Wordless Wednesday: On the Porch

Tripod SissyCat loves her outdoor time.

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday. 

Today is:

Anxiety Disorders Screening Day -- if you have symptoms, get checked, there is help 

Badminton Horse Trials -- Badminton, Gloucestershire, England (international horse trials of show jumping, cross-country, and dressage; through Sunday)

Bent Wand-Straightening Day -- Fairy Calendar

Bona Dia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (a women's festival)

Constitution Day -- Poland

Constitution Memorial Day -- Japan (Part of the Showa Golden Week Festivities)

Dia de la Cruz -- Mexico (Day of the Holy Cross, a festive day for construction workers, with parties and a flower decorated cross placed on every piece of new construction through the country)

Florae -- Ancient Roman Calendar (ceremony at the temple of Flora)

Garden Meditation Day -- let go your concerns and center your attention on your garden 

Great American Grump Out Day -- encouraging everyone to avoid grumpiness and rudeness for 24 hours; who knows, you might enjoy it so much it will stick!

Lumpy Rug Day -- the tongue-in-cheek day to tease bigots about shoving unwanted facts under the rug, sponsored by Robert L. Birch of Puns Corps

National Day to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy -- US 

National Raspberry Popover Day / National Raspberry Tart Day

National Specially-Abled Pets Day --US 

National Two Different Colored Shoes Day -- celebrate your uniqueness, take a risk, and step outside of your routine today 

Paranormal Day -- i have enough trouble with normal, thank you

Pregnancy Fitness Awareness Day -- can't confirm this is still sponsored by Karen Bridson 

St. James the Lesser's Day (Patron of apothecaries, druggists, the dying, fullers, hatters and hatmakers, miliners, pharmacists; Frascati, Italy; Monterotondo, Italy; Nemi, Italy; Uruguay; Venegono Inferiore, Italy)

St. Phillip the Apostle's Day (Patron of hatmakers and hatters, milliners, pastry chefs; Luxembourg; Monterotondo, Italy; Nemi, Italy; San Felipe Indian Pueblo; Uruguay; Venegono, Inferiore, Italy)

Sunfest -- West Palm Beach, FL, US (Florida's largest music, art, and waterfront festival; through Sunday)

Togyu Taikai -- Tokunoshima Island, Japan (bull sumo, in which bulls push each other out of the ring; through the 5th)

Wordsmith Day

World Press Freedom Day -- International/UN

Birthdays Today:

Joseph Addai, 1983

Christine Hendricks, 1975

Dule Hill, 1974

Christopher Cross, 1951

Mary Hopkin, 1950

Doug Henning, 1947

Greg Gumbel, 1946

Frankie Valli, 1937

Engelbert Humperdinck, 1936

James Brown, 1933

Sugar Ray Robinson, 1921

Pete Seeger, 1919

Bing Crosby, 1903

Golda Meir, 1898

Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Bent"(Play), 1979

"All Things Considered"(National Public Radio Network first broadcast), 1971

"The Most Happy Fella"(Musical), 1956

"CBS Evening News"(TV), 1948

Today in History:

Christopher Columbus first sights Jamaica (Santiago), 1494

Francis Bacon is charged with bribery, 1621

A royal charter is granted for Connecticut, 1662

The last total solar eclipse to be observed from London for the next 900 years occurs as predicted by Edmund Halley; called Halley's eclipse as he predicted it to within 4 minutes accuracy and described its path to within 30km, 1715

The Constitution of May 3 (the first modern constitution in Europe) is proclaimed by the Sejm of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 1791

Washington, D.C., is incorporated as a city, 1802

The Canterbury and Whitstable Railway is opened. It is the first steam hauled passenger railway to issue season tickets and include a tunnel, 1830

The Hudson's Bay Company gives up all claims to Vancouver Island, 1867

The Great Fire of 1901 in Jacksonville, Florida, destroys 1,700 buildings, 1901

Raja Harishchandra the first full-length Indian feature film is released, marking the beginning of the Indian film industry, 1913

