February 5, 2016 by kimicalreaction - 4 Comments

Three Things Thursday: February 4, 2016

I borrowed this concept from the lovely Nerd in the Brain, who encourages you to steal this “exercise in gratitude” with “wild abandon” by sharing three things that made you smile this week and “fill your blog with the happy.”

This week’s Thing 1: Being in an amazing place.

We had another lovely, extra-long weekend due to our traditional celebration of Burn’s Supper with our family and a few close friends at a truly fabulous home in the North Georgia Mountains.

The weather was beautiful, the views were mind-blowing, the internet was down (ACK!!!) and the cell phone signal almost non-existent (AARRGGHH!!!!), so I went “off-line” for a change and actually enjoyed sleeping in, taking tons of pictures, enjoying long chats with family and “catching up;” cooking (I made Friday night fajitas for 12 people! – first time recipe!) and basking in front of the roaring fire with a book, watching the light and clouds dance across the skyline.

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It was soooooo wonderful.

This week’s Thing 2: Filling up my soul with vast vistas and soaring flights.

Red-tailed Hawk air shows! Daily! No charge! (2-drink minimum)

This week’s Thing 3: Friends who are family and family who are friends

Enjoying the love, companionship and camaraderie while celebrating what is becoming my new favorite annual tradition, Burns Supper.

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And there you have it! Three things that made me smile and brought joy to my week. Thanks as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration!

January 28, 2016 by kimicalreaction - 4 Comments

Three Things Thursday: January 28, 2016

Thing 1: Kicking this week off with a lovely, extra-long weekend due to a storm “fake out” that got us released from work half a day early on Friday and seemed to add just that soupçon more of playtime to the rest of my time off.

And there was French Toast! ‘Cuz what else do you do with all the eggs, milk and bread!

Thing 2: This month’s “Taste of India” fundraising dinner hosted by the Learning Tea and Dr. Bombay’s Underwater Tea Party. I know I wrote about it yesterday, but it did bring some solid fun and warm-n-fuzzies to my Monday.

Thing 3: The most exciting of all! We’re celebrating Burn’s Supper this coming weekend! Most of the last two days have been a whirlwind of packing and planning after work, trying to cover all the logistics needed to host a weekend-long dinner party for twelve people at a home in the North Georgia Mountains.

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This includes loading up our alligator butler, Jeeves, so he can “buttle” the festivities. He’s really quite handy.

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The best part is that we’ll spend four long, lovely days with my parents and eight of our good friends in a dreamily-divine house on top of a mountain, enjoying incredible views and food (and drink), with lots of downtime for reading, blogging, talking and just enjoying life.

Can’t wait! Just one more day to go!

And there you have it! Three things that made me smile and brought joy to my week. Thanks as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration!

December 3, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 9 Comments

Tree Things Thursday: December 3, 2015

The concept of Three Things Thursday was borrowed from the lovely Nerd in the Brain, who encourages you to steal this “exercise in gratitude” with “wild abandon” by sharing three things that made you smile this week and “fill your blog with the happy.”

I put up my Christmas tree last night, which filled me with “the happy,” so in the spirit of all things glittery, festive and filled with light, I shall modify “Three Things Thursday” to “Tree Things Thursday” and share my lovely little Tannenbaum with you.

I gave up on real trees a while back, due to extreme work hours and my propensity to forget to turn off the tree lights ( tree lights left on + at work all day = torturous visions of house fire). I have a little 6′ Home Depot artificial tree that’s just big enough for my motley collection of ornaments, while still rendering unto us the holiday feels.

Ahh. My Tardis ornament. It’s the gatekeeper of “coolness” in my world.

My hand-blown glass “Galileo” ornament. It has old-timey constellation-y, kabalistic-y looking stuff all over it and it was a sweet and expensive gift from an old boss years ago. It’s very fragile and very special.

My “Dr. Seusse” fishes. I snapped up 4 of them on an after-Christmas clearance sale and have managed to keep them intact the past ten years, which is amazing considering I have two “grown-up, adult” cats who, in effect, are actually giant kittens and love to swat randomly at anything on the tree particularly beloved to me. I love their charm and whimsey.

