Zillions (Six Sentence Story), Relatives Are Coming (a Second Six Sentence Story), Good Fences, Sammy's Poetry Day, and Brian's Thankful Thursday, an A to Z Challenge Post

  ***********************************

To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.   

***********************************

Every year, the title of my final A to Z post is Zillions for one simple reason:  It is my Little Girl's birthday and we love her zillions.

Little Girl with some of our bottle babies.

She was the extra bonus baby, the one i really should not have had after almost dying with the previous two pregnancies, but of course we cannot imagine life without her.

Far from being a spoiled youngest child, she was a huge help in so many ways, all of my children were as they all worked with me in my cleaning business and all learned how to be experts at bottle raising orphaned kittens.

Now married, living in another city, graduated from college and preparing to go wherever her husband lands for his medical school training, we don't get to see her near often enough.

From her brother accidentally causing her broken arm, to becoming an army medic, to finding love and getting a job she enjoys, it's been quite a ride over the years.

Little Girl isn't so little any longer, but she will always be my Little Girl and i will always love her zillions.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Help.     

A second helping (second six), for those who want a Ms. G story:

Ms. G has been on the go non-stop for so long it's become her default, her own house and all the projects she wants to get to take a back seat to her real estate business and all the things others "need" from her.

It has come to a head, though, as her brother has announced he is planning a visit, and the living room and den have to be presentable, the dining table cleared off, the hall bathroom needs to quit being a catch all.

As i was heading to her place yesterday, she called and said she'd need me to take a new phone case to Ms. Fiona for the phone i took out there last week, but she wasn't home and it was with her and it would be a while, and i finally talked her into letting me go pick it up from her and get it done, which turned out for the best.

Then she sent me to Cramco (the warehouse store) for a few things, as it takes me a lot less time to get the stuff when i am running through not walking behind her in one of the motorized buggies.

Now came the hard part, sorting all the stuff in the living room, as she isn't going to put these things "away" as there is no "away" to put them to, but she wants to stop and look at each family photo, have me hold up each item she wants to sell online so she can take a photo and check the value for the dozenth time, and piddle with every tiny item for so long we spend hours just shifting it all from one main room into one where the door can be closed.

Only then can i do the vacuuming and cleaning, and it all took so long there was no time for a proper supper before Bible study, but she pays for my help and so figures she can use it as she wishes, even if it's to piddle most of it away and accomplish very little of substance.

***********************************

While Good Fences Around the World seems to have gone the way of the dodo bird, i still enjoy looking for and posting interesting fences, so i will!

***********************************

It's Angel Sammy's Poetry Day!  This week's image and my poem:    

How do I tell the CEO

his presentation is bad?

You'd think he'd have a clue,

but you don't know my dad!

He founded this great company

but his speeches make us snooze,

I have to try to stay awake

or my job I'll lose!

***********************************

Angel Brian's Family of Brian's Home - Forever hosts the Thankful Thursday Blog Hop.   It's time to share something for which i am thankful.  

Today i am thankful for my Little Girl, who is now 28!

***********************************

It's National Tabby Cat Day!  The striped tabby gets to be the star of the show today.

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

***********************************

Today is:

Armed Forces Day -- Georgia

Birthday of the King / Konungens födelsedag -- Sweden (HM King Carl XVI Gustav; an official flag day)

Bugs Bunny Day -- while some consider his debut to have been in "A Wild Hare," released in July two years later, others say that Bugs was the rabbit in "Porky's Hare Hunt," released this date in 1938

Camarón Day -- French Foreign Legion

Carnival Day -- Sint Maarten

Consumer Protection Day -- Thailand

Díá De Los Niños/Díá De Los Libros -- American Library Association (Children Day/Book Day; a celebration that emphasizes the importance of literacy for children of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds)

Dia de Rincon -- Rincon, Bonaire

El Dia del Nino -- Mexico (Children's Day)

Faeriae Latinae -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Feast of the Latin League, a festival to honor Jupiter)

International Jazz Day -- UNESCO (originated with the New Jersey Jazz Society and sanctioned by the United Nations Jazz Society, the American Federation of Jazz Societies, and the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society)

Liberation/Reunification Day -- Vietnam

Make-a-Book Day -- the Thursday of Family Reading Week

May Eve -- eve of the first day of summer in many traditions, including

     Beltane/Samhain Eve -- Pagan traditions

     Carodejnice -- Czech Republic; Slovakia

     Maitag Vorabend -- Switzerland

     Mange les Morts -- Haiti (festival of the dead)

     Salus -- Portugal; Spain (festival of the dead)

     Valborgsmässoafton -- Sweden

     Walpurgis Night -- Ancient Celtic/Nordic Calendars

Mr. Potato Head Day -- the classic toy went on sale this day in 1952, and you used your own potato

National Adopt a Shelter Pet Day -- US (can't find a sponsoring organization, but it's not a bad idea)  

