Relaxing While Waiting (Feline Friday) and Friendly Fill-Ins

(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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Feline Friday was started by Steve, The Burnt Food Dude, and i'm going to believe it's because he likes cats.

He has handed hosting duties off to Sandee, of Comedy Plus, and it's simple to join, just follow the link to Sandee's page for the rules and the code.  

This one is just relaxing while waiting for a new home in the new year:

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Friendly Fill-Ins are easy to do. There are four statements: the first two statements are provided by Ellen of 15AndMeowing, and the final two are offered by Lorianne The Menagerie Mom of Four-Legged Furballs. They try to make sure the statements will be fun to both answer and share. The linky will be posted at or about 12:00 AM on Friday. Please head over to one of their sites, link up, and share your thoughts!      

Here are this week's statements with my responses underlined:

1. On New Year’s Eve, I __________________.

2. A goal that I have for 2019 is ________________.

3. If I had to choose a guide word for 2019, it would be _________.

4. New beginnings _________.

1. On New Year’s Eve, I try to take a nap early, since there will be no going to bed until the noise dies down, and i have work the next day.

2. A goal that I have for 2019 is to make time to exercise more.  Housework is fine to an extent, but i really do need to do more strength training if i can.

3. If I had to choose a guide word for 2019, it would be lovingkindness.  It really is all about treating other people the way you want to be treated.

4. New beginnings can be bittersweet sometimes.  It often means something old has had to be left behind.

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Today is:

Bairns Day -- Scotland (Begins the runic half-month of Eoh, the yew tree, which signifies the dead, and is now associated with the Slaughter of the Innocents of Christian tradition, so today is considered by some the unluckiest day of the year, and no work should be undertaken today.)

Call a Friend Day -- just to catch up a bit

Card Playing Day -- internet generated, enjoy a fun game with friends and family; "Go fish!"

Childermas a/k/a Holy Innocents Day -- (Patrons of babies, children's choirs, foundlings)

    various Christian traditions celebrate under many names and in various ways

    Els Enfarinats -- Ibn, Valencia, Spain (flour fight, and if it's anything like the tomato throwing in other towns of Spain, it's probably lots of fun)

    French Childermas tradition interpreted what the Norse saw as evidence of the Wild Hunt of Odin as the spirits of the Holy Innocents running from King Herod

    Inocentes -- Mexico, and sometimes celebrated as Mexican December Fool's Day (Herod fooled himself into thinking he had gotten rid of his rival king born in Bethlehem.)

Dyzemas Day -- Northhamptonshire, UK (an unlucky day to begin any new undertaking, "what is begun on Dysemas Day will never be finished")

    origin unknown, but often translated as Tithe Day, being very close to the Portugese word for tithe

Eat A Vegetarian Day -- an internet generated joke; yes, the vegetarian in question can be a cow

Endangered Species Act Day -- US (act passed 1973; a day to mourn species already extinct)

Fairy Academy of Window-Frosting Winter Exhibition -- Fairy Calendar

Fourth Day of Christmas

Incwala Day -- Swaziland (the biggest day of the 8 week Ncwala Festival, which loosely translates as "first fruits", although today's tasting of the first of the harvest by the King is only a portion of the many days of ceremonies)

King Taksin Memorial Day -- Thailand

Kwanzaa, Day 3, Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility)

National Chocolate Candy Day

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (trad.)

Return a Gift for the Cold Hard Cash Day -- and good luck, these days

Runic Half-month Eoh (yew) commences

Take a Drive and Enjoy the Christmas Lights Day -- before they are gone for another year

Unluckiest Day of the Year -- various traditions state no work should be started today, for whatever is started today will never be finished!  In Olde England, nothing of importance was ever undertaken on Childermas, because it would prove unlucky

Anniversaries Today:

Billy Ray Cyrus weds Leticia Finley, 1994

The US Pledge of Allegiance is formally adopted, 1945

Iowa becomes the 29th US State, 1846

Birthdays Today:

David Archuleta, 1990

Sienna Miller, 1981

John Legend, 1978

Joe Mangianello, 1976

Todd Richards, 1969

Malcolm Gets, 1964

Denzel Washington, 1954

Edgar Winter, 1946

Don Francisco, 1940

Maggie Smith, 1934

Nichelle Nichols, 1933

Martin Milner, 1931

Johnny Otis, 1921

Sam Levenson, 1911

Lew Ayres, 1908

Cliff Arquette, 1905

Earl "Fatha" Hines, 1905

Hendrik Meijer, 1883

Woodrow Wilson, 1856

John Molson, 1763

Debuting/Premiering Today:

