The Other Woman (Awww Monday) and Sparks!

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's 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!

Little Girl's boyfriend has another girl, and she's not jealous:

In fact, they both love this pretty little lady.

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The wonderful Annie of McGuffy's Reader has started the blog hop called Sparks as a way to put more positive energy into the world.  Join her in combating the often negative influence of social media by adding your own Spark! 

I believe we are meant to be lights in this world. If we allow our light to shine, we can see where we are going. It is then that we can begin to truly see each other clearly. Together, we can light up the entire world! ~ McGuffy Ann Morris

My "Spark" for the day

Today is:

Anniversary of Cerro de Pasco -- Peru (founding of the city and its silver mine)

Bargle Day -- Fairy Calendar (a fairy day with no human equivalent)

Cider Monday -- celebrating the drink of the season, hot, spiced apple cider

Cyber Monday -- another excuse to buy stuff, the traditional beginning of the online shopping season

Electric Guitar Day -- birth anniversary of Jimi Hendrix

Feast of Ullr and Skadi -- Asatru/Norse Pagan (celebrating craftsmen)

Freckle Pride Day -- show your spots, you are beautiful!

Get the Giggles and Give One Away Day -- internet generated, and great if your a preteen girl

Icelandic Calendar Month Ylir (Whiner) begins -- named after the whining winter winds

Khoiak Ceremonies -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (ceremonies surrounding the stories of the death of Osiris, date approximate)

Lancashire Day -- Lancashire, England (celebrating their first elected representative in Parliament in 1295)

Maaverar Naal -- Tamil Eelam, Sri Lanka (Tamil Heroes' Day)

National Bavarian Cream Pie Day

Pie in the Face Day -- internet generated, and supposed to be a virtual one, so no mess to clean

Pins and Needles Day -- celebrating the 1937 opening of the Pins and Needles Music Revue

Provincial Anniversary Day -- Chatham Islands, New Zealand

St. Virgilius of Salzburg's Day (Patron of Salzburg, Austria; Slovenes)

St. James Intercisus' Day (Patron of lost vocations, torture victims)

Throw Out Your Leftovers Day -- if you've had it since Thanksgiving, and haven't frozen it or eaten it yet, get rid of it

Weihnachtsmarkt auf dem Romerberg -- Frankfurt, Germany (Frankfurt Christmas Market, including glockenspiels, trumpets, and bells rung from 9 churches at regular intervals; through Dec. 22)

Zibelemarit -- Bern, Switzerland (Onion Market Festival, in front of the Federal Palace, one of the country's best known and most popular autumn markets, always on the fourth Monday in November to commemorate the granting of market right to people after great fire of Berne in 1405.)

Anniversaries Today:

William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway, 1582

Birthdays Today:

Jaleel White, 1976

Samantha Harris, 1973

Brooke Langton, 1970

Robin Givens, 1964

Fisher Stevens, 1963

Caroline Kennedy, 1957

Rick Rockwell, 1956

Kathryn Bigelow, 1951

Jimi Hendrix, 1942

Eddie Rabbit, 1941

Bruce Lee, 1940

Gail Henion Sheehy, 1937

Alexander Dubcek, 1921

"Buffalo" Bob Smith, 1917

Chick Hearn, 1916

James Agee, 1909

L. Sprague de Camp, 1907

Forrest Shaklee, 1894

Chaim Weizmann, 1874

Charles A. Beard, 1874

Bat Masterson, 1853

Robert R. Livingston, 1746 (O.S. date)

Anders Celcius, 1701

Emperor Xiaozong of China, 1127

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Magical Mystery Tour"(Beatles album release), 1967

"Never Too Late"(Play), 1962

"The Dinah Shore Show"(TV), 1951

Today in History:

The first elected representatives from Lancashire were called to Westminster by King Edward I to attend what later became known as "The Model Parliament", 1295

