messymimi's meanderings

Now, we will never know.

Just over a week ago, #2 Son became eligible to convert from a learning permit to a full license.

Day one, we got out of the neighborhood, and noticed a light on the dash of the van. Great, i've been told they won't let you use the vehicle if there are lights on. We went home, and i arranged to trade vehicles with Sweetie for the next day.

Day two, we set out in Sweetie's car. We get there, he takes the test, and he doesn't pass! The shock! This is the kid who has been bragging he already knows how to drive since he was 12, so i think this was the Good Lord's way of humbling him a little. As we talked to the nice lady who administered the test, she said he drove as if he weren't used to that car. While he has driven Sweetie's car some, he doesn't have nearly the number of hours of practice on it.

That, it turns out, is a common reason kids fail the first attempt, they don't come in the car they are used to. When i mentioned we traded because of the dash light, she said it didn't matter, as long as the inspection sticker was current. So i had been told incorrectly, the fact that my brakes are fine but the ABS wire is shorting again and i can't get it fixed until next month doesn't matter.

As a side note, on the way out the door, Bigger Girl had told him that if he didn't get a tester who was either very short, weird looking, or had a thick accent, he was gypped. Sure enough, she was as short as i am, and i have to cuff or hem even the clothing marked "petite."

Day three, we had to drop kittens off to the vet, which opens at 8am, which is the same time as the DMV opens. Thus we got to the DMV at 8:20am, in time to be number 17 in line for a road test, and they had just taken person number one out. It turned out everyone was trying to get their kid's license right before school starts. We decided not to wait, but planned to come back the next morning in time to be first.

On a totally different rant, why do they have 27 windows at which to transact basic business, two at which to pay, one room for testing with space for at least 4 employees to give written tests or write up findings for driving tests, and one small area for taking pictures, but never more that 8-9 actual business windows manned, only one person taking money and taking the pictures at the same time, and one lone person in the testing area?

Day four, and we got there at 7:10am, in time to be third in line, but first in line for testing. (Yes, really, the place is always so packed the line starts to form an hour ahead of opening.) He was on the road soon after they opened and i waited with bated breath.

Sure enough, he passed this time. In the ensuing week they require between tests i had made sure he was doing well, making him drive me as much as possible. It had to have been nerves and a different car the first time, as well as the fact that he really did need the lesson that he's not invincible.

Within just an hour of our arrival at home, the request came.

"Mom, can I take the van? I want to go over to Chris' house."

Yes, you may, i told him, shaking my head both over his grammar and the fact that now i will never see him again.

Or my van, for that matter. There was a time when you could tell if i was home very easily. If the van was here, i was here, and if the van was gone, i was gone. Now, you'll never know.

Today is:

Banana Split Day

Bud Billiken Parade -- Chicago, IL, US (second largest parade in the US, as well as the oldest and largest African-American parade in the US, begun in 1929)

Chemistry Set Volcano Day -- beat summer boredom, make a chemistry set volcano!

Coupeville Arts and Crafts Festival -- Coupeville, WA, US (one of the longest-running arts festivals in the Pacific Northwest, with only the best artisans, lots of entertainment, and proceeds donated to the community; through tomorrow)

Crater Lake Rim Runs and Marathon -- Crater Lake National Park, OR, US (one of the toughest and most spectacular runs ever, around the deepest lake in the US)

Day of Wandering -- Fairy Calendar

Dejada de Santo Domingo de Guzeman -- Managua, Nicaragua

Elvis Week -- Memphis, TN, US (through the 17th)

Feast of San Lorenzo -- San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain

Ferry Fair -- South Queensferry, Edinburgh, Scotland (centuries old fair, around the time of the Burry Man Parade, originally for farmers to find labour for harvest, now for fun)

Horse Racing Festival -- Nagchu, Tibet (through the 16th)

Independence Day / National Day -- Ecuador(1822)

Lazy Day -- internet generated, since it's so hot, though, make it a lazy day!

Leadville Trail 100 Bike Race -- Leadville, CO, US (100 miles of off-road bike racing over Colorado's high peaks)

National Duran Duran Appreciation Day -- anniversary of the 1985 near fatal accident of lead singer Simon Le Bon, when his yacht capsized during a race; the band acknowledges the declaration of this day on their website, and many years offer a free download of a song from one of their albums

National Garage Sale Day -- US (the goal, according to C. Daniel Rhodes, is to turn the nation into a giant shopping mall on the second Saturday of August each year)

National S'mores Day

Opalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar, festival of Ops (date approximate, there were several celebrations of Ops through August and September)

Puck Fair -- Killorglin, Ireland (one of Ireland's 3 oldest fairs, with a wild goat caught and crowned the Puck, and let go on the 3rd day, Aug. 12)

Prisoner's Justice Day -- Canada (prisoners fast and refuse to work in memory of those who have died in prison of murder, suicide, or neglect)

St. Lawrence of Rome's Day (Martyr roasted on a gridiron; Patron of archives and archivists, armories and armourers, brewers, butchers, chefs, comedians, confectioners, cooks, cutlers, deacons, glaziers, laundry workers, librarians and libraries, paupers and the poor, restauranteurs, schoolchildren, seminarians, stained glass workers, students, tanners, vine growers and vintners; of over 25 cities around the world; against fire and lumbago)

Streetscene -- Covington, VA, US (car show, open to all types of vehicles; come show off your ride!)

Tournament -- Oria, Italy (3 day reenactment of the tournament ordered by Frederick II in 1225; features jousting, processions and ceremonies)

Watermelon Festival -- Rush Springs, OK, US (fun all day and free watermelon for all)

Anniversaries Today

Missouri becomes the 24th US state, 1821
The Smithsonian Institution is chartered, 1846

Birthdays Today

Antonio Banderas, 1960
Rosanna Arquette, 1959
Schim Schimmel, 1954
Ian Anderson, 1947
Bobby Hatfield, 1940
Rocky Colavito, 1933
Jimmy Dean, 1928
Eddie Fisher, 1928
Rhonda Fleming, 1923
Leo Fender, 1909
George Crockett, 1909
Norma Shearer, 1902
Henri Nestle', 1890
Herbert Hoover, 1874

Today in History:

Nineveh is destroyed and Sinsharishkun, King of the Assyrian Empire is killed, BC 612
Temple at Jerusalem is burned, 70
Ferdinand Magellan sets out with 5 ships to circumnavigate the globe, 1519
The foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in London is laid, 1675
Word of the US Declaration of Independence reaches London, 1776
Mozart completes "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik", 1787
First ascent of Finsteraarhorn, the highest summit of the Bernese Alps, 1829
Candid Camera makes its television debut after being on radio for a year as Candid Microphone, 1948
The Magellan space probe reaches Venus, 1990
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK – 38.5*C (101.3*F) in Kent; it is the first time the UK has recorded a temperature over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, 2003

Not yet, but at the rate at which she is going, Little Girl may become a muffin woman. Meanwhile, she decided, spur of the moment, to try her hand at scones.

"Mom, what does it mean to cut in butter" she asked.

Pulling out my pastry cutter, i explained how to put cold butter into the dry ingredients and work it in until it resembled coarse crumbs.

She measured flour and leavening and sugar, then cut in the butter. "Is this right?" she asked, and i told her yes.

Then she put in the wet ingredients, and mixed, and i showed her how to turn it out onto a floured surface and knead in a bit more flour.

When i saw her trying to form it with her hands, i grabbed my trusty rolling pin and got her started on rolling it into a square so she could cut them into the traditional wedge shape.

Pulling out the shortening, she greased the cookie sheet and set them in the oven. Nervously, she paced back into the kitchen multiple times while they were baking to check on them.

After about 15 minutes, it was time for hot, buttered scones. And except for me helping a little in a couple of places, she did it herself.

Today is:

Alcatraz Day -- the first prisoners arrived this day in 1934

Carnaval del Pueblo -- London Pleasure Gardens Royal Victoria Docks, London, England (promoting and preserving world heritage in London)

Day of Honor for Oddudua -- Santeria religion (cognate of the Roman Catholic St. Clare of Assisi; credited with the creation of humans)

Dog Days end -- yes, supposedly, in this heat, at least in some traditions

Don't Wait, Celebrate! Week -- 2nd full week of August each year; because spontaneous and frequent celebrations are good for you

Feast of St. Attracta -- Irish Catholic Saint (founded a hospice and convents, and supposedly slayed a dragon; Patron of Achonry, Ireland; Men of Lugna)

Independence Day -- Chad(1960)

Ingersoll Day

Melon Day -- Turkmenistan (the country that really loves its muskmellons)

National Peacekeepers Day -- Canada (obs. on Sunday closest to the 9th)

National Raspberry Bombe Day or Raspberry Tart Day -- whichever one you like best, or both, if that's the way you roll

Osaka Castle Takigi-noh -- Osaka Castle, Osaka City, Japan (free Noh performances, through tomorrow)

Palio Del Golfo -- La Speza, Italy (a special, traditional rowing contest over a 2,000m course)

Play in the Sand Day -- as per many internet sites; yeah, like at the beach, nothing like sand in your shorts, i get enough of that on vacation, thank you

Presidential Joke Day**

Son and Daughter Day -- the day to give your son(s) or daughter(s) the gift of time

St. Clare of Assisi's Day -- (Foundress of the Order of Poor Ladies [Poor Clares] Franciscan nuns; Patron of embroiderers, eyes, gilders/gold workers/goldsmiths, good weather, laundry workers, needle workers, telegraphs, telephones, and television writers; Assisi, Italy; Santa Clara Indian Pueblo; against eye disease)***; related observance
Fiesta de Santa Clara -- Santa Clara Pueblo, NM, US (Native American celebration of St. Clare of Assisi, their Patron saint, with a corn dance and prayers for rain)

St. Philomela's Day (Patron of babies, children, desperate causes, forgotten causes, impossible causes, lost causes, orphans, poor people, priests, prisoners, sick people, students, test takers, toddlers, young people; against barrenness, bodily ills, infertility, mental illness, sickness, sterility)

Birthdays Today:

Hulk Hogan, 1953
Arlene Dahl, 1928
Mike Douglas, 1925 (Note: he also died on this date in 2006)
Alex Haley, 1921
Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, 1667 (Last of the Medicis)

Today in History:

First day of the Mesoamerican Long Count Calendar, used my the Maya and other pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, BC3114
Traditional date of the defeat of Bel by Hayk, progenitor and founder of the Armenian nation, BC2492
Battle of Artemisium, naval battle of the Greco-Persian War, fought at the same time as the Battle of Thermopylae of the same war; Leonidas, King of Sparta, dies in the land battle, BC480*
Papandayan Java volcanic eruption kills 3,000, 1772
Charles Lawrence gives expulsion orders to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia beginning the Great Upheaval, 1755
The world's first roller rink opens in Newport, RI, 1866
The first civilian prisoners arrive at Alcatraz, 1934
Actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for a frequency hopping, spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones and Wi-Fi, 1942
A bomb explodes on Pan Am Flight 830, en route from Tokyo to Honolulu, killing one teenager and injuring 15 passengers, 1984
NATO takes over command of the peacekeeping force in Afghanistan, marking its first major operation outside Europe in its 54-year-history, 2003

*some historians give different dates

**because presidents have a sense of humor, too, as shown this day in 1984 when Reagan thought the microphone was off and joked about Russia being outlawed

***why tv? because when she became too ill to attend mass at the end of her life, a miraculous image of the service would display on the wall of her room

No, i didn't misspell that title.

A singer i grew up hearing and enjoyed, Eydie Gorme, died on Saturday.

She wasn't just a singer and entertainer, though. She was a role model.

In an era where the bad behavior of celebrities is flouted, she and her husband, Steve Lawrence, worked together and had a great marriage of over 55 years.

It's easy enough to read snippets about the facts of her life in the news story about her death. What's more difficult to get across is how i see the kind of life she lived -- unapologetically singing the music she loved, not just what became popular at the moment, sticking out marriage, which is not easy no matter how much you love each other, and making over where and how she entertained to fit audience needs -- as something to strive for.

The above video was from 1966, and done at someone's home with early, what we would consider primitive, home recording equipment from a Tonight Show broadcast. It's still one i like, dated as it looks.

The world is a little sadder of a place without her.

Today is:

Aloha Day -- unofficial celebration of the annexation of Hawai'i by the US

Anniversary of Snick-Snacker's Left Foot -- Fairy Calendar

Awa Odori Festival -- Tokushima, Japan (through the 15th; one of Japan's largest dance festivals, Awa-dance is said to be a "fool's dance", and the saying is "It's a fool who dances and a fool who watches, so if both are fools, you may as well dance!")

Carnival Monday -- Grenada

Fathers' Day -- Samoa; Tokelau (a public holiday in both countries)

Festival for Hercules Invictus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (through tomorrow; based on an even older Greek celebration of Heracles at the same time of year)

Festival for Venus Vitrix -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Victorius Venus)

Grouse Day/Glorious Twelfth -- England; Scotland (opening of grouse hunting season)

Her Majesty the Queen's Birthday and National Mother's Day -- Thailand

Heroes Day -- Zimbabwe

International Youth Day -- UN

Julienne Fries Day

Lychnapsia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (celebration of the Birthday of Isis, instituted after the conquest of Egypt)

Mae West Birthday Gala -- New York, NY, US (through the 17th)

Middle Children's Day -- on some sites, listed as Aug. 14; either way, Middle Children deserve a special day!

National Toasted Almond Bar Day

Osirian Mysteries; Feast of the Lights of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate, but this is the date the Romans gave it, so who am i to quibble?)