The Gulag Archipelago(Publication date), 1973

"Last of the Red Hot Lovers"(Play), 1969

"Night of the Iguana"(Play), 1961

"On the Town"(Musical), 1944

"Tip-Toes"(Musical), 1925

"St. Joan"(Play), 1923

"Cyrano de Bergerac"(Play), 1897

Today in History:

The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, a/k/a Westminster Abbey, is consecrated, 1065

The reign of Emperor Hanazono of Japan begins, 1308

Galileo Galilei becomes the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune, although he mistakenly catalogued it as a fixed star, 1612

King Taksin is crowned as king of Thailand and establishes Thonburi as a capital, 1768

Construction of Yonge Street, formerly recognized as the longest street in the world, begins in York, Upper Canada (present-day Toronto, Ontario), 1795

A magnitude 6.8 earthquake strikes Echigo, Japan, killing 30,000+, 1828

John Calhoun becomes the first US Vice President to resign (over differences with President Andrew Jackson), 1832

Spain recognizes independence of Mexico, 1836

South Australia and Adelaide are founded, 1836

Rangoon Burma, destroyed by fire, 1841

The United States claims Midway Island, the first territory annexed outside Continental limits, 1867

The Lumière brothers perform for their first paying audience at the Grand Cafe in Boulevard des Capucines, marking the debut of the cinema, 1895

The first municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco, California, 1912

The Peak District becomes the United Kingdom's first National Park, 1950

Alexander Solzhenitsyn publishes "Gulag Archipelago", 1973

Winnie Mandela is banished from South Africa, 1976

The first American "test-tube baby", Elizabeth Jordan Carr, is born in Norfolk, Virginia, 1981

U.S. retail giant Montgomery Ward announces it is going out of business after 128 years, 2000

At 115 years old and 266 days, Jiroemon Kimura of Japan becomes the world's oldest living person, 2012

Sugar Pie Honey Bunch (Six Sentence Story) and Good Fences

(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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"Sugar pie, honey bunch, you know that I love you!" he crooned along with the music playing on the oldies station, and she smiled at him.

"You always amaze me with how many of those old songs you can sing," she said.

"Well, my parents raised me on oldies, you know they still have a turntable and vinyl albums and those plus the oldies station on the car radio was all I got to listen to growing up until I got my own radio when I was eleven.  Wow, was I surprised when I realized there was more than one station I could listen to, the first time I heard heavy metal it was quite an education!"

"I can only imagine what your parents thought of it, your dad complains so much about modern music being 'noise'."

"Some of it is, not all of it, but I still prefer to sing the old love songs to my baby!" he said, grabbing her for a dance across the kitchen floor.

Linking up with Denise at Girlie On The Edge Blog, where she hosts Six Sentence Stories, and the cue is Sugar.     

   

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Gosia, of Looking for Identity, has taken over Good Fences, and it's now Good Fences Around The World.  Post a picture of a fence or gate, link back to her blog, and go visit other blogs to see what interesting fences there are out in this big world.   

A client got the grandchildren a fun new big toy for Christmas, so big it has to have a fence around it:

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Today is:

Anniversary of Benazir Bhutto's Death -- Sindh, Pakistan

Calli (House) Day -- Aztec Calendar (a good day for all things hearth and home and family. a bad day to participate in public life; date approximate, but soon after the solstice)

Constitution Day -- Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea)

Festival of Nehebkau -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (Beginning of Eternity, celebrating the snake god and his role of binding the sun to the earth at the beginning of time; date approximate)

Kwanzaa, Day 2, Kujichagulia (Self-Determination)

Make Cut Out Snowflakes Day -- internet generated, with Christmas over, you need to do winter decorations

Modern Medicine Day -- birth anniversary of Louis Pasteur

National Fruitcake Day -- unless, of course, you are like me and have spent your last several days with fruitcake relatives, at which point you get a day off from fruitcakes! ;D 

St. Fabiola's Day (Patron of difficult marriages, divorced people, victims of abuse, victims of adultery, widows)

St. John the Divine's Day (Patron of art dealers, authors, bookbinders, booksellers, burn victims, compositors, editors, engravers, friendships, lithographers, painters, papermakers, printers, publishers, tanners, theologians, typesetters, writers; Asia Minor; Boise, Idaho, Borgo Santo Sepolcro, Italy; Cleveland, OH; Eger, Hungary; Milwaukee, WI; Morra, Netherlands; Saint-Jean – Longueuil, Québec; Sansepoicro, Italy; Sundern, Germany; Taos, NM; Umbria, Italy; Wroclaw, Poland; against burns, poisoning)

