Ballet Cat (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins and Nature Friday

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (may he rest in peace), and i'm going to believe it's because he liked cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she has entrusted it to me.

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

Link Linker the Stinker, we've noticed, stands like a ballet dancer with his toes pointed out.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. A Ted Talk that I found helpful was done by ______________________.

2. If I could make my own candy heart it would say ___________________.

3. I _________ early in the morning, but I _________ late at night.

4. _________ is what I love most about myself.

1. A Ted Talk that I found helpful was done by ______________________.  I've never listened to one.

2. If I could make my own candy heart it would say   Get Some Sleep (because i need to).

3. I   can concentrate rather well even on complex material  early in the morning, but I   am too sleepy and groggy to do so  late at night.

4. _________ is what I love most about myself.   While love is too strong a word, i do like my hair.

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Nature Friday is hosted by LLB in Our Backyard.  Simply post a picture of the natural world, and link up!   

Mardi Gras is next week, so the "seasonal trees" will be disappearing soon.

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Today is:

Blame Someone Else Day -- the first Friday the 13th of the year is a day you get a free pass to blame someone else; begun in 1982 by Anne Moeller, of Clio, Michigan, on the Friday the 13th on which her alarm clock failed to go off leading to a cascade of increasingly bad luck events throughout the day

Break-Up Day -- if you are over him/her, don't go through tomorrow pledging love falsely, get out today

Dream of Your Sweetheart Day -- a reminder that if ,you aren't ready for Valentine's Day tomorrow, you'd better get cracking

Employee Legal Awareness Day -- Australia

Get a Different Name Day -- for those who hate their name; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Great Back Yard Bird Count begins -- a four day project for anyone from across North America; count birds for a few minutes a day today, or every day for the next four days, and report in, thus giving a real time idea of where the birds are now     

Ides of February -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also

    Parentalia begins -- through the 21st (honoring divi parentes -- the deified ancestors)

    Lupercalia begins -- through the 15th (to rid the city of evil spirits)

    Orgiastic festival of Juno Februa begins -- through tomorrow

I Value Your Friendship Day -- because you don't want to neglect your friends while we are remembering love this week

Madly in Love With Me Day -- because you have to love "me" before you can love "we"

National Tortellini Day

St. Catherine dei Ricci's Day (Patron of the ill)

Ta-asobi -- Akatsuka Suwa Shrine, Itabashi-ku, Japan (ceremony to pray for a good harvest)

Trndez or Tearnandarach -- Armenian Christian Church (fire celebration, begins in the evening and goes through tomorrow; originally a pagan sun worship celebration, it is now a Candlemas celebration by the OS Calendar)

Birthdays Today:

Mena Suvari, 1979

Robbie Williams, 1974

Kelly Hu, 1968

David Naughton, 1951

Peter Gabriel, 1950

Stockard Channing, 1944

Jerry Springer, 1944

Carol Lynley, 1942

Peter Tork, 1942

Bo Svenson, 1941

George Segal, 1934

Kim Novak, 1933

Chuck Yeager, 1923

Eileen Farrell, 1920

Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1919

Eddie Robinson, 1919

Grant Wood, 1892

Alvin York, 1887

Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman, 1885

Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, 1849

Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 1754

Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, 1682

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Merlin"(Musical), 1983

"Prince Valiant"(Comic strip), 1937

Today in History:

Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, 1258

Jews are expelled from Burgsordf, Switzerland, 1349

The Disfida di Barletta (Challenge of Barletta); Frenchman Charles de la Motte accused Italians of cowardice, and thirteen Italians proceeded to rout 13 Frenchmen in a chivalrous horseback tourney, 1503

St. Augustine, Florida, is founded, becoming the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States, 1566

Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for professing belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, 1633

Treaty of Lisbon:  Spain recognizes Portugal, 1668

The Massacre of Glencoe: 78 members of the clan Macdonald are murdered for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange (William III), 1692

Cholera appears in London, 1832

Work begins on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards, 1867

The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert, 1881

Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial over use of male nudes in a coed art class, 1886

Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector, 1894

English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested, 1907

The Negro National League is formed, 1920

A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, 1935

France tests its first atomic bomb, 1960

Black Sabbath, arguably the very first heavy metal album, is released, 1970

A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky, 1981

An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany, 1990

The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies, 2000

The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", 2004

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations, 2008

At 23:31:30 UTC the Unix system time (time\_t) number reaches 1234567890 seconds, 2009

For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, were able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855, 2011

NASA confirms Mars Opportunity rover's mission, originally set to be 90 days, has ended after 15 years due to a sandstorm damaging communications, 2019

