Summer Days: A Six Sentence Story

Pulling up to the red light with brakes squealing, she threw the car into park and everyone spilled out in a red light fire drill.

As they ran around the car and hopped into different seats, she popped the trunk and grabbed her CD box, getting back to her own place just in time for the light to turn green.  The CD box had landed in the shotgun seat where she had thrown it in her haste to get the car moving again, and so her cousin picked out the next CD to put in the player.

When their favorite song came up, they rolled the windows down, cranked the music louder, and sang along, neither noticing nor caring what they looked or sounded like.  Arriving at the movie theater, they fairly danced across the parking lot, anticipating popcorn and the latest release, knowing that afterward they would all spend the night at one of their houses, staying up to talk and eat and laugh until dawn.

Four high school teens, let loose from school for the summer, were going to make the most of their time.

Linking up with Uncharted Blog and Six Sentence Stories, where the cue is Drill.


Today is:

Aizen Matsuri -- Shoman-in Temple, Osaka, Japan (celebration of Aizen Myo-oh, greatest of the 8 Buddhist guardian gods, and is also called the Yakuta Festival; through July 2)

Armed Forces Day -- Guatemala

Crab Races -- Fairy Calendar (Pixies, Elves, and some Fairies)

Day of Aestas -- Ancient Roman Calendar (culmination of the festival that begins the summer)

Dixon Petunia Festival: The Pink. The Proud. The Petunias. -- Dixon, IL, US (food, entertainment, fun, and petunias! through Monday)

Freedom Days -- Farmington, NM, US (the Four Corners region celebrates freedom and The 4th in a big way; through Monday)

Feast of the First Martyrs of the Church of Rome -- remembrance of the first Christians killed in Rome by order of Nero as scapegoats for the fire in Rome

General Prayer Day -- Central African Republic

Independence Day -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (formerly Zaire)(1960)

Lailat al Kadr (Lailat al Qadr) -- Islam (Night of Destiny; begins at sundown, through sundown tomorrow, although local observances may vary)

Leap Second Time Adjustment Day -- if one is needed

Meteor Day -- because of the Tuskunga Event

National Bomb Pop Day -- on the Thursday in June right before US Independence Day, to kick off the celebration with the original red, white, and blue bomb pops

National Corvette Day -- US (vehicle introduced this day in 1953)

National Handshake Day -- US; sponsored by professional development companies on the last Thursday in June

National Ice Cream Soda Day

Pridie Kalendas July (Day Before the Kalends of July) -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a day when dies comitiales -- citizen committees -- voted on political and criminal matters)

Revolution Day -- Sudan(1989)

Roswell UFO Days -- Roswell, NM, US (tons of stuff for the serious and those who just want to have fun with the whole concept; through Sunday)

St. Theobald of Provins' day (Patron of bachelors)

Tech Support Appreciation Day -- if you can get a hold of them, they can be great to have around

Tom Sawyer Days -- Hannibal, MO, US (frog jumping, mud volleyball, Tom and Becky Contest; parade, Tomboy Sawyer Contest, fireworks, and more, with the highlight being the National Fence Painting Contest; through Monday)

Westmoreland Arts & Heritage Festival -- Greensburg, PA, US (multicultural celebration of food, fine arts, handicrafts, and music from many nations; through Sunday)


Anniversary Today:

Greg Allman marries Cher, 1975


Birthdays Today:

Michael Phelps, 1985
Fantasia Barrino, 1984
Ralf Schumacher, 1975
Michael Gerard (Mike) Tyson, 1966
Rupert Graves, 1963
Vincent D’Onofrio, 1959
David Alan Grier, 56, 1955
Leonard Whiting, 1950
Patricia Schroeder, 1940
Nancy Dussault, 1936
Harry Blackstone, Jr., 1934
Susan Hayward, 1919
Lena Horne, 1917
Czeslaw Milosz, 1911
William Almon Wheeler, 1819


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Johnny Carson Show"(TV), 1955
"Guiding Light"(TV), 1947
"Brenda Starr, Reporter"(Comic strip), 1940



Today in History:

