Vacation Adventures

The youngest member of our family is my nephew A.J. He is five, and typical of children his age, wants to be out and doing things. While my brothers took the older kids to water parks and to ride go karts, and Sweetie took them to the zoo, Grandpa and I played with A.J.

He has several small stuffed lemurs of various colors. They like to go on walks. So we walked the complex, around the pools, through the gardens, around the tennis courts, up and down countless flights of stairs. Wherever the lemurs led, he and I followed. We found the barbecue pits and every possible way to cut through the parking garages. The game room, where he tries to play pool, was a favorite.

Little ones are so labor intensive, really. I enjoyed mine, but the years were so busy it is sometimes a blur. It's nice to be able to step back into those days for a little while on occasion.


Today is

Bloomsday (Joyce's Ulysses)

Chinese Dragon Boat Festival (on the 5th day of the 5th moon)

Day of the Rat, among Buddhists of Vietnam

Day of Third-Hand Reports and Shaky Evidence -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of the Madonna, Italy

Fresh Veggies Day

Fudge Day

Martyrdom Day of Guru Arjan -- Sikh

National Fudge Day

National Hollerin' Contest Day

Night of the Teardrop, Feast of the Waters of the Nile -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar, celebrating Isis and her sorrows

Scrubwomen Tea Party Day

St. Benno's Day

St. John-Francis Regis' Day (patron of illegitimate children, lace makers, marriage, social workers)

Wish Fullfillment Day

Youth Day, South Africa


Birthdays Today:

Diana DeGarmo, 1987
Phil Mickelson, 1970
Joan Van Ark, 1943
Joyce Carol Oates, 1938
Erich Segal, 1937
Stan Laurel, 1890
Geronimo, 1829


Today in History:

The Zoroastrian Religious Calendar begins with the ascension of Yasdegerd III of Persia, the start of the Persian Era, 632
Battle of Stoke Field, the final engagement of the Wars of the Roses, 1487
British troops take Cape Breton Island, which is now part of Nova Scotia, Canada, 1745
The French surrender Fort Beauséjour to the British, leading to the expulsion of the Acadians, 1755
Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois, 1858
The Victoria Hall theatre panic in Sunderland, England kills 183 children, 1883
John Abbott becomes Canada's third prime minister, 1891
The Ford Motor Company is incorporated, 1903
The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane, 1948
Rudolf Nureyev defects at Le Bourget airport in Paris, 1961
Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space, 1963
The largest single-site hydro-electric power project in Canada starts at Churchill Falls, Labrador, 1972
Soweto uprising: a non-violent march by 15,000 students in Soweto, South Africa turns into days of rioting when police open fire on the crowd and kill 566 children, 1976
Israel complies with UN Security Council Resolution 425 after 22 years of its issuance, which calls on Israel to completely withdraw from Lebanon, 2000