National Speak in Full Sentences Day and Macaroon Day

a full sentence?

me?

like that's gonna happen!

macaroon anyone?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My Rhyming Sentence Poem with Macaroons

Chairs are for seating.

People are for meeting.

Babies are for bouncing.

Skirts are for flouncing.

Pillows are for sleeping.

Teabags are for steeping.

Fingers are for snapping.

Hands are for clapping.

Hats are for wearing.

Eyes are for staring.

Houses are for living.

Hearts are for giving.

Kites are for flying.

Washes are for drying.

Poems are for writing.

Mac'roons are for biting.

I like macaroons. The recipe seems quite simple, so they might be fun to make some sometime.
However, these cookies are really quite fatty and sweet...isn't everything that tastes good?
Find out more about macaroons here.

National Hamburger Day

Yum, my favorite...

93% lean ground beef
formed in a patty,
fried in a pan, or
better yet grilled,
topped with cheese,
not cheese food,
placed well-centered
on a bun of bread
with a mountain of
lettuce, tomato,
and onion,
laced with
ketchup,
mustard,
and
relish;
now
relish
the
burger!

Children's Day in Nigeria and Mother's Day in Bolivia

It's  Mother's Day in Bolivia, and Children's Day in Nigeria.  Children's Day was created to promote the welfare of children and to celebrate childhood.  Children in Nigeria take the day off from school to celebrate with parents, doing things as a family.
I am taking the day off from school today while my daughter and her husband are visiting this weekend.  I'm celebrating both Mother's Day and Children's Day, as they are about to become parents in August.

Daughterful of mommy,
Bellyful of baby,
Nanaful of wonder
Waiting for a peek.

Pretty soon the mommy
Will hold her little babe.
Daddy will be stroking
Baby's rosy cheek.

What's up with the parents?
What happens to the voice?
Why is it everyone
Talks in Baby speak?

Hands will reach for Baby,
Those hands will gently rock,
Hands cover grown up eyes
Playing Hide and Seek.

Bellyful of kicking
That can be felt and seen
Says this baby will be
Neither mild nor meek.

God bless our sunshine's ray,
This happy, healthy child.
No matter boy or girl,
Bless this soul unique.

Finally It's My Dey!

It's "Celebrate Grey Day".  Finally a day I can really get into!

Grey is such an overlooked color, yet it has two ways to spell it.  I've always, from a little girl spelled it 'grey'.  It looks so sophisticated that way.  It's actually the English English way to spell it, and 'gray' is American English.

Grey's personality traits are: neutral, practical, quiet, detached and dismal...courtesy of  Crayola.

There are many shades of gray.  A trip to the paint chip section of the web gives us: Gull Gray, Coventry Gray, Sea Foam, Anchor Gray, Knoxville Gray, Stonington Gray, November Skies, Beacon Gray, Coastal Fog, Iceberg, Cinder Block, Pewter, Nimbus Cloud, Rocky Slope, Castle Rock, Campfire Smoke, Stratus, Falcon, Ashen, Cathedral Gray, Silver Lining, Tarnished Silver...wow.  I wish I'd written a poem after reading these instead of before!  These paint chips are a real "found poem"!
Enchanted Learning also has a page of grey things that might help in your celebration of Grey Day.

As I started thinking about grey, I came up with some things to thank grey for.

Grey

Grey defines

Entries

Walked trails

Biked paths

Driven roads

Exits

Grey separates

Crop from crop

Field from forest

Neighbor from neighbor

Cemetery from road

Garden from lawn

Grey tops

Sweaty runners

Waterproof buildings

Long legged Blue Herons

Majestic mountains

Sleeping tabbies

Grey dapples

Swimming fish

Strong Percherons

Rugged Shetland ponies

Ocean waves

Forest floors

Grey is

Egg cartons

Mold on cheese

A covering of fog

Penciling on paper

Clouds in the sky

Wisdom

It's National Escargot Day! Keep a Snail on Your Face!

