Living the Life (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins, Nature Friday, and Pet Photo Fails

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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!

These two may be in the shelter, but they're not worried, they are living the life.  Most of the time i was there, even when i opened their cage to take a photo more than once, they just did this.

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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 plans for August include _________ and _________.

2. I am a type _________ personality.

3. If _________ were a currency, I would be rich.

4. I can do a good impersonation of _________.

1. My plans for August include   work   and   trying not to be outdoors any more than necessary, it's too hot.

2. I am a type   weird   personality.

3. If   messes   were a currency, I would be rich.

 

4. I can do a good impersonation of   Grandma's laugh, and also Witch Hazel's (the cartoon character).

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

I've never seen one of these palms put out a shoot with what I guess is fruit or seeds.  It was new to me.

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Pet Photo Fails is hosted by Melissa's Mochas, Mysteries & Meows.     

The one time i woke these two taking the above photos, they blinked sleepily and then went back to their nap, and the photo i took after was not centered at all.  We do not eartip the kittens!

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It's International Mutt Day!  Because mutts deserve a day just as much as the purebred dogs do.

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

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Today is:

Always Live Better Than Yesterday Day

Cotton Candy Day

Feast of St. Ignatius Loyola -- (Founder of the Jesuits, especially revered in Spain; Patron of retreats, soldiers, and the Society of Jesus which he founded; Basque country; Bilbao, Spain; Bizkaia, Spain; Gipuzkoa, Spain; Guipuscoa, Spain; Guipúzcoa, Spain; Spiritual Exercises (by Pope Pius XI); Vizcaya, Spain)

Hachinohe Sansha Taisai -- Hachinohe City, Japan (one of the most elaborate neputa festivals, through Aug. 4)

Hot August Nights -- Reno, NV, US (celebrate cars and music of the 50's and 60's at the largest classic car and nostalgia event in the United States; through Sunday)

Jump for Jellybeans Day

Ka Hae Hawai'i Day -- Hawai'i (State Flag Day)

Lammas Eve / Lughnassad Eve

Lithasblot -- Norse harvest festival with a "blot", or offering, to the gods, celebrated through tomorrow

Loki and Sigyn's Day - Asatru / Norse Pagan (aka Devoted Couples Day)

Make Homemade Ice Cream and Invite the Neighbors Over Day -- summer's almost over, make the most of the days we have left!

Mary Prince Day -- Bermuda (Second Day of Cup Match)

Moby Dick Marathon -- aboard the last US wooden whaler, the Charles W. Morgan, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, US (through tomorrow, from noon to noon, a marathon reading of Moby Dick in honor of Melville's birthday)

Mutts' Day -- because mutts deserve a day as much as purebreeds do!

National Raspberry Cake Day

St. Germanus' Day (Patron of Auxerre, France)

St. Joseph of Arimathea's Day -- Eastern Orthodox Church (Patron of funeral directors)

System Administrator Appreciation Day -- the day to thank your system administrator for keeping your computer up and running

Talk in an Elevator Day -- help break the taboo!

Uncommon Instruments Day    

World Ranger Day -- the International Ranger Federation wants us to honor wildlife rangers around the world as they work to protect the world's natural and cultural treasures, and remember those killed in the line of duty

Birthdays Today

Eric Lively, 1981

Dean Cain, 1966

J.K. Rowling, 1965

Jim Corr, 1964

Wesley Snipes, 1962

Bill Berry, 1958

Michael Biehn, 1956

Barry Van Dyke, 1951

Evonne Goolagong, 1951

Gary Lewis, 1946

Geraldine Chaplin, 1944

Susan Flannery, 1943

France Nuyen, 1939

Ted Cassidy, 1932

Don Murray, 1929

Curt Gowdy, 1919

Milton Friedman, 1912

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Living Daylights(Film), 1987

"The Shadow"(Radio), 1930

Today in History

Mark Antony achieves a minor victory over Octavian's forces, but most of his army subsequently deserts, leading to his suicide, BC30

The oldest recorded eruption of Mt. Fuji, 781

Thessalonica falls to the Arabs, who destroy the city, 904

The Jews are expelled from Spain when the Alhambra Decree takes effect, 1492

On his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus 

becomes the first European to discover the island of Trinidad, 1498

Aurangzeb is proclaimed Moghul emperor of India, 1658

The Treaty of Breda ends the Second Anglo-Dutch War, 1667

Daniel Defoe is placed in a pillory for the crime of seditious libel after publishing a politically satirical pamphlet, but is pelted with flowers, 1703

The U.S. Second Continental Congress passes a resolution that the services of Marquis de Lafayette "be accepted, and that, in consideration of his zeal, illustrious family and connexions, he have the rank and commission of major-general of the United States," 1777

