Saturday, June 4, 2011

On the Road Again

Just can't wait to get on the road again...

Okay, i'll quit singing, i promise.

We are going to be on the road again. The 18th Annual Family Trek to the Beach for a Week.

#1 Son is staying home as he has to work. The freezer is stocked with not too terribly unhealthy frozen meals and lots of frozen veggies he can add to the meals. The fridge is full of bananas and oranges and apples and cucumbers and tomatoes and milk and eggs, so he has some fresh things to add, as he is the one most likely to grab breakfast on the way out the door to work and it will be two bananas and a half a cucumber. Really.

Our side of the family is going in two separate vehicles this time, as there is no way to cram 6 people and all of our luggage, and Sweetie's guitars and amp, into a minivan that has one seat lying down that we can't afford to have fixed so it will come back up.

From our side, the cast of characters on this (mis)adventure are:

Sweetie -- a 50-something rocker who has managed to figure out a way to sit in on a jam session with a local church down in Florida, thus the need for his guitars and an amp. He has a degree in archaeology, but his soul is in his tone.

Bigger Girl -- 18, emotional, philosophical, and planning to spend her summer doing experiments on plants and working at a reproductive biology center. Loves to help around the house and calls Dickens "light reading".

#2 Son -- 15 and can do anything, or thinks he can. His favorite line is "Mom, guess what I did!" followed by something that only a 15 year boy can dream up, like catching baby water moccasins.

Little Girl -- 13, has been PMSing since she was 2. A good swimmer, brilliant writer, perfect pitch when singing, very good artist. Doesn't like compliments and tries to hide all her abilities behind an I-don't-care attitude.

Teresa -- over 20. and the only non-relative going with us this year. A friend of Bigger Girl, rather hard to get to know, but a nice all around person. She was home schooled and her parents won't let her go to college, won't let her learn to drive (i've been teaching her), ruin every job she has ever tried to hold because they want her to live at home and work with them only, and won't let her have a key to the house, any unsupervised computer access, or a phone that will make outgoing calls to any number they haven't approved. This week away is going to be a blast for her, i'm going to see to it.

mimi -- the dumpy, middle-aged housewife, chief cook and bottle washer, kitten feeder, errand runner, lifeguard at the pool and on the beach. It's not a bad life if you can get it.


Today is

Applesauce Cake Day

Audacity to Hope Day -- for all those who have the audacity to keep their hope, no matter what

Bhagat Puran Singh's Birthday -- Sikhism

Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim's Birthday -- Finland (official flag day)

Chicken and Egg Festival -- Prescott, Arkansas, US (enjoy the cackling and crowing contests, and all the other fun events, through tomorrow)

Derby Day -- Epsom Downs, Surrey, England

Do-Dah Parade -- Kalamazoo, Michigan, US (a "Salute to Silliness" with offbeat paraders and fun for the whole family)

Drawing Day (a/k/a Pencil Day) -- drop everything and draw! express yourself through art

Eel Festival -- Jyllinge, Denmark

Elfreth's Alley Day (Fete Day) -- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (one of the oldest continuously inhabited streets in the country)

Emancipation Day -- Tonga

Enshu Hamakita Hiryu Matsuri -- Hamamatsu City, Japan (honors the river god Ryujin)

Festival for Hercules Custos -- Ancient Roman Calendar

Head of State's Official Birthday -- Maylaysia

Horseradish Festival -- Collinsville, Illinois (horseradish capital of the world, build a race car of roots, enjoy the food and fun, through tomorrow)

Hug Your Cat Day -- given various dates on different websites; as a cat lover, i'll observe it on every one mentioned.

International Day of Innocent Children Victims of Aggression

Jarila's Day -- Ancient Slavic Calendar (Festival of Jarila, god of the sun and fertility)

National Cognac Day

National Frozen Yogurt Day

National Trails Day -- to remember our wilderness trails, wherever they are, and thank those who maintain them

National Unity Day -- Hungary

Old Maid Day -- begun after WWII, dances and socials were held to bring the ladies whose GI's were not returning and the men who were unattached together

Pink Tomato Festival -- Warren, Arkansas (through the 11th)

Revolution Day -- Ghana

St. Optatus' Day

St. Petroc's Day (favourite saint of Cornwall, England, for banishing monsters)

Yobuko Otsunahiki -- Higashi Matsuura, Saga prefecture, Japan (Tug of War between the land team and the sea team; if the land wins, there will be good crops, if the sea, good fishing)


Birthdays Today:

Russell Brand, 1975
Angelina Jolie, 1975
Noah Wyle, 1971
Sam Harris, 1961
George Noory, 1950
Michelle Phillips, 1944
Joyce Meyer, 1943
Bruce Dern, 1936
John Drew Barrymore, 1932
Dr. Ruth Westheimer, 1928
Dennis Weaver, 1924
Robert Merrill, 1919
Rosalind Russell, 1907


Today in History:

Chinese astronomers make the first recording of a solar eclipse, BC781
Sir Walter Raleigh establishes the first English colony on Roanoke Island, old Virginia (now North Carolina), 1584
Forces under the shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu take Osaka Castle in Japan, 1615
New England planters arrive to claim land in Nova Scotia, Canada taken from the Acadians, 1760
A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history, 1769
The Montgolfier brothers publicly demonstrate their montgolfière (hot air balloon), 1783
Marie Thible, of Lyons, France, accompanied by a pilot (Monsieur Fleurant), became the first woman in history to fly in a free balloon. She drifted across Lyons in a balloon named Le Gustave (for King Gustav III of Sweden, who was watching the ascent); a year after the first flight by a man, 1784
Captain George Vancouver claims Puget Sound for the Kingdom of Great Britain, 1792
The Ottoman Empire cedes Cyprus to the United Kingdom but retains nominal title, 1878
Henry Ford completes the Ford Quadricycle, his first gasoline-powered automobile, and gives it a successful test run, 1896
Massachusetts becomes the first state of the United States to set a minimum wage, 1912
The first Pulitzer Prizes are awarded: Laura E. Richards, Maude H. Elliott, and Florence Hall receive the first Pulitzer for biography (for Julia Ward Howe). Jean Jules Jusserand receives the first Pulitzer for history for his work With Americans of Past and Present Days. Herbert B. Swope receives the first Pulitzer for journalism for his work for the New York World, 1917
A patent for the ATM is granted to Donald Wetzel, Tom Barnes and George Chastain, 1973
The Tiananmen Square protests are violently ended in Beijing by the People's Liberation Army, 1989
Solidarity's victory in the first (somewhat) free parliamentary elections in post-war Poland sparks off a succession of peaceful anti-communist revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989

2 comments:

  1. I love your cast of characters. The catching baby water moccasins (!) and calling Dickens light reading were most telling.
    Meanwhile, good for you for making sure you're daughter's friend has something normal happen for her, and for teaching her to drive.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks, Leah. We have arrived and it is good.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for meandering by and letting me know you were here!
Comments on posts more than a week old are moderated.
If Blogger puts your comment in "spam jail," i'll try to get it hauled out by day's end.