Okay, now i'm upset with blogger again.

The new interface is a bigger pain than i thought.

For one thing, i can't get the font color right. 

It appears that they don't offer that color any more

These are all the shades of purple they offer, and none match what they had before, at least when i am editing it.

 

 So i will comfort myself by putting in this pic of the Hazelnut napping in her new bed with Briseis.  She got a new bed for her birthday, the "puppy" is a year old now.

It took me 10 minutes to work out how to actually get the picture in the right place in the blog, which was very annoying.

It's also not wanting to schedule correctly still.

Every time i see the "Send feedback" button, i tell myself they don't want to hear from me yet, i wouldn't yet be able to phrase it all politely.

Trust me, they could have improved a couple of things on the old one without totally changing everything and annoying the tar out of us.

Yes, i know, try telling a tech geek that.

Today is

Arita Ceramic Fair -- Arita, Japan (finest porcelain in Japan; during Golden Week until May 5)

Cheng Cheng Kung Landing Day -- Taiwan (351st anniversary)

Feast of the Secret Masters -- can't find any real info on this one, and why should i if it's such a secret, but it is fun to think about

Fish Cleaning Night -- sponsored by David Letterman (it's okay if you don't have an audience, or Mariel Hemingway)

International Dance Day

Jouvert Jump-Up -- Sint Martin (Break of Dawn Parade and Festival)

Landsgemeinde -- Appenzell, Inner Rhoden Canton, Switzerland (one of the last examples of direct democracy left; the final Sunday of each April all voters in the canton age 18 and older, wearing traditional swords, gather for a church service and then vote directly on all affairs of the canton for the year; no secret ballots, all raise their hands to vote yea or nay; festival follows. This tradition dates back to the 14th century.)

Milk-Curdling Sunday -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins)

Mother, Father Deaf Day -- sponsored by Children of Deaf Adults International

National Adult Public Skipping Day -- because somebody out there either wants you to feel like a kid again, or make a fool of you

National Shrimp Scampi Day

Ninth Day of Ridvan -- Baha'i

Pet Parents' Day -- for those who consider pets their family

Remembrance of Victims of Chemical Weapons -- Native Americans (on the day chemical weapons were outlawed in 1997)

Runic Half Month of Lagu (water) begins

Showa Day -- Japan (begins the Golden Week holiday period, through May 5)

Solar Alignment at Teotihuacan, City of the Gods -- Teotihuacan, Mexico (the ritual cave opening aligns to the sunset on Aug. 12 and Apr. 29, the same horizon position of the setting of the Pleiades)

St. Catherine of Siena's Day (Patron of Italy; against fire)

Turkmen Racing Horse Festival -- Turkmenistan

Zipper Day -- patented today in 1913


Anniversaries Today:

Princess Irene marries Prince Carel Hugo de Bourbon Parma, 1964
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, marries Catherine "Kate" Middleton, 2011


Birthdays Today:

Andre Agassi, 1970
Uma Thurman, 1970
Michelle Pfeiffer, 1958
Daniel Day-Lewis, 1957
Kate Mulgrew, 1955
Jerry Seinfeld, 1954
Dale Earnhardt, 1951
Johnny Miller, 1947
Zubin Mehta, 1936
Lane Smith, 1936
Celeste Holm, 1919
Tom Ewell, 1909
Hirohito, 1901
Duke Ellington, 1899
William Randolph Hearst, 1863


Today in History:

The Moors arrive at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula, 711
Joan of Arc arrives at Orleans to relieve the siege, 1492
Francis Drake leads a raid in the Bay of Cádiz, sinking at least 23 ships of the Spanish fleet, 1587
Eleven Dutch ships depart for the conquest of Peru, 1623
The Ming Dynasty occupies Taiwan, 1661
James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia, 1770
The French Fleet prevents Britain from seizing the Cape of Good Hope, 1781
Peter Roget publishes the first edition of his Thesaurus, 1852
The "Elektromote" – forerunner of the trolleybus – is tested by Ernst Werner von Siemens in Berlin, 1882
Gideon Sundbach of Hoboken, NJ, receives a patent for the zipper, 1913
The North Sea floodgate at Ijmuiden, the biggest in world, officially opens, 1930
The telephone connection of England-Australia goes into service, 1930
The first U.S. experimental 3D-TV broadcast airs, and episode of "Space Patrol" shown over ABC affiliate KECA in Los Angeles, 1953
The first military nuclear power plant opens, in Ft. Belvoir 1957
A cyclone strikes the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh with winds of around 155 mph, killing at least 138,000 people and leaving as many as 10 million homeless, 1991
Oldsmobile builds its final car ending 107 years of production, 2004
Syria completes withdrawal from Lebanon, ending 29 years of occupation, 2005