Tipping the Scales (Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy’s Poetry Day and Brian’s Thankful Thursday

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She started to head into the bathroom but stopped short when she noticed what he was doing.

She had to stifle a giggle as he was standing on the scale and sucking in his stomach as he looked down.

"I don't think it works that way," she said with a huge grin.

"I know that!" he snapped as he turned to look at her.  "I'm having to suck in my stomach so I can see the numbers.  And I tell you what, those doggone kids better quit leaving so many leftovers on their plates!"

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

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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!

Sometimes, you don't replace the fence, you just repair it.

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

My new husband's no mechanic,

it's how I earn my daily bread,

when I find out which "friend" pulled this prank,

I'm going to have his head!

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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 garbage and recycle pick up.  Many people in our area are complaining as the price has gone up a bit and some of the collection rules have changed (things that used to be free pick-up now have a nominal charge), but i am too grateful to not have to schlepp my own garbage to the dump every week to complain.  I'm just thankful we have the service and it gets most of everything.

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Today is:

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Thoughtful Thursday 

Daffodil Day -- Australia (the Cancer Council's big fundraiser) http://www.daffodilday.com.au

Day of Solidarity and Freedom -- Poland (Anniversary of the 1980 August Agreement)

Eat Outside Day -- as long as you won't pass out from the heat

Eleusinia Games -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate; 3 days of games with grain as prizes)

Festal Day -- Order of the Eastern Star

Independence Day -- Kyrgyzstan(1991); Malaysia (Hari Kebangsaan/Freedom Day, 1957); Trinidad & Tobago(1962)

International Day of Blogs and Bloggers  

International Overdose Awareness Day -- dedicated to prevention and remembrance

Invent A New Sandwich Day -- spread around the internet like good mayo; go ahead, have fun with this

Limba Noastra -- Moldova (Day of Our Language)

Love Litigating Lawyers Day -- yes, G-d tells us to love everybody, even litigation attorneys but He never said doing it would be easy; sponsored by Wellcat Holidays

National Trail Mix Day

St. Raymond Nonnatus' Day (Patron of babies, childbirth, children, expectant mothers, falsely accused people, infants, midwives, newborn babies, obstetricians, and pregnant women; Baltoa, Dominican Republic; against fever)

Urs Festival of Hazrat Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai -- Sindh, Pakistan (the grand three-day festival of Sindh, celebrating this famous Sundhi Sufi scholar, mystic, and saint)

Birthdays Today:

Jeff Hardy, 1977

Chris Tucker, 1972

Debbie Gibson, 1970

Glenn Tilbrook, 1957

Edwin Corley Moses, 1955

Richard Gere, 1949

Itzhak Perlman, 1945

Van Morrison, 1945

Jack Thompson, 1940

Marva Collins, 1936

Frank Robinson, 1935

James Coburn, 1928

Buddy Hackett, 1924

G.D. Spradlin, 1920

Alan Jay Lerner, 1918

William Saroyan, 1908

William Shawn, 1907

Arthur Godfrey, 1903

Maria Montessori, 1870

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Alice"(TV), 1976

"The Great Gildersleeve"(Radio), 1941

"The Threepenny Opera/Die Dreigroschenoper"(Play), 1928

Today in History:

Traditional date upon which Ayonwentah (Haiwatha) and Deganawidah (The Great Peacemaker) assist the Iroquois tribes in establishing the Confederation of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederacy, or League of Five Nations), 1142

Lewis and Clark begin their expedition, 1803

A nuts and bolts machine is patented by Micah Rugg, 1842

The first professional football game is played in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, 1895

Edison patents the Kinetograph, 1897

Mrs. Adolph Landenburg, a horse rider, debuts the split skirt, 1902

Debut of Foghorn Leghorn, 1946

Solidarity Labor Union forms in Poland, 1980

Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Al-Fayed and driver Henri Paul die in a car crash in Paris, 1997

Stolen on August 22, 2004, Edvard Munch's famous painting The Scream is recovered in a raid by Norwegian police, 2006

In Sudan, the People's Liberation Army announces it will demobilize its child soldiers by the end of the year, 2010

A 19-year-old Indonesian man is rescued after 49 days at sea on his floating fishing trap, 2018

Mary Peltola becomes the first Alaskan Native to be elected to US Congress, 2022 

US life expectancy falls to its lowest level since 1996 (76.1 years vs. 79 years in 2019), with COVID-19 thought to be the main contributing factor, 2022

For Her Forgetful Husband (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, 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 yours truly.      

