Odds and Ends

Little Girl has been sending letters regularly and fussing at Red-headed Alec because he has only written back one time.

The problem is it takes him so long to write things out by hand that i finally convinced him to type it into a notepad on the computer, then i copied and pasted it into an email to myself, which i will print at the library (my computer is allergic to printers and kills them).  It's a round about way of getting there, but it works.

Speaking of what works, this week i'm helping Ms. V's son while she is out of town.  It's great to have the extra work because i've lost two clients in the last two weeks.  It looks like i might have to take a job with a cleaning service if this keeps up.  Not right away, though, first i'm going to re-order some of the clients i have and see if i've got at least one most days of the week.  If i do, that will probably have to be enough.  The pace i was keeping up before was wearing me a bit thin.

We are still waiting to hear from Dr. Bea about Pepe.  She took out his baby teeth that wouldn't fall out, and the "cherry eye" gland on his eyelid, and she wanted to neuter him but DIL Becky says absolutely no.  The x-rays show his ligaments seem to be fine and his hips don't show signs of the femurs having blood supply trouble like some dogs with hip dysplasia.  What he really has are femurs that are very badly curved at the knee ends, and because his growth plates are mostly closed, there's probably no way to correct that.  She's still going to consult with a specialist friend.

In the end, we will probably just figure he has always had this problem so he doesn't know any different, he's in no pain, has great quality of life, and loves to run and play.  As long as that is so, we can just let it be and accept that he will always walk a bit funny.  DIL Becky knows he cannot be bred, as this is obviously a genetic flaw, but she claims neutering changes their personality, so she won't allow that.

When i asked her where she got the dog, she said from a breeder about a fifty mile drive from here, and that she saw the mother of the litter and she looked fine.  What the father looked like is anyone's guess.

Bigger Girl has decided she might try for a new job in the fall.  It seems one of the museums on campus is trying to catalog and classify all of the specimens in their collection.  In other words, as she puts it, "There are decades worth of dead animal remains to sort, and no one wants to do it, so I can make money doing what no one else wants to!"

That sounds a lot like my job!

Today is:
Afrma Fancy Rat & Mouse Display and Pet Show -- Riverside, CA, US 

Arbor Day -- Philippines

Armed Forces Day -- Great Britain

ARRL Field Day -- American Radio Relay League's most popular on-air operating event, in which amatuer/ham radio operators practice and drill for communications during emergencies; through tomorrow

Baymen's Seafood and Music Festival -- Tuckerton, NJ, US (this year including a micro-brewers tent with the seafood and music; through tomorrow)

Colorado Brewers' Festival -- Fort Collings, CO, US (celebrate Colorado's rich brewing history with over 30 breweries; through tomorrow)

Color TV Day -- CBS broadcast the first program in color on this day in 1951

Day of the Seafarer -- The International Maritime Organization (this year’s campaign is "At Sea For All", emphasizing how everyone benefits from the maritime shipping industry) 

Eastern Music Festival --  Guilford College, Greensboro, NC, US (an acclaimed festival and school, with world-class guest artists; through July 30)

Elf Thumping Day -- Fairy Calendar (no details on what the Elves thump, and no, no one is allowed to thump an Elf!)

Feast of the Optional Holiday -- pick one, and celebrate it or don't, your option!

Festival of Ranting and Vaporing -- sponsored by The Daily Bleed

Gettysburg Civil War Relic and Collectors Show -- Gettysburg, PA, US (featuring leading collectors and dealers; through tomorrow)

Global Beatles Day -- read about the meaning of this day, and why this date was picked, here

Gotanshin Sai -- Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto, Japan (festival to commemorate the birth of Lord Sugawara, with ceremonies to ward off summer infections)

Great American Campout -- sponsored by the National Wildlife Federation, the theme this year is Happy Campers Protect Wildlife

Great American Picnic Day -- various dates given, with the most common being the final Saturday of June

Independence Day -- Mozambique(1975)

Ladies of Country and Bluegrass Music Show -- Waretown, NJ, US (at the historic Albert Music Hall)

Leon Day -- Noel spelled backward, the turning point on the calendar when Christmas starts getting closer; those who make Christmas/Noel gifts need to start thinking about their projects

Ludi Taurii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Games of the Bull, a two day festival held once every five years)

Midsummer's Day -- Aland; Finland; Sweden

Mineral Collecting Field Trips -- Bancroft, ON, CA (every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday through July and August, geologists lead mineral collecting field trips, educating participants about mineral identification, collecting techniques, and earth sciences)

National Catfish Day

National Fried Okra Day

National Strawberry Parfait Day

Purple Hull Pea Festival and World Champion Rotary Tiller Contest -- Emerson, AR, US (the tiny town of Emerson, population 368, puts on a big show that also includes a World Cup Purplehull Pea-Shelling competition)

Sense of Humor in Bed Appreciation Day -- i'm not touching this one

Slovenian Sovereignty Day / National Day -- Slovenia

Statehood Day -- Croatia

St. Eurosia's Day (a/k/a Orosia; Patron of Jaca, Spain; against bad weather)
     Fiesta de Santa Orosia -- Jaca, Spain

St. Molaug's Day (Patron of Argyll, Scotland; against mental illness)

Tohoku Rokkon Matsuri -- Yamagata City, Japan (a special matsuri, bringing together six major festivals from the district that was hard hit by the 2011 earthquake; through tomorrow)

Veteranendag -- Netherlands (Veterans Day)



Anniversaries Today:

Virginia becomes the 10th US State, 1788


Birthdays Today:

Scott Terra, 1987
Linda Cardellini, 1975
Dikembe Mutombo, 1966
George Michael, 1963
Ricky Gervais, 1961
Sonia Sotomayor, 1954
Jimmie Walker, 1949
Phyllis George, 1949
Carly Simon, 1945
Willis Reed, Jr., 1942
June Lockhart, 1925
Sidney Lumet, 1924
Anne Revere, 1903
George Orwell, 1903
Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, 1886
Rose Cecil O'Neill, 1874


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Het Achterhuis. Dagbrieven van 14 juni 1942 tot 1 augustus 1944(First publication of excerpts from Anne Frank's diaries), 1947
"It Pays To Be Ignorant"(Radio), 1942


Today in History:

The Book of Concord or Concordia, the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, is published, 1580 
Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy, from the University of Padua, 1678
Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Hungary, 1741
Lucien B. Smith of Ohio patents the first version of barbed wire, 1867
The Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, 1876
Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated the first President of Ireland, 1938
The Diary of Anne Frank is published, 1947
The Berlin airlift begins, 1948
The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, 1950
CBS broadcasts the first color television signal, 1951
First live global satellite television programme – Our World, 1967
Mozambique achieves independence, 1975
Microsoft  is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington, 1981
Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia, 1991
Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada, 1993
An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir, 1997
The Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat erupts resulting in the death of 19 people, 1997
The Harvard School of Health Study concludes that since 1980 the number of adults with diabetes has doubled, 2011
A portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects minority voting rights, is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that Congress has not taken into account the nation's racial progress when singling out certain states for federal oversight, 2013