The first Eddystone Lighthouse is destroyed in the Great Storm of 1703

The Portuguese Royal Family leaves Lisbon to escape from Napoleonic troops, 1807

Adoption of Constitution of the Kingdom of Poland, 1815

NY Times dubs baseball "The National Game", 1870

Alfred Nobel establishes the Nobel Prize, 1895

In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held, 1924

The Soviet space program's Mars 2 orbiter releases a descent module; it crashes, but still becomes the first man-made object to be on Mars, 1971

The left-wing Labour Party takes control of the New Zealand government with leader Helen Clark becoming the first elected female Prime Minister in New Zealand's history, 1999

A hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet, 2001

The Canadian House of Commons endorses Prime Minister Stephen Harper's motion to declare Quebec a nation within a unified Canada, 2006

Icelanders vote for their own constitution after using a modified Danish constitution for 66 years, 2010

The Nissan Leaf self-driving car completes its first test in Japan, on the Sagami Expressway, 2013

Say What? (Silly Sunday)

Silly Sunday is hosted by Sandee, of Comedy Plus.

Silly Sunday is the place to come for weekly laughs.  The rules are simple, just have fun.

This is a great opportunity to get to know other bloggers and have a laugh or two in the process.

Here is how it works: Laugh and Link Up!

Holidays spent with our elders sometimes prove interesting, as most of them either wear hearing aids or should.  Grandpa resists wearing his, and Grandma complains we talk too loud when she has hers in but that we are whispering if she doesn’t have them in.  Add the fact that both Uncle P and Uncle J have inherited hearing loss and have worn hearing devices for years and sometimes mayhem can ensue when someone either doesn’t hear or mis-hears something.

When Father Gastineaux done ax “Do anyone got ennyt’ing special you want us to pray ‘bout?” one Sunday, Boudreaux done say, “Father, please pray fo’ my hearin’.”  So Father done jes’ dat, an’ a couple days after, he see Boudreaux in town.

“Well, Boudreaux,” Father say, “we done pray, an’ did it he’p you hearin’?”

An’ Boudreaux say, “Mais, I don’ know, my hearin’ ain’t ‘til nex’ week!”

Today is:

Celebration of Christ The King -- Christian (final Sunday of the Ecclesiastical Year) related observance

    Stir Up Sunday -- the day to get your Christmas plum pudding started

Constitution Day of the Republic of Abkhazia -- Abkhazia

Day of the Covenant -- Baha'i

Day of the Tan-Wallopers -- Fairy Calendar

Good Grief Day -- birth anniversary of Charles Schultz

Handel's Messiah Sing-Along -- East Room of the Nixon Library, Yorba Linda, CA, US (two seatings available for this beautiful and enjoyable event, singing along with a master choir and orchestra)

Independence Day -- Mongolia(1924)

National Cake Day

Sojourner Truth Day -- died this day in 1883

St. John Berchmans' Day (Patron of alter servers, Oblate novices, young people)

Totensonntag/Ewigkeitssonntag -- Germany (Sunday of the Dead/Eternity Sunday; a general celebration and memorial of all who have died, decreed to be celebrated in Lutheran Churches by King Frederick William III of Prussia in 1816)

Anniversaries Today:

Founding of Sigma Alpha Mu in the City College of New York, by 8 Jewish young men, 1909

The first official Thanksgiving in the US, by presidential proclamation, 1789

Founding of the University of Notre Dame, 1842

Founding of Kappa Alpha Society, the oldest surviving US college fraternity, 1825

Birthdays Today:

Natasha Bedingfield, 1981

Shannon Dunn, 1972

Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon, 1966

Dale Jarrett, 1956

Tina Turner, 1939

Rich Little, 1938

Robert Goulet, 1933

Charles Schultz, 1922

Eugene Ionesco, 1912

Eric Sevareid, 1912

Lefty Gomez, 1908

Mary Edwards Walker, 1832

Sarah Moore Grimke, 1792

John Harvard, 1607

Emperor Go-Daigo of Japan, 1288

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Anarchy in the UK"(Sex Pistols single release), 1977

