If you ever lose/displace something, I have a full proof way to find the said item. It doesn’t involve retracing your steps, a Tile, St. Anthony, a pendulum or a psychic (although in desperation, I have used the above tactics in different drastic measures throughout the years). The sureproof way to find something that is lost, is to secretly, and righteously, and angrily blame someone else in your head for taking your item. That’s what you do. Name a thief. It never fails, right after you get your ire up as you sit steaming in your pitiful, indignant victim chair, your item shows up in some stupid place that you, yourself obviously and carelessly put the item in. When you discover the lost item, you are filled with embarrassment, and shame (for the blame), and also utter relief and joy all at the same time. It’s a whole sh%tstorm of feelings. As an example, yesterday I couldn’t find a $16 pair of earrings that I had recently purchased. They are not my favorite earrings. There is nothing particularly special or amazing about these earrings, but they are mine, and they were lost and I was pissed. I spent a chunk of time yesterday, going through garbage cans, recycle bins, scouring “my places” where I typically put my jewelry, to no avail. That’s when I remembered my trick. Whom should I blame for coming into my house and taking my $16 pair of earrings while stealthily leaving all other valuables firmly in place? The Fedex guy? A neighbor? The electrician from last year? Our first pet sitters from when we first moved here? And that’s when I remembered the most plausible entity to blame – Ralphie, our Labrador retriever. I noticed him munching on something crunchy the evening before and when I went to explore what he was eating, flipping through his piles of lips, he kept his mouth firmly shut, and so I had given up the quest of trying to see what he had been eating. Aha! Now I knew! What a naughty, guilty dog! Chewing on small metal earrings that weren’t his to devour! Is the diet kibble really that bad?! Just as I was giving Ralphie the evil eye, as I went to grab my eye drops out of the top drawer in my bathroom, I noticed two earrings that had obviously been swept into the drawer, just sitting there in the little dark corner of the drawer, looking up at me, almost with their own little evil eyes, as if to say, “What do you have to say for yourself, lady? How do you feel now?” And then, that strange, somewhat overwhelming mix of happy/bad feelings swept all over me, and I put my earrings on, and I hugged Ralphie and I gave him a treat. (and not the diet variety)
Are you passing on love or are you passing on pain? Heal your pain and pass on love.
