messymimi's meanderings

There are plans afoot at the shelter. There was a big announcement, and there are blueprints for a big, nice, and very expensive remodel.

Three contractors have been contacted, and are going to put in bids, which are expected to come in at around $125,000. That's a huge chunk of change for a small animal rescue group to raise, but we raised enough to buy the building, we can do this.

It will be worth it. One big problem now is that if people want to spend some time with just one cat, see if that is "the one," there's no separate space for them to get acquainted. That will change.

We will also have two, count them, two, isolation rooms. That way, if we have some with ringworm and some with upper respiratory, we can keep them separate and not end up with everyone sharing both.

An outdoor sink area for cleaning litter boxes will be much better than the current hose them in the grass system.

Crowning it all, besides three offices and three more colony rooms and a separate kitten room, will be a dedicated volunteer break room/kitchen. No more having to worry about who cleaned what nasty stuff at the sink, there will be a separate place to go where no cat stuff will be allowed. It will be nice not to have to sanitize the spigot every time you want to use it to wash your own cup.

"How are they going to raise that much, mom?" Bigger Girl asked when she heard. Then she said, "I know, they can run a kissing booth! Or is that a form of prostitution?"

Um, i don't think they are at all the same, and i don't know who would do the kissing, but thanks for the suggestion, i told her.

Sometimes it amazes me what goes through her mind.

Today is

10,000 Crestonians 4th of July Celebration -- Creston, IA, US (fun before, during, and after Independence Day; through the 6th)

Canada Day -- Canada

Caricom Day -- Guyana; Saint Vincent and Grenadines

Carnival Monday -- Saint Vincent and Grenadines

Constitution Day -- Cayman Islands

Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day -- a great way to start off Ice Cream Month; try a new one and you just might find a new favorite.

Day to Celebrate All the World's Creatures -- commemorates the day in 1975 that endangered species became internationally protected.

Distressed Elves Day -- Fairy Calendar

Doctors' Day -- India

Eastport Fourth of July and "Old Home Week" -- Eastport, ME, US (bounded on all sides by the Bay of Fundy and Canadian islands, the celebration includes Canada Day and runs through Friday)

Emancipation Day -- Sint Maarten

Family Day -- Lesotho

Heroes Day -- Zambia

Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Establishment Day -- Hong Kong

Hug a Cowboy Day -- always on Canada Day

Independence Day -- Burundi(1962); Rwanda(1962)

Intact Day -- celebrating genital integrity, as far as possible from the Feast of the Circumcision on Jan. 1

International Chicken Wing Day -- some sites say the 2nd, celebrate today or tomorrow, your choice

International Joke Day -- as declared by many internet sites, but i can't find out why today; then again, why not?

International Tartan Day -- anniversary of the repeal, in 1782, of the Act of Proscription which banned the wearing of Tartans; celebrated especially by Scottish diaspora in Australia; New Zealand

July Morning -- Bulgaria (dates back to the '70s, young and old people hitchhike to the Black Sea in late June to greet the dawn of July 1 with Uriah Heep's hit song July Morning; began as a suble anti-communist protest, now in memory of the fall of communism and to celebrate the start of summer vacation)

Keti Koti -- Suriname (Emancipation Day)

Madeira Day -- Madeira

Memorial Day -- Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada

Mount Fuji Official Climbing Season begins -- Japan (through Aug. 31)

Moving Day -- Quebec, Canada

National Boating Day -- US

National Ducks and Wetlands Day -- US (presidential designation in 1990)

National Financial Freedom Day -- can't find how this one started, but it's as good a day as any to take a good look at your finances, and start learning how to better manage them.

National Gingersnap Day

Republic Day -- Ghana; Somalia

Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo -- Halifax, NS, Canada (through the 8th)

Skiraphoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of cutting and threshing the grain)

Sir Seretse Khama Day -- Botswana

St. Serf of Culross' Day (patron of the Orkney Islands)

Sts. Cosmas and Damian's Day -- Eastern Catholic Churches
Holy Healers' Day -- Bulgaria (a special festival for the two saints/brothers who were healers; celebrated especially by all healers, fortune-tellers, witches, sorceresses and herbalists)

Territory Day -- British Virgin Islands

U.S. Postage Stamp Day -- first US postage stamp issued this day in 1847

Yukon Gold Panning Championships -- Dawson City, YT, Canada

Zip Code Day -- US (inaugural anniversary in 1963; when you mail that letter, zip it up! no zip, slow trip; wrong zip, long trip)

Birthdays Today

Liv Tyler, 1977
Ruud Van Nistelrooy, 1976
Pamela Anderson, 1967
Princess Diana, 1961
Carl Lewis, 1961
Michelle Wright, 1961
Alan Ruck, 1956
Dan Aykroyd, 1952
Deborah Harry, 1945
Karen Black, 1942
Genevieve Bujold, 1942
Twyla Tharp, 1941
Jamie Farr, 1934
Jean Marsh, 1934
Leslie Caron, 1931
Farley Granger, 1925
Olivia DeHavilland, 1916
Estee Lauder, 1906
Charles Laughton, 1899
Ignaz Semmelweis, 1818

Today in History

Tiberius Julius Alexander orders his Roman legions in Alexandria to swear allegiance to Vespasian as Emperor, 69
La Noche Triste: a joint Mexican Indian force led by the Aztec ruler Cuitláhuac defeat Spanish Conquistadores led by Hernán Cortés, 1520
Lexell's Comet passed closer to the Earth than any other comet in recorded history, approaching to a distance of 0.0146 a.u., 1770
American privateers attack Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, 1782
A system of the civil registration of births, marriages and deaths is established in England and Wales, 1837
U.S. Postage stamps went on sale for the first time, 1847
In the first instance of photojournalism, a French photographer's daguerrotypes of Paris riots were turned into woodcuts so as to be published in the weekly newspaper L'Illustration Journal Universel on this date in 1848
Keti Koti (Emancipation Day) in Suriname, marking the abolition of slavery by the Netherlands, 1863
The British North America Act of 1867 takes effect as the Constitution of Canada, creating the Canadian Confederation and the federal dominion of Canada; Sir John A. Macdonald is sworn in as the first Prime Minister of Canada, 1867
The Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first US zoo, opens; admission twenty-five cents for adults and ten cents for children, 1874
The world's first international telephone call is made between St. Stephen, New Brunswick, Canada, and Calais, Maine, United States, 1881
SOS is adopted as the international distress signal, 1908
Grant Park Music Festival begins its tradition of free summer symphonic music concert series in Chicago's Grant Park, which continues as the United States' only annual free outdoor classical music concert series, 1935
NBC makes the first scheduled television broadcast, 1941
Tokyo City merges with Tokyo Prefecture and is dissolved; since then, no city in Japan has had the name "Tokyo" (present-day Tokyo is not officially a city), 1943
The merger of two princely states of India, Cochin and Travancore, into the state of Thiru-Kochi (later re-organized as Kerala) in the Indian Union ends more than 1,000 years of princely rule by the Cochin Royal Family, 1949
Zip Codes are introduced for the U.S.mail, 1963
The first color television transmission in Canada takes place from Toronto, 1966
The European Community is formally created out of a merger with the Common Market, the European Coal and Steel Community, and the European Atomic Energy Commission, 1967
Sony introduces the Walkman, 1979
O Canada officially becomes the national anthem of Canada, 1980
German re-unification: East Germany accepts the Deutsche Mark as its currency, thus uniting the economies of East and West Germany, 1990
The People's Republic of China resumes sovereignty over the city-state of Hong Kong, ending 156 years of British colonial rule, 1997
Saturn orbit insertion of Cassini-Huygens begins at 01:12 UTC and ends at 02:48 UTC, 2004
Smoking is banned in all indoor public spaces in England, 2007

The red light cameras, i mean.

There have been changes in the traffic lights in recent years. When lights turn red now, the other side does not simultaneously turn green. There is a second or so of delay, the lights are red on all sides, then the other side gets a turn. It's for safety, i'm told, and i guess it helps.

We also have, at a few select lights in town, cameras that snap your picture if you run a red light. The corners that have these are notorious for traffic building up horribly and the light being green on the cross street for only a very limited time. Waits to cross the major artery at these cross streets can be six or more light cycles, and that's on a good day. That's why so many people were running those lights.

So, did they increase the amount of time the lights are green so more people could get through? Only a little, their main answer was to install the red light cameras.

The cameras were supposed to help stop the number of people running the lights, and reduce the number of t-bone crashes at those intersections. The threat of getting a ticket in the mail apparently works, because the number of such collisions, what i once heard an officer call "a yellow light accelerator introducing himself to a green light anticipator", have been drastically reduced at those intersections.

Rear ending collisions have replaced them. Why does this not surprise me?

To quote Joshua, the computer in the movie War Games, "The only way to win the game is not to play!"

Today is

Adonia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (date approximate, but always in July, a ritual to honor Adonis)

Carnival Tuesday -- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Distressed Elves' Creditors' Day -- Fairy Calendar

Flag & Anthem Day -- Curacao

Freedom Days -- Farmington, NM, US (the Four Corners region celebrates freedom and The 4th in a big way; through Sunday)

Freedom From Fear of Public Speaking Day

I Forgot Day (the day to celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or other special days that you forgot during the first half of the year)

Mineral Collecting Field Trips -- Bancroft, ON, CA (every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday this month and next, geologists lead mineral collecting field trips, educating participants about mineral identification, collecting techniques, and earth sciences)

National Anisette Day

Palio di Provenzano -- Siena, Italy (horse race and pageant, named after the Madonna di Provenzano, whose church is in Siena)

Rebild Festival/American Independence Day Celebration -- Aalborg, Denmark (the town dresses in red, white and blue, celebrating with BBQ, American beer, and more; through the 4th)

Remember to Feed the Hummingbirds Day -- internet reminder to be nice to these beautiful creatures

Sata-Hame Accordion Festival -- Ikaalinen, Finland (one of the worlds biggest and best accordion festivals; through Sunday)

St. Swithin's Day (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

Try to Find Your Slinky Day -- the weird holiday of the day!

Unity Day -- Zambia

Violin Lovers' Day

World UFO Day -- unfortunately, a real day observed by many around the world (on the "anniversary" of the UFO crash in Roswell, if such a thing even happened, which i doubt*)

*i believe that if there's life elsewhere, it shows its intelligence by staying away from us!

Birthdays Today

Lindsay Lohan, 1986
Johnny Weir, 1984
Jose and Ozzie Canseco, 1964
Ron Silver, 1946
Richard Petty, 1937
Polly Holiday, 1937
Dave Thomas, 1932
Medgar Evers, 1925
Dan Rowan, 1922
Ken Curtis, 1916
Thurgood Marshall, 1908
Hermann Hesse, 1877

Today in History

Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine, 1698
Vermont becomes the first American territory to abolish slavery, 1777
Charles J. Guiteau shoots and fatally wounds U.S. President James Garfield, who eventually dies from an infection on September 19, 1881
Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinque take over the slave ship Amistad, 1893
Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi obtains patent for radio in London, 1897
The first zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany, 1900
Amelia Earhart and navigator Fred Noonan are last heard from over the Pacific Ocean while attempting to make the first equatorial round-the-world flight 1937
The first Wal-Mart store opens for business in Rogers, Arkansas, 1962
North and South Vietnam, divided since 1954, reunite to form the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 1976
The AbioCor self contained artificial heart is first implanted, 2001
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly solo around the world nonstop in a balloon, 2002

Please, dog owners, help me out here.

It's lovely that you have a dog. Yes, i bottle raise kittens and don't want a dog because i'm too lazy to commit to walking one every day and spending all the time it really takes to properly train a dog, but i like dogs and i pet them and i will feed and water and babysit them and give them medicine when i do and i'm glad you have one.

Now please get a name tag for your dog, and make sure you put a phone number on it so i can call you when he gets loose.

Yes, your dog is going to get out of the yard. No, i don't care what precautions you have taken, your dog will get out despite the invisible fence, barbed wire on top of the 6ft. chain link, and the fact that it's a cement pen that he can't dig out of, he is going to get out, sooner or later. By hook or by crook, he will do it, and because i live across the street from the school and the field and the pool and the trees and all the other stuff and you bring him here to walk him and throw balls for him, he's going to end up here and at my house.

What's the only way i can call you and tell you where your dog is? Well, you guessed it, i need a phone number, one that you will actually answer. If you don't put anything but the rabies tag on the dog's collar, here's what happens.

First, i call Animal Control, because their number is on the rabies tag. They ask for the tag ID number, but not so they can figure out whose dog this is. No, that's too direct. Instead they want to know so they can tell me which vet gave it the rabies shot, based on the code letters in the number.

Once i have the vet's name, you think i'm golden, right? Wrong. Once i have that, i call the vet and talk to the receptionist who is trying to answer three phone lines and check people in and check them out and she really wants to help because she works in a vet's office and she really likes animals, but it takes time to research this. She has to dig out the tag book, and look up the number, and ask for a description to make sure it matches, and then she knows, from the name on that tag slip, whose dog this is.

Good, right? Well, maybe. Because she's not allowed, for patient privacy, to actually give me your name or phone number or even your address so i can walk the dog back to your house. No, that would be too easy. Instead, amid all the other things she needs to do, she has to try to call the owner and let him/her know my phone number, so the owner can call me and arrange to pick up the dog or get it back home.

All of this could take quite some time. Meanwhile, i can't bring your dog in my house, i don't have any food to offer to entice it to stay, and your dog will have run off by the time all of this ensues.

Also, if i find the dog after hours, there will be no answer at that Animal Control number. Their emergency number is answered, but the emergency people aren't authorized to go look at the codes and tell you which vet's office to call. In addition, unless your vet is one of the two emergency vets in town, if it's after hours, i'm out of luck there, too.

So, please, do me a favor, do yourself a favor, do that overworked receptionist at your vet's office a favor, and most of all, do your dog a huge favor -- get a tag that has at least the animal's name and your cell phone number, and for heaven's sake answer the phone, even though you don't know who is calling.

Your dog's life might depend on it. Thank you, end of rant.

Today is

Air Conditioning Appreciation Days begin -- Northern Hemisphere (around here, they last until Thanksgiving!)

Cherokee Green Corn Ceremony -- honoring maize goddess Selu with thanksgiving for the maize harvest; date approximate, as many towns set their own times to celebrate

Compliment Your Mirror Day -- remind your mirror how great it is to have an owner like you, and look at other mirrors to meet to see if they greet you with a smile

Dipolieia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Zeus as god of the city)

Disobedience Day -- internet generated, but if you have a bone to pick, use your civil disobedience today to let it be known!

