Kittens and Cars and Brave(r) Dogs on a Random and Fun Tuesday

(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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Hello, Tuesday!  It’s the day for Random Thoughts with Stacy of Stacy Uncorked, and Tuesday Fun with Sandee of Comedy Plus.

Speaking of fun, our weekend kittens are back with their other foster now, but they were fun while they were here:

When i brought them back to her, i asked what she’d named them.  She said she didn’t have names yet, so i told her about how i’d nicknamed them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, and Maureen.  She laughed and said she loved that, so those names might stick.

The Jalopy is home, with a new gas tank and tail light assembly, just in time for Sweetie to spend the next week house-watching and garden tending for The Big Boss.  The garden is producing plenty at this time, and we’ve been told to take whatever ripens while The Big Boss and his wife are out of town so that it won’t go bad.  That means home grown cucumbers and tomatoes in our future.

The borrowed Tahoe will be thoroughly washed and vacuumed and wiped down and filled with gas and returned to the wonderful client who loaned it to us.  That vehicle is a tank!  Someone dropped a shopping cart on the freeway a couple of days ago, and Sweetie clipped it with the edge of a tire and pushed it out of the road so no one would get hurt.  Didn’t put a mark on the Tahoe or damage the tire at all, although i wouldn’t give you a plugged nickel for that shopping cart now.

We've been having trouble getting our bathtub to drain, so with great trepidation and much consultation with a contractor friend, Sweetie performed some surgery on the tub drain mechanism.  It is beyond repairing, so he threw it away, put the plate back on, and bought one of those flat rubber stoppers.  The tub now works, just like the one at great-grandma's house.

Daughter-in-Law Becky and Pepe the Chihuahua came for a visit, and i think Pepe is realizing the cats are all bark and no bite, so to speak.  When i fed him, and Enigma SissyCat came and stood right next to him, he did not give up his food as he would have in the past.  He stood his ground and kept eating, and she waited until he was done and licked the tiny bit of gravy he'd left behind.  She probably was not happy that she didn't get more, but i am glad he's not letting them intimidate him.

He even helps himself to a cat bed now!

That's about all the news, i hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

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Today is:

Alexandra Rose Day -- anniversary of the tradition started by Queen Alexandra on this day in 1912, in which roses and rose emblems were sold in London and the UK, with the money going to smaller charities that are not usually in the national spotlight; also by tradition, the Lord Mayor of London bought the first rose

    Alexandra Rose Charities still exists, but uses other forms of fundraising and now supports healthy eating initiatives among lower income mothers and children

Armed Forces Day -- Azerbaijan

Barcode/UPC Day -- the first scanner, at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned its first item, a pack of Wrigley's gum at 8:01am this day in 1974

Beautician's Day -- on a couple of websites, while other list other days; if yours puts the "beauty" in beautician, remember her next time you go have your do tended to

Birthday of Cheng Huang -- Taiwan (the gods that are city guardians are celebrated with a procession of actors on stilts doing dragon and lion dances on this 13th day of the fifth moon)

Handing Back of Tiger-Get-By's Presents -- Fairy Calendar

Guan Sheng Di Jun Dan -- Taoism (Heavenly Sage Guan Di's Birthday [god of war])

Holiday for the Shemsu of Heru -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Madagascar[Fetin'ny Fahaleovantena]; Somalia

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking -- UN

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture -- UN

National Canoe Day -- Canada

National Chocolate Pudding Day

National Columnists' Day -- on the fourth Tuesday of June each year, set aside some time to thank your favorite newspaper columnists, whether local or syndicated

St. Pelayo's Day (Patron of abandoned people, torture victims; Castro Urdiales, Spain; Torreira, Portugal) 

Sunthorn Phu Day -- Thailand (celebration of the country's best-known Royal Poet)

Ziua Tricolorului -- Romania (Flag Day)

Birthdays Today:

Jennette McCurdy, 1992

Jason Schwartzman, 1980

Derek Jeter, 1974

Gretchen Wilson, 1973

Chris O'Donnell, 1970

Paul Thomas Anderson, 1970

Sean P. Hayes, 1970

Harriet Wheeler, 1963

Greg LeMond, 1961

Chris Isaak, 1956

Claudio Abbado, 1933

Eleanor Parker, 1922

Charlotte Zolotow, 1915

"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, 1914

Colonel Tom Parker, 1909

Peter Lorre, 1904

Pearl S. Buck, 1892

Sir Robert Laird Borden, 1854

Lord Kelvin, 1824

Abner Doubleday, 1819

Arthur Middleton, 1742

Debuting/Premiering Today:

For Your Eyes Only(Film), 1981

"Absurd Person Singular"(Play), 1972

"A Hard Day's Night"(Album, US version, release), 1964

"The Valkyrie"(Opera, WWV 86B), 1870

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire; General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield, 363

The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, German, 1284

Richard III is crowned king of England, 1483

Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima, 1541

W. K. Clarkson patents the first bicycle, 1819

The Christian  holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States, 1870

The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity, 1909

The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco, 1945

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor, 1948

The Berlin Airlift begins, 1948

The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships, 1959

The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, 1974

Indira Gandhi establishes emergency rule in India, 1975

The CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, is opened to general public, 1976*

Biologists J. Craig Venter and Francis S. Collins announced that their research groups had mapped the human genome, 2000

Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, the four thousand year-old ridge-top monastery in Bhutan catches fire and is destroyed; no relics were lost in the fire because the monastery was under renovation, 2012

*It is still the tallest in the Western Hemisphere