Monday was...

unusual, in that it found me out at Bigger Girl's school, between the graduation meeting and the oceanographer's presentation, with time on my hands.

So, what to do when you have such time? Go look for blackberry bushes, of course. What else can you do out there?

Which means you find yourself treading on poison ivy before you know it.

Well, let's hope none of us suffer for that. No, the blackberries weren't ripe yet, either, although the ones in our yard and down by the creek are.

The oceanographer was interesting, though. His team has helped develop an underwater camera that is different from the others for studying phytoplankton, and he showed pictures.

The evening would have been better with blackberries for dessert.


Today is

Ambivalence Day -- a holiday to tell your friends about, or not

Commemoration Day -- Transdniestria

Concord Day -- Niger

Feast of Eros -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Genocide Remembrance Day -- Armenia

Happenstance and Coincidence Evening -- Fairy Calendar

Kapyong Day -- Australia

National Teach Children to Save Day -- sponsored by the American Banking Association

Pigs in a Blanket Day

Radunitsa -- Belarus (Ancestors Veneration Day)

Spring Cat Cleaning Day -- because someone, somewhere, thinks you need to bathe your cat; ask the cat, he will refuse, and if you become insistent, be careful, so will s/he

St. Egbert's Day

St. Ives' Day (Patron of St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, England)

St. Mark's Eve*

World Day for Animals in Laboratories -- UN

*A young lady may eat a boiled dove's egg sprinkled with salt and place a tulip, sacred to St. Mark, in a vase next to her bed, and so she will dream of the man she will marry.


Birthdays Today:

Courtnee Draper, 1985
Kelly Clarkson, 1982
Chipper Jones, 1972
Cedric the Entertainer, 1964
Jean-Paul Gaultier, 1952
Doug Clifford, 1945
Barbra Streisand, 1942
Jill Ireland, 1936
Shirley MacLaine, 1934
Robert Penn Warren, 1905
Michael J. Dady, 1850
Anthony Trollope, 1815


Anniversaries Today:

Mary, Queen of Scots marries Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris, 1558


Today in History:

Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut, BC1479
Traditional date for the Greeks entering Troy using the Trojan Horse, BC1184
The appearance of Halley's Comet causes monks in England to predict evil happenings, 1066
"La Marseillaise" is composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792
The Boston "News-Letter" becomes the first successful newspaper in the colonies, 1704
The Library of Congress is established, 1800
A patent is granted for the first soda fountain, 1833
William Price of the Washington Star becomes the first reporter to be specifically assigned to the White House, 1897
The fathometer, which measures underwater depth, is patented, 1928
Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, 1953
Cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1, the first person to die during a space mission, 1967
Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations, 1968
The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched, 1970
Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine, 1990
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI, 2005
Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog is born in South Korea, 2005
Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defense of Iceland during peacetime, 2007