Distressed Elves' Creditors' Pets' Day -- Fairy Calendar

Dixon Petunia Festival: The Pink. The Proud. The Petunias. -- Dixon, IL, US (food, entertainment, fun, and petunias! through Sunday)

Dog Days of Summer begin (according to the almanac, but not in all cultures)

Eat Beans Day -- bring the humble legume up to main dish status!

Fiesta del Fuego -- Santiago, Cuba (festival of fire, through the 9th)

Independence Day -- Belarus(1944)

National Chocolate Wafer Day

Red White and Boom -- Columbus, OH, US (the Midwest's largest fireworks display)

Stay Out of the Sun Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; for health's sake, give your skin a break!

St. Thomas the Apostle's Day (Patron of architects, blind people, builders, carpenters, construction workers, geometricians, masons, people in doubt, stonecutters, surveyors, theologians; against blindness, doubt; Certaldo, Italy; Ceylon/Sri Lanka; East Indies; India; Pakistan)

The North American Tournament -- Spruce Meadows, Calgary, AB, Canada (show jumping tournament, through Sunday)

Tom Sawyer Days -- Hannibal, MO, US (frog jumping, mud volleyball, Tom and Becky Contest; parade, Tomboy Sawyer Contest, fireworks, and more, with the highlight being the National Fence Painting Contest; through Sunday)

Virgin Islands Emancipation Day -- US Virgin Islands

Anniversaries Today

Idaho becomes the 43rd US State, 1890

Birthdays Today

Tom Cruise, 1962
Montel Williams, 1956
Alan Autry, 1952
Dave Barry, 1947
Tom Stoppard, 1937
Pete Fountain, 1930
Ken Russell, 1927
Franz Kafka, 1883
George M. Cohan, 1878

Today in History

Hugh Capet is crowned King of France, the first of the Capetian dynasty that would rule France till the French Revolution in 1792, 987
Québec City is founded by Samuel de Champlain, 1608
Pitcairn Island is discovered by Midshipman Robert Pitcairn on an expeditionary voyage commanded by Philip Carteret, 1767
Norway's oldest newspaper still in print, Adresseavisen, is founded and the first edition is published, 1767
George Washington takes command of the Continental Army at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1775
The Bank of Savings in New York City, the first savings bank in the United States, opens, 1819
The last pair of Great Auks is killed, 1844
Slaves are freed in the Danish West Indies (now U.S. Virgin Islands) by Peter von Scholten in the culmination of a year-long plot by enslaved Africans, 1848
Dow Jones and Company publishes its first stock average, 1884
Karl Benz officially unveils the Benz Patent Motorwagen – the first purpose-built automobile, 1886
The New York Tribune becomes the first newspaper to use a linotype machine, eliminating typesetting by hand, 1886
World speed record for a steam railway locomotive is set in England, by the Mallard, which reaches a speed of 126 miles per hour (203 km/h), 1938
The biggest explosion in the history of rocketry occurs when the Soviet N1 rocket explodes and subsequently destroys its launchpad, 1969
First mention in the New York Times of a disease that would later be called AIDS, 1981
The Stone of Scone is returned to Scotland, 1996
Asteroid 2004 XP14 flies within 432,308 kilometres (268,624 mi) of Earth, 2006

"Hey mom, guess what!" Little Girl ran in with a big smile.

What? i asked.

"It takes 1,332 licks to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop!" she said triumphantly, holding up a lolly pop stick that had, until recently, held said Pop.

Very good! i told her. You are wiser than even Mr. Owl in the old commercials. And you have solved one of the mysteries of the universe.

We both smiled, and she sat at the bar to do her math homework. "Now if only I could solve the mystery of what X stands for in algebra!" she laughed.

Well, i'm not sure anyone is ever going to get that one once and for all, i said. That X moves around in the equations so much, it's a hard character to pin down. You'll get it, though, i added, and i can help, i was good at algebra.

"Figuring out X is easy compared to figuring out guys," Bigger Girl said, coming in from time with a group of friends.

That one, i cannot help with.

Today is

Apache Maidens' Puberty Rites -- Mescalero Apache Reservation, NM, US

American Independence Day Celebration -- Rebild Park, Aalborg, Denmark (yes, really, every year except during the two World Wars, they have celebrated American Independence Day here; as a way of thanking the country that has accepted over 300,000 Danish immigrants, and to strengthen the bonds of friendship between the countries)

Baal Fire Day -- Whalton, Northumberland, UK (a bonfire, Anglo-Saxon "bael", with traditional morris dancing -- originally a Moorish dance; on old Midsummer's Eve)

Buffalo Bill Day -- he staged his first Wild West show on July 4, 1883

Bullion's Day -- Anglican tradition, the translation of the relics of St. Martin of Bullion; rain today means rain for the next 20 days, according to the legends

Calithumpian Parade -- Biwabik, MN, US (clowns, hilarity and patriotism reign together as the 1,000 citizens of Biwabik put on a show for more than 15,000 guests)

Day of Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Filipino-American Friendship Day -- Philippines; U.S.

Garibaldi Day -- Italy

Grand Teton Music Festival -- Teton Village, WY, US (a summer celebration of classical music with the world's finest artists and in the spectacular setting of Jackson Hole, Wyoming; through Aug. 17)

Independence Day -- US and Territories(1776)

Independence from Meat Day -- don't be a slave to tradition! sponsored by Vegetarian Awareness Network

Jumping on the Mattress Night -- Fairy Calendar

Liberation Day -- Rwanda

National Barbecue Spareribs Day

National Country Music Day -- US

Old Midsummer Eve -- by the Julian Calendar

Ommegang Pageant -- Grand-Palace, Brussels, Belgium (recreation of the medieval entertainment at the court of Charles V)

Ottawa Blues Fest -- Ottawa, Canada (12 days of fabulous music)

Shonan Hiratsuka Tanabata Matsuri -- Shounan City, Kanagawa Prefecture (one of Japan's largest Tanabata festivals; through Sunday)

Sidewalk Egg Frying Day -- you can do this anywhere that it's hot enough, but for the real deal, plan to go to the Solar Egg Frying Contest, held annually on July 4 on old Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, US, where the rule is you must use solar heat only

St. Elizabeth of Portugal's Day (Patron of brides, charitable societies, charity workers, charities, difficult marriages, falsely accused people, peace, queens, tertiaries, victims of adultery, victims of jealousy, victims of unfaithfulness, widows; invoked in time of war; Coimbra, Portugal)

St. Ulrich's Day (Patron of peaceful deaths, pregnant women, weavers; Augsburg, Germany; Creazzo, Italy; against birth complications, dizziness, faintness, fever, frenzy, mice, moles, vertigo)

Stone Skipping Tournament -- Windermere Pointe Beach, Mackinac Island, Michigan, US (open to all, come skip some stones and have a blast!)

Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival -- Greensburg, PA, US (multicultural celebration of food, fine arts, handicrafts, and music from many nations; through Sunday)

White Cloud's Birthday and Tatanka (Bison) Festival -- National Buffalo Museum, Jamestown, ND, US (annual 4 day celebration of bison and their role in American history, on the birthday of White Cloud, the true albino bison born this day in 1996)

World's Greatest Lizard Races -- Chaparral Park, Lovington, NM, US (cheer the lizards and iguanas as they race down a 16 foot ramp, and yes, trophies will be awarded!)

Anniversaries Today

Tuskegee Institute opens, 1881

Birthdays Today

Koko, 1971 (gorilla who speaks sign language)
Geraldo Rivera, 1943
George Steinbrenner, 1930
Gina Lollobrigida, 1927
Neil Simon, 1927
Eva Marie Saint, 1924
Ann Landers, 1918
Abigail Van Buren, 1918
Mitch Miller, 1911
Gloria Stuart, 1910
George Murphy, 1902
Rube Goldberg, 1883
Louis B. Mayer, 1882
George M. Cohan, 1878
Calvin Coolidge, 1872
Stephen Foster, 1826
Hiram Walker, 1816
Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804

Today in History

A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star Tauri; for several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day, and its remnants form the Crab Nebula, 1054
Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye, 1534
The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (Quebec, Canada), 1634
City of Providence, Rhode Island forms, 1636
The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress, 1776
The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, opens, 1802
The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American public, 1803
Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York, 1817
The world's first long-distance railway, the Grand Junction Railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool, 1837
The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end, 1840
Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, 1845
The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published, 1855
Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, 1862*
The Anglo-Zulu war ends, 1879
The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States, 1886
The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia, 1886
Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4, 1892
The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, 1894
Dorothy Levitt was reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race', 1903
African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States, 1910
First flight of the Lockheed Vega, 1927
Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball, 1939
After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States, 1946
The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe, 1950
President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law, 1966
NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars, 1997
The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1, 2005
The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks, 2009

There is no cat so relaxed as a cat that is relaxing on a surface she shouldn't be on!

SissyCat, sleeping on the kitchen table!

Today is

Action Mesothelioma Day -- UK (bringing "meso" cancer into the spotlight)

Alice in Wonderland Day -- on July 5, 1862, Dodgson began writing the adventure story he had told Alice Liddel and her sisters the day before

Bikini Day -- the skimpy suit made its debut on this day in Paris in 1946

Calgary Stampede -- Calgary, AB, Canada (The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth; through the 14th)

Constitution Day -- Armenia

Earth at Aphelion -- @15:00 UT (Earth at its furthest distance from the sun)

Edmonton International Street Performers Festival -- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (the finest street performers anywhere; through the 15th)

Feast of Anubis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fishermen's Day -- Marshall Islands

Graham Cracker Day -- birth anniversary of inventor of graham flour, the Reverend Sylvester Graham, in 1794

Independence Day -- Algeria(1962); Cape Verde(1965); Venezuela(1811)

Laura Ingalls Wilder Pageant -- DeSmet, SD, US (get a taste of pioneer life, this weekend plus the next two)

Montreaux Jazz Festival -- Montreaux, Switzerland (a premier jazz event for music lovers from around the world; through the 20th)

National Apple Turnover Day

National Work-a-holics Day -- we will know it's you if you are all "back to business" after a holiday

Old-Time Fiddlers' Jamboree and Crafts Festival -- Smithville, TN, US (through tomorrow; with 32 categories of old-time bluegrass music!)

Pictou Lobster Carnival -- Pictou, NS, Canada (a tail gate party and more;through Sunday)

Poplifulgia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a ceremony to commemorate the "Flight of the People" when they had to flee enemies)

Savonlinna Opera Festival -- Savonlinna, Finland (one of Finland's most illustrious and internationally significant cultural events; through Aug. 3)

Sts. Cyril and Methodius Day -- Roman Catholics in the Czech Republic and Slovakia (Apostles to the Slavs, created the Glagolithic alphabet and translated the Bible into the Slavonic language)

Sts. Grace and Probus' Day (married co-Patrons of Probus, Cornwall, England)

Tynwald Day -- Isle of Man (Manx National Day; assembling of the year's session of the High Court of Tynwald, as their Parliament is called, to read the laws to the citizens; oldest continual parliament in existence)

Ways with Words -- Dartington, Devon, England (The UK's most stylish literature festival, through the 15th)

Birthdays Today

Dolly the Sheep, 1996 (first cloned mammal)
Huey Lewis, 1951
Warren Oates, 1928
Georges Pompidou, 1911
Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr., 1902
Jean Cocteau, 1889
Cecil Rhodes, 1853
P.T. Barnum, 1810

Today in History

Scotland and France form the beginnings of the Auld Alliance, against England, 1295
John Guy sets sail from Bristol with 39 other colonists for Newfoundland, 1610
Isaac Newton publishes Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica, 1687
The Salvation Army is founded in the East End of London, England, 1865
Police open fire on striking longshoremen in San Francisco, on Bloody Thursday, 1934
Spam, the luncheon meat, is introduced into the market by the Hormel Foods Corporation, 1937
Highest recorded temperature in Canada, at Yellow Grass, Saskatchewan: 45°C (113°F), 1937
Larry Doby signs a contract with the Cleveland Indians baseball team, becoming the first black player in the American League, 1947
National Health Service Acts created the national public health systems in the United Kingdom, 1948
The Knesset passes the Law of Return which grants all Jews the right to immigrate to Israel, 1950
William Shockley invents the junction transistor, 1951
The BBC broadcasts its first television news bulletin, 1954
Arthur Ashe becomes the first black man to win the Wimbledon singles title, 1975
Japan launches a probe to Mars, and thus joins the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation, 1998
The SARS virus is declared to be contained by the WHO, 2003
Indonesia holds its first presidential election, 2004
Roger Federer wins a record 15th Grand Slam title in tennis, winning a five set match against Andy Roddick at Wimbledon, 2009
The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered, consisting of more than 1,500 items, is found near the village of Hammerwich, near Lichfield, in Staffordshire, England, 2009

Sweetie got a wild hair itching him and decided he had to use the long holiday weekend to reorganize his man cave.

This included moving a lot of heavy stuff, like a very big cabinet, throwing away about a ton of accumulated detritus, and finally coming to the conclusion that he just has too much stuff in that space.

Ya think?

It took the combined power of Young Jacob, #2 Son, Festus, and Alex to get that cabinet from another room into his room, where it's more convenient for him. This resulted, though, in even less space than what he had before.

(It also resulted in him needing a pain pill for his back, because he insisted on helping, too, but that's another topic.)

He's not willing to part with anything much, besides old papers and a few bits and bobs. Some catalogs got recycled, the old tape recording deck is going. A lamp he never uses is going to be put where it can do a lot more good.

It took me a while to reorganize some things for him so they fit better, and we had to put a small display case under the table. In fact, there are items stored under anything that has room under it. When i suggested more vertical storage, that wouldn't work, i was told, as he doesn't want to take down any of his pictures or posters.

The problem now may be that i'm going to have to help him find stuff until he figures out where it all is now.

The room is better than it used to be, though, and that's what matters.

Except that i still have to do a balancing act or move several items to get to the breaker boxes conveniently. It makes me glad we have the main outside that i can get to in a few seconds flat and cut everything off right away if i need to.

