Happiness is the champion of Genovese pesto, Roberto Panizza

 

Happiness is Tim Hawkins doing inappropriate songs for when she's walkin' down the aisle

 

Happiness is grill smoke

If from adown the hopeful chops

The fat upon a cinder drops,

To stinking smoke it turns the flame.

 

-- Jonathan Swift

Happiness is nutbrown ale

Young and old come forth to play,

Till the live-long daylight fail,

Then to the spicy nutbrown ale.

-- John Milton

Happiness is learning your water heater isn't leaking and putting all that water on the basement floor

 

Happiness is my Norwegian Forest Cat all vaxxed up and raring to go

 

Happiness is 1937's "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off"

 

Happiness is a pleasant, productive Saturday

✓ The humidity dropped into the 40s and the temperature into the 50s.

✓ The windows were opened and the oven cleaned.

✓ The wheel bearing job on the old car was finished.

 

✓ Weeds on the sidewalk were torched.

 

✓ Groceries were sorted and frozen.

 

✓ Pizzas were made from scratch, as usual.

 

✓ Jeeves and Wooster provided the entertainment with a cottage set ablaze.

 

✓ The internet and the phone came back.

 

✓ Power was restored after four days without.

 

✓ And the generators finally fell silent.

 

 

Happiness is discovering it's not the COVID, just the English food

 

Happiness is seeing The Four Lads perform their 1953 hit "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" live in 2014

Featuring left to right Frank Busseri, Harry Duvall, John Hasselback, and Don Farrar.

Only Frankie, who died in 2019, was an original member of the group.

 

 

Happiness is an Amadeus (1984) joke

 

Tihs ym tae.

Happiness is I Wanna Be Sedated, Ramones 1978, especially these days

 

Happiness is the master-hand

Musick resembles poetry; in each

Are nameless graces which no methods teach,

And which a master-hand alone can reach.

-- Alexander Pope

Happiness is a cleft tree

The cleft tree

Offers its kind concealment to a few,

Their food its insects, and its moss their nests.

-- James Thomson (1700-1748)

Happiness is the fabulous The Crystals singing the 1963 hit Da Doo Ron Ron

 

When you need to move water, happiness is a 2-in-1 utility pump by Everbilt

This unit functions as a transfer pump for draining a water heater, for example, or as a submersible pump for draining a flooded low spot in the backyard, basement or driveway. Connect to it using a 3/4 inch garden hose.

About $119 at The Home Depot.

Happiness is real lemon, real pepper, Atlantic salmon baked in the oven

 Skip the dry, bottled, lemon-pepper seasoning and do this instead.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Real lemon pepper salmon

 

1 2+lb. Atlantic salmon filet, skinless

canola oil

1-2 fresh lemons, well-washed, sliced thin

ground black pepper

salt

 

Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Oil a roasting pan with canola oil

Place the salmon in the pan

Sprinkle, very generously, with ground black pepper

Sprinkle lightly with sea salt or kosher salt, if desired

Arrange the lemon slices all over the top of the salmon

Bake about 25 minutes on the center rack of the oven

Remove and squeeze roasted lemons with a spoon against the pan, if you wish, and spoon over the servings

Serves about four

Happiness is light yellow and cherry, the colors of July

July I would have drawn in a jacket of light yellow, eating cherries, with his face and bosom sunburnt.

-- Henry Peacham

Happiness is lions, and tigers, and bears! Oh my!

 

Happiness is clean gutters and downspouts, thanks to a Werner 24' aluminum extension ladder

Werner 24 ft. Aluminum Extension Ladder with 225 lb. Load Capacity Type II Duty Rating

This fella has just enough of the length I needed to reach the second story gutters in the rear comfortably, but only from the first floor patio deck in back, which is itself already elevated almost 6' off the ground.

It also reaches comfortably over the big shrubs and other plantings in front to get to the first level gutters.

I don't think the 20-footer would have worked as well.

The ladder is less than 35 lbs, but the gutter cleaning was still a two-man job.