My birthday...in history

What happened on February 27th in history?

Events
1560 - The Treaty of Berwick, which would expel the French from Scotland, is signed by England and the Congregation of Scotland.
1594 - Henry IV is crowned King of France.
1617 - Sweden and Russia sign the Treaty of Stolbovo, ending the Ingrian War and shutting Russia out of the Baltic Sea.
1626 - Yuan Chonghuan is appointed Governor of Liaodong, after he led the Chinese into a great victory against the Manchurians under Nurhaci.
1700 - The island of New Britain is discovered.
1703 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in Mobile, Alabama.
1793 - The Giles resolutions are introduced to the United States House of Representatives asking the House to condemn Alexander Hamilton's handling of loans.
1801 - Washington, DC is placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Congress.
1812 - Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.
1827 - The first Mardi Gras is celebrated in New Orleans, Louisiana.
1844 - The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.
1860 - Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that was largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.
1861 - A crowd in Warsaw protesting Russian rule over Poland is fired upon by Russian troops, killing five protesters.
1864 - American Civil War: The first Northern prisoners arrive at the Confederate prison at Andersonville, Georgia.
1879 - Announcement of the discovery of artificial sweetener saccharin.
1900 - Second Boer War: In South Africa, British military leaders receive an unconditional notice of surrender from Boer General Piet Cronje at the Battle of Paardeberg.
1900 - The British Labour Party is founded.
1900 - The FC Bayern München (Munich) is founded.
1921 - The International Working Union of Socialist Parties is founded in Vienna.
1922 - A challenge to the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, allowing women the right to vote, is rebuffed by the Supreme Court of the United States in Leser v. Garnett.
1933 - Reichstag fire: Germany's parliament building in Berlin, the Reichstag, is set on fire.
1939 - American Civil Rights Movement: Sit-down strikes are outlawed by the Supreme Court of the United States.
1940 - Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discovered carbon-14
1942 - World War II: the USS Langley, the first United States aircraft carrier, is sunk by Japanese warplanes.
1943 - The Smith Mine #3 in Bearcreek, Montana, explodes, killing 74 men.
1943 - The Rosenstrasse protest starts in Berlin
1951 - The Twenty-second Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting Presidents to two terms, is ratified.
1961 - The first congress of the Spanish Trade Union Organisation is inaugurated.
1963 - The Dominican Republic receives its first democratically elected president, Juan Bosch, since the end of the dictatorship led by Rafael Trujillo.
1964 - The government of Italy asks for help to keep the Leaning Tower of Pisa from toppling over.
1967 - Dominica gains independence from the United Kingdom.
1971 - Doctors in the first Dutch abortion clinic (the Mildredhuis in Arnhem) start to perform abortus provocatus .
1973 - The American Indian Movement occupies Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
1974 - People magazine is published for the first time.
1976 - The formerly Spanish territory of Western Sahara, under the auspices of the Polisario Front declares independence as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.
1986 - The United States Senate allows its debates to be televised on a trial basis.
1989 - Venezuela is rocked by the Caracazo.
1990 - Exxon Valdez oil spill: Exxon and its shipping company are indicted on five criminal counts.
1991 - Gulf War: U.S. President George H. W. Bush announces that "Kuwait is liberated."
1996 - Satoshi Tajiri creates the hit media franchise Pokémon.
1999 - While trying to circumnavigate the world in a hot air balloon, Colin Prescot and Andy Elson set a new endurance record after being in a hot air balloon for 233 hours and 55 minutes.
1999 - Olusegun Obasanjo becomes Nigeria's first elected president since mid-1983.
2002 - Ryanair Flight 296 catches fire in London Stansted Airport. Subsequent investigations criticize Ryanair's handling of the evacuation.
2002 - A Muslim mob attacks a train a few minutes after it leaves the Godhra railway station, killing 59 Hindu pilgrims returning from Ayodhya; retaliatory riots lead to the death of at least 1000 people, mostly Muslims.
2003 - Rowan Williams is enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in the Anglican church.
2004 - A bombing of a Superferry by Abu Sayyaf in the Philippines kills 116, its worst terrorist attack.
2004 - Former BPMC general secretary Ordrick Samuel launches a new party in Barbuda, Barbudans for a Better Barbuda.
2005 - Pre-pay price capping on the Transport for London Oyster card is introduced.
2006 - The Harlem Globetrotters extended their overall record to 22,000 wins.

