Been a While (Awww Monday) and Sparks!

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that's it.

Make sure you get the code from Sandee's site, linked above, and leave a link to your post so we can visit you.  What better way to start the week than with a smile!

We haven't had tiny kittens in a while, but i still have pictures:

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The wonderful Annie of McGuffy's Reader has started the blog hop called Sparks as a way to put more positive energy into the world.  Join her in combating the often negative influence of social media by adding your own Spark!

I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world! ~ McGuffy Ann Morris

My "Spark" for the day

Today is:

Bubble Bath Day -- remember how much fun it was as a kid?  enjoy that again today

Clean Off Your Desk Day -- me and what army? (Note:  some sites put this as always on Jan. 9, some the second Monday of January; either way, my question remains)

Day Sacred to Justicia -- Ancient Roman Empire (personification of justice)

Emperor Norton Day -- E. Clampus Vitus Society puts on a party in San Francisco's Chinatown in honor of the passing on this day of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico

Eugenio Maria de Hostos' Day -- Puerto Rico (birth anniv. obs.)

Feast of Hathor and Sekhmet -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Feast of St. Gudula (Patron of single laywomen; Brussels, Belgium)

Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (a/k/a Babin Den; celebrating Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)

Haloa -- Ancient Greek Calendar (fertility festival of Demeter and Dionysos called after the halos, or threshing floor; date approximate)

    Rural Dionysia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (the fertility festival of the countryside)

It All Adds Up Day -- anniversary of Hollerith's tabulating machine patent

International Consumer Electronics Show -- Las Vegas, NV, US (the world's largest annual trade show for consumers, and the largest annual trade show of any kind in the US; through the 11th)

Kim Jong-un's Birthday -- North Korea

Male Watcher's Day -- often listed as a day for the females to get even and do a little guy ogling, but no site gives any reason behind why this day was chosen

Midwife's Day / Women's Day -- Greece (women get out and go to a cafe or shopping, and the men must stay home and do the chores and care for the children, and in some areas, men caught shirking will be stripped and drenched in cold water; on the approximate date of an ancient Greek celebration of midwives)

    Gynaecocratia -- Macedonia

Milk Carton Day -- Sheffield Farms began packaging milk in parafin lined paper cartons on this day in 1929

National Eat Something Raw Day 

National English Toffee Day

National Joygerm Day -- a day to infect others with joy; begun by Joygerm Joan, whose motto is "The only thing Joygerms allow to get depressed are their tongues!"

Old Hickory Day -- Andrew "Old Hickory" Jackson leads the victory in the Battle of New Orleans

Plough Monday -- UK (farm work is resumed the Monday following the 12 Days of Christmas, and ploughs are brought to the church to be blessed)

Rock 'n' Roll Day -- on Elvis' birth anniversary, of course

Seijin-no-hi -- Japan (Adult's Day, or Coming of Age Day; celebrating all who have reached age 20, full legal adult age, in the past year)

Show and Tell at Work Day -- another Wellcat Holiday to observe carefully if at all

St. Severinus' Day (Patron of Austria and of San Severo, Italy)

Toka Ebisu Matsuri -- Osaka, Japan (Festival of Ebisu, god of business and prosperity; through the 11th)

Birthdays Today:

Ami Dolenz, 1969

Vladimir Feltsman, 1952

Don Bendell, 1947

David Bowie, 1947

Robbie Krieger, 1946

Kathleen Noone, 1946

Stephen Hawking, 1942

Yvette Mimieux, 1939

Bob Eubanks, 1938

Shirley Bassey, 1937

Elvis Presley, 1935

Charles Osgood, 1933

Soupy Sales, 1926

Ron Moody, 1924

Larry Storch, 1923

Jose Ferrer, 1912

Galina Ulanova, 1910

Wilkie Collins, 1824

James Longstreet, 1821

Nicholas Biddle, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Symphony No. 15 in A major (Opus 141, Dmitri Shostakovich), 1972

"Almira"(Handel's first opera), 1705

Today in History:

Monaco gains its independence, 1297

Genoa, Italy expels Jews, 1598

The oldest surviving commerial newspaper begins in Haarlem, Netherlands, 1675

The New York Fishing Company is the first American commercial corporation chartered, 1675

Premiere performance of George Frideric Handel's Ariodante at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1734

US President George Washington delivers the first "State of the Union" address, 1790

Victor, the Wild Boy of Aveyron, emerges voluntarily from the wild in southern France (he had been captured and escaped before), 1800

The Battle of New Orleans, 1815

The first US music school, the Boston Academy of Music, is established, 1833

The US national debt hits $0 for the first and only time, 1835

Alfred Vail demonstrates a telegraph system using dots and dashes (this is the forerunner of Morse code), 1836

French physicist Jean Foucault proves, using his "Foucault's pendulum," that the Earth rotates on its axis, 1851

Crazy Horse and his warriors fight their last battle with the US Cavalry at Wolf Mountain in Montana Territory, 1877

Dr. Herman Hollerith receives the first US patent for a tabulating machine, considered by some to be the earliest computer, 1889

The Blackstone Library is dedicated, marking the beginning of the Chicago Public Library system, 1904

Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa is exhibited in the United States for the first time, at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., 1963

Soviet space mission Luna 21 is launched, 1973

The RMS Queen Mary 2, the largest passenger ship ever built, is christened by her namesake's granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II, 2004

Some scientists claim 2012 weather as the hottest year ever recorded, 2013