Splashing With Boots (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Meeting a Friend

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

Someone loves her rain boots.  Annie wakes in the morning and the first word she says is, "Boots!" because she wants them on before breakfast!

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.     

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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Meeting a Friend.

Two men had been great friends

most of their 90 years,

and as one was near the end,

the other asked through tears,

"My friend, I have a small request,

please help me if you can,

somehow, send me a message

from heaven's glory land.

"We love the game of baseball,

please come back and tell me, bro,

if there's baseball in heaven,

I'd really like to know."   

His good friend did promise to try

and died the very next day,

and two days after came back in a dream

and here's what he had to say:

"My friend I have some news for you,

some is good and some is great,

there is baseball in heaven,

and we'll meet tomorrow, you pitch at eight!"

Future themes are:

March 9 Meeting a Friend (Today!)

March 16 Obsidian

March 23 Croissant

Mar. 30 The Moon Tonight

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

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Today is:

Armored Warships Day -- the first battle between armored warships, the Monitor and the Merrimac, was this day in 1862

Australia Celebrations:

     Adelaide Cup Day -- SA

     Labour Day -- VIC

     Canberra Day -- ACT

     Eight Hours Day -- Tas (a/k/a Labour Day)

Baron Bliss Day -- Belize

Commonwealth Day -- Commonwealth of Nations (the 54 Countries which today celebrate their ties to one another; His Majesty the King will issue a special message to all Commonwealth Nations citizens through their respective Presidents and Prime Ministers)

Day to Mourn Slavery -- commemorates the day slavery was outlawed worldwide in 1927, and to mourn that it still exists

Eid Al Moalim -- Lebanon (Teacher's Day)

Get Over It Day™ -- halfway between Valentines and April Fools, a day to just get over something or someone that is bugging you 

National Crabmeat Day

National Heroes and Benefactors Day -- Belize

National Meatball Day

Panic Day -- a day in which to run around in a panic and tell everyone you can't take it any more, to get it all out of your system, i guess; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Saitousai -- Kashima-shi, Ibaraki-ken, Japan (festival to pray for good harvest that dates back to the Nara period of 710-794, and still includes traditional dress)

St. Catherine of Bologna's Day (Patron of art, artists, Bologna Academy of Art, liberal arts, painters; against temptation)

St. Dominic Savio's Day (Patron of boys, children's choirs, choir boys, choirs, falsely accused people, juvenile delinquents, and Pueri Cantores)

St. Frances of Rome's Day (Patron of automobile drivers/motorists, cabbies/taxi drivers, lay people, people ridiculed for their piety, Roman housewives, widows)

Strinennia -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (festival to call birds and spring to come back)

Takaosan Hiwatari Matsuri -- Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan  (fire walking festival, usually on this date but can vary)

Taranaki Provincial Anniversary Day -- Taranaki, New Zealand

Workplace Napping Day -- on this, the Monday after DST begins, show your boss the studies that highlight the benefit of power naps

    some sites call it National Napping Day; either way, lie down and be counted!

Anniversaries Today:

Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais, 1796

Gustav Mahler marries Alma Schindler, 1902

Birthdays Today:

Emmanuel Lewis, 1971

Juliette Binoche, 1964

Terence John "Terry" Mulholland, 1963

Linda Fiorentino, 1960

Jeffrey Osborne, 1948

David Hume Kennerly, 1947

Bobby Fischer, 1943

Trish Van Devere, 1943

Raul Julia, 1940

Marty Ingels, 1936

Mickey Gilley, 1936

Joyce Van Patten, 1934

Yuri Gagarin, 1934

Keely Smith, 1932

Ornette Coleman, 1930

Wally Bronner, 1927

Irene Papas, 1926

Mickey Spillane, 1918

Samuel Barber, 1910

Will Greer, 1902

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, 1890

Amerigo Vespucci, 1454

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Family"(TV), 1976

"Rising of the Moon"(Play), 1907

"Hamlet"(Opera), 1868

"Die lustigen Weiber von Windsor/The Merry Wives of Windsor"(Opera), 1849 

"Ernani"(Opera), 1844

"Nabucco"(Opera), 1842

"Horace"(Play), 1640

Today in History:

Liu Che, posthumously known as Emperor Wu of Han, assumes the throne over the Han Dynasty of China, BC141

First known mention of Lithuania, in the annals of the monastery of Quedlinburg, 1009

