Oddly Cute (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Elephant's Child.        

This week's prompts are some typically Australian phrases/slang.  Feel free to add more, and use (or not use) these as you see fit.  (Note: i saw fit to adapt a couple of the expressions to fit the story.)

1. Pull the wool over his eyes 
2. Put a sock in it 
3. Dog's breakfast
4. Gone walkabout 
5. Six of one, half a dozen of the other
6. Tell him he's dreaming
   

Have fun.

"Hey, Aiden, where is ... what in the world!"  Ellen walked in and began to greet her youngest brother, only then seeing the condition of the room into which she had stepped.

"What happened in here?" she asked, her eyes now flashing.

"Ah, put a sock in it, it's only a bit of a mess," Aiden responded, "and if you were asking where Michael is, he's gone walkabout.  Said he needed to clear his head."

"I'll clear his head," Ellen growled.  "It's dog's breakfast in here, and when Mum gets home there's going to be trouble."

"Michael said he wouldn't be long, we'll straighten a bit and hide the rest of the mess in the closet or under the bed..."

"You two are dreaming if you think you're going to pull the wool over her eyes with that trick.  Don't you remember she's going to the station to pick up Aunt Gina for her visit?  They'll be here in a few hours!  That's why I'm off work early, I've come home to prepare supper."

"That's tonight?" Aiden's demeanor changed in a heartbeat.  "I thought that was tomorrow!  We were going to stow this mess tonight and we'd gotten permission to cut out of practice early tomorrow -- relatives in town, we told the coach -- by tomorrow..."

"By tomorrow will be too late."  Ellen took a deep breath.  "Weren't you two listening when Mum told us about the change in plan?  Aunt Gina said she had the opportunity to take the earlier train and come in tonight instead of tomorrow, and Mum told her, 'It's six of one, half a dozen of the other with me, if you plan on the early train and there's a delay, you won't get here any later than what we'd thought at first,' so they changed it."

"When do either of us ever listen when you and Mum are talking about your plans?"

Ellen just shook her head.  "There's no use standing about.  The way I figure it, you and Michael have about two or maybe three hours at most to get this place in shape while I'm cooking.  You'd best go find him and get started."

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Today is:

#2 Pencil Day -- internet generated, but since a pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write under water, in zero gravity, or upside down, what's not to celebrate!

Black Cat Appreciation Day -- they deserve a day! black cats even have a Facebook page      

Day of Rituals in the Temples of Ra, Horus, and Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Drink Coffee at the Office from A Sippy Cup Day -- begun by someone with a sense of humor, who wants you to see how long it takes people to notice

Festival of Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Jari Kemerdekaan RI -- Indonesia (Independence Day)(1945)

Meaning of "Is" Day -- thank you, Clinton!

National Medical Dosimetrist's Day -- American Association of Medical Dosimetrists (medical radiation safety experts) 

National Thrift Shop/Thrift Store Day -- no history on it, probably started by a thrift store having a summer sale; still a good idea

National Vanilla Custard Day

Odin's Ordeal begins -- based on the Ancient Norse legend, Modern Odinists and some Asatru practice silence for nine days, through the 25th

Portunalia -- Roman Empire (honoring the god of locks, keys, ports, and harbors)

Prekmurje Union Day -- Slovenia (celebrates the Slovenes in Prekmurje being Incorporated into the Mother Nation)

San Martin Day -- Argentina (death anniversary of General Jose de San Martin, liberator of Argentina, chile, and Peru)

St. Hyacinth's Day (Patron of Camalaniugan, Philippines; Ermita de Piedra de San Jacinto, Philippines; Kradow, Poland; Lithuania; Poland; against drowning)

Birthdays Today:

Mark Salling, 1982

Donnie Wahlberg, 1969

Sean Penn, 1960

Jonathan Franzen, 1959

Belinda Carlisle, 1958

Guillermo Vilas, 1952

Robert Joy, 1951

Robert DeNiro, 1943

Francis Gary Powers, 1929

Maureen O'Hara, 1920

Harrison V. Chase, 1913

Mae West, 1892

Charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1887

Samuel Goldwyn, 1882

Davy Crockett, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Life of Brian(Film), 1979

"Symphonie Liturgique"(Honegger's Third Symphony), 1946

Animal Farm(Publication date), 1945

"Gotterdammerung/Twilight of the Gods"(Opera WWV 86D), 1876

Today in History:

The Peace of Bergerac gives political rights to the Huguenots, 1577

John White returns to Roanoke, Virginia, to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier, 1590

Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins its first trip up the Hudson River, 1807

Solymon Merrick patents the wrench, 1835

The first bank in Hawaii opens, 1858

Patent granted for an electric self-starter for automobiles, 1891

Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers' market in the US, opens in Seattle, 1907

Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, the first animated cartoon, is shown in Paris, 1908

First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, 1953

Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana, 1958

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall, 1962

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage, 1969

Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus), 1970

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine, 1978

The first Compact Discs are released to the public in Germany, 1982

The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts, 2005

Afghan archeologists discover the remains of a Buddhist site located south of Kabul, 2010

Trogloraptor marchingtoni, an unusual spider discovered in 2010 is determined to be a new family of spiders previously unknown in the world of science; the new spider family has been named Trogloraptor, meaning 'cave robber', 2012

LIGO picks up images of two neutron stars colliding, the first time scientists have ever been able to witness that event, 2017

The landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders is celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with a transitional government to take over as of the beginning of September, 2019

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill becomes the first US university to send students home and convert to all online classes after 135 Covid19 cases are detected on campus, 2020

One in five US hospital ICUs at or over 95% capacity due to Delta surge of COVID-19, 2021