Yes, it's St. Patrick's Day. Here's a picture of the big guy himself, saying, "Hey, you! Pick up that gum wrapper!"

I'll go into some of my negative freakiness later. But some of my freaky traits can be positive, like my perfectionism and obsessive attention to detail.

For example, some people may be content to merely wear green today. I set the table with a green tablecloth, bought green-sprinkled doughnuts, put out the cream colored china with the gold rims, and put green straws in the girls' drinking glasses. And that was just breakfast.

I bought a couple packages of cut-out shamrocks. (I wanted some sort of long, rainbow streamer, but you take what you can get at the grocery store.) I led a trail of shamrocks from the girls' bedroom, through the kitchen, under the dining room table, to the living room, where, at the end of the shamrock trail, a black pot filled with gold-wrapped candies awaited the girls. Dilf helped.

We'll be listening to Irish music all day, too. Yes, some of it is by the Clancy Brothers.

For lunch, I plan on cutting the girls' grilled cheese sandwiches with an oversized shamrock cookie cutter. Oh, yeah. I'm a freak.

Then it's the traditional corned beef, new potatoes, carrots and brussel sprouts (instead of cabbage) for dinner. I also have potato rolls and a little shamrock cake for dessert.

There's so much ugliness in the world; I'm just trying to bring a little lovliness and fun into my little corner of it.