Interesting Word Choice

Timmy was very well behaved yesterday, as was Dana (who generally demands a great deal of attention and doesn't want to do what she is told).

From his usual upside-down headstand, when i talked about certain things in the Bible, like miracles, being mysterious, he labeled them "Awkward!" with his trademark grin.

That was an interesting word choice.

And Dana actually got off the swing when the timer went off and her turn was up, without fuss.

So a good class, with lots of running and fun and cinnamon streusel bread and learning about awkward miracles.  Sometimes teaching this kind of class is an awkward miracle in itself.

Today begins the final stretch of trying to get this house into some semblance of better order before my guests arrive.

Let's just hope they understand that if there aren't any forks, it's because they are all outdoors or under someone's bed.  If the cups are gone, go check in the cars.  If the floors look like they haven't been mopped since last month, it's because they haven't been mopped since yesterday and the kittens have been busy.

Also, i need to warn them about driving around here.  Streets change names when you cross intersections because the streets used to not be connected there.  Little Old Ladies with blue hair and late model vehicles have the right of way at all times.  And remember, the Chamber of Commerce considers a trip across town in terrible traffic, which will take a minimum of one hour because you can't get there from here, to be a scenic drive.

Maybe i should just rent a 15 passenger van and take them around myself.  After all, our first rule is hold on and pray.


Today is:

Autumn Equinox Festival at Chichen Itza -- beginning today, thousands will gather for the amazing play of light and shadow each evening at sunset through the 27th)

Citizenship Day -- US

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 7, Women (sponsored by We, the World)

Feast of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

International Love Your Files Week -- the week to make sure your filing system is working for you

Keiro no hi -- Japan (Respect for the Aged Day)

National Apple Dumpling Day

National Heroes Day -- Angola

Niketeria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Operation Market Garden Remembrance -- Netherlands

Pledge Across America Day -- US (beginning of Constitution Week)

Return of Kelp-Koli Celebration -- Fairy Calendar (under duress, of course)

Rosh Hashanah -- Judaism (began at sundown yesterday)

Stigmata of St. Francis' Day

St. Hildegard von Bingen's Day (author of treatises on natural healing and the first musical composer whose biography is known)

St. Lambert's Day (Patron of Middelaar, Netherlands)

VFW Ladies Auxiliary Day -- anniversary of founding in 1914

Woman Road Warrior Day -- to recognize the traveling businesswomen in today's world


Anniversary Today:

The Constitution of the United States is signed, 1787
American Professional Football League (later the NFL) founded (a/k/a the Swallowing Up of Weekends), 1920



Birthdays Today:

Cassandra "Elvira" Peterson, 1951
John Ritter, 1948
Ken Kesey, 1935
Anne Bancroft, 1931
Roddy McDowall, 1928
Hank Williams Sr., 1923
Jerry Colonna, 1904
John Willard Marriot, 1900
Baron Friedrich Von Steuben, 1730



Today in History:

The Battle of Thermopylae, fought between 300 Spartans, led by their king, Leonidas, and the Achaemenid Empire begins, BC480
Arabs conquer Alexandria, and destroy its library for the last time, 642
Netherlander sailors discover Mauritus, 1598
Massachusetts Bay Colony gets a new charter, 1691
Presidio of San Francisco is founded in New Spain, 1776
US Constitution is adopted by the Philadelphia convention, 1787
Sprinkler system for extinguishing fires is patented by Phillip W. Pratt, 1872
The Wright Flyer flown by Orville Wright, with Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge as passenger, crashes killing Selfridge, who becomes the first airplane fatality, 1908
The first transcontinental airplane flight, from New York to Pasadena, is completed after 82 hours 4 minutes, 1911
The Okeechobee Hurricane strikes southeastern Florida, killing upwards
of 2,500 people, the third deadliest natural disaster in United States history, behind the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, 1928
The Canadian steamship SS Noronic burns in Toronto Harbour with the loss of over 118 lives, 1949
Television is first broadcast in Australia, 1956
Malaysia joins the United Nations, 1957
Bangladesh, Grenada and Guinea-Bissau join the United Nations, 1974
The first Space Shuttle, Enterprise, is unveiled by NASA, 1976
The Camp David Accords are signed by Israel and Egypt, 1978
Vanessa Williams becomes the first black Miss America, 1983
Estonia, North Korea, South Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, the Marshall Islands and Micronesia join the United Nations, 1991
The first version of the Linux kernel (0.01) is released to the Internet, 1991
Fourpeaked Mountain in Alaska erupts, marking the first eruption for the long-dormant volcano in at least 10,000 years, 2006