Escargot Day ties in nicely with our current study of ponds and pond life in our classroom the past few weeks.  Yesterday we learned about snails. The students were interested in the fact that snails have a radula, a tongue that is like a file, and some snails use that to drill through shells of clams and eat them.  It can be a big problems here on the coast where clammers lose their income to this Moon Snail.  The students were also appalled that any one would eat a snail, even if it were called "escargot".  The fancy name did not impress them.

I have collected some original sayings, that have been changed over the years.  You may recognize them, but they've been adapted, as snail popularity has dwindled. Snails used to be very big in literature.  They're smaller now.

Find a snail and pick it up
All the day you'll have good luck.

Feed a snail
Starve a fever

Heads I win
Snails you lose

Pink sky at night
Snailer's delight
Pink sky in the morning
Snailers take warning

A snail a day
Keeps the doctor away.

Snail, snail, go away
Come again some other day.

A snail in time
Saves nine.

Patty cake, patty cake
Snailer man
Get me a snail
As fast as you can
Roll it and pat it and mark it with an S
And put it in the butter with all the rest.

It's a snail world after all,
It's a snail world after all,
It's a snail world after all,
It's a snail, snail world!

Snail today, gone tomorrow!

I'm sure there were more.  But these were the ones I could remember that my dear, sweet grandfather would sing or say, all the time when I was a little girl sitting on his knee.  I'm sure that's how it was.

It's late and I must get to bed now, so good night, snail dreams!

Good Morning! Celebrate Memos and Waiters!

Today is National Memo Day and National Waitresses/Waiters Day.  So I celebrated by taking a memo and going out to breakfast and treating our waitress very kindly.  I will probably go out for supper also, since there is no food in the house.  We live far enough out that you don't just want to go into town for groceries.  Usually you are hungry before you leave the house even, so you have to stop to eat when you get in town.
As I left the house I was serenaded by an early morning singing song outside my door.
I tried doing a memo from my phone, but the file didn't convert, so I turned it into a video instead.  The birds aren't as loud as they were in "person".
By the way, the azalea is in a pot sitting in our backyard.  I bought it a number of years ago, probably like 5 years ago, and we didn't get around to planting it.  We stuck the pot in the back yard by the edge of the woods and left it all winter.  I thought for sure it would die.  But it didn't.  And now it has been, like I said, about 5 or more years.  It blossoms like crazy, and I'm afraid to try to move it. The roots must have gone out the bottom of the plastic pot it was sold in.  I just enjoy it from the kitchen window, and let it be.  Maybe sometime we'll build a raised garden around it.  I usually kill plants, so I'm kind of leery about trying to help it at all.  It's doing just fine without me.

Azalea's petals

Gently dropping.

Buzzing bee

Getting the last

Of the goodness.

Robins out of sight

But not out of sound,

Trill, flute, and

Shout glad tidings.

Squeeze toy Phoebe

Raspily squeaks

And happily listens

For a like minded reply.

Close your eyes.

You can't see them

Anyway.

They are there

Somewhere.

Just wrap yourself in

The delightful

Delicious

Sounds.

Eliza Doolittle Day is the Doin's Today

NPR has a great segment on celebrating Eliza Doolittle Day today.
Motto: Think before you speak.  Too many of us speak before we think...if we ever do get to the thinking part (self included).

Language Huggers

Some people will hug trees
And just fall on their knees
To save those majestic green plants

But we hug words written
And our tongues we've bitten
To keep us from ranting some rant!

Use language precisely
And always speak nicely
Don't say that you won't or you can't!

It's a fright for the ear
When we hear what we hear;
Give up on our language we shan't!

All the proper words need
To be nurtured indeed,
Lest words left unused become scant!

Let's keep English intact
For we know for a fact
To use the right words will enchant!

Frog Jumping Jubilee Day is Today - May 19

Read about the history of Frog Jumping Jubilee Day here.  It is held in Calaveras County in California, the setting for Mark Twain's story of a jumping frog, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”.
We are studying ponds currently in our first grades, so this fits right in!  I read a book about ponds and we've read a number of books and articles about frogs.  Did you know that frogs have teeth?  Toads don't, though.
So - my poem for frogs

Tongue Twister Poem

A Tongue Twister poem is made up of lines/verses that are hard to say when read aloud 
by using similar consonant sounds in succession (use of alliteration).  In other words, the 
poem ties your tongue into knots.  This form does not require end or internal rhyme.