Perseid Meteor Showers -- in 2013, most visible today and tomorrow; the Celts believed these meteors were due to games being played by Lugh, their sun god

PC Day -- no, not politically correct, personal computer; IBM introduced theirs this day in 1981

Put Peanuts in Your Coca Cola Day -- and no, i can't figure this one out, but they say don't shake it once you do it; if anyone else wants to experiment with why, let me know the results

Solar Alignment with Teotihuacan, City of the Gods -- ancient when the Aztecs found its ruins, this city's ritual cave aligns with the setting sun today and April 29, also the rising and setting dates of the Pleiades

St. Gracilian's Day (Patron of Bassano Romano, Italy)

St. Murtagh's Day (Patron of Killaria, Ireland)

Vinyl Record Day -- celebrating the tremendous cultural influence of records, on the anniversary of the day in 1877 that Edison invented the phonograph

Weird Contest Week -- Ocean City, NJ, US (contests through the week include salt water taffy sculpting, wet t-shirt throwing, ear wiggling, french fry sculpting, chewing an artwork out of a huge cookie or TastyKake Pie, making a work of art from paper clips, a Little Miss and Little Mr. Chaos contest, and Mr. and Miss Miscellaneous contest for those who have always wanted to compete in a talent contest but maybe missed the bus or got stuck at a rugby game; through Friday)

Zaraday a/k/a Zarathud's Day -- Discordianism

Birthdays Today:

Pete Sampras, 1971
Skip Caray, 1939
George Hamilton, 1939
William Goldman, 1931
Alvis Edgar “Buck” Owens, 1929
John Derek, 1926
Michael Kidd, 1915
Jane Wyatt, 1912
Cantinflas, 1911
Joe Besser, 1907
Alfred Lunt, 1892
Cecil B. DeMille, 1881
Christopher "Christy" Mathewson, 1880
Edith Hamilton, 1867
Katharine Lee Bates, 1859
"Diamond Jim" Brady, 1856
Robert Mills, 1781
Thomas Beckwith, 1753

Today in History:

The last ruler of the Egyptian Ptolemaic Dynasty, Cleopatra VII Philopater, allegedly commits suicide by asp bite, BC30
A conjunction of Venus and Jupiter occurs which may have been what the Bible calls the Star of Bethlehem, 3
Crusaders win the Battle of Ascalon, 1099
Juan Ponce de Leon arrives in Puerto Rico, 1508
Praying Indian John Alderman shoots and kills Metacomet, the Wampanoag war chief, ending King Philip's War, 1676
Isaac Singer is granted a patent for his sewing machine, the first one to be practical for home use, 1851
Asaph Hall discovers Deimos, 1877
The last quagga, a subspecies of zebra once plentiful in South Africa, dies at the Artis Magistra zoo in Amsterdam, 1883
Hawai'i is annexed by the US, 1898
William Somerset Maugham published "Of Human Bondage", 1915
Alleged date of the first Philadelphia Experiment test on United States Navy ship USS Eldridge, 1943
The Soviet Union detonates its first thermonuclear weapon, 1953
Echo I, the first communications satellite, is launched, 1960
South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of its racist policies, 1964
The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise, 1977
The IBM Personal Computer is released, 1981
Canada, Mexico, and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), 1992
The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise, 2000

"Mom, can you come pick me up?" Little Girl was calling from her last day at driving school, a bit earlier than i expected.

Sure, i told her, grabbed my keys and wallet, and headed out. When i got there, i asked how she did.

"I got a 96% on the written test!" she gloated. "That means I only missed two questions, and now I understand those, too. The teacher was great. She was interesting, had good anecdotes, kept our interest, we actually learned, and she went over what we each got wrong so we would understand it."

Wonderful! i said, and she responded with "Nine and 3!"

What? i asked.

"Your hands, on the wheel, you're supposed to have them at 9 and 3!" She had a huge grin on her face.

Oh, so now you can correct me, right? i grinned back.

"Oh, you should have been in the car the other days, when dad came to pick me up! He was doing so much wrong while he was driving, and I kept telling him and laughing, and he was mad! It was so funny!"

That's called backseat driving, you know, and it can irritate people to no end, i told her.

"Yep! Nine and 3!" she called out again, and we were both laughing.

Well, you may backseat drive me if you want, but my hands stay around 8 and 4, because of the airbag.

"Close enough," she said. Then, "Oh, and we got to do something interesting today, too. They have these glasses that you put on, and get in a driving simulator, and the glasses show you what you would see if you were drunk. Guess what? I didn't hit any pylons! So I guess that means I would be a good drunk driver, even though I've never been drunk and don't ever want to be."

Well, that's a bit scary, i noted. Please don't take that as a reason to drive impaired. You might think you could do just as well, but you were probably driving very slowly to get those results. At real speeds, with more than just stationary pylons around, you wouldn't do so well.

"Believe me, I'm too scared of what cars can do to ever really try to drive drunk or even be drunk. Remember when I broke my arm and had to be on all of those prescription pain medicines? I hated that, you can't think right, and I don't like that feeling. No way I want to do that on purpose, get to where I'm not in control."

Neither do i, i noted.

"Nice blinker!" she yelled at the person who changed lanes in front of me with no signal.

While #2 Son didn't seem to much care either way, i think with this youngest i'm going to have to be on my toes a lot more, watching what i do more closely as i drive.

There are advantages to having a good backseat driver to be a role model for, and i'll take advantage of it.

Today is:

Anniversary of Snick-Snacker's Right Foot -- Fairy Calendar

Carnival Tuesday -- Granada

Day of Battle between Horus and Set; Aset gains the Horns of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Defence Forces Day -- Zimbabwe

Festival of Aventine Diana / Nemoralia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (commemoration of the dedication of her temple; celebrated between now and the 15th, and rededicated as the Festival of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin after Christianization)

Festival of Xocotl Huetzi -- Ancient Aztec Calendar (first fruits of harvest festival; date approximate, but two weeks around the end of August)

Fox Hill Day -- Nassau, Bahamas

Independence Day -- Central African Republic(1960)

International Left-Hander's Day -- sponsored by Lefthanders International

International Sundance -- Manitoba, Canada (an extraordinary gathering of Elders from many Native traditions around the world, to perform the sacred Sundance of the Lakota people and sacred ceremonies of the other traditions represented; through Saturday)

Lao Issara -- Laos (Day of the Free Laos)

Lesser Festival of Flora -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Machias Wild Blueberry Festival -- Machias, ME, US (blueberries and fun, in the place that has lobster, too; through Saturday)

National Filet Mignon Day

Obon -- Buddhist (celebration to revere the ancestors; celebrated at different times even within Japan, but usually the biggest dates are in mid-August)

Qi Xi -- China (Double Seven or Chinese Valentine's Day, the 7th day of the 7th moon, the day all the magpies in the world form a bridge so the cowherd and the weaver can meet across the Milky Way, which separates them.)

Runic Half Month As begins (the gods)

Skinny Dipping Day -- funny t-shirt: I no longer skinny dip. I chunky dunk!

St. Cassian's Day (Patron of students and teachers; Brixen, Italy; Comacchio, Italy; Imola, Italy; Mexico City, Mexico)

St. Concordia's day (Patron of nursing mothers and wet nurses)

St. Hippolytus' Day (Patron of horses, prison guards/officers/workers; Bibbiena, Italy)

Wall Day -- anniversary of the day in 1961 that the Berlin Wall began going up; observe it by trying to break down a wall or communication barrier somewhere in your own life

Women's Day -- Tunisia

World's Fair of Money -- Chicago, IL, US (the greatest money show on Earth, including dealers, exhibits from around the world, family activities and educational programs; through Saturday)

Birthdays Today

Danny Bonaduce, 1959
Midori Ito, 1969
Dan Fogelberg, 1951
Philippe Petit, 1949
Don Ho, 1930
Pat Harrington, Jr., 1929
Fidel Castro, 1926
George Shearing, 1919
Ben Hogan, 1912
Alfred Hitchcock, 1899
Bert Lahr, 1895
Annie Oakley, 1860

Today in History

The English army under King Henry V lands at the mouth of the Seine River, 1415
Tenochtitlan of the Aztecs is conquered by the Spanish, 1521
Tenbun Hokke Disturbance, in which Buddhist monks from Kyoto's Enryaku Temple set fire to 21 Nichiren temples throughout Kyoto, 1536
John Smith submits the story of Jamestown's first days for publication, 1608
Christiaan Huygens discovers the Martian south polar cap, 1642
Founding of Litchfield, CT, 1651
Marie Antoinette and other French royals are imprisoned by Revolutionaries, 1792
Nat Turner sees the solar eclipse which he interprets as a sign from heaven to begin his ill-fated slave rebellion, 1831
Earthquake in Peru and Ecuador kills 25,000, 1868
Ferdinand von Zeppelin patents his "Navigable Balloon", 1889
First production in the UK of stainless steel by Harry Brearley, 1913
Opha Mae Johnson is the first woman to enlist in the United States Marine Corps, 1918
Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) is established as a public company in Germany, 1918
The first barbed wire fence that would become the Berlin Wall is erected, 1961
The Apollo 11 astronauts are released from a three-week quarantine to enjoy a ticker-tape parade in New York, 1969
Michael Phelps sets the Olympic record for most the gold medals won by an individual in Olympic history, 2008

The other day, after another fruitless attempt to get through some school system red tape, i came home to the electricity off and the generator running.

Not so unusual, especially in this neighborhood, unfortunately. The usual hoopla followed, call the electric company, report the outage, get on the list for a text message back when the electricity comes back on (because sometimes it is supposedly on but not for us, and they have to be alerted to that).

What became unusual was the generator kicked off, but the electricity wasn't back on. A moment later, the generator came back on, so i went out and checked the oil and looked for any lights that signal trouble. Nothing.

Then it shut off again. The electricity still wasn't restored, and the generator isn't supposed to shut off unless the electricity is fully restored.

At that point, i went out and manually shut the switch so the generator wouldn't come back on, because i realized something was really wrong.

A call to the generator people wasn't very comforting when i was told it could be up to two weeks before they got to me. Ugh.

Thank heaven, a few hours later, the nice lady called back, a cancellation had come up and i was on the list for the following day.

Mick showed up over an hour early, unusual for such work, and i told him what had happened.

We discussed how it could have been the electric company repair that caused the malfunction, because sometimes they turn the electricity on and off several times in one repair, but somehow i didn't think so.

Mick checked the outdoor unit, putting it through it's paces.

"I'm going to simulate the two things that will shut it down like that, low oil pressure or overheating,"
he said, "and we will see what happens."

Both of those things checked out. If it registers low oil, it shuts down and won't restart. If it registers overheated, it shuts down until it cools off, then comes back on. The oil level was also exactly where it should be.

"Now for the big test," he said. "I need to come in and simulate a power outage from the breaker boxes."

As is standard, i asked him if he was allergic to cats.

"Nope! Cats, dogs, and kids all love me. It's the adults I tend to have trouble with!" he laughed.

Well, i don't seem to be having trouble with you, i noted. You seem competent and capable.

"Yeah, well, that would be the 24 years as a staff Sergeant in the army." he noted. "I got good at instilling confidence in my men in battle."

Thank you for your service, i said. Were you trained as an electrician for the military?

"Nope. When a congressman serves one term, he gets full retirement and benefits for life. When I got out after 24 years, i got 50% and some benefits, and I had to learn a trade so I could support myself. And I was the one out getting shot at!"

It certainly does seem backwards, i noted.

That's when the test with the indoor equipment went wrong. As the electricity for the house went off completely, i was so glad i had shut down the A/C and the computers for the time being.

"This isn't right. It's supposed to go right back to full power," he said, groping for a flashlight. Once he had it, he flipped the switch that should go automatically, and power was restored.

"Let's try it again," he said, but it was the same result.

"Okay, let's look at the fuses," he said. All three fuses, two in the box and one in the generator outdoors, and still the same result.

"Well, I'm the senior tech, and I'm going to figure this out!" he said. A few tests and calls later, he had it pinpointed to a board that's gone bad in the generator itself.

"The part is at the shop," Mick told me. "I can come back early next week to install it."

Meanwhile, i noted, if he electricity goes off, we have no back up.

"Well, yes, you can. Let me teach you how to do it manually.

"If your electricity goes off, come out here and flip this switch," he said. "It will kick on and run the way it usually does. Then, once you know for sure electricity is restored ... do you get the alerts?" he asked.

Yes, i said, and not only that, but the whole house isn't on the generator. So i can go to a room that's not on it, and if the lights come on, that means it's on but the generator area is down. That happened before.

"What did you do then?" he asked.

Well, the guy who installed it taught me to use the rubberized tool you had when you were in there and flip the yellow switch, i told him.

"Exactly," he confirmed. "When you know the electricity is back on, go outside, manually turn the generator off, then come in and flip that switch. Make sure you use the rubberized tool or you will be electrocuted!"

Yes, Sergeant! i told him, and i wasn't being flippant, as he knew.

Until early next week, the generator is switched off, to be used manually only, and i'm just glad it can be fixed.

What will be interesting is the price tag, which i won't know until then. Ouch!

Today is:

American Quilter's Society Quilt Exposition -- Grand Rapids, MI, US (their largest show; through Saturday)

Anniversary Day -- Tristan da Cunha

Assumption Eve -- France; Holy See

Crayfish Premier -- Sweden (crayfish may be sold and served in restaurants, the day after the season opens)

Day of Peace between Horus and Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Faradda di li candareri (Descent of the Candlesticks) -- Sassari, Sardinia (beginning of the celebration of the Assumption)

Festival for Fortuna Equestris -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Independence Day -- Pakistan(1947)

International Nagging Day -- ignore this one if you have any sense, the founder was smart enough to leave no trace

International Tango Festival and World Championship -- Buenos Aires, Argentina (through the 27th)

La Torta dei Fieschi -- Lavagna, Italy (this city on the Italian Riviera comes to life with dance and music every year to commemorate the wedding, on this day in 1230, of Bianca de Bianchi and Count Opizzo Fiechi, as he had invited everyone in town to share the 30ft. high cake he had made for the occasion)

Liberty Tree Day -- Massachusetts, US

Mantoro Lantern Lighting -- Kasuga Taisha, Japan (through tomorrow; 3,000 lanterns light the shrine, and the main hall is open for visitors, with Bugaku and Kagura performed in the apple garden)

National Creamsicle Day

National Financial Awareness Day -- can't find the history on who started this for which country, but it's wise to become financially literate no matter where you live

National Navajo Code Talkers Day -- Navajo Nation; US

Oued Ed-Dahab Day -- Morocco; Western Sahara (celebrating the recovery of this area from Spanish occupation in 1979)

Pramuka Day -- Indonesia (Scouting Day)

St. Maximillian Kolbe's Day (Patron of families, imprisoned people, journalists, political prisoners, prisoners, recovering drug addicts, the pro-life movement; against drug addictions)

St. Werenfrid's Day (Patron of vegetable gardeners; Arnheim, Netherlands; Elst, Netherlands; Westervoort, Netherlands; against gout and stiff joints)

Wiffle Ball Day -- the wiffle ball was introduced this day in 1953

Anniversary Today

V-J Day

Birthdays Today

Halle Berry, 1966
Earvin "Magic" Johnson, 1959
Gary Larson, 1950
Danielle, Steel, 1947
Susan Saint James, 1946
Steve Martin, 1945
Lynne Cheney, 1941
David Crosby, 1941
Alice Ghostley, 1926
Russell Baker, 1925
John Ringling North, 1903
Doc Holiday, 1851
H.C. Oersted, 1777
Emperor Hanazono of Japan, 1297

Today in History

The young Emperor Antoku and three sacred treasures are taken by Taira no Munemori and the Taira clan, fleeing to western Japan to escape pursuit by the Minamoto clan, 1183
Kublai Khan's invading fleet disappears in a a typhoon near Japan, 1281
Three years after Gutenberg, the oldest known exactly dated printed book is published, 1457
Queen Elizabeth I refuses sovereignty of the Netherlands, 1585
Great Britain annexes Tristan da Cunha (remotest occupied island), 1816
Second Seminole War ends, with the Seminoles forced from Florida to Oklahoma, 1842
Oregon Territory created, 1848
Magazine "Field and Stream" begins publication, 1873
Construction of Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, is completed, 1880
Japan issues its first patent, for rust-proof paint, 1885
A recording of English composer Arthur Sullivan's The Lost Chord, one of the first recordings of music ever made, is played during a press conference introducing Thomas Edison's phonograph in London, 1888
France begins requiring motor vehicle registration, 1893
The first claimed powered flight, by Gustave Whitehead in his Number 21, 1901
Mt. Rushmore project first proposed, 1925
United States Social Security Act passes, creating a government pension system for the retired, 1935
British troops are deployed in Northern Ireland, 1969
Longest game in softball history begins, as The Gager's Diner team takes on the Bend'n Elbow Tavern; the game was played to raise money for a new softball field in Monticello, NY, went to 365 innings over two days, and the Gagers won 491-467, 1976
Lech Walesa leads strikes at the Gdansk, Poland shipyards, 1980
Widescale power blackout in the northeast United States and Canada, 2003
As a sponsored event of the IOC, the 2010 Summer Youth Olympic Games, first ever Youth Olympics for athletes age 14-18, officially starts in Singapore, 2010

"Well, I've just had an interesting day."