Jews are expelled from Berne Switzerland, 1294
The Spaniards are expelled from Tenochtitlan, 1520
Native American forces under Blue Jacket attack Fort Recovery, Ohio, 1794
French  acrobat  Charles Blondin crosses Niagara Falls on a tightrope, 1859
The 1860 Oxford evolution debate at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History takes place, 1860
The first transcontinental train trip across Canada departs from Montreal; it arrives in Port Moody, British Columbia on July 4, 1886
Albert Einstein publishes the article "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", in which he introduces special relativity, 1905
The Tunguska event, probably caused by a meteor or comet fragment, occurs in remote Siberia, 1908
The Regina Cyclone hits Regina, Saskatchewan, killing 28; it remains Canada's deadliest tornado event, 1912
Congo gains independence from Belgium, 1960
The first leap second is added to the UTC  time system, 1972
The Royal Canadian Mint introduces the $1 coin, known as the Loonie, 1987
East Germany and West Germany merge their economies, 1990
The United Kingdom transfers sovereignty over Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China, 1997
After nearly 7 years in space, the Cassini spacecraft becomes the first to orbit the planet Saturn, 2004
The Molecule of the Year 2011 is announced, BMP7 (Bone Morphogenetic Protein 7), a potential therapeutic utility for recurrent metastatic disease, 2012

Almost Wordless Wednesday: Tall Teens

This is how you know you have tall teenagers in the house, both your own, and their friends:

No way my five foot short self could reach that without a stepstool.

It takes those teen boys, close to or right at 6 feet tall, to reach up there.  It also takes them to think of putting a cup up there in the first place!



Today is:

American Quilter's Society Quilt Exposition -- Grand Rapids, MI, US (their largest show; through Saturday)

Bad Hair Day -- birth anniversary of Don King

Birth of the White Buffalo -- Lakota Native American rituals honoring the birth of the White Buffalo in 1994, signaling the return of the White Buffalo Woman (manifestation of the Star Goddess Wohpe), who gave them the sacred peace pipe

Boil Over Thursday -- Fairy Calendar (sometimes on Thursday, most often not)

Corn Palace Festival -- Mitchell, SD, US (harvest celebration and redecoration of the world's only Corn Palace; through Sunday)

Dial the Phone Day -- the first rotary dial phone patent was applied for by A. E. Keith, John Erickson, and Charles Erickson on this day in 1896

Feast of Asma -- Baha'i

Independence From USSR Day -- Estonia

Lemonade Day

Moon's Birthday -- Aztec Calendar (according to some websites, but i haven't confirmed it; if you want something to celebrate, this is as good as anything else)

National Chocolate Pecan Pie Day

National Medical Dosimetrist's Day -- American Association of Medical Dosimetrists

National Radio Day -- on the day WWJ(AM) radio first signed on in Detroit in 1920, one of the earliest news broadcast stations

Revolution Day -- Western Sahara

Revolution of the King and People -- Morocco

St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Day (Patron of bees and beekeepers, candle makers, wax refiners; Burgundy, France; Cistercians; Gibralter; Queens College, Cambridge, England; Speyer Cathedral)

Stop and Smell Your Dog Day -- and, depending on the results, maybe even Give Your Dog a Bath Day

St. Stephen's Festival --  Budapest, Hungary (National Day for all of Hungary)

Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration -- Shelbyville, TN, US (an 11-day festival celebrating the world famous Tennessee Walking Horse and crowning this year's World Grand Champion)

Thoth orders the healing of the Eye of Horus -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Virtual Worlds Day -- internet generated, as well it should be

World Mosquito Day -- commemorates the day Dr. Ronald Ross discovered the link between mosquitoes and malaria in 1897


Birthdays Today:

Amy Adams, 1975
Tara Dakides, 1975
Jan Allen, 1956
Theresa Saldana, 1955
Al Roker, 1954
Robert Plant, 1948
Connie Chung, 1946
Don King, 1931
Jim Reeves, 1924
Jacqueline Susann, 1921
Eero Saarinen, 1910
Edgar Albert Guest, 1881
H.P. Lovecraft, 1880
Eliel Saarinen, 1873
Benjamin Harrison, 1833
Bernardo O'Higgins, 1776


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"1812 Overture"(Tchaikovsky Op. 49), 1882


Today in History:

