"Mom, please, before we get to the school, pull over so I can use a restroom!" #2 Son has never made that request before, so i asked if something was wrong. "Yes, what I'm going to do to the bathroom i don't want to do to the school!"
I complied, and he went into the store/gas station/fast food place that you find at every exit in the US now.
He came out a few minutes later, green. "Mom, I'm sick! Please don't make me go to school!"
How sick?
"Barf sick," he responded, groaning.
We dropped off Bigger Girl, and he groaned and spit in a cup the whole way home. Over the next few hours, he figured out that whatever this is, it's going to come out of one end or the other. So of course he couldn't help at the shelter.
After picking Sweetie up from work early, getting the kittens from the vet, and finishing dinner, it was time to pick up Bigger Girl and go do our Thursday Kitty Care. So Little Girl and i set out, leaving poor #2 Son groaning in his favorite chair.
Fight the traffic, not too bad today except for the one person who waited until he saw my signal and purposely cut around me to keep me from getting over. Poor guy, not a strong enough person to be nice. We pulled up to see Miss W's truck and the new Bill the Executive Administrator's car in the lot. Miss W's truck was piled with cat litter in the back, and i figured we would be drafted to use the hand truck and cart it in. We were, and that's okay, she got it in there from the store, it was the least we could do.
Bill the E.A. has apparently been putting in some long hours in his first week. There's a lot to do when you take over organizing a place that has been totally volunteer run since its inception. Lots of things fall through the cracks when people with full time jobs and part time to dedicate to service have to do it all.
A quick look at the board held the good news that Nanette has been adopted. So has Muffin, but i don't remember if i noted that one last week, or if it just happened. There wasn't a date by it, and i'm not going back and looking right now. Either way, any adoption is good news.
There were some changes, as the decorations are all down, many piled in a corner waiting to be packed, and some rooms have been switched around.
Scanning the rooms, Dustie and Angel have been moved from the very back room to the very front room on their side. They are also under watch for watery eyes and sneezing. Across from them, poor Bowie has an eye infection. Thank goodness it isn't JuJu, there would be no way to get eye drops into her eyes without chain mail gauntlets. Bowie held still and let me put them in. I'm still upset that someone managed to do something to him that got him to bite at the adoption center. He is so precious.
Tiger and Buddy are doing well in their room, and Mamie is by herself for now. Harley is also alone, because if he has a roomie there is no way to tell if he is eating. Miss W. asked me to check him for dehydration, and he doesn't show signs of it. He doesn't seem to have eaten for a few days now, except when we give him Fancy Feast. Even then, he just doesn't eat it all, he nibbles at it. I would wonder if he is holding out for wet food if he gobbled it, but that is not the case.
Harley splits a can of FF each morning and evening with Lucky, who is now allowed to roam at will. He is so old, and so slow, that he is not considered much of a risk to run. Miss W warned me that he has to get his pill pocket with his meds before his wet food, or he won't eat the pill pocket. So i gave it to him first, but he dropped part of the pill out as he ate it. I had to wrap that in a bit of the FF wet food to get him to eat that. He finally got it all, and i gave him his FF in his bowl. He spent a good 20 minutes eating at it, and only managed to eat about half of it. No wonder he doesn't gain weight even with that and two kinds of dry food.
Sophia and Roxanne are doing well, as are Francie and Iggy. As for TigerLily and Bobby the Bobtail, i am amazed at the lengths we go to for those two. Their food is a mix of 30% indoor adult, 30% weight management, 30% hairball control, and 10% dental care. Talk about picky!
In our very full cages we have Scottie, Isabelle, Molly, Manimal (Manny), and Monty, who likes to escape. Corrie is back there, having been returned from the adoption center at the pet store for diarrhea. We will watch, but they send them back for diarrhea if there is even a tiny bit of softness to the stool. It's silly, most of the time there is nothing wrong.
Then there is Rocky. He is about 3 months old, and was rescued from the mouth of a German Shepherd (sound familiar? remember Rory?). The dog owner took him to the emergency vet to the tune of $350, and the little guy has a torn diaphragm. He is wanting to run and play and be a kitten, but he has to stay still and quiet and in the cage so he can heal up with no complications. He is on Clavamox, so i pulled up the dose and opened his cage. He purred just seeing me, purred as i petted him, and only stopped purring when i actually gave him the medicine. After he swallowed, i asked him if we were still friends. He started purring and treading his paws again, and probably would have let me pet him forever. What a love of a cat he will be.
Leo and Louie are kittens also, just a bit shy, so need lots of petting. They were abandoned at the shelter, look to be about 4 months old, and are in a separate cage in the kitchen until all the vet work is done on them. When you first reach out to them, they back up a bit, but then come forward with coaxing and warm up fast. Good for them.
