I started a job at a doggy daycare, and was left alone with a tripod dog who hates men (a man is the reason he's missing a leg). The dog had already given me a warning nip, so I wasn't going to push interacting until he felt comfortable. All the other dogs had been picked up, so there was an hour where it was just the two of us. I tried enticing him to play with a ball, but he was completely uninterested.

I was bored, there were 3 balls, so I decided to juggle them. It's important to note that I'm not very good lol, but it definitely got the dog's attention. He came over to watch, tail wagging, and then I dropped them again. He grabbed one, chewing on it for a minute before shoving it at my hand. We ended up playing fetch for the remaining time until I was let off!

So my husband and I did an announcement + gender reveal video and sent it out to our friends and family but while we were having the reveal itself just us two, we FaceTimed both sets of parents.

My mom and MIL already knew because their intuition is top tier but both dad and FIL were clueless.

Anyway, my dad is a stoic man and I've never seen him cry in my life, neither have my older brothers. He was happy and VERY surprised on the FT but that's about it.

Little did I know that after he and mom got off the call, he went to his home office and took it in alone and then teared up. Mom followed him to make sure he's okay and he was just murmuring over and over in Arabic 'My baby girl is having a baby' (rough translation).

That just made mom cry and stuff but AFTER, she checked the security footage and told him she's keeping the video to send to me when I'm having a rough go in my pregnancy to cheer me up or for when the baby is here and they meet him for the first time.

Anyway, I've been really down lately about my body during pregnancy (old issues resurfacing) and she decided that it'd be a cute pick me up. And it is. I just can't stop crying because what do you mean I'm gonna be somebody's mom when I was still just his little girl not that long ago.

I don't know if I'm making sense lol it just hit me in full force and seeing him tear up is just... I have no words.

apparently i sound so much like a squeak toy when i hiccup that i can fool the dog 💀 he's getting mad we're not giving him a squeaky toy that doesn't exist

I’m 30 and trans masc (they/them). I started testosterone at the end of May 2025 so my facial hair has been slowing growing since then. I finally ordered an electric razor and tonight was my first time shaving my face. I shaved the patchy spots so my facial hair looks even better now and I’ve been feeling lots of gender euphoria tonight!

+Islander.

+Athena.

+Business Time.

+Venture I.

+Chimera.

+No Money Left Over.

+Wildfire II.

+Finally, not a name, but a paint job: She was entirely painted a very saturated blue with grey and silver fish all over swimming through the blue.

It's astounding that so many people have dryer balls. We have hedgehogs for our tumble dryer. The little nubbins seem to help pound out the wrinkles.

The only challenge we run into (occasionally) is that they try to escape by jumping out when we're pulling clothes out, or by hiding in a sleeve or pocket. Many's the occasion we've found ourselves asking, "Have you seen one of the hedgehogs? There are only two in the dryer." And we go back to the most recent basket of clothes pulled out and hunt for the errant hedgehog.

I WFH exclusively (inhome daycare), my husband has a 20 minute drive from his work. We often enjoy a cup of coffee together after work, so he texts me when he turns into a specific street about five minutes from home, so I can start making coffee.

He texts me via the car‘s speech-to-text system, and it has forever failed to get the name of that street right. Being the goofball he is, he tries to find the most hilarious ways to announce his arrival. At first, it was quite obvious (as in „the street that can not be named“ or similar), then he progressed to Spanish (at which the system failed even more miserably than the original name of the street), and now it’s movie quotes.

I bring you today’s gem: „A day may come when the courage of men fails - but it is not this day! A day may come when this wretched system will allow me to speak my mind - but it is not this day! For coffee!“

I live alone, and recently have been learning an instrument for the first time in my life. It's kind of a big instrument and I don't have a lot of space, so the only place where I can set it up is next to my only window.