Hungary is established as a kingdom by Stephen I, 1000
The Dutch bring the first African slaves to the colony of Jamestown, VA, 1619
The Spanish establish the presidio that will be the town of Tuscon, Arizona, 1775
The Lewis and Clark "Corps of Discovery", exploring the Louisiana Purchase, suffers its only death when sergeant Charles Floyd dies, apparently from acute appendicitis 1804
Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture" debuts in Moscow, 1882
Rotary Dial telephone is patented, 1896
The Big Blowup, a huge fire in the Northwestern US, burns 3 million acres, 1910
Adolphe Pegoud makes the first parachute jump from an airplane, 1913
Stainless steel is first cast, 1913
WJM,8Mk, Detroit, becomes the first commercial radio station to start daily broadcasting, 1920
UK becomes the first to use radar, 1940
Plutonium's weight determined, 1942
Launch of Voyager 2, 1977
George and Joy Adamson, the Born Free conservationists, are gunned down by poachers, 1989
The Oslo Peace Accords are signed in Norway, 1993
The Supreme Court of Canada rules that Quebec may not secede from Canada without federal government approval, 1998
As part of ongoing political reforms, the government of Myanmar announces it will end media censorship, 2012

Wordless Wednesday: How to know you have teens in the house.

Irrefutable proof.

Today is:

Day to Mourn Victims of Biological Weapons -- commemorates the day they were outlawed in 1975

End of Zimbor-Quattor's Revenge Week and Day of Reconciliation with All Those Whose Hats Have Been Damaged -- Fairy Calendar

Fiesta del Arbol -- Spain (Tree Festival or Arbor Day)

Independence Day and National Day -- Bangladesh(1971)

Khordad Sal -- Zoroastrian (Birth of the Prophet Zaranhushtra)

Legal Assistants' Day

Make Up Your Own Holiday Day -- Wellcat Holidays, which has made up a bunch, wants you to do the same today!

Martyr's Day / Democracy Day -- Mali

Mi-Careme -- Guadeloupe; Saint Barthelemy; Saint Martin (Mid-Lent)

National Nougat Day

Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianole Day -- Hawaii, US (Hawaiian Royal who worked to preserve the Hawaiian culture)

Purple Day -- International (supporting epileptics around the world)

Spinach Day -- on this day in 1937, spinach growers in Crystal City, Texas, erected a statue of Popeye in honor of their favorite veggie

St. Braulio's Day (Patron of Aragon, Spain)

St. William of Norwich's Day (Patron of kidnap and torture victims)

Synaxis of the Archangel Gabriel -- Eastern Orthodox Christianity (celebration of his role is the Annunciation)


Anniversaries Today:

Ricki Lake weds Rob Sussman, 1994
Founding of the University of Utrecht, 1636


Birthdays Today:

Keira Knightley, 1985
Amy Smart, 1976
T.R. Knight, 1973
Josh Lucas, 1972
Leslie Mann, 1972
Kenny Chesney, 1968
John Stockton, 1962
Marcus Allen, 1960
Jennifer Grey, 1960
Catherine Keener, 1960
Leeza Gibbons, 1957
Curtis Sliwa, 1954
Teddy Pendergrass, 1950
Martin Short, 1950
Vicki Lawrence, 1949
Steven Tyler, 1948
Diana Ross, 1944
Bob Woodward, 1943
Erica Jong, 1942
James Caan, 1939
Alan Arkin, 1934
Leonard Nimoy, 1931
Sandra Day O'Connor, 1930
Pierre Boulez, 1925
Tennessee Williams, 1911
Viktor Frankl, 1905
Robert Frost, 1874
Jane Arminda Delano, 1862
Nathaniel Bowditch, 1773


Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Fences"(Play), 1988
"The Young and the Restless"(TV), 1973
"Cannon"(TV), 1971
"Funny Girl"(Musical), 1964
"Die Ehe des Herrn Mississippi/The Marriage of Mr. Mississippi"(Play), 1952


Today in History:

