First about St Patrick's Day – did you know this?

St. Patrick's Day is moved if it coincides with Holy Week, and this year it is celebrated 2 days earlier to avoid a conflict with Holy Monday. The last time the holiday was moved was all the way back in 1940 and the next time will be 2160, so it's definitely a rare occurrence.

I didn't but I realize that is why some of the villages around here had their parades on Sunday (specifically the Sleepy Hollow-Tarrytown Parade) I was wondering. Of course the NYC parade will be Monday.

When I worked in midtown (59 and Fifth) we dreaded St Pats cause that meant Fifth Avenue and the surrounding areas became a sea of mostly drunken folks (unfortunately). The parade was always fun to watch from the windows on high (that only happened when it was on a weekend and the offices were empty) but the crowds are really rowdy.

I will celebrate by eating some Irish Soda Bread and wearing my green (I have Irish ancestry). (I might make some soda bread – here is an easy good recipe)

Happy First Week Anniversary
So we made it thru the first week and all are still alive and thriving! Whew! It's All Eat All Sleep all the time around here these days. Momma Cordelia has really settled in and is doing a great job looking after her babies. By Thursday she had calmed down. Her appetite has returned. It's tough being a new mother – between cleaning the babies and feeding them and eating and making sure that they are sleeping and not getting underneath you!

The kittens are too adorable. It's hard to not take lots of photos – almost everytime I look over at the basket the urge is to take a picture of their sweetness. I can't imagine what it's going to be like when they are full fledged kitties playing and getting into mischief ! Anyway more photos here if you like.

Am going to have to get a larger basket or box for the kitties are getting bigger each day. Also will need one of those "baby screens" you put in doorways – need to keep the kitties in the back three rooms. So on the hunt for that. Freecycle?

Network (the Gates Way)
Hmm its not so easy – at times over the last few days I was ready to convert to Mac – no not really but heavens its a pain! Especially when you have a laptop with XP Pro and a desktop with XP Home – sigh. [and no thanks, I didn't want to upgrade the desktop – at least not yet] But thank goodness for the internets – found a good website with a ton of suggestions and one that FINALLY worked. (It involves IP addresses and permissions and special user accounts – whatever, it works!) And now laptop is mapped to the desktop and the ext drives and the desktop is mapped to the laptop (it already had the ext drives). And all is right in this little network.

Thus I am now moving all the older laptop files to the external drives (The laptop is old and has a, wait for it, floppy drive, yes! I said it was old). However due to my FIOS direct internet connection (100 mbps) and the good Linksys router, the transfer speed is really good. The wireless card is getting about 50mbps average and that is plenty fast. Of course, the moving is being done from the desktop (slightly more processing speed) and from having less than 500MB free, now the laptop has over 12G. Whew, much better! (and there are still 8GB of operas to move over)

After all that work its nice to be able to sit on the sofa and surf and watch cable tv or my netflix dvds. Having to adjust to the trackball again and remember to stretch those fingers!

In other news, in looking at a new apt for a family member – stumbled upon the view and scene in these photos. Pretty amazing – can't even imagine what kind of house would have been there. That's the Hudson River off in the distance. Family member won't have this view but its behind the clubhouse and an easy walk – of course soon the trees will hide the river, but it's still a grand prospect.

A closeup of one of the urns.

Knitting News
Not as much knitting due to the networking troubleshooting (see above) and the kittens (also see above). But did manage to redeem by substantial upgrade discount for the new Knit Visualizer 2.0 which among the many other changes now supports color! Fair Isle here we come!

Image from Knit Foundry where you can purchase the new version. Try it, you will like it!

So now charting will be fun! And since I can't find my copy of the current WIP the Swallowtail Shawl I will just make up the charts from the magazine.

And Brooklyn Tweed does it again – Na Craga is his newest WIP and it looks gorgeous already! Hmm now where can I find me some Skye Tweed….