As i moved around looking for everyone, i noticed Bill the E.A. leaves the office door open as he works. That's find by me, but it had an effect i wasn't expecting. I walked in to say hello to Frieda and pet her, and she hissed and batted at me. Wow. I wasn't sure what was wrong until i realized Lucky had wandered in. Frieda doesn't like the door open if there are any other cats around. Later, after we closed the door, she calmed down and let me pet her as usual. She needs a home to herself, that is for sure.
The big room only has seven occupants right now, as Gidget is back at the adoption center. For the record, i didn't let Grady out, Bigger Girl did, and Little Girl caught him. He actually didn't put up much of a fight this time. Clint and Baby were hiding, Prissy let me pet her head, Candy and Ginny played chase, and Zoe came out for petting. They seem to be doing well.
Because #2 Son wasn't there, it took us a good half an hour longer to get it all done. It was still worth it, 32 cats got what they needed.
Today is:
Celebration of the First Week of Moonhopper -- Fairy Calendar
Distaff Day -- Medieval Europe
Festa del Tricolore -- Italy (Tricolour or Flag Day)
Ganna -- Ethiopia (Corresponds to Christmas for the rest of us)
Grandmothers/Midwives Day -- Bulgaria (Grandmothers as midwives of their grandchildren, for the role they play in the traditional family.)
Harlem Globetrotters' Day
I'm Not Going To Take It Anymore Day
International Programmers' Day
Nanakusa no Sekku -- Japan (Festival of Seven Herbs)
National Tempura Day
Nativity of Christ -- Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Christians who still use the Julian Calendar.
Old Rock Day (So we don't forget to appreciate the fossils and old rocks in our lives.)
St. Aldric's Day (patron against asthma)
Usokae -- Kameido Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan (Bullfinch Exchange Day)
Birthdays Today:
Nicholas Cage, 1964
Katie Couric, 1957
David Caruso, 1956
Kenny Loggins, 1948
Paul Revere, 1938
William Peter Blatty, 1928
Jean-Pierre Rampal, 1922
Charles Addams, 1912
St Bernadette, 1844
Millard Fillmore, 1800
Today in History:
Calais, the last English possession in France, is taken back by the French, 1558
Boris Godunov seizes the Russian throne upon the death of Feodore I, 1598
Fire destroys Jamestown, Virginia, 1608
Galileo discovers the first 3 moons of Jupiter (Io, Europa, and Ganymede), 1610
Francis Bacon becomes the English Lord Chancellor, 1618
A prototype typewriter is patented by Englishman Henry Mill, 1714
Battle at Panipat India: the Afghan army beats Mahratten, 1761
The Bank of North America opens in Philadelphia, the first US commercial bank, 1782
The first gas balloon flight across the English channel, by Blanchard and Jeffries, 1785
The modern Italian flag is first used, 1797
Liberia is colonized by Americans, 1822
The first railroad station in the US, in Baltimore, opens, 1830
Fanny Farmer publishes her first cookbook, 1896
The distress signal "CQD" is established only to be replaced two years later by "SOS", 1904
The first steamboat passage through the Panama Canal, 1914
The Harlem Globetrotters play their first game, 1927
The first transatlantic telephone service is established – from New York City to London, 1927
"Buck Rogers", the first sci-fi comic strip, and "Tarzan," one of the first adventure comic strips, premier, 1929
Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast, 1931
The "Flash Gordon" comic strip (by Alex Raymond) debuts, 1934
President Harry Truman announces that the United States has developed the hydrogen bomb, 1952
The first public demonstration of a machine translation system, is held in New York at the head office of IBM, 1954
Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer to perform at the Met (NYC), 1955
The Polaris missile is test launched, 1960
Surveyor 7, the last spacecraft in the Surveyor series, lifts off, 1968
Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), 1984
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launches Sakigake, Japan's first interplanetary spacecraft and the first deep space probe to be launched by any country other than the United States or the Soviet Union, 1985
The interior of the Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public because of safety concerns, 1990
For the past few days, i have been wondering why in the world i have so much trouble keeping my right shoe tied. It's odd, i am retying it a few times a day, while the left shoe stays nice and neatly done up with a bow as it is supposed to be. Then it occurred to me to look down while standing at the computer. Lo and behold, the kittens only play with my right shoe, specifically paying attention to the string. Amazing how you can get so used to the little guys, you don't even notice when your shoe strings are being eaten.
On the way home from school, we pass a construction company storage site. The company constructs big projects, like roads and huge buildings. As we passed one day, #2 Son asked, "Mom, could i buy a thousand pound brick, if i use my own money?"
