A Happy Single People Awareness Day to you

Ah, Valentine's Day.

So I'd been meaning to swipe adopt this Love Thursday thing from Barb for a while, because I like the idea - what I got from her blog (Barb, correct me if I'm wrong here) was that somebody at some point declared that Thursdays were a day for accentuating the positive and discussing what all is good. What I got from a quick Google search trying to decipher the origins of this thing is this, that the original charter was from two women who don't seem to be blogging anymore who advocated the posting of pictures reminiscent (see, this is why I need the spell checker to start working again!) of hearts and love and loving things. Eh, whatever. I like my interpretation. And it seems (again from said Google search) that many other Bloggers out there share my take on the topic.

I thought about being all "different" and going with Love Tuesday or something like that, but since it happens to be Valentine's day, and I discovered I was writing a whole post full of things I love, it seemed like a good time to initiate Love Thursday on my own blog.

So, without further adieu, here's ten random things I love today:

1. My dog. You know that I could not possibly initiate something called Love Thursday without starting with my dog.

The rest are in no particular order or actual relevance to my life. Obviously.

2. Oprah. I have been an Oprah resister for a very long time. I roll my eyes when people say "I saw this or that on Oprah". Please, Oprah. I mean, I'm from Chicago, where Oprah is even more of an institution than she is in the rest of the world. But come on, she's just Oprah. She's so overdone and really, what-ever. And so then I'm quarantined and trapped in my apartment home sick all week, right, and my aunt, the one who isn't really my aunt but I grew up with them and they live down the street from me now and who is a HUGE Oprah fan, is like, oh! You have to watch Oprah! She's on every day at four! Alright! Okay! Bye! (That's how she ends every phone conversation. I also love having them so close, in case you missed that)

I'm hooked. ::sigh:: I'm so going to have way too many things piling up on the DVR that I'm never, ever going to have time to watch...

3. That Oprah did a whole big segment on shelter dogs as part of her Valentine's Day show. That, truly, is what did me in.

4. Sassy comebacks. Like this line, from the episode of CSI I'm watching right now. Kathryn and Warrick have just shown up at a scene thinking they were working a missing persons case, and discovered that the missing Paul Sorenson was in fact, a painting, not a person. And the homeowner looks at them and says, like they should've known, "Paul Sorenson was an artist." And Warrick says to Kathryn, "Yeah? What does he know about the forensic analysis of a friction ridge?"

5. This line, from this email I got today. Apparently NaBloPoMo rides again, on a month-by-month basis, encouraging members to blog daily for a month on the given theme of the month (i.e., March is "lists"). And in their email they say,

This is not the same as Blog365 (http://blog365.ning.com). Those nuts are blogging every day FOR A YEAR.

Please. I've been called a nut for lesser things than that.

6. Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens.

7. My new felting buddy. Look, there he is on the washer!


So you know I've been having trouble felting with the frontloader. And yesterday, I finally managed to finish a project I've been working on (that is several months overdue and no, I can't show you yet, 'cause it's a gift), and was like, crap, how am I going to felt this? And I haven't really liked the results I got with the complex's Speed Queen. And my afore mentioned Oprah-loving aunt has offered me her washer, but you know, if you're not a knitter, and you've not felted before, you don't really know what you're getting into, what with all the fuzz and wet wool and whatnot. So I started thinking. I used to toss my Downy Ball in for added agitation. And I thought, hmm. Maggie's not really the tennis ball type, but I bet we've got something...

It's an old toy. She doesn't really like it anyway. I? Love it. It felted, um, my felting project, SO WELL. Oh, my gosh, it was a beautiful thing. I can't wait to show you how this thing turned out.

8. Crusty pox. I have TWO pox now that are all crusted over. Hooray!!! Finally.

9. This quote, which I found on the Center for Mindful Eating website:

Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent.
- Epictetus, Greek philosopher

Sage advice. And further proof that way back at the beginnings of recorded history, the Greeks were still saying "just shut up and eat it."

10. Y'all. Sappy, I know, but I do.