The poem In Flanders Fields is written by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, 1915

Nellie Tayloe Ross becomes the first woman to head the United States Mint, 1933

Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind is awarded the Pulitzer Prize, 1937

The Kentucky Derby is televised for the first time, 1951

Lieutenant Colonels Joseph O. Fletcher and William P. Benedict of the United States land a plane at the North Pole, 1952

The Anne Frank House opens in Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1960

The first "spam" email is sent by a Digital Equipment Corporation marketing representative to every ARPANET address on the west coast of the United States, 1978

The strongest tornado ever recorded, one of  66 tornadoes recorded that day,with winds of up to 313mph, strikes Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 1999

The sport of geocaching begins, with the first cache placed and the coordinates from a GPS posted on Usenet, 2000

New Hampshire's famous Old Man of the Mountain collapses, 2003

New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art announces it will return two statues from northern Cambodia's archeological site Koh Ker, 2013

Tuesday Coffee Chat: Where do i go from here?

Rory Bore at Ink Interrupted hosts the Tuesday Coffee Chat, and this week she wants us to discuss:  Finish the sentence.  If I could go anywhere today....

This discussion needs a two pronged approach.  You see, there are places i can go today and be back home tonight in my own bed, and then there are places i can take off to travel to that would take a while to get there and i might not want to come home ever once i did!

If i could go anywhere today that's nearby, i would have a difficult time choosing between running down to NOLA or exploring the downtown area right here.  NOLA has her charms, and a trip to have coffee at Cafe du Monde and go sit in the St. Louis Cathedral and just soak up the atmosphere is always welcome.  Then there's the Aquarium and the Audubon Zoo and, well, if i headed down there to be a "tourist" i might stay a week.

We have some lovely places here, too.  Museums and scenic walks, new green spaces to encourage us to park our cars and get out more, delightful small restaurants.  If i had money and no plans, i could park down at the church very early in the morning and just go, and not come home until evening and still not have seen and done it all.

If i could go anywhere and didn't have to be back by a certain time, you might not see me until next year!  There's lots of travel i want to do, Canada, Alaska, the UK, Australia, New Zealand -- that's enough to be getting on with.

An Alaskan cruise that ends with me going to Canada and touring from one end to the other would be a dream come true.  Cross by ship to England and spend some time there, as well as Scotland, and then head off to the lands of kiwis and koalas, and you've got the trip of several lifetimes.

In reality, give me a day off and i often head to my favorite place, the library.  Even if those far-away destinations are mostly dreams, i can feed my dreams at one of these local book heavens.

Where's the next place you would want to travel?  If you could take off today, where would you go?

Today is:

Anniversary of the 3rd Druk Gyalpo -- Bhutan

Baby Day -- birth anniversary of Dr. Spock

Brothers and Sisters Day/Sibling Appreciation Day -- an internet generated holiday, not to be confused with National Siblings Day on April 10 each year

Carnival Day -- Sint Maarten

Community Day -- M, Spain

Day of Osiris going forth from his mountain -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Door-Banging and Window-Tapping Conference -- Fairy Calendar (Gremlins)

Flag Day -- Poland

Give Local America -- US (encouraging people to support local charities with the largest crowdfuning event in history) 

Holiday of the Region of Madrid -- Madrid, Spain

International Scurvy Awareness Day -- because yes, some people do still get this disease of Vitamin C deficiency 

King James Bible Day -- marking the publication in 1611 of the King James Version of the Bible

National Education Day -- Indonesia

National Play Your Ukulele Day -- just because it's fun!