Why, i asked him, would you want a thousand pound brick?
"Oh, well, if you're going to ask questions, then never mind."
I never know what is in that fertile brain of his, but i know it scares me.
As i was brushing Kida Cat today, she purred as usual. Also, as usual, she kept moving further and further away from me, toward the center of the bed. I kept having to haul her back toward me. Why, i wondered, do cats, even though they are enjoying it, move further and further from the comb they so desperately want you to use on them? Even when i am just petting Hope, the mentally challenged cat, she keeps moving further away while expecting the petting to continue.
So far, it seems to be working out that Sweetie gets a ride with his brother to work each day. What will happen after Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, gets laid off in July, well that's a bridge we will cross when we get there. Maybe through a miracle we will be able to purchase a hooptie that can go the few miles there and back five days a week.
All of the kittens are totally weaned, and have decided that it is fun to scrap over food. Every time anyone drops anything edible, Ashfur, the runt, grabs, growls, hisses, and runs to make sure she doesn't have to share. Each of the others run around at that point to try to get their own share. I boiled off some turkey necks for the stock, and gave the cats the meat off the bones. Wow. Growling, scrapping, and tons of gulping. Yep, they are weaned.
For those who celebrate their gift giving today, on the Epiphany -- visit of the Wise Men -- may you get all you need, and much of what you want.
Today is:
Armed Forces Day -- Iraq
Befana -- Italy (Befana is the fairy who resides in chimneys, flies on a broom, and leaves toys and candy in stockings on Epiphany, their traditional day to exchange gifts.)
Bean Day (Bake a bean or penny into a cake, whoever gets the slice with the bean is king for a day. A tradition continued in New Orleans and vicinity, especially, all the way through Mardi Gras Day, only now a plastic baby toy, representative of Jesus, is put in the traditional cakes.)
Blessing of the Waters -- Piraeus, Greece; Turkey; among Greek Orthodox worshipers worldwide (on the traditional date of the Baptism of Jesus)
Carnival Season begins -- Christian, through Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday
Children's Day -- Uruguay
Cuddle Up Day
Day of Sirona -- Gallic Calendar (healing goddess)
Dezome-shiki -- Tokyo (fire fighters perform acrobatic feats from the tops of ladders to show agility)
Dia de los Reys (Three Kings Day) -- Hispanic Christians
Epiphany -- Western Christian
Epiphany of Kore (Persephone/Proserpina) -- Ancient Greek Calendar
Feast of Aesculapius (Greek god of healing)
Feast of the Theophany -- Orthodox Christian
Four Freedoms Day -- US (commemorates the FDR speech about the four freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear.)
Greek Cross Day -- Tarpon Springs, Florida (as part of the Greek Orthodox Church
Little Christmas -- Ireland
Maroon Festival -- Jamaica
National Shortbread Day
Nativity of Christ -- Armenian Christian
Perch Tenlauf, Austria (A festival with scary masks and music to frighten away winter.)
Shorinzan Daruma-Ichi -- Japan (Good luck dolls are purchased, with no eyes. One eye is painted on when you make a wish, the other when the wish comes true.)
St. Balthazar, Caspar, and Melchoir's Day (patron of travelers)
St. Macra's Day (patron against breast disease)
St. Peter Baptist's Day (patron of Japan)
Swap Day
Take a Poet to Lunch Day
Anniversaries Today:
Henry VIII marries Anne of Cleves, 1540 (his 4th wife)
New Mexico becomes the 47th US State, 1912
George Bush marries Barbara Pierce, 1945
Birthdays Today:
Susan Perabo, 1969
Nancy Lopez, 1957
Rowan Atkinson, 1955
Bonnie Franklin, 1944
Vic Tayback, 1929
Sun Myung Moon, 1920
Loretta Young, 1913
Danny Thomas, 1912
Kahlil Gibran, 1883
Tom Mix, 1880
Carl Sandburg, 1878
Sherlock Holmes, 1854 (As celebrated by the Baker Street Irregulars.)
