For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
A Very Special Installment Today
Dave Out Loud Presents Undecided, Undeclared & Uncertain Day
21 letters 21 songs assembled in a playlist. 5 more remain. Here is what we have so far.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in an A to Z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
I'm gonna be honest. Most of these holidays I am highlighting for the challenge. I am going to forget about for next year. Some I've probably already forgotten. World Table Tennis Day is one holiday I don't want to forget. In fact, I am kind of bummed that I probably won't ping some pong today. Ping some pong is what I call playing ping pong or table tennis.
When I think of table tennis the first thing that pops into my head is this commercial from when I was a kid.
Gnip Gnop not only sparked a passion for ping pong but also a passion for gnikaeaps sdrawkcab (speaking backwards) which turned into my love for all things palindromic.
When other people think of ping pong this scene from Forrest Gump may pop in their head ...
I love playing table tennis. I may lack the Gumpian endurance or skill but what I lack in endurance and talent I make up in zeal. In college I played a lot of table tennis, it is a great way to spend time between classes or as a study break. It is both social and athletic. I even had an album that I thought was the best accompaniment for playing ping pong. It was Jacob's Trouble's debut album, Door Into Summer. When I hear other people incorrectly say that this group has better albums, my initial thought is not to play ping pong with. You listen and you tell me if the beat doesn't want to make you ping some pong.
One fun thing to on World Table Tennis Day would be to play a variation called round robin. It is basically a cross between table tennis and musical chairs. You play with 2 paddles and as many people as can fit around a ping pong table. Instead of describing it, here is play in action ...
To get a full ping pong experience play the round robin clip without volume while listening to the Jacob's Trouble and you'll see what I'm talking about. So, ping some pong today if you get a chance and if you can't that's just how the ball bounces.
The song of the day today is Tell It Again by J.J. Heller
20 songs now comprise the A to Z playlist.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 12th Yuri Gagarian is the first man in space
63 years ago today the Russians beat the U.S into space again. This time, Yuri Gagarian became the first person in space. This You Tube video shows some footage from the event.
Just in case you don't read Russian, the text below the video translates into English as:
On April 12, 1961, the Vostok spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome for the first time in the world, with pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Alekseevich Gagarin on board. For this feat, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, and starting from April 12, 1962, the day of Gagarin's flight into space was declared a holiday - Cosmonautics Day.
On September 27, 2010, by decision of the 65th session of the UN General Assembly, April 12 was proclaimed the International Day of Human Space Flight, which will be celebrated annually at the international level.
I decided to copy a couple of the you-tube comments and show them in Russian , and then in Russian printed phonetically in English and then finally translated by google translate into English.
The first comment is from @elenadushyna8975 from 1 year ago
Все молодцы!! И Королев! И Гагарин! И все остальные неизвестные, кто причастны к этому великому событию!!!
Vse molodtsy!! I Korolev! I Gagarin! I vse ostal'nyye neizvestnyye, kto prichastny k etomu velikomu sobytiyu!!!
Well done everyone!! And Korolev! And Gagarin! And all the other unknowns who are involved in this great event!!!
The second comment is from LarussaShudrova from 8 years ago
Спасибо за воспоминания! Спасибо! Помню, какую испытала гордость за страну, когда передавали по радио сообщение о полёте человека в космос. В душе всё пело.
Spasibo za vospominaniya! Spasibo! Pomnyu, kakuyu ispytala gordost' za stranu, kogda peredavali po radio soobshcheniye o polote cheloveka v kosmos. V dushe vso pelo.
Thank you for the memories! Thank you! I remember how proud I felt for the country when they broadcast a message on the radio about man’s flight into space. Everything was singing in my soul.
What strikes me about the coverage and the comments is the great sense of accomplishment. I lived in Russia for 2 years from 1992 to 1994 right after the Soviet Union was dissolved. It became clear to me fairly quickly is that people are very similar regardless of what country they are from and being proud of your country is certainly not something the U.S. has a monopoly on.