Funny 'phibian family of
Forty-four frogs
On four foot long logs in a fog
With fascinating flopping flippers
For fine fitting freshwater slippers
Feasting on freshest flitting fluttering fly-bys
Faithful friends, not fearsome foes
Of toads.

International Museum Day and Visit Your Relatives Day

Just so you know. I did neither of these things. I didn't even have my husband at home. My sister called though. Does that count for the visiting relative?
I am so tired tonight. No writing. I just can't clear my head enough to make sense. I just keep thinking of things I need or want to fit in before the end of the school year.
I am going to sleep so I can stop thinking. Hope to have a non-dream night.

Good night.
Sleep tight.
Douse light.
Take flight.
No fright.
Till light.
Wake bright.

I'll have to visit a museum in my dreams.

It's Pack Rat Day!

I don't think this has anything to do with putting rodents in boxes.  I don't want to celebrate this day anymore.  I want to be done with being a pack rat. 
The Joy of Less...I just purchased that on Amazon for my iPad.  I am going to read it, and do it.  Stuff is piling up here.  I want to downsize and get rid of stuff. 
Have you noticed how many times I've said I?  How self-centered can you get?  Anyway I digress...

A few years back, my husband and I left to drive his parents home, 5 hours north of here.  It was an overnight trip, and our adult son was going to come stay one night at our house so the cat and dog could be cared for.  We each took a small bag of clothes and our laptops.  The next morning, around 4 am, we got a call from our son.  He was awakened at 2 am as he slept in the loft, by smoke coming from the basement. A TV in our home office had started to burn.  He rescued the animals and called 911, but our log home, suffered extensive smoke/soot damage.  And that was the beginning of our year in a motel.
Our motel suite was made up of two small rooms with a tiny open closet and three drawers to share.
Talk about minimalist. 
But it was fun.  One of the best parts was clean towels every day...or was it that someone else vacuumed each day?  We had very little room for extras.  Our wardrobe was extended a bit by purchasing wisely, things that could be worn together in different combinations.  We learned to get along with less stuff than I had in college.  We learned to appreciate the few things we had, and not to miss the things we didn't have.
It was a freeing experience which we'd hoped to continue when we got back to the house.  We have cleaned out a lot of things.  We brought in a dumpster and hauled things to Goodwill.  Some things that were too badly damaged, we just didn't replace.
But guess what.  We are almost back to square two.  (Square one is where we were when we first got married, and didn't have stuff either.)  So I am going to start shoving stuff out of my square again.  I want to have nothing that I don't need.
Can I do it?
I am going to try to be ruthless! 
That sounds pretty whimpy...people who are ruthless don't say they are going to "try to be ruthless".  They just do it.
I'm going to be ruthless!
I'm pretty sure I will be.

It's Wear Purple for Peace Day - A Clerihew for Rules

Well, I wore brown and black today.  Very springy.  I like it though.  I like to wear purple, too.  It is a good color for me.  I don't feel like addressing the subject of peace though. 
My last favorite purple thing to wear I tried to iron on low (I thought), but it melted through on the top left shoulder.  Good thing there was a jacket to go with it.  Otherwise, I would have had nothing to wear for Easter.
When I was a little girl I loved purple and red together, and brown and black.  I was told those colors clashed, didn't go together, were bad, don't do it, people will laugh...
Today I am wearing a brown and black skirt.  I still love purple and red together...and evidently so do others, as I see them together all the time now.  I was ahead of my time.  There were lots of rules I didn't understand, but just followed.  I don't follow them anymore.  I break them whenever I get a chance.  Sometimes I'm breaking them on the inside though, so you won't really notice.

Young Donna Jean
Was never mean
She followed the rule
When she went to school.

Teen Donna Jean
Played the game clean
With inside rebelling
There's naught for yelling

Mom Donna Jean
Would never be seen
Breaking some rule
It wouldn't be cool.

Mrs. Donna Jean
Might slightly lean
Toward rule bending
With retirement pending.

