Kittens by the Bushel (Feline Friday) and Friendly Fill-Ins

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (who no longer blogs), and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she's entrusting it to me.  

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

If you want kittens, the shelter has them.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. When I _________, it means that I am sick.

2. I _________ fireworks.

3. I have a newfound appreciation for _________.

4. I think everyone should _________ so that _________.

1. When I   don't go to work,   it means that I am sick.

2. I   like  fireworks   conditionally, the condition being they are professionally done and people who don't like them can stay away, or take their pets out of the area because they know when the show will happen.

3. I have a newfound appreciation for   quiet and silence.

4. I think everyone should   listen more, becoming as interested in understanding as in being understood  so that   we might be better able to understand and care for one another.

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Today is:

Aizen Matsuri -- Shoman-in Temple, Osaka, Japan (celebration of Aizen Myo-oh, greatest of the 8 Buddhist guardian gods, and is also called the Yakuta Festival; through July 2)

Armed Forces Day -- Guatemala

Crab Races -- Fairy Calendar (Pixies, Elves, and some Fairies)

Day of Aestas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (culmination of the festival that begins the summer)

Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome -- remembrance of the first Christians killed in Rome by order of Nero as scapegoats for the fire in Rome

General Prayer Day -- Central African Republic

Independence Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)(1960)

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day -- if one is needed

Meteor Day -- because of the Tuskunga Event

National Corvette Day -- US (vehicle introduced this day in 1953)

National Ice Cream Soda Day

Pridie Kalendas July (Day Before the Kalends of July) -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a day when dies comitiales -- citizen committees -- voted on political and criminal matters)

Revolution Day -- Sudan(1989)

St. Theobald of Provins' day (Patron of bachelors)

Tech Support Appreciation Day -- if you can get a hold of them, they can be great to have around

Anniversary Today:

Greg Allman marries Cher, 1975

Birthdays Today:

Michael Phelps, 1985

Fantasia Barrino, 1984

Ralf Schumacher, 1975

Michael Gerard (Mike) Tyson, 1966

Rupert Graves, 1963

Vincent D’Onofrio, 1959

David Alan Grier, 56, 1955

Leonard Whiting, 1950

Patricia Schroeder, 1940

Nancy Dussault, 1936

Harry Blackstone, Jr., 1934

Susan Hayward, 1919

Lena Horne, 1917

Czeslaw Milosz, 1911

William Almon Wheeler, 1819

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Johnny Carson Show"(TV), 1955

"Guiding Light"(TV), 1947

"Brenda Starr, Reporter"(Comic strip), 1940

Today in History:

Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland, 1294

The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan, 1520

Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery, Ohio, 1794

French acrobat Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope, 1859

The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place, 1860

The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal; it arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4, 1886

Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", in which he introduces special relativity, 1905

The Tunguska event, probably caused by a meteor or comet fragment, occurs in remote Siberia, 1908

The Regina Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan, killing 28; it remains Canada's deadliest tornado event, 1912

Congo gains independence from Belgium, 1960

The first leap second is added to the UTC time system, 1972

The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie, 1987

East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, 1990

The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, 1997

After nearly 7 years in space, the Cassini spacecraft becomes the first to orbit the planet Saturn, 2004

The Molecule of the Year 2011 is announced, BMP7 (Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7), a potential therapeutic utility for recurrent metastatic disease, 2012

Misty Copeland becomes the first African American principal dancer of the American Ballet Theatre, 2015

Donald Trump becomes the first sitting US President to set foot in North Korea during the Korean Demilitarized Zone meeting with Kim Jong Un, 2019

American Abhimanyu Mishra becomes the youngest chess grandmaster ever at 12 years and 4 months, surpassing Sergey Karjakin, 2021

The Guinness Book of World Records declares Emilio "Don Millo" Flores Márquez, (born 8 August 1908) from Puerto Rico to be the world's oldest man, 2021

Flags, a Monthly Poetry Group Post

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It's time for the Monthly Poetry Group, hosted by Karen at Baking in a Tornado.  Participants write a poem about a topic one of us chose.  This month, Diane chose Flags.  Be sure to go check out all the poems.

I set out to learn, when I was a child,

each country's flag, and it was wild!

The encyclopedia, starting with A,

I tried to learn one every day.

I'd often lose track, forget where I was,

or skip a day, just because.

Forgetting which stripes went up and down

or side to side, would make me frown.

I really got bored and could not see

that knowing all this made a difference to me.

While it would be nice to know,

I dropped the whole thing, and so

I finally decided to tender

The white flag of surrender!

The other participants:

Karen at Baking in a Tornado     

Diane at On the Border     

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Illusive and Elusive (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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The following is just my two cents, take it or leave it or ask questions about it in the comments and i'll be glad to answer.

There is no such thing as security or safety, it's an illusion and they elude you, since we know anything can happen in an instant and all of life can change or stop or be totally hijacked by any unexpected event.

We can take care of our health, full well knowing a freak accident can undo all the hard work and time most certainly will at some point; we can buy alarms and monitors and still have our homes or cars broken into; we can stay out of dangerous areas knowing danger can come from any direction anyway and catch us off guard in a moment.

