Still Having Fun

Sweetie slept in yesterday -- he snoozed, and he lost.  DiDreaming and i went to The Little Zoo That Could and got to pet lemurs and anteaters and sloths.  We both agree that lemurs are the softest and most fun critters in the zoo.

After the zoo we had a lovely lunch and went to the mall in a fruitless attempt to find jeans for me.

As crazy as it sounds, it's very, very hard for me to find jeans.  Most places that sell clothing for adult women start with size 4, and i wear a zero or double zero.  When i can find those sizes, it's often the super skinny jeans meant for young ladies, not old Presbyterian church ladies who clean homes and offices for a living.

Yes, i can wear the young girls size 16, but almost all jeans in that size will have rhinestones or butterflies or some kind of decoration that would look ridiculous on me, since i'm not a tween or very young teen girl.

At least i found my Sketcher GoWalks, i cannot work or live without these most comfortable, wonderful shoes.

In the evening, we all three took our inner children to the arcade and played skeeball and pinball and gave all the tickets we won to a little guy who grinned from ear to ear.

Today we have no special plans, so i want to relax and check the insides of my eyelids for cracks again.  You can't do that too much on vacation.  Then Sweetie and i will have a date night tonight at a very nice restaurant.

Today is:

Family History Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, urging people to brush up on family history during summer family reunions

Feast Day of Elisha the Prophet -- Christian

Flag Day -- United States

Freedom Day -- Malawi

Leinapaev -- Estonia (Mourning and Commemoration Day; remembering those deported under Soviet rule)

Liberation Day -- Falkland Islands

Magic Circles Day and Magic History Gathering -- marking the founding of The Magic Circle, a society of amateur and professional magicians 

Mourning and Hope Day -- Lithuania (remembering those exiled to Siberia under the Soviets)

National Bourbon Day -- celebrating America's "Native Spirit" 

National Strawberry Shortcake Day

Pause for the Pledge Day -- US, in conjunction with Flag Day, all citizens are asked to pause at 7pm EDT to recite the Pledge

Petit Jean Antique Auto Show and Swap Meet -- Morrilton, AR, US (sponsored by the Museum of Automobiles in Morrilton, and the place to be if you love old cars; through Saturday)

Pig Callers' Day -- no clue where this came from, or why; any pig callers out there want to weigh in?

Pop Goes the Weasel Day -- and just as no one knows for sure the origins of the song or it's meaning, no one knows why it is celebrated on this day

Rice Planting Festivals -- Sumiyoshi Shrine, Osaka and Izawanomiya Shrine, Mie Prefecture, Japan (rice planting at sacred fields, some rites date back over 1,700 years)

Royal Ascot -- Ascot Racecourse, Ascot, Berkshire, England (a unique event bringing together the best of fashion, style, sport, and entertainment for five days)

Rumor Sunday -- Fairy Calendar (usually held on a weekday)

Runic Half-month Dag (day) commences

Sandpaper Day -- Isaac Fisher, Jr., of Vermont, was issued the first US patent for sandpaper on this day in 1834

St. Basil the Great's Day (traditional date in Roman Catholic Church, current date in Episcopal Church; Patron of education, exorcisms, hospital administrators, monks, liturgists, reformers; Cappadocia; Russia)

St. Castora Gabrielli's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, widows)

World Blood Donor Day -- International (2016's host country is Netherlands, and the emphasis is "Blood Connects Us All")
     Blood Type Awareness Day -- while donating, make sure you know your type, and that of your loved ones; in an emergency, it's good to know

World Pet Memorial Day -- some sites say this is always on June 10, others that it's always on the second Tuesday in June, but none can tell us where it came from or who started it that i can find


Anniversaries Today:

The United States Army is founded, 1775
Munich, Germany is founded, 1158


Birthdays Today:

Daryl Sabara, 1992
Lucy Hale, 1989
Kevin McHale, 1988
Diablo Cody, 1978
Steffi Graf, 1969
Yasmine Bleeth, 1968
Traylor Howard, 1966
Boy George, 1961
Eric Arthur Heiden, 1958
Will Patton, 1954
Eddie Mekka, 1952
Donald Trump, 1946
John F. MacArthur, 1939
Jerzy Kosinski, 1933
Joe Arpaio, 1932
Marla Gibbs, 1931
Che Guevara, 1928
Pierre Salinger, 1925
Gene Barry, 1919
Burl Ives, 1909
Alois Alzheimer, 1864
John Bartlett, 1820
Harriet Beecher Stowe, 1811


Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Cable Guy(Film), 1996
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves(Film), 1991
"The Gong Show"(TV), 1976