Births
272 - Constantine I, Roman emperor (d. 337)
1691 - Edward Cave, English editor and publisher (d. 1754)
1711 - Constantine Mavrocordatos, Prince of Wallachia and Prince of Moldavia (d. 1769)
1779 - Thomas Hazlehurst, English soap and alkali manufacturer (d. 1842)
1807 - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (d. 1882)
1861 - Rudolf Steiner, Austrian philosopher (d. 1925)
1862 - Anastasios Metaxas, Greek architect and shooter (d. 1937)
1886 - Hugo Black, U.S. Supreme Court Justice (d. 1971)
1888 - Roberto Assagioli, Italian psychiatrist (d. 1974)
1888 - Earl Caddock, American professional wrestler (d. 1950)
1888 - Lotte Lehmann, German singer (d. 1976)
1890 - Freddie Keppard, American jazz musician (d. 1933)
1891 - David Sarnoff, Russian-born broadcast pioneer (d. 1971)
1891 - Anne Samson, oldest-ever nun documented (d. 2004)
1892 - William Demarest, American actor (d. 1983)
1897 - Marian Anderson, American contralto (d. 1993)
1899 - Charles Best, American medical scientist (d. 1978)
1902 - Gene Sarazen, American golfer (d. 1999)
1902 - John Steinbeck, American writer, Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1968)
1903 - Grethe Weiser, German actress (d. 1970)
1904 - James T. Farrell, American writer (d. 1979)
1904 - Yulii Borisovich Khariton, Russian physicist (d. 1996)
1904 - André Leducq, French cyclist (d. 1980)
1904 - Chick Fullis, American baseball player (d. 1946)
1905 - Franchot Tone, American actor (d. 1968)
1907 - Mildred Bailey, American singer (d. 1951)
1910 - Joan Bennett, American actress (d. 1990)
1910 - Peter De Vries, American writer (d. 1993)
1910 - Kelly Johnson, American aircraft engineer (d. 1990)
1912 - Lawrence Durrell, British writer (d. 1990)
1913 - Irwin Shaw, American writer (d. 1984)
1917 - John Connally, Governor of Texas (d. 1993)
1922 - Hans Rookmaaker, Dutch professor and art historian (d. 1977)
1923 - Dexter Gordon, American jazz saxophonist (d. 1990)
1925 - Samuel Dash, American Congressional counsel (d. 2004)
1926 - David H. Hubel, Canadian neuroscientist, Nobel Prize laureate
1927 - Lynn Cartwright, American actress (d. 2004)
1927 - Guy Mitchell, American singer (d. 1999)
1928 - Ariel Sharon, former Prime Minister of Israel
1929 - Djalma Santos, Brazilian footballer
1930 - Paul von Ragué Schleyer, American chemist
1930 - Peter Stone, American writer (d. 2003)
1930 - Joanne Woodward, American actress
1932 - Elizabeth Taylor, British-American actress
1933 - Raymond Berry, American football player
1934 - Vincent Fourcade, French interior designer (d. 1992)
1934 - N. Scott Momaday, American writer
1934 - Ralph Nader, American consumer activist
1934 - Van Williams, American actor
1935 - Mirella Freni, Italian soprano
1936 - Ron Barassi, Australian rules footballer
1937 - Barbara Babcock, American actress
1939 - Peter Revson, American racecar driver (d. 1974)
1940 - Howard Hesseman, American actor
1941 - Paddy Ashdown, British politician
1942 - Robert H. Grubbs, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate
1942 - Charlayne Hunter-Gault, American journalist
1942 - Michel Forget, French Canadian actor
1943 - Mary Frann, American actress (d. 1998)
1943 - Morten Lauridsen, American composer
1944 - Ken Grimwood, American writer (d. 2003)
1945 - Carl Anderson, American singer and actor (d. 2004)
1947 - Gidon Kremer, Latvian violinist
1951 - Steve Harley, British rock musician (Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel)
1954 - Neal Schon, American musician (Journey)
1957 - Viktor Markin, Russian athlete
1957 - Timothy Spall, English actor
1957 - Danny Antonucci, Canadian animator
1957 - Adrian Smith, English musician (Iron Maiden)
1958 - Nancy Spungen, girlfriend of Sid Vicious (d. 1978)
1960 - Andres Gomez, Ecuadorian tennis player
1962 - Adam Baldwin, American actor
1962 - Grant Show, American actor
1965 - Noah Emmerich, American actor
1965 - Frank Peter Zimmermann, German violinist
1965 - Joakim Sundström, Swedish sound editor, sound designer and musician
1966 - Donal Logue, Canadian actor
1969 - Brad Vander Ark, American musician
1970 - Michael A. Burstein, American writer
1970 - Patricia Petibon, French opera singer
1971 - Derren Brown, British psychological illusionist
1971 - Rozonda "Chilli" Thomas, American singer (TLC)
1973 - Ali Tabatabaee, American Iranian rapper (Zebrahead)
1975 - Shelby Walker, American mixed martial artist (d. 2006)
1975 - Prodromos Korkizoglou, Greek decathlete
1977 - Lance Hoyt, American professional wrestler
1977 - Ji Sung, South Korean actor
1978 - James Beattie, English footballer
1980 - Bobby Valentino, American singer
1980 - Chelsea Clinton, daughter of Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton
1981 - Josh Groban, American singer
1984 - Juliana Imai, Brazilian model
1984 - Antti Tuisku, Finnish singer
1985 - Fefe Dobson, Canadian singer
1985 - Abe Asami, Japanese singer and actress
1988 - JD Natasha, American musician

