***********************************
Awww Monday is hosted by Sandee at 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!
These 3 were waiting for me to deliver them the goods. I couldn't get a picture of them with the cage open, they kept rushing to get out.
***********************************
Sparks is the brainchild of Annie of McGuffy's Reader, who wanted us to post something positive and uplifting at the start of the week. While she no longer blogs, i like to post an Inspiring Quote of the Week in her honor.
***********************************
Poetry Monday was started by Diane at On The Alberta/Montana Border. Jenny at Procrastinating Donkey is on a blog semi-break and her poetry is sorely missed, we hope she comes back soon. Charlotte/Mother Owl participates, and now Karen at Baking in a Tornado is jumping in at least once a month, too. Anyone else is welcome to join in the fun, just let Diane know!
This week the theme is Get Lost.
About getting lost, well i have a theory,
and because i try to stay cheery,
i put on a positive spin.
If a new place i'll to go,
leave early, take it slow,
and if i get lost, i just grin.
'Cause i'm still on the Earth,
and there will be no dearth
of ways to find the right route.
I've not gone that far,
a new planet or star,
there's no need to panic or pout.
The city i awoke in,
now i'm just pokin'
around a part new to me.
I'll stop and i'll ask,
it's not a hard task,
it will be set straight, you'll see!
(The above is based on my firm belief getting lost is an adventure. Most of the time, i'm still in the nation, state, and town where i started, i still speak the language, my money's good, health care is available, i'm not stranded on a deserted island with no help or resources, i'm just finding a new way to get there!)
***********************************
Today is:
Appreciate a Dragon Day -- share stories of your favorite dragons from literature; begun by author Danita K. Paul
Blue Monday -- UK (it's gloomy winter, it's after the holidays, it's time to cheer someone up by doing something nice for him/her)
Concordia -- Ancient Roman Calendar (honoring the goddess of harmonious relations)
Day of Offerings to the Shemsu of Ra -- Ancient Egyptian Calendar (date approximate)
Inflatable Tire Day -- birth anniversary of Andre Michelin
International Hot and Spicy Food Day
Laurent Kabila -- Democratic Republic of the Congo (Heroes' Day)
Martin Luther King Jr. Day -- US and Territories (obs.)
National Day of Peace -- El Salvador (anniversary of 1992 peace treaty)
National Fig Newton Day
National Good Teen Day -- which really is most of them, isn't it
National Nothing Day -- created by newspaperman Harold Pullman Coffin in 1973 “to provide Americans with one national day when they can just sit without celebrating, observing or honoring anything.”
National Work At Home With Your Spouse Day -- internet generated; try if you dare, i won't, as much as i love him, i'd have to kill him.
National Religious Freedom Day -- US (anniversary of the passage, in 1786, of the Virginia Statute of Religious Freedom)
Religious Freedom Day -- US (in 1786, the Virginia legislature adopted a statute guaranteeing religious freedom to citizens of that state, and protecting them from discrimination for their religious choices)
St. Anthony's Eve -- Abruzzo, Italy (Fires of Saint Anthony -- Anthony the Great)
St. Honratus of Arles' Day (Patron for rain; against drought, misfortune)
Teacher's Day -- Thailand
There's No Business Like Show Business Day -- Ethel Merman's Birth Anniversary!
Uzhavar Thirunal -- PY, TN, India (Farmer's Day portion of the Pongal celebrations)
Birthday's Today:
Kate Moss, 1974
Sade, 1959
Debbie Allen, 1950
John Carpenter, 1948
Dr. Laura Schlessinger, 1947
Ronnie Milsap, 1944
A.J. Foyt, 1935
Dian Fossey, 1932
Dizzy Dean, 1911
Ethel Merman, 1908
Frank Zamboni, 1901
Harry Carey, Sr., 1878
Robert W. Service, 1874 (Poet, The Cremation of Sam McGee)
Andre Michelin, 1853
Debuting/Premiering Today:
"Hello, Dolly"(Musical), 1964
"A Pastoral Symphony"(Ralph Vaughan Williams' third symphony), 1922
Today in History:
The title Augustus is bestowed upon Gaius Julius Casesar Octavian by the Roman Senate, BC27
The Ostrogoths, under King Totila, conquer Rome after a long siege, by bribing the Isaurian garrison, 550
A great storm tide in the North Sea destroys the German island of Strand and the city of Rungholt, 1362
The Medici family is appointed official banker of the Papacy, 1412
The first grammar of a modern language, in the Spanish language, is presented to Queen Isabella, 1492
Ivan IV of Russia aka Ivan the Terrible becomes Tsar of Russia, 1547
English parliament passes laws against Catholicism, 1581
The first edition of El ingenioso hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (Book One of Don Quixote) by Miguel de Cervantes is published in Madrid, 1605
The Continental Congress approves enlistment of free blacks, 1776
The Commonwealth of Virginia enacted the Statute for Religious Freedom authored by Thomas Jefferson, 1786
The refrigerator car is patented by William Davis, a fish dealer in Detroit, 1868
The Pendleton Act creates the basis of US Civil Service system, 1883
The British explorer Ernest Shackleton finds magnetic south pole, 1909
The British House of Commons accepts Home-Rule for Ireland, 1913
Writer Maksim Gorki returns to Russia, 1914
The US ratifies the constitutional amendment on Prohibition, to take effect one year later, 1919
The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, 1920
The first photo finish camera installed at Hialeah Race track in Hialeah Florida, 1936
Benny Goodman plays the first jazz performance at Carnegie Hall, 1938
Crash of TWA Flight 3, killing all 22 aboard, including film star Carole Lombard, 1942
Soviet spacecraft Soyuz 4 and Soyuz 5 perform the first-ever docking of manned spacecraft in orbit, the first-ever transfer of crew from one space vehicle to another, and the only time such a transfer was accomplished with a space walk, 1969
Buckminster Fuller receives the Gold Medal award from the American Institute of Architects, 1970
The Shah of Iran flees Iran with his family and relocates to Egypt, 1979
First meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force., 1986
El Salvador officials and rebel leaders sign the Chapultepec Peace Accords in Mexico City ending the 12-year Salvadoran civil war , 1992
The UN Security Council unanimously establishes an arms embargo and the freezing of assets of Osama bin Laden, Al-Qaida, and the remaining members of the Taliban, 2002
The Space Shuttle Columbia takes off for mission STS-107, but disintegrates 16 days later on reentry, 2003
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf is sworn in as Liberia's new president, becoming Africa's first female elected head of state, 2006
New U.S. rules loosening trade restrictions with Cuba go into effect, 2015
The first ever flower grown in space, a zinnia, is announced; it was grown aboard the International Space Station using the NASA Veggie system, 2016
The city of Cairo, Egypt, is engulfed by a sandstorm, turning the whole city orange, 2019
Ten Nepali climbers become the first to reach the summit of K2 in winter, 2021