It's Finally Time!

The plans for next week are set.

Little Girl is graduating.  Right now the plan is simple.  Not easy, but simple.

Monday is work for Ms. S while Sweetie gets Humphrey the Honda checked for road worthiness.

Tuesday i will work for Ms. V (who is usually every other Thursday) and then go do Ms. C.  She was given first choice and asked me to come later in the day, and together we will get her Christmas tree into the house and the decorations out.  It will be a long day, as she will probably want me to stay until evening.

That day, i will also call Annie to discuss whether the kittens are big enough to go up for adoption.

Wednesday i will go to the cat shelter, taking the kittens with me if the Tuesday discussion turns out the way i think it will, then Sweetie and i will drive to San Antonio.  My friend Grace has asked us to stay at her home, the same Grace who had a group of us stay at her place back in September.

Thursday is Family Day on the base.  When Little Girl graduated from basic at Ft. Sill, Family Day was mostly them showing us what training had been like, and i expect something of the same at Ft. Sam Houston.

Friday, Little Girl graduates from her program and is officially an Army medic.  Lots of celebrating will follow.

On Saturday, Sweetie and i will head home, and Little Girl will be transferred back to Louisiana to be in the National Guard Reserves here.  We will pick her up from the local Guard base, and she will get to come home.  She will then report for training one weekend each month and two weeks every summer.  If the Guard gets called up for an emergency, she will have to report and be ready to render medical assistance.

In return for being part of the Guard, they will pay for her tuition and fees at any state university, and she plans to study nursing.  Being a medic already, she will have a leg up on that.

It's going to be a long week, but a good week.  Little Girl will be home by the end of it.


Today is:

A&W Rootbeer Mug Day -- see if you can frost your mug like they did

Birth of Baha'u'llah -- Baha'i

Birth of Sun Yat-Sen, Doctors Day, and Cultural Renaissance Day -- Taiwan

Chicken Soup for the Soul Day -- "Changing the world, one story at a time."

Constitution Day -- Azerbaijan

Dia del Cartero -- Mexico (Postman's Day; postal carriers are shown appreciation with small gifts left in mailboxes)

Fancy Rat and Mouse Day -- the American Fancy Rat and Mouse Association wants you to know these little critters can give you a lot of love

Journee Nationale Maore -- Comoros (Admission to the UN Day)

Khalkeia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival of smiths, associated with Hephaists and Athena; date approximate)

National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week -- US (remembering those who have little or nothing during the upcoming holiday celebrations, and making time to share our bounty with them; through the 20th)
      co-sponsors National Coalition for the Homeless and National Student Campaign Against Hunger & Homelessness

National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day

National Youth Day -- East Timor

St. Emillian's Day (Patron of Spain, finding lost objects)

St. Josaphat's Day (Patron of Edmonton, Alberta; Toronto, Ontario; Ukraine)

Tewa Buffalo Dance -- Native American Tewa of the Tesuque Pueblo rites on the feast day of their Patron, San Diego, to honor Mother Earth, Father Sky, the four directions, and the elements; through the 15th

The Lord Mayor's Show -- London, England (originally "The Lord Mayor's Day," according to the official website this show has marched, floated, trotted, and occasionally fought through almost 800 years of London history, making it one of the oldest civic pageants in the world)

Triple Crown of Surfing -- Oahu, HI, US (3 separate events, through Dec. 20)

World Pneumonia Day -- because we lose a million children a year to this preventable illness


Anniversaries Today:

The Arches National Park established, 1971
Ellis Island closes, 1954


Birthdays Today:

Anne Hathaway, 1982
Ryan Gosling, 1980
Sammy Sosa, 1968
Michael Moorer, 1967
David Schwimmer, 1966
Nadia Comaneci, 1961
Megan Mullally, 1958
Neil Young, 1945
Al Michaels, 1944
Wallace Shawn, 1943
Grace Kelly, 1929
Jo Stafford, 1918
Harry A. Blackmun, 1908
Sun Yat-sen, 1866
Auguste Rodin, 1840
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, 1815


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Grand Hotel"(Musical), 1989
"Irma la Douce"(Musical), 1956
"Paint Your Wagon"(Musical), 1951
Song of the South(Disney film), 1946
The first Sunday American-style football game is held in Philadelphia, 1933


Today in History:

Tibetan troops occupy Chang'an, the capital of the Chinese Tang Dynasty, for fifteen days starting today, 764
Plymouth, England, becomes the first town incorporated by the English Parliament, 1439
Sir James Young Simpson, a British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anaesthetic, 1847
Jules Leotard performs 1st Flying Trapeze circus act (Paris); he also designed garment that bears his name, 1859
World's Fair in Paris opens, 1900
The first movie stunt: man jumps into Hudson river from a burning balloon, 1910
Norway holds a referendum in favor of monarchy over republic, 1905
Robert Scott's diary & body are found in Antarctica, 1912
Austria becomes a republic, 1918
The first underwater tunnel, the Holland Tunnel connecting NY to NJ opens, 1927
The first photo of whatever is in Loch Ness is taken, 1933
Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia join the United Nations, 1956
Equatorial Guinea joins the United Nations, 1968
The Comoros joins the United Nations, 1975
The NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes the first images of its rings, 1980
The Space Shuttle Columbia becomes the first time a manned spacecraft launched into space twice, 1981
Crown Prince Akihito is formally installed as Emperor Akihito of Japan, becoming the 125th Japanese monarch, 1990
Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web, 1990
Shanghai Transrapid sets up a new world speed record (501 kilometres per hour (311 mph)) for commercial railway systems, 2003
The Comparative Toxicogenomics Database is launched on the web and revolutionizes chemical-gene-disease information for research scientists, 2004
Philippine volcano Mount Bulusan erupts again, 2010