One of Those Days...or Several...

Do you ever have one of those days...the kind that makes you groan, rant, talk aloud to yourself?  Or maybe, like me, you might even be lucky enough to have several in a row?  Now, I am very fortunate to rarely have really bad days...most are a 3 - 5 on the richter scale.  They are just the low level annoying, just small things that are not going right, kind of days.  And nothing is more annoying than a series of wrong little things when I am bone tired or frazzled.

Case in point:  Friday...into Saturday.  I left work after a long day.  I had every intention of hiking the dogs in the hills, but was just too tired to load them up in the car and get them out there.  So, I went back and forth for awhile - will I go, will I not go...and finally decided no.  At around 4:30 (I start work early in the morning), I started bread in the bread maker.  Of course it took a very long time to finish and I was up way past my bedtime, knowing that I had to get up at 5 the next morning to get Dave off to work, waiting for the stupid machine to beep.  Finally, it was done, cooled, and in the bread bag.  Off to bed and the requisite half hour of reading that I needed to fall asleep.  I downloaded "The Lincoln Lawyer" on my Kindle thinking it would be a good book.  I started to read and had the weird feeling that the story was familiar.  Um, when was this book published?  2005!  I thought it was fairly new, but alas, no...I had read it.  So I flipped back to Bill Bryson and all was well.

The next day was going just fine...I went out to run some errands...talked to nice people...hit a few junk shops and found some fun things.  Good day so far.  So, I returned home, walked through the door with bags and my Starbucks iced tea to find 2 very happy looking dogs and crumbs all over my floor!  There was a soggy, chewed, and empty cloth bread bag off to one side.  I hadn't even had one slice!  Doh!  The bread was gone.

So, after wishing I had opted for small dogs instead of large counter surfing dogs,  I slogged into the kitchen to make another loaf of bread.  I had to wash the things I used the night before.  I had to load all of the ingredients into the machine, turn it on, and then finally, I sat down at the computer for some much deserved internet time...30 minutes later, while I was looking for my cell phone, I noticed that I forgot to put the little mixing thing into the bottom of the bread maker!  Well, I can tell you that I had a very colorful internal rant.  Then, I dumped out the muck in the bread maker, washed everything AGAIN and started a new loaf of bread AGAIN!!!  All the while shooting highly disgruntled looks at my clueless dogs.

You and I both know that some days are just like that.

So, when I'm having a particularly trying day, there are little things that still have the power to make me smile:

Birds singing
A sunny day with a few minutes to sit in the garden
A gorgeously wonderful piece (or ten) of chocolate
A hot cup of tea
Looking at my dogs (but not immediately following the bread incident)

AND, a couple of things around the house that have the power to make me smile.  See crazy eyed               cat pictures:

How could anyone look at this tiny pottery cat and not smile just a little bit?

The list kinda makes me think of "The Sound of Music" and how I should be singing, "These are a few of my favorite things..."

Oh, and then, on Sunday, when I was getting ready to post this, I realized that I had lost my camera usb cable.  I probably threw it away, knowing me.  So, I now need to order a new one to upload pics!  I looked everywhere...grrrrrrrr.  Happy thoughts, happy thoughts, happy thoughts...



And then some photos that I just like... since I can now download them!

A tiny child's tea set that I think is adorable...also has the power to make me smile...

And sometimes, without even planning it, the dishes look pretty in the drying rack!