Just some ramblings.

It is Grandma's birthday today.  #1 Son will be visiting her and Grandpa today, and the rest of us will go down there tomorrow for Mother's Day.  He has to work tomorrow, as all of the other delivery drivers had already requested the day off before him.

There hasn't been much time to plan this year, i'm mostly doing her gifts on the fly, between my jobs and getting Little Girl to school for her last days.  Her hours have been really odd because they are doing testing and they don't have to go to school for the whole day, just for the test times.  Monday is her very last day of high school!

The bakery has been nutso with Mother's Day orders, teacher appreciation orders, graduation orders, and just plain everyone wants cake this time of year orders.  Even when Mother's Day is over, it will stay very busy through the month.  Then in June, July, and August, there will be almost no work.  Make hay while the sun shines, right?

If it seems like i'm rambling today, i am.  Early morning cleanings, late nights at the bakery, and plenty to do at home in between have left me with not much mental energy left to come up with something.

Happy Birthday, Grandma!  We are looking forward to visit tomorrow.

Today is:

Albany Tulip Festival -- Albany, NY, US (celebrate spring and Albany's Dutch heritage; through tomorrow)

Apple Blossom Festival -- Gettysburg, PA, US (58th annual; through tomorrow)

Beaufort Wind Force Scale Day -- birth anniversary of the British Navy officer whose wind scale, in refined form

Birth Mother's Day -- the day before Mother's Day, for all the women who have made an adoption plan for their babies

Bladder Cancer Awareness Day 

Box Camera Day -- George Eastman patented the Box Camera on this day in 1888

Cotton Pickin' Fair -- Gay, GA, US (a fabulous two days of Southern family fun)

Day of the Soldier -- El Salvador 

Experience the Awesome Stomach-Churning Wonder of a Thrill Ride Day -- internet generated, and they can have it!

Feast of St. Nicola -- Bari, Italy (celebrates the moving of the relics of St. Nicholas -- yes, later Santa Claus -- to this town, where they still are; here he is patron of orphans and pirates, and the date of his body's arrival is celebrated as a huge three-day festival with fireworks included)

Fire Escape Ladder Day -- Joseph Winters patented a wagon-mounted version on this day in 1878

Free Comic Book Day -- check here for information, including a store locator 

Hamburg Harbor Day -- Hamburg, Germany (founding of the city)

Herb Day -- an international celebration of herbs and all the flavor they add to our lives; try a new herb to season a dish today

Holland Tulip Time Festival -- Holland, MI, US (one of the best small town festivals in the US, with visitors from around the world; through next Saturday)

Homeland Defender's Day -- Kazakhstan

Homespun History Day -- internet holiday often exploited by Modern Drunkard Magazine as a day upon which to drink specifically so the stories will sound better

Kansas Sampler Festival -- Winfield, KS, US (a living brochure of the state of Kansas, with over 100 communities, hiking trails, historic sites, off-the-beaten-track places, and more represented in one place, highlighting all the great things there are to do in the state of Kansas; through tomorrow)

Low Country Shrimp Festival -- McClellanville, SC, US (seafood, arts, crafts, civic displays, entertainment, and the blessing of the fleet)

Martin Z. Mollusk Day -- Ocean City, NJ (if the hermit crab sees his shadow, summer comes a week early)

National Babysitter's Day -- US, giving recognition to the babysitters who make your date nights possible

National Barrier Awareness Day -- US (declared by Presidential Proclamation in 1986)

National Homebrew Day -- US (Home Brewers Association)

National Roast Leg of Lamb Day

National Scrapbooking Day -- begun by Creative Memories, now celebrated by scrapbookers everywhere, a good article about it here

Nones of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar

O. Henry Pun-Off World Championships -- Austin, TX, US (presented by The P.U.N.Y. [Punsters United Nearly Yearly])

Radio Day -- Bulgaria; Russia

St. Domitian of Huy's Day (Patron of Huy Liege, Belgium; against fever)

Susan G. Komen Global Race for the Cure Day 2016 -- Washington, D.C., US

USA Memory Championship -- Hershey, PA, US ("Mental Athletes" compete for the title of National Memory Champion, and the winner goes on to the World Memory Championships)

World Naked Gardening Day



Anniversaries Today:

Founding of Univerzita Karlova in Prague, the first university in Central Europe, 1348


Birthdays Today:

Owen Hart, 1965
Peter Reckell, 1955
Amy Heckerling, 1954
Tim Russert, 1950
Johnny Unitas, 1933
Teresa Brewer, 1931
Darren McGavin, 1922
Eva Peron, 1919
Gary Cooper, 1901
Archibald Macleish, 1892
Gabby Hayes, 1885
Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1840
Johannes Brahms, 1833
Robert Browning, 1812
Francis Beaufort, 1774
David Hume, 1711


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Strike It Rich"(TV), 1951
Choral Symphony in D Minor(Beethoven's Ninth), 1824


Today in History:

The dome of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople collapses, 558
Joan of Arc leads the final charge in the Battle of Orleans, 1429
Louis XIV of France inaugurates The Palace of Versailles, 1664
The city of New Orleans is founded by Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, 1718
Jews are expelled from Ukraine by Empress Catherine I of Russia, 1727
Chief Pontiac begins the "Conspiracy of Pontiac" by attacking British forces at Fort Detroit, 1763
The independence of Greece is recognized by the Treaty of London, 1832
George Eastman patents the "Kodak Box Camera," 1888
In Saint Petersburg, Russian scientist Alexander Stepanovich Popov demonstrates to the Russian Physical and Chemical Society his invention, the Popov lightning  detector — a primitive radio receiver, 1895
German  submarine  SM U-20  sinks RMS Lusitania, 1915
England lowers age of women voters from 30 to 21, 1928
Tokyo Telecommunications Engineering (later renamed Sony) is founded with around 20 employees, 1946
The Council of Europe is founded during the Hague Congress, 1948
The concept of the integrated circuit, the basis for all modern computers, is first published by Geoffrey W.A. Dummer, 1952
Canadian Patrick Morrow became the first person to climb each of the Seven Summits, 1986
The Space Shuttle Endeavour is launched on its first mission, 1992
Mercedes-Benz buys Chrysler for $40 billion USD and forms DaimlerChrysler in the largest industrial merger in history, 1998
The tomb of Herod the Great is discovered, 2007
A new study reports that all Europeans are related to a small group of ancestors dating back only 1,000 years; researchers believe it's likely that everyone in the world is related over the past few thousand years, 2013