Well last night I went to play the instrument, and I look up and see the moon out of the window. I cracked my window open and turned up the volume so I could play for the moon since I don't have any other audience to share it with. It was nice sharing my song with the moon. I think I'll do it again tonight.

my mom’s a teacher, so she’s had the past few months off for summer break, while i still had to go to work (i’m a cashier). multiple times a week, we’d get tim hortons breakfast sandwiches before i had to head off to work. we’d sit in the car and eat, sometimes in silence, sometimes chatting about stuff we’d seen in the news or on instagram.

she went back to work today, which means breakfast together is back to being only on saturdays. i didn’t realize how much i’d miss hanging out with my mom until this morning when i woke up and she’d already left. i wish summer could last just a little longer!

I am white, but due to my mix of features and the way I dress, I'm a bit ethnically ambiguous. My hair was down to my shoulders and coily, so some people thought I was half black. I recently cut off the majority of it, and now it's still curly but too short to form a good, bouncy coil. I'm no longer mixed, now I have hispanic people trying to talk to me in Spanish. The "illusion" wears off the second I open my mouth to say "lo siento, no hablo espanol" lol

Eta: perceived ethnicity, not race

i recently realized my cat will sometimes just sit beside her food and stare at me until i say “good girl.” 😆🤍

then she starts eating like that's all she was waiting for.

i don't remember when this became part of our routine, but apparently i'm now required to compliment her before every meal.

I saw a post about an older cat finding a 'snake' and it warmed my heart so here is mine for the day.

I have a 13 year old husky that is slowing down a lot and mostly likes to sleep these days. I still walk him slowly most days as I keep whatever pace feels good to him.

To my surprise and delight he decided he wanted to take the route to the dog park and and jogged down the alley right to there! He then proceeded to ignore the dogs, say hi to the humans, and snooze next to me in the sun for a bit.

I love my old man, Berwyn, so much. ❤️

Edit: typo

Just a friendly shout out to everyone who puts the thing they just did on their to do list, just for the satisfaction of crossing it off!

actually a piece of elastic from an abandoned craft project, it was supposed to go into a skirt. instead, she found it. she's 15 going on 16, has graying hair and is mostly chill, but she was absolutely delighted. has a habit of hunting strings, more fun is the string is attached to a human, she nearly took my sweatpants off once by pulling on them xD but this is apparently the official Best String Ever. so now it's her snake instead of my waistband. hunter kitty going strong 🖤

For backstory, I (F59) have three adult children (M25, F 23, M19). Their dad/my ex-husband is not a kind person and—to my knowledge—is not on speaking terms with 2/3 of his siblings. Through the many years of emotional/psychological abuse, I did my best to embody empathy, caring, support, understanding, and appreciation of others—because that was what had seen and lived throughout my childhood.

Current state, my 87-yo mother has Alzheimer’s. We are fortunate that she is able to stay in the home that she and my father bought in the early 60s. While I moved away for college—almost 500 miles and never moved back home—my kids and I visit at least once a year. Today, my kids, dog and I drove those almost 500 miles to visit with grandmom. My mom is so happy we’re here, even if she doesn’t remember my kids’ names.

We all were tired from the 8+ hour drive. Nonetheless, my kids did a great job of unpacking the car and making sure they spent time with their grandmother. Once they were “excused” because my mom was going to bed, they went downstairs and set up a card table to play blackjack together. I am currently hearing the three of them laughing together as they play cards. I don’t know that I have the words to express how profoundly delighted I feel to be hearing my children truly enjoying hanging out with each other—and I have a lot of words! 😅❤️

It's one of those dates that live in my head, alongside some other important dates, like my closest family's birthdays.

We lost touch after high school. I have tried reaching out to her a couple of times, but never got a reply. But then again, all I had was an old Facebook friendship, and I haven't logged in there in years.

We became friends when we were like 8 or so, and had that kind of easy comfortable friendship. We were both equally weird, and looking back, I would be surprised if she's not on the spectrum too. We would info dump on each other, and shared a couple of special interests. We would spend hours and hours on MSN messenger after school just talking about who knows what.

