"He's calculating the right thing to say, believing that there is a right thing to say, not understanding that nothing he says will be right."*

Two weeks after Seg was born, H turned forty. I hosted a birthday party for 45 people, complete with food & cake and presents, in our teeny tiny house.

So a St. Pat’s party for 50ish (plus a couple dozen kids) in our monster house, with corned beef & cabbage & scads of Guinness & Jameson’s, a month & a half after Quarto’s birth, should be a relative piece of cake.

Shouldn’t it? I’ll let you know. Also, do you think chocolate cake & lemon cake are sufficiently Irish desserts?

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I am currently reading The Second Nine Months and Revolutionary Road; reviews to follow when finished. I also picked up, cheap, at the library book sale The Historian, Labyrinth, and A Lesson Before Dying. And a friend lent me A Thousand Splendid Suns. Plus library books: Devil in the White City and Lucinda Rosenfeld’s What She Saw. So I have plenty to read.

Whew.

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I recently reconnected with an old friend from college whose wife, it turns out, is publishing her first novel next spring. She has been writing all sorts of stuff and has developed an impressive career, including finalist for the Pushcart. I am enjoying reading through her stories on her website. Pretty exciting stuff, and you know how I am about knowing Real! Life! Authors! (Rebecca, you did know I worship you – in a non-stalkerish sort of way – didn’t you?)

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* Vicki Glembocki, The Second Nine Months: One Woman Tells the Truth about Becoming a Mom. Finally.