Early Taste of Vacation

Young Jacob took Little Girl and #2 Son and a few other friends for a day at the beach.

We go in June, all the way into Florida, but they just went a couple of hours from us, near Gulfport.

They found a great Jamaican restaurant for lunch.

Little Girl came in very excited. She found lots of oddly shaped shells, and a part of a shark jawbone.

The highlight of their day was when a couple on the beach asked young Jacob to take a picture of them. The man asked him to be sure to count to three.

Young Jacob wondered about that, but complied. When he got to "Two" they found out why the specific request. The man knelt down, whipped out a ring, and got the perfect "surprise" photo.

She said yes.

Meanwhile, Bigger Girl went on her first errand alone in the car. She did just fine. Forgot one item, but it wasn't crucial. We now have carrots and sweet potatoes and cucumbers planted in the back yard, that's the important part. All her doing, of course, my black thumb will stay away.

An ordinary, extraordinary day, like so many.


Today is

Genocide Memorial Day -- Rwanda

Goddess Karna's Day -- Slavic Pagan Calendar (goddess of crying and wailing)

Historic Pendleton Spring Jubilee -- Pendleton, SC, US (through tomorrow)

Holy Saturday -- Christian (a/k/a Easter Eve or Black Saturday)

International Beaver Day

International Snailpaper Day -- relax today with a hard copy of a regular, old fashioned newspaper

Katori Jingu Otaue-sai -- Sawara, Chiba Prefecture, Japan (rice planting festival; through tomorrow)

Lazarus Saturday -- Orthodox Christians following the Julian Calendar

Metric System Day -- officially adopted in France on this day in 1795

Mindfulness Day -- Zen Buddhist

Motherhood and Beauty Day -- Armenia (day the Armenian Orthodox Church celebrated the Annunciation; it is the only Church to celebrate it on this day)

National Coffee Cake Day

No Housework Day/Let Someone Else Clean Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, enjoy this one!

Pandia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (a festival of Zeus; date approximate)

Pesach/Passover -- Judaism (began at sundown last evening; through the 14th)

Sheikh Abeid Amani Karume Day -- Tanzania

St. Saint John Baptist de La Salle's Day (Patron of educators, school principals, teachers)

Tangible Karma (TM) Day -- set aside an hour today to become purposefully aware of the needs of someone around you, and to fulfill that need

Women's Day -- Mozambique

World Health Day -- UN


Anniversaries Today:

Prague University is chartered by Charles IV, the first university in central Europe, 1348


Birthdays Today:

Russell Crowe, 1964
Jackie Chan, 1954
Janis Ian, 1951
Francis Coppola, 1939
David Frost, 1939
Wayne Rogers, 1933
James Garner, 1928
Ravi Shankar, 1920
Billie Holiday, 1915
Walter Winchell, 1897
W.K. Kellogg, 1860
William Ellery Channing, 1780
William Wordsworth, 1770
St. Francis Xavier, 1506


Today in History:

Attila's Huns plunder Metz, in northern France, 451
Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I issues the first draft of the Corpus Juris Civilis, the basis for much civil law even today, 529
A crowd in Florence, Italy, storms the Convent of San Marco, demanding Fra Savonarola be turned over as they rebelled against his Bonfires of the Vanities and interference with trade, 1498
Ferdinand Magellan arrives at Cebu, 1521
Michael Cardozo becomes the first Jewish lawyer in Brazil, 1645
American pioneers found Marietta, Ohio, as the first permanent settlement of the new Northwest Territory, 1788
France adopts the meter as the standard measure of length, 1795
The Mississippi Territory is established, 1798
English chemist John Walker invents wooden matches, 1827
Thomas D'Arcy McGee, one of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation is assassinated by the Irish, in one of the few Canadian political assassinations, and the only one of a federal politician, 1868
Nebraska establishes an 8 hour work day, 1891
Texas Oil Company (Texaco) is formed, 1902
An eruption of Mt. Vesuvius devastates Naples, 1906
Dr. K. Winfield Ney performs the first brain tumor operation under a local anesthesia, at Beth Israel Hospital, 1923
Using phone lines, the first long distance television image is sent, of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover, from Washington, D.C. to NYC, 1927
Booker T. Washington becomes the first African-American depicted on a postage stamp in the US, 1940
Syria is officially recognized as independent from France, 1946
Dwight D. Eisenhower gives his "domino theory" speech, 1954
Spain relinquishes its protectorate in Morocco, 1956
IBM announces the System/360, 1964
The publication of RFC1 marks the symbolic birth of the Internet, 1969
Development of the neutron bomb is canceled by President Jimmy Carter, 1978
During STS-6, astronauts Story Musgrave and Don Peterson perform the first space shuttle spacewalk, 1983
Mars Odyssey is launched, 2001
Mass protests begin across Moldova under the belief that results from the parliamentary election are fraudulent, 2009