St. Patrick's Day (Observed)

hey folks...

for the third year in a row, the houghs were unable to kick their green ya-yas out in clare for the annual irishfest at st. patrick's day. this was indeed depressing news, but this year wasn't nearly as bad as the previous two: this year, we found ourselves another irish festival (in the historic downtown area of melbourne, florida, of all places), and

gave the cannoball an appropriate 1st st. patrick's day...

...or as good as we could outside of the doherty.

We woke up good and early and drove out to Melbourne (which is along the Atlantic coast, for those of you who do not know Florida) and met up with our friends Amber, Mike and their son Braedyn. We got there just in the nick of time for the parade to start. Cannonball seemed to enjoy it for a while until it got loud.

Shortly after we set up shop in the blocked off lot behind Meg O'Malley's.

It was nearly impossible to get through the bar. There was a stage set up for a guy singing Irish ballads to the drunken crowd, so we braved the mob once and a while to hit the up bathroom. But pretty much stuck to the hot dog, corned beef dinner, and beer tents they had outside.

They had bounce houses for the little ones and the occassional bag pipers and dancers performing.

For a few hours, the girls pretty much played with the kids while the boys downed Guiness after Guiness.

Alayna had her first taste of corned beef, cabbage, and red potatoes.

And now and then, we were visited by a piper or leprachaun.

-Brian and Kristina

One Down, Nine to Go...

holy crap, do i ever hate grad school.

nothing about getting a masters is cool. nothing. that first class i took was absolutely horrible, i learned absolutely nothing that would either benefit me as an educator or my students, and if i have to take nine more classes at this rate - a horrid 72 weeks of excrutiating crappiness - i'm going to stick a gun in my mouth. if i have learned anything from the last eight weeks, friends, it is this:

do not go to grad school.

sorry for the pessimism. though, while i'm on a rant of sorts, if that wasn't enough, the job situation still isn't 100% concrete for next year. yes, that's right - again. no one seems to know what's going on with the school next year, who's staying, who's getting canned - so that added stress hanging in the background isn't helping out much either. i'm close to punching out greeters at target, if that says anything.

but, i suppose there's really nothing much i can do about the crappiness of grad school or the economic clusterf*%# the education system down here has landed itself in - i might as well just clench my teeth, close my eyes, and brace for the worst.

in closing, here's a weird video of our kid bathing with a parrot. enjoy:

- Brian