Yes this is normal, the time and date are up in the top right corner, iCal is just a Calendar application, I don't think most people look at it for the date.
And about the application launching; if you use it often, go with the Dock (bottom bar), if you use it once in a while just leave it alone and just launch from the Applications folder, I suggest leaving your desktop uncluttered.
One more thing, you can also put documents in the right side of the Dock if you didn't know that.