I'm at Caribou Coffee drinking a fruit smoothie. I was in a bad mood and thought this might lighten my load. It did. As I was driving to my parent's house this morning, I realized that instead of concentrating on my audio book, I was talking to myself. In my head. I was bothered by an exchange with my daughter, and was having an 'exchange' with my parents instead. I turned off the book to just think. When I got to the house I talked to my parents about my mom's aide, and about the subject of 'giving' to us kids. Two things that I thought needed to be addressed. I felt much better after giving my advice. I didn't ask them to take it, just to think about it. Sometimes I find that when I'm bothered about one thing, I take it out on another. At least I know that about myself. My dad and I went out in search of new cordless phones. I had already looked at Wal-mart, and we went to BJ's, then Best Buy. We bought matching units, V-Tech DECT 6.0 Cordless Phones. They included a base station with cordless phone and answering machine and two additional cordless handsets. I don't know if they're working right. It seems that even without a good charge they should at least have a dial tone. I plugged corded phones in, and they worked, so the line's not bad. Maybe after the 16 hours of charging they'll work? It was very frustrating setting it all up. I'll plug mine in when I get home. We have two phones at home and only one works. Not that the phone rings much. I finally finished with all that then packed my mother for her flight to Augusta tomorrow. My father and sister will bring my mom to the curb at BWI airport. I'll be parked in the garage and waiting at the curb. They'll go on to Atlantic City, and I'll get my mother's luggage checked in, and get her situated with a wheelchair escort who will take her from there. Then it's off to work. She'll spend two weeks with my sister, being pampered every day.

Did you all hear that Happyone is back, and with a new blog? That made me happy!

So, I finished my very long book last night. It was quite a journey. I enjoyed the ride, but wished it had taken a different direction home. I see that a county library is having a book club meeting on the book in October and I plan to attend. I'm interested in hearing other people talk about it, and to have some questions answered. The book? The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.

Emily is at a field hockey dinner, so there's no rush for me to get home, except to do laundry and pick up. I might just get something from Chipotle for dinner on the way out of here. Emily has an appointment with a sports medicine doctor on Thursday, BTW. She seems fine when she's not running. I, on the other hand, have a pain in my hamstring. And I miss the pool :(. Maybe that's why I'm feeling a little down too. If the pool was open I'd be rushing home to jump in. Instead, I'll just...I dunno.

I had the nicest time on my porch yesterday. I really had time to study the hummingbirds. I love that they have a favorite branch to hang on. It's a vertical branch with no leaves, and the one bird just hangs on it like an acrobat. And he's very noisy. I love that they go from feeder to feeder. Three feeders in a small area works just fine. It's really a blessing to get so much pleasure out of such a simple thing. Just thinking about it made me happy again. It reminds me of something from the book about being happy with ordinary. That's me.