My Mascot (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, an A to Z Post

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To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.

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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!

I have a small stuffed animal i picked up as a sort of "mascot."  It's often in the car because it makes me smile, and ended up in a bag of things i happened to take in to Grandma and Grandpa's house with me on Saturday.

"Somepup" found it and its nose now looks like this:

There's the culprit, Lulu, looking too innocent to get in trouble.

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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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Our dear friend Diane is taking a break

accommodations we must make

we miss her poetry and wit

so carry on as Poetry Monday's a hit!

Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border.  Charlotte/Mother Owl and i are keeping it going while she takes a blog break, we hope temporarily.  Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let us know!

This week the theme is Tape.                       

I needed my new pants hemmed,

but my mama was pitching a fit,

she didn't see her the tape measure,

I went to great lengths to find it.

*******

I was gonna throw this tape away

'cause the other brand is stronger,

but just in case it's all we have left,

it can stick around a little longer.

*******

It's time to file our taxes

and our CPA 'bout wears a cape,

he always comes through right on time

doesn't get us bogged in red tape!

*******

Future themes are:

Apr. 15 tape (Today!)

Apr. 22 running

Apr. 29 quiet

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Today is:

Celtic Tree Month Saille (willow) begins

Day of the Sun -- North Korea (Kim Il Sung's Birthday Holiday)

Emancipation Day -- Washington, D.C., US

Fast Food Day -- the first franchised McDonald's opened this day in 1955 in Des Plaines, IL, US

Father Damien Day -- Hawaii, US (Patron of lepers)

Festival of Heru; Festival of Bast -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Fluff Appreciation Day -- internet generated; i guess as a distraction for Tax Day

Fordicalia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (cow sacrifice to the earth mother, Tellus Mater)

Guangzhou (Canton) Spring Trade Fair -- Guangzhou (Canton), China (a month-long spring trade fair held the same dates each year)

Hillsborough Disaster Memorial -- Anfield at Liverpool, England

Income Tax Pay Day -- Philippines; US (most years)

     related observances:

     Freak Out Day 

     National Griper's Day (after all, you have to pay your taxes, and the Titanic sank today*)

     Tax Resistors' Day -- good luck!

     That Sucks Day (appropriate, isn't it)

Jackie Robinson Day -- Major League Baseball

Jose de Diego's Birthday -- Puerto Rico (Father of the Puerto Rican Independence Movement, a/k/a Dia de Reafirmacion del Idioma Espanol)

National Glazed Ham Day

Patriot's Day -- US (in observance of the first battles of the Revolutionary War; not to be confused with Patriot Day on Sept. 11)

Rubber Eraser Day -- today in 1770, Joseph Priestly described a vegetable gum which had the ability to rub out pencil marks

St. Hunna's Day (Patron of laundresses, laundry workers, washerwomen)

Swallow Day -- England (traditional date of the return of chimney swallows)

Take a Wild Guess Day -- sponsored by Jim Barber as a day to honor guesses, hunches, inspirations, speculations and other forms of “intuitive intelligence;” just not on your taxes, please

Tipsa Diena -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (celebration of the start of plowing)

Titanic Remembrance Day

World Creativity and Innovation Week -- always begins on DaVinci's birth anniversary

    World Art Day -- because he was an artist as well as inventor

*If you want to add other reasons why today should be considered "That Sucks Day", please go share your horror story of the day at www.thatsucks.net

Anniversary Today:

Gallaudet University is founded, 1817 (first US public school for the deaf)

Birthdays Today:

Emma Watson, 1990

Ilya Kovalchuck, 1983

Seth Rogen, 1982

Patrick Carney, 1980

Anna Torv, 1978

Emma Thompson, 1959

Evelyn Ashford, 1957

Heloise Cruse Evans, 1951

Amy Wright, 1950

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, 1947

Claudia Cardinale, 1939

Roy Clark, 1933

Elizabeth Montgomery, 1933

Leon Schotter, 1922

Harold Washington, 1922

Hilda Simms, 1920

Hans Conried, 1917

Bessie Smith, 1894

Thomas Hart Benton, 1889

Sam Rodia, 1875

John Munroe Longyear, 1850

Henry James, 1843

Joseph E. Seagram, 1841

Charles Willson Peale, 1741(O.S. date)

Leonardo da Vinci, 1452

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"In Living Color"(TV), 1990

"Driving Miss Daisy"(Play), 1987

Today in History:

Pope Innocent III refuses to grant permission to the Jews of Cordova, Spain, to build a synagogue, 1250

Samuel Johnson's A Dictionary of the English Language is published in London, 1755

The first school for the deaf in the US opens in Hartford, Connecticut, 1817

The last day US silver coins are allowed to circulate in Canada, 1870

Harley Proctor begins producing Ivory Soap, 1878

General Electric Company is incorporated, 1892

The Titanic sinks, 1912

Insulin becomes available to diabetics, 1923

Rand McNally publishes its first road atlas, 1924

Jackie Robinson debuts with the Brooklyn Dodgers, 1947

White Rock, British Columbia officially separates from Surrey, British Columbia and is incorporated as a new city, 1957

Tokyo Disney Resort (and the Tokyo Disneyland park) opens in Tokyo Bay (Japan), 1983

Upon Hu Yaobang's death, the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 begin in the People's Republic of China, 1989

Representatives of 124 countries and the European Communities sign the Marrakesh Agreements revising the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade and initiating the World Trade Organization, 1994

Astronomers at San Francisco State University announce the discovery of the first multiplanet solar system besides our own, three planets around Upsilon Andromedaie, 1999

Volcanic ash from the eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland leads to the closure of airspace over most of Europe, 2010

In a Schrodinger's cat experiment, researchers in Japan and Australia successfully teleport wave packets of light; this is the first transfer of quantum information from one point to another, 2011

Ceremonies and special events marking the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the RMS Titanic are held around the world, 2012

Google publicly offers Google Glass for the first time in a one-day online sale at $1,500 apiece, 2014

Nokia announces that it will purchase Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion, creating the second-largest manufacturer of mobile communication products behind Ericsson, 2015

Paris cathedral Notre Dame catches fire, toppling its spire and destroying its roof, 2019

Germany ends its use of nuclear power, closing its last three nuclear power plants, 2023