Tail Tale (Feline Friday and Pet Photo Fails), 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!

I'm combining Feline Friday with Pet Photo Fails, hosted by Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries & Meows.     

These kittens have a tale about their tails.  Two have very short, stubby tails with crooks at the end, and the black and white has a regular, although rather shortish, tail, with a definite bend in it.  Trying to get photos of their tails was a tale and let to many photo fails!

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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. My summer bucket list includes ______________ and ____________________.

2. _____________ was one of the best summers that I ever had.

3. I’m getting ready for _________ by _________.

4. _________ immediately makes me _________.

1. My summer bucket list includes   finding a replacement client for Carl's time slot   and   that's really all.

2. Any summer with a vacation   was one of the best summers that I ever had.

3. I’m getting ready for   #2 Son and his family moving   by   spending as much time with them as i can.

4. A deep breath and a short prayer   immediately makes me   calmer, more alert, and focused.

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

A few months ago, some crepe myrtles bloomed, but not all of them.  Now the rest seem to be following, a few at a time.

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Today is:

Alexandra Rose Day -- anniversary of the tradition started by Queen Alexandra on this day in 1912, in which roses and rose emblems were sold in London and the UK, with the money going to smaller charities that are not usually in the national spotlight; also by tradition, the Lord Mayor of London bought the first rose

     Alexandra Rose Charities still exists, but uses other forms of fundraising and now supports healthy eating initiatives among lower income mothers and children

Armed Forces Day -- Azerbaijan

Ashura -- Islam (optional day of fasting that ends at sundown, local observances and national holidays may vary)

Barcode/UPC Day -- the first scanner, at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned its first item, a pack of Wrigley's gum at 8:01am this day in 1974

Beautician's Day -- on a couple of websites, while other list other days; if yours puts the "beauty" in beautician, remember her next time you go have your do tended to

Holiday for the Shemsu of Heru -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Madagascar[Fetin'ny Fahaleovantena]; Somalia

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking -- UN

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture -- UN

National Canoe Day -- Canada

National Chocolate Pudding Day

St. Pelayo's Day (Patron of abandoned people, torture victims; Castro Urdiales, Spain; Torreira, Portugal) 

Sunthorn Phu Day -- Thailand (celebration of the country's best-known Royal Poet)

Ziua Tricolorului -- Romania (Flag Day)

Birthdays Today:

Jennette McCurdy, 1992

Jason Schwartzman, 1980

Derek Jeter, 1974

Gretchen Wilson, 1973

Chris O'Donnell, 1970

Paul Thomas Anderson, 1970

Sean P. Hayes, 1970

Harriet Wheeler, 1963

Greg LeMond, 1961

Chris Isaak, 1956

Claudio Abbado, 1933

Eleanor Parker, 1922

Charlotte Zolotow, 1915

"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, 1914

Colonel Tom Parker, 1909

Peter Lorre, 1904

Pearl S. Buck, 1892

Sir Robert Laird Borden, 1854

Lord Kelvin, 1824

Abner Doubleday, 1819

Arthur Middleton, 1742

Debuting/Premiering Today:

For Your Eyes Only(Film), 1981

"Absurd Person Singular"(Play), 1972

"A Hard Day's Night"(Album, US version, release), 1964

"The Valkyrie"(Opera, WWV 86B), 1870

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire; General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield, 363

The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, German, 1284

Richard III is crowned king of England, 1483

Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima, 1541

W. K. Clarkson patents the first bicycle, 1819

The Christian holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States, 1870

The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity, 1909

The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco, 1945

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor, 1948

The Berlin Airlift begins, 1948

The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships, 1959

The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, 1974

Indira Gandhi establishes emergency rule in India, 1975

The CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, is opened to general public, 1976*

Biologists J. Craig Venter and Francis S. Collins announced that their research groups had mapped the human genome, 2000

Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, the four-thousand-year-old ridge-top monastery in Bhutan catches fire and is destroyed; no relics were lost in the fire because the monastery was under renovation, 2012

Following the military coup in Thailand, people are warned that anyone calling for protest on social media will be prosecuted for sedition, 2014

The city of Falluja is freed from Islamic State control after a month-long campaign by Iraqi forces, 2016

Iceland’s presidential election is won by history professor Guðni Jóhannesson, 2016

The Panama Canal's third set of locks opens for commercial traffic, doubling the Canal’s capacity, 2016

A polio outbreak is confirmed in New Guinea by the World Health Organization, 18 years after it was declared free of the disease, 2018

More than 5,000 smuggled turtles are discovered in luggage at the Kuala Lumpur Airport, Malaysia, bound for India, 2019

Uruguayan President Luis Lacalle Pou declares a water emergency for Montevideo due to drought, 2023

As part of a project to learn ways to build a base on the Moon, the European Space Agency creates Lego-style 'space bricks' by 3D printing blocks out of meteorite dust, 2024

a Meteorite fragment scientists believe to be older than the Earth crashes through the roof of a house in Georgia, United States, 2025

*It is still the tallest in the Western Hemisphere

The Best (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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He gets a charge out of telling the story because it always brings such a laugh.

We'd been out on a date, walking because when you live in a small town just a block from the main street where everything is located, you don't drive to the movie theater, you stroll, shyly holding hands because you know there's gossip, but it's mostly the older ladies nodding approvingly since you both came from "good" families and they've been hoping you'd make a match of it for several years now.

Even the youth pastor has kind of been wondering why you two didn't say anything but just went away to colleges in the same nearby city, coming home for weekends and holidays and simply acting the same as always, but everyone knows and wonders why there's "no progress."