Clerihew

A Clerihew is a comic verse consisting of two couplets and a specific rhyming scheme, 
aabb invented by Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956) at the age of 16.  The poem 
is about/deals with a person/character within the first rhyme.  In most cases, the first 
line names a person, and the second line ends with something that rhymes with the name 
of the person. 

National Chocolate Chip Day

Chocolate Chip Day!  It's like "Eat What You Want Day" again!  I love chocolate chips.  It is also my husband's birthday!  I'm getting him some raspberry chocolate chip ice cream.   And that's not just because I like it.  He liked it first.  I learned to like it...in one lesson.  I am a fast learner.



Can be
Healthy when dark
Open the bag and toss them in
Cookie dough
Or
Let them spill into your hand
And get tossed into your mouth for a
Taste bud delight.
Enjoy!

Careful you don’t
Have the melted evidence
In your warm
Palm.

National Dance Like a Chicken Day

Did you know the Chicken Dance song started out as the Duck Dance back in the 1950's?  Of course, everyone knows that chickens don't dance, but ducks do.  They should never have changed the name.  The Duck Dance makes much more sense.
I did not celebrate by doing the chicken dance, but my dog, Pippi, did dance with me for a while.  I'll try to get a video of it sometime.  Yeah, right.
Today got by me again.  The more I think about what I have to do to end the school year, the less writing I feel free to indulge in.
My daughter is coming for a visit for Memorial Day, and there will be a baby shower for her.  In addition, we have a bridal shower that weekend for her cousin.  I still have 2 physical therapy sessions per week for two more weeks.  I have to get the kids ready for our Authors' Tea.  There are two field trips.  And of course there are the Reading and Math assessments. Hopefully there will be time to teach a bit more before assessing!  Then it's sort materials, pack up the room, lock it, and go home...to retirement!

Every year

it seems that

I can't possibly fit it all in.  

Every year

I get nervous about it.  

Every year

it happens

whether I'm ready or not.  

And somehow 

I'm always ready.  

I guess 

I should stop worrying 

and just let 

the end of the year happen.  

Maybe I should

stop doing the Chicken Dance,

and just gracefully waltz

my way

to the end

of the year.

Limerick Day is Over, Now It's Leprechaun Day!

Yesterday was Limerick Day.  I missed it.  I tried to write a limerick and wasn't having much luck with it, and then lo' and behold, Blogger was "view only" and I couldn't post anyway.  I was kind of relieved, as the pressure to produce something fun-for-me-to-write was making me miserable.  So I took the night off along with Blogger.
And now it is....Leprechaun Day...well, it's close to over...more like Leprechaun Night now.  I thought March 17 was Leprechaun Day, but it isn't.  It is Saint Patrick's Day and has nothing to do with Leprechauns.  Catching a Leprechaun today, reading about them, finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is what it is all about.  And speaking of rainbows...
Today one of my students, as he was waiting after school for the late bus to arrive, was swinging and called to me, "Hey, Mrs. Smith!  Do you see the rainbow?"  I looked up to where he was pointing...right into the sun.  Yeah, right, I can't see anything now.
"No, I don't see it," I replied.
"Look up there!" and he pointed again.  I tried again and my eyes were watering crazily.
"Ah, that hurts, all I can see is the sun!" I told him.
Finally I put my fist up to cover the sun.  I was sure he must be seeing something, but it was a beautiful sunny day; no signs of having rained, just a few cirrus clouds in the sky.  This time, after blocking out the sun, I looked up above my fist...and there it was, a rainbow arcing over the sun.  It was beautiful, but difficult to see so close to the piercing sun.  I was amazed that he had spotted it.
Well, I've now spent some time looking up what it was that we saw.  It wasn't a real rainbow, due to its being on the same side of the sky as the sun.  It wasn't a sun dog.  It seems that it could have been what one calls a circumzenithal arc, except it didn't make a "smile in the sky".  It was more of a "frown in the sky" over the sun.  I don't know exactly what it was, but it surely looked like a little rainbow in the sky, helping us celebrate Leprechaun Day!
Oh, how I wish I could have written a Limerick.

