FeeFiFoto Blog

Strange June Birthdays

Make personalized calendars even more personal with the addition of peculiar dates; here are some for June.

FeeFiFoto has been producing personalized photo calendars as a core part of our business since we were established about five years ago. Recently we added a bunch of new templates, a thousand or so pieces of clip art, and the capacity to arrange photos in collages instead of being limited to a single photo per page. We've always had a feature that lets you enter your own family birthdays, anniversaries or special events. Here's a list of June dates that will make your personalized calendars just a touch more memorable.

1
Dare Day
Marilyn Monroe, b. 1926

2
National Rocky Road Day
Johnny Weissmuller, b. 1904

3
Repeat Day
Jefferson Davis, b. 1808

4
Old Maid's Day

Remember, June 3 is Repeat Day

5
Festival Of Popular Delusions Day

Don't forget, June 3 is Repeat Day

6
Teacher's Day
National Applesauce Cake Day

It's a lot easier just to bring an apple for the teacher

7
National Chocolate Ice Cream Day
Dean Martin, b. 1917

8
Name Your Poison Day

Note to self: June 3 is Repeat Day

9
Donald Duck Day
Cole Porter, b. 1891

10
National Yo-Yo Day

11
National Hug Holiday
King Kamehameha Day
Vince Lombardi, b. 1913

12
Machine Day

I repeat, June 3 is Repeat Day

13
National Juggling Day
Kitchen Klutzes Of America Day

14
Pop Goes The Weasel Day
Harriet Beecher Stowe, b. 1811

15
Smile Power Day

June 3 is, guess what?  Repeat Day

16
National Hollerin' Contest Day
Stan Laurel, b. 1890

17
Watergate Day
Eat Your Vegetables Day
Igor Stravinsky, b. 1882

All three at times difficult to swallow

18
International Panic Day

I reiterate, June 3 is Repeat Day

19
World Sauntering Day
Lou Gehrig, b. 1903

20
Ice Cream Soda Day

21
Cuckoo Warning Day
Jean-Paul Sartre, b. 1905

22
National Chocolate Éclair Day
John Dillinger, b. 1903

23
National Pink Day
Johannes Gutenberg, b. 1400

24
Museum Comes To Life Day

Remember, June 3 is Repeat Day

25
Log Cabin Day

26
National Chocolate Pudding Day
Abner Doubleday, b. 1819

27
National Columnists Day
Helen Keller, b. 1880

28
Paul Bunyan Day
Henry VIII, b. 1491

29
Camera Day

30
Meteor Day

One more time: June 3 is Repeat Day

How About A Watch For Father's Day?

More on the subject of Father's Day gifts: how about a personalized photo watch from FeeFiFoto?

Sewing Mom would love to give her husband a Breitling watch, which can retail for upwards of $25,000 (yes, that's twenty-five thousand dollars):

"My daughter and I are still discussing what to get my husband, her dad, for Father’s Day ...  I may have mentioned at some point that he collects time pieces, quality watches. It’s something I’ve always wanted to buy him, but he is extremely particular about his watches and I would never presume to know what he would like ... I do know that he has always admired Breitling watches. ... I’ve also been looking at several jewelry watches that I think he would enjoy. He likes having a variety of watches and doesn’t usually wear the same one two days in a row. It’s similar to ladies changing their jewelry, he changes his watch, besides his wedding band, it’s the only jewelry he wears ... "

Here's some information on the History of Watches, courtesy of Paralumun.com:

1500s : Creation of the first pocket watch.
1485 : Leonardo da Vinci sketches a fusee for a clock
Early 1600s : Form watches becoming popular. Cases are shaped like animals and objects.

Time out

 

1704 :  Rubies are first used in watch movements.
1750 : Watch makers begin using enamel on watch dials.

Time for lunch

1780 : Invention of the self winding movement.
1786 : Guilloche is first used on watch dials.

Time marches on

1837 : First shrine to jewelry Tiffany store opens.
1843: Development of a watch with winding and setting through the crown.

Time and tide wait for no one

1853 : The first dual time zone watch.

