*three things that make me smile: an exercise in gratitude – feel free to steal this idea with wild abandon and fill your blog with the happy* (Nerd in the Brain)

#1 – My daughter at her Aunt’s house

The daughter is spending this week at her Aunt’s house at the beach (the shore if you’re in New Jersey or Pennsylvania). With a pool in the backyard of her house, there is only one place she wants to be: in the pool. This picture was taken on the first day (this past Sunday) at around 8:45am. Seriously, she didn’t wait for anyone else to wake up before getting into the water. I’m sure if she could change into some sort of water creature, she would. I’ve reminded my sister-in-law a hundred times this week to keep her covered in sun screen. I’d prefer my daughter not look like crispy bacon.

#2 – Working from home

After weeks of pushing the request to work from home one day per week, it was FINALLY approved on a provisional basis until I can prove that I’m at least as effective at home as I am in the office. Well, duh, I’m more effective because I don’t have people rolling up and asking questions without regard for anything that I’m currently doing. My office is carpeted, painted, clean, and finally taken for a test drive yesterday. I intelligently stacked my day with document reviews and meetings to show I’m as available (if not more) when at home vs. in the office. My eventual goal is to work from home Tuesday-Thursday and only be in the office on Monday’s and Friday’s, typically the worst days of the week. No fair letting all the other people have fun on the top and bottom end of the week.

#3 – Spontaneous trip to the movies (wife and I)

Sunday afternoon the wife said to me “Lets go the movies.” I asked what she wanted to see and she told me Ghostbusters. I was like, “hell yeah” and snatched up tickets online. The daughter wasn’t with us so it was a pleasant surprise to do something without wondering if it would be a problem with the 9 year old CEO of the household. The movie wasn’t as funny as I had expected, but very entertaining none the less. Not sure it was $15/ticket entertaining, but whatever, it’s money that wasn’t spent on things for the house.