National Truffles Day

Roberts Rules of Order Day -- birth anniversary of Henry M. Robert, author of the standard parliamentary guide Robert's Rules of Order

Rowdy Friends Day -- go look up the ones you haven't seen in a while

St. Athanasius the Great's Day

St. Zoe's Day

Teacher's Day -- Bhutan; Iran

Twelfth Day of Ridvan -- Baha'i

World Asthma Day -- International (Global Initiative for Asthma) 

Yom Ha'Atzmaut -- Israel (Independence Day; began sunset yesterday, through sunset today)

Birthdays Today:

Sarah Hughes, 1985

Jenna Von Oy, 1977

David Beckham, 1975

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, 1972

Elizabeth Berridge, 1962

Christine Baranski, 1952

Larry Gatlin, 1949

Lesley Gore, 1946

David Suchet, 1946

Bianca Jagger, 1945

Engelbert Humperdinck, 1936

Roscoe Lee Browne, 1925

Theodore Bikel, 1924

Satyajit Ray, 1921

Dr. Benjamin Spock, 1903

Baron Von Richthofen, 1892

Hedda Hopper, 1885

Henry M. Robert, 1837

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Sunday in the Park with George"(Musical), 1984

"Peter and the Wolf"(Prokofiev Op. 67), 1936

"The Jack Benny Program"(Radio), 1932

Good Housekeeping(Magazine), 1885

"La Bottega del Caffe/The Coffee Shop"(Play), 1750

Authorized King James Version of the Bible(Publication date, by printer Robert Barker), 1611

Today in History:

Anne Boleyn, Queen of England, is arrested and imprisoned on charges of adultery, incest, treason and witchcraft, 1536

John Knox returns from exile to Scotland  to become the leader of the beginning Scottish Reformation, 1559

Mary, Queen of Scots, escapes from Loch Leven Castle, 1568

King Charles II of England grants a permanent charter to the Hudson's Bay Company to open up the fur trade in North America, 1670

William Herschel discovers 1st binary star, Xi Ursae Majoris, 1780

Charles Fremantle founds the Swan River Colony in Australia, 1829

Peruvian defenders fight off Spanish fleet at the Battle of Callao, 1866

Good Housekeeping magazine goes on sale for the first time, 1885

Cree and Assiniboine  warriors win the Battle of Cut Knife, their largest victory over Canadian forces during the North-West Rebellion, 1885

The Congo Free State is established by King Léopold II of Belgium, 1885

Hannibal W Goodwin patents celluloid photographic film, 1887

General Motors  acquires the Chevrolet Motor Company of Delaware, 1918

Pearl S. Buck is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for The Good Earth, 1938

The world's first ever jet airliner, the De Havilland Comet 1, makes its maiden flight, from London to Johannesburg, 1952

Tennessee Williams is awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, 1955

The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 departs on her maiden voyage to New York City, 1969

The 1986 World Exposition in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, opens, 1986

The European Central Bank is founded in Brussels in order to define and execute the European Union's monetary policy, 1998

President Bill Clinton announces that accurate GPS access would no longer be restricted to the United States military, 2000

Cyclone Nargis makes landfall in Myanmar killing over 130,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless, 2008

Conservationists determine poachers killed the last known rhinoceroses in Mozambique; these poachers worked with game rangers responsible for protecting them, 2013

Awww Monday: Hammock Time

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!

At the shelter, you have to be on top of the "I'm beautiful, adopt me!" game, even when you are sleepy.

We will try to get up and be playful, but the hammock won't let go!

Today is:

Agriculture Day and Labor Day -- Haiti

Amtrak Day -- the train service began this day in 1971

Beltane / Samhain -- Wiccan/Pagan

Bladder Cancer Awareness Month  

Buccaneer Days Festival -- Corpus Christi, TX, US (rodeo, festival, parade, and fun; through May 14) 

Calends of May -- Ancient Roman Calendar; related observances

     Day sacred to Maia

     Feast for Lares Praestites (household gods)

Childhood Stroke Awareness Month -- also called Pediatric Stroke Awareness Day, because kids can have strokes, too 

Chimney Sweeps Day -- the boys as young as 4 trained to help master sweeps got Mayday off each year