There once was a rainbow above us
We saw before boarding the school bus,
It appeared as a frown
Or a smile upside down
Whatever it was caused a real fuss!

Ha, that wasn't so hard after all.  I can't believe I did it.  And suddenly, she wrote a limerick.

It's Like...Eat What You Want in the Twilight Zone!

It's "Eat What You Want Day" and "Twilight Zone Day".  Now if you combined those it would make a good Twilight Zone episode.  Sure, go on and eat what you want.  It won't hurt you.  And then, like you would find yourself slowly turning into that food you ate and then, like you would get all chocolaty and gooey and your head would turn into a pizza and your feet would be like all cinnamon rollish and your ears would become croissants and you would like have chocolate chips for eyes and you'd like have little marshmallows for teeth and your nose would be a scone and your blood would turn into mocha latte and then some bigger being would come by and say, "Hey, it's eat what you want day!  I think I'll eat this chocolaty pizza scone thingy!" and you would be gone.
A few people out there wouldn't be eaten, as they would be carrot and celery people with sesame seeds for teeth.  They are liars.  That is not what they wanted to eat, but they would be safe from the bigger beings that day.  The only people remaining would be healthy liars.

In celebration of this day, I'm going to eat a hamburger and a salad, and watch an episode of Twilight Zone on NetFlix tonight. And then I might just have a bit of mint chocolate chip ice cream...depending on how scary the show is.

Today is Clean Up Your Room Day

Today is "Clean Up Your Room Day"...
I hate cleaning my room, but I like a clean room.  I also don't mind a messy one, though. There is some comfort provided by a lived-in home.

Ah, my house is a mess, my desk is a mess...
But sometimes I like it, I guess.

Sedoka
The Sedoka is an unrhymed poem made up of two three-line katauta with the following syllable counts: 5/7/7, 5/7/7.
A Sedoka, pair of katauta as a single poem, may address the same subject from differing perspectives.
Katauta is an unrhymed three-line poem the following syllable counts: 5/7/7.

So, here is my Sedoka to a cluttered room:

This room is a mess
The clutter overtaking
The sanity of my realm;

This room is a nest
Where sanity is restored
At an untidy day's end.

Lost Sock Memorial Day is May 9

Even the school is not safe from single sockedness - 2 mismatched from  L & F.

I have so many single socks.  They drive me crazy.  I try to buy all the same kind and lots at the same time, so I can't possibly have singles for a long time.  The washer used to be blamed, but I have a different style now, and it is impossible for socks to get through those small drain holes in the sides of the machine.  Neither can the new dryer be to blame.

My dog, being a Golden Retriever, loves to fetch socks.  She's always finding socks, sometimes pulling them out of a shoe they might be tucked into.  She'll even reach up on the bed and fetch a pair of clean socks to bring to me if she can.  She isn't to blame for the AWOL socks.  She doesn't eat them, she simply rearranges them and gives them to me.

I'm thinking there must be aliens out there that have either one, three or five feet who are abducting socks in the odd numbers.  That is the only thing I can come up with that makes sense.

So today, set aside a few moments to remember the socks that have gone on before their mate.  They will be fondly remembered, as we search through our drawers for matching pairs.  Coming across "sole survivors", we will continue to hastily tuck them safely away again, reassuring each that their partners will someday return...though we know it hardly ever works out that way.  Aliens never return socks.

No Socks Today While You Drink a Coke!

May 8 is No Sock Day and Drink a Coke Day!

Really celebrate...do both! Oh, yes, and Happy Mother's Day! 

photo by Perfecto Insecto

Deliciously

Refreshing

In a

Nice

King size

Cup

Of ice.

Keep up the

Enjoyment all day while you

Sneak your toes

Out of socks and

Catch the breeze!

Keep your socks at home;

Let your ankles

Enjoy the

Springtime

Sun while you sip!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Take Your Pick of Lamb, Tuba or Paste!

Today is National Tuba Day, National Paste Up Day AND National Roast Leg of Lamb Day! So take your pick as to which one you would like to celebrate!

The tuba is not going to be easy unless you maybe have a tuba or you have a great record and record player on which to play it (as I'm pretty sure nothing has been recorded in recent years featuring tuba solos or duets on CD).