Today is

Abbotsford Berry Beat Festival -- Abbotsford, BC, Canada (enjoy berries at the height of the season, as well as music, clowns, games, a "berried" treasure hunt, and more, through tomorrow)

Birthday of the 14th Dalai Lama / World Tibet Day -- Tibetan Diaspora, to bring awareness to the cause of restoring freedom to Tibet

Buy Yourself a Toy You Always Wanted As a Child Day -- internet sites that list this suggest you then donate it to a child in need

Day of the Capital -- Kazakhstan

Ettelbruck Rememberance Day -- Ettelbruck, Luxembourg (remembrance of Patton's 3rd Army liberating the area from the Nazis)

Feast of Isaiah the Prophet -- Roman Catholic

Fill an Aquarium Day -- they are fun and entertaining; probably spread around the internet by an aficionado who wants to share the love

Harrison Festival of the Arts -- Harrison Hot Springs, BC, Canada (a celebration of the world of music, dance, theater, and visual arts; through the 14th)

Independence Day / National Day -- Comoros (1975)

Independence Day / Republic Day -- Malawi (1964)

International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship -- Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm, Eau Claire, WI, US

International Day of Cooperatives -- U.N.

Iriya no Asagao-ichi -- Kishibo-Jin Shrine, Taito Ward, Tokyo (morning glory flower festival, buy one for good luck, through the 8th)

Ivan Kupala Day -- Belarus; Poland; Russia; Ukraine (through tomorrow; Feast of St. John the Baptist in Orthodox Churches using the Julian Calendar)

Jan Hus Day -- Czech Republic

King Mindaugas Day / Statehood Day -- Lithuania

Los Sanfermines -- Pamplona, Spain (bull running, through the 14th; don't be bored, be gored! a part of the San Fermin Festival)

Ludi Apollinares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (first day of games in honor of Apollo; through the 13th)

Millenial Fairy Olympics -- Fairy Calendar (through the 14th)

National Fried Chicken Day

Old Albums are Frisbees Day -- if you have nothing to play them on, and they are scratched anyway, why not?

Ra o te Ui Ariki -- Cook Islands (House of Ariki[Tribal Chief])

Rockport Art Festival -- Rockport, TX, US (top artists from around the country line the waterfront today and tomorrow, with good music and good food to add to the fun)

Shab e-Barat -- Bangladesh (Night of Records)

St Godelieve of Ghistelles's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, healthy throats, in-law problems, throat diseases, victims of abuse, victims of verbal spouse abuse)

St. Maria Goretti's Day (Patron of children, teen girls, martyrs, poor people, rape victims, young people; Albano, Italy; against poverty, the death of parents)

St. Paul's Carnival -- Bristol, England (annual African Caribbean Carnival; a richly multicultural celebration)

Take Your Webmaster to Lunch Day -- because your online business depends on keeping him/her happy and well fed; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

The Dam Experience -- Warsaw, MO, US (fireworks viewed from land and boat at the Truman Dam)

West Quoddy Head Light Keepers Association Anniversary -- Quoddy Head State Park, Lubec, ME, US (including US Coast Guard supervised lighthouse tower climbing, for the daring!)

Birthdays Today

Matthew O'Leary, 1987
Gregory Smith, 1983
Tia and Tamera Mowry, 1978
Jennifer Saunders, 1958
Kenny G, 1956
Geoffrey Rush, 1951
George W. Bush, 1946
Sylvester Stallone, 1946
Burt Ward, 1945
Ned Beatty, 1937
Dalai Lama, 1935
Della Reese, 1932
Janet Leigh, 1927
Pat Paulsen, 1927
Merv Griffin, 1927
Bill Haley, 1925
William Schallert, 1922
Nancy Reagan, 1921
Sebastian Cabot, 1918
Laverne Andrews, 1915
Frida Kahlo, 1907
Beatrix Potter, 1866
John Paul Jones, 1747

Today in History

Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) is crowned King of England, 1189
Papal bull of Pope Clement VI protecting Jews during the Black Death, 1348
Jan Hus is burned at the stake, 1415
Richard III is crowned King of England, 1483
Portuguese sea captain Diogo Cão finds the mouth of the Congo River, 1484
Sir Thomas More is executed for treason against King Henry VIII, 1535
Córdoba, Argentina, is founded by Jerónimo Luis de Cabrera, 1573
The dollar is unanimously chosen as the monetary unit for the United States, 1785
In Jackson, Michigan, the first convention of the United States Republican Party is held, 1854
Louis Pasteur successfully tests his vaccine against rabies; the patient is Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog, 1885
David Kalakaua, monarch of the Kingdom of Hawaii, is forced at gunpoint, at the hands of the Americans, to sign the Bayonet Constitution giving Americans more power in Hawaii while stripping Hawaiian citizens of their rights, 1887
Dadabhai Naoroji elected as first Indian Member of Parliament in Britain, 1892
The British dirigible R34 lands in New York, completing the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean by an airship, 1919
The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game is played in Chicago's Comiskey Park; the American League defeats the National League, 4–2, 1933
The last remaining Jewish enterprises in Germany are closed, 1939
Anne Frank and her family go into hiding in the "Secret Annexe" above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse, 1942
The Hartford Circus Fire, one of America's worst fire disasters, kills approximately 168 people and injures over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut, 1944
Davis Phinney became the first American cyclist to win a road stage of the Tour de France, 1986
The Nathula Pass between India and China, sealed during the Sino-Indian War, re-opens for trade after 44 years, 2006

Blogger has managed, again, to muck up a good system, or at least one i had grown reasonable accustomed to and able to navigate.

All of a sudden a few days ago, none of my drafts would save, even as i was typing them. The error message kept saying a required field was being left blank.

The required field, it turned out, was the post title.

There was a time when your posts were automatically saved while you were writing them, even if you hadn't thought up a title yet, or even if you didn't want to bother to title it. Not anymore.

The powers that be at Blogger have decided that you must title your posts at all costs before it will even save them as a draft.

If you are a conspiracy theorist, it's easy to label this one. They want to know what you are writing about by the title, which makes it easier than having to read the whole post. Scanning titles for worrisome trends is easier than reading the first paragraph of each to get the gist of it.

If you are not a conspiracy theorist (and i'm generally not, because if the world is run by some nefarious organization or cadre, there's nothing i can do about it, pass that kitten, it's hollering its little head off and needs a bottle, and i need to get dinner finished), then it's just the Blogger-Powers-That-Be being their usual pain in the rump selves, making a perfectly-good-system-that-was-working-just-fine-thank-you unnecessarily more complicated.

Either way, i hate having to title post i don't even quite know the topic of yet, much less what to call it.

My solution was to number them by the date in the required field. Apparently you can title your post with a number if you want, but you have to give it a title or it won't save, even as a draft, or publish.

What is it about people who run these things -- computer geeks who are barely "human compatible" i guess -- that they have to needlessly over-complicate everything they touch?

If any of my future posts have nothing but a number or a lowercase letter as the title, you'll know i got caught up in doing other stuff and didn't re-title the thing before publishing, and excuse it, as i have more important things to worry about than the requirements of Blogger for certain before three days ago unneeded titles.

Today is

Aphrodisia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho [Persuasion]; date approximate)

Bonza Bottler Day

Build a Scarecrow Day

Chocolate Day -- no one knows why today, so why not? Enjoy chocolate cereal with chocolate milk for breakfast, some chocolate covered raisins and nuts as a midmorning snack, chocolate milk with lunch, chocolate truffles as a midafternoon snack, chocolate liquer before dinner, chocolate cake for dessert, and sip chocolate coffee any time through the day!

Ducktona 500 Family Festival -- Sheboygan Falls, WI, US (lots of fun for everyone, culminating in the annual plastic duck race)

Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day -- encouraging fathers to take some special time out with their girls today

Independence Day / National Day -- Solomon Islands(1978)

Macaroni Day -- it goes with more than just cheese!

National Strawberry Sundae Day

Nones of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar; celebrations on this day included:
     Festival of Feriae Ancillarum -- "Feast of the Serving Women", when female servants dressed up and "attacked" men of free birth with fig boughs; in honor of the serving women who helped free the city of Rome from the Gauls
     Nonae Caprotinae -- "Nones of the Wild Fig", honoring Juno Caprotina with a sacrifice under a wild fig tree
     Parilia -- festival for Pales, god of the herds

Saba Saba Day -- Tanzania (literally "Seven Seven" Day, a/k/a Peasants' Day or Workers' Day, and the biggest day of the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair)

St. Willibald's Day (Patron of Eichstatt, Germany)

Tanabata -- Japan (star festival, 7th day of 7th month; some areas go by lunar calendar, but most larger cities celebrate by the Gregorian Calendar now)

Tell The Truth Day -- a yearly challenge to go the whole day without telling a lie or saying or doing anything misleading or dishonest

Unity Factory Day -- Yemen (all workers are encouraged to play at work today, to build team and national unity)

Vardavar -- Armenia (continuation of an ancient pagan festival that encourages people to pull pranks, especially dousing everyone, friend and stranger, with water)

Anniversaries Today

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, 1946

Birthdays Today

Michelle Kwan, 1980
Cree Summer, 1969
Shelley Duvall, 1949
Ringo Starr, 1940
Doc Severinsen, 1927
Pierre Cardin, 1922
Robert Heinlein, 1907
Satchel Paige, 1906
Marc Chagall, 1887

Today in History

A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death, 1456
Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland, 1575
United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300, 1863
An International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15, 1915
Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri; it is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped", 1928
Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident, 1947
Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere, 1959
In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government, 1969
Sharia is instituted in Iran, 1980
Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov, 1983
The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching, 2006

...on the second Monday in July?

Right now, i have no clue. Thus i am just rambling.

Misha and Collins, the two bottle kittens, are growing and eating more, and both use a litter box now.

#2 Son's cat, Dansig, is limping and we have no clue why. He's going to the vet later today.

#1 Son has decided he is moving back to this area. He's going to be rooming with some friends who have a rental house just a few blocks from the cat shelter. In the next few days he will be going back to Kansas to pick up the rest of his stuff. This was a big surprise in some ways, and in others not so much. He didn't seem happy up there to me.

The week is shaping up to be the typical swamp weather week, hot, with a bit of rain in the afternoon or not as the clouds and humidity see fit. There will be days with thunderous "frog stranglers," and days with clouds looking like they could wash away the world, and yet not producing a drop. Some days will have no rain at all except in very limited areas from a few stray dark clouds. The other day, there was no rain on the radar at all, and the sun was beautiful as one dark cloud moved in and started raining in our front yard. We watched it move, eventually bringing rain to the back, and continuing on its merry way until it was no longer over us.

It's something i've come to expect, having to watch like a hawk for rain so i can go get clothes off the line and put them back as needed. Sometimes you only have to take them down for 10 minutes, it's like playing cat and mouse with the sun.

Swim league is done, so Little Girl is preparing for City Meet, and spent the weekend helping a friend and her mother get ready for the older daughter to move back to the area. Older daughter and her husband will live with them for about 2 weeks while they apartment hunt and he gets used to his new job. It ought to be interesting as they still have the four younger kids (of their eight) living at home and it's not a big house. Son-in-law may well be in for some culture shock, i understand he's an only child.

The morning caretaker for Mondays at the shelter is out of town, so i'm filling in this morning. The new Friday lady did better last week -- she brought her mother to help. If she continues to do that, it may work out quite well to have her, as she is very thorough.

The news this weekend about the railway accident in Ontario has hurt my heart. Like other such disasters, there is so much more than the news can show, lives taken, lives disrupted so much that the person feels there is nothing much left. Living in a hurricane zone and having gone through them makes it easy to put yourself in their places.

Finally, to wrap up this meander through my abnormal brain, a wonderful idea that comes from Brunete, Spain, which is near Madrid. It seems that they have seen a radical drop in the amount of unscooped poop from dogs by using volunteers to get the name of the offending dogs off their tags, match them with the town dog registration records, and send the dog's business in the mail to said owner, deeming it "lost property."

It's fun to think about implementing that, at least. Now if only we could take pollutants and mail them to factory owners or board members and CEOs. That would be something.

Today is

Buxton Wells Dressing -- Buxton, Derbyshire, England (preserving the 650+ years of traditional "dressing" wells in foliage to thank the patron saint of that well for blessings, now with parades and carnivals; through next Sunday)

Celtic Tree Month Tinne begins (Holly)

Feast of St. Sunniva (Ancient Norse solar maiden Sunna's worship around this time of year was merged with the story of this medieval saint; Patron of Bergen, Norway and the Norwegian west coast)

Gospel Day -- Kiribati

International Town Criers Day

Kaustinen Folk Music Festival -- Kaustined, Finland (the largest international music festival in the Nordic countries; through Sunday)

King Tupou VI's Birthday -- Tonga (obs.)

Nagoya Sumo Tournament -- Nagoya, Japan (one of the 6 major tournaments; through the 22nd)

National Milk Chocolate with Almonds Day

Old Crafts Day -- it's listed in a few places, but i can't find the history; Old time crafts, or old crafts you've had sitting around the house and never gotten done? If you have the latter, do them or toss them!

Olive Branch Petition Day -- the final attempt, by the 13 Colonies, to avoid a complete break with England in 1775

SCUD Day (Savor the Comic, Unplug the Drama) -- a good habit, on every day

Soapy Smith Wake -- held simultaneously in 4 locations: Skagway, AK, US; Hollywood, CA, US; Denver, CO, US; Chicago, IL, US (held by Soapy Smith Preservation Trust and Friends of Bad Man Soapy Smith, preserving the memory of one of the Wild West and Alaskan Gold Rush's most notorious con men, killed in a gunfight this day in 1898)

#Sempach Battle Commemoration -- Lucerne, Switzerland (remembrance of the battle in 1386 includes a solemn procession to the battlefield and services in the chapel)

Sts. Aquila and Prisca's Day

St. Kilian's Day (Patron of people with gout or rheumatism, whitewashers; Bavaria, Germany; Paderborn, Germany; Tuosist, Ireland; Wurzburg,Germany)

Video Games Day -- do they really need a day?

