Getting Pretty Irish Here

Annie has been posting this graphic on her Facebook wall from time to time. 

Today the counter should read "27." 

Not gonna lie about it----I'm getting pretty excited about our family trip to Ireland now that we're less than a month from departure. 

And, in preparation, it seems that up here in the computer room, the Irish have taken over. 

I listen to lovely Celtic music every morning.  A beautiful collection called "The Celtic Shore" gets played daily, and I love it just as much each new day as the day before. 

"Old Rosin, the Beau" is sounding better each day as these uncoordinated fingers attempt to pluck the melodoy out on the banjo.  

As we approach St. Patrick's Day, "Oh Danny Boy" is gonna get some practice too.

On her recent visit to our home, my sister-in-law left us a book called Tales of Old Ireland, with stories dating to the 1800s, penned by some of Ireland's literary giants, including Yeats, Seamus O'Kelly and James Joyce. 

Now that my recent proofreading/editing blitz has ended, I've had a chance to do some reading. 

The first story, written by William Carleton, focuses on a tailor named Neal Malone who has courageous blood running through his veins.  Try as he might, though, he can't find anybody to get mad enough at him to test that courage.

Everybody is downright nice to Neal. 

Nobody wants to fight him, so he goes into a deep depression. I'm at the point in the story where a schoolmaster named O'Conner comes along and suggests a remedy for Neal Malone's malady of not being able to inspire fisticuffs with anyone. 

"Get married," O'Conner suggests.  A wife could do the trick. . . . . 

So, with that suggestion, Neal Malone comes back to life with the idea that marrying and passing along his courageous blood might be a good idea.   

We'll see as I read further what happens. 

Anyway, I'm not minding this dreaming, plucking, listening and reading all things Irish.

In no time, we as a family will be living all things Irish for several days.  Lots to do before that time, but Annie's countdown graphic certainly inspires some good reasons to keep busy with preparations.

Heck, I'm figuring that this house will be cleaner than the day we moved in as I prepare for the house sitter.  And, that's not a bad thing.  

Yesterday the garden window got a cleansing and declutter.  Today half the junk thrown into the water heater room for hiding will go bye bye.

It's amazing how those messes, with which we become so comfortable in our daily lives, suddenly rear their ugly heads with the horrid thought of an unfamiliar person discovering, upclose and personal,  our "dirty little housekeeping" secrets. 

So, with luck, the secrets will be exposed and removed long before the house sitter comes. 

And, with that in mind, I'd better get a move on with the scrub brushes, plastic bags and sponges. 

Top of the Morning, to ya! 

GO ZAGS!!