April, Get Out of There! (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!

As some of you may have figured out by now, April (at Ms. G's house) tends to get into things, make messes, and be a bully to her mama Sassy.  The other day she snuck into the guest room and didn't want to leave, so she tried to hide under the bedcovers.

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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 plans for July 4th include _________.

2. I _________ fireworks.

3. I'm grateful that I have the freedom to _________.

4. I wish I could do a factory reset on _________.

1. My plans for July 4th include   prayer group, work, and a shift at the cat shelter, and if this sounds like a regular Friday to you, you'd be right.

2. I   love professionally done  fireworks   which are in a planned location you know of in advance.

I   loathe  fireworks   done by amateurs anywhere and everywhere, at all times, unexpectedly and scaring people and pets who don't know it's coming and can't make plans to be somewhere safe before it starts.

3. I'm grateful that I have the freedom to   go to church and Bible study and prayer group openly, without having to sneak around and hide it.

4. I wish I could do a factory reset on   my education, i'd have gotten a good one which would qualify me for a desk job that i could be retiring from about now.

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

The crepe myrtles are not finished, I hope to have more to show on Sunday, too.   

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Today is Independence Day / Fourth of July for the US and Territories!

There are lots of parades and celebrations in the USA today, but a few really fun ones include:

Filipino-American Friendship Day, celebrating the friendly relationship between the Philippines and the United States.

Independence from Meat Day, because you don't have be a slave to tradition!  This is sponsored by Vegetarian Awareness Network.

Sidewalk Egg Frying Day and although you can do this anywhere it's hot enough, for the real deal, plan to go to the Solar Egg Frying Contest, held annually on July 4 on old Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, US, where the rule is you must use solar heat only.

The Stone Skipping Tournament at Windermere Pointe Beach, Mackinac Island, Michigan, US, it's open to all, come skip some stones and have a blast!

The World's Greatest Lizard Races in Chaparral Park, Lovington, NM, US.  Cheer the lizards and iguanas as they race down a 16 foot ramp, and yes, trophies will be awarded!

Thanks to Barb Kowalik and The Cat Blogosphere for the event badge.        

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Today is:

Action Mesothelioma Day -- UK (bringing "meso" cancer into the spotlight)

Buffalo Bill Day -- he staged his first Wild West show on July 4, 1883

Bullion's Day -- Anglican tradition, the translation of the relics of St. Martin of Bullion; rain today means rain for the next 20 days, according to the legends

Day of Pax -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Fishermen's Day -- Marshall Islands

Garibaldi Day -- Italy

King Tupou VI's Birthday -- Tonga

Liberation Day -- Rwanda

National Barbecue Spareribs Day

National Country Music Day -- US

Old Midsummer Eve -- by the Julian Calendar

St. Elizabeth of Portugal's Day (Patron of brides, charitable societies, charity workers, charities, difficult marriages, falsely accused people, peace, queens, tertiaries, victims of adultery, victims of jealousy, victims of unfaithfulness, widows; invoked in time of war; Coimbra, Portugal)

St. Ulrich's Day (Patron of peaceful deaths, pregnant women, weavers; Augsburg, Germany; Creazzo, Italy; against birth complications, dizziness, faintness, fever, frenzy, mice, moles, vertigo)

Anniversaries Today

Tuskegee Institute opens, 1881

Birthdays Today

Becky Newton, 1978

Koko, 1971 (gorilla who speaks sign language, and has now taught it to her offspring)

Pamela Howard "Pam" Shriver, 1962

Signy Coleman, 1960

Geraldo Rivera, 1943

George Steinbrenner, 1930

Al Davis, 1929

Gina Lollobrigida, 1927

Neil Simon, 1927

Eva Marie Saint, 1924

Ann Landers, 1918

Abigail Van Buren, 1918

Mitch Miller, 1911

Gloria Stuart, 1910

George Murphy, 1902

Rube Goldberg, 1883

Louis B. Mayer, 1882

George M. Cohan, 1878

Calvin Coolidge, 1872

Stephen Foster, 1826

Hiram Walker, 1816

Nathaniel Hawthorne, 1804

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"American Top 40"(Radio), 1970

"Honky Tonk Women"(Single release), 1969

"America the Beautiful"(Publication date), 1895

Today in History

A supernova is observed by the Chinese, the Arabs and possibly Amerindians near the star Tauri; for several months it remains bright enough to be seen during the day, and its remnants form the Crab Nebula, 1054

Christian III is elected King of Denmark and Norway in the town of Rye, 1534

The city of Trois-Rivières is founded in New France (Quebec, Canada), 1634

City of Providence, Rhode Island forms, 1636

The United States Declaration of Independence is adopted by the Second Continental Congress, 1776

The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, opens, 1802

The Louisiana Purchase is announced to the American public, 1803

Construction of the Erie Canal begins in Rome, New York, 1817

The world's first long-distance railway, the Grand Junction Railway, opens between Birmingham and Liverpool, 1837

The Cunard Line's 700 ton wooden paddle steamer RMS Britannia departs from Liverpool bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia on the first transatlantic crossing with a scheduled end, 1840

Henry David Thoreau embarks on a two-year experiment in simple living at Walden Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts, 1845

The first edition of Walt Whitman's book of poems, titled Leaves of Grass, is published, 1855

Lewis Carroll tells Alice Liddell and her sisters a story that would grow into Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, 1862*

The Anglo-Zulu war ends, 1879

The people of France offer the Statue of Liberty to the people of the United States, 1886

The first scheduled Canadian transcontinental train arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia, 1886

Western Samoa changes the International Date Line, so that year there were 367 days in this country, with two occurrences of Monday, July 4, 1892

The short-lived Republic of Hawaii is proclaimed by Sanford B. Dole, 1894

Dorothy Levitt was reported as the first woman in the world to compete in a 'motor race', 1903

African-American boxer Jack Johnson knocks out white boxer Jim Jeffries in a heavyweight boxing match sparking race riots across the United States, 1910

First flight of the Lockheed Vega, 1927

Lou Gehrig, recently diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, tells a crowd at Yankee Stadium that he considers himself "The luckiest man on the face of the earth" as he announces his retirement from major league baseball, 1939

After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States, 1946

The first broadcast by Radio Free Europe, 1950

President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law, 1966

NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars, 1997

The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1, 2005

The Statue of Liberty's crown reopens to the public after 8 years, due to security reasons following the World Trade Center attacks, 2009

Discovery of a picture of the Biblical Samson and a Hebrew inscription in an ancient synagogue in the Galilee region of northern Israel is announced, 2012

Scientists at CERN's Large Hadron Collider announce the discovery of a new particle consistent with the Higgs boson, 2012

Unesco grants World Heritage Status to vineyards in Champagne, France along with Singapore's Botanical Gardens, Diyarbakir Fortress (Turkey) and Maymand Caves (Iran), 2015

NASA's Juno spacecraft successfully enters Jupiter's orbit, 2016

North Korea tests first successful intercontinental ballistic missile into Sea of Japan, 2017

Chinese technology company Baidu announces it has begun mass production of self-driving buses, the 14-seat Apolong, 2018

Mad Magazine announces it will stop publishing new material after 67 years, 2019

Researchers reveal there are 14 living descendants of Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci, 2021

Australian rules player Heather Anderson, who suffered a concussion in 2017 while playing becomes the first known professional female athlete to be diagnosed with the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known to plague male athletes of contact sports who suffer concussions, 2023