Joan of Arc, 1412
Today in History:
The first Roman Catholic Mass is celebrated in the "New World," at La Isabela, Hispaniola, 1494
All Jews are expelled from Syria, 1497
The city of Lima, Peru, is founded by Francisco Pizarro, 1535
The first recorded boxing match of the style now called English Boxing is held -- the Duke of Albemarle's butler versus his butcher, 1681
Massachusetts slaves petition the legislature for freedom, 1773
Samuel Morse makes his first public demonstration of the telegraph, 1838
The most damaging storm in 300 years sweeps across Ireland, damaging or destroying more than 20% of the houses in Dublin, 1839
A patent for reducing zinc ore granted to Samuel Wetherill of Pennsylvania, 1857
The Washington National Cathedral is chartered bu the US Congress and signed by President Benjamin Harrison, 1893
The first telephone call is made from a submerged submarine, by Simon Lake, 1898
Maria Montessori opens her first school and day care for working class families in Rome, 1907
The Great White Fleet passes through the Suez Canal, the largest group of ships to pass through up to that time, 1909
Mother Teresa arrives in Calcutta to begin her work among the poor of India, 1929
The first diesel-engined automobile trip is completed, from Indianapolis, Indiana, to New York City, 1930
Thomas Edison submits his last patent application, for a "Holder for Article to be Electroplated," 1931
Barbara Hanley becomes Canada's first woman mayor, of the city of Webbwood, Ontario, 1936
The Pacific Clipper lands at Pan American's LaGuardia Field, completing the first around the world flight, 1942
The Crown of St. Stephen (also known as the Holy Crown of Hungary) is returned to Hungary from the United States, where it was held after World War II, 1978
The Ady Gil, a ship owned by Sea Shepherd, is sunk during a skirmish with the Japanese Whaling Fleet's Shonan Maru, 2010
Well, the dining room table problem is on its way to being solved. We will not, of course, be able to buy a new dining table.
Instead, we are going to get a very small table to put against the wall, and put everything that is on the bar that runs almost the length of the kitchen on said table.
My father has bar stools that are no longer really ever used. He moved them from the old house because they were there, and because the new house has a bar, and it seemed the thing to do at the time. However, they no longer entertain scads of people, and the bar stools just sit, unused. We will put them to good use.
This will free up a good part of the dining area to be a dedicated kitten area, where i won't be stepping over and around and occasionally, totally by accident, on the kittens. Yes, i do the kitten shuffle, and only ever catch a toe or a bit of tail, but it still hurts them and me. As for the others in the house, well, again, we have all accidentally done it, and having the kittens out of the main kitchen will help prevent it.
Now to save up for a nice aluminum table that will hold up under a microwave, some cast iron, and the fruit bowls that we leave out all the time. All of those now live on the bar. Also to find some kind of play pen type fencing to keep kittens over there when they are very tiny.
We also need a light over the bar. I will look into some kind of wall mount enclosed light kit that doesn't require being wired into the house.
The main light in the room now is a chandelier that Sweetie, who is 6'2", keeps knocking into, as it is no longer hanging over the middle of a table. We will have to either replace (expensive) or pull the chain up and leave it at that (my favorite idea, as it is cheap).
Today is:
Apple Howling Day -- Henfield, West Sussex (Held at Gill Orchard, horn blowing and howling at the trees is said to wake them up and yield a good crop.)
Epiphany Fair -- Italy
Fair Deal Day
Get on the Computer Day (Obviously dates back to a time when people didn't have to check email daily or get inundated.)
National Bird Day
National Whipped Cream Day
Night of the Magic Camel -- Syria
Nones of January -- Ancient Roman Calendar
Take the Cake Day (Do something, anything, over the top.)
Turn Up the Heat Day
Twelfth Day of Christmas -- and thus, Twelfth Night (Although by some reckonings, this is actually only the 11th day of Christmas, and thus Twelfth Night Eve. Take your pick.)
Anniversaries Today:
George Washington marries Martha Dandridge Custis, 1759
Birthdays Today:
Pamela Sue Martin, 1953
Diane Keaton, 1946
Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, 1938
Alvin Ailey, 1931
Robert Duvall, 1931
Walter Mondale, 1928
George Reeves, 1914
George Dolenz, 1908
King Camp Gillette, 1855
Constanze Mozart, 1762 (wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart)
Pietro Filippo Scarlotti, 1679
Shah Jahal, 1592 (Mughal emperor of India, built the Taj Mahal)
Today in History:
Edward the Confessor dies with no heir, leading to a succession crisis that ends with the Norman Conquest, 1066
Felix Manz, a leader of the Anabaptist congregation in Zürich, is executed by drowning, 1527
Pope Clemens VII forbids English king Henry VIII to re-marry, 1531
A petition in Recife, Brazil leads to closing of their 2 synagogues, 1638
The first Swedenborgian temple in the US holds its first service, in Baltimore, 1800
The Ohio legislature passes the first laws restricting the movement of free blacks, 1804
Davy Crockett arrives in Texas, just in time for the Alamo, 1836
The US House of Representatives votes to stop sharing the Oregon Territory with the UK, 1846
The first US school of librarianship opens at Columbia University, 1887
An Austrian newspaper makes the first public report on Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of xrays, 1896
The National Association of Audubon Society incorporates, 1905
Colombia recognizes Panama's independence, 1909
The Ford Motor Company announces an eight-hour workday and a minimum wage of $5 for a day's labor, 1914
British premier Lloyd George issues a demand for a unified peace, 1918
Nellie Taylor Ross is sworn in as governor of Wyoming, the first woman governor of a US state, 1925
Mao Tse-tung writes "A Single Spark Can Start A Prairie Fire," 1930
FM radio is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time, 1940
The Daily Mail becomes the first transoceanic newspaper, 1944
Warmest reliably measured temperature in Antarctica of +59°F (+15°C) recorded at Vanda Station, 1974
Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered, 2005
Someone asked me how i blog every single day.
