Days to Celebrate

Again, I missed an important holiday.

Thursday, August 10, was National Lazy Day in the US.

I spent the day putting more plants in the garden that I had found in the wild (ladies’ tresses) and bought at $1 clearance (mostly hydrangeas) and then drove to Cincinnati to spend the weekend busting butt on garden projects with my daughter.

I think I will celebrate Lazy Day today.

How did you spend August 10 this year?

I'm in my pre-school conservative mood! Since school begins next week, I'm "conserving" my energy and only doing "one" big thing per day. Normally I clean the house from top to bottom on Thursday/Friday. On August 10th I just washed the windows on the sliding glass door-inside and out. That was my "one" thing! Spent the rest of the day piddling or reading!

Today - August 15 - was National Back to School Prep Day. It was also National Relaxation Day. I can see that these two holidays are in conflict. However, as a former teacher, I always started back to school prep on August 1. It is also National Lemon Meringue Pie Day. I really need to start investigating and celebrating food-related holidays!

I see that August 16 is National Rum Day. I think I can celebrate that one!

Let's see - 13 August was National Left Handers Day - Being left handed it was nice to be able to do things without having every Tom, Dick, and Harry right hander glaring at me muttering things like "incorrigibly sinistral" behind my back. :-)

>4 alco261: Though I didn’t realize why, I too noticed a lack of rudeness while I was out front with my gardening tools on Sunday.

World Mosquito Day is Sunday. How will you celebrate?

>6 2wonderY:

I shan't be doing anything special as we live at an altitude of 1,900 metres and we rarely get a mosquito up here, and even if we do, they are not considered to be malarial at this altitude. Next month I'll be in South Sudan for a week and there I will be taking all the normal precautions, particularly sleeping under a net.

August 19th National Potato Day! I think every day should be potato day!

>8 Tess_W:

For our generation of British and Irish I think every day already is potato day! When I was growing up virtually every meal included spuds.

Librarythingofficial on Instagram tells me today is World Folklore Day.

Scanning through my catalog, I see I favor illustrated stories, because there are just so many wonderful illustrators. But how about picking up Mother Goose in Prose, by L. Frank Baum? Plenty of chuckles there.

>Today is World Folklore Day? Rubbish - that's just an old wives tale. :-)

Today is National Waffle Day! I bought one of those mini Dash's (wafflemaker) and I really like it. Have only made waffles once, but use it to make Chaffles (or whatever you call them) eggs with cheese (Keto) and you can also add pepperoni if you like. I like to put sour cream on them!

Today is International Repair Day. Begun in 2017 to encourage repair of electronic goods, but celebrating a fix and re-use culture overall.

My project this week was to repair a stand originally made to hold smoking equipment. The platform originally was cast iron and held four containers for cigarettes, lighter and ash.

Decades ago, I replaced the platform with a wooden disk I made in a woodworking class.
It was splitting in the center on the top surface, so I glued, clamped and then sanded it. Good as old.

If I repair something today, I will post again.
Happy day.

Today I successfully repaired a model railway locomotive which had an electrical fault. I had contacted the manufacturers, who told me what the problem was likely to be, and this morning I dismantled the little beast, fixed it, and even managed to put it back together again!

I play dumb when it comes to repairs, for I hate to repair ANYTHING! I lived in a house full of testosterone, so never have fixed a thing! I feign not even to know what the simplest tools are!;) Also, I'm 5'3" and can't reach a lot of things. My sons ranged in height from 6' to 6'4" with my husband also 6'4"; so I also never used a step stool, just called for a tall body! And can you believe, I have never mowed a yard! I offered to drive the tractor numerous times, but my help was never needed.

>15 Tess_W:

I used to love driving tractors, but it's many years (decades, in fact) since I've had the opportunity. Mind you, driving my 41 year old Series 3 Land Rover often feels a bit like driving a tractor, and indeed Land Rovers were first developed as an agricultural vehicle, a cross between a tractor and a light truck.

Today is national pasta day! I'm going to celebrate with Chicken Parmesan and a side of spaghetti.

Durn. Missed World Toilet Day, which was Sunday.

https://www.un.org/en/observances/toilet-day

I’ve actually read a few books on world sanitation issues. And I used a bucket humanure set up at my cabin. Substituting sawdust or other plant mulch eliminates odors.

>18 2wonderY: I didn't know about that day but I observed it anyhow - too much fiber in my diet, I think. 😏

Today, in the U.S., it is officially Thanksgiving Eve. Unofficially, it is National Order Pizza Day. It is the busiest day of the year for pizza shops. Households are too busy with Thanksgiving preparations that they order pizzas for dinner. Wolf it down and get back to work.

Tuesday, December 5th, was World Soil Day. I missed it! But I marked it on my calendar so I will be sure to celebrate abundantly next year.
I did spend a couple of hours in the Agriculture building; walked past the Soils lab twice.

