Spring is Here and a Happy Saint Patrick's Day to You!

So spring is officially here in Northeast Pa. How do I know? Are there leaves on the trees? No. Are there daffodils in my garden? No. Are there balmy breezes? No. It's 33 degrees. But I know it's spring. Why? The Dairy Queen is open. Yay! As I passed by after my writers' group last night, I saw a long line waiting for their first soft serve since last fall.

So who are these girls in this Saint Patrick's Day looking green place? Not Irish musicians.Check the instruments. Just good ole Southern girls who sing bluegrass right? Close. They sing awesome bluegrass in close harmony. But they're from New York. Which is almost as weird as salsa from New Jersey. But...

They're really good. They call themselves "Red Molly." Here's the link to their website: wwww.redmolly.com. I was listening to the radio on my way home from my writers' group (I do lots of things on my way home from writers' group) and heard one of my least favorite shows. It's a "new music" show where they introduce new non-classical CDs. I am so amazingly out of step that I never, never, never like this new stuff they play. It's either dreary and depressing or just muy pobre musically. But these girls were good. The DJ played four songs from their new album "James" and I loved all of them. So check them out and let me know what you think. I'm thinking my grandson S will like it as James is one of his favorite names!

On today's list of things to do--trip to grocery store to buy the corned beef brisket for supper. I've already got the cabbage. A trip to the post office to mail MF's birthday box which will be even later than I thought (sorry sweetie--I really hoped to mail it yesterday and got stuck in a huge traffic jam after my eye exam). Work on my new exciting novel about time traveling twins which Michael has decided really starts on page fifteen which means that I now have exactly one page of it written. List some patterns as I had exactly zero sales yesterday. Query Highlights about a great article idea I had. Do loads and loads and loads of laundry. Teach a sewing class. Listen to Pandora's Celtic music station so that I can be in tune with my non-existent Celtic roots. But next year I celebrate St. David's Day. Around here they actually celebrate St. David's day for all us Welsh folk. Missed it this year but it's something to look forward to for next year. Maybe I'll make my Aunt Mame's Welsh cookies in honor of the day. Instead of a shamrock, you're supposed to wear a leek. Can't wait!

Long Distance Birthday

Michael's day started with a Skype call from the Czech Republic. He got to see two of the grandkids (one was sadly home sick) and talk to his little girl. The breakfast I had planned had to be canceled due to my migraine. And bad weather prevented our meeting for lunch so although it had started well, it was not running according to plan. He had to wait until dinner to celebrate some more.

I made salmon in lemon caper sauce. It was good. And one of his favorite foods, mashed potatoes. Then he opened presents while talking on the phone. This is the way you  have to do things when your kids live so far away. While he was talking, I made "his" cake. The white cake with fudge icing. This year's icing came out really well as it did last year. I cannot believe that I have actually figured out the trick to this icing. I think it has to be snowing for the fudge to set up right.

Three telephone calls during the evening and he had made contact with our whole brood. They were so thoughtful to remember him. It was fascinating to hear one end of all these conversations. Our children are so amazing. The range of topics was so wide--everything from Triumph sports cars to poetry. Best part of his birthday was that he had miscalculated and had already been telling people he was the age he turned yesterday. So he got a freebie birthday and didn't get any older!

This morning, Michael called me to the window. Everything had been flocked. The wind really doesn't blow here very often, but there was a little wind last night because horizontal and vertical surfaces were covered in snow. It looked like someone very busy had taken a can of that flocking stuff and sprayed our entire yard. Too cool for words. I downloaded a large file so you can click on it and see the amazing detail.

(Photograph credits: moi.)

Mondegreens and other idle thoughts

I learned a new word--mondegreen.

According to Wikipedia:
A mondegreen is the mishearing or misinterpretation of a phrase, typically a standardized phrase such as a line in a poem or a lyric in a song, due to near homophony, in a way that yields a new meaning to the phrase.

Um, that's a mouthful, but we've all done it. You hear a song and not quite understanding what the words are, your brain makes something up. One of our children, bless her, came up with "from the mountains to the prairies to the oceans white befoam" in the song "God Bless America." Another thought the words to Annie's famous song were "Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love ya, tomorrow. You're only a day awake."

But we adults do it too. My fave, that we still use in our family, was the puzzling song from "The Phantom of the Opera" which I thought was "Awesome Day" but, in fact, is "Masquerade." But I like "Awesome Day" better.

And so, without further ado, I'd like to wish an awesome day to my last-born, not baby. How little he looks like a baby today at almost six feet tall. I had a great chat with him today and he's going to spend the evening with his sister. They are both really fun people so I am sure they will have a good time.My son thought that sushi might play a role in the festivities.

And our darling V had her fourth birthday in Prague yesterday and I got to see her open her present on Skype.What a doll!

I really don't like living so far away from my family. It's a lovely sunshiney day in Wilkes-Barre, PA today. But I would much rather be in the rather dreary weather in Denton, Texas today making a big dinner and probably cheesecake for Z's birthday. Our children always got to pick their birthday dinner. And type of cake (or dessert), of course. One child picks lemon meringue pie which works just fine for me. One son-in-law has the dessert first and then the dinner. How clever of him to know what's really important.

I'm missing a lot of awesome days with my family. Which means I just have to make the most of every minute I get to spend with them. So I'm off to take a walk in the sunshine which we don't get a lot of. It will make up somewhat for the birthdays I've missed this week.