It was in the upper 40s today. I fried out today, brats and venison steaks and was able to do it wearing a denim jacket instead of the old bulky winter coat. Of course, there is still snow all over the ground and supposedly more coming. Doesn't matter - today we had a hint of spring.

It is less than two weeks to St. Patrick's Day. I have not heard from Bob MacEwen and the ad for Richards does not indicate live music or a Celtic poet, that being me. So I guess I have to find my own entertainment. I do plan on going to Plymouth, walking in the Irishman's Walk, eating and just having a good time with my friends. Perhaps I will put a couple of poems in my pocket and see if I can read there. Usually, there is some kind of music in the afternoon. We can't go the night before to see Blarney because it is our night at the Sheboygan Theatre and Dick and I will be taking Mother out to dinner and to see "The Sting". It will be a nice evening and we are taking her to one of the new Thai restuarants in town. She has not been to one and I know she will like it.

A friend sent me this before we invaded Iraq but it is still funny. As we are nearing the great day for the Irish, I will try to have something "green" for you each day.

"Saddam Hussein was sitting in his office wondering whom to
invade next when his telephone rang.

"Hallo, Mr. Hussein!", a heavily accented voice said. "This is
Paddy down at the Harp Pub in County Sligo, Ireland. I am ringing to
inform you that we are officially declaring war on you!"

"Well, Paddy," Saddam replied, "This is indeed important
news! How big is your army?"

"Right now," said Paddy, after a moment's calculation,
"there is myself, my cousin Sean, my next door neighbor Seamus, and the
entire dart team from the pub. That makes eight!"

Saddam paused. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have one
million men in my army waiting to move on my command."

"Begorra!", said Paddy. "I'll have to ring you back!"

Sure enough, the next day, Paddy called again. "Mr.
Hussein,t he war is still on! We have managed to acquire some infantry
equipment!"

"And what equipment would that be, Paddy?" Saddam asked.

"Well, we have two combines, a bulldozer, and Murphy's farm
tractor." Paddy replied.

Saddam sighed. "I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 16,000
tanks and 14,000 armored personnel carriers. Also, I've increased my
army to 1-1/2 million since we last spoke."

"Saints preserve us!" said Paddy. "I'll have to get back to you."

Sure enough, Paddy rang again the next day. "Mr. Hussein,
the war is still on! We have managed to get ourselves airborne! We've
modified Harrigan's ultra-light with a couple of shotguns in the
cockpit, and four boys from the Shamrock Pub have joined us as
well!"

Saddam was silent for a minute and then cleared his throat.
"I must tell you, Paddy, that I have 10,000 bombers and 20,000 fighter
planes. My military complex is surrounded by laser-guided, surface-to-air
missile sites. And since we last spoke, I've increased my army to TWO
MILLION!"

"Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!", said Paddy, "I'll have to ring
you back."

Sure enough, Paddy called again the next day. "Top o' the
mornin', Mr. Hussein! I am sorry to tell you that we have had to
call off the war."

"I'm sorry to hear that," said Saddam. "Why the sudden
change of heart?"

"Well," said Paddy, "we've all had a long chat over a bunch
of pints, and decided there's no way we can feed two million prisoners."

God Bless the Irish! "




Bobbie and Bill are coming for dinner tomorrow. I am fixing Mexican because Dick wants to try Spanish Hot Chocolate and Churros and would like the meal to reflect the theme. Sounds like fun.


Mary



Til Tomorrow

Mary

A puzzle for you. Randy Walter from the Rhine Plymouth club posed it to me and I have no answer.

There are 365 days in each year.
There are 52 weeks in each year.
There are 7 days in each week.
7 times 52 = 364 days.
Where is the other day?

I am going to fry out brats tomorrow to go with the good calico beans that I fixed earlier in the week. I can fry out earlier in the afternoon and just reheat after the five o'clock mass. The choir is singing, and the bells are playing at the 10:30AM on Sunday. So I will be VERY holy again this weekend.

Enjoy your weekend and keep in touch.

Mary

Uncle Fred Michaels sent his annual summary of the Wild Game Dinner and Beer Tasting Contest. He always writes a little poem. Here it is


"We were all at Kurt and Joey's
Drinking beer, not many sodys
Kurt must have felt fine,
Cause he picked out nine!!

It's back to back chamionships for out expert Kurt.

24 beers- most ever
9 correct -also the most ever!"

The favorite beer this year was Busch and the Boobie prize was a tie between Point Special and Burghoff Lager.


I liked it at Kurt's house, because he and Jody do not allow smoking in the house. Things get pretty thick otherwise. Next year will be year #29. Quite a tradition.


I liked Cadfael's quote for March 3rd so will share with you. (I am using EVERYONE else's words today, but they are wiser and more amusing than mine.)

"All Welsh are kin, even if they slit one another's throats now and then, and manure their sparse and stony fields with fratricidal dead in tribal wars."

Think of the Welch as Mankind, or citizens of the U. S. We ARE all kin, even if!!!!



