Happy Easter everyone! It’s time to look back and find the good things in my week. It was just an ordinary week. Nothing particularly good or bad. That’s not a bad thing.

1. Game of Thrones is back!
2. The weather was nice enough again to take the dog for a walk every night after work.
3. Red Robin had a week of deals for reward members so we had dinner out on Tuesday.
4. Another meeting out of the branch on Wednesday and another nice day for driving.
5. I switched nights with someone this week so I was home to watch Survivor and Amazing Race live.
6. I got paid to watch Won’t You Be my Neighbor and Solo at work this week.
7. The storms Friday were not too bad at our house and we were able to drive to campus without dealing with more than light rain.
8. My daughter came home for the weekend and my son is coming home for lunch today.

I think that does it for the week.

It was a pretty good week that ended on a day at work when I normally wouldn’t be at work. Whenever I switch weekends or nights it always seems to go bad. This was no exception. Good thing there were good things before yesterday.

1. Both of my kids were home for dinner Sunday night.
2. I had another meeting out of the branch Tuesday. It was a nice day to be out for a drive and I used my 30 minutes of lunch to visit with friends at my old branch.
3. We laughed a lot at work Wednesday night, probably because I’m hilarious.
4. Another out of branch meeting and another nice day for a drive on Thursday.
5. I visited my old branch again because they said they had food.
6. I mowed for the first time of the season Friday and for the first time in a while, the grass wasn’t even a little damp. It’s nice not to have constant rain.
7. This is probably why I was able to do the entire lawn without the battery dying on the mower.
8. I got good work news on Friday afternoon.
9. My son spent the night Friday night since we were on the way to where he needed to be early Saturday morning.
10. He requested Grilled Cheese & Company for dinner. That’s always a good thing.

Let’s hope the weeks of an easy 10 good things continue.

A better week this week. I’m coming to terms with the events of last week and moving on with life. No sense looking in the rear view mirror. It wasn’t the most exciting of weeks. I think the list will be small, but the list of bad is smaller, so I’ve got that going for me.

1. The week started badly with Kentucky losing to Auburn, but it was followed by the good of Duke losing and that made the loss easier to take.
2. It was warm enough to eat lunch outside multiple times this week and warm enough to be out in shorts yesterday.
3. Calipari signed a new contract that will keep him at Kentucky as long as he wants to be there.
4. Due to some schedule changes, I was working on Friday and my boss wasn’t so I got to attend a planning meeting about a new branch.
5. The meeting included a free breakfast and lunch.
6. I was able to go next door and see friends at my old branch while at the meeting.
7. I took leave when the meeting was over and got home 90 minutes earlier than normal.
8. After cleaning the shower yesterday I was able to relax on the couch with my book and a baseball game on TV which led to a surprise hour-long nap.
9. My daughter decided to come home last night and my son is coming over for dinner tonight so we will all be together again for a few hours.
10. Michigan State lost last night. It would have been a better night of basketball had Auburn also won, but I have a team I can cheer for tomorrow night.

Wow. I made it to ten without any trouble. Let’s hope this continues.

It might be a short list this week. I spent a good portion of the week alternating between angry, bitter and depressed. Sometimes all three at once. That’s not a good way to live. Let’s find the good.

1. My wife surprised me Monday by not only coming home early from work but also suggesting we get food out instead of me cooking dinner.
2. I finally talked to someone at a place that owed me a refund and got my refund. It was a pittance, but it was the principle of the thing.
3. I have clarity now about my work life. I can stop wasting my time looking for something that will never happen and focus any advancement thoughts on moving out in order to move up.
4. Kentucky won Friday night and is moving on to the Elite Eight. Hopefully, I will have more Kentucky wins on the list next week.
5. It was warm enough yesterday that I spent a couple of hours outside in shorts and a t-shirt.

That’s it for this week. Hoping for a longer list next week.

This was not a great week. Two stressful days to start the week. My days off to watch basketball made stressful by a sick dog and an anxiety-producing phone call. A bad customer service encounter at a local business. It’s a good week for me to try to find the good to prove that there is good on even the worst of weeks.

1. March Madness started this week, so no matter how bad the days were I knew I had basketball to look forward to when I got home.
2. I took Thursday afternoon off to be home to watch the games so I saw more of the first round than usual. I’ve been meaning to do that for years.
3. Kentucky won their first game easily. It’s nice to have one game that doesn’t stress me out.
4. Friday was my normal day off, so I had a second day to watch the games.
5. Emergency vet visit did not find anything serious wrong with the dog and she is getting back to normal.
6. My daughter made it to and from South Carolina safely.
7. Kentucky won a tough game yesterday without their best player so I have real rooting interest in the tournament for another week.

I think that does it for the week. Not a bad list for a bad week. I would probably have more if I thought to make note of things as they happened. Tune in next week to see if the results of the phone call from above mean a really bad or a really good week.

It was generally a good week this week. I started the week with a day good enough to post a good day post and then, while there were some stressful and frustrating times, it was a decent week. I won’t cheat and use the list from Monday for the list today. That would be too easy.

