What's making you happy today?

[Lola Bunny]

awwww....I love happy family photos.

[Sundae]

Lola, I 3D'd your star today.
So cute, thank you

[BigV]

thank you thank you thank you all

they are my greatest joy, they are all beautiful, and BelovedDaughter most of all. Thanks, friends.

[Lamplighter]

We had a small medical emergency on Christmas so I couldn't post then. But today will do fine.

My oldest daughter went through Nursing School with a small group of study-mates,
who have remained friends all these years later, after kids, marriages, divorces,
and all the things that happen in adult life.
Each year they still exchange Christmas gifts, and this was the gift
to my daughter, Murph, from her best friend, Donna.
The two pages were hand-written, almost stream-of-conscious

Page 1 ------------------------------------------

This gift may require an explanation.
This year when I started to thinking about Christmas, of gifts,
a recurring thought kept coming to my mind...
"One Word" One word for each of my dearest friends.

I immediately discounted this as a silly idea, but
Somehow the thought kept returning. The more I
tried to think of something else, the more I thought of
your word.

You will notice that the word that I chose is not a descriptive
word... for that I would have chosen differently.
Likewise, it is not an unusual or unique word.
It is more of a wish-for-you kind of word.
Something that I hope you find more of this year.

Page 2=================

Full time. Part time. Time for work. Night time. Bed time.
Homework time. Winter time. Daytime. Dinnertime. Half time.
Quitting time. Miller time; Paid-time-off. Time after time.
Peace time. War time. lunch time. playtime. summertime.
Make time. Tea time; Time-to-go. Posttime. Timecard.
Timeout. Timetable. Time flies when you're having fun.
Where did the time go ?

So much time, and yet ---
That is my word-wish for you...
TIME

Murph,
You are so busy. a Full time job
* a Full time Mom
* a Full time Student
* a Full time housekeeper, chauffeur, helper of homework
* a Full time friend

But, in all these things, wonderful as each is, not enough TIME for you !
I worry that you don't spend TIME taking care of yourself,
doing the things that make you happy.

I want you to spend more TIME with Abby,
doing things that make you laugh and giggle
until your sides hurt and your eyes water.

I want you to spend just a little TIME all by yourself,
when it is quiet - doing nothing and thinking
about nothing - just breathing.

I want you to spend TIME with the people who mean
the mmost to you because we never know
when we will run out of TIME with them.

And so, my gift to you is TIME. An hourglass and a heart.

They are to remind you to take just one hour out of each day
to do something that you love.
Just one hour.... Take the TIME.

Merry Christmas, My Friend !
Donna.

And below are the three items enclosed with the letter...
... an hour glass
... a heart-shaped rock
... a plaque with a saying

It all made me very happy to know my daughter has such good friends...
who love her as much as her Mom and I do.

[classicman]

Wonderful. I hope everyone is OK now.

[BigV]

Picasa has a new update today!

What's new? Glad you axed.

Added ability to upload to Google+: share with circles, post pictures to your stream, and upload images at original size.
Social Tagging: name tag people in your Google+ circles and notify them via G+.
New photo editing effects, including:
Infrared
Lomo-ish
Holga-ish
HDR-ish
Cinemascope
Orton-ish
Sixties
Invert Colors
Heat Map
Nightvision
Cross Process
Posterize
Duo-Tone
Boost
Soften
Vignette/Matte
Pixelate/Focal Pixelate
Focal Zoom
Pencil Sketch
Neon
Comic Book
Border
Rounded Edges
Drop Shadow
Museum Matte
Polaroid
Side by side editing: compare two pictures side-by-side, or compare different edits on the same picture.
Updated RAW support for pictures from newer cameras.
Support for WebP files.
On the Tools > Experimental menu, we've added support for migrating your database to another local drive.
Improvements to Face Movie maker: number of photos included, chronological ordering.
Sync now uploads unshared albums privately.
Improved restoring of virtual albums when you uninstall and reinstall, or move to a new computer. Album data is written to the picasa.ini file now, along with all of your other edits.
OAuth support: use 2-factor accounts without getting an application-specific password.

[Lola Bunny]

And life is good again... Nothing beats a good cup of coffee, hehe.

[Sundae]

Lola, that looks frightening.
Not least because it bears a passing resemblance to a coffee machine disguised as a Cyberman (see below).

I started my extra hours today.
I like the teacher I am working with, and the Higher Level Teaching Assistant.
My first afternoon seemed to go well, my new charge did not have a meltdown or try to hit me. Half j/k.

I also got some silly bits & pieces sorted that I should have done a while back - putting my prescription in, checking what's going into and out of my bank account and resizing/ deleting my photos.

Also I received the first set of 2nd hand books from eBay.
They are sold on the understanding that they are in a good enough condition to read, but not to give as a present. They are a bit battered it's true, but will do me well. And certainly for the price.

Have started on Jacob Have I Loved. It will make me cry before the end. Paterson's books invariably do.
I'll review it in the Books thread.

[infinite monkey]

An all-clear mammo after a few weeks of intense boobeh pain. They squeezed me (that joke never gets old) in when I finally decided it was much too intense to be normal and saw my doc. And as my mom is a BC survivor and so was my grandma I was really scared. Inexplicable pain I can deal with. Just my old body being old. Such a relief!

I'm treating myself to a victory lunch.

[Sundae]

Fantastic news babba.
Make that a bloody good lunch.

[Spexxvet]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

An all-clear mammo after a few weeks of intense boobeh pain. They squeezed me (that joke never gets old) in when I finally decided it was much too intense to be normal and saw my doc. And as my mom is a BC survivor and so was my grandma I was really scared. Inexplicable pain I can deal with. Just my old body being old. Such a relief!

I'm treating myself to a victory lunch.

Chicken breast? Milk?

[glatt]

Originally Posted by infinite monkey

An all-clear

Excellent

[infinite monkey]

Thanks all.

[Lola Bunny]

Sundae: Not scary at all! It's a gorgeous piece of appliance. I think the coffee is strong enough with the right amount of crema. I've been reduced to instant coffee these past weeks, so this was absolute bliss.

Infinite Monkey: Wonderful news! Have a great lunch and dinner too!

[limey]

Yay, Infi! Hope you have a fabulous lunch!!