~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
January 5, 2012

★~ Today’s Quote: A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song. Chinese Proverb

★~ Count Down: 362 days remaining until the end of the year

★~ National Bird Day:

Spiish Splash Solstice is Taking a Bath from Katybeth on Vimeo.

Birds are mean and they do not like me. I have been bitten by an African parrot that the pet shop owner swore had never bitten another living soul and bitten by a goose when my sweet mother suggested I stick my hand through the fence to see if it would bite. Even my own bird (Solstice) that I rescued from a grocery store parking lot barely tolerates me. Solstice: The story of our ODD bird

My dad on the other hand has been a bird watcher ever since I can remember. I don’t take this personally. In fact for years I thought he belonged to a car club when he went to his Audubon Society meetings. This seemed odd since he had never shown a lick of interest in cars. We did spend a lot of time in the car during my childhood years, looking for the illusive chicken or the yellow-bellied striped horned polka-dotted red bird. I would love to tell you this experience instilled in me a love of birdwatching—but that would be lying. Really, I just wanted to hop on that super freeway and do 90 to nothing, towards our final destination.  I thought birding was for the birds.

Later in life I did appreciate the majestic eagles we saw in Alaska and the cranes we watched soar over the Grand Canyon, and Cole and I enjoy the brilliantly red cardinals that frequent our backyard.

The Christmas bird count just took place, and my dad headed out to help and add to his very impressive life list of birds. When I was growing up we usually hosted the pot luck that followed the Christmas bird count—that experience deserves its own blog post.

Today we celebrate responsible pet bird ownership and appreciation for our fine feathered friends. I may even buy our bird Solstice a special treat…and ignore her when she dives at my hand with her sharp little beak as I try to put it in her cage. But I can’t promise I won’t yell…here kitty, kitty as I walk away from her cage.

★~ Whipped Cream Day:

The whooshing of  Redi-whip cream out of a can into one’s mouth or onto one’s dessert is one of the top 5 best food things ever. There are so many ways to celebrate whip cream day…I will leave the choice to your imagination.

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1825 – Alexandre Dumas (Sr.) fought his first duel. In the process, his pants fell down. Dumas told the story later in his memoirs.

♥~ 1948 – Warner Pathe showed the very first color newsreel. Pictures of the Tournament of Roses Parade and the Rose Bowl football classic were seen by theatre audiences.

♥~ 1961 – “Hello. I’m Mr. Ed!” “A horse is a horse, of course, of course”… you know the lyrics. Mr. Ed, the talking horse, debuted for what would be a six-year run

♥~ 1968 – Dr. Benjamin Spock was indicted by a Boston federal grand jury for conspiracy to abet, aid and counsel draft dodgers.

♥~ 1970 – The soap opera “All My Children” premiered on ABC-TV.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1931 – Robert Duvall Academy Award-winning actor: Tender Mercies [1983]; A Family Thing, Stalin, A Show of Force, Days of Thunder , Colors, The Natural, True Confessions, Apocalypse Now, Network, The Godfather, M*A*S*H, True Grit, Countdown, Bullitt, To Kill a Mockingbird, Naked City

♥~ 1946 – Diane Keaton (Hall) Academy Award-winning actress: Annie Hall [1977]; Sleeper, Hair, Love and Death

♥~ 1948 – Ted Lange, Actor (“The Love Boat”)

♥~ 1953 – Pamela Sue Martin, Actress (“Dynasty”)

♥~ 1978 – January Jones, Actress (“Mad Men”)

★~ Did You Know: 

♥~ General Hospital is credited by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest-running American soap opera currently in production and the third longest running drama in television in American history after Guiding Light and As the World Turns.

♥~ Following radio soap formats, daytimes television soaps were originally 15 minutes long. AS THE WORLD TURNS was daytime’s first half-hour soap opera.

♥~ The Young and Restless has won 111 Daytime Emmys, along with 334 nominations. (as of 2008).

♥~ Days of our Lives was given the title of most daring drama in the seventies and was on the cover of Time magazine (dated January 12, 1976). The headline read, “Soap Operas: Sex and Suffering in the Afternoon.” Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall was a fan of the show.

♥~ After 19 nominations and no wins, Susan Lucci finally won a Daytime Emmy Award for the role of Erica Kane in “All My Children” in 1999. Actor Shemar Moore announced Susan’s first daytime Emmy by jumping up and down and screaming “the streak is over!”

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I plan to enjoy whip cream day to its fullest. Homemade whip cream is by far best but there is something about a can of Redi-whip in the fridge that just makes me happy every time I open the door. Kind of like Marshmallow fluff in the pantry. Or cool whip in the freezer.  My sweet mom use to take a couple cans of fruit cocktail, mini marshmallows, chopped pecans, pour it all into a bowl and then smother it  in whip cream. Fruit salad at it’s finest!

What foods make you happy? Odd Loves Company!

♥