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (when Vitula was given the first fruits of the earth)

Ziegfeld Follies Day -- the first "Follies of 1907" opened on this day

Birthdays Today

Jaden Smith, 1998
Sophia Bush, 1982
Kathleen Robertson, 1973
Beck Hansen, 1970
Toby Keith, 1961
Kevin Bacon, 1958
Christopher G. Moore, 1952
Marianne Williamson, 1952
Anjelica Huston, 1951
Wolfgang Puck, 1949
Raffi, 1948
Steve Lawrence, 1935
Marty Feldman, 1933
Roone Arledge, 1931
Billy Eckstine, 1914
Nelson Rockefeller, 1908
Alfred Binet, 1857
John D. Rockefeller, 1839
Ferdinand von Zeppelin, 1838
Etienne De Silhouette, 1709

Today in History

Vasco da Gama sets sail on first direct European voyage to India, 1497
Charles II of England grants John Clarke a Royal Charter to Rhode Island, 1663
Battle of Restigouche – British defeat French forces in last naval battle in New France, 1760
The Olive Branch Petition is drafted by the Second Continental Congress as the Congress' last attempt to get King George III of Great Britain to reason with them, 1775
The Declaration of Independence has its first public reading, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the Liberty Bell is rung, 1776
Chippewas turn over huge tract of land in Ontario to the United Kingdom, 1822
Commodore Perry sails into Tokyo Bay, 1853
The initial force of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police begin their March West, 1874
The first issue of the Wall Street Journal is published, 1889
St. John's, Newfoundland is devastated in the Great Fire of 1892
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches its lowest level of the Great Depression, bottoming out at 41.22, 1932
The United States Air Force accepts its first female recruits into a program called Women in the Air Force (WAF), 1948
Richard Nixon delivers a special congressional message enunciating Native American Self-Determination as official US Indian policy, leading to the Indian Self-Determination Act, 1970
The Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europe creates the office of High Commissioner on National Minorities, 1992
NATO invites the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland to join the alliance, membership to become effective in two years, 1997
The Space Shuttle Atlantis is launched in the final mission of the U.S. Space Shuttle program, 2011

...but likely will, anyway.

This should be the rant of a friend of mine, not one of mine, necessarily. Yet it makes me so sad and angry on her behalf it needs to come out.

She has had symptoms for years, and has been stonewalled by everyone in her family. "No, our family has no problems!" they loudly proclaim.

As usual, they doth protest too much.

It was so ingrained to lie to each succeeding generation as symptoms got worse that even though her grandmother has been dead for 3 years, her father still lies on order from grannie, who absolutely would not entertain the idea in any way, shape, or form that anything could be inherited in their family.

Now, my friend has genetic proof, and they can't protest any more, it's obviously connected through that side of the family.

But what she had to go through to get there is awful.

It's awful enough to have symptoms, it's awful enough to have to deal with now deciding, with her husband, whether or not they should have children (she thinks probably not), but to have to deal with years and years of family lies and stonewalling and lack of sympathy is cruelty on top of cruelty.

It's not the first person i've known to have this happen, either. In fact, i can think of two others right off hand. The first family i knew of it was more from ignorance -- they didn't know the signs meant succeeding generations might have a disease, it caused no trouble in the people who had it that they would think to mention. Cafe-au-lait spots can mean a tumor disease in a succeeding generation? Not an idea of it, and by the time anyone realized the connection, there wasn't much that could be done.

The second was more nefarious, lying to a child about where he got the surgery scar so that no one would suspect he ever had a problem. A problem that his children and grandchildren suffered the brunt of, because his mother refused to admit anything like that could happen in her family. She went so far as to blame what her daughter-in-law, the mother of one grandchild, did while pregnant for an obviously inherited condition.

Now this, and my blood boils for my friend who could have been saved a lot of mental anguish and years of searching for answers, and could have had treatment sooner.

There is no shame in the fact that your family might have an inherited disease. It happens. This is not the dark ages where we believe it's a curse or a judgment on the family.

Your family is not "less" because of this. You are not defective. You simply have a genetic flaw, as do we all.

Hiding doesn't take it away, and does more damage than good.

Today is

Call of the Horizon Day -- can't find any history on this one, but if the idea of following your dreams over the Horizon has ever called you, take the time to follow today!

Constitution Day -- Australia; Palau

Constitutionalist Revolution Day -- São Paulo, Brazil

Don't Put All Your Eggs In One Omelet Day

Feast of Our Lady of Chiquinquira (Patron of Colombia; the Venezuelan National Guard)

Hampton Court Palace Flower Show -- Hampton Court Palace, East Molesey, Surrey, England (the world's largest flower show; through Sunday)

Independence Day -- Argentina(1816); South Sudan

Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod -- Eisteddfod Field, Llangollen, Benbigshire, North Wales, UK (65th annual international music festival, through Sunday)

Martyrdom of the Bab -- Baha'i

Muffler Appreciation Day -- if you've ever had a loud vehicle, you will understand why someone started this one

National Sugar Cookie Day -- what could be simpler or more versatile? make them plain or make them fancy, but be sure you make enough!

Nunavut Day -- NU, Canada

#Offerings to Heru and Amun -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (day Heru hears prayers in the presense of the Netjers; date approximate)

Ramadan begins -- Islam

Shiman Rokusen-nichi -- Sensou-ji Temple, Asakusa, Tokyo (Day of 46,000; a visit to the temple on this day through tomorrow credits you the same as visiting 46,000 times on ordinary days)

St. Mary Hermina Grivot's Day (Patron of martyrs)

Uniwaine / Unaine Day -- Kiribati (Senior Citizens' Day, specifically Elderly Men's Day / Elderly Women's Day)

Birthdays Today

Mitchel Musso, 1991
Kiely Williams, 1986
Fred Savage, 1976
Jack White, 1975
Courtney Love, 1964
Kelly McGillis, 1957
Tom Hanks, 1956
Fred Norris, 1955
Jimmy Smits, 1955
John Tesh, 1952
Chris Cooper, 1951
Mitch Mitchell, 1947
O.J. Simpson, 1947
Richard Roundtree, 1942
Ed Ames, 1927
Elias Howe, 1819

Today in History

Roman military commander Avitus is proclaimed emperor of the Western Roman Empire, 455
Henry VIII annuls his marriage to Anne of Cleves (his 4th wife), 1540
In Versailles, the National Assembly reconstitutes itself as the National Constituent Assembly and begins preparations for a French constitution, 1789
The Act Against Slavery is passed in Upper Canada and the importation of slaves into Lower Canada is prohibited, 1793
The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship and all persons in the United States due process of law, 1868
In Provident Hospital on Chicago’s South Side, black surgeon Dr. Daniel Hale Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery, 1893
Queen Victoria gives royal assent to an Act creating the Commonwealth of Australia thus uniting separate colonies on the continent under one federal government, 1900
Johnny Weissmuller swims the 100 meters freestyle in 58.6 seconds breaking the world swimming record and the 'minute barrier', 1922
The Russell-Einstein Manifesto is released by Bertrand Russell in London, 1955
In a seminal moment for pop art, Andy Warhol's Campbell's Soup Cans exhibition opens at the Ferus Gallery in Los Angeles, 1962
Margaret Thatcher begins her second term as British prime minster, 1982
South Africa is readmitted into the Olympic movement after 30 years of exclusion, 1991
The African Union is established in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2002
South Sudan gains independence and secedes from Sudan, 2011

Hm, i muttered to myself as i peered into the bubbling pot, are you brown enough?

"Mom, are you talking to the gravy?" Bigger Girl had come in from work, and as usual came straight to the kitchen to get a snack to hold her over until dinner.

No, i answered, i'm talking to the roux.

"Oh, you will rue the day!" she shot back with a grin, "you know what they say about people who talk to themselves and inanimate objects!"

When i laughed, she asked me "Why are you laughing? That wasn't funny, it was a pun, and it wasn't even very punny."

Well, i answered, i thought it was.

"Mom, no one likes puns!"

Excuse me! i shot back. Shakespeare did! And i do, too.

"Well, his were clever. Anyway, I was wondering today as I sterilized equipment, is the world really just a figment of my imagination and all of my friends are just my alternate personalities?"

Kid, you need to get a better hobby. That kind of existential crisis might come back to haunt you!

We laughed, and then she asked, "Mom, really, the other day I was sitting at the table at lunch, enjoying the stir fry I had made, and I wondered, if I didn't have language, would I be sitting here trying to think of ways to describe the experience? In other words, does language prevent us from enjoying pure experience by making us search for ways to describe it even as we experience it?"

After a moment's pause i said, i think you gave me a headache with that one.

"Yeah, don't think about that one too long, it gave me a headache, too. Oh and a funny thing happened at work today. I found myself singing to myself quietly, the song "Sarah Brown Eyes," and Sarah, who works there, walked in! And she has brown eyes! I had to quit singing, I didn't want her to think anything weird of it."

That reminds me of the doctor i once heard about who was walking through the hospital whistling, and the nurse told him he might want to stop because it was the song, "If I Only Had a Brain"!

"Oh, that's funny!" she said. Then she went on. "Today I got to work with the Brahma cattle for the first time. They are so much calmer than the others, it was great! And we had one with an interesting lesion that had to be lanced. It was neat!"

Well, i'm glad you get so much into your work, i noted as the other kids came in, and she moved to the table.

Today is

Armed Forces Day -- Mauritania

Clerihew Day -- in honor of the poetic form he invented, the clerihew:
     Edmund's middle name was Clerihew
     A name possessed by very few
     But verses by Mr. Bentley
     Succeeded eminently!

Don't Step On A Bee Day -- Wellcat Holidays wants to remind you, when going barefoot this time of year, watch out!

Feast Day of Knut the Reaper, Hela, Holda, and Skadi -- Norse deities whose celebration this day is due to their later association with Danish King Canute the Great

Independence Day -- Bahamas(1973)

Lady Godiva Day -- tradition says she took her famous ride on this day in 1040

National Culture Day -- Kiribati

National Pina Colada Day

Pick Blueberries Day -- variously set on different days in July depending on the website; with blueberries being so good for you, find a day to go gather or buy some soon

Rath Yatra -- Puri, India (Chariot Festival, pilgrims pull huge chariots across the city)

Silence Day -- followers of Meher Baba

St. Amalburga's Day (Patron of people with fever; Ghent, Belgium; against arm pain, bruises, and fevers)

Teddy Bear Picnic Day

Wyandotte Street Art Fair -- Downtown Wyandotte, MI, US (over 250 seasoned and emerging artists display and sell their wares, with music and entertainment; through Saturday)

Anniversaries Today

Wyoming becomes the 44th US State, 1890

Birthdays Today

Jessica Simpson, 1980
Arlo Guthrie, 1947
Ron Glass, 1945
Arthur Ashe, 1943
Fred Gwynne, 1926
Jean Kerr, 1923
Jake LaMotta, 1921
Eunice Kennedy Shriver, 1921
David Brinkley, 1920
Don "Mr. Wizard" Herbert, 1917
Edmund Clerihew Bentley, 1875
Marcel Proust, 1871
Nikola Tesla, 1856
Adolphus Busch, 1839
James Whistler, 1834
William Blackstone, 1723
John Calvin, 1509

Today in History

Julius Caesar barely avoids a catastrophic defeat to Pompey in Macedonia at the Battle of Dyrrhachium, BC48
The most severe of several early fires of London burns most of the city to the ground, 1212
Lady Jane Grey takes the throne of England, 1553
Alexander Mackenzie reaches the Mackenzie River delta, 1789
The Vellore Mutiny is the first instance of a mutiny by Indian sepoys against the British East India Company, 1806
The United States takes possession of its newly bought territory of Florida from Spain, 1821
Big Ben, the great bell of the clock at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, rings for the first time, 1859
The eruption of Tarawera volcano destroys the famous pink and white calcium carbonate hot-spring terraces of North Island, New Zealand, 1886
Meher Baba, self declared Avatar of the Age, begins his silence of 44 years; his followers observe Silence Day on this date in commemoration, 1925
In Dayton, Tennessee, the so-called "Monkey Trial" begins with John T. Scopes, a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act, 1925
Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91 hour airplane flight around the world, 1938
Telstar, the world's first communications satellite, is launched into orbit, 1962
Boris Yeltsin begins his 5-year term as the first elected President of Russia, 1991
In London scientists report the findings of the DNA analysis of a Neanderthal skeleton which supports the "out of Africa theory" of human evolution, 1997
Spain opens its first mosque since the Moors were expelled in 1492, in Granada, 2003

Sweetie came in from work shaking his head, and said, "You aren't going to believe what's going on at work!"

At the moment, i thought better than to say that i would believe almost anything from the place where he words, and he continued on.

"The Big Boss has decided he needs to work on morale, so guess what we are going to do one day this week?"

When i couldn't for the life of me guess, he said, "We get to go bowling!"

Really?

"Yes! They are paying for everything, and we even get to eat there, all we want. Can you believe this? I'm not sure what's gotten into him."

So, will you be bowling? i asked, hoping not. His thumb is not quite healed up, and if he reinjures it he might never be able to play guitar correctly again.

"Are you crazy? Of course not!" he said. "No, but since I know how, and was pretty good at it once upon a time, I get to coach some of the younger ones who have never bowled before. And get this! He's set it up as a tournament, with teams and everything!"

It ought to be interesting, i noted.

"Interesting! It's going to be a scream, watching these people trying to bowl. And that's not the only crazy thing that happened today, either?"

It gets better? i asked incredulously.

"Yeah, it gets better. Keith, who lives near The Big Boss' farm and keeps an eye on it for him, showed up today with his truck full of watermelons! Big 40-50 pounders, and he decided to bring them to us. The Big Boss told me to take 4 of them to his house, and the rest of us had a raffle!"

A raffle? i said, rather blankly.

"Yes, he had about 32 of them after I took four to The Big Boss' house, so all of us put our names in a hat and he raffled off the rest of them. I have ours in the car!"

Well, that is a funny day, isn't it?

"That's not the best part!" he continued. "The people at the Hotel wanted to bring theirs from the Museum over to the Hotel, so they brought over a luggage cart, and loaded these huge things on it. Then Cass, who is 4'10" -- shorter than you! -- decided they looked like they might slip off. So even thought she was wearing this really short skirt, she climbed up on top of them, straddling them, and posed for a picture! Then they rolled them over to the Hotel with her riding on top of them to keep them from slipping off the luggage cart. It was so funny! I've set the picture as my computer screen background so I can show it to The Big Boss tomorrow!"

What next? i thought. Those people continue to amaze me with their shenanigans, even after all these years. Sweetie describes them as a band of 8-balls, and he's mostly right.

My only regret is that i won't be a fly on the wall while they are bowling.