Today in History:

Kublai Khan defeated the force of Nayan and other traditionalist Borjigin  princes in East Mongolia and Manchuria, 1287
Richard II in England meets leaders of Peasants' Revolt on Blackheath and the Tower of London is stormed by rebels who enter without resistance, 1381
Margaret Jones is hanged in Boston for witchcraft in the first such execution for the Massachusetts colony, 1648
The Stars and Stripes is adopted by Congress as the Flag of the United States, 1777
Bounty mutiny survivors including Captain William Bligh and 18 others reach Timor after a nearly 7,400 km (4,000-mile) journey in an open boat, 1789
Whiskey distilled from maize is first produced by American clergyman the Rev Elijah Craig, who named it Bourbon because he lived in Bourbon County, Kentucky, 1789
Badi VII, king of Sennar, surrenders his throne and realm to Ismail Pasha, general of the Ottoman Empire, ending the existence of that Sudanese kingdom, 1821
The village of Henley, on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, stages its first Royal Regatta, 1839
Trade unions are legalised in Canada, 1872
Norway adopts female suffrage, 1907
John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown depart St. John's, Newfoundland on the first nonstop transatlantic  flight, 1919
Action Comics issue one is released, introducing Superman, 1938
The Canadian Library Association is established, 1946
UNIVAC I, the world's first commercial computer, is dedicated by the U.S. Census Bureau, 1951
The European Space Research Organisation is established in Paris – later becoming the European Space Agency, 1962
The Vatican announces the abolition of the Index Librorum Prohibitorum, 1966
The 1994 Stanley Cup Riots occur after the New York Rangers win the Stanley Cup from Vancouver, 1994
The Wallow Fire becomes the largest wildfire in the history of the US State of Arizona, 2011
Australia announces its plan to create the largest marine reserve in the world, 2012

Awww Monday: Lemur Love

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!

Every year, while on vacation, we go to the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.  One of the best things about the zoo is being able to pet the lemurs.

This baby loved being petted:

This two-month-old lemur loved having his back petted.  He's relaxed!

Today is

Anne Hutchinson Memorial Day -- Portsmouth, RI, US (honoring Anne Marbury Hutchinson, co-founder of Portsmouth, in 1638)

Barbershop Music Appreciation Day -- anniversary of the founding of Sweet Adelines International

Beans and Franks Day

Central Maine Egg Festival -- Pittsfield, Maine (more fun with eggs than you ever thought you could have; through Saturday)

Embrace Your Geekness Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays, celebrate your love of online dungeon games, comic books, or dressing up like a vampire

Feast of Kalimat (Words) -- Baha'i Faith

Fool's Paradise Day -- a day to figure out how a fool can achieve paradise?  or how it can be paradise if it is full of fools?

Go West Day -- commemorates Horace Greeley's "Go West, young man, and grow up with the country."

Gruntled Workers Day -- sponsored by Wellcat Holidays; those of us who are gruntled, as opposed to the disgruntled, should unite and pass along some "great work" compliments to those doing a good job

International Puzzle Day -- some sites say Jan. 29, but today is Erno Rubik's birth anniversary

International Town Criers Day

Lailat al Kadr (Lailat al Qadr) -- Islam (Night of Destiny; began at sundown yesterday, through sundown tonight, although local observances may vary and governmental days off vary from country to country)

La Retraite Aux Flambeaux -- France (night watch, before Bastille Day)

National French Fries Day

Obon (Ulambana) -- Buddhist; Shinto (Festival of the Lanterns, a time of honoring the ancestors, a reunion of them with the living; through the 15th, although Obon festivals are held on various dates in July at temples throughout the world)

Statehood Day -- Montenegro

St. Henry the Emperor's Day (Patron of childless people, disabled people, dukes, handicapped people, kings, people rejected by religious orders, physically challenged people; Bamberg, Germany; Basel, Switzerland; Benedictine Oblates; against sterility)

St. Joel the Prophet's Day (Old Testament prophet of the Book of Joel)


Birthdays Today

Anthony Jerome “Spud” Webb, 1963
Cameron Crowe, 1957
Jane Hamilton, 1957
Michael Spinks, 1956
Louise Mandrell, 1954
Cheech Marin, 1946
Erno Rubik, 1944
Harrison Ford, 1942
Roger McGuinn, 1942
Robert Forster, 1941
Patrick Stewart, 1940
Jack Kemp, 1935
Wole Soyinka, 1934
David Storey, 1933
Bob Crane, 1928
Dave Garroway, 1913
Nathan Bedford Forrest, 1821
Julius Caesar, BC100