Constitution Day / National Day -- Marshall Islands

Executive Coaching Day -- a reminder, on what is most countries' Labor Day, that workers deserve great leaders

Faint-Hearted Fairies May (or May Not) Ball -- Fairy Calendar

Feast of Our Lady of Peace and Good Voyage -- Antipolo, Rizal, Philippines (pilgrimages to the shrine of Nuestra Sra de la Paz y Buen Viaje; through the month)

Festival of Saint Efisio -- Cagliari, Italy (one of the most colorful religious festivals anywhere in the world; through the 4th)

Garland Dressing -- Charlton on Otmoor, England (a wooden cross is bedecked with yew and box leaves)

Global Love Day -- sponsored by The Love Foundation 

Go Fetch! National Food Drive for Homeless Animals -- PALS Foundation 

Gujarat Day / Maharashtra Day -- MH, India

Journée Internationale de la Guérilla Tournesol / International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day -- begun in Belgium, now celebrated worldwide, guerrila gardeners are encouraged to plant sunflowers (or an appropriate plant for their climate) in a neglected public place or shabby flower bed

Keep Kids Alive! Drive 25 Day -- 20-25mph in school zones, please 

Kevadpuha -- Estonia (Spring Day)

Law Day, USA -- US, by Presidential Proclamation

Lei Day -- Hawai'i (where you celebrate Mayday with a lei instead of mayflowers)

Loyalty Day -- US

May Day / Labor Day / Worker's Day -- International; celebrated as the beginning of summer in some places, as a Labor Day in others

Melanoma Monday -- learn how to check yourself for skin cancer, and how to get someone else to check your back, the most common spot for melanoma 

Mother Goose Day -- as declared by the Mother Goose Society 

National Chocolate Parfait Day

National Library Legislative Day and Virtual Library Legislative Days -- US (40+ years of the ALA advocating for libraries, encouraging librarians around the US to go to Washington, D.C., or their own state capitals to speak to legislators about the important library issues; through tomorrow) 

National Love Day -- Czech Republic (couples flock to the memorial of the poet Karel Hynek Mácha in Prague and kiss)

National Purebred Dog Day -- US (as proposed on this Facebook page)  

New Homeowner's Day -- can't find confirmation on this one, listed at a few sites but no history or records of why this day

'Obby 'Oss (Hobby Horse) Parade -- Padstow, Cornwall, England (every May 1 since 1502, if the records are correct)

Play of St. Evermaar -- Belgium (annual performance of a mystery play, in its original form from over 1,000 years ago, by the village)

Riding of the Bounds -- Berwick-upon-Tweed, Casey, England (riders scour the countryside to be sure the Scots have not encroached upon English soil in this 5 century old tradition)

Rodonitsa -- Asatru/Slavic Pagan Calendar (day to offer feasts to the ancestors, named for Rod, god of family and the cosmos)

Santacruzan / Flore de Mayo -- Philippines (lasts through the month, with the biggest celebratory days being May 26-27 this year)

Save the Rhino Day / Rhino Mayday -- International

School Bus Driver Appreciation Day -- US

School Principal's Day -- since teachers get a day, so should the principal

Silver Star Day -- US (to honor all military who have earned a Silver Star) 

Stepmother's Day -- sponsored by secondwivesclub.com

St. Joseph the Worker's Day -- Holy See(Vatican City)

St. Peregrine Laziosi's Day (Patron of AIDS patients, cancer patients, and the sick; against cancer, open sores and skin diseases)

St. Walpurga's Canonization Day (The saint who banishes the evil from Walpurgis night.)

