How to celebrate...

...a birthday.  At least, here.

First, pick a good cake.

The more chocolate, the better.

Let Little Girl have fun mixing the ingredients, and pour the batter into round pans that will fit in our toaster oven.

A batter filled pan, buttered, but she forgot the flour.  Hope it won't stick!

Bake in said toaster oven, the only oven we have right now, remembering to turn every 10 minutes so as not to overcook in the one hot spot the oven has.

Well baked!

After they cool, cut and fit the cakes into a rectangular cake pan, because we just don't get them to come out right when we try to make layer cakes.

See!  They fit!

Have Little Girl make frosting, which means getting powdered sugar everywhere -- we can't help it!

Powdery sweetness all over.

While the pan frosting is still hot, spread over the cake.

Maybe not a thing of beauty, but a joy for eating!

Happy 23rd birthday, #1 Son!


Today is:

Atomic Bomb Day -- the first experimental bomb was set off today in 1945

Closet Space Appreciation Day -- if you have some, enjoy (we have tiny closets!)

Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel; related observances (many noting her relationship to Carmen, ancient goddess of healing and midwifery)
     Fiesta of the Virgin of Carmen -- Santurtzi, Basque Region, Spain
     Lady of Carmen Day -- Chile
     La Madonna della Carmine -- Naples, Italy (all of Italy, actually, but especially here)
     Virgen Del Carmen -- Cetano, Puerto Rico

Fresh Spinach Day -- yippee!

Friendship Festival -- Lathrop, Missouri, US (this year's theme is "Cheers to 50 Years!"; through Saturday)

Ice Cream Cone Day -- this is one of the many days people say the confection was invented, so why not?

LaPaz Day -- Bolivia

Manu'a Cession Day -- American Samoa

National Baby Food Festival -- Fremont, MI, US (in the hometown of Gerber Products, adults have a baby food eating contest and tots have crawling races, among other fun things; through Saturday)

National Corn Fritters Day

National Personal Chef Day -- some websites say Feb. 24, but since i'm not going to have one, you may celebrate it whichever you choose

Parking Meter Day -- the first parking meter was installed on this day in 1935 in Okalahoma City, OK

Petal-Hopping for Non-Starters Day -- Fairy Calendar

Sinclair Lewis Days -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (a grand celebration in Lewis's hometown; through the 20th)

St. Eustathius' Day

Talk to a Telemarketer Day -- only if i can mess with his/her mind in some way!


Anniversary Today:

Michael J. Fox marries Tracy Pollan, 1988


Birthdays Today

Mark Indelicato, 1994
Jayma Mays, 1979
Corey Feldman, 1971
Larry Sanger, 1968
Barry Sanders, 1968
Will Ferrell, 1967
Phoebe Cates, 1963
Michael Flatley, 1958
Stewart Copeland, 1952
Ruben Blades, 1948
Pinchas Zukerman, 1948
Bess Myerson, 1924
Ginger Rogers, 1911
"Miss Frances" Horwich, 1907
Barbara Stanwyck, 1907
Orville Reddenbacker, 1907
Roald Amundsen, 1872
Ida B. Wells, 1862
Mary Baker Eddy, 1821
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1723
Andrea del Sarto, 1486


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Golden Horseshoe Revue"(Disneyland show), 1955
The Catcher in the Rye(Publication date), 1951
"Das Entfuhrung aus dem Serail"(Opera, Mozart K. 384), 1782


Today in History

The Islamic Calendar begins, 622
East-West Schism between the Eastern and Western Christian churches begin, 1054
The first banknotes in Europe are issued by the Swedish bank Stockholms Banco, 1661
Manchu Qing Dynasty naval forces under traitorous commander Shi Lang defeat the Kingdom of Tungning in the Battle of Penghu near the Pescadores Islands, 1683
Father Junipero Serra founds California's first mission, Mission San Diego de Alcalá. Over the following decades, it evolves into the city of San Diego, 1769
First performance of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera The Abduction from the Seraglio, 1782
The city of La Paz, in what is today Bolivia, declares its independence from the Spanish Crown, 1809
Emily Stowe becomes the first female physician licensed to practice medicine in Canada, 1880
The world's first parking meter is installed in the Oklahoma capital, Oklahoma City, 1935
The world's first nuclear weapon, the "atom bomb," is detonated in New Mexico, 1945
The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first aircraft hijacking of a commercial plane, 1948
J.D. Salinger novel The Catcher in the Rye published by Little, Brown and Company, 1951
Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus closes its very last "Big Tent" show in Pittsburgh, due to changing economics all subsequent circus shows will be held in arenas, 1956
USS George Washington (SSBN-598) a modified Skipjack class submarine successfully test fires the first Ballistic missile while submerged, 1960
The Mont Blanc Tunnel linking France and Italy opens, 1965
Apollo 11, the first manned space mission to land on the Moon, is launched from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1969
Mahathir bin Mohamad becomes Malaysia's 4th Prime Minister; he will be in office 22 years, Asia's longest-serving political leader, 1981
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collides with Jupiter (impacts continue until July 22), 1994
John F. Kennedy, Jr., piloting a Piper Saratoga aircraft, dies in a plane mishap over the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Martha's Vineyard, along with his wife Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, 1999
Chicago's Millenium Park is opened to the public, 2004
The funeral for the final heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, occurs in Vienna, attended by monarchs and members of the political elite, 2011