Today in History

Capt James Cook begins 2nd trip (Resolution) to South Seas, 1772
William Wordsworth, on a walking tour through the Wye Valley, visited the ruins of Tintern Abbey and a few miles further on composed a poem about them, 1798
Greek War of Independence: Greeks defeated Ottoman forces at Thermopylae, 1822
Henry R Schoolcraft discovers the source of the Mississippi River, 1832
After 9,957 unnumbered patents, the U.S. Patent Office issues Patent No. 1, for locomotive wheels, 1836
Queen Victoria becomes the first British monarch to live at Buckingham Palace in London, 1837
First day of the New York Draft Riots in response to President Abraham Lincoln's Enrolment Act of Conscription, 1863
Horace Greeley publishes his editorial advising young men to "Go West, young man, go west and grow up with the country," 1865
PT Barnum's American Museum was destroyed in one of the most spectacular fires in New York City's history, 1865
Gold was discovered near Cochrane, Ontario, Canada, 1909
The British airship R34 lands in Norfolk, England, completing the first airship return journey across the Atlantic in 182 hours of flight, 1919
Alexander Butterfield reveals the existence of the Nixon tapes to the special Senate committee investigating the Watergate break in, 1973
The Live Aid benefit concert, a telecast fundraising concert for famine relief in Ethiopia, was held in London and Philadelphia, as well as other venues such as Sydney and Moscow, 1985
American Thoroughbred racehorse Cigar wins his 16th consecutive top-class race, the first horse to do so since Triple Crown winner citation, 1996
Researchers reveal two studies showing the antiretroviral drugs prescribed to treat AIDS can also prevent HIV infections, 2011

Why is Sloth a Sin?

Have you ever looked a sloth in the face?

No, i am being serious, have you?

Yesterday i did, and they are cute as a button!

There's this lovely little zoo down here called the Alabama Gulf Coast Zoo.  It was dubbed "The Little Zoo That Could" by The Discovery Channel, which did a series on it.

The zoo is small, and will be moving to a larger area to give some of their animals larger habitats.  They also want to be further inland by a few miles, to better protect the animals during storms.  They don't want any more instances of Chuckie the alligator getting into the swamp behind his habitat in a hurricane.  (Chuckie is a zoo favorite, he got sent to the zoo because he would harass people at the state park for their picnic baskets.  Yes, really.)

Being a smaller zoo does give them the advantage of being able to offer animal encounters.  If you have plenty of money and book way in advance, you can spend a half hour with tiger cubs.  We have watched others with the cubs, but we content ourselves with reptile encounters (#2 Son's favorite), holding the kangaroo joeys (they snuggle in a cloth pouch in your arms), petting the baby lemurs (one of them once groomed #2 Son's fake dreadlocks on his Bob Marley hat), and new this week, feeding and petting the sloths.

These are two-toed sloths, and they lie upside down on suspended benches, clinging to branches that are part of the enclosure.  The keeper hands you a bamboo skewer with a piece of vegetable on it, and you feed it to the sloth.  While the sloth chews, you may pet his or her back.  There was one girl and one boy, and the girl liked fruit as well as veggies, the boy didn't much care for the fruit pieces.  The lemurs' fur is soft, these sloths fur was very rough and course.

All of these animals, perhaps with the exception of the reptiles, are cute little things.  (Yes, i like reptiles, and i've had pet snakes.  They are great animals, but they aren't really cute.)

After the zoo, i ran Little Girl to the stores she wanted to visit, since she wasn't here Monday when the rest of us went.  It had to be the fastest mall trip ever, as she hates shopping and only wanted to go into two stores.  She went in both, and spent a total of 35 minutes actually picking things out that she needed.

#2 Son cooked dinner, it was a big fish fry.  Lots of catfish that he and Friend Becky and Bryn and Bryn's Friend have caught were seasoned and cooked and gobbled down in record time.

There was also time to swim and walk in the sand and sit around relaxing.

Altogether, a beautiful day.  Don't say it was slothful, though.  They are too cute to use them as a derogatory word.

