Conversations

Ender, the black kitten, is seldom quiet. Even when he is full and refusing the bottle, he walks around the kitchen mewing almost nonstop.

Bigger Girl, who named him Ender after the character in the book Ender's Game, came into the kitchen and said, "He must be an Italian cat, he talks so much."

When i told her he can't be Italian, he doesn't talk with his hands, and she responded, "Mom, he's an Italian cat, he talks with his tail!"

In fact, he does wave his tail a good bit when talking, too.

Sweetie came home a few minutes later, and i told him about an earlier visit from a guy who used to do pest control for us. He has retired, but is trying to get a friend started in the business, and is visiting old clients to see if they have someone else or need a new provider.

This brought up Sweetie's stories about when he used to work in pest control, as any mention of that topic does. He didn't do that for very long, as one day he was told to go under a house to treat an area. He would have had to be on his back, sliding under the house with the floor only about two inches above his face, and he would simply not do it. When he said it wasn't something he could do, he was told to do it or find another job, so he found another job.

(Similar to the time he was told, when in construction, to hang by a belt from a smokestack and paint said smokestack. He also refused to do that, and left the job that day. He is deathly afraid of heights, which is why cleaning the gutters and sweeping storm debris from the roof is my job.)

(If by these stories you get the idea that he has had a lot of varied jobs, you would be correct. In fact, it would take too long to tell all the stories as a parenthetical.)

This time, in retelling the pest control story, he added, "No, I'm too claustrophobic to do something like that. That's why I want to be buried at sea, I don't want to be put in a little box!"

He had never explained that part to me before, although it does make sense.

Later that evening, Bigger Girl was in the kitchen talking about the plant amaranth. "It's amazing, mom. The seeds make great bread when ground into a flour, and it's gluten free. Some people won't eat it because they think 'absinth' when they hear the name, but that's a liqueur made from wormwood. If you don't take in enough to kill you, it can cause hallucinations. I know I don't need that, my life is weird enough already without hallucinating!"

Thinking about how her father wants to be buried at sea, i would have to agree with her.


Today is

Ambedkar Jayanti -- India

Americas Day -- Honduras

Auctioneers' Day

Baby Massage Day

Baisakhi -- Sikh (New Year)

Black Day -- South Korea (for those who got neither Valentine's gifts nor White Day gifts; singles wear black and get together to eat black noodle soup)

Celebrations in the Houses of Ra, Osiris, and Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Children with Alopecia Day

Cultural Unity Day -- Bangladesh; India; Maldives; Nepal; Sri Lanka

Day of Mologa -- Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia (commemorates the destruction of the town of Mologa during the construction of the Rybinsk Reservoir)

Day of the Georgian Language -- Georgia (marking the 1978 protests of Soviet attempts to suppress the Georgian language)

Elfin Choir Congress -- Fairy Calendar

Ex Spouse Day -- why?

Grand National Steeplechase -- Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, England

Holy Saturday -- Orthodox Christians following the Julian Calendar

Husband Appreciation Day

International Moment of Laughter Day -- started by Izzy Gesell

John Wilkes Boothe Escape Route Tours -- Surrat House Museum, Clinton, MD, US (for Civil War history buffs, a 12 hour bus tour over the route used by Lincoln's assassin; every Sunday through May 5)

Look Up At The Sky Day -- internet generated, no history on this one, but if it's a pretty day, take advantage of it (some sites say April 12, but since we don't know who started it, today is fine)

National Love Our Children Day -- sponsored by STOMP Out Bullying and Love Our Children USA

National Pecan Day

N'Ko Alphabet Day -- Mande Language Speakers

Pan American Day -- Order of the American States

Rato Machhindranath Jatra -- Nepal (chariot races for the god of rain)

Reach as High as You Can Day -- internet generated

Record Store Day -- celebrated by independent record stores everywhere

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, through Walpurgis/May 1)

Spring Hula Hooping Day -- try out the old hula hoop one more time, then toss it

St. Benezet's Day (Patron of bachelors, bridge builders; Avignon, France)

St. Peter Gonzalez's Day (Patron of boatmen, mariners, sailors, watermen)

St. Tiburtius' Day (Considered the day the cuckoos return to England)

Takayama Spring Festival -- Takayama City, Japan (through tomorrow)

Teach Your Daughter to Volunteer Day

World Catfish Festival -- Belzoni, MS, US (celebrate the bottom feeders!)

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
The Oregon Supreme Court nullifies marriage licenses issued to gay couples a year earlier by Multnomah County, 2005