Please feel free to use some of the prompts, none of them, or all of them as you see fit.  The point is to get the creative juices flowing in whatever manner your muse leads you.

This week's prompts are

privilege

cater

landscape

morning

novel

level

and/or

failure

rumor

mention

matter

descent

outline

Charlotte/Mother Owl has chosen luminous bright red as the color/colour of the month, which may also be used as a prompt.

"What's on the agenda for this month?" Mattie asked as she stifled a yawn coming into the small office for the first of the month MORNING meeting with her partner. 

"We have the PRIVILEGE to CATER the local Chamber of Commerce convention at the end of the month.  Other than that, just the usual, a few weddings, a bat mitzvah, various board meetings," Yvette said.

"Ugh, them again?  It's no convention, it's just the local business leaders looking for an excuse to eat too much and drink wine and brag.  Like they need an excuse, right?"

"You sound grumpy.  Were you up all night again reading a new NOVEL?"

"You know me too well," Mattie said, giving in to the yawn this time.

Yvette smiled.  "Anyway, it's a normally busy month, not crazy busy.  Here's the OUTLINE.  Weddings in teal, mitzvah in yellow, board meetings in blue--"

"They should be spelled B-O-R-E-D meetings," Mattie interrupted.

"Well, I wouldn't MENTION it to them, if I were you.  Our catering business got to a new LEVEL of popular after we landed the Chamber gig a few years ago, and some of those businesses are now a big part of our bread-and-butter."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of telling them that.  Anyway, what else?"

"The Chamber event at the end of the month is in Luminous Bright Red, and it would be a FAILURE of me as your best friend and business partner if I didn't ask you what's really bothering you right now.  And I mean besides the staying up too late for your own good part."

"It's nothing, really," Mattie said to which Yvette replied, "Does it even MATTER to you I can read the LANDSCAPE of your face?"

"You've told me that many times," Mattie said drily.

"And I've always been right, just like you are always right when you see my DESCENT into an anxiety attack coming on and bug me to take medicine to avert it.  What's going on?  You and Louis have a fight?"

"Only over me leaving the light on too late and keeping him up."

"Remind me to get you one of those around the neck light reading gizmos for Christmas," Yvette said.  "The real RUMOR is you've been writing a book of your own, and Louis says it's good, and he should know, he's an editor."

"I'm afraid he's just prejudiced."

"You know he's no such thing, he loves you but he's always brutally honest about the written word and he'd have no trouble telling you if it were terrible.  What's really bugging you, Mattie?"

"Part of me is afraid of getting too good at the writing and losing what we've built here."

Yvette was silent for a moment.

"Well, if it happens, it happens.  We're still friends and I hire two more chefs to take your place."

"Very funny."

"No, seriously.  If it happens, we cross that bridge, but we're still friends.  Now, go home and get some sleep.  We only have one B-O-R-E-D meeting today, and it's a light lunch so I'll handle it."

"Yvette..."

"Yes, Mattie?"

"Thank you."

