Happy St. Patrick's Day!

It's St. Patrick's Day...It was supposed to be raining and icky, but so far, it's a nice, springy day.

We're going to have a big brunch, then take Houdini up to our local for a little bit. I made him an Irish harness (very cute!) and he hasn't been up to our local for a while, so it's time.

It's been a busy week. We've been getting back into the swing of things, and getting over the airplane funk. And you won't believe this...some piece of crap stole our checking account information while we were on vacation. We think that either a waitress at the one restaurant we used our checkcard may be the culprit or that someone was able to "hack" into my iPod Touch (which I've used like a miniature computer) and got the account information that way. This Monday, I logged onto our account to balance our checkbook, and there were a ton of pending transactions, all fraudulent. So, it's been a week of chasing that stuff down, closing old cards, opening new ones.

We also are planning out our backyard space. It's tiny, but I think that in the end, it will be neat. I'm excited and so looking forward to planting flowers for the first time! And tomatoes. All in pots, of course, because Houdini will likely try to help out by "watering."

And we've been hard at work, finalizing the details for our annual confrence, which is in Dallas this year. I've been there once before, but it was for work and every second was planned out. This time will be a little different and I can't wait!

I've lost 16 pounds on my experiment and I'm thrilled. I think I'm going to shoot for 30 more, though the few people who know I'm doing this give me the side eye if I say that out loud. Still, I know how much I weigh and I think if I get down thirty more, I'll feel better and look better. We'll see how I feel in 10 more and twenty and go from there.

I know I haven't been writing here much lately. Please don't take it personally. I'm not logging on to this site when I'm at work, and my evenings have been pretty busy. But I can do better.

In the meantime, grab the person you love, give them a giant kiss, wish them a Happy St. Patrick's Day and go do something fun! Slainte!

Weekend Update

Sooooo...we headed for Columbus on Saturday after work to take care of some family-type things.

We've got someone in our flock who is down on his luck and trying to start over, and so last week, Steinvic activated bought a pre-paid phone for him and we covered the first month's minutes, too. We were headed north to deliver the phone and see Young Man while we were in town, too. Our plan included whooping it up at the place where we had our reception, as well as stopping into our favorite local bar there, and then spending the night.

I'd Pricelined a room in advance and snagged a good hotel using the "Name Your Own Price" feature and paid only $50! We were stoked.

And then we were especially stoked because Steinvic realized it was the Arnold Sports Festival weekend and the hotel we'd booked was like right across from the event. The going rate for a similar room there was $299...wow!

So, we dropped off the phone to our family member and decided to check into our room before meeting Young Man for dinner. I hopped inside only to learn that we did not have a reservation for this weekend. It was for NEXT weekend. DUH...

We still met Young Man, which was lovely, and stopped by our local, but I volunteered to be the DD and drove us clear back to West Chester around 8.

While we didn't get to have the yii-haa we hoped for, it was still a nice night and it was so good to be in our own bed...

...and we get to do it all over again THIS weekend! Plus, it's the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, and the festivities always start early in Columbus...

Where I've Been...

In case my three or four readers wanted to know, I've been having more fun than you have this week.

Confident much? Yes, actually...I'm sure of it.

Who else takes off two days of work to celebrate St. Patrick's Day? Well, apparently, me and about 2,000 other Irish-loving individuals in Columbus, Ohio...that's who!

Monday night I drove to Columbus to meet up with Steinvic and friends. When we got home, it was like "Little Christmas" as I presented Steinvic and his son with the goodies I've been finding for them all year. Steinvic got a Ring Thing to aid in his St. Patrick's festivities, a bottle of Jameson's 12 Year, some Guiness boxers, the Limited Edition version of U2's No Line on the Horizon, Irish socks and a card with lottery tix inside. His son scored a custom made t-shirt (pictured), some Irish Coffee flavored beans, a card with lottery tix inside and chocolate shamrock treats from Graeter's. I got a lovely bottle of Boru vodka and a very sweet card...with lottery tix inside! (see a pattern? Love our scratch off games...) We were all set for a great day!

And it was...beautiful weather, a fun parade (though we missed most of it, thanks to Time Warner Cable's slow as molasses service appointment), lots of family and friends, and good beer.

We went to our favorite local afer that for more fun.

Slept in yesterday and then went to check out the new Clipper's stadium, which is really cool... and then sat outside to eat some ice cream. We're usually not regular Graeter's patrons, I swear! But there was a special on ice cream on television as we were getting ready for the day, and it primed us for a couple of scoops. I don't think I've had a scoop (okay, two scoops that I couldn't finish) of ice cream in a decade. Seriously. I think that's a crime, though.

So, a lovely day was had by all...I hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's Day, too! (even if you didn't have as much fun as I did!)