William Caxton prints his translation of Aesop's Fables, 1484
The first British Sunday newspaper is published (British Gazette & Sunday Monitor), 1780
The US Congress orders removal of Indians east of Mississippi to Louisiana, 1804
An earthquake destroys 90% of Caracas, Venezuela, leaves 20,000 dead, 1812
The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, NY, 1830
Eastman Film Co manufactures the first commercial motion picture film, 1885
New Delhi replaces Calcutta as capital of British-Indies, 1931
William H. Hastie becomes the first black Federal Judge in the US, in the US Virgin Islands, 1937
Jonas Salk announces the first successful test of his polio vaccine on a small group of adults and children, 1953
East Pakistan declares its independence from Pakistan to form People's Republic of Bangladesh, 1971
Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin and Jimmy Carter sign the Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C., 1979
The "Melissa worm" infects Microsoft word processing and e-mail systems around the world, 1999
A jury in Michigan finds Dr. Jack Kevorkian guilty of second-degree murder for administering a lethal injection to a terminally ill man, 1999
The Taiwanese government calls on 1 million Taiwanese to demonstrate in Taipei, in opposition to the Anti-Secession Law of the People's Republic of China, 2005

Haiku

Who always puts back
Empty cartons in the fridge?
Teenagers strike again.

Should i clean the fridge?
Bacon grazes on lettuce
Take that as a yes.

Where is cheese i bought?
Children have opened the new
Before old is gone. 


Kittens, how can you
Be hungry again so soon?
All bottomless pits.

Peaceful kittens snooze,
And if i ever need more
Much cat hair to knit 


Dust bunnies seem quiet
When i put them in trash
But looks do deceive

Hear them giggle late
In the night as they scatter
O'er the house again!


Today is

Abolition Day -- Guadeloupe; Saint Martin

Bolder Boulder 10k -- Boulder, CO, UK (a fun way to spend Memorial Day)

Buttercup Day -- an internet holiday that just sounds fun

Cape May Music Festival -- Cape May, NJ, US (through June 13; world class music performances of many genres)

Cellophane Tape Day -- patented this date in 1930

Children's Day -- Nigeria (a school holiday)

FindleFritter's Stoat-Wheedling Event -- Fairy Calendar

Gloucestershire Cheese Rolling -- Cooper’s Hill, England (ancient tradition -- pre-Roman -- of rolling a large wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down the hill; winner of the races to catch it wins the cheese, and the rolling is now always held on the Monday Spring Bank Holiday)

Memorial Day -- US and Territories (obs.)
     Prayer for Peace, Memorial Day -- US (on observed Memorial Day, an interfaith encouragement to pray and work for permanent peace in the world)

Mother's Day -- Bolivia

National Grape Popsicle Day

National Heroes' Day -- Turks and Caicos Islands

Pop-up Toaster Day -- Charles Strite applied for his patent on the first pop-up toaster on this day in 1919

Sovereign's Day Holiday / Commonwealth Day-- Belizeusually24th

St. Augustine of Canterbury's Day (Roman Catholic Church observance; Patron of England)

St. Melangell's Day (Patron of hares)

Sun Screen Protection Day -- an annual, and unsponsored, reminder to use that SPF protection, every day!

Tetbury Woolsack Races -- Gumstool Hill, Tetbury, England (this formerly important wool producing town still holds races up and down the hill, from the Royal Oak Pub up to the Crown Pub and back; part of traditional Whitsuntide folklore customs, which is now always held on the Monday Spring Bank Holiday)

Throw the B*st@rds Out Day -- originally directed at politicians, (and if you want to do that, too, great!), and celebrated on various days on various sites, but whomever is making your life miserable, toss them out!  or at least, toss them out of your thoughts for today.

Tour of Somerville -- Somerville, NJ, US (the oldest continuously run major bicycle race in America, always on observed Memorial Day)



Birthdays Today:

Joseph Fiennes, 1970
Jeremy Mayfield, 1969
Todd Bridges, 1965
Adam Carolla, 1964
Louis Gossett, Jr., 1936
Ramsey Lewis, 1935
Henry Kissinger, 1923
Christopher Lee, 1922
Sam Snead, 1912
Hubert H. Humphrey, 1911
Vincent Price, 1911
Dolores Hope, 1909
Dashiell Hammett, 1894
Isadora Duncan, 1878
Wild Bill Hickock, 1837
Julia Ward Howe, 1819
Amelia Bloomer, 1818
Cornelius Vanderbilt, 1794