The song of the day is Keep Me Running performed by Ashley Cleveland
Randy Stonehill wrote and performed the song on his 1976 album Welcome to Paradise. The below video features a young Stonehill performing the song.
Stonehill turned 72 earlier this year and I made this post to celebrate.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 11th is Dave and Amy Roller's wedding anniversary.
I was trying to justify not pulling a random holiday from the April 11th list and just writing about my wedding anniversary when I realized there is no justification needed. The 3rd sentence in the above paragraph says it all, " Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day." My anniversary is an event taking place today and my titling the post Just Married (26 years ago), I have, in the words of Paul Hollywood, ticked all the boxes.
Yesterday morning my daughter was getting ready for her writing class at the same time I was getting ready for school. She went towards the door and then came back saying, she had forgotten her glasses. Before I could stop myself I blurted out the line, "He can't see without his glasses".
This is a line from the 1991 movie "My Girl". My son recites this line quite a bit. A, because he like's to make fun of it and B, because it annoys his sisters. If you've ever been a brother or a sister you don't need me to say, not necessarily in that order.
As I was driving to work, while ruminating on that film, a memory popped in my head from almost 33 years ago when that film was in theatres. At the time I was in a long distance relationship, and because it was the winter Holidays we were both in the Chicago area where our families both lived .
We went to the Woodfield Mall to see the aforementioned film. After the film I remember telling her on an escalator talking about the film and in that context said something about wanting to grow old with her, (my girlfriend). I don't know which direction we were on in the escalator, but things started going downhill after that. Because, shortly after I made that comment to her we were broken up, and I'm not sure but I don't think I even saw her again after that.
I remember going back to my parents house and calling up my best friend and spilling all the sordid details. You ever have a friend you could tell anything, do anything with, share your secrets and keep theirs? That's what I had with my best friend back in January of 1992. 26 years ago today I married her.
Lots has changed since I saw My Girl with someone who out turned out not to be my girl at all. Woodfield Mall no longer has movie theatres, My parents no longer live at my boyhood home, I no longer need to use a landline to call my best friend, cause quite often we are together and when were not I just tell my phone to call her.
But Amy and I are growing old together. As Rowlf the Dog sang so eloquently in 1979, "The urge was righteous but the face was wrong." But in my case something better didn't come along, she had been there all along.
Amy and I love movies. We watch them, re watch them, quote them, and watch them again. One movie we enjoy is The Wedding Singer, a movie about friends who fell in love, like us. In the final scene he confesses his love in a song he wrote called "Grow Old With You."
Songs also play a part of our friendship. When I was living in Russia, I once wrote her a song about our friendship which is really a love song, we just didn't know it yet. I wrote her another song and sang it for her as I proposed. I wrote another song and a choir from our church sang it as we walked down the aisle after we had just been declared man and wife.
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Our marriage is not perfect. A few years ago we read a book together, called "When Sinner's say I do". The basic premise imperfect people cannot have a perfect relationship. I certainly am not perfect. She tells me she's not perfect, so I believe her. She is certainly the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. This August we will celebrate 34 years of friendship. Each day I grow older with my dear friend Amy is worthy of a celebration. Not just a celebration, but each day with Amy is a Holiday in itself.
Today's song of the day is Jack and Jill Part II by the Gray Havens
I chose the songs for the A to Z playlist this February and March, and just decided today that I was going to write about Amy and Myself for J. So I didn't really plan a connection between the holiday and the song of the day. It turns out there is one, but it's very slight. After Amy and I were married for a couple years, we moved into our first house and preceded to have our 2nd and third child. During that time we were attending a church that met at Crystal Lake South High School. I don't know if you've ever attended a church at a school before. I have on several occasions. One thing that happens is all the accoutrements of the school for the most part stay right where they are even on Sunday. So over the years we saw many homecoming posters and other things on the wall of our "church building". One such poster was celebrating the fact that one of their seniors had just made it into the top 20 of Season 5 of American Idol.