"The Price is Right"(TV), 1956

"Twenty Questions"(TV), 1949

Casablanca(Film), 1942

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland(Publication date), 1865

Today in History:

The Second Triumvirate alliance of Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus ("Octavian", later "Caesar Augustus"), Marcus Aemilius Lepidus, and Mark Antony is formed, BC43

Vlad III Dracula (Vlad the Impaler)defeats Basarab Laiota with the help of Stephen the Great and Stephen V Bathory and becomes the ruler of Wallachia for the third time, 1476

The first lion exhibited in the US makes his debut in Boston, 1716

Captain James Cook becomes the first European to visit Maui, 1778

The Catholic Apostolic Prefecture of the United States established, 1784

The first national US Thanksgiving is celebrated, 1789

The first streetcar railway in the US begins operation in NYC, fare 12 cents, 1832

The refrigerated railway car is patented by J.B. Sutherland of Detroit, Michigan, 1867

The first photograph of a meteor is taken, 1885

The National Hockey League is formed, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs, and Toronto Arenas as its first teams, 1917

King Tut's tomb is opened by English archaeologist Howard Carter, 1922

Four young lads from Liverpool have their first recording session under the interesting name "The Beatles", 1962

Tony Blair becomes the first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to address the Republic of Ireland's parliament, 1998

Concorde makes its final flight, over Bristol, England, 2003

A male Po'ouli (Black-faced honeycreeper) dies of Avian malaria in the Maui Bird Conservation Center in Olinda, Hawaii before it could breed, making the species in all probability extinct, 2004

NASA launches the Mars Science Laboratory, its largest rover ever, 2011
The UK's non-profit Raspberry Pi releases its $5 Zero computer and sells out in one day, 2015

Too Many Blessings to Count (Ten Things of Thankful)

Ah, Thanksgiving Weekend, an extra special time to count blessings.  There are so many, i'm not sure where to begin.

We have family, and it's family that loves to get together and have a great time.  No political fights, respect for each other's religious beliefs, tolerance of each other's quirks and oddities.  Lots of love, too, to smooth out any rough places.  That's the most important part.

Bigger Girl and Little Girl both helped me make the hojaldras (sweet fried dough, a family favorite for generations) for Grandpa's birthday, and i am so glad they helped.  It's really a lot of work for one person.

Speaking of work, Sweetie and i had plenty of work leading up to the holiday, and yet we were still able to carve out enough time to clean Grandma and Grandpa's house.  We are thankful we had it in us to get the work done, too.

Little Girl came down to Grandma and Grandpa's house early and we all got to do the cooking together.  There's nothing like learning Grandma's recipes first hand by watching her do things, and doing things under her direction.

And along with the topic of cooking, i am grateful for the food.  So much food.  Enough that everyone gets leftovers who wants them, and we usually end up with enough that i don't have to cook for a couple of days!

Grandma and Grandpa have two navel orange trees in the yard, and we pick oranges at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  We are so thankful for the fresh citrus, and this year #2  Son found another baby orange tree growing by the fence!  It seems an orange that fell off the tree and rolled away sprouted, and Uncle J's horticulturist friend will come dig it up and transplant it at Uncle J's house.

We are all thankful for doggie love from Lulu, Grandma and Grandpa's dog, and Uncle J's dogs Jay and Abby.  They are thankful for play time together.

Three Amigos, begging to come in for more snacks.

Every one of us is grateful for safe travel this whole past week, as the highways get so dangerous when there's always somebody who wants to go just a bit faster and is willing to endanger others to do so. 

Ms. J, whose house was originally scheduled for yesterday, rescheduled for early Monday.  That meant i actually had a morning off, and i was so grateful.  After Bible study, i came back to the house, dove under the covers with my warming pad, and took a 3 hour nap, something i never have the time to do.

