The sun shone all day today. The snow that fell yesterday is melting fast but still looks really pretty.

Chelsea and I could not go for a walks this morning because it was slippery and after falling three times this winter I did not want to take a chance on another disaster. So far I have come though the falls with minimal to not damage.

I spent the day getting as much ready for tomorrow as was possible. I made the cake and the rolls and cut the celery and stuffed the mushrooms.

We had a very simple meal, pizza and salad and Jello for our dinner tonight. Tomorrow will be quite full with the traditional ham dinner and colcannon.

Jim and Michelle came over this morning so Jim could install the new disc drive in my computer. It was filthy so he cleaned and vacuumed and blew all the dirty stuff out of it at the same time. I now have my disc drive restored and am a happy camper. THANK YOU, JIM.

Tomorrow is Easter. The promise from Our Lord. Without Easter we have nothing.

I will be feeding Jim and Michelle and Bobbie and Bill and MAYBE Ron and Kate Herman. I invited them but Ron may be uncomfortable coming to a family gathering. He, like my sweetheart, is more than willing to accept others into his family gatherings but is hesitant to join another's family gathering. I hope he changes his mind. The kids would be very comfortable with both him and Kate.

Talked to Mother this evening. She said that both Nora and Dolores decided not to dye Easter Eggs this year. I guess that I am just an old sentimentalist. I am using dyed eggs for name tags in little baskets of candy. Should be fun.

Love

Happy Easter

Mary

I guess it is still snowing out there. Do you believe this? We got rid of a lot of the snow that has accumulated during the past several months and now it dumps about 6 inches back down on us. It started out quite nice this morning. Chelsea and I had a very nice walk. We ran into one or our regulars that we have not seen much during the winter. We commented that we were looking forward to running into each other much more now that spring has come. Then came the SNOW!

I cleaned the kitchen this morning and worked on my desk stuff. Got a lot done. Then after lunch I stopped at Advanced Eye Center to pick up my new glasses on my way to the Good Friday Services. I also stopped at Exchange Bank to pick up some Alterra Coffee to serve on Sunday to the coffee connoisseurs.

We were watching a show today where a "cheap" person dropped a quarter (maybe a dime) into a tip jar. We were commenting on how coins are not really acceptable for tips any more.

It reminded me of Grandpa Deeley. He used to occasionally very contentedly jingle the coins in his pockets and it was intended as a sign of being well heeled. Isn't that sweet?

I WAS going to to to Rhine for the opening of the next pistol league but it is too icky out there. I had called Nancy this morning to tell her what time I would pick her up. So I called to tell her that I changed my mind and she laughed and said that she had been holding off calling ME because she didn't want to be a party pooper.

The Good Friday Service was nice. I am now here until Mass on Easter Morning to celebrate the Resurrection.

Have a lovely weekend.

Mary

This is the crew that came to the Irishman's walk from the Celtic Women.
Mary, Kathy, Mary, Me, Kathy, Nancy, Toni and Kate

This is CAIM Jacynth Hamill and Heather Innes with Kate Herman on the far left, Nancy Gallagher Roehre second from right and Me on the end.

We had such a lovely evening.


Mary

Such a great day. At HOME. We did not have any errands out of the house all day. I did go to the Holy Thursday service at St. John's this evening.

I spent the day cleaning bathrooms and vacuuming. Then this afternoon, I dyed Easter Eggs. That was fun.

Chelsea got me up before the sun was up so we did not go around the park today. I don't think I told you that I saw two deer yesterday. That was exciting.

I am going to send you a couple of pictures. One of St. Patrick's Day and one of the Caim concert last night. It was such a lovely St. Patrick's day celebration.

Take care.

Love

Mary

Another full day and THE SUN SHONE. It got up to the mid 40s for most of the afternoon. What a joy as it was rather damp and chilly in the morning.

We went grocery shopping after lunch at Mc Donalds and a stop at the bank. Then at 11:15AM Dick had the ultrasound he has to have right after each of his procedures. Everything was just fine again. Thank God. Now we have almost two weeks before he needs to have any other tests or doctor appointments. Yipee!!!

Then, after lunch (Irish Bacon, Tomato and Lettuce Sandwiches, aren't you just jealous?) I went downstairs to finish the tree snuggler quilt. I got half way around the second last tree and ran out of gray thread ------So I had to go out again. While I was out I dropped some Celtic Women stuff off to my friend Mary Kay at Sun Graphics, got the thread, stopped at the Art Center and filled up the gas tank in the Explorer.

When I got home I DID finish the tree quilt. Not I have to take pictures of THAT and share them with you. I like it. It a really colorful happy quilt.

Dick and I had "Dump Soup" for supper and then I left for the Caim program at Mead Public Library. It was really lovely. Two women Jacynth Hamill and Heather Innes sang in perfect harmony traditional songs a capella. Some songs were familiar and some were brand new to me. I picked up Kate Herman and Nancy Roehre on the way. They had as much fun as I did. Bobbie was there too. I was so glad that she could meet my friends. People there said Bobbie and I look either like mother and daughter or sisters. We get that a lot and it does not displease either of us. On the way home Kate, Nancy and I stopped at the coffee shop that USED to be Wonderful World and got a cup and visited. So it was a lovely evening til the very end.

Today, I saw a little boy at the clinic. He was a very unhappy little man and a gentleman gave him a quarter to help cheer him up as the gentleman was leaving the building.

For some reason it reminded me of Bart when he was little. From the time he was about 18 months to maybe 3 years old, he would carry pennies around in his grubby little hand. They were some kind of a security thing. I know, I know. Little people sometimes swallow coins, but that was not an issue in this case. He just held them and they made him happy. (Along with his bunny of course. He was a double security baby.)

