Felines and Fill-Ins and Happy Friday!

Feline Friday is hosted by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

Feline Friday is simple to join. All you have to do is..

1) post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (They may be silly or cute)
2) go to Steve's page, linked above, then on the menu bar click on the Feline Friday tab to get the code
3) paste the code under your cat picture
4) add your name and link

That’s all there is to it! Be sure to check back every so often and visit all the Feline Friday bloggers. Also, please leave a nice comment on their blogs. Nasty comments will be deleted!

We aren't just typical black kittens.

Hello, everyone!

Our fur is black with silvery tips!

Everyone thinks we are so pretty with our black and silver tipped fur!

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by McGuffy Ann Morris of McGuffy's Reader. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts! 

My fill-ins for the statements are underlined:

1. I prefer moderate weather to anything severe.  Extreme heat or cold is not pleasant.

2. Cleaning the empty house over the last two days was much harder than i expected.  It hadn't been cleaned in at least 4 years, and i will probably have to go back and wash down the walls, if the owner is willing to pay for that.

3. One way that i relax is having a mid-day feets up and doing the puzzle page in the newspaper.  Sometimes about midway through, i stop and check the insides of my eyelids for cracks for a little while.

4. Bad traffic always makes me anxious.  Even though i'm a teetotaler, if anything in the world could turn me into a drinking woman, it would be south Louisiana traffic!

Today is:

Arts in the Park -- Kalispell, MT, US (juried arts and crafts show, with food and entertainment; through Sunday)

Asalha Puja Day -- Buddhism (Buddhist "Lent" begins)

Be a Dork Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, which encourages you to wear goofy clothes and fall off a swingset today and be proud of Dorkiness

Big Sky Games -- Billings, MT, US (an Olympic-style festival for citizens of the Big Sky State, to encourage all ages and abilities to be physically active and even compete sometimes; through Sunday)

Cigarette Warning Day -- anniversary of the 1968 law passed in the US that requires health warnings on cigarette packaging

Feast of Rowana/Rauni -- Druid/Cornish/Flemish (rowan tree goddess; date approximate)

Festival of Castor and Pullox -- Ancient Roman Calendar every five years (celebrated with a cavalry and chariot procession)

Festival of Santa Rosalia -- Palermo; Sicily (remembrance of the Patron saint of the city on the date, in 1624, when she stopped the plague)

Georgia Mountain Fair -- Hiawassee, GA, US (an authentic Pioneer Village with demonstrations, arts and crafts fairs, family fun; through the 23rd)

Gentse Feesten -- Ghent, Belgium (a ten day music and theatre festival)

Gorestnici -- Bulgaria (fire festival of 3 days duration, honoring the ancient belief that these are the 3 hottest days of the year)

Great Wellsville Balloon Rally -- Wellsville, NY, US (balloons galore, plus food, music, and fireworks; through Sunday)

Gummi Worm Day

Hakata Gion Yamagasa -- Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (festival of floats, dates back to the 13th century, includes dousing teams carrying one ton floats with water as they race!)

Hundadagar -- Icelandic tradition, the "dog days" of summer begin, through Aug. 23

Ides of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar

I Love Horses Day -- all over the web with no specific reason given, but do you need a reason to celebrate horses?

Lindenfest -- Geisenheimer, Rhineland, Germany (a new wine festival in the shade of a 600 year old linden tree; through Monday)

National Culture Day -- Kiribati

National Tapioca Pudding Day

No-Hitter Day -- George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings pitched the first officially recognized no-hitter in MLB against the Hartford Dark Blues on this date in 1876

Northwestern State University Folk Festival and the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship -- Prather Coliseum, NSU, Natchitoches, LA, US (this year's theme is "Back Roads and Bayous: Celebrating Louisiana's Rural Folklife", and only traditional Louisiana folk art and music are featured; through tomorrow)

Petal-Hopping for Beginners Day -- Fairy Calendar

Pet Fire Safety Day -- make a plan to get yourself and your pets safely out of your home in case of a fire!

Respect Canada Day -- because Canada deserves it!

Sawara Festival -- Chiba, Japan (also called the Grand Festival of Sarawa, one of Japan's major float festivals; through Sunday)

Sherwood Robin Hood Festival -- Sherwood, OR, US (a free Renaissance festival, which includes an archery contest between archers both in Oregon and in Nottingham, England, with results tallied as each group sends in the information from their respective locations; through Sunday)

St. Bonaventure's Day (Patron against intestinal problems; of Bagnoregio, Italy; Cochiti Indian Pueblo; St. Bonaventure University, New York)

St. Swithun's Day -- Saint Swithun's Society Annual Celebration in Toronto, ON, Canada; the weather prognostication associated with this saint says if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

St. Vladimir of Kiev's Day (Patron of converts, parents of large families, reformed and penitent murderers; Russia; Ukranian Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecticut; Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Sultan's Birthday -- Brunei Darussalam

Targhee Fest -- Grand Targhee Mountain, Alta, WY, US (food, games, fun and tons of music in the beautiful Grand Teton mountains; through Sunday)

Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival -- Dorset, England (celebrating freedom, especially the freedom of workers to form unions; through Sunday)

Vancouver Folk Music Festival -- Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada ( folk music from around the globe, performed in a beautiful outdoor venue; through Sunday)

Yarmouth Clam Festival -- Yarmouth, ME, US (annual 3 day celebration of the gifts of the sea that are clams with 120,000 of your closest friends)



Birthdays Today: 

Tanner Maguire, 1998
Emily Roeske, 1991
Brian Austin Green, 1973
Beth Stern, 1972
Adam Savage, 1967
Irene Jacob, 1966
Forest Whitaker, 1961
Lolita Davidovich, 1961
Kim Alexis, 1960
William Aames, 1960
Terry O’Quinn, 1952
Jesse Ventura, 1951
Arianna Huffington, 1950
Richard Russo, 1949
Linda Ronstadt, 1946
Jan-Michael Vincent, 1944
Alex George Karras, 1935
Ken Kercheval, 1935
Julian Bream, 1933
Clive Cussler, 1931
Jacques Derrida, 1930
Mother Fraqnces Xavier Cabrini, 1850
Thomas Bulfinch, 1796
Clement Clarke Moore, 1779
Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606


Debuting/Premiering Today:

MSNBC(Network), 1996
"One Life to Live"(TV), 1968


Today in History

Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, 1099
John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, 1381
Alexei Chirikov sights land and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska, 1741
The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1799
Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west, 1806
Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon, 1815
A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, 1823
Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union, 1870
The stratovolcano Mount Bandai, Japan, erupts killing approximately 500 people, 1888
In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing), 1916
Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others, 1955
AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation; the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day, 2003
Entire villages are burned to the ground and 40,000 people flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2010