Games With GG (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Balcony

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

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!

Annie loves to pretend to close me out of my bedroom while my foot is blocking the door from properly shutting.

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

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.     

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

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 Balcony.

*******

From a balcony at the train station

a child fell to much consternation,

but he floated down slow

being too young to know

the gravity of his situation.

*******

Julius Caesar on his balcony did brood,

he was not in a very good mood,

dreaded winter would soon come to call,

he was watching the Roman Empire’s fall!*

*******                

Future themes are:

May 18 Balcony (Today!)

May 25 Scooter

June 1 Blue

June 8 Two Minute Sketch

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

*For all the history people who will want to correct me, yes, I know, Julius Caesar did not live to see the Roman Empire, it was still the Roman Republic then.  It fit the meter better, so poetic license!

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

Today is Victoria Day in Canada!

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

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

Today is:

Apollon Day -- Ancient Roman Calendar (god of music, poetry, sunlight)

Battle of Las Piedras Day -- Uruguay

Discovery Day -- Cayman Islands

Flag and University Day -- Haiti

HIV Vaccine Awareness Day/World AIDS Vaccine Day    

I Love Reese's Day -- as voted in by lovers of the candy a few years ago   

International Museum Day -- International Council of Museums (ICOM)   

National Cheese Souffle Day

National Pike Festival -- Fayette County, Pennsylvania, US (through the 20th)

No Dirty Dishes Day -- spread around the internet by a mom who needed the break, possibly; go ahead, break out the paper plates just on this day

Restoration of Somaliland Sovereignty Day -- Somaliland Region, Somalia

Revival, Unity, and Poetry of Magtymguly Day -- Turkmenistan

St. Eric's Day (Patron of Sweden)

St. Theodotus' Day (Patron of hotel keepers and innkeepers)

Visit Your Relatives Day -- if they are great, go have fun; if awful, go remind yourself why you moved so far away!

World Goodwill Day -- commemorates the opening meeting of 26 nations in the First Hague Peace Conference, 1899

Anniversaries Today:

Henry II of England marries Eleanor of Aquitaine, 1152

Birthdays Today:

Tina Fey, 1970

Jari Kurri, 1960

Chow Yun-Fat, 1955

Rick Wakeman, 1954

George Strait, 1952

James Stephens, 1951

Tom Udall, 1948

Reggie Jackson, 1946

Brooks Robinson, 1937

Dwayne Hickman, 1934

Robert Morse, 1931

Pernell Robers, 1930

Pope John Paul II, 1920

Margot Fonteyn, 1919

Perry Como, 1912

Big Joe Turner, 1911

Meredith Willson, 1902

Frank Capra, 1897

Wilhelm Steinitz, 1836

Omar Khayyam, 1048

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Le roi malgré lui / King in Spite of Himself"(Opera), 1887

Today in History:

The Principality of Antioch, a crusader state, falls to the Mamluk Sultan Baibars in the Battle of Antioch, 1268

Vasco da Gama reaches the port of Calicut, India, 1498

Playwright Thomas Kyd's accusations of heresy (under torture) lead to an arrest warrant for Christopher Marlowe, 1593

John Winthrop takes the oath of office and becomes the first Governor of Massachusetts, 1631

Rhode Island passes North America's first anti-slavery law, 1652

Fire destroys a large part of Montreal, Quebec, 1763

The first United Empire Loyalists reach Parrtown, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada after leaving the United States, 1783

Napoleon Bonaparte is proclaimed Emperor of the French by the French Senate, 1804

The destruction of Saturdays forever after:  Edwin Budding of England signs an agreement for manufacture of his invention, lawn mower, 1830

The Disruption in Edinburgh of the Free Church of Scotland from the Church of Scotland, 1843

The United States Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that separate but equal is constitutional, 1896

A mass panic on Khodynka Field in Moscow during the festivities of the coronation of Russian Tsar Nicholas II results in the deaths of 1,389 people, 1896

Bram Stoker's Dracula is published, 1897

The Earth passes through the tail of Comet Halley, 1910

Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to break the sound barrier, 1953

Under project Smiling Buddha, India successfully detonates its first nuclear weapon, 1974

Mount St. Helens erupts in Washington, United States, killing 57 people and causing $3 billion in damage, 1980

In France, a modified TGV train achieves a new rail world speed record of 515.3km/h (357.2 mph), 1990

Photos from the Hubble Space Telescope confirm the existence of two additional moons, Nix and Hydra, around Pluto, 2005

A landmark bill passes in Nepal curbing the power of the monarchy and making it a secular country, 2009

Italian officials announce that many of the country's public assets will be sold in an effort to reduce the country's debt; plans to sell part of the nation's air traffic control and postal services have already been approved, 2014

WHO member states agree to set up an inquiry into the global response to the pandemic, including looking at the WHO itself, 2020

Harrison Ford is presented with an honorary Palme d'Or lifetime achievement award at the Cannes Film Festival, 2023

Centrist mayor of Bucharest and former mathematics professor Nicusor Dan wins the presidential election in Romania over hard-right nationalist and pro-Russian candidate George Simion, 2025

Pope Leo XIV holds his inaugural mass at St. Peter's Square in the Vatican, 2025