Happy happy, bo-bappy. Banana fanna, fo fappy. Fe fi mo mappy. Happy! (Did I do that right? I’ve spent about 45 minutes, trying it out with every relative’s name I can think of. I keep messing up.)
Friday. Happy Here’s Five:
1. A little bundle of joy.
(Grandtwin Madison)
2. This funny ad about rum.
*
“When you hurry through life, you just get to the end faster.”
3. Corn bread. Here’s some I made to go with cabbage and sausage the other night.
4. This great quote about talking your JOY.
5. Grandtwin Matthewfeeding Tyler.
May your weekend overflow with joy talk and joy walk.
It’s Cinco de Mayo weekend, so let’s be happy! Here are five more reasons I’m smiling.
1. Ships
2. Getting good deals at the Dollar Tree.
(And being patriotic at the same time.)
3. Grandson Daniel trying to get Grandtwin Matthew to patty cake. (Wait a sec, is it pat-a-cake?)
4. Learning (great emphasis on “learning”) to go with the flow, instead of fighting against it.
5. Grilling pork chops the other night and creating a NealEnJoy Marinadewith apple butter and Dale’s Seasoning. Yum, yum, yum! But I ate them before I thought to take a picture to show you. I considered snapping a quick photo of my belly, but I couldn’t stretch my iPhone out far enough for the reverse camera thingy to get my midsection so bloated. So I thought to myself, “You know, you could probably ‘Google image’ (I just created a new verb!) a pic that would pass as your NealEnJoy marinated pork chops, and, really, who would know?” But after the Googling, I was bamboozled by all the pork chop pictures that came up.
This could be a picture, for example, of my chops …
… except they are in a frying pan. But that frying pan does look like one of mine.
And don’t these look good?
And thick:
And these remind me SO MUCH of how my mama used to fry pork chops for supper.
Then the Internet surfing got weird. Here’s a man grilling pork chops with his standing dog watching.
And I discovered that Republican politicians absolutely LOVE pork chops. Here’s Mitt Romney eating one.
And Texas Governor Rick Perry.
And would you believe it? Here’s John McCain eating a pork chop too.
Not to mention Rudy Giuliani.
I started to call somebody to report my findings about partisan pork, but I didn’t know who. Then, lo and behold, guess who popped up chowing down on a chop?!
And a pork sandwich.
Fifteen minutes and gobs of chop pics later, I started to smell more pork. Then out jumped an advertisement of Miss Piggy hawking her line of perfume called … yep, Pork Chops.
Enough of this foolishness. May we all flow into a beautiful weekend ahead.
Saturday morning I stumbled out of bed (you would think someone my age could deal with morning a bit better) and walked a few blocks to Savannah’s Forsyth Park to get some fresh vegetables. (It’s spring, so I’m on my Annual Quest to get in Stellar Shape for the maybe two times I go to Tybee Island and the beach during the summer. I haven’t seen abs in forty years, but I’m such an optimist I AM NOT GIVING UP. Do you hear me?! I intend to be on the cover of Men’s Fitness one day.)
The Forsyth Farmers’ Market is the coolest gathering of local vendors offering fresh–often organic–fruits and vegetables, along with coffees, breads, honey, jams, juices, pasta, fish, beef, poultry, herbs, flowers, etc. I LOVE their statement of purpose: “The mission of the Forsyth Farmers’ Market is to promote understanding and participation in a local food system that supports sustainable production and increases access to local products.”
Friday, Friday, Friday. Do you connect it with happiness? Here are five reasons I do.
1. Aspiring to being an optimist (even though I was SO SO ready to start a Depression Blog the other day when I tore a fingernail. Sad but true. I’m fine with optimism and happiness and contentment as long as I don’t feel any actual pain. But let me hurt, and for some immature, sick reason, I spiral down. TMI?)
2. Faith.
3. Oatmeal with real butter.
4. Susan Boyle singing “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
As I mentioned in the previous post, this past weekend brought two terrific parties, a street celebration Saturday night and then on Sunday afternoon the Sixth Birthday Celebration for my Grandson Daniel.
