~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
May 13th, 2013

★~ Today’s Quote:  The most important trip you will likely take in life is meeting others half way. (unknown)

★~ National Leprechaun Day:

Really. So why today, why not St. Patrick’s Day, right? Well, think about it this way… if you were a leprechaun you’d have be smart so that people don’t catch you. They want your gold and if they catch you then you have to grant them three wishes so that they’ll let you go, right? So to protect your gold and to keep from having to be bothered with granting wishes you’d probably want to come out on a day when people would least expect it. St. Patrick’s Day is a day you expect to see leprechauns and other Irish things, so people would have their eye out for you on that day.

Your right, I have no idea why Leprechauns show up on the Holiday calendar today, but my story is as good as anyone else’s, so I’m sticking to it, wishing you lots of luck today, and eating a bowl of Lucky Charms cereal.

★~ Frog Jumping Day:

Frog Jumping Day dates  back to Mark Twain’s first short story. It was first published in 1865 as “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”. Later, he published it as “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”. It is also known under a third title “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.  The story is a tale within a tale, told to the narrator by an elderly man he visits in order to track down a former acquaintance. Instead of information about his old friend, the narrator gets the story of Jim Smiley, a dyed-in-the-wool gambler who will bet on just about anything. Click to read this story of Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. 

The current Jumping Frog Jubilee record holder is Rosie the Ribeter, who jumped 21 feet, 5-3/4 inches in 1986 at the Jumping Frog Jubilee in Calaveras County, CA.

★~ Apple Pie Day:

The first apple pie recipe was printed by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1381 in England. The ingredients in the recipe included apples, spices, figs, raisins, pears, saffron, and cofyn (a casing of pastry).

Dutch apple pie recipes date back to the late 15th century. These recipes were similar to the English recipes except they included a scoop of ice cream placed on top of the pie before it was served. This tradition—apple pie à la mode—was eventually brought to America where most people continue to enjoy their apple pie topped with ice cream.

Apple Pie became a symbolic icon for America when WWII soldiers repeatedly voiced that they were fighting for “Mom and apple pie.”

Unbelievable Apple Pie
Grandma Ople’s Apple Pie
Dutch Apple Pie
Apple Pie Jam

★~Fruit Cocktail Day:

Do you remember fruit cocktail from your childhood? My memories include eating fruit salad made from the cans of Del Monte or Libby’s (when it says “Libby’s Libby’s Libby’s on the Label Label Label”) I loved those Peaches, pears, pineapple, grapes and cherries all covered in sweet syrupy sauce with cool whip mix in with the fruit. If you’re past the canned Fruit salad stage (although, I’m not sure this something you can ever really outgrow) here are some Fruit Cocktail recipes that have that healthy taste added in.

★~ Today in History:

♥~1959 –  I think you will find this story “fastener-ating.”  There once was a young, Swiss boy, named Georges de Mestral, whose dog became all matted and sticky after an encounter with the Burdock plant in the Swiss woods.  Now most of us would have just grabbed a Furminator and de-matted our faithful companion while swearing a little at the thistly plant that latched onto to our pants and pups, but not George; he took one look at those needy seed sacs’ burrs and stuck those babies under a microscope, where he noticed that each burr looked like a tiny hook. These hooks were what allowed the plant to cling viciously to his pants and dog’s fur. The inventor was hooked, and despite a number of naysayers Mestral determination pushed him forward and Velcro was invented 10 years later.

The moral to this story is to take a second look at things that hook you in, don’t believe those who say it “cannot be done”; after all, sticking to something could pay off.

♥~  1971 – Aretha Franklin, the ‘Queen of Soul’, received a gold record for her version of Bridge over Troubled Water, originally a Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel tune.

