I Still Smell It! (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Hooked (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!

While Coda was here, she went out for her last potty trip for the night and cornered a 'possum.  As soon as i realized what was up, i called her to come inside, and she did, albeit reluctantly.

The next morning, she was fascinated with the spot at the wall where the poor critter was crouched the night before, she wouldn't quit going over there and sniffing around.

I know it was right here!

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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.

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Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog break and we miss her lots.   Charlotte/Mother Owl always participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in, too.  Spike's Best Mate often leaves a wonderful poem in the comments on one of our blogs.

This week the theme is Craziest Vacation Memory.                      

While i'm not much for fishing,

My kids were always thrilled

When to Florida we would go

And fishing late afternoons filled.

Too young to be out there alone,

When they'd head to the dock

An adult had to go along,

Often i was on the clock.

It was never my very

Favorite thing to do,

But when your name is "mom"

You've got to see it through.

Well one day we were out there,

They fished, i baited hooks,

Small fish got fed to the birds

And bigger, well #2 Son cooks.

It was #2 Son and Little Girl,

And their cousin, my niece Bryn,

They were going to have a contest,

Who caught the biggest would win.

The fish were slow in biting,

Although they were nibbling bait,

The kids just kept trying,

And it was getting late.

Bryn had caught a couple,

And Son had gotten one,

Little Girl's hook had just been baited,

All were having fun.

Little Girl swung back to cast,

Of course, she meant no harm

Next thing i knew, i had a hook

In the skin of my upper arm!

It didn't hurt at all, you see,

It didn't even bleed,

It just went through a little skin

It simply startled, indeed.

Little Girl started crying,

And me, well i just laughed,

#2 Son took his fish cleaning knife

One small nick, i was un-gaffed.

Since there really was no damage,

We stayed and kept dropping hooks in,

Eventually though, i declared enough,

We said Little Girl did win.

#2 Son caught one that day,

And Bryn, well she caught three,

As for my sweet Little Girl,

That day she caught me!

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Today is:

Boy Scout Day -- celebrates the birthday of Scouting in the US

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

Cowtown's Last Old West Gunfight -- White Elephant Saloon, Fort Worth, TX, US (annual reenactment of the last gunfight in what was then Cowtown, between White Elephant Saloon owner Luke Short and former marshal T.I. “Longhaired Jim” Courtright on this date in 1887)

Death of Kelp-Koli -- Fairy Calendar

Hari Kuyo -- Sensouji Temple, Japan (Festival of Broken Needles, in which all of the worn or broken sewing needles from the previous year are put in a sacred resting place.)

Hold Onto Your Head Day -- invented by someone for people like me, because heaven knows i'm losing mine!

Just Say No to Powerpoint® Week begins -- please, use something else, like communicating with your audience! begun by Nancy Stern

Laugh and Get Rich Day -- a day to recognize the power of laughter

Love a Mensch Week begins -- because mensches are decent and responsible men and women, and we should appreciate how they enhance our lives; info from Robin Gorman Newman 

Love May Make the World Go 'round, But Laughter Keeps Us from Getting Dizzy Week -- anually, the week before and including Valentine's Day; dedicated to Victor Borge’s notion that “Laughter is the shortest distance between two people” and Joel Goodman’s notion that “Seven days without laughter makes one weak.”

National Molasses Bar Day

Nirvana Day -- Buddhist; Sikh (regional observances may vary)

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)

Preseren's Day -- Slovenia (Honors their national poet, France Preseren, often called Day of Slovenian Culture)

Rebel Day -- birth anniversary of James Dean

Royal Hobart Regatta Day -- Tasmania, Australia

St. Jerome Emilani's Day (Patron of orphans; Taos Indian Pueblo)

Anniversary Today:

Founding of Universiteit Leiden, with the motto Praesidium Libertatis, 1575

Birthdays Today:

Josh Keaton, 1979

David "Phoenix" Farrell, 1977

Seth Green, 1974

Alonzo Mourning, 1970

Gary Coleman, 1968

Claudette Pace, 1968

Vince Neil, 1961

John Grisham, 1955

Mary Steenburgen, 1953

Brooke Adams, 1949

Robert Klein, 1942

Nick Nolte, 1941

Ted Koppel, 1940

John Williams, 1932

James Dean, 1931

Jack Lemmon, 1925

Audrey Meadows, 1924

Freddie Blassie, 1921

Lana Turner, 1921

Elizabeth Bishop, 1911

Lyle Talbot, 1902

William Tecumseh Sherman, 1820

Jules Verne, 1828

Samuel Butler, 1612

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Good Times"(TV), 1974

"RCA Victor Show Starring Dennis Day"(TV), 1952

"Danses Concertantes"(Stravinsky Ballet), 1942

"Two for the Show"(Musical), 1940 

"The Plough and the Stars"(Play), 1926

"The Stars and Stripes"(US Armed Forces Newspaper), 1918

"The Birth of a Nation"(Film), 1915

"Boris Godunov"(Mussorgsky Opera), 1874

"Flora; or the Hob in the Well"(Cibber's Opera, first opera performed in the Colonies), 1735

Today in History:

Mary, Queen of Scots, is executed on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I, 1587

Isaac Newton reads his first optics paper before the Royal Society in London, 1672

French and Indian troops set Schenectady, NY, afire, 1690

A doctor in Salem Village, Massachusetts Bay Colony suggests that two girls in the family of the village minister may be suffering from bewitchment, leading to the Salem witch trials, 1692

The Supreme Privy Council is established in Russia, 1726

The first opera in the US, "Flora," opens in South Carolina, 1735

A minor earthquake shakes London, 1750

The strange phenomenon called the "Devil's Footprints" mysteriously appear in Devon, England, 1855

Martin Robinson Delany becomes the first black major in the US Army, 1865

The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated by William D. Boyce, 1910

D.W. Griffith's controversial film The Birth of a Nation premieres in Los Angeles, 1915

The Stars and Stripes newspaper is published for the first time, 1918

Swiss men vote against women's suffrage, 1920

Radio arrives at the White House, 1922

Allende meteorite falls near Pueblito de Allende, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1969

The NASDAQ stock market index opens for the first time, 1971

After 84 days in space, the crew of the first American space station Skylab returns to Earth, 1974

The Melbourne dust storm hits Australia's second largest city. The result of the worst drought on record and a day of severe weather conditions, a 320 metres (1,050 ft) deep dust cloud envelops the city, turning day to night, 1983

The massive Internet collaboration "24 Hours in Cyberspace" takes place, 1996

A freak storm in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan triggers a series of at least 36 avalanches, 2010