Five things that are making me happy:
- I am flying to New York today to appear on Thursday’s Today Show. (You know, of course, barring real news.) I get to visit with my dear friend Greta for two days, and then I get to take the train up to New Hampshire and stay a couple days with my friend Jennifer.
- When I walked down to Powell’s last night, they had three of the four Catwings books in stock. I bought them all for Greta’s son Beckett. And yes, I bought them new. But I do have a Compact exception for books written by friends.
- I had enough Powell’s credit to get the books for free. This was leftover from hauling in a box of books for credit that I had found in a free pile a few months ago.
- I have a review copy of Gretchen Rubin’s new book Happier at Home to read on the airplane.
- I have two giveaway copies of Happier at Home that I will later share with Non-Consumer Advocate community!
One thing that’s pissing me off:
- I think my cats killed a rat in the basement. There’s dried blood at the bottom of the stairs and an awful smell next to the washing machine. However I haven’t been able to find the source of the stench yet.
Now you. What’s making you happy and conversely what’s pissing you off?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
Hurray! I can’t wait to see you! I think you should offer a reward to your family if they can deal with the basement problem before you return. Happy travels!
Good luck in NY, that is SO exciting! Even though you have a Compact exception, it sounds like the books were totally free anyway. I have read The Happiness Project and read Gretchen’s blog and also her column in Good Housekeeping magazine (borrowed copy, mind you). I’m looking forward to her new book. Making me happy: our son is moving back to our home state and will be closer, woo hoo! Pissing me off: all this decluttering and mess in my house that I must, must tackle (slow progress).
The read the whole book today while in transit and it’s great. I totally wholeheartedly recommend it!
Katy
Hey, give Greta a great big hug for me. I’ve been thinking about her soooo much since I heard about Bea.
And have fun on the Today show! Belly of the media beast!
I adore the Catwings books! Did your kids like the Warriors books (by Erin Hunter)?
What’s making me happy? Mu husband is finally ready to get rid of everything, even his beloved eight track tapes and records. We’re having a yard sale and then donating what’s left. What’s pissing me off? We just emptied our storage unit that we paid $125 a month for to store our “treasures”. I wish we would have done it sooner!
5 things making me happy….
1. Decluttering! I brought a car load of donations to Goodwill. Love to minimize, this is an ongoing project for me this fall.
2. I budgeted only $250 for groceries this month(just food) and it’s the 21st, only 10days left in the month and we still have $43 left!
3. Our tomatoes, cukes and peppers are coming like gang busters now, hoping to make some salsa minus the cukes.
4. I am going to sign up for your give away of the book “Happier at Home”, sounds like a interesting read!
5. The weather in our area has been wonderful lately, which means no AC running for the last few weeks, means low electric bill!!
And pissing me of, lets see……I guess nothing really!!
Have a great trip to NYC and NH. Hope I can remember to watch the Today show on Thursday!
Paula
Make a batch of Fiesta Salsa using the cukes, its good. I had way too many and decided to try it this year. I used the recipe from the ball canning book.
Re: dead rodent somewhere in the house.
I’ve had 3 mice that have died “somewhere” in my house in the last couple of years. The first time, I didn’t know what it was, but the smell was revolting. I finally deduced that it died in the attic, somewhere near the air intake duct for the furnace. That explained why the smell was so much worse when the heat came on. The second time was very similar to the first, so I knew I just had to wait for about a week until it dried out. The last time, there was a dead mouse smell in the laundry closet. I have stacked machines which I can’t move by myself, and the dryer vent goes under the slab and out the foundation wall, very close to the ground. I was able to tell that the mouse was not in the closet, though. Yep, the mouse died somewhere in the dryer vent. I line dried my clothes for several weeks, then thought about running the dryer on “air fluff” a couple of times, just to send the draft over dead little critter and dry it out. It worked, and I was able to use my dryer during the humid part of the summer. It’s just about that time when I should switch back to line drying my clothes in the house (we’re not allowed to hang laundry outside, but sometimes I do anyway).
“But I do have a Compact exception for books written by friends.”
Wait a sec… you’re friends with Ursula K. LeGuin? Whoa… cool.
That was my reaction as well! The Lathe of Heaven is my favorite book ever! 🙂
Ursula LeGuin is a Portlander, and she and my father are good friends.
