March 12, 2017

Today we celebrate:

National Milky Way Day – This is a day that I am very excited about. It's a day that is all about eating Milky Way candy bars. This delightful sweet treat was created by Frank C. Mars back in 1923. Apparently there is an American version, that has chocolate-malt nougat with caramel and milk chocolate, and a non-American version that does not have the caramel. All I can say to that is that I will never move to any other country.

National Baked Scallops Day – I am used to frying scallops on the stove, but this is another option that looks pretty good. If you use bay scallops, you can probably do it the same way, just cut down on the cooking time.

Girl Scouts Day – On this day in 1912, Juliette Gordon Low gathered together 18 girls in Savanna, Georgia, and held the first ever Girl Scout meeting. Her dream has grown into a worldwide reality for millions of girls over the last 103 years.

Plant A Flower Day – This is a day to plant flowers in your flower gardens. If your ground is still frozen outside and covered with snow, like mine, or you are still expecting some freezing at night, then you can start your flowers inside. Nothing gets our spirits up like seeing flowers and feeling warm weather in springtime. Springtime is fast approaching so get those flowers ready.

World Day Against Cyber Censorship – Begun in 2008 by Reporters Without Borders and Amnesty International, this is a day to speak out against the online censorship perpetuated by many countries. Their goal is to have an unrestricted internet that has free access for everyone in the world.

National Alfred Hitchcock Day – Born on August 13, 1899, this is a day to celebrate the master of suspense. His birthday is on August 13th, but it was on this day in 1940 that his first movie, Rebecca, premiered. This information came from David Coleman. Thank you, David. If you watch his movies carefully, there is a very good chance you will see him somewhere as he had cameos in most of his films.

Check Your Batteries Day – This coincides with Daylight Savings Time and is a time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors. It's important to make sure your smoke detectors work properly so that they can save your life if you try to sleep through a fire. Trust me, you don't want to do that. But even more annoying than sleeping through a fire is waiting too long to change your batteries because they start that high pitched chirping sound. Because, let me tell you, if you have as many smoke detectors as I do, it is very time consuming standing underneath each one for an hour while you wait for it to chirp. Especially since the one that is chirping is never the one you are standing under. And then, you might have the situation that I had a couple of years ago when not one but two of my smoke detectors started chirping, but they couldn’t do it at the same time. No. I stood under every single smoke detector in my house and not a single one chirped while I was under it. The sound was always coming from a different room. It took me about six hours to figure that one out. Save yourself and change all of the batteries today.

The Start of Daylight Savings Time – It's that time of year again when we mess up our internal clocks and our children's sleep schedule by changing the time by an hour. Even worse, it's the spring so we leap forward and lose an hour of sleep. Better get to bed early to make up for it.