As an October baby, my curiosity was piqued when I read fellow editor Phil Bridges' blog about October observances. And indeed, according to the omniscient Internet, there are not only hundreds of these "[blank] of the month" observances, but there are several daily ones, too. Photographers, vegetarians, apples and church libraries get the whole month of October to be honored, but techies, guardian angels, Leif Erikson, farm animals and denim get just one day.

So I decided to look up the birthdays of my family members and find out what else we should be celebrating besides ourselves:

• My birthday, Oct. 22, is also International Stuttering Awareness Day and CAPS LOCK day (which is very unfortunate to me, as it hurts my eyes to see long strings of words spelled out in all capital letters).
• My sister's birthday, Dec. 18, falls on Bake Cookies Day (not a bad idea a week before Christmas) and National Roast Suckling Pig Day (wait – cookies, a suckling pig AND birthday cake? How do you pull that off?).
• My brother's birthday, March 12, is Girl Scout Day (more cookies – go Tagalongs!) and Plant a Flower Day (FYI: My family's from McCall. There's still two feet of snow on the ground on March 12. We'll have to go for a potted plant, I suppose).
• My mother's birthday, July 30, is also National Cheesecake Day (Good grief, no wonder this nation is plagued with poor health! Look at all these crazy holidays glorifying carbs and sugar!) and Father-In-Law Day (A Father-In-Law Day Web site suggests a good way to celebrate is to – you guessed it – share a snack).
• Finally, my father's birthday, Nov. 9, appropriately celebrates two holidays together: Parade Day and Chaos Never Dies Day. And according to one Web site, it's also Neon Sign Day (Oh Papa, all of your favorite things! Happy birthday to you!).