They Make ALMOST Anything Prettier (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.)

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Linking up with Wordless Wednesday.

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Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and has become a moveable feast of word or picture or music prompts that encourages us to write stories, poems, or whatever strikes our fancy.    

This month, the prompts are being provided by Lee at Kitchen Connection.   

This week’s “Words for Wednesday” are listed below:

  

Audacious

Angst

Narrative

Provocative

Thoughtless

Courtesy

OR

Caricature

Undercurrent

Multiple

Dominant

Ultimate

Confident

"Are you AUDACIOUS enough to try?"

There was an UNDERCURRENT of "I dare you" in that voice, and she was perspicacious enough to pick up on it, although as a computer generated voice it was not supposed to be PROVOCATIVE in any way.  It was simply supposed to give the options, and issue a challenge, THOUGHTLESS and simple.

She suspected it wasn't so simple.  The challenge she'd been issued seemed keyed to her particular form of ANGST, the NARRATIVE in which the MULTIPLE options were given was couched in terms that made her feel less CONFIDENT and less competent than she actually was.

For a moment, she actually asked herself why she had chosen to even go this route.  There were easier ways that took longer, that didn't put you in quite this position in quite the same way.  Then she gave herself a mental shake, thinking about how her competitor would portray her in CARICATURE if she backed out.

She threw her shoulders back in a DOMINANT stance and put an attitude she did not feel into her voice.

"I will try, thank you," she said, although she knew the COURTESY would be lost on the machine.  She assumed, correctly, the powers behind the machine would catch it.  They did and were impressed.

This was going to be an ULTIMATE test of her will, and she knew she would not back down.

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Today is:

Canadian Multiculturalism Day -- Cananda

Day of National Unity -- Tajikistan

Day of Turkmen Workers of Culture and Art -- Turkmenistan

Day Sacred to the Lares -- Ancient Roman Calendar (personal household gods); also

    Festival of Jupiter Stator -- Jupiter, Stayer of the Rout, god who helped soldiers especially to stand their ground

    Initium Aestatis -- three day festival for the goddess of summer, which season they saw as beginning on this day

Decide to Be Married Day -- sponsored by Barbara Gaughen-Muller; to focus n the joy of couples deciding to be married

Findle-Fritter's Stoat Wheedling Event -- Fairy Calendar

"Happy Birthday to You" Day -- tune composed this day in 1859

Independence Day / National Day -- Djibouti

Industrial Workers of The World Day -- founded this day in 1905

Martyrdom of Joseph & Hyrum Smith -- Mormon

Mixed Races Day -- Brazil

National HIV Testing Day -- US    

National Indian Pudding Day

National Orange Blosssom Day

National Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Awareness Day -- US (by Senate resolution)   

Seven Sleepers Day (Siebenschläfertag) -- Germany (according to legend, today's weather determines the pattern for the next seven weeks)

Smithsonian Folklife Festival -- Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C., US (through July 1, then again July 4-8; a model of research-based presentations of contemporary living cultural traditions of people around the world)

St. Ladislaus' Day (Patron of Szekszard, Hungary)

Sunglasses Day -- a reminder to wear those shades, protect your eyes from UV damage!

Birthdays Today:

Gabi Wilson, 1997

Madylin Sweeten, 1991

Ed Westwick, 1987

Drake Bell, 1986

Tobey Maguire, 1975

J.J. Abrams, 1976

Jason Patric, 1966

Isabelle Adjani, 1955

Julia Duffy, 1951

James Daughton, 1950

Norma Kamali, 1945

Shirley-Anne Field, 1938

H. Ross Perot, 1930

Bob "Captain Kangaroo" Keeshan, 1927

Helen Keller, 1880

Patrick Lafcadio "Koizumi Yakumo" Hearn, 1850

Charles Stewart Parnell, 1846

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Live and Let Die(Film), 1973

"Dark Shadows"(TV), 1966

"Captain Video and His Video Rangers"(TV), 1949

Today in History:

General James Wolfe begins the siege of Quebec, 1759

Joseph Smith, Jr., founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and his brother Hyrum Smith, are murdered by a mob at the Carthage, Illinois jail, 1844

