What's Making Me Happy: November 15

Today is (are?) the Ides of November. Somewhat less famous than the Ides of March, maybe because no kings got stabbed? I dunno. I also didn't know (until just now when I Googled "Ides of March") that the Romans didn't just have Ides, they also had Nones (5th or 7th of the month) and Kalends (1st of the following month). Thank you, Wikipedia, for teaching me something new every day!

November's totally safe, though

This week, I made myself happy by hiking 18 miles in total. I took my family on that same TWA Canyon hike on Monday that I did last week, only I managed to get us lost so the hike ended up being 9 miles instead of 7.2. That part didn't make me happy but now that the week is over I'm looking back on my total mileage with pride. I feel I earned that lunch out at the Colombian restaurant (El Pollo Real, aka The Royal Chicken), which was pretty much meat, with a side of meat, topped with meat. Plus an empanada. Lunch out with good girlfriends also makes me happy.

Here are some other things making me happy, or at least making me smile:

This little girl. Just try to watch this without going squee.

These teenagers. Creepy man (improbably named "Justin Lookadoo") time-travels from Stone Age to give public high-school students the worst dating advice ever. I mean, the worst. How bad? Advice for girls: "Dateable girls know how to shut up. They don’t monopolize the conversation." For boys: "Men of God are wild, not domesticated. Dateable guys aren’t tamed. They don’t live by the rules of the opposite sex. They fight battles, conquer lands, and stand up for the oppressed." Nice try at decency with "stand up for the oppressed" but somehow it doesn't really work with "conquer lands," does it? Some students at the high school walked out of the assembly, and others immediately began tweeting their scorn for Lookadoo with the hashtag #lookadouche.

This video about a man being head-nuzzled by an elk. Yeah, I know it looks a little scary with those sharpish antlers, but the bull clearly isn't serious. As soon as the dude stands up, the elk is all, whoa whoa WHOA. You are big, I am backing off. Personally, I'd have used the tripod as a my own set of faux-antlers to poke back, if it came down to it.

This Gravity parody. I loved (or at least admired) the movie and I've never shopped in an IKEA and I still find this utterly hilarious.

What's making you happy this week?