St. Stephen's Day -- Eastern Orthodox, a public holiday in Romania

Third Day of Christmas

Unfairies' Gathering -- Fairy Calendar

Visit the Zoo Day -- don't know who put this one in the middle of winter, but there it is

Watch the Children Day -- internet generated, a day to take a page from the book of the young and remember how to play like a child

Birthdays Today:

Heather O'Rourke, 1975

Masi Oka, 1974

Bill Goldberg, 1966

Tovah Feldshuh, 1952

Gerard Depardieu, 1948

Cokie Roberts, 1943

John Amos, 1939

Oscar Levant, 1906

Marlene Dietrich, 1901

Sydney Greenstreet, 1879

Louis Pasteur, 1822

George Cayley, 1773

Johannes Kepler, 1571

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Knots Landing"(TV), 1979

"Howdy Doody"(TV), 1947 (first successful children's television show)

"Radio Roxyettes"(Now the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes), 1932

Today in History:

The Hagia Sofia of Constantinople is completed, 537

The Spanish Crown issues the Laws of Burgos, governing the conduct of settlers with regards to native Indians in the New World, 1512

The first public railroad using steam locomotive completed in England, 1825

Charles Darwin embarks on his journey aboard the HMS Beagle, 1831

Worst English avalanche kills 8 of 15 buried in Lewes Sussex, 1836

Ether is first used in childbirth in US, in Jefferson, Ga., 1845

The world's first cat show is held at the Crystal Palace, London, 1871

Carrie Nation's first public smashing of a bar, at the Carey Hotel, Wichita, Kansas, 1900

Unsuccessful attempt on prince-regent Hirohito of Japan, 1923

Stalin's faction wins All-Union Congress in USSR, Trotsky is expelled, 1927

Radio City Music Hall opened in New York City, 1932

The Shah of Persia declares Persia is now Iran, 1934

The World Bank was created with the signing of an agreement by 28 nations, 1945

Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean, ending the first orbital manned mission to the Moon, 1968

The People's Republic of China is granted permanent normal trade relations with the United States, 2001

Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth. It is the brightest extrasolar event known to have been witnessed on the planet, 2004

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated, 2007

Toyota Motor Corporation agrees to pay $1 billion to settle over a dozen lawsuits related to sudden acceleration, 2012

Grandpa Couldn't Wait for Christmas (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 and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

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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 River at Drifting Through Life.    

This week's words are:

1. hair

2. dissolve

3. concertina

4. candlesticks

5. ribbons

6. causeway

and/or:

1. wizard

2. bonfire

3. unload

4. beams

5. discarded

6. chocolate

bonus phrase (copied from a book River was reading):

"as much character as a cereal box"

Merlin stood up from his cramped position at the desk and ran his hands through his disheveled HAIR and beard.  Being a WIZARD, he thought to himself, isn't always all it's cracked up to be.

His bones protested the sudden movement, sounding to him like a CONCERTINA out of tune.  He had been reading over and correcting the scrolls his latest protege, a teen with AS MUCH CHARACTER AS A BOX of those same scrolls, had been copying.  He could tell just from what he'd read so far that at least a few of them would have to be DISCARDED and begun again.

The CANDLESTICKS by which he was reading had burned down to the RIBBONS he tied around them to remind him it was time to tend his potion that was over the BONFIRE outside.  He needed a lot more heat for that one than the BEAMS of the house could stand, so he headed out, being careful to keep to the CAUSEWAY of paving stones that lead closer to the forest.  No need to get his feet wet just because he had to have the fire nearer to the fuel source, after all.

That's what he had told his protege, at least.  It had made sure the young man was out of his way, too, but he kept that, and a lot of things, to himself.

The potion had started out as what he described to himself as a deep CHOCOLATE color (the secret he'd learned of what would someday be called in the New World "chocolate" was another thing he shared with no one), and was now a deep red.  He threw one last secret ingredient in, and watch it DISSOLVE instantly.

Nodding to himself with satisfaction, he told his protege to let the fire die down so it would cool enough by morning for them to UNLOAD it.

Meanwhile, he was going to go get himself a bite of supper and a good night's sleep.  Even a wizard, he would say, needs his beauty rest.

