I Suck At St. Patrick's Day

Not only was Saturday the day that everyone is Irish, it was also my daughter's (Briana) second birthday. Happy birthday Briana! And Happy St. Patrick's Day! Too bad I suck at St. Patrick's Day.

And what better way to start off a birthday celebration than to visit the local public library? Needing to get some signatures for my nomination papers to run for the elected position of Board of Trustee for the library, I decided to take Briana to the library if for just an hour before her actual birthday party. Sadly, my daughter's cuteness only went so far at the library as I only managed a handful of signatures.

Following my brief father/daughter bonding time at the library, we headed home to celebrate Briana's birthday. Joining in on the festivities were my parents, Karen's parents, my favorite sister-in-law (Janine) and her family, and Karen's Lowell-loving cousin (Karlene) and her husband (Tommy).

By the way, it turns out that Tommy wants to be my campaign manager for my Board of Trustee run. He apparently has done a lot of research into how many candidates were running this year for the Board. Who knew? If it works out and I'm elected, then forget my friend's (Cass) bid to become mayor of Quincy. I'll do it myself. Just kidding. I'll call it the "Asian Contagion" campaign.

Anyway, Briana's party was good. As far as parties go, Briana's birthday celebration was very low key. We ordered pizza from Sal's. The pizza was delicious as usual. And for anyone curious, for the entire week Sal's is having a corned beef and cabbage pizza special. I have been told that it tastes like a reuben. I'll admit it. I'm curious.

For dessert, Karen and I made an Elmo cake for our Sesame Street infatuated daughter. Well, Karen baked the cake and frosted it. I helped add the sugar sheet decoration to it. (In other words, I did very little.) Someday, I'd like to get more into cake decorating. But we'll see how that goes.

Karen's father also made an apple pie for dessert. Among the other things that Briana has been infatuated with lately is making apple pie. The apple pie that my father-in-law made was great. (That is his "thing".) He even spelled Briana's name with the dough. It was cool all around (and quite delicious).

As far as topics of discussions go, I'm afraid I don't remember too much from the party other than the logical train of thought from Karen's southern relatives to purchase guns as a preventive measure for some recent burglaries in their neighborhood, which is a little peculiar since they already have an alarm system. Hey, don't mess with the South.

When the party was winding down, my friend (Andrea) stopped by with a present for Briana. She got Briana a Fisher Price Little Mommy Ride 'n Drive Shopping Cart. And yep, Briana has been pushing that cart around for days since her party. She loves it. Needless to say, it was good to hang out with Andrea for a bit.

To be honest, the entire day went by very quickly. Shortly after Andrea left, and shortly after Karlene and Tommy left, Karen and I literally crashed. We went to bed pretty early, or early for me. Nevertheless, I think Briana enjoyed her day. She seemed pretty happy all throughout the day and that's really what matters.