Today is

Advice-to-the-Lovelorn-Day -- date, in 1896, the New Orleans Picayune first published the advice column of Dorothy Dix, Mother Confessor to Millions; it eventually ran in 300 papers for 55 years

Bonfire Night -- Northern Ireland (precursor to The Twelfth a/k/a Orangemen's Day)

Bowdler's Day

China National Maritime Day -- People's Republic of China

Convenience Store Day -- the first Seven Eleven opened on this day in 1927 in Dallas, TX; it was open 7am to 11pm, thus the name

Dinosaur Roundup Rodeo -- Vernal, UT, US (one of the top rodeos in the country; through Saturday)

Day of the Flemish Community -- Flemish community of Belgium, commemorates the Battle of the Golden Spurs of 1302

Feast of Theano, Philosopher, Mathmatician, wife of Pythagoras, patron of vegetarianism (date approximate, supposedly when she was born)

Feast of Min -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Free Slurpee Day at Seven-Eleven -- if you have these stores where you live, stop by between 11am and 7pm to get a free 11.7oz. Slurpee (TM) today

Hodag Country Festival -- Rhinelander, WI, US (at the Hodag "50" Track, a large open-air country music festival; through Sunday)

Imamat Day -- Ismailism

Naadam Festival -- Mongolia (a/k/a Revolution Day/National Day, traditional sporting events nationwide, but best at Ulaanbaatar, through the 13th)

National Blueberry Muffin Day

National Cheer Up The Lonely Day -- begun by Francis Pesek of Detroit, Michigan; he chose to spend his birthday as a day to promote kindness, especially the forgotten at nursing homes who have no visitors and shut ins

Oregon Trail Days -- Gering, NE, US (the oldest continuing celebration of the Oregon Trail; through Sunday)

Reading Guilt Day -- the day you are supposed to start reading that book you only read the Cliff's Notes on in school

St Benedict's Day (Patron of agricultural workers, cavers/speliologists/spelunkers, civil engineers, coppersmiths, farm workers/farmers, Italian architects, monks, people in religious orders, people who are dying, school children, servants who have broken their masters belongings, students; Europe; Heerdt, Germany; Norcia, Italy; Subiaco, Italy; against erysipelas, fever, gall stones, inframmatory diseases, kidney disease, nettle rash, poison, temptations, and witchcraft)

Turkey Rama -- McMinnville, Oregon (family fun on "Oregon's Favorite Main Street" that includes the "World's Largest Turkey BBQ"; through Sunday)

World Population Day -- UN

Worshipful Company of Vintners (Winemakers) of the City of London Annual Procession

Birthdays Today:

David Henrie, 1989
Marie Sernehold, 1983
Lisa Rinna, 1963
Richie Sambora, 1959
Suzanne Vega, 1959
Mark Lester, 1958
Leon Spinks, 1953
Giorgio Armani, 1934
Tab Hunter, 1931
Yul Brynner, 1920
E.B. White, 1899
John Quincy Adams, 1767

Today in History

Admiral Zheng He sets sail on his first exploratory expedition for the Ming Dynasty, 1405
Samuel de Champlain returns to Quebec, 1616
Jews are expelled from Little Russia, 1740
Halifax, Nova Scotia is almost completely destroyed by fire, 1750
Captain James Cook begins his third voyage, 1776
Jacques Necker is dismissed as France's Finance Minister sparking the Storming of the Bastille, 1789
French astronomer Jean-Louis Pons made his first comet discovery (he discovered 36 over the next 27 years, more than any other person), 1801
Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr mortally wounds former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel, 1804
Waterloo railway station in London opens, 1848
Tijuana, Mexico, is formally founded, 1889
The Lumière brothers demonstrate film technology to scientists, 1895
Babe Ruth makes his Major League debut, 1914
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is first published, 1960
The first U.S. space station, Skylab, is destroyed as it re-enters the Earth's atmosphere over the Indian Ocean, 1979
According to the UN, the Earth's population crosses the 5,000,000,000 mark, 1987
The United States announces it will reestablish full diplomatic relations with Vietnam, 1995
Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called "Barefoot Bandit", is caught in the Bahamas after a 2 year manhunt, 2010

The other day, i walked out of the house and the first thing that greeted my eyes was this:

George, our pink lawn flamingo that was a gift from Bigger Girl on our recent vacation, was sporting a studded black leather collar!

It was a laugh out loud moment. Either one of the kids was pulling a prank (and a very funny one at that), or George has a secret life she (yes, she's a girl) hasn't shared with us.

Photo-Finish Friday is the brainchild of Leah at The Goat's Lunch Pail.

Extra editing note: While i have told Blogger to publish this five times, it wouldn't do so, and i have had to redo it. Let's hope this works this time, i'm not sure what is wrong.

Today is

Bear Lake Days --Bear Lake, MI, US (the fun even includes a Venetian boat parade; through Sunday)

Blissfest -- Harbor Springs, MI, US (three music stages, workshop areas, and the preservation of folk and roots music; through Sunday)

Cow Appreciation Day -- sponsored by Chick-fil-A; wear a partial cow costume, get a free entree, dress head to hoof, get a free meal

Different Colored Eyes Day -- people with heterochromia, celebrate!

Etch-a-Sketch Day -- the toy was first manufactured on this day in 1960, timed to hit toy shelves for Christmas that year

First Sermon of Lord Buddha -- Bhutan

Independence Day -- Kiribati(1979; a/k/a National Day); Sao Tome & Principe(1975)

International Carthage Festival -- Tunis, Tunisia (the country's biggest arts event and music festival, through Aug. 17)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate, a festival for Kronos, part of which included masters and slaves switching places for a meal)

National Pecan Pie Day

Orangemen's Day (a/k/a Twelfth Day) -- Northern Ireland (Battle of the Boyne commemoration)

Rainmaker Day -- Salem, Oregon (while it is understood that in Salem, you are more likely to rust than sunburn, from 1892 until 2006, no measurable rain fell on this date in this normally wet city)

Simplicity Day -- sponsored by www.doonething.org on Thoreau's birthday, highlighting the concepts in the book Voluntary Simplicty by Duane Elgin, and advocating finding sustainable ways to live

St. John Gualbert's Day (Patron of foresters and forest workers, park services and parks)

St. Swithun's Festival -- St Swithun's Church, Church Street, Worcester, England (through the 15th, which is St. Swithun's Day)

St. Veronica's Day (Patron of laundry workers and photographers)

Three Rivers Festival -- Ft. Wayne, IN, US (Fort Wayne's biggest summer party; through the 2oth)

Wayne Chicken Show -- Wayne, NE, US (this year's theme is "I Got Fried at the Wayne Chicken Show", and the family friendly fun includes a rubber chicken chuck and National Cluck Off; through Sunday)

Anniversaries Today

Henry VIII marries Catherine Parr, 1543 (the one who outlived him)

Birthdays Today

Michelle Rodriguez, 1978
Brock Lesnar, 1977
Kristi Yamaguchi, 1971
Cheryl Ladd, 1951
Richard Simmons, 1948
Christine McVie, 1943
Bill Cosby, 1937
Van Cliburn, 1934
Andrew Wyeth, 1917
Milton Berle, 1908
Pablo Neruda, 1904
R. Buckminster Fuller, 1895
Oscar Hammerstein II, 1895
George Washington Carver, 1861
George Ohr, 1857
George Eastman, 1854
Henry David Thoreau, 1817
Josiah Wedgwood, 1730

Today in History

England is unified by Athelstan of England, 927
Saladin's garrison surrenders to Conrad of Montferrat, ending the two-year siege of Acre, 1191
Fray Diego de Landa, acting Bishop of Yucatan, burns the sacred books of the Maya, 1562
Ostrog Bible, the first printed Bible in a Slavic language, is published, 1580
The United States invades Canada at Windsor, Ontario, 1812
The Commonwealth Franchise Act, granting women's suffrage in Australia, is given royal assent and takes effect, 1902
Pune, India floods due to failure of Khadakvasala and Panshet dams; half of the city is submerged and the death toll exceeded 2000, 1961
A fire destroys the entire 6th floor of the National Personnel Records Center of the United States, 1973
Boris Yeltsin quits the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1990
Israel invades Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, 2006
A ticket holder in Britain wins the largest EuroMillions jackpot in history, 161,653,000GBP, 2011

Things had been relatively quiet at the shelter -- too quiet to last, i knew.

And i was right.

First, a bit of backstory on one of the current situations. A couple of years ago, every rescue and the animal control center and everyone else began to lose kittens. They would appear fine, then throw up a couple of times. Within twenty-four hours, they would become lethargic, sometimes have seizures, and die.

The diagnosis was panleukopenia, which we vaccinate for, but at that time not normally until they are about 4 weeks old, then we vaccinate every 2 weeks after that until they are 3 months or adopted. When i got the news, i and others began a program of vaccinating the moment we got them in, even if they were newborns, giving them only half a dose if they were under 4 weeks, then re-vaccinating every week.

The virus can live on surfaces for up to a year, too, unless you bleach the tar out of every surface and steam clean and sanitize carpets. Because of the decrepit condition of my house, i could only sanitize and bleach and steam clean so much, but i did everything the kittens go near as much as i could, pouring bleach in cracks and crevices, and i implemented the early vaccinations and the deaths stopped.

So i walked into the shelter to do my regular shift to find out that two kittens that have been returned from a pet store adoption area have died of panleuk, one other was returned for crusty eyes that are healing but has probably been exposed, and one came back with ringworm which wasn't noticed until he had been in the kitten room for 3 days.

Also, a lady had come in and returned a cat, claiming she adopted it from us two years ago. Because her name was in the database as someone who had adopted from us, it was taken. Come to find out, the cat she adopted from us was gray, and that was six years ago. This one's microchip identified it as an animal control adoption, two years ago, and it is orange!

Her story was interesting, and distracted the intake person into not noting the discrepancies until it was too late. It seems the first cat she adopted was when she lived with her father, and we believe he still has it. This one, from two years ago, ran away a year ago. It was found about a week ago, and she got it back, and took it home, where she and her husband now have custody of five children under age five from his negligent sister. The cat apparently doesn't like little children, which was discovered the hard way.

He does, however, love adults, so despite the fact that he should be returned elsewhere, we will find him a good home, with only older children or none at all.

And to top everything off, the air conditioner wasn't cooling, and the sewer is backing up and one of the loos, at times, smells like it.

That pet store adoption area needs to be emptied and bleached within an inch of its existence, but these kittens have all been more than fully vaccinated, and with the modified live vaccine, too, which is supposed to be the best one there is. So we have a dilemma, we aren't sure we can adopt any kittens out right now, because if this is a new strain or some of them didn't develop immunity, we are doing to end up with them getting sick and dying in their new homes.

In fact, one family called today to say the perfectly healthy kitten adopted on July 5 died after throwing up once, then getting lethargic, then having a seizure, and all within just a few hours. They are going to be allowed to pick out another kitten at no charge, of course, but we want them to wait until we can be sure this isn't going to happen again.

The sewer problem is going to have to wait for Monday, because it's not enough of an emergency to warrant calling someone in when rates are higher on a weekend. As long as nothing is actually coming into the building, it can hold.

The A/C is a cat of a different color. We can't have the cats in that kind of heat, so the HVAC people were called in. They found and fixed the problem while i worked my shift.

It seems that someone had forgotten to check the date on the white board and follow the schedule for changing the filter, which was filthy, as were the condenser coils. As many cats as we have in that place, we sweep up enough hair every day to knit ourselves a litter of kittens if we ever needed one, the filter needs changing every two weeks at least, and it had been over two months.

As i noted, with the A/C guy standing there, it's cheaper to replace filters than pay for repairs. He nodded and said, "Absolutely! I agree with that, it's cheaper to replace them than hire me!" So i hope they take it to heart.

For reasons of dust, dander, and fur, as well as being able to isolate sick animals, that is one place that doesn't need to go unfiltered.

Today is

Art Fair on the Square -- Madison, WI, US (one of the Midwest's largest juried art fairs; through tomorrow)

Bald In - Bald Out Day -- sponsored by Bald Girls Do Lunch; if men can be bald and brazen, then women and children who cannot grow hair should bring bald INto their lives, and never feel on the OUTs!

Barbershop Music Appreciation Day -- anniversary of the founding of Sweet Adelines International

Beans and Franks Day

Bohemian Club Annual Rites begin -- Bohemian Grove, CA US (if you are into conspiracy theories, this is supposedly when and where the male movers and shakers of the world meet for two weeks and decide the fate of the world for the next 12 months; the members of the club, including former presidents and other high level officials, do meet for a couple of weeks this time of year to have, among other things, a Cremation of Care ceremony)

Carver Day -- George Washington Carver National Monument, Diamond, MO, US

Circus City Festival -- Peru, IN, US (did you ever want to run off and join the circus? This is the week kids age 7-21 get to do just that, so go watch and have fun with them! through the 20th)

Embrace Your Geekness Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, celebrate your love of online dungeon games, comic books, or dressing up like a vampire

Fairfest -- Hastings, NE (a parade today, and starting on Monday a full week of traditional county fair fun plus world class stage entertainment)

Feast of Kalimat (Words) -- Baha'i Faith

Fool's Paradise Day -- a day to figure out how a fool can achieve paradise? or how it can be paradise if it is full of fools?

