Shoemaker's Wives Go Barefoot, Contractor's Wives...(Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, Catsynth, Keith, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts to encourage us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.   

This month the words/prompts are supplied by Charlotte and can be found here.

This week's words/prompts are:

1.snake  

2.linen  

3.cake  

4.tired  

5.letter  

6.clip

and/or:

1.brush  

2.matter  

3.rake  

4.blue  

5.bush  

6.read

use either list or both, or mix and match, just have fun.

Charlotte's colour of the month is Jade Green.

He walked into the house holding the CAKE box out in front of him and set it gently on the LINEN tablecloth in the dining room.

"Is that you, Jake?"  Diane's voice from the kitchen sounded TIRED.

"Yes," he answered, "I picked up the cake on the way home like you asked."

"Go ahead and bring it in the kitchen, please, we'll want to serve it on a cake plate."  She gently took it from him when he walked in and they gave each other a peck on the cheek.  

"Where are the kids?" he asked.

She said, "I sent them outside to do some yard work and keep them out from under my feet.  

"After all, I figured it was only a MATTER of time before either they killed each other or I killed them both, and this was the easiest way to handle it.  I handed Abby the small BLUE RAKE and told her to rake up the spent flowers and bits of bark under the crepe myrtles, and gave Sam the small pruners and told him to CLIP the overgrown azalea BUSH.  They know how to do the work and it's about time they stayed busy instead of hanging around indoors all summer trying to irritate each other.  Also, Sam came in with a ribbon SNAKE, I told him to go release it down at the creek."

"Brilliant," he smiled at her.  "I know you've been busy with this party, but did we get the LETTER from the attorney today?"

"Yes, and I READ it, and it said about what we figured, so everything is going to come out right once the will is probated, it's pretty ironclad.  Meanwhile, don't say anything when Mom comes over for her birthday party tonight.  I cooked all her favorites and," here she opened the cake box and smiled, "got the cake frosted in her favorite shade of Jade Green, so we're just going to forget the worries and celebrate tonight."

He smiled and agreed, and she mentioned he should go out and see what the kids were doing.  "I at least need to wash up a little and run a BRUSH through my hair before Mom and the rest of the family get here."

Jake went out to call the kids in to get cleaned up themselves, first making a big deal over all their help and how well they did it, and the party was a success as they were too tired from the work to even argue with each other at supper!

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Today is:

Asalha Puja Day -- Buddhism (Buddhist "Lent" begins)

Cheese Sacrifice Purchase Day (Buy your cheese that will be sacrificed on Cheese Sacrifice Day, and no, I never have found out why there is a Cheese Sacrifice Day anyway or to whom you are supposed to sacrifice it.)*

Chicken Wings Day -- Buffalo, NY, US (they want it to be a national day, and maybe someday it will be)

Feast of St. Martha, Virgin, Dragon Charmer, Sister of Lazarus (Patron of butlers, cooks, dieticians, domestic servants, homemakers, hotel keepers, housemaids, housewives, innkeepers, laundry workers, maids, manservants, servants, servers, single laywomen, travelers; Villajoyosa, Spain, which village she saved on her feast day by sending a flash flood to wash away the Moorish invaders in 1538)

Fiesta de Santa Maria Ribarteme (a/k/a Festival of Near Death Experiences) -- As Neves, Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain (festival of Mary in which those who have come back from near death are carried to the shrine in open coffins, or walk there clad in shrouds)

Full Buck Moon a/k/a Full Thunder Moon or Full Hay Moon; related observances

     Adhi-Esala Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

     Asalha Puja Day/Dharma Day -- Buddhism (Buddhist "Lent" begins)

     Waso Full Moon / Dhamma Cakka Day -- Myanmar

International Tiger Day

NASA Day -- marking the day President Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act into law, creating NASA

National Anthem Day -- Romania

National Lasagna Day

National Thai Language Day -- Thailand (Wan Phasa Thai Haeng Chat)

Photograph Your Children When They're Not Looking Day -- get a good, candid shot to enjoy

Rain Day Festival -- Waynesburg, Pennsylvania (yes, it has rained at 113 out of the 140 observances of this festival on this date) 

