Friday, May 15, 2026

Morgan (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins, Nature Friday, and Flashback 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!


Morgan volunteered to pose for photos and did his best.  Not bad for a first time, although he moved enough it was hard to keep him centered.












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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. I think the word or phrase ____________________ is overused.


2. I am embarrassed to admit that I _______________________.


3. I wish I could convince _________ to _________.


4. I could _________ even if I were blindfolded.




1. I think the word or phrase   "at the end of the day"   is overused.


2. I am embarrassed to admit that I   have been studying Spanish for a couple of years now and can still only speak a little, and not conversationally.  I seem to have a mental block.


3. I wish I could convince   Grandma   to   quit getting out of bed by herself, she keeps falling.


4. I could   clean a toilet   even if I were blindfolded.




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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 lovely spring morning, we were taking a walk.








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Flashback Friday is hosted by FiveSibes.  Come hop along memory lane with us!  


Kida was helping a foster kitten by doing quality control on the kitten food, sampling to make sure it was good.





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Today is Endangered Species Day!  


A day to foster awareness of the growing threats faced by endangered species and spotlight conservation efforts, as well as promote actions to help save species from extinction.     


Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.         


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Today is:


Aoi Matsuri -- Kyoto, Japan (Hollyhock Festival, a pageant reproducing ancient imperial processions)


Bike to Work Day 2026 -- the League of American Bicyclists have urged you to celebrate this day the third Friday of May ever since 1956   


Cold Sophie's Day (5th Ice Saint; according to Nordic legend, this day may be very cold, but there will be no more frosts after this)


Flip Your Mattress Day -- because it's a good thing to do


Hyperemisis Gravidarum Awareness Day -- bringing attention to morning sickness that becomes life-threatening    


Ides of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances

     Feast of Maia and Vesta

     Mercuralia -- festival for Mercury

     Sacrifice day to the Tiber River


Independence Day -- Paraguay(1811)


International Conscientious Objectors' Day


International Day of Families -- UN


International MPS Awareness Day 


International Virtual Assistants' Day -- acknowledging the dedication, experience, expertise, and determination of virtual professionals    


Kan Phuetchamongkhon -- Thailand (Royal Plowing and Farmers Day) 6th day 4th lunar month


La Corsa del Ceri -- Gubbio, Italy (festival on the eve of the saint day of the city's patron, St. Ubaldo)


Mother's Day -- Paraguay


National Chocolate Chip Day


National Defense Transportation Day -- US (remembering the contributions of people working in the transportation industries)


National Pizza Party Day -- as declared by Garlic Jim's Famous Gourmet Pizza, on the 3rd Friday of May; Garlic Jim's holds a contest for school students to nominate their favorite teacher, and the winning teacher gets a free pizza party for the class on this day


National Safety Dose Day -- cannot confirm they sponsor a day any more, but the Safety Dose people still want us to remember that more is not necessarily better when it comes to taking medicines, and to dose them correctly for children


Nylon Stockings Day -- they went on sale at stores around the US this date in 1940


Over the Rainbow Day -- birth anniversary of Lyman Frank Baum


Police Officer/Peace Officer Memorial Day -- US (National Association of Chiefs of Police sponsor the main memorial event at the American Police Hall of Fame and Museum in Titusville, FL, but there may be services where you are also)


St. Dymphna's Day (Patron of epileptics, family happiness, incest victims, martyrs, mental asylums/hospitals, mental health caregivers and professionals/psychiatrists/therapists, mentally ill people, nervous disorders, neurological disorders, possessed people, princesses, rape victims, runaways, sleepwalkers, those who have lost parents; against sleepwalking, epilepsy, insanity, mental disorders, mental illness)


St. Hallvard's Day (Patron of Oslo; protector of innocence and virtue)


