Even After All These Years (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!

After terrible first marriages, Mr. BA and Ms. GA met and were married 15 years ago.  He still loves her and refers to her as "My Bride."

Merry Christmas to My Bride

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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 Winter.                      

Winter is too cold

for me to really enjoy

I thaw out in spring

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(To be sung to the tune of Jingle Bells.)

Dashing through the swamp

in my flat bottomed airboat,

right now I'm wearing shorts,

don't even need a coat.

But tomorrow's gonna change,

the cold is coming through,

it won't stay long, but while it's here

we don't know what to do.

(chorus 1)

Oh, in the swamps, in the swamps,

it almost never snows,

but when it does, I promise you,

we put on quite a show!

We slip and slide over the road,

we hunker down and pray,

we're used to heat and just can't wait

'til winter goes away!

The gators and the snakes,

and turtles in their shells,

they love the thick bayous

and think the heat is swell.

But when a little cold

can't help but come our way,

they get down in their winter digs

and that's where they do stay!

(chorus 2)

Oh, in the swamps, in the swamps,

when winter comes along,

the cold it creeps into our bones

and we sing a mournful song.

And on the quite rare nights

when we have a winter freeze,

we batten down our hatches 'cause

it brings us to our knees!

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Today is:

Agonalia -- Ancient Roman Empire; also observed

     Festival for Diva Palatua -- guardian of Palatine Hill

     Septimonia -- to honor the Seven Hills of Rome

Feast of Sekhmet, Bast, and Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of warfare, feline goddess, and sun god; date approximate)

Fourth Republic Day -- Madagascar

International Mountain Day -- UN

Jashan-e Sadeh / Adar-Jashen -- Zoroastrian/Parsi (a mid-winter fire ceremony for purification; date approximate)

National Day / Republic Day -- Burkina Faso (also called Proclamation of Independence Day)

National Noodle Ring Day

National Tree Planting Day -- Malawi

Pampanga Day -- Pampanga Province, Philippines

Remembrance Day of Llywelyn II -- Wales (death anniversary of Llywelyn the Last, the last native-born Prince of Wales, killed in battle in 1282)

St. Damasus' Day (Patron of archaeologists)

St. Pens' Day (Patron of Llanberis, Wales)

Tango Day -- Buenos Aires, Argentina (birth anniversary of both Julio de Caro and Carlos Gardel)

Anniversaries Today:

Unicef is established, 1946

Edward VIII abdicates, 1936

Indiana becomes the 19th US State, 1816

Birthdays Today:

Rider Strong, 1979

Mos Def, 1973

Mo'Nique, 1967

Gary Dourdan, 1966

Curtis Williams, 1962

Jermaine Jackson, 1954

Ken Wahl, 1953

Susan Seidelman, 1952

Teri Garr, 1949

Brenda Lee, 1944

John Kerry, 1943

Donna Mills, 1943

David Gates, 1940

Tom Hayden, 1940

Rita Moreno, 1931

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, 1918

Carlo Ponti, 1913

Naguib Mahfouz, 1911

Marjorie H. Buell, 1904

Fiorello LaGuardia, 1882

Annie Jump Cannon, 1863

Robert Koch, 1843

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"City of Angels"(Musical), 1989

"Magnum, PI"(TV), 1980

Today in History:

Honoratus, the first known Prefect of the City of Constantinople, takes office, 359

Llywelyn the Last (born c. 1228) the last native Prince of Wales, is killed at Cimeri, 1282

The Aurora Borealis is seen from New England by English settlers for the first time, 1719

The first newspaper on Curacao is published, the Curacao Gazette & Commercial Advertiser, 1812

Nitrous oxide is used in dental work for the first time in Hartford, Connecticut, 1844

Boston's Bijou Theatre becomes the first American theater lit exclusively by electricity, premiering Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" as its first performance, 1882

The New Zealand Parliament Buildings are almost completely destroyed by fire, 1907

Color moving pictures are demonstrated in Madison Square Garden, 1909

The Boll Weevil Monument is dedicated in Enterprise, Alabama, 1919

The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa, 1931

Bill Wilson, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, takes his last drink and enters treatment for the last time, 1934

Arthur Lucas, convicted of murder, is the last person to be executed in Canada, 1962

Apollo 17 becomes the sixth and last Apollo mission to land on the Moon, 1972

The Kyoto Protocol opens for signature, 1997

The People's Republic of China joins the World Trade Organization, 2001

In Taipei, protesters demand foreign live-in caregivers have the right to a day off each week, 2011

Pope Francis is named Time Magazine's "Person of the Year," 2013

A landmark trial for Huntington's disease in London announces positive results, the first time a drug has been able to slow an incurable brain disorder, 2017

India passes its controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill, clearing the way for citizenship for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan as long as they are not Muslim, 2019

The journal Nature publishes details of the earliest figurative artwork found in the world to date, 43,900-year-old depictions of part animal, part human figures in a cave in Sulawsi, Indonesia, 2019

NASA's Orion spacecraft returns to earth after completing the Artemis I test flight around the moon in 25.5 days, a record distance traveled by a spacecraft designed to carry humans, 2022