>21 2wonderY: What a dirty shame! Maybe next year. :-)

>22 alco261: Ha!

Today, December 8, is National Brownie Day and National Lard Day! Indulge!

Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrate.

>23 Tess_W: I had three brownies earlier in the week. But that doesn’t count, does it?

>24 2wonderY: No, I think you will have to have more today

>23 Tess_W:

I don't really care for Brownies, but I wish I had some lard. I like using it for frying, and also to spread on toast - bread and dripping, as we used to call it when we were growing up, with the bread toasted in front of the open coal fire in the living room.

>26 John5918: I do use it for frying meats and also for making pie crusts. Since we buy a freezer pig every 2-3 years, I elect to get the lard. The butcher said most people opt not to get it, and then he sells it for $10.98 a pound!

My father, who lived through the depression told me that when they ran out of meat, they would eat lard sandwiches. His mother would just spread lard on bread and he would take it school. Then at home, his mother would make gravy from the lard and they would put that over toast. Amazingly, my grandparent lived to be in their 80's and died of causes not related to the heart!

>25 Tess_W: Opportunity presented itself at the college farm store yesterday. They had brownies filled with walnuts and covered with toasted coconut. Nah. I passed.
But! Cleaning my tote bag more thoroughly this morning, I discovered a ziplock from our Appalachian meal last week. Persimmon bread, honey cake, and a brownie! Breakfast!
That’ll have to do.

Yesterday was the anniversary of barbed wire being patented.
Some Texans seem to have a fetish about the stuff; can't seem to be able to put out enough to keep them satisfied.
Not me. I've lived in the Austin area for a few years shy of half my life now. Texas pride is entirely misplaced.

>29 WholeHouseLibrary: Texas pride is entirely misplaced.

As is much pride!

>30 librorumamans: Well said.

Today is Library Shelfie Day. I think we all might enjoy this one.

https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/library-shelfie-day-fourth-wedn...

I'm happy to see a teapot on that shelf!

>33 John5918: Well of course! But this is my everyday teapot:

https://pics.cdn.librarything.com//picsizes/e4/06/e40642d18dfc873637344703651426...

>32 2wonderY: My shelves were organized and I had a list of each book on which shelf. Now, after books are added I have not kept up with the list so not so organized.
I also like the teapot. Tea and reading go together.

>33 John5918: and >34 2wonderY:...here's my teapot...actually, as John5918 will tell you, this should really be called my tea kettle. Live steam Bing toy locomotive from 1906 - :-)

>36 alco261: Beautiful!

>36 alco261: That is really nice.

A little library humor for Valentine’s Day

https://www.instagram.com/p/C3Vv26zSzSz/?igsh=MXQxNDBtb2tld2dmbA==

Yesterday was World Water Day. I celebrated by shopping for a new sink faucet for my bathroom.
I had my hot water heater replaced last week, and apparently, shutting off the water supply can clog the canisters inside the faucet handles and they aren’t made to open and clean in the cheap models. So, no water pressure.

Choices, choices!!

National Cocktail Day
National Cheesesteak Day
National Chocolate Covered Raisins Day

This is International Dark Sky Week. I no longer have access to a dark sky and it makes me sad.

>41 2wonderY: One of each, please and thank you!

>42 2wonderY: I went outside last night to see what all the fuss was about...I couldn't see a thing :-)

We're blessed to live somewhere where there is very little light pollution. In our immediate vicinity there are no lights at all. If we look out across the Great Rift Valley we can see for up to 80 km in a 180 degree arc, and we just see a few pinpricks of light where someone has a small domestic solar system, although we've noticed over the last ten years that it has risen from a handful to maybe two or three dozen or so. And as we're at an altitude of 1,900 metres, we're often blanketed by clouds/fog. The other night when I went outside I could see absolutely nothing - no stars, no lights, no outline of our trees or outbuildings - pitch dark.

I’m just now discovering that Sunday was National Gardening Day. Luckily, I was appropriately digging in the plants that I acquired Saturday.

National Haiku
Poetry Day is today!
Try your hand at it.

Haiku not for you?
Well, try a sonnet instead.
All poetry rocks!

(Just as an aside,
Attempting the pattern helps
Keep grey cells alive!)

April 25th is the perfect date. It’s not too hot and not too cold.
All you need is a light jacket.

Hmmmm…. Silk, I think.

>48 2wonderY:...so are you saying April 25th is a free air day? Free Air: Definition - air that isn't too cold so you don't have to pay to heat it and air that isn't too hot so you don't have to pay to cool it.

>48 2wonderY: Ah, Miss Congeniality I think !

25 April is Anzac Day, a very important public holiday in Australia and New Zealand. But traditionally it's also the day on which things start getting cooler for what passes for winer in Australia.

Also, 28 April is Terry Prqatchett Day.