Weekends at Random: Coffee Chat and Vacation

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she asks the question, What is your favourite way to spend the weekend? 

To this old Presbyterian church lady, there's only one way to spend a Sunday, and that's at church.  Whether at my own home church or visiting another because i'm out of town, i want that spiritual nurture and i want to encourage and be encouraged.

Also, Sunday afternoon attendance at "Bedside Baptist" is mandatory.

That leaves us with Saturday.

My favorite way to spend Saturday now is to go visit Grandma, which i do every other week.  While there, i either take care of any projects she has around the house that her housekeeper doesn't do, or we run errands.  

She loves Whole Foods and Trader Joe's and David Art Center and Parrain's Nursery.  Sometimes we go to Walgreens or Lowe's or even Barnes and Noble's.  We eat out, or we buy something to bring back to her house. 

After errands and projects and lunch, we just sit and talk, or water the plants, play with the dog, and enjoy each other's company.

That's the best way to spend a Saturday.

On the Saturdays that i work half a day, the best part of the day is feets up time after work.  It's nice to relax and do puzzles and let my mind just drift for a while.

Weekends for me are not about fancy, they are about a slightly different change of pace, and a recharge on Sunday.  How about you?  What do you like to do on a weekend? 

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And now, random news from vacation time, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked.  

Yesterday was one of those pearly, cloudy days that keep the temperatures down that i don't expect to have this time of year.

Sweetie and i got to the big outlet mall where i was able to procure Grandma's favorite perfume and a new small boiler for us to replace the one that the handle fell off of.  Then we found the Mall Mart that is hidden so far off the main highway that some people say it's in the witness protection program.  It was packed, so it isn't hidden that well.  In finding it, i figured out some ways around down here that i hadn't put together before.

We spend the afternoon and evening relaxing and just enjoying being here.  This year we might not get to do as many things as in years past, but it's not about doing right now, i am happy to have time and not be in a rush.  It feels like i've been in a rush for a long, long time and it was wearing me down.

Today is:

Day of the Living Children of Nut -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of Epona -- Ancient Celtic Calendar (Rhiannon in Wales, Macha in Ireland, guardian goddess of horses, stables, horse owners, agriculture, and transportation; date approximate, and disputed, she was the only Celtic goddess worshipped by the Romans, and they celebrated her on December 18)

First-in-Line and Queue-Jumping Tournament -- Fairy Calendar

Ides of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances:

     Festival of Jupiter Invictus (Jupiter the Unconquered)

     Lesser Quinquartrus/Quinquatrus Minusculae (festival for those who played flutes at religious ceremonies; through the 15th)

Kitchen Klutzes of America Day

Magic Circles Day and Magic History Gathering -- marking the founding of The Magic Circle, a society of amateur and professional magicians 

Missing Mutts Awareness Day -- to help families whose beloved pets have gone missing, the Missing Mutts Awareness Society was formed; it no longer seems to sponsor a particular day, though its Facebook Page is active   

Petit Jean Antique Auto Show and Swap Meet -- Morrilton, AR, US (sponsored by the Museum of Automobiles in Morrilton, and the place to be if you love old cars; through Saturday)

Roller Coaster Day -- the world's first "Gravity Pleasure Switchback Railway", patented by LaMarcus Thompson, opened on this day in 1884 on Coney Island, at a cost of five cents per ride

Sewing Machine Day -- why this day is anyone's guess, but we must admit it's a useful invention

  

St. Anthony of Padua's Day, the "Hammer of Heretics" (Patron of amputees, animals, asses, boatmen, domestic animals, elderly people, expectant mothers, faith, fishermen, harvests, horses, mail, mariners, Native Americans, oppressed people, paupers, poor people, sailors, seeksers of lost objects, starving people, swineherds, Tigua Indians, travel hostesses, travellers, watermen; Amantea, Italy; Anzio, Italy; Brazil; Cianciana, Italy; Dorado, Puerto Rico; Favara, Italy; Ferrazzano, Italy; Giano Vetusto, Italy; Lisbon, Portugal; Nocolosi, Italy; Padua, Italy; Portugal; San Antonio Tiayacapan, Mexico; San Fulgencio, Spain; Sandia Indian Pueblo; against barrenness, shipwreck, starvation, and sterility)

     a municipal holiday in Lisbon, Portugal and parts of Spain

Weed Your Garden Day -- a reminder to get out there and do a little each day, so the little buggers don't get out of hand

World Pet Memorial Day -- some sites say this is always on June 10, others that it's always on the second Tuesday in June, but none can tell us where it came from or who started it that i can find

Anniversaries Today:

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia is founded, 1798

Martin Luther marries Katharina von Bora, 1525

Birthdays Today:

Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 1986

Raz-B, 1985

Rivers Cuomo, 1970

Jamie Walters, 1969

Ally Sheedy, 1962

Tim Allen, 1953

Richard Thomas, 1951

Ban Ki-Moon, 1944

Malcolm McDowell, 1943

Siegfried Fischbacher, 1939

Christo, 1935

Paul Lynde, 1926

Ralph Edwards, 1913

Red Grange, 1903

Dorothy L. Sayers, 1893

Basil Rathbone, 1892

William Butler Yeats, 1865

Winfield Scott, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Closer"(TV), 2005

Roadie(Film), 1980

"Les vêpres siciliennes"(Verdi opera) 1855

Today in History:

Coronation of Alexander III as King of Scots, 1249

Ibn Battuta, who was to become the foremost world traveler of his day, seeing most of the known world in his time, begins his first hadj, 1325

Rhode Island becomes the first of Britain's North American colonies to ban the importation of slaves, 1774

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia  is founded, 1798

Meriwether Lewis and four companions sight the Great Falls of the Missouri River, 1803

A fire devastates much of Vancouver, British Columbia, 1886

King Ludwig II of Bavaria is found dead in Lake Starnberg south of Munich at 11:30 PM, 1886

Yukon Territory is formed, with Dawson chosen as its capital, 1898

The University of the Philippines College of Engineering is established, the largest degree granting unit in the Philippines, 1910

Mir Mine, the first diamond mine in the USSR, is discovered, 1955

The United States Supreme Court rules in Miranda v. Arizona that the police must inform suspects of their rights before questioning them, 1966

Thurgood Marshall is nominated to become the first black justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, 1967

Fahd becomes King of Saudi Arabia upon the death of his brother, Khalid, 1982

Pioneer 10 becomes the first man-made object to leave the solar system, 1983

President Kim Dae Jung of South Korea meets Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, for the beginning of the first ever inter-Korea summit, 2000

The US withdraws from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, 2002

The Al Askari Mosque is bombed for a second time, 2007

A capsule of Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa returns to Earth with particles of asteroid 25143 Itokawa, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court invalides gene patents held by Myriad Genetics when it rules that isolated human genes are not patentable, 2013