How to have a crazy Saturday...

...just as i did this past weekend.

Come downstairs with a list of things to so just in time to hear #2 Son, the one with two broken hands, yell, "Mom, can you bring me a bucket?  I think I'm going to be sick!"

Bring him the bucket, just in time.

While cleaning up the results of the need for the use of the bucket, have #1 Son come in saying, "Mom, I feel really weird, dizzy and light headed.  And my heart is pounding, and I'm sweating, and my extremities keep going numb."

As you turn to assess the situation, have a cat start gacking up and making really strange noises, as if she is choking.

When the cat doesn't stop making those noises, grab your phone, call the vet, get them to agree to see the cat if you can come in right away.  Decide to call Sweetie to ask if he can come bring the cat so you can call the doctor about #1 Son's weird symptoms.  Get no answer, because he went to get himself some breakfast and forgot his phone.

Run the cat to the vet as fast as you can, agreeing to pick it up in an hour, and rush back.

Call the doctor and let #1 Son describe his symptoms.

Find out he is going to be fine, it's just a virus, listen as #2 Son says he is feeling better now that he's gotten it all out of his system, and get cat back to find that she just has a bad virus, and the choking sound is just her weird way of trying to clear the mucus.

Decide you've had enough excitement for the whole day, and when Sweetie comes in and asks how was your morning, tell him he missed all the fun.  As usual.

And no, i don't recommend this form of excitement!


Today is:

August Tuesday / Culturama -- St. Kitts and Nevis

Barsi Bhagat Puran Singh -- Sikhism

Bogota Carnival -- Bogota, Colombia (celebrating the city's Hispanic founding; through tomorrow)

Carnival Tuesday -- Antigua and Barbuda (Last Lap Jump Up)

Celtic Tree Month Coll (Hazel) commences

Festival Tuesday -- British Virgin Islands

Damn the Torpedoes, Full Speed Ahead Day -- uttered this day by Admiral Farragut at the Battle of Mobile Bay in 1864

Hanakasa Matsuri -- Yamagata City, Japan (10,000 costumed dancers perform; through the 7th)

Independence Day / Republic Day -- Burkina Faso (former Upper Volta)(1960)

International Beer Day

National Blackmail Day -- according to mostly ecard sites, with suggestions to send a card to the friend who has told you his/her secrets, with the notice that you plan on celebrating this date!

National Night Out -- US (sponsored by National Association of Town Watch, to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness)

National Underwear Day -- sponsored by www.freshpair.com, which encourages people to rethink their underwear style, make sure they have the right fit, and which gives away free underwear

National Waffle Day

Nuestra Senora de Africa -- CE, Spain (Day of Our Lady of Africa, also called Fiestas Patronales)

Oyster Day

Pixie of the Year Competition -- Fairy Calendar

Sacrifice to Salus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of health, associated with Greek Hygeia)

St. Afra of Augsburg's Day (Patron of converts, martyrs, penitent women; Augsburg, Germany)

St. Oswald of Northumbria's Day (Patron of Zug, Switzerland)

Tish'a B'Av -- Judaism (began sunset yesterday, through sunset today)

Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian defenders -- Croatia

Work Like a Dog Day -- different from work-a-holics, people who work like a dog work hard while they are at it, and rest when they aren't

World's Fair of Money -- Chicago, IL, US (the greatest money show on Earth, including dealers, exhibits from around the world, family activities and educational programs; through Saturday)


Birthdays Today:

Jonathan Silverman, 1966
Patrick Aloysius Ewing, 1962
Maureen McCormick, 1956
Erika Slezak, 1946
Loni Anderson, 1946
Ja’net DuBois, 1938
John Saxon, 1936
Neil Armstrong, 1930
Sydney Omarr, 1926
Raoul Wallenberg, 1912
John Huston, 1906
Conrad Potter Aiken, 1889
Joseph Merrick, 1862
Guy de Maupassant, 1850
Thomas Lynch, Jr., 1749
John Eliot, 1604
Joseph Justus Scaliger, 1540


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Revolver"(Beatles Album, release date), 1966
"Eleanor Rigby" & "Yellow Submarine"(Beatles singles, A & B side respectively, release date), 1966
"American Bandstand"(TV, national premiere), 1957
"Andy Capp"(Comic strip), 1957
"Little Orphan Annie"(Comic strip), 1924


Today in History

The last outpost of Bar Kockba, Betar, falls to Rome, 135
Penda of Mercia defeats and kills Oswald of Northumbria at the Battle of Maserfield, 642
King Edward and Earl Aetherlred, leading the allied forces of Mercia and Wessex, defeat the last major Viking army to raid England at the Battle of Tettenhall, 910
Anti-Jewish riots in Arnstadt, Germany, 1264
Sir Humphrey Gilbert establishes first English colony in North America, at what is now St John's, Newfoundland, 1583
The Mayflower departs from Southampton, England on its first attempt to reach North America, 1620
New York Weekly Journal writer John Peter Zenger is acquitted of seditious libel against the royal governor of New York, on the basis that what he had published was true, 1735
US Army abolishes flogging, 1861
Standard Oil of New Jersey is established, 1882
The cornerstone for the Statue of Liberty is laid on Bedloe's Island in New York Harbor, 1884
Bertha Benz drives from Mannheim to Pforzheim and back in the first long distance automobile trip made in her husbands invention, the first patented automobile; her journey was to publicize the invention, and she garnered attention and sales, 1888
The first electric traffic light is installed, in Cleveland, Ohio, 1914
Debut of the comic strip "Little Orphan Annie", by Harold Gray, 1924
Debut of the comic strip "Andy Capp", by Smythe, 1957
Nelson Mandela is jailed, 1962*
The United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union sign a nuclear test ban treaty, 1963
The city of Knin, a significant Serb stronghold, is captured by Croatian forces during Operation Storm, 1995
The Copiapo mining accident traps 33 Chilean miners about 2,300ft below the ground, 2010

*Released in 1990