Vinny and Vivi (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!

I was trying to snap a picture of Vinny and only then saw Vivi was "photobombing."  Later, I got a photo of her, too.

They were both a bit shy, but had just had their surgeries and were not feeling their very best.

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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 favorite kind of pie is _________________.

2. I will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by __________________.

3. I was correct when I predicted that _________.

4. I didn’t see _________ coming.

1. My favorite kind of pie is   vegan chocolate "cheezecake".

2. I will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by   taking care of our little Annie, since it's on a Tuesday.

3. I was correct when I predicted that   my Sweetie would spoil Link Linker the Stinker rotten by getting up to let the cat in our out every single time he squeaks in the middle of the night.  Sure enough, the cat wants to be let in and out at least twice every night (and i sleep through it, i'm not spoiling him!).

4. I didn’t see   working as a janitor/housekeeper at my age   coming.

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

We have lots of blooms now, some very showy:

And some very shy:

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It's K-9 Veterans Day!  This is the anniversary of the US Army K-9 Corps, established in 1942.

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

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Today is:

Africa Scout Day -- Africa (celebration of all Boy Scouts and Girl Guides in Africa)

Anniversary of the Election of Pope Francis

Ear Muff Day -- invented by Chester Greenwood in 1873, when he was only 15; if you need them today, keep a good thought for Chester

Girl Scout Sabbath -- US (encouraging Girl Scouts to wear their uniforms to synagogue services and represent their troop to their congregations; through tomorrow, the final day of Girl Scout Week in the US)

Good Samaritan Involvement Day -- emphasizing the importance of unselfish aid to others

Kasuga Matsuri -- Kasuga Grand Shrine, Nara, Japan (Monkey Festival)

National Coconut Tort Day

National Jewel Day -- for no other reason than that someone who liked jewels wanted a holiday for them

National Open An Umbrella Indoors Day -- an experiment in whether or not bad luck ensues

Shabbat Across America/Canada -- sponsored by the National Jewish Out-reach Program, encouraging Conservative, Orthodox, Reform, and Reconstructionist Jews to observe the Sabbath from sundown tonight until sundown tomorrow   

St. Ansovinus of Camerino (Patron protector of crops)

Uranus Day -- the planet was discovered this day in 1781

World Sleep Day® -- sponsored by the World Association of Sleep Medicine, aiming to lessen the burdens of sleep problems on society; this year's theme is "Sleep Well, Live Better" 

Birthdays Today:

Emile Hirsch, 1985

Rachael Bella, 1984

Will Clark, 1964

Adam Clayton, 1960

Glenne Headly, 1957

Dana Delany, 1956

Deborah Raffin, 1953

Charo, 1951

William H. Macy, 1950

Neil Sedaka, 1939

Helen "Callaghan" Candaele Saint Aubin, 1929

William Casey, 1913

L. Ron Hubbard. 1911

Sammy Kaye, 1910

Walter Annenberg, 1908

Percival Lowell, 1855

Lorenzo Delmonico, 1813

Joseph Priestly, 1733

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Larry King Show"(TV), 1983

"Same Time, Next Year"(Play), 1975

"Brigadoon"(Musical), 1947

"Three Musketeers"(Musical), 1928

"The Pink Lady"(Musical), 1911

"Marie Magdalena"(Opera), 1846

"Médée"(Opera), 1797

Today in History:

Twelfth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, 607

Spanish explorer Cortez lands in Mexico, 1519

The Spanish fleet occupies Djerba, at Tripoli, 1560

Cambridge College is renamed Harvard for clergyman John Harvard, 1639

Jews are denied the right to build a synagogue in New Amsterdam, 1656

Massachusetts gains title to Maine for $6,000, 1677

The twenty-seventh recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet, 1759

William Herschel discovers Uranus, 1781

The Uncle Sam cartoon figure makes its debut in the NY Lantern weekly, 1852

The US Senate begins Pres Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial, 1868

