One Quick Hit

This long weekend is a great example of how the "One Quick Hit" works.

The last couple of weeks have been relatively quiet, holiday-wise. The days just pop along, one after another, passing by quietly as rosary beads slipping through my grandmother's fingers while she silently prayed.

Then, this extra long weekend, Carnival, Valentines, President's Day, Chinese New Year, no school because of snow, Lundi Gras, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, the Amplified retreat for the kids, school out for these holidays next week, a quick visit to the doctor for an ear infection for Bigger Girl before they shut for the weekend -- Mercy!

My calendar tends toward this. Blank areas, with huge tangles only in spots, where everything is scheduled to happen all at once. Then, again, serenity, or at least as serene as things can be with this house and household.

At least I got the snacks made for the kids' retreat in the church kitchen while we were there cleaning it, so I could just leave them up there. As I said, it all happens at once.


Today is:

Blessing of the Salmon Nets, Northumberland

Carnaval, Rio de Janiero (Through the 16th)

Confession Day

Dream of Your Sweetheart Day

Downer's Grove Ice Sculpting Festival, through the 14th

Festival Sundiata, Seattle, Washington (celebrates the history and legend of King Sundiata Keita of the Mali Empire in West Africa)

Get a Different Name Day

Employee Legal Awareness Day

Madly in Love With Me Day

National Tortini Day

Parentalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring the soul of your father)

St. Augustine's Day

St. Catherine dei Ricci's Day

St. Priscilla's Day

Yuma Crossing Day, Yuma, Arizona


Birthdays Today:

Mena Suvari, 1979
Robbie Williams, 1974
Kelly Hu, 1968
Peter Gabriel, 1950
Stockard Channing, 1944
Jerry Springer, 1944
Peter Tork, 1942
George Segal, 1934
Kim Novak, 1933
Chuck Yeager, 1923
Eileen Farrell, 1920
Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1919
Grant Wood, 1892
Alvin York, 1887
Bess Truman, 1885
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 1754


Today in History:

Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, 1258
Jews are expelled from Burgsordf, Switzerland, 1349
The Disfida di Barletta (Challenge of Barletta); Frenchman Charles de la Motte accused Italians of cowardice, and thirteen Italians proceeded to rout 13 Frenchmen in a chivalrous horseback tourney, 1503
St. Augustine, Florida, is founded, becoming the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States, 1566
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for professing belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, 1633
Treaty of Lisbon: Spain recognizes Portugal, 1668
The Massacre of Glencoe: 78 members of the clan Macdonald are murdered for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange (William III), 1692
Cholera appears in London, 1832
Work begins on the covering of the Senne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards, 1880
The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert, 1881
Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial over use of male nudes in a coed art class, 1886
English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested, 1907