The fishes’ charm and whimsey, that is.

I’m completely over my cats’ charm and whimsey at this particular moment.

My little white owls, or “Wols,” as I call them. They’re made of some kind of sisal (?) but they have the cutest faces and hey, they’re ~~wols~~ owls. Also, they look somewhat like Hedwig, Harry Potter’s owl, so that makes them just a tiny bit more awesome, and a lot more magical.

My “Knight in Shining Armor,” a Christopher Radko ornament given to me ages in the past by one of my besties, Tara. It’s a lovely ornament and it proceeded my actual Knight in Shining Armor, my husband David, who didn’t rescue me from anything, but did sweep dramatically into my life bringing a tremendous amount of love and happiness.

And although I professed irritation with them earlier, the best sight under/in/around/on top of my tree are my little fur kid’s faces. The delight of the season seems to affect them as well, although they may just be looking for treats/and or attention.

Thanks, as always, Nerd in the Brain, for the inspiration! May all of you out there have the very best insert winter holiday of your choice filled with overflowing and fabulous joy!

April 12, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 4 Comments

Three Things Thursday: (Three Days Late) Sunday April 12, 2015

I have so many “happies” to contribute to Nerd in the Brain’s Three Things Thursday this week that it took me three extra days to post it all!

(Yeah, nice try.)

We were in Augusta last weekend, visiting my Mom-in-Law, Linda.

Friday night, we took a sunset cruise on the Augusta canals, in a Petersburg boat, which is a reproduction of the pole-barges used to ferry cotton down the Savannah river to the Augusta mills in the late 1800s. The hour and a half boat tour offered wonderful live music with the Henrys (the trio of violin, stand-up bass and guitar we enjoyed hearing so much a few weeks ago at 5 o’clock Bistro) and we brought a bottle of wine and a picnic of cheese and charcuterie to enjoy along the way.

Saturday night, we took Linda to a wonderful restaurant in old downtown Augusta, called Frog Hollow Tavern.

Duck rillettes!

The food and service were truly amazing. I’m in the restaurant business, so it’s always so nice when someone just does it all right. Details make the experience as much as the cuisine.

Augusta’s a little further South than Atlanta, so Spring was more firmly entrenched. It was such a lovely weekend, with blue skies, warm sun and a riot of colorful flowers.

My husband and I have made a tradition of dressing up for Easter every year. He dons his seer-sucker suit, I coordinate an ensemble and hat (Easter bonnet!), and of course we always get the rest of the family to doll up, too. It’s so much fun – I always love our annual photos.

Wishing you all a wonderful week!

February 19, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 2 Comments

Three Things Thursday: February 19, 2015

For Nerd in the Brain’s Three Things Thursday, I’d like to share a few moments from my week for which I’m both happy and grateful.

A lovely and relaxing Valentine’s Day at home with my husband, “far from the madding crowd” at the restaurant where I work.

There was a cozy fire, pretty flowers, a nice bottle or two of wine and very importantly:

Lasagna!

A beautiful, but very crisp Atlanta night. So far, we’ve avoided any snow and ice, for which I’m actually grateful, since I have too many events and too much work this week to afford a city shutdown. ::sigh:: It’s sad, truly, when you can’t get excited about missing work for a snow day.

And the biggest chunk of happy to share with you: our awesome foster dog, Beau! He’s the sweetest baby, but has had some rough handling in his two years before ALR rescued him a from a shelter. We’ll be working with a dog therapist and trainer to hopefully help him overcome some of his socialization issues and be happy and content living with us. He’s a special guy and we’re already totally in love with him.

It’s been a very nice week (work and arctic weather aside) and I’m looking forward to a wonderful weekend. Thank you again, Nerd in the Brain, for the opportunity to remember and share my gratitude!

February 6, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 1 Comment

Six Things Thursday: February 5, 2015

I’ve got a ton of happy moments to be grateful for and share in Nerd in the Brain’s Three Things Thursday this week. I’ll throw in a few extra to (hopefully) make up for being MIA last week.

Basically, two very fun weekends! Both wildly different but lots of wonderful memories.

Not a lot of time to blog. (Working on this.)

Reunited with my very dear friends, Sharona and Mike!