Oxford defeats Cambridge in their first golf match, 1878

The Siege of Khartoum, Sudan begins, Madhist Sudanese against the Egyptian, British, and loyalist Sudanese forces, 1884

In France the length of the workday for women and children is limited to 11 hours by law, 1900

Mongolia (formerly Outer Mongolia) declares independence from China, 1921

A law is passed in the US state of Tennessee prohibiting the teaching of evolution, 1925

Clyde Tombaugh announces the discovery of Pluto at Lowell Observatory, 1930

Rotaract begins as a youth program of Rotary International, 1968

Apollo 9 returns safely to Earth after testing the Lunar Module, 1969

The Seikan Tunnel, the longest undersea tunnel in the world, opens between Aomori and Hakodate, Japan, 1988

India's Missionaries of Charity chooses Sister Nirmala to succeed Mother Teresa as its leader, 1997

Gold prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange hit $1,000 per ounce for the first time, 2008

A Harvard Medical School study claims that red meat increases the risk of death and has additional negative health implications, 2012

In Greenland, the Siumut party wins the parliamentary election, setting up Aleqa Hammond to become the country's first female Prime Minister, 2013

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio is elected the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis, 2013

Scientists announce they have concluded that a large ocean exists beneath the icy surface of Ganymede, the largest moon of Jupiter; the discovery was made by using the Hubble Space Telescope to observe aurora movements at the moon's poles, 2014

The home of civil rights activists Medgar and Myrlie Evers is established as a national monument in Jackson, Mississippi, by a land bill signed President Trump, 2019

Covic19 is declared a national emergency in the US, 2020

According to a new report, vinyl records outsell CSs for the first time since 1987, 2023

Getting to the Gutters (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day, and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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Ms. G has become concerned about the gutters on her house as one seems to have rusted through in a spot and is dripping right where she doesn't want dripping to happen, and of course there’s no money to get them professionally cleared out, or repaired, or (heaven forbid) replaced.

Thus yesterday, in spite of the fact i am perfectly comfortable getting on a roof and cleaning a gutter (who do you think does it here?), i found myself steadying the ladder while she of the bad back and knees was up there trying to make headway with getting some of the huge amount of material which has gathered out of one particular corner.

Eventually she had me pass up the hose, and stand at the spigot to turn it on and off as she tried to float some of the material out toward the downspout.

At one point, the water spewed back at her and she looked at me with chagrin and said, "Well, I just had a bath!"

Of course, not much moved, and the downspout is now clogged making matters a bit worse, but a good bit of the material is out of the main area she wanted cleared.

Afterward, of course, it was my job to use the specially designated outdoor broom to sweep away what she had cleared by simply throwing it over her shoulder to land right on the part of the porch where she had just blown the leaves away, and i'm not so sure we did much good after all.

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

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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!

Ready for St. Patrick's Day.

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

Gracious mercy, sakes alive!

We ordered the appetizer for five,

but this could be shared by ten,

we'll take half home to have again.

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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, by the hardest, the front brakes on Slow-Moe are done.  The back brakes will be done soon, but the front were most important.

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Today is:

Arbor Day -- China; Taiwan

Donkey Appreciation Day -- formerly celebrated, but the lowly donkey is no longer as indispensable as he was; if you share my fondness for beasts of burden, celebrate it anyway

Girl Scouts Birthday -- US

Kronprinsessans Namnsdag -- Sweden (Name Day of HRH Crown Princess Victoria, the Heir Apparent; an official flag day)

Lesser Eleusinian Mysteries -- Ancient Greek Calendar (three day festival, dates approximate; celebrates the marriage of Kore and Dionysos)

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria -- in 415, she was murdered for the three crimes of being intelligent, female, and pagan

National Baked Scallops Day

National Equal Pay Day -- US (the date of how far into 2026 a US woman had to work to earn what a US man did in 2025)  

National Day -- Mauritius (anniversary of independence in 1968)

Plant a Flower Day -- sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation; now's a good time to give wildlife friendly perennials a head start, starting them indoors if you have to 

