Laughingly Thankful (Ten Things of Thankful)

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Thankful Day is here again, and i have a really fun one.

At least, for me it was.

See, Grandpa was an OB/Gyn, and he is hugely concerned about women.  There's a thankful there, he really meant it, and means it still. 

He is also big on giving back, another thankful.  He raised funds and started what is still the only free clinic for women and children in Nicaragua, making sure he raised enough that it will go on pretty much in perpetuity (unless the whole economy collapses, and then we are all down the same drain).

Now he is on the board of a program for homeless women and their children right where he lives.  He met a nun who said she was fundraising for it, he asked how much she had and she admitted she had nothing yet, and now he's spearheading a ton of stuff for the whole project.  He's a mover and shaker, and i'm thankful for that.

My brother, the children's Uncle P, is a comedian who only does clean comedy.  (A thankful because i am not a prude but i do not find expletive after expletive particularly amusing.)

Uncle P decided to do a comedy night, with himself as emcee and hiring both a locally famous and a more nationally known comedian to be the big entertainers.  It's a dinner show, how fun is that!  Everyone is thankful he came up with this one. 

We are thankful for the fun evening with lots of laughs.

We are thankful for the delicious food (and that Uncle P remembered my weird diet and told them to make me lots of vegetables).

It was quite an ordeal of arranging and rearranging work to get there, and i am thankful it worked out.

Also i am thankful some of my clients are so flexible when this sort of thing comes up.

Finally, i am thankful one of the things i was able to work in was a cleaning of Grandma and Grandpa's house, since the housekeeper was out of town for two weeks in a row again.

Please write up your own list and link up to Ten Things of Thankful, where Kristi and her co-hosts always have a warm welcome waiting.  

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Click here to enter

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Today is:

Aloha Festivals Keiki Ho'olaule'a -- Oahu, Hawai'i, US (preserving Hawai'ian culture, with games, keiki activities, performances, and more)

Banana Festival -- Fulton, KY & South Fulton, TN, US (the fun starts tonight with The Banana Ball and continues through next Saturday)

Battle of San Jacinto Day -- Nicaragua

Cochabamba Day -- Cochabamba, Bolivia (festival of the founding of the city)

Eat a Hoagie Day

Eleven Days of Global Unity -- Day 4, Economic Justice (sponsored by We, the World) 

Feast of the Triumph of the Cross/Elevation of the Life Giving Cross/Holy Cross Day -- Christian

Festivals and Matsuri of Japan -- several throughout Japan, today and for the next several, most as harvest festivals or traditional horseback archery rituals)

      including the O Sannomiya Autumn Festival, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Festival, Tono Matsuri, Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri, Tsurugaoka-hachimangu Reitasai, Yachi Donga Festival, and Furusato Hyappei Festival

Flax Scutching Festival -- Stahlstown, PA, US (through tomorrow; demonstrations of the tradition of making linen out of flax)

Full Harvest Moon a/k/a Full Corn Moon/Indigo Moon/Wise-Crone Moon (with so much food ripe for gathering, harvesting can go on well into the night by the light of the hugely full Harvest Moon)

    Binara Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka (began yesterday evening)

    Chusok -- South Korea (Harvest Moon Festival; began yesterday, through the 20th; a harvest festival and day to give homage to the ancestors and celebrate family)

    Han'gawi -- North Korea (Harvest Moon Festival; through the 21st; a harvest festival and day to give homage to the ancestors and celebrate family)

    Navajo Sing Festival -- Navajo Native Americans festival in thanksgiving for the harvest, begins at the full moon and goes on for one week 

    Taw Thalin Full Moon -- Myanmar

    Zhongqiu Jie / Chong Chao -- China; Macau; Taiwan (Mid-Autumn Festival or Moon Festival, the birthday of the earth god T'u-ti Kung, celebrating the harvests, family, and eating moon cakes, matchmaking, sky lanterns, Fire Dragon Dances, and more)

Giostra Della Quintana -- Foligno, Italy (revival of a 17th-century jousting tournament, with 600 knights in full armor; La Rivincita, "The Rematch")

Great Procession of Tournai -- Tournai, Belgium (religious procession held since 1092, in thanksgiving for deliverance from the plague; through tomorrow)

Hug a Crabby Stranger Day -- okay, as long as i don't end up on the evening news

International Drive Your Studebaker Day -- an official event of the Studebaker Drivers Club Inc. (and i wish i could!)   

