Mama X2 (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Heaven's Door (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!

Mama Blue has kittens and Indigo has kittens.

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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.     

QuoteFancy

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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 is sorely missed.   Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  

This week the theme is Wind.                       

Wind as gentle as a kiss,

Wind to tear a tree apart,

Wind that cools the day is bliss,

Wind of storms can break a heart.

Wind is kind and wind is cruel,

Wind makes the ocean kiss the shore,

Wind can be in G-d's hand a tool,

Wind blow you to heaven's door.

(for Uncle P)

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Today is:

Black Ribbon Day -- Estonia; Latvia; Lithuania

European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism -- European Union

Flag Day -- Ukraine

Gai Jatra -- Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (cow festival, celebrated in remembrance of all people who have died in the previous year; one of Nepal's most popular festivals with tourists)

Great Feast of the Netjeru (all gods and goddesses) -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Health Unit Coordinator Day -- US National Association of Health Unit Coordinators, Inc.

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition

National Spongecake Day

Nemeseia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (local festival to the goddess Nemesis, date approximate)

Ride the Wind Day -- internet generated, a day to get out and ride with the wind in your hair, in whatever transport you choose, or fly a kite

Sento Kuyo -- Nenbutsu-Ji Temple, Adashino, Kyoto, Japan (memorial service for graves that no longer have families to tend them; through tomorrow)

St. Eoghan's Day (Patron of Derry, Ireland)

St. Rose of Lima's Day (Patron of embroiderers, florists, gardeners, needle workers, people ridiculed for piety; The Americas/The New World, especially Central and South America, Latin America, Peru, and the West Indies; Lima, Peru; Philippines, Santa Rosa, CA, US; Villareal Samar, Philippines; against vanity)

Valentino Memorial Service -- Hollywood Cathedral Museum, Hollywood Forever Cemetary, Los Angeles, CA, US (annually since 1927, a memorial service celebrating Rudolph Valentino on the anniversary of his death)

Vertumnalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (in honor of Vertumnus and Pomona)

Vulcanalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (festival to the god of fire)

Birthdays Today:

Kobe Bryant, 1978

Jay Mohr, 1970

River Phoenix, 1970

Queen Noor of Jordan, 1951

Rick Springfield, 1949

Shelley Long, 1949

Antonia Novello, 1944

Patricia McBride, 1942

Richard Sanders, 1940

Tony Bill, 1940

Barbara Eden, 1934

Sonny Jurgensen, 1934

Mark Russel, 1932

Vera Miles, 1930

Gene Kelly, 1912

Edgar Lee Masters, 1868

Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, 1785

Louis XVI, 1754

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"She Loves You"(Beatles single release date), 1963

"The Bat"(Mystery play), 1930

"Gasoline Alley"(as a daily comic strip), 1919

Today in History:

On the feast of Vulcan, Roman god of fire, Mt. Vesuvius begins to rumble, 79

Visigoths storm Rome, 410

Edward I executes William Wallace, Scottish patriot, for high treason, 1305

French explorer Jacques Cartier lands near Quebec City in his third voyage to Canada, 1541

Rabbi Joseph Caro completes his commentary of Tur Code, 1542

The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of Huguenots in Paris begins, 1572

The first one-way streets open in London, 1617

Steamship service begins on the Great Lakes, 1818

Great Britain abolishes slavery in the colonies, 700,000 slaves are freed, 1833

Automobile tire chain is patented, 1904

The World Council of Churches is formed, 1948

Lunar Orbiter I takes the first picture of Earth from the Moon's orbit, 1966

Bryan Allan, in a Gossamer Condor, completes the first man-powered flight of one mile, 1977

Soviet dancer Alexander Godunov defects to the US, 1979

Hans Tiedge, top counter-spy of West Germany, defects to East Germany, 1985

Hungary opens the Iron Curtain and allows thousands of East Germans through to West Germany, 1989

West Germany and East Germany announce that they will unite on Oct. 3, 1990

The remains of Anastasia and Alexei, rumored to have survived the 1917 assassination of the Russian Czar and his family, are found, 2007

Heavy winds knock down the Anne Frank tree in Amsterdam, breaking off approximately one meter above the ground, 2010

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is overthrown, 2011

Lance Armstrong, the seven-time Tour de France winner, announces he will not contest the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency charges of doping, a result of which will include being stripped of all of his tour de France victories, 2012

Libya's ruins of Cyrene, a World Heritage Site near Shahhat, is damaged by real estate developers, 2013

Destruction by ISIS of the first century AD temple of Baalshamin in the ancient ruins of Palmyra is confirmed by Syrian officials, 2015

The world's driest place, the Atacama desert in Chile, blooms after an unexpected rainfall, 2017

Russia launches the first floating nuclear power station, the Akademik Lomonosov, from the port of Murmansk, 2019