Ten Things I'm Thankful For

--Refrigeration

--Modern feminine menstrual products

--Tea bags

--The garbage collector (ok, not a thing, but ya know what I mean)

--Being appreciated

--Pull tab envelopes. I think envelope glue tastes horrible.

--Power steering, Anti-lock brakes

--Microwaves

--Airplanes

--The Gutenburg (sp?) Bible and press

Ten Things I'm Thankful For

--Constructive criticism

--Vacuum cleaners

--Lint brushes

--Washing machines

--Indoor plumbing

--ipods

--The Internet

--Fabric softener

--Mobility. I'm so glad I have to climb stairs everyday to keep my legs moving. I sit in a chair the rest of the day at work.

--Clean underwear

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

All the products shown below. I know there aren't 10 here, but I found these on www.huffingtonpost.com and couldn't resist putting them on my blog.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Spaghetti squash

--Scary Halloween moves

--GPS systems

--Spoof news articles

--Lipstick that lasts on my lips for more than five minutes

--Warm bath water

--Weddings

--Granola

--Herbal tea

--Tricks and Treats

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Strong women who aren't afraid to speak their minds

--The pink van hanging from a crane near downtown Nashville. it advertises a radio station.

--The home team

--Cheesecake with strawberries

--Sincere compliments

--The look on babys' faces when they pass gas

--The moment the plane touches ground when I travel

--The Weight Watchers Hungry Monster. I think he looks like the love-child of Garfield and Snuffalufagus (from Sesame Street-- I have no clue if I'm spelling that correctly) (Oh, and by the way, I don't receive any money for this blog. I'm not a paid spokeswoman or anything. There's a new law that I have to disclose such things).

--The Sunday comics

--People who drive slowly and carefully in residential areas, especially when there are children who live in the neighborhood.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Winning a difficult Sudoku game

--Pickup sticks

--Sidewalk chalk

--Good ideas for stories

--lazy weekends

--The smell of charcoal grilling

--Days that are good for kites

--Being able to get the cap off of a tightly closed bottle of pop/soda/pickles

--Snuggies

--High fiber cereal

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Animal Tracks on msnbc.com

--Looking forward to an end to the rain

--Beaver dams

--Decaf on a chilly fall night

--Everyone at work talking about what their kids will be dressed as for Halloween

--Managing not to put a run in my pantyhose

--Special conferences

--Fresh water pears

--Animal crackers

--The man's face on the moon

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Losing weight

--100 calorie packs of snack food. Portioning does wonders for my waist :)

--Winning a gift certificate at work from a drawing to Olive Garden

--The circus

--MLB playoffs (though the Cardinals need to turn things around with the Dodgers)

--The sandpaper feel of a cat's tongue

--Happy Joe's Pizza

--101 Dalmations

--Getting rid of hiccups

--The end to week long bouts of rain

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Starting Weight Watchers today. I'm visualizing myself a few pounds lighter.

--Sunny days (It's been raining and raining here. I'm looking forward to the sun one of these days.)

--Putting the last piece into the puzzle

--Finding a new author who's books are irresistible

--The feeling in the back of my throat when I gargle with mouthwash

--The scent of coffee brewing, especially in the morning

--The click of my fingernails when I type on my keyboard

--The general moment when my allergy medication kicks in for the day

--Garfield the cat

--Pom Poms

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Playaways from the library. They're little machines the size of an ipod with an audio book loaded onto it.

--Raisin-Cinnamon bread with lots of butter, toasted.

--The finalists on America's Got Talent this season. I can't make up my mind who I want to win.

--Advanced reading copies of books

--The holes in Swiss cheese

--Watermelon on a hot summer day

--Reading a thriller and finding out how the killer is caught

--The Nashville Predators

--Realizing why my mother never put chips in the same plastic bag with my sandwich as a kid. I thought I'd be smart and try it to save a bag, but then my chips ended up soggy (like having a slice of bread in a container of too hard brown sugar. The moisture from the bread was leeched out into the chips).