Galicnik Svadba -- Galicnik, Macedonia (wedding festival, when one lucky couple gets to be married in a traditional "Galichka" style wedding, through tomorrow)

Go West Day -- commemorates Horace Greeley's "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

Gruntled Workers Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; those of us who are gruntled, as opposed to the disgruntled, should unite and pass along some "great work" compliments to those doing a good job

International Puzzle Day -- some sites say Jan. 29, but today is Erno Rubik's birth anniversary

La Retraite Aux Flambeaux -- France (night watch, before Bastille Day)

National French Fries Day

Obon (Ulambana) -- Buddhist; Shinto (Festival of the Lanterns, a time of honoring the ancestors, a reunion of them with the living; through the 15th, although Obon festivals are held on various dates in July at temples throughout the world)

Omaha Railroad Days -- celebrating all things track and train, through tomorrow

Pori Jazz Festival -- Pori, Finland (a major international music event with world class performances; through the 21st)

Sodbuster Days -- Fort Ransom, ND, US (learn how rural North Dakotans lived in the early 1920s; through tomorrow)

Sourdough River Festival -- Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (Float Fest and a big water fight! through tomorrow)

Statehood Day -- Montenegro

St. Henry the Emperor's Day (Patron of childless people, disabled people, dukes, handicapped people, kings, people rejected by religious orders, physically challenged people; Bamberg, Germany; Basel, Switzerland; Benedictine Oblates; against sterility)

St. Joel the Prophet's Day (Old Testament prophet of the Book of Joel)

Stone House Day -- Hurley, NY, US (tour of several 250+ year old stone houses within 150-yards of each other)

Birthdays Today

Cheech Marin, 1946
Erno Rubik, 1944
Harrison Ford, 1942
Patrick Stewart, 1940
Jack Kemp, 1935
Bob Crane, 1928
Dave Garroway, 1913
Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1821
Julius Caesar, BC100

Today in History

Capt James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas, 1772
William Wordsworth, on a walking tour through the Wye Valley, visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey and a few miles further on composed a poem about them, 1798
Greek War of Independence: Greeks defeated Ottoman forces at Thermopylae, 1822
Henry R Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River, 1832
After 9,957 unnumbered patents, the U.S. Patent Office issues Patent No. 1, for locomotive wheels, 1836
Queen Victoria becomes the first British monarch to live at Buckingham Palace in London, 1837
First day of the New York Draft Riots in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrolment Act of Conscription, 1863
Horace Greeley publishes his editorial advising young men to "Go West, young man, go west and grow up with the country," 1865
PT Barnum's American Museum was destroyed in one of the most spectacular fires in New York City's history, 1865
Gold was discovered near Cochrane, Ontario, Canada, 1909
The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight, 1919
Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in, 1973
The Live Aid benefit concert, a telecast fundraising concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, was held in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow, 1985
American Thoroughbred racehorse Cigar wins his 16th consecutive top-class race, the first horse to do so since Triple Crown winner citation, 1996
Researchers reveal two studies showing the antiretroviral drugs prescribed to treat AIDS can also prevent HIV infections, 2011

Three potato, twenty-seven. Or more, i didn't count.

To know me is to know that i am "thrifty and frugal" (read cheap and a tightwad), so i do just about everything i can to keep expenses down. That includes the electric bill.

Since we have no choice but to have air conditioning, since this is a swamp where you will melt without it because we only have two seasons, wet and hurricane, and the only difference is hurricane is hotter, i leave it as high as i can and we use fans in every room.

Besides the A/C though, other things that are big energy sucks are stoves and ovens. Just like the electric dryer, the range top and oven use 220 instead of 125, meaning it can take up to 18 times more electricity (according to one study i read) to heat water on the stove than in a microwave. Using my grandmother's cast iron to cook, i use the range top. Everything else, if i can possibly do it, i use the toaster oven, microwave, rice cooker, and crock pot, because they use so much less electricity. Oh, and i often heat water in the coffee maker, too boot.

So when Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, signed up to bring the potato salad to one of his church's gatherings (no, we don't attend the same church any more, thank heaven! the stories i could tell of when we did would curl your hair), i found myself with potatoes everywhere, along with celery, relish, scallions, and bacon galore.

Why was i cooking it? He's a bachelor, and doesn't know how to cook, at least not much. Plus, it's easier for me to do it myself while he goes elsewhere than to have him wrecking my kitchen and needing help every five minutes. We've tried that, it doesn't work. If we kept trying, i would probably lose my religion. (The reason i married Sweetie, and not his twin, is because if i had married The Mouth, i would be a widow and a felon because i would have killed him, but i digress again.)

First, he bought potatoes. Red potatoes, which are fine. But he bought the tiniest potatoes i had ever seen, loose, not bagged, and there were dozens. These were scrubbed well and microwaved until just soft enough, which was tricky, with their size, then cut, with the skins left on. There was no way i was peeling such little things. The few that didn't get quite done that way were finished off, after cubing, in hot water in the rice cooker.


tiny potatoes

tiny potatoes chopped

The bacon i sniped into small pieces with the kitchen shears and put in the crock pot on high. Yes, it works to start it out there, and when a lot of the fat is rendered out and it's pretty well cooked, i pull it out and pop it in the microwave to finish crisping up a bit, and this keeps me from having to clean out a ton of bacon grease from the inside of the microwave, which is awkward to clean and the grease gets everywhere no matter how much you cover the bacon when cooking almost two pounds of the stuff..

bacon in the crock pot, bubbling nicely

Besides, no matter how crisp the bacon, by the time you mix it all with the mayo and everything else and then refrigerate overnight, it's not crisp any more anyway.

While those are cooking, it's time to chop the celery and green onion. Those don't take too long.

celery

green onion

Around this point, i figured out what he had forgotten -- eggs. Potato salad just isn't the same if you don't have chopped, hard boiled eggs in it. So i popped eight of them from my own stash in the rice cooker, too, and four more in the microwave egg cooker and sent B-i-L, The Mouth, to buy me some to replace them.

eggs in the microwave egg cooker

After years of making potato salad, i've figured out that the easiest way to really get the bacon taste and the salt and pepper evenly distributed, without stirring the potato salad so much over and over that you end up breaking the potatoes down too much, is to go ahead and mix that with the mayo before putting it all in there together.

condiments

mayo with bacon, salt, and pepper; looks awful, tastes great!

Returning it to the fridge over and over to keep everything as cold as possible helps, too.

everything chopped and added, set in the sink to show how much it added up to

Finally, mix it all together, and you have:

that's a big, honking potato salad!

It was pronounced yum by my taste tester (Sweetie, of course).

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone!

Today is

Barn Day 2013 -- celebrating barns, old and new, and their history and importance

Bastille Day / National Day -- France, French Territories and some former Colonies (Quatorze Juillet/Fete Nationale)

Birthday of Victoria, Crown Princess of Sweden -- an official Flag Day of Sweden

Children's Party at Green Animals Topiary Garden -- Portsmouth, RI, US (annual party for children and the young at heart)

Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival -- University of Fairbanks, AK (a unique study and performance festival; through the 28th)

Feast of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Festival of Millennial Fairy Olympics -- Fairy Calendar (Closing Ceremonies)

Kilburn Feast -- Kilburn, North Yorkshire at The Square, England (dating back hundreds of years, it's no longer a horse-fair, but a great many fun events for villagers; the Mayor and Mayoress, both men in costume, are the highlight, handing out "fines" for "crimes" such as carrying an umbrella or having a moustache; money goes to a local charity)

Macaroni Day

M&Ms Argument Day -- which are best? plain? peanut? almond? minis? spend the day in a heated discussion with friends and end with an M&M feast

Nachi Himatsuri -- Kumano-Nachi Taisha, Nachi-Katsuura, Japan (one of Japan's 3 largest fire festivals, a grand summer festival and purification ritual, through tomorrow)

National Day of Commemoration -- Republic of Ireland (honoring all Irish people who have died in war or as part of a UN peacekeeping mission)

National Grand Marnier Day -- on Bastille day, to show the friendship between France and the US

National Nude Day -- not sponsored by any nudist organization that i can find, so there's no telling who started this one

Pandemonium Day -- internet generated; don't let the crazy things that happen in your life get you down, celebrate instead!

Republic Day -- Iraq

Runic Half-Month Ur begins (primal strength)

Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival -- Santa Fe, NM, US (highly acclaimed chamber music festival that draws international talent; through Aug. 24)

Shark Awareness Day

Sinclair Lewis Days -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (a grand celebration in Lewis's hometown; through the 21st)

St. Kateri Tekakwitha's Day ("Lily of the Mohawks", first Native American proposed for canonization; Patron of ecologists, ecology, environment, environmentalism, environmentalists, exiles, people ridiculed for their piety, people who have lost their parents)

Tape Measure Day -- the first modern spring tape measure was patented this day in 1868 by Alvin Fellows of New Haven, NJ, US

Birthdays Today

Tommy Mottola, 1949
Roosevelt Grier, 1932
Polly Bergen, 1930
John Chancellor, 1927
Harry Dean Stanton, 1926
Dale Robertson, 1923
Ingmar Bergman, 1918
Gerald R. Ford, 1913
Woodie Guthrie, 1912
William Hanna, 1910
Dave Fleischer, 1893

Today in History

Foundation of the Mission San Antonio de Padua in modern California by the Franciscan friar Junípero Serra, 1771
Citizens of Paris storm the Bastille and free seven prisoners, 1789
First ascent of the Matterhorn, by Edward Whymper and party, four of whom die on the descent, 1865
The Campanile in St Mark's Square, Venice collapses, also demolishing the loggetta, 1902
The United States $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills are officially withdrawn from circulation, 1969
A powerful solar flare, later named the Bastille Day event, causes a geomagnetic storm on Earth, 2000
The United States Government admits to the existence of "Area 51", 2003

...and a cryin', and a fussin', and a wailin'.

Sung to the tune of "Wishing and Hoping", the one sung by Dionne Warwick, that's the song that rattles in my brain right now.

Talking about the church nursery, where i served yesterday.

My first assignment was the room for the 2's, but there was enough help in there, so i got moved to the older 3's. Again, another extra person showed up, and everyone was behaving, so after i tidied while the other teacher did story time (it was hilarious hearing those little mouths try to pronounce Mephibosheth), i got moved again, this time to the baby room.

Three volunteers at that moment, seven children under 12 months, and three of them screaming their little heads off.

By the time we had five volunteers, we had 10 babies, and five screamers.

It was quite a morning, to say the least.

The one who was no trouble was four-month-old Lucas, who sat in the swing and ate his fists and his bib until his mom showed up to nurse him. We never heard a peep from him as he watched the activity of the room with his big eyes.

At one point, while holding a screaming baby on my hip with one arm and sweeping oat circle cereals off the floor with the other, i thought, this, this is why i didn't have more kids. Although i was laughing as i thought it.

As the morning went on, the fussing rose and fell, with a couple of occasional lulls. Anther little guy who was mostly happy, sat in a high chair a good bit of the time, eating. He had a voracious appetite, especially for banana.

The one whose cries were the longest and loudest was Cole, and his screams didn't bother me a bit. He's one for whom the whole church was praying last September when he was born, and he almost didn't make it. For him to even be there, and screaming in my ear at that, was a good thing.

By the end of the morning, though, all of us were ready for the moms to come. Of course, the ones who had been at it the longest and the loudest had the parents who came the latest. Yep, i thought, they know their kids! Again, i thought it with a laugh.

Taken altogether, though, it was a good day. Watching the little just barely able to crawl girls play near each other and watch each other closely reminded me of a lot about babies that i have missed.

And no, i still don't want any more myself, or any grandbabies for a while, either. We are holding out for them to be old enough to be settled and able to handle such things. As i used to tell mine, until you have a decent job to support you and a ring on that finger, don't even think about bringing me a grandchild.

We will make do with the grandcats for now.

Today is

Be a Dork Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, which encourages you to wear goofy clothes and fall off a swing set today and be proud of Dorkiness

Birthday of Don Luis Muñoz Rivera / Munoz-Rivera Day -- Puerto Rico (obs.)

Central Maine Egg Festival -- Pittsfield, Maine (more fun with eggs than you ever thought you could have; through Saturday)

Cigarette Warning Day -- anniversary of the 1968 law passed in the US that requires health warnings on cigarette packaging

Feast of Rowana/Rauni -- Druid/Cornish/Flemish (rowan tree goddess; date approximate)

Festival of Castor and Pullox -- Ancient Roman Calendar every five years (celebrated with a cavalry and chariot procession)

Festival of Santa Rosalia -- Palermo; Sicily (remembrance of the Patron saint of the city on the date, in 1624, when she stopped the plague)

Global Hug Your Kids Day -- information here

Gorestnici -- Bulgaria (fire festival of 3 days duration, honoring the ancient belief that today and the next two are the 3 hottest days of the year)

Gummi Worm Day

Hakata Gion Yamagasa -- Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (festival of floats, dates back to the 13th century, includes dousing teams carrying one ton floats with water as they race!)

Hundadagar -- Icelandic tradition, the "dog days" of summer begin, through Aug. 23

Ides of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar

I Love Horses Day -- all over the web with no specific reason given, but do you need a reason to celebrate horses?

National Get Out of the Doghouse Day -- the day to work out any troubles with people you care about, so that you "get out of the doghouse"

National Tapioca Pudding Day

No-Hitter Day -- George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings pitched the first officially recognized no-hitter in MLB against the Hartford Dark Blues on this date in 1876

Petal-Hopping for Beginners Day -- Fairy Calendar

President's Day -- Botswana

Respect Canada Day -- because Canada deserves it!

St. Bonaventure's Day (Patron against intestinal problems; of Bagnoregio, Italy; Cochiti Indian Pueblo; St. Bonaventure University, New York)

St. Swithin's Day -- Saint Swithin's Society Annual Celebration in Toronto, ON, Canada; the weather prognostication associated with this saint says if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

St. Vladimir of Kiev's Day (Patron of converts, parents of large families, reformed and penitant murderers; Russia; Ukranian Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecticut; Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Sultan's Birthday -- Brunei Darussalam

Tisha B'Av -- Judaism (begins at sundown, through tomorrow; fast in remembrance of the destruction of the First Temple in 586BCE and the Second Temple in 79AD)

Umi No Hi -- Japan (Ocean Day / Marine Day)

Birthdays Today

Tanner Maguire, 1998
Emily Roeske, 1991
Brian Austin Green, 1973
Beth Stern, 1972
Forest Whitaker, 1961
Kim Alexis, 1960
Jesse Ventura, 1951
Linda Ronstadt, 1946
Jan-Michael Vincent, 1944
Alex Karras, 1935
Clive Cussler, 1931
Mother Fraqnces Xavier Cabrini, 1850
Thomas Bulfinch, 1796
Clement Clarke Moore, 1779
Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606

Today in History

Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, 1099
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, 1381
Alexei Chirikov sights land and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska, 1741
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1799
Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west, 1806
Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon, 1815
A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, 1823
Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union, 1870
The stratovolcano Mount Bandai, Japan, erupts killing approximately 500 people, 1888
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing), 1916
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others, 1955
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation; the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day, 2003

Because i can't term #1 Son, who turns 22 today, a Little Boy Blue any more.

Has it really been 22 years? It says so on his birth certificate.

Twenty-eight years ago was the wedding. Around five years after that, we were pretty much told we could go through a couple of more rounds of medication, but after that, stop trying to have kids.

Now i'm baking a chocolate cake with chocolate icing for a party for a kid who, at 6' tall, towers over me, and i can bake it for him because he has moved back into town. He only has one more run to make back up to Kansas to get a few last things, tie up loose ends.

He's settled into a house with two roommates, both of whom have been his friends for years, so they have no trouble getting along.

