Steve (DOS) and I had a nice St. Patrick’s Day week this year at home, with a couple lunches thrown in. DOS insists that St. Patrick’s Day only refers to the actual day when you were green and wear silly beads and hats, but I disagree! I think it stems from a few years ago when I told him it was still St. Patrick’s Day weekend (two days after the holiday) and we went out for drinks and dinner all dressed up from our bright green pants to our shirts to our beer mug hats, and nobody else was dressed up by then. “See I told you” he said, and now will only go “green” on the actual St. Paddy’s Day. Another year we were at Jekyll Island, Georgia and I think I embarrassed him riding around on a bicycle all dressed in green, topped with a HUGE green hat! LOL!
I did convince DOS, however, to at least wear a green shirt for our monthly Church’s Senior Citizens luncheon, Young at Heart (YAH) a few days before St. Patrick’s Day, only because it was advertised again this year as St. Patrick’s green attire suggested.
We haven’t ben to the YAH monthly luncheon at Dominick’s Restaurant since before my surgery last September, so it was good to see some friends we haven’t seen in person in quite a while. Yes, everyone was wearing green, and we wore the green necklaces they gave us when we got there, and we were reminded not to eat the mini-wrapped Irish treats, which were not candy, but mini shamrock-shaped soaps! Dominick’s is a fun place to hold the venue as it is held on the huge covered and partially screened in patio area, complete with a small stage, lighting, speakers, and dining area, surrounded by tropical plants and palm trees; truly a taste of Florida!
YAH is always fun, and in addition to the Irish trivia questions, corny jokes, meal, and later Irish music, they always give away a few door prizes for attending, and have a couple small take-aways such as the mini-Irish green soaps. This year DOS won the “Big Prize”, which was an Irish-themed gift bag with Irish Spring soap, 2 baked potatoes (raw), Irish Butter, a set of green and black colored pot scrubbers, and 4 lucky “gold” (Dollar store) coins! It was all in good fun, and really put a smile to his and our table-mates faces while he opened the bag!
We also won a small Irish flower arrangement that came in a beer mug and was filled with green water, as I had the winning ticket at our table for the table arrangement (1 per table), but a lady at another table also gave us her arrangement as she didn’t really have a need for a beer mug, so we got two arrangement/beer mugs!
As far as the actual 3 course lunch goes, I had the salad, and later cake for dessert, but skipped the Sheppard’s Pie as I was worried it was too salty on my low sodium diet. The cake was colorful and good though!
For the entertainment, our friends Kevin and Craig of “A Perfect Blend” entertained us once again with their Irish Music, which is always a pleasure. I video’d some of the performance, edited it slightly, and sent it to them for posting on You Tube. Here’s a short clip of one of their songs.
I took a selfie of the four of us after their performance.
It was a fun afternoon at YAH, and it felt great to be going out for a social event once again after all these months.
In between the YAH and the actual St. Paddy’s Day, I had a couple follow-up doctor appointments, and worked on my online sign ASL language class at home. I’m taking ASL as an 8 week on-line course from Seminole State Community College, and it’s very interesting and informative, even though I wish I were better at remembering all the signs! I’m ok with signing the alphabet as I learned this as a child in Sunday School growing up, but phrases, hand motions, expressions etc. are a bit more challenging for me.
We also saw a night launch of a SpaceX Rocket taking off which is always exciting. This launch was to replenish supplies and things to the Space Shuttle, which is orbiting above the earth some 200 miles away. We’ll watch the actual lift-off on TV or our iPads, and then run outside and see the rocket’s beam of light soaring towards the sky. On a clear day or night, we can usually see it for a minute or so as it ascends into the sky towards its destination: the Space Shuttle. We are about an hour’s drive from Cape Canaveral, but on a clear day or night we can usually get a decent view about 20 seconds after the actual launch.
On St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, we met our good friends Ben and Tom for lunch at Miller’s Ale House. We had originally planned on going to Lian Fitzpatrick’s Irish Pub, but that place is swamped on St. Paddy’s Day, so we had a bit quieter experience at the Ale House, which worked out better as we could actually talk without all the loud music and crowd noise. While I didn’t have the traditional Irish Pub lunch (I don’t like corned beef and cabbage), I did have a nice Salmon dish, and a brewski. We had such a nice time I neglected to take photos, but I did take one of the four of us as we left the restaurant.
For dinner, DOS and I stayed home, and I grilled us Ribeye steaks, my favorite! DOS lit up the house in St. Patrick’s Day Green, and the pool area sparkled with some of the new LED flower and other lights we recently installed. We keep the Christmas lights up year round, but only turn them on for the holidays, alternating the colors for the specific holiday.
Anyway, we had a nice St. Patrick’s series of days, and now look forward to going away to Daytona Beach Shores next week for a few day’s stay-cation!
Happy St. Patrick’s Day
from The Steve’s!
