One of the stranger

One of the stranger happenings around here that is only occasional occurs when Grandpa comes to get the children for the weekend, like he did yesterday.

I actually came downstairs to a kitchen in about the same condition it was in when I went to bed last night.

Oh, the iced tea pitcher is empty on the counter (thanks, Sweetie, I'll get that Blue Fairy right on it), and the cats are lined up acting like dramatic teens that are starving to death as usual. Missing, however, are the sink filling piles of dirty dishes, the mountains of evidence strewn all over showing midnight depredations of underfed refugees that my children wish me to believe they are.

Amazing how easy it is to come down and get right into my day when the kitchen stays clean.

Now if only the children's rooms could learn this trick!


Today is:

Battle Flag Day

Big Yellow Hat Day

Dessalines Day, Haiti

Diwali (Deepavali) -- Hindu, Jain

Festival of Hengest, St. Ives, UK

Four Prunes Day

Gaudy Day a/k/a Wear Something Gaudy Day

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

National Mammography Day

National Pasta Day

Shukaku Matsuri a/k/a Kannamesai Harvest Festival, Japan -- Shinto

St. Audrey's Day Fair, Isle of Ely

St. Ignatius of Antioch's Day

St. John the Dwarf's Day

Sweetest Day -- the Autumn version of Valentine's Day

World Toy Camera Day


Birthdays Today:

Norm MacDonald, 1963
Alan Jackson, 1958
Howard Rollins, 1950
Margot Kidder, 1948
George Wendt, 1948
Ronn Owens, 1945
Evel Knievel, 1938
Jimmy Breslin, 1930
Tom Poston, 1921
Montgomery Clift, 1920
Rita Hayworth, 1918
Arthur Miller, 1915
Jean Arthur, 1905
Spring Byington, 1893


Today in History:

King Cyrus the Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, and releases the Jews from their 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration, BC539
Battle of Neville's Cross, the defeat of King David II of Scotland by Edward III of England, 1346
Crown Prince Fernando of Aragon marries Princess Isabella of Castile, 1469
Composer Johann S. Bach marries his niece Maria Bach, 1707
Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown, 1781
Boston blacks petition the legislature for equal school facilities, 1787
The political rights of Jews are suspended in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1808
Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie), 1888
Guglielmo Marconi's comapany begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Clifden, Ireland, 1907
Albert Einstein arrives in the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany, 1933