Today in History:

Habeas Corpus Act, codifying how the writ of habeas corpus is to be used, passes in UK, 1679
Peter the Great founds St. Petersburg, 1703
In Bolivia, the Battle of La Coronilla, in which the women from Cochabamba  fight against the Spanish army, 1812
In Canada, American forces capture Fort George, 1813
Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco, California, 1907
The NC-4 aircraft arrives in Lisbon after completing the first transatlantic flight, 1919
The 1,046 feet (319 m) Chrysler Building in New York City, the tallest man-made structure at the time, opens to the public, 1930
Richard Gurley Drew receives a patent for his adhesive tape, later manufactured by 3M as Scotch tape, 1930
The Walt Disney Company releases the cartoon  The Three Little Pigs, with its hit song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?", 1933
In California, the Golden Gate Bridge opens to pedestrian traffic, , 1937
Toronto's CHUM-AM, (1050 kHz) becomes Canada's first radio station to broadcast only top 40 Rock n' Roll music format, 1957
Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and to count them in the national census, 1967
In Culpeper, Virginia, actor Christopher Reeve is paralyzed from the neck down after falling from his horse in a riding competition, 1995
Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets with Chechnyan rebels for the first time and negotiates a cease-fire, 1996
The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, Netherlands indicts Slobodan Milosevic and four others for war crimes and crimes against humanity, 1999
The May 2006 Java earthquake strikes at 5:53:58 AM local time (22:53:58 UTC May 26) devastating Bantul and the city of Yogyakarta killing over 6,600, 2006

One of the stranger

One of the stranger happenings around here that is only occasional occurs when Grandpa comes to get the children for the weekend, like he did yesterday.

I actually came downstairs to a kitchen in about the same condition it was in when I went to bed last night.

Oh, the iced tea pitcher is empty on the counter (thanks, Sweetie, I'll get that Blue Fairy right on it), and the cats are lined up acting like dramatic teens that are starving to death as usual. Missing, however, are the sink filling piles of dirty dishes, the mountains of evidence strewn all over showing midnight depredations of underfed refugees that my children wish me to believe they are.

Amazing how easy it is to come down and get right into my day when the kitchen stays clean.

Now if only the children's rooms could learn this trick!


Today is:

Battle Flag Day

Big Yellow Hat Day

Dessalines Day, Haiti

Diwali (Deepavali) -- Hindu, Jain

Festival of Hengest, St. Ives, UK

Four Prunes Day

Gaudy Day a/k/a Wear Something Gaudy Day

International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

National Mammography Day

National Pasta Day

Shukaku Matsuri a/k/a Kannamesai Harvest Festival, Japan -- Shinto

St. Audrey's Day Fair, Isle of Ely

St. Ignatius of Antioch's Day

St. John the Dwarf's Day

Sweetest Day -- the Autumn version of Valentine's Day

World Toy Camera Day


Birthdays Today:

Norm MacDonald, 1963
Alan Jackson, 1958
Howard Rollins, 1950
Margot Kidder, 1948
George Wendt, 1948
Ronn Owens, 1945
Evel Knievel, 1938
Jimmy Breslin, 1930
Tom Poston, 1921
Montgomery Clift, 1920
Rita Hayworth, 1918
Arthur Miller, 1915
Jean Arthur, 1905
Spring Byington, 1893


Today in History:

King Cyrus the Great of Persia marches into the city of Babylon, and releases the Jews from their 70 years of exile and making the first Human Rights Declaration, BC539
Battle of Neville's Cross, the defeat of King David II of Scotland by Edward III of England, 1346
Crown Prince Fernando of Aragon marries Princess Isabella of Castile, 1469
Composer Johann S. Bach marries his niece Maria Bach, 1707
Cornwallis defeated at Yorktown, 1781
Boston blacks petition the legislature for equal school facilities, 1787
The political rights of Jews are suspended in the Duchy of Warsaw, 1808
Thomas Edison files a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie), 1888
Guglielmo Marconi's comapany begins the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada, and Clifden, Ireland, 1907
Albert Einstein arrives in the US as a refugee from Nazi Germany, 1933