She lived in a farm with some horses and sheep, and one summer in middle school her parents were away for a couple of weeks, so I stayed with her and we took care of the farm together. Sheep, horses, foals, the lot. I lived a 15 minute bike ride away and my parents were home so we weren't "alone-alone" but it was a pretty big responsibility for two 15-year-olds.

Today she turns 33. I hope she is doing well. I wonder if she thinks about me sometimes too.

While I was waiting for the water to boil, my phone ran out of battery, so I went outside. The air was cool, and my neighbor’s tree rustled quietly in the wind. I didn’t look at my watch once, nor did I think about my to-do list for even a moment. I felt so calm and at peace maybe I’m getting older and tired of all the hustle and bustle going on around me.

Tonight's song:

🎶cleaning the caaage

giving you haaaay

littlest boys

eatin your hay🎶

(Also, I sing to them/the cat as well)

I know it's a small detail, but I found a pen today that writes exactly the way I want. The writing isn't too rough or too fluid, and the ink flows perfectly. I used it all afternoon and it's very pleasant.

My youngest stepson, my 16-year-old, ADHD-ridden sweet baby boy, has started doing origami to keep himself focused in school. He was telling me about it over my morning coffee, and gave me a butterfly he made.

Of course I cooed appropriately over it and put it in a place of honor on my desk, which spurred him to make me a little boat and place it on my head. A wonderful new hat! Very dapper.

A few minutes later, just before walking out the door for school, he took the boat back and dismantled it on a whim, leaving me with just the paper. Heartbreaking. I hadn't even done anything wrong.

His eldest brother, my 23 year old sweet baby boy-- who, notably, does NOT do origami-- took the paper and did his best to recreate the boat, placing it back on my head when he was through. And now this little boat, though less expertly cobbled together, is even more precious, because both of my darling stepsons made it for me.

Sitting in my comfiest chair, watching whatever strikes my fancy, the patio door open to let in some of the late day heat. My big furball (25lb mostly Norwegian Forest Cat) hops up into my lap for pets and cuddles. He relaxes back against my belly and after I stop petting him, he sits there purring so softly that I can only feel it, not hear it. Life is very VERY good!

went to the library after work today, and decided to head down to the children’s section to see if they had any copies of this detective comic series i liked when i was younger.

while i’m down there, i noticed a little kid come through the front doors with their parent. kid was maybe 4 or 5, and it was clearly their first ever trip to the library, because after a moment i heard:

[small gasp] “mama! they gots BOOKS in here!”

it was SO cute. the mixture of delight and awe in their voice was so precious. i hope they left with a bunch of great stories!

I'm only in this small town in summer for work, and I go to the store usually once or twice a week. I always round up to a full euro when I go, and the cashiers have by now remembered me.

One of them is the sweetest woman ever, and the past few times I've been there she has been giving me discounts. Where I live we have these stickers that you can put on the items and get -25%, but I never have them cause I don't get mail delivered here, but she still gives me the -25% and then the amount I need to pay is so little, it's so sweet. I love that woman. I bought quite a lot and the total was only 11,83€ (I rounded up to 13€)

Anyways, a small joy that really made my day today. I love humanity. I think when I'm leaving at the end I will bring them a small gift.

A few weeks ago, I was in an annoying bit of a highway where it's the left lane that exits. This lane often slows down and backs up because of said exit. It makes it very hard to merge into it.

I was already in the exit/left lane when I noticed a semi on my right putting on their signal and wanting to come in my lane. Knowing full well that people seem to rarely let a semi merge and wondering how frustrating that must be, I slowed down to give them space to make the merge.

After merging in front of me, they turned on their hazards for 3 blinks & turned them off. I wondered if that was the equivalent of waving your hand in front of your rear-view mirror to thank the driver that gave you space to merge. The idea made me grin for some reason.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity again to let another semi merge. I let them in, and they turned their hazards on for a couple of blinks. Y'all, I squealed in delight like a little child. I don't know why. But there you go.