George Dixon becomes the first black world boxing champion in any weight class, while also being the first ever Canadian-born boxing champion, 1890

The first solo circumnavigation of the globe is completed by Joshua Slocum from Briar Island, Nova Scotia, 1898

Sailors start a mutiny aboard the Russian Battleship Potemkin, denouncing the crimes of autocracy, demanding liberty and an end to war, 1905

Capt. Lowell H. Smith and Lt. John P. Richter perform the first ever aerial refueling in a DH-4B biplane, 1923

The United States decides to send troops to fight in the Korean War, 1950

The world's first nuclear power station opens in Obninsk, near Moscow, 1954

The world's first ATM is installed in Enfield, London, 1967

The President of Uruguay dissolves Parliament and heads a coup d'état, 1973

U.S president Richard Nixon visits the U.S.S.R., 1974

France grants independence to Djibouti, 1977

The current international treaty defending indigenous peoples, ILO 169 convention, is adopted, 1989

Slovenia, after declaring independence two days before, is invaded by Yugoslav troops, tanks, and aircraft, starting the Ten-Day War, 1991

Bill Gates resigns from Microsoft to focus on his charity work, 2008

The first democratic election in the history of Guinea is held, 2010

Tests show radioactive cesium is present in small quantities in residents of Iitate and Kawamata, Fukushima, towns located 25 miles from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, 2011

NASA launches IRIS, the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, a space probe to observe the Sun, 2013

Kittens and Cars and Brave(r) Dogs on a Random and Fun Tuesday

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

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Hello, Tuesday!  It’s the day for Random Thoughts with Stacy of Stacy Uncorked, and Tuesday Fun with Sandee of Comedy Plus.

Speaking of fun, our weekend kittens are back with their other foster now, but they were fun while they were here:

When i brought them back to her, i asked what she’d named them.  She said she didn’t have names yet, so i told her about how i’d nicknamed them Eenie, Meenie, Miney, and Maureen.  She laughed and said she loved that, so those names might stick.

The Jalopy is home, with a new gas tank and tail light assembly, just in time for Sweetie to spend the next week house-watching and garden tending for The Big Boss.  The garden is producing plenty at this time, and we’ve been told to take whatever ripens while The Big Boss and his wife are out of town so that it won’t go bad.  That means home grown cucumbers and tomatoes in our future.

The borrowed Tahoe will be thoroughly washed and vacuumed and wiped down and filled with gas and returned to the wonderful client who loaned it to us.  That vehicle is a tank!  Someone dropped a shopping cart on the freeway a couple of days ago, and Sweetie clipped it with the edge of a tire and pushed it out of the road so no one would get hurt.  Didn’t put a mark on the Tahoe or damage the tire at all, although i wouldn’t give you a plugged nickel for that shopping cart now.

We've been having trouble getting our bathtub to drain, so with great trepidation and much consultation with a contractor friend, Sweetie performed some surgery on the tub drain mechanism.  It is beyond repairing, so he threw it away, put the plate back on, and bought one of those flat rubber stoppers.  The tub now works, just like the one at great-grandma's house.

Daughter-in-Law Becky and Pepe the Chihuahua came for a visit, and i think Pepe is realizing the cats are all bark and no bite, so to speak.  When i fed him, and Enigma SissyCat came and stood right next to him, he did not give up his food as he would have in the past.  He stood his ground and kept eating, and she waited until he was done and licked the tiny bit of gravy he'd left behind.  She probably was not happy that she didn't get more, but i am glad he's not letting them intimidate him.

He even helps himself to a cat bed now!

