Awesome Aquatic Birds (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and 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!

Here are some of the awesome aquatic birds in the small lake by #2 Son's apartment.

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Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week.  While she no longer blogs, i like to post 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.  Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!

This week the theme is A Pet's Life.                       

A pet's life is so short,

not unlike the flowers

for we teach them to live with us

and adapt their lives to ours.

Our children's lives are long,

for this we raise no fuss,

because we are teaching them

to continue to live after us.

*******

Grandpa says if he's 

reincarnated someday

make him Grandma's pet

*******

Our pets do lead lives

which we oft with envy view,

no responsibilities,

no tiring work to do.

They have their meals provided,

cushions on which to lie,

toys for their entertainment,

window TV to espy.

The dogs they get their walks in,

sometimes cats also go out,

then come home to relax

or in the house, to run about.

We work very hard to keep

our pets in the lifestyle

to which they are accustomed,

in return, they make us smile.

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Today is:

Anniversary of Cerro de Pasco -- Peru (founding of the city and its silver mine)

Cider Monday -- celebrating the drink of the season, hot, spiced apple cider

Cyber Monday -- another excuse to buy stuff, the traditional beginning of the online shopping season

Electric Guitar Day -- birth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix

Feast of Ullr and Skadi -- Asatru/Norse Pagan (celebrating craftsmen)

Freckle Pride Day -- show your spots, you are beautiful!

Full Beaver Moon / Full Frosty Moon

     Guru Nanak Jayanti -- India; Nepal (celebration of the birth anniversary of Sikh Guru Nanak)

     Ill Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

     Palden Lhamo Festival -- Tibet (protectress of Tibet, celebrated mostly by women)

     Loy Krathong -- Thailand (Floating of the Lamps festival; to appease the water spirits, dedicated to Mae Kongkha, Goddess of Rivers)

     Tazaugmone/Thasaung Mong Full Moon -- Myanmar (Festival of Lights begins)

     That Luang Festival -- Laos (Ventiane's most important Theravada Buddhist festival)

Icelandic Calendar Month Ylir (Whiner) begins -- named after the whining winter winds

Khoiak Ceremonies -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (ceremonies surrounding the stories of the death of Osiris, date approximate)

Lancashire Day -- Lancashire, England (celebrating their first elected representative in Parliament in 1295)

Maaverar Naal -- Tamil Eelam, Sri Lanka (Tamil Heroes' Day)

National Bavarian Cream Pie Day

Pie in the Face Day -- internet generated, and supposed to be a virtual one, so no mess to clean

Pins and Needles Day -- celebrating the 1937 opening of the Pins and Needles Music Revue

Provincial Anniversary Day -- Chatham Islands, New Zealand

St. James Intercisus' Day (Patron of lost vocations, torture victims)

St. Virgilius of Salzburg's Day (Patron of Salzburg, Austria; Slovenes)

Throw Out Your Leftovers Day -- if you've had it since Thanksgiving, and haven't frozen it or eaten it yet, get rid of it

Anniversaries Today:

William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway, 1582

Birthdays Today:

Jaleel White, 1976

Samantha Harris, 1973

Brooke Langton, 1970

Robin Givens, 1964

Fisher Stevens, 1963

Caroline Kennedy, 1957

Rick Rockwell, 1956

Kathryn Bigelow, 1951

Jimi Hendrix, 1942

Eddie Rabbit, 1941

Bruce Lee, 1940

Gail Henion Sheehy, 1937

Alexander Dubcek, 1921

"Buffalo" Bob Smith, 1917

Chick Hearn, 1916

James Agee, 1909

L. Sprague de Camp, 1907

Forrest Shaklee, 1894

Chaim Weizmann, 1874

Charles A. Beard, 1874

Bat Masterson, 1853

Robert R. Livingston, 1746 (O.S. date)

Anders Celsius, 1701

Emperor Xiaozong of China, 1127

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Magical Mystery Tour"(Beatles album release), 1967

"Never Too Late"(Play), 1962

"The Dinah Shore Show"(TV), 1951

Today in History:

The first elected representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as "The Model Parliament", 1295

The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703

The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops, 1807

Adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, 1815

NY Times dubs baseball "The National Game", 1870

Alfred Nobel establishes the Nobel Prize, 1895

In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held, 1924

The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module; it crashes, but still becomes the first man-made object to be on Mars, 1971

The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history, 1999

A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet, 2001

The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion to declare Quebec a nation within a unified Canada, 2006

Icelanders vote for their own constitution after using a modified Danish constitution for 66 years, 2010

The Nissan Leaf self-driving car completes its first test in Japan, on the Sagami Expressway, 2013

The wreck of the San Jose, considered the "Holy grail" of shipwrecks, sunk 1708, is confirmed found by an international team off the coast of Colombia, 2015

Pope Francis begins a three-day trip to Myanmar, amid the Rohingya refugee crisis, 2017

Mauna Loa, the world's largest active volcano, erupts for he first time in nearly 40 years on Hawaii island, 2022