St. Gregory the Great's Day (Patron of choir boys, educators, masons, musicians, popes, schoolchildren, singers, stonemasons, stone cutters, students, and teachers; England; Kercem, Malta; Legazpi, Philippines; Montone, Italy; San Gregorio nelle Alpi, Italy; West Indies; against gout and plague)

     note that Pope St. Gregory is also celebrated on Sept. 3, the date he was elected pope

     Graekarismessa (Mass of St. Gregory) -- Torshavn, Faroe Islands (traditional day on which the oystercatcher, their symbolic national bird, returns)

     Gregoru Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (Gregory's Day, similar to groundhog day for weather prediction)

St. Seraphina's Day (Patron of the disabled and handicapped, and of spinners)

University Mental Health and Wellbeing Day -- UK (to focus on ensuring the positive wellbeing of people with mental health difficulties)        

World Day Against Cyber Censorship -- sponsored by Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International

World Kidney Day  

Youth Day -- Zambia

Anniversaries Today:

Mick Jagger marries Bianca Perez Morena de Macias, 1971

Paul McCartney marries Linda Louise Eastman, 1969

Birthdays Today:

Frank Catalano, 1978

Aaron Eckhart, 1968

David Daniels, 1966

Darryl Strawberry, 1962

Marlon Jackson, 1957

Rob Cohen, 1949

James Taylor, 1948

Liza Minnelli, 1946

Al Jarreau, 1940

Barbara Feldon, 1933

Andrew Young, 1932

Edward Albee, 1928

Wally Schirra, 1923

Jack Kerouac, 1922

Gordon MacRae, 1921

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, 1881

Simon Newcomb, 1835

Charles Cunningham Boycott, 1832

Clement Studebaker, 1821

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Moses und Aaron"(Opera), 1954

"Fervaal"(Opera; d'Indy Op. 40), 1897

"Simon Boccanegra"(Opera), 1857

Today in History:

Martyrdom of Hypatia of Alexandria, philosopher, 415

Witiges, king of the Ostrogoths ends his siege of Rome and retreats to Ravenna, leaving the city in the hands of the victorious Roman general, Belisarius, 538

Orvieto, Italy, rules it will behead and burn Jewish-Christian couples, 1350

Jews are expelled from Syria, 1496

New Jersey becomes an English colony, 1664

The first steam engine in America installed, to pump water from a mine, 1755

Andrew Watson makes his Scotland debut as the world's first black international football player and captain, 1881

In Vicksburg, Mississippi, Coca-Cola is sold in bottles for the first time, 1894

The first main line electric train in UK, from Liverpool to Southport, begins running, 1904

The Girl Guides (later renamed the Girl Scouts of the USA) are founded in the United States, by Juliette Gordon Lowe, 1912

The foundation stone of the new Australian capital in Canberra is laid, 1913

Mohandas Gandhi begins 200m (300km) march protesting British salt tax, 1930

The Truman Doctrine is proclaimed to help stem the spread of Communism, 1947

The Church of England ordains its first female priests, 1994

Former Warsaw Pact members the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO, 1999

Financier Bernard Madoff plead guilty in New York to scamming $18 billion, the largest in Wall Street history, 2009

The U.S. Census Bureau reports the world now has 7 billion people, 2012

JOGMEC becomes the first to successfully extract methane hydrate from seabed deposits, 2013

Research shows Chinese cites have decreased pollution by 32 percent on average in just four years, 2018

Tens of thousands of farmers from Indian state Maharashtra end protests over loan waivers, prices and land rights after promises from state officials and walking 167km to Mumbai, 2018

Researchers claim more births are resulting in twins than ever before in history, with almost 1 in 42 pregnancies resulting in multiples, 2021

After forming on Feb. 6, Cyclone Freddy makes landfall for a second time in central Mozambique, Madagascar and Malawi, setting records as the longest-lasting cyclone in the southern hemisphere, 2023