The family that sneezes together

stays up half the night together, too.

Well, actually, i'm not sneezing, but Sweetie is.  The kids are on the verge of getting it, they all look and sound a little peaked.

As for me, i'm washing my hands, taking my supplements, and hoping for the best.

Meanwhile, it's not so quiet around the house at night.

None of us snore on a regular basis, and for that i am thankful.

However, any of us can and sometimes will snore when ill with a really bad cold.

So lately it's been a symphony in my room.  First Kida.  (By the way, she went to the vet and is on a long term antibiotic with her prednisone, but is as healthy as an aging, asthmatic Siamese cat can be.) She starts to snore softly from the blanket at my feet, so i poke her, she turns, and goes back to sleep, quiet is restored.

Then Hope will start up.  Her problem is nothing but that she is overweight, which is not surprising, since she lives to eat.  (She almost starved to death as a kitten, and in her mild state of mental challenged-ness will probably try to make up for the lost time for the rest of her life.)  Another poke, another cat turns over, and silence prevails.

Then i find out just how sick Sweetie is when he starts up.  It only happens about once every year that  i have to wake him for snoring, really, it is unusual.  The next day he is singing and hitting notes lower than even his normal low bass range, again, a sign of how much this cold is bothering him.

It's nothing a bit of TLC and chicken soup won't take care of, though.

Meanwhile, when he sings in the choir, Mrs. N is quite impressed.


Today is:

Ati-Atihan Festival -- Aklan, Kalibo, Panay Island, Philippines (vivid religious carnival/feast dating back to the 13th century to honor Santo Nino [Baby Jesus]; through the 20th)

Baptism of the Lord Jesus -- Christian

Democracy Day -- Cape Verde

Feast of St. Kentigern (a/k/a St. Mungo) (Patron of Glasgow whose given name meant "head chief" but whose nickname meant "dear one.")

Ides of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Liberation Day -- Togo

Maghi -- Sikh

Make Your Dreams Come True Day -- no info on the origin of this; maybe someone who broke their New Year's resolutions by this day used the fact that it's New Year's by the Julian calendar to start over

Meitlisunntig -- Meisterschwanden and Fahrwangen, Switzerland (procession and festival celebrating the role of women in the victory of a battle in 1712)

Midvintersblot -- Ancient Norse Calendar (midwinter festival)

National Day -- Maldives

National Peach Melba Day

Old New Year's Day -- Belarus; Georgia; Montenegro; Republic of Macedonia; Republic of Srpska (Yes, that's how it's spelled; no, i don't know how to pronounce it); Serbia; Russia; Ukraine; Wales (Julian Calendar)

Pongal begins -- India (thanksgiving festival at the end of the harvest season, honoring Indra, god of clouds and rain)
     first day, Bhogi

Radio Day -- anniversary of the first public radio broadcast in 1910

Recuperation Fortnight begins -- Fairy Calendar (i think i need one of those!)

Runic Half-month of Peorth (womb) begins

Rubber Ducky Day

Sidereal Winter Solstice Eve -- celebrations through South and Southeast Asia, including
     Bhogi -- Tamil (first day of Pongal)
     Lohri -- Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh
     Uruka -- Assam

Silvesterklausen -- Switzerland ("Old" New Year's celebration, based on the Julian Calendar)

Stephen Foster Day -- Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, White Springs, FL, US

St. Hilarius' Day (according to English tradition, the coldest day of the year; Patron of learning challenged children; Argusto, Italy; Vervio, Italy; against snakes and snake bites)

St. Knut's Day (a/k/a Little Christmas or Twentieth Day or Tyvendedagen among the Scandinavians, it celebrates Canute IV of Denmark and is the day to "plunder" the tree put up on Christmas Eve, eating the candies and cookies that were decorating it, and puting all the other decorations away before the tree is removed.)

Strive and Succeed Day -- Horatio Alger's birth anniversary

Theogamia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (anniversary celebration of the marriage of Zeus and Hera; date approximate, but during Gamelion, the month of marriages)

Tiugunde Day -- Old England (midwinter offering, a celebration picked up from the Norse Midvintersblot)

Tyvendedagen -- Norway (Twentieth day after Christmas, official end of Yuletide or "Juletid")

Ume Matsuri -- Atami, Japan (celebrating the umi -- plum -- at one of the most famous plum viewing spots in the country; through March)


Birthdays Today:

Orlando Bloom, 1977
Patrick Dempsey, 1966
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, 1961
Richard Moll, 1943
Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931
Gwen Verdon, 1925
Army Archerd, 1922
Robert Stack, 1919
Sophia Tucker, 1884
Horatio Alger, 1832
Salmon P. Chase, 1808


Today in History:

Crusaders set fire to Mara, Syria, 1099
Sicut Didum, the papal bull prohibiting the enslavement of Canary Island natives who had converted to Christianity, is promulgated, 1435
The controversial play Eastward Hoe by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, and John Marston is performed, landing two of the authors in prison, 1605
The Bank Of Genoa fails after the announcement of national bankruptcy in Spain, 1607
Jonathan Swift is ordained and Anglican priest in Ireland, 1695
James Oglethorpe and 130 colonists arrive in Charleston, South Carolina, 1733
John Walter publishes the first issue of the London Times, 1785
The Great fire of New Orleans, Louisiana begins, 1830
Dr. William Brydon, a surgeon in the British Army during the First Anglo-Afghan War, becomes famous for being the sole European survivor of an army of 16,500 when he reaches the safety of a garrison in Jalalabad, 1842
Anthony Foss patents the accordion, 1854
A chenille manufacturing machine is patented by William Canter of NYC, 1863
A circus fire in Poland kills 430, 1883
 The Independent Labour Party of the UK has its first meeting, 1893
U.S. Marines land in Honolulu from the U.S.S. Boston to prevent the queen from abrogating the Bayonet Constitution, 1893
The first radio set is advertised, a Telimco for $7.50 in Scientific American; claimed to receive signals up to one mile, 1906
The first public radio broadcast takes place; a live performance of the opera Cavalleria rusticana is sent out over the airwaves from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, 1910
An earthquake in Avezzano, Italy kills 29,800, 1915
The Black Friday bush fires burn 20,000 square kilometres of land in Australia, claiming the lives of 71 people, 1939
Henry Ford patents a plastic automobile, which is 30% lighter than a regular car, 1942
Karol Wojtyla, the future Pope John Paul II, is appointed archbishop of Krakow, Poland, 1964
Robert C. Weaver becomes the first African American  US Cabinet member, 1966
Johnny Cash performs live at Folsom Prison, 1968
A passenger train plunged into a ravine at Ethiopia, killing 428 in the worst railroad disaster in Africa, 1985
L. Douglas Wilder becomes the first elected African American US governor as he takes office in Richmond, Virginia, 1990
Soviet Union military troops attack Lithuanian independence supporters in Vilnius, 1991
An earthquake hits El Salvador, killing more than 800, 2001