♥~ 1985 – Tony Perez became the oldest major-league baseball player to hit a grand slam home run. Perez hit the grand slam for the Cincinnati Reds — helping the Reds to a 7-3 win over the Houston Astros. Perez was just a month shy of his 43rd birthday when he connected for the big dinger…

♥~ 1992 – Astronauts Pierre Thout, Tom Akers, and Richard Hieb made history when they grabbed the wayward 4-ton Intelsat-Six communications satellite. Also on board the shuttle Endeavor during the flight of STS-49 was the Kathy Thornton, the first mother to walk in space.

♥~ 1883- Georgios Nicholas Papanikolaou, inventor of the Pap smear.

♥~ 1922 – Bea (Beatrice) Arthur (Bernice Frankel) actress: The Golden Girls, Maude, Mame; died Apr 25, 2009

♥~ 1939 – Harvey Keitel actor: Smoke, Pulp Fiction, Rising Sun, The Piano, Sister Act, Thelma and Louise, Bugsy, The Two Jakes, The Last Temptation of Christ, Death Watch, Blue Collar, Taxi Driver, Mother, Jugs and Speed, Shining Star, Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, Mean Streets, Holy Smoke, U-571

♥~ 1950 – Stevie Wonder singer, At the tender age of ten, Little Stevie Wonder, as he was called by Berry Gordy at Motown, was discovered singing and playing the harmonica. The child prodigy got a little bigger and in his teen years recorded Fingertips (his first hit) and My Cherie Amour; co-wrote I was Made to Love Her, For Once in My Life and Tears of a Clown. If You Really Love Me was a #1 hit and Stevie was just 20 years old. Stevie Wonder won an Oscar in 1984 (I Just Called to Say I Love You); induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989; and sixteen Grammy Awards.

♥~ 1960 – Julianne Phillips actress: Sisters, Allie & Me, Big Bully, The Only Way Out, Fletch Lives, Odd Jobs, Jealousy

♥~ 1964 – Stephen Colbert actor, producer, writer, TV satirist:The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Saturday Night Live,

★~ Good to Know:

♥~ Tie the Top of Frozen Food Bags with the Piece You Cut Off: Next time you heat up half a bag of broccoli, save the top piece of the bag you cut off and use it to tie around the top of the bag.

♥~ Can you hear me now? Place your Phone in a bowl and crank up the volume. The concave shape of the bowl will amplify the music or the speaker call.

♥~ If while riding the elevator you’d like to go directly to your floor, all you have to do is press the desired floor and the “door close” button at the same time. Even if other floors have been pressed, the elevator will skip right over them. (Let’s keep this one between us, ok?)

♥~ Lick your wrist wait, wait ten seconds, then smell it. That’s what your breath smells like.

♥~ Bubble wrap: A little bubble wrap can stop your toilet from sweating. Wrapping the inside of your tank, keeps the condensation under control.

#

Yesterday, Rascal and I went for a walk in the neighborhood and were very surprised to met and greet a very Handsome American Bittern.

According to my Dad the expert bird watcher, they winter in the southern states and the west coast and they bred in the north, with the southern most boundary being southern Wisconsin. Of-course, I was worried about Bittern, I was pretty sure this was his first trip to the city, but my dad reassured me that he was migrating and became tired; after taking a rest he would be on his way home. I invited him back to our trees (Bittern, not my dad who usually sleeps in the guest room), but he seemed content to check out the neighborhood. I’ll keep an eye out for him tho….

On another note, I made three loaves of ice cream bread this weekend. It was interesting in a not -so- great way. Cole told me the bread looked a whole lot better than it tasted. I was going to share the ice cream bread with my sister-in-law and brother-in-law for a third opinion and some possible suggestions about what might have improved it, but then Cole told me they deserved a reprieve after Peeps Vodka, and to accept defeat, there was no way to improve it. I think they might be bribing him. I’ll be back to share some pictures and the rest of the story soon. Very soon.

Don’t forget to check out Odds and Ends for a chance win an Aqua Pad and increase your creative shower power.

Wishing you a very Merry Monday!

Odd Loves Company!

You knew, that ice cream bread recipe was too good to be good, didn’t you?? Yes. Three. Loaves. Well, I have a American Bittern. Ha.Double Ha.