Today is

15th Khordad National Uprising -- Iran (1963)

Apple II Day -- the Apple II first went on sale today in 1977
     note that some historians say it went on sale June 10, others say the first models were shipped out that day
 
Arbor Day -- New Zealand

Beypazari Havuç Güveç --  Turkey (weekend festival celebrating a traditional carrot dish)

Buffalo Days Celebration (with Buffalo Chip Throw) -- Luverne, MN, US (parade, arts in the park, and the throwing contest; through Sunday)

Clean Air Day -- Canada

Derby Festival begins -- Epsom Downs Racecourse, Surrey, England (today is Surrey Ladies Day, with Derby Day tomorrow)

Farmington Country Days -- Farmington, MO, US (fun for the family, celebrated the old country way; through Sunday)

Festival of Popular Delusions Day -- begun as this was the last day before D-Day that the Germans could delude themselves that they could win; thus a day to question your own assumptions and try to align your beliefs with facts and reality

Great Wisconsin Cheese Festival -- Little Chute, WI, US (celebrate with other Cheeseheads; through Sunday)

Grunklovsdag -- Denmark and the Faroe Island (Constitution Day)

International Horseradish Festival -- Collinsville, IL, US (lots of fun in the "Horseradish Capital of the World"; through Sunday)

Indian Arrival Day -- Suriname (marking the arrival of indentured laborers from the Indian subcontinent)

Judgement Day -- Fairy Calendar (Nosegays)

Labour Day / Sir Randol Fawkes Day -- Bahamas

Liberation Day -- Seychelles

Lilac Festival -- Mackinac Island, MN, US (largest summer event on the Island; through the 14th)

Natalicio de Oblang Nguema Mbasogo -- Equatorial Guinea (President's Day)

National Attitude Day -- if this is really a day to celebrate, try to have a positive one

National Donut Day -- US (successor to the original Donut Day begun by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honor the women who served doughnuts to soldiers during WWI and as a fundraiser in Chicago, and it is still used as a fundraiser there for Salvation Army projects; look for a doughnut shop to give out freebies near you)

National Gingerbread Day

National Moonshine Day -- with its own sponsor 

Nones of June -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observance
     Festival of Semo Sancus -- god of loyalty, honesty and oaths (one of the oldest Roman cults, probably Etruscan or Oscan originally)

Red Earth Native American Cultural Festival -- Oklahoma City, OK, US (more than 100 tribes meet to pow wow and celebrate their heritage, through Sunday)

Riverbend Festival -- Chattanooga, TN, US (nine days of fun on the banks of the Tennessee River)

Shirone Takogassen -- along the Nakanokuchi river bank in Shirone, Japan (kite flying and kite fighting; through the 9th)

St. Boniface's Day (Patron of brewers, file cutters, tailors; Fulda, Germany; Germany; Saint-Boniface, Manitoba, Canada)

Summer Farm Toy Show -- National Farm Toy Museum, Dyersville, IA, US (farm toys, parade, tractor rides, and more; through tomorrow)

Tecumseh! the Epic Outdoor Drama -- Chillicothe, OH, US (Mon-Sat, until Aug. 29; spectacular reenactment of the life and death of the great Shawnee leader)

Telluride Balloon Festival -- Telluride, CO, US (volunteer to help with the festival and you may get a free balloon ride! through Sunday)

World Environment Day -- UN


Birthdays Today:

Chad Allen, 1974
Mark Wahlberg, 1971
Brian McKnight, 1969
Kenny G, 1956
Jill Biden, 1951
Suze Orman, 1951
Ken Follett, 1949
Spalding Gray, 1941
Margaret Drabble, 1939
Bill Moyers, 1934
Tony Richardson, 1928
Richard Mcclure Scarry, 1919
William "Hopalong Cassidy" Boyd, 1895
Panco Villa, 1878
Adam Smith, 1723 (O.S. Date)
Thomas Chippendale, 1718
Pu Songling, 1640


Today in History:

Traditional date for the sinking of Atlantis, 8498BC
Titus and his Roman legions breach the middle wall of Jerusalem  in the Siege of Jerusalem, 70
Kraków, Poland  receives city  rights, 1257
The first Great Lakes steamer, the Frontenac, is launched, 1817
Houston, Texas is incorporated by the Republic of Texas, 1837
Denmark  becomes a constitutional monarchy, 1849
Harriet Beecher Stowe's anti-slavery serial, Uncle Tom's Cabin or, Life Among the Lowly starts a ten-month run in the National Era abolitionist newspaper, 1851
Denmark  amends its constitution to allow women's suffrage, 1915
Elvis Presley introduces his new single, "Hound Dog", on The Milton Berle Show, scandalizing the audience with his suggestive hip movements, 1956
The first government of the State of Singapore is sworn in, 1959
The Apple II, the first practical personal computer, goes on sale, 1977
Prime Minister of India Indira Gandhi orders an attack on the Golden Temple, the holiest site of the Sikh religion, 1984
A severe heat wave across Pakistan  and India  reaches its peak, as temperatures exceed 50°C (122°F) in the region, 2003
The planet Venus makes its last transit of the 21st century beginning at 22:09 UTC June 5, and ending 4:49 UTC June 6, 2012