Sunpuddling (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and But We're Family (Poetry Monday)

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Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at 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!

Abigail, the three-legged cat at a client's home, really enjoys her sunpuddle on the rug:

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Sparks, the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, is on hiatus, so here's an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.

EverydayPower

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Border.  She and Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey take turns providing a theme each week.   Charlotte/Mother Owl almost always participates, too. This week the theme is Relatives, and my nonsense follows.  If it makes you laugh, great.  If not, you are excused from telling me so.

If you want to try your hand at joining us for Poetry Monday, please write a poem and let us know, we'd love to have more join in.                

Are you comfortable, my Sweetie will ask,

And i will say, relatively,

At which point he says, 

What do your relatives have to do with it?

My answer is that

Relatives are the people

You cannot live with

But there are just not enough places

To hide all the bodies.

And for those who wonder,

Yes, that counts as a joke around here,

As i have no intention of killing anyone,

Nobody is worth the jail time!

There's no rhyme for uncle,

Except carbuncle,

And of course, Garfunkel,

Who just might be somebody's uncle,

I've not read up on Mr. Art's family!

Upon the birth of my youngest brother,

In my anger i said to my mother,

But i already have one stinky brother,

And i do not need another!

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Today is:

Clean out Your Computer Day -- always the second Monday of February

Deep Blue Day -- the IBM computer defeats chess champion Gary Kasparov, the first such victory for a computer, in 1996

Feast of Saint Paul's Shipwreck -- Malta

Go Green Week begins -- UK (helping people find greener alternatives)   

Gold Record Day -- Glenn Miller is awarded the first ever Gold Record, for "Chattanoga Choo Choo", 1942

National Cream Cheese Brownie Day

National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe -- Italy, especially in Trieste

Oatmeal Monday -- Scotland (traditionally, at universities in Scotland, the day the students were allowed to go home and get more "meal", or oatmeal, and other supplies, as they had to provide their own food and fuel for the fires while in school)

Plimsoll Day -- honoring Samuel Plimsoll, the "Sailor’s Friend," who persuaded Parliament to have a maximum load limit on ships.

Royal Hobart Regatta Day -- Tasmania, Australia

St. Scholastica's Day (Patron of children in convulsions, nuns; LeMans, France; against rain, storms)

Try to Invent a New Jell-O Flavor Day -- it can't hurt to try

Tu B'Shevat -- Judaism ("New Year of the Trees", began yesterday at sunset, through sunset today)

Umbrella Day

Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show (through tomorrow)

Anniversaries Today:

Poland is symbolically married to the Baltic Sea by Jozef Haller de Hallenburg, celebrating the restitution of Polish access to the water, 1920

Tom Thumb marries Mercy Lavinia Warren, 1863

Queen Victoria marries her cousin Albert von Saxe-Coburg, 1840

Treaty of Paris ends the Seven Years' War (a/k/a French and Indian War), 1763

Academie Francaise forms in Paris (by Cardinal Richelieu), 1635

Birthdays Today:

Lance Berkman, 1976

Laura Dern, 1967

Glen Beck, 1964

Lenny Dykstra, 1963

Cliff Burton, 1962

George Stephanopoulos, 1961

Greg Norman, 1955

Jim Cramer, 1955

Mark Spitz, 1950

Donovan, 1946

Frances Moore Lappe, 1944

Roberta Flack, 1939

Robert Wagner, 1930

Leontyne Price, 1927

Lon Chaney, Jr., 1906

Bertolt Brecht, 1898

Frances Margaret "Dame Judith" Anderson, 1898

Jimmy Durante, 1893

William "Bill" Tilden, 1893

Boris Pasternak, 1890

Samuel Plimsoll, 1824

Charles Lamb, 1775

Debuting/Premiering Today:

“My Friend Flicka”(TV), 1956

"Death of a Salesman"(Play), 1949

"Puss Gets the Boot"(Cartoon, first Tom and Jerry short), 1940

"Icebound"(Pulitzer-winning Davis' Play), 1923

"All the News That's Fit to Print"(Slogan of the New York Times), 1897

"Les Contes d'Hoffman"(Offenbach Opera), 1881  

"The Lily of Killarney"(Opera), 1862

Today in History:

St. Paul is shipwrecked on the island of Malta, 60

Crusaders defeat Prince Redwan of Aleppo at Antioch, 1098

The St. Scholastica's Day riot breaks out in Oxford, England, leaving 63 scholars and perhaps 30 locals dead in two days, 1355

Wampanoag Indians under King Philip kill all the men in Lancaster, Massachusetts, 1676

Edmund Halley is appointed the second Astronomer Royal of England, 1720

The Treaty of Paris ends the French and Indian War, surrendering Canada to England, 1763

Simon Bolivar is named dictator by the Congress of Peru, 1824

The first US fire extinguisher patent granted to Alanson Crane of Virginia, 1863

The YWCA is founded in NYC, 1870

Nathaniel Carr Goodwin becomes the first actor to perform in two different cities on the same day, in Boston for a matinee, and then in NYC for and evening performance, 1887

Nearly 11,000,000 acres of land, ceded to the US government by the Sioux Indians, is opened for settlement, 1890

The New York Times begins using the slogan, "All the news that's fit to print," 1897

Japan and Russia declare war after Japan's surprise attack on Russian fleet at Port Arthur disabled 7 Russian warships, 1904

Britain's first modern and largest battleship "HMS Dreadnought" is launched, 1906

Baseball outlaws all pitches that involve tampering with the ball, 1920

New Delhi becomes the capital of India, 1931

The first singing telegram is delivered, by the Postal Telegram Company of NYC, 1933

Captured American U2 spy-plane pilot Gary Powers is exchanged for captured Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, 1962

Ron Brown is elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee becoming the first African American to lead a major American political party, 1989

The IBM supercomputer Deep Blue defeats Garry Kasparov for the first time, 1996

The communication satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251 collide in orbit, destroying both, 2009

The Venezuelan government orders more than 100 malls to close early to save electricity, due to drought caused by El Niño, 2016