Under the Table, Favorite Napping Spot (Wordless Wednesday) and Words for Wednesday, an A to Z Post

 ***********************************

To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.    

***********************************

Linking up with Wordless Wednesday, BeThere2Day, and Sandee at Comedy Plus.     

***********************************

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

This month, the prompts are being provided by Elephant's Child.  

This week's prompts are:

 

1. Foxglove
2. Summer
3. Missing
4. Event
5. South

The prompts will be here this month. An additional prompt from Charlotte (MotherOwl) is to include Water Blue in your creations from the prompts.

She could see it in her mind.  Away from the heat of SUMMER in the SOUTH, someplace with mountain meadows and a stream, maybe a small waterfall.  A place with flowers in every color of the rainbow from Water Blue to golden yellow to what she always thought of as really red.  And purple FOXGLOVE, she loved that one.  Someplace where the best EVENT of the day was a quiet, beautiful sunset with a sky painted colors she could only dream about.

Her reverie was broken by a bump, a shout of, "Honey!" and the thumping of several sets of feet on the stairs.  The husband, children, and the brother-in-law who seemed to never go home all descended in various states of hungry, howling or in distress or excitement.  The only noise MISSING was a dog howl, making her glad they had cats and those made themselves scarce whenever the din started.

She got up from the computer with a sigh.  The story she was trying to write would have to wait again, but someday her time would come.

***********************************

Today is:

Administrative Professionals Day -- US

Ambivalence Day -- a holiday to tell your friends about, or not

Concord Day -- Niger

Feast of Eros -- Ancient Greek Calendar (date approximate)

Genocide Remembrance Day / Martyrs' Day-- Armenia

International Guide Dog Day

Kapyong Day -- Australia (Battle of Kapyong, 1951)

Loktantra Diwas -- Nepal (Democracy Day, celebrating the restoration of the Nepali Congress on this date in 2006)

Pigs in a Blanket Day

Spring Cat Cleaning Day -- because someone, somewhere, thinks you need to bathe your cat; ask the cat, he will refuse, and if you become insistent, be careful

St. Ives' Day (Patron of St. Ives, Cambridgeshire, England)

St. Mark's Eve*

Walk @ Lunch Day -- founded and encouraged by Blue Cross / Blue Shield

World Day for Animals in Laboratories   

World Meningitis Day 

*A young lady may eat a boiled dove's egg sprinkled with salt and place

a tulip, sacred to St. Mark, in a vase next to her bed, and so she will 

dream of the man she will marry.

Anniversaries Today:

Mary, Queen of Scots marries Dauphin of France, François, at Notre Dame de Paris, 1558

Birthdays Today:

Courtnee Draper, 1985

Kelly Clarkson, 1982

Eric Balfour, 1977

Chipper Jones, 1972

Cedric the Entertainer, 1964

Djimon Hounsou, 1964

Michael O’Keefe, 1955

Eric Bogosian, 1953

Jean-Paul Gaultier, 1952

Doug Clifford, 1945

Barbra Streisand, 1942

Richard M. Daley, 1942

Sue Grafton, 1940

Jill Ireland, 1936

Shirley MacLaine, 1934

Stanley J. Kauffmann, 1916

Robert Penn Warren, 1905

Michael J. Dady, 1850

George N. Bascom, 1836

Anthony Trollope, 1815

Robert Bailey Thomas, 1766

Edmund Cartwright, 1743

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Dancing at Lughnasa"(Play), 1990

"Die Jahreszeiten/The Seasons"(Oratorio, Haydn H 21/3), 1801

The Boston News-Letter(Newspaper), 1704 (first successful newspaper in the British colonies)

Today in History:

Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt, although power effectively shifts to Hatshepsut, BC1479

Traditional date for the Greeks entering Troy using the Trojan Horse, BC1184

The appearance of Halley's Comet causes monks in England to predict evil happenings, 1066

"La Marseillaise" is composed by Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle, 1792

The Boston "News-Letter" becomes the first successful newspaper in the colonies, 1704

The Library of Congress is established, 1800

A patent is granted for the first soda fountain, 1833

William Price of the Washington Star becomes the first reporter to be specifically assigned to the White House, 1897

The fathometer, which measures underwater depth, is patented, 1928

Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II, 1953

Cosmonaut  Vladimir Komarov dies in Soyuz 1, the first person to die during a space mission, 1967