A study published in the journal Science of Arrokoth 2014 MU69 in the Kuiper Belt shows scientists are rethinking how planets are formed, not by violent collisions but by a more gentle clumping, 2020

Archaeologists announce the discovery of oldest known beer factory in Abydos, Egypt, from early Dynastic period 3150 B.C.- 2613 B.C, 2021

A humpback whale is filmed briefly swallowing a man on a kayak off Chilean Patagonia, before releasing him unharmed, 2025

Stalking In a Good Cause (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day and Brian's Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G enjoys going to those big stores where you buy things in bulk or large quantity and for our purpose, we will call it Cramco, since you wonder, once you buy all the stuff, how to cram it in your vehicle.

The problem is said Cramco is a huge warehouse of a place, and with her knees, walking through it not always possible for Ms. G, and for that there are the little electric scooter style shopping carts.

The second problem is there is a limited supply of said scooter carts, and frequently we arrive and there are none in the holding area, and that's when you sit and watch, and as soon as someone riding one comes out of the store, that's your mark; the person with the better ability to walk (in this case, me) follows said person out to his/her car, almost feeling like a stalker but with good intentions, and snags the electric cart before anyone else can, bringing it back to the person who cannot walk the store (in our case, Ms. G).

Ms. G then rides comfortably through the whole length and breadth of this huge place, zipping around like nobody's business, getting birdseed and a rotisserie chicken, Diet Cokes and grapes, cat food, cat litter, bottled water, toilet paper and paper towels and cleaning supplies and whatever else is needed that day.

Meanwhile, i follow behind like a loyal puppy trotting to keep up and push one of the giant regular carts behind her, past twists and turns and sometimes very wide u-turns to get hither and yon and make sure nothing gets forgotten.

Once she has paid and we're on the way to her car, we become someone else's mark as a person sitting in the electric cart holding area sends their more able bodied someone to follow us and around it all goes again.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Mark.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

Mardi Gras gets closer and closer.

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

there is no need to

choose between nature and tech

if choices are wise

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Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful friend West, the mechanic, checked up on Slow-Moe.  It does need more work, but he and #2 Son will do it and what was done to it already is holding.

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Today is:

Abraham Lincoln's Birthday -- US (with a wreath laying ceremony at the rebuilt cabin near where he was born)

American Association for the Advancement of Science Annual Meeting -- Phoenix, AZ, US (a meeting of top scientists; who knows what these people will come up with next, because science is amazing! through Saturday)

Borrowed Days (through the 14th) -- Scottish Highlands (Gaelic Faoilteach, days supposedly borrowed from January, and if the weather is bad, the rest of the year will be good.)

Darwin Day -- International (birth anniversary)

Day Holy to Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Feast of the Incappucciati -- Gradoli, Italy (members of the Confraternity of Purgatory make the rounds of the town gathering food for the souls in Purgatory, which is served at a banquet next week on Ash Wednesday)

Fettiger Donnerstag  -- Swabia, Germany ("greasy Thursday", so called because of the greasy Kuchli cakes and pastries made today to use during carnival before the Lent fast)

Lost Penny Day -- in honor of pennies, the first US coin to commemorate a person; collect all those pennies you have hanging around and donate them to a good cause

Oglethorpe Day/Georgia Day -- Georgia, US (landing of General Oglethorpe at what is now Savannah in 1733)

Pick A New Love Song Day -- internet generated, and why?  Only bother if your old one has worn thin.

Plum Pudding Day -- shouldn't this be at Christmas? Ah, well, i don't set them, i just report them.

Powamu Festival -- Pueblo/Hopi Native Americans (8 day sacred Bean Dance and purification ceremonies; date approximate)

Red Hand Day -- UN (Drawing attention to the plight of child soldiers.)

Runic Half Month of Sigel (Sun) begins

Sacrifice to Dionysos -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

St. Julian the Hospitaler (Patron of boatmen, carnival/circus workers, childless people, clowns, ferrymen, fiddlers, hospitality, hotel keepers/innkeepers, jugglers, knights, pilgrims, repentant murderers, shepherds, travellers, wandering musicians; to obtain lodging while travelling; San Giljan, Malta)

Union Day -- Myanmar

Weiberfastnach -- Cologne, Germany (Women's Carnival, the day the women run the pre-Lent celebration)

Youth Day -- Venezuela

Anniversaries Today:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded, 1909

Michigan State University is founded, 1855

Maria Therese Habsburg marries Emperor Francios I, 1736

Birthdays Today:

Jennifer Stone, 1993

Christina Ricci, 1980

Jesse Spencer, 1979

Naseem Hamed, 1974

Josh Brolin, 1968

Chyna Phillips, 1968

Arsenio Hall, 1955

Joanna Kerns, 1953

Michael McDonald, 1952

Simon MacCorkindale, 1952

Steve Hackett, 1950

Cliff De Young, 1947

Maud Adams, 1945

Ray Manzarek, 1939

Judy Blume, 1938

Joe Don Baker, 1936

Bill Russell, 1934

Arlen Specter, 1930

Joe Garagiola, 1926

Franco Zeffirelli, 1923

Dom DiMaggio, 1917

Lorne Greene, 1915

Ted Mack, 1904

Roy Harris, 1898

Omar Bradley, 1893

Anna Pavlova, 1881

John Llewellyn Lewis, 1880

John Graham Chambers, 1843

Charles Darwin, 1809

Abraham Lincoln, 1809

Louisa Catherine Johnson Adams, 1775

Cotton Mather, 1663

John Winthrop the Younger, 1606

John Winthrop the Elder, 1588

Kujo Yoritsune, Japanese shogun, 1218

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Child's Play"(Play), 1970

"Dracula"(Film), 1931

"Rhapsody In Blue", 1924

"Beggar on Horseback"(Play), 1924

"Fruen Fra Havet(The Lady from the Sea)"(Ibsen Play), 1889

Today in History:

Vasco da Gama sets sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on his second voyage to India, 1502

Santiago, Chile, is founded by Pedro de Valdivia, 1541

A year after claiming the throne of England for nine days, Lady Jane Grey is beheaded for treason, 1554

The Onderlinge van 1719 u.a., the oldest existing life insurance company in the Netherlands is founded, 1719

Englishman James Oglethorpe founds Georgia, the 13th colony of the Thirteen Colonies, and its first city at Savannah, 1733

The first US fugitive slave law, requiring the return of runaway slaves, is passed, 1793

The Teatro di San Carlo, the oldest working opera house in Europe, is destroyed by fire, 1816

The Creek Indian treaty is signed, requiring the tribes to turn over all of their land in Georgia to the government and migrate west by Sept. 1 the following year, 1825

Ecuador annexes the Galapagos Islands, 1832

Official proclamation sets April 15 as last day of grace for US silver coins to circulate in Canada, 1870

The US Congress abolishes bimetallism and authorizes $1 and $3 gold coins, 1873

King David Kalakaua of the Sandwich Islands/Hawaii becomes the first king to visit the US, 1874

The first news dispatch by telephone takes place, between Boston and Salem, Massachusetts, 1877

News of the Battle of Isandlwana, the single greatest defeat for the British Army at the hands of a native army, reaches London, 1879

The New York to Paris auto race, via Alaska and Siberia, begins; George Schuster wins after 88 days behind the wheel, 1908

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) forms, 1909

The last Ch'ing (Manchu) emperor of China, Hsuan T'ung, abdicates, 1912

A meteor creates an impact crater in Sikhote-Alin, in the Soviet Union, 1947

U.S.S.R. launches Venera 1 towards Venus, 1961

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, winner of the Nobel Prize in literature in 1970, is exiled from the Soviet Union, 1974

Carmen Lawrence becomes the first female Premier in Australian history when she becomes Premier of Western Australia, 1990

NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft touchdown in the "saddle" region of 433 Eros becoming the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, 2001

The city of San Francisco, California begins issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples in response to a directive from Mayor Gavin Newsom, 2004

Intel entrepreneur and co-founder of the X-PRIZE Foundation, Peter Diamandis, claims that 50% of US jobs are under threat of being mechanized within 10 years, 2014

Pope Francis  meets Patriarch Kirill in Havana - first meeting between Catholic and Russian Orthodox church heads for nearly 1,000 years, 2016

Emergency spillway at Oroville Dam, California threatens to collapse, 180,00 residents ordered to evacuate, 2017

Tropical cyclone Gita strikes Tonga as a category four cyclone causing widespread damage, 2018

NASA data shows the world has got greener; the Earth is 5% leafier than it was in the early 2000s, mostly due to tree planting in China and intensive farming in India, 2019

Black panthers are seen in Laikipia County, Kenya, for the first time in almost 100 years, 2021

India opens the first part of what will be its longest expressway linking Mumbai with New Delhi, a distance of over 1,386-kilometers (861 miles), 2023

Researchers announce the discovery of an 11,000-year-old Stone Age megastructure used for hunting submerged in Bay of Mecklenburg, off the German coast, 2024