#365Gratitude Day 271: Flash flood

Yesterday I was grateful for two distinct things:

First, the cute little Flash figurine that Missy got me as a surprise.  I brought him to work, and keep him on my desk now.

He's really adorable.  I held him during our daily standup meeting, and announced what he was working on to the group, too.

"While I'm still working on my prototype application, Barry here is concerned with the gaping hole in the air over Central City."

This was met with laughter.  Excellent!

Second, I stayed at work a bit later, trying to get something to work, and did, indeed get it.  As I left, I noticed that it was just pouring down rain.  But, lucky for me, I had parked just underneath the last bit of roof on the level of the parking deck that morning.  So, even though the rain was absolutely flooding down, I was able to stay dry while I put stuff in the trunk and got in the car.  Again, excellent!

Sometimes gratitude is just about the small things that make your day great.

#365Gratitude Day 270: Techno-assisted nudity

I'm naked.  

Okay, technically not - I've got on a watch, glasses, and a necklace.  But as far as clothes go, nope, nada, zilch.  

I actually really enjoy being naked.  I could easily spend time at a nudist resort.  It's just comfy.  Often, when I'm home by myself (or when it's just Missy and me), I don't wear a thing.  

(Hey, if this is TMI for you, you're the one reading my blog, okay?)

That little blue dot is me, by myself, at my house, without pants.

I'm not inconsiderate about it though.  We live with my sister-in-law, who is super, amazingly, awesomely kink-friendly.  I've been around her in a t-shirt and a diaper, and it's like no big deal whatsoever.  

But I think that's a bit different than the full monty.

This morning when I got up, I wanted to go catch up my blog.  I also didn't want to get dressed.  

What to do?

I popped open my phone, and checked my Find My Friends app, and saw conveniently that  Marybeth had already left the house for work.  Success!  

You can thank the good folks in Cupertino, California for my ability to blog to you without the awful complication of underpants.  I sure did.

#365Gratitude Day 269: Cat company

Saturday night we were out late, playing Ingress with our friends Kate and Leah, who were also visiting.  Then when we got home, both Missy and I had a case of the late-night-can't-sleeps.  I had a bunch of stuff on my mind, including just seeing my awesome cousin, being fueled with a creative storm of ideas and next-step-actions about a side software project I'm beginning, and the book I'm writing.

Somehow this little guy got into the kitchen cabinets, and is hanging UPSIDE DOWN out the bottom of one.  Hysterical!

Missy was no help either though.  Not that I mind.  For some reason. she got looking at funny cat pictures on the internet.  Specifically, she was looking at this blog post about the various silly ways that cats ineptly hide.  I don't have the link to the post, but the two of us lay in bed next to each other, paralyzed with laughter over how ridiculous some of these pictures were.  I did find one of them to share with you just now.

We laughed until our stomachs ached.  Eventually, we managed to get to sleep.

I did pay for it on Sunday though.  I was a useless bag of slop all day.  I napped.  Eventually, everyone but Marybeth left the house, too.  Kate and Leah had to go home.  Missy was off to take pictures of the blood moon with Richard.  

I worked on my software project for a while, making wireframes so I could discuss them with my partner-in-crime Moliére, and then called my mom.  

Yang looks tired, but Yin, on her back, is really showing her sleepy best.  THAT is some prize quality laying about.

I hit the recliner, and stayed there.  As we talked on the phone, and I felt my lingering exhaustion, my awesome cats modeled the way I felt for me.  

I laughed, a very tired laugh.

#365Gratitude Day 268: Once every four years or so

I have these two cousins, S. & A.  They're wonderful, and I love them both very much.  One lives in California, and the other in Vermont.  I don't see them much.

A. was in Baltimore on Saturday, and I got to see and have lunch with her before she left.  I worked out how she could get from Baltimore to me, in Virginia, without too much hassle.  I picked her up at the train station in Alexandria. took her to lunch at a place I like, and got her to the airport without hassle.

Since she's not from around here, I sent her a helpful map with some funny annotations showing where I'd pick her up, and how close we really were going to be to the airport.

She laughed, good and hard.  Then at lunch we had a really goofy, funny waiter, who made us both laugh.  We spent great, quality time together, that made me miss her all that much more.  

I'm not thrilled that it's been four years since I saw her.  I really want to make plans to see her more.  But I'm thrilled that when we were together it was like no time had passed at all.

I'm really grateful she's family to me.

#365Gratitude Day 267: Again.

I listen to a lot of Alan Watts lectures, and audiobooks on philosophy.  I do this a lot in the car.  

It can be challenging.

For one, fairly often my GPS will interrupt the book to announce a turn.  Or, even more common, some concept I'm listening to is so darn dense that when I first hear it, I don't quite get it, and need to hear it again.

Fortunately, the audible app has this great "go back seconds button."  But it's not like I can tap it while I'm driving.  That's just not safe.

Well, the other day I made a small but wondrous discovery.  I have an audio control button on the steering wheel of my car.  When I'm playing an audible book that "go back a track" button is just the same as tapping the software button to go back 30 seconds!  

AWESOME. 

(I also realized that I should only do this when I'm in the car by myself.  I can't even imagine how annoying it would be to have to hear the same 30 seconds of a philosophy lecture three or four times in a row as a passenger.  If you like, you can have your gratitude be that I won't do this to you.)