The Most Important Thing

We had no real specific plans for Thursday.  So i took an extra long walk on the beach, watching the waning gibbous moon play peek-a-boo through the clouds as they turned pink and rosy with the sunrise.

If the rest of the week works out prior, that's usually how Thursdays go.  We use them to catch up if there was too much rain on a previous day to get done what we wanted.

Since all we've had this week is the usual bits of rain here and there, as Florida tends to do -- a shower in the afternoon to cool things off, then back to the sauna -- Thursday morning was curiously free.  So i spent it sitting under the waterfall by the pool, in the shade, doing crossword puzzles.

By afternoon Sweetie was ready to go stir crazy again, so we hit our favorite island souvenir shop.  There is always something there that we want or can enjoy, and sure enough, he found the perfect clip on shades for his driving glasses.  He has looked everywhere, through malls and even a sunglasses specialty store where they wanted $50 for clip ons and didn't even have the right size.  These were $10 and an exact fit.

#2 Son, Bigger Girl, and Bryn went fishing again.  Mostly they caught fish to feed the bird that they named Turd Bird many years ago.

 Not a great picture of our favorite bird, but he was playing shy.

Thursday evening is Adventure Island Night.  This year, i was the designated grown up, by my choice, and Sweetie drove, too, because i couldn't fit everyone who wanted to go into the van.  Only Bigger Girl opted out, she and Miss Prissy stayed home to watch the video of the musical Cats.

The aptly named Adventure Island has go carts.  Since Dre is my buddy for the evening, giving his dad the night off, i get to ride a go cart so he can be a passenger.  Everyone else who wants to ride is old enough to drive for themselves.

The double carts have never been good to me.  It seems i always get the slowest one in the place.  Even with my foot to the floor, there's no way to move any faster on them.

This year was different.  Maybe they replaced some old carts, i'm not sure, but this was the ride of my life.  The cart shook us up like a good milkshake, but it moved and moved fast and i hardly slowed in the curves.  Dre and i lapped everyone else in our group, even #2 Son!  That's never happened before.

Then we went inside to play all the fun arcade games.  Even Sweetie grabbed some quarters and played a few rounds of the "hit the target" variety.  Dre just wanted to get on all the ride simulators.  He managed to play a few games, though.

When you play the games, you get tickets that can be cashed in for cool prizes.  Teresa got in on the fun, and even wore the spider ring she won, along with a couple of other trinket toys.  #2 Son had played even fewer games than Dre and had only 7 tickets, so he gave his to Dre also.


Bryn, as usual, took the longest to spend her tickets, but Dre got only three things.  A small piece of candy, a spinning disk, and one of those old fashioned rubber balloons like i used to play with that you blow up, tie off, and use the attached rubber band to hit it away and it comes right back.  Dre wouldn't let me tie it off because, if you do that, you can't let the air out and make the farting noise.  As we all know, when you are a six-year-old boy, making the farting noise with your balloon is the most important part.


Finally home again, it was a late night, but a good one.

Home Sweet Condo

Today is

Banana Split Festival -- Wilmington, OH, US (through tomorrow, in the city claiming to be the birthplace of the banana split)

Best Friends Day -- as declared by the ecard people

Betty Picnic -- the Betty Club, founded by Betty Wilder and Betty Patterson, began hosting a picnic for all with their name in 1987, and want Bettys all over the world to have a Betty Picnic today

Bounty Anniversary Day -- Norfolk Island (celebrates the arrival of the Bounty descendents from Pitcairn Island)

Chicago Blues Festival -- Grant Park, Chicago, IL (through the 10th)

Coal Miner Days -- Sparwood, BC, Canada (through the 10th; festival and fun!)

Curtis Cup (Women's International Cup) -- Nairn Golf Club, Nairn, Scotland (through the 10th)

Feast of Bona Mens -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of right thinking, the personification of the mind)

Festival of the Rose -- Salency, France (on St. Medard's Day, and supposedly begun by that saint before the year 545)

Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (The Good and Evil are given their just rewards)

Lilac Festival -- Mackinac Island, MN, US (through the 17th)

Lindisfarne Day -- commemorating the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793

Name Your Poison Day

National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day

Primoz Trubar Day -- Slovenia (author of the first Slovene language books and consolidated the Slovene language)

Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival -- Oklahoma City, OK, US (more than 100 tribes meet to pow wow and celebrate their heritage, through the 10th)

St. Medard's Day (Patron of brewers, captives, imprisoned people, mentally ill people, peasants, prisoners, vineyards; for good harvests, good weather, and rain; against bad weather, imprisonment, sterility, and toothache)

Tecumseh! the Epic Outdoor Drama -- Chillicothe, OH, US (Mon-Sat, until Sept. 1; spectacular reenactment of the life and death of the great Shawnee leader)

Texas Folklife Festival -- San Antonio, TX, US (through the 10th)

UEFA European Soccer Championships -- through July 1

Upsy Daisy Day -- the day to remind people to get up joyfully and gratefully each morning (tell that to my sleep-til-noon family!)

Watch Day -- the sign that you are over 30, you still wear a watch!

Windsurfing Regatta/Unvarnished Music Festival -- Worthington, MN, US (windsurfing, swap meet, and music on the beach; through Sunday)

World Brain Tumor Day -- International

World Oceans Day -- www.worldoceanday.org, this year's theme is "Youth: The Next Wave for Change"


Birthdays Today:

Kim Clijsters, 1983
Kayne West, 1977
Keenen Ivory Wayans, 1958
Tim Berners-Lee, 1955
Boz Scaggs, 1944
Nancy Sinatra, 1940
Joan Rivers, 1933
Jerry Stiller, 1927
Barbara Bush, 1925
Robert Preston, 1918
Francis Crick, 1916
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867


Today in History:

Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England, 793
Richard the Lionheart's Crusade begins with his arrival at Acre, 1191
American attackers are driven back at Trois-Rivières, Quebec, 1776
The volcano Laki, in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine, 1783
Mr. Hall of NYC advertises the first commercially made ice cream, 1786
Ives W McGaffey of Chicago patents the first vacuum cleaner, 1869
Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punched card calculator, 1887
Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value, 1906
Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures, 1912
Milton Berle hosts the debut of Texaco Star Theater, 1948
The United States Supreme Court rules that Washington, D.C. restaurants could not refuse to serve black patrons, 1953
The first World Ocean Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992
The first Transit of Venus since 1882 takes place, 2004
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, is hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years, 2007