This young man, David Radford, would later become part of the folk duo, The Gray Havens along with his wife Licia. Like I said it's a slight connection. The Spotify playlist is big enough now to have a top 10.
Yes as far as Holidays are concerned, the anniversary of the day I married my best friend is a pretty big one. Feel free to comment and tell me about your love story if you care to.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 10th is Indicted Illinois Governors Day
In U.S. history there have been 25 state governors who have been convicted of federal crimes. 4 of these have come from the state of Illinois. . That's righr 4 of the last 10 Illinois governors have served in federal prisons.
As a non public official of the state of Illinois with all the power invested in me by this great state, I proclaim April 10th as Indicted Illinois Governors Day.
There have actually been 5 Illinois governors to be indicted.
Joel Aldrich Matteson, the 10th governor of Illinois (1853-1857) was charged in 1859 in the Canal Scrip Fraud Scandal. Matteson redeemed Scrip for the Canal for himself. He was indicted but then acquitted and returned the majority of the funds to the state.
Otto Kerner Jr, was governor of Illinois from 1961-1968. In 1972 He was a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals when he was indicted on multiple charges including mail fraud, & income tax evasions. Charges he was eventually convicted og. Kerner served six months on a three year sentence. His crimes went back to 1962 when as a governor he colluded with race track owners.
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Dan Walker was governor of Illinois from 1973-1977. Unlike Kerner, Walkers convictions came from crimes committed after his time as governor. As CEO of a savings and loan siphoned bank money for his own use, Walker was indicted, convicted and served 17 months of a seven year sentence.
George Ryan was governor of Illinois from 1999-2003 and was the Il Secretary of State prior to that, As Secretary of State he presided over a huge bribes for licenses scheme. This scheme was exposed after a truck killed 6 children in the same family and it was revealed that the trucker had paid bribes for his license. Ryan was sentenced to 6 1/2 years of prison and was released in 2013.
Rod Blagojevich was governor of Illinois form 2002 - 2009 when he was impeached by the Illinois General Assembly. When Blagojevich (Blago) rand in 2002 his mantra was no more business as usual. This was in the wake of the Ryan scandals. The problem is Blago missed his own memo, and went back to business as usual, and business was booming. Blago was caught on tape trying to sell the senate seat of President Elect Obama, and was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud and solicitation of bribery. He was convicted and sentenced to 14 years and was in prison from 2012 to 2020 when hw was pardoned by Donald Trump.
While it's true that our last 3 governors have not gone to jail. We could use the growth mindset, and say they have not gone to jail yet. Why do so many of the governors of my state go to jail. It may just be a matter of linguistical expectations. What do governors and convicts have in common. They both serve terms. So in a way their first career sets up their second.
While I made up this holiday, I unfortunately did not make up the history.
That's it for me . Feel free to add a comment before moving on with your day.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
Bo Jackson was an amazing athlete. He was a three sport star (Football, Baseball and Track) at Auburn. In Football he won the 1985 Heismann Trophy. He played Football for the Oakland Raiders and Baseball for the Kansas City Royals. He played in a Pro Bowl and in A MLB All Star Game. He had to give up football because of a hip injury. Because of the injury , the Royals release Jackson on March 18th, 1991.
16 days later the White Sox gave Bo a 3 year incentive laden contract. He played a handful of games in 1991, spent 1992 rehabbing his knee and on April 9th 1993. Bo came to the plate as a pinch hitter in the White Sox home opener and did this...
On March 13th of this year the Kansas City Royals announced that Bo Jackson had been elected to the Royals Hall of Fame and will be inducted this summer.
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
This gets the Leap Of Dave A to Z challenge Spotify playlist to about a third of it's capacity.
That's all for today. Leave a comment about why you like Scotland, Science, both or neither.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
April 8th is National Zoo Lovers Day
I love zoos. I'm not sure exactly when I fell in love with them . It may have been all the times Dr. Lester Fisher visited the Ray Rayner show when I was a kid on a segment called Ark in the Park. Dr. Fisher was the director of the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago. It could have been on my trips to the Brookfield Zoo when I was a kid, I know I had one birthday party there. It may have even been when my grandparents would take my brother and sister and myself to the aforementioned Lincoln Park Zoo. It may have been all of those things and more.