When Bigger Girl comes in the house with this announcement, i've learned to be prepared to hear something good, and i'm seldom disappointed.

"First, I forgot to tell you about a dream I had last night. I dreamed I heard a noise coming from inside the refrigerator, so I opened it, and you were storing kittens in the fridge! It was weird, it was lots and lots of them, and I took the first few out and found more, even smaller kittens behind them, then more smaller ones behind that, they kept getting smaller, down to the size of a robin's egg! But they were fully developed though so small, and kept mewing and mewing even as I was taking them out of the refrigerator! What do you think that meant?

Child, i haven't a clue! i told her. Dream interpretation isn't my forte.

"Anyway, when I got to work, Ms. Sadie had seen a snake outside, and she was freaking out. She had gone to the store and bought moth balls, because she says snakes don't like the smell and it chases them away. She was running around the building throwing moth balls all over like confetti! It was so weird. The smell was so pervasive I could smell it in the sterilization room, and you know how deep in the building that is, so I was afraid it was going to make me sick. Isn't that why they used to say to make sure you didn't accidentally close a child in the closet, because they used moth balls all of the time and a child could die from the fumes?"

They are rather toxic, i noted, but i've never heard about people dying from being locked up in a small space with them. Maybe it could happen.

"Well, it was weird, and I think the cows and horses and goats aren't too happy about it, either. But anyway, we all got to talking later about it, and someone commented that the moth balls looked like a bunch of little eggs in the grass around the place, then someone asked 'What came first, the moth balls or the moth ball eggs' and we were all laughing, and which do you think came first, mom, the chicken or the egg?"

"That's obvious," Little Girl piped up, walking into the room. "The egg. Think about it. The modern chicken descended from some other species that was not quite a modern chicken, call it a proto-chicken. So, two proto-chickens get together, and conceive a bird that has a mutation that makes it what we now know as the first modern chicken, and the female lays it as an egg. So, the egg came first!"

An egg-cellent argument, i noted with a smile.

Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Poland

Artists in the Park -- Cate Park, Wolfeboro, NH, US (rain or shine, the 34th annual juried exhibit and sale, along with demonstrations and family entertainment)

Asuncion Foundation Day -- Paraguay

Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary -- Catholic Christian Holy Day of Obligation
     Related Observances
          Coeur d'Alene Indian Pilgrimage -- Coeur d'Alene's Old Mission State Park, Cataldo, ID, US
          Dormition of the Theotokos -- Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic Christian
          Ferragosto -- Italy (During the Roman Empire, a festival to Diana and a fertility and ripening celebration)
          Mother's Day -- Antwerp; Costa Rica
          National Acadians Day -- Acadians
          Virgin of Candelaria, patron of the Canary Islands -- Tenrife, Spain
          Irmandade da Nossa Senhora da Boa Morte Fiesta -- Bahia, Brazil (Festival of the Order of Our Lady of the Good Death)
          Festival of the Outremeuse -- Liege, Belgium
          Public Holiday or Publicly Observed -- Andorra; Austria; Belgium; Benin; Bosnia; Burkina Faso; Burundi; Cameroon; Cape Verde; Central African Republic; Chile; Colombia; Côte d'Ivoire; Croatia; Cyprus; East Timor; France; French Guiana; French Polynesia; Gabon; Gambia; Germany; Greece; Guadelupe; Guatemala; Guinea; Holy See; Hungary; Italy; Lebanon; Liechtenstein; Lithuania; Luxembourg; Macedonia; Madagascar; Malta; Martinique; Mauritius; Mayotte; Monaco; New Caledonia; Paraguay; Poland; Portugal; Reunion; Romania; Rwanda; Saint Barthelemy; Saint Martin; Saint Pierre et Miquelon; San Marino; Senegal; Seychelles; Slovenia; Spain; Switzerland; Togo; Vanuatu; Wallis and Fortuna

Best Friend's Day -- sponsored by Thema Martin

Bon/Obon Festival -- Japan (biggest day of the festival in most parts of Japan)

Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival -- Bucyrus, OH, US (food and fun celebration of German heritage; through Saturday)

Chauvin Day -- observed on Napoleon's birthday because his is unknown, the day is named for Nicholas Chauvin, whose blind devotion to Napoleon was immortalized in his name's use for absurdly intense attachments to any cause

Dia de la Ley Fundamental -- Equatorial Guinea (Constitution Day)

Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (through the 18th, dates approximate)

Festival of Vesta -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of the hearth)

Fete Nationale -- Republic of the Congo (National Day/Independence Day)

Fool's Dance -- Japan (part of the Awa Dance Festival)

Independence Day -- India(1947)

Kentucky State Fair and World Championship Horse Show -- Louisville, KY, US (if you love horses, it's the place to be since 1904; through the 25th)

Liberation Day -- both Koreas
     Gwangbokjeol -- South Korea
     Jogukhaebangui nal -- North Korea

Little League 2013 World Series -- South Williamsport, PA, US (through the 25th)

Maras Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (celebration of the goddess Mara, cognate of Mary)

Milwaukee Irish Fest -- Milwaukee, WI, US (the world's largest Irish music and cultural event outside of the Emerald Isle; through Sunday)

National Day -- Lichtenstein (a/k/a Liberation Day [1945])

National Failures Day -- some websites say the 16th, and may i suggest a book called "Fail Better", a small quotations book about how failure is just the beginning.

National Lemon Meringue Pie Day

National Mourning Day -- Bangladesh

National Relaxation Day -- sponsored by Sean Moeller of Clio, Michigan; if you call in sick to stay home and relax, blame him

Panama La Vieja Day -- Panama (Founding of Panama City)

Shoro Nagashi Nagasaki -- Nagasaki, Japan (floating lanterns are released into the harbor in honor of the ancestors)

Soldiers' Reunion Celebration -- Newton, NC, US (the oldest patriotic event of its kind in the US, honoring all veterans; annually since 1889)

Sour Herring Premiere -- Sweden (by ordinance, the year's supply of sour herring may begin to be sold on the third Thursday in August)

Sproshinki -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (end of the hay harvest festival)

St. Tarcisius' Day (Patron of altar servers, first communicants)

Sun Prairie Sweet Corn Festival -- Sun Prairie, WI, US (family fun with a carnival, midget auto races, parade, food, entertainment, and lots of hot, buttered sweet corn; through Sunday)

Tuva Republic Day -- Tos-Bulak fields south of Kyzuk, Tuva, Russia (celebration of the Tuva Republic, a Naadam festival of Mongolian wrestling, horse racing, and archery; held by the Tuva people, the closest genetic relatives to the North and South American Native Peoples)

Wafaa El-Nil -- Egypt and Coptic Church ("Fidelity of the Nile", celebration of the annual of Flooding of the Nile)

Anniversaries Today:

Transcontinental US railway is completed at Promontory Point, UT, US, 1870
Panama Canal opens, 1914
Woodstock, 1969

Birthdays Today:

Joe Jonas, 1989
Ben Affleck, 1972
Melinda Gates, 1964
Jimmy Webb, 1946
Linda Ellerbee, 1944
Mike Connors, 1925
Rose Marie, 1925
Huntz Hall, 1919
Oscar Romero, 1917
Julia Child, 1912
Elizabeth Bolden, American Supercentenarian, 1890 (d. 2006)
Ethel Barrymore, 1879
E. Nesbit, 1858
Sir Walter Scott, 1771
Napoleon Bonaparte, 1769

Today in History:

Battle of Roncevaux Pass, the Basques defeat Charles the Great (Charlemagne) and Roland is killed, 778
Macbeth defeats his cousin and rival King Duncan I, who is killed in the battle, and becomes king of Scotland, 1040
Battle of Lumphanan, in which King Macbeth is killed by the forces of Mael Coluim MacDonnchada, 1057
The cave city of Vardzia is consecrated by Queen Tamar of Georgia, 1185
The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid, 1248*
The "Mainz Psalter" is completed, the earliest dated book, 1457
Founding of Panama City, 1519
Jesuit priest St. Francis Xaverius land in Kagoshima, Japan, 1549
Joseph Haydn departs England, never to return, 1795
Country of Liberia is founded by freed American former slaves, 1824
Tivoli Gardens, one of the oldest still intact amusement parks in the world, opens in Copenhagen, Denmark, 1842
The Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace in Honolulu, Hawai'i, is dedicated; it is the oldest continuously used Roman Catholic Cathedral in the US, 1843
San Sebastian Church in Manila, the first all-steel church in Asia, is officially inaugurated and blessed, 1891
A male servant of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright sets fire to the living quarters of the architect's Wisconsin home, 1914
The Panama Canal opens to traffic with the transit of the cargo ship Ancon, 1914
Will Rogers and Wiley Post are killed in a plane crash, 1935
The birth of stadium rock: The Beatles play Shae Stadium, 1965
President Richard Nixon completes the break from the gold standard, 1971
The "Wow! signal": The Big Ear, a radio telescope operated by Ohio State University as part of the SETI project, receives a radio signal from deep space, 1977
An 8.0-magnitude earthquake off the Pacific coast devastates Ica and various regions of Peru killing 514 and injuring 1,090, 2007

*Yes, we just noted the other day the date of completion in 1880!

The wonderful Steve at The Burnt Food Dude started Feline Friday, and today, i have, no surprise, more kittens!

We've had a veritable storm of kittens over the last few days. When they first come in the house, they are put in a cage to keep them isolated just in case they are ill.

The most recent crop of 3 were like little monkeys and kept climbing the cage bars, wanting out!

Let us out of here!

Help!

The pics aren't great, but it's hard to take pictures in our library, the light is awful.

Don't worry, they were let out after they got their first shots and spent a couple of days in there. They are now mixing with the others.

The smaller is a previous cage occupant, next to a new sibling.

Calico sister, snuggled with Woofie


All seven (yes, two are in a litter box, asleep).

Today is:

Baba Au Rhum Day -- of course, on rum day, bake some cake with the stuff!

Bohemian Nights at New West Fest -- Fort Collins, CO, US (300+ artists' showcase, children's carnival, food, beer gardens, and more; through Sunday)

Bratwurst Day

Children's Day -- Paraguay

Daimonji Bonfire -- Mt. Nyoigadake, Kyoto, Japan (spectacular bonfires in the shapes of word pictures on the mountains surrounding the city)

Elvis Presley Day -- can you believe he's been gone 36 years?

Elwood Glass Festival -- Elwood, IN, US (glass factory tours and so much more; through Sunday)

Festival of the Little Hills -- St. Charles, MO, US (largest festival of the year, a great time for all; through Sunday)

Festival of the Minstrels -- Tutbury Castle, UK (middle ages; celebrated with great pomp, as the Duke of Lancaster had decreed that they each year elect a new king of the minstrels)

Fete de l'Independance -- Gabon (National Day)

Harmonic Convergence Day -- modern followers of Maya and Aztec calendars

Hartjesdagen -- Amsterdam and Haarlem, Holland ("Little Hearts Day; the folklore is that this was the day non-nobles could hunt deer in the woods around Haarlem, and became a cross dressing festival, all men dressed as women, and women as men, to see how the other half lived; revived in recent years on the 3rd weekend of August, but the 3rd Monday was the original celebration)

Helsinki Festival -- Helsinki, Finland (Finland's largest arts festival; through Sept. 1)

Joe Miller's Joke Day -- anniversary of the death of English comic actor Joseph Miller in 1738

Linwood National Pickle Festival -- Linwood, MI, US (tons of fun, tons of pickles; through Sunday)

Lucerne Festival of Summer -- Lucerne, Switzerland (through Sept. 15, over 100 events)

Madonna del Voto Day -- Siena, Italy (a/k/a Palio dell'Assunta, 2nd of the traditional yearly horse races)

Muddy Frogwater Country Classic Festival -- Yantis Park, Milton-Freewater, OR, US (lots of family fun, including the square dancing, firefighters' water fight, and lots of country cooking and BBQ; through Sunday)

National Airborne Day -- US (honors all Airborne Military)

National Men's Grooming Day -- US (sponsored by American Crew, participating salons and barbershops host a day of grooming events for men)

National Tell a Joke Day -- seems internet generated, but probably related to Joe Miller Joke Day

National Rum Day

Northeastern Wisconsin Antique Power and Machinery Show and Thresheree -- Sturgeon Bay, WI (continuous display of operating antique machinery and lots of fun; through Sunday)

Remember What Your Spouse Wore the First Time You Met Day -- internet generated and dangerous!

