Somebody get me a scorecard, please.

It's a home team football game weekend.  Grandpa gives us six tickets to each game.  That used to be easy, Sweetie, me, and four kids.

Now i have to start asking, weeks in advance, who is going to which game.

For this one, it started that i would go with Sweetie, and Bigger Girl would come to this one as her only game this year.  She wanted to bring three friends.  Because this is the only game she asked to attend, the other kids agreed.  (Each of them is going to at least three games, and is each inviting a friend or two.  Yes, it get more complicated.)

Then Sweetie invited two people to this game because of a miscommunication.  So Bigger Girl could only bring one friend, the one she had already asked.  (At that point, i was just grateful that she hadn't gotten around to asking the other two yet.)

Sweetie found out two days ago that his friends couldn't make it.  So i offered the tickets back to Bigger Girl, but then Little Girl wanted to go.

That would have worked, except that then Little Girl had a friend who wanted to trade work shifts, because the friend forgot, of all things, to ask for the day off for her sister's wedding!

Little Girl couldn't have the friend either miss the wedding or lose a job, so they traded work shifts, so she was out again.  (The friend, somewhat absent minded, will work in the morning instead of getting her hair done for the wedding, but they've decided they can live with that as long as she makes it to the actual event, and this way she doesn't lose her job, which would happen if she just didn't show up or get someone to cover her shift.)

#2 Son and Fiancée Becky (yes, for those who have asked, they do now consider themselves engaged, but as he's 19 and she's 20 and neither of them can support themselves, we will see what happens next, i'm not looking at venues any time soon) decided that they could go.

Now we have me and Sweetie, Bigger Girl and Amos, and the happy couple.

Until the two monkey wrenches of Sweetie's car needing to go into the shop again and his suddenly being offered a day of work which, if he does well enough, may become a full time job.

Which means that i have to get him to work and back, as well as get me to where i need to be, and get Little Girl to work, too, and deal with the car in the shop, because we will need two cars for church tomorrow since i am going to the church for the homeless after our own service.

So Bigger Girl gets to invite two more friends to go along with her and Amos just like she originally planned, and those four plus the two (Son and Becky) make six, and they will have to take two cars since the Jalopy no longer has enough seats (two of them got folded down and won't come back up) and anyway, they will meet here and caravan over there, and i have a headache trying to figure out who is going where.

It's going to be a long season.

Today is:

Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta -- Albuquerque, NM, US ("Where Dreams Take Flight" for 9 days of fun)

Blessing of the Fishing Fleet -- Church of Saints Peter and Paul and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco, CA, US (a festival today and tomorrow, with a blessing offered on the first Sunday of October each year)

Buttering-Up Semi-Finals -- Fairy Calendar

Cohocton Fall Foliage Festival -- Cohocton, NY, US (with the world famous tree-sitting contest; through tomorrow)

Feast of the Hunters' Moon -- Fort Ouiatenon Historic Park, West Lafayette, IN, US (a re-creation of French and Native American life of the mid-1700s at a fur trading outpost; through tomorrow)

Festival of Bacchus/Dionysus -- Ancient Roman Calendar (tasting the old and new wine and celebrating the harvest)

Independence Day -- Iraq

Inter-American Water Day -- begun in 1992 by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the Inter-American Association of Sanitary and Environmental Engineering (AIDIS) and the Caribbean Water and Wastewater Association (CWWA) 

International Frugal Fun Day -- created by Shel Horowitz, author of The Penny-Pinching Hedonist; some of his ideas for how to celebrate are here 

Issaquah Salmon Days Festival -- Issaquah, WA, US (celebrates the return of the spawning salmon to the hatchery; through tomorrow)

Kae Chun Jul -- Korea (National Foundation Day, BC 2333)

Knox County Scenic Drive -- Knox County, IL, US (drive through up to 100 miles of scenic rural Spoon River Valley, with attractions at every stop; this weekend and next)

Morazan Day -- Honduras (Soldier's Day, trad.; will be observed on Monday)

Morro Bay Harbor Festival -- Morro Bay, CA, US (a working waterfront at play; through tomorrow)

National Apple Harvest Festival -- Gettysburg, PA, US (this weekend and next)

National Butterfly and Hummingbird Day -- internet generated; celebrate these beauties today, no matter where you are