Chris dancing video

Happy Valentines Day!

Okay, I'm late by a day. I was too lazy to post yesterday. After I dropped the eldest son off at school I remembered that I saw the pattern for this crocheted heart in the latest edition of Crochet Today! and also remembered that I had some red #3 crochet cotton in my stash so I went about making one for my Valentine. He had to work yesterday but I didn't want him to think I had forgotten so I made him a card with a poem inside, bought him some balloons and chocolate and went to the fire station he was assigned for the day. It was my luck that he wasn't there when I arrived because I took the goodies into his room and left them on his bed. I got a call from him shortly after arriving home asking if I thought I was sneaky. Yep! I was sneaky as hell.

I also got some more done on these socks. I turned the heels before bed and worked on them a bit today. I really want to finish them tomorrow but I don't know if I'll get a chance to do that.



You see, whenever my Mom makes plans to come for a visit, like she is on Tuesday, I freak out. My Mom is hypercritical about my housekeeping. My house is definitely not a pig sty but we do "live" here and I tend to have a bit of clutter going on at all times. My worst offender is my pool table upstairs. It is the perfect spot to fold clothes and I have it divided into four sections, one for each of us, on which I will stack everyone's folded clothes. The problem is that I don't put them away once folded, for quite awhile. My husband's clothes get put away more than anyone elses because he likes to roll out of bed and have his clothes within reach. The boys know the drill and automatically go to the pool table when they're ready to get dressed for the day. Sad, I know, but much better than living out of a laundry basket, wouldn't you say? At least I don't have clothes piled up waiting to be washed.

Another hot spot is the kitchen island. This is the spot where my husband and I seem to deposit mail, keys, cups, plates, crumbs, etc. whenever we walk into the house from the garage. It is only totally cleared off when company comes over.