Love

Mary

I have been working on a mini biography of my Grandfather Mike Deeley to submit to a Woman's Day contest. The prize is a consultation with a geneology expert and be featured in Woman's Day. I am getting there. In the process, I reread some notes my Dad made many years ago of his memories of my Grandfather.

Here is one of the paragraphs from my Dad.

"Occasionally Dad and I would stop for a drink, I for a beer and he for a whiskey and beer. Unlike others he'd drink the beer first then the whiskey. Wen asked why, he'd say if you did it the other say, you couldn't taste the whiskey."

Grandpa was not a heavy drinker, but he did like his whiskey. I remember going to church with Grandma on weekdays. After Mass, I would go over to their house which was just down the street and have breakfast with Grandma. Usually Grandpa would come down while we were eating breakfast. The first thing he would do is kiss my Grandma on her neck and cheek. She would giggle like a schoolgirl and say "Not in front of Mary Helen". (Not too convincing to me.) Then he would go and have a shot of whiskey before his breakfast. Just one. And he did not drink any more during the day or evening that I was aware of. I think it was good for his heart. He did live to be 93.

Happy mid week

Mary

March came in windy. Does that count as coming in like a lion? I hope so because going out like a lamb sounds mighty good to me.

I got a call at quarter to 7 from the bell choir director. We are playing on Sunday at 10:30 and they decided to have another practice. Oops. Noone told me. I had to leave very early because of the council meeting. I was in the middle of putting an at risk baby quilt together and decided that I wasn't able to rush out that quickly.

Picked up Market Day today. Dick is kind of interested in the mini omelets I found. I checked and they are made of egg whites so should be very low in cholesterol and are very low cal and low fat too.

We are still on Paul First Letter to the Corinthians. We keep reading things that make him sound like such a woman hater and such a jerk. However, we have decided that we are glad that we are into this one and have the study guide that we do. We are finding out that, surprisingly, Paul was quite liberal - for his time. He does say that women should not come to meetings with uncovered heads or with short hair.

But in his time- uncovered heads and short hair were the badge of prostitutes and lesbians. Also, we have to realize the custom of the day called for covering of a woman's head. That custom is the one that carried over until not all that many years ago, of a woman having to cover her head to enter church. I remember veils, hats and in a pinch, kleenix or a handkerchief being used.Men, on the other hand - were not to cover their heads and were to keep their hair short. Custom again.

However, he speaks of both men and women equally with the gifts of prophesy, teaching and all other ministries. Something unheard of in the Jewish custom but often found in the pagan religions.

So he is still a mystery. But I like him better than I used to. I will have to let my friend, Sue Lacke, from the Wednesday Morning bible study, that I am seeing Paul to be more human and a bit less bigoted than he first appears to us.

Dick Jr. called tonight to talk about their trip to San Jose. They got to go to the Winchester Mansion. Somewhere I always wanted to go.

Have a nice night.

Mary

Today was a real Monday. We are shopping tomorrow and I have to go to the dentist. This is my six month checkup.

I am working on the baby quilts for the At Risk Babies. I ran out of white thread, of all things, so had to stop this evening. I will pick some thread up tomorrow on my way back from the dentist.

I finished up three poems to send to the Milwaukee Art Museum. They are having a poetry contest. They asked for poems to match any piece of art displayed in the museum. I picked out three pieces that were pictured and described online and managed to get some thing done. I seem to do best with deadlines. I still want to create a sonnet. The results will be released in June. Then I will print one on this blog. Here is a snippet of one that I wrote while out deerhunting one year.

WIND

Stillness followed by sound
Of wind gathering speed and strength
Circling then gone
Until it comes around again
To Roar above me
In the pines and the oaks and the birch.

We are supposed to be getting snow tonight.

Have a good Tuesday.

Mary

Hunting was a real pleasure today. The weather was predicting sleet/snow but later in the day and thankfully, they were right. It was in the lower 30s and sunny. We tromped through snow pine lanes and a swamp and saw a lot of tracks. We got there at about 9:00AM and finally our friend Dennis Behr's dog, Copper, got the scent and chased it right to Don, Dennis's brother. So it was a successful hunt.

It seems rather odd to be tramping through the snow and ended up actually getting a little too warm.

Dennis 's little Copper has had a sore knee but the swelling seemed down this morning, and you would never have GUESSED that he had a problem while he was on that rabbit. But, when he knew the rabbit was caught, he sat down and lifted up his paw and it was all swollen. Poor baby, Dennis carried him out of the woods because he was in obvious distress. I will find out on Friday if they have found out what is wrong with him. He is a sweet dog and has a good nose. It is just thrilling to hear a dog on a scent.

I made an apple raspberry pie yesterday. I had one can of prepared apple pie filling and a 9 inch pie requires two cans, so I spread a package of frozen raspberries over the filling, topped it with the second crust and baked it. It is really good.

The weekend if over, we will cap it off by watching the Oscars. We only saw one of the movies nominated for best picture but we always enjoy the glitz.

Tomorrow is the last day of the month already too.

Hope March comes in like a lion, so it goes out like a lamb. (I believe that is the way it goes.)

Love

Mary