Here is a link to one of our other blogs that shows a great video from a family trip (sans me) to the Brookfield Zoo.
I really enjoying going to free zoo's. Here is an article from February of this year talking about 12 such zoos (I've been at 3 through 6).
# 6 The St. Louis was the most recent zoo I visited. Here are some pictures form my trip in March
My favorite animal, the giraffe at the St. Louis Zoo
Today is also the day for the total solar eclipse. We will be watching it at school today. The next one won't me in the U.S. until August 23rd 2044. Instead of pushing 60 like I am now it will be exactly a month before my schedule 80th birthday. My Dad turned 86 on March 23rd and he will be watching it with my Mom and brother. So that's older than I will be next next time.
Will you be watching the eclipse today? Do you enjoy zoos? Answer either or both of these questions in the comment section.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
I decided to do something a little different today in describing the holiday. Instead of using my own words I am going to use some of the text found on the Plan Your Epitaph Day webpage from Daysoftheyear.com It's not the entire text just some snippets
There comes a day in every person’s life when they have to face the inevitable,
. This day, Plan Your Own Epitaph Day, is the perfect day to set aside some time to figure out what you’re going to have to say about yourself before you’re gone.
Ludolph van Ceulen had the first 35 digits of Pi inscribed on his tombstone, as he was the first to calculate this delicious sounding number out to that many decimals.
Some of the activities you can do to celebrate this day, is go to graveyards and look for inspiration in the stones of those who have already passed.
this is one more way to collect Epitaphs that have already been written to help inspire you to write yours!
Another thing you can do to celebrate this pasttime is to have picnics in the graveyard with likeminded friends.
Together you can sit and brainstorm on what you’d like your final words to the world to be.
Plan your own Epitaph day is a day for reflection on our own mortality, and thinking forward to what kind of legacy we want to leave behind for those who come after us.
So take some time to think about where you’ve been, what you’ve done, and what you’d like to say to those who come after,
April is also National Poetry Month. I have decided to write a poem about today's holiday. Mainly because I didn't create much of my own content today.
The Spotify pla list for my A to Z challenge is now a week old and 6 songs long.
Well Week 1 is in the books. Feel free to catch up on any of my posts you may have missed. In your comments, you can let me know what words you might consider as an epitaph.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
Today's Holiday: National Film Score Day
April 3rd is National Film Score Day. It is held every year on this day to commemorate the release of the Jungle Book in 1942. According to National Today that day was chosen because Miklos Rosza's score was so transformative that they chose the date of the "release of 'The Jungle Book' to mark the first time film scores acquired importance.
Here is the trailer for the Jungle Book which features some of the score.
The reasoning for the choice is date is a bit of an exaggeration. Film scores had already acquired importance by 1942. I know this for a few reasons one is that by the mid 1930's The Academy of Motion Picture Sciences was already giving out Academy Awards for best Score. In1939, for example Erich Wolfgang Korngold won the Academy Award for the score for The Adventures of Robin Hood.
I don't have a top 10 list of film score composers, but it sounds like a kind of thing I should have. That list would almost certainly include the composers of some of my favorite scores of all time like the aforementioned Korngold (Adventures of Robin Hood), Dimitri Tiomkin (High Noon), Vangelis (Chariots of Fire), and John Williams (Star Wars).
In addition, The 2006 rom com The Holiday has a great scene in it where Jack Black who is playing a film score composer is in a Blockbuster and is explaining as only Jack Black can how great film scores can be. It also features a killer cameo by Dustin Hoffman and I have it all queued up for you, so enjoy.
To see a longer clip of the same scene click here. (The longer scene includes some plot points and may be confusing to those who have not yet seen the film.)
Today's song of the day is Coast to Coast by Noel Paul Stookey & Bodyworks.
