Scroll down for Weekend Reflections

Springtime blossoms from
my garden … pink and yellow
just for Easter time!

Straight out of the camera above
Poster Edges below

Reflected blossoms
white and yellow irises
gracing my parkway

Click to embiggen for better viewing and for
others participating in Pink Saturday, Today’s Flowers
and Weekend Reflections

“The story of Easter is the story of God’s
wonderful window of divine surprise.”
Carl Knudsen

Easter is the demonstration of God
that life is essentially spiritual and timeless.”
Charles M. Crowe


givingthankschallenge-southbreeze

South Breeze Farm hosted the Giving Thanks Challenge and I participated at Small Reflections in November of 2008 and decided to continue indefinitely … generating the following list one day at a time throughout the month of August. I’ve decided to transfer the lists at the end of each month from Small Reflections to Happily Retired Gal … just because. Click to see previous lists already published here.


1. that the damage from the ‘twister’ that touched down nearby in my neighborhood over the weekend was minimal.

2. I managed to make the phone call to call Anthem Blue Cross Senior Services and still get to class this morning just before the class started so I didn’t miss anything.

3. for a hair cut & perm after a pleasant lunch with my sister at BJs … I do love ‘minimal effort’ hair!

4. Tracy filled in for Nami (who was ill) at this morning’s Digital Media class and we learned a couple of nifty new techniques that I’m looking forward to playing with as time permits.

5. that although I received a ‘denial’ letter from United Healthcare on 3-3-10 (regarding Plan D Prescription coverage for failure to supply required information), TODAY’s mail contains an ACCEPTANCE letter & payment coupon book … so I guess I’m covered finally! Third time’s the charm 😉
In addition, a refurbished keyboard for my Dell Inspiron 1720 arrived in today’s mail … THAT was QUICK! It’s installed and I have no more sticky keys … HOORAY!

6. for a day at home to catch up on tasks I’ve neglected for too long …

7. that I picked up the iris bud knocked off the stalk by Aloha & Molly playing on my front lawn and put it in a tiny vase on my kitchen window ledge because it opened today … beautifully.

8. my computer continues to work without crashing as I catch up on blog visits over the weekend and this afternoon.

9. for a fun afternoon with my sister … even though the winds were gusty & cold we bundled up and walked out on the pier, enjoyed a late ‘birthday’ lunch of ‘fish tacos’ and ‘Hula’ pie(with Margaritas) at Duke’s

then walked the Tuesday Street Faire on Main Street … stopping to enjoy the live music entertainment before heading home.

10. for coming up with a plan ‘b’ …
Since I didn’t have time to devote to the ‘inspiration video’ I wanted to create (see #7 in Sunday’s post at Sacred Ruminations), I’ve gathered photos of Molly (regular & resized versions) to bring for part two of the Friday Movie Maker class so perhaps I’ll be able create something to share on one of my blogs after all.

11. Although the ‘scheduled auto post’ for my Yard Art #2 didn’t work, I’ve manually published it this evening belatedly at Happily Retired Gal. I’ve got my ‘wireless router’ working again and had Time Warner Cable ‘tech support’ reconfigure my ‘cable modem’ … so when Vinnie from Dell Tech Support calls tomorrow at 1pm (after my Movie Maker class from 8:30-11:30am) perhaps he’ll be able to deal with the WLAN crash issues. Keep your fingers crossed for me. It’s been another BUSY week, so I’ll be catching up on blog visits over the weekend again.

12. Dell Tech Support is finally researching the problem I’m having with my ‘too dim to read’ monitor display when running on battery power.

13. Costco had one Sony Vaio left last night (on sale for $100 off) so I’ve got a new notebook to play with. It’s a 64 bit computer running Windows 7 … came with minimal software but should run the programs I own & use. If not, I have 90 days to return it.

14. all but two of the clocks in my home changed themselves for Daylight Savings Time overnight while I slept … so I didn’t have to change them myself and I knew the correct time without realizing it 😉

15. I spent the day productively … and am tired so I should sleep well on my freshly laundered sheets tonight.

16. the magnitude 4.4 earthquake centered about 30 miles north of me in Pico Rivera at 4:04am didn’t cause much damage … and served as a ‘readiness’ event to check our ‘earthquake preparedness’ here in Southern California.

