Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Ten on Tuesday: 10 Recent "Objects" that Make me Ridiculously Happy

In a combined effort to continue the Ten on Tuesday series, and think about my future Happiness Project, may I present 10 "Objects" that have recently made me ridiculously happy. I have put the word "object" in quotation marks because I do not consider one item on the list an object since it is a living being. Although Danny took offense to not being included. *Sigh* We shall see if he notices that he is in fact included within the narrative of the "objects" - I just do not consider him to be a thing. One would think the Pechie-literalism" would have helped me out one that one.


  • Gummy Centipedes
My fear of centipedes is fairly well known, but a gummy version is something I can handle. Somehow these are not scary, perhaps because they do not have way too many legs (of course the fact that they are edible and also taste good does not hurt).


  • Mike and Mike in the Morning
The irony of my love for sports radio is that I turn, with great haste, the radio station whenever DJs start talking. The important difference, most of those people are not funny, but I find Greeny and Goulic to be hysterical. I recently took the cut-out of Mike&Mike to the Rockies game as part of a Twitter #tag promotion they were running. My fear of #tags and not liking the picture stopped me from posting it to their site. I don't like pictures of myself, especially lately. Regardless, I love those guys! In fact I am currently reading Mike Greenberg's latest book, All You Could Ask For.

  • Blue Soccer Ball
I would really like to write like Phil Taylor of Sports Illustrated when I grow up. Just as I read China Daily from back to front, when my new SI arrives I immediately flip to the back to see the Point After, one of my favorite features of the magazine. It is always a good, short read, but Phil Taylor's work is always extra good. In fact his piece on Brian Urlacher brought tears to my eyes. More recently was an article entitled, "The Inspiring, Tragic Journey of The Soccer Man." I had completely missed the story of Richard Swanson who was attempting to dribble a soccer ball 10,000 miles from Seattle to Rio de Janiero by June 2014 just in time for the World Cup. 

"Swanson kicked off his trip at the Space Needle on May 1 with one of One World's distinctive blue soccer balls at his feet and a pack strapped to his back... He was having the time of his life until the moment it ended. Around 10 a.m. on May 14, 250 miles into his trip, Swanson was walking along the shoulder of Highway 101 in Lincoln City (Oregon) when he was struck and killed by a truck... Somewhere in the world a child is dribbling a blue ball because of the dream Swanson followed. You get the feeling that would have been enough, at journey's end, for the Soccer Man." 

After reading the story, Danny and I donated a blue soccer ball, aka The One World Futbol – The World’s First Virtually-Indestructible Ball in the name of Breakaway Brazil, which was the Facebook page for Richard Swanson's project.  


It makes me smile to think that there is yet another child dribbling a soccer ball because of the Soccer Man, and my love of Phil Taylor and Sports Illustrated.



  • Our couch
Spike had a visit from his cousin Hulk last weekend. A majority of which Hulk spent on various parts of the couch. I am pretty sure there was not a spot free from hair by the time he left. The couch is not only comfortable, but covered in microfiber material (read: easy to clean). There was a little meltdown from Spike about an hour before Hulk left, and on a rather miguided attempt to walk them both at the same time, Spike tried to trip me; otherwise it was a nice visit. Our coach is Pechie tested; Hulk and Spike approved.



  • Denver in the Summer
If one ever says they are bored in Colorado they are simply trying to feel that way, especially in the summer. There is always something going on, and the lack of humidity and 300 days of sunshine makes it easy to want to be outside. The picture above was taken at the Denver Chalk Art Festival. I love to see people's talent on display!




  • Tulips
As I have mentioned before, I have a sensitivity to flowers. I really do not mind too much since I tend to kill them anyway. Never intentionally, these things just happen. I have a terrible story of feeding a bouquet of flowers the package of whatever chemical helps keep them fresh during delivery thinking they were food - whoops! Anyway, there is an exception to my flower fear - tulips! I just love tulips - the color, the shape, everything. My birthday back in March was my golden birthday (turning 31 years old on March 31st), and my parents are giving me 31 flower bulbs of my choice for our new house. I am looking forward to picking out my tulip bulbs with my Mom when she is in town this week. I just hope they are even close to as beautiful as the ones pictured above that were found in Seattle. The picture does not do them justice. Throughout our visit, Jenni and I kept seeing people with these beautiful flower bouquets, which felt kind of random. Then we found the flower stands throughout the Pike Place Market. These beautiful bouquets ranged in price from $5 - 10.00! If we had known that sooner at least one bouquet would have been in our hotel room for the duration of our stay. When I take Danny back, I intend to bring a vase for this very purpose. 