That brings the number of songs in the Leap of Dave 2024 Blogging A to Z Playlist up to 3.
Note: If you look at theses posts any time after the day they drop, which is certainly fine and encouraged, the playlist will go up to the date you are looking at the post.
So that ends the film on the letter C. I think you know the score. (I made the exact same kind of joke at this point in yesterdays post. If you don't remember, o don't believe me you can always click here. Before you go , feel free to leave a comment. Do you like movie scores? Do you have a favorite?
Oh, speaking of comments, here is an unabashed plug. Feel free to check out some of my other posts from before the challenge began. I don't get a lot of traffic on the blog outside of the challenge, and while I mostly blog for my own amusement, and enlightenment. I wouldn't mind amusing and enlightening a bigger audience. So check out of my previous posts, here is the last one I did before the challenge began. If you do check them out maybe you can leave a comment there as well. Thank you very much. This way if you like what I'm cooking, you can continue to join me after the challenge.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
Yesterday, I created a new made up holiday by making one up. Today I will regale you with info regarding a Holiday that someone else made up. Today is Children's Picture book day!
Here is an informative video from the Champaign Library.
Like many of these made up Holidays the day we celebrate it is based on a relevant birthday. The birthday in this instance is Hans Christian Anderson who was born on this day in 1805.
In preparation for this post I watched the Danny Kaye Film Hans Christian Anderson. I will review the film sometime shortly after the challenge is complete. Here is the trailer.
Exactly 98 years and 11 months after Han's Christian Anderson's birthday Theodor Geisel much better known as Dr. Seuss was born on March 2nd 1904. Geisel became a pioneer in children's picture books.
The book, “The Cat in The Hat,” by Dr. Seuss, sits on a book shelf at West Elementary School during a National Read Across America Day event Mar. 2, 2017 at Yokota Air Base, Japan. National Read Across America Day is a holiday to share the fun of reading with children of all ages, and is celebrated on Dr. Seuss’ birthday. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Donald Hudson) Unit: 374th Airlift Wing DVIDS Tags: Japan; Yokota Air Base; 374th Airlift Wing; Dr. Seuss; National Read Across America Day
One of my favorite kinds of picture books is what I call Alphabet books. These books much like the A to Z challenge take a subject and then devote 1 page and 1 picture per letter of the alphabet. On a recent trip to the Beloit Public Library (which I will also be reviewing after the challenge) I was reminded of my love for Alphabets and took pictures of several of them
Not sure why that pen is in all the pictures, it's nothing to write home about.
Among other holidays occurring today is Autism Awareness Day.
Today's song of the day is Broken Things by Julie Miller
The Leap of Dave A to Z Spotify Playlist is now up to 2 songs.
Time to close the book on the letter B. I think you get the picture. As you head back to more of the challenge or just your regularly scheduled life feel free to leave a comment. Maybe you can let me know what your favorite picture book is/was and why.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
For The A to Z Challenge this year, I am focusing on everyday holidays. Each day there are multiple unusual things to celebrate. Every day of the challenge I look for an event taking place that day and pair it with the letter of the day. I have also made up 5 holidays to coincide with the vowel days of the challenge. At the end of each post I will share a special song of the day for that day's letter. At the end of the month, these songs will be assembled in a to z keepsake playlist on Spotify. Every day is a celebration, let's unwrap today's together.
When I first started this blog in 2009 (click here for the inaugural post), I had 3 children between the ages of 3 and 9)
Back then they looked like this ...
Since then ,life happened at a brisk pace and my wife and I soon had 1, then 2, and then (for 9 glorious months in 2018-19) 3 teenagers. Now we are down to one teenager and we find ourselves the proud parent of 3 adults. Babies having babies is one thing, but adults raising adults is quite another.
Today is the first of 5 days that I will make up a new holiday. It is going to be called Adult Children Appreciation day. Here are some facts about the Holiday that I am making up right now.