Katy
1. Happy I did the THREE mile Leslie Sansone DVD workout this morning WITH weights!
2.Happy I took time to cut up and freeze the gift of organic fruit someone gave us, so I can bake a pie when hubby gets home from his trip next week.
3. Happy I do not have to go out anywhere at all in the car today!!
4, Happy for frozen sauce and meatballs in freezer
5.Pissed it is still way too hot (104-110 degrees!) to ride my bike outdoors unless I get out there at the crack of dawn!
Happy that the weather in Michigan has finally cooled to a much more pleasant upper 70’s. Pissed off that my car still has that ‘dead animal’ smell that I can’t seem to locate.
I like your happy things. I’m intrigued by the Catwing books. You should be happy about the rat killing though. Better off dead than running around in your home. Ew. but happy. yet still… Ew.
The problem is that I highly doubt it was a single rat.
*Gag*
Katy
I read Catwings when I was little! Only the first book, though.
Things that are making me happy are: that we’ve been purging things (just a few, but every little bit helps!) and I have a bag of cookbooks to take to Half Price Books!
Also, we’re seeing the King Tut exhibit this weekend. It’s terribly expensive (ended up being $85 total for 2 of us) but we got a $9 discount through my husband’s work and are using a combination of babysitting money and money won from trivia nights (it’s a $2 buy in, but we typically get around $12 when we win!)
One thing that’s pissing me off is my sister’s judgment of how we spend our money and her disbelief that we are actually able to save for a trip home for Christmas AND a cruise next summer.
Let it go. Living well is the best revenge. 😉
Katy
I like that advice, haha! Thanks 🙂
Just reading the description of the Catwings books made me grin. Totally just put the first one on hold at my library (not because it was already checked out. Just because I always feel like a creeper going into the children’s area without any children with me. Particularly if I don’t know where to find what I’m looking for, and have to roam around a while). 😉
Eww, rats one thing I can’t deal with they just freak me out, strange because I love most animals, reptiles etc. Let’s see I’m happy about the cooler temps this week, happy I got to spend most of today with my grandson one-on-one, happy everyone in my family is healthy and doing well. Pissing me off, this is going to sound strange, but where I live we share dumpsters with a couple of businesses, one being a blood lab. We have a dumpster for garbage and one for recyclables, they toss cardboard boxes in the garbage one. It drives me crazy.
Blood products or medical waste are NOT supposed to go in a regular dumpster!!!!!!
I took it that way at first too but after reading it again I think she just means that the blood lab doesn’t sort thir garbage.
My sympathies Katy, we had a similar situation with a rat at my work once. It was aweful. it died in its tunnel along the foundation of the building. Even through the concrete walls it was putrid smelling.
I’m not much of a TV watcher, when & what station is the Today show on?
The Today Show is NBC. Check your local listings.
Katy
Do you know roughly what time you will be on the Today show? Would love to schedule my treadmill time around watching you.
Happy thing – it’s the first day of school
Pissing me off – our new neighbors and their constantly barking dog and loud, swearing kids. Grrrrrr
Happy that: My daughter and I skyped! (she is in college), I sold some stuff on E-Bay( gift money for Christmas), my husband has 1 more week of vacation this year (we’re staying home for just us time), unhappy that I can’t sell any of my handmade doll clothes on Etsy!
Happy with just about everything in my life – my husband, going back to school (sort of), that Fall is on the way – but so upset because I went to make dinner on the grill on Monday and a little mouse popped up to say hello…and over the two sort of chilly nights I did not use the grill has made a nest in the bottom of the grill. No mouse babies yet. I scared him, caught him in a shovel, put him back in the woods. Next night – same thing. Yesterday set mouse traps in the bottom of the grill…the bait is gone and the traps are there. Ugh ! Lots of lovely trees and nooks to make your nest…leave my grill alone !
PS…just found your website this summer – love it, my dear departed mother used to always say the “use it up…” saying to me. A child of the depression, I still do lots of things she taught me to save ! Thanks for a great blog !
Powell’s looks great, and I’ve heard Kristen @ The Frugal Girl praise half.com. Since I’m not anywhere near Portland (I’m in Roger’s Park, Chicago, your old stomping grounds!), Powell’s offer to buy back and sell books online caught my eye.
So my question is: Do you have any experience with half.com and are you able to offer pros and cons to each service? My first thought is that Powell’s appears to be a “small” business, at least in comparison to anything owned by ebay as half.com is.