Fort's Cancer Sux!!

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Ok, Offically its the day before St. Pat's, but we pretty much celebrated it yesterday so we're all screwed up. Id like to lodge a request that St. Patricks Day be celebrated like Thanksgiving...the such and such Saturday of March. This way, we dont have to deal with the delimma of having to work on such a sacred holiday, and worse, waking up and getting ready for work as you watch the local morning news feature live coverage from every Irish Pub in town and amazingly, tons of people who are properly buzzed before 9am.

Im sure you're thinking, "So....you're just going to drop the blog cold for three weeks and show up like nothing even happened?" Oh yes, my friends. Something DID happen, and I must confess, it didnt really have anything do to with insurance issues, or "blog maintence". Ill get to that towards the end of the post, for now, lets recap the weekend, shall we?

John has now been a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians for just over a year now. (Think Knights of Columbus for the Irish, or as my brother calls them, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen") He again walked in the Cincinnati St. Patricks Day parade this weekend and looked mighty dapper in his new sash if I do say so myself!

First comes St. Patrick of course:

Ok, actually, first comes the flags...my bad.
And the bagpipes! Stacy hates bag pipes with a passion, so naturally, I called her, hoping to get her voicemail where I could leave a two minute message of nothing but bagpipes. She answered, though, and was only mildly annoyed. Frankly, I dont mind the bagpipes, and furthermore, they're a welcome symphony compared to the embarassing flood of wasted billions of homeland security dollars spent on an absolute ARSENAL of Hamilton County Law enforcement equipment. Massive trailers, tanks, bullet proof automobiles and trucks of every shape and size, who's sole purpose is to be dusted off once a year for parades, where over excited members of law enforcement perch their children up on one knee as they sound the obnoxious "WHOOP, WHOOOOOOP, WHOOP-WHOOP.............WHAR-WHARRRRRRR". As if the ringing in my ears was not annoying enough. I may have said this before, but I would have been willing to sacrifice my life in the absence of this "protection" had the money been spent improving ANY aspect of this city. Oh, geez, time to get off the soapbox. Sorry for the rant, its been awhile. Enjoy the bagpipes:
OH! Here come the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen!! J-Mac isnt far!!
There he is, looking mighty dapper if I do say so myself....
I LOVE this picture! My camera doesnt have the greatest shutter speed, so I was really pleased this turned out.
And as always, our favorite patriarch of our favorite bar that we dont frequent nearly enough....Danny Thomas of Haps! And look who's driving! Its Gregg! Watch the road Gregg! Dont want to mess up the pretty zone!
One of the tax preparation places around here has folks dressed up as the Statue of Liberty standing on the streets enticing people to come in and use their services. They had a group walk in the parade and were handing out goodies. Have you ever seen my dad turn down a free novelty gift?
We met up with John who really had his hands full with Hibernian duties....

And then it was off to Hap's for a few hours to meet up with some friends. We were only there from about 2:30-5, so I would hardly call it "partying hard", but we do what we can.
Looks like somebody got all tuckered out!
And Guinness (the offical name of our cat) gets famillar with his namesake.
Actually a little too familliar:
Whew! That was a solid post. It feels good to be back. Later this week Ill let you all in on the secret behind the "Great Blog shut-down of Aught Eight"!!