Runic Half-Month Thorn begins (defense)

St. Lazarus' Day -- date given in the Martyrologium Romanum; celebrated on Lazarus Saturday by most Eastern Churches and on Dec. 17 in most Western Churches

St. Olaf's (Olav) Day (Norway's Viking king; patron of carvers, difficult marriages, kings; Norway), related observances

     Olavsokadagur -- Faroe Islands (opening of Logting, or Parliament; a National Day, on the Feast Day of St. Olav)

     Oslok Eve -- Norway (celebrating the valiant death of their hero on this evening at the battle at Stiklestadt in 1030)

     sometimes associated with Thor's Day among the Norse and Thunor of the Anglo-Saxons

Territory Day -- Wallis and Futuna

Tu B'Av -- Jewish (a celebration of love, originally a joyous holiday at the beginning of the grape harvest, and now rather akin to Valentine's Day; through nightfall)

*"A cheese may disappoint. It may be dull, it may be naive, it may be oversophisticated. Yet it remains cheese, milk's leap toward immortality." Clifton Fadiman

Anniversaries Today

Andy Taylor marries Tracey Wilson, 1982

Charles, Prince of Wales, marries Lady Diana Spencer, 1981

Mary, Queen of Scots, marries Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, 1565

Birthdays Today

Danger Mouse, 1977

Josh Radnor, 1974

Wanya Morris, 1973

Wil Wheaton, 1972

Julian McMahon, 1968

Martina McBride, 1966

Alexandra Paul, 1963

Patty Scialfa, 1956

Ken Burns, 1953

Tim Gunn, 1953

Marilyn Quayle, 1949

David Warner, 1941

Peter Jennings, 1938

Elizabeth Dole, 1936

Paul Taylor, 1930

Chester Bomar Himes, 1909

Melvin Belli, 1907

Clara Bow, 1905

Dag Hammarskjold, 1905

Stanley Kunitz, 1905

Benito Mussolini, 1883

Newton Booth Tarkington, 1869

Alice Hathaway Lee Roosevelt, 1861

Alexis de Tocqueville, 1805

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Friday Night Videos"(TV), 1983

Help(Film), 1965

"Steamboat Willie"(Animated short, first appearance of Mickey Mouse), 1928

Today in History

King Olaf II fights and dies trying to regain his Norwegian throne from the Danes, 1030

James VI is crowned King of Scotland at Stirling, 1567

English naval forces under command of Lord Charles Howard and Sir Francis Drake defeat the Spanish Armada off the coast of Gravelines, France, 1588

John Graves Simcoe decides to build a fort and settlement at Toronto, having sailed into the bay there, 1793

Inauguration of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, 1836

In Tipperary, an unsuccessful nationalist revolt against British rule is put down by police, 1848

The First Hague Convention is signed, 1899

Sir Robert Baden Powell sets up the Brownsea Island Scout camp in Poole Harbour on the south coast of England; this is regarded as the foundation of the Scouting movement, 1907

The International Atomic Energy Agency is established, 1957

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and President of France François Mitterrand sign the agreement to build a tunnel under the English Channel, 1987

The film Cry Freedom is seized by South African authorities, 1988

Astronomers announce the discovery of Eris, the largest dwarf planet in the solar system, 2005

South Sudan becomes the 54th member of the African Union, 2011

Scientists reveal new research identifying a mechanism by which Earth-warming carbon is pulled deep into the Southern Ocean, and locked away, and scientists claim this process may be threatened by climate change, 2012

Microsoft launches Windows 10, 2015

A scaled back Hajj pilgrimage begins in Saudi Arabia, with no foreign visitors permitted, 2020

Sunisa Lee becomes first Hmong-American Olympic champion in any sport when she wins the women's artistic individual all-around gymnastics gold in Tokyo, 2021

A modified 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser is driven 7km under water across Darwin's Harbor in Australia, setting a world record, 2023

Heavy rains after a prolonged drought causes partial collapse of a pyramid estimated at 1,100 years old at Ihuatzio Archaeological Zone, Michoacán, Mexico, 2024