Success!

 After all the hullabaloo, we did it!  We did actually manage to sign all the documents and refinance the house!

They send the notary to you, so we met up at Sweetie's workplace early yesterday morning, grabbed a couple of his co-workers to sign the witness documents, arranged to meet later so i could give him a check (there wasn't supposed to be anything due at signing, and the lady handling it didn't inform me that had changed), and got it all done in time for the documents to go out by FedEx yesterday.

It was worth all of that.  We are cutting 8 years+ off the term and lowered the interest rate from 6.5% to 3.125%.

Sometimes these banks do everything to make it harder, and i don't know why, but after 3 attempts, it's over.

New month, new mortgage, lots of smiles.

Enjoy Mayday, everyone!


Today is

Agriculture Day and Labor Day -- Haiti

Amtrak Day -- the train service began this day in 1971

Anxiety Disorders Screening Day -- if you have symptoms, get checked, there is help
 
Beltaine / Samhain -- Wiccan/Pagan

Calends of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances
     Day sacred to Maia
     Feast for Lares Praestites (household gods)

Chimney Sweeps Day -- the boys as young as 4 trained to help master sweeps got Mayday off each year

Constitution Day / National Day -- Marshall Islands

Executive Coaching Day -- a reminder, on what is most countries' Labor Day, that workers deserve great leaders

Faint-Hearted Fairies May (or May Not) Ball -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage -- Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines (pilgrimages to the shrine of Nuestra Sra de la Paz y Buen Viaje; through the month)

Festival of Saint Efisio -- Cagliari, Italy (one of the most colorful religious festivals anywhere in the world; through the 4th)

Garland Dressing -- Charlton on Otmoor, England (a wooden cross is bedecked with yew and box leaves)

Go Fetch! National Food Drive for Homeless Animals -- PALS Foundation 

Great American Grump Out Day -- encouraging everyone to avoid grumpiness and rudeness for 24 hours; who knows, you might enjoy it so much it will stick!

Gujarat Day / Maharashtra Day -- India

Journée Internationale de la Guérilla Tournesol / International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day -- begun in Belgium, now celebrated worldwide, guerrilla gardeners are encouraged to plant sunflowers (or an appropriate plant for their climate) in a neglected public place or shabby flower bed

Keep Kids Alive! Drive 25 Day -- 20-25mph in school zones, please

Law Day, USA

Lei Day -- Hawai'i (where you celebrate Mayday with a lei instead of mayflowers)

Loyalty Day -- US

May Day / Labor Day / Worker's Day -- International; celebrated as the beginning of summer in some places, as a Labor Day in others

Mother Goose Day -- as declared by the Mother Goose Society 

National Chocolate Parfait Day

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy -- US (here for details)

National Love Day -- Czech Republic (couples flock to the memorial of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha in Prague and kiss)

New Homeowner's Day -- can't find confirmation on this one, listed at a few sites but no history or records of why this day

'Obby 'Oss (Hobby Horse) Parade -- Padstow, Cornwall, England (every May 1 since 1502, if the records are correct)

Riding of the Bounds -- Berwick-upon-Tweed, Casey, England (riders scour the countryside to be sure the Scots have not encroached upon English soil in this 5 century old tradition)

Rodonitsa -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (day to offer feasts to the ancestors, named for Rod, god of family and the cosmos)

Santacruzan / Flore de Mayo -- Philippines (lasts through the month, with the biggest celebratory days being May 26-27 this year)

Save the Rhino Day / Rhino Mayday -- International

School Principal's Day -- since teachers get a day, so should the principal

Stepmother's Day -- sponsored by secondwivesclub.com

St. Joseph the Worker's Day -- Holy See

St. Peregrine Laziosi's Day (Patron of AIDS patients, cancer patients, and the sick; against cancer, open sores and skin diseases)

St. Walpurga's Canonization Day (The saint who banishes the evil from Walpurgis night.)

Sunfest -- West Palm Beach, FL, US (Florida's largest music, art, and waterfront festival; through Sunday)

Tammany's Day / St. Tamenend -- US soldiers in the Revolution wanted a patron saint to rival St. George of the British Army, and chose Delaware Indian chief and wise man Chief Tamenend, also called Tammany

Unity Day -- Kazakhstan

Virgen de Chapi Festival -- Peru

Yotaka Matsuri -- Fukuno, Toyama, Japan (enjoy floats, paper lanters, and mock battles in this two day festival)

Zuni Green Corn Dance -- Zuni Native Americans (welcoming back the Corn Maidens who fled during the winter; dating approximate as many Native ceremonies are closed to outsiders)


Anniversaries Today:

Empire State Building Ribbon Cutting, 1931
Cheerios go on sale, 1941


Birthdays Today:

Tim McGraw, 1967
Ray Parker, Jr., 1954
Rita Coolidge, 1945
Judy Collins, 1939
Terry Southern, 1924
Jack Paar, 1918
Glenn Ford, 1916
Kate Smith, 1909
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke), 1852
King Kamehameha I of Hawai'i, 1738


Today in History:

The Wars of Scottish Independence end with a treaty recognizing the Kingdom of Scotland as a separate entity, 1328
The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707
Species Plantarum is published by Linnaeus, marking the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, 1753
Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood  pottery company in Great Britain, 1759
Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt establishes the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), 1776
Kamehameha, the king of Hawai'i defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawai'i, 1785
Opening night of the opera The Marriage of Figaro by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Vienna, Austria, 1786
The British colonies abolish slavery, 1834
The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom, 1840
The first wagon train leaves from Independence, MO, bound for California, 1841
Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second, Asia's first modern police force is established, 1844
Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London, 1851
The Empire of Brazil, Argentina  and Uruguay  sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, 1865
The Folies Bergère opens in Paris, 1869
Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States, 1884
The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic, 1915
The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris, 1927
The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named, 1930
The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City, 1931
The Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war, 1940
The Salk vaccine is made available to the public, 1956
Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections, 1961
Amtrak is formed to take over the U.S. passenger rail service, 1971
Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, 1987
On the same day, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's sets the record for stolen bases (his 939th), and Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers pitches his 7th career no-hitter, breaking his own record, 1991
Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, , 2004
Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden, 2009
Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, 2011