3.17.2011
Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig!
I couldn’t be more excited about celebrating St. Patrick’s Day today. It’s always one of my favorite days of the year. I’m making corned beef and cabbage for dinner and cannot wait to have a pint (or six) of Guinness at lunch. Ryan and I are also planning on taking in the parade and festival uptown on Saturday.
St. Patrick’s Day in the US, and all over the world, for that matter, has become more of a celebration of public drunkenness. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I’d probably be at the bar right now if I didn’t have to go into work today, but you know what I’m talking about….. the people that, regardless of their heritage, dress up like a leprechaun or scantily clad shamrock fairy, dye their hair green, and hit the local bar crawls and vow to get hammered drunk in the name Ireland, but have absolutely no idea who the hell St. Patrick is or what Erin go Bragh means. Because of this, I think the real meaning and reason behind the day gets a little lost, so I thought I’d throw it out there right quick.
In short, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday celebrating St. Patrick who was a patron saint of Ireland. He brought Christianity to Ireland and introduced the concept of the Holy Trinity by using the shamrock as a symbol to illustrate and explain it. Several myths and legends also claim that he drove the snakes out of Ireland, but I believe that is more of a figurative assessment of his work to drive out Paganism and replace it with Christianity.
Now that I’ve bored everyone with the brief history lesson, I’ll leave you with an image to inspire you to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the way that’s the most fun…..Drinking an absurd amount of Guinness and getting some guy in the band to let you borrow his bagpipes. Sláinte!
St. Patrick’s Day in the US, and all over the world, for that matter, has become more of a celebration of public drunkenness. Not that there is anything wrong with that, I’d probably be at the bar right now if I didn’t have to go into work today, but you know what I’m talking about….. the people that, regardless of their heritage, dress up like a leprechaun or scantily clad shamrock fairy, dye their hair green, and hit the local bar crawls and vow to get hammered drunk in the name Ireland, but have absolutely no idea who the hell St. Patrick is or what Erin go Bragh means. Because of this, I think the real meaning and reason behind the day gets a little lost, so I thought I’d throw it out there right quick.
In short, St. Patrick’s Day is a religious holiday celebrating St. Patrick who was a patron saint of Ireland. He brought Christianity to Ireland and introduced the concept of the Holy Trinity by using the shamrock as a symbol to illustrate and explain it. Several myths and legends also claim that he drove the snakes out of Ireland, but I believe that is more of a figurative assessment of his work to drive out Paganism and replace it with Christianity.
Now that I’ve bored everyone with the brief history lesson, I’ll leave you with an image to inspire you to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in the way that’s the most fun…..Drinking an absurd amount of Guinness and getting some guy in the band to let you borrow his bagpipes. Sláinte!
3.08.2011
Is the Grass Really Greener on the Other Side?
Let’s hope so, because dividing and conquering our yard seems to be the only hope. Obviously, the growing of grass is not exactly the most newsworthy of topics, however it will be a major milestone because Hanky and Jr. are really rough on our backyard. Yes, we do realize that we’re keeping farm animals in a fairly normal neighborhood backyard, but the space could possibly sustain them both if we gave it a fighting chance. Every spring our grass begins to grow in the bare spots, but goats are unable to resist any form of digestible vegetation, and they eat it up before it even has a chance to establish itself. So this year, we’ve decided to give the new grass a chance of survival by sectioning the yard off and keeping my little warrior beasts off of it. Wish us luck.
On a side note, Hanky does not appear in any of these photos because he is a little camera shy this time of year. He has already started to blow out his coat, looks a little ragged out, and is less willing to strike a pose for me.
On a side note, Hanky does not appear in any of these photos because he is a little camera shy this time of year. He has already started to blow out his coat, looks a little ragged out, and is less willing to strike a pose for me.
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