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Today is:

Awful Tie Day -- internet generated, go to the office and compare who got the worst tie as a gift

Blessing of the Wine -- Greiveldange, Luxembourg (winemakers parade to the church to have a barrel of wine blessed)

Boxing Day -- day on which boxes of goodies are given to the less fortunate or public servants, and sometimes servants and masters traded places for the day

Coffee Percolator Day -- patented by James Mason on this day in 1865

Day of Goodwill -- Namibia; South Africa

Day of Our Theotokos /  Synaxis of the Most Holy Mother of God -- Byzantine/Eastern Orthodox Christian

Family Day -- Namibia; Vanuatu

Holiday Magic Days -- Mystic Seaport, CT, US (reduced admission to fun, entertainment, crafts, and the lore of the sea; through Jan. 1)

Icelandic Traditional Calendar Month Morsugr "Fat Sucker" begins -- Iceland (refering to the daily fare becoming scant in deep winter and body fat is used up)

Independence and Unity Day -- Slovenia(1990)

J'Ouvert -- Saint Kitts and Nevis (carneval-style street party for Boxing Day)

Junkanoo (Junkanoo Jonkanoo, Jankunu, John Canoe or Johnkankus) -- Carribean Islands, also on New Years Day (A special music and dance, mime and symbol that is an early traditional dance form of African descent.)

Kwanzaa, Day 1, Umoja (Unity)

Mauro Hamza Day -- Houston, TX, US (United States Fencing Association Foil Director)

Mummer's Day -- Padstow, Cornwall

National Candy Cane Day

National Thank-you Note Day

National Whiner's Day™ -- a day to encourage people to be happy with what they have; the previous year's worst whiners are announced (you don't want to be one!)     

Proclamation Day -- South Australia (day South Australia was established as a Province in 1836 by royal Proclamation

Recyclable Packaging Day -- started by someone who wants to remind us to gather up the reusable bags, boxes, etc., left from the holiday, and recycle the rest

Second Day of Christmas

Sports Days -- Falkland Islands (through the 28th, with the Boxing Day race at Stanley being the most famous part of the celebration)

St. James the Just's Day -- Orthodox Christian

St. Stephen's Day (Patron of casket makers, deacons, horses, masons, stone masons; Patron of over 80 cities throughout Italy; Kessel, Germany; Metz, France; Owensboro, KY; Toulouse, France; against headaches)

    Public Holiday in Alsace, France; Andorra; Austria; Catalonia; Croatia; Czech Republic; Germany; Holy See; Hong Kong; Ireland; Italy; Liechtenstein; Luxembourg; Poland; San Marino; Slovakia; Spain (regional); Switzerland (regional)

    Celebrated as Father's Day -- Bulgaria

    Day of the Wren -- Ireland; Isle of Mann (costumed mayhem)

Tehuantepec Festivities -- Oaxaca, Mexico

Thanksgiving Day -- Solomon Islands

Zarathosht Diso (Death of Prophet Zarathushtra) - Zoroastrian

Anniversary Today:

Rodney Dangerfield weds Joan Child, 1993

Establishment of Shenandoah National Park, VA, US, 1935

Birthdays Today:

Chris Daughtry, 1979

Jared Leto, 1971

Lars Ulrich, 1963

David Sedaris, 1956

Ozzie Smith, 1954

Carlton Fisk, 1947

John Walsh, 1945

Phil Spector, 1940

Alan King, 1927

Steve Allen, 1921

Richard Widmark, 1914

Mao Tse-tung, 1893

Henry Miller, 1891

Charles Babbage, 1791

Laurent Clerc, 1785

Juan Lovera, 1778

Thomas Nelson, 1738

Thomas Gray, 1716

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Do re mi"(Musical), 1960

"The Glass Menagerie"(Play), 1944

"Of Thee I Sing"(Musical), 1931

Judy Garland, as Baby Frances, makes her stage debut at age 2 1/2, singing Jingle Bells on the vaudeville stage, 1924

"Tragic Overture"(Brahms' Op. 81), 1880

Today in History:

Columbus founds the first Spanish settlement in the New World by leaving behind 36 men in what is now Haiti, 1492

The final trial of Louis XVI of France begins, 1792

A theater fire in Richmond, Virginia kills the Governor of Virginia George William Smith and the president of the First National Bank of Virginia Abraham B. Venable, 1811

The Erie Canal opens, 1825

Gilbert and Sullivan collaborate for the first time, on their lost opera, Thespis. It does modestly well, but the two would not collaborate again for four years, 1871

King Mwanga of Uganda signs a contract with the East Africa Company, 1890

Marie and Pierre Curie announce the isolation of radium, 1898

FM radio is patented, 1933

Time Magazine's Man of the Year is for the first time a non-human, the personal computer, 1982

The Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union meets and formally dissolves the USSR, 1991

A 9.3 magnitude earthquake creates a tsunami causing devastation in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and many other areas around the rim of the Indian Ocean, killing over 250,000 people, 2004

Brazil overtakes the United Kingdom as the world's sixth largest economy, 2011