It's been interesting.

Over the past few days, if you had been at our house, you would have heard things like the following:

Me, to Little Girl:  why are you breaking the icicles off the house and putting them in the dishwater in the sink?

Little Girl's answer:  first, they are not off the house, they are off the palm tree, and second, it is fun!

Sweetie, to me and anyone else who would listen:  I've hurt my back again!

Yes, he did.  He went outside, just to go outside, and slipped, hitting the deck.  It's now iffy that he'll even be able to get to work at all this week.

All the kids, continually:  do we have school tomorrow?

Me, most of the day:  there's not been an announcement yet, calm down!

Me, by the end of the day:  no school for #2 Son and Little Girl, but all of the colleges and universities are opening at 10am, so Bigger Girl has class, #1 Son has work, and Sweetie has work -- if his back is better.

Bigger Girl, every couple of hours:  I'll pay someone to go to the can for me!  It's too cold to go!

All of the kids, off and on all day:  what's to eat?

Bigger Girl:  Link didn't lay on my socks and warm them up like he was supposed to!  Doesn't he know that cats are just heating pads that eat, poop, and purr?

Those are the things i've been hearing, along with more stories about exploring the frozen creek -- "I almost fell down the embankment, and Young Jacob had to grab me!" bragged #2 Son -- more screams from outdoors that mean ice is being applied liberally to someone, more eating, eating, eating.

The reason we go to the story to buy milk and bread before a storm is simple -- you can't get out in the storm to get more, and you can't have enough of the stuff around to feed the horde.  We are out of mustard, so many sandwiches of all sorts have been made, and there's looking to be a shortage of peanut butter if i don't get out today.

Today, though, i will get out.  Yesterday, i decided to send Sweetie, when he was still not hurt, because he was hovering over me begging for something to do.

Today, i'm getting mustard.  And who knows?  Maybe i'll run away for an hour.  



Today is:

Arizona Musicfest -- North Scottsdale, AZ, US (a winter classical music festival; through Mar. 1)

Cash Register Day -- James Ritty and John Birch were granted a patent on this day in 1883 for an early mechanical cash register

Congressional Brawl Day -- marking the first ever all out brawl in the US Congress in 1798

Draw A Dinosaur Day -- and post it to the web sitehttp://drawadinosaurday.tumblr.com/

Feast of King Charles the Martyr -- Anglican

Inane Answering Message Day -- the day to change those annoying messages, sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

King's Birthday -- Jordan

Lunar New Year's Eve
     Seol-nal -- South Korea (Lunar New Year Holiday begins)
     Spring Festival -- China; Taiwan (Chinese New Year's Eve, start of the festival)
     Tet Eve -- Vietnam

Martyrs' Day -- India (assassination anniversary of Gandhi)

National Croissant Day

Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Festival of Peace)

Puce and Ochre Day -- Fairy Calendar

School Day of Nonviolence and Peace -- sponsored by DENIP

St. Aldegund's Day (Patron of cancer patients; against cancer, childhood diseases, sudden death, wounds)

St. Bathilde's Day (Patron of children, sick people, widows; against bodily ills and sickness)

St. Martina of Rome's Day (Patron of nursing mothers; Rome, Italy)

St. Moritz Polo world Cup on Snow -- St. Moritz, Switzerland (winter polo on the frozen lake of St. Moritz; through Sunday)

Three Archbishops' Day -- Eastern Orthodox (a/k/a Holy Hierarchs' Day)

Yodel For Your Neighbors Day -- Why?  Do you hate your neighbors?


Birthdays Today:

Johnathan Lee Iverson, 1976
Christian Bale, 1974
Brett Butler, 1958
Phil Collins, 1951
Charles Dutton, 1951
Steve Marriott, 1947
Marty Balin, 1942
Dick Cheney, 1941
Vanessa Redgrave, 1937
Boris spassky, 1937
Tammy Grimes, 1934
Louis Ruckeyser, 1933
Gene Hackman, 1930
Dorothy Malone, 1925
Dick Martin, 1922
Barbara W. Tuchman, 1912
Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1882
Isaiah Thomas, 1749
Thomas Rolfe, 1615 (Only child of John Rolfe and Pocahontas.)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Yogi Bear Show"(TV), 1958
"Robert Montgomery Presents"(TV), 1950
"City Lights"(Chaplin Movie), 1931


Today in History:

The Jews of Freilsburg, Germany, are massacred, 1349
King Charles I of England is beheaded, 1649
Oliver Cromwell, Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, is ritually executed after having been dead for two years, 1661
The Forty-seven Ronin, under the command of Oishi Kuranosuke, avenge the death of their master, 1703
Henry Greathead tests the first boat intended to be specialized as a lifeboat for rescue purposes, which he invented, on the River Tyne in England, 1790
The burned Library of Congress is reestablished, with Thomas Jefferson contributing, 1815
Edward Bransfield sights the Trinity Peninsula and claims the discovery of Antarctica, 1820
The Menai Suspension Bridge, considered the world's first modern suspension bridge, connecting the Isle of Anglesey to the north West coast of Wales is opened, 1826
A fire destroys two-thirds of Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, 1841
The city of Yerba Buena is renamed San Francisco, for the nearby mission of the same name, 1847
William Wells Brown publishes the first Black drama, "Leap to Freedom," 1858
The US Navy's first ironclad warship, the Monitor, is launched, 1862
The pneumatic hammer is patented by Charles King of Detroit, 1894
The Canadian Naval Service becomes the Royal Canadian Navy, 1911
The House of Lords rejects the Irish Home Rule Bill, 1913
"The Lone Ranger" begins a 21 year run on ABC radio, 1933
Indian pacifist and leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is assassinated by Pandit Nathuram Godse, a Hindu extremist, 1948
American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr.'s home is bombed in retaliation for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, 1956
The Beatles' last public performance, on the roof of Apple Records in London. The impromptu concert is broken up by the police, 1969
Carole King's Tapestry album is released, it would become the longest charting album by a female solo artist and sell 24 million copies worldwide, 1971
Pakistan withdraws from the Commonwealth of Nations, 1972
The Monitor National Marine Sanctuary was established as the first United States National Marine Sanctuary, 1975
Richard Skrenta writes the first PC virus code, which is 400 lines long and disguised as an Apple boot program called "Elk Cloner", 1982
Peter Leko of Hungary becomes the world's youngest chess grand master at age 14, 1994
Workers from the National Institutes of Health announce the success of clinical trials testing the first preventive treatment for sickle-cell disease, 1995
Over half a million people participate in the world's largest wildlife survey after extreme cold drives exotic birds into Britain's back gardens, 2011