The only work i had yesterday was the cat shelter, and we did the fastest, easiest shift i ever remember doing there.  It was closed for the holiday, but that doesn't mean the cats don't need tending, so i gave fresh water (they all had plenty of food) and Sweetie cleaned the bathrooms and i think we were there for less than an hour, which never happens.

Red-Headed Alec and Sweet Sue came by to let Baby Lee visit.  To say i am smitten is putting it mildly, he is a precious baby.

Yes, i am in love.

Today is another day with no work, no set schedule, plenty of relaxation.  It feels so good after all the activity.  There's nothing like working six days a week and volunteering at church on Sunday to make you appreciate a rare day off.

Ms. Josie Two-Shoes hosts Ten Things of Thankful, where you can share your gratitude list and get the warm fuzzies reading everyone else's lists, too.  If you have a list to share, it doesn't have to be ten, post them and link up.  It really does feel good to do so.

Today is:

Anniversary of Moquegua City -- Peru (founded this date in 1541)

Banquet for Monkeys / Monkey Buffet Festival -- Khmer Ruins of Lop Buri, Thailand (about 3,000 monkeys are served lunch while humans get to watch in what some describe as a riot but without the police; through tomorrow) 

Cat-Napping Convention -- Fairy Calendar

ClauWau: Santa Claus World Championship -- Samnaun, Switzerland (Santa Claus aspirants compete in in such things as the chimney climb with toys, a geography bee, and the sledge race with timed gift giving to be crowned the world champion Santa)

Day Sacred to Proserpina -- Ancient Roman Calendar (also Persephone, of the Greeks, the Wheel goddess of the Underworld, often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Evacuation Day -- 19th Century New York City (withdrawal of British troops in 1783)

Guadalajara International Book Fair -- Guadalajara, Mexico (through Dec. 3)

Hari Guru -- Indonesia (Teacher's Day)

Holodomor Remembrance Day -- international commemoration of the Death By Hunger Genocide in Ukraine

International Aura Awareness Day -- to increase the awareness of the human energy body, or aura  

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women -- UN

    White Ribbon Day -- International (if you know a victim of violence, help break their silence! because domestic violence affects all of society)

International Hat Day  

Lantern Light Tours begin -- Mystic Seaport, CT, US (walking tour of performances showing Christmas past, on various dates through the month)

Light of the World Christmas Pageant -- Minden, DE, US (pageant and lighting up the downtown square; also tomorrow and next Sunday)

Mangé Yam -- Haiti (fete de la moisson; a yam harvest festival)

Mungabareena Ngan-Girra Festival -- Albury area, NSW, Australia (formerly called the Bogong Moth Festival, now an indigenous cultural showcase)

National Day -- Bosnia and Herzegovina (commemorates the 1943 declaration of statehood within Yugoslavia)

National Don't Utter A Word Day -- internet generated, and variously listed as the 25th of November, February, or May; pick one if you want

National Parfait Day

Persephone Day (a/k/a Kore) -- Ancient Greek Calendar (celebration of her as wheel goddess of the underworld; date approximate, but she is often associated with St. Catherine; see below)

Saint Catherine of Alexandria's Day -- of the Catherine Wheel, sometimes associated with the Wheel of Karma and the Hindu Kali; one of the Fourteen Holy Helpers (Patron of apologists, archivists, attorneys, barristers, craftsmen who work with wheels of any sort, dying people, educators, girls, jurists, knife grinders and sharpeners, lawyers, librarians, libraries, maidens, mechanics, millers, nurses, old maids, philosophers, potters, preachers, scholars, schoolchildren, scribes, secretaries, spinners, spinsters, stenographers, students, tanners, teachers, theologians, turners, University of Paris, unmarried girls, and wheelwrights; Aalsum, Netherlands; Bertinoro, Italy; Camerata Picena, Italy; Dumaguete, Philippines; Heidesheim am Rhein, Germany; Kuldiga, Latvia; Mähring, Germany; Saint Catharines, Ontario; Zejtun, Malta; Zurrieq, Malta) related observance