The answer is simple. Grit. Even on days when the last thing in the world i want to do is write anything more, after answering emails and posting encouragements for friends and cooking and cleaning and teaching and running errands, grit.
It is something i've decided i'm going to do, so i do. Where it will take me i have no idea. It is on my Mindbloom list of actions for every day. I consider it part of the work for The Artist's Way.
There is no book in me, i'm not a writer. That would be wonderful, a dream come true in fact, but it just isn't true for me. This, i can do. Meander around, piddle-dink, putter.
So i meander. Anything and everything and nothing, whatever runs through my abnormal brain. It's become a habit, and something of a passion, to see if i can find something, anything, to write about. Every single day.
Up to now, i've managed to find at least a sentence or two that i can cobble together. I'd like to say it gets easier, but some days it does, and some it doesn't.
How do you post every single day? Just post. Just start. Write a sentence. Erase, Write another. Go clean a sink full of dishes. Come write something else. Sooner or later, it will add up to a post.
Today is:
Blender Day
Day of the Fallen against the Colonial Repression -- Angola
Dimpled Chad Day
Eleventh Day of Christmas
Feast of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton (1st US-born Saint)
Festival of Fufluns -- Etruscan god of wine
Flower Basket Day
Get Out Your Boxer Shorts Day
Independence Day -- Myanmar
National Spaghetti Day
Ogoni Day -- Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People of the Niger River
Pop Music Chart Day
St. Pharaildis' Day (patron against childhood illness)
Trivia Day
World Braille Day
World Hypnotism Day
Anniversaries Today:
Utah becomes the 45th US state, 1896
Birthdays Today:
Michael Stipe, 1960
Matt Frewer, 1958
Grace Bumbry, 1937
Dyan Cannon, 1937
Floyd Patterson, 1935
Jesse White, 1917
Jane Wyman, 1914
Sterling Holloway, 1905
Charles "Tom Thumb" Stratton, 1838
Louis Braille, 1809
Jakob Grimm, 1785
Today in History:
Titus Labienus is defeated by Julius Caesar in the Battle of Ruspina, BC 46
Columbus leaves the "New World" on return from his first voyage, 1493
Spanish viceroy Alva banishes Zutphen City's only physician, Joost Sweiter, "because he is a Jew", 1570
Most of the Palace of Whitehall in London, the main residence of the English monarchs, is destroyed by fire, 1698
Andre Méchain discovers M80, the globular cluster in Scorpio, 1781
Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government, 1847
4 wheeled roller skates patented by James Plimpton of NY, 1863
The New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City, 1865
Sofia is emancipated from Ottoman rule, 1878
The last known sighting of an eastern cougar, in Ontario, 1884
Dr W W Grant of Iowa, performs the first appendectomy (on Mary Gartside, 22), 1885
Thomas Stevens is the first man to bicycle around the world (SF-SF); his itinerary accounts "DISTANCE ACTUALLY WHEELED, ABOUT 13,500 MILES", 1887
The Scout Association is incorporated throughout the British Commonwealth by Royal Charter, 1912
The first elected Jewish governor, Moses Alexander, takes office in Idaho, 1915
Sputnik 1 reenters the atmosphere and burns up, 1958
Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon, 1959
Rose Heilbron becomes the first female judge to sit at the Old Bailey in London, 1972
Elizabeth Ann Seton becomes the first American-born saint, 1975
Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC, 2004
The 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history, 2007
The Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building is officially opened, 2010
So, today is back to work day.
We still haven't decided what to do with the van, so it sits. Brother-in-Law, The Mouth, will pick Sweetie up for work each day and bring him home most days. In exchange, we will buy him gas each week.
It's trite to say that the holidays went too fast. It's trite to say winter is cold, too, but it is still true. Back when we did decorate more for the holiday, it seemed to last a bit longer.