Mauritius becomes a member state of the United Nations, 1968

The first Chinese satellite, Dong Fang Hong I, is launched, 1970

Gruinard Island, Scotland, is officially declared free of the anthrax disease after 48 years of quarantine, 1990

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is inaugurated as the 265th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church taking the name Pope Benedict XVI, 2005

Snuppy, the world's first cloned dog is born in South Korea, 2005

Iceland announces that Norway will shoulder the defense of Iceland during peacetime, 2007

Scientists in Kamchatka, Russia, report sighting the first adult white orca to be seen in the wild, 2012

Suffragist Millicent Fawcett is the first woman to have a statue erected in Parliament Square, London, England, 2018

According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, streaming music services overtake worldwide sales of CDs and vinyl for the first time, 2018

India surpasses China as the worlds most populous country according to UN estimates, 2023

Time Is Not On My Side, a Random and Happy Tuesday A to Z Post

 ***********************************

To enjoy more blogs participating in the A to Z Challenge, click here.     

***********************************

It's time once again for a random and happy Tuesday, linking up with Stacy's Random Thoughts at Stacy Uncorked and Sandee at Comedy Plus.  

Now that Carl's shift has changed, time is not on my side.

Instead of arriving as he's stepping out of the shower, i'm arriving as he's wanting to roll over and go back to sleep for a little while longer.

Unfortunately, i have other clients after him, so he has to move and go sleep in his chair in the living room.

Yesterday, that lasted 15 minutes before he came back in and said he was done, it was shower time.

After i'd put his clean clothes -- pants/trousers, shirt, underwear, socks and shoes -- in the bathroom for him, he kept coming out to try to grab other things and i kept shooing him back in there, like one of those paddle balls on a rubber band.

Once he stayed, he came out fully dressed and as much in his right mind as any of us ever are.

Over the next hour, he bounced back and forth between the kitchen and his room, chattering at me the way he does each time he saw me.

He talked about a local church where he was taking a class, a sermon he heard on what sounded like "cultural moments," whatever he meant by that, prices for things, ministry to the homeless, and doing yard work.

His green apron is still missing, and now a couple of the aprons from the kitchen are gone, too.  We can't figure out if he's stuffing them somewhere, taking them off in his car and leaving them there (not that i saw, i had to get in there to get his lunch cooler), or worst possibility of all, going to work with them on and realizing it there and taking them off in the building.

If the latter is the case, they will never see the inside of their house again.

How about some funnies.

That last one should have illustrated my poem yesterday.

Have a blessed and beautiful Tuesday, everyone!

***********************************

Today is:

Alfred G. "Alferd" Packer Day -- Colorado

Book Day and Lover's Day -- Spain, especially Catalan (women give books to men, while men give flowers to the women. Celebrated in the Spanish city of Barcelona since 1714 to honor Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes [author of "Don Quixote"] and in observance of St. George's Day)

Canada Book Day

Children's Day -- Nepal; North Cyprus; Turkey

Community Day -- CL, Spain

Community Day/St. George's Day -- AR, Spain

English Language Day -- UN    

Full Pink Moon -- a/k/a Full Sprouting Moon, Grass Moon, Egg Moon, White Moon, Virgin Moon, and Fish Moon; in other traditions

     Bak Full Moon Poya Day -- Sri Lanka

     Tagu Full Moon -- Myanmar

Hanuman Jayanti -- Hindu (celebration of the birth of Lord Hanuman; local dates may vary)

Impossible Astronaut Day -- if you are a Dr. Who fan, you know, and if not, go here and find out    

Independence Day -- Conch Republic, Key West, FL. US (a tongue-in-cheek micronation which seceded from the Union in 1982; celebrated yearly with a week-long festival)

International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day -- on St. George's Day, encouraging members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America to continue to be what Howard V. Hendrix derogatorily termed "webscabs", posting their stories free on the internet

International Sing Out Day -- no one will claim responsibility for this one, but i promise not to observe it!

Jurgi Festival -- Ancient Latvian Calendar (day sacred to Usins; first day outdoor work began for the summer)

National Cherry Cheesecake Day

National Picnic Day -- US

National Sovereignty and Children's Day -- Turkey

Navpad Oli/ Ayambil Oli -- Jain (nine day religious festival)

School Bus Driver's Day -- these longsuffering drivers put up with a lot, thank a school bus driver today!

