Mr. PotatoHead Her Way (Awww Monday), Inspiring Quote of the Week, and Poetry Monday, Sunny Days

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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!

Annie plays with Mr. PotatoHead her way.

He posed for a selfie after.

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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 Sunny Days.

it's true Dracula

hates sunny days but he should

be of no a-Count

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I love the outdoors on sunny days

but it really bothers my landlady

she knows I hang out under the trees

and to her that seems a bit shady.

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On sunny days we're happy,

on dreary, full of dolor,

why are there such extremes?

Our planet is bipolar.

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Future themes are:

Aug 17 Sunny Days (Today!)

Aug 24 Photography

Aug 31 Xerophyte

Sept 7 My Culture

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

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Today is Black Cat Appreciation Day!  Black cats deserve a day and even have a Facebook page.      

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

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Today is:

#2 Pencil Day -- internet generated, but since a pencil can draw a line 35 miles long, write under water, in zero gravity, or upside down, what's not to celebrate!

Day of Rituals in the Temples of Ra, Horus, and Osiris -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Drink Coffee at the Office from A Sippy Cup Day -- begun by someone with a sense of humor, who wants you to see how long it takes people to notice

Festival of Diana -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Jari Kemerdekaan RI -- Indonesia (Independence Day)(1945)

Meaning of "Is" Day -- thank you, Clinton!

National Thrift Shop/Thrift Store Day -- no history on it, probably started by a thrift store having a summer sale; still a good idea

National Vanilla Custard Day

Odin's Ordeal begins -- based on the Ancient Norse legend, Modern Odinists and some Asatru practice silence for nine days, through the 25th

Portunalia -- Roman Empire (honoring the god of locks, keys, ports, and harbors)

Prekmurje Union Day -- Slovenia (celebrates the Slovenes in Prekmurje being Incorporated into the Mother Nation)

San Martin Day -- Argentina (death anniversary of General Jose de San Martin, liberator of Argentina, Chile, and Peru)

Stay at Home With Your Kids Day -- begun by Work at Home Moms ezine in 1999, to encourage and support parents who work from home

St. Hyacinth's Day (Patron of Camalaniugan, Philippines; Ermita de Piedra de San Jacinto, Philippines; Krakow, Poland; Lithuania; Poland; against drowning)

Yukon Discovery Day -- YT, Canada

Birthdays Today:

Mark Salling, 1982

Donnie Wahlberg, 1969

Sean Penn, 1960

Jonathan Franzen, 1959

Belinda Carlisle, 1958

Guillermo Vilas, 1952

Robert Joy, 1951

Robert DeNiro, 1943

Francis Gary Powers, 1929

Maureen O'Hara, 1920

Harrison V. Chase, 1913

Mae West, 1892

Charles I, last emperor of Austria-Hungary, 1887

Samuel Goldwyn, 1882

Davy Crockett, 1786

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Life of Brian(Film), 1979

"Symphonie Liturgique"(Honegger's Third Symphony), 1946

Animal Farm(Publication date), 1945

"Gotterdammerung/Twilight of the Gods"(Opera WWV 86D), 1876

Today in History:

The Peace of Bergerac gives political rights to the Huguenots, 1577

John White returns to Roanoke, Virginia, to find no trace of the colonists he had left there 3 years earlier, 1590

Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont begins its first trip up the Hudson River, 1807

Solymon Merrick patents the wrench, 1835

The first bank in Hawaii opens, 1858

A patent is granted for an electric self-starter for automobiles, 1891

Pike Place Market, the longest continuously-running public farmers market in the US, opens in Seattle, 1907

Fantasmagorie by Émile Cohl, the first animated cartoon, is shown in Paris, 1908

First meeting of Narcotics Anonymous in Southern California, 1953

Quake Lake is formed by the magnitude 7.5 1959 Yellowstone earthquake near Hebgen Lake in Montana, 1958

East German border guards kill 18-year-old Peter Fechter as he attempts to cross the Berlin Wall into West Berlin becoming one of the first victims of the wall, 1962

Category 5 Hurricane Camille hits the Mississippi coast, killing 248 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage, 1969

Venera 7 launched. It will later become the first spacecraft to successfully transmit data from the surface of another planet (Venus), 1970

Double Eagle II becomes first balloon to cross the Atlantic Ocean when it lands in Miserey near Paris, 137 hours after leaving Presque Isle, Maine, 1978

The first Compact Discs are released to the public in Germany, 1982

The first forced evacuation of settlers, as part of the Israel unilateral disengagement plan, starts, 2005

Afghan archeologists discover the remains of a Buddhist site located south of Kabul, 2010

Trogloraptor marchingtoni, an unusual spider discovered in 2010 is determined to be a new family of spiders previously unknown in the world of science; the new spider family has been named Trogloraptor, meaning 'cave robber', 2012

LIGO picks up images of two neutron stars colliding, the first time scientists have ever been able to witness that event, 2017

The landmark power-sharing deal signed by military and civilian leaders is celebrated in Khartoum, Sudan, with a transitional government to take over as of the beginning of September, 2019

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill becomes the first US university to send students home and convert to all online classes after 135 Covid19 cases are detected on campus, 2020

One in five US hospital ICUs are at or over 95% capacity due to Delta surge of COVID-19, 2021

 The WHO holds its first Traditional Medicine Global Summit in Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India, 2023

Bodhana Sivanandan (10) defeats grandmaster Pete Wells (60) in final round of 2025 British Chess Championships in Liverpool, England, becoming youngest female player to beat a grandmaster, 2025