One thing that has to be on the schedule this week is to get everyone, and i mean everyone, to the vet's office. My cats need a check up, Mike is sneezing, and the 6 tiny kittens aren't so tiny any more, and need to be weighed and scheduled for surgery. Especially Nightpelt. He is very close to two pounds if he is an ounce, about twice the size of his sister Ming. She could almost fit with the younger four.
Also, back to work time means everyone's favorite, get ready for tax time. My papers are in sad shape, as usual, and one thing i need to do is take everything up to the church, spread it all out on one of the nice, big tables they have there, and just dig into it all.
Another thing is to figure out how to keep the kittens from getting behind the refrigerator without blocking it in so much that it overheats. It's getting to be a chore, trying to coax them to where i can grab them and haul them out when they get stuck.
Then there is the kitchen table situation. Sweetie and Bigger Girl want another table. #1 Son, #2 Son, and Little Girl don't really care if we have one or not. I'm all for turning that room into kitten central, instead of having them under my feet in the main kitchen area. They would, instead, be only a few feet away. Maybe a smaller table, with leaves that fold down when the whole family isn't using it. Or two card tables, one up all the time, the other only when needed. It's going to take some thought. And more work. So, back to it.
Today is:
Earth at Perihelion
Festival of Pax -- Roman Empirical Calendar (goddess of peace)
Festival of Sleep Day (Because it is assumed we could all use some extra z's after the holidays.)
Genshi-sai (First Beginning Ceremony) -- Imperial Palace and various shrines, Japan
Handsel Monday -- Scotland
Icing Morning -- Fairy Calendar
Humiliation Day
J.R.R. Tolkien Day
Memento More "Remember You Die" Day (Tibet tradition says the fates decide who will die this year on this day.)
National Chocolate Covered Cherry Day
Shigoto-hajime -- Japan (first work day of the New Year)
St. Genevieve's Day (patron of Paris, secretaries, actors, lawyers; against drought, fever, floods, plague)
Tamaseseri Festival -- Hakozaki Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan
Tenth Day of Christmas
Anniversaries Today:
Alaska becomes the 49th US State, 1959
Birthdays Today
Eli Manning, 1981
Danica McKellar, 1975
Joan Chen, 1960
Mel Gibson, 1956
Victoria Principal, 1950
John Paul Jones, 1946
Stephen Stills, 1945
Van Dyke Parks, 1943
Dabney Coleman, 1932
George Martin, 1926
Maxine Andrews, 1918
Victor Borge, 1909
Ray Milland, 1905
Zasu Pitts, 1898
Marion Davies, 1897
J.R.R. Tolkien, 1892
Father Joseph Damien, 1840
William Tucker, 1624 (first African American child born in North America)
Cicero, BC106
Today in History:
Joan of Arc is handed over to the bishop for trial, 1431
Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine, 1496
Martin Luther is formally excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church, 1521
The first theater in Amsterdam, the Schouwburg, opens, 1638
Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont as a separate state, 1749
Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico, 1823
Joseph Jenkins Roberts is sworn in as the first president of the independent African Republic of Liberia, 1848
The Meiji Restoration returns authority to Japan's emperors, 1868
Oleomargarine is patented by Henry Bradley, Binghamton, NY, 1871
The wax drinking straw is patented, by Marvin C Stone in Washington DC, 1888
The refracting telescope at the Lick Observatory, then the largest in the world, is put into use, 1888
The first known use of the word automobile was seen in an editorial in The New York Times, 1899
British explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt, 1924
Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy, dissolves the Italian parliament, 1925
Minnie D. Craig becomes the first female elected as Speaker of the North Dakota House of Representatives, the first female to hold a Speaker position anywhere in the United States, 1933
Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress, 1953
Edmund Hillary reaches South Pole overland, 1958
The West Indies Federation is formed, 1958
Apple Computer is incorporated, 1977
Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century, 1988
In Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), 1993
More than seven million people from the former Apartheid Homelands, receives South African citizenship, 1994
The People's Republic of China announces it will spend fight erosion and pollution in the Yangtze and Yellow river valleys, 1977
The Mars Polar Lander is launched, 1999
While everyone else is blogging about goals and resolutions and such, i am over here having conversations like the following:
#2 Son: "Mom, it was beast last night!"
Really.
"Yeah, someone dared me to put out a punk with my hand and I did, see!" Shows a dark spot on his hand.
Son, why did you do that?
"Well, that's not my only injury from last night. We wrestled, and I've got bruises and a couple of burns. Want to see?"
Not particularly, unless they start to get infected.
"Oh, don't worry about that, if it does, I'll take care of it!"
I'm sure you will. As usual, the sarcasm is lost on him.
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Sweetie: "Is this the sauerkraut stuff in here?"