Restoration of the Republic -- Dominican Republic

Roller Coaster Day -- the first one was patented this day in 1898

Statehood Day -- Hawaii, US

St. Roch's Day (Patron of bachelors, dogs, falsely accused people, invalids, surgeons, tile makers; of over 20 cities in Italy as well as Istanbul, Turkey; for relief from pestilence; against cholera, diseased cattle, epidemics, knee problems, plague [Black Death], skin diseases and rashes)

St. Stephen of Hungary's Day (Patron of bricklayers, kings, masons, stonecutters; Hungary; against the death of children)

Xicolatada -- Palau-de-Cerdagne, France (hot chocolate festival)*

Birthdays Today:

Timothy Hutton, 1960
Angela Bassett, 1958
Madonna, 1958
James Cameron, 1954
Kathie Lee Gifford, 1953
Leslie Ann Warren, 1946
Eydie Gorme, 1932
Frank Gifford, 1930
Ann Blyth, 1928
Fess Parker, 1925
Menachem Begin, 1913
George Meany, 1894
T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia), 1888
Hongxi Emperor of China, 1378

Today in History:

Henry VIII defeats the French at the Battle of Guinegate/Battle of the Spurs, forcing the French to retreat, 1513
Jack Broughton formulates the earliest code of rules for boxing, 1743
Chang and Eng Bunker, the original "Siamese" twins, arrive in Boston to be exhibited, 1829
U.S. President James Buchanan inaugurates the new transatlantic telegraph cable by exchanging greetings with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, 1858
Arica, Peru (now Chile) is devastated by a tsunami which followed a magnitude 8.5 earthquake, 1868
Gold is discovered in the Klondike, at Bonanza Creek, 1896
Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster, 1898
In Valparaiso, Chile, an 8.6 earthquake followed by fire destroys the city and kills 20,000, 1906
The first color sound cartoon, called Fiddlesticks, is made by Ub Iwerks, 1930
Democrats nominate Adlai E. Stevenson as presidential candidate, 1956
Joseph Kittinger parachutes from a balloon over New Mexico at 102,800 feet (31,300 m), setting three records that still stand today: High-altitude jump, free-fall, and highest speed by a human without an aircraft, 1960
A solar flare from the Sun creates a geomagnetic storm that affects micro chips, leading to a halt of all trading on Toronto's stock market, 1989

*Yes, they celebrate a hot chocolate festival in the summer. It all started when the 15th of August was a feast day on which the locals always drank a bit much, and the chocolatier of the town claimed his brew was a good remedy the day after. The original festival on the 15th has ceased, but the hot chocolate is brewed to this day, served at 11am promptly.

There is deep unrest in the country of Egypt, in case you haven't seen any news reports lately. The initial unrest led to a new government that was promising, it seemed, to be the same old thing. That was overturned, and the people who liked that status quo are upset.

The violence escalates, the people who want to push their agendas on everyone else in the country continue to stir up strife and turmoil.

That's not the whole story.

During the month of Ramadan, Muslims provide free banquets in the streets for the poor so they can break their fast. The banquets can also serve those who are working and can't make it home to break their fast. They call these "the banquets of the Merciful G-d."

While Christian churches are often targeted in that country, one Christian church decided to step into the middle of the protests in Tahrir Square and undertook to make a banquet for 200 of the fasting Muslim protesters each Friday and Saturday during Ramadan.

They decided to call it "The united banquet of Love for Egyptians," and church members donated and prepared and served all of it themselves.

The original plan was to serve 200 people each of those nights, but it was so well received, it swelled to many more as Muslims expressed gratitude and received it so well.

The Muslims expressed to the Christians that they hope for a new Egypt where "equality is granted to
all sects, affiliations, and religions in Egypt."

Yes, many Christians suffer in Muslim countries. Yes, many Muslims who aren't of the correct branch of that faith suffer, too. Yes, many Muslims are fanatical, and don't want to grant freedom to anyone who disagrees, and want everyone to be forced to agree with them.

After reading what the pastor of that one Christian church wrote about reaching out and being so well received, i want to think that many, many more Muslims simply want freedom to worship as they choose, and for everyone else in their countries to have the exact same thing. They want peace, and understanding, and a better future without fighting.

Next time you hear about extremism among any group, remember that not every member of that group feels that way, or is an extremist.

No matter what the news says.

Today is:

#2 Pencil Day -- internet generated, but since a pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write under water, in zero gravity, or upside down, what's not to celebrate!

Antique Marine Engine Exposition -- Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, US (annual exposition of pre-WWII marine engines and models; through tomorrow)

Battle of Blue Licks Celebration -- Blue Licks Battlefield State Park, Mount Olivet, KY, US (to commemorate the Revolutionary War Battle of Blue Licks with living history demonstrations, arts, crafts, games, reenactments and more; through tomorrow)

Bike Van Buren -- Van Buren County, IA, US (a leisurely two-day bike tour of villages, landmarks and landscapes)

Day of Rituals in the Temples of Ra, Horus, and Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Drink Coffee at the Office from A Sippy Cup Day -- begun by someone with a sense of humor, who wants you to see how long it takes people to notice

Festival of Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Independence Day -- Indonesia(1945)

India Independence Day Parade -- Devon Avenue, Rogers Park, Chicago, IL, US (yes, a Celebration of Indian and American Democracy; anything for a party, even another country's Independence Day, right?)

International Federation of Library Associations Annual Conference -- Singapore; through the 23rd

International Geocaching Day

International Homeless Animals Day® -- International Society for Animal Right

Leadville Trail 100 Ultramarathon -- Leadville, CO, US (race 100 of the toughest miles in the country through the Rocky Mountains beginning at 4am; you have 30 hours to complete the course to the ghost town of Winfield and back)

Meaning of "Is" Day -- thank you, Clinton!

Minnesota Renaissance Festival -- Shakopee, MN, US (one of the countries largest and finest; weekends through the end of September)

Mt. Hagan Cultural Show -- Mt. Hagan, Papua New Guinea (one of the biggest cultural shows in Papua New Guinea; through tomorrow)

National Honey Bee Day -- US (this year's theme is Beekeeping: Ask Me How To Get Started)

National Medical Dosimetrists' Day -- US (medical radiation safety experts)

National Thrift Shop/Thrift Store Day -- no history on it, probably started by a thrift store having a summer sale; still a good idea

National Vanilla Custard Day

Odin's Ordeal begins -- based on the Ancient Norse legend, Modern Odinists and some Asatru practice silence for nine days, through the 25th

Portunalia -- Roman Empire (honoring the god of locks, keys, ports, and harbors)

Prekmurje Union Day -- Slovenia (celebrates the Slovenes in Prekmurje being Incorporated into the Mother Nation)

Sandcastle and Sculpture Day -- Nantucket, MA, US

San Martin Day -- Argentina (death anniversary of General Jose de San Martin, liberator of Argentina, chile, and Peru)

St. Hyacinth's Day (Patron of Camalaniugan, Philippines; Ermita de Piedra de San Jacinto, Philippines; Kradow, Poland; Lithuania; Poland; against drowning)

The World's Greatest Carrot Festival -- Bradford, Ontario, Canada (unleash your inner Bugs Bunny! through tomorrow)

Woodward Dream Cruise Day 2013 -- Detroit, MI, US (what began in 1995 as a fundraiser for a soccer field has grown into the largest one-day classic car show in the world)

Birthdays Today:

Sean Penn, 1960
Robert DeNiro, 1943
Maureen O'Hara, 1920
Mae West, 1892
charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1887
Samuel Goldwyn, 1882
Davy Crockett, 1786

Today in History:

The Peace of Bergerac gives political rights to the Huguenots, 1577
John White returns to Roanoke, Virginia, to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier, 1590
Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins its first trip up the Hudson River, 1807
Solymon Merrick patents the wrench, 1835
The first bank in Hawaii opens, 1858
Patent granted for an electric self starter for automobiles, 1891
Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opens in Seattle, 1907
Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, the first animated cartoon, is shown in Paris, 1908
First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, 1953
Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana, 1958
East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall, 1962
Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage, 1969
Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus), 1970
Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine, 1978
The first Compact Discs are released to the public in Germany, 1982
The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts, 2005

When you are a chronically disorganized person, as i tend to be (i'm working on learning, and it gets better), you end up having to sometimes go find things.

Thus i decided i missed certain of the plastic containers that are supposed to be in the cabinet (which is one of the few places in the house that is and stays organized, possibly because it's half empty, and maybe there's something to that, i'll have to think about it), and decided to look for them.

The first logical place is, of course, under things. Under teens' beds, under chairs, under the computer desk. While this thorough search turned up plenty of cups, as well as a bowl and spoon next to the computer, not a plastic container was to be found.

Upon stopping to reflect, i decided to hunt in the other cabinets. Nothing. Those are mostly organized, although some of the corner places that i can't get to because i'm so short have gotten recluttered, and i need to get to that some time, and i was going to start to but then remembered the plastic containers, and do you see why i'm disorganized? Stay on task! i told myself sternly as was brought up short of beginning a major and completely different project by having to stop and feed kittens again for the 4th time since 5am and it was only 10am.

Okay, i thought, if i were such a container, where would i hide? Finally it hit me, try the freezer.

That isn't so easy as it sounds. It requires moving items, cold items that hurt my hands, and digging in the frozen depths of a couple of contraptions that are not easy to dig in. Being determined, i dug in anyway, and found them! In the back of all the frozen veggies bought on sale and zip top bags of home made stock, there were some of my containers!

Hooray! Now i should reorganize the freezers! No, wait. Feed the kittens first, then remember that you only set out to find the containers.

Lo and behold, also, two of them have leftovers of roast in them. Just the right amount for a beef stroganoff for dinner, and there are noodles in the house, too, and with the vegetables, i can make a vegetarian creamy sauce with lots of veggies and noodles for the girls and stroganoff for the guys.

In digging around i have also discovered that not only have i lost the containers right behind the broccoli, but that i probably have enough leftovers, if i will start reorganizing the freezers, that i won't have to buy anything but milk, bread, and peanut butter for the rest of the month. Oh, and tomatoes. They don't keep, and we go through a ton of tomatoes.

After making the stroganoff, i have the perfect container in which to put the leftovers.

Perfect for leftovers.

Today is:

Bad Poetry Day -- Wellcat Holidays suggests you get back at your high school English teacher for making you read all that "good" poetry; get together with friends, write some truly awful stuff, and mail it to him/her!

Long Tan Day a/k/a Vietnam Veterans Day -- Australia

Mail Order Catalog Day -- the first one was published by Montgomery Ward this day in 1872, and was only one page (Do yourself a favor and opt out of the doggone things, save a few trees: www.catalogchoice.org )

National Ice Cream Pie Day

National Science Day -- Thailand

National Soft Ice Cream Day

Parsi New Year -- Shahenshahi, India

Rushbearing -- Forest Chapel, Cheshire, England (ancient tradtion of bringing new rushes, plaited in traditional weaves, to carpet the church and keep it warm, always on the first Sunday after Aug. 12)

Serendipity Day

St. Agapitus' Day (Patron of Palestrina, Italy; against colic)

St. Helena's Day (Mother of Constantine the Great; Patron of archaeologists, converts, difficult marriages, divorced people, dyers, empresses, nail smiths, needle makers; Birkirkara, Malta; Helena, MT, US; against fire and thunder)

Toge-Pogling Season begins -- Fairy Calendar (Toges are normally pogled in groups of five or six, depending upon the size and strength of the individual Poge)

Birthdays Today:

Malcolm-Jamal Warner, 1970
Patrick Swayze, 1952
Elayne Boosler, 1952
Martin Mull, 1943
Robert Redford, 1936
Roman Polanski, 1933
Rosalynn Carter, 1927
Shelley Winters, 1920
Greta Garbo, 1905
Max Factor, 1904
Meriwether Lewis, 1774
Virginia Dare, 1587 (first English child born in the Americas)

Today in History:

Founding of the oldest known Roman temple to Venus, BC293
Rome is occupied and plundered by Visigoths under King Alarik I, 410
Death of Genghis Khan (fell from his horse), 1227
A Portuguese ship drifts ashore in the Japanese province of Higo, 1541
The Boston, Massachusetts Evening Post begins publishing, 1735
Eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, 1834
Pierre Janssan discovers helium, 1868
German engineer Karl Jatho allegedly flies his self-made, motored gliding airplane four months before the first flight of the Wright Brothers, 1903.
Mayor of Tokyo Yukio Ozaki presents Washington, D.C. with 2,000 cherry trees, which President Taft decides to plant near the Potomac River, 1909
A Great Fire in Thessaloniki, Greece destroys 32% of the city leaving 70,000 individuals homeless, 1917
19th US Amendment ratified (gives women the vote), 1920
Premier of The Wizard of Oz, 1939
The first commercially produced oral contraceptives are marketed, 1960
James Meredith becomes the first black person to graduate from the University of Mississippi, 1963
Steve Biko is arrested at a police roadblock under the Terrorism Act No 83 of 1967 in King William's Town, South Africa. He would later die of the injuries sustained during this arrest bringing attention to South Africa's apartheid policies, 1977
Massive power blackout hits the Indonesian island of Java, affecting almost 100 million people, 2005

The results of several calls last week about more kittens has resulted in our numbers reaching nine.

The two latest were an interesting case. Feral mama cat had them in an elevator shaft, of all places, in the tiny space at the very bottom behind the elevator. The lady who lived in that apartment complex whom the management knew worked in animal rescue was called.

She answered the call, although she has never worked with cats, bottle raises dogs that are abandoned by their mamas, and is highly allergic to cats.

For three weeks, despite her worsening symptoms, she took pristine care of them. They are used to baths, and know their names. She socialized them through lots of handling, and even let them play with her dog (who was scared of them!). That's dedication.

Natasha and Boris

She picked just the right names, too.

Today is:

Jeshen -- Afghanistan (Independence Day)

Hanawa Bayashi -- Kazuno City, Japan (parades and music in the merchant's quarter, through tomorrow)

Hot & Spicy Food Day

Manuel Luis Quezon Day -- Quezon City, Philippines

National Aviation Day -- US

Onam Festival -- Kerala, India (10 day harvest celebration observed by Malayali Hindus)

Potato Day

San Martin Day -- Argentina (obs.)