National Cream-Filled Doughnut Day

Ni’komo Munequamineash -- Plymouth, MA, US (Chappiquiddic Native Americans' Green Corn Festival)

Nutting Day -- British Isles tradition, the hazelnuts are supposed to be perfectly ripe on this day

Peddler's Village Scarecrow Competition and Display -- Lahaska, PA (through Oct. 29, with the big Scarecrow Festival this month on the 15th and 16th)

Pilgrimage to the Black Madonna of Einsiedeln -- Switzerland

St. Notburga's Day (Patron of agricultural workers, husbandmen, peasants, restaurant servers)

Summerset Festival -- Clement Park, Littleton, CO, US (a big, fun good-bye to summer)

Unclear Ideas Display -- Fairy Calendar (Imps celebration)

Birthdays Today:

Amy Winehouse, 1983

Dan Cortese, 1967

Faith Ford, 1964

Wendy Thomas, 1961 (Namesake of Wendy's Hamburgers)

Mary Crosby, 1959

Sam Neill, 1947

Joey Heatherton, 1944

Nicol Williamson, 1938

Walter Koenig, 1936

Kate Millett, 1934

Harve Presnell, 1933

Zoe Caldwell, 1933

Constance Baker Motley, 1921

Clayton Moore, 1914

Stanley Ketchel, 1886

Margaret Higgins Sanger, 1879

Ivan Pavlov, 1849

James Wilson, 1742

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"The Golden Girls"(TV), 1985

"The Waltons"(TV Series), 1972

"Ironside"(TV), 1967

"Have Gun Will Travel"(TV), 1957

"The Turn of the Screw"(Opera), 1954

Today in History:

Domitian becomes emperor of Rome upon the death of his brother Titus, 81

Harun al-Rashid beomes Abbasid Caliph upon the death of his brother, al-Hadi, 786

The first lighthouse in the US, in Boston, is lit, 1716

George Frederick Handel finishes "Messiah" oratorio, after working on it non-stop for 23 days, 1741

Napoleon occupies Moscow; fires begin that will not be fully extinguished for 5 days, 1812

Francis Scott Key witnesses the battle which inspires him to write "The Defense of Fort McHenry", later retitled "The Star Spangled Banner", 1814

George K Anderson of Memphis, Tennessee patents typewriter ribbon, 1886

President of the United States William McKinley dies after an assassination attempt on September 6, and is succeeded by Theodore Roosevelt, 1901

Groundbreaking for the United Nations headquarters in New York City, 1948

The Soviet probe Luna 2 crashes onto the Moon, becoming the first man-made object to reach it, 1959

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is founded, 1960

The first American saint, Elizabeth Ann Seton, is canonized by Pope Paul VI, 1975

President-elect of Lebanon, Bachir Gemayel, is assassinated, 1982

Joe Kittinger becomes the first person to fly a hot air balloon alone across the Atlantic Ocean, 1984

The Toronto Blue Jays set a record for the most home runs in a single game, belting 10 of them, 1987

Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga join the United Nations, 1999

Historic National Prayer Service held at Washington National Cathedral for victims of the September 11 attacks; a similar service is held in Canada on Parliament Hill, the largest vigil ever held in the nation's capital, 2001

In a referendum, Estonia approves joining the European Union, 2003

NASA reveals the Space Launch Program to replace the Space Shuttle program, 2011