Yes, take a taste and let me know how it turned out.
"Well, it's good, but next time, could you put bratwurst in it?"
I did put bratwurst in it.
"Oh, then it just got better!"
Cue eye roll.
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Meg, at adoption day: "Where are the rest of the litter boxes for the cages?"
Sarah: "I thought you brought them!"
Meg: "And i didn't grab adoption boxes, either. It's going to be one of those days!"
It wasn't that bad, 3 adoptions, though none were mine. Still, this seems like something that would happen to me, and i sympathize.
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#2 Son: "Hey, mom, did you know they've proven that a snake will try to swallow a person?"
Well, i would imagine so, if it was a big enough snake and it was hungry enough, and you were silly enough to get in its way.
"Yeah, but they found out that if you lie still on your back, and let it try to get you from the head end, it won't be able to get past your shoulders."
So, you lie there with your head in a snake's mouth?
"Yeah, you just hold your breath and hope it spits you out soon!"
I'll try to remember that the next time i'm tromping through the Amazon rain forest.
Today is:
Advent of Isis -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar
Advent of Inanna -- Ancient Sumerian Calendar
Ancestry Day -- Haiti
Berchtoldstag -- Alsace; Liechtenstein; Switzerland
Blacks and Whites Carnival -- Colombia (through the 7th)
Get Over It Day
Granada Day -- Spain
Happy Mew Year for Cats Day
Kakizome -- Japan ("first writing", the first calligraphy written at the beginning of the New Year)
Miniature Golf Day
National Cream Puff Day
National Science Fiction Day
Ninth Day of Christmas
Run It Up the Flagpole and See if Anyone Salutes It Day
Second Day of New Year -- A holiday in Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Montenegro, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Ukraine.
St. Adelard's Day (Patron of gardeners.)
St. Basil's Day, Russia (Patron of hospital administrators.)
St. Blidulf of Bobbio
St. Gregory of Nazianzus' Day
St. Macarius' Day (Patron of of cooks, confectioners and pastry chefs.)
St. Seraphim of Sarov's Day
Anniversaries Today:
Georgia becomes the 4th US State, 1788
Birthdays Today:
Christy Turlington, 1969
Cuba Gooding, Jr. 1968
Tia Carrere, 1967
Gabrielle Carteris, 1961
Alan Beckwith, 1952
Dennis Hastert, 1942
Jim Bakker, 1939
Roger Miller, 1936
Isaac Asimov, 1920
Sally Rand, 1904
Barry Goldwater, 1902
Today in History:
The Alamanni cross the frozen Rhine River in large numbers, invading the Roman Empire, 366
Emperor Joseph II orders Jews of Galicia Austria to adopt family names, 1235
Spain recaptures Granada from the Moors (Granada Day), 1492
The first American revolutionary flag is displayed, 1776
The British Institution of Civil Engineers is founded, 1881
"The Liberator", and abolitionist newspaper, begins publishing in Boston, 1831
The British reestablish rule in the Falklands, 1833
The first US wire suspension bridge for general traffic opens in Pennsylvania, 1842
Because of anti-monopoly laws, Standard Oil is organized as a trust, 1882
Alice Sanger becomes the first female White House staffer, 1890
A record 19'2" alligator is shot in Louisiana by E. A. McIlhenny, 1890
Pres. T Roosevelt shuts down post office in Indianola Miss, for refusing to accept its appointed postmistress because she was black, 1903
The American anarcho-syndicalist union known as the Industrial Workers of the World forms, 1905
The Canadian branch of the Royal Mint opens in Ottawa, 1908
Lithuania gains independence, 1919
The US & Canada agree to preserve Niagara Falls, 1929
Luna 1, the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon and to orbit the Sun, is launched by the U.S.S.R., 1959
Stardust successfully flies past Comet Wild 2, collecting samples that are returned to Earth, 2004
So this is 2011. Too wet. #2 Son almost drowned, but still set off fireworks in a "war" with the other neighborhood kids. The kind of war where everyone has fun and comes out a winner.
The kittens have gotten the upper respiratory infection from Kida Cat. Can't go to adoption events until they are clear of it.
In the good news, Sweetie cleaned his side of the bedroom, got rid of all those old magazines.
Be careful what you do today, the legend is that whatever you do on the New Year's Day is what you will be doing a great deal of for the whole rest of the year.
Today is:
Bad Hangover Day
Black Nazarene Fiesta (through Jan. 9) -- Philippines
Bonza Bottler Day
Cape Town Minstrel Carnival (previously called Coon Carnival) -- South Africa (equivalent of Mardi Gras)
Constitution Day -- Italy
Day of the Establishment of the Slovak Republic -- Slovakia
Eighth Day of Christmas
Father Frost Day -- Russia (Sometimes called Grandfather Frost, an equivalent of Santa Claus who visits on New Year's Day.)