Stay at Home With Your Kids Day -- begun by Work at Home Moms ezine in 1999, to encourage and support parents who work from home

St. John Eudes' Day (Patron of Baie-Comeau, Quebec, Canada)

St. Sebald's Day (a/k/a Sebaldus) (Patron of Bavaria, Germany; Nuremburg, Germany; against cold weather and freezing)

Vinalia Rustica -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Ripening Grapes)

Watch the Pot Wednesday -- Fairy Calendar (sometimes actually occurs on a Wednesday, more often not)

World Humanitarian Day -- UN

Yukon Discovery Day -- YT, Canada

Birthdays Today:

Snuffleupagus (year unconfirmed)
LeAnn Womack, 1966
John Stamos, 1963
Adam Arkin, 1956
Mary Matlin, 1953
Jonathan Frakes, 1952
John Deacon, 1951
Tipper Gore, 1948
Bill Clinton, 1946
Jack Canfield, 1944
Jill St. John, 1940
Diana Muldaur, 1938
Willie Shoemaker, 1931
Don Ho, 1930
Gene Roddenberry, 1921
Malcolm Forbes, 1919
Jimmy Rowles, 1918
Ring Lardner, Jr., 1915
Philo T. Farnsworth, 1906 (forgotten inventor of television)
Ogden Nash, 1902
Coco Chanel, 1883
George Bellows, 1882
Orville Wright, 1881
John Dryden, 1631

Today in History:

The Roman Senate is compelled to elect Octavian, later Augustus Caesar, Consul, BC43
Augustus Caesar dies, 14
Crusaders defeat the Saracens in the Battle of Ascalon, 1099
Mary Queen of Scots arrives in Leith to assume the throne, 1561
Five people are executed for witchcraft in Salem, Mass., 1692
Presentation of Jacque Daguerre's new photographic process to the French Academy of Sciences, 1839
The New York Herald reports the discovery of gold in California, 1849
The first All-American Soap Box Derby is held in Dayton, Ohio, 1934
Hurricane Dianne kills 200 and does about $1 Billion in damage, 1955
Leonard Bernstein conducts his final concert, ending with Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, 1990
Several hundred East Germans cross the frontier between Hungary and Austria during the Pan-European Picnic, part of the events which began the process of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
A series of strong storms lashes Southern Ontario spawning several tornadoes as well as creating extreme flash flooding within the city of Toronto and its surrounding communities, 2005

We have been trying to get Little Girl in a specific public school program, and it's been like pulling teeth.

Gone are the days when you could, as in Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Understood Betsy, send your child down the road to the school for the first day and the one teacher who sees her from the window goes out and brings her in to introduce her to the other dozen or so students, with no paperwork required.

This system is so complicated even the people who work in the system don't know all of the rules.

Last school year, i began to make inquiries. These included calling friends who know the system better than i do. They gave me names to call, but not one of those names panned out.

Every person i spoke to essentially said, "Not my job." when i actually called. No one could test her for going into the 10th grade. No one could get her registered in the system to the required IEP could be done. Everyone i spoke to gave me the name and phone number of the previous person i had spoken to, who in turn said that was wrong.

Finally i realized there was only one way, and that's the hard way. So on the first day for registration, we went in to the district school, which is not the one she wants to end up in, but we had no other choice.

We were greeted with a laundry list of requirements, and i ran around all morning meeting them. Then we were told that on her first day or two of school, she would have to undergo a battery of tests for placement. No, all of the previous exit exams taken at a private school and the Iowa test don't count.

The first day of school, we showed up early and were told to go home, they couldn't do the tests, they would call us. We went home to wait, and Little Girl decided to "improve each shining hour" by reading Shakespeare's Hamlet, just because she had always wanted to.

Finally, after the whole week had passed, i called back and begged to please talk to someone who could tell me something, as she was worrying about how much work she would be required to make up if she missed more school.

That's when i learned that the Accountability Office had moved over the summer and the computer that held all the tests that needed to be given wasn't accessible. How in the world does an entire school system lose access to a computer that has all their placement tests on it?

During that conversation i also found out that we don't need to worry about her missing a week, the teachers know the first two weeks of school are hectic and kids register all through that time and they don't do much work those first couple of weeks and cut incoming students a lot of slack.

Huh? The first couple of weeks don't matter so much? No wonder education is in the state it's in.

Anyway, i was told to bring her in for the second week, she would be put in 10th Grade classes and tested later to make sure she could stay in them. Not my favorite solution, but better than nothing.

We walked into a madhouse, of course. The guidance office was locked, but someone opened the door for us and within moments the room was packed, and it continued to repack for as soon as they could move one person through, another one or two came in to take that spot. Students who had lost their schedules and needed a reprint. Students who had never received a schedule. Parents who, like me, had business to attend.

The particular counselor who is supposed to handle this for us is not assigned to that school on Mondays, but another counselor knew the deal and handed the paperwork to the nice lady at the central desk in that office so she could enter it in the computer.

That's right. They'd had all of our information for almost 10 days, and hadn't bothered to enter it into the computer yet. As the lady sat there and did so, i learned two things. First, the Good Lord's name is not totally absent of mention in public schools, it is taken in vain regularly. Second, they don't do anything ahead of time that they aren't required to do, but leave it until the last minute.

We stood there for over an hour as she entered everything in while also printing out schedules for other students and answering phones. Then we waited a good while longer as students and parents skipped the wait and filed right past us to go in and demand what they needed right away.

At that point, i wasn't sure whether to feel sorry for the ladies in the office or not.

The upshot was that Little Girl got to attend 3 1/2 of her classes that day. When i came to get her, she seemed very emotionless, or maybe overwhelmed. She was eager to get home, and on the way home she said, "And I have to do this every single day now!"

Well, it's not like she wasn't in school before, but it was not quite the same setting.

She also said, "And at least now I know where not to sit outside for lunch, the ants got most of mine! Oh, and here are some of the things I will need for the classes I got to attend."

Some things don't change much.

Today is:

Bad Hair Day -- birth anniversary of Don King

Birth of the White Buffalo -- Lakota Native American rituals honoring the birth of the White Buffalo in 1994, signaling the return of the White Buffalo Woman (manifestation of the Star Goddess Wohpe), who gave them the sacred peace pipe

Boil Over Thursday -- Fairy Calendar (sometimes on Thursday, most often not)

Dial the Phone Day -- the first rotary dial phone patent was applied for by A. E. Keith, John Erickson, and Charles Erickson on this day in 1896

Feast of Asma -- Baha'i

Full Sturgeon Moon a/k/a Full Red Moon, Green Corn Moon, or Grain Moon*
Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka
Wahgaung Full Moon -- Myanmar

Independence From USSR Day -- Estonia

Lemonade Day

Moon's Birthday -- Aztec Calendar (according to some websites, but i haven't confirmed it; if you want something to celebrate, this is as good as anything else)

National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

National Radio Day -- internet generated toast to the power of radio

Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka (begins at sundown)

Revolution Day -- Western Sahara

Revolution of the King and People -- Morocco

South Mountain Fair -- Arendtsville, PA, US (celebrating agriculture, arts, crafts, and industry; through Saturday)

St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Day (Patron of bees and beekeepers, candle makers, wax refiners; Burgundy, France; Cistercians; Gibralter; Queens College, Cambridge, England; Speyer Cathedral)

Stop and Smell Your Dog Day -- and, depending on the results, maybe even Give Your Dog a Bath Day

St. Stephen's Festival -- Budapest, Hungary (National Day for all of Hungary)

Thoth orders the healing of the Eye of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Virtual Worlds Day -- internet generated, as well it should be

World Mosquito Day -- commemorates the day Dr. Ronald Ross discovered the link between mosquitoes and malaria in 1897

Birthdays Today:

Al Roker, 1954
Connie Chung, 1946
Jacqueline Susann, 1921
Edgar Guest, 1881
H.P. Lovecraft, 1880
Benjamin Harrison, 1833
Bernardo O'Higgins, 1776

Today in History:

Hungary is established as a kingdom by Stephen I, 1000
The Dutch bring the first African slaves to the colony of Jamestown, VA, 1619
The Spanish establish the presidio that will be the town of Tuscon, Arizona, 1775
The Lewis and Clark "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis 1804
Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow, 1882
Rotary Dial telephone is patented, 1896
The Big Blowup, a huge fire in the Northwestern US, burns 3 million acres, 1910
Adolphe Pegoud makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1913
Stainless steel is first cast, 1913
WJM,8Mk, Detroit, becomes the first commercial radio station to start daily broadcasting, 1920
UK becomes the first to use radar, 1940
Plutonium's weight determined, 1942
Launch of Voyager 2, 1977
George and Joy Adamson, the Born Free conservationists, are gunned down by poachers, 1989
The Oslo Peace Accords are signed in Norway, 1993
The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec may not secede from Canada without federal government approval, 1998

• Full Sturgeon Moon – August The fishing tribes are given credit for the naming of this Moon, since sturgeon, a large fish of the Great Lakes and other major bodies of water, were most readily caught during this month. A few tribes knew it as the Full Red Moon because, as the Moon rises, it appears reddish through any sultry haze. It was also called the Green Corn Moon or Grain Moon.

So, did you think a two hour stint at the new school was my only adventure of the week?

Oh, silly, of course not! That was the beginning.

Because my phone didn't get reception in the counselor's office, i came out of the building to a voice mail. It was Blair. Knowing she only calls for one reason, i dialed her.

"I'm on my way right now to pick up a newborn kitten, just one. Can you take it?"

Can i say no?

Hurrying home so i could meet up with her, i was barely ahead of the generator guy, who was scheduled to come but hadn't told me what time. Looking out of the window, i suddenly realized he was there, hard at it.

Eventually he and i ended up on the front porch with Blair coming up the drive, and he was asking me to open the indoor room where the box is (actually, Sweetie's man cave) while she handed me a baby so new the umbilical stump wasn't even dry yet. It couldn't have been more than an hour or so old.

Blair handed me the baby and left, and i went in, opened the room, turned off the central A/C because i knew the electricity would be going on and off as he worked, and fed the baby.

On and off was right. He worked, and replaced, and tested, and replaced, and my internet went in and out as the electricity came off and on and as i struggled to answer my dad's emails that were fast and furious, never quite knowing which ones were going out and which were getting lost in the shuffle.

Mick finally came in and said he needed another part, and he would be back. He left the electricity on, thank heaven, as it took him quite a long time. In fact, i was starting to wonder what had happened when he showed up again, saying, "A big accident on the Interstate, Every major artery is locked up."

Figures.

He worked more, and i fed kittens and finally got my dad the information he wanted and Mick finally said, "I've put in a call to my Supervisor. We're going to get this!"

Great, i thought, what now! No, don't tell me, i'm not sure i want to know.

Eventually, though, i did know. The Supervisor showed up, and they went through the turn it on/turn it off again a few times, and the Supervisor figured out the problem. He had to look very closely, but there was one wire loose. In replacing the relay, it had been knocked ever so slightly askew.

"Do you know how much I want to flip you off for finding that so fast when I thought I had checked everything!" Mick said to his Supervisor with a grin. "You are lucky she is in the room, so I can't!"

We all laughed.

New control board, new relay, naughty wire back in place, and finally, the last test. Success. The generator will once again come on automatically when the power goes out, and cut off properly when it comes back on.

"I'll have them send you an invoice," the Supervisor said. "Cost of the two parts, plus the truck fee and only one hour of labor. That's all it should usually take to change out those two parts, so that's all I'll charge you for."

Since it's $95 an hour, and the parts will be around $300, and the truck fee is $100, only having to pay for one hour when it took so many trips and several hours more than that is a blessing.

Meanwhile, i'll be up nights again for a while.

Today is:

Air Guitar World Championships -- Oulu, Finland (through Saturday; "The purpose of the Air Guitar World Championships is to promote world peace.")

Aquino Day -- Philippines

Buhe -- Ethiopian Orthodox Church (Christian remembrance of the Transfiguration.)

Cadillac Day -- the first Caddy was built this day in 1902

Chung Yuan Festival -- China (Festival of Hungry Ghosts; according to legend, during this 7th lunar month the souls of the dead are released from Purgatory to wander the Earth, and so today is the day to appease those spirits with joss stick burning, prayers and food, "ghost money", and other offerings; dates of this vary in other countries)

Consualia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival of Consus, god of grain and silos)

Corn Palace Festival -- Mitchell, SD, US (harvest celebration and redecoration of the world's only Corn Palace; through Sunday)

Crazy Day -- go crazy, in honor of Patsy Cline recording Willie Nelson's song Crazy on this date in 1961

Fete de la Jeunesse -- Morocco; Western Sahara (Youth Day, on the Birthday of HM Mohammed VI)

Gospel Day -- Kosrae, Micronesia

National Pecan Torte Day

National Senior Citizens Day -- US

National Spumoni
Native Wild Rice Harvest -- Northern Cree, Ojibwa, and Algonkian Native Americans (celebrated during the August full moon; if there are two full moons, it is during the second)

Poet's Day -- a day to celebrate the poet in you, and share special thoughts about poets and poetry

Raksha Bandhan -- Hindu (festival honoring the loving ties between brothers and sister in a family; local observances date may vary)

St. Pius X's Day (Patron of first communicants, pilgrims; Des Moines, Iowa, US; Great Falls-Billings, Montana, US; Kottoyam, India; Santa Lucija, Malta; Springfield-Cape Girardeau, MO, US; Zamboanga, Philippines)

Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration -- Shelbyville, TN, US (an 11-day festival celebrating the world famous Tennessee Walking Horse and crowning this year's World Grand Champion)

Anniversaries Today

Seminole Tribe of Native Americans is legally established and recognized, 1957
Hawai'i becomes the 50th US state, 1959

Birthdays Today

Ozma, Queen of Oz, year unconfirmed
Jackie DeShannon, 1944
Clarence Williams III, 1939
Kenny Rogers, 1938
Wilt Chamberlain, 1936
Shimon Peres, 1923
Christopher Robin Milne, 1920
Friz Freleng, 1906
Count Basie, 1904
William Murdoch, 1754
Francis de Sales, 1567

Today in History

Minamoto Yoritomo becomes Seii Tai Shogun and therefore de facto ruler of Japan, 1192
Pueblo Indians capture Santa Fe from Spanish during the Pueblo Revolt, 1680
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales, 1770
The Nat Turner slave revolt in Virginia leaves 55 dead, 1831
Mighty Casey (Dan Casey) is struck out! In a game against the N.Y. Giants, 1887
William S Burroghs patents the adding machine, 1888
Oldsmobile is incorporated as a division of General Motors Corp., 1897
Arthur Rose Eldred becomes the first Boy Scout to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, 1912
Physicist Harry K. Daghlian, Jr. is fatally irradiated in a criticality incident during an experiment with the Demon core at Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1945
James Anderson, Jr., posthumously receives the first Medal of Honor to be awarded to an African American U.S. Marine, 1968
Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino, Jr. is assassinated at the Manila International Airport, 1983
Carbon dioxide gas erupts from volcanic Lake Nyos in Cameroon, killing up to 1,800 people within a 20-kilometer range, 1986
Coup attempt against Mikhail Gorbachev collapses, 1991
The Red Cross announces the famine in Tajikistan and calls for international aid there and in Uzbekistan, 2001
Hurricane Dean becomes the first storm to make landfall as a Catagory 5 since Hurricane Andrew, 2007

We are adjusting to the new school stuff.