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Today is:

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Willing to Lend a Hand Wednesday 

Chung Yuan (Zhongyuan) Festival -- China (Festival of Hungry Ghosts; according to legend, during this 7th lunar month the souls of the dead are released from Purgatory to wander the Earth, and so today is the day to appease those spirits with joss stick burning, prayers and food, "ghost money", and other offerings; dates of this vary in other countries)

Constitution Day -- Kazakhstan

Day of Satisfying the Hearts of the Ennead (Nine Major Gods) -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Festival of Charisteria -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a day to give thanks)

Frankenstein Day -- in honor of Mary Shelley 

Full "Blue" Moon -- the second full moon in the month; related observance

     Adhi Nikini Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

Huey P. Long Day -- Louisiana, US

International Day of the Disappeared -- Latin American Federation of Associations for Relatives of Detained-Disappeared

International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances -- UN

International Whale Shark Day -- WiseOceans has more information 

La Tomatina -- Buñol, Valencia, Spain (annual citywide food fight festival in which around 30,000 people take to the streets to pelt each other with tomatoes)

National Holistic Pet Day -- celebrating the growing interest in natural/holistic medicine for animals

National Toasted Marshmallow Day

Popular Consultation Day -- East Timor

Santa Rosa de Lima -- Peru

St. Fiacre's Day (Patron of box makers, cab drivers, costermongers, florists, gardeners, hosiers, pewterers, taxi drivers, tile makers; against barrenness, fistula, haemorrhoids, piles, sterility, syphilis, venereal disease)

Talk Intelligently Day -- holiday thought up by someone tired of non-intelligent conversations (maybe with co-workers?)

Victory Day -- North Cyprus; Turkey

     Turkey's Hellespont Swim -- one of the world's busiest shipping lanes is closed so that over 300 participants can swim the Hellespont from Europe to Asia, a Victory Day commemoration of winning the Turkish War of Independence in 1922 against the Greeks

Anniversary Today:

Roman Polanski marries Emmanuelle Seigner, 1989

Birthdays Today:

Cameron Diaz, 1972

Michael Michele, 1966

Michael Chiklis, 1963

David Paymer, 1954

Timothy Bottoms, 1951

Lewis Black, 1948

Peggy Lipton, 1947

Frank "Tug" McGraw, 1944

Jean-Claude Killy, 1943

Elizabeth Ashley, 1939

Warren Buffett, 1930

Kitty Wells, 1919

Ted Williams, 1918

Fred MacMurray, 1908

Roy Wilkins, 1901

Shirley Booth, 1898

Huey P. Long, 1893

Claire Straith, M.D., 1891

Ernest Rutherford, 1871

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, 1797

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Anna Lucasta"(Play), 1944

Today in History:

European leaders, in an attempt to end war "for all time", outlaw the crossbow, 1146

One of the largest naval battles in history, during the last decade of the ailing, Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty, begins between the forces of two Chinese rebel leaders, 1363

Capture of the entire Dutch fleet by British forces under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Charles Mitchell, 1799

Founding of Melbourne, Australian, 1835

Founding of Houston, Texas, 1836

Hubert Cecil Booth patents the vacuum cleaner, 1901

The Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in south Louisiana, the longest bridge over water (continuous, not aggregate) that is not also a viaduct, opens, 1956

The Hotline between the leaders of the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union goes into operation, 1963

Thurgood Marshall is confirmed as the first African American Justice of the United States Supreme Court, 1967

Guion Bluford becomes the first African American astronaut in space, 1983

NATO launches Operation Deliberate Force against Bosnian Serb forces, 1995

A commercial expedition to raise part of the sunken British luxury liner Titanic ended in failure, 1996

Harley-Davidson celebrates its 100th anniversary in Milwaukee with a parade of 10,000 motorcycles, 2003

India and Pakistan agree to release hundreds of fishermen and other civilians in each other's jails as part of their ongoing attempts to negotiate peace between their nations, 2005

Sumatra's Sinaburg volcano continues to erupt, two people are killed and 21,000 are evacuated from the vicinity, 2010

In Chile, 33 miners trapped half a mile beneath the surface make contact with their families for the first time in three weeks since the incidentally, 2010

Late author Terry Pratchett’s unfinished works are destroyed as per his request, 2017

For the second time, Ukrainian amateur astronomer Gennady Borisov discovers an interstellar comet, 2019

Algeria becomes the last country to stop selling leaded petrol/gasoline, 2021

The largest water treatment facility in Jackson, Mississippi, US, fails leaving thousands without clean drinking water, closing schools and businesses, 2022