Awww Monday: Spotting the Cute Stuff

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Join us every Monday for Awww...Mondays.  Post a picture that makes you say Awww... and that 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!

We've just come back from vacation, and we had fun.  There were beautiful sunrises and sunsets, cute critters, a great air show, and lots of other things that made me smile.

My biggest smile came, though, when i realized that, even at age 22, Bigger Girl doesn't want to leave home without her most special possession, Spot.

Her stuffed dog, Spot, with her luggage.

Today is

Best Friends Day -- as declared by the ecard people

Bounty Anniversary Day -- Norfolk Island (celebrates the arrival of the Bounty descendants from Pitcairn Island)

Emanicipation Day -- Tonga

Feast of Bona Mens -- Ancient Roman Calendar (goddess of right thinking, the personification of the mind)

Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (The Good and Evil are given their just rewards)

Lindisfarne Day -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan (commemorating the Viking raid on Lindisfarne in 793)

Name Your Poison Day -- just another wacky holiday with no explanations

National Caribbean-American Health and Aids Awareness Day -- with events all over the US 

National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day

Primoz Trubar Day -- Slovenia (birth anniversary of the author of the first Slovene language books and consolidated the Slovene language)

Queen's Birthday -- Australia (except WA); Papua New Guinea

St. Medard's Day (Patron of brewers, captives, imprisoned people, mentally ill people, peasants, prisoners, vineyards; for good harvests, good weather, and rain; against bad weather, imprisonment, sterility, and toothache) related event:
     Festival of the Rose -- Salency, France (on St. Medard's Day, and supposedly begun by that saint before the year 545)

Upsy Daisy Day -- the day to remind people to get up joyfully and gratefully each morning (tell that to my sleep-til-noon family!)

Vacuum Cleaner Day -- Ives W. McGaffee obtained a patent on this day in 1869 for the first carpet cleaner that worked on a vaccuum principle

Watch Day -- the sign that you are over 30, you still wear a watch!

World Brain Tumor Day -- International

World Oceans Day -- www.worldoceanday.org


Anniversary Today:

Christopher O'Neill marries Princess Madeleine of Sweden, 2013


Birthdays Today:

Kim Clijsters, 1983
Kayne West, 1977
Julianna Margulies, 1966
Keenen Ivory Wayans, 1958
Scott Adams, 1957
Tim Berners-Lee, 1955
Griffin Dunne, 1955
Kathy Baker, 1950
Sara Paretsky, 1947
Boz Scaggs, 1944
Don Grady, 1944
Andrew Weil, MD, 1942
Nancy Sinatra, 1940
Bernie Casie, 1939
James Darren, 1936
Joan Rivers, 1933
Jerry Stiller, 1927
Barbara Bush, 1925
Robert Preston, 1918
Byron Raymond White, 1917
Francis Crick, 1916
Frank Lloyd Wright, 1867


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Trading Places(Film), 1983
Malaeska; The Indian Wife of the White Hunter(First "dime novel", Publication date), 1860


Today in History:

Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England, 793
Richard the Lionheart's Crusade begins with his arrival at Acre, 1191
American attackers are driven back at Trois-Rivières, Quebec, 1776
The volcano Laki, in Iceland, begins an eight-month eruption which kills over 9,000 people and starts a seven-year famine, 1783
Mr. Hall of NYC advertises the first commercially made ice cream, 1786
Ives W McGaffey of Chicago patents the first vacuum cleaner, 1869
Herman Hollerith receives a patent for his punched card calculator, 1887
Theodore Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act into law, authorizing the President to restrict the use of certain parcels of public land with historical or conservation value, 1906
Carl Laemmle incorporates Universal Pictures, 1912
Milton Berle hosts the debut of Texaco Star Theater, 1948
The United States Supreme Court rules that Washington, D.C. restaurants could not refuse to serve black patrons, 1953
The first World Ocean Day is celebrated, coinciding with the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1992
The first Transit of Venus since 1882 takes place, 2004
Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia, is hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years, 2007
Australia bans live cattle exports to Indonesia for up to six months in response to reports of cruel treatment at Indonesian slaughterhouse, 2011

Awww Monday: On the Spot

Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.  It's easy to participate, just post a picture that makes everyone say, "Awww!"  We can all use some cute to start the week.

Bigger Girl is 21, almost 22.  It doesn't matter, she still loves Spot, the stuffed dog she's had since she was about 3.

"Mom," she said the other day, "I've unstuffed Spot and I'm washing him and his stuffing.  He always feels better when he's clean.  Since I have to go to work, could you put him and the stuffing in the dryer?  He's in one pillow case and the stuffing is in the other."

