Happy St. Patrick’s Day
Though I have not one drop of Irish blood, I always celebrate St. Pat’s holiday with corned beef and cabbage. This year, my sister Bec and our friends Dale and Jan will join in our celebration, along with my brother Dave if he is able. I’m well aware that corned beef is not a true Irish dish. Nevertheless, I love to make it once every year, and St. Patrick’s Day is as good an excuse as any. I’m grateful the saint ridded Ireland of its snakes and explained the holy trinity via the shamrock. And I’m looking forward to my corned beef and cabbage.

And the Award Goes to….
Every year around this time, Bill and I are able to watch most of the movies that are nominated for Academy Awards because of his membership with the Screen Actors’ Guild. This year is no exception. As is also typical, we found most of the movies to be boring, weird, incredibly sad, and/or way too long (I’m looking at you House of Gucci). There are a couple of exceptions. We really liked King Richard, which we saw in the theater. Belfast was sad, but very good. It’s difficult to make an upbeat story about the Irish so-called troubles. But by far, our favorite was CODA, an unexpectedly poignant and lovely story about a hearing teenaged girl in a non-hearing family. Not only did we both like the movie, but it will remain one of my favorite movies of all time. Go CODA!

Shopping
I am always surprised at what things are not available at the grocery store these days. My most recent shopping trip didn’t disappoint. There were no bouillon cubes to be had. Spaghetti still seems to be tough to attain. Finally, I continue to have trouble finding cotton balls…..

Does the universe not care that I am unable to properly clean my face at night? I realize if those cotton balls get rotten, you can’t pick very much cotton, but still, spare me just a ball or two!

Saving Daylight
I hate this time of year. This is when the rest of the country springs ahead one hour and AZ stays the same. It takes me literally weeks to remember that our Colorado family are one hour ahead now, and our Vermont family is three hours ahead. The Senate passed legislation that would make DST permanent. Discussion here in AZ is, if it passes, whether we will go with the Pacific time zone or the mountain time zone. It will be interesting to see what transpires.

Ciao.