Time to floss

1884 : Greenwich, England is officially named the zero meridian and used as the world wide recognized basis of time zones.

Time out of mind

1926 : Rolex introduces the first waterproof case called the "Oyster".

Funny Rolex story.  Schpilkes complained to the jeweler that her Rolex had stopped running.  The jeweler explained that she wasn't moving enough to keep the self-winding watch functioning.  Curley, my sister, suggested Schpilkes attach the watch to her mouth.

1933 : Ingersoll introduces the "Mickey Mouse" watch.
1956 : Rolex introduces their first model that displays the day and date.
1957 : Introduction of the world's first battery driven watch.

Time after time

1983 : Launch of the Swatch brand.

I never had a Swatch.  The plastic band made my wrist sweatch.

1999 : Casio innovates with the first wristwatch with a built-in Global Positioning System (GPS).

These days we are surrounded by so many electronic devices that tell us the time, including that persistent little fellow living in the lower right hand corner of all computer screens who keeps us up to date more efficiently than a manual stadium scoreboard keeper, since he requires no bathroom breaks.  So when you're looking for a watch you most likely intend to make a statement of fashion, wealth or sentiment. 

This is what makes a watch an ideal gift for Father's Day. 

If Dad's into high tech, there are dozens hundreds thousands of choices of timepieces that will rival anything James Bond ever carried. 

If Dad prefers bling, you'll find any number of watches crusted with diamonds, rubies, sapphires -- you can't tell time on them, but who cares?  If you have enough money to buy the watch, your people can tell you what time it is, if you care.

To make a statement of sentiment is also easy.  Get Dad a watch with a photo of the kids, or the pets, or his favorite putting green, on the face of the watch.  FeeFiFoto has a number of different styles, some with leather bands and others with metal, all priced under $40:

It's way more affordable, and more meaningful, than the Breitling.

Photo Hunters: I Want Glasses

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest to have your photo used in a graphic on our home page through the entire summer.  Today's the last day.

Our fourth PhotoHunt: Here's a photo of my eyes:

 

This is how it works when you want to look for a new pair of glasses but your vision is so pathetic that you have to use your Blackberry to shoot a photo of yourself modeling various candidates.

Brrrrain Frrrreeze

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.  The drawing is on June 1.

In the market for a pinch hitter guest poster.

 


















Graphic from Sodahead


Is it the weather, finally warm and sunny after months of rain / freeze / snow / ice / sleet / freeze / rain / clouds / sun -- no wait -- just kidding / rain / clouds / rain and more rain?

Is it the loooong drive to school every day, and then back home and then back to school and then back home?

Is it the fatigue from trimming approximately 1001 trees, shrubs, branches, limbs, weeds, leaves and oak pollens lining the driveway and then shoving them toward the street with a push broom, all with a puppy tied to my belt?

Or might it be ... wait, what was I saying?

Oy.  I've finally lost my mind.  I know it's around here somewhere; I just need to dig beneath the decomposing plant material and vomiting backpacks and I'm sure it'll turn up, although the mother-of-pearl pen and the hand blown Venetian glass bead never did.

Would you like to write a guest post for this blog?  Send me a comment on this post with your email address.

Wordless Wednesday: The Result Of A Long Playdate With Puppy Cousins, Followed By a Long Bath

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.  The drawing is on June 1.

Way To Go, Artypants!

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.  The drawing is on June 1.

Congratulations to 2008 graduates.

Today, finally, Artypants graduated from high school.  When I graduated from public school we wore white robes (the boys got red), but as this is a private school the boys wore coats and ties (and yes, pants too) while the girls wore white gowns.

Artypants is the oldest niece/grandchild on either side of the family, so this was our first graduation (aside from preschool).  I offered Cleo a dollar if she'd give a loud "Whoop" when Artypants' name was called; the Whoop was weak and pathetic but I paid up anyway.

I feel like I raised this kid; I know I helped.  I'm indescribably proud.  She's attending the Pratt Institute in the fall, where she'll be a shining star.

Look here and here and here and here for more on the beloved Artypants.

