A to Z: Quickly! (Six Sentence Story) and Quaint (Good Fences)

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)  

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"We have to hatch a plan, and quickly!"

"What's the rush?"

"The deadline is tomorrow!"

"Wha...how...I can't come up with a good plan in under 24 hours!"

"Well, we have no choice, it snuck up on us as usual, and besides, we should get a refund, I don't know why we procrastinate like this."

"Okay, okay, pass the W-2s and 1099s and I'll get started on our taxes!"

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Hatch.     

(And no, i did not wait until the day before, nor did i get a refund!)

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Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit others to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.

To me, picket fences are the epitome of quaint.

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To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.

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Today is:

Bendideia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (festival for Bendis; date approximate)

Dogwood Festival -- Camdenton, MO, US (a rite of spring festival under the beautiful dogwood trees; through Saturday)

Dutch-American Friendship Day -- anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Netherlands and the US, America's oldest continuously peaceful diplomatic relations

Fiesta San Antonio -- San Antonio, Texas, US (annual celebration that honors the memory of Texas heroes who fought in the Texas war for Independence. More that 150 events, with sporting events, fireworks, dances...all culminating with the traditional "Battle of Flowers" parade! through the 26th)

Get to Know Your Customers Day (celebrated the 3rd Thursday quarterly)

Harpa Month Begins -- Traditional Icelandic Calendar (Harp, dedicated to young women as last month was dedicated to young men)

    Sumardagurinn Fyrsti -- first day of summer, a legal holiday

Independence Declaration Day -- Venezuela

John Parker Day -- many US States (anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, where Parker said “Stand your ground. Don’t fire unless fired upon; but if they mean to have a war, let it begin here.”)

King Mswati III's birthday -- Swaziland

Lozenge Competition -- Fairy Calendar (no, i don't know what they do with the lozenges that makes it a competition)

Nagasaki Tall Ships Festival -- Nagasaki, Japan (sailing festival, commemorating the 16th century opening of Nagasaki as Japan's sole foreign trade port; through the 24th)

National Amaretto Day

National D.A.R.E Day -- US (by Presidential Proclamation)

National Garlic Day

National Hanging Out Day -- Project Laundry List and other organizations promote bringing back the clothesline to save energy and the planet!

National High Five Day -- raising money for cancer research

Oklahoma City Bombing Commemoration Day

Okoshi Daiko Festival -- Furukawa, Japan (today, hundreds of men in loincloths fight to touch a wooden frame supporting a huge taiko drum as it is carried through the streets, and tomorrow is an elegant parade with lion dancers and traditional music)

Primrose Day -- UK (anniversary of the death of Disraeli)

Spring Fair in Puyallup -- Puyallup, WA, US (fun for the family, every year since 1900; through Sunday)

St. AElfheah's Day (Patron of kidnap victims; Greenwich and Solihull, England)

St. Expeditus of Melintine's Day (Patron of merchants, navigators; for expeditious and prompt solutions; against procrastination)

St. Leo IX's Day

Yom Ha’Atzmaut — Israel (Independence Day, through sunset)

Anniversaries Today:

Grace Kelly marries Ranier III of Monaco, 1956

Cheyney University is founded as The Institute for Colored Youth, 1837

Marie Antoinette marries Louis XVI by Proxy Marriage, 1770

Birthdays Today:

Maria Sharapova, 1987

Hayden Christensen, 1981

Kate Hudson, 1979

James Franco, 1978

Luis Miguel Basteri, 1970

Ashley Judd, 1968

Al Unser, Jr., 1962

Tony Plana, 1954

Paloma Picasso, 1949

Tim Curry, 1946

Alan Price, 1942

Elinor Donahue, 1937

Dudley Moore, 1935

Jayne Mansfield, 1933

Dick Sargent, 1930

Hugh O'Brian, 1925

Eliot Ness, 1903

Lucretia Rudolph-Garfield, 1832

David Ricardo, 1772

Roger Sherman, 1721

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Don't Bother Me, I Can't Cope"(Musical revue), 1972

"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"(Musical), 1951

"Carousel"(Musical), 1945

"Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder/Mother Courage and Her Children"(Play), 1941

"National Barn Dance"(Radio), 1924

"The Bing Boys are Here"(Musical revue), 1919

"Revizor/The Government Inspector"(Comedy), 1836

"Iphigenia in Aulis,"(Opera), 1774

Today in History:

Sir Francis Drake sails to Cadiz and sinks the Spanish Fleet, 1587

Because he has no male heirs, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI issues the Pragmatic Sanction of 1713, assuring Habsburg lands and the Austrian throne would go to his daughter, Maria Theresa, 1713

Captain James Cook sights Australia, 1770

John Adams secures Dutch recognition of the United States, and his home in The Hague becomes the first American Embassy, 1782

Venezuela achieves home rule, 1810

The Treaty of London establishes Belgium as a kingdom and Luxembourg as a Grand Duchy, 1839

Charles Duryea claims to have taken the first automobile built in the US for a spin, 1892

The first Boston Marathon is won by John McDermott of NY in 2:55:10, 1897

Leslie Irvin of the United States makes the first successful voluntary free-fall parachute  jump, 1919

The 125th and final fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary is published, 1928

Burma (now Myanmar) joins the United Nations, 1948

The Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba ends in success for the defenders, 1961

Sierra Leone becomes a republic, 1971

India's first satellite, Aryabhata, is launched, 1975

The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168, 1995

The German Bundestag returns to Berlin, the first German parliamentary body to meet there since the Reichstag was dissolved in 1945, 1999

His Eminence Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected the 265th Pope of the Catholic Church, taking the name Benedict XVI, 2005

Fidel Castro resigns from the Communist Party of Cuba's central committee after 45 years, 2011