St. Isidore of Madrid's Day (a/k/a Isidore the Farmer; Patron of agricultural workers/farm workers/farmers/field hands/husbandmen/ranchers, day laborers, livestock, rural communities; Angono, Philippines; Asturias, Cebu, Philippines; Bukidnon, Mindanao, Philippines; Carampa, Peru; Castalla, Spain; Cuz Cuz, Chile; Digos, Philippines; Estepona, Spain; La Celba, Honduras; Leon, Spain; Lima, Peru; Lucban, Philippines; Madrid, Spain; Malaybalay, Philippines, diocese of; Morong, Philippines; Nabas, Philippines; Orotava, Spain; Pulilan, Philippines; Pulupandan, Philippines; Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico; San Isidro, Argentina; Saragossa, Spain; Sariaya, Philippines; Seville, Spain; Tavalera, Philippines; Tayabas, Philippines; United States National Rural Life Conference; against the death of children)

     Carabao Festival -- San Isidro, Pulilan, and Angono, Philippines (second day and main festival; on St. Isidore of Madrid's Day; the farming communities celebrate their beasts of burden and have them blessed)

     Municipal Holiday -- Madrid

     San Isidro Day -- Mexico


St. Sophia of Rome's Day (considered by some to be among the Ice Saints, and invoked for protection against frost)


Straw Hat Day -- just as you don't wear white after Labor Day, you don't wear straw hats before today, the unofficial start of summer and the official start of straw hat season    


Teacher's Day -- Mexico; South Korea


Tuberous Sclerosis Global Awareness Day  


Yom Yerushalayim -- Israel (Jerusalem Day; began sunset yesterday, ends at nightfall)



Anniversaries Today:


Mary, Queen of Scots, marries James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, 1567

Airmail service begins between NYC, Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia, 1918



Birthdays Today:


Jamie-Lynn Sigler, 1981

David Krumholtz, 1978

David Charvet, 1972

Sam Trammell, 1971

Emmit Smith, 1969

Giselle Fernandez, 1961

Dan Patrick, 1956

Lee Horsley, 1955

George Brett, 1953

Chazz Palminteri, 1951

Brian Eno, 1948

David Cronenberg, 1943

Lainie Kazan, 1942

Madeleine Albright, 1937

Trini Lopez, 1937

Anna Maria Alberghetti, 1936

Jasper Johns, 1930

Richard Avedon, 1923

Eddy Arnold, 1918

Max Frisch, 1911

James Mason, 1909

Joseph Cotten, 1905

Abraham Zapruder, 1905

Katherine Anne Porter, 1890

Arthur Schnitzler, 1862

Ellen Louise Axson Wilson, 1860

Pierre Curie, 1859

L. Frank Baum, 1856



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"Esclarmonde"(Opera), 1889



Today in History:


Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is sentenced to death, 1536

Bartholomew Gosnold becomes the first European to see Cape Cod, 1602

Johannes Kepler confirms his discovery of the third law of planetary motion, 1618

James Puckle, a London lawyer, patents the world's first machine gun, 1718

The Seven Years' War begins when Great Britain declares war on France, 1756

Diego Marín Aguilera flies a glider for "about 360 meters", at a height of 5-6 meters, during one of the first attempted flights, 1793

George III survives two assassination attempts in one day, 1800

Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1817

Francis Baily observes "Baily's beads" during an annular eclipse, 1836

Rama IV is crowned King of Thailand (The King and I), 1851

Opening of the present Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, 1858

Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman's Suffrage Association, 1869

Las Vegas, Nevada, is founded, 1905

The United States Supreme Court  declares Standard Oil to be an "unreasonable" monopoly under the Sherman Antitrust Act and orders the company to be broken up, 1911

The Winnipeg General Strike begins; by 11:00 a.m., almost the whole working population of Winnipeg, Manitoba had walked off the job, 1919

In an attempted Coup d'état, the Prime Minister of Japan Inukai Tsuyoshi is killed, 1932

The Moscow Metro is opened to public, 1935

The Soviet Union launches Sputnik 3, 1958

Mercury-Atlas 9 astronaut L. Gordon Cooper becomes the first American to spend more than a day in space, 1963

President Richard Nixon appoints Anna Mae Hays and Elizabeth P. Hoisington the first female United States Army Generals, 1970

