Butter, Stress, and Getting Stuff Done

My brother, the children's Uncle P, will not be with us on the family trip, as he has recently moved to New York City.

Before he moved, he cleared out his house, gave us lots of stuff, and emptied his refrigerator into ours.

Included in the fridge stuff are these cute little half sticks of butter. It makes sense, as he is single, that someone would come up with half sticks, but i had never seen them before. I buy the four pack of 1-lb. blocks at the warehouse store, and we go through it like lightening. I'm not sure why i am enamored with these, but they tickled my fancy.

So i hid them in the back of the fridge until all of the other butter was used. Then i realized at the store that i was about to spend money on more butter when we still had those little sticks in there. We will leave in a few days. There isn't time to use up much butter, and those little sticks will do for us until then and for The Mouth while he is here.

When i thought of using them, part of me wanted to pout. At that point i reasoned with myself, i don't need to horde those small half sticks of butter as if there will never be any more of them again. It's something i tend to do with things i like, and part of the reason my house is often a mess, and the reason messy is part of my name. Getting rid of stuff, even using up the "cute" little butter sticks, finds a resistant spot in my brain.

After a bit of a laugh at myself, i decided not to buy more butter before we leave. The half sticks will do. It does bring up the stress, though, of getting everything done and others adding extra to it.

The Mouth, for example, has decided that he has to go on an out of town trip himself before we go. He has to take one of our vehicles, as he doesn't trust his to go that far. He has to get money from us for it, the money i was going to pay him to stay here.

He has to leave at 4am, so he has to come over here at 3:55am to get the key. Yes, i will be up, as i am usually an early riser, but this will be the morning after we cleaned the church late the night before. The money, i couldn't get to the bank before he would need it, so Sweetie, who has to work until 1am, had to take a break during the work day to get to the bank.

It would be so much easier to get everything done if there weren't more and more things piling on, bringing more stress.

This vacation is going to be thoroughly enjoyed, if i live that long!


Today is:

Bonza Bottler Day

Feast of the Incappucciati, Italy (In Gradoli, near Viterbo, the members of the Confraternity of Purgatory make the rounds of the town dressed in traditional hooded robes, bearing a banner and walking to the beat of a drum to collect foodstuffs in the name of the souls in purgatory; the food is then served at the banquet on Ash Wednesday.)

Heart-Accelerating Sodium-Enriched Cold Cuts Day

Hina Matsuri -- Japan (Dolls Festival, a/k/a Girl's Day)

I Want You to be Happy Day

If Pets Had Thumbs Day

International Omega-3 Awareness Day

Liberation Day -- Bulgaria

Maha Shivaratri -- Hindu

Marriage of the March Nymphs -- Fairy Calendar

Martyr's Day -- Malawi

National Anthem Day -- US

National Mulled Wine Day

Peach Blossom Day - coincides with the start of the Peach Blossom Festival in Hunan, China, where you celebrate the beauty of peach blossoms, and girls celebrate being girls

Stop Bad Service Day

St. Cunegund (patron of Luxembourg, Lithuania)

St. Guignole (patron against impotence, infertility)

St. Winnal's Day (First comes David, Next comes Chad, Then comes Winnal, roaring mad! -- Traditional English saying about the storminess of March 3, St. Winnal's Day)

Thanks to the Maple Festival -- Iroquois (date approximate, held when sap began flowing, usually early March)


Birthdays Today:

Jackie Joyner-Kersee, 1962
Herschel Walker, 1962
Ira Glass, 1959
Doc Watson, 1923
Diana Barrymore, 1921
James Doohan, 1920
Jean Harlow, 1911
Alexander Graham Bell, 1847


Anniversaries Today:

Colegio Militar of Portugal is founded, 1803
Florida becomes the 27th US state, 1845


Today in History:

The Statute of Rhuddlan incorporates the Principality of Wales into England, 1284
The Olympic Theatre, designed by Andrea Palladio, is inaugurated in Vicenza, 1585
The first amphibious landing of the United States Marine Corps begins the Battle of Nassau, 1776
The first US Jewish governor, David Emanuel, takes office in Georgia, 1801
The US declares war on Algeria for taking US prisoners and demanding tribute, 1815
The Missouri Compromise, an attempt to keep the US half Slave and half free, is passed by the US Congress, 1820
The Battle of Pelee Island takes place, Ontario, Canada, 1838
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, the founding member of the HSBC Group, opens, 1865
The first ever organized indoor game of ice hockey is played in Montreal, Canada as recorded in The Montreal Gazette, 1875
Georges Bizet's opera Carmen receives its première at the Opéra Comique in Paris, 1875
Bulgaria regains its independence from Ottoman Empire, 1878
Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood becomes the first female attorney to argue before the US Supreme Court, 1879
The US Geological Survey is created, 1879
Anne Sullivan arrives to begin teaching Helen Keller, 1887
Tsar Nicholas II of Russia agrees to create an elected assembly, the Duma, 1905
Toronto's Dr Banting & Dr Best announce discovery of insulin, 1921
Time Magazine begins publication, 1923
The United States officially adopts The Star-Spangled Banner as its national anthem, 1931
Oil is discovered in Saudi Arabia, 1938
In Mumbai, Mohandas Gandhi begins to fast in protest of the autocratic rule in India, 1939
Jackie Brenston, with Ike Turner and his band, records "Rocket 88", often cited as "the first rock and roll record", at Sam Phillips' recording studios in Memphis, Tennessee, 1951
An amateur video captures the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles police officers, 1991
The tallest free-standing structure in the Southern Hemisphere, Sky Tower in downtown Auckland, New Zealand, opens after two-and-a-half years of construction, 1997
Citizens of Switzerland narrowly vote in favor of their country becoming a member of the United Nation, 2002
Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly an airplane non-stop around the world solo without refueling, 2005