National Honesty Day -- including Honest Abe Awards (Abies) and dishonorable mentions for those who have been particularly publicly egregious; celebrated today because we began the month with April Fooling and lies, so today is to celebrate the opposite*

National Military Brats Day -- US (Military Brats, Inc., wants the US Congress to set aside a day to recognize the sacrifices of the children of military service men and women)   

National Oatmeal Cookie Day

National Raisin Day

National Therapy Animal Day

Poem in Your Pocket Day -- carry your favorite with you to share with friends and family to celebrate National Poetry Month     

St. Adjutor of Vernon's Day (Patron of drowning victims, sailors, swimmers, yatchsmen; Vernon, France; against drowning)

St. James the Great's Day -- Orthodox Christian

Teacher's Day -- Paraguay

*to nominate someone for an Abie or a dishonorable mention, contact M. Hirsh Goldberg, founder and author of The Book of Lies, mhgoldberg@comcast.net)

Anniversaries Today:

Pele marries Assiria Seixas Lemos, 1994

The Organization of American States is founded, 1948

Louisiana becomes the 18th US state, 1812

Birthdays Today:

Dianna Agron, 1986

Kirsten Dunst, 1982

Johnny Galecki, 1975

Jeff Timmons, 1973

Carolyn Dawn Johnson, 1971

Adrian Pasdar, 1965

Michael Waltrip, 1963

Isiah Thomas, 1961

Stuart Mathis, 1960

Stephen Harper, 1959

Jane Campion, 1954

Perry King, 1948

Carl XVI Gustav, King of Sweden, 1946

Michael J. Smith, 1945

Jill Clayburgh, 1944

Burt Young, 1940

Gary Collins, 1938

Willie Nelson, 1933

Cloris Leachman, 1926

Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, 1909

Eve Arden, 1908

Ellis Wilson, 1899

Louise Dilworth Beatty Homer, 1871

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Barnum"(Musical), 1980

"The Dresser"(Play), 1980

"Inside U.S.A."(Musical revue), 1948

"Arthur Godfrey Time"(Radio), 1945

"Pelleas et Melisande"(Opera), 1902

"Dmitri Donskoi"(Opera), 1852

"Love for Love"(Play), 1695

Today in History:

Supernova SN 1006, the brightest supernova in recorded history, appears in the constellation Lupus, 1006

Orbital calculations suggest that on this day, Pluto moved inside Neptune's orbit until July 23, 1503, 1483

Columbus is given a royal commission to equip his fleet, 1492

On the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City, George Washington takes the oath of office to become the first elected President of the United States, 1789

The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France, 1803

Nicaragua declares independence from the Central American Federation, 1838

Casey Jones dies in a train wreck in Vaughn, Mississippi, while trying to

make up time on the Cannonball Express, 1900

Honolulu, Hawaii becomes an independent city, 1907

Peru becomes a signatory to the Buenos Aires copyright treaty, 1920

Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford become the first celebrities to leave their footprints in concrete at Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood, 1927

The animated cartoon short Porky's Hare Hunt debuts in movie theaters, introducing Happy Rabbit (a prototype of Bugs Bunny, 1938

In Bogotá, Colombia, the Organization of American States is established, 1948

The Bristol Bus Boycott is held in Bristol to protest the Bristol Omnibus Company's refusal to employ Black or Asian bus crews, drawing national attention to racial discrimination in the United Kingdom, 1963

Communist forces gain control of Saigon and the Vietnam War formally ends, 1975

Accession of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, 1980

CERN announces World Wide Web protocols will be free, 1993

Cambodia joins the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, 1999

Two skeletal remains found near Ekaterinburg, Russia are confirmed by Russian scientists to be the remains of Alexei Nikolaevich, Tsarevich of Russia and one of his sisters, 2008

Chrysler automobile company files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, 2009

Hailed as the largest World's Fair in history, Expo 2010 opens in Shanghai, China, 2010

Born without a trachea, a 2-year-old Korean-Canadian child is the youngest patient in history to receive a bioengineered organ made from stem cells; she received the transplanted organ at the Children's Hospital of Illinois, 2013

Willem-Alexander becomes the first male Monarch of Netherlands in 123 years, following the abdication of his mother, Queen Beatrix, 2013

The MESSENGER spacecraft is intentionally deorbited and destroyed, 2015

A new species of water beetle from the Malaysian Borneo’s Maliau Basin is named after actor Leonardo DiCaprio, 2018

The world's oldest known spider, a female trapdoor in Western Australia, dies at the age of 43 after being stung by a wasp, 2018 

Japan’s Emperor Akihito declares his abdication, effective the next day, 2019

Captain Tom Moore, who raised more £30 million for the National Health Service by walking in his garden, turns 100 and is made an honorary colonel by the Queen, 2020

After surviving Ewing's sarcoma and receiving a prosthetic leg, Jacky Hunt-Broersma sets a world record by running 104 consecutive marathons in 104 days, 2022