Some people go to great lengths to be "preppers" and have remote farms with their own sources for water and growing food and raising livestock and everything they need and my question remains, if the worst happens and their preparations prove to have been needed, what will they do someday down the road when they get ill or old and infirm and can't do for themselves any longer?

Is there an answer to the question, how can a person be safe and secure?

I've found my answer, and many will disagree, but while i don't know what the future holds, i believe in the One Who holds the future, and my only security is in the center of God's will.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Security.      

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While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

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It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

Sometimes a little guy has ants in his pants

and his legs he needs to stretch.

Sometimes a pooch gets tired and hot

from playing too much fetch.

The sidewalk can get hot on those paws,

with shoes on, people feet won't burn,

so when it comes to who walks and who rides,

we each will take our turn!

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Brian of Brian's Home hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for two checks from an unexpected source -- a lawsuit against our insurance company i didn't even know about has settled and we will finish the month with a bit more in the account than usual because of it.

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Today is:

Autonomy Day -- French Polynesia

Camera Day -- internet generated, but a fun one to celebrate

Eid al-Adha -- Islam (Festival of Sacrifice, a three-day commemoration of Abraham's obedience and willingness to sacrifice his son; begins at sunset, local customs of date and official government days off in many places will vary)

Feast Day of Saints Peter and Paul -- Christian

     St. Paul, Patron of Greece, Malta, rope makers, tentmakers, upholsterers

     St. Peter, Patron of clockmakers, fishermen, Russia; against fever, foot trouble, wolves

     a recognized holiday in Chile; Holy See; Italy; Malta[l-Imnarja]; Peru; GR and TI, Switzerland; Wallis and Fortuna

     Haro Wine Festival -- Haro, LaRioja, Spain (a festival that includes a Battle of Wines, where wine is thrown from buckets at opposing teams; on the feast day of the city's patron, San Pedro)

     Rat-Catcher's Day -- often cited because some of the earliest legends of the Pied Piper claim he took the children on the Feast Day of Sts. Peter and Paul

Hug Holiday -- while the National Hug Holiday Week has been moved to the beginning of May, this is the original day, and was for quite a while, so go give someone a big hug!

Independence Day -- Seychelles

National Almond Butter Crunch Day

National Bomb Pop Day -- on the Thursday in June right before US Independence Day, to kick off the celebration with the original red, white, and blue bomb pops

National Handshake Day -- US; sponsored by professional development companies on the last Thursday in June, encouraging everyone to develop a good, professional handshake

Oharai/Grand Purification Festival -- Shinto

Runic Half-month Feoh (wealth) commences

Waffle Iron Day -- don't know why today, but it's a great gadget, and if you have one, pull it out and use it today

Birthdays Today:

Prince Aristide Stavros of Greece and Denmark, 2008

Amanda Donohoe, 1962

Sharon Lawrence, 1962

Fred Grandy, 1948

Richard Lewis, 1947

Gary Busey, 1944

Robert Evans, 1930

Ray Harryhausen, 1920

Slim Pickens, 1919

Bernard Herrmann, 1911

Nelson Eddy, 1901

Antoine de Saint-Exupery, 1900

James Van Der Zee, 1886

William James Mayo, 1863

George Washington Goethals, 1858

Julia Clifford Lathrop, 1858

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Moonraker(Film), 1979

Today in History:

An Irish monastic chronicler records a solar eclipse, 512

Jacques Cartier makes the European discovery of Prince Edward Island, 1534

The Globe Theatre in London, England burns to the ground, 1613

Alexander Macdonell and over five hundred Roman Catholic highlanders leave Scotland to settle in Glengarry County, Ontario, 1786

Coal is discovered on Vancouver Island, 1850

Ninety-nine people are killed in Canada's worst railway disaster near St-Hilaire, Quebec, 1864

France annexes Tahiti, 1880

The first known recording of classical music, Handel's "Israel in Egypt", is made on a wax cylinder, 1888

Street railway in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, commences operation, 1891

Doukhobors burn their weapons as a protest against conscription by the Tsarist Russian government, 1895

France grants 1 km² at Vimy Ridge "freely, and for all time, to the Government of Canada, the free use of the land exempt from all taxes," 1922

Joseph-Armand Bombardier of Canada receives a patent for sprocket and track traction system used in snow vehicles, 1937

Isabel Perón is sworn in as the first female President of Argentina, 1974

The Seychelles  become independent from the United Kingdom, 1976

The space shuttle Atlantis docks with the Russian Mir Space Station for the first time, 1995

Two car bombs are found at Piccadilly Circus, in the heart of London, 2007

News that European Union members agree on a deal to help some struggling Eurozone members causes world stock markets to soar, 2012

The Beijing Times reports that up to 30% of the Great Wall of China has disappeared, partly due to natural forces of decay and partly due to people stealing bricks, 2015

Iraqi forces retake the remains of the destroyed Great Mosque of al-Nuri from the Islamic State; it was the symbolic site where their leader had declared a "caliphate", 2017

Lytton, British Columbia, records Canada's highest-ever temperature of 49.6C (121.3F), before being destroyed by a wildfire the next day, 2021

Earth records its shortest day since scientists began using atomic clocks to measure its rotational speed, concluding one spin in 1.59 milliseconds less than the standard 24 hours, 2022