Friday the 23rd, we enjoyed some talented local art at my friend Denise’ opening at the Movement Gallery, and afterwards, visited Sharona and Michael, friends from my “glamorous” bartending past, running the bar at the quite excellent restaurant, Valenza. (Food and drinks were stellar!)

Gracie: a lot of cat to love. And brush.

Saturday, we met up with my parents, who were in town visiting with some good friends of theirs in North Georgia. Besides great company and a wonderful dinner, we were able to hang out with their really fabulous cat, Gracie, who used her advanced powers of feline mind control to bend me to her will.

On Sunday, we helped out with Atlanta Lab Rescue’s Adoption Day. One of my very favorites, the incredibly precious and beautiful Jake, found his forever home with a really sweet young couple. Yay, Jake! That’s a whole bunch of happy right there.

{Insert a manic work week}

Continuing the awesome on Friday the 31st, we gathered at the mountain house for our yearly celebration of Burn’s Supper.

Patti, my sister-cousin

This is David’s and my fifth year to host (our slightly warped version of) the traditional Scottish dinner and it gets bigger (and a little rowdier) each year.

Patti, my little Mommy and me. Oh, and a photo bomb from Dana.

We had a happily overflowing house with my parents, their friends Mike and Derenda (Gracie-the-cat’s folks), my sister-cousin Patti and her friend David, good friends, Heidi, Hil and Dana, and our bagpiper friend, Sam and his wife, for a soul-restoring weekend of beyond stellar views, company, food, wine and festivity.

The motley “MacCrew.”

So, there you have it! My 6 things Thursday, or 3 Things Thursday², as it were. Thank you, Nerd in the Brain, for the chance to remember (and share) my big ol’ bunch of happy!

(Soon to come, Tales from Burn’s Supper. Many, many stories in itself.)

January 22, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 3 Comments

Three Things Thursday: January 22, 2015

My response this week to Nerd in the Brain’s “Three Things Thursday” Challenge:

Share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.

I still can’t believe it! Last week I received this notification from WordPress.

My 100th post! It’s only taken me four years of truly apathetic blogging to get here.

Other snip-lets of the happy:

I have to agree with Nerd in the Brain on this one. I own an SUV, so this sight brought tears of joy to my eyes:

Holy, moly. Really, really cheap gas at the Wally World in Augusta.

And Monday’s amazing sunset after last week’s gloomy drizzle.

and Wednesday’s, as well!

January 15, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 7 Comments

Three Things Thursday: January 15, 2015

Today I’m joining in again on Nerd in the Brain’s weekly challenge, Three Things Thursday, where she asks you to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesomeness of your life.”

I’d like to share three photos that fall into the “awesomeness of life” category.

We’ve had a week of cold, drizzly weather in Atlanta.

I work on the 72nd floor of a highrise building, typically surrounded by stunning views of the city. For the last few days, we’ve been completely wrapped in a cotton batting of fog, unable to see more than an inch or two beyond the windows.

Walking into my office this morning, my eye was caught by a flash of black, piercing the endless gloom.

The image was so cool and surreal and Goth-y, I had to get a picture. Dumping the entire contents of my purse on the floor (with my customary elegance), I scrambled for my phone before the view was lost in the mists.

It was eery and wildly magical.

As the clouds swirled and eddied past me, I caught a hint of changing weather…

and a promise of blue skies to come.

January 8, 2015 by kimicalreaction - 4 Comments

Three Things Thursday January 8, 2015

The lovely Nerd in the Brain offers a Thursday writing (or photo) challenge called Three Things Thursday:

*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy*

I think it’s a wonderful idea and had all kinds of fun and happy photos planned for my first attempt, but my day went and changed a little on me in a way I wasn’t so happy about. Therefore, I have decided I’m going to change a little on it, and find some things to be grateful for.

My husband brought me lemon chamomile tea with honey. And a little friend.

Yes, I am thick ::sniffles:: Most likely, I’m having a reaction to the tetanus (t-dap) booster I had at the doctor today – some of the side effects are fever, nausea, dizziness and headaches. I seem to have found them all.

David was very sweet and rushed me into jammies and bed.