Couch Cuddles (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!

When it was just Cookie, she wasn't allowed on the couch.  Then Emmie came and the boys wanted to lift the ban.

Looks to me like they won.

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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 Growth.                  

     

My parents are not tall people,

of growth, i could not expect much,

you tend to take after your parents,

limited by genetics and such.

But i really quit growing early,

way too early if you ask me,

at least as far as height goes,

i was twelve when i stopped, you see.

Yet there is another part of the story

and i must tell the other side,

while i really did quit growing taller,

at that point, my growth went wide!

(Yes, really, at age 12 i stopped growing taller and started growing wider!)

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Asking my tall friend

how i could grow tall just got

me look'd down upon

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Future themes are:

July 15 growth (Today!)

July 22 conclusion

July 29 holiday

Aug. 5 honey

Aug. 12 cabinet

Aug. 22 market

Aug. 29 instrument

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Today is:

Be a Dork Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, which encourages you to wear goofy clothes and fall off a swingset today and be proud of Dorkiness

Cigarette Warning Day -- anniversary of the 1968 law passed in the US that requires health warnings on cigarette packaging

Feast of Rowana/Rauni -- Druid/Cornish/Flemish (rowan tree goddess; date approximate)

Festival of Castor and Pullox -- Ancient Roman Calendar every five years (celebrated with a cavalry and chariot procession)

Festival of Santa Rosalia -- Palermo; Sicily (remembrance of the Patron saint of the city on the date, in 1624, when she stopped the plague)

Gorestnici -- Bulgaria (fire festival of 3 days duration, honoring the ancient belief that these are the 3 hottest days of the year)

Gummi Worm Day

Hakata Gion Yamagasa -- Kushida Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (festival of floats, dates back to the 13th century, includes dousing teams carrying one ton floats with water as they race!)

Hundadagar -- Icelandic tradition, the "dog days" of summer begin, through Aug. 23

Ides of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar

I Love Horses Day -- all over the web with no specific reason given, but do you need a reason to celebrate horses?

National Pet Fire Safety Day

National Tapioca Pudding Day

No-Hitter Day -- George Bradley of the St. Louis Brown Stockings pitched the first officially recognized no-hitter in MLB against the Hartford Dark Blues on this date in 1876

Pet Fire Safety Day -- make a plan to get yourself and your pets safely out of your home in case of a fire!

Respect Canada Day -- because Canada deserves it!

St. Bonaventure's Day (Patron against intestinal problems; of Bagnoregio, Italy; Cochiti Indian Pueblo; St. Bonaventure University, New York)

St. Swithun's Day -- Saint Swithun's Society Annual Celebration in Toronto, ON, Canada; the weather prognostication associated with this saint says if it rains today, it will rain for the next 40 days (Patron against drought; of Stavenger, England; Winchester, England)

St. Vladimir of Kiev's Day (Patron of converts, parents of large families, reformed and penitant murderers; Russia; Ukranian Catholic Diocese of Stamford, Connecticut; Winnipeg, Manitoba)

Sultan's Birthday -- Brunei Darussalam

Birthdays Today

Tanner Maguire, 1998

Emily Roeske, 1991

Brian Austin Green, 1973

Beth Stern, 1972

Adam Savage, 1967

Irene Jacob, 1966

Forest Whitaker, 1961

Lolita Davidovich, 1961

Kim Alexis, 1960

William Aames, 1960

Terry O’Quinn, 1952

Jesse Ventura, 1951

Arianna Huffington, 1950

Richard Russo, 1949

Linda Ronstadt, 1946

Jan-Michael Vincent, 1944

Alex George Karras, 1935

Ken Kercheval, 1935

Julian Bream, 1933

Clive Cussler, 1931

Jacques Derrida, 1930

Mother Fraqnces Xavier Cabrini, 1850

Thomas Bulfinch, 1796

Clement Clarke Moore, 1779

Rembrandt Van Rijn, 1606

Debuting/Premiering Today:

MSNBC(Network), 1996

"One Life to Live"(TV), 1968

Today in History

Christian soldiers take the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem after the final assault of a difficult siege, 1099

John Ball, a leader in the Peasants' Revolt, is hanged, 1381

Alexei Chirikov sights land and sends men ashore in a longboat, making them the first Europeans to visit Alaska, 1741

The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon's Egyptian Campaign, 1799

Zebulon Pike begins an expedition from Fort Belle Fountaine to explore the west, 1806

Napoléon Bonaparte surrenders aboard HMS Bellerophon, 1815

A fire destroys the ancient Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls in Rome, 1823

Georgia becomes the last of the former Confederate states to be readmitted to the Union, 1870

The stratovolcano Mount Bandai, Japan, erupts killing approximately 500 people, 1888

In Seattle, Washington, William Boeing and George Conrad Westervelt incorporate Pacific Aero Products (later renamed Boeing), 1916

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, later co-signed by thirty-four others, 1955

AOL Time Warner disbands Netscape Communications Corporation; the Mozilla Foundation is established on the same day, 2003

Entire villages are burned to the ground and 40,000 people flee their homes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, 2010

An 8-year-old girl finds a pre-Viking-era sword in Vidostern Lake, Sweden, and is jokingly proclaimed Queen of Sweden, 2018

Devastating floods linked to climate change sweep through towns in western Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, 2021