Know a high school or college graduate?  Put senior photos on personalized photo gifts from FeeFiFoto.

Hard To Believe She's Only Eight

Here's the post my daughter, Hannah Fanna, composed on her blog this morning while I was in bed sleeping off one quarter of a muscle relaxer (darn neck pain).  This provides clear evidence that my daughter is quite smart, and I am a cheap date:

 

"I'd like to have everyone reading this think about people who died in war for our country. Maybe you knew someone who died in a war? Well this is the day to honor how brave they were. Today is Memorial Day. (And my friend's birthday.)"

Memorial Day

For anyone who's been preoccupied by the American Idol finals I'd like to share a couple things I've come across concerning Memorial Day.

Army Mom: New Jersey offered this sometimes heart-wrenching piece about the Tomb Of The Unknowns:

"On Jeopardy the other night, the final question was ["]How many steps does the guard take during his walk across the Tomb Of The Unknowns [?] —— All three missed it —

... [The] guard take[s 21 steps] during his walk across the Tomb Of The Unknowns ... [The number] alludes to the twenty-one gun salute, which is the highest honor given any military or foreign dignitary ...

He carries the rifle on the shoulder away from the tomb. After his march across the path, he executes an about face and moves the rifle to the outside shoulder ...

Guards are changed every thirty minutes, twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year ...

For a person to apply for guard duty at the tomb, he must be between 5′ 10″ and 6′ 2″ tall and his waist size cannot exceed 30.

Guard[s] ... must commit 2 years of life to guard the tomb, live in a barracks under the tomb, and cannot drink any alcohol on or off duty for the rest of their lives. They cannot swear in public for the rest of their lives and cannot disgrace the uniform {fighting} or the tomb in any way. After two years, the guard is given a wreath pin that is worn on their lapel signifying they served as guard of the tomb. There are only 400 presently worn. The guard must obey these rules for the rest of their lives or give up the wreath pin. The shoes are specially made with very thick soles to keep the heat and cold from their feet. There are metal heel plates that extend to the top of the shoe in order to make the loud click as they come to a halt. There are no wrinkles, folds or lint on the uniform. Guards dress for duty in front of a full-length mirror.

The first six months of duty a guard cannot talk to anyone, nor watch TV. All off duty time is spent studying the 175 notable people laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery … A guard must memorize who they are and where they are interred. Among the notables are: President Taft, Joe E. Lewis {the boxer} and Medal of Honor winner Audie Murphy, {the most decorated soldier of WWII} of Hollywood fame.

Every guard spends five hours a day getting his uniforms ready for guard duty ...

In 2003 as Hurricane Isabelle was approaching Washington, DC, our US Senate/House took 2 days off with anticipation of the storm. On the ABC evening news, it was reported that because of the dangers from the hurricane, the military members assigned the duty of guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier were given permission to suspend the assignment. They respectfully declined the offer, “No way, Sir!” Soaked to the skin, marching in the pelting rain of a tropical storm, they said that guarding the Tomb was not just an assignment, it was the highest honor that can be afforded to a service person. The tomb has been patrolled continuously, 24/7, since 1930 ...

And this piece from InfoPlease:

"Remains of an unknown soldier from the Vietnam War were interred [at the Tomb Of The Unknowns] in 1984, but later investigations revealed the soldier's identity, and they were removed. Deciding that scientific advances, including DNA tests ... had made Vietnam War or future unknowns unlikely, the Pentagon announced (1999) that no new remains would be placed in the memorial."

And this piece on Memorial Day history and origins from USMemorialDay.org

"Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic ... and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery. The first state to officially recognize the holiday was New York in 1873. By 1890 it was recognized by all of the northern states. The South refused to acknowledge the day, honoring their dead on separate days until after World War I (when the holiday changed from honoring just those who died fighting in the Civil War to honoring Americans who died fighting in any war) ...

