Happy Mother's Day to All Mothers Around the World!

So....  It's snowing.  It's been snowing since about 4:30 this morning.  It's mixed with rain, so there's not a huge accumulation, but it's pretty messy out.   The squirrels look bedraggled as they peer into the windows.  They've eaten one and a half pounds of walnuts, pecans and peanuts already today, and I'll give them the other half  (another 1.5 pounds) tomorrow morning - but no more now.
   I know that Mother's Day is a custom of the United States, but I think it's something that should be celebrated around the world.  This is a day to celebrate the joy and love of (a) having a Mother, and (b) being a Mother.  My Mom has been gone for 13 years, but I love her and miss her on a daily basis.  On Mother's Day, I always reserve at least 60 minutes to sit down and remember some of the good times that made my Mother my Mom.  And, of course, I wouldn't be here, having this life, if not for Mom...  And, at the end of her life, when her memories were taken by Alzheimer's Disease, she believed very much that my cat, Bibbin Tucker, was her childhood cat, Sally.  If I called Bibbin, she came...  but if Mom called Sally, she ran to Mom.  I am so appreciative of having both a marvelous Mom and such a giving cat.
 
    It looks as if there will be ten horses running in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on Saturday - the connections of nine colts and one filly have stated they plan to run in the one and 3/16ths mile second leg of the Triple Crown.  Only three colts from the Kentucky Derby will try for victory in the Preakness: California Chrome, in hope of becoming a Triple Crown champion, and General a Rod, who finished eleventh, and Ride On Curlin, who finished seventh.  The filly Ria Antonia, who finished sixth in the Kentucky Oaks, the day before the Derby, has been declared.   The colts Bayern, Pablo Del Monte, and Ring Weekend, who had been pointed at the Derby, will run in the Preakness.  And three speedsters have also been named:  Social Inclusion, Dynamic Impact and Kid Cruz.  It will be interesting to see the tactics for the race, and to see if there will be the possibility of a Triple Crown champion, once the race is finished.
   In other thoroughbred racing news:    Announcer Tom Durkin will be retiring from the NYRA ....  Trevor Denman is taking a few weeks off from announcing to see to the forty-or-so calves on his farm in Minnesota, but will be back to to announce the Santa Anita Gold Cup on 28 June.....   And the owners of Zenyatta have announced that they will allow her a year "just to be a horse" and won't breed her this season, after she has produced three gorgeous foals in the past three years for them....