Last Minute Ramblings

Just a couple of random thoughts from my abnormal brain.

When did we go from saying that a restaurants' food was just like home made to saying, about something we made at home, that it tastes as good as any we've had in a restaurant? Sweetie's best compliment about my turkey salad sandwiches was that they tasted as good as any he's ever had when he went out to eat.

I know that I am supposed to think that the years are going by too fast. That's what is supposed to happen as you get older. (After all, when you are 8 years old, a year is only 1/8th of your life span, and when you are 48 it is 1/48th, so of course it seems to have gone by more quickly.) But when did it start happening to kids that they feel the same way? My Little Girl, age 11, is already complaining about how fast time flies, and the other kids are agreeing with her.

Side note: Yes, time is going fast. She is my "baby", and we measured her on the door frame yesterday. She is now 1/16 of an inch taller than I am. I know, I'm only 5'0", so that is not a very great feat to outdo me, but it is official now. All of my children are taller than I am. Yippee!

A couple of health stories that did not get covered much last year:

The Harvard Medical School Nurses Health Study has determined that yo-yo dieting is not bad for your health -- you should go ahead and try to lose weight, if you want to, even if you have lost and regained before.

On the other hand, the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED), Binge Eating Disorder Association (BEDA), Eating Disorder Coalition (EDC), International Association for Eating Disorder Professionals (IADEP), and National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA) all feel that if you are eating healthy, exercising, feel good, and have general good health, you don't really need to worry about the number on the scale or the BMI.

The Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York City study of 120,000 post-menopausal women, which followed their diets for over 8 years, has determined that eating red meat does not raise your chances of getting breast cancer. So go ahead and have some red meat now and then, as part of that overall healthy eating plan.

A quote for the day: Never miss an opportunity to make others happy, even if you have to leave them alone in order to do it. ~Author Unknown

Enjoy the full moon tonight, and I pray for all a blessed New Year.


Today is:

Baal Fire Festival, Allendale, Northumberland

Check Your Smoke Alarms Day

Cowbellion de Rakin Revel, Mobile, Alabama (One of the first "Mystik Krewes" founded in 1830 to celebrate Mardi Gras.)

Fairy Eve's Year News -- Fairy Calendar

Festival Day, Montserrat

Full Long Night Moon (A "blue moon", one of the rare months that has two full moons in it!) -- Also, a partial lunar eclipse will be visible in Europe, Africa, and Asia with this full moon.

Harvest Day, Benin

Hogmanay Day, Scotland

Independence Day, Comoros

Kwanzaa, Day 6, Creativity

Make Up Your Mind Day

Namahge, Japan (devil appearing holiday)

National Champagne Day

New Year's Eve

No Interruptions Day

No Resolution Day

Noche de Pedimento (wishing night)

Omisoka Day, Japan

Procrastinator's Day -- you have to make up your mind

Republic Day, Congo

Revolution Day, Ghana

Saint Sylvester's Day - Belgium, Germany, France and Switzerland

Samoan Fire Dance, Samoa

Seventh Day of Christmas

Solidarity Day, Azerbaijan

Watch Night -- Christian

World Peace Meditation Day (International observance of one hour beginning 12:00 PM GMT, focusing thought and energy on peace.)

You're All Done Day (More like "all done in" if you are like me!)


Birthdays Today:

Joe McIntyre, 1972
Val Kilmer, 1959
Bebe Neuwirth, 1958
Donna Summer, 1948
Tim Matheson, 1947
Barbara Carrera, 1945
John Denver, 1943
Ben Kingsley, 1943
Andy Summers, 1942
Sarah Miles, 1941
Anthony Hopkins, 1937
Odetta, 1930
Simon Wiesenthal, 1908
George C. Marshall, 1880
Henri Matisse, 1869


Today in History:


80,000 Vandals, Alans and Suebians attack the Rhine at Mainz, crossing into and beginning the invation of Gallia, 406
Byzantine General Belisarius completes the conquest of Sicily, defeating the Ostrogothic garrison of Syracuse, and ending his consulship for the year, 535
Ch'an monk Ho-tse Shen-hui interred in a stupa built in China, 765
James I of Aragon the Conqueror enters Medina Mayurqa (now known as Palma, Spain) thus consummating the Christian conquest of the island of Majorca, 1229
100,000 Jews expelled from Sicily, 1492
The British East India Company chartered, 1600
The first Huguenots depart France to Cape of Good Hope, 1687
A window tax is imposed in England, causing many shopkeepers to brick up their windows to avoid the tax, 1695
Rhode Island establishes wage & price controls to curb inflation: Limit is 70 cents a day for carpenters, 42 cents for tailors, 1776
Queen Victoria chooses Ottawa as new capital of Canada, 1857
The cornerstone is laid for Honolulu, Hawai'i's Iolani Palace, the only royal palace in the US, 1879
Edison gives 1st public demonstration of his incandescent lamp, 1879
Ellis Island (NYC) opens as a US immigration depot, 1890
Brooklyn's last day as a city, it incorporates into NYC (1/1/1898), 1897
Boers & British army sign peace treaty, 1902
The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square, then known as Longacre Square, in New York, New York, 1904
For the first time a ball drops at Times Square to signal the new year, 1907
The last San Francisco firehorses are retired, 1921
Dr R N Harger's "drunkometer," the first breath test, is introduced in Indiana, 1938