Hooray!

It is time for a celebration in our house!

Bigger Girl has her learner's permit!

She was not happy with the test format being done on computer, and it threw her a bit. She recovered from that and passed. So now we get to go driving, just around the neighborhood at first, expanding out from there.

By summer, she should have a full license, making it much easier on me.

Meanwhile, the sounds in the car are -- no, not screams, she's better than that! -- are me saying things like:
Okay, sweetheart, remember your turn signal, and look both ways.
It's okay, your stops will get smoother as you practice more.
Yes, you are supposed to stop back behind the sign. But at this corner, you can't see if it's safe to proceed until you pull up a bit more. As long as you fully stop, it counts.
You're right, a solid line means don't get in that lane, it's not safe to pass.

Ah, the chatter of teaching a new driver. It does two thing. First it brings back the memories of when i learned all those years ago. It also makes me much more acutely aware of my own behavior behind the wheel.

Maybe everyone should take a turn being the teacher at some point. It makes you dig back, deep, to remember all of the rules, to try to remember what you actually do, step by step, without even thinking about it, every time you drive.

Still, it's a celebration here. She's doing s well.


In honor of National Humor Month:

Overheard in my car, when taking a neighbor's 9-year-old home from school, "I'm sorry my sister broke up with that guy. He had a really cool car!" At least the boy knows what's important.

Boudreaux calls the doctor and says, "Doc, doc, my wife Marie is in labor and da contractions are only two minutes apart!" The doctor asked, "Is this her first child?" Boudreaux shouts, "No, ya idiot, this is her husband!"



Today is

Ambedkar Jayanti -- India

Baisakhi -- Sikh

Black Day -- South Korea (for those who got neither Valentine's gifts nor White Day gifts)

Celebrations in the Houses of Ra, Osiris, and Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar

Children with Alopecia Day

Day of Mologa -- Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia

Elfin Choir Congress -- Fairy Calendar

Ex Spouse Day -- why?

International Moment of Laughter Day

Meme Appreciation Day

National Be Kind To Lawyers Day -- if i must

National Pecan Day

Pan American Day

Reach as High as You Can Day

Runic Half Month of Man (humanity) begins

Sidereal Equinox New Year Celebrations -- throughout South and Southeast Asia, including
* Assamese New Year, or Rongali Bihu (India's Assam Valley)
* Bengali New Year, or Pohela Boishakh (Bangladesh and India's West Bengal state)
* Burmese New Year, or Thingyan (Burma)
* Hindu and Sikh New Year, or Vaisakhi (Punjab region)
* Khmer New Year, or Chol Chnam Thmey, most commonly celebrated on April 13 (Cambodia)
* Lao New Year, or Songkan / Pi Mai Lao, generally celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Laos)
* Malayali New Year, or Vishu (India's Kerala state)
* Nepali New Year, or Bikram Samwat / Vaishak Ek (Nepal)
* Oriya New Year, or Maha Visuba Sankranthi (India's Orissa state)
* Sinhalese New Year, or Aluth Avurudhu (Sri Lanka)
* Tamil New Year, or Puthandu (India's Tamil Nadu state)
* Thai New Year, or Songkran, celebrated from 13 to 15 April (Thailand)
* Tuluva New Year, or Bisu (India's Karnataka state)


Sommarsblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (celebration of the coming summer)

St. Peter Gonzalez's Day

St. Tiburtius' Day

Vaisaki -- Hindu

Youth Day -- Angola


Birthdays Today:

Abigail Breslin, 1996
Sarah Michelle Gellar, 1977
Robert Carlyle, 1961
Brad Garrett, 1960
Ritchie Blackmore, 1945
Julie Christie, 1941
Pete Rose, 1941
Loretta Lynn, 1935
Rod Steiger, 1925
John Gielgud, 1904
Anne Sullivan, 1866
Emperor Momozono, 1741
Christiaan Huygens, 1629


Today in History:

Mark Antony, besieging Julius Caesar's assassin Decimus Junius Brutus Albinus in Mutina, defeats the forces of the consul Pansa, who is wounded, BC 43
Titus, son of emperor Vespasian, surrounds the Jewish capital with four Roman legions, beginning the Siege of Jerusalem, 70
Temur, grandson of Kublai Khan, is elected Khagan of the Mongols and Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, 1294
The foundation stone of Cathedral St. Peter and St. Paul in Nantes, France is laid, 1434
Benjamin Franklin and Benjamin Rush establish the first abolitionist society in the US, 1775
Napoleon calls for establishing Jerusalem for the Jews, 1799
Noah Webster copyrights the first edition of his dictionary, 1828
The Donner Party departs Springfield, Illinois, 1846
Harriet Tubman begins her first Underground Railroad run, 1853
William Bullock patents the continuous-roll printing press, 1863
Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theater by John Wilkes Booth, 1865
Canada sets denominations of currency as dollars, cents, & mills, 1871
Canada passes the Dominion Lands Act, 1872
The RMS Titanic hits an iceberg at 11:40pm and sinks 2 hours later, 1912
The first Volvo car premieres in Gothenburg, Sweden, 1927
The Grapes of Wrath, by American author John Steinbeck is first published by the Viking Press, 1939
The Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 falls from orbit, 1958
The heaviest hailstones ever recorded, at 1 kilogram, hailstones fall on the Gopalganj district of Bangladesh, killing 92, 1986
The most costly natural disaster in Australian history, a hailstorm, strikes Sydney, Australia, 1999
The Human Genome Project is completed with 99% of the human genome sequenced to an accuracy of 99.99%, 2003