Where did it go?

Okay, where did April go?

What do you mean, it's over?

That means i have to get my first-cousin-to-a-Luddite brain to figure out how to take down the A to Z Challenge doomahickey on the side.  What, you expect me to know what that's called?  It took me two hours just to figure out how to get into the place on Blogger where i change stuff, and how to get it to work.  Please don't think i'm going to know technical names.

Anyway, give me a couple of days on that.  And please don't expect me to know how to replace it with the other doomahickey that says i did it.  While i may attempt it, i make no promises.

Meanwhile, there is rejoicing and jubilation in our home.  Over the past two days, we have had both an A/C repair person and a plumber come in.  The A/C is unclogged, and the toilets now flush properly.  We are pleased.

A small note, too, about my recent visit to DiDreaming.  She lives in the Mobile area, and the whole area was slammed hard by the recent storm.  They only damage they sustained was to the unloved convertible -- the one with the bullet hole in it.  (Owner of the home and convertible, for whom DiDreaming is the nanny, has questionable taste in boyfriends.  Let's leave it there.)  The top leaked, and Di didn't know, and when she got in, she found out the hard way.  Leaving the top down dried the interior of the car with no trouble. 

Pensacola was seriously hit also, worse than the Mobile area.  That's where we go for vacation each year, and it's an area dear to my heart.  While i haven't heard of any specific damage where we will be in June, i do know that a nearby island's homeowners are unable to leave their homes due to water.  Some people had their boats lifted so high when the water level came up that they hit against the roofs of the covered boat docks.  They will have to wait for water to recede to know if there's any damage.

On a totally different note, sometimes Josie, aka Yum Yucky, likes to know what kind of cake we have on birthdays.  So this year, Little Girl asked for Coca Cola Cake.

Coca Cola Cake, one layer.

Coca Cola Cake, half devoured.  Chocolate goodness.

Yes, i bought the good Coca Cola, imported from Mexico, so it wouldn't have the corn syrup and would taste right.


Today is

Agriculture Day and Labor Day -- Haiti

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

Beltaine / Samhain -- Wiccan/Pagan

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

Childhood Stroke Awareness Month -- also called Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month, because kids can have strokes, too

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)

Festa Del Serpari -- Cocullo, Italy (The Procession of the Snake Catchers, in honor of the city's patron, St. Dominick, whom they believed could cure snakebite)

Festival of Nations -- St. Paul, MN, US (cultural exhibits, food, dance, and folk art from 90 ethnic groups in a celebration held each year since 1932; through Sunday)

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)

Global Love Day -- sponsored by The Love Foundation

Go Fetch! National Food Drive for Homeless Animals -- PALS Foundation
Gujarat Day / Maharashtra Day -- MH, India

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

Kansas Barbed Wire Swap/Sell -- La Crosse, Kansas (held by the Barbed Wire Collectors Association, and no, i'm not making that up! through Saturday)

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

Kevadpuha -- Estonia (Spring Day)

Law Day, USA -- US, by Presidential Proclamation

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

Loyalty Day -- US

Make-a-Book Day -- the Thursday of Family Reading Week

Martin Z. Mollusk Day -- Ocean City, NJ (if the hermit crab sees his shadow, summer comes a week early)

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 of Prayer -- US / Interfaith

National Day of Reason -- US Humanist alternative to the National Day of Prayer

National Day to Prevent Teen Pregnancy -- US (info here)

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

National Purebred Dog Day -- US (as proposed on this page)

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)

Play of St. Evermaar -- Belgium (annual performance of a mystery play, in its original form from over 1,000 years ago, by the village)

Richmond Mushroom Festival -- Richmond, MO, US (arts and crafts, carnival, barbecue contest, bike and car show, bands, and stage shows, all to celebrate the fun fungus; through Sunday)

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

Silver Star Day -- US (to honor all military who have earned a Silver Star)

Southern Appalachian Dulcimer Festival -- Tannehill Ironworks Historical State Park, McCalla, AL, US (through Sunday)

Stepmother's Day -- sponsored by Second Wives' Club

St. Joseph the Worker's Day -- Holy See(Vatican City)

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.)

Swieta Panstwowe -- Poland (National Day)

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 lanterns, 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:

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


Birthdays Today:

Wes Anderson, 1969
Tim McGraw, 1967
Charlie Schlatter, 1966
Steve Cauthen, 1960
Ray Parker, Jr., 1954
Paul Teutul, Sr., 1949
Rita Coolidge, 1945
Bobbie Ann Mason, 1940
Judy Collins, 1939
Sonny James, 1929
Charles "Chuck" Bednarik, 1925
Terry Southern, 1924
Jack Paar, 1918
Glenn Ford, 1916
Archie Williams, 1915
Kate Smith, 1909
Mark Clark, 1896
Leo Sowerby, 1895
Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke), 1852
Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, 1837
King Kamehameha I of Hawai'i, 1738
Joseph Addison, 1672


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My One and Only"(Musical), 1983
Citizen Kane(Film), 1941
"Batman"(Detective Comics #27), 1939
"Buffalo Bill's Wild West"(touring Western show), 1883
"Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro"(Mozart Opera, K492), 1786


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
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
The U.N. Human Rights Office determine it is a violation of international law to force-feed hunger strikers at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison, 2013