Sigurd the Dragon Slayer's Day -- because he was probably the inspiration for the legends about St. George

St. Adalbert's Day (Patron of Bohemia; Czech Republic; Poland; Prague, Czech Republic; Prussia)

St. George's Day (Patron of archers, armourers, Boy Scouts, butchers, cavalry, chivalry, Crusaders, equestrians, farmers, field hands, field workers, horsemen, horses, husbandmen, knights, lepers, Order of the Garter, Palestinian Christians, riders, Romanian Army, saddle makers, saddlers, sheep, shepherds, soldiers, Teutonic Knights; Canada; England; Ethiopia; Georgia; Germany; Greece; Lithuania; Malta; Portugal; Cappadocia; Catalonia; Palestine; over 20 cities and diocese around the world; against herpes, leprosy, plague, skin diseases, skin rashes, syphilis; by the middle ages, St. George was revered in much of Europe as the personification of chivalry)*

  

Take a Chance Day -- internet generated encouragement to try something different

Talk Like Shakespeare Day -- on The Bard's birth anniversary 

Theravada New Year -- Buddhist (through tomorrow; dates and length of celebration can vary locally)

Vinalia Priora -- Ancient Roman Calendar (tasting the first wines of the year)

World Book & Copyright Day -- UN (this date chosen because of how parts of Spain celebrate St. George's Day, with books)     

     World Book Night -- Germany; Ireland; UK; US (anniversary of the birth and death of Shakespeare, and the death of Miguel de Cervantes; over 20 book titles have been specially chosen for this year and special editions of those books printed so you can share books and your love of reading with those who don't read much  

*To save a Maid, St. George the Dragon slew

A pretty tale, if all is told be true

Most say, there are no Dragons, and 'tis said

There was no George: pray God there was a Maid.

-- John Aubrey, Remains of Gentilism (1688)

Birthdays Today:

Dev Patel, 1990

John Cena, 1977

Kal Penn, 1977

Scott Bairstow, 1970

Melina Kanakaredes, 1967

George Lopez, 1961

Valerie Bertinelli, 1960

Craig Sheffer, 1960

Jan Hooks, 1957

Judy Davis, 1955

Michael Moore, 1954

Joyce DeWitt, 1949

Bernadette Devlin McAliskey, 1947

Sandra Dee, 1942

David Birney, 1940

Lee Majors, 1940

Roy Orbison, 1936

Shirley Temple Black, 1928

Vladimire Nabokov, 1899

Lester Bowles "Mike" Pearson, 1897

Sergei Prokofiev, 1891

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck, 1858

Granville T. Woods, 1856

James Buchanan, 1791

William Penn, 1621

William Shakespeare, 1564(attributed -- only the day of his baptism, April 26, is known for certain)

Debuting/Premiering Today:

"Baywatch"(TV), 1989

"No Man's Land"(Play), 1975

"She Loves Me"(Musical), 1963

"Patience; or, Bunthorne's Bride"(Opera), 1881

"Il re pastore/The Shepherd King"(Mozart opera, K 208)1775

"The Tender Husband"(Comedy), 1705

Today in History:

The founding of the Order of the Garter by King Edward III is announced on St George's Day, 1348

William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed, with Queen Elizabeth I in attendance, 1597

The first public school in the United States, Boston Latin School, is founded in Boston, Massachusetts, 1635

Connecticut is chartered as an English colony, 1662

Canada issues its first postage stamps, 1851

The Vitascope system of movie projection debuts the first motion picture at Koster & Bial's Music Hall in NYC, 1896

Namibia becomes the 160th member of the UN and the 50th member of the Commonwealth of Nations, 1990

Eritrians vote overwhelmingly for independence from Ethiopia, 1993

Beijing closes all schools for two weeks because of the SARS virus, 2003

The gamma ray burst GRB 090423 is observed for 10 seconds. The event signals the most distant object of any kind and also the oldest known object in the universe, 2009

Despite an initial ban on the film 'Borat,' Kazakhstan issues and official 'thank you' to actor Sacha Baron Cohen for his character, Borat Sagdiyev, 2012

Loretta Lynch is confirmed as the first African-American woman as US Attorney-General, 2015

The WHO begins distributing the world’s first malaria vaccine to children in Malawi, 2019

The journal Scientific Reports publishes the findings on the first frog fossils, about 40 million years old, found in Antarctica, 2020

Artists Sonia Boyce and Simone Leigh are awarded Golden Lions at the 59th Venice Biennale, the first time Black women have won representing their countries (UK and US) at the prestigious modern art exhibit, 2023