Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Whittling Down

We are whittling down.

One thing i have always loved is reading. Really, i can't remember to back before i could read, at least a little. So i've always had lots of books around. Tons. One thing i've never understood, in homes where people don't have a library, is what they read.

We had collected, between all of us, around 5,000 books.

Well, it was time. We have whittled our collection down to about half that number.

The next job is to reorganize them.

Also, we are whittling down possessions. Four give away boxes are ready, and there is still stuff to go through. It is starting to feel lighter in the house.

Finally, bittersweetly, we are whittling down kittens. Jayden and Rosalie have been sent to their new home. Hannah has been spayed, and will start going to adoption events. The lady who brought us Tara's litter has been contacted, and she wants to go ahead and adopt her. The paperwork for preadoption will be filled out today.

By the end of the week, we will have no more kittens in the house, and it will be time to go to Florida.

It's going to be nice to be there again.


Today is

Arrival of the Swiss at the Port-Noir -- Switzerland

Early Bird Day -- an internet derived day that reminds us the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese

Feast of Carna -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of the heart and other organs)

Feast of St. Justin Martyr

Fei Fei Day -- Vancouver, BC, Canada

Festival of Non-Linearity -- another one you find on the internet, no meaning or rhyme to it, but if you like to think in non-linear ways, enjoy today!

Flip a Coin Day

Gawai Dayak -- Sarawak, Malaysia

Heimlich Maneuver Day

Helen Keller Day -- Lions Clubs

Independence Day -- Samoa

International Children's Day

Iroquois Strawberry Ceremony -- Iroquois Native Americans; through the 4th

Jubilee -- Peru

Kaiko Kinenbi -- Yokahama, Japan (Yokahama Port Opening Festival, through tomorrow)

Madaraka Day -- Kenya (self-rule/responsibility day)

Mint Julip Day -- Oxford, Mississippi

Mothers' and Children's Day -- Mongolia

National Day Against Homophobia -- Canada

National Go Barefoot Day

National Hazelnut Cake Day

National Running Day

National Tailors' Day

National Tree Planting Day -- Cambodia

President's Day -- Palau

Say Something Nice Day

Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival -- Sedalia, MO, US (through the 5th)

Stand for Children Day

Yom Yerushalayim -- Israel (Jerusalem Day)


Anniversaries Today:

Kentucky becomes the 15th US state, 1792
Tennessee becomes the 16th US state, 1796
Ohio University, in Athens, Ohio, is founded as the first US land-grant
university, 1808


Birthdays Today:

Alanis Morissette, 1974
Heidi Klum, 1973
Ron Wood, 1947
Robert Powell, 1944
Rene Auberjonois, 1940
Morgan Freeman, 1937
Colleen McCullough, 1937
Pat Boone, 1934
Edward Woodward, 1930
Bob Monkhouse, 1928
Andy Griffith, 1926
Marilyn Monroe, 1926
Nelson Riddle, 1921
Brigham Young, 1801


Today in History:

Hugh Capet is elected King of France, 987
Beijing, then under the control of the Jurchen ruler Emperor Xuanzong of Jin, is captured by the Mongols under Genghis Khan, ending the Battle of Beijing, 1215
Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky, 1495
Anne Boleyn is crowned Queen of England, 1533
Mary Dyer is hanged for defying a law banning Quakers from the
Massachusetts Bay Colony, 1660
The battle of the Glorious First of June is fought, the first naval engagement between Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars, 1794
U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom, 1812
James Lawrence, the mortally-wounded commander of the USS Chesapeake, gives his final order: "Don't give up the ship!" 1813
James Clark Ross discovers the North Magnetic Pole, 1831
American adventurer William Walker conquers Nicaragua, 1855
Treaty of Bosque Redondo is signed allowing the Navajos to return to their lands in Arizona and New Mexico, 1868
Thomas Edison receives a patent for his electric voting machine, 1869
Napoleon Eugene, the last dynastic Bonaparte, is killed in the Anglo-Zulu War, 1879
The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith's tabulating machine to count census returns, 1890
Louis D. Brandeis becomes the first Jew appointed to the United States Supreme Court, 1916
The First Conference of the Communist Parties of Latin America is held in Buenos Aires, 1929
Charles de Gaulle comes out of retirement to lead France by decree for six months, 1958
New Zealand's first official television broadcast commences at 7.30pm from Auckland, 1960
Kenya gains internal self-rule (Madaraka Day), 1963
The Heimlich maneuver for rescuing choking victims is published in the journal Emergency Medicine, 1974
The first black-led government of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in 90 years takes power, 1979
CNN begins broadcasting, 1980
Air France Flight 447 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil, Killing all 228 passengers and crew, 2009
General Motors files for chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009

4 comments:

  1. I hit garage sales on Saturday mornings and collect books at 25 cents each.. usually enough to last me through the winter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hilary, that's a brilliant idea! My problem is that i would be forever in letting go of them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Florida? That ought to be a bit of a shift! Bit of a culture shock letting go of that many kittens...

    I wouldn't know a THING about book collecting. For an anniversery present about 2 years ago, Husband bought me... Bookshelves. And for a bibliomaniac like me, this was a wonderful, thoughtful present. Now I just need to have about 2 more. Ahem. Or, I could start weeding...

    Nah...

    Cat

    ReplyDelete
  4. Cat, weeding can be freeing, and it clears the shelves so you can get more later!

    Letting the kittens go is a good and bad thing; i enjoy watching people love on them and take them home.

    ReplyDelete

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