For my part, i am adjusting from a school where the staff was two people who cared passionately about education and students, to a public school staff that, for many of them, just have a job. It shows in things like being stymied even in my attempts to pay school fees and buy uniforms, If they don't feel like dealing with you and your money right now, they don't.

For Little Girl's part, she was a bit, shall we say, shell-shocked the first day. Since then, she has figured out that the teachers like her. She's polite, she sits and does her work, she speaks only when spoken to or called upon, and she's eager to learn.

She has made a couple of friends, but won't talk about that much. She did say, "Great, my best friends are going to be my teachers!" in a laughing way.

When i asked, she said her Fine Arts teacher is "awesome," the Spanish teacher explains everything, and she's getting more comfortable with the layout and moving from class to class with so many other people.

So, how did i know for certain that things are getting better? Well, she'd been a bit subdued for a day or so, and even felt nauseous after her first day. It was getting better, i knew, the afternoon i walked from the kitchen to the pantry hall and stopped to mutter to myself, What did i come in here to do?

"Hold a potato for ransom!" she answered with a grin. "Or maybe you wanted to take over the Empire State Building? How about, start a line of designer handbags that bite their owners? Or maybe you wanted to figure out how to commit a felony using only a light bulb!"

Yes, she's adjusting.

Today is:

Acton Fair -- Acton, ME, US (an old fashioned country fair plus midway, stage shows, and a great good time; through Sunday)

America's Cup Day -- the first America's Cup was won this date in 1851 by the yacht America

Be an Angel Day -- Sponsored by Angel Heights Healing Center, encouraging people to be a blessing and perform an act of service for someone

Eat a Peach Day

Feast of the Queenship of Mary & Immaculate Heart of Mary -- Catholic Christians

Flag Day -- Russia

Gai Jatra -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (cow festival, one of Nepal's most popular festivals with tourists)

Hoodie Hoo Day, Southern Hemisphere -- Wellcat Holidays says to go outside at noon and call "Hoodie Hoo" to chase away winter and call spring

National Spumoni Day (i don't think i've had really great spumoni since i went to Italy all those years ago -- nothing like getting things at the source.)

Rumpleskunkskin's Wedding Anniversary -- Fairy Calendar (Goblin celebration)

St. Symphorian's Day (Patron of children, students; Autun, France; against eye problems, syphilis)

Watermelon Festival -- Winterville, NC, US (sticky fun; through Saturday)

Zucchini Festival -- Obetz, OH, US (family fun and zucchini; through Sunday)

Anniversary Today:
Henry Leland founds the Cadillac Motor Company, 1902

Birthdays Today:

Tori Amos, 1963
Cindy Williams, 1947
Valerie Harper, 1940
Carl Yastrzemski, 1939
Norman Schwarzkopf, 1934
Ray Bradbury, 1920
John Lee Hooker, 1917
George Herriman, 1880
Dorothy Parker, 1893
Claude Debussy, 1862
Samuel Pierpont Langley, 1834
Virginia Clemm Poe, 1822
St. Anthony of Padua, 1195

Today in History:

St. Columba reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, 565
The Battle of Bosworth Field, in which King Richard III is killed and his forces defeated by Henry VII, 1485
Madras, India (now called Chennai) is founded by the British East India company on land purchased from the local Nayak rulers, 1639
Jacob Barsimon, the first Jewish immigrant to what would become US territory, arrives in New Amsterdam/Manhattan, 1654
The Newport, RI newspaper, Mercury, becomes the first in the US to hire a female editor, Ann Franklin, 1762
Austria launches pilotless balloons against the Italian city of Venice, thus staging the first air raid in history, 1849
Gold discovered in Australia, 1851
12 nations sign the First Geneva Convention and the Red Cross is formed, 1864
William Shepphard patents the first liquid soap, 1885
Founding of the Cadillac Motor Company, 1902
President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first US chief executive to ride in an automobile, 1902
The first Victor Victrola is manufactured, 1906
The Mona Lisa is stolen, 1911 (recovered 2 years later)
Althea Gibson becomes the first black competitor in international tennis, 1950
Pope Paul VI arrives in Bogota, Colombia, becoming the first pope to visit Latin America, 1968
Rhodesia is expelled by the IOC for its racist policies, 1972
The first ring of Neptune is discovered, 1989
A version of The Scream and Madonna, two paintings by Edvard Munch, are stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Oslo, Norway, 2004
The Storm botnet, a botnet created by the Storm Worm, sends out a record 57 million e-mails in one day, 2007

Bigger Girl has always wanted to do things that some might consider weird or offbeat. She is her own person. She wants to fly, in many ways -- spiritually, emotionally, and even literally.

She and Little Girl recently went to an event where there was a man doing human suspensions. It's a bit painful, but many people do it, for many reasons. Bigger Girl wanted to, and she did.

She was suspended for a while, and danced in the air. She said it is like flying, and she loved it.

She is braver than i, by a mile.

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

Today is

Black Ribbon Day -- Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania

Cobblestone Festival -- Falls City, NE, US (something for everyone; through Sunday)

European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism -- European Union

Fiesta La Ballona -- Culver City, CA, US (a tradition since 1951; through Sunday)

Flag Day -- Ukraine

Great Feast of the Netjeru (all gods and goddesses) -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Health Unit Coordinator Day -- US (National Association of Health Unit Coordinators, Inc.)

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition

Mexican Fiesta International -- Milwaukee, WI, US (fun, food, mariachi, and a jalapeno eating contest for the strong of stomach; through Sunday)

Morden Corn and Apple Festival -- Morden, MB, Canada (fun for all, lots of corn and apple cider; through Sunday)

National Hug Your Boss Day -- no matter what nation you live in, be careful with this made-up holiday!

National Spongecake Day

Nemeseia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (local festival to the goddess Nemesis, date approximate)

Prairie Village Jamboree -- Prairie Village, Madison, SD, US (keeping the old prairie life heritage alive for new generations; through Sunday)

Presidential Election Day -- Madagascar (official holiday)

Ride the Wind Day -- internet generated, a day to get out and ride with the wind in your hair, in whatever transport you choose, or fly a kite

Schuebermess Shepherd's Fair -- Luxembourg (a two week fair that dates from 1340)

Sento Kuyo -- Nenbutsu-Ji Temple, Adashino, Kyoto, Japan (memorial service for graves that no longer have families to tend them; through tomorrow)

St. Eoghan's Day (Patron of Derry, Ireland)

St. Rose of Lima's Day (Patron of embroiderers, florists, gardeners, needle workers, people ridiculed for piety; The Americas/The New World, especially Central and South America, Latin America, Peru, and the West Indies; Lima, Peru; Philippines, Santa Rosa, CA, US; Villareal Samar, Philippines; against vanity)

Valentino Memorial Service -- Hollywood Cathedral Museum, Hollywood Forever Cemetary, Los Angeles, CA, US (annually since 1927, a memorial service celebrating Rudolph Valentino on the anniversary of his death)

Vertumnalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (in honor of Vertumnus and Pomona)

Vulcanalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival to the god of fire)

Birthdays Today:

Kobe Bryant, 1978
River Phoenix, 1970
Queen Noor of Jordan, 1951
Shelley Long, 1949
Barbara Eden, 1934
Mark Russel, 1932
Vera Miles, 1930
Gene Kelly, 1912
Louis XVI, 1754

Today in History:

On the feast of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, Mt. Vesuvius begins to rumble, 79
Visigoths storm Rome, 410
Edward I executes William Wallace, Scottish patriot, for high treason, 1305
French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada, 1541
Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his commentary of Tur Code, 1542
The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots in Paris begins, 1572
The first one-way streets open in London, 1617
Steamship service begins on the Great Lakes, 1818
Great Britain abolishes slavery in the colonies, 700,000 slaves are freed, 1833
Automobile tire chain is patented, 1904
The World Council of Churches is formed, 1948
Lunar Orbiter I takes the first picture of Earth from the Moon's orbit, 1966
Bryan Allan, in a Gossamer Condor, completes the first man-powered flight of one mile, 1977
Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the US, 1979
Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany, 1985
Hungary opens the Iron Curtain and allows thousands of East Germans through to West Germany, 1989
West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on Oct. 3, 1990
The remains of Anastasia and Alexei, rumored to have survived the 1917 assassination of the Russian Czar and his family, are found, 2007
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown, 2011

That, it just so happens, is PepperJack.

PepperJack has been our guest for a couple of days. He is Miss Lizzie's dog.

So, how did we end up, again, taking care of Miss Lizzie's dog?

Funny you should ask. It's long, and it's complicated.

Miss Lizzie, the young lady who lived with us for a while, has a section 8 apartment now, and is trying to arrange surgery for her arms and neck so she might be able to go to work.

Meanwhile, she is still having post traumatic stress flashbacks to the abuse from her childhood. She had a flashback the other day, and in it, dropped something on the floor that broke, and she cut her foot on it very badly. She sent me a 2am text asking me to send Bigger Girl to help, and called 911.

Until help got there, she poured bleach everywhere, because she is very highly germ phobic when she is having a flashback. She also got scared that she had gotten something rotten in her mouth, and rinsed her mouth with a bit of the bleach.

The EMTs and Police got there before Bigger Girl, who might have been able to explain the way Miss Lizzie's mind works in these situations. Instead, they saw blood, bleach, and heard her incoherently talking about rinsing her mouth with bleach, decided she had attempted suicide, and carted her off to the hospital, from which she was admitted to the psychiatric ward.

It took us almost 3 days to get it sorted out and spring her, because she is not suicidal, just undergoing her usual trials and tribulations that go along with having been molested many times as a young child by your grandfather.

So, Bigger Girl cleaned the blood and locked up the apartment and brought PepperJack here.

The cats were insulted, but they got over it.

Meanwhile, we got two more litters of kittens, had my parents up at the hotel, where we went to visit them, and i had to spend hours and hours fielding phone calls from two other emergency situations that only mommy can fix. Of course.

PepperJack is back home with Miss Lizzie, though, and the week is finally done. And i am done in.

Oh, and Bigger Girl visited Miss Lizzie in the hospital, and talked the doctor in to letting her out. Meanwhile, she says there is a person in there right now who thinks he is Michael Jackson. He spends as much time as they will let him spend in one room playing Michael Jackson Albums and singing/dancing along, very badly.

Let's hope i can find my sanity again, i'm not a huge fan of lousy Michael Jackson interpretations.

Today is:

Bartletide -- West Witton, Yorkshire Dales, UK (a/k/a Burning Bartle, a ceremony in which a straw effigy of Owd Bartle, a sheep theif of yore, is paraded, then burned after sunset, as a warning to the light fingered)

Birthday of Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Corvette Crossroads Auto Show -- Mackinaw City, MI, US (show that includes a Corvette parade across the Mackinaw Bridge; through tomorrow)

Country Fair and Auction -- McHenry, MD, US (sponsored by the local Mennonite churches, a good old-fashioned time of family fun)

De Ducasse -- Ath, Belgium (Giants of Ath Festival or Wedding of the Giants, a celebration since medieval times in which "Goliath" marries, then goes to do battle with David; through tomorrow)

Ferret Buckeye Bash -- Colombus, OH, US (ferret show)

Festival for Luna -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Festival of Mania -- Ancient Roman Calendar (to placate the Manes, a day when the Mundus, the portal to the afterlife, is open and the dead are free to roam)

Flag Day -- Liberia

Flitting Appreciation Day -- another "holiday" with no particular reason except that someone who enjoys flitting around wanted to celebrate it

Gangara Fire Festival -- Atago Shrine, Ikeda City, Japan

Green Corn Pow Wow -- Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (through tomorrow, Pow Wow and presentations of Native heritage to all)

Hotter 'n H*ll Hundred Bike Race -- Wichita Falls, TX, US (cyclists of all ages in the largest sanctioned century ride in the US, in the Texas summer heat)

Independence Day -- Ukraine(1991)

International Bat Night -- through tomorrow, go enjoy these wonderful creatures; www.eurobats.org or www.batcon.org

International Day Against Intolerance, Discrimination and Violence Based on Musical Preference, Lifestyle, and Dress Code -- sponsored by the Romanian Humanist Association and the Sophie Lancaster Foundation

International Strange Music Day -- as declared by strange musician and composer Patrick Grant

Knife Day -- internet generated, but how would we cook without them? today remember how much you do each day with a good kitchen knife.

Koenji Awa Odori Festival -- Suginami City, Tokyo, Japan (thousands dance in the streets, through tomorrow)

National Peach Pie Day

National Waffle Day -- Cornelius Swarthout patented the first waffle iron in the US on this day in 1869

Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival -- Pittsburgh, PA, US (relive the days of yore, watch artisans practice the olde crafts, and have a high good time; weekends through September)

Saddleworth Rushcart -- Saddleworth, West Yorkshire, England (similar to rushbearing, a cart goes through the area with Morris men, the bounds of the area are checked for enemy breaches, rushes are gathered to line the church floor, and there is celebrating, gurning, wrestling, singing, and a final procession tomorrow to St. Chad's Church at Uppermill for the 11am service)

Sidewalk Art Festival -- Portland, ME, US

St. Bartholomew's Day (Patron of bookbinders, butchers, cobblers, Florentine cheese merchants, Florentine salt merchants, leather workers,plasterers, shoemakers, tanners, trappers, whiteners; Armenia; Borgo Tossignano, Italy; Boves, Italy; Carpineto dell Nora, Italy; Civitella in Val di Chiana, Italy; Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Gambatesa, Italy; Gharghur, Malta; Lipari, Sicily, Italy; Maastricht, Netherlands; Magalang, Philippines; Plzen, Czech Republic; Potosí, Bolivia; Salzano, Italy; Trino, Italy; against nervous diseases, neurological diseases, and twitching) related observance
Schaferlauf -- Markgroeningen, Germany (Festival to honor St. Bartholomew, Patron of Herdsmen, on this day or the weekend after; includes traditional barefoot race by children of active shepherds and water carrying contests; also now has a music festival)

St. Owen of Rouen's Day (Patron of the deaf; against deafness)

Usuki Stone Buddhas Fire Festival -- Usuki, Japan (torchlight at twilight lights the regions mysterious Buddha statues)

Vesuvius Day -- anniversary of 79CE eruption which destroyed Pompeii, Stabiae, and Herculaneum

Vuelta a Espana -- Spain (the third of cyclings' prestigious Grand Tours; through Sept. 15)

Waratambar -- New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea (a native thanksgiving)

William Wilberforce Day -- Wilberforce University, Wilberforce, OH, US (birth anniversary of founder, in 1759)

Birthday's Today:

Rupert Grint, 1988
Marlee Matlin, 1965
Cal Ripken, Jr., 1962
Steve Guttenberg, 1958
Yasser Arafat, 1929
Hal Smith, 1916
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku, 1890
Daniel Gooch, 1816
William Wilberforce, 1759

Today in History:

The eruption of Mt. Vesuvius buries Pompeii and Herculaneum, 15,000 die, 79
The Visigoths under Aleric begin to pillage Rome, 410
King John of England, a/k/a Humpty Dumpty for having to issue the first Magna Carta, marries Isabella of Angoileme, 1200
Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague, 1349
The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed, 1456
The first English convoy lands at Surat, India, 1608
Calcutta, India is founded, 1690
British troops invade Washington, D.C. and burn down the White House and several other buildings, 1814
Charles Darwin is asked to travel on HMS Beagle, 1831
The Panic of 1857 begins, touching off one of the most severe economic crises in US history (Which just goes to show you, the more things change, the more they stay the same), 1857
Cornelius Swarthout patents the waffle iron, 1869
The Wolseley Expedition reaches Manitoba to end the Red River
Rebellion, 1870
Captain Matthew Webb became first person to swim English Channel, 1875
Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera, 1891
Workers start pouring concrete for the Panama Canal, 1909
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly non-stop across the North American continent, 1932
The treaty creating NATO goes into effect, 1949
France explodes its first hydrogen bomb, thus becoming the world's fifth nuclear power, 1968
Voyager 2 (launched 1977) reaches Neptune, 1989
Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1991
The first RFID human implantation is tested in the UK, 1998
Argon fluorohydride, the first Argon compound ever known, is discovered at the University of Helsinki, 2000
The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines the term "planet" such that Pluto is considered a Dwarf Planet, 2006

"Uh, mom! I hate to tell you this, but I just went down to the laundry room, and there's a dripping sound coming from the A/C closet again."