Portrait of Doctor Gachet by Vincent van Gogh is sold for a record $82.5 million, the most expensive painting at the time, 1990

Edith Cresson becomes France's first female prime minister, 1991

California becomes the second U.S. state after Massachusetts in 2004 to legalize same-sex marriage, 2008

Jessica Watson, age 17, becomes the youngest person to sail, non-stop and unassisted around the world solo, 2010

U.S. scientists develop a device that can generate electricity from genetically-engineered viruses; these piezoelectric materials are a step toward the development of personal power generators, 2012

The UN Security Council condemns North Korea's missile tests, 2017

The US birth rate hits a 32 year low, including a record low level of teens giving birth, 2019

The journal Nature publishes the results of a study from China’s Chang’e-4 Moon rover that suggests the asteroid impact that created the giant crater on the Moon’s far side was so great as to crack the crust and reach the mantle below, 2019

China lands its Zhurong rover on Utopia Planitia, Mars, as part of the Tianwen-1 mission, 2021

Finland's government says it intends to apply to join NATO, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, ending decades of neutrality, 2022

Surrealist artist Leonora Carrington becomes the most valuable British-born  female artist at auction when her painting "Les Distractions de Dagobert" sells for $28.5million in New York, 2024

Thursday, May 14, 2026

Happier This Way (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G, like any of us, can be a puzzle.


She claims she wants to be able to stay home and take care of some of her own many projects, and wants to be able to move out to her retirement place in the country soon enough to still have the health to enjoy it.


She has invested in both a pontoon boat and an RV with the stated intent of being able to get away and just go fish and enjoy herself.


She has a house and now a storage unit full of things she says she wants to post online and sell to make money so she will have extra toward her retirement.


Instead most of her time is taken up with anything and everything else, her real estate business, tracking down the provenience on some stained glass she has acquired so she can give it to someone who is restoring an older building if it's appropriate to the era, keeping track of every neighbor and how they are doing and what they need, volunteering, being available to many family members and friends any time they call and helping them, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.


When i showed up yesterday to work she "wanted to get a good bit done" and instead, after we'd gone to the car wash and Cramco, then done a few quick chores around the house, she went rushing off to yet another appointment; i think she says she wants to be home tending her own things, but really gets a kick out of being busy and being needed and isn't going to actually slow down any time soon, she’s happier this way.



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


(Editor's note:  Last week, someone asked about the car the pastor gave us, if it had a name.  At the time, i had not yet "met" the car or driven it.  Now i have, and its name is Lawrence, after Brother Lawrence who wrote The Practice of the Presence of God After all, it belonged to a pastor and it feels steeped in peace and prayer.)



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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!


If i'd had a fence like this when my kids were little, they'd have used it as a ladder and been out of the yard in no time!





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







I always wished to be able to fly

reach right out and touch the sky

and now I'm up here I have found

from now on my feet stay on the ground!



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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 the paperwork is done on Lawrence the Honda and i was able to read the eye chart and get the "needs glasses" endorsement taken off my driving license.






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Today is:


Ascension Day/Feast of the Ascension -- Western Christian; related observances

     Procession of the Holy Blood -- Belgium (religious historical procession recalling the adventurous crusaders, especially Count Thierry of Alsace, who was supposed to have carried back relics of the Holy Blood)


Carabao Festival -- Pulilan, Philippines (to honor their patron, St. Isidro [St. Isadore the Farmer], hundreds of carabaos [water buffalo] are dressed up and paraded, and eventually blessed in front of the church; through tomorrow)


Dance Like a Chicken Day -- no idea why today, but i'm waiting for wedding season


Drunk Driving Memorial Day -- not sponsored by MADD, or anyone else i can find, but let's all work and pray for the day drunk driving by anyone is just a bad memory    


Gesta de Independencia -- Paraguay


Izumo-taisha Shrine Grand Festival -- Izumo-taisha, Japan (through tomorrow)


King Father Norodom Sihamoni's Birthday -- Cambodia


Marshmallow Fluff Day -- Mr. Durkee and Mr. Mower announced, on this day in 1920, that they were in business producing this sweet confection


