The Wearing o' the Green

When I was in high school, I used to explain that I didn't have to go out of my way to wear green on St. Patrick's Day. Green eyes, don'cha know?

Today, I wore a gold Claddagh pendant with an emerald chip, just a touch of green to complement my eyes. I bought the pendant during one of my visits to Walter and Madeleine Willis and James and Peggy White in Northern Ireland. I even spent Saint Patrick's Day there 16 years ago. Madeleine, the fabled cook of Irish Fandom, handed me the menu for our traditional Saint Patrick's Day dinner. I chuckled along with her; we were having take-away pizza. She and Walter gave me the honor of choosing the toppings.

I was too cautious, or perhaps I just had a healthy respect for our stomachs -- I didn't order the peaches. They weren't a side dish; they were one of the topping options. I've wondered about those peaches ever since. The pizza might have been really good. It could have just as easily been utterly awful. If I ever get back to Donaghadee, you can bet I'm going to go looking for that take-away pizza place.

This year, I spent St. Patrick's Day in Boston. Not for the holiday festivities, but for a spring break jaunt to the really quite splendid Museum of Science with debgeisler. She and benveniste invited me over on Sunday to share in an even more splendid (and utterly delicious) sauerbrauten feast. Complete with cherry almond rice pudding for afters. The plan included my staying over and then heading off to the museum a few hours after Mike headed off to work.

Thanks to my usual "have laptop, will travel" mode, I even managed to put the finishing touches on a large project I've been working on since mid-January. It wasn't due until Wednesday, but I happily sent it off to the client just before Deb and I went to the museum.

( Mapping and models and tamarinds, too )

On my way home, a cop pulled me over in Sturbridge. One of my headlights is out. Headlights sure are different than they used to be -- in previous cars, I could tell when only one headlight was working. One headlight on the Matrix illuminates the road and both shoulders. No ticket, but one more thing to deal with before driving again at night. My watch stopped running Monday, too. Hmmm.....

The right kind of luck o' the Irish returned when looked through the mail. Two checks! Both were for invoices billed fewer than 21 days ago. Yay! Of course, the mail also brought too many bills....

And so goes my life. Everything's alright, yes, everything's fine. And I think I will sleep well tonight....

RIP: Arthur C. Clarke

There's a banner on MSNBC that reads: "BREAKING NEWS: Science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke has died, aide says."

Thanks to LeeH, I had the pleasure of publishing him twice in Science-Fiction Five-Yearly.

Farewell, Sir Arthur. Thank you for adding so much to our world.

Picking up the pace

Today's Zumba class added roughly 7,000 steps to my pedometer. That's 16% more than at any previous session. Oomph!

(Zumba = dance/exercise to Latin American music.)