Before I escort you to Weekend Party Two, let me just explain that Daniel is one very COOL little boy. And here are Eight Sunglasses-Prominent Pics of D-man to prove it:
(With kindergarten teacher Ms. Lancaster)
(With little brother Gabriel)
Okay, maybe the twin girls froze him up a bit and reduced his coolness by a tad.
But NOT on his birthday. Here he sits, with his green faux hawk (aka fohawk) before his backyard party begins, “patiently” waiting for the Spiderman inflatable to blow up.
Almost there.
“I love it!”
Here’s Batman perched in the trees:
I have NEVER seen a balloon so huge. And the Spiderman pinata, ready to be lowered:
Soon the backyard fills with school and neighborhood friends.
A great hit at the party–the appearance of the folks and animals from Critters-to-Go. The kids (and adults) are fascinated.
“Okay, kids, now let’s all play with snakes!” (Neal’s first thought: “Is everyone here INSANE? What happened to the PRETEND superheroes theme?) Then out of the corner of my eye, I see courageous Batman hiding out in the trees away from all this.
Initially, Daniel’s not so sure. See? He’s a smart boy.
Every First Tuesday Savannah’s City Hall opens its doors for free tours. I know, I know, touring City Hall doesn’t sound like the most exciting entertainment venue around. But hold on just a second, compadre. After a hefty helping of Gabriella’s Zesty Chicken (on mashed potatoes) at Zunzi’s, I wobbled down Bull Street, remembering just in time to look up before I reached the river, and saw this …
… Savannah’s incredibly beautiful City Hall.
Completed in 1905 …
… City Hall features two figures who adorn the front, just below the clock and gold dome. And those two pretty ladies represent Commerce and Art. If you know anything about Savannah, you will find those figures so, so timely. Because what was true in 1905 is certainly true today: Savannah is both a big business city (Savannah Port and Gulfstream, for example) as well as a cultured, artistic town (SCAD, Savannah Music Festival, festivals galore).
Come along.
The original clockwork is now in the lobby:
I really loved the wood floor.
Looking up to the interior stain glass dome:
Some important Savannahian. (I want a bust made of me. Where can you go to get that done? Hobby Lobby? Michael’s?)
The plaque below looked historically official, so I stood there trying to read it to make people think I’m smart and all, but then I started daydreaming about the Vanilla Taffy down at River Street Sweets, so I took a picture of the plaque (which sorta still made me look smart because why else would you take a picture?).
Here I am with the really interesting tour guide (and SCAD grad), Luciana Spracher. She knew her stuff!
Did you know Savannah has a flag?
View from a back window of city hall:
Very cool open style elevator cage:
Something important looking:
I pretended to know the mayor. But you can only stand in front of her office for so long before people start to wonder what you’re doing.
TANGENT: A couple of months ago, I attended an event at the Savannah Civic Center with our mayor, Edna Jackson.
Okay, okay, maybe I wasn’t exactly with the mayor, but you can’t tell that from the above photo with her and Savannah State’s President, Dr. Cheryl Davenport Dozier.
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Luciana led us into the Savannah City Council chambers. For some reason I just got so excited.
Here I am sitting at the mayor’s desk. (Does she know people do this?)
What a fun (and educational) tour! Thanks, Luciana.
Friday, Friday, thank you for heralding happiness this week.
1. Driving back up on Wednesday to Statesboro and Georgia Southern University for the annual Retirees Recognition Ceremony. Retirees who have given ten years or more service to GSU have their names on plaques that are put on the wall at the Builders of the University Terrace.
And here I am with fellow retirees and good buddies Linda Arthur and Phyllis Dallas:
And who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch?
(Okay, maybe I put in a few years for that lunch. But the ham was good.) What a beautiful day!
2. Aspiring (great emphasis on “aspiring”) to live the rest of my life by thisquote from the novel I’m currently ready–The Light Between Oceans: “It isn’t safe to put off what matters.”
3. Walking down stairs …
… without falling.
4. The incomparable aroma of onions sauteing in olive oil.
5. Attending SCAD’s 15th annual International Festival in Savannah’s beautiful Forsyth Park.
NealEnJoy 