Traditional observance of Memorial Day has diminished over the years. Many Americans nowadays have forgotten the meaning and traditions of Memorial Day. At many cemeteries, the graves of the fallen are increasingly ignored, neglected. Most people no longer remember the proper flag etiquette for the day. While there are towns and cities that still hold Memorial Day parades, many have not held a parade in decades. Some people think the day is for honoring any and all dead, and not just those fallen in service to our country ..."

Really, Dad, We Love You. Honest.

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.  The drawing is on June 1.

Why don't football players ever shout "Hi Dad!" into the camera?

Search "Mothers Day Gift" in Technorati and, as of today, two weeks AFTER Mother's Day 2008, you'll find the phrase in more than 22,000 blog posts with any level of authority.

Search "Fathers Day Gift" and, as of today, three weeks BEFORE Father's Day 2008, you'll find the phrase in 10,000 blog posts.

No Time Mom lists all of three contests or giveaways for Father's Day.
According to AOL Money & Finance:

"Historically, more collect phone calls are made on Father's Day than on any other day of the year. While Mother's Day is the biggest holiday for phone calls in general, it's dads who get the top honor of their progeny sticking them with the bill for the call."

Toria at Losing Pounds.org writes:    

"When it comes to buying gifts, I can buy for the females in my life all day long…mum, sister in law, friends…a walk in the park, but when it comes to the men it’s a different matter entirely - my dad and brother I find especially difficult because neither seem to have any idea themselves what they want!"

Isn't it funny how we trip over ourselves to offer Mother's Day gift suggestions, yet the selection of material regarding Father's Day gifts is, shall we say, pallid?  Maybe other fathers seem so macho that we believe they need gifts reeking of testosterone and immaturity like an enormous remote control or personalized beer. 

But my father, The Man From D.A.D., loves personal and intimate gifts. We made him a needlepoint belt with all the kids' names, which he's been wearing proudly for eight years; for all we know he thinks it's hideous but he'd never say so and it's practically the only belt he wears. His book shelves are loaded with my pottery, ranging in quality from the ridiculous to the sublime, including a bowl embossed with a poem Cleo wrote (guess that makes it poetry pottery). Robey planted an oak twig last year which The Man From D.A.D. protects from mowing with its own fence, and monitors daily.

Now, we could give the high tech gifts and sometimes we do, but I don't think that's as much of a sign of fatherly worth and love as something from the heart rather than the wallet.  And maybe our father is unusually sentimental so that he seriously treasures the personal mementos we regularly supply, but I doubt it.  I think that many dads would and should be thrilled to receive something personalized from their kids or grandchildren.

This year we're going to have FeeFiFoto print a picture of the grandchildren on a ceramic tile that will blend perfectly with all the other family-oriented memorabilia in his office.  He'll love it.

What are you doing for Father's Day?

Pain At The Pump

There's one more week to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.  Come on -- you can do it.

Linda at Are We There Yet? created a new meme and although I'd already posted this elsewhere I'm posting it again because I'm lazy it fits.

This gas station is around the corner from my house.

Photo Hunters: I Want Shoes

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest to have your photo used in a graphic on our home page through the entire summer.

Our third PhotoHunt:

See any difference between these two Crocs?

Last year I bought the kids Airwalks on Ebay for about half the cost of Crocs, because really -- who's foolish enough to pay thirty dollars for glorified flip flops for kids? Well actually, lots of people, but nevertheless, I didn't want to be one of them because I'm so darn cheap oh-so-careful with my money.

Anyway. Robey broke off one of the straps less than a week after they arrived. He still wore them broken but their usefulness was seriously limited, especially for a pigeon toed kid who wears his shoes on the tops of his feet almost as often as on the bottoms. So this year I bought him the real thing, because he'd demonstrated his irrevocable devotion to the Crocesque Airwalks, and I figured the Crocs might be a bit sturdier, right? because EVERYONE wears them so they must be good, right?

They lasted a week. One of the buttons popped off and I was getting dirty looks from strangers and vehement lectures that my son was in EXTREME DANGER of -- well, something, maybe tripping or something. I couldn't throw them away after only a week. If I threw away everything my kids dinged or scratched or cracked or whatevered I'd have to have a landfill on retainer. So I fixed it by sewing a black button on the outside and a brown one on the inside to anchor the black one. Proud of my fixing prowess I sent him out into the world secure in my shrill calm assurance that as long as nobody looked too closely they'd never notice the difference between left and right.