Paste Up Day I had to check into. My first thought was of the old pastime of eating paste and then perhaps, depending on the volume of paste consumed, of vomiting...hence paste UP.
But of course it is a day to celebrate the ancient art of putting photographs and text on a page and pasting it down...not up...but whatever. Nowadays our computers do this work. But we could celebrate it with a ransom note format pasted card to give for Mother's Day tomorrow or by making signs or just reflecting on how much time we have on our hands now that we don't have to do paste-ups!

Roast Leg of Lamb Day? Well, just go buy one and fire up the grill! I'm sure that's what the Sheep Growers of America had in mind for this.  Imagine if we all decided to take this one seriously today. I'd head to the grocery store early if I were you, just in case!  I'm pretty sure the meat display is going to empty out shortly!

The ultimate celebration today most certainly would be if you were to make flyers with images and text you pasted up, scanned and printed up to strew about the neighborhood, telling them about your leg of lamb roast with live tuba band!  Far out!

Drink a Beverage Today!

Today is Beverage Day.

So, sit back and enjoy hot or cold

your favorite beverage

or a NEW beverage.

Don't get thirsty,

get hydrated!

Cheers!

Eat a Hoagie on May 5!

Today is National Hoagie Day!

Ode to a Sandwich

I want to have a sandwich
One that has the works
I don't want one with mustard
Nor one where mayo lurks.

Just give me a good ole' Hoagie
With olives and make sure it's oiled
I want it with cheese and salami
Not chicken nor beef nor eggs boiled

Start with a layer of lettuce
Add to it sliced red tomato
Next come green peppers and onion
Stack them neatly all in a row

Tuck it into a nice big soft roll
And wrap in white paper complete
With a sticker that will hold it together
Until you are ready to eat.
 
The Hoagie was born in Philadelphia back sometime between 1914 and 1939.  In 1992 it was declared the "Official Sandwich of Philadelphia".
A Hoagie is made on an 8 inch roll and has lettuce and provolone cheese instead of American, but the rest of the sandwich is quite close to a Maine Italian sandwich.

Here in Maine it would be translated into Italian Day.  We don't eat Hoagies in Maine.  We eat Italians.  Italian sandwiches.
And despite the name, there is no pasta in it, nor is there tomato sauce.  No lettuce, no mayo.
The Italian was originally made by Giovanni Amato, back in 1903.  The foot long soft roll is host to sliced ham or salami, American cheese, tomato, green pepper, onions, pickles, black olives, salt, pepper and olive oil.  And typically is rolled in a waxed white butcher paper.  You have to eat it in the paper, carefully unwrapping it, as it is pretty messy due to the oil.  But it is so, good!

I have not had either sandwich today.
I am celebrating it by having pb&j on toast for breakfast
and corn on the cob & pork chops for supper.
I really could have used a half a Hoagie for lunch though.

Today is Celebrate National Candied Orange Peel Day!

Now, this is a day that I could celebrate - National Candied Orange Peel Day!  I think I would like Candied Orange Peels.  I like orange marmalade, so it can't be a step too far to enjoy orange peels that are cooked in sugar.
I may try making them.  Maybe I should put "Make candied orange peels" on my "When I retire I'm going to do this" list.

Did you know that oranges supply lots of potassium?  The peels don't have any, but eating the oranges or drinking the juice you've squeezed from them gives you potassium AND the ingredients for candied orange peel all at the same time.  So you get great potassium, a treat and no trash. And in China they believe that orange peels aid in digestion, which makes it nearly an international day.

I found the following recipe for Candied Orange Peel at:
http://userealbutter.com/2007/10/09/candied-orange-peels-recipe/

Now if you don't feel like eating 4 oranges in one day just to make this, you could eat one a day for 4 days instead.  Just put the peels in a sealed baggy and store them in the refrigerator until you have enough rind for the event.