Adult Children Appreciation Day was created by David Roller in 2024 to commemorate that all his children were now adults as the youngest had turned 18 that winter. Adult Children Appreciation Day was first celebrated on April 1st, 2024. Adult Children Appreciation Day is held the Monday after Easter. Mr. Roller (That's Me.) says he chose that day because it had been a family tradition for him to go to Walgreens the day after Easter and buy Easter products for 1/2 price or less. Dave's oldest daughter loved Bunnies and this was the most cost effective time to buy bunny themed gifts,
Even though the first Adult Children Appreciation Day was on April 1st, it is not associated with April Fools Day at all. Mr. Roller chose Springtime to celebrate this holiday as spring is associated with growth and all growing things mature to some sort of adulthood.
Since The original ACDA was on April 1st and April 1st is also National Greeting Card Day, the creator of Adult Children Appreciation Day gave greeting cards to each of his adult children telling them about qualities they are developing that He appreciates.
If you and your adult children are together on Easter Sunday that is a good time to give them a note or a card showing how much you appreciate them. The Next 3 ACDAs will fall on April 21, 2025, April 6, 2026, and March 28, 2027
I happen to be typing this post at a local library a few days in advance of the challenge. In the past 2 months I have visited 14 local libraries as part of the Library Lover's Expedition. I mention this because April 1st is also Library Snapshot Day an annual day that celebrates the importance of libraries. I am planning on writing apost for each of the 14 libraries I visited for the challenge later this year. For today I will just post a few of the snapshots I took at some of the libraries.
Today's Song of the Day is Any Other Way by Andy Gullahorn
Andy Gullahorn and Jill Phillips
I am a big Spotify guy and have soooo many playlists that I have created. I have made a special play list for the A to Z challenge. By the end of the month it will contain all 26 songs featured here. For now it just contains the A song.
Every good beginning must come to an end. Hopefully you have appreciated Adult Child Appreciation Day. There are still (at least) 25 more holidays to enjoy and a few more for me to make up. In your comments if you have adult children let me know what you most appreciate about them. I will try to make some guide comment solicitations for each day, but feel free to comment anyway you want.
To go to the home of the A to Z challenge click here, to see the 2024 master list of participating blogs click here. Enjoy the 2024 A to Z challenge, and Happy Holidays!
Today at school was the readathon day. Instead of having core classes (Math, Social Sciences, ELA, & Science) are middle school students were able to read in those classes and have teachers and other staff read to them as well.
As a building sub I don't usually know who I'm going to be that day. Today I subbed for a paraprofessional in one of our SPED classes. This particular class is rather low functioning so the books read to the students were geared for much younger children. There was one book the teacher read called Interrupting Chicken by David Ezra Stein. The title reminded me of the old knock knock joke:
A: Knock Knock
B: Who's There
A: Interrupting Cow
B: Interrup
A: Moo
I was able to find a read aloud version of the book on you tube. This is not that difficult of a thing to do. I have considered in the past having an A to Z challenge of children's books being read aloud on you tube videos.
Jesse Chavez the most traded player in the history of Major League Baseball has made his way to White Sox Spring training by signing a minor league contract with the Chicago American League team, While not officially with the Sox yet, the 40 year old pitcher talked about all his former teams in this video.
I just saw this on You Tube and thought it was worth sharing. It makes me want to watch Shop Around the Corner, Good Old Summertime and You Got Mail back to back to back. I have seen the 1940 Jimmy Stewart Classic multiple times. Have never seen Good Old Summertime and believe I have only seen You've Got Mail Once.
I really liked this glimpse into the storytelling process of filmmaking.
The NFL announced their 2024 Hall of Fame class yesterday in advance of Super Bowl LVIII. You can watch the announcement on YouTube by clicking here. The last 3 players announces Steve "Mongo" McMichael, Devin Hester, and Julius Peppers all played for the Chicago Bears.
Keith Green would have turned 70 today. Here's a clip of Randy Stonehill talking about the behind the scenes story of the classic tune Your Love Broke Through.
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