The crazy schedule was worth it.

There's always something up at rEcess, where we watch special needs kids for free so their parents can get a night out.

Ginny's hair is growing back well after her surgery:

At least for us, she ditches the scarf.

Erin, who has several diagnoses, is now the child i'm assigned to watch each night.  She has at least one time where she breaks down and cries for mom, but since she is now allowed to eat a few things in addition to her feeding tube, some root beer and watching the other kids play got her back into a good mood:

Root beer makes the world better.

Our Gracie girl, well, it was a sweet and sad night.  Sweet because she was there and playing and talking and she has come so far from the totally silent child we met a couple of years ago.  Sad because it was her last rEcess. she and her mom are moving!

In her t-ball uniform, playing along with a fun game.  What will we do without her?

Our next rEcess night will be the second Friday in December, because the first Friday will be another favorite night, the Nativity Live.

Today is:

Children's Day -- Malaysia

Commemoration Day -- Tunisia

Day of Accord and Reconciliation -- Russia (formerly Great October Socialist Revolution Day, with the date determined by the Gregorian Calendar)

Digital Scrapbooking Day -- it certainly takes up less room than the other kinds!

Fall Country Jamboree -- Barberville, FL, US (celebration of pioneer life, with music, crafts, historic displays, Native and Cracker camps, and more; through tomorrow)

Feast of Blessed John Duns Scotus (the Subtle Doctor, known for merging the views from many philosophies)
     Dunce Day -- from the word Dunse, a name for the followers of the philosophy of John Duns Scotus

Feast of Stolen Fire -- find it listed on several sites, but none have any background; maybe celebrate that Prometheus stole fire for us?

Guy Fawkes Carnival -- Bridgwater, Somerset, UK (a festival that traces its origins to the Gunpowder Plot of 1605)

Herring King Festival -- Etaples, France (Hareng Roi, a festival worth seeing at least once in your life; through tomorrow)

International Tongue Twister Day -- internet generated

Kalamazoo Russian Festival -- Kalamazoo, MI, US

Lovington Fall Arts and Crafts Festival -- Lovington, NM, US (over 100 local and regional crafters; through tomorrow)

National Bittersweet Chocolate with Almonds Day

National Notary Public Day -- US 

National Revolution and Solidarity Day -- Bangladesh

October Revolution Day -- Belarus; Kyrgyzstan; Transdniestria

Peddler's Village Apple Festival -- Lahaska, PA, US (fun for all, through tomorrow)

Sadie Hawkins Day -- US (on the Saturday nearest Nov. 9, and based on the Li'l Abner comic, a day for women to ask out the man of their choice; also widely observed on Feb. 29because of a law passed by Parliament of Scotland in 1288)

Stay Away from Anyone named Honest John Day -- internet generated; no comment

Steeplechase at Callaway Gardens -- Pine Mountain, GA, US (a six-race steeplechase)

St. Florentius' Day (Patron against gall stones, ruptures)

St. Willibrord's Day (Patron of epileptics; Luxembourg; Netherlands; Utrecht, Netherlands; against convulsions, epilepsy)

Verboort Sausage and Kraut Dinner -- Forest Grove, OR, US (beer and their famous sausage, as well as home-baked goods and fun)

Wish Granting Championships -- Fairy Calendar (Fairies)


Anniversary Today:

The Old Stoughton Musical Society, the oldest choral society in the US, is founded, 1786



Birthdays Today:

Jeremy London, 1972
Keith Lockhart, 1959
Joni Mitchell, 1943
Johnny Rivers, 1942
Barry Newman, 1938
Joan Sutherland, 1926
Al Hirt, 1922
Billy Graham, 1918
Albert Camus, 1913
Dean Jagger, 1903
Leon Trotsky, 1879
Madame Marie Curie, 1867
Captain James Cook, 1728


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"America Hurrah"(van Itallie play), 1966
"Face the Nation"(TV), 1954
"Buck Rogers in the 25th Century"(Radio),1932
The Republican Elephant, as drawn by T. Nast in Harper's Weekly, 1874
"The Conscious Lovers"(Steele play), 1722
The Oxford Gazette(first edition), 1665 (Now The London Gazette)


Today in History:

The oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, the Ensisheim Meteorite, strikes around noon in a wheat field near the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France, 1492
Pierre Gassendi observes the transit of Mercury as predicted by Kepler, 1631
Anne Htchinson is banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a heretic, 1637
The first edition of the "London Gazette", the oldest surviving journal, is published, 1665
Lewis and Clark first sight the Pacific Ocean, 1805
The first Thomas Nast cartoon depicting the Republican Party Elephant is published, 1874
Edward Bouchet becomes the first black to receive a PhD from a US college (Yale), 1876
Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, 1893
The first air freight shipment is undertaken by the Wright brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse (from Dayton, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio), 1910
Mao Tse Tung proclaims the "Chinese People's Republic", 1931
Fiorello H. La Guardia is elected the 99th mayor of New York City, 1933
Carl B. Stokes is elected as Mayor of Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the first African American mayor of a major American city, 1967
Douglas Wilder wins the governor's seat in Virginia, becoming the first elected African American governor in the United States, 1989
Mary Robinson becomes the first woman to be elected President of the Republic of Ireland, 1990
NASA launches the Mars Global Surveyor, 1996
U.S. voters in the state of Massachusetts approve a referendum legalizing the use of medical marijuana; Colorado and Washington approve the legalization of recreational use of the drug, 2012