Slainte!!

(pronounced Slan-cha... Irish toast, kind of their version of Cheers.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!

For a history lesson, head to this great post on Wilderness Ireland for a quick overview of the whys of St. Paddy's day, plus some facts and myths.

But just a few fun things: Did you know that St. Patrick (the patron Saint of Ireland, who was actually born in Wales!) created the Celtic cross? It is a Christian cross with a sun superimposed... representing the combination of Christianity with more traditional Irish pagan beliefs.

He did not, however, actually drive all the snakes from Ireland. Sorry to disappoint!
The holiday, which was first observed here in America by Irish soldiers who wanted to commemorate their heritage, has been celebrated for 246 (ish) years.

Even the cities get in the mood, every year the Chicago river is dyed green for the holiday!
Are you wearing your green today? I am!!

I am in a good mood today. I can't help it, not only do I love this holiday (as a good partially-Irish girl should), but I had a fabulous weekend. Now, I'm guessing you've noticed, but I LOVE food. And a craving satisfied in a nice way can really uplift me. This weekend was all about that. Friday night Trav cooked some steaks on the grill (his craving), and I made up some macaroni & yeasty cheese (my craving).


And Sunday we got up together and made a real breakfast of bacon and eggs (my new favorite way, sunny side up... another of my cravings). Normally we just aren't in the mood to do big cooking when we first get up in the morning, even on the weekend (although we did sleep in a ton more then normal... 1030ish)... I'll often have more of an early lunch (pasta, or something). But these eggs, and making them together, was so nice. It really made the day start off right. THEN Sunday night we headed to the Hibachi and had a fun dinner. Not just great food (it really was good... and there was plenty of it), but really entertaining too. Honestly, this weekend was a little bit of food heaven for me.

Did we do anything besides eat? Of course! Saturday we got up early to get ready and get Travis to Lehigh for a Greek alumni meeting. I headed over to my parents and visited with them and my bro before my hair cut.
It was really nice, I got to hang out for a good 4 hours since my appointment wasn't until the afternoon.
We also ran over to my parent's storage unit to grab some boxes of mine in there. I'm slowly, but surely taking back all my boxes of childhood stuff and sorting through it to see what I actually want to keep. It's definitely a fun walk down memory lane. After my hair trim, it was off to pick Trav up at Psi U and the drive home for a relaxing night of movie watching and box sorting.

This morning it was a little hard to get up, but now I'm awake and in the swing of things.
Well, off to get lots of work done so that I can take a quick break this afternoon to meet a friend for a beer. :-) Normally we meet for coffee... but today, that just wouldn't do.

Erin Go Braugh!