First U.S. patent is issued to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a potash process, 1790

Christchurch, New Zealand is chartered as a city, 1856

The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia, 1865

The radio mystery program The Shadow is aired for the first time, 1930

Archaeologists discover engraved gold and silver plates from King Darius in Persepolis, 1938

First ascent of K2, by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio, 1954

At Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts, the first All-Star Game tie in major league baseball history occurs when the game is stopped in the 9th inning because of rain, 1961

The last day of the officially sanctioned rum ration in the Royal Navy, 1970

Apollo 15 astronauts become the first to ride in a lunar rover, 1971

NASA releases the famous Face on Mars photo, 1976

A rare, class F4 tornado rips through Edmonton, Alberta, killing 27 people and causing $330 million in damage, 1987

Georgia joins the United Nations, 1992

Fidel Castro hands over power temporarily to brother Raúl Castro, 2006

Operation Banner, the presence of the British Army in Northern Ireland, and the longest-running British Army operation ever, comes to an end, 2007

U.S. Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps wins a record 19th Olympic medal, with gold in the 4x200metres freestyle relay, 2012

Facebook discloses and removes a Russian-linked network of site pages that are attempting to interfere in American politics, 2018

American swimming superstar Katie Ledecky wins the women's 800m gold for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympics in Tokyo, 2021

The McKinney fire at Klamath National Forest, becomes California's largest fire of the year, 2022

The exact location of Fort Kormantine, built in 1631 by the English as their first slave fort in Africa, is found in Fort Amsterdam, Ghana, 2023

A 5,000-year-old large-scale farming settlement is discovered at Oued Beht, Morocco, confirming North Africa's significance during the Neolithic Age, 2024

AdTech company InMobi forgets to renew a SSL certificate for their consent management platform, bringing ad serving to a halt on much of the open internet for a few hours, 2025

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

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Ms. G is a person who can spin a good yarn.

Not that the stories are not true, mind you, they are, but she can add details and asides and comments which can make a story go from, "The dog chased the cat," to "Cindy's dog, and she had no business getting a dog, she doesn't know what she's doing or how to handle it, and I told her she had holes in her fence and she got that guy Sean to 'fix' it, but of course he's an idiot and can't fix anything and she should have hired Mike like I told her to, anyway, the dog saw a cat and broke out through the supposedly 'fixed' fence and went chasing it, and she and I had to spend hours driving around asking people if they'd seen the dog, finally finding it in an old lady's back yard and she was yelling 'cause she's scared of dogs..." and you get the picture of what one of her stories would be like.

Yesterday it was all about the camper and the boat and her property up in Mississippi to where she will retire someday, at least she hopes she can retire someday and move there, and meanwhile she's got to keep working to pay the bills, and she has to take the boat up there today and bring the camper back tomorrow because she's not giving up on going fishing at one of the lakes up there when she retires but she no longer wants the camper and she may have a buyer.

Thus when i was done with the regular chores yesterday, we made room in the truck and stowed things she will need for an overnight trip to the country, because she's not going to go and come back on the same day, including piles of mail she wants to sort through, all her meds and CPAP, food, and all the stuff she's been meaning to bring up there when she goes but she hasn't had a chance to go up there lately.

Then we had to carefully water all the plants which need watering because we're supposed to have rain soon but who knows, and make sure the cats were set up with food and water for overnight, and get the boat hitched to the truck, which took a few times back and forth with the truck to get the hitch in the exact right spot and she's glad i'm strong enough to turn the crank to lift and lower the boat trailer part of it and we got it correctly on there on the second try.

When i finally left, she'd made me watch to make sure the lights on the boat trailer were all working and she drove around the block twice to be certain it was all holding correctly since you don't want to find out it's wrong at 65mph on the freeway, and she was heading back in the house to pack just enough clothes for an overnight stay and to yell at April cat to leave her mother Ms. Sassy Floofypants alone while she was gone, and i hope she can get the boat off the hitch tomorrow morning and the camper on and get back without help, but i'll find out soon enough.

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

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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 wonder if she knows,

I'm trying to stay quite cool,

I'm going to propose but don't want

to end feeling like a fool.

I wonder if he knows,

I really love him a lot,

if he were to pop the question

I'd say yes on the spot!

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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 #2 Son managed, with much fussing and fuming and a screw which would try to hide, to get the A/C working in GusGus die Fledermaus (the Ford).  #1 Son now has wheels again which won't cause him to pass out at the wheel.

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It's International Friendship Day as declared by the UN.