Jews are expelled from Carintha Austria, 1496

Nicolaus Copernicus makes his first recorded astronomical observation, 1497

Marten Luther preaches his first Invocavit sermon, 1522

Kissing in public is banned in Naples, punishable by death, 1562

Publication of the economics book The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, 1776

Prussian government limits work week for children to 51 hours, 1839

The Amistad Ruling:  The US Supreme Court rules that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally, and were to be set free, 1841

The first documented discovery of gold in California occurred at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush, 1842

Albert Potts of Philadelphia patents the street mailbox, 1858

The Westmoreland County Coal Strike, involving 15,000 coal miners 

represented by the United Mine Workers, begins, 1910

Pancho Villa leads nearly 500 Mexican raiders in an attack against Columbus, New Mexico, 1916

Pink's War: The first Royal Air Force operation conducted independently of the British Army or Royal Navy begins, 1925

President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to the Congress, the first of his New Deal policies, 1932

CBS television broadcasts the See It Now episode, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy", produced by Fred Friendly, in which Edward R. Murrow criticizes the senator, 1954

The Barbie doll makes its debut at the American International Toy Fair in New York, 1959

Dr. Antonia Novello is sworn in as Surgeon General of the United States, becoming the first female and Hispanic American to serve in that position, 1990

Observers in China, Mongolia and eastern Siberia are treated to a rare double feature as an eclipse permits Comet Hale-Bopp to be seen during the day, 1997

Space Shuttle Discovery makes its final landing after 39 flights, 2011

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) spacecraft transmits images that for the very first time, allow scientists to create a 3D reconstruction of ancient water channels below the surface of Mars, 2013

Italy announces it is locking down the whole country due to a spike in Covid19 cases, 2020

China and Russia announce plans to collaborate in building a research station on the Moon, 2021

Notebooks and sketches by naturalist Charles Darwin are mysteriously returned to the Cambridge University Library from which they were stolen 22 years earlier, 2023

The Recording Industry Association of America publishes it's annual report for 2022, noting vinyl album sales topped CD sales for the first time since 1983, 2023

The Colossal squid (Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni), a species identified in 1925, is filmed for the first time by scientists from the Schmidt Ocean Institute, 2025

Not Good With Numbers (Cajun Joke), Sunday Selections, and Sunday Selfie, Mr. Leaping Lizard

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Just because Sandee of Comedy Plus is no longer hosting a Silly Sunday blog hop, do not expect me to quit telling Cajun jokes, especially as it has now become a habit

#2 Son drove us down to NOLA yesterday and when he was done at work, came back to visit for a bit.  Grandma and Grandpa wished him a happy birthday a day early, and he said, "Yeah, I'm thirty now, with a wife, a kid, and another on the way.  Time to face up to it, I'm an adult!"

Grandma answered, "You're 30!  Do you know how old that makes me?" and we all laughed.

Boudreaux be havin' him a birthday, an' when dey be ribbin' him 'bout gettin' older, he done say, "Well, age jes' be a number."

An' Thibodeaux done ax, "What for dey say dat, you t'ink?"

An' Boudreaux say, "Mais, it be because once you get to dat age, you cain't remember de number!"

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Sunday Selections was started as a way for bloggers to use photos that might otherwise just languish in their files.  The rules have been relaxed, and it is now simply a showcase for your photos, new or old, good or bad, although nothing rude, please.  Our friend River is hosting, and other participants often include Charlotte/Mother Owl, Andrew, and WiseWebWoman.  

Flowers, mostly azaleas (someone was asking the other day what they were, they are actually not trees but azalea bushes), a bird and two sky shots, all i really had time to catch this week.

Photobomb courtesy of Mr. Black, a feral in Ms. G's care.

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Warning:  Some of my readers have said they do not like reptiles and may wish to scroll past this section quickly.

This week, Mr. Leapin' Lizard wants to join the Kitties Blue at The Cat On My Head for their Sunday Selfies Blog Hop.  He was on his way through Grandma and Grandpa's back yard, but stopped a moment to let me take a couple of snaps.

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Today is:

Daylight Saving Time -- if your area is observing this, it switched over at two o'clock this morning; if you are just finding this out, you are already late!