He's job searching and considering going back to school. He's not sure, since he's so good at restaurant management and does so well in it, that he really wants to do that now. Perhaps concentrate on career and go get further education if he ever needs it to move up.

All of that is for the future, though. Today, i'm remembering the baby-that-was, his giggle, his love of trying to wear his dad's cowboy boots, how he at one time decided to be Garfield the Cat and decided he would only eat, sleep, and do the things that Garfield does. All these memories bound up in one when i look in the eyes of a grown man who, at 22, still doesn't know how much growing he has to do.

None of us really know that, though, do we?

Happy Birthday, #1 Son. It's a good day.

Today is

Alpenfest -- Gaylord, MI, US (a Swiss inspired festival for the whole family that includes "The World's Largest Coffee Break"; through Saturday)

Atomic Bomb Day -- the first experimental bomb was set off today in 1945

Closet Space Appreciation Day -- if you have some, enjoy (we have tiny closets!)

Crown Prince's Birthday Observed -- Tonga

Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; related observances (many noting her relationship to Carmen, ancient goddess of healing and midwifery)
     Fiesta of the Virgin of Carmen -- Santurtzi, Basque Region, Spain
     Lady of Carmen Day -- Chile
     La Madonna della Carmine -- Naples, Italy (all of Italy, actually, but especially here)
     Virgen Del Carmen -- Cetano, Puerto Rico

Fresh Spinach Day -- yippee!

Ice Cream Cone Day -- this is one of the many days people say the confection was invented, so why not?

LaPaz Day -- Bolivia

Manu'a Cession Day -- American Samoa

National Corn Fritters Day

National Personal Chef Day -- some websites say Feb. 24, but since i'm not going to have one, you may celebrate it whichever you choose

Parking Meter Day -- the first parking meter was installed on this day in 1935 in Okalahoma City, OK

Petal-Hopping for Non-Starters Day -- Fairy Calendar

Snake River Stampede -- Nampa, ID (the 92nd year of one of the top 15 professional rodeo events in the nation; through Saturday)

St. Eustathius' Day

Talk to a Telemarketer Day -- only if i can mess with his/her mind in some way!

Tish'a B'Av -- Judaism (began sunset yesterday, through sunset today)

Birthdays Today

Corey Feldman, 1971
Larry Sanger, 1968
Barry Sanders, 1968
Will Ferrell, 1967
Michael Flatley, 1958
Ginger Rogers, 1911
"Miss Frances" Horwich, 1907
Barbara Stanwyck, 1907
Orville Reddenbacker, 1907
Roald Amundsen, 1872
Ida B. Wells, 1862
Mary Baker Eddy, 1821

Today in History

The Islamic Calendar begins, 622
East-West Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches begin, 1054
The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco, 1661
Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands, 1683
Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, 1769
First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782
The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown, 1809
Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada, 1880
The world's first parking meter is installed in the Oklahoma capital, Oklahoma City, 1935
The world's first nuclear weapon, the "atom bomb," is detonated in New Mexico, 1945
The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane, 1948
J.D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye published by Little, Brown and Company, 1951
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its very last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, due to changing economics all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas, 1956
USS George Washington (SSBN-598) a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first Ballistic missile while submerged, 1960
The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens, 1965
Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1969
Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister; he will be in office 22 years, Asia's longest-serving political leader, 1981
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter (impacts continue until July 22), 1994
John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies in a plane mishap over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, 1999
Chicago's Millenium Park is opened to the public, 2004

The Swim Team had their end of the year party, and as usual, it was almost as much fun as just swimming.

The rain was supposed to be over by 5pm, which was our scheduled start time. When i got over there a bit after 5, it poured as one more cloud decided it would like to add to the fun. The kids didn't care, and swam in the rain, since there was no lightning. It didn't last long.

The dinner menu was what you usually feed a passel of kids and younger siblings and the attendant parents and grandparents who show up -- hot dogs, sloppy joes, chips, a couple of fruit plates to pretend we are worried about nutrition, and enough sugary cakes, cupcakes, cookies and sugary drinks to make a fly die of happiness to see.

This included the home made cake baked and decorated just for the occasion.

Candy decorated cake.

When the food was served, the children swarmed out of the pool like land sharks, devouring much but we had so much everyone got plenty. My favorite part at this point is watching the youngest children, just walking and toddling, milling around. They go up to mom, who hands them a cookie to keep them quiet while making a plate. Then they go up to dad, who absently hands them something from his plate, usually a couple of chips or a small bite off of his sloppy joe. To an older sibling, who gives them a juice pouch or a bite of cake. Walking unsteadily with their booty, they mill around nibbling wherever they can get a bite, and my favorite thing is to shadow a couple of them and watch them do it. It's hilarious when you aren't the mom and don't have to try to get them to go home and go to bed after all that!

When we thought the eating was over and no one thought they could hold any more, one family brought out a snow cone maker, and the swarm started again!

When every cone was slopping juicy syrup over a sticky hand, it was time to sit and give out the awards. Everyone gets a medal, and a specially decorated cup with more sugary treats in it (as if they needed it by now, but many kids dive right in anyway). Then there are the Senior awards, for the 18-year-olds who won't be back on the team next year, unless they come as junior coaches (which many do).

There are trophies for the girl with the most points for the season, the boy with the most points for the season (team ranking is based on the points earned by every member of the team, we came in 4th in the league this year, and we are about half the size of most teams).

The ten and under group also have one girl and one boy who win a trophy for their spirit of dedication to the team, for being always willing to do an extra lap, or not mind that s/he gives up a turn to another, or just generally having a spirit of good cooperation with the coach.

Elevens and up get a trophy, too, called a Spirit Trophy. In their case, the criterion are a bit more stringent. It's the girl and boy who not only cooperated, but who gave up their time to help tutor younger swimmers, who jumped up and ran to help, who never balked at being asked to do something for the good of the team.

Little Girl was the girl Spirit Trophy winner for the eleven and up group. Since she hides every time she sees me with a camera, a friend got pics of her, but for privacy, i'll just post a picture of the trophy.

Little Girl's Trophy

The evening ended with the favorite activity of all: the slippery watermelon contest among the older team members

Coach at the end of the diving board, holding a watermelon

A watermelon is coated in sun screen -- they used to use vaseline, but it gums up the pool pumps -- and the coach drops it from the diving board. As the watermelon floats mid-pool, two teams line up, the whistle blows, and hilarity ensues as they jump in and each team tries to get it to their side of the pool and toss it up on the side.

There's an watermelon in there somewhere!

Amid cries of "no tickling!" and "get it! grab it!" they wrestle, pull, push, and generally spend about ten minutes tugging and yanking and trying to get it away from each other. It is bedlam and it is fun and they obey the rule that you cannot actually hurt anyone or hold anyone under water. They know that doing such a thing will get the game banned, and this is their favorite game.

It all ends when the watermelon is out of the pool and cut and consumed, and everyone helps clean up.

As they used to say in the society papers, a good time was had by all.

Today is

Air Conditioner Day -- the first modern electrical air conditioning unit, invented by William Carrier, began working on this day in 1902

Bregenzer Festspiele (Bregenz Festival) -- Bregenz, Austria (an amazing performing arts festival, through August 18)

Constitution Day -- South Korea

Feast of St. Kenelm -- saint mentioned in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" of The Canterbury Takes

Feast of the Clockless NowEver -- can't find any confirmation on what this one is, but it sounds like fun if i don't have to bother with a clock or schedule

Festival for Victoria and Virtus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of victory and god of bravery in warfare)

Folkmoot USA -- Waynesville, NC, US (festival of international folk dance; through the 28th)

Gion Matsuri -- Yakasa Shrine, Kyoto, Japan (one of the largest and best Gion festivals)

King Letsie III's Birthday -- Lesotho

National Baby Food Festival -- Fremont, MI, US (in the hometown of Gerber Products, adults have a baby food eating contest and tots have crawling races, among other fun things; through Saturday)

National Peach Ice Cream Day

Petal-Hopping for Hopeless Cases -- Fairy Calendar

St. Alexius Day (Patron of Alexians, beggars, belt makers, nurses, pilgrims, travellers)

Wear Crazy Socks to Work Day -- at your own risk

World Day for International Justice

Wrong Way Corrigan Day -- anniversary of the flight of Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan, who was supposedly heading for California from New York and ended up in Ireland instead

Yellow Pig Day -- mathmatics festivals at various universities, celebrating the number 17 and the yellow pig with 17 eyelashes, created by mathematicians Michael Spivak and David C. Kelly

Birthdays Today

Tash Hamilton, 1982
Mark Burnett, 1960
J. Michael Straczynski, 1954
David Hasselhoff, 1952
Phoebe Snow, 1952
Camilla Parker Bowles, 1947
Diahann Carroll, 1935
Donald Sutherland, 1934
Phyllis Diller, 1917
Art Linkletter, 1912
James Cagney, 1899
Erle Stanley Gardner, 1889
John Jacob Astor, 1763
Isaac Watts, 1674

Today in History

Twelve inhabitants of Scillium in North Africa are executed for being Christians, the earliest record of Christianity in that part of the world, 180
Zhu Di, better known by his era name as the Yongle Emperor, assumes the throne over the Ming Dynasty of China, 1402
Catherine II (the Great) becomes tsar of Russia upon the murder of Peter III of Russia, 1762
Londoner Thomas Saint patented the first sewing machine, 1790
The first issue of Punch magazine was published, England, 1841
The Harvard School of Dental Medicine is established in Boston as the first dental school in the U.S, 1867
On the orders of the Bolshevik Party carried out by Cheka, Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his immediate family and retainers are murdered at the Ipatiev House in Ekaterinburg, Russia, 1918
The RMS Carpathia, the ship that rescued the 705 survivors from the RMS Titanic, is sunk off Ireland by the German SM U-55; 5 lives are lost, 1918
An Armed Forces rebellion against the recently-elected leftist Popular Front government of Spain begins the Spanish Civil War, 1936
After being denied permission to make a transatlantic crossing, Douglas Corrigan takes off from Brooklyn to fly the "wrong way" to Ireland and becomes known as "Wrong Way" Corrigan, 1928
Disneyland televises its grand opening in Anaheim, California, 1955
An American Apollo and a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft dock with each other in orbit marking the first such link-up between spacecraft from the two nations, 1975
The opening of the Summer Olympics in Montreal is marred by 25 African teams boycotting the New Zealand team, 1976
The F.W. Woolworth Company closes after 117 years in business, 1997
A tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake destroys 10 villages in Papua New Guinea killing an estimated 3,183, leaving 2,000 more unaccounted for and thousands more homeless, 1998
A diplomatic conference adopts the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, establishing a permanent international court to prosecute individuals for genocide, crime against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression, 1998
South Korea develops a long range cruise missile, 2010

When you are going to a bowling alley with everyone from work, you have to dress right. For Sweetie, it means his Hawaiian shirt.

He likes them so much, he has two of them.

They place they went for their bowling adventure isn't your Grandpa's bowling alley. Sixty-four lanes, all top of the line with the latest gadgets and gizmos and computer graphics on the score boards.

Because this was an employer sponsored morale boosting adventure, they were told to order anything they wanted to eat. Several pizzas were ordered to share, and Sweetie, who usually doesn't care much for it, couldn't resist the cheese pizza that had such a thick layer of cheese on it he could only have one slice. He also had a huge, delicious, perfectly cooked juicy burger. A long way from the food i remember at bowling alleys many years ago.

Everyone was divided up into teams, and since Sweetie couldn't bowl because of his thumb injury, he showed several people some pointers, how to use the arrows to correct hooks, stuff like that. Then he sat back and watched them all cut up.

Cut up they did. They cheered each other, booed each other (through their laughter), laughed along when everyone else jeered at their gutter balls. On the very last roll of the one person who is part of a league who bowls three times a week, Sweetie grinned at him and told him he might not want to be so cocky. Sure enough, his last throw was a gutter ball, and everyone fell over themselves laughing while he stuck his tongue out at them.

One neophyte bowler Sweetie coached on his team got three strikes in a row. She had a great time, and is hooked, as are a few others now. Mr. Harold, who is more than old enough to retire (when he was born, the doctor came to the house in his horse and buggy, no joke!), but won't and still outworks the young folk, was also bowling for the first time and broke 150 in each game (every team bowled 3 games).

At the end of the day, they were stuffed with food and well fed with laughter, and The Big Boss had a set up to give prizes that involved spinning a wheel. One person on a winning team said, "Probably what we would all really like for a prize is a day off!" The Big Boss looked up and smiled. "What do you say?" he asked. "What would you all really like?"

He was bowled over when they chanted, "A day off!" very loudly and in unison. Because Sweetie was coach of a winning team, he will get a day off next week.

They had so much fun with the yelling and laughing and clapping and sheer fun, The Big Boss is planning to do this again.

Today is

Anti-Bigot Day -- doesn't seem to be sponsored by any particular group, which is good on a day to practice tolerance of all

Comic-Con International -- San Diego, CA, US (through Sunday)

Constitution Day -- Uruguay

Get To Know Your Customers Day -- third Thursday of each quarter

Hot Dog Night -- Luverne, MN, US (free hot dogs to all comers!)

Lunch of the Forward Goblins -- Fairy Calendar (not surprisingly, attended by Fairies only)

Mandela Day -- UN

National Caviar Day -- no one knows how it started, but even The Russian Tea Room in New York has celebrated it for years and caviar importers know all about it; pair it with ice cold vodka or a Burgundian pinot or unoaked chardonnay, but never with champagne!

