These are a few of my favorite things....

It was so nice to wake up this morning and not have to go to work because of Veterans' Day, and since Joe and I don't work on Fridays, that means a 4-day weekend.  On mornings like these we often stay in bed for a while, drinking tea, writing in our journals, reading, spending some quality time with the cats.  But when I got up to get more tea I was surprised and saddened to find this crack going almost all the way around my favorite teapot.  I'd made tea in it yesterday (no, I hadn't done all the dishes yet, though in my defense I had loaded the dishwasher with most of them) and it had seeped all the way through - though I didn't see it yesterday so it must have been a slow process.  I don't know how it happened.  Maybe it got bumped just right - or wrong - in the overcrowded china cabinet.  We've been talking about taking everything out and getting it more organized.  Anyway, I'm sorry that I won't be able to use it any more, not even as a vase since it won't hold liquid. I don't want to break it up for mosaics or anything like that, though I've seen people do clever things along those lines.  But it's too pretty to throw away.  Guess I'll think about that tomorrow.

This little fellow is another of my favorite things.  His name is Tsai Shen Yeh and he is a Chinese god of wealth and good luck; he lives on the kitchen window sill where, since he's activated by a tiny solar cell, he nods and smiles all day long.  One of Joe's Chinese students brought him back from home as a gift and I like him very much, maybe more than Joe does since the regular ticking sound the little god makes used to annoy him so much he'd put things over him to keep the sun off and inactivate him.  But the sound's not loud, more like a clock ticking, and I think Joe's gotten used to it.  Either that or he realized it was hopeless. I always uncovered him - why would you want to block good fortune?  And covering up a god with an inverted can, even if you wash it first, doesn't seem very respectful.  He hasn't brought us great wealth, but I agree with the Spanish proverb: "Enough is as good as a feast."  So I'd have to say that Tsai Shen Yeh is doing his job. Besides, every time I look at him, he makes me smile.