Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I'm not Irish, but on March 17, St. Patrick's Day, everybody is. Shown here is our chef, Guido, dropping green sprinkles on green-iced cupcakes he helped me bake. I'm taking them to work today to share with my colleagues. (My partner is helping Guido, if you're working who has the hairy arm. It's a tossup as to who has more fur. LOL!)

I have two strong memories of this day:

(1) it was my parent's wedding anniversary. My gosh, they married 69 years ago! My Mom always loved St. Patrick's Day. She would prepare corned beef and cabbage every year on this day -- but fortunately she never forced me to eat the cabbage. I couldn't come near it, even back in the day when I could eat vegetables. I am remembering her and my father fondly today. I used my Mom's recipe for the cupcakes, which I made from scratch, as she taught me so many years ago.

(2) in 1978, a close friend and study-mate at the University played "hooky" to sit on the South Chapel lawn on an usually warm, dry, and sunny St. Patty's Day with me. We enjoyed lunch and drank a couple beers (back in the days when I could drink.) It made me silly enough that I summer-saulted all the way down the hill, much to everyone's amusement all around. (And in Frye Boots, probably!) I mailed my friend a funny "Happy St. Pat's!" card. She called last night to say she got it, though she called my cell phone, which I had forgotten about, as usual, and didn't discover that she called until I put the thing in my briefcase this morning. I will call her back later.

On an aside, my partner "forgot" to wear green today, so his rear "cheek" was pinched as he left for work. Ummm, that was fun!

Happy St. Patrick's Day, however you celebrate!