San Francisco Silent Film Festival -- Castro Theatre, San Francisco, CA, US (a celebration of the art of silent film; through Sunday)

Stirling Settler Days -- Stirling, Alberta, Canada (parade, pancake breakfast, firefighter games, a movie in the park, dancing, rodeo, and more ;through Sunday)

St. Theneva's Day (Patron of Glasgow, Scotland)

Virginia Lake Festival -- Clarksville, VA, US (fun for the family, including tethered hot air balloon rides; through Saturday)

Vitulatio -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Vitula, goddess of exultation, joy, and life, is given the first fruits of the earth)

Wienermobile Day -- celebrating the creation, in 1936, of the now iconic vehicle by Oscar Mayer's nephew Carl

World Listening Day -- here for information

Birthdays Today

Chace Crawford, 1985
Priyanka Chopra, 1982
Vin Diesel, 1967
Richard Branson, 1950
Martha Reeves, 1941
Joe Torre, 1940
Paul Verhoeven, 1938
Hunter S. Thompson, 1937
Dick Button, 1929
Screamin' Jay Hawkins, 1929
John Glenn, 1921
Nelson Mandela, 1918
Harriet Nelson, 1914
Richard "Red" Skelton, 1913
Hume Cronyn, 1911
George "Machine Gun" Kelly, 1895
Vidkun Quisling, 1887
Margaret "Unsinkable Molly" Brown, 1867
William Makepeace Thackeray, 1811
Robert Hooke, 1635

Today in History

A Roman army is defeated by raiding Gauls, leading to the subsequent sacking of Rome, BC390
The Great Fire of Rome begins in the merchant area of the city, 64
King Edward I of England issues the Edict of Expulsion, banishing all Jews (numbering about 16,000) from England; this was Tisha B'Av on the Hebrew calendar, a day that commemorates many Jewish calamities, 1290
Matthew Flinders leaves England to circumnavigate and map Australia; it was he who gave the continent its name, 1801
The First Vatican Council decrees the dogma of papal infallibility, 1870
Britain introduced voting by secret ballot, 1872
Marie and Pierre Curie announce the discovery of a new element and propose to call it polonium, 1898
Adoph Hitler publishes Mein Kampf, 1925
The Intel Corporation is founded in Santa Clara, California, 1968
Nadia Comaneci became the first person in Olympic Games history to score a perfect 10 in gymnastics at the 1976 Summer Olympics, 1976
Beverly Lynn Burns becomes first female Boeing 747 airline captain, 1984
On the Caribbean island of Montserrat, the Soufriere Hills volcano erupts; over the course of several years, it devastates the island, destroying the capital and forcing most of the population to flee, 1995
Storms provoke severe flooding on the Saguenay River, beginning one of Quebec's costliest natural disasters ever, 1996
Phoenix, AZ, US, is hit by a dust storm of the kind known as a "haboob", 2010

Big (at least, compared to a few weeks ago).

Misha and Collins

They were little like this only a few weeks ago.

Three, only 3 days old.

The three little ones were squirming so much i couldn't get a good shot, so i will try to get another in a couple of days.

The cycle continues, because Misha is now nibbling from the bowl and Collins is not far behind.

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Today is

Arts in the Park -- Kalispell, MT, US (juried arts and crafts show, with food and entertainment; through Sunday)

Back-to-Front Yad -- Fairy Calendar

Big Sky Games -- Billings, MT, US (an Olympic-style festival for citizens of the Big Sky State, to encourage all ages and abilities to be physically active and even compete sometimes; through Sunday)

Bloomer Day -- anniversary of the opening day of the first US women's rights convention in 1848*

Cheyenne Frontier Days -- Frontier Park, Cheyenne, WY, US (held annually since 1897, the world's largest outdoor rodeo; through the 28th)

Festival of Honos -- Ancient Roman Calendar (personification of morality and honor)

Georgia Mountain Fair -- Hiawassee, GA, US (an authentic Pioneer Village with demonstrations, arts and crafts fairs, family fun; through the 27th)

Great Wellsville Balloon Rally -- Wellsville, NY, US (balloons galore, plus food, music, and fireworks; through the 22nd)

Kentucky State Championship Old-Time Fiddler's Contest -- Rough River Dam State Resort Park, Falls of Rough, KY, US (old-time and bluegrass music competiton; through tomorrow)

Kokura Gion Taiko -- Yasaka Shrine, Fukuoka City, Japan (shrine festival that incorporates a taiko drumming competition with up to 100 teams; through the 21st)

Liberation Day -- Nicaragua

Lindenfest -- Geisenheimer, Rhineland, Germany (a new wine festival in the shade of a 600 year old linden tree; through Monday)

Martyr's Day -- Myanmar

National Daiquiri Day

Northwestern State University Folk Festival and the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship -- Prather Coliseum, NSU, Natchitoches, LA, US (only traditional Louisiana folk art and music are featured; through tomorrow)

Sherwood Robin Hood Festival -- Sherwood, OR, US (a Renaissance festival, includes an archery contest; through tomorrow)

Stick Out Your Tongue Day -- internet generated, do it just because it's fun

St. Justa's Day (Patron of potters; Seville, Spain)

Targhee Fest -- Grand Targhee Mountain, Alta, WY, US (food, games, fun and tons of music in the beautiful Grand Teton mountains; through Sunday)

Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival -- Dorset, England (celebrating freedom, especially the freedom of workers to form unions; through Sunday)

Triple Play Day -- the first Major League unassisted triple play was made by Neal Ball on this day in 1909

Vancouver Folk Music Festival -- Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada ( folk music from around the globe, performed in a beautiful outdoor venue; through Sunday)

Wellsville Balloon Rally -- Wellsville, NY, US (hot-air balloons, music, food, fireworks, and fun; through Sunday)

Yarmouth Clam Festival -- Yarmouth, ME, US (annual 3 day celebration of the gifts of the sea that are clams with 120,000 of your closest friends)

*Amelia Bloomer's birth anniversary on May 27 is also called "Bloomer Day"

Anniversaries Today

Isis marries Osiris (year unknown, ask the ancient Egyptians!)
Adonis marries Aphrodite (year unknown, ask the ancient Greeks!)

Birthdays Today

Stephen Anthony Lawrence, 1990
Jared Padalecki, 1982
Angela Griffin, 1976
Anthony Edwards, 1962
Brian May, 1947
Vikki Carr, 1941
Arthur Rankin, Jr., 1924
George McGovern, 1922
Robert Todd Lincoln Beckwith, 1904 (last direct descendent of Abraham Lincoln)
Max Fleischer, 1883
Charles Horace Mayo, 1865
Lizzie Borden, 1860
Edgar Degas, 1834
Samuel Colt, 1814

Today in History

A dragon more than 100 metres long was found dead on Yehwang Mountain in Henan province and was seen as a bad omen for Emperor Huan, who ignored it and died at age 35 (three years later); Xiang Kai, who had warned him of the omen, was released from the prison the emperor had placed him in, and lionised as a hero, BCE164
Moslem forces under Tariq ibn Ziyad defeated the Visigoths led by their king Roderic, 711
A hailstorm brings down the ceilings of the Papal Palace, Rome, 1500
Lady Jane Grey is replaced by Mary I of England as Queen of England after having that title for just nine days, 1553
Five women are hanged for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
Representatives of the Iroquois Confederacy sign the Nanfan Treaty, ceding a large territory north of the Ohio River to England, 1701
Australia's first recorded use of gaslight was commenced in a Sydney shop, 1826
The British Medical Association was founded as the Provincial Medical and Surgical Association by Sir Charles Hastings at a meeting in the Board Room of the Worcester Infirmary, 1832
The two day Women's Rights Convention opens in Seneca Falls, New York; "bloomers," named after developer Amelia Bloomer, are worn at this very early feminist convention, 1848
A meteorite with an estimated mass of 190 kg explodes over the town of Holbrook in Navajo County, Arizona causing approximately 16,000 pieces of debris to rain down on the town, 1912
Joe Walker flies a North American X-15 to a record altitude of 106,010 metres (347,800 feet) on X-15 Flight 90. Exceeding an altitude of 100 km, this flight qualifies as a human spaceflight under international convention, 1963
The Sandinista rebels overthrow the government of the Somoza family in Nicaragua, 1979
The first three-dimensional reconstruction of a human head in a CT is published, 1983
President Clinton announces his idea for a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in regards to gays in the US military, 1993
A Tel Aviv judges orders safe deposit boxes that contain manuscripts of Franz Kafka to be opened, 2010

"Mom, we were transferring embryos into a couple of mares today, and it occurred to me. That stallion at work is the father of so many horses, that if he were a human, he'd owe more child support than any guy could ever pay! And to a lot of different women, too!" Bigger Girl loves her work, and often comes home with interesting observations.

Bigger Girl can also usually be counted on to come up with something interesting, so i asked her, as a favor for a friend, how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

"As many as would want to do something so silly, which is probably none of them!" was her reply.

At that moment, Little Girl and Festus walked in, and i asked them if they had any clue why i had found the crunchy peanut butter and the jelly in the freezer that morning.

They looked at each other, and then, together, said, "Young Jacob!"

"Yeah, that sounds like something he would do," Festus added. "He was here for a while last night, and had that mischievous look on his face."

Figures, i muttered. Tell him not to do it again, when you see him, okay?

"I'll tell him," Little Girl replied.

Thank you, i said, it's way no fun to try to spread frozen peanut butter.

"Mom, I'm reading this book, The Good Old Days: They Were Terrible! and it makes me so glad I'm not a poor person back when there were workhouses!' Bigger Girl has a way of jumping to different topics quickly.

Well, i'm glad not to live back then either, i told her, i've also read that book.

"It makes me wonder, though, about all the people who want laws against this and that, and want government to go away and get out of their lives, but then want government to solve all of their problems."

It's an odd dilemma, i admitted.

"Some of them, they say, No More Government" and "Get the Government out of our lives," but then they want the government to regulate who gets to live where and even worse, who gets to marry whom. I mean, what do they want? Get the government out of our lives, but let it into our bedrooms?"

Yes, it stumps me, too, i told her, and she turned back to the newspaper.

In this house, you never know when a day will bring you frozen peanut butter and a discussion with Bigger Girl.

Today is

Bannack Days-- Bannack, MT, US (through tomorrow; explore the territorial capital now turned ghost town and celebrate the pioneer spirit)

Canada's Parks Day -- Canada (showcasing Canada's beautiful parks and historic sites, it's worth traveling to a park near you!)

Celebration of the Horse -- Charlotte's Saddlery, Houston, TX, US (in honor of the human/equine bond; through tomorrow)

Cleat Dancing Day -- don't ask me who started this, i don't want to know what kind of mind came up with trying to tap dance in cleats

Dia del Amigo -- Argentina; Uruguay

Fortune Cookie Day

Gentse Feesten -- Ghent, Belgium (a ten day music and theatre festival)

Independence Day -- Colombia(1810)

International Chess Day -- "Of Chess it has been said that life is not long enough for it, but that is the fault of life, not Chess" ~ William Ewart Napier

Kidspree -- Aurora, CO, US (free outdoor festival for kids; through tomorrow)

La Festa del Redentore / Feast of the Redeemer -- Venice, Italy (procession of gondolas and other craft to commemorate the end of the epidemic of 1575; through tomorrow)

Liberation Day -- Guam

Long Beach Island Festival of the Arts -- Loveladies, NJ, US (juried arts and crafts show, entertainment, food and more; through tomorrow)

Moon Day -- one small step...

National Hot Dog Day

National Ice Cream Soda Day

National Lollipop Day

National Woodie Wagon Day -- pay homage today to this great American symbol of freedom and the casual lifestyle

Peace and Freedom Day -- North Cyprus

Perun's Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (celebration of Perun, great god of thunder)

Prince Lot Hula Festival -- Moanalua Gardens, Hawai'i

Special Oympics Day -- anniversary of the first Special Olympics in 1968

Ss. Cyril and Methodius' Parish Festival -- Sheboygan, WI, US (dance, Slovenian foods and music, and a Polka Mass)

St. Elijah the Prophet's Day (Patron of Carmelites; Romanian Air Force; against drought, earthquakes) related observance;
Festival at the Monastery of Profitis Ilias -- Santorini, Greece (Prophet Elijas' festival)

Saint Margaret of Antioch's Day (Patron of childbirth, dying peple, escape from devils, exiles, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, martyrs, nurses, peasants, people in exile, women, women in labor; for safe childbirth; against kidney disease, loss of mother's milk by nursing mothers, sterility; Lowestoft, Suffolk, England; Montefiascone, Italy; Queens College Cambridge; Rixtel, Netherlands; Sannat, Gozo, Malta)

St. Uncumber's Day (Patron of difficult marriages; against men's lust; Las Tablas, Panama)

Synoikia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; a celebration of the unification of all Attica, held in Athens)

Thgir-yaw-Dnuor Day -- Fairy Calendar

Toss Away the "Could Haves" and "Should Haves" Day -- write down all the "could have" and "should have" things in your life, then toss them in the trash! Resolve from this day to live in the present, not the past.

Ugly Truck Day -- must be a guy thing, they know where every scratch and dent came from, after all!

Vigil for Peace, Justice, and Respect for the Human Rights of all in Columbia -- a movement begun among Native Americans of many tribes, now open to all who seek peace

World Congress of Esperanto -- Reykjavik, Iceland; through next Saturday

Wrong Days in Wright, Minnesota -- in honor of "Wrong Way" Corrigan (through tomorrow)

Birthdays Today

Gisele Bundchen, 1980
Chris Cornell, 1964
Billy Mays, 1958
Carlos Santana, 1947
Kim Carnes, 1946
Diana Rigg, 1938
Natalie Wood, 1938
Chuck Daly, 1933
Sir Edmund Hillary, 1919
Alberto Santos-Dumont, 1873
Gregor Mendel, 1822
Francesco Petrarch, 1304
Alexander the Great, BCE 356

Today in History

Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, storms the Fortress of Antonia north of the Temple Mount; the Roman army is drawn into street fights with the Zealots during the Siege of Jerusalem, 70
The Riot Act takes effect in Great Britain, 1712
French explorer Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye reaches the western shore of Lake Michigan, 1738
Citizens of Bogotá, New Granada declare independence from Spain, 1810
British Columbia joins the confederation of Canada, 1871
Sioux Chief Sitting Bull leads the last of his fugitive people in surrender to United States troops at Fort Buford, North Dakota, 1881
Ford Motor Company ships its first car, 1903
Congresswoman Alice Mary Robertson becomes the first woman to preside over the US House of Representatives, 1921
In London, 500,000 march against anti-Semitism, while in Nuremburg, Germany, 200 Jewish merchants are arrested and paraded through the streets, 1933
The Organization for European Economic Cooperation admits Spain, 1959
Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike Prime Minister, the world's first elected female head of government, 1960
The Special Olympics is founded, 1968
Apollo 11 successfully lands on the Moon 3:39 a.m. GMT 21st July, 1969
India expels three reporters from The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and Newsweek because they refused to sign a pledge to abide by government censorship, 1975
The Viking 1 lander successfully lands on Mars, 1976
Hank Aaron hits his 755th home run, the final home run of his career, 1976
In Zimbabwe, Parliament opens its new session and seats opposition members for the first time in a decade, 2000

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