My repair lasted a week. Meanwhile, the shoes were still a size too big and would've lasted him another year if I could just keep them on life support long enough. This time I used black button thread twisted with very fine nylon thread, coated in fabric glue and anchored with a liberal application of Gorilla Glue. Robey's just going to have to get used to the brown button.

I suspect my son has a future in product testing.

What -- you thought I'd use these shoes again?  Nah -- too easy.

Wordless Wednesday: Guitars Are Blooming

Spring guitars are my favorites; they become so hard to chew by summer.

Time To Shop

Planning ahead for the Christmas season.

                   

Crazy, no?  But think about it.  Wouldn't a commemorative Christmas ornament be a perfect gift for a wedding or new baby or new home?  Most likely nobody else will think to give Christmas ornaments in May, so your gift certainly will be unique, and imagine the recipient's delight upon discovering a new ornament that she didn't even remember having when she unpacks the Christmas decorations in October November December.

Visit FeeFiFoto to design personalized porcelain Christmas ornaments like this one:

Yes, really.

Photo Hunters: I Want Candy

 

Remember to enter the FeeFiFoto Fame Contest.

Our second PhotoHunt:

This candy is made of glass so it's not better for your teeth than the real thing, but way prettier and it lasts longer, unless your puppy finds it and pulls the bowl over ... come to think of it, I used to have a lot more of these.  Wonder what happened to them?

Can't get enough of our dog?  Look here, here and here.

See more PhotoHunters.

Visit FeeFiFoto and put your Photo Hunt picture on a candy tin; then fill the tin with lemon drops or peppermints and send it to someone you love.

Thursday Thirteen: Thirteen Years Worth Of Varmint Visitors

In the thirteen years we've owned our house I've kept a running list of the many critters that have come to visit, gnaw on the the siding, dig under the foundation and sometimes scare the living daylights out of me.

When I bought a house surrounded by trees I guess I expected the occasional visitor from nature, but the extensiveness and variety of the list has left me scratching my head.  We've seen squirrels (for two years we had an albino), mice, moles, voles, rabbits, chipmunks, opossums, woodpeckers, hawks, coyotes (please help yourselves to some of the squirrels, guys) and crows.

An owl perches on the eaves occasionally and gazes at us sleepily. The first time we saw him he waited solemnly while the kids and I scrambled for some nature books in an attempt to identify him (a barn owl, we think).

A snake and a toad engaged in a fight to the death on our driveway. The snake had the toad by the leg and the toad kept trying to hop away. We watched for a while and then went inside for lunch; never did find out who won because they were gone when we came back out. Maybe the owl got both of them.

A gaze of raccoons had a "bachelor party" in our attic one spring; did you know you can catch them in a (humane) trap baited with marshmallows?

A deer hung out in our woods for half a day, and we occasionally see hawks patrolling the grounds.

Every spring one or two nutty birds (maybe they're cuckoos?) hurl themselves repeatedly into our windows, leaving behind sticky deposits of feathers and poop.  Right now we're stealthily monitoring Mama Bird and her maybe babies.

Several colossal spiders have given us some detailed lessons in web-building and bug-catching.  One summer we had dozens of ground bees letting themselves into the bedroom through a split in the siding; that wasn't reminiscent of Hitchcock at all, nuh uh.  We sure could have used the spiders then.

We've had carpenter bees, carpenter ants, Karen and Richard Carpenter ...

Our neighbors have a koi pond. They swear that the koi eat mosquito larvae and those are tadpoles floating on the surface, but I refuse to believe that tadpoles are making their way to our yard to bite us repeatedly.

Meanwhile, every dog within a one mile radius jumps its invisible fence to hang out in our yard. But so far we seem to have had no takers for our lovely, rent-free bat house.

Do you have varmint visitors?

Visit FeeFiFoto to design personalized photo tee shirts and sweat shirts for Father's Day.

