friends

DianaK

Appreciations 4.171 – the concert

WheeIt’s a little hard to find words to adequately describe Ellis‘ CD release concert last night. 💗💗💗 The open-hearted joy passing back and forth between Ellis and the audience was palpable. Her unbelievably beautiful music, with her strong, clear, gorgeous voice, perfectly balanced accompaniment, and soul-stirring lyrics bewitched us and transported us to some new level of joyful in-the-moment living. What a treat to watch her and Rad playing together and having so much fun as they created a new kind of magic. Every song was amazing in its own way and Ellis’ stories made us laugh and cry and whoop and holler with glee. And OMG the Desdemona-Ellis-Nina Simone folk rap mashup! O. M. G. No words – you just had to be there. 😀 The night was made even better for me, by getting to share it with people I adore! So many fun moments of shared joy and love. 💗 It was an incredible night and I am profoundly grateful for having been part of it.

Sunshiny Sundays.

Naps. 😉

DianaK

Appreciations 4.169 – winter fun

Funny, fickle winter. Warmish and cloudy one day, a foot of snow the next, colder and sunny right after that. I am happy to be working in my pjs this morning, sipping coffee and looking out a the marshmallow topped roofs in the alley. I will venture out in the warm (20º) afternoon. 😉

The amazing effect Qi Gong seems to be having on my sleep. Even though I stayed up late last night and only logged about 5 hours of sleep, it was a much better quality of sleep than I used to get. Cool!

Looking forward to seeing Debb and celebrating her birthday today! I love fun plans!

DianaK

Appreciations 4.167 – the snow!

A lovely visit with Jeff & Maura last night. So great to have fun neighbors just a few steps away. A few really, really snowy steps. 😉 It was great to catch up and I got excellent tips on fun fruit, cabins in a box, and silent sneezing. 😀

IMG_3949The pretty view of snow on the fence when I walked home.

Fluffy light snow that makes shoveling doable. Sunshine that makes it necessary to stop shoveling long enough to take photos of the gorgeous shadows on the pristine snow. 🙂

sunny snow jan 2016Snowy shadows jan 2016

 

 

DianaK

Appreciations 4.164

A wonderful visit with Sarah and Ida at MIA. What a fun morning!

Springlike weather!

Somehow getting my newsletter out while it was still technically January, despite my surprise feline-emergency, sleep-deprived weekend. Thank you, past Diana, for creating an editorial calendar, and putting all that info in one place. 🙂

DianaK

Appreciations 4.159 – good, good, good

Good work. Good friends. Good visits. Good night.

After a nice, solid day of work, I got to spend the evening with the Delaneys. So lovely! First dinner with Ellis and Ruby, then coloring, reading and cuddling with Ruby at bedtime.

After Ruby went to sleep, I had time to do Qi Gong, finish re-reading The Tao of Pooh and start reading The Journal of Best Practices: A Memoir of Marriage, Asperger Syndrome, and One Man’s Quest to Be a Better Husband, which seems like it’s going to be a great read.

Then, I got to enjoy a wonderful visit with Terri. Even got a few minutes to visit with Katie at the end of the day! What a brilliant night. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

DianaK

Appreciations 4.158 – lots of stuff!

Lots of sleeping in the past 24 hours – naps and waking up after 9 am this morning (which is practically unheard of for me!). I wonder if it has anything to do with starting Qi Gong. Interesting!

A nice unscheduled day yesterday. I only did 30 minutes of work work, so it was just like a day off. How nice to sleep, read, draw and relax. I also started batch #3 of soup. After talking with Pam, I decided to try adding mire poix to the soup this time. How fun to experiment with making food to see what I like. Isn’t it funny that I’ve never done this before?! I do love the way the house smells while I’m making soup. 🙂

Once the soup was going, I cooked sweet potatoes to eat with leftover chicken and made GF chocolate cake. It’s nice to have food and treats all set for the week!

Today’s word: whimsy. It makes me feel happy to think about it.

IMG_3905

Wodehouse words, phrases, and sentences – some just for fun, a couple I had to look up:
cachexia
poltroon
bally
blighter
paroxysm
a beefy blow
…became involved in a bush
“Those oily-looking depths suggested the presence of frogs, newts, and other slimy things that work their way down a man’s back and behave clammily around his spine…”

Behave clammily. Ah hahahaha!

Spent more time than usual on FB yesterday. What funny, interesting, dear people you all are. I especially enjoyed Corinna’s conversation with her friends about the “Be like Bill” meme that’s going around. Her reactions we so much like mine (I find some of them funny and celebrate everyone who is enjoying them, but mostly they feel too narrow (m/f only for gender) and shaming for my taste.) I love the interesting, inspiring, thought-provoking things my friends post!

Here’s my version for today!

be-like-diana-be-like-you

DianaK

Appreciations 4.157 – luxury

Upside-DownLuxurious morning! Woke up at 5:30 and did Qi Gong. I love how it feels in the moment and I’m so excited to see what the long term effects will be when I’ve been doing it for awhile. Snuggled back under the covers, savoring thoughts of my sweet Saturday and pondering possibilities for today.

Got up and drew and wrote and colored while sipping delicious coffee. I love quiet time like this, with no time pressure, no deadlines or meetings or schedules to consider.

IMG_3903New rainbow piano socks from Pam. I love love love them! 😀

The openness of today. It’s been a long while since I’ve had a whole unscheduled day. I wonder what I’ll do!

DianaK

Appreciations 4.156 – so many things (mostly people)

Ah ha ha – last year’s appreciation for this date – I don’t even know what it means! 100 bonus points if you read this AND know what the heck I was talking about!:

“…Most excellent game of the wolf/panda/bunny/telephone operator, the loving hand, and the tent. Hahaha!”

It’s probably some improv thing, but I seriously don’t remember. 😛

The excellent chart for choosing book titles posted by the Toronto Public Library.  I LOVE that my book’s title is “Tender is the Ha Ha Ha (book one)”! Don’t you think I really should write that book? I kinda do!

Such a wonderful day of connecting with people! Started out with a short, but super sweet coffee time with Sara. So so so great to see her again!

Then, my first Qi Gong lesson. It was fantastic! So amazing and fun! I am excited to make this part of my days. So so so good. 😀

Then, a lovely visit with Pam. Oh, we have so much fun and talk about such wonderful things. My heart feels so full and happy after we visit!

I love the people in my life so very much. I am unbelievably lucky. 💗

DianaK

Appreciations 4.155

Planning plans rather than outcomes. Oh, it makes things so easy. 😀

Really long, but productive work day. So many interesting projects to play with!!

Two great visits in one little day – time with Debb and Katie! Super fun!

Little multi-channel technochat with darling Pamela. Lucky me!