GARY!

As started on Friday, March 11:
I got out of work early today and was able to run many errands that don't seem to ever get done in a normal week. I visited the bank, post office, target, xmas tree shop, newbury comics, the library, paid bills online, called caterers and inns in Gloucester, ate lunch and had time to blog. Wow!

Ok, I'm done tooting my own productivity horn, and am looking forward to a Irish-tastic weekend in Newport, RI. We will be drinking as much guiness and jameson as we can hold and watching lots of bagpipers run to the finish line of the parade as snow and freezing rain hits their knobby knees.

Finished on Sunday, March 13:
We had a fun time in Newport (well, those of us whose last name starts with J or whose first names is Robyn did). As my blog entry states, the theme of the weekend was "Gary". Joe's friend Robyn accompanied us this year and we learned that her father's name is Gary. Bryan also belongs to a Gary. We met a parade marshall who invited Robin to march in next year's parade and promised to procure difficult-to-come-by tickets to the Hibernia Club. His name: Gary. We also passed Gary's, a local lunch spot, and sang a stirring rendition of Gary, Indiana from the Music Man upon waking this morning after having consumed too much Irish stout and shepherd's pie. The parade was, indeed, snowy, and blessedly short thanks to the cancellations of 40% of the participants (this information brought to us by, you guessed it, Gary). We heard a minimal amount of bagpiping, sang very few Irish songs, and spoke with no people from Ireland. Nevertheless, we wore green, stuck shamrocks to ourselves whenever possible and celebrated the fuck out of St. Patrick's Day, 5 to 6 days early.