Feast of St. Basil -- Orthodox Christian
First-Foot Day (Make sure an auspicious or good person is the first to set foot in your home for the New Year.)
Fruitcake Toss Day
Gantan-sai (New Years) -- Shinto
Independence Day -- Brunei; Czech Republic; Haiti; Sudan
Kalends of January
Kwanzaa, Day 7 (final day) -- Imani (faith)
Mary, Mother of God -- Catholic Christian
Mummer's Parade -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
National Bloody Mary Day
National Tree Planting Day -- Tanzania
New Year's Day
New Year's Dishonor List Day
Polar Swim Day -- Vancouver
Restoration Day of the Independent Czech State - Czech Republic
Sacrifice to Fortuna -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Sacrifice something to the goddess of Fortune so she will give you a good year.
Shogatsu, Japan (New Year, most important holiday of the year)
Shusho-e Matsuri (through the 14th) -- Buddhists in Japan
St. Agatha's Day (protector from starvation, fire)
St. Basil's Day (Patron of hospital administrators)
St. Clarus' Day (patron against myopia)
St. Odilo's Day
St. Fulgentius' Day
St. Telemachus' Day
Tournament of Roses Parade
Triumph of the Revolution -- Cuba
Universal Hour of Peace (noon, Greenwich Mean Time)
Vienna New Year's Concert -- Vienna, Austria
Z Day
Birthdays Today:
Verne "Mini-Me" Troyer, 1969
Kathleen Casey, 1946
Don Novello, 1943
J. D. Salinger, 1919
Barry Goldwater, 1909
Xavier Cugat, 1900
J. Edgar Hoover, 1895
EM Forster, 1879
Betsy Ross, 1752
Paul Revere, 1735
Today in History:
The Julian Calendar takes effect for the first time, BC45
Origin of the Christian Era, 1
The last gladiator competion in Rome, 404
Muhammad sets out toward Mecca with his army, 630
Jews of Sicily are no longer required to attend conversionist services, 1430
Portuguese navigators become the first Europeans to see the Guanabara Bay, which they thought was the mouth of a river and first called Rio de Janeiro (River of January), 1502
Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of March 25, 1600
German astronomer Simon Marius first sees Jupiter's moons (he did not report them, though, Galileo did, on July 10 of the same year), 1610
Samuel Pepys makes his first diary entry, 1660
The first traveler's cheques go on sale in London, for use in 90 European cities, 1772
The Irish Parliament votes to join the Kingdom of Great Britain, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, 1801
The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Giuseppe Piazzi, 1801
Emperor Gia Long orders all bronze wares of the Tay San Dynasty to be collected and melted into nine cannons for the Royal Citadel in Hue, Vietnam, 1803
Haiti gains independence from France (National Day), 1804
Import of slaves into the US is banned, 1808
The first homestead under the Homestead Act claimed, near Beatrice, Nebraska, 1863
Japan begins using the Gregorian Calendar, 1873
England's Queen Victoria proclaimed empress of India, 1877
Twenty-five nations adopt Sanford Fleming's proposal for Standard Time and Time Zones, 1885
The first Tournament of Roses is held, 1900
The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia, 1901
Vancouver, BC starts driving on the right side of road, 1922
Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar: December 18, 1926 (Julian), is immediately followed by January 1, 1927 (Gregorian), 1927
Emperor Hirohito of Japan announces he is not a god, 1946
The European Community is established, 1958
United States Navy SEALs established, 1962
The Internet's Domain Name System is created, 1985
The first British mobile phone call is made by Ernie Wise to Vodafone, 1985
A single market within the European Community is introduced, 1993
The North American Free Trade Agreement comes into effect 1994
The World Trade Organization goes into effect, 1995
The European Central Bank is established, 1998
The Euro currency is introduced in 11 countries, 1999
Euro banknotes and coins become legal tender in twelve of the European Union's member states, 2002
Taiwan officially joins the World Trade Organization, as Chinese Taipei, 2002
The Open Skies mutual surveillance treaty officially comes into force, 2002
Sydney, Australia swelters through its hottest New Years Day on record. The thermometer peaked at 45 °C (113 °F), sparking bushfires and power outages, 2006
Bulgaria and Romania officially join the European Union. Also, Bulgarian, Romanian, and Irish become official languages of the European Union, 2007
Malta and Cyprus officially adopt the Euro currency and become the fourteenth and fifteenth Eurozone countries, 2008
