Too Much Fun: Craic Addicts

Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone! We had a very Irish and fun-filled weekend, hand we're hoping everyone else did, too!

I'm not going to lie, though. No points this weekend. I didn't look up or track a single thing. This is one of my favorite holidays and I wanted to go all out and have fun. And, for the first time in awhile, Patrick and I were able to just spend the whole weekend together having fun, not working, and enjoying ourselves.

On Saturday, we ran the Lucky Leprechaun 7k with my family! We had a really great time, but it was FREEZING!

We bundled up and ran with all the other green-clad Irish enthusiasts! My sister Elise and cousin Bill headed up the pack! My sister Jody brought her boyfriend Caleb, who was a self-described "non-runner". However, Caleb kept up with Jody and ran the entire time! So that's really fun and exciting. My friend Leslie brought a co-worker and Patrick and I jogged and chatted about some wedding planning. We ran 2 miles before the race so that we were on track with our Half-Marathon training. At the end, we were bestowed with green beer, which definitely made the freezing cold more bearable! 

That night, we continued our celebration downtown. Lenten promises were broken and liquid calories were consumed. My dear friend Leslie came down from Sheboygan to help get the party started. Patrick's friend Gregg also joined us, and, let me tell you, we definitely had too much fun Saturday night. 

Sunday, we had dinner at John Hawks Pub, I had a DELICIOUS completely NOT Weight Watcher-friendly reuben and fries. So good. Maybe the best sandwich I've had in a long time....Corned beef and kraut and swiss cheese with a little bit of 1000 Island on marbled rye...MMMM! 

After dinner, we headed over to the Riverside to watch one of my all-time favorite bands, Gaelic Storm! We rocked out and danced to fun Irish jigs while singing at the top of our lungs. 

Now, Leslie and I are Gaelic Storm veterans and quickly made our way into the pit for the best view of the concert. Patrick had never been to a Gaelic Storm concert. The awesome thing about Gaelic Storm is that you don't have to know all the words to all the songs to have a great time. They are so full of energy and the music is so fun that even the most boring person in the world will be up out of his seat and dancing a jig. The other cool part was we were on LIVE TV! I have no idea if our faces made it live, but we danced and clapped and sang ourselves hoarse. 

Check out Gaelic Storm on their website, Like them on Facebook, and if you're in the Milwaukee area, as always, they'll be at Irish Fest all three nights! Their new CD Chicken Boxer is chock-full of fun, upbeat songs that will have you singing along and dancing. I use a lot of their music in my running mixes and they definitely get my feet going! In fact, if I can make a couple of suggestions, the song One More Day Above the Roses is definitely a leg-slapping, upbeat song. And the Bear and the Butcher Boy sings the tale of a Butcher Boy who rescues his love with...his sausage? 

I guess we'll see tomorrow what kind of damage our weekend of uninhibited eating and drinking did to our waistlines. Tonight, we're continuing our Irish theme with Classic Shepherd's Pie, Weight Watchers edition.