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

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Today is:

Dia del Amigo -- Paraguay

Earth Overshoot Day -- according to the Global Footprint Network, this is the date on which humanity has exhausted the Earth's budget of resources for the year 

Emancipation Day -- Bermuda (first day of the Cup Match)

Father-in-Law Day -- unsponsored and unclaimed, but fathers-in-law deserve respect, too

Feast of the Throne -- Morocco; Western Sahara

Festival of Fortuna Huiusque Diei -- Ancient Roman Calendar ("Fortune of the Present Day")

Friendship Day/International Day of Friendship -- UN

Herbal Ballooning -- Fairy Calendar

Independence Day -- Vanuatu(1980)

Kronia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of Kronos as god of the harvest; date approximate)

Martyr's Day -- South Sudan

National Cheesecake Day

National Chili Dog Day

National Support Public Education Day -- Change.org wants this to be an official day for support of US public education systems

Paperback Day -- anniversary of the 1935 publication of Penguin #1, Arial, A Life of Shelley, by Andre Maurois in London, the first successful series of paperback books

Sts. Abdon and Sennen's Day (Patrons of barrel makers and coopers; the ashes of ferns cut and burned on this day will keep away insects and unwanted guests)

Sumiyoshi Matsuri -- Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine, Osaka, Japan (Osaka's last major summer festival, through Aug. 1)

Urs Festival of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai -- Sindh, Pakistan (the grand three-day festival of Sindh, celebrating this famous Sundhi Sufi scholar, mystic, and saint)

Anniversaries Today

Zara Anne Elizabeth Phillips, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, marries Michael Tindall, 2011

Birthdays Today

Hope Solo, 1981

Jaime Pressly, 1977

Misty May-Treanor, 1977

Hilary Swank, 1974

Tom Green, 1971

Simon Baker, 1969

Vivica A. Fox, 1964

Lisa Kudrow, 1963

Alton Brown, 1962

Laurence Fishburne, 1961

Kate Bush, 1958

Delta Burke, 1956

Ken Olin, 1954

Jean Reno, 1948

Arnold Schwarzenegger, 1947

William Atherton, 1947

David Sanborn, 1945

Paul Anka, 1941

Peter Bogdanovich, 1939

Buddy Guy, 1936

Allan Huber “Bud” Selig, 1934

Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, 1933

Thomas Sowell, 1930

Sid Krofft, 1929

Christine McGuire, 1926

Henry W. Bloch, 1922

Henry Spencer Moore, 1898

Casey Stengel, 1891

Henry Ford, 1863

Thorstein Bunde Veblen, 1857

Georg Wilhelm von Siemens, 1855

Emily Bronte, 1818

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Santa Barbara"(TV), 1984

"Death Valley Days"(Radio), 1930

Today in History

City of Baghdad is founded, 762

The First Defenestration of Prague, 1419

Christopher Columbus lands at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage, 1502

At Ticonderoga (now Crown Point, New York), Samuel de Champlain shoots and kills two Iroquois chiefs, which set the tone for French-Iroquois relations for the next one hundred years, 1608

In Jamestown, Virginia, the first European style representative assembly in the Americas, the House of Burgesses, convenes for the first time, 1619

An earthquake in Naples, Italy kills 10,000 people, 1629

Baltimore, Maryland is founded, 1729

Bartolomeo Rastrelli presents the newly-built Catherine Palace to Empress Elizabeth and her courtiers, 1756

First ascent of Grand Combin, one of the highest summits in the Alps,1859

Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe signs the Treaty of Box Elder, agreeing to stop the harassment of emigrant trails in southern Idaho and northern Utah, 1863

In Montevideo, Uruguay wins the first Football World Cup, 1930

Premiere of Walt Disney's Flowers and Trees, the first cartoon short to use Technicolor and the first Academy Award winning cartoon short, 1932

A joint resolution of the U.S. Congress is signed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower, authorizing In God We Trust as the U.S. national motto, 1956

US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, establishing Medicare and Medicaid, 1965

David Scott and James Irwin on Apollo Lunar Module module, Falcon, land with first Lunar Rover on the moon, 1971

Six Royal Canadian Army Cadets are killed and fifty-four injured in an accidental grenade blast at CFB Valcartier Cadet Camp, 1974

Jimmy Hoffa disappears, 1975

In Mexico, the last 'old style' Volkswagen Beetle rolls off the assembly line, 2003

Israel and Palestinian officials agree to resume negotiations for a peace agreement, 2013

The first centenary of the WWI Battle of Passchendaele is marked at a ceremony at Menin Gate in Ypres, Belgium, 2017

NASA launches to Mars its Perseverance rover and Ingenuity helicopter aboard a V 541 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, 2020

Amazon becomes the second largest private employer in the US, after Walmart, 2021

An 8.8 magnitude earthquake strikes off Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, triggering tsunami warnings across the Pacific Ocean, 2025

High-resolution images reveal intricate tattoos on a 2,500-year-old female Siberian 'ice mummy', 2025