Wordless Wednesday: I Think They Also Do Chiffon Motorcycle Jackets

Gives A Whole New Meaning To "Taking One For The Team"

The end of the academic year is approaching and those of us who can still see straight are assessing how we and our kids have done in school.

Today it was Robey's turn to drag me through the mud teach me something I hadn't known.  His class has been talking about Mayan civilization and he had one evening to create a three minute presentation on Chichen Itza, an ancient Mayan city honored in 2007 as one of the New Seven Wonders of the World.

Photo from Mysterious Places.

Robey and I learned lots of cool stuff about Chichen Itza, but one of the most interesting pieces of Mayan history, especially in these days of multimillionaire athletes (and by the way, does Dale Earnhardt count as an athlete?  I can accept racing as a sport by default since there doesn't seem to be any better niche for it, but does driving qualify one as an athlete?  If so, I'm way more athletic than I ever thought) is the game played on a ball court nearly as large as TWO football fields:

"It is not hard to imagine a Mayan King sitting here presiding over the games. Legends say that the the [losing] captain would present his head to the [winning] captain, who then decapitates him. While this may seem a strange reward, the Mayans believed this to be the ultimate honor. The ... captain getting a direct ticket to heaven instead of going through the 13 steps that the Mayans believed they had to go through in order to reach heaven."

Quotation from Mysterious Places.  Emphasis mine.

Now, I've heard of sacrifice bunts, and sacrifice flies, but if you sacrificed your players wouldn't you have a real challenge organizing a team for next season?  The concept gives a whole new meaning to the term "rebuilding year".

Read more about our academic year.

Wonder if the Mayans ever threw games to guarantee their ascent to heaven?

Visit FeeFiFoto and put a photo of Shoeless Joe Jackson on a baseball cap, sweatshirt or tee shirt.

Teaching Kids To Blog

Cleopatra-Queen-of-the-Nile, also known as The Big Hannah Montana Fan, has learned (thanks to me and Jason at Dat Money) how to add meta tags to images on her blog.  We actually managed to implement this through the use of HTML code, which is frightening for me but doesn't seem to bother her at all.  And naturally, she's extremely witty in her captioning, like so (mouse over the image to see how clever she is):

That's my baby.

Impeccable Timing

This Mother's Day we ask the burning question: "How do mourning dove moms feed their kids chicks?"

Our answer comes from BioKIDS:

"Both male and female mourning doves share in incubating and feeding their young. Incubation lasts 14 to 15 days. Young mourning doves are fed regurgitated food by both parents. For the first 3 to 4 days after hatching the young are fed only crop milk, an energy rich substance that is produced in the crops of both male and female parents. After that time, parents begin to add more seeds to the regurgitated food until they are fed only regurgitated seeds by the time the young leave the nest. Female mourning doves feed the young most during the first 15 days after hatching but after that males take over the responsibility for feeding the young. The young continue to stay near the nest and beg for food after they have fledged, but can survive on their own after 21 days old if there is food nearby."

And why, on this day when kids are supposed to be feeding their moms breakfast in bed, are we contemplating the constant vigilance of the mourning doves?  Because it appears that our eggs have hatched!  We haven't seen any little heads yet, but Mother Bird (or Father -- it's difficult to tell, but we'll assume it's Mom because it's Mother's Day), who has been sitting patiently puffed up on the nest in our unexpectedly cold and windy weather, is suddenly perched on the edge of the nest appearing very interested in whatever's inside.

Aww, Mom -- you rock!

Could it have happened on a more appropriate day?

Visit FeeFiFoto and put pictures on personalized photo blankets to keep your babies warm and cozy.

Photo Hunters: Share Any Photo

Our first PhotoHunt.

 

Cleo had her hair cut off about a month ago and sent it to Pantene Great Lengths, which will take as little as eight inches of hair, as opposed to the ten inches required by Locks of Love.

Visit FeeFiFoto and put your Photo Hunt picture on a cookie tin; then fill the tin with chocolate chip oatmeal cookies and send it to me someone you love.