On a happier note ...

A while ago one of my friends commented on Facebook that she missed my gratitude posts.

Last year I posted one thing I was grateful for, every day for 30 days.

So here are a few things I'm grateful for right now:

• that I finally remembered where I'd written down the password (that I wrote down because I knew I'd forget it) so I could post a new blog. I keep telling people, I can cover the roots but the grey moments still happen.
• that my cats are so curious and well-educated. I came home one night last week to find 138 windows of GoogleChrome open on my monitor. Think of what they must have learned! And just this morning I discovered they'd converted my keyboard to French characters again. I don't know who they're corresponding with en francais but I'm impressed by their ability to do so. (Of course, it makes it difficult to email anyone who's not already in my contact list, since I now get a star instead of an "at" symbol when I hit that key.) 

This is Mika, one of the world's most educated cats thanks to GoogleChrome, who also thinks he can drive a tractor but hasn't succeeded in getting it out of the driveway. Yet.

• my ability (which some may describe as closer to an attention deficit disorder) to notice random interesting things in everyday life. Like walking past the checkout lines in the supermarket and seeing a toddler who'd reached behind himself into the shopping cart and was contentedly munching on a bulb of garlic while his mother unloaded groceries onto the checkout belt. She didn't smile when I commented, "No fear of vampires in your house!" But then I've been grocery shopping with toddlers and it's not usually a smiling affair.
• another random item: I saw a truck last week that was XX Gutters (gutters meaning eavestroughs for those who grew up in the same time/language continuum as I did), but what really got me was the line underneath: "For people who care." Sorry, but that sounds like a tagline for an ethical investment firm or an assisted living residence, or maybe even a funeral home. But for eavestroughs? Put it in perspective, XX Gutters!
• that the abscess, reaction to antibiotic, root canal and crown installation are all now in the (recent) past. Who knew that getting the crown would leave my face sorer than getting the root canal did?
• that said root canal and crown weren't located further back in my mouth - I don't think I could have stretched my jaw open even a fraction more! Although you can't tell it by the volume of words coming out of my mouth, I actually have a smaller-than-average jaw. Dentists are not my friends right now.
• sales at clothing stores. Sales in grocery stores are just part of strategic shopping on a budget, but sales at clothing stores are a big-time BONUS! (If you live in or near Vancouver, BC, be sure to check out the closing-out sale at Babs Studio Boutique, before this amazing designer moves to online and shopping channel sales only. And say hi to Jemma, Babs's dog, who likes to play tug-of-war with her rope and a customer on the other end of it.)
• an honest friend who tells me what I don't want to admit the mirror is telling me about the really-cool-but-not-necessarily-flattering-to-me clothes I try on in my sale state of mind. 
• that the toddlers who used to make grocery shopping hell have grown into mostly (we all have our moments) mature and responsible adults . And that they're my friends as well as my children.

What are you grateful for?