patriotism

Have you seen the phenomenon that is Nestle Toll House ready-to-bake cookie dough bars? I'm sure you have. I live in Africa... so this was all news to me. Kitty bought a package of it yesterday. Last night, I offered to bake them. "I'll read the package and figure out how to do it."

"You literally just break them apart," Kitty explained with a smile, "stick them on a baking tray, and put them in the oven."

"This..." I said as I sat up on the couch with a look of utter amazement on my face. "This is why I love America."

exactly

Niel and I spot an eyeglass place that advertises "Glasses in One Hour". I go up to the woman at the counter to confirm. "How does this work? Can I really get glasses in an hour?" "Yes ma'am. You get an eye exam, pick the frames, and then there's an hour turn-around time until you can pick up your glasses."

Sweet. I need new glasses, and with us in a different place every two days, the process is a little trickier for me. One hour sounds perfect.

An hour goes by as I fill out paperwork, get my eyes examined, and try on 109 different pairs of glasses. I finally pick what I like, and the friendly counter-woman starts entering everything into her computer.

"Actually... we don't have lenses with your prescription in stock," she tells me.

"Umm... ok. What does that mean then?"

"We'll have to order them."

"How long will that take?"

"Two weeks."

My eyes widen. Trying to make light of the situation even though I'm pretty frustrated, I say, "So it's really like 'Glasses in Two Weeks', huh?"

Her face remains stoic. She cocks her head to the side and says, "Well, the moment we get the lenses in, we'll make them. And that will only take one hour."

Husband decides to take this one. "Aaaah. I see... So it's really like 'Glasses in Two Weeks Plus One Hour'..."

Counter-woman looks pleased. "Exactly!" she replies with a smile.

mish mosh

Some very random thoughts: An electric blanket makes everything better...

Did you know that in the Listerine commercials, the actors don't really have anything in their mouths? They make all those swirling, swishing, and gargling motions with nothing but air. Hmph.

Remember my disdain of moths? Yeah, me too. Tonight I had a tiny bit of lemonade left after dinner, which I set on my bedside table to help my melatonin go down at bedtime. A little bit ago I started to hear splashing. Confused, I looked around my room. THIS is what I found:

Demon moth.

It's hard for me to not feel guilty that I'm not doing much (work-wise) and my husband is back in South Africa hard at work. He deserves a break more than I do, and yet here I am... the one on vacation. Sorry, Hombre. I love you!

happiness under where?

I bought some new underwear the other day. I intentionally flew to America with my oldest, holiest (?) pairs so that I could ditch them when I bought new ones. So I left a pile of old (but clean!) skivvies in my friend's garbage pail last week. I intentionally bought one solitary pair of hot pink undies among my pile of white, black, and nude (which, in my opinion, is a horrible color name). Now you need to understand that I don't really like pink. I've never been a very girly girl and have always refrained from wearing all things pink. When Niel saw my assorted collection of new undergarments, he raised his eyebrow and asked what was up with the one pink pair.

"I figured I could wear these on a day when I need unexpected happiness," was my reply. He raised his eyebrow some more, so I explained further that the hot pinkness is so bright and surprising, it's bound to make me smile throughout the day. And I figured that might come in handy sometimes. "Ohhhh..." was about all he could muster in response. It seems that some things only make sense inside my brain.

I wore my happiness underwear the other day. While I was quite amused when I first put them on, I quickly forgot about them. The first time I used the bathroom a few hours later, though, I started to laugh when I was reminded of what I was wearing.

See... They work!

What makes you unexpectedly happy?

jabberwacky: kevin costner

Niel's in South Africa. I'm in America. The ocean between us is giving me a pouty lip at the moment. I miss my man. I'm in Wisconsin with a friend (which is wonderful). But I don't have internet access. So I'm going to be AWOL for a while.

I figured I'd leave you guys to play in the comments while I'm away.

So far, we've Jabberwackyed from Africa to banana splits to Kevin Costner. Let's see where we go from here.

In case you're new to this, here's how it goes:

• Post the first word or phrase that comes to mind when you read the word above yours in the comments.

• Come back and add to the mix as often as you’d like.

• You can challenge the preceding commenter to explain if you don’t understand the connection they made when they wrote their word. (If you know your word choice won’t make sense to others, take time to explain it.)

• The last word when I close comments will be the first word next time.

Starter word: Kevin Costner