New and Improved

The shelter is a bit chaotic right now, in the middle of a major overhaul/renovation.  They are calling it a reFURbishment.  Yes, we have to have a sense of humor about it.

Lots of building going on.

The first step was getting two temporary buildings, so we could move the cats into them during the jackhammering.

Jackhammering was done, to lay new pipes.

Our timing was off and no cats got moved out there and the jackhammering started and not a single cat batted an eyelid over it.  The t-buildings are still being used for storage and extra cage space, and to isolate the sick cats.

What's the best way to live in a house and renovate at the same time?  Put signs up everywhere.

Label everything, and i do mean every little thing.  It saves time.

Also, get used to the fact that things aren't where they should be, but where they ended up.

Stuff is where it is.  If you need it, go find it!

The whole process should take about 3 months, but the final product will be worth it.  There will be a volunteer/staff break room, a medical room and two isolation rooms for sick cats, as well as more colony rooms and a room dedicated to letting people sit with one cat and spend time with it while deciding which one to adopt.

Having a laundry room, instead of the washer in one room and the dryer in another will be a huge improvement, too.

It should be done just as kitten season gets under way.  Bring it on.

Today is:

Break-Up Day -- if you are over him/her, don't go through tomorrow pledging love falsely, get out today

Dream of Your Sweetheart Day -- a reminder that if you aren't ready for Valentine's Day tomorrow, you'd better get cracking

Employee Legal Awareness Day -- Australia

Farm Toy Show and Auction -- Sauk Centre, MN, US (come watch the kids have fun with farm toys, and be one yourself again!)

Galesburg Historical Society Chocolate Festival -- Galesburg, IL, US (home made and commercially made chocolates, all you can eat for the price of the low admission fee; through tomorrow)

Get a Different Name Day -- for those who hate their name; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

Ides of February -- Ancient Roman Calendar; also
     Parentalia begins -- through the 21st (honoring divi parentes -- the deified ancestors)
     Lupercalia begins -- through the 15th (to rid the city of evil spirits)
     Orgiastic festival of Juno Februa begins -- through tomorrow

I Value Your Friendship Day -- because you don't want to neglect your friends while we are remembering love this week

Lemon Festival -- Menton, French Riviera (through Mar. 2)

Madly in Love With Me Day -- because you have to love "me" before you can love "we"

National Tortellini Day

Nice Carnival -- Nice, France (dating back to the 14th century, this celebration is one of France's best; through Feb. 28)

Scout Sabbath -- BSA (Boy Scouts are encouraged to wear their uniforms to synagogue and represent scouting to their congregations)

St. Catherine dei Ricci's Day (Patron of the ill)

Ta-asobi -- Akatsuka Suwa Shrine, Itabashi-ku, Japan (ceremony to pray for a good harvest)

Trndez or Tearnandarach -- Armenian Christian Church (fire celebration, begins in the evening and goes through tomorrow; originally a pagan sun worship celebration, it is now a Candlemas celebration by the OS Calendar)



Birthdays Today:

Mena Suvari, 1979
Robbie Williams, 1974
Kelly Hu, 1968
David Naughton, 1951
Peter Gabriel, 1950
Stockard Channing, 1944
Jerry Springer, 1944
Carol Lynley, 1942
Peter Tork, 1942
Bo Svenson, 1941
George Segal, 1934
Kim Novak, 1933
Chuck Yeager, 1923
Eileen Farrell, 1920
Tennessee Ernie Ford, 1919
Eddie Robinson, 1919
Grant Wood, 1892
Alvin York, 1887
Elizabeth "Bess" Virginia Wallace Truman, 1885
Randolph Henry Spencer Churchill, 1849
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord, 1754
Giovanni Battista Piazzetta, 1682


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Merlin"(Musical), 1983
Prince Valiant(Comic strip), 1937


Today in History:

Baghdad falls to the Mongols, and the Abbasid Caliphate is destroyed, 1258
Jews are expelled from Burgsordf, Switzerland, 1349
The Disfida di Barletta (Challenge of Barletta); Frenchman Charles de la Motte accused Italians of cowardice, and thirteen Italians proceeded to rout 13 Frenchmen in a chivalrous horseback tourney, 1503
St. Augustine, Florida, is founded, becoming the oldest continuously occupied European established city, and the oldest port, in the continental United States, 1566
Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome for trial before the Inquisition for professing belief that the Earth revolves around the sun, 1633
Treaty of Lisbon:  Spain recognizes Portugal, 1668
The Massacre of Glencoe: 78 members of the clan Macdonald are murdered for not promptly pledging allegiance to the new king, William of Orange (William III), 1692
Cholera appears in London, 1832
Work begins on the covering of the Zenne, burying Brussels's primary river and creating the modern central boulevards, 1867
The feminist newspaper La Citoyenne is first published in Paris by the activist Hubertine Auclert, 1881
Painter Thomas Eakins resigns from Philadelphia Academy of Art after controversial over use of male nudes in a coed art class, 1886
Auguste and Louis Lumière patent the Cinematographe, a combination movie camera and projector, 1894
English suffragettes storm British Parliament and 60 women are arrested, 1907
The Negro National League is formed, 1920
A jury in Flemington, New Jersey finds Bruno Hauptmann guilty of the 1932 kidnapping and murder of the Lindbergh baby, 1935
France tests its first atomic bomb, 1960
Black Sabbath, arguably the very first heavy metal album, is released, 1970
A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky, 1981
An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany, 1990
The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies, 2000
The Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", 2004
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations, 2008
At 23:31:30 UTC the Unix system time (time_t) number reaches 1234567890 seconds, 2009
For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, were able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855, 2011