One Saturday, I was in the kitchen and heard an awful rattling clanging crashing noise. It sounded like maybe 10 trashcans were being rolled down the driveway or the street. I looked out and could only figure out that it was coming from next door. The house next door was vacant and had just been sold. The garage had one of those corregated metal doors. As I walked around the corner I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

(I need to set this up JUST a bit more. My ex husband had our jeep set up so that if it was in any gear it would start with a slight turn of the key so that if it stopped at an odd angle out in the wilds you did not have to shift into neutral to restart it. He had parked the jeep in front of the neighbor's garage, knowing that noone was there, intending to move it to the back garage later.)

There was our jeep, still running, up against the back wall of the neighbor's garage with the metal garage door covering the cage roll bar and my son, all 2 years old of him, sitting in the driver's seat, his eyes as big as saucers screaming. "I want my money. I want my money.

You have never filed an insurance claim until you go to the company with one like this. One of the first questions is "Age of the Driver."

Thank God for the cage roll bar or that boy might have really been hurt.


Love.

Mary

Tuesday, March 18. The "holy day" is over. St. Patrick's day is gone for another year.

Chelsea is back to waking me up before 6AM. I have a rule. If it is after 5:45AM I get up. If it is before, I shut her out of the room and go back to bed.

We had a rather abbreviated walk as it was slushy and rather slippery so we did not go to far.

Dick and I had to be at Dr. Hoduous's office at 9:30AM to check his feet. Things are looking well. The last open callous is shallower so we have some hope that it will heal soon. Then we drove over to my cousin Brian Ayers' home to drop off the watch that Dick gave me for Christmas. Brian is going to take out some links so it will fit me. After that, we swung by Mother's to drop off some Mac and Cheese and Guinness Bread and Soda Bread. She is such a dear. Because of the odd slushy stuff, Lucy Carderelle and she had decided to fore go the Senior Meals today. I am just glad that it was nice yesterday so she could enjoy the St. Patrick's Day meal. (She did say that the corned beef was tough though. We do a much better job. And I told her that Kathy and I had enjoyed a really good corned beef sandwich. at 52 Stafford.)

Spent the afternoon catching up on phone calls and emails and Celtic Women.

Tonight is the second night of Dancing with the Stars. This is Women's night. This is the only contest or reality show that I watch and I really do like it.

Tomorrow will also be busy. Tomorrow is my Bart's Birthday. Do you believe that my baby will be 37 years old tomorrow? I called tonight so I would be sure to catch him. I am glad I did as Don and Marlise, his inlaws are taking him out for dinner tomorrow night. He was disappointed that he could not stay in Florida for those few more days but had to get back for his meds. They will NOT do things over state lines. Good, but in this case a real disappointment.

Have a nice Wednesday. St. Joseph's day.

Mary

I guess I forgot to blog last night. To much partying. I will cut and paste some of the letter I did for my Celtic Women.

Yesterday, those who were able met for our meeting and to join the Irishman's Walk in Plymouth. There were eight of us including Toni Nevicosi's husband John (who is actually the Irish in that family). Three were NEW members Kathy Paul, Mary Dallmann and Kathy Schemrich. Kathy S. just stumbled on us looking for a carpool up to the starting place where we were joined by my brother Jeff and his wife Kathy, who may be a some time attendee. She is of Cornish descent with a smidgeon of Irish too. Rosemary Mugan walked with some other friends so was with us too. A great contingency and we carried the Banner from the International Group. I will send pictures later.

It was a bit colder today but the sun shone and the sky was blue so it was beautiful. I got up at 6 because I was going to Mass at 8AM so it was still dark. That makes it a bit difficult for Chelsea and me to do too long a walk but we did out best.

It is Passion Sunday. Can you believe that? Easter is NEXT Sunday. Mass was very long because we read the Passion from Matthew. The Passion is alway long but very moving. We read it with a Narrator, Father Van Beeck was Jesus (of course, he took the good part), a reader for the other individual speakers and the congregation was the crowd. That always breaks the monotony. It is easier to keep your mind on the reading if the voices change AND you know you are going to have to participate. I was also Eucharistic Minister.

When I got home, I fixed breakfast and worked on dinner as today was the tea at the Plymouth Art Center. I made Chris Cuomo's Mac and Cheese for supper tonight. This is the second of the seven Mac and Cheeses that we are going to try. It was very good, by the way, but not as good as Robin's or the Over the Rainbow that I already make.

I made a special dessert too for St. Patrick's Day. It is a "Black and Tan" after the drink. You make butterscotch and chocolate puddings, layer them and top with whipped cream and it looks like a "black and tan" drink. Fun and tasty.

The tea was both a disappointment and a joy. The only attendees were Kate, myself, a fiddler named Dave and his wife Dianne and Mary Calvey and Dianne from the Art Center. I brought some brown bread and Guinness Bread to share and Mary brought carrot cake and Dianne had purchased soda bread from the Pig. SO there was tons of tea and cakes and not people. But we did not let that stop us. We sang and shared and read poetry and stories. I doubt if Mary will do it again which is a shame but perhaps there is just too much going on right now. Anyway, I had left some of my poetry books at the Art Center last year and they sold ALL of them so Dianne gave me a check and I left 7 more there.

Tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day. ARE YOU READY! Want to have some fun, join us at Highland Avenue and Eastern Avenue in Plymouth at 11:00AM tomorrow morning. You can look for the Celtic Women International banner which some of us will be carrying and walk with us down to the Stafford to lift a pint and have a nice corned beef sandwich.

All my love

Mary