That's about all the news, i hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

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Today is:

Alexandra Rose Day -- anniversary of the tradition started by Queen Alexandra on this day in 1912, in which roses and rose emblems were sold in London and the UK, with the money going to smaller charities that are not usually in the national spotlight; also by tradition, the Lord Mayor of London bought the first rose

    Alexandra Rose Charities still exists, but uses other forms of fundraising and now supports healthy eating initiatives among lower income mothers and children

Armed Forces Day -- Azerbaijan

Barcode/UPC Day -- the first scanner, at Marsh's Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, scanned its first item, a pack of Wrigley's gum at 8:01am this day in 1974

Beautician's Day -- on a couple of websites, while other list other days; if yours puts the "beauty" in beautician, remember her next time you go have your do tended to

Birthday of Cheng Huang -- Taiwan (the gods that are city guardians are celebrated with a procession of actors on stilts doing dragon and lion dances on this 13th day of the fifth moon)

Handing Back of Tiger-Get-By's Presents -- Fairy Calendar

Guan Sheng Di Jun Dan -- Taoism (Heavenly Sage Guan Di's Birthday [god of war])

Holiday for the Shemsu of Heru -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)

Independence Day -- Madagascar[Fetin'ny Fahaleovantena]; Somalia

International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking -- UN

International Day in Support of Victims of Torture -- UN

National Canoe Day -- Canada

National Chocolate Pudding Day

National Columnists' Day -- on the fourth Tuesday of June each year, set aside some time to thank your favorite newspaper columnists, whether local or syndicated

St. Pelayo's Day (Patron of abandoned people, torture victims; Castro Urdiales, Spain; Torreira, Portugal) 

Sunthorn Phu Day -- Thailand (celebration of the country's best-known Royal Poet)

Ziua Tricolorului -- Romania (Flag Day)

Birthdays Today:

Jennette McCurdy, 1992

Jason Schwartzman, 1980

Derek Jeter, 1974

Gretchen Wilson, 1973

Chris O'Donnell, 1970

Paul Thomas Anderson, 1970

Sean P. Hayes, 1970

Harriet Wheeler, 1963

Greg LeMond, 1961

Chris Isaak, 1956

Claudio Abbado, 1933

Eleanor Parker, 1922

Charlotte Zolotow, 1915

"Babe" Didrikson Zaharias, 1914

Colonel Tom Parker, 1909

Peter Lorre, 1904

Pearl S. Buck, 1892

Sir Robert Laird Borden, 1854

Lord Kelvin, 1824

Abner Doubleday, 1819

Arthur Middleton, 1742

Debuting/Premiering Today:

For Your Eyes Only(Film), 1981

"Absurd Person Singular"(Play), 1972

"A Hard Day's Night"(Album, US version, release), 1964

"The Valkyrie"(Opera, WWV 86B), 1870

Today in History:

Roman Emperor Julian is killed during the retreat from the Sassanid Empire; General Jovian is proclaimed Emperor by the troops on the battlefield, 363

The legendary Pied Piper leads 130 children out of Hamelin, German, 1284

Richard III is crowned king of England, 1483

Francisco Pizarro is assassinated in Lima, 1541

W. K. Clarkson patents the first bicycle, 1819

The Christian  holiday of Christmas is declared a federal holiday in the United States, 1870

The Science Museum in London comes into existence as an independent entity, 1909

The United Nations Charter is signed in San Francisco, 1945

William Shockley files the original patent for the grown junction transistor, the first bipolar junction transistor, 1948

The Berlin Airlift begins, 1948

The Saint Lawrence Seaway opens, opening North America's Great Lakes to ocean-going ships, 1959

The Universal Product Code is scanned for the first time to sell a package of Wrigley's chewing gum at the Marsh Supermarket in Troy, Ohio, 1974

Indira Gandhi establishes emergency rule in India, 1975

The CN Tower, the world's tallest free-standing structure on land, is opened to general public, 1976*

Biologists J. Craig Venter and Francis S. Collins announced that their research groups had mapped the human genome, 2000

Wangdue Phodrang Dzong, the four thousand year-old ridge-top monastery in Bhutan catches fire and is destroyed; no relics were lost in the fire because the monastery was under renovation, 2012

*It is still the tallest in the Western Hemisphere

Sleepyhead (Awww Monday) and Inspiring Quote of the Week

(Because some people like Blogger and some like WordPress, i am putting the same content at both.  If you would prefer to read this on the other site, it is linked here.) 

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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!