1. I will start with something from Monday – I’ve been involved with the state library association almost from the start of my career. I’ve presented at conference three times. I’ve been on the conference committee multiple times. I thought this year would be the first time in a long time I wouldn’t be there and then a received word that I was approved to go and am now registered.
2. I’m really enjoying the extra hour of daylight and hope to continue to take advantage of it with walks after work.
3. I normally wouldn’t put a job interview on a list of good things before hearing the result, but there are two good things with this one – it’s over and the result will give me final indication on the direction of my future job decisions. It will be good to have that clarity.
4. Speaking of MLA, I had a meeting at the offices Thursday morning. It was a nice day for a drive to Baltimore.
5. I stopped on the way back to the branch for a nice, quiet lunch with just me and my book.
6. Friday was another really nice day and I had another nice lunch outside.
7. My daughter was home for spring break when I got home from work. She’s abandoning us and going south to visit a friend tomorrow, but we got one weekend with her home.
8. We had lunch at the normal birthday spot for our kids yesterday with both of the kids. It’s unusual these days to get both kids home at the same time.
9. My son stayed long enough after lunch for us to play our now traditional game of Life. It’s become the standard for when we are all together at home.
10. I have one more day off work today and an excuse to spend it watching TV with my daughter.

Today is the day the NCAA brackets are revealed. I will probably be posting my upset and final four picks tomorrow. Next week’s What’s Good post will probably be filled with basketball-related things, hopefully involving wins by Kentucky.

I should probably save all of this for my weekly What’s Good post, but I’m gonna go ahead and talk about the now. I will confuse the people who know me by being positive.

1. I started the day with a free breakfast out. Download those restaurant apps people!
2. I an officially official to go to the state library conference.
3. My friend and coworker is also officially approved to go to the state library conference.
4. I got to spend the day talking about the conference. The conference and the Maryland Library Association has been a very important part of my career. I spent years on the conference committee and running pub quiz and hope to get back the conference committee next year.
5. I spent some of the day talking sports with a regular customer.
6.  I talked sports with another customer when they realized I was wearing a Kentucky jacket and they were wearing a Duke jacket.
7. I ate lunch outside.
8. I walked the dog after work with no jacket.
9. I am enjoying some bourbon while watching The Walking Dead.
10. The bourbon is my excuse to any typos.
11. It’s still light outside at 6:30
12. I can have more bourbon if I feel like it.
13. Bourbon…yum

Another generally uneventful week. Not much of note at all. Let’s see if I can remember anything that happened.

1. Pancake dinner at church Tuesday night. Any excuse to eat pancakes for dinner, especially when someone else cooks them.
2. Kentucky won Tuesday night on the road against Ole Miss without Reid Travis.
3. I made it out of the dentist office Wednesday morning without them finding a reason I need to go back before my next cleaning.
4. I finally convinced myself to use some of my 2200 hours of sick leave to go home early on Thursday and rest to try to get over the cold I’ve had all week.
5. I received an email Thursday that I can go to the MLA Conference(pending supervisor approval). I’ve been involved in MLA for my entire career and I was afraid this would be the year I had to miss the conference.
6. I also received an email on Friday about interviewing for a promotion at work.
7. I had half a day on Friday after some cleaning to rest, watch TV and read.
8. Kentucky beat Florida, Tennessee lost to Auburn and now Kentucky is the 2 seed in the SEC tournament and will have an earlier game Friday night.
9. Duke lost to UNC giving Kentucky a better chance at a 1 seed in the tournament.
10. Murray State won last night and will be in the NCAA tournament so I will have two Kentucky teams to cheer for in March Madness.

As you can see, we are entering the time of year when my life will revolve around basketball. I love this time of year.

This will be a difficult one, not because it was a bad week, but because it was a very uneventful week. Not a lot happened good or bad. Also, I’m old now and can barely remember the week. Let’s give it a shot. I am not going to force it to ten this week.

1. My son came home for dinner Sunday night. It’s always good to start the week with one of my kids home.
2. I covered the desk at a different branch Monday afternoon. I always enjoy getting out to different places to break up the work week.
3. My wife was home when I got home Monday evening so I had less time alone this week.
4. I had a training Thursday afternoon, so I had another opportunity to get out and see different people.
5. The training ended early so I took an hour of personal leave and left work at 4.
6. I still had a free coffee and donut to use at Krispy Kreme so I not only left early but also got a free donut and coffee for the drive home.
7. I was a little sick yesterday, but that did force me to just take the day off completely and nap on the couch. I needed a day like that.

That’s it. Only seven this week. It was a very boring, uneventful week. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

We realized last night that we have no real memory of Monday. My wife asked me what we did for dinner that night. I have no recollection at all. Let’s see if I can remember anything else about the week.

1. Monday was a holiday. I didn’t have to go to work. I did nothing all day but read a book and watch TV. Why can’t every day be like that?
2. Tuesday night I had a free dinner at Houlihan’s with my free birthday coupon they sent me. I ate alone and read my book like a loser, but you can’t argue with a free meal.
3. Wednesday I finally got my snow day. It was also on my 1-9 day so I not only got a day off, I got my evening day off.
4. Friday was my regular day off so my week, was work every other day. I could get used to that schedule.
5. I went to a retirement party for someone at work on Friday afternoon and had a chance to see some work people I don’t see regularly.
6. I had book club at my house Friday night so I got to follow the party with more time with friends(though they are all old and left at 9:30)
7. They brought ice cream cake and gifts for my birthday.
8. I won $6 on the scratch offs they bought me.
9. This was the other gift
10. I had to work yesterday, but I started the day with a free pastry at Panera and ended it with a free burger at Red Robin and BOGO Blizzards at Dairy Queen and then the Kentucky basketball game.

Now I enter into the days of no more birthday gifts, no more free birthday food, no more random days off. No more filling my what’s good list with free stuff and days off.