Happy St. Patrick's Day!
St. Patrick's Day is usually a pretty big one in my family, being that we're Irish and all. I'm not doing anything today for the first time in years, though. Too busy and it was too cold to stand outside for the parade. Plus, now that Red is in school, it's not quite the same. He did ask if I could go to the parade and get candy for him, though. :-)
There was a column in the Pioneer Press this week about being Irish and some of it rang very true to me.
"Basically, I grew up in a very Irish, very tribal environment, and the people I sprung from possessed what I believe are the distinguishing characteristics of the clan: a love and aptitude for language (doubtless borne of the British attempts to kill their written history), an expansive and generous nature; an ability to embrace life to excess; and, though some of the brethren may find this offensive, a dark and moody dimension (what my late friend and colleague Eugene C. Harrington of Madison, formerly of Philadelphia, referred to as the "inherent madness of the Irish.")"
The author is Steve Hannah, and in writing about his father's family, said:
"They were full of opinions, occasionally full of alcohol and partial to marathon bouts of arguing subjects such as politics, labor unions, baseball and the forces of genetics versus environment in shaping a person's character."
Substitute football for baseball and that's my family, especially my brother and me.
My Secret Pal remembered me on St. Paddy's and sent a couple of really cool goodies:
Isn't that cool? I love hedgehogs and have a collection, so that's why she chose the hedgehog and anyone who's read this blog for any amount of time knows that I love this color.
She also sent these:
I love these window gels and the window in my office is covered with them:
I put up the shamrocks and those will stay up year round since I always celebrate my Celtic heritage. As you can see, it's pretty gray and we still have snow on the ground. We're supposed to get a boatload of it tomorrow. We've only had 1.5 inches so far this month and we usually have 10.5" in March, so I shouldn't complain, but March is always the hardest month for me - I'm always just sick to death of cold weather, my winter clothes, the ugly landscape, etc. I love to travel down south in March and I planned to see my Dad in Florida next week, but I got too busy in February and didn't book the tickets. Ah well.
Sue, the artist I wrote about in my last post, took some pictures of our class and gave me permission to post them on my blog. Here's one of me on the left and my friend Florence on the right, working hard on our art:
Here's one of the back of my head (you can see my natural blond streak). You can also see the ugly striped vase I posted about. Across the table is our friend Sue, working on a vase that turned out much better than mine.
I've been doing some knitting, but nothing really worth photographing. I am finally back on track with the Mariah sleeve. I cast on for the Lucky Clover wrap and am loving the Elann Baby Silk. It's very small yarn knitted on small needles, though, so it'll take a while. I'll post a picture when I have more knitted.
There was a column in the Pioneer Press this week about being Irish and some of it rang very true to me.
"Basically, I grew up in a very Irish, very tribal environment, and the people I sprung from possessed what I believe are the distinguishing characteristics of the clan: a love and aptitude for language (doubtless borne of the British attempts to kill their written history), an expansive and generous nature; an ability to embrace life to excess; and, though some of the brethren may find this offensive, a dark and moody dimension (what my late friend and colleague Eugene C. Harrington of Madison, formerly of Philadelphia, referred to as the "inherent madness of the Irish.")"
The author is Steve Hannah, and in writing about his father's family, said:
"They were full of opinions, occasionally full of alcohol and partial to marathon bouts of arguing subjects such as politics, labor unions, baseball and the forces of genetics versus environment in shaping a person's character."
Substitute football for baseball and that's my family, especially my brother and me.
My Secret Pal remembered me on St. Paddy's and sent a couple of really cool goodies:
Isn't that cool? I love hedgehogs and have a collection, so that's why she chose the hedgehog and anyone who's read this blog for any amount of time knows that I love this color.
She also sent these:
I love these window gels and the window in my office is covered with them:
I put up the shamrocks and those will stay up year round since I always celebrate my Celtic heritage. As you can see, it's pretty gray and we still have snow on the ground. We're supposed to get a boatload of it tomorrow. We've only had 1.5 inches so far this month and we usually have 10.5" in March, so I shouldn't complain, but March is always the hardest month for me - I'm always just sick to death of cold weather, my winter clothes, the ugly landscape, etc. I love to travel down south in March and I planned to see my Dad in Florida next week, but I got too busy in February and didn't book the tickets. Ah well.
Sue, the artist I wrote about in my last post, took some pictures of our class and gave me permission to post them on my blog. Here's one of me on the left and my friend Florence on the right, working hard on our art:
Here's one of the back of my head (you can see my natural blond streak). You can also see the ugly striped vase I posted about. Across the table is our friend Sue, working on a vase that turned out much better than mine.
I've been doing some knitting, but nothing really worth photographing. I am finally back on track with the Mariah sleeve. I cast on for the Lucky Clover wrap and am loving the Elann Baby Silk. It's very small yarn knitted on small needles, though, so it'll take a while. I'll post a picture when I have more knitted.
rdladd@arnan.com