You know the baby is tired when it goes to sleep right in the middle of the floor:

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Sparks! is on hiatus, so here is an Inspiring Quote of the Week:

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Today is:

Arbor Day -- Philippines

Color TV Day -- CBS broadcast the first program in color on this day in 1951

Day of the Seafarer -- The International Maritime Organization (this year’s theme is “Seafarers' Wellbeing”)   

Discovery Day -- NL, Canada

Elf Thumping Day -- Fairy Calendar (no details on what the Elves thump, and no, no one is allowed to thump an Elf!)

Feast of the Optional Holiday -- pick one, and celebrate it or don't, your option!

Festival of Ranting and Vaporing -- sponsored by The Daily Bleed

Global Beatles Day -- read about the meaning of this day, and why this date was picked, here    

Gotanshin Sai -- Kitano Tenmangu, Kyoto, Japan (festival to commemorate the birth of Lord Sugawara, with ceremonies to ward off summer infections)

Independence Day -- Mozambique(1975)

Leon Day -- Noel spelled backward, the turning poing on the calendar when Christmas starts getting closer; those who make Christmas/Noel gifts need to start thinking about their projects

Ludi Taurii -- Ancient Roman Calendar (Games of the Bull, a two day festival held once every five years)

National Catfish Day

National Fried Okra Day

National Strawberry Parfait Day

Please Take My Children To Work Day -- originally sponsored by mamasaid.net; a tongue-in-cheek way to request that you give a full- or part-time stay-at-home mom a break today!

Sense of Humor in Bed Appreciation Day -- i'm not touching this one

Slovenian Sovereignty Day / National Day -- Slovenia

Solennität -- Morat, Switzerland (on Morat Commemoration Day, a Youth festival remembering the pivotal role this tiny town played in winning a battle in 1476)

Statehood Day -- Croatia

St. Eurosia's Day (a/k/a Orosia; Patron of Jaca, Spain; against bad weather)

    Fiesta de Santa Orosia -- Jaca, Spain

St. Molaug's Day (Patron of Argyll, Scotland; against mental illness)

Anniversaries Today:

Virginia becomes the 10th US State, 1788

Birthdays Today:

Scott Terra, 1987

Linda Cardellini, 1975

Dikembe Mutombo, 1966

George Michael, 1963

Ricky Gervais, 1961

Sonia Sotomayor, 1954

Jimmie Walker, 1949

Phyllis George, 1949

Carly Simon, 1945

Willis Reed, Jr., 1942

June Lockhart, 1925

Sidney Lumet, 1924

Anne Revere, 1903

George Orwell, 1903

Henry Harley "Hap" Arnold, 1886

Rose Cecil O'Neill, 1874

Debuting/Premiering Today:

Het Achterhuis. Dagbrieven van 14 juni 1942 tot 1 augustus 1944(First publication of excerpts from Anne Frank's diaries), 1947

"It Pays To Be Ignorant"(Radio), 1942

Today in History:

The Book of Concord or Concordia, the historic doctrinal standard of the Lutheran Church, is published, 1580 

Elena Cornaro Piscopia is the first woman awarded a doctorate of philosophy, from the University of Padua, 1678

Maria Theresa of Austria is crowned Queen of Hungary, 1741

Lucien B. Smith of Ohio patents the first version of barbed wire, 1867

Battle of the Little Bighorn and the death of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer, 1876

Dr. Douglas Hyde is inaugurated the first President of Ireland, 1938

The Diary of Anne Frank is published, 1947

The Berlin airlift begins, 1948

The Korean War begins with the invasion of South Korea by North Korea, 1950

CBS broadcasts the first color television signal, 1951

First live global satellite television programme – Our World, 1967

Mozambique achieves independence, 1975

Microsoft  is restructured to become an incorporated business in its home state of Washington, 1981

Croatia and Slovenia declare their independence from Yugoslavia, 1991

Kim Campbell is chosen as leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and becomes the first female Prime Minister of Canada, 1993

An unmanned Progress spacecraft collides with the Russian space station Mir, 1997

The Soufrière Hills volcano in Montserrat erupts resulting in the death of 19 people, 1997

The Harvard School of Health Study concludes that since 1980 the number of adults with diabetes has doubled, 2011

A portion of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which protects minority voting rights, is struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling that Congress has not taken into account the nation's racial progress when singling out certain states for federal oversight, 2013