Yeah, i thought, i hate for you to tell me that, too, Little Girl.

Out loud, i just heaved a sigh and said, okay, and headed down there.

Sure enough, the A/C was dripping again. The drain had reclogged. So i bailed out the drip pan to make sure it wouldn't turn off, and called Kurt, the guy who works with Sweetie whose former job was in A/C repair.

It was a Saturday, so i didn't expect much. Most single guys in their 20's, i figured, had weekend plans, so i was surprised when he answered and said he had nothing going and would be by in about an hour. Monday after work would have been my best guess for the next time he would be available.

He ran by BigBoxHardware to buy a few things, and came prepared to clean the coils, the outdoor unit, and replace some of the drain to make any future clean-out easier.

While he worked, i dealt with the 13 kittens we have in the house. They are a mess, with at least a few needing to be fed about every hour or so during the day. Once you finish with some, it's only a few minutes until others start to beg. It's a help that a few of them are starting to nibble the dry food and try to drink from the bowl.

Bigger Girl was running errands when it all began, and came home to give me my laugh of the day.

"Mom, after seeing Miss Lizzie in the hospital this week, I've decided if I ever end up in a mental ward, I want to go to this one. Their food looked really good, and it looked like it would be really easy to break out of!"

When i gave her an odd look, she said, "Oh, come on, mom, don't tell me you've never dreamed of breaking out of a mental hospital!"

As i laughed, Kurt came in. He only asked for $80, but he had come on a Saturday when he could have been doing anything else, and he went to the store and bought supplies, and he saved me from having to try to deal with the warranty company again, so i gave him $100 that i scraped out of the food budget and scrounged from under the couch cushions.

All in all, it's been a week, and a new one starts today, and it's going to have a lot packed in, including an internal plumbing inspection. That's right, i get to go for my first colonoscopy on Tuesday.

Depending on how this all works out, i might be the one hoping the food is as good at the hospital as Bigger Girl thinks.

Today is

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Sacrifice Our Wants for Other's Needs Sunday

Birthday of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Discovery of the Runes/Odin's Ordeal ends -- Ancient Norse Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Uruguay(1825)

Kiss and Make Up Day -- a day begun by Jacqaueline V. Milgate to encourage people to make amends and repair relationships if they need to

National Banana Split Day -- some sites have it as Aug. 10

National Park Service Day -- US (legislation creating the National Park Service was signed this day in 1916 by President Wilson)

National Second-Hand Wardrobe Day -- pull out the hand-me-downs or thrift store purchases and wear them with pride!

Notting Hill Carnival -- Notting Hill, London, UK (through tomorrow, the 2nd largest street festival in the world)

Opiconsivia -- Ancient Roman Calendar, Vestal Virgin Festival in honor of Ops

Pony Express Festival -- Hollenberg Pony Express Station, Hanver, KS, US (reenacting life in the 1860's, including a real Pony Express ride)

Rumpleskunkskin's Bride Escapes to Heewigoland Anniversary -- Fairy Calendar (Fairy celebration, Goblins get grumpy)

Soldier's Day -- Brazil

St. Genesius of Arles' Day (Patron of notaries, secretaries; against chilblains, scurf)

St. Genesius of Rome's Day (Patron of actors, attorneys, barristers, clowns, comedians, comediennes, comics, converts, dancers, epileptics, lawyers, musicians, printers, stenographers and torture victims)

St. Louis, King of France's Day (King Louis IX; Patron of barbers, bridegrooms, builders, button makers, construction workers, Crusaders, difficult marriages, distillers, embroiderers, French monarchs, grooms, haberdashers, hairdressers, hair stylists, kings, masons, needle workers, parenthood, parents of large families, passementiers, prisoners, sculptors, sick people, soldiers, stone masons, stonecutters, tertiaries, trimming makers; Québec, Québec; Saint Louis, Missouri; Blois, France; Carthage, Tunisia; La Rochelle, France; New Orleans, Louisiana; Oran, Algeria; Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France; Saint Louis, Missouri;`Versailles, France; Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Louis; against the death of children)

Whiskey Sour Day

Birthdays Today

Claudia Schiffer, 1970
Rachael Ray, 1968
Billy Ray Cyrus, 1961
Ann Archer, 1947
Regis Philbin, 1933
Sean Connery, 1930
Leonard Bernstein, 1918
Walt Kelly, 1913
Ruby Keeler, 1909
Clara Bow, 1905
Hans Adolf Krebs, 1900
Ludwig II, "Mad King" of Bavaria, 1845
Allan Pinkerton, 1819
Ivan the Terrible, 1530

Today in History

The Council of Nicaea ends with the adoption of the Nicene Creed, 325
The Children's Crusaders under Nicholas reach Genoa, 1212
The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed, 1537
Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, 1609
Hundreds of French settlers arrive in New Orleans, which had been founded only a few months before, marking its true beginnings as a city, not just an outpost, 1718
James Cook begins his first voyage, 1768
Alice Meynell becomes the first female jockey, in England, 1804
British forces destroy the Library of Congress, which then contained about 3,000 books, 1814
The New York Times perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax, 1835
Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel unassisted, 1875
Kitasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet, 1894
The United States National Park Service is created, 1916
Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly nonstop across the US, 1932
US Army officer and missionary John Birch is killed by the armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, considered by some as the first victim of the Cold War, 1945
Zimbabwe joins the United Nations, 1980
Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn, 1981
Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe, 1989
Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary, 1989
The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko), 2003

...with which to start the week.

There's an old joke that has three people discussing what they hope others will be saying about them at their funeral. The third, always the wise cracker of the joke, says he hopes people will say, "Look, he's moving!"

Well, in an interesting real life twist on the joke, a woman in Philadelphia named Sharolyn Jackson has turned up alive two weeks after her funeral. It seems the body was identified by pictures being shown to family members, and at the funeral even her mother said it looked exactly like Ms. Jackson, except for the nose. The family apparently thought something must have happened to her nose when she died or was embalmed.

Meanwhile, officials will have to exhume the body and try to figure out who she is. Let's hope they find out quickly, as it must be awful for that woman's family just not to know.

Around here, it's going to be a typical Monday, i hope. Since i can't eat today in preparation for tomorrow's check on the plumbing, i've stocked up on juices, will pull out my juicer so as to add a bit of fresh veggie juice to what i have. Also, i want to cook enough to last a couple of days for everyone else, and make my life easier after the test.

It's also a big laundry and ironing day, if the weather cooperates. Three loads at least. Plus feed the kittens, two of which are isolated for ringworm and two of which still don't have their eyes open.

How do i get myself into these things? Oh, yeah, by living. If it's not one thing, it's your mother; or the other, or something like that.

Also, Little Girl is wanting to paint my three-bladed stand fan in the three primary colors to see if it will make a rainbow when it spins. That ought to be an interesting experiment, to say the least. Maybe, if i'm woozy after the procedure, it will make everything seem even more surreal.

Today is:

Araw ng mga Bayahi -- Philippines (National Heroes' Day)

August / Summer Bank Holiday -- UK

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Motorist Consideration Monday

Birthday of Set -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Burning Man 2013 -- Black Rock Desert, NV, US (through Sept. 2; a radical way to celebrate the arts through desert survival and building a 50-foot statue to be burned)

First Thnork of the Year -- Fairy Calendar

Heroes Day -- Namibia

Ilmatar Day -- Finland (Water Mother, goddess of the heavens)

Liberation Day -- Hong Kong

Make Your Own Luck Day -- for those who refuse to sit around and wait for it

National Cherry Popsicle Day

National Day of Repentance -- Papua New Guinea

National Dog Day -- sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation

National Old-Time Country, Folk, and Bluegrass Music Festival -- LeMars, IA, US (largest and oldest festival devoted to rural music, arts, and crafts; through Sept. 1)

Ould Lammas Fair -- Ballycastle, Co. Antrim, Ireland (claims to be Ireland's oldest festival; through tomorrow)

St. Adrian of Nicodemia's Day (Patron of butchers, prison guards, soldiers; against plague)

Women's Equality Day -- US (commemorates Women's Suffrage)

Yoshida no Hi Matsuri -- Yoshida, Japan (fest to mark the end of Mt. Fuji climbing season; through tomorrow)

Birthdays Today:

Macaulay Culkin, 1980
Branford Marsalis, 1960
Ben Bradlee, 1921
Mother Teresa, 1910
Christopher Isherwood, 1904
Peggy Guggenheim, 1898
Albert "Bertie" von Saksen-Coburg-Gotha, husband of queen Victoria, 1819
Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, 1743

Today in History:

Michelangelo is commissioned to carve the Pieta, 1498
The Pennsylvania Ministerium, the first Lutheran denomination in North America, is founded in Philidelphia, 1748
John Fitch is granted a US patent for his working steamboat, 1791
Charles Thurber patents a typewriter, 1843
The first news dispatch by telegraph is made, 1858
Major eruption of Krakatoa, 36,000 dead, 1883
19th Amendment to the US Constitution, granting women the vote, takes effect, 1920
The first Major League Baseball game is telecast, 1939
The USSR announces the first successful test of an ICBM, 1957
The Charter of the French Language is adopted by the National Assembly of Quebec, 1977
John Paul I is elected Pope, 1978
The agreement on how to divide the Czech Republic and Slovakia is signed, 1992
Russia unilaterally recognizes the independence of the former Georgian breakaway republics Abkhazia and South Ossetia, 2008

...that not much goes as planned.

The pharmacy was initially out of the prescription prep stuff, and had to order it delivered from another pharmacy.

Being on an all liquid diet gave me a headache and a bit of dizziness.

There was just enough rain to interrupt the laundry, reducing it to two loads, and the second didn't quite get fully dry (at least, the jeans didn't, they are hanging indoors). Then, naturally, the rain was over, as it was one of those sudden pop-up showers we have that only interrupt your plans, but don't last. They threaten enough, though, that you can't put the stuff back out to finish drying.

On top of it all, poor Sweetie's back went out at work. He's supposed to have a desk job. He's supposed to wear a suit, or at least nice pants and a polo style shirt with the association's logo. He does have a desk job. He also has the job of curator, procurer of supplies, scrounger especially of random and hard to find items (he managed to find, for one particularly persnickety client once, a gun barrel for a gun that is no longer made and that is a hard to find antique, and a pen and pencil set from a famous company that makes very high end stuff, of a model they no longer made and that the company itself had no more of, and he found both in remote corners of Canada where the items had been sitting on shelves for as long as 20 years), as well as hauler of soft drinks and tables for set ups, auto maintenance person, and, yesterday, bricklayer. The latter is what finally did him in.

Thus he was not a happy camper when he got in, early, to try to rest his back.

How it's going to go today, i have no clue, but since it's my colonoscopy, i can guarantee you something at least interesting will happen. Sweetie's probably not going to be able to be much help, so it's a good thing i stocked up on a few frozen pizzas and pot pies so the hungry horde could make do if i'm not up to cooking tonight.

As for the kittens, i think i've worked out a schedule that will go well with when the girls are home. That, or i'll come home to some very starving babies.

Oh, and about the stuff you have to drink for the prep, it's not that horrible tasting. What it does to you is not very pleasant, especially when you are trying to feed kittens in the middle of it all, but at least, by tonight, this should all be over.

Today is

Banana Lover's Day

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Touch a Heart Tuesday

Birthday of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Day Sacred to Consus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (god of graineries, horses, and mules)

Feast Day of Pan -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of Incandescent Rebellion -- on lots of websites, and supposedly something celebrated in China, but no detail as to what it is really celebrating

Just Because Day -- internet generated, enjoy something ordinary you like to do, just because!