17. the piece of metal I thought was a filling … isn’t. After visiting the dentist yesterday afternoon & getting the good news, I dropped by Duke’s (at the urging of a friend) … let a manager know what had happened and (after he consulted the head chef) learned that the mysterious piece of metal comes from a ‘fastener’ on their ice cream containers. As a thank you, they’re mailing me a ‘gift certificate’ … an unexpected but delightful turn of events. Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!

18. for friends who invited me to join them today at the Laguna Playhouse for a delicious lunch and entertaining play by the Second City: ‘Can You Be More Pacific?’ (lampooning Laguna Beach and Orange County, California) … making for a pleasant afternoon.

19. my sister and I enjoyed a delicious ‘sushi’ lunch at Matsu around 1:45 today … slipping in just before they close at 2pm because I waited for Dell Tech Support’s scheduled 11am call longer than I should have. Click for the latest update

20. I was able to move plants from my parkway to make room for the Veteran’s Honor Rose birthday gift from my neighbor and hopefully my gardener will remember to plant it for me on Wednesday since I’ll probably still be in my Windows 7 class when they do their twice monthly yard maintenance.

21. I was able to spend significant time todday catching up with blog posts that had collected in my reader. I’m especially thankful for everyone who makes the entire post available in their feeds because it makes catching up so much quicker and easier.

22. … and I’m dancing for joy!!! My Dell Inspiron 1720 has been unplugged for more than an hour… I have an hour and 54 minutes left on battery power and the screen is bright enough for me to read easily!!!!! What a wonderful surprise THIS is after all the hassles I’ve been through previously. I’ll explain the final modification Tihman from Dell Tech Support had me make this afternoon in a blog post soon so that others with this ‘dim monitor issue’ can try to fix THEIR laptops too.

23. the Health Reform Act finally passed and was signed into law! Methinks it’s long overdue. If you have doubts or concerns, I offer this link to a recent NY Times opinion piece by Paul Krugman on Health Reform Myths for your consideration.

24. for Dalton at the Bella Terra Staples store in HB who helped me set up my new Canon ‘all-in-one’ wireless MX870 printer. Perhaps I’ll finally get my very belated Christmas cards printed & sent out soon 😉

25. I spent a pleasant day with my sister (starting with a tasty breakfast shared at Mimi’s Cafe) and my 18-55mm lens is back (finally) … working just fine!

26. for beautiful Spring weather here in Southern California at the beach. I suspect we’ll have lots of ‘inlanders’ visiting today and tomorrow.

27. for time to do some catch up blog visits (after being away from home most of last week) as I took minibreaks from writing personal notes in my belated Christmas, NewYear’s & Easter cards.

28. to catch up with my ‘writing buddy’ from Taos in a phone call this morning before continuing to write notes in the cards & catch up on blog visits.

29. what I thought to be ‘one last purple iris’ isn’t … another has opened and there are two more purple buds as an added surprise.

30. the Canon printer did a great job printing envelopes (after I managed to create a new address database in the newer Dell) and most of my belated Christmas, NewYear’s & Easter greetings are in the mail. I’m still digging around for a few addresses since I can’t seem to find the backup from the old address database (from the Inspiron 9100 that died recently) on my external drives.

31. for a lovely sunrise this morning!

Thank you Joy

FYI – My previous Gratitude Lists can be found at Happily Retired Gal, my new WordPress site. It is my intention to keep this ‘Daily Gratitude List’ in my sidebar indefinitely because I believe it makes sense to focus on what’s right in our lives regularly. Click for:
2010 Lists – February, January
2009 Lists – December, November, October, September, August, July, June, May, April, March, February, January
2008 Lists – December, November

Thought for Today
“God gave you a gift of 86,400 seconds today. Have you used one to say ‘thank you?’” William A. Ward

Click for comments at the TOP of the post under the title, rather than at the bottom ;–)

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