--Loaner cars when we're having work done to our car. It's so much easier than driving to opposite ends of the Nashville area for our respective jobs.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Finishing 3 novels during my 3 day weekend

--Pork tenderloins

--Sweet corn with lots of butter

--Mocha chip Frappichino at Starbucks today

--The moment when all the dishes are clean and no one has dirtied any new ones yet

--Fawns

--The puppy in Starbucks. I wanted to take him home with me.

--Alphasmart

--Grocery shopping when the total including tax is under 100.00

--Clearance sales & new slacks

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

--Cupcakes with filling inside

--Garfield

--Friendly waiters/waitresses

--Men in uniform (women in uniform too for that matter)

--Tie dye

--Hitting the traffic lights right

--Fudge with walnuts

--Alphabet soup

--Key lime pie

--Sincere apologies

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- Elves

-- When my husband returns from a long trip

-- Koalas

-- Butterfinger ice cream

-- The buzz of the drier when my last load of laundry is finished for the day

-- Regency romances

-- The smell of cedar

-- Museums

-- Good reference books

-- Getting a stain out of my shirt after spilling food all over myself.

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- Bookstores

-- Volkswagon Beatles

-- Peppermint Patty

-- Peaches and cream

-- Bambi and Thumper

-- Robin eggs

-- Hopscotch

-- Miss Mary Mack

-- Political cartoons

-- The calm after the storm

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- An agent asked to see pages from my pitch session at Killer Nashville today

-- Wild berry smoothies with whipped cream on top

-- Thinking LMNOP was one letter of the alphabet as a child

-- The Roadrunner and Wilde E. Coyote

-- J.A. Jance gave a really funny set of talks today at Killer Nashville. She's a hoot!

-- The kid in the movie The Shining when he gets to ride his big wheel around the big hotel. I wish I could have done something like that as a kid.

-- That my father-in-law doesn't have any broken bones. He fell yesterday.

-- Biting into mystery food and realizing I'm eating candied apples and not beets

-- Qwerkle

-- Trivia

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- Remembering that rejection can be a positive thing. I had a manuscript rejected today, but even though it was a form letter, I'm pretty sure I know why it was rejected. It'll eventually make my writing better so that I don't make the same mistakes over and over again.

-- Killer Nashville starts tomorrow and I have the day off so I can go! Yippie! www.killernashville.com. J.A. Jance is the guest of honor, and Lee Loftland will also be there.

-- Four day work weeks

-- Easy days at work

-- My husband found a job! Double yippie!

-- Eating spicy food and clearing out my sinuses

-- The end of caffeine withdrawal headaches

-- Steak

-- Rubber duckies

-- Weeping willow trees

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- The Kiebler Elf

-- The zombies from Thriller (can you imagine being a hiring manager and seeing that on somebody's resume if s/he left dancing?)

-- The yellow submarine

-- What can get lost in translation. I once had a friend tell a guy she was dating she wanted to help him pick the chicken breast off his sweater. She had mixed up the words pechuga and peluza in Spanish.

-- Fawns

-- Meteorites

-- Flintstone vitamins

-- Cottage cheese and potato chips

-- Pushing my spoon into a grapefruit and squirting the person on the other side of the table

-- Cheap airline tickets

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

-- Lemon drops

-- Respite from my week-long headache

-- Author chats online

-- Challenging Suduko puzzles

-- Sticky cinnamon rolls

-- Tax Free weekend for shopping on clothes, shoes. Tennessee sales tax is 9.25%

-- Marmaduke

-- Birthstones

-- Cliffhangers

-- Captain Crunch

Ten Things That Make Me Smile

- Lazy weekends

- The public library and inter-library loans

- Doves

- Mullets

- Just the right amount of perfume

- That J.A. Jance is the guest of honor for this year's Killer Nashville conference. www.killernashville.com

- Cake and ice cream

- The calm after the storm

- Frosties at Wendy's

- Playing pool and not knocking the 8 ball into the pocket before I'm supposed to do so.

A Picture's Worth 1000 Words

I went to www.barnesandnoble.com today and selected, "books." Just for kicks and giggles, I searched the word, "bluekissed," to see what would be the first hit.

I laughed until I my eyes watered.

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=bluekissed&box=bluekisse&pos=-1