    Women's Merrymaking Day -- Women go 'Cath'rining' and have a good time (in some places, especially France, women may propose marriage on this day)

Shopping Reminder Day -- exactly a month until Christmas

Small Business Saturday -- encouraging everyone to patronize local businesses for your holiday shopping

Srefidensi -- Suriname (Republic Day/Independence Day)

Statehood Day -- FBiH, Bosnia and Herzegovina

Swine Time Festival --  Climax, Georgia, US (Come on out and join the fun, the first Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Contests & Events include best dressed pig, corn shucking, hog calling, eating chitterlings, pig racing, syrup making, baby crawling and the greased pig chase!)

Territorial Christmas Celebrations -- Guthrie, OK, US (old time fun this weekend and through Dec. 16)

Vajiravudh Day -- Thailand

Birthdays Today:

Barbara and Jenna Bush, 1981

Jerry Ferrara, 1979

Donovan McNabb, 1976

Eddie Steeples, 1973

Christina Applegate, 1971

Jill Hennessy, 1968

Cris Carter, 1965

Amy Grant, 1960

John F. Kennedy, Jr., 1960

Bucky Dent, 1951

John Larroquette, 1947

Ben Stein, 1944

Joe Jackson Gibbs, 1940

Lenny Moore, 1933

Paul Desmond, 1924

Ricardo Montalban, 1920

Joe DiMaggio, 1914

Solanus Casey, 1870

Carry Nation, 1846

Karl F. Benz, 1844

Andrew Carnegie, 1835

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Iolanthe: or, The Peer and the Peri"(Comic opera), 1882

Today in History:

A tsunami, caused by the earthquake in the Tyrrhenian Sea, devastates Naples (Italy) and the Maritime Republic of Amalfi, among other places, 1343

The siege of Granada, the last Moorish stronghold in Spain, begins, 1491

A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha, in the Caucasus, killing 80,000 people, 1667

The Great Storm of 1703, the greatest windstorm ever recorded in the southern part of Great Britain, reaches its peak intensity which it maintains through November 27. Winds gust up to 120 mph, and 9,000 people died, 1703

First English patent granted to an American, for processing corn, 1715

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania is founded, 1758

Farmer's Almanac first published, 1792

The Greek frigate Hellas arrives in Nafplion to become the first flagship of the Hellenic Navy, 1826

A cyclone slams India with high winds and a 40 foot storm surge, destroying the port city of Coringa (never to be entirely rebuilt again); the storm wave sweeps inland, taking with it 20,000 ships and thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths result from the disaster, 1839

Alfred Nobel patents dynamite, 1867

John B Meyenberg of St Louis patents evaporated milk, 1884

American College of Surgeons incorporates in Springield, Illinois, 1912

First Thanksgiving Day Parade is held in Philadelphia, 1920

690 earthquake shocks recorded in 1 day in Ito, Japan, 1930

The first Soviet liquid fuel rocket attains altitude of 261' (80m), 1933

Woody Woodpecker debuts with release of Walter Lantz's "Knock Knock", 1940

New Zealand ratifies the Statute of Westminster and thus becomes independent of legislative control by the United Kingdom, 1947

Agatha Christie's murder-mystery play The Mousetrap opens at the Ambassadors Theatre in London later becoming the longest continuously-running play in history, 1952

The Minneapolis Thanksgiving Day Fire destroys an entire city block, 1982

The United Nations establishes the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women to commemorate the murder of three Mirabal Sisters for resistance against the Rafael Trujillo dictatorship in Dominican Republic, 1999

A powerful storm brings 3 years worth of rain in 4 hours to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, sparking terrible floods, 2009