What made you smile today?

[BlackCurtains]

I bought my mom something cheap but neat from Amazon. It's a fiber optic rose that runs on batteries and has a remote to control the colors and turn it off and on. It was only 6 bucks. I got it for her because she had a big fiber optic poinsettia plant that was an xmas decoration but she had it out all year in her bedroom. But it needed to be plugged in and the cats kept trying to eat it so my sister packed it away.

So anyway, I found this little rose. It came and I turned it on and it's much, much nicer than I thought it would be There's a cluster of fibers in the center of the rose, but the petals are also lined with them, plus the base is a heart shape that lights up too. She's going to love it. There's nothing for the cats to chew and it's remote controlled so she can put it anywhere and no one needs to turn it on and off for her.

[Ponybookworm]

The adorable sharky server wins again!!! I asked for a special sharky bag & somebody with access offered me , for FREE!!! So the package arrived the other day, with TWO!!! And due to the way the package was, I could keep the envelope for re-use. Yesterday a fellow UK sharky fren had a birthday, so I offered them the other bag, they said yep, but wanted to pay postage. I said nope. They asked if there was any way they could repay me, & they have a 3D printer!!! So I'm sending them a sharky bag, & they will print me a sharky & an octopus!!!

[Taffeta]

This is really from yesterday but....

This week I taught my own stuff for the first time ever.

I've taught undergrads over three academic years now, and I've mostly taught history, which is my subject...but I've always been teaching either general East Asian history, or modern Japanese history. Neither of which is my specialism - As I think you guys mostly know, I'm a Japanese mediaevalist.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind teaching those things. East Asian history is interesting in general.

But teaching the classical japanese course, the convener basically said I could teach whatever texts I like.

So yesterday I not only taught a passage from one of the texts my research centres around, but also a particular scene that I know and love - rather than the hackneyed old boring stuff that always get trotted out when people talk about my texts.

...The students didn't seem to hate it, and I get to teach it again next week.

It was kind of satisfying at long last to genuinely teach something that related directly to my own work, and to be able to explain things about it with them

[Heart Of Midnight]

  I saw an owl sitting on an electric wire on the edge of a field last night. It's been a really long time since I last saw an owl.  Identification became awkward because of the twilight, but in terms of the size of the bird, I would think it was Tawny Owl (Lehtopöllö in Finnish).
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[Beth3346]

my dog will just sit at the window and stare outside. what is she looking at? i don't see anything. she loves to look out the window though

[Heart Of Midnight]

Now tonight in the sky northern lights!  The next night there is also a chance to see them! 

[BlackCurtains]

Now tonight in the sky northern lights!  The next night there is also a chance to see them! 

That's so exciting! You're lucky to live where you can see them <3

--

My cats ears have been getting dirty. I thought it might be ear mites. I can't afford to take her to the vet right now, so I looked for an OTC medicine. After reading about 50 reviews for different meds, I bought one plus ear cleaning wipes. It's only been four days but her ears are almost clear She's stopped shaking her head too. The meds are used for 5-7 days and then another round in two weeks. I'm really happy they work and don't have any side effects. With her frailness and age, I worry about that with everything I give her.

[SpacePinto]

I've finally found a suitable toy Mercedes for my collection, and it should be delivered soon!

[Beth3346]

my dogs always make me smile

[Ponyfan]

I had been worried because something I had ordered hadn't arrived.  When I checked on it today I was reassured that it was probably just taking longer than what I thought it should.  My parents and I went out for a little while and when we got back I checked the mailbox and the item that I was waiting for was there.

My mom said she noticed someone was at our front door on our Ring camera while we were out.  When I checked it a saw a man with the item I had been waiting for in his hand.  When no one came to the door he put the item in the mailbox where it would be safe.  Someone had written on the item "wrong address" (the address on the package was correct but the mail carrier had delivered it to the wrong house.).  I was touched that this man went out of his way to deliver something to the right address and it wasn't tampered with at all. 

Also, my dad found my childhood Legos and now I can combine them with the set I bought recently.


Ponyfan

[Ponybookworm]

See other collections!!!

[BlackCurtains]

My cat's ears are completely clear We do another round of drops next week.

[Taffeta]

Putting the baby triffids (aka the morning glory seedlings) into the tub with the susies today.

I hope they'll do well there now. They've been taking over my windowsill for the last 3 weeks and are much too big and naughty to stay there now, so they've been sent to kindergarten to play nicely with the other climbing plants.

My juvenile spider plant has her perch back in the middle of the windowsill, and no longer has baby plants trying to climb up her, so I am sure she feels much better

Speaking of babies, I was also in touch with one of my old friends this morning. She shared me pictures of her niece's new baby. This niece is also like a sister and a daughter to my friend, who had custody of her from when my friend was 19 and the girl was 11 due to complex family situations.

[Lady Frostbite]

I treated myself to some new books/manga after my endoscopy today, and got two SUPER CUTE keychains I've had my eye on for a while!! These ones here, specifically C and D! The Lutino one (yellow and white) I got for £1 off because it was a display model, I was worried I'd only get the grey one as that's the only one I could see but I got both!

[Taffeta]

I feel like I should pay tribute to my laptop.

So maybe it has a battery that likes to drain itself at the least thing - including once during my teaching.

Maybe it has three of its keys stuck down with tape, stickers and a sticky dot meant for fixing photos to things.

Maybe it no longer has letters on the ecbnm keys.

And maybe it gets itself stuck in Japanese typing mode when I want to type in English more often than it should.

BUT.

This laptop, which also helped me finish off my PhD, in the last 2 years provided the lifeline for us to order food in the first days of the pandemic. It enabled us to stay in contact with my sister when lockdown kept her away. And it enabled me to work from home and teach at university despite being 3 hours away from the campus.

Not to mention it has kept me in touch with all the various online communities that have kept me a little bit saner through the last couple of years.

...To my laptop. Thank you for your hard work.

And just because term ended today, it doesn't mean you can fritz tomorrow.