National Carmel Custard Day

Oschophoria -- Ancient Greek Calendar (in honor of the return of Theseus after killing the Minotaur; deities celebrated were Dionysius and either Athena or Ariadne, depending on the source cited; date approximate)

Pumpkin and Apple Celebration -- Woodstock, VT, US (lots of hands on fun with apples and pumpkins; through tomorrow)

Qatar Prix L'arc de Triomphe -- Longchamp Race-course, Paris, France (one of the world's greatest horse races, first run in 1920; celebrations and events through tomorrow)

Relief of Leiden Day -- Netherlands

Reunification Day /Unity Day-- Germany

Spoon River Valley Scenic Drive -- Fulton County, IL, US (15 villages participate in arts and crafts, antiques, collectibles, demonstrations, and showing off the beauty of the fall foliage; through tomorrow and again next Saturday and Sunday)

Sts. Ewald the Black and Ewald the Fair's Day (Patrons of Westphalia)

Techies' Day -- give your techies some well deserved appreciation

Woofstock -- Wichita, KS, US (celebrate peace, love and pets; bring your pup and participate as all proceeds go to the Kansas Humane Society)

World Card Making Day -- Paper Crafts Magazine started it all in 2006 and suggests you have fun and make a card or two or three on the first Saturday of October each year


Birthdays Today:

Neve Campbell, 1973
Gwen Stefani, 1969
Janel Maloney, 1969
Clive Owen, 1964
Jack P. Wagner, 1959
Dennis Eckersley, 1954
Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1954
Dave Winfield, 1951
Lindsey Buckingham, 1949
Roy Horn, 1944
Chubby Checker, 1941
Erik Bruhn, 1928
Gore Vidal, 1925
James Herriot (James Alfred Wight), 1916
Harvey Kurtzman, 1902
William Crawford Gorgas, 1854
George Bancroft, 1800


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"L.A. Law"(TV), 1986
"Scarecrow and Mrs. King"(TV), 1983
"Quincy"(TV), 1976
"The Dick Van Dyke Show"(TV), 1961
"The Andy Griffith Show"(TV), 1960
"The Pat Boone Show"(TV), 1957
"The Real McCoys"(TV), 1957
"Captain Kangaroo"(TV), 1955
"The Mickey Mouse Club"(TV), 1955
"Father Knows Best"(TV), 1954
"Our Miss Brooks"(TV), 1952
"The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"(TV), 1952
The Maltese Falcon(Film, NYC release), 1941


Today in History:

The state of Gojoseon (modern-day Korea) is founded by Dangun Wanggeom during the reign of the Chinese emperor Yao, BC2333
The siege and battle of Alesia is ended by the surrender of Vercingetorix, leader of the Gauls, to Julius Caesar, BC52
Julius Caesar's assassins suffer a decisive defeat at the First Battle of Phillipi, BC42
Jews are expelled from Eger, Bohemia, 1430
The Duke of Montrose issues a warrant for the arrest of Rob Roy MacGregor, 1712
British Captain James Cook anchors in Alaska, 1778
General Napoleon Bonaparte first rises to national prominence being named to defend the French National Convention against armed counter-revolutionary rioters, 1795
George Washington proclaims the first national Thanksgiving Day will be held on Nov. 26, 1789
American author Edgar Allan Poe is found delirious in a gutter in Baltimore, Maryland under mysterious circumstances; it is the last time he is seen in public before his death, 1849
J.S. Thurman patents a motor-driven vacuum cleaner, 1899
The first conference on wireless telegraphy agrees to adopt SOS as the warning signal and sign of distress, 1906
Leon Trotsky, Adolph Joffe, Matvey Skobelev and other Russian exiles in Vienna, Austria, found the Pravda newspaper, 1908
Mrs. W.H. Felton, of Georgia, becomes the first woman seated in the US Senate, 1922
A V-2 /A4-rocket from Test Stand VII at Peenemünde, Germany is the first man-made object to reach space, 1942
The United Kingdom successfully tests a nuclear weapon, 1952
Germany is reunified, 1990
Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy is attacked by one of the show's tigers, 2003
Archaeologists on the Egypt-Gaza border find the first evidence of a 2,000-year-old city, 2010