Enjoying the Warm Spot (Feline Friday), Friendly Fill-Ins and Nature Friday

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Feline Friday was originally started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude (may he rest in peace), and i'm going to believe it's because he liked cats.

He handed hosting duties off to Sandee at Comedy Plus, and now she's entrusting it to me.

Feline Friday is simple to join.  All you have to do is: Post a picture, drawing, cartoon or video of a cat (they may be silly or cute).  Then add your link!

One thing for sure is this is a fun and easy meme to do.  So come and join us in Feline Friday.

What better way to start the weekend than with a feline!

Tripod SissyCat loves to spend time in spring, summer and early autumn out on the front porch, as she was an indoor/outdoor cat her first 8 years (before she came to live with us).

Once it's too cold for her to go out, she spends much of her time right here, on my blanket with the heating pad under it.

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. My favorite Christmas movie (or book) is _________.

2. My favorite Christmas song is _________.

3. _________ is the best way to spread Christmas cheer.

4. _________ is my favorite day of the holiday season.

1. My favorite Christmas movie (or book) is   the written story, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens.  Although i do admit there are a couple of film adaptations which are good, and the Muppet Christmas Carol is not only always good for a laugh, the costuming is very exact to the time period, which cannot be said of the other films.

2. My favorite Christmas songs are:   serious Christmas songs, O Holy Night and Mary Did You Know (with an honorable mention going to What Child is This); silly Christmas songs, I'm Gettin' Nuttin' For Christmas and I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (with an honorable mention to Oh Little Town of Destrehan).

3. Smiling even when it's not easy  is the best way to spread Christmas cheer.

4. Any day i can get a little extra rest  is my favorite day of the holiday season (or any season, for that matter).

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Nature Friday is hosted by LLB in Our Backyard.  Simply post a picture of the natural world, and link up!   

We don't have much autumn color, and it comes late here, but when we see it, it's a joy.

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Today is:

Acadian Remembrance Day -- Acadians of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island

Count the La's in "Deck the Halls" Day -- just so you can say you know

Feast of Hathor -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (goddess of joy, feminine love, and motherhood; date approximate)

Fetes de l'Escalade -- Geneva, Switzerland (Scaling, or Climbing Day; celebrating the defeat of the Duke of Savoy's troops; through Sunday)

Fiesta de Santo Tomas -- Chichicastenango, Guatemala (week long festival celebrating the town's Patron Saint that includes the Palo Volador dance, where men hang by ropes from 30 meter poles, spinning and swinging)

Human Rights and Peace Day -- Kiribati

Ice Cream and Violins Day -- another of those silly made up holidays that no one can trace, but would be fun to celebrate.  Get yourself a bowl of buttered pecan or rum raisin -- if you are going to celebrate, do it in style -- and put in a Mozart or Bach CD, and enjoy!

Icelandic Yuletide Lad of the Day, Giljagaur -- Gully Oaf, who tries to sneak in the cowshed and skim the cream from the pails of milk

Ides of December -- Ancient Roman Calendar; other observance

     Festival for Tellus -- a/k/a Tellura or Tellus Mater, the personification of the earth's productive powers

Jum ir-Repubblika -- Malta (Republic Day)

National Day -- Santa Lucia (on St. Lucy's Day)

New Calendar Day -- time to get the 2025 model, unless you contribute to so many charities you are already flooded with them

Peace Day -- Korea (the fighting stopped in 1953, but the Koreas didn't sign a formal nonaggression pact until this day in 1991)

Pick a Pathologist Pal Day -- Wellcat Holidays reminds us that pathologists and coroners are an especially jovial lot, and befriending them is a good way to remind yourself that tomorrow is never guaranteed

Runic Half-month Jara commences (fruition)

St. Herman of Alaska (Orthodox Church Patron of the Americas)

St. Jodocus' Day (Patron of boatmen, harvests, mariners, sailors, watermen; against fever, fire, storms, and shipwrecks)

Saint Lucy's Day (Patron of authors, blind people, cutlers, glaziers, laborers, martyrs, peasants, saddlers, salesmen, sore eyes/eye problems, sore throats, stained glass workers; Begijnendijk, Flemish Brabant, Belgium; Conzano, Italy; Mtarfa, Malta; Perugia, Italy; Santa Lucia di Piave, Italy; Syracuse, Sicily, Italy; Villa Santa Lucia, Latium, Italy; against blindness, dysentery, epidemics, eye diseases, hemorraghes)

     Feast of the Light-bringer -- honoring Juno Lucina (Roman goddess of light) and Lucia (Old Swedish goddess of light), all now merged with St. Lucy

     Little Yule a/k/a Luciadagen or Santa Lucia (Festival of Lights in many parts of Scandinavia, honoring St. Lucia.)

Birthdays Today:

Taylor Swift, 1989

Amy Lee, 1981

Tom DeLonge, 1975

Christie Clark, 1973

Jamie Foxx, 1967

Steve Buscemi, 1958

Wendie Malick, 1950

Ted Nugent, 1949

John Davidson, 1941

Aga Khan IV, 1936

Christopher Plummer, 1929

Dick Van Dyke, 1925

Archie Moore, 1913

Kenneth Patchen, 1911

Mary Todd Lincoln, 1818

Heinrich Heine, 1797

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Susan B. Anthony Dollar(USD coin), 1978

"Alice's Restaurant"(Song and Album), 1969

"An American In Paris"(Gershwin Symphony), 1928

Today in History:

The Council of Trent opens, 1545

Sir Francis Drake sets sail from England to circumnavigate the globe, 1577

Emperor Ferdinanad II delegates the first Anti-Reformation decree, 1621

The Massachusetts Bay Colony organizes 3 militias which are today seen as the founding of the United States National Guard, 1636

Dutch navigator Abel Tasman becomes the first European to land in New Zealand, 1642

Dartmouth College in New Hampshire is chartered, 1769

Italo Marcioni patents an ice cream cone, 1903

The Relay 1 communication satellite is launched, 1962

Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt begin the third and final Extra-vehicular activity (EVA) or "Moonwalk" of Apollo 17, 1972

The European Union announces that Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will become members from May 1, 2004, 2002

Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein is captured, 2003

The Baiji, or Chinese River Dolphin, is announced as extinct, 2006

Scientists in northeast Madagascar confirm a new species of lemur has been found, 2010

An unpublished early work by Hans Christian Anderson is found at the bottom of a filing box at the National Archives of Funen, 2012

The bones of a prehistoric penguin that was as tall as a human (1.77m) have been found on Otago beach, New Zealand, as reported in "Nature Communications", 2017

Scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California announce they have been able to replicate nuclear fusion, the same reaction which fuels the sun, for the first time in a laboratory setting, 2022

Researchers pinpoint very low levels of the hormone GDF15 as a possible cause of extreme morning sickness in pregnancy, 2023