Swieta Panstwowe -- Poland (National Day)

Tammany's Day / St. Tamenend -- US soldiers in the Revolution wanted a patron saint to rival St. George of the British Army, and chose Delaware Indian chief and wise man Chief Tamenend, also called Tammany

Unity Day -- Kazakhstan

Virgen de Chapi Festival -- Peru

Yom HaZiKaron -- Israel (Memorial Day; ends at sunset)

Yom Ha'Atzmaut -- Israel (Independence Day; beings at sunset, through tomorrow sunset)

Yotaka Matsuri -- Fukuno, Toyama, Japan (enjoy floats, paper lanters, and mock battles in this two day festival)

Zuni Green Corn Dance -- Zuni Native Americans (welcoming back the Corn Maidens who fled during the winter; dating approximate as many Native ceremonies are closed to outsiders)

Anniversaries Today:

Cheerios go on sale, 1941

Empire State Building Ribbon Cutting, 1931

Birthdays Today:

Wes Anderson, 1969

Tim McGraw, 1967

Charlie Schlatter, 1966

Steve Cauthen, 1960

Ray Parker, Jr., 1954

Paul Teutul, Sr., 1949

Rita Coolidge, 1945

Bobbie Ann Mason, 1940

Judy Collins, 1939

Sonny James, 1929

Charles "Chuck" Bednarik, 1925

Terry Southern, 1924

Jack Paar, 1918

Glenn Ford, 1916

Archie Williams, 1915

Kate Smith, 1909

Mark Clark, 1896

Leo Sowerby, 1895

Calamity Jane (Martha Jane Burke), 1852

Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, 1837

King Kamehameha I of Hawai'i, 1738

Joseph Addison, 1672

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"My One and Only"(Musical), 1983

Citizen Kane(Film), 1941

"Batman"(Detective Comics #27), 1939

"Buffalo Bill's Wild West"(touring Western show), 1883

"Le nozze di Figaro/The Marriage of Figaro"(Mozart Opera, K492), 1786

Today in History:

The Wars of Scottish Independence end with a treaty recognizing the Kingdom of Scotland as a separate entity, 1328

The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1707

Species Plantarum is published by Linnaeus, marking the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature, 1753

Josiah Wedgwood founds the Wedgwood  pottery company in Great Britain, 1759

Jesuit-taught Adam Weishaupt establishes the Illuminati in Ingolstadt (Upper Bavaria), 1776

Kamehameha, the king of Hawai'i defeats Kalanikupule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawai'i, 1785

The British colonies abolish slavery, 1834

The Penny Black, the first official adhesive postage stamp, is issued in the United Kingdom, 1840

The first wagon train leaves from Independence, MO, bound for California, 1841

Hong Kong Police Force, the world's second, Asia's first modern police force is established, 1844

Queen Victoria opens the Great Exhibition in London, 1851

The Empire of Brazil, Argentina  and Uruguay  sign the Treaty of the Triple Alliance, 1865

The Folies Bergère opens in Paris, 1869

Moses Fleetwood Walker becomes the first black person to play in a professional baseball game in the United States, 1884

The RMS Lusitania departs from New York City on her two hundred and second, and final, crossing of the North Atlantic, 1915

The first cooked meals on a scheduled flight are introduced on an Imperial Airways flight from London to Paris, 1927

The dwarf planet Pluto is officially named, 1930

The Empire State Building is dedicated in New York City, 1931

The Summer Olympics are cancelled due to war, 1940

The Salk vaccine is made available to the public, 1956

Fidel Castro proclaims Cuba a socialist nation and abolishes elections, 1961

Amtrak is formed to take over the U.S. passenger rail service, 1971

Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun who was gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz, 1987

On the same day, Rickey Henderson of the Oakland A's sets the record for stolen bases (his 939th), and Nolan Ryan of the Texas Rangers pitches his 7th career no-hitter, breaking his own record, 1991

Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia join the European Union, , 2004

Same-sex marriage is legalized in Sweden, 2009

Pope John Paul II is beatified by his successor, Pope Benedict XVI, 2011

The U.N. Human Rights Office determine it is a violation of international law to force-feed hunger strikers at the U.S. Guantanamo Bay prison, 2013