A blog I read from time to time is "A Sweet, Familiar Dissonance". The author also lives in Oklahoma (considerably north of me, as far as I can guess). She writes a lot about art and music and she also finds a lot of wonderful things on the web.

One of her posts over the weekend was a "happiness list" - simple things that made her happy. Sort of a late "This is what I'm thankful for" list. I like the idea. So here is a short list of some of the things that make me happy:

a good hot shower

nice-smelling soap, especially "artisanal" soap that someone has handmade.

dark chocolate (my recent favorite is "Green and Blacks" "Maya Gold" which is chocolate with orange peel and spices)

a good hot cup of tea

trying different varieties of things, like tea or dark chocolate or yarn. Or trying out new authors I've not read before.

books

board games, but I don't get to play very often.

Vivaldi, and Vaughn Williams, and Bach (father and sons), and old English/Scots/Irish/Welsh folksongs, and Scandinavian fiddle music ("walking tunes" and the like). And Sarah Vaughn and Charles Trenet and Ella Fitzgerald and Bing Crosby and Scott Joplin. And old plainsongs and chants and St. Francis' poems about Brother Sun and Sister Moon.

poetry - I have at least bits and pieces of a lot of different poems memorized. (One of my favorite poems ever is here. And that looks like a cool site, anyway - people's favorite poems)

being indoors on a cold day

yarn, especially fairly "natural" yarn or yarn from a place where I feel like I "know" the people running the operation (like Blackberry Ridge).

watching the snow fall as I read a book

knitting, quilting, generally making things

cooking, especially when I have an "audience" I am cooking for. I love it when someone asks me to give them the recipe I used.

talking with someone who shares a common interest with me, especially if it's an "outside-work" interest. (I get plenty of time to discuss biology so it's a real treat to run into someone who's into quilting or Victorian British literature or knitting or the particular classical composers I go a little ape over)

Like Lynn said, the Internet - it's an amazing source of information about just about anything. You can listen to radio stations from far, far away over the Internet. It's like the biggest catalog in the whole world, you can order just about anything you want and have it shipped to your door. You can find people that you had lost. You can write a silly journal and put it up for other people to read. (Link of the day: Favorite Poem Project)

going to bed on a Friday night when I have no distinct plans for the next day - no need to get up at a particular time, and even though I usually wake up early any way, it's nice to be freed from the tyranny of the alarm clock for at least one day.

going antiquing, or boutiquing. I generally can't stand the mall (it seems so fake, so focus-groupped) but I enjoy shops that are owned and run by one person or a few people, and who take some time and care in picking out what they're going to sell.

doing laundry - to me, it feels purposeful. It's a "cleaning" type of task that doesn't involve getting very dirty or out of breath or having to get down on one's knees. And I love everything being nice and clean and smooth and good-smelling when it's done.