Not a whole lot to blog about right now. If you think that is going to stop me, you are mistaken, however.

Because he can't really do anything more for me, and my insurance has "run out" in that i have to pay for everything out of pocket for the next however much it is that we don't have, i canceled my appointment this week with the orthopedic hand specialist. My regularly scheduled yearly checkup with my primary doc is this week, that will be enough.

Our church is planning the "Becoming Beautiful" evening for the kindergarten through 5th grade girls again, and once again i will be presiding, with Miss R, over the kitchen. We've decided on taco salad, with lots of healthy choices of veggies for them to have with it, and lean ground turkey or grilled chicken as their choices of meat. Like most kids, they will probably just eat the chips and cheese, but at least we can offer them the good stuff. You can lead a kid away from candy, but you cannot make them eat rabbit food. Or something like that.

We have run out of kitten chow again, and the animals that are the most upset about it are the adult cats that like to sneak around and eat it! At their annual check up last week, all of our cats had gained weight except Kida, the one who is on steroids for asthma. The only one with an excuse to gain. Go figure. The kittens are happy to eat the adult food and do so all of the time anyway, but it costs me when they do, so i need to make a run to the shelter for more kitten food.

There were no adoptions this weekend, so we still have 9 fosters in the house. I need to check with the vet to see when i scheduled these guys for surgery, and try to fit Ming in, as we couldn't tell if she was sick last time we tried. Every time they tried to listen to her lungs, she would purr so much they couldn't hear anything. One of the advantages of having other pets, i guess, you can actually listen to their heart or lungs and not have to try to sneak up on them and catch them when they aren't making a noise that masks what you want to hear.

Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, really outdid himself this weekend. We are officially cleared of leftovers for the time being. Which is a good thing and a bad thing. It means nothing to fall back on if i have a bad day, but it also means no bacon grazing on the lettuce in the back where i won't catch it.

Speaking of bacon and such things, my fridge, after being repaired last year, is working a bit too well. Stuff at the back, and especially on the left side looking in, tends to get frozen. Probably i had been turning it colder as the coil was going bad last year, and i've never readjusted it back down. Something to attend to before we lose anything that should get that cold. So far, it's just frozen some meat that needed to be kept that cold anyway, and put some ice crystals on a couple of things that ice didn't hurt.

Okay, okay, i'll quit rambling. Maybe something more tomorrow, but no promises.


Today is:

Alactis Fair -- Aymara Indians, Bolivia (offerings to the god of prosperity)

Beer Can Appreciation Day

Compliment Day

Economic Liberation Day

Eskimo Pie Day

Fairy-Four Paganalia -- Fairy Calendar

National Peanut Butter Day

Paul Pitcher Day (So called because it is the eve of the Celebration of St. Paul's Conversion on the road to Damascus. Cornish tin miners would traditionally set up a water pitcher in a public place and throw stones at it to destroy it. A replacement pitcher was then bought and filled with beer, which was drunk and replenished through the day. These miners were great inventors for reasons to celebrate, and they did this to rebel against the rule that only water was to be consumed during the work day.)

Sementivae, in honor of Ceres and Terra, begins -- Roman Empire

St. Babylas' Day

St. Francis de Sales' Day (patron of journalists, editors, writers; against deafness)

Tricknology Day (celebrating the clever tricks of a ruling class conspiracy)


Anniversaries Today:

Popeye meets Olive Oyl, 1929 (in Elzie Segar's Thimble Theater comic strip)


Birthdays Today:

Tatyana Ali, 1979
Mary Lou Retton, 1968
Nastassia Kinski, 1960
Jools Holland, 1958
Yakov Smirnoff, 1951
John Belushi, 1949
Warren Zevon, 1947
Sharon Tate, 1943
Neil Diamond, 1941
Aaron Neville, 1941
Ray Stevens, 1939
Maria Tallchief, 1925
Jerry Maren, 1920
Oral Roberts, 1918
Ernest Borgnine, 1917
Granny D (formerly Granny Haddock, or Ethel Doris Haddock, political activist)
Edith Wharton, 1862


Today in History:

Caligula, known for his cruel despotism, is assassinated and succeeded by his uncle Claudius, 41
Connecticut colony organizes under Fundamental Orders, 1639
The first Jewish doctor in US, Jacob Lumbrozo, arrives in Maryland, 1656
Henry Knox arrives at Cambridge, Massachusetts with the artillery that he has transported from Fort Ticonderoga, 1776
The University of Calcutta is formally founded as the first full-fledged university in south Asia,1857
The Romania principality arises under King Alexander Cuza, with Bucharest as the capital, 1862
General Baden-Powell's publication of Scouting for Boys starts the Boy Scouts movement, 1908
The Gregorian calendar introduced in Russia by decree of the Council of People's Commissars effective from February 14(NS), 1918
Vincent Massey is sworn in as the first Canadian-born Governor-General of Canada, 1952
A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost, 1961
Jackie Robinson is elected to Baseball Hall of Fame, 1962
Japanese Sgt. Shoichi Yokoi is found hiding in a Guam jungle, where he had been since the end of World War II, 1972
Soviet satellite Cosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered, 1978
The first Apple Macintosh goes on sale, 1984
Voyager 2 passes within 81,500 km (50,680 miles) of Uranus, 1986