2026 Happy Blog Challenge

 April 30th Here are some happy things from today: Other than being so tired that I thought I might fall asleep on my feet, work went well.  It was fairly busy and I felt useful.   Nanni (one of the cats) was out and about in the house. We have been keeping Nanni and Winston separate from Kayden and Mochi, hoping to slowly integrate them after we moved and joined with another household.  All the doors were open and the four cats were at least somewhat tolerating each other.  Nanni visited with me for a bit, distracting me from the things I should have been doing. Nanni doesn't like getting her picture taken. Once again I didn't stay home for long after work.  I got a few exchequer things done on the computer, then went to the studio where most of my exchequer stuff is.  There was a specific thing that the bank needed that I had to print out.  I no longer have a printer and wasn't able to get the one belonging to a housemate working for me....

April 29th Here are some happy Wednesday things: Work was just work today, but after work they gave us hamburgers and hotdogs.  People stayed to toss a ball around but I had places to be.  I did remember to talk with HR about some things before I left.  I now know a little more about attending college through the program at work.   After work it was all about doing Exchequer things.  One thing was to get receipts from an event that happened while I was away.  A bonus was getting to see someone I haven't seen in a while.  It was only a few minutes, but it was good to see them.   The other Exchequer thing was to go to the bank to start the process of changing signatures on the SCA account.  It took much longer than anticipated but we accomplished a lot.   Gideon got new glasses while I was away.  He is SO close to being as tall as me! ☮ Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor. Thank you for being here ...

 April 28th Here are some happy things from today: Very little sleep was had by me last night, and I made it through work.  Yay!  It was tempting to leave early.  I was assigned to Problem Solve in the beginning of the shift and Broomstick at the end.  There was also a Safety Committee meeting with pizza.  Surprisingly, it was good to be back. The quarter one report for my volunteer treasurer/exchequer position is due this week.  I worked on it way too long yesterday.  Today, with fresh eyes, I got it to balance.  Yay!  There is still more to do, but I'm getting there.  I noticed a new bloom in the yard.  Google tells me that it is a rhododendron but the leaves are a lot smaller than what I'm used to. Google also tells me that this is lemon balm.  😊 ☮ Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor. Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!

 It was a long ride all together, and we all made it home.  Here are some happy things from today: Getting up early and seeing the clouds rise from the hills again. The first home was Stephanie.  Silena and I unloaded our things into Silena's truck and she took me home.  In Stephanie's driveway we saw a baby turtle.  At home, there are new plants coming up.  One of the things about a new house is seeing the different plants that will pop up in the spring.   Here are some from today: A lonely daffodil. Forsythia. I think tulips. Bluets.  Bluets are more blue in the south. ☮ Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor. Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!

 April 26th The problem with going south to find spring is that when going north, it slowly fades away.  However, this is also a good thing because I get to experience some parts of spring again.   We were up and in the car by seven this morning.  The car ride from where we were near the Great Smoky Mountains is a long ride from where we are staying in Pennsylvania tonight.  With stops it was about 12.5 hours.  Here are a couple pictures I took from the road.  The clouds rising from the hills this morning were lovely.  So much less green! Thanks to Silena, I was reminded that hotels sometimes have fitness rooms.  I took an hour and walked three miles on the treadmill at the hotel and got my 10,000 steps.   ☮ Continued to read: No Time Like the Past , by Jodi Taylor. Thank you for being here and being part of my daily happy things. Stay safe!

 April 25th This morning we did some last minute site-seeing and checked out some of the local shops.  Later in the afternoon we packed and relaxed.  Tomorrow will be a long day in the car. Before getting to our first destination we saw more elk.  This time they were all bulls of varying ages. Don't worry, I wasn't the driver. This is from the back seat. We spent some time walking around a beautiful park on an island in Cherokee.  There is a quest to find as many bear statues as you can in Cherokee.  I snapped some pictures going through, there are some I missed. This painting is from a map dated 1838. The Oconaluftee Visitor Center and Mountain Farm Museum were our next stop.  The visitor center had lots of history about the Smoky Mountains.  One neat thing I kind of learned was how apples could be dried.  Apparently they put cut apples in a basket in a bucket with a red hot ax.  As the ax cools, the apples dry.  Pretty neat. ...