Some Good Stuff

A couple of good things have happened.

Quite a while back, #2 Son began having trouble with is phone.  Well, i don't know why, he only drops it, takes it everywhere with him even fishing, rock pile climbing, snake catching, etc., and has even stepped on it a few times.

Anyway, it finally gave up the ghost, and i couldn't find a replacement anywhere.  A cheap replacement, that is, and for reasons why i was holding out for the cheap model see the above paragraph.  No way was i spending $50-60 for something he was going to destroy.

The cheapest they make that works with our network, which is sold in the, shall we say, less expensive department stores (read Wal-Mart and Dollar General type places), is out of stock because the warehouses are empty of them, and i'm guessing they had a manufacturing glitch or just can't make them fast enough.

Thus is turned out to be a good thing when Sweetie got back to work on Monday and was handed 3 phones!  It seems the building bought an extra of the model he uses, which is extra durable, because he is as hard on them as #2 Son is.  They didn't need it, so they gave it to him along with two other spares.  All of them work, the workplace had no use for them, so they earmarked all 3 for him.

#2 Son now has a phone that usually retails for $200 or more, but is very heavy duty, with an armored case!  All we had to do was charge it up and slip in the SIM card.

The other heavy duty one they gave us, that's not quite as rugged and used but in almost mint condition, went to #1 Son, who cracked the screen on his.

The third is safely put away in case it's ever needed.

Good happenings also on the kitten fronts.  My favorite vet is swamped, and cannot schedule any of my babies for surgeries before the last week of June.  So i called Miss W to ask about getting other vets to do it, and it turned out they had appointments available this week!  Thus after today, we will have only a dozen kittens in the house!  Down from our high earlier in the season of 26.

Also good is that all of the rescues i work with have agreed that if they want me to take more tiny ones, they have to be willing to find other fosters, or use the shelter in the case of the one that has a shelter, to house the weaned kittens if i start to get more than a dozen.  That will make my life easier, as i won't have so many bigger ones underfoot for weeks and weeks before adoption.

It has worked having the ones up at the shelter, too, as 6 have already been adopted.

Oh, and my mommy powers are now confirmed for Little Girl.

"Mom, where are the beach towels?" she asked on her way to swim practice.

As i handed her one, i asked her where her nice one, that was a gift from a friend for her birthday was, and noted that it was probably wet and crumpled on her floor where i have asked her not to leave it, as i don't like wet carpet that i have to dry to prevent mold, it makes me cranky.

She looked at me in shock and said, "You must be psychic!"

While i did grin at her, i didn't let on that i had peeked in her room earlier and seen it there, and let her think i know everything.  After all, i can't let her know where my mommy powers come from, just that i have them.

She will figure out where they come from in her own time, from her kids.


Today is

Czech Days -- Tabor, SD, US (through the 16th; celebrating foods and traditions of the Czech people for the 64th year)

Family History Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, urging people to brush up on family history during summer family reunions

Feast Day of Elisha the Prophet

Flag Day -- United States

Fort Union Trading Post Rendezvous -- Williston, ND, US (through Sunday; re-creation of the fur trade era)

Freedom Day -- Malawi

Kiamichi Owa-Chito Festival of the Forest -- Beaver's Bend State Park, Broken Bow, OK, US (celebration of Native American culture; through the 16th)

Kuopio Dance Festival -- Kuopio, Finland (through the 20th; exotic dance art by familiar and new artists from around the world on the sunlit summer nights)

Leinapaev -- Estonia (Mourning and Commemoration Day)

Liberation Day -- Falkland Islands

Mourning and Hope Day -- Lithuania

National Strawberry Shortcake Day

Nursing Assistants' Day

Pause for the Pledge Day -- US, in conjunction with Flag Day, all citizens are asked to pause at 7pm EDT to recite the Pledge

Pop Goes the Weasel Day -- and just as no one knows for sure the origins of the song or it's meaning, no one knows why it is celebrated on this day

Rice Planting Festivals -- Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka and Izawanomiya Shrine, Mie Prefecture, Japan (rice planting at sacred fields, some rites date back over 1,700 years)

Rumor Sunday -- Fairy Calendar (usually held on a weekday)

Runic Half-month Dag (day) commences

Sam Steele Days -- Cranbroook, BC, Canada (through the 17th; fun for all, celebrating the life and legend of Sam Steele of the North-West Mounted Police in the 1880's)

St. Basil the Great's Day (Patron of education, exorcisms, hospital administrators, monks, liturgists, reformers; Cappadocia; Russia)

St. Castora Gabrielli's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, widows)

Tenno Matsuri -- Tsushima Jinja in Aichi Prefecture, Japan (through tomorrow; festival of Gozu Tenno, to pray for freedom from pestilence and disaster)

World Blood Donor Day -- International


Anniversaries Today:

Munich, Germany is founded, 1158


Birthdays Today:

Daryl Sabara, 1992
Lucy Hale, 1989
Steffi Graf, 1969
Yasmine Bleeth, 1968
Boy George, 1961
Donald Trump, 1946
John F. MacArthur, 1939
Jerzy Kosinski, 1933
Joe Arpaio, 1932
Marla Gibbs, 1931
Che Guevara, 1928
Pierre Salinger, 1925
Gene Barry, 1919
Burl Ives, 1909
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811


Today in History:

Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin  princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria, 1287
Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath and the Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance, 1381
Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, 1648
The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States, 1777
Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat, 1789
Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig, who named it Bourbon because he lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1789
Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom, 1821
The village of Henley, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first Royal Regatta, 1839
Trade unions are legalised in Canada, 1872
Norway adopts female suffrage, 1907
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic  flight, 1919
Action Comics issue one is released, introducing Superman, 1938
The Canadian Library Association is established, 1946
UNIVAC I, the world's first commercial computer, is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1951
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency, 1962
The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1966
The 1994 Stanley Cup Riots occur after the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, 1994
The Wallow Fire becomes the largest wildfire in the history of the US State of Arizona, 2011