Candied Orange (Citrus) Peel
4 oranges, peel of (or any thick skinned orange)
3 cups sugar
1 cup water
1 cup sugar for rolling
or
8 oz chocolate for dipping
You can harvest the peel in many ways. Here are two: 1) Cut the oranges in half and juice them. Cut each half in half again and take a spoon to scrape the pulp out, leaving a clean pith. 2) Lop off the top and bottom of each orange (think of removing the polar caps where the stem and opposite end are) just to the fruit. Score the orange peel like lines of longitude every 60 degrees. Peel the orange and clean the inside of the peel with a spoon.
Cut peel into 1/4 inch strips. Place peels in a large saucepan and cover with cold water. Heat on high until water comes to a boil. Pour off the water. Repeat twice more. Combine sugar and water in the saucepan and bring to boil over high heat until temperature reaches 230F. Add peel and reduce heat to simmer. Simmer until peels are translucent (30 minutes or longer – 75 minutes at my 8500 ft. elevation). Remove peels from syrup and roll in sugar if desired, and set on rack to dry for 4-5 hours (more humid regions will require more time). Once the peel is dry, you can dip in tempered dark chocolate – shake off excess, and place on foil, wax paper, or baking sheet to dry. Store in a tupperware, or if not chocolate dipped, store in sugar or as is.

*********

Enjoy your Candied Orange Peel Day!

*********

Oh, wait...I forgot the knock, knock joke, and the poem.

Knock, knock.

Who's there?

Banana.

Banana who?

Knock, knock.

Who's there??

Banana.

Banana who??

Knock, knock.

WHO'S THERE?

Orange.

Orange who?

Orange you glad I didn't say 'Banana' again?

Now for the poem...try rhyming oranges...as kids, we always used Poranges, and thus the poem "Oranges, poranges!" was born...in our family.
Even "way back when" I enjoyed making up poems.  It was actually kind of a poetic chant:

Oranges, poranges

Two kinds of oranges.

I was young.  You could probably tell.

But orange you glad it's National Candied Orange Peel Day on May 4?

Oh, great, it's also my daughter's birthday...argh!

I didn't mail the card!

May 3 is Lumpy Rug Day

Whoa, there's nothing worse than a lumpy rug.  I mean, if a hairpiece won't stay down flat then I say...
What?
It's a...a lumpy wha...?
I knew that.
Yes, lumpy rugs are very hard to vacuum.  I don't wear a hairpiece.  I don't know where you got that idea.
You know, when you lie down on a lumpy rug or vacuum a lumpy rug you should be careful that there isn't a dog or cat or even some two year old taking a nap under there.  Maybe that's why it's lumpy.
And again, as with Fire Day, are we celebrating them, enjoying them, going out with binoculars to find a wild lumpy rug, or are we just supposed to decide if we like it or lump it? But whatever you do, don't just sit there like a lump on a rug!
I have NO IDEA why we'd care about lumpy rugs really.  And maybe that's the point.  Maybe it is simply a day to show our disdain for lumpy rugs!

Fire Day is May 2

The TV that ruined our house - set on back lawn by itself to think about what it did.

Maybe we're supposed to have a fire today.
Or maybe we're not supposed to have a fire today.
I don't know.
But it's National Fire Day.  What can that mean?
Mayhaps we are to support our local fire department, match makers, matchbox cars or fire sprinklers.
Or perhaps we need to fire someone today.
Fire up the grill.
Get all fired up.
Paint something fire engine red.
Light a match under someone.
Visit (or avoid) the Ring of Fire.
Sing Ring of Fire.
Fire off some questions.
Install Firefox.
Or read Foxfire.
Watch the Chicago Fire...the soccer team, that is, not the real flames.
Celebrate fire extinguishers.
Cut down trees around my house to prevent a wildfire from burning it down.
That might be better than the house fire we had a few years back.
Never mind.
I think I'm skipping National Fire Day.
I already observed it for almost a year.
I don't have to celebrate it for the rest of my life.
I'm all caught up.

Rhinoceroses and Mother Goose

May Day is Save the Rhino Day and Mother Goose Day.   Did you know that there are no nursery rhymes about rhinoceroses?  There aren't any fairy tales either.  Maybe someone should write one. 

Hickory chicory dee,
The rhino climbed a tree;
He began to frown
'Cause he couldn't get down,
Hickory chicory dee.

There.