     Check Your Smoke Alarms and Carbon Monoxide Detectors Day -- make sure the batteries are fresh and that they are in good working order

Girl Scout Sunday -- US (encouraging Girl Scouts to wear their uniforms to church services and represent their troop to their congregations; the first day of Girl Scout Week in the US)

Girls Write Now Day -- on International Women's Day, encouraging girls as the makers of future history to put pen to paper and make their voices heard

International Women's Day -- also celebrated as:

     Day for Women's Rights and International Peace -- UN

     Mother's Day -- Afghanistan; Albania; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Belarus; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Bulgaria; Kazakhstan; Kosovo; Laos; Macedonia; Montenegro; Republic of Moldova; Russia; Serbia; Slovenia; Tajikistan; Vietnam

National Peanut Cluster Day

National Proofreading Day -- to promote accuracy in written messages

Revolution Day -- Syria

St. John of God's Day (Patron of alcoholics, bookbinders, booksellers, dying people, firefighters, heart patients, hospitals, hospital workers, nurses, publishers, printers, sick people; Tultepec, Mexico; against alcoholism, bodily ills and sickness)

World Glaucoma Week begins -- to expand global awareness of the Silent Thief of Sight https://www.worldglaucomaweek.org/

Anniversary Today:

Harry Hamlin marries Nicolette Sheridan, 1991

Birthdays Today:

Marcia Newby, 23, 1988

Bob, Clint, and Dave Moffatt, 1984

Kat Von D, 1982

James Van der Beek, 1977

Freddie Prinze, Jr., 1976

Kathy Ireland, 1963

Camryn Manheim, 1961

Aidan Quinn, 1959

James Edward "Jim" Rice, 1953

Carole Bayer Sager, 1947

Micky Dolenz, 1945

Lynn Redgrave, 1943

Susan Clark, 1940

Raynoma Gordy Singleton, 1937

Cyd Charisse, 1923

Alan Hale, Jr., 1921

Claire Trevor, 1909

Louise Beavers, 1902

Kenneth Grahame, 1859

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., 1841

Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, 1714

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Mary, Mary"(Play), 1961

Symphony No. 2 in D major(Sibelius Op. 43), 1901

"Don Quixote"(Straus Op. 35), 1898

"Emilia Galotti"(Play), 1772

Today in History:

William Claxton completes his translation from French into English of Mirror of the World; as England's first printer, he will soon turn this into England's first illustrated print book, 1481

John Casor becomes the first legally-recognized slave in what will be the United States, 1655

Anne Stuart, sister of Mary II, becomes Queen regnant of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1702

Thomas Paine's "African Slavery in America," the first article in the U.S. calling for the emancipation of slaves and the abolition of slavery is published, 1775

Gnadenhütten massacre: Ninety-six Native Americans in Gnadenhutten, Ohio, who had converted to Christianity are killed by Pennsylvania militiamen in retaliation for raids carried out by other Indians, 1782

The New York Stock Exchange is founded, 1817

The first train crosses the first US railway suspension bridge at Niagara Falls, 1855

Everett Horton of Connecticut patents a fishing rod of telescoping steel tubes, 1887

International Women's Day is launched in Copenhagen, Denmark, by Clara Zetkin, leader of the Women's Office for the Social Democratic Party in Germany, 1911

Mahatma Gandhi starts civil disobedience in India, 1930

Daytona Beach Road Course holds their first oval stock car race, 1936

Phyllis M Daley is the first black nurse sworn-in as US Navy ensign, 1945

Ghana joins the United Nations, 1957

The first radio episode of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams, is transmitted on BBC Radio 4, 1978

Philips demonstrates the Compact Disc publicly for the first time, 1979

Martina Navratilova becomes the 1st tennis player to earn $10 million, 1986

The Supreme Court of the United States upholds the murder convictions of Timothy McVeigh for the Oklahoma City bombing, 1999

The first comprehensive map of the debris field of the RMS Titanic is revealed, 2012

The Aboriginal DNA study by University of Adelaide shows that the Aboriginal population dates back 50,000 years from one migration, 2017

Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon formally apologises to the 4,000 Scots, mostly women, accused of witchcraft between 1563 and 1736, 2022

Danish scientists reveal the discovery of the oldest known reference to the Norse god Odin, from a fifth century gold disc from Vindelev hoard, Western Denmark, 2023

A report by the Pentagon concerning their UFO investigations since 1945 finds no evidence of aliens or extraterrestrial intelligence, 2024