Sure, i told her, and i did.  Later, she came home and restuffed him and sewed him back up.

Spot, all clean.

She insists he's happiest when he's been cleaned.

He does look happy.

Today is:

Annual Visit of the Poe Toaster -- the mysterious person who, for almost 75 years, dressed in black with a wide brimmed hat and scarf, annually visited Poe's grave on his birthday, leaving roses and cognac; has not been seen since 2009

Australian Open -- Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia (part of the Grand Slam tennis tournaments; through Feb. 1)

Blue Monday -- UK (it's gloomy winter, it's after the holidays, it's time to cheer someone up by doing something nice for him/her)

Brew A Potion Day -- internet generated, no reasons given

Confederate Heroes Day -- Texas, US (some things never change)

Feast of Sultan (Sovereignty) -- Baha'i

Horror Novels Are Horrendous Day -- for Poe's birth anniversary

La Tamborrada -- San Sebastian, Spain (begins in the evening, a 24 hour drum jam session and the city's biggest fiesta)

Little Ricky Day -- marking the date of his arrival on "I Love Lucy"

Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- US and Territories (obs.)

National Popcorn Day

Neon Sign Day -- patented this day in 1915

Sacrifices to Apollon -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Sinulog Grand Parade -- Cebu City, Philippines (biggest day of the very colorful festival about the pagan origin of the people, and their acceptance of Roman Catholicism)

St. Canute's Day a/k/a St. Knud (Patron of Denmark)

St. Henry of Uppsala's Day (Patron of the Catholic Cathedral of Helsinki; Finland; against storms)

Theophany/Epiphany -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians who still follow the Julian Calendar
     Timket -- Ethiopian Orthodox Christian (with huge, colorful festivals through the whole country)
     Blessing of the Waters -- Greek Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sophia, Bayswater, London, UK

Tin Can Day -- patented this day in 1825

Wellington Province Anniversary Day -- Wellington, New Zealand (obs.; trad. date 22nd)


Birthdays Today:

Shawn Johnson, 1992
Jodie Sweetin, 1982
Frank Caliendo, 1974
Drea de Matteo, 1972
Shawn Wayans, 1971
Wendy Moniz, 1969
Junior Seau, 1969
Paul McCrane, 1961
William Ragsdale, 1961
Thomas Kinkade, 1958
Simon Rattle, 1955
Desi Arnaz, Jr., 1953
Dewey Bunnell, 1952
Robert Palmer, 1949
Paula Deen, 1947
Dolly Parton, 1946
Shelley Fabares, 1944
Janis Joplin, 1943
Michael Crawford, 1942
Phil Everly, 1939
Richard Lester, 1932
Robert MacNeil, 1931
Tippi Hedren, 1931
Fritz Weaver, 1926
Jean Stapleton, 1923
Guy Madison, 1922
John H. Johnson, 1918
Lester Flatt, 1914
Edgar J. Helms, 1863
Paul Cezanne, 1839
Edgar Allan Poe, 1809
Robert E. Lee, 1807
James Watt, 1736 (O.S. date)


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"48 Hours"(TV), 1988
"The Millionaire"(TV), 1955
Woman of the Year(Film), 1942
"Il Trovatore"(Verdi Opera), 1853
"Faust Part I"(Goethe tragic play), 1829


Today in History:

Rouen surrenders to Henry V of England completing his reconquest of Normandy, 1419
San Agustin Church in Manila is officially completed; it is currently the oldest church in the Philippines, 1607
The second group of ships of the First Fleet arrives at Botany Bay, 1788
The United Kingdom occupies the Cape of Good Hope, 1806
Ezra Daggett and Thomas Kensett obtain a patent for a process of storing food in tin cans, 1825
Goethe's Faust Part I premiers, 1829
Verdi's Il Trivatore premiers in Rome, 1853
The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey, 1883
Ibsen's play The Master Builder premiers in Berlin, 1893
Georges Claude patents the neon discharge tube for use in advertising, 1915
The US Senate votes against membership in League of Nations, 1920
Coopers Inc. sells the world's first briefs, 1930
For the only time in recorded history, snow falls in Miami, Florida, 1977
The last VW Beetle made in Germany leaves the plant, 1978
United States and Iranian officials sign an agreement to release 52 American hostages after 14 months of captivity, 1981
The Apple Lisa, the first commercial personal computer from Apple Inc. to have a graphical user interface and a computer mouse, is announced, 1983
Czech Republic and Slovakia join the United Nations, 1993
The New Horizons probe is launched by NASA on the first mission to Pluto, 2006