A Thankful Thursday 13

It's been awhile since I posted 13 things I'm thankful for, and after the last couple of posts, which were pretty heavy, I thought it might be time to lighten up a bit. So here we go...13 things I'm thankful for right now. (I chose this picture because it looked so cool and inviting...not like the brown dead stuff that surrounds us in the CA summertime.)

1. It seems that it is finally, albeit SLOWLY, cooling off around here. Saturday: 111 Sunday: 115 Monday: 109 Tuesday: 108 Wednesday: 98 Thursday Forecast: 93. We're hoping for mid-80s by Saturday. (Look what the heat did to my poor roses...)


2. Ted and Maya gave me a gift certificate to my favorite hair salon for Mother's Day, and I finally used it. You know how sometimes you go and get a cut that you like, and others, um, not so much? Well, this is one of those "I like it" times. :) I'm blonde again, and I lost about 3 inches from the ends. Nice!

3. My mother in law doesn't like to try on clothes when she's shopping. She accidentally bought a lovely green shirt that doesn't fit her (It was on a hanger marked her size, but it's actually my size.) Instead of returning it, she gave it to me. Yay!

4. I learned how to make a new eggplant dish, baigan choka. (This isn't my MIL's recipe, but I loved the blog, called Guyana) I got the eggplant and tomatoes from the farmers' market on Sunday, and called my mother in law for the recipe. Her recipe didn't call for any cumin, and I added it anyway...and I put in too much. "As I always say, You can put it in, but you can't take it out." (Extra credit if anyone other than Ted knows what movie that little snippet comes from) ;) It was still good, and I'll try it again soon.

5. That pesky cherry tree was recently trimmed (butchered, really, but that's another sad tale) so next time it gets windy here, we'll be able to sleep without having to listen to the fence creak all night, sounding like we're on a sinking ship. AND the neighboring complex people who own the tree paid for it themselves, not our homeowners association. Bonus!

6. My evil migraine was stopped in its tracks on Tuesday. Thanks Cherry, for the advice, and Ted, for the coffee and cold/sinus advil. :)

7. My eyes. I'm thankful for them. When I have a migraine, my eyesight gets blurry, so it's best to let your eyes rest. No reading, no TV, no computer. Also, caffeine helps, so Ted brought me a big nasty cup of black coffee from Starbucks. There I was, awake from the caffeine, but no book, no blogging, no work, no TV. Made me appreciate my eyesight all of a sudden. And my iPod, loaded up with "To The Best of Our Knowledge". For some reason, lounging on the sofa with a cold compress and my iPod made me want to smoke. I don't smoke, and I didn't start. But it seemed like a good idea at the time...lazy hot day, listening to the radio, smoking a camel unfiltered...

8. Air Conditioning. I know a few people around here without, and I'm thinking that this past week has been pretty hard on them. Fatal for some folks. Believe me, I'm thankful for having it. We just got the electric bill, which covered up through Monday. It was about double our usual amount. Why am I not surprised?

9. My friend Cherry, who, along with E, is going to come cook dinner and hang out with Maya on Saturday, so Ted and I can go to Berkeley for dinner and a play.

10. My Buffy DVDs. Yes, I own them all. They come in handy when I'm all coked up on coffee trying to battle a migraine. (Once I'm past the danger of the migraine, so I can watch some TV, but still coked up on caffeine...) Ditto my S&TC DVD set.

11. The ironing has been pretty manageable since the most recent hell pile was tamed by Ted, master of the iron. Once again, we make the futile vow not to let the pile grow any higher than our knees...

12. Thursday is yoga day for me. 2 weeks ago, I had to bail in the middle of class because of serious indigestion (causing me to almost barf while doing downward dog!) Last week I didn't make it because I had to work late. So I'll be mighty glad to make it to my yoga class tonight.

13. Finding time to read. Maybe it's because there's no TV in the summer, but I've been finding more time for reading lately. Right now I'm getting close to the end of In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote. It's fascinating and creepy. Next on my list is my newest library book, which of course gets bumped to the top of the pile because it is due in a couple of weeks. It is Willful Creatures, by Aimee Bender. Last year I read another of her books, An Invisible Sign of My Own, which was pretty amazing and weird. So I'm looking forward to this book, which is a series of 15 strange short stories.

So that's my list of 13 things I'm thankful for today. I'll be even more thankful if this cooling trend continues, and we get down into the 80s. They're saying it could happen this weekend. Cross your fingers for us. ;)