Overdue CD Trip

I discovered that I had a CD from the Lowell library that was hideously overdue, so I went in to take care of that and renew "Stardust" by Neil Gaiman... think of a Thomas Hardy novel crossed with an English fairy tale... exquisite...

I had some printouts to run off, mostly emails from an inbox-clogging penpal of my mother's, but for some strange reason, the CyberCafe wasn't open, so I had to run them off at the MCC Computer Lab... and the printer there is *still* acting weeerd... the margins are all uneven!

I also nipped into the Barnes & Noble: they had the "Constantine" comic-book tie-in (yes, this is turning into the obsession of the week, mostly because of that fanfic I'm writing), which also features three of the "Hellblazer" comics... including one scripted by Neil Gaiman and with artwork by Dave McKean -- does it get any better?? So naturally, I bought it -- what can I say, I'm fond of DC Vertigo and its dark, twisty stuff.

Yes, I'm gonna look for the rest of the "Hellblazer" series. No, I am not gonna turn into one of those comic-book purist-Nazis who yark at the movie. I'm able to let both stand on their own merit.

Top o' the Evenin' to ye!

I wore my "Irish Princess" baseball cap to work today: at least three pepple commented on it, not including K. the supervisor. Her response was, "I've seen a bunch of people wearing 'Irish Princess' stuff; I think I'm gonna make a shirt that says 'Irish Queen'." I added that my wearing the "Irish Princess" hat was partly the truth, and I went on to tell her about the geneology my mom had done. Come to find out the Mulhares are descended from a family of the nobility that had its own castle in County Clare. At Christmas, Mom gave me a scarf made in the tartan of Co. Clare (green, blue, gold and maroon), which I've been wearing with pride all this week. We've found out that the name was originally O Maolchairill, which means "servant of the horse lord", and we've also got a family crest, a field vert with three argent herons dexter (translation: a green shield with three silver herons facing stage right). Motto: "Per ardua surgo" ("I rise through adversity" -- that fits us!).

For dinner, Mom cooked "praties in their jackets" (baked potatoes -- yum!) and she *tried* baking an Irish pound cake last night (for some reason it has to chill overnight), but she ran out of sugar in the middle of it, so she had to finish prepping it tonight... which means we'll be having our cake and eating it too, tomorrow night. Spread the Irish cheer!

I leave you with a quote from Neil Gaiman's "American Gods", where the hero, Shadow, meets Mad Sweeny the leprchaun:

"What do you do?" [said Shadow]

The bearded man lit his cigarette. "I'm a leprechaun," he said with a grin.

Shadow did not smile. "Really?" he said. "Shouldn't you be drinking Guinness?"

"Stereotypes. You have to learn to think outside the box," said the bearded man. "There's a lot more to Ireland than Guiness."

"You don't have an Irish accent."

"I've been over here too f[*]cken long."

"So you *are* originally from Ireland?"

"I told you. I'm a leprechaun. We don't come from f[*]cken Moscow."