Its a Feis-tival

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Yesterday, Hannah had her first Feis (pronounced fesh), an Irish Dance competition. We were up at 5 a.m. to brave the traffic and crowds we knew would be lining up at the Queen City Feis in Cincinnati. We got there in plenty of time (6:30a.m.) for our 7:00 registration.

We managed to push our way up to the head of the line with the only other family that happened to show up that early, and got registered. Having a little time to kill (an hour and a half) we found a lovely hotel restaurant and had a little continental breakfast while we waited for the events to start.

At 8:30, the National Anthems of Ireland, Canada and the United States were sung and the competition was off. Being a beginner, Hannah’s dances were both early in the day. She danced the Reel (click the play button below to see the reel) and the Jig along with girls from a number of other Midwest Dance schools.

After the dancing, we waited patiently as the scores were tallied. As the Reel scores were posted, Hannah was very pleased to find she had placed 3rd. Well, Daddy and Noah were pleased to find she had placed 3rd, Hannah had gone to the bathroom with Mommy. Five minutes later, with Hannah walking around with her 3rd place medal, the scores for the Jig were posted. Daddy got to put her second medal on her as she had placed 3rd in that event too.

We left Cincinnati behind by 9:30, two medals in hand and a bright future in Irish Dance ahead.

English is hard….

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Hannah was telling me about the list of items the teacher requested for a granola recipe.

“It says shelled sunflower seeds but I think she means unshelled.”

“Oh, so she wants the shells on?” I asked.

“No, shells off.” she replied.

“Shelled, means shells off sweetie.”

“Oh” she said, but she had that look on her face that said ‘who makes up these words”?

I am really going to miss these times. They make me smile.

I think this is better…

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We started the day by giving Hannah her birthday present from us and then we did the regular Saturday morning drill, guitar lessons, dance lessons and errands. In between all that we bought Hannah a present from Noah and then just tried to make our errands fun while killing time till her party.

So what is better you ask? Well, we were walking through Sam’s Club and Hannah looked up at me and said, ‘Dad, you know how you told me not to act like a queen this weekend because it was my birthday?’ ‘Of course I do’ I said, ‘why?’ ‘Because’ she replied, ‘you’re treating me like one.’

I appreciated the fact the kids took to heart what I had told them, but I think it is even better that a 9 year old appreciates what her parents do, even while we are dragging her around doing Saturday morning errands.

God I hope that lasts.

Parenting Reverse Psychology

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My daughter is about to celebrate her 9th birthday and I know this is going to cause some issues with the 12 year old son who thinks she gets too much attention already. (They get equal attention but you know how kids are). So, this morning I attempted a preemptive strike with individual discussions with each of them:

Me to the daughter: “I know it’s your birthday weekend but that doesn’t mean you get to be queen and act all snotty to your brother, OK?”
Her: “OK Daddy.”

Me to the son: “You know its your sister’s birthday weekend so she is going to act like a queen this weekend so don’t get upset when she does. You’ve already had your weekend OK?”
Him: “OK Dad.”

I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes 😉

Our President Controls Oil Prices!

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I was listening to Bob and Tom this morning and they were able to interview Senator Hillary Clinton. I have to say it was informative because she let the entire listening audience know that when George Bush was elected, oil was $20 a barrel and now it’s $120 a barrel.

I am sure he (George Bush) finds it easier to control oil prices then when he had to create the hurricanes to sway the election results.

2 political posts from me in two days….. be afraid, be very afraid.

Note: the views expressed in the last two posts are no indication of my political affiliation.

I almost typed that note without laughing.

You gotta love the Irish!

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From a recent email:

We in Ireland cannot figure out why you are even bothering to hold an
election.

On one side, you have a bitch who is a lawyer, married to a lawyer, …
and a lawyer who is married to a bitch who is a lawyer.

On the other side, you have a true war hero married to a woman with a
huge chest who owns a beer distributorship.

Is there a contest here?

Makes me proud of my heritage!

Happy SPD!

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It is my custom to fly the flag of Ireland and the Green and Red of Mayo (the county of my Mum’s birth) today but since moving into the new house, I have not had the chance to put up any type of flag flying device. This year I will just have to fly them here as they were on my old house.

stP

Happy St Patrick’s Day!

1 week, 6 days, 17 hours, and 17 minutes

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In case you were wondering, that is the amount of time it takes to accumulate 5000 SPAM email messages in your spam folder.

Well, thats how long it took me. Would love to hear how long it takes somebody else.

A great email in broken English….

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If any of you have gone through the public photos on my site, you may have stumbled across the pictures of the World’s Best Chicken, a little roasted chicken place in Castelvolturno, Italy (near Naples).

Well today, I got an email from Giuseppe (Peppe) who owns the restaurant that had just a few words in broken English:

“Hallo Mike,
I have see photo my pizzeria, are beautyfull. Many tank. If you want you can see my site in the web. The andress is: www.ristopizzadomizia.it“

I had many great meals in his restaurant on my trips to Naples and will always remember him, Mauritio (his maitre de/waiter) and the food. Lots of great memories with wonderful people. His email was a pleasant reminder of the good times.

Grazie Peppe! You made my day!

Only the French…

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I don’t write this stuff. I found this one on Reuters.

Cemetery full, mayor tells locals not to die

“BORDEAUX, France (Reuters) – The mayor of a village in southwest France has threatened residents with severe punishment if they die, because there is no room left in the overcrowded cemetery to bury them.

It added: “Offenders will be severely punished.””

What else can I say, really?