Peek-A-Boo (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, Park

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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!

A little somebody has learned to play peek-a-boo and always ends with a crawl toward GG.

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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 Park.                       

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Santa Claus does not

pay to park on his sleigh ride

it is on the house

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Yosemite was made a national park,

no way anyone could ban it,

it's such a spectacular place

you can't take it for granite.

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"My employees are always on time,"

the boss said with smugness sublime.

When asked how he did it, he'd say,

"Well, it goes just this way:

we have 30 people work here,

the first 29 arrive with good cheer,

as they get to park for free,

but the last one must pay the parking fee!"

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Future themes are:

July 7 Park (Today!)

July 14 Salt

July 21 Quince

July 28 Building

August  2 Lonely

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Today is:

Aphrodisia -- Ancient Greek Calendar (bathing festival of Aphrodite and Peitho [Persuasion]; date approximate)

Bonza Bottler Day™

Caricom Day -- Guyana

Carnival Monday -- Saint Vincent and Grenadines

Chocolate Day  -- no one knows why today, so why not?  Enjoy chocolate cereal with chocolate milk for breakfast, some chocolate covered raisins and nuts as a midmorning snack, chocolate milk with lunch, chocolate truffles as a midafternoon snack, chocolate liquer before dinner, chocolate cake for dessert, and sip chocolate coffee any time through the day!

Constitution Day -- Cayman Islands

Father-Daughter Take a Walk Together Day -- encouraging fathers to take some special time out with their girls today

Global Forgiveness Day -- encouraging "citizens of this global village" to forgive and be forgiven; sponsored by the CECA

Independence Day / National Day -- Solomon Islands(1978)

Macaroni Day -- it goes with more than just cheese!

National Strawberry Sundae Day

Nones of July -- Ancient Roman Calendar; celebrations on this day included:

     Festival of Feriae Ancillarum -- "Feast of the Serving Women", when female servants dressed up and "attacked" men of free birth with fig boughs; in honor of the serving women who helped free the city of Rome from the Gauls

     Nonae Caprotinae -- "Nones of the Wild Fig", honoring Juno Caprotina with a sacrifice under a wild fig tree

     Parilia -- festival for Pales, god of the herds

Saba Saba Day -- Tanzania (literally "Seven Seven" Day, a/k/a Peasants' Day or Workers' Day, and the biggest day of the Dar es Salaam International Trade Fair)

     Maonyesho ya Saba Saba -- Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dar es Salaam Trade Fair, through July 8)

Sempach Battle Commemoration -- Lucerne, Switzerland (remembrance of the battle in 1386 includes a solemn procession to the battlefield and services in the chapel)

St. Willibald's Day (Patron of Eichstatt, Germany)

Tanabata -- Japan (star festival, 7th day of 7th month; some areas go by lunar calendar, but most larger cities celebrate by the Gregorian Calendar now)

Tell The Truth Day -- a yearly challenge from Kepa Freeman of Teens Express to go the whole day without telling a lie or saying or doing anything misleading or dishonest

Unity Factory Day -- Yemen (all workers are encouraged to play at work today, to build team and national unity)

Anniversaries Today

James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr., marries Eleanor Rosalynn Smith, 1946

Birthdays Today

Michelle Kwan, 1980

Cree Summer, 1969

Jorga Fox, 1968

Billy Campbell, 1959

Shelley Duvall, 1949

Ringo Starr, 1940

Doc Severinsen, 1927

Pierre Cardin, 1922

Gian Carlo Menotti, 1911

Robert Heinlein, 1907

Satchel Paige, 1906

Marc Chagall, 1887

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Ryan's Hope"(TV), 1975

"All You Need is Love"(Single release), 1967

Waverly(Novel, publication date), 1814

"Utrecht Te Deum and Jubilate"(Canticles, HWV 278 & 279), 1713

Today in History

A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her death, 1456

Raid of the Redeswire, the last major battle between England and Scotland, 1575

United States begins first military draft; exemptions cost $300, 1863

An International Railway trolley with an extreme overload of 157 passengers crashes near Queenston, Ontario, killing 15, 1915

Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, Missouri; it is described as “the greatest forward step in the baking industry since bread was wrapped", 1928

Alleged and disputed Roswell UFO incident, 1947

Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus and the structure of the Venusian atmosphere, 1959

In Canada, the Official Languages Act is adopted making the French language equal to the English language throughout the Federal government, 1969

Sharia is instituted in Iran, 1980

Samantha Smith, a U.S. schoolgirl, flies to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Secretary General Yuri Andropov, 1983

The Western Black Rhinoceros is declared extinct due to poaching, 2006

In efforts to avoid food shortages and political oppression, South Korea begins work on a new facility to house North Korean refugees, 2011

Tesla Motors produces its first mass-market car, the Model 3, 2017

Nigeria, Africa' biggest economy, joins the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), in attempt to create world's largest free trade area, 2019

The world's biggest sandcastle, standing 21.16m (69.4 feet) high, using nearly 5,000 tons of sand, is completed in Blokhus, Denmark, 2021

Scientists in the US begin the search for dark matter with a device in a former gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, 2022

The US announces it has destroyed the last if its stored chemical weapons in accord with the International Chemical Weapons Convention, 2023

More than 3 million passengers were recorded passing through US airport security in one day, a record, 2024