She calls it fun.

So, how was your first time volunteering at the food bank? i asked Bigger Girl as she came through the door.

"It was fine, mom, but listen to this!  I was the only volunteer there who wasn't doing it as part of a community service sentence from the courts, or to get high school community service credits!  Can you believe it?  I almost was tempted to ask the others, 'So, what are you in for?'"

Yes, i can imagine a lot of people who get sentenced to community service by the courts would rather be at the food bank than shovel poop at the zoo or pick up trash by the road, i noted.

"True, true," she said.  "Oh, and by the way, I found a recipe online for fake blood.  Mind if I make some using the food coloring the pantry that we never use?"

Sure, but Halloween is over, what would you need fake blood for? i asked.

"Well, I've been watching Harold and Maude, you know, the movie, and my friend who takes filmmaking class has to make a short film as a project, so we want me to do like Harold does, and fake a suicide, for his film.  It will be fun, I got a white dress at the thrift store, and we have a place where we can film it that no one will see us and think it's real.  So, anyway, wow, the food coloring kit includes burgundy!  This will really work great!"

Go ahead, i said.  Just be careful, that stuff stains things easily.  You wouldn't want to ruin someone's furniture or something.

"No, we'll be careful about that," she said.  She then proceeded to mix several ingredients, and smile over the variety of colors in the food coloring kit i had purchased many years before but seldom used.

"It's perfect!" she gloated when she got it just as she wanted it.  "I'm going to go meet up with Aaron and the others.  We'll go bowling, and then we'll film me faking suicide for his project!"

Enjoy yourself, i called after her.

With her sense of humor, i know she did.


Today is:

Baba Marta Day -- Bulgaria (Grandmother Spring Day, martenitsa are worn until you see a stork or a tree blooming.)

Beer Day -- Iceland (marks the end of the prohibition of beer in 1989)

Be Positive, Do Something Positive Day -- the way to start Optimism Month

Bravo Day/Nuclear Victims Remembrance Day -- Marshall Islands

Camellia Festival 2014 -- Chiswick House and Gardens Trust, London, England (through Mar. 30)

Carnaval de Barranquilla -- Barranquilla, Spain (four days of pre-Lent celebration and street dances that mostly shut down the city)

Chalandra Marz -- Engandine, Switzerland (various cities of this province have the traditional spring event where costumed young people, ringing bells and cracking whips, drive out the demons of winter)

Day to Mourn Victims of Land Mines -- anniversary of the day they were outlawed worldwide in 1999

Dia de las Islas Baleares -- Iberia, Spain

Elves, Woodworkers, and Mechanics' Day -- Fairy Calendar

First Day of Autumn -- Australia (they go by months, not equinoxes, like the rest of the world used to)

Floral City Strawberry Festival -- Floral City, FL, US (fun for all, through tomorrow)

Goa Carnival -- Goa, India (Indo-Latin fusion of music, dance, parades, and revelry; through the 13th)

Humorists Are Artists Month begins -- any coincidence this spells HAAM?

Iditarod Sled Dog Race - Last Great Race on Earth® begins -- Anchorage to Nome, AK, US (1,000 miles along the historic Iditarod Trail)

Independence Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina(1992)

International Association for Women of Color Day -- www.womenofcolorday.com

International Wheelchair Day -- a day when wheelchair users celebrate the positive impact a wheelchair has had in their lives

Klondike Days -- Eagle River, WI, US (recreation of primitive camps used by early pioneers, a Native American cultural presentation, and more; through tomorrow)

Martisor -- Romanians and Aromanians, especially in Romania and Moldova (similar tradition to Baba Marta; first days of March are Zilele Babei, Days of the Old Woman, when Old Woman Winter, Baba Dokia, who lives in the mountains, might come back with ferocity.)

National Fruit Compote Day

National Heroes' Day -- Paraguay

National Horse Protection Day -- US; sponsored by the Animal Miracle Foundation

National Pig Day -- sponsored by Ellen Stanley and Mary Lynne Rave, who want you to know that pigs are amazing animals that place fourth on the animal intelligence list!

Natural Bridge Battle Reenactment -- Tallahassee, FL, US (Civil War reenactment; through tomorrow)

Navii's Day / Vjunitci -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (a Day of the Dead, bringing sacrifices and inviting the ancestors to attend the feast)

New Year's Day -- Ancient Roman Pre-Julian Calendar; related observances
     Birthday of Mars Pater (Feriae Marti)
     Chalanda Marz -- Kalends of March (now a festival in Egandine, Grisons Canton, Switzerland, in which the children ring bells to ring out the winter)
     Matronalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Women's Festival to Juno)
     Renewal of the Vestal Fire

Nineteen Day Fast -- Baha'i (begins at sundown)

Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Day -- in remembrance of the destruction of Bikini Atoll

Omizutori Matsuri -- Todai-ji Temple, Nara, Japan (Water-Drawing Festival of 1,200 year old Buddhist ceremonies, through the 14th)

Peace Corps Birthday / National Day of Action -- US

Peanut Butter Lovers' Day -- according to some foodie sites

Philadelphia Flower Show -- Philadelphia, PA, US (largest flower show in the US; through the 9th)

Plan a Solo Vacation Day -- Solo Travel Portal wants you to dream big and plan what you would do if you could get away, solo.

