Happy St Patrick's Day!

Two and a half weeks ago we celebrated St David's day here because of our Welsh and our personal "David" (#1 son) connections.

Today we're celebrating St Patrick's day because of personal "Patrick" (#2 son) connections and lots of Irish from County Mayo in The Prof's mother's family and those deep Celtic mt-DNA roots (pre-St Patrick) in mine.

It's bright and sunny and getting on toward "real" spring hereabouts. The Prof has just finished the reconstruction of one of the 90 year old storm windows and put it back up "for the season," as he says, because after all, there is still one more week of winter!

But I'm very impressed with his handiwork. Those windows are not standard sizes, so you can go buy ready-made windows. You either have to commission someone to make you one. Or you do the work yourself. The Prof is a dedicated Do It Himself guy. And he did. My biggest fear was that he'd kill himself rehanging it -- teetering on a none-too-steady ladder on uneven ground in the middle of a mammoth hydrangea bush at dusk.

But the patron saint of window hangers and Do-It-Yourself guys was apparently with him. The window is hung and the drafts are no longer whistling down the backs of our necks.

I'm getting dug into Demetrios's book. I left him and Anny in the middle of the Mediterranean for a week while I tried to figure out what happened next. And then I was reading someone else's book, which had nothing at all in common with mine, and suddenly a light went off in my head. Why? Who knows? But I'm not complaining. And I figure Demetrios and Anny will be glad to get to shore. At least in one respect.

I'm thinking about doing a collage for this one. At least on the computer screen. Something to get me into it visually, though I'm not a visual writer.

I've been thinking about what inspires and influences recently. This is leading up to a post on the Pink Heart blog on Thursday, and because Kate Walker is talking about more writing issues on there tomorrow.

Is it one of the ways writers cope, do you suppose? Talking about writing instead of doing it?

I've also been talking to Seb about coming on board and writing a few blog pieces now that his book, Savas' Defiant Mistress, is almost on the shelves., will be at the end of the month. He's pretty single-minded, though, and not exactly given to being 'chatty.' In fact that's what he said to me: "You want me to chat? You're joking."

He's not exactly the poster boy for gregariousness. They call him "The Iceman" at the office.

Neely, on the other hand, is quite eager to come and "chat." She said, "Sure, just name the day."

Seb rolled his eyes and went back to his CAD program.

I'll have to see what I can do. Got any ideas? Unlike Mitch and Micah, Seb probably doesn't even accept bribes, er, treats.

He just walked past and said, "Depends on who's doing the bribing," and went straight into the other room without even looking my way.

Neely is laughing. And now she's going after him.

I think we should draw a veil over this!

Happy St Patrick's day, everyone!