What is This? A Hotel?

Well, i asked, and i guess i got the answer.

Quite a while back, we took in #1 Son's friend for a while when he was having family trouble.

More recently, we took in Miss Lizzie and the Hazelnut.

Then i woke up to a cat i had never seen before in #2 Son's bedroom. Suzie is half feral and hates most people, including her owner, Sade. The only person the cat likes, interestingly, is #2 Son.

Sade has been a friend for many years, and has apparently had to suddenly leave her home. So along with the cat, we had apparently had a bit of an influx of furniture and another car in the drive.

So, area we a hotel? It seems so. Since i've offered to take in homeless waifs and their stuff, we seem to be the go to house.

That's okay, when dinner comes, count noses and grab plates -- if they aren't all under one of the boys' beds.

The Expanding Rubber House is going to be the name of the establishment.

Let's just hope it doesn't land me in a rubber room.

Do they still have those? Never mind, i don't want to find out.


Today is:

Akou Gishisai -- Ako, Japam (traditional dances and warrior parades)

Buy a Tree Day / Deck the Halls Day -- internet generated, and if you are going to decorate, why did you wait this long?

Christmas Bird Count begins -- sponsored by the National Audubon Society (through Jan. 5; since 1900, the longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations)

Halcyon Days begin -- a time of calm and tranquility (beginning seven days before the winter solstice, lasting until December 28, seven days after the solstice; named for an ancient fabled kingfisher bird [or halcyon], which hatches and raise her young during this time)

Monkey Day -- unofficial, by animal groups, to draw attention to the plights of simians

National Bouillabaisse Day

Play An Old Song That You Didn't Like To See If You Still Don't Like It Day -- internet generated, and don't bother, bad songs don't improve with age

South Pole Discovery Day -- thank you, Roald Amundsen

St. John of the Cross' Day (Patron of contemplative life, contemplatives, mystical theology, mystics, Spanish poets)

St. Spyridon's Day (Patron of Corfu, Greece, and potters)

Thorn Cutting Ceremony -- Glastonbury, Somerset, England (a sprig from the tree supposedly planted by Joseph of Arimathea is cut and sent to the Queen, to decorate her table on Christmas Day)


Anniversaries Today:

Princess Mary Stuart is crowned Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542
Alabama becomes the 22nd US State, 1819


Birthdays Today:

Paul "Beakman" Zaloom, 1951
Patty Duke, 1946
Lee Remick, 1935
Charlie Rich, 1932
Don Hewitt, 1922
Shirley Jackson, 1919
Morey Amsterdam, 1914
Spike Jones, 1911


Today in History:

Osman ibn Affan is appointed the third kalief of Islam, 644
The Zuider Zee seawall collapses, 50,000 lives are lost in the floods that follow, 1287
The first artificial pearls, made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales, are manufactured by M Jacquin in Paris, 1656
The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight, 1782
David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patents a machine that cuts nuts and bolts, 1798
The American Academy of Political and Social Science is organized in Philadelphia, 1889
The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii, 1902
Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole, 1911
Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri Lanka join the United Nations, 1955
The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations. 1961
NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus, 1962
Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations, 1999
The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened, 2004