Erin Go Bragh-less

Yes, I know, it's been awhile since I've posted an update on here. I apologize - the crummy weather has had me in a bit of a funk and I didn't have much great material to write about. I will admit I passed on a few opportunities recently, but now that the weather is turning and it feels like Spring is finally here, I've gained the desire to share another story.

Yesterday was Thursday, St. Patrick's Day 2011 - it also coincided with the (real) opening day of the men's NCAABB tournament. Both of these are banner days in my world, as I enjoy them both very much. I was planning on sitting around all day watching basketball and was going to meet up with some friends from StL to watch the Mizzou game. As it turned out, those friends didn't make it up and so I was going to be left alone. Then my friend Krissy came to my rescue and invited me out to watch Irish dancing, eat corned beef, and throw back a few Guinnesses. I happily obliged and that's how the day got started at Abbey Pub - around 2pm for me. We ate lunch and shot the breeze for awhile and tried to catch the ends of a few of the bigger games going on at the bar - all this on the one giant TV screen they had at the bar with no stools... this really isn't your neighborhood sports bar.

Up next on the docket was Chief O'Neills for a few more of those dark stouts! I learned that this mini-crawl has been going on for a few years with this particular group, so they knew that if we arrived there before 4pm, we'd get in before the 10$ cover kicked into effect. It always pays to roll with the experienced. This was such a fun time because we actually got to sit on the patio OUTSIDE and drink our beer!!! I've been longing for the day I could do this again for several months and it felt so great to actually be hanging outside with friends, having a beer on a patio! Actually, this thing is more like a giant beer garden because it's about 5000sf and they even had half of it tented. As it got darker into the evening we moved the party indoors to listen to some of the great live Irish music (complete with a bagpipe segment) and the same Irish dancing team we saw earlier at the Abbey.

It was overall a great night. The size of the group kept growing throughout the day and sister-and-brother-in-law - Jaimbo and Danny - came up to hang out as well. I wish my wife could have been there to celebrate, but she is the adult in the relationship and it was her night to work late, unfortunately. Maybe next year (St. Patty's is on a Saturday in 2012 due to leap year)!

Some of the highlights:

*A broken bra-strap incident (ergo the title of this post) and me having to provide the safety pins to fix it that I luckily had in my car! Identities are not being revealed in an effort to protect the innocent...

*Some random 5-year-old boy thinking Bridget was his mommy not once, but twice! Did you ever let him get his face painted??

*The restaurant manager frantically trying to remove a stone statue so that the kids running around wouldn't break it - and then ironically dropping it on the ground as if scripted for a sitcom.

*Tons of drunk parents

*Using a Johnny-on-the-spot without fear that someone was going to hurl their body into the door (see facebook profile pic).

*And finding a new "Words with Friends" opponent!

Just for fun, here is one of my favorite Irish toasts: May the roof above us never fall in and the friends below it never fall out.

I hope everyone else had a Happy and safe St. Patrick's Day! Here's to hoping I have a new tradition... Cheers!