Anyway, the movie was over -- there were only two screens, and showings were the early birds at 4pm and the matinee at 7pm -- and we came out of the now closing-for-the-night theater into a light drizzle which quickly escalated, and though we'd planned for him to walk me straight home, dove into the only open place just to get out of the sudden deluge.

This place always stayed open until one hour after the theater closed in case someone was hungry, and although their menu was limited it would serve the purpose and we ordered and received our meals and sat down, damp but now drying out a bit, and enjoyed our burgers and fries.

That's when it happened, he looked up out of the blue and said, "Will you marry me?" and I stared a minute, smiled and said, "Yes," and we laughed and finished our meal and walked home in the downpour anyway and he loves to tell how the best meal he ever ate was when he proposed to me at our hometown McDonald's.

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

(Please note this is not autobiographical.  My Ms. G stories are about a real client i have, but this story was made up.)     

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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!

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

I knew snagging discount airfare

would bring me to my knees,

I hope I don't throw my back out,

'cause now I need to sneeze!

I'm not sure I'm gonna make it,

I've already got a crick,

Just get us there fast, Mr. Pilot,

and make the landing stick!

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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 i made arrangements to take the day off from Ms. G yesterday, pick up Ms. V after doing my volunteer shift at the cat shelter, and the two of us attended a ladies' testimony luncheon at the church.  It was very uplifting.

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Today is:

Arbor Day -- Philippines

Ashura -- Islam (optional day of fasting that begins at sundown, local observances and national holidays may vary)

Color TV Day -- CBS broadcast the first program in color on this day in 1951

Day of the Seafarer -- The International Maritime Organization (this year’s theme is “Seafarers in the Front Line”)   

Feast of the Optional Holiday -- pick one, and celebrate it or don't, your option!

Festival of Ranting and Vaporing -- sponsored by The Daily Bleed

Global Beatles Day -- read about the meaning of this day, and why this date was picked, here

Gotanshin Sai -- Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto, Japan (festival to commemorate the birth of Lord Sugawara, with ceremonies to ward off summer infections)

Independence Day -- Mozambique(1975)

Leon Day -- Noel spelled backward, the turning poing on the calendar when Christmas starts getting closer; those who make Christmas/Noel gifts need to start thinking about their projects

Ludi Taurii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Games of the Bull, a two-day festival held once every five years)

National Bomb Pop Day -- on the last Thursday in June, right before US Independence Day, kick off the celebration with the original red, white, and blue bomb pops

National Catfish Day

National Fried Okra Day

National Handshake Day -- US; sponsored by professional development companies on the last Thursday in June, encouraging everyone to develop a good, professional handshake

National Strawberry Parfait Day

Slovenian Sovereignty Day / National Day -- Slovenia

Statehood Day -- Croatia

St. Eurosia's Day (a/k/a Orosia; Patron of Jaca, Spain; against bad weather)

     Fiesta de Santa Orosia -- Jaca, Spain

St. Molaug's Day (Patron of Argyll, Scotland; against mental illness)

Anniversaries Today:

Virginia becomes the 10th US State, 1788

Birthdays Today:

Scott Terra, 1987

Linda Cardellini, 1975

Dikembe Mutombo, 1966

George Michael, 1963

Ricky Gervais, 1961

Sonia Sotomayor, 1954

Jimmie Walker, 1949

Phyllis George, 1949

Carly Simon, 1945

Willis Reed, Jr., 1942

June Lockhart, 1925

Sidney Lumet, 1924

Anne Revere, 1903

George Orwell, 1903

Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, 1886

Rose Cecil O'Neill, 1874

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Het Achterhuis. Dagbrieven van 14 juni 1942 tot 1 augustus 1944(First publication of excerpts from Anne Frank's diaries), 1947

"It Pays To Be Ignorant"(Radio), 1942

Today in History:

The Book of Concord or Concordia, the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, is published, 1580 

Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy, from the University of Padua, 1678

Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Hungary, 1741

Lucien B. Smith of Ohio patents the first version of barbed wire, 1867

Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, 1876

Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated the first President of Ireland, 1938

The Diary of Anne Frank is published, 1947

The Berlin airlift begins, 1948

The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, 1950

CBS broadcasts the first color television signal, 1951

First live global satellite television programme – Our World, 1967

Mozambique achieves independence, 1975

Microsoft  is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington, 1981

Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia, 1991

Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada, 1993

An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir, 1997

The Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat erupts resulting in the death of 19 people, 1997

The Harvard School of Health Study concludes that since 1980 the number of adults with diabetes has doubled, 2011

A portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects minority voting rights, is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that Congress has not taken into account the nation's racial progress when singling out certain states for federal oversight, 2013

The US Supreme Court rules that police cannot examine the digital contents of a cell phone without a court order, 2014

Motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson announces it plans to move some production abroad in response to EU retaliatory tariffs, 2018

Mirazur on the French Riviera is crowned the world's best restaurant at a ceremony in Singapore, 2019

The WHO declares the Ebola outbreak in the Congo over, after 2,280 deaths in two years, 2020

Scientists publish findings surrounding the 30,000-year-old intact remains of a baby wooly mammoth found frozen in permafrost in Klondike gold fields in the Yukon, Canada, 2022

China’s Chang’e 6 mission becomes the first to return samples to the Earth from the far side of the moon, 2024

Axiom Mission 4 launches to the International Space Station, with two of its four astronauts being the first from Poland and India since the end of the Cold War, 2025