~★~♥~♥~★~ El Morno! ♥~★~★~♥ ~
October 10, 2011

★~ Today’s Picture:  Thank you Debbie, Musings by an ND Domer’s Mom, for this lovely picture of fall from Central Illinois.

★~ Today’s Quote: Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.  ~Henry David Thoreau

★~ Columbus Day: 

In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue to find a shorter trade route to Asia. He traveled west and accidentally landed in the Americas, spawning the era of European exploration in the New World. The first celebration of his discovery did not take place until October 12, 1792—exactly 300 years after his landing. In 1937, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed Columbus Day a national holiday,

★~ National Angel Food Cake Day:

Angel food cake iced with whipped cream and covered in strawberries is my favorite cake. Fluffy, light, moist . . . heavenly! I buy the cake at the grocery store and ice it at home, but I have also been known to eat it plain on my way home from the grocery store. I have tried to make them from scratch with less than spectacular results. Polish your halo and have a piece of angel food cake with me today!

★~ Today in History:

♥~ 1956 – An 11,000-carat emerald was found in northern Transvaal, South Africa. The hugh gem was discovered by Charles Kempt and J. Botes.

♥~ 1961 – Joseph Heller’s Catch-22 was published. When the book was originally submitted to various magazines, including The Atlantic and The New Yorker, it was dismissed and did not even make The New York Times bestseller list. Even among the elitist literary circles, it was snubbed. Despite this initial lukewarm reception, the popularity of Catch-22 soared among the masses.

♥~ 1966 – The game of Twister was introduced by the Milton Bradley Company.

♥~ 1970 – Neil Diamond reached the #1 spot on the pop music charts for the first time with Cracklin’ Rosie.

★~ Born Today:

♥~ 1958 – Tanya Tucker singer:  US country singer, 1991 Country Music Association singer of the year. Best known for her debut hit ‘Delta Dawn’ which she released when she was 13. She has topped the US country music charts 10 times. Starred in her own fly-on-the-wall TV show, Tuckerville, in 2005.

♥~ 1950 – Nora Roberts author- Before she started writing, Nora Roberts was a woman in search of a creative outlet. Staying at home with her two small sons, she was the ultimate earth mother, gardening, canning fruits and vegetables, making her son’s clothes, stitching and knitting. “I macramed two hammocks,” she admits now. “I needed help.” That help came in the form of a blizzard in February 1979, which left her stranded at home for a week. In an age without four-wheel drive vehicles, getting down the hillside from where she lived was impossible. Morning kindergarten was canceled for a week. It was the endless games of Candy Land and a severe lack of chocolate that drove her to look for a little entertainment that was not child-related. She took out a notebook and started to write down one of the stories she’d made up in her head. Now, after almost 200 books and countless bestsellers, she still writes eight hours a day — every day.

★~ Did You Know: Famous Explorers: 

♥~ (1451-1506) –  Christopher Columbus is one of the best-known of all explorers. He is famous for his voyage in 1492, when he “discovered” America while he was looking for a way to sail to Asia. He was not the first European to find North America. The Vikings had come to northern North America hundreds of years earlier. However, Columbus is important because his explorations made Europeans much more aware of the New World and helped to encourage more exploration of North and South America in the 1500s.

♥~ (975-1020) – Leif Eriksson is the first in our list of Explorers of the Millennium. In fact, he was born in Iceland around 975, 25 years before the beginning of the millennium. He was a leader of Viking expeditions and may have been the first European to reach North America.

♥~ (1254-1324)  – Marco Polo is famous for his travels through Asia. He was one of the first Europeans to travel into Mongolia and China. He became famous for his book that told the story of his travels along the Silk Road to China.

♥~ (1480-1521)- Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea captain who led five Spanish ships and 251 men in the first around-the-world sailing expedition. This voyage was filled with challenges, disasters, and tragedy, but it was one of the most important events in the history of exploration. He did not however invent the GPS.

♥ ~ (1754-1893)  Nicholas Baudin was a French Naval Officer who mapped the island of Tasmania and explored much of the coastline of Australia (including Geographe Bay, Guichen Bay (1802), Fleurieu Peninsula (1802), Murat Bay, and Shark Bay and the Gulf of Carpentaria) from 1800 until 1803.

♥~ (1930) – Neil Armstrong became the first human being to set foot on the Moon- July 20, 1969. He was the commander of the Apollo 11 lunar module, and was accompanied by Edwin E. Aldrin.

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My mom, Cole, and I have done a little of our own exploring. Sailing off from Chicago in our Honda Odyssey with provisions that included bottles of coke, cookies, chocolate pretzel nubs, and Cheetos, we drove through Wisconsin and eventually landed at the Wisconsin/Iowa border along the Mississippi. We hope to explore some apple orchards and return home with several bags of apples to share with friends.

I Hope you have the day off, and if you don’t, I hope you discover ways to shake away the Monday morning blues and have a marvelous day.