ReFIRED, Not Retired Day -- the day to get Fired Up about Life, Part II; you aren't retired, you are reFIRED!

Republic Day -- NE, Switzerland

Samiljeol (March 1st Movement Remembrance Day) -- South Korea

Self-Injury Awareness Day -- International (for information about self-injury, or to get started getting help, go here)

St. David of Wales' Day (Patron of doves; Patron of Wales, where it is called Dydd Gwyl Dewi Sant)

Saint Piran's Day Celebration -- Kansas City, KA, US (celebration of the patron saint of Cornwall and Cornish peoples, as well as the patrn of tin miners, sponsored by the Greater Kansas City Cornish Society, on the Saturday nearest Mar. 5)

Time for a Cuppa? -- UK (raising awareness of dementia and raising funds for research)

Whuppity Scoorie Day -- Lanark, Scotland (Spring festival, children run around the church and pick up coins thrown for them.)

World Civil Defense Day -- International Civil Defense Organisation

Yap Day -- Micronesia (festival celebrating the heritage of the Yap peoples)


Anniversaries Today:

Johnny Cash marries June Carter, 1968
Yellowstone National Park established, 1872
Nebraska becomes the 37th US State, 1867
Howard University in Washington, D.C., is chartered, 1867
Ohio becomes the 17th US State, 1803


Birthdays Today:

Justin Bieber, 1994
Mark-Paul Gosselaar, 1974
Javier Bardem, 1969
George Eads, 1967
Russell Wong, 1963
Nik Kershaw, 1958
Timothy Daly, 1956
Ron Howard, 1954
Catherine Bach, 1954
Alan Thicke, 1947
Dirk Benedict, 1945
Roger Daltry, 1944
Robert Conrad, 1935
Harry Belafonte, 1927
Pete Rozelle, 1926
Donald "Deke" K. Slayton, 1924
William M. Gaines, 1922
Richard (Purdy) Wilbur, 1921
Ralph Ellison, 1914
Harry Caray, 1914
David Niven, 1910
Glenn Miller, 1904
Watsuji Tetsuro, 1889
Oskar Kokoschka, 1886
Augustus Saint-Gaudens, 1848
Frederic Chopin, 1810


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sophisticated Ladies"(Musical), 1981
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street"(Musical), 1979
"Believe It or Not"(TV), 1949
"Captain America Comics #1"(Comic book), 1941
"Native Son"(Publication date), 1940


Today in History:

Romulus, first king of Rome, celebrates the first Roman triumph after his victory over the Caeninenses, following the Rape of the Sabine Women, BC752
Lucius Cornelius Sulla, at the head of a Roman Republic army, enters Athens, BC86
Hulagu Khan, grandson of Genghis, conquerors Damascus, 1260
The Unitas Fratrum is established in the village of Kunvald, on the Bohemian-Moravian borderland. It is to date the second oldest Protestant denomination, 1457
23 Huguenots are massacred by Catholics in Wassy, France, marking the start of the French Wars of Religion, 1562
The Uppsala Synod is summoned to confirm the exact forms of the Lutheran Church of Sweden, 1593
Samuel de Champlain reclaims his role as commander of New France on behalf of Cardinal Richelieu, 1633
Sarah Goode, Sarah Osborne, and Tituba are arrested for witchcraft in Salem, Massachusetts, 1692
"The Spectator" begins publishing, in London, 1711
The first US census is authorized, 1790
Napoleon returns to France from his banishment on Elba, 1815
Rebecca Lee Crumpler becomes the first African-American female to earn a medical degree, 1864
Yellowstone becomes the world's first national park, 1872
E. Remington and Sons in Ilion, New York begins production of the first practical typewriter, 1873
Nikola Tesla gives the first public demonstration of radio in St. Louis, Missouri, 1893
Henri Becquerel discovers radioactivity, 1896
Battle of Adwa, Abyssinia (Ethiopia) defeats invading Italians, the first defeat of a colonizing European nation by an African colony, 1896
Albert Berry makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1912
The Republic of China joins the Universal Postal Union, 1914
The March 1st Movement, demonstrations for independence from Japan, begins in Korea, 1919
Charles Lindbergh, Jr., is kidnapped, 1932
The Hoover Dam is completed, 1936
US Steel raises workers wages to US$5/day, 1937
Trans-Canada Air Lines (forerunner of Air Canada) begins transcontinental operations (between Vancouver and Montreal), 1939
The International Monetary Fund begins financial operations, 1947
Chiang Kai-shek resumed the presidency of National China on Formosa, 1950
The Castle Bravo, a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, is detonated on Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, resulting in the worst radioactive contamination ever caused by the United States, 1954
The Peace Corps is established, 1961
Villarrica Volcano begins a strombolian eruption causing lahars that destroy half of the town of Coñaripe, Chile, 1964
Venera 3 Soviet space probe crashes on Venus becoming the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface, 1966
Bosnia and Herzegovina declares its independence from Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, 1992
Yahoo! was incorporated, 1995
The Envisat environmental satellite successfully reaches an orbit 800 kilometers (500 miles) above the Earth on its 11th launch, carrying the heaviest payload to date at 8500 kilograms (9.5 tons), 2002
The International Criminal Court holds its inaugural session in The Hague, 2003
English-language Wikipedia reaches its one millionth article, Jordanhill railway station, 2006