Happiness properly estimates opportunity, and takes it

The happy have whole days, and those they use,

Th' unhappy have but hours, and these they lose.

-- John Dryden

Happiness is nothing more than the opposite of "anhap"

"Anhap", a Welsh word for misfortune.

Good fortune to you.

Happiness is saving $125 a month by giving up wine, and sleeping better too

Two people sharing cheap bottle daily now drink water and tea, saving $1,500 a year.

Happiness is being an adorable four, like Prince George of England

Happiness is Tim Tebow having fun playing baseball with the St. Lucie Mets, and suddenly hitting 90 points higher

Story here.

Happiness is a gift of home made orange marmalade from the south of France

For the recipe, see here.

Good look finding the Seville oranges, though, especially from right off the tree in your own backyard.

This stuff is to die for.

Happiness is Dwight Yoakam singing his 1995 "Near You"

Here.

Happiness is a kilo of sea salt from western Europe's largest river delta

Happiness is Lyle Lovett singing "Church"

Here.

Happiness is New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick pissing off the Taliban in the media

Wearing a t-shirt rockin' this image.

Stories here, here and here.

Happiness is the loyalty of Hachi

2009

Happiness is good huswifery (and husbandrie)

 

 

 

 

Good huswifery trieth

To rise with the cock;

Ill huswifery lyeth

Till nine of the clock.

-- Thomas Tusser, Five Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie & Note, 1573 

Happiness is a barn quilt, conceived on a Sunday, finished by Wednesday

Her pencil drew whate'er her soul design'd,

And oft the happy draught surpass'd the image in her mind.

-- John Dryden (1631-1700)

Happiness is a house with a gas log fire place and a "dinning area"

I mean, where else are you going to raise a din unless you have a "dinning area", right?

Happiness is whole Rainbow Trout on the charcoal grill, at least that's what she said

I went to the fish counter at Meijer. They had two fresh farm-raised whole rainbow trout from Canada on ice in the display case. I said I needed four.

Tyler of handlebar mustache fame went in the back and brought out a sealed styrofoam box. He opened it and dug through the ice and pulled out four one-pounders for me. It doesn't get much fresher.

He wrapped them in freezer paper and tossed them to me so that I could say that I caught them.

At home I prepared a double-banked charcoal fire in the Weber.

The fish went into the big lasagna pan with copious amounts of canola oil to slick them up real well. Then I salted and peppered the cavities.

When the fire was ready the fish went onto the grill, heads over the coals on the one side, tails over the coals on the other. The lid was closed with the vents fully open.

The fish cook in about 9 minutes on a side. Turning the fish is a little tricky. Use two spatulas.

Prepare a garlic lemon butter for serving with the fish. Zest a lemon, chop the zest and place in a large bottomed bowl, press two cloves garlic into the bowl, and add about four tablespoons of butter. Cut it all together using a pastry blender and fill two small ramekins for sharing at your table for four. 

Serve each trout on a large plate after chopping off the head and tail, which you can save for the cats if you like.

Smother with the butter as you eat.

Our guest from France said it was the best trout she ever had.

I'm still blushing.

Happiness is George Thorogood's "I Really Like Girls"

Here.

Released in 1988 on his album Born to be Bad, the song was first performed by Thorogood at Red Rocks in Colorado, August 16, 1985. But Hank Williams Jr. already covered this song written by Thorogood on his May 1985 album Five-O, on which Thorogood himself performed. Hank Jr. also performed at Red Rocks that summer month.

And I was there for them both.

Happiness is The Bellamy Brothers singing 1982's "Redneck Girl"

Here.

". . . plays her heart when she's down on her luck".

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happiness is sleeping through the night, to wake to 58 degrees F and clear on the last day of spring 2017

Happiness is boycotting Starbucks, drinking Lavazza instead!

Alien snack bait: Earth 27.2% fat

Not exactly a giant Hostess Twinkie hanging in space, 27.3% of the calories of which come from fat, but you get the idea.

PLANET GIRTH Two billion people across the world are obese – with one in four battling fat-related diseases, experts warn: Four million people died in 2015 as a result of being too tubby, struck by cancer, heart disease, diabetes and other killer conditions

Earth current population: 7.35 billion.

Speaking of Twinkies, this nutrition professor went on a diet of them for 10 weeks back in 2010, getting his body mass index below 25 and improving his average lipid profile by 26%! He's still alive and kicking in 2016, and even got a promotion.