  • Spike
The Spike-Monster and I have been together for over four years now. While there are times where he drives me bo-nonkers (like when he tried to trip me), I love this little boy. There is not a day that he does not make me laugh. This picture was taken while I was getting ready for work - he likes to supervise the "getting ready" process. Out of a whole otherwise clean floor, he found Danny's clothes to sit on. I sent this picture to Danny in the hopes that this would provide incentive to find the clothes hamper - still to no avail...



  • Yoga
I have been a yogi (a practitioner of yoga, NOT a follower of Yogi Berra) since a year after moving to Denver. I had to take a hiatus earlier this year when I was experimenting with a new work schedule. Missing yoga was part of why said schedule did not work out - I love/need my yoga practice! It is one of the few times in my life that my brain shuts off. One perk of Danny's new branch is that he has the occasional Saturday off. That particular Saturday happened to correspond with my yoga instructor's monthly Saturday offering. He and I made the early morning trek to Erie, Colorado for our first joint yoga session. It was fun to be able to share this with him since he knows how important it is to me. Apparently the other women in the class were wondering how I got him there since he was the only man. Here's my secret - I asked and he wanted to try it. Nothing groundbreaking, but something that will hopefully happen again. 

The picture above sadly was not taken in Erie, but rather Lake Tahoe last year on my first experience travelling "Salisbury Style". I took some grief for my form (my hips should be lower), but I defy anyone to try most yoga poses in truly structured pants. 



  • Snow cone
After our yoga session, Danny and I headed to the Cherry Creek Farmer's Market. I love trying all the different food, which is how I originally found Waffle Brothers. Toward the end of our visit, I realized that I wanted to try a snow cone. To fully understand the magnitude of this decision, let me explain it has been over three years since I have eaten a snow cone, ice cream, Popsicles,  ice in drinks, etc.  Following my surgery for pronounced reflux in January, 2010 I was diagnosed with esophageal spasms. Unfortunately not much is known of the cause (or cure) for these spasms, but one theory is ice/cold food. Since the beginning of 2013 my condition seems to have been improving, so I have slowly been reintroducing my body to frozen items. This snow cone comprised of key lime pie, raspberry,  and real coconut shavings on top was worth the wait! Danny confirmed it was not just my reintroduction that made it taste so good; it really was that good! Even the gentleman who made it said that it was his second favorite combination (behind Strawberry and Key Lime Pie). I followed the Snow cone experience up with a Buster Bar from Dairy Queen last week - apparently I cannot be stopped!



Breakfast food is my favorite. I actually prefer to eat it for brunch or dinner because it's too heavy for early in the morning. On a trip to the farmer's market a couple years ago I had my first taste of Waffle Brothers. I have not seen them at the market since, but fortunately it is a free-standing restaurant. Typically I get the Democrat ((Whole Wheat)Waffle, marsh. cream cheese, Nutella® with strawberries), but on this last time I ventured out and tried Tropical Zall ((Whole Wheat) Waffle, marsh. cream cheese, pineapple, coconut, minus the whip cream). Yep, good choice on the deviation. Waffle Brothers is definitely the place to go on a weekday if possible, but also worth the (long) wait on a weekend. Believe me I see the irony in that I shared earlier that I am not a big fan of eating, but three of my 10 objects are food related... Just saving myself from that "Pechie-literalism" thing again.


Honorable Mention:



Bathtub Ring Holder 
Purchasing an official ring holder has been on my "to do list" for a while, and I finally found one I could not resist. Actually I was debating between the tub and an elephant whose trunk held the rings, but I chose the tub for two reasons. First, Danny preferred the tub since it would "hold the rings" as opposed to the elephant - I am not sure what he thought that was supposed to do. The real reason I went with the tub though was because it was bigger. My thumb ring (the butterfly) is rather large and would have taken up the whole trunk. Although it is worth mentioning that sadly this tub may be the only claw-foot tub that I ever own. 

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