Mars Invictus Festival -- Ancient Roman Calendar


Midnight Sun at North Cape -- Norway (the sun will not set until July 30)


National Buttermilk Biscuit Day


National Unification Day -- Liberia


President Kamuzu Banda's Birthday -- Malawi


Runic Half-Month Ing (expansive energy) commences


"Stars and Stripes Forever" Day -- first public performance of the composition was this day in 1897


St. Bonifatius' Day (4th Ice Saint)


St. Matthias the Apostle's Day (Patron of carpenters, reformed alcoholics, tailors; Gary, Indiana; Great Falls-Billings, Montana; against alcoholism and smallpox)


Underground America Day -- Malcolm Wells wants us to imagine what our landscapes would look like if more of our buildings were under ground


Yom Yerushalayim -- Israel (Jerusalem Day; begins at sunset)



Anniversaries Today:


Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark marries Mary Donaldson, 2004

Carlsbad Caverns National Park established, NM, US, 1930



Birthdays Today:


Miranda Cosgrove, 1993

Amber Tamblyn, 1983

Dan Auerbach, 1979

Martine McCutdcheon, 1976

Cate Blanchett, 1969

Danny Wood, 1969

Jose Da Silveira, 1965

Suzy Kolber, 1964

Tim Roth, 1961

Valerie Still, 1961

Ronan Tynan, 1960

David Byrne, 1952

Robert Zemechis, 1951

Meg Foster, 1948

George Lucas, 1944

Jack Bruce, 1943

Atanasio "Tony" Perez, 1942

Bobby Darin, 1936

Laszlo Kovacs, 1933

Patrice Munsel, 1925

Otto Klemperer, 1885

Robert Owen, 1771

Thomas Gainsborough, 1727

Gabrile Daniel Fahrenheit, 1686



Debuting/Premiering Today:


"The Kids Are Alright"(Documentary), 1979

“It’s Time for Ernie"(Ernie Kovacs' TV premier), 1951

"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd: A Requiem for those we love"(Hindemith composition), 1946

"Die Hebriden/The Hebrides"(Mendelssohn Op. 26), 1832



Today in History:


Jamestown, Virginia is settled as an English colony, 1607

Edward Jenner administers the first smallpox  vaccination, 1796

The Lewis and Clark expedition sets out, 1804

Paraguay  gains independence from Spain, 1811

The first edition of the London Illustrated Times is published, 1842

Gail Borden patents her process for condensed milk, 1853

Vaseline, the first petroleum jelly, is marketed, 1878

Lina Medina becomes the world's youngest confirmed mother in medical history at the age of five, 1939

Israel is declared to be an independent state and a provisional government is established; immediately after the declaration, Israel is attacked by the neighboring Arab states, triggering the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, 1948

Kuwait joins the United Nations, 1963

Skylab, the United States' first space station, is launched, 1973

The Institute for War documents publishes Anne Franks complete diary, 1986

The last episode of Seinfeld airs, with commercials going for $2M per 30 seconds, 1998

Scientists at Stanford University invent a working bionic eye the is powered only by focused light; the eye could eventually restore the sight of millions of people suffering from macular degeneration and retinal pigmentosa, 2012

Gabriel Medina becomes the first surfer ever to land the move called a "Backflip" in competition, 2016

The successful transfer of memory in snails as achieved by scientists from University of California is published in the journal "eNeuro", 2018

Chinese mountain climber and double amputee Xia Boyu reaches the summit of Mt Everest, 2018

Wikipedia confirms that the Republic of China has banned all versions of its site, 2019

Surrealist artist Man Ray's photograph "Le Violon d'Ingres" becomes the most expensive ever sold at auction when it goes for $12.4 million, 2022

Cyclone Mocha makes landfall on Rakhine coast, Myanmar, near southern border of Bangladesh, the second strongest storm ever recorded in the North Indian Ocean, 2023

Thailand's military-backed government loses out to other parties in their General Election with the Move Forward Party securing 36% of the vote, 2023