Cats Love Boxes (Feline Friday) and Friendly Fill-Ins

(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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Feline Friday was started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

He has handed hosting duties off to Sandee, of Comedy Plus, and it's simple to join, just follow the link to Sandee's page for the rules and the code.

Cats in a colony room love when we give them boxes.

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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 Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. 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!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. I really need to ___________________. 

2. My favorite Christmas ( or Hanukkah) decoration is __________________________. 

3. It’s beginning to look a lot like _________. 

4. This time of year, I eat my fair share of _________. 

1. I really need to get with Grandma and decide what she wants me to cook for Christmas so i can go get the ingredients. 

2. My favorite Christmas ( or Hanukkah) decoration is the one i don't have to put up or take down.  Not trying to be a Grinch, i just really do not have the time. 

3. It’s beginning to look a lot like rain; after all, this is wet season.  (We only have two seasons, wet is one, hurricane is the other.)

4. This time of year, I eat my fair share of vegan chocolate treats. 

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Today is:

Ako Gishi sai -- Ako, Japan (traditional dances and warrior parades honoring the 47 Ronin)

Buy a Tree Day / Deck the Halls Day -- internet generated, and if you are going to decorate, why did you wait this long?

Christmas Bird Count begins -- sponsored by the National Audubon Society (through Jan. 5; since 1900, the longest-running wildlife census to assess the health of bird populations)

Free Shipping Day -- with hundreds of participating merchants at http://www.freeshippingday.com/ 

Halcyon Days begin -- a time of calm and tranquility (beginning seven days before the winter solstice, lasting until December 28, seven days after the solstice; named for an ancient fabled kingfisher bird [or halcyon], which hatches and raise her young during this time)

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Stufur -- Shorty, who is also known as Ponneskefill, the pan-scraper, who will scrape food scraps from the pans left out

Khoiak Ceremony for Ploughing the Earth -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Le Foire aux Noix -- Bastogne, Belgium (annual "Nuts Fair", commemorating the liberation of the city from the Nazis and the Rights of the Child; through Sunday)

Monkey Day -- unofficial, by animal groups, to draw attention to the plights of simians kept in labs and as pets 

National Bouillabaisse Day

National Energy Conservation Day -- India

National Salesperson's Day -- US (begun by Maura Schreier-Fleming, and listed on various days depending on whom you ask)     

Official Lost and Found Day -- why is this one official?  information here 

Play An Old Song That You Didn't Like To See If You Still Don't Like It Day -- internet generated, and don't bother, bad songs don't improve with age

Precalentines Day -- an unofficial holiday for math lovers begun by a precalculus class at a Nova Scotia high school

South Pole Discovery Day -- thank you, Roald Amundsen

St. John of the Cross' Day (Patron of contemplative life, contemplatives, mystical theology, mystics, Spanish poets; Ta' Xbiex, Malta)

St. Spyridon's Day (Patron of Corfu, Greece, and potters)

Winterfest Boat Parade -- Ft. Lauderdale, FL, US (The Greatest Show on H2O; through Sunday)

Anniversaries Today:

Alabama becomes the 22nd US State, 1819

Princess Mary Stuart is crowned Mary, Queen of Scots, 1542

Birthdays Today:

Samantha Peszek, 1991

Vanessa Hudgens, 1988

Paul "Beakman" Zaloom, 1951

Bill Buckner, 1949

Dee Wallace Stone, 1948

Patty Duke, 1946

Jane Birkin, 1946

Ernie Davis, 1939

Leonardo Boff, 1938

Lee Remick, 1935

Charlie Rich, 1932

Don Hewitt, 1922

Shirley Jackson, 1919

Morey Amsterdam, 1914

Spike Jones, 1911

Margaret Madeline Chase Smith, 1897

James Harold Doolittle, 1896

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Saturday Night Fever(Film), 1977

Diamonds are Forever(Film), 1971

"Il Trittico"(Puccini opera), 1918

Today in History:

Osman ibn Affan is appointed the third kalief of Islam, 644

The Zuider Zee seawall collapses, 50,000 lives are lost in the floods that follow, 1287

The first artificial pearls, made of gypsum pellets covered with fish scales, are manufactured by M Jacquin in Paris, 1656

The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight, 1782

David Wilkinson of Rhode Island patents a machine that cuts nuts and bolts, 1798

The American Academy of Political and Social Science is organized in Philadelphia, 1889

The Commercial Pacific Cable Company lays the first Pacific telegraph cable, from Ocean Beach, San Francisco to Honolulu, Hawaii, 1902

Norwegian Roald Amundsen becomes the first to reach the South Pole, 1911

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Finland, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Jordan, Laos, Libya, Nepal, Portugal, Romania, Spain and Sri Lanka join the United Nations, 1955

The United Republic of Tanzania joins the United Nations. 1961

NASA's Mariner 2 becomes the first spacecraft to fly by Venus, 1962

Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations, 1999

The Millau viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, near Millau, France is officially opened, 2004

China's first lunar rover, the Yutu, lands successfully on the Moon, 2013