National Pots de Creme Day

Petroleum Day -- on the anniversary of the opening of the first commercial oil well in Titusvilla, PA, US, in 1859, a day set aside to work on figuring out how to do without petroleum

St. Caesarius' Day (Patron against fire)

St. Monica's Day (Mother of St. Augustine; Patron of abuse victims, alcoholics, difficult marriages, disappointing children, homemakers, married women, mothers, victims of adultery and unfaithfulness, victims of verbal abuse, widows, wives; Bevilacqua, Italy; Mabini, Bohol, Philippines)

Tvimanuor -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (the name means "Double Month", and the origin is uncertain; perhaps because winter is coming and it's time to double up on the preparations)

"The Duchess" Who Wasn't Day -- birthday of Margaret Wolfe Hungerford, who wrote under the pseudonym "The Duchess" and first said, "Beaty is in the eye of the beholder" in her novel, Molly Bawn

Threethousandth Thnork of the Year -- Fairy Calendar

Umhlanga -- Swaziland (Reed Dance for the Zulu King; a fascinating week long ritual with beautiful costumes, dancing and singing, culminating as well as in a speech in which the King addresses the people, on Sept. 2)

Volturnalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (god of water)

Ziua Republicii -- Moldova (Independence Day, 1991)

Birthdays Today

Paul "Pee-wee Herman" Reubens, 1952
Barbara Bach, 1947
Tuesday Weld, 1943
Martha Raye, 1916
Mother Teresa, 1910
Lyndon B. Johnson, 1908
C.S. Forester, 1899
Samuel Goldwyn, 1882

Today in History

The Persian invasion of Greece is halted with Greek victories in two separate battles, BC479
Koreans battle and prevent Japanese invasion, 663
The first unmanned hydrogen balloom flight reaching 900 m altitude, 1783
Petroleum is discovered in Titusville, Pennsylvania leading to the world's first commercially successful oil well, 1859
The shortest war in world history occurs from 09:00 to 09:45 between the United Kingdom and Zanzibar, 1896
Edgar Rice Burroughs' publishes "Tarzan of the Apes", 1912
First flight of the turbojet-powered Heinkel He 178, the world's first jet aircraft, 1939
The Mariner 2 unmanned space mission is launched to Venus by NASA, 1962
Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altikat is shot and killed in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 1982
The Rainbow Bridge, connecting Tokyo's Shibaura and the island of Odaiba, is completed, 1993
Mars makes its closest approach to Earth in nearly 60,000 years, 2003

According to the doctor, my internal plumbing is intact, and won't need another inspection for 10 years unless i develop any symptoms.

It was quite a day, with almost no sleep the night before -- i stayed up to do my colonoscopy prep and feed kittens, and only napped a couple of times.

My two complaints would be that the place was cold -- of course, it has to be, to keep the spread of germs down -- and it took three blankets to get me warm. Even then, i wasn't really warm again until i was sitting in the car, outdoors in the sunshine (which would have been great for drying clothes, of course, but i needed it yesterday when i did laundry).

The other was that i was scheduled for a 9:30 exam, and they didn't get to me until after 10:30am. Even though i know better and usually try to get the first appointment of the day, whatever i'm doing, i didn't do that this time, and sat there freezing and nauseated from lack of food for much longer than i really wanted to. Remind me in 10 years to not do that again.

The good part was that the nurses were all chipper and happy and they didn't mind that i sat there and did crossword puzzles while waiting. The doctor, whom i met very briefly, was nice enough, as were the anesthetist and his CNA. They seem to do so many of these that i'm sure the patients become a blur.

For now, though, it's all over, and i am reminded of Timon and Pumbaa in The Lion King, when Pumbaa misquotes Timon and tries to tell Simba, "You've got to put your past in your behind." Timon, of course, calls him an amateur and tells him to get out of the way before he hurts himself., but it's a funny scene.

So i will put this behind me, literally.

On to things like more kitten feedings, an open house at Little Girl's school, working with #2 Son on his getting into school, and listening to Bigger Girl say things like, "Mom, I might get my ears pierced. But I promise not to get my nose pierced, that's too much. Instead, i will color my hair purple! Or I'll go climb Mt. Everest in a bikini. I would go naked, but i don't want to upset the natives."

That's something to live to see.

Today is

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday

Birthday of Nephthys -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Columbia County Fair -- Chatham, NY, US (be a kid again at the 173rd annual fair; through US Labor Day)

Crackers Over the Keyboard Day -- internet generated: are we supposed to go crackers over our keyboard, or tempt fate by eating crackers over our keyboard?

Festival for Luna -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Festival for Sol -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Janmashtami -- Bangladesh; India; Nepal

Krishna Janmashtami /Sri Krishna Jayanti -- Hindu (grand fire ritual celebration of the birth of Krishna; local dating of observance may vary)

La Tomatina -- Buñol, Valencia, Spain (annual citywide food fight festival in which around 30,000 people take to the streets to pelt each other with tomatoes)

Mariamoba -- Georgia (Assumption of the Virgin, celebrated based on the Julian Calendar followed by many Orthodox Churches)

National Cheese Sacrifice Day (Now you know why you purchased the cheese for the sacrifice! To let it age properly before the actual sacrifice. Still doesn't answer why we sacrifice it, anyway, or to whom.)

National Cherry Turnover Day

National Bow Tie Day -- can't find any history or reason for this, unless you like bow ties (may i suggest bow tie pasta for dinner?)

Nugget Best in the West Rib Cook-Off -- Sparks, NV, US (with rib cookers from across the country competing, this is a rib eater's delight, and even includes a rib-eating contest and free nightly concerts; through Labor Day)

Race Your Mouse Around the Icons Day -- Wellcat Holidays suggests this to pep yourself up as you wait for things to come up on the screen

St. Augustine of Hippo's Day (Patron of brewers, printers, theologians; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Cagayan de Oro, Philippines; Carpineto Romano, Italy; Ida, Philippines; Isleta Indian Pueblo; Kalamazoo, Michigan; Ponte Nizza, Italy; Saint Augustine, Florida; Superior, Wisconsin; Tucson, Arizona; Valletta, Malta; against sore eyes)

St. Hermes of Rome's Day (Patron of Acquapendente, Italy; Forte dei Marmi, Lucca, Italy)

Subway Day -- this date in 1965, 17-year-old Fred DeLuca opened what became the first Subway Sandwich Shop

Birthdays Today

LeAnn Rimes, 1982
Jack Black, 1969
Jason Priestley, 1969
Shania Twain, 1965
Scott Hamilton, 1958
Ben Gazzara, 1930
Charles Boyer, 1899
Leo Tolstoy, 1828
Elizabeth Ann Seton, 1774
Johann von Goethe, 1749

Today in History

The Third Crusade begins with the siege of Acre, 1189
6,000 Jews are killed in Mainz, accused of being the cause of the plague, 1349
St. Augustine, FL, founded, making it the oldest continuously occupied European city and port in the US, 1565
Henry Hudson discovers Delaware Bay, 1609
William Herschel discovers a new moon of Saturn, 1789
The first steam locomotive in the US, the "Tom Thumb", runs from Baltimore to Ellicotts Mill, 1830
The first issue of Scientific American magazine is published, 1845
The United States takes possession of the, at this point unoccupied, Midway Atoll, 1867
Caleb Bradham renames his carbonated soft drink "Pepsi-Cola", 1898
James E. Casey begins the United Parcel Service in Seattle, WA, 1907
WEAF in NYC airs the very first radio commercial, for Queensboro Realty, at a cost of $100 for ten minutes, 1922
Toyota Motors becomes an independent company, 1937
Nippon Television broadcasts Japan's first tv show and ad, 1953
Motown releases what would be its first #1 hit, "Please Mr. Postman" by The Marvelettes, 1961
Martin Luther King, Jr. gives his I Have a Dream speech; Emily Hoffert and Janice Wylie are murdered in their Manhattan flat, prompting the events that would lead to the passing of the Miranda Rights, 1963
The National Centers for Disease Control announce a high incidence of pneumocystis and Kaposi's sarcoma in gay men; these will soon be recognized as symptoms of an immune disorder, which will be called AIDS, 1981
Iraq declares Kuwait to be its newest province, 1990
Charles, Prince of Wales and Diana, Princess of Wales divorce, 1996
An electric blackout leaves 500,000 + without power and shuts down 60% of London's Underground, 2003
Hurricane Katrina begins to make landfall on the Gulf of Mexico, 2005

So, there's strife in the Middle East, not the usual undercurrent or bit of a boil-over, but people fleeing chemical weapons attacks and Israel calling up reserves and passing out gas masks to citizens. And when i go to Yahoo! to sign in and check email the first thing up on the site that passes for "news" is about a Hollywood couple and whether they are on again or off again.

Really. So i checked a few other sites, and only a couple of them have the Syria crisis as the first thing you see.

What's important? Jiminy Crickets, i know i'm not the sharpest tack in the package, but even i can say that the fact that this could degenerate into attacks that provoke more attacks and end up as a major war is a bit higher in importance than who is boinking whom in Hollywood, or even than the "news" that passes for headlines in the local area.

Are we so calloused, or are we just so focused on being entertained? Either way, i don't like the implications of the answers.

Please don't misunderstand and think i am saying we need to be serious all of the time. There is a time and place for local highlights, for interesting or odd happenings that aren't so deadly serious, and even for entertainment. But what passes for news now is so often not the important things.

While i cannot read the news all of the time, it would make me sick and upset and a nervous wreck, i do check the headlines and read a few things at least once a day. Because i don't watch TV at all, i get most of my news by reading, either a newspaper or online, or hearing it on the radio. Maybe i'm getting the whole thing wrong, but most of what seems to make up the news is fluff or simply not that important.

Somebody correct me if i'm wrong, please. News doesn't look like news any more, a lot of the time, but like entertainment. When i don't need to be entertained, but informed, it bothers me.

Today is

According to Hoyle Day -- death anniversary of Edmond Hoyle

Be Kind to Humankind Week: Thoughtful Thursday

Birthday of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Blue Hill Fair -- Blue Hill, ME, US (beautiful "down to earth" country fair; through Labor Day)

Chop Suey Day

Day of Loose Talk -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Patron of baptism, bird dealers, converts, convulsive children, cutters, epileptics, farmers, French Canadians, lambs, monastic life, motorways, printers, tailors; over 70 cities and countries around the world; against convulsions, epilepsy, hail and hailstorms, spasms)
Head Day -- Iceland (a weather omen day; whatever today's weather, it will stay the same for at least 3 weeks)

International Day Against Nuclear Testing -- UN

International

Judgment Day -- according to "The Terminator"

Lemon Juice Day

Louisiana Shrimp and Petroleum Festival and Fair -- Morgan City, LA, US (celebrating the importance of the shrimping and petroleum industries in Louisiana, it includes one of the most unique children's villages among such events and a Blessing of the Fleet; through Labor Day)

More Herbs, Less Salt Day

Runic Half-Month Rad begins (Motion)

Slovak National Uprising Anniversary -- Slovakia

Special Notation:

Labor Day, shmabor day!
What a dumb day!
You hire some jerk,
Then send him away,
To celebrate work,
By playing all day!

Garfield the Cat

While i may not agree with his assessment of the importance of Labor Day, Garfield is right in that this weekend has become a time for play, as evidenced by the following celebrations that always occur on this weekend around the US*:

Benton Neighbor Day -- Benton, MO
Britt Draft Horse Show -- Britt, IA
Bumbershoot: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival -- Seattle, WA
Cal Farley's Boys Ranch Rodeo -- Boys Ranch, TX
Central City Rock 'n' Roll Cruise-in & Concert -- Central City, KY
Cleveland National Air Show -- Cleveland, OH
Clothesline Fair -- Prairie Grove, AR
Colombia River Cross Channel Swim -- Hood River, OR
Colorado Balloon Classic -- Colorado Springs, CO
Commonwheel Labor Day Weekend ARts and Crafts Festival -- Manitou Springs, CO
Daniel Boone Pioneer Days -- Winchester, KY
Eastern Idaho State Fair -- Blackfoot, ID
Fort Bridger Rendezvous -- Fort Bridger, WY
Great Bathtub Race -- Nome, AK
Great Grove Bed Race -- Coconut Grove, FL
Harvest Wine Celebration -- Livermore, CA
Hog Capital of the World Festival -- Kewanee, IL
Hoisington Celebration -- Hoisington, KS
Hopkinton State Fair -- Contoocook, NH,
Iroquois Arts Festival -- Howes Cave, NY
Johnson City Field Days -- Johnson City, NY
Jubilee Days Festival -- Zion, IL
Lifelight Outdoor Music Festival -- Worthing, SD
Mackinac Bridge Walk -- St. Ignace, MI
National Championship Chuckwagon Races -- Clinton, AR
National Hard Crab Derby and Fair -- Crisfield, MD
National Sweetcorn Festival -- Hoopeston, IL
Oatmeal Festival -- Bertram/Oatmeal, TX
Odyssey - A Greek Festival -- Saint Barbara Greek Orthodox Church, Orange, CT
Old Threshers Reunion -- Mount Pleasant, IA
On the Waterfront -- Rockford, IL
Oregon Trail Rodeo -- Hastings, NE
Payson Golden Onion Days -- Payson, UT
Pennsylvania Arts & Crafts Colonial Festival -- Greensburg, PA
Santa-Cali-Gon Days Festival -- Independence, MO
Scandinavian Fest -- Budd Lake, NJ
Sta-Bil Nationals Championship Lawn Mower Race -- Delaware, OH
Snake River Duck Race -- Nome, AK
Taste of Colorado -- Denver, CO
Taste of Madison -- Madison, WI
Totah Festival -- Farmington, NM
Waikiki Roughwater Swim -- Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, HI
West Virginia Italian Heritage Festival -- Clarksburg, WV
Westfest Czech Heritage Festival -- West, TX
Wisconsin State Cow-Chip Throw -- Prairie du Sac, WI
Woodstock Fair -- Woodstock, CT
World Championship Barbecue Goat Cook-Off and Arts & Crafts Fair -- Brady, TX

*Some of these celebrations begin today, some tomorrow, some on Saturday, and all run through the Monday Labor Day Holiday.

Birthdays Today

Michael Jackson, 1958
Elliot Gould, 1938
John McCain, 1936
Richard Attenborough, 1923
Charlie "Bird" Parker, 1920
Isabel Sanford, 1917
Ingrid Bergman, 1915
Preston Sturges, 1898
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., 1809
John Locke, 1632

Today in History

Era of Diocletian (Martyrs), the last major time of persecution for the early Christian churches, begins with Gen. Gaius Aurelius V Diocletianus Jovius becoming emperor of Rome, 284
Japan mints its first copper coins, 708
The last Incan King of Peru, Atahualpa, is executed by order of Francisco Pizarro, 1533
The first Indian "reservation" is formed by the New Jersey Legislature, 1758
Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction, 1831
The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire, 1833
Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War, 1842
The first motorcycle is patented in Germany by Gottlieb Daimler, 1885
The chef of a visiting Chinese Ambassador invents "chop suey" in NYC, 1896
The Goodyear tire company is founded, 1898
The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers, 1907
Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California, 1911
The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, 1949
Speedy Gonzales makes his debut, 1953
The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, 1966
Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party, 1991
Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast, 2005

Am i home?

Do you know a muffin man?

My Taste Ran to Gorme

Backseat Driver!

Generating Interest

Egg-cellent Argument!

Feline Friday: Monkey Cats!

No Matter What The News Says

How to Find the Tupperware

Plus Two

Dear Old Golden Rule Days

Generating Interest, Part Two

Equilibrium

Photo-Finish Friday: Brave

Who's That!

What a Drip

Here's an interesting one...

Well, you gotta know...

First Time Plumbing Inspection

Important?