Engaging Post Which Includes a Goat in a Duck Costume
This lovely goat wearing a duck costume was the photo on my Christmas card this year. The Hubby told me the theme should be whatever makes me happy and a tiny goat chillin’ in a duck costume with her cloven/webbed feet sticking straight out and a blissful smile on her face makes me ridiculously, deliriously happy.
Apparently Polly, for Polly is the goat’s name, is half-blind and plagued with a myriad of neurological disorders which makes her a very anxious little gal. Somehow the folks at her rescue home discovered that as soon as they put the duck onesie on her, she calms down. Like she gets really calm. Like a goat grazing at a weed farm in Boulder at 4:20 calm. And the thought of any creature being able to find that much relief in that cute a package just makes my heart sing. I can't get enough of her. Check out her Instagram video here.
Which inspired us both to create a list of other things that make us ridiculously happy:
Gemma the Great Dane puppy.
Naming her after the tough-as-nails biker chick on Sons of Anarchy was not the wisest thing we’ve ever done but it seems to be working out okay – she’s smart, fearless and a complete snugglebug who could definitely ride The Hubby's motorcycle better than me if we let her try.
Music.
Right now it‘s: Jason Isbell, The Lone Bellow, Drive-By Truckers, Decemberists, The Mountain Goats.
My wedding ring replacement
It was totally worth waiting 20 years, 1 month and 29 days for. If you're wondering, I lost the original on a construction site in Aspen when I tripped and fell in the snow. We looked for hours but then it got dark and we had to call it a day. When we came back the next day, the spot where I fell was graded to get ready for a fresh layer of concrete. So my ring is either buried six inches underneath an Aspen driveway or the flatwork guy had a VERY happy girlfriend/wife that evening.
Pie.
Watching The Hubby enjoy his stupid fast cars and stupid guns and stupid toys again.
We had a really tough bout of poverty starting in 2010 and lasting for much longer than we thought we could handle. We handled it anyway of course. But true to his overachieving nature, Adam has worked anywhere from two to as many as five full time jobs simultaneously AND created another biz of his own with his good buddy CB and he is now once again enjoying the fruits of those soul-crushing labors.
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Wait, that’s someone else’s list of favorite things.
Television...
Glorious television: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Walking Dead, Orphan Black, Game of Thrones, Preacher, Archer, Bob’s Burgers, Modern Family, This is Us, House of Cards, Doctor Who, Family Guy, Breaking Bad, Brooklyn Nine Nine, Stranger Things, Mr. Robot, Veep and soooooo many more. This truly is a wondrous story-telling era we live in, my friends. See the "About" page for a more extensive list ;)
Really, really gaudy jewelry.
I aspire to be the next Iris Apfel. Except without the glasses.
Books, books, books.
I like to read them, touch them, sniff them, use them as décor, pretend that I live in them, buy/sell/trade them, and sometimes just stare lovingly at them.
Snow.
No, I never get tired of it.
Weddings.
Seeing our good friends' son (our first “practice kid”), get married in The Wedding of the Decade this summer in Ojai during which his little brother (second practice kid) delivered the best wedding toast EVER.
Podcasts.
Listening to podcasts in the car saves me from hearing about politics on the radio: This American Life, RadioLab, Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Invisibilia, Serial (the first season is particularly addictive), TED Talks, etc.
Fireball.
Going to California with the fam
It was just the three of us, for a 4-day visit to The Walking Dead exhibit at Universal Studios, only to discover it lasts all of 10 minutes. Seriously - 10 minutes. The attraction took less time than the line to get into the attraction. We were expecting a full immersion into the Walking Dead world with multiple buildings in a complete town but instead they had more like multiple little vignettes all in one building. Still, the special effects and the details were AMAZEBALLS. And we ended up having an absolute blast at Universal Studios anyway.
A word of advice: don’t drink butterbeer right before getting on the Harry Potter ride. It’s the equivalent to downing a pint of Mrs. Butterworth’s and then getting in one of those giant hamster ball things and rolling down a black diamond ski slope. There WILL be vomiting.
And finally, what makes us the most ridiculously happy?
Time for total cheese: it’s each other, of course. And our friends and family. Especially that kid of ours. She is officially an adult now but we are trying not to hold that against her even though her being 18 makes us look really old. She turned out pretty amazing despite her parents being complete wingnuts.
