Abby Unafraid and Friendly Fill-ins with a Recipe

Feline Friday was begun by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.  He's recovering from surgery, so Sandee, of Comedy Plus, is hosting for a while.
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 Sandee'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!

Every Friday, i go to Ms. G A's house.  She has cats everywhere, mostly rescues, many half feral.  Then there's Abby, one of the sweetest and friendliest cats ever to exist.  Abby is so laid back, she sleeps even if i am vacuuming under the couch cushion she is lying on!

Abby, snoozing while i vacuum around her.

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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:

Week 40: February 10, 2017

1. My favorite kind of cookie is ________________.

2. ____________________would play me in a movie about my life. 

3. Love is _________________.

4. For Valentine's Day, I ___________________.


1. My favorite kind of cookie is white chocolate cherry shortbread cookies.  Someone made these for Grandpa this past Christmas but he is watching his sugar intake, so he gave them to us.  Little Girl tasted one, stopped in shock and grabbed two more, and said, "This is the best thing I have ever put in my mouth."  Upon taking a  bite (they are not on my normal list of things i eat), i agreed with her.*

2. ___________________ would play me in a movie about my life.  This one is blank because i have no clue.  If any of you have any ideas about someone who wouldn't mind playing a short gray-haired church lady who cleans houses, go ahead and suggest that person in the comments.  

3. Love is a decision and an action.  The emotion of love is often only infatuation.

4. For Valentine's Day, i go to work.  Unless it's a Sunday, then i go to church.  Sweetie and i don't make a big deal out of such things.


*recipe for White Chocolate Cherry Shortbread Cookies

1/2 cup maraschino cherries (drain and reserve the juice, chop the cherries finely and drain on paper towels)
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 sticks butter
4 ounces white baking chocolate, finely chopped
extra white baking chocolate melted for dipping

Preheat your oven to 325°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour and sugar.  Use a pastry blender or two knives to  cut in the butter until the mixture resembles fine crumbs.  Stir in the drained and dried cherries and the chopped white chocolate.
Stir in the almond extract, then start adding the reserved cherry juice a bit at a time, mixing with your hands until it just comes together.
Shape the dough into 1-inch balls and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  Flatten the balls with the bottom of a drinking glass that's been dipped in sugar.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until the centers are set.  Cool for a minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack.  Once they are cool enough to handle, dip half the cookie into the melted white chocolate.
These can be refrigerated for up to three days, but don't expect them to last that long.



Today is:

Deep Blue Day -- the IBM computer defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov, the first such victory for a computer, in 1996

Downers Grove Ice Sculpting Festival -- Downers Grove, IL, US (this year's theme is "Once Upon a Time"; through Sunday)

Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck -- Malta

Full Snow Moon -- sometimes also called the Full Hunger Moon, as the most snow falls this month and finding food is hardest
     Meaka Bochea -- Buddhist (celebration of the final sermon of Buddha)
     Navam Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka
     Spring Lantern Festival -- China (final day of the Chinese New Year celebrations)
     Tabodwe Full Moon -- Myanmar (month of Hta-Ma-Ne Feast, the harvest festival of Thanksgiving)

Gold Record Day -- Glenn Miller is awarded the first ever Gold Record, for "Chattanoga Choo Choo", 1942

Gold Rush Days -- Wickenburg, AZ, US (celebrating the Old West; through Sunday)

Guru Ravidas Jayanti -- CH, HP, HR, MP, and PB, India

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe -- Italy, especially in Trieste

Plimsoll Day -- honoring Samuel Plimsoll, the "Sailor’s Friend," who persuaded Parliament to have a maximum load limit on ships.

St. Scholastica's Day (Patron of children in convulsions, nuns; LeMans, France; against rain, storms)

Try to Invent a New Jell-O Flavor Day -- it can't hurt to try

Tu B'Shevat -- Judaism ("New Year of the Trees", begins at sunset)

Umbrella Day

Wings Over the Platte Spring Migration Celebration -- Grand Island, NE, US (the world's largest concentration of sandhill cranes is celebrated through mid-April)

Yuma Square and Round Dance Festival -- Yuma, AZ, US (for square and round dance enthusiasts; through Sunday)



Anniversaries Today:

Poland is symbolically married to the Baltic Sea by Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, celebrating the restitution of Polish access to the water, 1920
Tom Thumb marries Mercy Lavinia Warren, 1863
Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saxe-Coburg, 1840
Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War (a/k/a French and Indian War), 1763
Academie Francaise forms in Paris (by Cardinal Richelieu), 1635


Birthdays Today:

Lance Berkman, 1976
Laura Dern, 1967
Glen Beck, 1964
Lenny Dykstra, 1963
Cliff Burton, 1962
George Stephanopoulos, 1961
Greg Norman, 1955
Jim Cramer, 1955
Mark Spitz, 1950
Donovan, 1946
Frances Moore Lappe, 1944
Roberta Flack, 1939
Robert Wagner, 1930
Leontyne Price, 1927
Lon Chaney, Jr., 1906
Bertolt Brecht, 1898
Frances Margaret "Dame Judith" Anderson, 1898
Jimmy Durante, 1893
William "Bill" Tilden, 1893
Boris Pasternak, 1890
Samuel Plimsoll, 1824
Charles Lamb, 1775


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My Friend Flicka"(TV), 1956
"Death of a Salesman"(Play), 1949
"Puss Gets the Boot"(Cartoon, first Tom and Jerry short), 1940
"Icebound"(Pulitzer-winning Davis' Play), 1923
"All the News That's Fit to Print"(Slogan of the New York Times), 1897
"Les Contes d'Hoffman"(Offenbach Opera), 1881  
"The Lily of Killarney"(Opera), 1862


Today in History:

St. Paul is shipwrecked on the island of Malta, 60
Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch, 1098
The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days, 1355
Wampanoag Indians under King Philip kill all the men in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1676
Edmund Halley is appointed the second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720
The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, surrendering Canada to England, 1763
Simon Bolivar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru, 1824
The first US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia, 1863
The YWCA is founded in NYC, 1870
Nathaniel Carr Goodwin becomes the first actor to perform in two different cities on the same day, in Boston for a matinee, and then in NYC for and evening performance, 1887
Nearly 11,000,000 acres of land, ceded to the US government by the Sioux Indians, is opened for settlement, 1890
The New York Times begins using the slogan, "All the news that's fit to print," 1897
Japan and Russia declare war after Japan's surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled 7 Russian warships, 1904
Britain's first modern and largest battleship "HMS Dreadnought" is launched, 1906
Baseball outlaws all pitches that involve tampering with the ball, 1920
New Delhi becomes the capital of India, 1931
The first singing telegram is delivered, by the Postal Telegram Company of NYC, 1933
Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, 1962
Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party, 1989
The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time, 1996
The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both, 2009