I've got my work cut out for me tomorrow. Vacuuming, dusting, laundry, decluttering, general tidying up. I probably won't shampoo the carpets until Monday. I need to get my act together and stick to the Fly Lady principles. I have two of her books but haven't had the opportunity to read them yet.

Got to get some sleep.

Presidential Candidate with ties to Hawaii

Barry Obama from Punahou?

Koigu socks are finally done!

It took me 12 days but they're done. I finished them for the Sock a Month Knitalong3 group.

I immediately started on this new pair at the same time on Magic Loop using the Turkish Cast On
for which I would like to thank Misocrafty for posting this tutorial. Very easy toe up method. You just have to do it, not think about it. I didn't think it would work when I was reading it, but I figured "what the heck, I can always rip it out if it doesn't work" but it did. I hope they're done by next Monday's knit nite so I can show them to the group. In fact, I'm hoping to turn the heels on them tomorrow and it's gravy from there.

2006 Schedule

2006 Schedule

I don't remember if I blogged about this earlier or not. My son's football team won the 2006 state championships and as part of that, they posed for a championship picture. Nothing new about that, right? This photography company is located in Reno, Nevada and we are in Las Vegas. Quite a distance away, but they sent both their Las Vegas and Reno photographers since the team we played against was from up north in Galena, near Reno. Can you believe they lost the film? We had no idea until we got our check back in the mail about a month later. What I can't believe is that both crews took pictures and both of their photos were lost. Since my son is a freshman, and I hope that they win until he graduates, I am not as heartbroken as parents of seniors are, I'm sure. I called the company and asked if they plan to come back to retake the pictures. The representative I spoke to said that it is an option but she doesn't know what they plan to do at this time. Argh! Anyway, while cruising on my husband's computer this afternoon, I saw that he had the high school website in his favorites list so I clicked on it. I found a copy of the championship picture on the website! I couldn't believe it. It's possibly one of the only copies available! Of course, I printed it out for my son to hang on his wall. I sent the link to a friend, who is the mom of one of his teammates. What luck! You can rest assured that I will bring my camera to every game next season. I'm kicking myself for not doing it more this year.

Jake playing Ukulele on Yahoo video. Awesome!

This guy is off da hook with his ukulele playing! Right on braddah!

Stash busting saga continues

I have recently joined Socktopia and Sock A Month 3 (SAM3) to help in my stash busting endeavors. I had frogged my Koigu sock twice already and waited until yesterday to cast on with more stitches. I had originally started with 48 then 52, and now 60 on size 2 needles. They're a bit loose but should be all right. I worked on it a bit at knit nite last night. I am now working the short row heel while watching last week's Grey's Anatomy on ABC.com. I recorded last night's on the DVR but I ran out of space on the hard drive and only recorded 16 minutes of it. That episode will be watched next.



I also brought this scarf along last night but couldn't concentrate on the lace chart to save my
life because I was catching up with the girls.



And I have been baking bread. For those of you who don't have a bread machine, do not assume that just because you have this thing, that you can automatically make good bread. I have made my share of crap but today...I made this awesome loaf of breadiliciousness.



Other than being able to eat piping hot bread, I think bread machines should be marketed just like those scented oil plug in things. The house smells so wonderful. I tweaked my original recipe just a tad and here it is:

Honey Wheat Bread for the bread machine

1 c. water, lukewarm
2 Tbsp. butter
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
2 c. bread flour
2 Tbsp. dry milk powder
2 Tbsp. honey
4 tsp. Vital Wheat Gluten
1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. yeast

Add ingredients in the order suggested by the bread machine manufacturer. I don't know if this makes any difference or not but I store my flour, yeast and gluten in the freezer and I add them in cold, not room temperature. I bake on the standard setting with a light crust. I hope if you try this recipe, you get great results, too.