A Box! Oh Joy! (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week and Poetry Monday, Wonderful

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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!

Ms. Janet at The Cat on My Head had a give-away and we won!  It was quite a box.      

Wow, talk about a bonanza!

You just know this is going to be fun.

Little SissyCat wanted it now!

Toys, and batteries so we can use the mouse toy right away.

A Cat on My Head magnet, now on my fridge, a cute kitty keychain, now in the key bag waiting for me to sort all the keys i was saving for our little Annie to play with, it will be one of the special toys she only gets when GG is playing with her, and a small pouch i've not yet decided how to use.

So much fun stuff!  Now for the batteries in the toy and let's see what happens.

It kept her entertained for quite a few minutes.

Little SissyCat saw Link having fun and came back for another round.

He likes it!  Hey, Linky!

Thank you so much. Ms. Janet and the Kitties Blue!

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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 Wonderful.                      

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reading the classics

is wonderful not boring

remember it's lit

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I may not be wonderful,

but I'm a woman of wonder,

as in, I wonder where are my keys?

Did I put them under

the book I'm reading again?

And I can't even start

on wonder where my wallet went,

all this wonder about stops my heart!

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I remember as if t'was yesterday

and it makes a great story,

of a wonderful seafood restaurant,

it's a great mussel memory!

(Go ahead, groan, but you can make them rhyme.)

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Future themes are:

August 25 Wonderful (Today!)

September 1 Under the Sea

September 8 Big City

September 15 Tea Fusing

September 22 Kitchen

(All themes are from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and Other Arts Facebook group.)

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Today is

Araw ng mga Bayahi -- Philippines (National Heroes' Day)

August / Summer Bank Holiday -- UK

Be Kind to Humankind Week:  Motorist Consideration Monday 

Birthday of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Day of Songun -- North Korea

Discovery of the Runes/Odin's Ordeal ends -- Ancient Norse Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Uruguay(1825)

Kiss and Make Up Day -- a day begun by Jacqueline V. Milgate to encourage people to make amends and repair relationships if they need to

Liberation Day -- Hong Kong (from Japan in 1945; no longer an official holiday, but still acknowledged by many)

National Banana Split Day -- some sites have it as Aug. 10

National Park Service Day -- US (legislation creating the National Park Service was signed this day in 1916 by President Wilson)

National Second-Hand Wardrobe Day -- pull out the hand-me-downs or thrift store purchases and wear them with pride!

Opiconsivia -- Ancient Roman Calendar, Vestal Virgin Festival in honor of Ops

Soldier's Day -- Brazil

St. Genesius of Arles' Day (Patron of notaries, secretaries; against chilblains, scurf)

St. Genesius of Rome's Day (Patron of actors, attorneys, barristers, clowns, comedians, comediennes, comics, converts, dancers, epileptics, lawyers, musicians, printers, stenographers and torture victims)

St. Louis, King of France's Day (King Louis IX; Patron of barbers, bridegrooms, builders, button makers, construction workers, Crusaders, difficult marriages, distillers, embroiderers, French monarchs, grooms, haberdashers, hairdressers, hair stylists, kings, masons, needle workers, parenthood, parents of large families, passementiers, prisoners, sculptors, sick people, soldiers, stone masons, stonecutters, tertiaries, trimming makers; Québec, Québec; Saint Louis, Missouri; Blois, France; Carthage, Tunisia; La Rochelle, France; New Orleans, Louisiana; Oran, Algeria; Saint-Louis, Haut-Rhin, France; Saint Louis, Missouri; Versailles, France; Congregation of the Sisters of Saint Louis; against the death of children)

Umhlanga -- Eswatini(Swaziland) (Reed Dance for the Zulu King; a fascinating week long ritual with beautiful costumes, dancing and singing, culminating with the final dance and a speech in which the King addresses the people, on Sept. 1)

Whiskey Sour Day

Birthdays Today

Blake Lively, 1987

Rachel Bilson, 1981

Alexander Skarsgard, 1976

Claudia Schiffer, 1970

Rachael Ray, 1968

Albert Belle, 1966

Cornelius O’Landa Bennett, 1966

Blair Underwood, 1964

Joanne Whalley, 1964

Ally Walker, 1961

Billy Ray Cyrus, 1961

Tim Burton, 1958

Elvis Costello, 1954

Gene Simmons, 1949

John Savage, 1949

Martin Amis, 1949

Anne Archer, 1947

Anthony Heald, 1944

Frederick Forsyth, 1938

Regis Philbin, 1933

Tom Skerritt, 1933

Wayne Shorter, 1933

Sean Connery, 1930

Althea Gibson, 1927

Monty Hall, 1923

Leonard Bernstein, 1918

Walt Kelly, 1913

Ruby Keeler, 1909

Clara Bow, 1905

Hans Adolf Krebs, 1900

Ludwig II, "Mad King" of Bavaria, 1845

Francis Bret Harte, 1836

Allan Pinkerton, 1819

Ivan the Terrible, 1530

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"42nd Street"(Musical), 1980

The Wizard of Oz(Film), 1939

Today in History

The Council of Nicaea ends with the adoption of the Nicene Creed, 325

The Children's Crusaders under Nicholas reach Genoa, 1212

The Honourable Artillery Company, the oldest surviving regiment in the British Army, and the second most senior, is formed, 1537

Galileo demonstrates his first telescope to Venetian lawmakers, 1609

Hundreds of French settlers arrive in New Orleans, which had been founded only a few months before, marking its true beginnings as a city, not just an outpost, 1718

James Cook begins his first voyage, 1768

Alice Meynell becomes the first female jockey, in England, 1804

British forces destroy the Library of Congress, which then contained about 3,000 books, 1814

The New York Times perpetrates the Great Moon Hoax, 1835

Captain Matthew Webb becomes the first person to swim the English Channel unassisted, 1875

Kitasato Shibasaburo discovers the infectious agent of the bubonic plague and publishes his findings in The Lancet, 1894

The United States National Park Service is created, 1916

Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly nonstop across the US, 1932

US Army officer and missionary John Birch is killed by the armed supporters of the Communist Party of China, considered by some as the first victim of the Cold War, 1945

Zimbabwe joins the United Nations, 1980

Voyager 2 spacecraft makes its closest approach to Saturn, 1981

Tadeusz Mazowiecki is chosen as the first non-communist Prime Minister in Central and Eastern Europe, 1989

Mayumi Moriyama becomes Japan's first female cabinet secretary, 1989

The Tli Cho land claims agreement is signed between the Dogrib First Nations and the Canadian federal government in Rae-Edzo (now called Behchoko), 2003

Acting as a private citizen, former President Jimmy Carter travels to North Korea to negotiate the release of Aijalon Gomes, a U.S. citizen, 2010

Voyager 1, launched in 1977, is assumed to have reached interstellar space, 2012

Double Dave, a rare two-headed timber rattlesnake, is found in Pine Barrens, New Jersey, 2019

Astronaut Anne McClain is investigated for what is possibly the first crime committed in space; she is accused of illegally using the ISS computer to access her soon-to-be-ex spouse's bank account, 2019

The World Health Organization announces that Africa has eradicated polio (defined as 4 years since the last case), 2020

California votes to end the sale of gasoline-powered automobiles by 2035, 2022

After torrential rain in Sudan’s northwestern Red Sea State, the Arba’at Dam collapses, 2024