AC/After Catnip (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and 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!

Every Sunday morning, there is a catnip fest among the downstairs cats, and after, there is a snooze fest so they can sleep it off:

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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 Alberta/Montana 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 Friends.                  

Thank you, friends

For all the cheer

For not mentioning when

I’m looking bigger in the rear

For laughing when

I tell a lame joke

For enjoying cheap fun

When we all are broke

For not letting me leave the house

Looking like a clown

For sticking together

Not letting each other down

For being there during

Times of sorrow

For reminding me that

There’s always tomorrow 

Thank you, friends

For all you do,

And thank you most

For being you.

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Today is:

Bird Day -- anniversary of the first Bird Day declared in 1894 by the Superintendant of Schools in Oil City, PA, Charles Babcock

Cassinga Day -- Namibia

Compliment Someone's Smile Day

Declaration of Independence Day -- Latvia

Dodenherdenking -- Netherlands (Remembrance of those in the armed forces who have died in war or peacekeeping missions.)

Fairy Ring Day (Giving) -- Fairy Calendar

Frustrating the Fairies Day -- Ireland (a day to confuse the fairies so they may not cause any mischief, although i can't find any details about how to frustrate them)

International Firefighters' Day   

May Fourth Movement

    Literary Day -- Republic of China

    Youth Day -- People's Republic of China

Melanoma Monday -- learn how to check yourself for skin cancer, and how to get someone else to check your back, the most common spot for melanoma   

Memorial Day -- Curacao (military ceremonies to honor victims of WWII, not a government holiday)

Midori no hi -- Japan (Greenery Day/Arbor Day)

National Candied Orange Peel Day

National Kids Fitness Day -- this one doesn't seem to have any particular sponsor or organization behind it, but please get those kids outdoors to do something fun, any time you can!

National Meeting Planners Appreciation Day 2020 -- US (you are only obligated to celebrate this if you love meetings, love to plan meetings, or have a meeting planner in your organization to humor)

National Orange Juice Day

National Weather Observers Day -- another fun day that doesn't seem to be sponsored by anyone, but Family Crafts has suggestions for how to celebrate     

Petite and Proud Day -- i've never heard of this one until now, but it's the one for me!

Relationship Renewal Day -- because someone, somewhere, wants you to stop taking the ones you love for granted

Remembrance Day for Martyrs and the Disabled -- Afghanistan

Respect for Chickens Day -- International (United Poultry Concerns)

Sagami Giant Kite Festival -- Sagami, Japan (through tomorrow; giant kite that requires a team of 100 people is flown on the banks of the Sagami River)

School Bus Driver Appreciation Day -- US

St. Florian's Day (Patron of brewers, chimney sweeps, coopers, drowning victims, fire prevention, firefighters, harvests, soap-boilers; Austria; Chur, Switzerland; Linz, Austria; Poland; against battle, drowning, fire, and flood)

    a recognized holiday in Austria

St. Venerius of Milan's Day (Patron of lighthouse keepers)

Star Wars Day -- greet others with “May the 4th be with you!"

Youth Day -- China

Birthdays Today:

Erin Andrews, 1978

Dawn Stanley, 1970

Randy Travis, 1959

Pia Zadora, 1956

David Guttersn, 1956

Jackie Jackson, 1951

Richard Jenkins, 1947

Nicholas Ashford, 1942

George F. Will, 1941

Roberta Peters, 1930

Audrey Hepburn, 1929

Heloise Bowles Cruse, 1919

Horace Mann, 1796

Bartolomeo Cristofori, 1655

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Beatles at Hollywood Bowl"(Album), 1977

"Another World"(TV), 1964

"New Girl in Town"(Musical), 1957

Today in History:

Religious reformers John Wycliffe and Jan Hus are condemned as heretics at the Council of Constance, 1415

Peter Minuit becomes director-general of New Netherlands, 1626

A French manufacturer debuts the first folding umbrella, 1715

Rhode Island becomes the first American colony to renounce allegiance to King George III, 1776

Mary Dixon Kies becomes the first woman in the US to obtain a patent, for a method of weaving hats with straw, silk, and thread, 1809

Napoleon arrives at Portoferraio on the island of Elba to begin his exile, 1814

The Haymarket Square Riot takes place in Chicago, 1886

The United States begins construction of the Panama Canal, 1904

The Royal Canadian Navy is created, 1910

May Fourth Movement: Student demonstrations take place in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China, protesting the Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Al Capone begins serving an eleven-year prison sentence for tax evasion, 1932

Ernest Hemingway is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Old Man and the Sea, 1953

The "Freedom Riders" begin a bus trip through the South, 1961

The Don't Make A Wave Committee, a fledgling environmental organization founded in Canada in 1971, officially changes its name to "Greenpeace Foundation", 1972

An all-female Japanese team reaches the summit of Manaslu, becoming the first women to climb an 8,000-meter peak, 1974

Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, 1979

Latvia proclaims the renewal of its independence after the Soviet occupation, 1990

The Scottish National Party wins the Scottish general election and becomes the largest party in the Scottish Parliament for the first time ever, 2007

The last nuclear reactor in Japan is shut down, leaving the country without nuclear power for the first time since 1970, 2012

California overtakes Great Britain to become the worlds fifth largest economy, 2018